It’s Saint Andrew’s Day

DATE: November 30th, 2008 Feast of Saint Andrew
WEATHER: A most glittering starlight sky
OUTLOOK: No suffering

On this day in 1736, the Grand Lodge of Scotland was formed when about a third of the approximately 100 known lodges sent representatives to Edinburgh to settle the matter. Despite being the native land of the earliest known Masonic lodges, Scotland was not the first to form a national body. The 30th of November was selected because it is the Feast Day of St. Andrew, who is the patron saint of Scotland and of Scottish Freemasonry. It is his Feast Day because on this date in 60 C.E., during the reign of Nero, he was martyred.

There was that Hellenic period in Jewish history when Jews had Greek names, and the name Andrew indeed derives from the Greek word for “manly.” (Somehow, “Andrew Palmer Hall” just sounds bland.) Considering he was one of the 12 chosen to be Apostles, it is odd that Scripture doesn’t offer much information on him. What little I know is found here.

“St. Andrew is said to have been crucified on an X-shaped cross, although there is no historical evidence to support this claim,” writes Rex Hutchens in his book A Bridge to Light. “The cross bearing his name appears on the Scottish flag. He is said to have appeared to Hungus, King of the Picts in the ninth century, promising him victory in a battle with the English King Athelstan who sought to conquer Scotland. In the sky that night St. Andrew placed the shape of the cross on which he was crucified as a token of this promise or covenant. The Picts defeated Athelstan and thereby maintained their liberty, for a while.”

Scotland figures significantly in the history of American Freemasonry. “It has been established that the first Freemason known to have been in America was John Skene,” says Coil’s Masonic Encyclopedia, “whose name appears on the roll of Lodge of Aberdeen and who settled at Burlington, New Jersey in 1682.” (The lodge in Aberdeen itself can be traced to the year 1483, according to this same reference book.) Chartered Nov. 30, 1756, St. Andrew’s Lodge in Boston would distinguish itself several times during the colonial era. In 1764 it became the first Masonic lodge anywhere to possess its own hall upon purchasing the Green Dragon Tavern. On Dec. 16, 1773, this lodge became linked, accurately or otherwise, to the Boston Tea Party when some of its members – enough to prevent the lodge from holding its meeting scheduled for that evening – involved themselves in the Tea Party.

St. Andrew’s Masons are found around the world. In Scandinavia, where the Swedish Rite continues Scottish traditions (incidentally, the GL of Scotland warranted St. Magnus Lodge No. 199 at Gothenburg in 1780), there are St. John’s lodges that confer the three Craft degrees, from which the deserving may be allowed to progress to the St. Andrew’s lodges, which work three subsequent degrees.



Aprons of the V° and VI° of St. Andrew's Masonry in Norway. (Courtesy of the Museum of Masonic Culture, Lincoln Park, New Jersey)

Today, American Masons must look to the Scottish Rite for remnants of St. Andrew’s Masonry or Scotch Masonry. It is the 29° in that system of degrees that still holds the title Knight of St. Andrew. (Plus, there is a fraternity of this name within the Scottish Rite.) There being two Scottish Rite jurisdictions in the mainstream of the fraternity, it should be noted that more than one version of this degree is extant, and that both versions have undergone many changes over the years. The form of this degree circa 1804 is of interest to students of the history of “High Degrees.” In it, the Grand Master of Ceremonies explains to the candidate the differences between the three degrees of St. John’s lodges and this degree:

An Elder Scottish Master is a high Priestly Order, my Brother, and highly different from the Blue Master. A Master of the three lower degrees, wherein until now you was only taught to venerate the Godhead, under the name of the Most Great, Most Wise and Almighty Architect of the Universe. But an Elder Scottish Master must pay a more deep and feeling veneration to the Almighty God. That due veneration we are taught by the teacher and declarer of our Holy Order, when he says “The true worshippers will worship him in spirit and in truth.” The first veneration is common to all men and Brethren, as directed by common sense, but the latter belongs to those who dedicate their hearts for the dwelling of the Most High and Merciful God, the Grand Architect of the Universe.

The candidate then is informed that his current working knowledge of the use of the Square and Compasses, which is “only” for “mathematical geometry,” merely hints at their purpose in the Scottish work. He then receives the Signs, Tokens and Words of the degree. “The first part of the Grand Scottish Sign alludes to the Priests in the Temple, who always put their hands to their foreheads… as if to keep off the rays, whenever they gave the benediction.” Then comes a lesson in alchemical matters, followed by the knighting. (Source: Ordo Ab Chao. Illustration courtesy of Scottish Rite Research Society.)

This degree today, as worked in the A&ASR Southern Jurisdiction, instructs in nine virtues, presented in three groupings of three. Hutchens writes: “Humility, Patience and Self-Denial are the three essential qualities of a Knight of St. Andrew of Scotland.” Charity, Generosity and Clemency must be enlisted in the defense of “all orphans, maidens, and widows of good family, and wherever they heard of murderers, robbers, or masterful thieves who oppressed the people, to bring them to the laws, to the best of their power.” Virtue, Truth and Honor “protects us when we are unarmed, and is an armor that we cannot lose, unless we be false to ourselves…. Nor is there wisdom without virtue, but only a cunning way of procuring our own undoing.”

