‘The Low Vale Degree’

    

Click to enlarge.

I have too many Masonic Saturdays next month, so I’m on the fence—a stretch of Virginia Worm, if you will—about attending this outdoor degree, but it sounds like a terrific night.

Good Samaritan 336 is the lodge right on Lincoln Square in Gettysburg I keep telling you about. In addition to regular doings, the brethren host dinners with period menus, attire, and re-enactors to celebrate their famous town’s heritage. I don’t believe their Low Vale Degree is an annual event, but they have hosted these previously.

Historic Daniel Lady Farm is a local attraction, having served as the headquarters of Confederate Major General Edward “Allegheny” Johnson, who commanded a division that failed to take Culp’s Hill from the U.S. Army. (Read his report here.) Inevitably, it became a hospital for the rebels. They say blood stains are still visible.

Historic Daniel Lady Farm

This weekend, Lady Farm is hosting its Civil War Scout Immersion, two days of workshops on military drill, battle formations, and tactics, culminating in a battle re-enactment.

And the Fellow Craft Degree? If you are not aware, the rituals of Pennsylvania Freemasonry are different from whatever yours may be. They’re not bizarre; you will have no difficulty understanding what unfolds because the ritual elements are consistent, but that Grand Lodge’s work is unique in the country. My research over the years caused me to read that Pennsylvania ritual is akin to one found in northern England, but I have no firsthand experience out there to corroborate. Yet.

Obviously, Apprentices would not be admitted to this Second Degree of Freemasonry.

Historic Daniel Lady Farm

The lodge will be opened and closed with cannon fire. I mean artillery, not Vivat! drinking. The meal will be catered by Blue and Gray Bar & Grill, which is another reason to attend. If you choose not to join the group for dinner, the ticket price will be $30.

This May 30 event does not land on Memorial Day Weekend, if that conflict might deter you. The holiday weekend will be the previous week.

     

‘Let the benign Genius of the Mystic Art preside’

    

Monitor of the Work, Lectures and Ceremonies of Ancient Craft Masonry in the Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York is available from Lodge Services or your lodge secretary. (Okay, maybe a graphic designer might have helped a little with the cover but, hey, it’s done.)

Many years in the making, Grand Lodge’s Monitor is published and is available from Lodge Services. Its proper title, Monitor of the Work, Lectures and Ceremonies of Ancient Craft Masonry in the Jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York, the book is copyrighted 2025, but I learned of its existence—again, after anticipation of years—just a week ago through a comment on Faceypage. Got my copy yesterday.

Immediately, I searched for content unknown to me, and no sooner than on Page 7 are Opening Charges.

Opening Charges?

Opening Charges!

You probably know a Closing Charge, delivered at, yes, the close of the lodge communication. I doubt it is ubiquitous throughout the country, but it is found near and far. In New York, we call it the Harris Charge (“…you are now about to quit this sacred retreat of friendship and virtue…”). It is an optional coda to the meeting, although I don’t know why a Master would opt out of it. When it was my privilege to serve in the East twenty-one years ago in New Jersey, that was possibly my favorite piece of Work. It differs slightly from New York’s version.

Who’s Harris?

Bro. Thaddeus Harris

The Rev. Thaddeus Mason Harris, D.D. (1768-1842) was a Massachusetts Freemason. More than that, he was that Grand Lodge’s first Grand Chaplain. (Synchronously enough, he laid down his working tools on this very date, April 3.) He also served as Corresponding Grand Secretary and, in 1812, was appointed Deputy Grand Master! A remarkable seminal figure in Massachusetts Freemasonry, but he is a topic for another edition of The Magpie Mason. (This portrait of Harris hangs, if I remember right, on the ground floor of the Boston Masonic Building, home of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts.)

Where was I going with this? Yes! These Opening Charges.

They are not new to Freemasonry, but they’re news to me and they are terrific brief orations you’ll be proud to hear at the start of your lodge meetings. There are two, prefaced with this:

Performance of an Opening Charge is optional. One charge or the other, without alteration or combination, may be given in full immediately following the prayer in the Ritual of Opening, or at the commencement of any untiled Masonic event. Only The Monitor or The Chaplain’s Book are to be used if the charge is read in a tiled lodge.

The first Charge:

The ways of science are beautiful. Knowledge is attained by degrees. Wisdom dwells with contemplation. There are we to seek her. Though the passage be difficult, the farther we proceed, the easier it will become. If we are united, our society must flourish. Let all things give place to peace and good fellowship. Uniting in the grand design, let us be happy in ourselves, and endeavor to contribute to the happiness of others. Let us promote the useful arts; and by them mark our superiority and distinction. Let us cultivate the moral virtues; and improve in all that is good and amiable. Let the genius of Masonry preside over our conduct; and under its sovereign sway let us act with becoming dignity. Let our recreations be innocent, and pursued with moderation. Never let us expose our character to derision. Thus shall we act in conformity to our precepts, and support the name we have always borne, of being a respectable, a regular, and a uniform society.

