‘Masonic Week 2018 info is posted’

     
The program for Masonic Week in February has been posted, as has the hotel registration page. Click here. I see some significant changes in the schedule, so have a careful look.

But the Masonic Society dinner remains in place on Friday night. We are finalizing the keynote speaker’s arrangements now, so there will be an announcement on that coming soon.

I am retiring from Masonic Week. Going forward, it’ll just be Masonic Friday for me, with the Masonic Society’s Board meeting that afternoon and the dinner later. After that, I’ll be heading home.

I started attending in 2002, when it was known as AMD Weekend. I was Senior Warden of my Council at the time, and it was a revelation seeing AMD’s top brass do their thing. I luckily enjoyed so many fun times over the years: The late night conversation in the hospitality suites; the Cabal’s top secret doings at Gadsby’s; and, of course, the birth of the Masonic Society in 2008 in the aftermath of a most interesting Philalethes annual meeting! Things have changed though. Many of the brethren who I delighted in seeing have stopped attending. And, at long last, I must give up my dream of becoming Grand Bung. I just wasn’t made for these times.

But we’ll have a great time at the Masonic Society banquet on Friday. See you there.
     

‘BOTA Christmas Celebration at Masonic Hall’

     
“It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” in New York City: the tree coming to Rockefeller Center, heightened security measures all around, and rats the size of reindeer bumping into you. But seriously, the city’s Builders of the Adytum will host their Christmas Celebration at Masonic Hall next week! I am not a BOTA member, but I did attend its Christmas ceremony several years ago, and I want to go again. From the publicity:

May Light and Love fill your hearts this Christmas season with the healing and blessings of Fraternal Harmony to warm all living creatures who pass your way.

BOTA Christmas Celebration

Saturday, December 2 at 2 p.m.

Masonic Hall, Chapter Room

71 West 23rd Street, Manhattan

Photo ID required to enter building

More information here

Builders of the Adytum is an international non-profit teaching and training order for those interested in the Western Mysteries.
     

‘The first Jewish Grand Master of New York’

     
I’m late in posting this, but there is plenty of time to add this to your calendar. The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of the Grand Lodge of New York continues its monthly lecture series in November with a presentation by a beloved figure from the First Manhattan District. From the publicity:

Livingston Library Lecture Series

Thursday, November 30 at 6:30 p.m.

Masonic Hall

71 West 23rd Street, 14th floor

Manhattan

Join us as we welcome Most Worshipful Daniel M. Semel to speak about the first Jewish Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of New York.

Magpie file photo

A 2016 Distinguished Achievement Award recipient, MW Semel has been an active member of the fraternity throughout his entire Masonic career. He served as Judge Advocate for the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York from 1978 to 2015. Semel also helped facilitate the recognition of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the State of New York, of which he is an Honorary Past Grand Master. Additionally, Semel previously has served as the Grand Representative of the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and as the District Deputy Grand Master of the 6th Manhattan District in 1976.

This event is free and open to the public. White wine will be served. Photo ID is required to enter Masonic Hall.
     

‘Sunday: The Great Escape’

     

The Great Escape! No, not the mass exodus of Masons from the “Grand Lodge of New Jersey,” I mean the School of Practical Philosophy’s Plato Study Day on Sunday! From the publicity:

The Great Escape:

A Day with Plato

Sunday from 8:30 to 4:30

School of Practical Philosophy

12 East 79th Street in Manhattan

$50 per person

($25 for full-time students)

Fee includes reading materials,

refreshments, lunch, and wine reception

22 seats remaining

as of Wednesday morning

Plato’s dialogue Crito enables us to listen in on a dramatic conversation in an Athenian jail cell in 399 BC. The great philosopher Socrates’ execution is set for the next day, and his closest friend Crito arrives offering a foolproof plan of escape. The only question: can he convince Socrates to flee?

Socrates makes it clear that he will only consent to escape if he can be shown that it is the right thing to do—the just and virtuous course of action. Crito, convinced that he has excellent reasons for escape, eagerly presents them one after another. How does he fare? What does Socrates decide? What is his reasoning?

Join us Sunday, November 19 to discover why Socrates said the “unexamined life is not worth living” and enter into a conversation involving life’s most important questions:

• What is our true nature?
• How do we attain real happiness and freedom?
• What is the "price we must pay" to attain these?

In giving serious consideration to these, you may well discover answers for yourself that will positively impact your daily living.

The day includes an opening presentation, group study sessions, a great Greek lunch, light entertainment, and closing reception. Family and friends are welcome and no prior study of Plato is required.
     

‘Why King Solomon’s Temple?’

