‘For Your Love book release party’

    

The New York book release party for Bro. Francis Dumaurier’s For Your Love will take place on Tuesday the 27th. For Your Love is the biography of Bro. Giorgio Gomelsky, the rock and roll impresario of Swinging Sixties London who later became a Freemason in l’Union Française Lodge 17 in Manhattan. From the publicity:

For Your Love

Book Release Party

Tuesday, June 27 at 6:30

Free admission, but RSVP here

Journey NYC

27 West 24th Street, Manhattan

Francis Dumaurier, author and close friend of Giorgio, will present his recently published book about the incredible life of Giorgio Gomelsky. Raul Gonzalez, musician, late friend, and last manager of Giorgio’s Red Door, will co-host the event and share some of the works his band, Barra Libre, produced with Giorgio.

If you would like to collaborate in this event and have something about Giorgio you would like to share (multimedia, videos, photos, etc.), or share a story about Giorgio, please contact Raul here.

A limited number of copies of the book will be available for sale ($20) and will be signed by the author upon request.

To order a copy, click here.

RSVP by Friday, June 23 here.

Number 9. Number 9. Number 9. Number 9.

     

‘For your Brotherly Love’

    

For Your Love, Bro. Francis Dumaurier’s biography of Bro. Giorgio Gomelsky, has been available in digital format for more than a year, but the high quality print versions are coming to market now. In fact, on Sunday, Dumaurier will launch his book in London with a celebration at the historic Crawdaddy Club, where the Rolling Stones got their start and the Yardbirds later served as the house band. (A New York City book launch is coming in June.)

Giorgio Gomelsky (1934-2016) was the impresario and record producer who figured significantly in the Swinging Sixties without himself becoming a household name. I mean he was a name in my household—or at least in my bedroom where my record collection was—but I don’t think he ascended into the stratosphere like Brian Epstein, George Martin, Andrew Oldham, et al.

But, did you know it was Gomelsky who introduced the Beatles to the Stones? Sure, they would have met eventually, but that encounter was sixty years ago last Friday at the Crawdaddy Club. Later in 1963, the Stones would have their first hit single with “I Wanna Be Your Man,” penned pretty much for them by Lennon and McCartney.

Born in Soviet Georgia and died in New York City, Gomelsky’s story has ups and downs, all of which are pretty amazing. He was at Masonic labor in l’Union Française 17 in the Tenth Manhattan District, as is Bro. Francis.

Francis Dumaurier

Tickets to the event Sunday can be had here. There will be a book-signing, live music, and more.

     

‘Joyeux anniversaire, mes frères!’

    

Click to enlarge.

Just a quick and belated happy anniversary greeting to l’Union Française Lodge 17 on its recent 225th anniversary. I should have attended the gala last week.

RW Bro. Francis shares this proclamation from the Mayor’s Office. (I don’t know what to make of the absence of a mention of Freemasonry.)

Joyeux anniversaire, mes frères!

     

‘Masons in a different kind of video’

     

Here is something a little different to enjoy amid our various online Masonic activities these days.

Two Past Masters of l’Union Française Lodge 17 in Manhattan have made an English-language short video. RW Bro. Francis Dumaurier explains:


W. Bro. Alan Bresson has just released a 10-minute video interview of W. Bro. and Executive Chef Didier Virot that you can see on YouTube, in which Didier recalls his coming up the ranks in French and American top restaurants to become the admired professional we all have come to love, both for his personality and for his achievements. Didier also explains in detail his passionate relationship with baking bread, and you may become a convert too after watching this video. The video was produced, directed, recorded, and edited by W. Bresson.

The sipping of a good glass of wine while watching this video is highly recommended.


Click here.
     

‘See the original “Garibaldi” degree!’

     
Okay, so you attended Garibaldi Lodge two weeks ago to witness the amazing 18th century French Rite ceremony of initiation, and were duly dazzled by the Rosicrucian ritual elements you had no idea existed in Masonic rites—well, now you can visit the lodge that gave Garibaldi its Entered Apprentice ritual, and experience it in its original French.