The second Charge:

The ways of Virtue are beautiful. Knowledge is attained by degrees. Wisdom dwells in contemplation: there we must seek her. Let us then, Brethren, apply ourselves with becoming zeal to the practice of the excellent principles inculcated by our Order. Let us ever remember that the great objects of our association are the restraint of improper desires and passions, the cultivation of an active benevolence, and the promotion of a correct knowledge of the duties we owe to God, to our neighbor, and to ourselves. Let us be united and practice with assiduity the sacred tenets of our order. Let all private animosities, of any unhappily exist, give place to affection and brotherly love. It is useless parade to talk of the subjection of irregular passions within the walls of the Lodge, if we permit them to triumph in our daily intercourse with each other. Uniting in the grand design, let us be happy ourselves, and endeavor to promote the happiness of others. Let us cultivate the great moral virtues which are laid down on our Masonic Trestleboard, and improve in everything that is good, amiable and useful. Let the benign Genius of the Mystic Art preside over our councils, and under her sway let us act with a dignity becoming the high moral character of our venerable institution.

So, if these stirring words did not flow from RW Harris’ heart and mind, whence came they? I thought some of the phrases sounded familiar, but wasn’t sure if my memory was tricking me, so I asked Sam.

RW Samuel Kinsey, of Mariners 67, is Chairman of the Custodians of the Work, the team that preserves Grand Lodge’s Standard Work and Lectures and that publishes these books we need to learn our rituals and orations. He provided me a snippet of the Custodians’ report to Grand Lodge, which will meet next month:

The antecedents of the Opening Charges may be found in A Vindication of Masonry and its Excellency demonstrated in a Discourse at the Consecration of the Lodge of Vernon Kilwinning, on May 15, 1741 by Charles Leslie. This lengthy discourse was later incorporated into the first edition of William Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry, with increasingly revised and reorganized forms of the Vindication continuing to feature in all subsequent editions. In the early decades of the nineteenth century Thaddeus Mason Harris adapted one of Preston’s later versions into the first Opening Charge given above (the shorter of the two). The second Opening Charge originates in Charles Whitlock Moore’s The Masonic Trestle-board, which purported to contain the working from the Baltimore Convention of 1843. This is the Opening Charge that can be found in Monitors with relevancy to our jurisdiction throughout the remainder of the nineteenth century. Although the two Opening Charges reference the same source material and evoke a similar sentiment, your committee believes both are beautiful expressions that deserve to be authorized for use.

There’s a lot more marrow in the bone of this edition of The Monitor, the first published since 1989. The Installation of Officers is revised, just in time for our Installation nights. Now I have to see what The Chaplain’s Book is. Never heard of it.

From the 1740s to the 1840s to the second quarter of the twenty-first century, what we, as Free and Accepted Masons, think, say, and do in lodge remains continuous and relevant, no doubt thanks to our own consistency when we “mix again with the world.”

If you are of these households of the faithful, I wish you a Happy Passover or Happy Easter.

     

‘It’s National Grammar Day’

    

Winding Stairway of the Marietta Masonic Building, Ohio. Those five balusters at center are in the forms of the Five Orders of Architecture. American Union Lodge 1 and Harmar 390 meet here. The temple was constructed by Harmar in 1907-08.

Grammar teaches us the proper arrangement of words according to the idiom or dialect of any particular kingdom or people; and that excellency of pronunciation, which enables us to speak or write a language with accuracy and justness, agreeable to reason, authority, and the strict rules of literature.

William Preston

Illustrations of Masonry

1775

Grammar. One of the seven liberal arts and sciences, which forms, with Logic and Rhetoric, a triad dedicated to the cultivation of language. “God,” says Sanctius, “created man the participant of reason; and as He willed him to be a social being, He bestowed upon him the gift of language, in the perfecting of which there are three aids. The first is Grammar, which rejects from language all solecisms and barbarous expressions; the second is Logic, which is occupied with the truthfulness of language; and the third is Rhetoric, which seeks only the adornment of language.”

Albert G. Mackey

Encyclopedia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences

1917

Arts and Sciences, Liberal. In the seventh century, and for many centuries afterwards, all learning was limited to and comprised in what were called the seven liberal arts and sciences, namely: grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. The epithet “liberal” is a fair translation of the Latin ingenuus, which means free-born; thus Cicero speaks of the artes ingenuae, or the arts befitting a free-born man; and Ovid says in the well-known lines: “To have studied carefully the liberal arts refines the manners, and prevents us from being brutish.”

