‘Masonry’s mistaken meaning of Music’

    

Bro. Howard Kanowitz presenting ‘What’s Wrong with the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences?’ this morning at New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 at Freemasons Hall in North Brunswick. He spoke of Music, but is not conducting an orchestra here.

I’ve always insisted lunch is the most important meal of the workday, and it’s essential to a daylight lodge as well.

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 met this morning at Freemasons Hall in North Brunswick for what turned out to be a pretty quick communication. Only ten were in attendance, which was unfortunate because our speaker was the inimitable Howard Kanowitz, doing his thing as only he can do. Some of our principal officers were absent, including Secretary Erich, who is in California speaking at the International Conference on Freemasonry. He sent me an email last night describing the debauchery few would believe is possible among Freemasonry’s celebrity intellectuals.

Click to enlarge.

Speaking of conferences, Past Master Bob, filling the loafers of absent Secretary Erich, updated us on the John Skene Masonic Conference coming in August. We already knew it will span the weekend of August 28 and will take place at the Grand Lodge of New Jersey’s Fellowship Hall (except for the Gravesite Memorial at Skene’s approximate final resting place). Now we know the speakers.

✓ Dr. Heather K. Calloway, Executive Director of University Collections at Indiana University.

✓ Robert L.D. Cooper, retired Curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and now co-host of the M.A.G.I. Podcast.

✓ Mark Tabbert, formerly of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial and now of the Masonic Service Association of North America, and author, and the other M.A.G.I. co-host, etc.

✓ The aforementioned Erich Huhn.

✓ And David Palladino, who is practically the lone champion of the humanities in New Jersey Freemasonry.

Other speakers are not confirmed yet but, trust me, they are authors from academia you know.

We received some sad news today—news to me anyway—as Len March, our research lodge’s inaugural treasurer, who manned that desk for many years, had passed away.

Also, it was noted how 2026 marks twenty-five years since MW David A. Chase set us to labor Under Dispensation. Vivat!

But lunch today—technically First Lunch, since we got to the restaurant before 11 a.m.—was a great time together. Junior Warden Dave, Senior Deacon Glenn, Bob, and I gabbed about Freemasonry over good grub and coffee. We chatted about things that could be improved in the field of Masonic education in New Jersey. Naturally, that topic could fill an immersive three-day conference of its own, so we circumscribed our desires and talked for a fast paced two hours about what we feasibly could affect. Lunch was longer than the meeting that brought us together in the first place.

Oh yeah, the meeting!

Howard presented “What’s Wrong with the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences?” Music is the short answer.

By that, he means the citation of music within the Middle Chamber Lecture of the Fellow Craft Degree is discordant. Here’s how New Jersey’s version of the lecture addresses Music:

Music is that elevated science which affects the passions by sound. There are few who have not felt the charms of music, and acknowledged its expressions to be intelligible to the heart. It is a language of delightful sensation, far more eloquent than words; it touches and gently agitates the passions; it wraps us in melancholy, or elevates us in joy; it melts us in tenderness, or excites us to war. It is truly congenial to the nature of man for, by its powerful charms, the most discordant passions may be subdued.

I’d say what Howard means is, grouped among the Quadrivium, Music—in this particular Masonic context—is incongruent. The lecture’s talk of the incitement of passions, melancholy, joy, etc. makes Music sound more akin to the Trivium’s arts of Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic, whereas Music would belong with Arithmetic, Geometry, and Astronomy if we instead noted its nature as a science of sound. Naturally, he spoke of the Harmony of Spheres so we understood why Music is a sibling of Arithmetic and Astronomy. This is something I’d never thought about, possibly because of my failure to internalize and recite the lecture for the Second Degree when I should have as an aspiring lodge officer decades ago—or since.

As an aside, let me explain that Music-as-science is how it worked originally. The Music paragraph in William Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry (1775 edition) says:

Music teaches us the art of forming concords so as to make delightful harmony by a mathematical and proportional arrangement of acute, grave, and mixed sounds. This art is by a series of experiments reduced to a demonstrative science with respect to tones and the intervals of sound only. It inquires into the nature of concords and discords, and enables us to find out the proportion between them by numbers.

There’s a saying at New Jersey’s research lodge: Ben Hoff (our other eminent scholar) views Freemasonry through a microscope, and Howard views Freemasonry through a telescope, meaning Ben searches internally in his forensic studies of ritual evolution, and Howard scans a broad horizon to chart another direction Freemasonry can send us. Ben would’ve pointed out that Preston bit had he been there. Anyway, the world history Howard unspooled took us from Pythagoras and Martianus Capella to Brahe and Kepler, with stops in Prague and Vienna to visit Mozart and Beethoven. Really outstanding work, and presented without reading material—no paper nor notes, nothing, nada. An appropriate topic for π Day too.

