‘EA au français’

     

Courtesy worldofstock.com

The Empire State Building no doubt will be illuminated in the blue, white, and red of France’s Tricolour when l’Union Française No. 17–this is J.J.J. Gourgas’ lodge–will confer the Entered Apprentice Degree, in ritual descendant from the French Rite.

Tuesday, February 17 at 6 p.m.

Masonic Hall
71 West 23rd Street, Manhattan

French Doric Room, tenth floor

The degree will begin at 6:45, after which no one will be admitted inside.

The Tenth Manhattan District is home to the lodges permitted to work exotic Craft degrees in French, Italian, and Spanish (and maybe other tongues). See you there.

    

‘EA au français’

     

Courtesy worldofstock.com

Here is another 2013 date to add to your calendars. (This falls during the window of the coming ninety days, so I don’t feel too shaken for advertising it already.)

The Empire State Building no doubt will be illuminated in the blue, white, and red of France’s Tricolour when L’Union Française No. 17 – this is J.J.J. Gourgas’ lodge – will confer the Entered Apprentice Degree, in ritual similar to that of Scottish Rite, and in French.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 6 p.m.

Masonic Hall

French Doric Room, tenth floor

The degree will begin at 6:45, after which no one will be admitted inside.

The Tenth Manhattan District is home to the lodges permitted to work Scottish Rite Craft degrees in French, Italian, and Spanish (and maybe other tongues). See you there.

     

‘200-year-old French engravings’

     

While exploring with the Searchers’ Club last night in the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, I had the chance to see the exhibition of the French antique engravings that everyone is talking about. They hang next to the door, so when you enter the library, turn around and check them out.

These were difficult to photograph. The lighting in the room comes from chandeliers, which is tricky; the engravings are framed behind glass, so please pardon the reflections; and to mitigate reflection, I shot the photos from odd angles while trying to make the best of the available light and not use a flash. I think they look okay.

The text below comes from the explanatory captions accompanying the illustrations.

Since its beginnings, Freemasonry has been labeled by its detractors as a “secret society.” While some of that accusation focuses on the use of Masonic modes of recognition, most of the opponents of Freemasonry also raise questions about what might be happening behind the closed lodge doors during degree ceremonies. For the past three hundred years, foes of the Craft have speculated about the nature of the ritual that has meant so much and continues to mean so much to Masons around the world.

Freemasons living in a free society know that the privacy maintained around lodge work exists for a number of very important, but relatively harmless, reasons. First, the degrees are used to set a state of mind in the candidate that is conducive to the learning of lessons not just on a level of logic, but at a level of emotion. By clouding the degrees in mystery, the candidate approaches the degree ceremony with a pre-existing state of wonder, which intensifies the overall experience, and hopefully establishes the lessons firmly on his conscience.

Second, Masons maintain privacy because of tradition, and frankly, Freemasonry values tradition sometimes just for the sake of tradition. In the case of the ritual, the tradition had long been that the ritual was taught mouth to ear, and not written down, not even in cipher or code. This practice existed to a large extent because of the limitations of literacy in eighteenth century Europe. On the other hand, privacy also existed to maintain the mystique, and thereby the impact, of the ritual. But from early on, probably from the morning after the first Masonic lodge meeting, people have been writing accounts of what they suspected took place during Masonic degree ceremonies.

The practice of “exposing” Masonic ritual developed into a genre of Masonic literature called “exposures.” Masonic exposures gained popularity in the mid eighteenth century, featuring the full texts of lectures, recounted by “genuine and authentic past members” of some Masonic lodge or, later, concordant order. Exposures were often published to discredit Freemasonry, or to serve as documentation for charges of Masonic involvement in political, religious, and social subterfuge. The content of Masonic exposures often included material of dubious accuracy, perhaps to further the agendas of the publishers. For example, an exposure might include a script in which Masons say sacrilegious or treasonous things, intending to embarrass or indict Freemasonry.

Here in America, we are most familiar with the exposure credited to William Morgan from the early nineteenth century, the preparation of which led to his disappearance, and to a problematic time for the Craft. But Morgan’s book, and later versions, borrow liberally from exposures printed across Europe throughout the mid and late eighteenth century and into the nineteenth century.

The Livingston Masonic Library has always included among its thousands of books a substantial collection of Masonic exposures. The contents of exposures are generally of questionable accuracy, partly because of the sensationalist motives of the authors or publishers, but also because of the fact that Masonic rituals vary depending on time and geography. However, exposures are often the only written sources of information about the rituals from centuries past.

