‘Emulation Ritual’s bicentenary’

    

emulationloi.org

I wanted to get to this last Monday, which was the actual 200th anniversary, but anyway I’ll note the landmark occasion of the start of Emulation Lodge of Improvement on October 2, 1823 thusly.

Emulation is a Masonic ritual under the English Constitution of Freemasonry. The United Grand Lodge of England has no official ritual; there are, if I understand correctly, approximately eighty rituals found in UGLE lodges around the world, but I’m told practically all of them are variations of Emulation.

What is Emulation?

Seal of the Ancients.

I would say Emulation was the ritual component of bringing together the Grand Lodge of England (the “Moderns” of 1717) and the Grand Lodge According to the Old Institutions (the “Ancients” of 1751). There was a lot more that went into the amalgamation of the grand lodges in 1813 than merely who was going to be in charge. Matters of ritual and regalia and a lot more required a meeting of the minds. To discuss the ritual department, I will defer to Brent Morris and Art de Hoyos, who co-wrote the Introduction to The Perfect Ceremonies of Craft Masonry and The Holy Royal Arch, published by the Masonic Book Club in 2021.

The two former rivals had ritual variances and, for the next two years, a Lodge of Reconciliation met to create a new form of ritual acceptable to all. They did not create an ‘authorized ritual’ which was to be enforced throughout the English Constitution, but rather created a satisfactory form of ritual. Lodges would be free to include variations so long as the essentials were included…

In 1823 the Emulation Lodge of Improvement was founded for Master Masons only. Several of its members had belonged to the Burlington and the Perseverance Lodges of Instruction. Burlington began working in 1810 under the Moderns Grand Lodge, while Perseverance started in 1818 under the United Grand Lodge. As Colin Dyer noted, ‘Among the Founders [of Emulation Lodge] were some who were very able ritualists and who had a great deal of experience and expertise in the working of the new forms according to the Grand Stewards’ Lodge system.’ The founders were almost equally split in membership among the former rival grand lodges.

Peter W. Gilkes

Peter William Gilkes (1765-1833) joined Emulation Lodge of Improvement in 1825. He was initiated at age twenty-one in British Lodge No. 4, a Moderns lodge, in 1786, and became a preeminent instructor of Masonic ritual. Although not a member of the Lodge of Reconciliation, he visited it about ten times. He was known for his strict adherence to verbal accuracy, which is still a characteristic of lodges using Emulation working. It is not known precisely when the lodge adopted its particular working, beyond the lectures, but we can narrow it down to a five-year period. In 1830 the lodge sent a petition, or “Memorial,” to the Grand Master, the Duke of Sussex, requesting a special warrant to continue its practice, and sometime between then [and] about 1835, it formalized its ritual working. The earliest notice of the Emulation working appeared in an article in The Freemasons Quarterly Review (1836):

About the year, 1823, several Brethren considered that the Masonic lectures were not worked in the Lodges upon a sufficiently regulated system, and that if those whose attainments as working Masons placed them as a prominent authority, were to meet together and to work efficiently, they might be the means of effecting much improvement. They accordingly met, we believe in Wardour Street, pursuant to a general notice in the public papers, which advertisement created a considerable sensation in the Craft. Some members of the Grand Stewards’ Lodge, hitherto the only authority for a recognized system, felt that it was necessary to watch the proceedings. Some Grand Officers, with Brother E. Harper, the Grand Secretary, also attended. The several chairs from the Master to the Outer Guard were all filled with the most practical and experienced Masons of the day; and we have the authority of a Grand Officer for stating,  that never was there so perfect an illustration of the ceremonies and lectures ever before manifested. The visitors separated, highly delighted; and among them, the lamented Peter Gilkes, who so highly approved of the proceedings, that, in about twelve months afterwards, he joined the Lodge, and supported it until the time of his death.

