‘Museum to honor Masons’

    

Despite this blog having zero visitors from South Carolina, let me tell you about an interesting event coming later this month in Charleston, where the International African American Museum will salute the local Prince Hall Grand Lodge.

From December 14 to 17, the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of South Carolina will convene its 155th Annual Session in Charleston, and on Sunday the 17th, the IAAM will welcome the brethren for a day devoted to them. There will be a 10 a.m. church service at Mother Emanuel AME Church (110 Calhoun Street) from which there will be a parade at 12:30 to the museum. (The parade will turn right onto Concord Street, then left onto Inspection Street, then right onto Wharfside Street, ending at the museum at 14 Wharfside.)

From the publicity:

Since 1868, the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of South Carolina Free and Accepted Masons has been actively involved in making a difference in the community through faith-based, economic, and political engagement. Their work has focused on improving conditions for African-Americans, helping them build their own churches, schools, and businesses. The Masons have funded various social justice campaigns from the 1940s throughout the Civil Rights era. Under the leadership of the Most Worshipful Grand Master Victor C. Major, the group is working with the theme “Bridging the Gap of the Past, with an Eye on our Future, while Protecting our Brand.”

“Charleston is the home of the first five Masonic lodges established in South Carolina. One of the earliest known Masonic lodges began with African-American military men during the Civil War on Morris Island here. We are honored to recognize the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of South Carolina and its work promoting fellowship, charity, and personal development in the state,” said Dr. Aurelio Givens, IAAM Faith Based Engagement and Education Manager.

I haven’t been able to learn what the IAAM has planned for the occasion, but it is scheduled to end at two o’clock, so maybe there’ll be a reception, some brief speeches, and refreshments in the West Yard of the African Ancestors Memorial Garden. I am not seeing anything on a possible exhibit on Freemasonry. (And you can’t get a human being on the phone.)

I wish the brethren a productive and harmonious Annual Session, a nourishing church service, and favorable weather for the procession to the museum.

     

‘NYC mayor is a Mason now’

    

The worst mayor the City of New York has suffered in living memory was made a Mason at sight by the Prince Hall Grand Lodge during the weekend, the New York Post reported last night.

The Post isn’t saying he’s the worst mayor—at least not in this reportage. I’m saying it because you have to reach back to the 1920s administration of Jimmy Walker to review the performance of a mayor as oblivious to the welfare of his constituents, and as corrupt. 

Mayor Eric Adams took a little time off from destroying America’s former greatest city to be made a Mason by the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of New York at the mayoral residence. That’s the legit grand lodge, the one up on 155th Street. Police Commissioner Ed Caban and NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey also were inducted or something.

“Kevin Wardally, the head of the NYPD’s office of intergovernmental affairs, is one of the lodge’s officers, a grand junior warden,” the Post says.

Read all about it here.

     

‘Art exhibit highlights PHA Masons’

    

MMCA photo

An art exhibition in Wisconsin highlights the presence of Prince Hall Freemasons there.

“Dark Matter” by Faisal Abdu’Allah, features larger than life-size portraits, on tapestries, of local Masons in a collection named “Prince Hall” that is on display at Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

“I began to understand and see the presence of Prince Hall in just Madison alone, and the level of purpose and how they are changing the community through various acts of generosity,” Abdu’Allah told Wisconsin State Journal for a story published last Monday. “I would hope people see past the form of representations of what we see—these men with aprons and gloves and hats, and what we assume the Masons to be—and see it more as a chapter in excellence and generosity.”

The portraits show six brethren of Capitol City Lodge 2 attired in their Craft Masonry regalia in images that began as photographs which then were printed on the fabric.

A lecture on the history of PHA Freemasonry in Wisconsin was presented by W. Bro. Alan Chancellor at the museum on January 19.

“Dark Matter” is scheduled to close on April 2.

     

‘The ALR: a new understanding of familiar history’

    

Bill, Conor, and Oscar.

The American Lodge of Research met Tuesday night to hear a brilliant presentation and to tend to necessary business.