That lodge, l’Union Française 17, also in the Tenth Manhattan District, will confer the EA° on two aspirants Tuesday night. (In fact, No. 17 is the eldest lodge in the Tenth Manhattan, dating to 1797. This was J.J.J. Gourgas’ lodge.)

This will take place on the tenth floor inside the French Doric Room, a small space—tiny compared to the Grand Lodge Room, where hundreds visit Garibaldi—where we sideliners really can view the ritualists’ labors. The lodge shall open at 6 p.m. The degree will begin at 6:45. No one will be admitted after the degree has started.

As you reasonably may expect of a French lodge, there will be a sumptuous feast afterward. That’s $45 per person, cash, which covers everything, including wine, taxes, and gratuities.

Bring your photo identification to enter Masonic Hall, and your current membership card to enter the lodge, but leave the French-English dictionary at home. You’ll be able to follow along despite the language barrier. (I’d see you there, but urgent Grotto business awaits downstairs.) Enjoy!
     

‘Garibaldi Lodge’s EAº in November’

     
It is hard to think of November during this August heat wave, but mark your calendars for Garibaldi Lodge 542’s Entered Apprentice Degree. When the lodge confers the EAº in the fall, I think it usually chooses the Friday before Columbus Day, so this one is a bit later, but save the date: Friday, November 2.

Magpie file photo

Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Bring your apron and current membership card. Be prepared to work your way into a Masonic lodge. Garibaldi will meet in the Grand Lodge Room.

Please help the lodge help you by making reservations. If you are traveling in a group, send a headcount to Garibaldi by emailing them here before October 24. (It’s important. The first time I attended this degree many years ago, I saw a huge contingent of Pennsylvania Masons turned away because the fire department wouldn’t permit an excess of the lawful maximum occupancy for the room.)

Apprentices and Fellows are welcome! They just need a MM escort.

With all that safely explained, about the degree: Garibaldi Lodge 542 is part of the Tenth Manhattan District, that group of historic lodges that includes lodges working in foreign tongues. Garibaldi was chartered in 1864, at which time it received from l’Union Française Lodge 17 its French Rite rituals, and then translated them into Italian. These rituals are very different from what we’d see in nearly every other lodge in America, being that they are of the Continental tradition, rather than the Anglo-American tradition most of us have inherited. The European tradition, at least in this case, features Rosicrucian and Alchemical symbolism that makes the ceremony of initiation very dramatic—flamboyant even. It’s been said that visiting brethren have walked out of the lodge room in protest over the unexpectedly exotic ritual. Don’t be one of those guys. This isn’t theater; this is a tiled Masonic lodge working its Entered Apprentice Degree. If you believe your lodge’s rituals are universal across the country, you are uninformed, so come get some culture at this wonderful opportunity.

Garibaldi Lodge will be at labor and the degree is expected to begin at around eight o’clock, with the closing anticipated to come at about 10 p.m.
     

‘French Rite EA° on Tuesday’

     
Have you seen Garibaldi Lodge’s Italian-language Entered Apprentice Degree? You will have a chance to see the same ritual in its original French on Tuesday, when l’Union Française Lodge 17 will initiate four candidates at Masonic Hall. From the publicity, courtesy Bro. Francis:

The oldest lodge of the 10th Manhattan District, l’Union Française 17, will initiate candidates Tuesday, June 19, in the French Doric Room on the 10th Floor of Masonic Hall, located at 71 West 23rd Street. We open at 6 p.m., and the degree should start around 6:45. No one can be admitted after the degree has begun. Please have your current dues card ready for the Tiler.

Our First Degree does include the rites of purification of Rosicrucian origin, not seen in the traditional American degrees, which we have kept alive since 1797. This degree will be conducted in French by our Worshipful Master with the able assistance of our Senior Deacon and his College of Officers in the intimate setting of our regular lodge room, which gives every visitor the instant feeling of being actively part of the proceedings.

There will be a post-meeting dinner in the restaurant Saju (120 West 44th Street, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, near Times Square) at the cost of $50 (cash) per person, including wine, tax, and tips. You can make your necessary reservations with our Secretary here.