The engravings on display represent a series of seven illustrations of a variation that first accompanied Le Catechisme des Francs-Macons, an exposure printed in 1745, credited to French writer Louis Travenol under his alias Leonard Gabanon. The original illustrations in Gabanon’s book depicted the men in the garb of France in the 1740s. Our engravings date from 1809-12, and feature variations in the clothing and manner of dress of the individuals shown.

If you watch cable television, you will be familiar with the style and composition of Gabanon’s illustrations, since they are often used in documentaries exploring the history and symbolism of Freemasonry. The illustrations are provocative, in the sense that they cause Masons to reflect on what degrees might have entailed in Europe more than two hundred years ago. They may cause the general public to be curious and interested about the nature of Masonic ceremonies, just as the same images caused curiosity and interest when published throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. We may never know if they are accurate representations of Masonic ceremonies of the eighteenth century. As with many things Masonic, we are left to wonder, question, and interpret, perhaps never to know the “true” answer.
     

'EA au français'

  

L'Union Française Lodge No. 17 will meet tonight to confer the Entered Apprentice Degree ...
in French.


Masonic Hall: 71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan.
 

'210 in 2011'

  
Brethren, be sure to raise your glasses at some point today. (No time like the present!) On this date in 1801, the Mother Supreme Council of the Thirty-Third Degree was formed in Charleston, South Carolina.

And this year marks the 20th year of the Scottish Rite Research Society's labors. What better way to celebrate both milestones than to enroll in the SRRS?

Members of the SRRS who were
in good standing in 2010, are now
receiving both Volume 18
of Heredom, and Albert Pike's
Masonic Formulas and Rituals.

Grand Archivist and Grand Historian Ill. Arturo de Hoyos has published the fruits of his recent years of research and editing. Titled Albert Pike's Masonic Formulas and Rituals, this beautifully bound and hefty work of scholarship is a time capsule that transports us to the era before Albert Pike revised the Scottish Rite's rituals, creating the fraternity we know today. In its pages, we see what Pike and his contemporaries knew as their corpus of rituals, although we enjoy the benefits of modern publishing.

In addition, and in yet another instance of the SRRS serving the Craft at large, this book reveals the three lodge degrees (and more) of what was Adonhiramite Masonry, affording us a look into a French Masonic order of the 1780s wherein Adoniram was the architect and builder of King Solomon's Temple. This is almost archeological in perspective, considering the bloodbath of revolution that nearly would eradicate Freemasonry in France several years hence.

And that's not all! (Are ya following me, camera guy?)

There are early versions of York Rite degrees and orders, and the four degrees of the True Masonry of Adoption. Championed by some of the same French elites behind the Adonhiramite rite, this system of degrees brought women to see the light by which Masons work.

I don't claim to have read all of this already; I received my copy only a week ago. Whenever I receive a tome of this scope, my first action is to turn to the Rose Croix chapters (pun!) and see what's going on there, and then I try to begin at the beginning. I'll be gnawing on this for a number of months, so if you see me clutching this to my chest, it may be best to just wave hello from a distance. In the meantime, join the Scottish Rite Research Society.
  

‘Early French lodges in NYC’

     
The American Lodge of Research held its first meeting of the 2010 Masonic year last night. The Installation of Officers was followed by the presentation of the new Master’s inaugural paper, a probing examination of a singular subject. W. Bro. Pierre F. de Ravel d’Esclapon presented the fruits of his research into “The History of French Lodges in New York City, 1760 to 1800,” which explains the origins of four francophone lodges and the very complicated men who created them during the earliest years of New York Masonry.

The lodges were La Parfait Union (Perfect Union), Loge la Tendre Amitie Franco-Américaine (French-American Loving Friendship Lodge), L’Unité Americaine (American Unity), and L’Union Française (French Union).

The first of these was Perfect Union, chartered on November 1, 1760 by Provincial Grand Master George Harrison. That date is significant not only because it predates even Independent Royal Arch Lodge No. 2, but because it lands during the French and Indian War (or the Seven Years’ War, as it was known to its European combatants). At issue were the activities of the French nationals residing in enemy territory: the British colony of New York. When Britain declared war on France, the French commercial dealings in the Caribbean became a strategic consideration, and the merchants “worked around the embargo,” as de Ravel d’Esclapon phrased it. The matter was so serious that French merchants in New York were arrested, and some were kept in prison even after the cessation of hostilities in 1763. A significant number of these businessmen were brethren of Perfect Union, and this disruption to their lives seems to have resulted in the demise of the lodge.