It was RW Bro. Oscar Alleyne, President of the Masonic Society, who did us the service of introducing to the lodge one John Batt, a soldier who served on both sides in the American War of Independence and who Oscar reveals to have played a remarkable part in the birth of what today is called Prince Hall Masonry.

Batt was a British soldier in North America in the 1770s, being deployed in Boston, Halifax, and Staten Island, as the fortunes of his regiment fluctuated. Oscar delved into British and American military records to illustrate Batt’s hopscotching from one side to the other and back again (I suspect he returned to the British lines upon realizing he wasn’t gonna get paid squat in the Continental Army), and plumbed the archives of Prince Hall Masonry to reveal how—are you sitting down?—it was Batt who initiated the free men of color in Boston who later would organize African Lodge.

As you know, the commonly understood history of the initiations of Bro. Prince Hall and his fourteen companions involves Lodge 441, a traveling military lodge of 38th British Foot Infantry. But wait, there’s more! Oscar shows it was Batt himself who, in accordance with the contemporary custom of degrees for fees, made those men Masons.

I don’t think it’s necessary to be too much of a Masonic history nerd to get excited over such a discovery. This is precisely the sort of thing that compels us to support Masonic research. The brethren’s applause and thanks followed the Q&A.

Next, it was time to elect new members of The ALR, and five Corresponding Members and two Active Members (including Leif from QC2076) were voted in with appreciation.

Being June, it came time to reorganize the officer line. There were a few excused absences, so we’ll install our secretary and senior warden later, but Conor is continuing for another year in the East. (I don’t want to embarrass him, but the truth is he’s a godsend during this encouraging time of rebuilding the lodge.) Dave remains at the treasurer’s desk. Michael is our new junior deacon; Yves moves on to senior deacon. I am now observing the sun at meridian, just in time for tanning season.

MW Bill Sardone honored us as our installing master, with the assistance of RW Oscar as installing marshal.

The new apron for the senior deacon of the lodge.

Conor procured aprons for us officers. Great stuff from Macoy, and based on the design of ALR regalia from generations ago too.

We will meet again in October.

     

‘Georgia grand lodges to sign treaty’

    

Masonic Messenger

I normally do not report all the successes made in establishing relations between coexisting grand lodges in the United States, but the news of Ralph McNeal’s passing (see post below) practically demands this: The MW Grand Lodge of Georgia and the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Georgia will sign what is being called a “treaty” on April 9.

I don’t know what the terms of the agreement will say. UPDATE: no visitations, nor dual memberships.

And then there will be four—four states where fraternal accords perhaps are still being worked on.

     

‘Ralph McNeal, Jr., R.I.P.’

    

Ralph McNeal, Jr.
1959-2022

Bro. Ralph McNeal, Jr., as forceful a voice as any for integrity in Freemasonry, died yesterday. He was 62.

When I “met” him twenty years ago in Masonic Light and other Yahoo! Groups, Ralph, exhibiting the patience of Job, assisted so many of us who were trying to grasp the myriad intricacies inherent in understanding Prince Hall Affiliation Masonry and the maddening slowness of the larger Masonic populace to meet our PHA brethren on the Level. All of us, particularly those who rose to ranks senior enough to make reforms, are indebted profoundly.

Ralph was a very proud veteran of the U.S. Air Force who was stationed for a time in Italy, and there he was made a Mason in San Vito Lodge 37, a military lodge in PHA Masonry, in 1986. Also proud of his Newark, New Jersey roots, Ralph returned home and continued his Masonic labors. Relocating to Arizona years later, he affiliated with Martin Luther King, Jr. Lodge 29, which got its start in the seventies as a lodge for Air Force servicemen, and was Master there. I don’t doubt Ralph was a treasured Mason in all those localities, but I think it was the Phylaxis Society that allowed him to radiate the Light that benefited brethren within the PHA world and without.