And Phillips, in his New World of Words (1706), defines the liberal arts and sciences to be “such as are fit for gentlemen and scholars, as mechanic trades and handicrafts for meaner people.” As Freemasons are required by their landmarks to be free-born, we see the propriety of incorporating the arts of free-born men among their symbols. As the system of Masonry derived its present form and organization from the times when the study of these arts and sciences constituted the labors of the wisest men, they have very appropriately been adopted as the symbol of the completion of human learning.

Albert Mackey

The Symbolism of Freemasonry; Illustrating and Explaining its Science and Philosophy, its Legends, Myths, and Symbols

1867

Grammar is the key by which alone the door can be opened to the understanding of speech. It is Grammar which reveals the admirable art of language and unfolds its various constituent parts—its names, definitions and respective offices; it unravels, as it were, the thread of which the web of speech is composed. These reflections seldom occur to anyone before his acquaintance with the art; yet it is most certain that, without a knowledge of Grammar, it is very difficult to speak with propriety, precision, and purity.

The Standard Work and Lectures

of Ancient Craft Masonry

Grand Lodge of New York

2019

Grammar. Is the key by which alone the door can be opened to the understanding of speech. It is Grammar which reveals the admirable art of language, and unfolds its various constituent parts—its names, definitions, and respective offices; it unravels, as it were, the thread of which the web of speech is composed. These reflections seldom occur to any one before their acquaintance with the art; yet it is most certain that, without a knowledge of Grammar, it is very difficult to speak with propriety, precision, and purity.

The General Ahiman Rezon

and Freemason’s Guide

Daniel Sickels

1865

Today is March fourth, which is homophonous with “march forth,” which is a complete sentence, which is why today’s date was chosen to be National Grammar Day, so happy National Grammar Day! This occasion was devised by Martha Brockenbrough, founder of the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar, in 2008.

chicagocopshop.com

“So back to National Grammar Day, which is just one day,” says the University of Illinois. “You’ve heard of red-letter days. Well, National Grammar Day is a red-pen day, a day to correct other people’s grammar.”

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid that.

In his Prestonian Lecture for 1930, titled “The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences,” Henry Philip Cart de Lafontaine says:

According to the definition of the late Dr. Henry Sweet, a grammar gives the general facts of language, whilst a dictionary deals with the special facts of language. To the ordinary man, grammar means a set of more or less arbitrary rules, which he has to observe if he wants to speak or write correctly; this may be called prescriptive grammar. To a scientific man, the rules are not what he has to observe but what he observes when he examines the way in which speakers and writers belonging to a particular community or nation actually use their mother-tongue; this may be labelled descriptive grammar. The nineteenth century furnished us with another form of grammar, comparative historical grammar, and this should always be supplemented by separative grammar, which does full justice to what is peculiar to each language, and treats each on its own merits. Many things of grammatical importance, such as intonation, stress, etc., are not shown in our traditional spellings. Dialect grammars and grammars of the languages of uncivilized races deal of necessity only with spoken words. Grammar being the basis of all the liberal sciences, it particularly concerns us as Masons to know its rules, for without this knowledge we cannot be acquainted with the beauties of our own Craft lectures, nor can we speak with correctness or propriety. When I reflect on the present slip-shod manner of speech, on the ungrammatical nature of letter-writing, on the loose phraseology of the ordinary novel, and on the atrocious spelling exhibited in letter-writing, I am led to recommend wholeheartedly a return to the study of grammar.

     

‘Use Mallet, Chisel, Level, Plumb, and Square’

    

Go, work with utmost skill and loving care,

The Temple needs thy work, do all you can:

Use Mallet, Chisel, Level, Plumb, and Square,

And shape Earth’s dust to Heaven’s eternal plan.

“The Working Tools,” as found in the book Speculative Masonry by Andrew S. MacBride

My thanks to Eureka Chapter 7 in Orlando, Florida for hosting me last night via Zoom for a discussion titled “A Scottish Rite: The Mark Man, Mark Master, and Mark Master Mason Degrees.”

I received the MMM° in 1999 and am embarrassed to admit I hadn’t truly collated my perceptions, knowledge, opinions, speculations, etc. on this complicated ritual until I began preparing for this speaking engagement last year. Don’t get me wrong. Always loved the degree, but its origin and evolution, its symbols, and the ritual’s many moving parts have been compartmentalized in my mind all this time. If nothing else, I now possess a linear understanding of it. This is, after all, an elaborate degree. In my homework, I was reminded of important aspects I’d forgotten and I learned things too. Mark Man was conferred in a lodge of Fellow Crafts on Fellow Crafts. Mark Master was conferred on Master Masons. A Mark Man’s earnings were noticeably less than a Mark Master’s. Is that the source of the friction in the current ritual’s lesson on wages?