 

It was likely in 1836 that the first version of an “Emulation ritual” was printed, appearing under the title, The Whole of the Lodge Ceremonies, and Lectures in Craft Masonry; as taught by the late P. Gilkes. Although an imprint was absent from the publication, the printer may have been George Claret (1783-1850), a well-known ritualist and acquaintance of Gilkes. This work was the first post-Union plain text English ritual, printed as a fraternal aide-mémoire rather than as a public exposé.

I’m starting to ramble, but let me close with a few words from my copy of Emulation, a well used second edition from 1970 that I bought ages ago from Yasha.

The Emulation ritual MM tracing board from Lewis Masonic’s 1970 edition.

Emulation Working takes its name from the Emulation Lodge of Improvement whose committee are the custodians of this particular ritual.... The Emulation Lodge of Improvement for Master Masons first met on 2nd October 1823. The Lodge was formed for Master Masons only, and worked, in its earliest years, only the Masonic lectures. However by about 1830 in accordance with general practice the ceremonies were also being rehearsed—always with considerable attention to accuracy, so that no alteration might inadvertently become practice. The Lodge of Improvement has met uninterruptedly since those days, so soon after the settling of the ceremonies by Grand Lodge in 1816, for the purpose of demonstrating unchanged, so far as has been humanly possible, the Emulation Ritual in accordance with the original method. Since June 1965 the variations permitted by the Grand Lodge Resolution of December 1964, with consequential amendments, have also been periodically demonstrated.

None of this has anything to do with ritual in lodges in the United States. Our practices commenced in the 1700s and evolved on their own paths into what we have today, with all their differences from state to state. Emulation is perfectly comprehensible to the American eye and ear; the biggest difference, I’d say, is the absence of our Enlightenment-era Prestonian lectures. And they have Working Tools that we do not.

If I’m not mistaken, Emulation can be found in America, in certain lodges that adhere to either the Observant or European Concept models. I think Vitruvian 767 in Indianapolis works it. Many years ago, when Marco became Master of St. John’s 1 in Manhattan, he was installed by a Board of Installed Masters of the Emulation style. Needed dispensation for that.

One of many Emulation books.

Emulation Lodge of Improvement still exists and, in fact, hosted an anniversary celebration Friday night. (I tried to join its private Facebook group last week, but couldn’t pass the test questions!) If you are interested, you can purchase ritual books from Lewis Masonic here.

     

‘Masonry disrupted’

    

MBC photo

Frontispiece and title page, autographed by Arturo de Hoyos and S. Brent Morris, are ready to go. That’s Harry Carr, as rendered by Travis Simpkins, at left. Carr edited the MBC’s first imprint of Masonry Dissected in the 1970s, and his commentary is updated for this edition.

Masonry Dissected, the 1730 English ritual exposure to be published anew this month by the Masonic Book Club, is delayed, according to an email sent today to us subscribers.

Shortages of both white paper and colored binding materials are disruptive enough, but a ransomware attack on the printing company delayed the job. If you’ve been waiting with anticipation, you may remember yesterday would have been the shipping date but, as Brent Morris explained in today’s email newsletter, the printer now says July 19 sometime in August.

“We haven’t yet decided on the 2023 volume because we want to see the costs of paper, ink, and other materials,” he also said. “As a point of reference, the manufacturing costs today for [last year’s book] are about 70 percent higher than they were in 2021!”

And so it goes.

Click here for some background.

      

‘This mighty Secret’

    

The Masonic Book Club announced today how its second offering to subscribers will be Masonry Dissected, that early ritual exposure from 1730 that gives us the first evidence of a Master’s Degree.

To recap: The MBC is no longer organized for dues-paying members, but instead now publishes books in limited runs predicated on advance sales. Pre-paid orders, at $30 per copy, are being accepted now through February 28. We can expect to receive our books in the mail in June. Those who decline to purchase in advance are to be pitied, and therefore will have a slight chance of obtaining the book at $40 a copy. Don’t be one of those guys.

Samuel Prichard is unknown to history save for the publication of this book, the full title of which is:

Masonry Dissected; being a Universal and Genuine Description Of all its Branches from the Original to this Present Time. As it is deliver’d in the Constituted, Regular Lodges, Both in the City and Country, According to the Several Degrees of Admission; Giving an Impartial Account of their Regular Proceedings in Initiating their New Members in the whole Three Degrees of Masonry, viz. I. Entered ’Prentice; II. Fellow Craft; III. Master. To which is added, The Author’s Vindication of himself. By Samuel Prichard, late member of a Constituted Lodge. London; Printed for J. Wilford, at the Three Flower-de-Luces behind the Chapter-house near St. Paul’s. 1730 (price 6 d).

And that vindication?

If all the Impositions that have appear’d amongst Mankind, none are so ridiculous as the Mystery of Masonry, which has amus’d the World, and caused various Constructions and these Pretences of Secrecy, invalid, has (tho’ not perfectly) been revealed, and the grand Article, viz. the Obligation, has several Times been printed in the Publick Papers, but is entirely genuine in the Daily Journal of Saturday, Aug. 22, 1730, which agrees in its Veracity with that deliver’d in this Pamphlet; and consequently when the Obligation of Secrecy is abrogated, the aforesaid Secret becomes of no Effect, and must be quite extinct; for some Operative Masons (but according to the polite way of Expression, Accepted Masons) made a Visitation from the first and oldest constituted Lodge (according to the Lodge Book in London) to a noted Lodge in this City, and was denied Admittance, because their old Lodge was removed to another House, which, tho’ contradictory to this great Mystery, requires another Constitution, at no less Expense than two Guineas, with an elegant Entertainment, under the Denomination of being put to Charitable uses, which if justly applied, will give great Encomiums to so worthy an Undertaking, but it is very much doubted, and most remarkable to think it will be expended towards the forming another System of Masonry, the old Fabric being so ruinous, that unless repair’d by some occult Mystery, will soon be annihilated.

I was induced to publish this mighty Secret for the public Good at the Request of several Masons, and it will, I hope, give entire Satisfaction, and have its desired Effect in preventing so many credulous Persons being drawn into so pernicious a Society.

Cazart! That guy needed an editor. We today are lucky to have Brent Morris and Arturo de Hoyos, who are reprinting the MBC’s earlier imprint of Masonry Dissected, and augmenting Harry Carr’s commentary.

I’ve always wondered somewhat if the author truly intended to harm the Craft, because what actually happened was our ancient brethren were able to obtain a ritual book for use as a guide. Grand lodges wouldn’t publish such books officially for about another 200 years, so I figure it’s possible that Prichard deserves some credit for promulgating and proliferating the Third Degree. In addition to being reprinted twenty-one times up to 1787, Masonry Dissected also was translated into Dutch, French, and German in the 1730s, when Freemasonry took root across Europe. Unintended consequences? Coincidences? I wonder.

     

‘Possible MBC offerings’

      

You’re all subscribers of the Masonic Book Club, yes?

Well, if you aren’t, you will want to remedy that to avail yourselves of the rare titles the MBC is considering for publication.

Last month, the vast support staff at the MBC polled its subscribers—“and I think we all know how painful that can be”—to assess our interest in these seven books. You’ve read a few; you’ve heard of some; you don’t know others. From the survey:

The Arcane Schools by John Yarker was published in 1909 and is a survey of initiatory practices and connections worldwide which may share a relationship to Masonry and esoteric societies. The book is similar to Frazer’s The Golden Bough in some regards, and contains much interesting (as well as highly speculative) material.

The Book M or Masonry Triumphant was first published in 1736 and has never been reprinted. This rare work contains early versions of Masonic history, lectures, charges, and songs. The title may allude to Rosicrucian themes, and has an esoteric bent.

Burlesque Degrees were popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These are parodies of fraternal initiations intended to be performed for the amusement of members, families, and friends. This collection would feature the more popular such scripts.

The Meaning of Masonry and Masonic Initiation by W.L. Wilmshurst are two of the most popular esoteric Masonic books. Wilmshurst’s works explore deeper esoteric aspects of the rituals, and how they relate to practical Masonic work for the member.