I hope that the length of your cable tow will permit you, and all other interested Brothers who may want to come with you, to join us for this ancient esoteric ceremony, and to help us welcome these four candidates into our Royal Craft.

Fraternally,
RW Francis Dumaurier, 33°, MSA, KYCH
Grand Representative of France
     

‘Giorgio Gomelsky was a Freemason?!’

     
I first encountered the name Giorgio Gomelsky more than 35 years ago when, as a teenager, I was busy tracking down Yardbirds records, and spotted his name in the liner notes. It wasn’t easy finding those LPs in the early ’80s. You needed a sympathetic merchant willing to keep an eye out for used out-of-print vinyl, and imports, and reissues, and bootlegs, and whatever else, but I gradually accumulated them. I don’t know why Giorgio Gomelsky remained in the trivia section of my brain all this time, except that I once thought it a highly unlikely name for a purveyor of early 1960s London blues-rock bands, and such quirky things tend to stick.

So I was bowled over today to learn that Gomelsky, who died in 2016, was a Freemason. And a New York Mason at that.

Bro. Francis Dumaurier announced the progress of his new book. From the publicity:

The French editor Camion Blanc has recently published my book, Mon Ami Giorgio Gomelsky—Rolling Stones, Beatles, Yardbirds, Magma, Gong which is available in paper and Epub versions on Amazon. It features 40 original photographs and illustrations that are published for the first time. I am finishing the English translation, and will try to find an American publisher when the final version is cleared by my editor.

This book celebrates the love of life and phenomenal vision of a giant of a man with whom I shared a close friendship of 30 years. He was the first manager of the Rolling Stones, and introduced the Stones to the Beatles. He managed and produced the Yardbirds, launching the careers of Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. And he managed and produced Gong and Magma in France, and was a keystone of the New York underground rock music scene for more than 30 years.

Brother Giorgio Gomelsky was also a member of l’Union Française Lodge 17 from 1986 to 1996, where he served as Senior Warden.


Francis Dumaurier, in addition to being an author, is an actor you might know from The Post and a slew of television programs.
     

‘EAº with Rosicrucian elements next Tuesday’

     

Courtesy worldofstock.com

The Empire State Building no doubt will be illuminated in the blue, white, and red of the Tricolour when l’Union Française No. 17–this is J.J.J. Gourgas’ lodge and the oldest lodge in the Tenth Manhattan District–will confer the Entered Apprentice Degree on four candidates, in ritual descendant from the French Rite, with purification elements of Rosicrucian origin kept alive since 1797.

This is where Garibaldi Lodge’s EA° comes from.

Tuesday, June 20 at 6 p.m.

Masonic Hall

71 West 23rd Street, Manhattan

French Doric Room, tenth floor

The degree will begin at 6:45, after which no one will be admitted.

The Tenth Manhattan is home to the lodges permitted to work exotic Craft degrees in French, Italian, and Spanish (and maybe other tongues).

Photo ID is required to enter Masonic Hall, and your current membership card is required to work your way into the lodge room. Bring your apron too. The brethren will retire to a nearby restaurant afterward ($50 per person, cash only).

    

‘Moments of Vision’

     

Magpie file photo

Eighteenth century French engraving depicting First Degree ritual on display at the Livingston Library in Masonic Hall.

On Friday, Garibaldi Lodge 542 will meet in the Grand Lodge Room to confer its famous Entered Apprentice Degree. This is the French Rite ritual, entrusted to Garibaldi by l’Union Française Lodge 17, that Garibaldi works in Italian. It is heavy with alchemical and Rosicrucian meanings that one would expect in a European Masonic initiation, and near the end of the ceremony, the Youngest Entered Apprentice has thrust upon him a jolting moment of clarity.

Today is the last day of National Poetry Month. Launched in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets, the celebration highlights the importance of poetry to us all by reading, by honoring poets past and present, by sharing books of poems, and by organizing support for poets and poetry. With this in mind, here is a great from 100 years ago.