     
The Scottish Rite Valley of New York City offers a lecture Tuesday night that addresses an important subject, and is open to Master Masons. SP Shlomo Bar-Ayal, 32˚ will present “Why King Solomon’s Temple: Why Did Freemasonry Choose this Building as the Basis for its Lodges Above other Ancient Structures?”

That’s at Masonic Hall (71 West 23rd Street, Manhattan) in the Gothic Room on 12 at 7:30 p.m. Photo ID is required to enter the building. Attire: either black tie or business suit.

I cannot attend, but I would love to hear his research. Many years ago, I also spoke on this subject, relying on the very earliest of Masonic literature to explain how the Tower of Babel had been the architectural focal point of Masonic thought, and how David and Solomon would be embraced as the Biblical models for English and European royal succession. (Succession was a huge deal during the generations leading up to the birth of modern Freemasonry as we know it.)

So make sure you get there, and bring your lodge brothers along.
     

‘To remove the statue forthwith’

     
It seems the Scottish Rite has joined the growing consensus advocating the removal from public space in Washington of the Albert Pike statue at Judiciary Square, if the reporting of the Washington Post is to be believed—not something I recommend typically.

Nevertheless, a story published Monday quotes Ronald Seale writing in agreement on removing the 116-year-old giant bronze and marble rendering of his historic predecessor. The Post also claims Seale was party to an aborted scheme to “whisk away the statue at midnight,” meaning he almost linked himself to the ilk that recently damaged statues of Christopher Columbus, Theodore Roosevelt, and other figures historically essential to American society in the name of constant revolution. Fortunately, reason prevailed after it was realized how federal authority is required to move the monument lawfully.

The story never quotes Seale directly, but cites a letter he allegedly sent in August to a DC councilman saying the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction “will support an action by the District of Columbia to remove the statue forthwith so that it should not serve as a source of contention or strife for the residents of our community.”

Sounds good to me, as I said in the previous Magpie post on this subject, if the statue can be relocated to a Masonic property where, presumably, private property still can be kept safe from mobocracy. However, “contention or strife” are among the principal nutrients for a certain segment of American society that is insatiable for perpetual insurrection, replete with violence against people and property, so they will be back.

It is asked often, including in this Post story, why a Confederate Army general is memorialized in the capital city of the United States. Of course it is a fact that this statue of Pike celebrates Albert Pike the Freemason, and has nothing to do with his brief and undistinguished tenure as a CSA military officer, but perhaps Abraham Lincoln broaches this subject in his second inaugural address, delivered only weeks before he was murdered:

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.
     

‘Mark Tabbert in Jersey next month’

     
Mark Tabbert will visit a Masonic lodge in New Jersey in a couple of weeks to present some of his recent research into George Washington’s Masonic life. This flier has all the details:

Click to enlarge.

‘2018 World Conference on Freemasonry coming to DC’

     
The “World Conference on Fraternalism, Freemasonry, and History—Including Ritual, Secrecy, and Civil Society” will come to Washington, DC next spring.

Hosted by Policy Studies Organization, and normally in Paris, the conference will take place at The Whittemore House in the Federal City. (WCFFH will return to Paris in 2019.) The theme for May 17-18, 2018 will be “Not Men Only: Sisters, Sororities, and Ritualistic Societies.”

List of speakers so far here.

From the publicity:

The World Conferences on Fraternalism are held alternatively in Paris in odd numbered years (2019, 2021), and in Washington in even numbered years (2018, 2020). The Paris conferences are held at the French national library, the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, and the Washington conferences at the historic Whittemore House.

The conferences have themes but they are not exclusionary of other topics. For example, the 2017 Paris conference examined the career of the Chevalier Ramsay, a famous 18th century figure in French fraternalism, but there were many papers on other themes. We welcome papers on all aspects of fraternalism and its ties with social capital. The papers on Freemasonry should not foreclose papers on many other aspects of the subject, including gender, college fraternities, clubs like Rotary, African-American topics, guilds, labor unions. The conferences gain from having a variety of subjects discussed. The committee is also open to presentations of art, dance, folk music, and others, if related.

Papers are both published in the Ritual, Secrecy, and Civil Society Journal, and in books by Westphalia Press. Simultaneous translation is offered at the French conference. Both Paris and Washington are preceded by workshops to which scholars are invited to consider original materials and problems in fraternal research.

A theme of the May 2018 conference in Washington will be women’s fraternalism. A theme of the June 2019 conference in Paris will be the origin and creation of degrees and rites in fraternalism.

A look at past conferences on this site will help in answering questions about panel possibilities, hotels, and other queries.

