‘The Masonic Society begins its eighth year’

     
If it’s May, it is another anniversary for The Masonic Society. This is the seventh anniversary of our launch, and what has been accomplished is kind of amazing. With ethical, thoughtful, and professional leadership, great things are possible.

Members of The Masonic Society have been receiving issue number 27 of The Journal—the quarterly periodical that just happened to have revived the Masonic publishing business in the United States. No. 27. Meaning twenty-six issues preceded it. I am reminded of now otherwise forgotten critics who said the Society’s business model was flawed, and that it wouldn’t get more than four issues to its members before folding. (They were championing something called Freemasons Press, which folded before getting four issues to its subscribers, but that’s old news too.) The Society begins its eighth year in service to the Craft. We have a fortune in the bank, so we’ll be around, publishing The Journal and hosting great Masonic events, for a long time.

Names in the news: Bro. Ken Davis of Albuquerque is our new First Vice President, following the departure from that post of Bro. Chip Borne in March. Ken was the obvious choice to fill that vacancy. A retired English professor and former chair of the English Department at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, he is an author of several books. Ken is a Past Master of Lodge Vitruvian No. 767 in Indianapolis, and is active these days in several Masonic groups in Albuquerque, including New Mexico Lodge of Research.

Ken has distinguished himself as a Director of The Masonic Society by serving as the Book Review Editor for The Journal, and was instrumental in creating and writing The Quarry Project Style Guide. (I return to the Board of Directors, taking Ken’s place. My thanks to President Jim Dillman and the other officers and Board members.)

Wanna hear something cool? That style guide has been adopted by the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction)’s bimonthly periodical Scottish Rite Journal; the Scottish Rite Research Society’s annual book of transactions Heredom; Grand Encampment’s monthly Knight Templar magazine; and Dwight L. Smith Lodge of Research in Indianapolis.

But back to The Journal.

This issue highlights several familiar elements of Masonic ritual and symbol in ways that even longtime Freemasons could find fresh. The Four Cardinal Virtues are a subject I find vital to Freemasonry—I even used to present a popular lecture of my own devising on the topic—so I’ll start by sharing a bit of “The Masonic Relevance of the Four Cardinal Virtues” by Christian M. Christensen. Here, the full member of Texas Lodge of Research reminds us of the meanings of Fortitude, Prudence, Temperance, and Justice, and then takes us from Plato to Cicero to St. Ambrose to Thomas Aquinas and, finally, to the Jachin and Boaz exposure of 1797 for the Virtues’ arrival into Masonic tenets.

“Taking the Cardinal Virtues to heart and living them day by day requires work, just as becoming a better man is hard. Instead it is easier to continue the quest for light, blinding ourselves to the fact that the most important understandings are in front of us already. The Cardinal Virtues are cornerstone of the Craft, easily explained to us and are available for all to live by—if we are ready and willing to pick up our working tools and apply them.”

In his “We Have a Problem with the 47th Problem,” Brian C. Thomas of Washington ponders why Freemasonry prefers Euclid over Pythagoras. I remember one of the first flaws I discerned in Masonic ritual was its attribution of “Eureka!” to Pythagoras, actually exclaimed by Archimedes, which Thomas notes before guiding us through the chronology of the Pythagorean Theorem and its appearance in Masonic thought. His is a reasoned study, and what I appreciate most is Thomas’ inclusion of Benedict Spinoza in his analysis. The well read Freemason must be aware of the Dutch-born philosopher (and Jewish heretic)’s Ethics, which “mimics Euclid and systematically proves that God is the universe, the single substance in which all natural phenomena exists.”

“Such a concept of God could be universally accepted in all religions,” Thomas continues. “Spinoza is clear that we can know God without intersession of the church, and that a spark of the divine is within us to be discovered.” Read all about it on Page 18.

Patrick C. Carr, Grand Senior Warden of Arkansas, reminds his reader that two of the Great Lights of Masonry are tools for moral building. “Only by learning and understanding how [the Square and Compasses] work together can we hope to begin to tame our earthly passions and begin to focus on our spiritual development in the Craft,” he advises. “Only then will we start to become true Master Masons with the ability to travel and to seek the eternal.” SMIB.

Isaiah Akin, Historian of historic Naval Lodge No. 4 in Washington, DC, presents “Gavels and Contagious Magic,” a photo spread of that most handy of working tools, the gavel. But these have illustrious origins. Gavels made of wood, stone, and ivory connected to highly notable human events. Check out these unforgettable artifacts.

