‘It is done’

    

Or maybe I should say “Now I’ve done it!”

Last night, The American Lodge of Research convened its Annual Meeting for elections and installation of officers, plus other regular and constitutional business. In addition to officers moving up, we have new faces in the officer line. Bro. Erich, who happens to be the secretary of New Jersey’s research lodge, is our junior deacon. He also is a Ph.D. candidate, specializing in nineteenth century Freemasonry, at Drew, and is a Masonic book dealer. A good guy to have around. Bro. Ziad, who presented a fascinating paper last year on Princess Lamballe, is our “Master Mason without,” observing the approach of you-know-who. RW Michael Chaplin joins our trustees team because serving as DDGM of the First Manhattan isn’t that demanding after all. Who knew?

Yours truly is the new Worshipful Master.

How I’ll always remember it.

I joined the lodge’s officer line so long ago I actually was still Master of New Jersey’s research lodge. Sixteen years ago. Feels like about fifty. Since I had a captive audience, I harangued the brethren with my inaugural paper, “It’s Just Common Sense: Thomas Reid and the Fellow Craft Degree.” This is an explanation of how one of the most important philosophical writings of the Scottish Enlightenment, that concerning the Five Physical Senses, came to be incorporated into what we today call the Middle Chamber Lecture.

It’ll come across better in print—if I ever get the book finished—than in my oral presentation, but for example, here’s a whiff of New York’s Middle Chamber Lecture:

Smelling is that sense by which we distinguish odors, the various kinds of which convey different impressions to the mind. Animal and vegetable bodies, and indeed most other bodies, while exposed to air, continually send forth effluvia of vast subtlety, as well in a state of life and growth, as in the state of fermentation and putrefaction. These effluvia, being drawn into the nostrils along with the air, are the means by which all bodies are distinguished. Hence it is evident that there is a manifest appearance of design in the great Creator’s having planted the organ of smell inside of that canal, through which the air continually passes in respiration.

And here is a puff of Dr. Reid’s thoughts circa 1764:

University of Glasgow

Dr. Thomas Reid

Natural philosophy informs us, that all animal and vegetable bodies, and probably most other bodies, while exposed to the air, are continually sending forth effluvia of vast subtlety, not only in their state of life and growth, but in the states of fermentation and putrefaction. These volatile particles do probably repel each other, and so scatter themselves in the air, until they meet with other bodies to which they have some chemical affinity, and with which they unite, and form new concretes… But that all bodies are smelled by means of effluvia which they emit, and which are drawn into the nostrils along with the air, there is no reason to doubt. So that there is manifest appearance of design in placing the organ of smell in the inside of the canal through which the air is continually passing in inspiration and expiration.

Reid was not a Freemason, as far as I can determine.

Looking ahead, The American Lodge of Research will shift gears for this 2024-25 term. For our Stated Communications, we’ll have meetings organized around themes.

Tuesday, October 29

That’s a fifth Tuesday

“Masonic Hall Monitors” will be our theme. Our keynote speaker, RW Ben Hoff, Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786, will present his new paper on the origins, evolution, and diversity of Masonic ritual ciphers, monitors, and exposures. Also, RW Samuel Lloyd Kinsey, Chairman of the Custodians of the Work, will visit to discuss the research that went into Grand Lodge’s latest ritual book and the upcoming monitor (the first monitor since the 1980s). RW Michael LaRocco, Executive Director of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, will exhibit choice samples of such books—the antique, the rare, the odd.

Macoy Masonic Supply Co.

The new Macoy Monitor reprint with bookmark.

And the Worshipful Master will conclude the evening with a very brief explanation of the newly published reprint of the Macoy Monitor of 1867.

Monday, March 31, 2025

That’s a fifth Monday

“A Night for the Marquis and the Count” will be the theme. RW Chris Ruli of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, and author of the upcoming book Brother Lafayette, will discuss the Masonic aspects of the Marquis de Lafayette’s farewell tour of the United States in 1824-25. Bro. Huhn, Junior Deacon, will discuss Alexis de Toqueville’s thoughts on Freemasonry, as gleaned from his tour of America in 1831-32.

This meeting will be a small part of New York Freemasonry’s commemoration of Lafayette’s tour.

Monday, June 30, 2025

A fifth Monday

Annual Meeting. RW Yves Etienne to become our next Worshipful Master!

In addition, we will hold a meeting on the road, possibly at New Rochelle. Also, a series of Zoom sessions, bringing together our members wherever dispersed about the face of the earth, is conceived. Plus, there’s always time for a Festive Board! (Bro. Chris planted a most intriguing idea in my head last night for the Festive Board.)

My thanks to MW Bill Sardone, who took charge as Installing Officer; to W. Michael, who invested us with our jewels as Installing Marshal; and to W. Conor, who guided us spiritually as Installing Chaplain.

Congratulations to W. Bro. Michael on completing his year in the East. He made sure we revived our tradition of hosting a Festive Board, and he continued our practice of co-hosting an event with another Masonic group. A good year.

And best of luck to my brother officers. We are in for good times.

     

‘Two interlaced deltas enclosing a protractor’

     

I searched through The Magpie photo archives hoping to find a shot of an Assistant Grand Lecturer wearing the apron of his office to illustrate this excerpt from the new issue of The Empire State Mason Magazine, and found Yves! Anyway, in the back of the book, Bro. Richard Kessler, the Right Worshipful Grand Lecturer, has a regular column titled, appropriately, “From the Grand Lecturer,” where this time he addresses three common questions. The first is: “Does the insignia on the Assistant Grand Lecturer apron have any significance in our ritual?”

Before I transcribe his answer, let me try to explain the design of the apron of the Very Worshipful brethren who wear it: No purple or gold, but a blue trim around a white background upon which lie a black equilateral triangle interlaced with a white equilateral triangle, forming a six-point star, within which is a protractor with its straight edge horizontal and its curved side above. Got it?

RW Kessler’s reply:

It does. The following is the symbology which has been used by Grand Lecturers in our jurisdiction: The Seal of Solomon or Shield of David is a hexagonal figure consisting of two interlaced triangles. The creates a six-pointed star. Upon it was inscribed one of the sacred names of God, from which inscription it was to derive its talismanic powers. These powers were reputed to be very extensive. It was called the Sacred Delta by the Ancients and was known as the symbol of the Great Architect of the Universe and also as the element of important ceremonies.

Magpie file photo

VW Bro. Yves Etienne
at Shakespeare 750
on September 2, 2010.

The interlocking triangles, or deltas, enclosing the protractor designate the Grand Lecturer or Assistant Grand Lecturer and are explained as follows: The two triangles, one white and the other black, interlacing, exemplify the mingling of opposing forces in nature: darkness and light, falsehood and truth, ignorance and wisdom, evil and good. They also are symbolic of the union of the body and soul. The protractor in the center of the two triangles is a symbol of wisdom and truth, and is emblematic of precision and perfection, which we hope for, both in our ritual and our lives. The emblem symbolizes one endowed with knowledge, who strives to overcome ignorance with wisdom, speak truth, and bring Masonic Light to the Craft.


If I’m not mistaken, this apron design and the office of Very Worshipful Assistant Grand Lecturer were devised in the 1990s with the goal of imparting to the brethren not only ritual instruction, but also the meanings of ritual elements and symbols. In 2015 the focus has been the Entered Apprentice Degree, and the results are conversations about the meaning of Masonry. Imagine that. The first time I saw one of these aprons, I assumed it was the apron of some crazy lodge at Masonic Hall that provided its brethren Masonic instruction with alchemical or other esoteric influences. You see all kinds of aprons at Masonic Hall.