Conference Chairs:

• Paul J. Rich, President of the Policy Studies Organization, Westphalia Press
• Pierre Mollier, Editor-in-Chief of the Ritual, Secrecy & Civil Society Journal
• Guillermo de los Reyes, University of Houston

     

‘Dead Sea Scrolls conference next month’

     

If you believe Qumran has something to do with your secret society, then you ought to attend educational conferences like this one to improve yourself. NYU does it again. (While a student there decades ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Schiffman, who was the lead researcher when the university obtained the Scrolls on microfilm in the first release of the treasures outside of Israel.) From the publicity:

The Rose-Marie Lewent Conference:

The Dead Sea Scrolls at 70

The NYU Center for Ancient Studies, in conjunction with the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies, announces the Rose-Marie Lewent Conference:

The Dead Sea Scrolls at 70

November 16-17

Hemmerdinger Hall

Silver Center for Arts and Science

32 Waverly Place, Manhattan

Free and open to the public

Thursday, November 16

Session 1: The Community/Communities behind the Dead Sea Scrolls

9:15 a.m. Welcome
Matthew S. Santirocco, NYU

9:30 a.m. What Does Archaeology Tell Us about the Community/Communities behind the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina

10:15 a.m. Archaeology and Text: Khirbet Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls
Lawrence H. Schiffman, NYU

Session 2: Insiders and Outsiders in the Dead Sea Scrolls

11 a.m. Sectarians and Their Semantic Domain: How Best—or Least Badly—to Identify the People of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Maxine Grossman, University of Maryland

11:45 a.m. Isolated in the Judean Desert? The Qumran Sectarians in Imperial Contexts
Alexandria Frisch, Ursinus College

Session 3: The Projects of the Israel Antiquities Authority

2 p.m. The Conservation and Preservation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, 70 Years Later
Pnina Shor, Israel Antiquities Authority

Session 4: The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Mysterious

2:45 p.m. Magic and Demonology in the Dead Sea Scrolls: Retrospect and Prospect
Joseph Angel, Yeshiva University

3:30 p.m. Angelology, Exorcism, and Other Ancient Jewish Sciences: Before and After the Dead Sea Scrolls
Annette Yoshiko Reed, NYU

4:15 p.m. The Scope and Purpose of Encrypted Writing in the Dead Sea Scrolls
Jonathan Ben-Dov, University of Haifa

Session 5: Keynote Address
5:30 p.m. Introduction: The Dead Sea Scrolls at 70
Lawrence H. Schiffman, NYU

6 p.m. Violence and the Dead Sea Scrolls in Scholarship and Popular Media
Alex P. Jassen, NYU

7 p.m. Public Reception

Friday, November 17

Session 6: Sacred Texts and Their Interpretation

9 a.m. The Emergence of the Biblical Text and Canon in Light of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Armin Lange, University of Vienna

9:45 a.m. How They Read the Genesis Apocryphon Then and How We Read It Now
Moshe J. Bernstein, Yeshiva University
Session 7: God and Humans

10:30 a.m. The Offering of Lips: What is Prayer in the Dead Sea Scrolls?
Daniel Falk, Pennsylvania State University

11:15 a.m. Some Thoughts about Prayer, the Divine, and the Human Self at Qumran
Angela Kim Harkins, Boston College

This event is generously supported and co-sponsored by the Salo W. and Jeannette M. Baron Foundation, the Israel Antiquities Authority, and the NYU Dean of the College of Arts and Science, the Dean for the Humanities, the Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Science, the Center for the Humanities, the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, and the Religious Studies Program.

This conference is free and open to the public. For more information, contact the Center for Ancient Studies here.
     

‘NYC Ben Franklin Circle’

     
These Ben Franklin Circles sound like a great complement to Masonic lodge activities—at least until such a time when Masonic lodge activities start to resemble the doings of Ben Franklin Circles. One Circle meets at the 92nd Street Y, but here’s one close to Masonic Hall.

I’ll be at lodge Monday night, but otherwise I would check out this meeting. From the publicity:

Ben Franklin Circles in New York City

Monday, October 16 at 7 p.m.

New York New Church

114 East 35th Street in Manhattan

Improve Yourself. Improve Your World. Join our Ben Franklin Circle!

Ben Franklin Circles bring people together for open and fun discussions about our lives, our values, and our community. The Circles are based on a “mutual improvement club” started and run by Ben Franklin. He and 12 friends meet weekly to talk about how they could improve themselves and their world. Join us for this exciting and fun opportunity to talk about big issues and to meet some new people.
     