And of course there are the regular features of The Journal. In the President’s Message, Jim Dillman updates us on the recent amazing developments in The Masonic Society, including a hint of things to come that take Masonic education beyond the printed word. Journal editor Michael Halleran, freshly outstalled as Grand Master of Kansas, polishes the shine of Dwight Smith. Smith, as you know from your Knights of the North reading, Laudable Pursuit, was Grand Master of Indiana in 1945. His writings were amazingly prescient for their bold foretelling of the demographic and structural ailments in American Freemasonry we see today. When the size of Masonic membership was at its unimaginable apex and the future seemed so blessed, Smith cautioned “that men judge Freemasonry by what they see walking down the street wearing Masonic emblems, and if what they see does not command their respect, then we need not expect them to seek our fellowship.”

“If we have grown so prosperous and fat and lazy,” Halleran quotes Smith, “there is nothing further to do except revel in our status symbols and create more status symbols [because] we have ceased to possess anything that is vital.” A prophet.

Yasha Berensiner’s “Masonic Collectibles” recalls eighteenth century Masonic newspapers. The good, the bad, and the inaccurate are shown in the yellowed fragile pages of long ago.

The book reviews pages share insights into half a dozen authors’ current offerings, from academic and popular approaches. “Masonic Treasures” depicts an odd ballot box of unknown origin that you have to see to believe, courtesy of Isaiah Akin.

And there is a lot more in the pages of this issue of The Journal. Membership in The Masonic Society, as boasted by many—not just me—is the best $39 you’ll spend in Freemasonry. It is a Masonic fraternity on the move. Never content to rest, TMS continues to grow because it improves the condition of the Masonic Order. Enjoy.
     

How it was done in ‘Antient’ times

   

Peninsula Lodge, No. 99 in Bayonne, New Jersey will exemplify an Entered Apprentice Degree in Antients ritual c. 1760 next month.

At its Regular Communication of September 24, Peninsula Lodge, No. 99 – the Magpie Mason’s mother lodge – will host a special event that mixes Masonic education with a great meal, plenty of toasts, and perhaps even more mirth than the lodge usually enjoys... and that’s saying something!

On that evening, W. Bro. Ben Hoff, Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education, No. 1786 in Trenton, will visit the lodge to quarterback Peninsula’s officers through an exemplification of a ritual that otherwise exists only in rarely seen texts.

This very singular occurrence is an EA° compiled from primary 18th century sources, namely the ritual exposures known as Three Distinct Knocks, and Jachin and Boaz, as well as other texts. This is the ritual of the Antients, the branch of Freemasonry that solidified following the public debut of the Premier Grand Lodge of England in 1717. The Antients began as Irish Masons in London whose lodges welcomed working class men, soldiers, and merchants, in contrast to the nobility, middle and upper class, and academic elites found in the Grand Lodge’s lodges. (Freemasonry in the United States descends almost entirely from the Antients, who formed their own grand lodge in 1751 called Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of England, according to the Old Constitutions. In 1813, the two grand lodges merged, forming the United Grand Lodge of England.)

Anyway, about this ritual.

“Eighteenth century degrees took place in taverns or hotel function rooms rather than in the formally arranged and decorated lodge rooms we use today,” Ben explains. “All lodge arrangements were temporary and symbolic. Officers stood in their places, and decorations were either small and portable, or were temporary. While the ‘Moderns’ represented the lodge with floor cloths or elaborate floor drawings, the representations in ‘Antients’ lodges were almost entirely symbolic.”

“This symbolic lodge should be at least six feet tall and four feet wide to allow for the placement of the candidate and three tall candlesticks within the diagram, while officers stand around the outside,” Ben added. “Ideally, it should be positioned within the open area of the U-shape table typically used at table lodges. Notice the X-shape cross should be extended below the rectangle proper to create the three ‘steps.’ Leave enough room around the outside of the diagram for the officers to stand while still allowing the candidate and his conductor to move around the outside of the diagram for the circumambulation.

“The VSL should be on a small table or pedestal (a chair will do) in front the WM’s station, the square and compasses arranged as EA. Place three candles in tall holders in the East, West and South of the diagram. The East candle should be slightly to the north to allow the candidate to approach the pedestal/chair for the OB.

“The officers for this degree are the Master, Wardens, Deacons, Secretary (Treasurer is optional) and an Immediate Past Master, who would take the place of a Chaplain or Marshal. The officers should stand in their accustomed places OUTSIDE the diagram, except for the Secretary and Treasurer, who stand together in the North. The Wardens should carry their columns held vertical in their right hands. The Deacons would have their long rods, grounded unless otherwise in use.”

And the rest? You’ll just have to see it yourself. There is food and drink, call and response – a true multi-sensory experience worthy of the Middle Chamber Lecture’s instruction! – and even singing. (Or, more accurately, there is Bro. Matthew Birkhead’s Enter’d ’prentices Song. It remains to be seen if the brethren can sing.)