Excellent Franklin Suco and the companions at Eureka Chapter are kind to me. They flew me down for a talk on the RAM Degree two years ago and, despite that, they welcomed me back last night for this Zoom meeting. The Q&A was very brief, which could indicate I was making no sense.

Anyway, I tried to keep it all about Scotland. I began with the Schaw Statutes with their item on the book of marks; segued into the Mark Man and Mark Master degrees and what differentiated them; discussed Scottish ritual; contrasted the MMM Working Tools against Scottish EA Working Tools; examined the current MMM and FC obligations; and closed with a call for Florida Royal Arch Masons to charter their own lodges of Mark Master Masons. (I think that suggestion took root.) For context, I visited England by noting something is missing from the 1813 UGLE Articles of Union, but credited the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons of England and Wales; explained why so little is known of the early rituals; shared a little New Jersey history regarding Mark lodges in 1811; and occasionally got long-winded.

It may be reasonable to view the Mark Master Mason Degree as a basic working man’s degree—and I think Mark Man was—but, in its details, the MMM° is a refinement of important aspects of Craft Masonry theory. American Masons ought not think of it as a speed bump on the road toward Royal Arch. It is the entry point of what used to be called Keystone Masonry. We ought to resurrect that name.

I’ve never spoken so much on a Sunday night in my life. My voice actually grew hoarse.

(Joel, if you see this, I apologize. You had asked me to prepare something on the Mark Degree several years ago, but I couldn’t get it done at that time. If you need me, just let me know. And happy birthday!)

     

‘How many Apprentices can dance on the head of a pin?’

    

Honestly, some guys look to be confounded.

This question was posed on Faceypage several weeks ago:

A good friend recently asked me the following great question: ‘Which is the correct reading? To learn to subdue my passions and improve myself in Masonry; or To learn, to subdue my passions, and improve myself in Masonry? One of my brothers brought this to my attention and I’m curious as to how different lodges put this into their ritual. It doesn’t change overall purpose, but is it two commands or three commands?’

You recognize the phrase from the Entered Apprentice Degree. In the Grand Lodge of New York, this appears in Part I of the Second Section. There is no ambiguity thanks to the absence of that first preposition, so it reads: “Learn to subdue my passions and improve myself in Masonry,” meaning there are two purposes, not three. In my previous grand lodge, the catechism does say “To learn to subdue my passions…” I’ve never seen a comma after “to learn” in any ritual text. I never knew this was a question anyone would ponder.

Sure, some of us came here to learn, but the Entered Apprentice is introduced to personal growth and new community, not formal education. Instruction in thinking, speaking, and understanding the world will come in the Second Degree.

Subduing the passions is not human nature; it must be cultivated through deliberation and diligent action. That’s why we, as Free and Accepted Masons, must learn to subdue our passions and improve ourselves. Instruction in subduing the passions is revealed in the discussion of the Four Cardinal Virtues and is symbolized by the Common Gavel working tool. Capisce?

From my initiation almost twenty-nine years ago, I understood “to learn to subdue my passions” to mean something like I must train to restrain the impulses of enmity and anger; to gain a victory over myself; to be not merely kind to men of virtue, but also be indulgent and reconcilable to the injurious. Thanks, Plutarch.

In his Parallel Lives, the second century biographer, writing of the ancient Greek philosopher Dion of Syracuse, puts these words in his mouth: “...by being long conversant in the academy, I have learned to subdue my passions, and to restrain the impulses of enmity and anger. To prove that I have really gained such a victory over myself, it is not sufficient merely to be kind to men of virtue, but to be indulgent and reconcilable to the injurious.” It is possible this 1770 translation is influenced by our ritual. And you see the Four Cardinal Virtues at work here.

As for a documented entry point of this idea into Masonic ritual, it helps to consult Masonry Dissected, that early ritual exposure from 1730, which gives us reliable insight into what the lectures of the degrees sounded like at that time. Please understand that a lecture in a degree back then was not the long monologue delivered from memory that most of us in America have today, but was in question-and-answer format, with the lodge Master asking the brethren in lodge, who took turns responding. (Also, you should know Q&A dialogue lives on in our candidate examinations and Opening and Closing ceremonies.)

Query three is: What do you come here to do? 

Answer:

Not to do my proper Will,

But to subdue my Passion still;

The Rules of Masonry in hand to take,

And daily Progress therein make.

It is safe to say Masonry Dissected reports how ritual worked during the 1720s, if not earlier, and I believe much of our thinking derives from Christian life in England, for which we’d delve further back for subduing the passions.