It is an encyclopedic subject that requires a near Talmudic degree of penetration to tell the story, but the bogus “black grand lodges” across the country (there are dozens here in New York City alone) bedevil Prince Hall Affiliation Masons simply by existing. Personally, I think some of these are innocent fraternities just living outside the PHAmily, but of course others are scams or even cults. Regardless, Ralph was head of the Phylaxis Commission on Bogus Masonic Practices when many of us met him in eMasonry all those years ago. He made it his business to abate so many misconceptions about PHA Masonry and all the phonies that I have to believe Ralph deserves much credit for sowing the seeds that blossom today. (In 2001, Phylaxis awarded him its Lewis Medal of Excellence.)

When he was made a Mason in 1986, zero “mainstream” grand lodges had fraternal recognition of their Prince Hall neighbors; now, all but five of those jurisdictions have varying forms of relations with our PHA brethren—and I believe progress will be realized in the final five states sooner than later. (UPDATE: 1/23/22–I’ve just been informed the Georgia grand lodges will sign an agreement on April 9.) It’s just heartbreaking that Ralph didn’t live to see it happen.

Please remember Ralph’s widow, Shermain, and their sons Ralph, Corey, and Gibran in your devotions.

“Alas, my Brother.”

     

‘Barbados: What is the future of Freemasonry?’

    

While it has been 370 years since Barbados first attempted to cleave itself from England, the final act of attaining independence will take effect next Tuesday, when the people of the Caribbean’s most densely populated island will declare a republic. And the country’s first head of state is to be a Mason—President Sandra Mason, that is.

It is said the island, now home to more than 300,000 people, was uninhabited when English settlers landed in 1627. Africans were enslaved for the torturous labors of sugarcane farming, catapulting the colony to prominence as the mother country’s primary source of the crop. That economic importance ended within a century, when Jamaica and other islands eclipsed its production, although sugar, molasses, and rum remained the basis of the Barbadian economy until recent decades. The economy is diversified today, as tourism and light industry, including energy, contribute to making Barbados the wealthiest nation in the Eastern Caribbean. While the flame of freedom was lit in 1651, when an opportune gambit for autonomy was attempted during the political perplexity following the English Civil War, it was snuffed promptly, as were subsequent rebellions. It wasn’t until November 30, 1966 that Barbados declared itself free—that date is Independence Day—and it joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the global network of countries mostly of former British colonies. On November 30, 2021, Barbados will become a republic. Governor General Sandra Mason will become president.

So what about Freemasonry?

One of the Barbadian national symbols is the trident, so perhaps it is fitting how there are three mainstream Masonic fraternities present on the island today.

The United Grand Lodge of England has five Craft lodges and one research lodge at labor there, organized within its District Grand Lodge of Barbados and Eastern Caribbean.

The Grand Lodge of Scotland has six lodges in its District Grand Lodge of Barbados.

And, of course, Prince Hall Affiliation Freemasonry is active there (the capital city, Bridgetown, is thought to be the birthplace of Bro. Prince Hall himself), with five lodges constituent to the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of the Caribbean and Jurisdiction.

Additionally, England and Scotland each has three Royal Arch chapters.

That’s a lot for an island of 166 square miles!

So, finally getting to the point of this edition of The Magpie Mason, what shall be the future of Freemasonry on the island once known as Little England when it at last blooms into sovereign nationhood? I don’t know. How should I know? What I do know is that I don’t know anyone down there, and I definitely know (from experience) better than to waste time sending queries to the grand lodges. But could a “Grand Lodge of Barbados” have potential?

Why not?

The island has a homogeneous, literate, and young populace in a society with ingrained democratic traditions. I envision a grand lodge seal incorporating that trident within the embrace of the Square and Compasses.

Then again, these three Masonic traditions are not strangers to maintaining lodges inside sovereign lands. For examples: Prince Hall lodges meet in countries where the United States deploys troops. Scotland has eleven lodges at labor in its District Grand Lodge of Lebanon. And the English? They have two lodges meeting on St. Thomas—United States territory!—in that same District Grand Lodge of Barbados and Eastern Caribbean.

Time will tell.

     

‘History in Tennessee’

     

Courtesy Amazon

A new chapter in the history of Freemasonry in Tennessee was started today when the voting members of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee agreed it is time to extend the fraternal hand to their neighbors of the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge.

The two have coexisted since 1870. Details, like visitation, are not yet settled.