Moments of Vision

Thomas Hardy

That mirror
     Which makes of men a transparency,
     Who holds that mirror
And bids us such a breast-bared spectacle to see
     Of you and me?
     That mirror
  Whose magic penetrates like a dart,
     Who lifts that mirror
And throws our mind back on us, and our heart,
     Until we start?
     That mirror
   Works well in these night hours of ache;
     Why in that mirror
Are tincts we never see ourselves once take
     When the world is awake?
     That mirror
   Can test each mortal when unaware;
     Yea, that strange mirror
May catch his last thoughts, whole life foul or fair,
     Reflecting it—where?
     

‘Garibaldi EA° next May’

     
I realize this comes a bit early, but save the date, mark your calendar, program your phone or whatever for Friday, May 5, 2017 when Garibaldi Lodge 542 in the Tenth Manhattan District will confer its famous and singular Entered Apprentice Degree.

This will take place at Masonic Hall (71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan) inside the Grand Lodge Room, which accommodates a maximum of, I think, around 1,200 people. I’ve been there when that huge room was full beyond capacity, and the Fire Department ordered hundreds to be removed for safety reasons—causing several bus loads from Pennsylvania to head home before even the first gavel was sounded.

Don’t let that happen to you.

Make group reservations with the lodge secretary by e-mailing him here. Tell RW Mascialino who you are, from where you will be coming, and how many will be in your party to ensure seating will be waiting for you. Bring your Masonic membership identification and your apron, and be ready to work your way into a tiled Masonic lodge. And you’ll need photo identification to enter the building. Make it easy on yourself and everyone else by arriving at Masonic Hall before 6 p.m. The degree will start at eight.

Magpie file photo

Garibaldi Lodge altar.

The allure of the Garibaldi EA° is almost entirely attributable to the ritual that will be worked. It is a French Rite ritual given to Garibaldi Lodge by its sister lodge in the Tenth Manhattan, l’Union Française Lodge 17. Garibaldi modified it by translating it into Italian, and that will be the language spoken during the degree. All other greetings, commentaries, commands, etc. from the East will be in English.

If you know about Scottish Rite lodge degree rituals, then you have an idea of what to expect on this night: highly symbolic and intense floor work with obvious alchemical meanings, as one finds in lodges in Europe and South America. Don’t worry about the language barrier; it only enhances the enthralling otherworldliness of the proceedings—and you’ll still get it, I assure you.

You’ve probably heard something of the Garibaldi EA, but maybe haven’t had the chance to experience it, so take advantage of this more-than-six-months advance notice and plan to get to Masonic Hall next May 5.
     

‘See Eleven Beatus on Tuesday’

     
In other Jean-Luc Leguay news, word comes from Bro. Francis Dumaurier of a special night planned for Tuesday in his lodge.

Special presentation of “Eleven Beatus”

by Bro. Jean-Luc Leguay

Tuesday, June 21 at 6 p.m.

l’Union Française Lodge 17

Masonic Hall

71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan

French Doric Room, 10th floor

The lodge will host Bro. Leguay for a presentation of “Eleven Beatus,” the work created by the Master Illuminator in tribute to those killed on September 11, 2001.

Leguay, already a famous choreographer and director of several great theaters and operas in France and Italy, developed a passion for the art of manuscript illumination, a tradition dating to the eighth century. He started to study in 1980 with a hermit in southern Italy, who taught him the craft secrets of this sacred art that incorporates symbolism, colors, and geometry.

After he had learned to master the skills necessary to select the proper parchment materials, the techniques of making his own colors from organic sources, and the art of painting his subjects, the artist gradually began to dedicate his life entirely to this craft when his teacher passed away in 1990.

More biographical details, as well as splendid examples of his work, can be seen here.

“Eleven Beatus” will be on display for all to see while the artist introduces it from his own personal perspective. There will also be other masterpieces on display as well as a copy of the amazing 64-page manuscript of paintings that enlighten the theme of “Initiation.”

Bro. Leguay is a Mason at labor in Giordano Bruno Lodge 181 under the Grande Loge Nationale Française, and his presentation will be in French. All present will have the opportunity to shake his hand, view the masterpieces, and receive one of the souvenir tricolor coins which were recently minted for UF17.