Jeremy Taylor

Jeremy Taylor (1613-67), the famous Anglican theologian, who wrote so poetically for the common man (he was called the Shakespeare of Divines), published The Worthy Communicant in 1660. This text instructs the faithful on receiving the Eucharist, and it ranks character and conduct over knowledge of the church’s laws.

He writes:

Thou givest thy self to be the food of our souls in the wonders of the Sacrament, in the faith of thy Word, in the blessings and graces of thy Spirit: Perform that in thy Servant, which thou hast prepared and effected in thy Son; strengthen my infirmities, heal my sicknesses; give me strength to subdue my passions, to mortifie my inordinations, to kill all my sin: increase thy Graces in my soul; enkindle a bright devotion; extinguish all the fires of hell, my lust and my pride, my envy, and all my spiritual wickednesses; pardon all my sins, and fill me with thy Spirit, that by thy Spirit thou maist dwell in me, and by obedience and love I may dwell in thee, and live in the life of grace till it pass on to glory and immensity, by the power and the blessings, by the passion and intercession of the Word incarnate; whom I adore, and whom I love, and whom I will serve for ever and ever.

This is too much for a reply to a Facebook post, but if Bro. Gilbert happens to see this, I hope it helps. Two commands, not three.

     

‘Happy World Introvert Day’

    

First, Happy New Year! Second, Happy World Introvert Day! It’s still January 2 here for a few more minutes, so I’ll squeeze in this note celebrating this day of post-holiday recovery and refocusing.

Dr. Heyne’s book

World Introvert Day was hatched by psychologist Felicitas Heyne only fifteen years ago, so don’t feel cheated if you didn’t get the day off from school growing up.

On her website, Heyne says: “introverts are a misunderstood minority. We live in an extrovert world, and introverts often appear to be arrogant and strange, which they aren’t. Introverts just work differently. And let’s not forget that although introverts might be a minority, they are a majority in the gifted population. Most famous scientists, philosophers, artists, and thinkers are introverted. Introverts shape the world we live in. But they also have to face specific health risks, job-related problems and often difficult relationships.”

Dr. Jung

The concepts of Introversion and Extraversion (note the “a”) come from C.G. Jung, who devised the two categories as personality types. Writing in Psychology Today in 2012, psychologist Stephen A. Diamond explains:

“For Jung, there were essentially two types of people: introverts and extraverts. These were Jung’s terms, for which he gives specific definitions. While his term introversion is today widely used as a synonym for shyness, introversion is not necessarily shyness. But there is a close relationship between shyness and introversion, which Jung felt (and I fully agree) is largely an innate tendency…

Introversion is a turning inward toward the interior world of ideas, feelings, fantasies, intuitions, sensations, and other facets of subjective experience. The introverted type finds most of his or her meaning and satisfaction not in the outer world of people, objects, things, accomplishments, but rather in the interior life, the inner world. Extraverts, on the other hand, live almost exclusively in and for the exterior world, deriving fulfillment from regular interaction with outer reality. Introverts tend to have difficulty dealing with the outer world in general. Extraverts have equal trouble attending to the inner world. And both resist doing so, in what frequently becomes a chronic, habitual pattern of avoidant behavior… 

What is so astounding is how fundamentally and diametrically different extraverted and introverted types truly are! By their very nature, these are radically divergent modes of being-in-the-world, antithetical attitudes toward life.

Of course, no person is totally introverted or extraverted. These are two extreme poles on a continuum which we all occupy. A majority of us lean toward the extraverted orientation, placing true introverted types in the statistical minority in most westernized cultures. Indeed, introversion tends to be stigmatized in our culture, pathologized, and deemed abnormal. When introversion is extremely one-sided, it can turn into pathological shyness, social phobia, schizoid personality, autism or even psychosis: a total detachment or dissociation from outer reality. Extreme extraversion can manifest in compulsive activity, workaholism, mania and addictive behaviors (e.g., sex addiction) serving the purpose of avoiding introversion or self-reflection at any cost. Some rhythmic balance between introversion and extraversion is essential for mental health. Introversion and extraversion appear to be innate temperaments or personality traits which can be and are, however, influenced by environment.”

Jung thought everyone would be healthiest by balancing the two poles.

If you have any experience in Freemasonry, you likely noted how the Order is almost entirely by and for the extraverts. One of my first observations about the fraternity during my early years in the 1990s (in New Jersey) was the disorder revealed by the disconnect between what the rituals and orations clearly intend and what the consistently convivial calendar delivered. Jung and I would have appreciated a balance. Each of us is a Brother—an individual—but one cannot be a Brother separate; there must be at least one other. (And, hopefully, both smoke pipes!)