‘The Journey in Esoteric Societies’

     

Piers Vaughan will be the guest speaker of Atlas-Pythagoras Masonic Lodge in New Jersey in two weeks. He will present “The Journey in Esoteric Societies” on Friday the 20th. The event will be open to all Freemasons, their families, and friends.

Lodge will open at 7:30 p.m. The address is 1011 Central Avenue in Westfield.
     

‘Grand Masters Day at Tappan’

     

Magpie file photo

DeWint House is located at 20 Livingston Avenue in Tappan, New York.

I think I’ve neglected to spread the news of this year’s Grand Masters Day, but it’s coming soon. On Sunday, October 15 at 1 p.m., the brethren and the public are welcome to visit DeWint House, the George Washington Headquarters historic site owned and operated by the Grand Lodge of New York, for the special occasion.

It is a historic treasure and beautiful piece of property. The museum and the grounds are a must see. That is 20 Livingston Avenue in Tappan, New York. Click here to have a look at the place.
     

‘Masonic Nation’

     
There’s never a bad speaker—I can fix that!—in the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library’s lecture series, but the speaker this month is an exceptional talent.

Author Mitch Horowitz will take to the lectern Thursday, October 26 at 6 p.m. to present “Masonic Nation.” From the publicity:

Mitch Horowitz

Although misrepresented by conspiracy-mongers and fantasists, Freemasonry has had a long and deep-seated influence on American culture and civics, extending back to the nation’s formative days. Join PEN Award-winning historian and widely known voice of esoteric ideas, Mitch Horowitz, for a special exploration of how the symbols, ideals, and personas of Freemasonic tradition left an indelible mark on the way we live and how we view ourselves as Americans—and Mitch’s new vision for Masonry in the twenty-first century.

In books, news media, and television, Mitch Horowitz is one of today’s leading voices on alternative spirituality. The Washington Post says Mitch “treats esoteric ideas and movements with an even-handed intellectual studiousness that is too often lost in today’s raised-voice discussions.” Mitch’s books include Occult America and One Simple Idea, a history and analysis of positive thinking, which was recently censored in China. Visit him @MitchHorowitz.

Open to the public. Photo ID needed to enter Masonic Hall. RSVP here.


You know by now that the Livingston Library is located on the 14th floor of Masonic Hall, which is located at 71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan.
     

‘New film: 33 & Beyond’

     
A new film is being marketed as a definitive source of knowledge on the subject of Freemasonry. A press release disseminated yesterday says 33 & Beyond: The Royal Art of Freemasonry will be screened in 10 American cities, beginning with San Francisco on October 13. Excerpted from the publicity:

33 & Beyond: The Royal Art of Freemasonry is noted as the first film to fully examine the entire American Masonic structure, providing answers from prominent members of the Masonic brotherhood to long-time questions: the purpose and meaning of the rituals, why people join, the unique culture of the Masonic fraternity, and where the future of the ancient society is headed.

The film provides the viewer with a real behind-the-scenes perspective of the Masons’ path to enlightenment, as Freemasons from across the country share their personal experiences within the fraternity and the ultimate overarching narrative of their own “hero’s quest.”

“What begins to surface is a realization that we [the candidates] are able to be the hero or the villain in our daily lives, based on the choices we make. Freemasonry truly is a progressive moral science interlaced throughout the narrative structure of the Hero’s Quest,” says director Johnny Royal.

33 & Beyond: The Royal Art of Freemasonry is a film about the shared experiences of membership in the world’s oldest fraternity. Through poignant interviews and beautiful photography, the film highlights the worldwide legacy of Freemasons and their perspectives on these timeless rituals and their place in the world around them.


I have contacted the publicist to ascertain the dates, times, and places of New York City showings, and will share the information here. The San Francisco ticket prices range from $15 to $50.
     

‘May secrecy round be the mystical bound’

     

Magpie file photo

John Steell's gigantic bronze of Robert Burns is found in Central Park's Literary Walk. It was dedicated October 3, 1880.

It seems like only yesterday but, on this date in 1781, Robert Burns was passed and raised in Lodge St. David in Tarbolton, Scotland. (Hat tip to Missouri Lodge of Research.)

Be on the lookout for Burns Suppers in January. Aurora Grata 647 announced theirs today, but that isn’t the only one by any means. These are held on or around Burns’ birthday on January 25.

One of his Masonic pieces:

Masonic Song (1786)

Tune: Over the Water to Charlie

Ye sons of old Killie, assembled by Willie,

To follow the noble vocation;

Your thrifty old mother has scarce such another

To sit in that honoured station.

