‘Researchers to visit North Carolina’

    

Civil War Lodge of Research 1865 will meet this month, taking it on the road to North Carolina. The lodge, now in its twenty-eighth year, is chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia AF&AM, but it has dispensation to travel outside the Commonwealth in its pursuit of historical facts concerning the U.S. Civil War, especially where Freemasonry’s history intersects.

Bingham 272

On Saturday, April 13, the lodge will meet at Bingham Lodge 272 in Mebane, North Carolina. Worshipful Master John Butler chose the location for its proximity to Bennett Place, a short drive east to Durham. It was there where the Confederate commander, Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, and U.S. Gen. William T. Sherman met in a little farmhouse and negotiated surrender terms in April 1865, coming to an agreement on April 26. (The U.S. Civil War did not conclude with one single surrender of Lee to Grant. Commanders in four different theaters about the country negotiated surrenders eventually disbanding the Confederate States Army.)

It’s a little too far for me, so I’ll miss this one, but the lodge has a solid weekend plan including Friday night dinner in Burlington; the lodge meeting, followed by lunch on Saturday; the visit to Bennett Place afterward; and a Saturday night dinner yet to be worked out. This edition of The Magpie Mason is intended to encourage Masons in the area to attend the meeting and other stops. Bingham Lodge 272 meets at 309 East Center Street in Mebane. If I’m not mistaken, North Carolina Lodge of Research is no longer at labor, but there is the North Carolina Masonic Research Society, and hopefully they’ll get the word and come to our meeting.

Coincidentally, that weekend will be the anniversary of the attack on Fort Sumter.

I’ll be with the lodge again on July 13 when we’ll meet in Delaware.

     

‘A Digital Evening with Mitch Horowitz’

     

And, speaking of Manly P. Hall (see post below), the North Carolina Masonic Research Society plans “A Digital Evening with Mitch Horowitz” for next month. From the publicity:

Manly P. Hall

and The Secret Teachings

of All Ages

A Digital Evening

with Mitch Horowitz

Tuesday, August 11

8 p.m. (Eastern)

Tickets here

One of the most extraordinary works ever written on the esoteric mysteries of the ancient world came from a young man who was himself a riddle: Manly P. Hall.

The self-taught occult scholar had few visible signs of education following a lonely childhood in Canada and the American West during the early 20th century, yet in 1928, at age 27, Hall produced a monumental record of the hidden symbols and most carefully shrouded belief systems across human history. He called it The Secret Teachings of All Ages.

In this special digital evening, occult scholar Mitch Horowitz (“Solid Gold” - David Lynch) probes the most significant teachings of Hall’s mysterious masterpiece—and considers the life of the unusual man who produced it. Topics include:

• The mystery of how Manly P. Hall created such an epic work with no apparent schooling at a remarkably young age.
• Hall’s surprising influence on figures ranging from actor Bela Lugosi to President Ronald Reagan (who actually quoted from Hall in speeches).
• The controversial circumstances surrounding Hall’s death in 1990, and the lessons that can be found–both cautionary and inspiring–in the life of an esoteric master.
• The enduring value The Secret Teachings of All Ages, a book so unsurpassed in probing the inner workings of the world that it leaves no reader unchanged who approaches it.

Mitch also previews his forthcoming book, The Seeker’s Guide to the Secret Teachings of All Ages (coming in October) and takes your live questions. Do not miss this vibrant and revealing evening. (The presentation will not be live-streamed via Facebook.)

Mitch Horowitz is a historian of alternative spirituality, and is one of today’s most literate voices of esoterica, mysticism, and the occult.

Mitch illuminates outsider history, explains its relevance to contemporary life, and reveals the longstanding quest to bring empowerment and agency to the human condition.

He is widely credited with returning the term “New Age” to respectable use, and is among the few occult writers whose work touches the bases of academic scholarship, national journalism, and subculture cred.

Mitch is a 2020 writer-in-residence at the New York Public Library, lecturer-in-residence at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, and the PEN Award-winning author of books including Occult America, One Simple Idea: How Positive Thinking Reshaped Modern Life, and The Miracle Club.

He has discussed alternative spirituality on CBS Sunday Morning, Dateline NBC, Vox/Netflix’s Explained, and AMC Shudder’s Cursed Films, an official selection of SXSW 2020. Mitch is collaborating with director Ronni Thomas (Tribeca Film Festival) on a feature documentary about the occult classic The Kybalion, shot on location in Egypt and releasing in Fall 2020.

Mitch received the 2019 Walden Award for Interfaith/Intercultural Understanding. The Chinese government has censored his work.