As we New Yorkers phrase it through our First Degree Charge:

There are three great duties which, as a Mason, you are obliged to inculcate—to God, your neighbor, and yourself. To God, in never mentioning His Name, save with that reverential awe which is due from a creature to his Creator, imploring His aid in all your undertakings, and esteeming Him as the chief good; to your neighbor, in acting upon the square, and doing unto him as you wish he should do unto you; and to yourself, in avoiding all irregularity and intemperance which may impair your faculties, or debase the dignity of your profession. A zealous attachment to these duties will insure public and private esteem.

And also:

Preston: the source.

➤ “In your outward demeanor, be particularly careful to avoid censure or reproach.”

➤ “During your leisure hours, that you may improve in Masonic knowledge, you are to converse with well informed brethren, who will always be as ready to give, as you will be to receive, instruction.”

➤ “If, in the circle of your acquaintance, you find a person desirous of being initiated into Masonry, be particularly careful not to recommend him, unless…”

Balancing the severities is harmony in who we are and what we do.

     

‘2026 Prestonian Lecture’

    

Magpie file photo

Other big news from earlier this year, during my dereliction from blogging: the announcement of next year’s Prestonian Lecturer! At the Quarterly Communication of the United Grand Lodge of England in June, the Board of General Purposes said Bro. Daniel Johnson will present “Solomon’s Temple in Myth and Ritual.”

To my knowledge, he is not related to the Bro. Johnson in the post below. 

Bro. Johnson was made a Mason in 2004 at Apollo University Lodge 357. (That’s Oxford University.) Next month, at the Quarterly Communication of Grand Lodge, he will become the first Deputy Grand Treasurer of the UGLE. Huzzah!

Every year, one scholar is chosen for the distinction. The job is to travel about the jurisdiction, delivering the lecture in lodges, and raising funds for a charity. I see Bro. Johnson will appear at QC2076 next September. There’s nothing stopping them from traveling abroad, of course, and I have a history of hosting these outstanding workmen here in the New York City area. Maybe something can be arranged for 2026 too.

     

‘Masonic Hall Monitors at The ALR’

    

Thomas Smith Webb by Travis Simpkins.

What better way to commemorate the anniversary of Thomas Smith Webb’s birth in 1771 than to attend your research lodge for a dive into the history of Freemasonry’s ritual literature?

Actually, I guess initiating a candidate with Webb’s ritual might have been better. And passing him would have been good. And, sure, raising him could have been a great commemoration, but we don’t make Masons in The American Lodge of Research. We make ’em think.

The program Tuesday night in the French Doric Room at Masonic Hall was “Masonic Hall Monitors,” for which three experts united for discussion of the history and evolution of ritual ciphers, monitors, and exposures.

In truth, Webb’s birthday was the following day. Regardless, we think we arrived at the reason why exoteric ritual books are commonly called monitors: Because Webb titled his The Freemason’s Monitor; or, Illustrations of Masonry: In Two Parts, and the moniker “monitor” stuck.

etymology.com

The origin of the word “monitor” shows it derives from the Latin for “one who reminds, admonishes, or checks,” also “an overseer, instructor, guide, teacher,” according to etymology.com, so the term is apt, and seems to have become the aptonym many grand lodges use to title their books of exoteric Masonic rituals (charges, funerary ceremony, cornerstone dedication, etc.). Others call them manuals. How boring.

Anyway, we welcomed RW Sam Kinsey, Chairman of Grand Lodge’s Custodians of the Work; RW Michael LaRocco, Executive Director of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library upstairs on 14; and RW Ben Hoff, Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 and Past Grand Historian in Jersey. In concert, they gave a thorough review of these books, from Masonry Dissected, printed in London in 1730, and which gives the first known look at a Third Degree, to the forthcoming New York Monitor, due before the Grand Lodge Communication next May, and therefore just in time to provide our lodges the bona fide Installation of Officers ritual.

Wonderbook

1942 GLNY Monitor

In the Grand Lodge of New York, the Custodians of the Work is the team that maintains the integrity of the ritual our lodges use. I’d say the gist of Sam’s presentation is: Ritual changes over time. Sometimes, things need clarification or correction. Other times, the sensibilities of the present day might necessitate an addition or a deletion.

Sam Kinsey

Whatever the case, it is wrong to believe that Masonic rituals are the same from place to place, and that they have not been altered since 1717. Equally important is to view your ritual as more of a script to a performance than as holy writ that demands a rigid, unfeeling delivery. When appropriate, use inflection; watch your timing. Know the vocabulary. Remember you are educating someone.

Michael LaRocco

Bro. Michael followed Sam’s talk, wheeling a booktruck laden with antique and other vintage New York ritual texts into the room for a show-and-tell exhibit—including an original, from 1797, copy of Webb’s Monitor. This and the other books came from the Livingston Library’s archives and stacks; collectively, they illustrated Sam’s talk on how rituals change over time, requiring new printings to impart the ritual to new generations of Masons. The most recent publication of the Standard Work and Lectures came in 2019, shortly after a panicked grand secretary had discovered that the inventory of ritual books had dwindled to a single copy. The latest monitor, however, dates way back to 1989. That book is not current today, and the long anticipated update is coming, as noted above.