I’ve little to say, but only to pray,

As praying’s the ton of your fashion;

A prayer from thee Muse you well may excuse

’Tis seldom her favourite passion.

Ye powers who preside o’er the wind, and the tide,

Who marked each element’s border;

Who formed this frame with beneficent aim,

Whose sovereign statute is order:

Within this dear mansion, may wayward Contention

Or withered Envy ne’er enter;

May secrecy round be the mystical bound,

And brotherly Love be the centre!

     

‘Ric Berman to return to New Jersey’

     
Thank you all for reading The Magpie Mason. With this post, we begin our tenth year together.

The first post on this website, on this date nine years ago, told of a lecture presented that evening by a Past (2004) Prestonian Lecturer in New Jersey. This post tells of another Past (2016) Prestonian Lecturer who will visit New Jersey in a few months for a speaking engagement.

Bro. Richard Berman

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 hosted Bro. Ric Berman in January of last year for a terrific dinner-lecture. He tells me he will return to New Jersey in January of next year for another event, this one hosted by a different group.

When those details are confirmed, I’ll share them here.
     

‘Hugh Hefner was the poster boy for Ecclesiastes 12’

     

Courtesy dailyverses.net

Verses from the Hebrew Bible, known to most Freemasons in the United States, come to mind when seeing the mourning of the death of Hugh Hefner in Masonic social media.

     

‘More Light’

     
“Do open the shutter of the bedroom so that more light may enter.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
(His actual last words.)

The Masonic Light group logo was designed by Bro. Drew Horn, of the Master's Jewel, in 2005.

Admit it, you have abandoned the Yahoo! Groups you once enjoyed for Masonic conversation. Facebook did us in even though it’s almost impossible to find intelligent discourse anywhere on there.

Fortunately, Josh Heller refuses to give up on Masonic Light. The co-founder, with Chris McClintock in 2000, of the most informed, diversely populated, and useful online Masonic discussion forum of early e-Masonry recently resumed the reins (from yours truly), resolved to make the group a haven for thinking Freemasons again.

After a group purge, to wash away all the obsolete email accounts and ensure the group is home only to the living, Josh has a plan that will be launched October 1. He has enlisted the help of six other members who each will take possession of one day of the week to spark discussion. These are:

Sundays: Josh Heller
Mondays: Magpie Mason
Tuesdays: Charlie Persinger
Wednesdays: Jason Mitchell
Thursdays: Clay Anderson
Fridays: Rashied Sharrieff-Al-Bey
Saturdays: Gerald Reilly (the famous Gerald Reilly)

We do welcome new members. Check us out here.
     

‘Philadelphia Opera’s Magic Flute’

     
You know it’s a small world when a Freemason in Florida alerts a New York City Mason to a Magic Flute production in Philadelphia, but here we are. (Thanks, Scott.)

Only two performances remaining at the Academy of Music, tomorrow and Sunday.

From the publicity:

In Mozart’s masterful comedy about love, truth, and the pursuit of enlightenment, Prince Tamino sets off to rescue Pamina, the beautiful daughter of the Queen of the Night, from the mysterious Sarastro. But, with the help of the bird-catcher Papageno and three Spirits as their guide, Tamino discovers an even bigger adventure, and is united with his love along the way. Celebrated co-directors Suzanne Andrade and Barrie Kosky present The Magic Flute in a playfully subversive, crowd-pleasing production that evokes a meeting between 1920s silent movies and David Lynch, with the singers performing amidst fanciful animated projections. Created by the British theater group 1927, the L.A. Times calls this Magic Flute “a stunning live-action cartoon. It is fun for the whole family.”

Full synopsis here.

Tonight at seven, there will be screenings of silent short films that inspired this Magic Flute staging. Click here.
     

‘AMD Gathering next month’

     
The brethren of the Allied Masonic Degrees in New York have announced their state gathering. From the publicity:

New York AMD Gathering

Saturday, October 1 at 10 a.m.

Schenectday Lodge 1174

394 Princetown Road, Schenectady

Most Venerable Gary B. Hinson, KGC, Sovereign Grand Master of the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees of the United States of America will be attending.

The Council will open at 10:30 with a brief paper by RV Oscar Alleyne. Other papers may be presented. Lunch will be served, followed by the First Grade of the Scarlet Cord Degree. Presentations will be made after the degree.

Please inform the brethren of your AMD Council of this important and memorable event.

Additional details to follow as we approach the Most Venerable Sovereign Grand Master’s visit.

Contact Frank Karwowski here if you plan to attend, as well as how many will be making a reservation for lunch. MOL reservations accepted by those who have access to it.