Without revealing the substance of the private conversation during First Lunch, we groused about how few Masons can be motivated to come hear fascinating Masonic talks. Never mind conceiving, researching, and writing such pieces of architecture themselves, but just showing up to listen to one of the best in the field.

A new clock has been hung in the lodge room! I’ve been attending various meetings here for twenty years and I’d swear the previous clock was always off by fifteen or sixteen hours. This one correctly shows the division of time.

We will do it again on Saturday, June 13. I’ll be back at the lectern September 12 to recount a far less enchanting tale of Masonry’s past.

    

‘Tabbert tapped for MSA’

    

Somehow I knew Mark wouldn’t stay retired.

Congratulations to Mark Tabbert on being named the new Administrator of the Masonic Service Association of North America!

Mark left his longtime post at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial several years ago and relocated to his home state of Iowa. The MSANA left its longtime neighborhood in the District of Columbia a few years back for Cedar Rapids. Hell, maybe I’ll try the Hawkeye State too! Sounds like there’s something going on out there.

Originally the Masonic Service Association, it was established after the First World War to be the lone voice of Freemasonry in coordinating Masonic relief with the federal government for Masons in the military abroad. Not long thereafter, it became the publisher of the renowned educational periodical named the Short Talk Bulletin. In modern times, the MSANA is the locus of Masonic fundraising to aid victims of natural disasters. Learn more here, and be sure to scroll down to the Services menu at bottom.

Best wishes, Mark!

     

‘MAGI is here!’

    

They’d been teasing it for an interminable three weeks but, several hours ago, Bob Cooper and Mark Tabbert finally gave us the gift of M.A.G.I.

A podcast, Masonic Authors’ Guild International is “for educational purposes and perhaps entertainment.” I’ll just share the publicity:

Welcome to the Masonic Authors’ Guild International (MAGI), where each week two historians review and critique books and other productions focused on Freemasonry, as well as discuss broader issues in historical research. Our mission is to promote the highest professional and academic standards in Masonic research, education, and publications. These podcasts begin the Guild’s mission by reviewing those that do, or do not, uphold high academic standards, and explain why they do, or do not.

The Guild members are Robert Cooper, Curator Emeritus of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, who lives in Edinburgh; and Mark Tabbert, former Curator at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, Alexandria, Virginia, who lives in Iowa. Both have published significant academic historical research, and have contributed to Masonic journals and magazines. Together they have more than 65 years as Freemasons, and are members of numerous Masonic research societies and Masonic lodges in Europe and North America.

For this launch, they very wisely uploaded five episodes of the podcast for our enlightenment, including examinations of David Stevenson of Scotland and Joseph Fort Newton of Iowa.

Click here and share the link with your brethren.

(Jesus wept. I hope they don’t critique this blog.)

     

'Remembering John Skene from Aberdeen'

      

Bob Howard photo

The Masonic Kilties of New Jersey were well represented at this memorial. The Kilties is a degree team that confers the Second Section of Master Mason Degree, upon request, and does so in Scottish regalia and with bagpipes. A memorable experience, I can tell you.

I have to catch up on my reporting of a few terrific events here and there recently. The following is a recap of a celebration of Masonic history that took place in New Jersey on August 27.

Brethren from around New Jersey and beyond converged on the Peachfield historic site in Westampton on the afternoon of August 27 to honor the memory of the first Speculative Mason to arrive in North America.

Bro. Robert Howard

The elaborate ceremonies were arranged by RW Bro. Bob Howard, Past Grand Historian and Past Master of the research lodge, acting on behalf of Eclipse Lodge 67 in Rutherford; Beverly-Riverside Lodge 107 in Riverside; and the Masonic Kilties of New Jersey. John Skene was made a Mason in his native Aberdeen, Scotland, a fact recorded in the lodge’s archives one of the very few things known of his life—and he emigrated to West Jersey in 1682. What we know today as New Jersey was at that time two English colonies, West Jersey and East Jersey. Burlington was the capital of West Jersey, and it was there where Skene settled. The reasons for his leaving Scotland are not recorded, although he was a Quaker who left religiously inhospitable Scotland and made a home in an area inhabited by many Quaker families, very near the sect’s stronghold in Pennsylvania.