The Magpie Mason had the good fortune to witness this exemplification at Ben’s mother lodge – Highland Park, No. 240 – several years ago, and it was one of the greatest evenings I’ve enjoyed in 12 years in Masonry. At the end of the night, everyone present was glowing, and not only from the wine. Even if they didn’t intend it, they learned something very important about the history and culture of Freemasonry – the primary goal, of course, of this blog.

Brethren, seating will be at a premium that night. I expect a huge turn-out from the lodge and the surrounding district, so if you would like to attend, let me know by e-mailing me at ____ as soon as possible.
     

W. Trevor Stewart at Cincinnati Lodge No. 3

     
"Let me start with some heresy," said W. Bro. Trevor Stewart, beginning his lecture at Cincinnati Lodge No. 3 in Morristown, New Jersey earlier this evening. "I am not a heretic, but I am on the side of heretics. They live more interesting lives... and have more interesting deaths!"

The topic of Trevor's heresy this time is the Pillars in Masonic ritual, in a lecture that is the abridgment of a published and more technical work of research, but still covering highly useful points including: the names Jachin and Boaz; the casting of the Pillars; their use as archives for Masonry; the placement of globes atop them; and their ritual use in the modern lodge.

"King Solomon's Temple may well have not existed," said Trevor, defining his heretical speculation directly. "There is no archaeological evidence of such a large and magnificent structure, as described in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles."

These books of the Bible "were written 500 years after the events they try to describe by a priestly class" that had an educational need "to make Solomon's Temple the cultic center" of society.

And there is no trace of KST in the ancient records of the neighboring nations – Babylon, Egypt, Assyria, Greece – he added. All are "curiously silent" on King Solomon's activities, and there is no external record of Nebuchadnezzar destroying it. "The Wailing Wall is supposed to have Phoenician inscriptions, but they have not been deciphered or dated.

"Assuming it did or could have existed, there are aspects that interest Freemasons," he continued. "But they are problematic. There are problems here if you take (1 Kings and 2 Chronicles) literally as presented. But it is symbolic Freemasonry we are engaged in.

"Pillars have fascinated men since the beginning of civilization," Trevor explained. "In their view of the cosmology, they believed the heavens were supported by pillars. There is hardly any kind of ancient civilization that had no pillars, and not necessarily with religious buildings only, but with secular ones as well.

"There are about 400 words in 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles that tell the story of Solomon's Temple. It was meant to house the Ark of the Covenant. It was to be a stone copy of the Tabernacle, an idealized copy, carved out almost in the same kind of dimensions, but the Tabernacle itself did not have pillars. The two pillars didn't figure into the Second Temple of Zerubbabel. The vision of the Second Temple in Ezekiel – a dream description, not a factual description – indicates that pillars were not important."

Instead, Trevor explained, meanings were communicated in single pillars with special names. There was Beth El ("the House of God") and Mizpah ("a pillar in the wilderness"). But why Jachin? Why Boaz? "The two pillars assumed a huge significance in the 18th century" when Masonic ritual took the form we know today. "Josephus didn't ascribe much significance to those names, nor did early Church figures like Bede. So why were they chosen? Is there Kabbalistic significance?"

Evidently it was during the late 17th century when a fascination of KST gripped educated people. In 1691, "a Scottish minister wrote that the Mason's Word is like a rabbinical teaching on Jachin and Boaz, with the addition of some secret signs." Books like "Orbis Miraculum" (1659) by Samuel Lee, and "Solomon's Temple Spiritualized" (1688) by John Bunyan reflected a curiosity of KST in that age when Freemasonry began to take its modern shape. It was a change of focus from the antediluvian pillars of the children of Lamech, which concerned the operative masons of previous centuries, as noted in the Regius and Cooke manuscripts. The shift progressed by 1723 upon the publication of Anderson's Constitutions, which gives a description of KST, but without naming the two Pillars. But then, the 1738 revision of the Constitutions reverts to the antediluvian pillars!

"From 1696 to 1726 we have 16 manuscripts that give us clues," Trevor said. "There is a gradual progression of Solomonic Pillars entering the lodge room." First, we see the names of the two Pillars were used in the instruction of candidates. Then there were "crude illustrations of the Pillars on tracing boards." Then there were the miniature columns at the Wardens' stations. "And finally, at the end of the 18th century, there are the full grown, or scale, pillars in the lodge room. The lodge takes on the form of a sacred space, laid East to West, like a temple, with the Pillars."

"Ancient Hebrew is a difficult language to master," he added. "There are 22 consonants with a system of vowels to help in pronunciation, but it is highly conjugated – with many tenses and moods – and no spaces between written words and sentences. And modern Hebrew is not much help.

"The Bible is inconsistent in assigning meanings to the names of the Pillars, and does not support our ritual. Dumfries Manuscript No. 4 (circa 1710), was the first time Masons tried to work out the meanings of the names, hinting at the power of God.

But there is no obvious reason why they were chosen to establish some special significance, he continued. "And why only two pillars when the numbers three, five and seven are so important? Is it an ancient principle of duality" or because there were only two degrees at that time?

At this point Trevor realized time was growing short, and he progressed quickly to the other subtopics he wanted to cover before the hour grew too late.

"Where were the Pillars cast?" he asked. "2 Chronicles tells us in the clay grounds between Succoth and Zeredathah, but there is no archeological evidence of copper refining there. There is no evidence they had sufficient quantity of copper to make the Pillars, as described, but there is some evidence of importing copper ingots from Turkey at about 1,200 BC," not too long before the time of KST. "But it is highly unlikely that ancient peoples knew how to cast brass."

Addressing the ritual description of the Pillars as repositories of archives, Trevor asks why anyone would seal vital information inside hollow pillars where there would be no access. "I found it a ridiculous explanation as a young Mason from practical terms," he recalled. "But what you have is this: a confusion of the children of Lamech pillars with the Solomonic pillars.

"There was a huge industry in Egypt-mania in the 18th century, which explains why the composers of our ritual made the Pillars the containers of archives." Egyptian hieroglyphics, in the time before the Rosetta Stone made sense of them, were appropriated for Craft ritual purposes and projected upon the two Pillars as records of ancient wisdom.

And supposing that ritual was written by committee, "and that committee not leaving well enough alone, added globes" to the tops of the Pillars.

"The globes are an English invention," Trevor said. "This was the Age of Discovery" when images necessary to navigation were important. By contrast, the French did not use globes, but "went in a totally different direction," using bowls instead, as "containers or vessels."

So why do we use our two Pillars?

"If we are Speculative Masons, we want to use symbols for our purposes. Why do we have the Pillars? Because the candidate enters between them," and that they are always in the West "is not an accident. It is a statement about Kabbalah.

"The 10 sephiroth is the Tree of Life. There are three parallel columns ranging from severity to mercy as ways of looking at 10 emanations of God, to depict the impossible.

"The third is the middle column: the balance between severity and mercy. It is possible that by placing the candidate between the Pillars, he is supposed to be that balance. Aren't we supposed to be balanced men? Happy, useful men in society? It is possible that by placing the candidate between them, we are making a statement.

"I offer it for your criticism and analysis. The Pillars are not there by accident, but we don't think about them enough.

"We have this tradition in England called 'Lodges of Instruction,' " he continued. "At first I thought 'Great! I'm going to be instructed in this!' but they really are lodges of rehearsal.

"A special plea, if I may: This basic symbol of when we first come into the lodge? Make it useful in some class of instruction."

It was getting late, but there was time for a question-and-answer session.

One brother asked if anything connected Sir Isaac Newton to Masonic ritual.

"Yes," Trevor replied. "He was obsessed with Solomon's Temple, and his disciples were Masons and Fellows of the Royal Society. He was an alchemist in physics, but he was working on a manuscript for 50 years... right up until 14 days before he died because he wanted to establish the measure of the cubit as a means to measure the earth and determine the longitude and latitude."

Another asked about the use of two pillars in alchemical symbology, and if that figures into the evolution of Masonic identity.

"I've been to 36 libraries owned by 36 Freemasons of the 18th century," Trevor said. "They all had the same alchemical texts. They had magpie minds."

Your correspondent couldn't resist teasing the guest speaker a bit. "Trevor, the timing of your 'heresy' is impeccable," said I. "We're now a few hours into the Jewish New Year!"

The Worshipful Master's presentations to Trevor included two books. Cincinnati Lodge, chartered in 1803, is named for the Society of the Cincinnati, the organization founded in 1783 by American and French officers of the American Revolution to perpetuate lasting contact among these veterans. Its first president was George Washington, who made Morristown a vital strategic base of operations during the Revolution. One of the books given was "Private Yankee Doodle," the memoirs of Joseph Plumb Martin, who served there under Washington. The other was "Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior," which is commonly attributed to Washington, but actually is an older guide to gentlemanly conduct introduced to Washington at a young age.




Bro. Stewart is employed in a speaking tour of the area, and other parts of the country, through the next two weeks, appearing in numerous Masonic, Martinist and Rosicrucian venues. The companion, or concluding, lecture to Monday night's presentation will be delivered Wednesday, Oct. 8 at historic Alpha Lodge No. 116 in East Orange.