Bro. Ben was last to speak on account of his research paper “Monitors and Ritual Ciphers” spanning twenty-six pages. His specialty is forensic examination of Masonic rituals, and he owns an impressive collection of eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth century ritual books—official and otherwise—on which he bases his theses.

He started us with a look into the Edinburgh Register House Manuscript from 1696, which shows us how short and simple Masonic ritual had been while also exemplifying how the structure has changed. What we today call a lecture is a long monolog delivered from memory by (hopefully) a gifted orator, but in a seventeenth and eighteenth century lodge, a lecture was a conversation. It was question-and-answer format, which actually lives on today. Think lodge Opening.

Between 1696 and today, embellishments were added to give literary depth to the symbolism. Most of these arose in the late 1700s from the books of three English authors. A Candid Disquisition, by Wellins Calcott (1769); The Spirit of Masonry, by William Hutchinson (1775); and, especially, William Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry, various editions of which began appearing in 1772. These authors get the credit for much of what we say today in lodge.

It really is remarkable how much of their prose basically remains intact. I’ve written about these books before, and I urge you to seek them out for your edification.

What we today know of ritual from between the 1720s and 1770s comes from ritual exposures that were printed without authorization (ergo exposures), but were bought anyway by Masons in need of handy ritual references. Masonry Dissected is a great source for seeing how fundamental lodge rituals were in 1730. The candidate is prepared, admitted, introduced, obligated, charged, and fed.

It also was not unheard of for brethren to handwrite their rituals for personal use.

Regarding monitors, Ben explains:

Ben Hoff

The key thing to remember about all Masonic monitors is that they were not exhaustive ritual guides. The two key characteristics of a monitor that distinguish it from a ritual are the absence of any traditionally secret ritual material, and the inclusion of such other supplemental material as would be useful to running the lodge. This supplemental material included items such as procedures for installations, lodge consecrations, funeral services, cornerstone layings, recommended procedures for petitions, interrogatories, and similar matters. As for ritual material, only openly published illustrations included as expansions of the lectures, prayers, and similar non-controversial material are included.

Getting back to Webb, it was he who adapted Preston’s Illustrations for American use, making changes to ritual structure that comprise his Monitor. In his day, grand lodges in the United States didn’t have official standardized rituals, and they definitely were not publishing ritual books (remember what happened with William Morgan in 1826), so Webb made a career of traveling the states and imparting his version of the work to lodges.

Later still came the artistic renderings of our symbols by Jeremy Ladd Cross. His book, True Masonic Chart or Hieroglyphic Monitor, is whence the familiar sketches we know of Craft and Royal Arch symbols came.

In addition to all these, were other authors’ coded ritual books of varying complexity and weirdness.

It wouldn’t be until the twentieth century that grand lodges in America would publish their own authorized ritual texts. In New Jersey, Ben explained, this was because some other guy was profiting from selling such books, so the grand lodge decided in 1967 to make the money for itself.

The hour was late—some of the brethren had to excuse themselves to catch their trains—so I had to end the meeting. I think everyone present got their money’s worth, and I feel good about it all. (I’m a fairly anxious Worshipful Master.)

Macoy Masonic Supply Co.

I had planned on giving a fourth talk on the subject of Macoy Masonic Supply’s reprinting of Robert Macoy’s 1867 Masonic Manual, but it seems the 750-book run has sold out, and I didn’t want to promote something the brethren cannot buy. It’s pretty cool, though.

Under business, we elected to Corresponding Membership a dual New York and California Mason who also has been a professor and lecturer at several universities, including Columbia. He has submitted a paper already!

The American Lodge of Research will meet again in early 2025. We will hit the road on February 19 for a joint meeting with Dunwoodie 863 in New Rochelle. We’ll be back in the French Doric Room on March 31 for a French-themed program involving both Lafayette and Tocqueville. I’m working on arranging Zoom sessions too, but more on that later.

     

‘History by type and as ritual’

    

The Spirit of Masonry, essential reading, figures in Ben Hoff’s upcoming paper.

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 will meet Saturday. Two weighty papers are scheduled. From the trestleboard:

“Classifying History Writing by Type” by Bro. Donald Elfreth. This admittedly subjective short essay attempts to fit various types of history writing into four broad areas. There are no firm divisions of these areas, and each may have, to some extent, elements of another. The presenter does not expect all to agree with his analysis, and he looks forward to a lively discussion at the conclusion of his presentation.