“Coming of age when religious turmoil was the norm, John Skene’s membership in the Society of Friends provided him anything but the peaceful and pacifist existence that we associate with Quakerism today,” said Bro. Erich Huhn, of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 and a candidate for a doctorate in history at Drew University. “The Friends were persecuted throughout his childhood, and, as Skene reached adulthood, he held true to his convictions. As a Quaker, he was persecuted and imprisoned throughout his life in Scotland. In the typical ebbs and flows of seventeenth century religious turmoil, he faced various periods of imprisonment, freedom, house arrest, and discrimination.”

A wreath was sent by Skene’s lodge, still at labor in Aberdeen.

Yet, the seventeenth century also was the age of the Accepted Mason, when lodges of operative builders began welcoming men who had no connection either to the art of architecture or to the trade of stone construction. Robert Moray in 1641 and Elias Ashmole in 1646 probably are the best known, but lodge minutes from 1590s Scotland also record the making of Speculative Masons. Skene was initiated into the lodge at Aberdeen approximately in 1670 possibly on account of his being a merchant and a citizen prominent enough to be made a burgess there. His being a Quaker raises the question of his taking a Masonic oath, but again history is silent on details.

Bro. Bob Cooper

Among the distinguished visitors to New Jersey that day was Bro. Robert L.D. Cooper, recently retired as curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland’s museum and one who has been frequenting New Jersey lodges this year delivering talks on early Scottish Freemasonry. Cooper said he is aware of correspondence being exchanged between West Jerseyan Skene and his family in Aberdeenshire, likely urging emigration to the colony, but availability of any letters cannot be ascertained. Skene’s lodge isn’t as mysterious, however. Cooper described it as a “mixed lodge” consisting of “stone masons and dukes and porridge-makers.” As for life in West Jersey, Cooper said that Skene, as a businessman, partnered with the second Mason to reach North America, Bro. John Coburn, a stonemason, in a construction enterprise that might even be credited with some of the oldest buildings on Staten Island.

Arriving in West Jersey, Skene purchased 500 acres from Governor Edward Byllynge and founded his plantation, which he named Peachfield. Not long thereafter, Byllynge appointed Skene the Deputy Governor. Seventeenth century colonial records being what they are, it is not known how Skene earned the appointment, but the land acquisition preceding it could not have been meaningless. Another quirk of history emerges when Byllynge was succeeded as Governor by Dr. Daniel Coxe, the father of Provincial Grand Master Daniel Coxe, who was appointed by the Grand Lodge of England in 1730 to govern Masonic affairs in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

Dedicated in 1984 by the grand lodge, this stone stands on the land John Skene owned, Peachfield. A different calendar was in use during the seventeenth century, so to commemorate Skene's death, you have to play along.

After Skene’s death circa 1690 (accounts of the year vary), his widow gradually sold off tracts of the Peachfield plantation. All that remains today is a stone house built 1725-32, which was damaged by fire in 1929 and restored in the early 1930s, situated on 120 acres. The property is only three miles from the Masonic Village at Burlington. In 1984, the local grand lodge dedicated a headstone memorializing this historic Brother Mason. The exact location of his burial place is unknown, but August 27, 1690 is the date of death engraved in the stone.

Bro. Mark and Bro. Glenn.
Look for them on YouTube.

The event on August 27 featured many participants. Assisting emcee Bob Howard was W. Bro. Christian Stebbins. Leading prayers were RW Glenn Visscher and RW Eugene Margroff, with RW Mark Megee reading from Scripture. Bro. David Palladino-Sinclair of the Kilties serenaded the group with his bagpipes, performing “Flower of Scotland,” “Scotland the Brave,” and “Amazing Grace.” A wreath was placed at the gravestone by Cooper and the Worshipful Masters of both Eclipse and Beverly-Riverside, Patrick Glover and Frederick T. Ocansey, respectively. In his closing remarks, RW Bro. David Tucker, Deputy Grand Master, told the assemblage that looking to the past for role models helps take our focus off ourselves, and that it is fitting to salute John Skene for being the earliest Freemason who deserves credit for helping establish the fraternity in New Jersey.

Bro. David Palladino-Sinclair

Also traveling some distance was Mark Tabbert of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Virginia, who told us of the Scottish Freemasons in America conference there in November.

The celebration of Skene was not over yet. The group caravanned to Mt. Holly Lodge 14 for a catered dinner replete with Masonic toasts following a tour of the historic building.

Peachfield is owned and operated by the National Society of the Colonial Dames of America in the State of New Jersey, which makes the site its headquarters. Tours, including for groups, can be arranged by phoning 609.267.6996.

