‘Back in the Philalethes Society again’

    

The Masters Craft

Philalethes Society membership jewel.
New York’s colors: orange and blue!

I rejoined the Philalethes Society—again. I had been a member in the nineties and into the early years of this century, but quit because the leadership back then deserved Moe Howard nose-pulls and foot-stomps.

I rejoined several years ago, when Rashied was president (and when I was president of the Masonic Society), but that lapsed when I wasn’t paying attention. But I’m back again and just received the electronic version of Volume 76, Number 4 of The Philalethes, the final issue under President Ben Williams’ tenure. His President’s Message mentions the launch of a Philalethes chapter in Texas. If you know the history of Texas and the Philalethes Society, you appreciate how times have changed!

Anyway, when I rejoined two months ago, I volunteered to revive Knickerbocker Chapter, New York City’s Philalethes chapter, so if you are a member of the Society who resides in or near the city, you’ll hear from me eventually to ascertain your interest in getting together for pastrami, fellowship, and Masonic learning.

Knickerbocker Chapter has been dormant for a number of years, at least since Bill Thomas relocated to Florida, but applying the defibrillator shouldn’t be too difficult. I received a list of Philalethes members who reside in New York and environs, and I will contact everyone in the New York City area to enquire into their willingness to reform the chapter. According to The Rules, we’ll need four officers to complete a modicum of paperwork; a membership to do the eating, drinking, (smoking, hopefully), and supplying of the Masonic learning; and a place to meet.

Officers are asked to sport the Society’s membership jewel; members are encouraged to do likewise (and I ordered mine yesterday). Everyone shall be Master Masons. Chapter officers will be Philalethes members, and everyone else will be shown how to join.

It’s simple. Click here. And look for my email inviting you to get involved.

     

‘Rashied back at the lectern’

     
Bro. Rashied K. Sharrieff-Al-Bey, Past Master of Cornerstone Lodge 37 under the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of New York, has a few speaking dates upcoming in Manhattan. He is one of the best in the business, and it has been too long, so go and listen.

Magpie file photo

Next Wednesday, the 14th, Bro. Rashied will be hosted by Mariners Lodge 67 in the First Manhattan District. That’s a 7 p.m. start, and Rashied’s work of the evening is titled “Three Knocks and an Opening,” which discusses certain distinct knocks and the Scriptural verses to which they relate.

Mariners always serves a feast for which reservations are required unquestionably. Don’t be one of those guys. It will sell out. Click here.

On Friday, April 20, Rashied will be the guest of Consolidated Lodge 31, also in the First Manhattan. The lodge bills the event as an eight o’clock start, and Rashied’s topic will be Bro. Prince Hall.

Masonic Hall is located at 71 West 23rd Street. Photo ID is required to enter the building.

Hopefully more dates will be announced; if so, I’ll share the info here.
     

‘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.
     

‘Pennsylvania Academy to host Rashied’

     
A late change of plans was announced a few minutes ago by the Pennsylvania Academy of Masonic Knowledge. George Braatz will not appear at the March 21 meeting at Elizabethtown, and Rashied Sharrieff-Al-Bey will speak instead.

Well, you can read the flier yourselves:

Click to enlarge.

‘Stellar Theology in the Lamp of Knowledge’

    

Nutley Lodge No. 25 continues its Lamp of Knowledge Lecture Series March 21 with a presentation by RW Bro. Rashied Bey, who will speak on “Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy.”

Lodge opens at 7:30 p.m. (almost exactly 24 hours after the Vernal Equinox). 175 Chestnut St. in Nutley.

Apprentices and Fellows, properly avouched, are welcome.

Bro. Rashied is a member of Cornerstone Lodge No. 37 under the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of New York.

‘In the neighborhood’

    
A post for the benefit of our local and somewhat local brethren: Two great nights coming up in early February.

On Monday, February 7, Nutley Lodge No. 25 will continue its Lamp of Knowledge lecture series, hosting W. Henry of Humanitas Lodge No. 1123 in New York City, who will lead us into the Chamber of Reflection, so to speak, for an explanation of the many intriguing symbols that await initiates in the Scottish Rite tradition of Craft Masonry.

Henry also is Senior Deacon of The American Lodge of Research, the premier education lodge in the United States, and is active in other research bodies.

Apprentices and Fellows, properly avouched, are welcome to attend this lecture.

On Wednesday, February 9, at historic Alpha Lodge No. 116 in East Orange, our good friend and Brother Rashied Bey returns to the podium. Rashied is with Cornerstone Lodge No. 37, under the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of New York, and is very well known about the apartments of the Temple.

RW Rashied will speak on properties of astronomy found in Masonic ritual and symbol.

Also that night, W. Mohamad Yatim, Past Master of Atlas-Pythagoras Lodge No. 10, will visit Madison Lodge No. 93, also to speak on the Chamber of Reflection.

Curious things are happening in some of the lodges here. An amazing line-up for the week ... and that’s even before we get to Virginia for Masonic Week! I’ll need extra cigars and whisky to sustain myself. Let me also point out that all three of these traveling lecturers are of The Masonic Society family. Rashied is a Fellow, and Henry and Mohamad are Members.
    

‘Into the Oriental Chair, II’

Congratulations to Bro. Mohamad Yatim, the newly installed Master of Atlas-Pythagoras Lodge No. 10 in Westfield, New Jersey.