“Monitors and Ritual Ciphers” by Distinguished Laureate Bro. Ben Hoff. A survey of history and development of Masonic Monitors and Ritual books, both coded (ciphers) and uncoded, along with their influence on the expansion of our ritual, particularly lectures.

I have read Ben’s well researched paper, and will host him at The American Lodge of Research in October to present it again as part of a multifaceted review of such books. You’ll hear about that when autumn approaches.

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education meets at 9:30 a.m. in Freemasons Hall, home of Union Lodge 19, in North Brunswick. Light refreshments are served before, and a catered lunch ($20) after for those who booked in advance.

Now is still spring, and I will have to miss this meeting of LORE 1786 because it will coincide with the Grotto Supreme Council Session.

     

‘Scottish EA° Working Tools’

    

My lodge had the honor of initiating two candidates for the mysteries of Freemasonry Monday night. I’ve always enjoyed the variety shown in rituals around the Masonic world; the following example offers not only different language in defining the familiar Working Tools of the Entered Apprentice Mason, but also reveals a Working Tool unknown to lodges in the United States.

Under the Grand Lodge of Scotland, there is no single ritual promulgated by headquarters. Instead, lodges are free to customize the work. This doesn’t produce anarchy. Masons are responsible. It just means there isn’t a down-to-the-letter standardization of ritual.

What follows comes from The Scottish Ritual of the Three Degrees of St. John’s Masonry, printed by Lewis in London in 1895.

I now present to you the Working Tools of an Entered Apprentice Free Mason, which are, the Twenty-four inch Gauge, the Common Gavel, and the Chisel.

The Twenty-four inch Gauge is to measure our Work, the Common Gavel to knock off all superfluous knobs and excrescences, and the Chisel to further smooth and prepare the stone, and render it fit for the hands of the more expert Craftsman.

The Twenty-four inch Gauge is the first instrument placed in the hands of a workman, as it enables him to measure the work he is about to begin, so that he may estimate the time and labour it will cost.

The Gavel is an instrument of labour. Known to Artists under various appellations, it is still admitted by them all that no work of manual skill can be completed without its aid.

The Chisel is a small instrument, solid in its form, but of such exquisite sharpness as fully to compensate for the diminutiveness of its size. It is calculated to make impression on the hardest substances, and the loftiest structures are indebted to its aid.

But as we are not operative, but rather Free and Accepted, or Speculative Masons, we apply those Tools to our Morals.

In this sense the Twenty-four inch Gauge represents the twenty-four hours of the day,—part to be spent in Prayer to Almighty God; part in Labour, Refreshment, and Sleep; and part to serve a friend or Brother in time of need, that not being detrimental to ourselves or our connections.

The Common Gavel represents the force of conscience, which should keep down all vain and unbecoming thoughts, so that our words and actions may appear before the Throne of Grace pure and unpolluted.

The Chisel points out to us the advantages of Education and Perseverance, by which means alone we are rendered fit members of regularly organized Society. That the rude material can receive a fine polish from repeated efforts alone. From the whole we deduce this moral: That Knowledge, aided by Labour and prompted by Perseverance, will finally overcome all difficulties, raise ignorance from despair, and establish truth in the paths of Nature and Science.

I can’t locate this quotation, but it fits Aristotelian thought.

     

     

‘Remember the great objects of our association’

    

Chuck Dunning imparted something via Facebook last week that inspires me to share here. (Plus, it’s easier than writing something myself.) Enjoy.

Friends and Brothers,

Chuck Dunning

Here’s a traditional opening charge for Blue Lodges in the Preston-Webb tradition. It’s now rarely a mandatory part of ritual in many jurisdictions, and some no longer even include it as optional. I regard it as highly instructive and inspiring, and it would be wonderful if more lodges included it.

Charge at Opening

The ways of virtue are beautiful. Knowledge is attained by degrees. Wisdom dwells with contemplation: there we must seek her. Let us then, brethren, apply ourselves with becoming zeal to the practice of the excellent principles inculcated by our Order.

Let us ever remember that the great objects of our association are the restraint of improper desires and passions; the cultivation of an active benevolence; and the promotion of a correct knowledge of the duties we owe to God, our neighbor and ourselves.

Let us be united, and practise with assiduity the sacred tenets of our Order. Let all private animosities, if any unhappily exist, give place to affection and brotherly love. It is a useless parade to talk of the subjection of irregular passions within the walls of the lodge if we permit them to triumph in our intercourse with each other.

Uniting in the grand design, let us be happy ourselves and endeavor to promote the happiness of others. Let us cultivate the great moral virtues which are laid down on our Masonic trestleboard, and improve in every thing that is good, amiable, and useful.

Let the benign Genius of the Mystic Art preside over our councils, and under her sway let us act with a dignity becoming the high moral character of our venerable Institution.