Congratulations everybody!

There remain six U.S. grand lodges that have yet to establish relations with Prince Hall Masonry.

Many thanks to Oscar for spreading the good news.

     

‘Grant dollars to benefit grand lodge historic building’

     

The headquarters of the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Georgia will be the beneficiary of grant funds to assist with renovations of the historic building.

The City of Atlanta is contributing $1.5 million, raised through a segment of property taxes allocated to help non-profit organizations. Additional funds are expected from other sources. The work is expected to be completed in August.

“The Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Georgia is excited to have the City of Atlanta’s support as we restore our historic home on Auburn Avenue,” said MW Corey D. Shackleford, Sr., Grand Master on the grand lodge website. “We look forward to doing our part to sustain the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., while educating the world about the vibrant, economically progressive Black community where he was born and raised.”

The result is expected to be a preserved 330 Auburn Avenue NE, where the brethren will continue to meet on the top floor, with various retail and other commercial tenants occupying the ground floor and second story.

The National Park Service will lease the basement and first floor areas to provide educational exhibits devoted to King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Read more about the building and its great significance here. Read more about the project here.

     

‘Congress as a Prince Hall research resource’

     

Of course the Library of Congress is a galaxy of opportunity for researchers pursuing any subject, including Freemasonry, but I want to share this note received Monday afternoon by the Masonic Library and Museum Association:

Good morning members of the Masonic Library and Museum Association. I wish to share the link to a LibGuide on Prince Hall Freemasonry:

Prince Hall Freemasonry: A Resource Guide

The Library of Congress’ collections contain a variety of material associated with Prince Hall Freemasonry, the oldest recognized and continuously active organization founded in 1775 by African-Americans, including manuscripts, photographs, and books.
Please note that these are selected resources, and the guide will be updated early next year. (We did not include items where the bibliographic record indicated “missing” or “being processed.” I would be most grateful if you would share with the members of the Masonic Library and Museum Association. Also, if members’ collections contain any manuscripts/collections relevant to Prince Hall Freemasonry, would you please let me know?

Thank you, and my warmest regards. Please remain safe and healthy.

Sibyl E. Moses, Ph.D.
Reference Specialist and Recommending Officer
(African American History and Culture)
Main Reading Room
Researcher and Reference Services Division
Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave. SE
Washington, DC 20540-4660
202-707-0940
     

‘Library lecture: Prince Hall and African Lodge’

     
Coverage of last weekend’s Masonic Society Conference in Kentucky is still to come, but here is some news from Masonic Hall concerning a lecture in a few weeks. From the publicity:

Prince Hall and African Lodge 459

Presented by Jo-Ann Wong

Thursday, September 28 at 6:30

Livingston Masonic Library

Masonic Hall, 14th Floor

71 West 23rd Street

Manhattan

Prince Hall

Jo-Ann Wong, Librarian of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, will present a lecture focused on the treasures of the Library’s Books and Artifacts Collection related to Prince Hall and the beginnings of African Lodge 459. Materials include a 1792 pamphlet containing a “charge” that Prince Hall led in Massachusetts, a facsimile of the charter for African Lodge, and related archival material.

Jo-Ann Wong received her Master’s Degree in Information and Library Science, with certification in Archives, from Pratt Institute. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in English Literature, with a minor in Mathematics, from SUNY Geneseo. She has worked in New York Public Library’s Map Division and Gagosian Gallery. Now, she is responsible for supervising the library sector of this institution and for maintaining its bibliographic and archival material for future preservation and access.

Make your reservation here. Photo ID is required to enter Masonic Hall. White wine will be served.
     

‘Consolidated lectures this fall’

     

Courtesy Consolidated 31

Consolidated Lodge 31, of the First Manhattan District, has two star guest lecturers coming in the fall to help the brethren make their advancement in Masonic knowledge.

On Friday, October 20, RW Curtis Alan Banks will take to the lectern to present “Whence Came You?” specially for the lodge’s Youngest Entered Apprentices. Bro. Banks hails from historic Allied Lodge 1170, and he is soon to become the M.I. Grand Master of the Cryptic Rite in New York.