The meeting will be tiled but the Great Lights will be lowered to the First Degree in Masonry during his presentation so that Entered Apprentices and Fellow-Crafts may attend.

A post-meeting three course dinner with wine will follow on the 15th floor in the French style of our very own Executive Chef, W. Daniel Monneaux, DSA. The cost will be a minimal, all-inclusive $40 (cash only) per person. Reservations for this dinner are required, and can be made with the lodge secretary here.
     

‘18th century French Rite EA° next week’

     

Courtesy worldofstock.com

The Empire State Building no doubt will be illuminated in the blue, white, and red of France’s Tricolour when l’Union Française No. 17–this is J.J.J. Gourgas’ lodge–will confer the Entered Apprentice Degree, in ritual descendant from the French Rite.

Tuesday, April 19 at 6 p.m.

Masonic Hall
71 West 23rd Street, Manhattan

French Doric Room, tenth floor

The degree will begin at 6:45, after which no one will be admitted inside.

The Tenth Manhattan District is home to the lodges permitted to work exotic Craft degrees in French, Italian, and Spanish (and maybe other tongues).

    

‘EA au français’

     

Courtesy worldofstock.com

The Empire State Building no doubt will be illuminated in the blue, white, and red of France’s Tricolour when l’Union Française No. 17–this is J.J.J. Gourgas’ lodge–will confer the Entered Apprentice Degree, in ritual descendant from the French Rite.

Tuesday, February 17 at 6 p.m.

Masonic Hall
71 West 23rd Street, Manhattan

French Doric Room, tenth floor

The degree will begin at 6:45, after which no one will be admitted inside.

The Tenth Manhattan District is home to the lodges permitted to work exotic Craft degrees in French, Italian, and Spanish (and maybe other tongues). See you there.

    

‘Garibaldi Lodge at 150’

     

In the name of Freemasonry, Virtue, and Universal Benevolence, historic Garibaldi Lodge No. 542 was re-dedicated last night in celebration of its sesquicentennial year, as was done on its centenary and golden anniversaries—and no doubt will be done in 2064—too. By comparison, Italy, as a nation-state, is only 153 years old.

The first Italian-language lodge under the Grand Lodge of New York, Garibaldi would beget no fewer than nine daughter lodges over the years, yet Garibaldi remains unique for its periodic conferral of the French Rite Entered Apprentice Degree. In italiano. Spectators swarm from seemingly everywhere to witness the stunningly symbolic ritual of spiritual transformation that the lodge received from L’Union Française No. 17.

The Grand Master and the Worshipful Master.

Grand Master William J. Thomas and a team of Grand Staff officers opened the Grand Lodge in the Corinthian Room, spreading the elements of consecration upon the symbolic lodge in a ceremony open to the brethren’s ladies and friends. Masons from afar were in attendance; I chatted with brethren from Portugal and Paris. 

The first great care of the two GLNF brethren upon entering the room was “Why are the women here?”

Courtesy Bill Thomas

October was a busy month for the lodge, with New York City’s Columbus Day Parade and an anniversary banquet leading up to the lodge re-dedication last night.


Congratulazioni e buon anniversario, i miei fratelli!
     

‘EA au français’

     

Courtesy worldofstock.com

Here is another 2013 date to add to your calendars. (This falls during the window of the coming ninety days, so I don’t feel too shaken for advertising it already.)

The Empire State Building no doubt will be illuminated in the blue, white, and red of France’s Tricolour when L’Union Française No. 17 – this is J.J.J. Gourgas’ lodge – will confer the Entered Apprentice Degree, in ritual similar to that of Scottish Rite, and in French.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 6 p.m.

Masonic Hall

French Doric Room, tenth floor

The degree will begin at 6:45, after which no one will be admitted inside.

The Tenth Manhattan District is home to the lodges permitted to work Scottish Rite Craft degrees in French, Italian, and Spanish (and maybe other tongues). See you there.

     

'EA au français'

  

L'Union Française Lodge No. 17 will meet tonight to confer the Entered Apprentice Degree ...
in French.


Masonic Hall: 71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan.