‘The True Masonic Light’

  
Listen, when Brent Morris takes you aside twice in one night and tells you to post more often, you do what the man says. So here we go.

There actually is a lot of catch-up to do. Just in the past week or so was the Emulation ritual at Walkill Lodge, two of my nearly acceptable speaking engagements, the Scottish Rite symposium at Lexington, and — last, but certainly not least — The Bernie of 2012 on Monday night. I’m tired from just trying to remember it all. Magpie coverage of the above to come shortly, but first, because I posted this on ML a few hours ago unleashing the huge secret, is this bit of news.

Some weeks ago I mentioned there are things underway in New Jersey Freemasonry that portend a brighter future here. Well, I’m quarterbacking this one.

With a committee of six brilliant, audacious, and damned handsome visionaries, I am in the process of starting a new Scottish Rite Lodge of Perfection. If Supreme Council issues the requested charter, it would be named Architects Lodge of Perfection, inspired by the Grand Master Architect (12th) Degree of traditional Scottish Rite Masonry.

Click here to read a bit of Ill. James Tresner’s Vested in Glory, courtesy of the Valley of Bakersfield in California.

Its purpose would be to serve as a philosophical research society. It will not confer degrees, but instead would provide the academic study of Scottish Rite rituals, past and present, from Entered Apprentice to Royal Secret. The brethren would meet several times a year to discuss the rituals, symbols, and ideas. Readings of rituals, commentaries, histories, etc. would be assigned in advance with plenty of time to prepare for these meetings.

As the Master Architect Degree (A&ASR-SJ) says: “Wisdom is the True Masonic Light.” The degree synopsis in Ill. Arturo de Hoyos’ Scottish Rite Ritual Monitor and Guide says: “The ceremonies of this Degree are brief, but its significance is profound. Here you are taught the symbolic meanings of the Master Architect’s tools, the most important of which instructs us to solve the great problems presented by the universe, to know and understand the lofty truths of philosophy and to communicate it freely to others, particularly by our actions. Only the best and wisest in us and among us should rule. For if it be any other, the low and the ignoble will presume, and soon prevail.”

That summarizes the twin ambitions of this project. The tangible goal is to educate Scottish Rite Masons; the intangible aim is to build a generation of informed Scottish Rite Masons who should raise the standard of leadership for their Lodges, Councils, Chapters, and Consistories.

Membership would be open statewide to Sublime Princes in good standing in their home Consistories (although I can’t see us turning away brethren from other states if any want to participate).

The paperwork is well underway. If all goes smoothly, there could be a charter in August, which would lead directly to an inaugural meeting in September. I will post more about this in the meantime, but please wish us luck!
  

‘On this date in 1767’

On this date in 1767, a Mason named Henry Andrew Francken, recently arrived in Albany, New York from Jamaica, established the first Masonic body on the North American continent associated with what would become the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite by issuing the warrant of Ineffable and Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection. The Ineffable and Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection was of the Rite of Perfection, that system of 25 degrees* that would be the basis for the 33-degree A&ASR established in 1801. Francken issued the patent to this Grand Lodge of Perfection, culminating several months of activity that had begun with his conferring degrees 4 through 14 upon two Masons named William Gamble and Francis von Pfister.

According to the minutes of the Grand Lodge of Perfection, the brethren received their warrant, which they called a constitution, on the 26th of December. On January 11, 1768 this Lodge of Perfection was opened by Master William Gamble, and it remained at labor, as far as we know, until December 5, 1774. An absence of records suggests it then went inactive for 45 years.

This Grand Lodge of Perfection in Albany still exists; it is one of the four Scottish Rite bodies meeting at the Valley of Albany, at 67 Corning Place.

Apropos of nothing, this is a poor photograph I shot of a Philadelphia Grand Lodge of Perfection summons dated Friday, February 15, 1889 which states the 14°, the Degree of Grand, Elect, Perfect and Sublime Mason, will be conferred upon eight candidates, and that the annual election of officers would take place. This document was on display at the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia two years ago.

Bro. Francken was in the news recently following the announcement in October of the rediscovery of a long lost manuscript of rituals, signed by Francken, found in Pakistan, where one such manuscript happened to have gone missing many years ago. This duplicate original manuscript is among only four known to exist. Read about that here.



* It seems there were degrees above 25 that were reserved for the rite’s highest officers.