On Friday, November 17, the one, the only RW Rashied Bey of Cornerstone Lodge 37, of the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of New York, will deliver a lecture on the history of Prince Hall Freemasonry.

In addition, on Friday, September 15, RW Moises Gomez, of Atlas-Pythagoras Lodge 10 in New Jersey, will present his highly sought talk on his experiences during the events of September 11, 2001. “Remembrance: My 9/11 Experience” recounts Gomez’s labors as a Port Authority Emergency Service Unit sergeant on the day our world changed forever.

Masonic Hall is located at 71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan. Photo ID is required to enter the building. Be prepared to work your way into a Masonic lodge.
     

‘African-American Freemasons and the Problem of Democracy in the Modern World’

     
I don’t know what they eat for breakfast at Boston University Lodge, but here is another stellar event for the thinking Mason next Monday, right after this weekend. And admission is free. From the publicity:

Boston University Lodge is proud to sponsor its annual Lecture on Fraternalism. The Lecture will be delivered by Dean Corey Walker, of Winston-Salem State University, who will speak on “The Sovereignty of the Imagination: African-American Freemasons and the Problem of Democracy in the Modern World.”

The Lecture will be in KCB-101 (Kenmore Classroom Building), 565 Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, and will begin at 8 p.m.
     

‘Prince Hall MLK Day program’

     

‘Check out the Pennsylvania Academy in October’

     
The Pennsylvania Academy of Masonic Knowledge has announced the line-up of speakers for its October session. From the publicity:

Pennsylvania Academy

of Masonic Knowledge

Presents

Heather Calloway

Christopher Murphy

John Hairston

Saturday, October 15

Freemasons Cultural Center

Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania

Check back for topic information and biographies, coming soon!

The next session of the Academy of Masonic Knowledge will be held October 15, 2016, in the Deike Auditorium of the Freemasons Cultural Center on the campus of the Masonic Village in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. Registration will open at 8:30 a.m. with the program beginning at 9:30 a.m. A lunch (requested contribution of $10) will be served at noon, and the program will be completed by 3 p.m. All Masons are welcome to attend. Dress is coat and tie.

Pre-registration is required.

To pre-register, please send your name, address, Lodge name and number, and telephone here.

Please recognize that a cost is incurred to the program for your registration. If you pre-register and subsequently determine that you will be unable to attend, please have the Masonic courtesy to cancel your reservation by the same method and providing the same information.


As noted above, the Academy will follow-up with the speakers’ bios and topics, but in the meantime, I can explain the little that I know.

Heather Calloway

Heather Calloway is Archivist & Special Collections Librarian and an Assistant Professor at George Washington College in Maryland. Her connection to Freemasonry runs deep, as she served the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction) as Director of Programming, as the Museum Curator, and as the Digital Media Director at the House of the Temple in Washington, DC. Freemasonry runs in her family as well. You may have heard of Danny Calloway, a Past Grand Master of Masons in New Mexico. Heather is a favorite speaker among those of us who get around to such events. I look forward to hearing her again.

Chris Murphy

Christopher Murphy is the Charter Junior Warden of Fibonacci Lodge 112, the first Observant Lodge chartered by the Grand Lodge of Vermont. He is a full member of Vermont Lodge of Research 110, and is a member of the Philalethes Society. I think I saw somewhere on Facebook that he is to present his paper “The Tavern Myth” at the Academy. He has had this published in The Philalethes, but I do not know what it entails. I am wondering if it complements what Shawn Eyer has been saying for several years, and I am really eager to hear it for myself.

John Hairston

John Hairston is at labor in Harmony Lodge 2 under the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Washington, and is the author of Landmarks of Our Fathers: The Critical Analysis of the Start and Origin of African Lodge No. 1. It’s not just that he wrote a book. This brother wrote a book that cites research that could turn everything we think we know about African Lodge upside down. A compelling thesis I want to hear directly from the writer!

Let me also say it is not necessary to be a Pennsylvania Mason to attend the Academy’s sessions. Just follow the directions for registration and follow the directions on GPS, and you’ll be fine. I’ve been attending on and off for about seven years, and it’s always a great time. I don’t even mind the six-hour, 300-mile roundtrip. It’s that worthwhile.
     

‘The Mystery’

     
The Mystery

I was not; now I am—a few days hence
I shall not be; I fain would look before
And after, but can neither do; some Power
Or lack of power says “no” to all I would.
I stand upon a wide and sunless plain,
Nor chart nor steel to guide my steps aright.
Whene’er, o’ercoming fear, I dare to move,
I grope without direction and by chance.
Some feign to hear a voice and feel a hand
That draws them ever upward thro’ the gloom.
But I—I hear no voice and touch no hand,
Tho’ oft thro’ silence infinite I list,
And strain my hearing to supernal sounds;
Tho’ oft thro’ fateful darkness do I reach,
And stretch my hand to find that other hand.
I question of th’ eternal bending skies
That seem to neighbor with the novice earth;
But they roll on, and daily shut their eyes
On me, as I one day shall do on them,
And tell me not the secret that I ask.

Paul Laurence Dunbar

Paul Laurence Dunbar

I did not know Dunbar (1872-1906) was a Freemason when I decided to share his poem here, but Bro. Google reflects light in all directions, and it turns out not only was Dunbar a brother, but there’s a remarkable story about his initiation and his lodge. In Along this Way: The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson (1933), the author writes of the time he and Dunbar were made Masons. Excerpted:


Paul returned to his home in Washington early in the spring. He always spoke of his stay in Jacksonville in high terms. Before he left, the Negro Masons decided to organize a lodge of young men, and in honor of Paul, name it the Paul Laurence Dunbar Lodge. The lodge was organized, and Paul and twenty-five or thirty more of us were one night initiated and carried through the first three degrees of Masonry. The Negro Masons of that day in Jacksonville were a horny-handed set. The Odd Fellows lodges were made up of white collar workers, but the Masonic lodges were recruited largely from the stevedores, hod carriers, lumber mill and brickyard hands, and the like. The initiation was rough, and lasted all night. One of our young friends was lame for a number of weeks on account of a fall to the floor while being tossed in a blanket. I was made Worthy Master of the lodge, but it did not take me long to see that being a good Mason demanded more time than I should be willing to devote to it. The first time that I had to “turn out” with the lodge, arrayed in regalia, settled the question definitely.


Imagine being initiated, passed, and raised in a single night, and having a lodge named in your honor! That is Paul Laurence Dunbar Lodge 219 under the MW Union Grand Lodge in Jacksonville, Florida. Another lodge named for Dunbar is found in Brockton, Massachusetts.

Google also shows how Dunbar’s poetry was included in several publications of several mainstream grand lodges. In the January 1916 edition of the Grand Lodge of Iowa’s Quarterly Bulletin, an all-around delight to read, we see the last stanza of his “The Poet and His Song”:


Sometimes the sun, unkindly hot,
My garden makes a desert spot,
Sometimes a blight upon the tree
Takes all my fruit away from me;
And then with throes of bitter pain
Rebellious passions rise and swell;
And so I sing and all is well.


Amid the Report on Foreign Correspondence in the pages of the Grand Lodge of Nebraska’s proceedings for 1922, there is a report from the Grand Lodge of New Mexico that makes the point of specifically recording how its grand master “quotes Paul Lawrence [sic] Dunbar’s lines, on ‘The Lord Had a Job for Me.’” But it seems the actual title of that poem is “Too Busy.” This is found in the anthology titled The Collected Poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar edited by Joanne M. Braxton (1993).

Ever on the lookout for pipe poetry, I can’t resist concluding this edition of The Magpie Mason with Dunbar’s “A Companion’s Progress,” also found in the Braxton book, which puts its first publication at August 21, 1901 in a periodical called St. James Gazette.


My stock has gone down and my tailor has sent
To request that I settle my bill;
My landlady asks with a frown for her rent,
And there isn’t a cent in the till.
The governor storms and my mother’s in tears;
There’s a coldness betwixt me and Nell,
But I’m utterly dead to regrets and to fears,
For my meerschaum is colouring well.