Mohamad’s installation took place Friday night in the presence of more than 150 well wishers. Masons came from all over New Jersey, plus Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut and elsewhere, I’m sure. One visiting Worshipful Master stood to praise Mohamad as one of the guys who gets it, an “education Mason,” the likes of whom we need more.

Among the visiting lecturers scheduled to appear at Atlas-Pythagoras in 2010 include RW Rashied Bey, of Cornerstone Lodge No. 37 under the MWPHGL of New York; Bro. Tim Wallace-Murphy, of Lodge Robert Burns Initiated No. 1781 in Edinburgh; W. Trevor Stewart of Quatuor Coronati 2076, et al.; W. David Lindez, of historic Alpha Lodge; and the Magpie Mason of The Magpie Mason. However, Atlas-Pythagoras’ “theme” for 2010 will be “Enlightening the Temple,” so there will be thoughtful discussion of the meaning of Masonry at most, if not all, the meetings.

The lodge is blessed with a full line of enthusiastic and talented officers, and a cadre of experienced Past Masters; all are supportive of Mohamad’s plans for the year, which is a great indication that the lodge will continue on this path in 2011 and beyond.

I was going to joke that he is singing “My Way,” but it is enough to know that W. Bro. Mohamad will set the Craft to labor his way during the coming year.

‘An evening at Hiram-Takoma’

   

RW Rashied Sharrieff-Al-Bey speaks to Hiram-Takoma Lodge No. 10
on Feb. 12 on the subject of ‘Symbolic Interactionism.’

Also during Masonic Week (and on Lincoln’s birthday) but not part of the Masonic Week schedule, was the stated meeting of Hiram-Takoma Lodge No. 10, under the Grand Lodge of Washington, DC. Not just any regular communication of the lodge, but a combination of guest speaker RW Rashied Sharrieff-Al-Bey from Cornerstone Lodge No. 37 of MW Prince Hall GL of New York, and the lodge’s Valentine’s Day thank you to the brethren’s ladies. Needless to say, expectations were high among those of us who wondered how Bro. Rashied would craft remarks not only appropriate for a program open to family and friends, but also keeping in tune with the quickly approaching Valentine’s Day.

Pffffffft! No problem. It’s Rashied!

Delivering a talk and PowerPoint presentation titled “Symbolic Interactionism,” our speaker, himself a student of organizational behavior working toward his Master’s Degree and part of the management team at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, deftly segued from the concept of communicating in symbols, to some of the specifics of Masonic symbols, to the key to understanding why men and women just don’t speak the same language. And he did so with the confidence and humor that the Magpie Mason envies in public speakers.

As usual my notes are a mess so I can’t quote him verbatim (but I don’t feel too bad because he snafu’d his own recording device!), but to summarize his thesis: A person can say exactly what he means with perfect clarity, but the point is to be understood, and even when ideas seem to be at opposites, there still is a relationship. “There is thesis, and antithesis, and somewhere in the middle is synthesis.”

In our relationships we are forever communicating and sharing, and not always in spoken words. Every message requires translation, interpretation, and extrapolation, from which we make inferences and act on those inferences.

A masterful speaker who illustrates his main points with personal anecdotes, Rashied told of his son and daughter-in-law: the former a Muslim, and the latter a Roman Catholic from Panama. “He can’t speak Spanish, and she can’t speak English, but there’s communication.”

Justin, Reed, Glen, and a local visitor enjoy the program.

Tapping into Masonic symbols, the Beehive and the Pomegranates, he showed that their symbolic values are not idiomatic to Masonic teachings – most of the ladies and other non-Masons present acknowledged an understanding of the Beehive representing industry and the Pomegranates exhibiting bounty – but that their usefulness in Masonic instruction is apt and offers layers of meaning.

Demonstrating just how many layers of interpretation can be peeled back in simple communication, Bro. Rashied produced a pack of standard playing cards. He asked Worshipful Master Marcel to choose one. To divine the identity of that card, Rashied investigated by inquiry. Not direct questioning to get to the point, but a process of investigation to arrive at a common answer.

Is the card red or black? Is it Diamonds or Hearts? Is it a number card or a face card? Is it a high number or a low number? In short order, he determined that Marcel’s card was in fact the Three of Hearts.

To better – well, frankly to best – explain why it is so crucial for those who think and speak directly (men) and those who think and speak in, ah, complexity, Rashied put onto the screen a graphic borrowed from a brilliant McCann Erickson campaign for Goldstar Beer:

Man asks Woman out for a drink. Man’s flowchart efficiently outlines what he wants.

Woman is game for the same things, but with an exuberance of elaborate considerations planted like so many seeds in her mind.

(“Thank God you’re a man,” goes the slogan for this Israeli brew, which I’m fairly certain comes from Leviticus.)

The question we have, said Rashied in conclusion, is how do we best achieve harmony and reconcile differences?

Whether in marriage or in Masonry, Magpie readers, some things never change!

The Worshipful Master then led his brethren in a ritual that probably is not worked enough: a heartfelt ceremonial thank you to their ladies for supporting them while they spend so much time on their Masonic labors. Roses, balloons and kisses were among the wages paid to the women who ultimately make it all happen.

The Worshipful Master makes the introductions.

Worshipful Master Marcel Desroches
on different points of fellowship with his Grand Master.

The Ritual Instructor ensures the floorwork is correct as Junior Deacon Fred plants one on the missus.

 

The Bat Signal towers over historic Takoma Park in DC.

Agent Reed keeps paparazzi a distance
from the Past Grand Masters.

A rare historic artifact on display at the lodge: a beer bottle emptied by Benjamin Franklin himself!