Reprints by the Leicestershire Lodge of Research No. 2429 were published from 1907 to 1929. They were much like MBC volumes, reproducing significant Masonic documents (usually pamphlets) with commentaries. The collection is very scarce and valuable.

The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry by Arthur Edward Waite was first published in 1911. The expanded and revised 1937 edition was so much improved that he considered it a new text. It traces esoteric themes within the degrees and rites.

Three Distinct Knocks and Jachin and Boaz, with commentary. After Masonry Dissected was published in 1730, there was almost a 30-year gap before new exposures like these appeared in England and showed how the ritual had evolved. These purported to reveal the rituals of the Antients and Moderns.

I want ’em all, but we were asked to rank them in preference, so we’ll see how it shakes out.

Join the Masonic Book Club today and cast your vote!

     

‘Masonry Dissected is MBC’s next’

    

Courtesy MBC

The recently relaunched Masonic Book Club notified its members Wednesday how its next offering will be Masonry Dissected, the seminal ritual exposure that informs historians of the earliest available form of the Master Mason Degree.

So, yes, you’ll want to make certain you have this. The MBC did print this title back in the seventies, but this edition will augment that classic text (with Harry Carr’s commentary) with new thoughts from Brent Morris and Arturo de Hoyos. MBC members will get the memo when it’s time to place orders.

Masonry Dissected burst onto the London Masonic scene in 1730, and was reprinted and reproduced multiple times around England in just a couple of weeks. Whether it was intended to be an aid to the memory for the brethren’s benefit or a malicious betrayal of secrets, I don’t know. What I can promise you is you’ll be amazed by both the form of Masonic ritual in the early eighteenth century and by how much you’ll recognize from what your lodge does today.

     

‘MBC’s first offering announced’

     

The newly reestablished Masonic Book Club’s first title is a in production. The Perfect Ceremonies of Craft Masonry and the Holy Royal Arch are “the lineal ancestors of the official Emulation ritual and lectures,” according to the MBC’s announcement.

Per the stated conditions, the presses will roll only if the sufficient number of copies are sold in advance, and you have until January 21 to place your order (I was the tenth to do so). The cost of this 392-page volume is only $25. Click here.

With its publicity today, the MBC provided a PDF sample of the book that includes seven pages of the 21-page Introduction, and several pages of lodge Opening ritual. This will be a beautiful book, replete with marbled covers, decorated pages, and a satin ribbon—so you won’t have to dog-ear the pages like a savage. A step above the SRRS’s laudable Heredom, which is not an unattractive book.

If Perfect Ceremonies goes to press, it will ship at the end of March; if not, buyers will receive their refunds at the end of January. So order today! I want to see if the lectures are Preston’s or Hemming’s.

     

'Masonic Book Club is back!'

     
Art de Hoyos just shared this on Faceybook:

The Masonic Book Club (MBC)was formed in 1970 by two Illinois Masons, Alphonse Cerza and Louis Williams. The MBC primarily reprinted out-of-print Masonic books with a scholarly introduction; occasionally they would print original texts. (See “Past Publications” tab.) After some 40 years of service to the Craft, the directors in 2010 decided to dissolve the MBC. The club originally was limited to 333 members, but the number eventually expanded to nearly 2,000, with 1,083 members when it dissolved in 2010.

In 2017 MW Barry Weer, 33°, the last president of the MBC, transferred the MBC name and assets to the Supreme Council, 33°, SJ USA. The revived Masonic Book Club has the goals of publishing classic Masonic books and of supporting Scottish Rite SJ USA Philanthropies. Membership is open to anyone 18 years or older who is interested in the history of Freemasonry and allows you to purchase MBC editions at a pre-publication discount.

The new MBC will have a different business model than the old. Most significantly, there will be no dues; being a member entitles you to purchase books at a pre-publication discount. Check out the FAQ section below for more details. For specific questions, write to mbc@scottishrite.org.

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