‘Mozart at Mount Moriah’

    

Mt. Moriah Lodge 20, here in the city (not to be confused with Mt. Moriah 145 upstate), has a music education program planned for next week, the first in a series of events. From the publicity:

Join us as Mount Moriah Lodge 20 begins its first presentation in its Pioneering in Masonry series.

This discussion is titled “Mozart and the Craft: A Journey from Darkness to Light.” Lodge Chaplain Gary Leavitt will present and moderate.

We hope you’ll join us. Master Masons only. Future offerings will be curated for all Masons. RSVP here.

     

‘Robert H. Jackson birthday’

Robert H. Jackson receives the jewel of the 33°, 1941.

    

Happy anniversary to Justice Robert H. Jackson Lodge of Study and Research, set to labor on this date thirty years ago.

There are four research lodges here in New York State, two of which are active year round, but two that are kind of mysterious. The ALR and Western New York Lodge of Research are the busy ones, but Justice Jackson is one of the others. Its meeting place is Mount Moriah Lodge 145 way up in Jamestown.

In his book Masonic Research Lodges, Bodies, and Societies, Ken Stuczynski writes: “The lodge has between 50 and 60 members, with annual dues of $15. There are no corresponding or honorary members.”

The lodge meets “a few times a year,” including its annual meeting on the second Friday in May, and a festive board every year for George Washington’s birthday, he adds.

Robert Houghwout Jackson (1892-1954) was an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court when he died at age 62, having advanced  through prominent federal positions during the administrations of President Franklin Roosevelt, including stints as Solicitor General followed by Attorney General of the United States. After the Second World War, President Harry Truman sent him to Nuremberg to serve as Chief U.S. Prosecutor at the International Military Tribunal.

In Freemasonry, he was at labor in Mt. Moriah 145, having been raised in 1929. Scottish Rite in New York sparingly awards its Illustrious Robert H. Jackson, 33° Award for Community Service, an honor it devised in 2004.

There is a lot more to his life story. He certainly is one of those figures in Masonic history who illustrates how little you’ve accomplished in life. I wish his namesake research lodge was more functional.

     

‘Martinism and its spiritual relationship to Freemasonry’

     
While it wouldn’t have been my first guess at a topic of the keynote speaker at a Masonic festive board, I nevertheless urge you to come hear Piers Vaughan discuss Martinism in a couple of weeks. From the publicity:

Continental Lodge 287 and

Mount Moriah Lodge 20’s

Festive Board

Wednesday, January 3 at 8 p.m.

Masonic Hall, Jacobean Room

71 West 23rd Street, Manhattan

The festive board also will be the official launch of Vaughan’s new book, his translation of Elementary Treatise on Practical Magic (1893) by Papus. Piers’ translation of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin’s Of Errors & Truth (1775) will be available for sale too.

“We will explore the Masonic roots of the founders of the gnostic, magical, and mystical currents which gave rise to the extraordinary outpouring of Masonic ritual of the late 18th century in France, and how this current was taken up again at the end of the 19th century by a new generation of seekers of light, during that extraordinary period which saw the rise of the Golden Dawn, Spiritualism, the Gnostic Church, and Theosophy, alongside rapid developments in science, and how those pioneers attempted to reconcile the two streams,” Piers says on social media.

Admission costs only $35 per person, so RSVP to W. Rafael Preza here. Photo ID is required to enter Masonic Hall.
     

‘Justice Robert H. Jackson Lodge of Research’

    
Justice Robert H. Jackson Lodge of Research will meet Thursday at Mount Moriah Lodge near Jamestown, New York for its fall meeting, including the election of officers. Lodge opens at 6 p.m.

Jamestown is much closer to Cleveland, Ohio than it is to Manhattan, so the Magpie Mason will have to miss this meeting. Mount Moriah Lodge is located on the Baker Street Extension just outside of Jamestown. The brethren meet three times per year, in spring, fall, and winter, in various locations about the district, says Worshipful Master John Siggins. The lodge publishes its papers also.

On Thursday, Bro. Tom Jordan, of Sylvan Lodge and a Professor of Geology at Duquesne University and the University of Buffalo, will present a program of Masonic interest. To make your reservations, contact W. Siggins at hondo(at)stny.rr.com Dinner will be served, and the brethren are encouraged to bring other Masons with them.