     

‘Mt. Vernon to host Mark Tabbert’

    

Mt. Vernon will host Mark Tabbert next week for a discussion of George Washington the Freemason.

UPDATE: Click here to watch the recording of Mark’s talk.

Tuesday, July 19

7 to 8 p.m.

Fred W. Smith

National Library

Free admission

Register here

Mark Tabbert

Mt. Vernon is the historic site in Virginia where George and Martha Washington resided; now it is privately owned but in the public service as a cultural treasure. Tabbert is the Director of Archives and Exhibits at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. He is the author of the recently published A Deserving Brother: George Washington and Freemasonry.

If you think Washington’s presence in U.S. Masonic history is overdone, it may be because you hear only the same few facts and misunderstandings repeatedly, and they fail to impress. I think Mark’s book can enthuse the fraternity with his comprehensive study of all the known Masonic activities of America’s most famous Freemason.

The talk, free and open to the public, both in person and online, will explore the facts chronicled in the book.

      

‘Washington Masonic bio is out’

    

On the day George Washington was born, the date was February 11, but today is Washington’s birthday because of the change in 1752 from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar. That’s a long story involving Astronomy, Arithmetic, Logic, and a pope, but what better occasion than this to buy Mark Tabbert’s new book?

A Deserving Brother: George Washington and Freemasonry is available at last. It is published by University of Virginia Press (released today) and can be had from your favorite booksellers.

From the publicity:

Like several of America’s Founding Fathers, George Washington was a Freemason, yet Washington’s ties to the fraternity and the role it played in his life have never been widely researched or understood. In A Deserving Brother, Mark Tabbert presents a complete story of Washington’s known association with Freemasonry.

Much more than a conventional history, this book has curated an exhibition of artifacts and episodes to fully contextualize our first president’s Masonic life and experiences. Consulting the Library of Congress, Mount Vernon, the Boston Athenaeum, and numerous private Masonic lodges, libraries, and museums, Tabbert chronicles all known instances of Washington’s association with Freemasons, confirming some existing knowledge, adding new insights, and debunking unsubstantiated myths. The record of Washington’s masonic ties is presented through contextualizing descriptions and color illustrations, ranging from lodge minute books recording Washington’s attendance to his Masonic aprons, from the tools used at the U.S. Capitol cornerstone ceremony to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts’ gold urn, made by Paul Revere, containing a lock of Washington’s hair.

A Deserving Brother documents the significance of Freemasonry in Washington’s life and career in a way that separates fact from fiction, and will satisfy both historians and general readers, including today’s Freemasons.

Mark A. Tabbert is Director of Archives and Exhibits at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, and is author of American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communities.

     

‘Who, What, When, Where, and sometimes Wyoming’

    

Digitized proceedings from A to W. (Mark Tabbert photo)

It seems like it wasn’t even a year ago that I updated you on the digitization project underway by the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, and word came today that the work will be completed this week.

Mark Tabbert shared the good news several hours ago, explaining how the Wyoming Grand Commandery books of proceedings will be the last of the texts to be scanned and saved for eternity as searchable digital files. Well, he didn’t mention eternity. That’s just my excitement pulsing through. And I am excited because these official, published records of our grand lodges, grand chapters, etc. are big parts of the first draft of history.

When researchers like us want to get an idea of something that happened in our past, these texts are invaluable. Maybe you seek a hard fact, like the number of cigars donated in 1919 to the residents of the California Masonic Home (750). Perhaps you’re studying something that’s more of a trend, such as expulsions of Masons for being drunks or bad husbands. (Those were the days.) Or statistics might be needed. (Wisconsin’s lodges collectively rejected 294 petitions in 1875.) These books contain such data and a lot more.

Naturally, they’re written by people, so you’ll have to anticipate some errors and some very deliberate omissions, but we have to start somewhere. And somewhere is right here.

For this to happen, our grand lodges and other governing bodies must pay a nominal fee of $1,000 for the initial set-up costs, and then $200 annually to maintain the online access to their books, so if your Freemasonry isn’t included among these digital documents, maybe tell your Grand Ones to cough up the dough and preserve the archives of Masonry from inundations and conflagrations. As Mark says, the work is done already; only the uploading is required now.

(Of course, we New York Masons have our own thing, as you might expect of us.)

     

‘NEW BOOK: Masonic Almanac’

     

The first volume of a collaboration of Mark Tabbert and John “Bo” Cline is available now!

(I get excited about these things.)

Almanac of American Freemasonry 1730-1774 is: “the listing and activities of every known Masonic lodge in North America from 1730 to 1774. This information is presented chronologically, by colony, and by chartering source.”

Get it through Lulu here.

Also from the publicity:

The information therein contained is unparalleled. Proceeds of the book will pay for new editions and the publication of Vol 2: 1775-1799 which is 50 percent completed.

Foreword by Shawn E. Eyer.

Contents:

• Glossary of Terms, Abbreviations, and Contractions
• Part One: Chronology of Masonic Events (1730 — 1774)
• Part Two: Chronology of Lodges by Colony and Location
• Part Three: Lodges in North America by Chartering Source
• Part Four: Lodges in North America by Colony

Appendices:

• British Military and Colonial Militia Lodges in North America
• Lodges in Canada
• Caribbean Lodges
• Biographies of American Provincial Grand Masters
• Famous American Freemasons
• Bibliography
• Alphabetical Listing of Lodges (1730-1774)

You know the authors. Bro. Mark Tabbert is the Director of Collections at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. He is a member of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 in London, and is the author of several other books. And Mark was a member of the Masonic Society’s Board of Directors for a number of years. The late Bro. Bo Cline served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Alaska and then was the President of the Masonic Society from 2012 to 2014. We lost him to the Lodge on High last July. Bo was a great friend to have.

     

‘A strong start in 2020 for the Masonic Society’

     

The Masonic Society is off to a great start so far this year.

January isn’t even over, and we have gained 20 new members. Another 14 lapsed members have returned to us. And we picked up one new subscriber for The Journal of the Masonic Society.

Our annual banquet will be next week at Masonic Week in Virginia, and we already are expecting more than 50 guests. (I know we’ll have more because I haven’t even signed up myself!)

That’s Friday, February 7 at 7:15 p.m. in the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington. Advance registration is required, so click here.

Only $55 per person for a sirloin dinner entrée. Our keynote speaker will be Mark Tabbert, who will present “A Deserving Brother: George Washington and Freemasonry,” including his recent research that went into his upcoming book.

All Freemasons and our ladies are welcome to our dinner.

We will have elections of officers and other necessary business, plus we will discuss plans for the coming two-year term.
     

‘The Masonic Society at Masonic Week 2020’

     

I can barely plan six hours in advance, so I can understand not grabbing your interest with this news that comes six months ahead, but mark your calendars for Friday, February 7 for the Masonic Society’s annual dinner-meeting amid the Masonic Week festivities at Crystal City, Virginia.

There will be elections of officers. (Unless the members come to their senses, yours truly will become the Society’s seventh president.) We will announce new Fellows. We’ll tackle usual business, like budget stuff.

And…

Mark Tabbert

The main reason you’ll want to be there is our keynote speaker: Bro. Mark Tabbert, Director of Collections at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, will present “A Deserving Brother: George Washington and Freemasonry.”

You think you know Washington the Freemason, but this discussion will reveal Mark’s recent research that went into his new book on the subject.

Also, I must point out the dining fee has come down significantly since recent years. Our banquet—and, I imagine, others—have lost patrons to other, off-site, dining opportunities due to the exorbitant cost of eating in the hotel. It gives me great pleasure to tell you that this dinner will cost only $55 per person. We will work on the menu shortly. Masons, our ladies, and friends of Freemasonry are welcome to attend. The website for booking your seats will be ready soon, and I’ll share that news at the right time.

Otherwise, Issue No. 46 of The Journal of the Masonic Society is in production now, and will reach our members’ mailboxes in September. Join us! It’s the best $45 you’ll spend in Freemasonry.
     

‘Mark Tabbert in Jersey next month’

     
Mark Tabbert will visit a Masonic lodge in New Jersey in a couple of weeks to present some of his recent research into George Washington’s Masonic life. This flier has all the details:

Click to enlarge.

‘Current events in the Keystone Craft’

     

Courtesy Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania

Sorry to say I will not be able to attend the Pennsylvania Academy of Masonic Knowledge’s Fall Session tomorrow in Elizabethtown, but there is some other news from the Keystone State to share.

Actually, first of all, the PAMK session will be streamed live. Click here at about 9:15 a.m. The first speaker should take to the lectern at 9:30.

Speaking of Elizabethtown, this just in: On Saturday, November 12, Mark Tabbert will be the guest speaker at the annual banquet of Abraham C. Treichler Lodge No. 682, discussing the Masonic career of George Washington. The lodge meets at E-Town, but this affair will be hosted at the Spring Garden Conference Center in Middletown.

Only $25 per person, and you can look forward to a great meal served family style. Book your seats by e-mailing the lodge secretary here or by visiting the lodge website and paying with PayPal.


There is a somewhat new blog by and for Pennsylvania Freemasons that I learned about only this week. Masonic Rezon (if you recognize that second word, you probably know it alludes to the Grand Lodge’s book of constitutions) was launched at the end of last year, and offers this mission statement:


Welcome to the Masonic Rezon. A blog spot for the Right way to do Freemasonry. We are Pennsylvania Freemasons. We do things a little bit differently, but the big picture is still the same. This blog is solely for the purpose of expressing our feelings of what Freemasonry is about, and how we, as a fraternity, strive to make those around us better. We will be keeping our commentary open to the public and upright in discourse. We expect that those commenting do the same. I hope you enjoy what follows.


Masonic Rezon is not an academic forum, esoterica teaser, or avenue for finding one’s way into Freemasonry’s too numerous appendages. It consists of heartfelt, short writings by Craft lodge brethren who share their thoughts on real life Masonic meanings. Sometimes, when you’ve gained more experience in Freemasonry than you ever really wanted, it is healthy to reflect on intuitions and interpretations on the point of it all—such as those published here by these Masons.

Check it out here.

And finally, it was announced recently that all back issues of The Pennsylvania Freemason magazine, dating back 62 years, have been uploaded to the Grand Lodge’s website for you to enjoy. Click here.
     

‘Setting out for the Masonic frontier’

     
The deadline for registration is near for The Masonic Society’s “Freemasonry on the Frontier” conference in California in three weeks. From the publicity:

The Masonic Society Announces

Speakers for ‘Frontier’ Conference

The Masonic Society has announced the line-up of nine speakers for its conference “Freemasonry on the Frontier” to be held October 7-9 in Morgan Hill, California. A registration form and hotel information can be found here.

“We’ve built the event around a particularly distinguished slate of speakers,” said Society President Kenneth W. Davis. “When possible, we’ve arranged topics chronologically and geographically, tracing the growth of Freemasonry from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific.”

Samuel Clemens, better known as “Mark Twain,” will kick off the program with an after-dinner speech Friday evening. Brother Clemens’ talk is made possible by Jefferson H. Jordan, Jr., immediate past grand master of Masons in New Mexico.

Mark Tabbert, director of collections at the George Washington Masonic Memorial, and author of several acclaimed Masonic books, will deliver Saturday morning’s keynote address. His topic will be “George Washington and the Masonic Frontiers of the 1700s.”

Also on Saturday morning, William Miklos, past master of Northern California Research Lodge, will speak on “Masons Pushing or Pulling the Constitutional Convention,” and Moises Gomez, past grand historian of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, will speak on “Early Traveling Lodges of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey: Bringing Light to the American Frontier.”

Adam Kendall, collections manager and curator of exhibits for the Henry W. Coil Library and Museum at the Grand Lodge of California, and editor of The Plumbline, the quarterly bulletin of the Scottish Rite Research Society, will keynote the Saturday afternoon sessions, speaking on “Pilgrimage and Procession: The 1883 Knights Templar Triennial Conclave and the Dream of the American West.”

Also speaking Saturday afternoon will be Kyle Grafstrom, of Verity Lodge 59, Kent, Washington, and author of articles in both The Philalethes and Living Stones, on “Freemasonry in the Wild West.” Wayne Sirmon, past master of Texas Lodge of Research and instructor and fellow at the University of Mobile, will present “West by Southwest: The Expansion of Frontier Freemasonry in the Old Southwest.”

John Bizzack, fellow and board member of The Masonic Society, fellow of the Rubicon Masonic Society in Kentucky, and author of five books on Freemasonry, will deliver Saturday evening’s after-dinner speech, “The Expansion of Freemasonry into the West: The Pivotal Role of Kentucky, 1788-1810.”

John Cooper, past grand master and past grand secretary of Masons in California and current president of the Philalethes Society, will keynote Sunday morning with “Freemasonry and Nation-Building on the Pacific Coast: The California Experience.” His speech will be followed by a panel of all speakers, discussing with the audience “Freemasonry on the Frontier.”

Sunday afternoon will feature a tour of the Winchester Mystery House, with Masonic connections, and said to be haunted.

The conference is directed by Gregg Hall, member of Morgan Hill Masonic Lodge, California, and The Masonic Society’s board of directors.
     