At first I had fears of what looked like a crack,
And my breath came in gasps of alarm,
But oh, how the joy of my heart flooded back
When I found that ’twas nothing to harm.
And so ever since I have nursed it with care,
With thrills that my heart cannot quell,
And I’ve bored all my friends to relate the affair
That my meerschaum is colouring well.

Magpie file photo

A meerschaum pipe I saw at the New York Pipe Show in 2014. It was colored artificially, but true meerschaum pipe lovers prefer to turn the white mineral into progressively darker hues of brown by patiently and personally smoking the pipe over a long period of time. It is a delicate substance, ergo the poet’s fear of cracks.

Gotta share this one with my pipe club on Facebook.
     

‘Rosicrucian perspectives of the Egyptian myths’

     
The Rosicrucian Order will host a series of lectures on Rosicrucian perspectives of ancient Egyptian mythology in the coming weeks at the Rosicrucian Cultural Center (2303 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard) in New York City. From the publicity:

Discuss the Mythology

of Osiris and the Underworld

April 25 through April 29

May 16 through May 19

nightly at 6:30

Each soul confronts the 42 Confessions of Maat. Anubis weighs the heart against the feather of Maat, and Osiris judges. The Rosicrucian mystical perspective of this myth is examined. Question and answer session will be followed by a meditation.

Discuss Isis and Osiris

from a Rosicrucian Perspective

May 2 through May 6

nightly at 6:30

We will explore the archetypes of Isis and Osiris from a Rosicrucian perspective.

Discuss the Metamorphosis

of Apuleius from a Rosicrucian Perspective

May 9 through May 13

nightly at 6:30

A young man named Lucius becomes fascinated with witchcraft and is transformed into a donkey. Passed from owner to owner, his ordeal exposes him to many trials until the magic spell is broken by the goddess Isis, and Lucius is initiated into her cult. This story of transformation has many mystical implications which are discussed from a Rosicrucian perspective. There will be a discussion period and meditation.


The facilitator of these discussions will be E. Bernard West, who serves the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis as Grand Councilor for Georgia and Louisiana, and the Traditional Martinist Order as Provincial Master in Georgia. He is known for his expertise in Egyptian, Greek, and Roman mythologies. He also serves in various Masonic capacities, including as Master of a Prince Hall Affiliated Blue Lodge, Patron of an Eastern Star Chapter, a Noble of the Mystic Shrine and Grand Inspector General 33º of the United Supreme Council. Bernard has a Master’s Degree in Political Science and a Ph.D. in American Studies, and is a published author and retired Army officer.
     

‘Postal Service to issue Richard Allen stamp’

     
While at the local post office Tuesday afternoon, I spotted the promotional poster on the wall announcing the upcoming issue of a stamp commemorating Richard Allen as part of the Black Heritage series. From the publicity:

Courtesy USPS

A 49¢ Forever stamp.    

Richard Allen: Preacher, activist, and civic leader Richard Allen (1760-1831) was an inspiring figure whose life and work resonate profoundly in American history. This stamp coincides with the 200th anniversary of Allen’s founding of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, one of the most important institutions in African-American life, as well as his election as its first bishop.

The stamp art is a portrait of Allen, a detail from an 1876 print titled “Bishops of the A.M.E. Church.” Featuring Allen in the center surrounded by ten other bishops and six historical vignettes, the print is from the collection of the Library Company of Philadelphia. The noon ET February 2 First-Day-of-Issue ceremony will take place at the Mother Bethel A.M.E. Church in Philadelphia.


In Freemasonry, Richard Allen was a member of African Lodge No. 459, the original Prince Hall Masonic lodge in Boston, and it was he who founded a daughter lodge in Philadelphia also named African Lodge. This event ignited the process of the Boston lodge becoming a grand lodge, and the rest is history. I do not know if any of that would be significant in the eyes of the U.S. Postal Service, but I recall there was a petition several years ago to create a stamp commemorating Prince Hall himself. I don’t know the disposition of that, but I hope there is such a stamp in production.