Decades would pass until French lodges again would populate Freemasonry in New York City. Not a war this time, but a different bloodbath remembered as the slave revolt on Saint-Domingue. During the 1790s, French Masons fleeing this revolution on the sugar producing island colony emigrated to the United States. Seeking more than the religious freedom and economic opportunity that typically drew immigrants, these people were refugees running for their lives. The first lodge created by this wave of immigrants was Loge la Tendre Amitie Franco-Américaine (French-American Loving Friendship Lodge), which was set to labor on a six-month dispensation on December 12, 1793. In time, the Grand Lodge of New York allowed the dispensation of this French Rite lodge to expire, preferring to create a lodge named L’Unité Américaine (American Unity), which received its dispensation on Christmas Day, 1795. The lodge would go dark in 1799.

Even more useful than the details of the lodges in this paper are the personal stories of the people involved. One of the reasons for the short life of French-American Loving Friendship Lodge was the discovery that one of its founders never had been initiated, passed, and raised. To remedy this, Grand Lodge convened a meeting especially for the purpose of conferring the three degrees upon him, in French. Another Grand Lodge meeting was convened on Christmas Day 1797 to suspend a brother who had been found stealing from his business. (With the mention of how Masonic meetings had taken place on two Christmas Days, I ought to point out that Americans of this period did not make Christmas the central Christian holiday that it is today. For more, see the American Creation blog here.) Other intimate details shared in this presentation include the revelation that one brother’s wife was the most successful madam in the city. Turning to matters deadly serious, American Unity Lodge thrived at a time when a yellow fever epidemic menaced the city. An unexpected surprise was the discovery many years after the fact of Perfect Union Lodge’s warrant... in Nova Scotia, a revelation that recast New York Masonry’s early history.

The fourth French lodge in the Worshipful Master’s paper is L’Union Française. French Union No. 17 remains at labor today, having been chartered in 1861, but this seminal incarnation of the historic French lodge was set to labor on December 26, 1797, and received its charter from Grand Lodge six months later. Its rolls list brethren who were members of the two aforementioned short lived lodges. This lodge’s embryonic years extend well into the early 19th century, but as the parameters of this paper are curtailed at the year 1800, it will be understood that the French Union set to labor more than two centuries ago still is an influence on the cusp of 2010.

A look at various books of GLNY proceedings will yield much of the lodge information that the Master shares in his paper, but what makes his work true research are the data discovered during the course of his meticulous digging and compiling. There is a lot more to the story of these so-called “Refugee Lodges” in New York City. The role played by the local Huguenot church in helping these French immigrants get established was revealed thanks to searching the church archives. Records of births, baptisms, marriages, and deaths helped de Ravel d’Esclapon develop the French Masons’ identities, as well as trace their genealogies. And there is more to this than just budgeting time and showing up. These records date to the 1680s and can be very difficult to read. In addition, the spellings of names was anything but standard, with translations and spelling variations requiring intent study to discern their meanings. Members of the same family could have their surname recorded as Maxfield or Machsfeld. (But even the church’s relationship has Masonic roots, as it was a brother of Holland Lodge No. 8 who introduced the French immigrants to the local Huguenot congregations. Social and commercial contacts as well.) Other resources de Ravel d’Esclapon tapped include the New York Historical Society.

The history of French lodges in New York City is the story of refugees seeking support in a network that allied Freemasonry with the local French Huguenot church, and international commercial connections. These lodges may not have lasted long, but their effect on the city’s French community reached through generations. It is what one ought to expect of the Masonic Order.

His is a brilliant paper that I look forward to reading when it is published. Magpie readers, please note that any inaccuracies here are to be attributed to me, and not to the speaker.

W. Bro. Pierre F. de Ravel d’Esclapon, a prominent attorney and a published author, has plans for American Lodge of Research in 2010, continuing the progress of RW Bill Thomas in 2009. He seeks to establish relationships with Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 808 under the Grand Lodges of Germany, and the research lodges under the Grand Lodge Alpina of Switzerland and the Grande Loge Nationale Française. Our Master also is a Past Master of France La Clémente Amitié Cosmopolite No. 410, and is a member of Holland Lodge No. 8, both in New York City.

In other ALR news, the Magpie Mason was surprised to hear the announcement of RW Harvey Eysman of his retirement as Secretary of the lodge after 22 years at the desk. Harvey immediately instills in you the confidence that he is more than just a good Secretary, but that he is supposed to be the Secretary. As he undertakes some changes in life, he also is exiting the secretarial posts of his mother lodge, his chapter, and other Masonic bodies. He cheerfully maintained a workload that would have turned the Magpie Mason into an obese, suicidal alcoholic. (Oh, wait a minute.) His last meeting as Secretary will be the March 2010 Stated Communication. The Master will appoint a replacement at that time.

Secretary Harvey Eysman, left, presents junior Past Master Bill Thomas his Past Master Jewel at The American Lodge of Research last night.