‘Now on sale: Freemasonry on the Frontier’

     

Tickets to The Masonic Society’s Fall 2016 Conference, titled “Freemasonry on the Frontier,” scheduled for October 7 to 9 in California, are available now via eventbrite.

Click here for the ticketing options. Click here for all the info about the conference.

From the publicity:


Featured Speakers

Friday Evening:

Samuel Langhorn Clemens: Brother Samuel Clemens was made a Mason in 1861, at Polar Star Lodge 79, St. Louis, Missouri. His many literary works (often published under the pen name Mark Twain) include “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” (set less than 135 miles from the site of this conference) and “Roughing It,” an account of Clemens’ life and travel on the Western frontier.

Clemens’s appearance is made possible by WB Jefferson H. Jordan, Jr., immediate past grand master of Masons in New Mexico and an authority on Clemens’ life and work. He is past master of Temple Lodge 6, Albuquerque, past district deputy grand lecturer for two years, and past district deputy grand master.


Saturday Morning:

Mark A. Tabbert: “George Washington and the Masonic Frontiers of the 1700s”

Worshipful Brother Mark Tabbert has served as curator of the Scottish Rite National Heritage Museum, and currently is director of collections at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia. He is past master of Mystic Valley Lodge, Arlington, Massachusetts, and Lodge of Nine Muses 1776, Washington, DC. He is a full member of Quatour Coronati Lodge 2076, London, and a member of the Society of Blue Friars.

Tabbert is the author of American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communities; Museum and Memorial: Ten Years of Masonic Writings; and, with William D. Moore, Secret Societies in America: Foundational Studies of Fraternalism.

He is working on three books on George Washington and Freemasonry-related topics.


Saturday Evening:

John Bizzack: “The Expansion of Freemasonry into the West: The Pivotal Role of Kentucky, 1788-1810”

Worshipful Brother John Bizzack is a 25-year veteran of the Lexington (Kentucky) Police Department and, more recently, Commissioner of the Department of Criminal Justice Training for the Kentucky Justice Cabinet.

Bizzack is a member of Lexington Lodge 1, where he serves as the Education Committee chair and coordinator of the Masonic History and Study Group. He is author of several books and numerous papers on leadership, criminal investigation, and organizational management, as well as five books, along with dozens of publications, about Freemasonry. He speaks nationwide on the criminal justice system, critical thinking, and Freemasonry.


John Cooper: “Freemasonry and Nation-Building on the Pacific Coast: The California Experience”

MWB John Cooper is a past grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of California, having served for almost eighteen years when he retired in 2008. In 2013-14 he served as grand master of Masons in California. He holds a Ph.D in education from Claremont Graduate School, and before becoming grand secretary, he held various teaching and administrative posts in the public schools of California.

A Mason since 1964, Cooper served as master of James A. Foshay Lodge 641 in Los Angeles, and is both a 33º Mason in the Scottish Rite, and a Knight of the York Grand Cross of Honor in the York Rite. His primary interest in Freemasonry has been the history and philosophy of the Craft, and he has published numerous papers on Freemasonry. He has served as master of both Northern and Southern California research lodges, and currently is president of the Philalethes Society.
     

‘Journal 28 in the mail’

     

Issue No. 28 of The Journal of the Masonic Society is arriving in members’ mailboxes now. Some of the highlights include:

Editor Michael Halleran considers the importance of candidate proficiency examinations. “It seems clear that suitable proficiency means comprehension—not just a rote recitation—of the experience of the degree, enriched with appreciation of the implements of Masonry and some understanding of the symbolism of the fraternity, as specified by the grand lodge,” he rightly writes. “Sadly, we have all witnessed perfunctory examinations, but these do no one any favors.”

It’s very simple to me: Since Freemasonry uses the building arts metaphorically, we’d view the prospective member as raw material. When your basic building blocks show no understanding of the fundamentals of Masonic thought, you’ll have a fraternity that serves no vital purpose. Just shallow sociability, perfunctory charity—oh, wait.

Bro. Richard Bunn, in his article, draws comparisons between architectural cornerstones installed ceremonially and elements of the Hiramic drama. “If the Freemasons had been farmers, they would have seized upon the metaphor of the seed—as utilized by ancient agrarian societies in their mystery dramas, the most famous example being the Peresphone myth, which elucidates on the esoteric phenomenon of sowing, i.e., the seed, after being buried in the earthen furrow, rises again in the new stalk—but as the Gentlemen Masons were Symbolic builders, they chose the stone, like the medieval alchemists before them, to teach the same lesson of regeneration, or immortality of the soul,” he says in one breath. “Regrettably, with the ceremony of the laying/dedication no longer being in high demand, twenty-first century Freemasons are rarely, if ever, exposed to the profound symbolism attached to one of the fraternity’s most ancient and important observances. The symbolism of the ceremony of the laying of a cornerstone and the Degree of Master Mason are so interconnected that it is my contention that if the mystery drama of the latter did not directly arise from the former, then, the two ceremonies, one public and exoteric, the other private and esoteric, evolved contemporaneously.”

A new feature, “Retrospective,” invokes lessons from the past we ought to take to heart today. This time, a concept from 1864: “The extraordinary and ruinously rapid growth which Freemasonry has experienced during the past few years has only become possible in consequence of a neglect properly to exercise the privilege of the ballot. Hundreds, nay, thousands of improper persons have been permitted to receive the degrees, who, under a proper exercise of the ballot, would never have been allowed to cross the threshold of our institution.”

Yes, that’s from 1864, not 1964.

Speaking of changes, Bro. John Bizzack returns to The Journal with “Paradigms and Periods of Transition in Freemasonry,” in which he explains what a paradigm is and how it works, and how Masons can attain a keener understanding of their fraternity’s need for constancy in Masonry’s reason for being. “The idea has never been for men to change Masonry, but for Masonry to change men. Its core values and lessons can be challenging to incorporate into one’s life,” he writes. “It takes discipline of the mind. It takes effort. But the fraternity offers true camaraderie for those who choose this difficult psychological and philosophical journey. Incredible, life-altering changes occur as a man develops and uses a value-driven moral compass.”

He continues: “The landscape has changed. Freemasonry is indeed in a paradigm shift, one that was readily identified by leaders in the fraternity in the mid 1960s and that set the course for the natural turbulence that follows any time a paradigm begins to shift. That very shift gives us the signature of the fraternity today: dwindling numbers and a sense of baffling urgency to find answers, to stop the revolving door of men in and out after only a couple of years of membership.”

Bro. Mark Tabbert, Director of the Museum and Library Collections at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Virginia, spends a lot of time these days researching and writing what I am confident will be the definitive Masonic biography of George Washington—a comprehensive study of all Washington’s Masonic words and deeds that will serve for generations. His article in The Journal this time is “George Washington Meets a Past Grand Master of England.” How did our future first president’s interactions with the Fourth Earl of Loudoun during the French and Indian War impact England’s military strategy in that conflict? You’ll want to read this one.

In his always engaging regular feature “Masonic Collectibles,” Bro. Yasha Beresiner shares an item that actually cannot be gathered into a collection: a singular ephemeral tract of anti-masonic propaganda from 1698(!). From the pamphlet: “Knowing how that God observeth privilly them that in Darkness they shall be smitten and the Secrets of their Hearts layed bare. Mingle not among this corrupt People lest you be found so at the World’s Conflagration.”

There’s no pleasing some people.

And getting back to cornerstones, Bro. Stephen Ponzillo, a Past Grand Master of Maryland, hits the books to provide some biographical knowledge of the men whose names are inscribed on the silver plaque set into the cornerstone laid in the U.S. Capitol on September 18, 1793. Reflections on brother Masons who ought not be forgotten.

Plus, there are the regular attractions. President Jim Dillman tells us about the upcoming Quarry Project in Indianapolis. In “Book Reviews,” we have six titles of Masonic and related importance, including Frances Timbers’ Magic and Masculinity: Ritual Magic and Gender in the Early Modern Era, and Roscoe Pound’s Lectures on the Philosophy of Freemasonry. “News of the Society” informs us of the many successes enjoyed by various members of The Masonic Society as they pursue their labors in various employments throughout the fraternity, plus some other oddities you may not have heard yet. And, under “Conference, Speeches, Symposia & Gatherings,” is a list of educational and cultural events around the nation upcoming in the next few months.

‘Masonic Treasures’ is the regular feature on the back cover of The Journal. This issue treats us to the tracing board artwork of Bro. Jorge Soria of Grapevine Lodge No. 288 in Texas. Such low tech devices were common in the 18th and 19th centuries as aids to imparting lessons in Masonic symbolism and thought, but were replaced by electronic media as generations passed. However, thanks to artists like Soria, lucky lodges again are able to employ graphic crafts to instruct their candidates through the degrees.

And finally, if you wish to advertise your books, regalia, wares, organized events, or other Masonic-friendly goods and services, please contact yours truly here. Our rate card is here.