(This mention of armor may be a link to the alchemical symbolism of the 1804 ritual, which speaks pointedly of seven planets and seven metals. I’ll have to read up on that.)

In his encyclopedic Scottish Rite Ritual: Monitor and Guide, Ill. Art de Hoyos describes the degree as one “intended to inculcate equality, representing the poor knight equal to the monarch…. The beautiful Masonic doctrine of Toleration is exemplified in this.”


The apron of the 29°
depicts
the St. Andrew's cross,
thistle
and stars.
(Courtesy of the Museum
of Masonic Culture,
Lincoln Park,
New Jersey.)





One virtue that first comes to the minds of many Masons when asked to define Freemasonry is Toleration, and in fact that is the key purpose of the 29° here in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the AASR. In the mid 19th century, the NMJ’s ritual of this degree was similar in philosophy to the ritual the Southern Jurisdiction uses today. The Knight of St. Andrew had the missions of rebuilding churches destroyed in the Holy Land by the Saracens; of protecting pilgrims to the Holy Land; and of performing other duties of knighthood. In the years following, it underwent many changes, and was set in the court of a Turkish sultan.

As the historical notes prefacing the ritual say:

The Knights of Saint Andrew appear before him loaded with chains. The Sultan discusses ransom for the captives. He asks concerning the Order of Knighthood and requests an invitation. He is at first refused until Knights learn from the Koran that the essentials of belief are the same. The Sultan and two Emirs are received into the Order. Ransom is paid by the Sultan and Emirs. A lengthy lecture on “Toleration” concludes the Degree.

In 1896 the degree took the form the NMJ knows today, although other rewritings would arise until 2003. It takes place in 1396 at Patras (ancient Patrae), in Achaia, Western Greece, and inside the Cathedral of St. Andrew, temporary military headquarters of Sultan Bayazid I.

“Masonic equality is not an artificial leveling of wealth or outward conditions,” says the Prologue of the degree. “It is the true equality which should exist between men of virtue and high ideals, regardless of such conditions. In the code of chivalry, the poorest Knight and the greatest King were equal as Knights. Masonic toleration is respect for the opinions of others. No one man, no one church, no one religion has a monopoly on truth. We should be true and faithful to our own opinions, and we should extend to the opinions of others the same respect we demand for our own.”

S.M.I.B.

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Regalia of the 29°. (Courtesy Scottish Rite Research Society)

“The Cross of St. Andrew is an ancient symbol, far older than Christianity,” writes Ill. Jim Tresner, author of Vested in Glory. “It is formed in the heavens by the point at which the celestial equator crosses the plane of the eliptic. Seeming to have symbolized the idea of change from very early times, it appears on ancient statues of the Mithraic deity Kronos, the lion-headed, winged human figure often shown standing on a globe marked with that cross, probably suggesting change as a function of time.”

The thistle is the national emblem of Scotland.

“The Danes invaded Scotland and stealthily surrounded Staines Castle,” according to A Bridge to Light. “They took off their shoes to wade the moat, only to find it dry and filled with thistles. The resultant yells and curses roused the garrison, and the Danes were soundly defeated.”



Regalia of the 29°. (Courtesy Scottish Rite Research Society)

The aprons shown below are among the many Scottish Masonic aprons on display at the Museum of Masonic Culture, located at the Valley of Northern New Jersey.



Grand Lodge of Scotland apron highlighting the MacQueen tartan.



The apron of the Grand Lodge of Scotland's Provincial GL of Bermuda, featuring the Black Watch tartan.



An apron from Scotland's District Grand Lodge of South Africa.



This apron is from Scotland's District Grand Lodge of the Middle East, which includes Lebanon, which is also ground zero in the current feud between the grand lodges of New York and Washington, DC.

‘From Commandery to Consistory’

     


When the planets align just so, it is possible to have a York Rite Commandery and a Scottish Rite Consistory meet on consecutive evenings. Or maybe it’s just coincidence. Either way, that’s how it worked out this week. Trinity Commandery, No. 17 met in Conclave on Monday, followed by New Jersey Consistory last night.

The occasion at Trinity was especially memorable for many reasons. We were treated to the visit of M.E. William H. Koon, II, Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of the United States. He’s an Honorary Member of our Commandery, so it’s tempting to think of him as just Billy, an informality he does not discourage at all.

The purpose of the evening was to confer the Order of the Temple upon 15 Knights of Malta, and Billy presided over the ritual conferral, leading Trinity’s officers through the ceremony. This cannot be taken for granted because of the excellent quality of the ritual work refined over many years at Trinity. The Knights certainly have “their way” of doing things. (A grand officer once admiringly dubbed Trinity the “Cecil B. DeMille Commandery” for the ceremonial flourishes that make its ritual work unique in New Jersey, unique for its effective esoteric transmission.) Anyway, the Grand Master and Trinity’s Knights had no opportunity to rehearse, but complemented each other’s efforts magnificently nonetheless.

Another reason that circumstance is notable is for the singularity of having anyone else confer the Order. The Order of the Temple at Trinity was conferred for 43 years by Thurman C. Pace, Jr., Honorary Past Grand Master, but he gladly stepped aside for this memorable occasion.

The sizable class included many friends: Hansel from Sons of Liberty, Geoffrey from Essex Lodge, Gordie from Scott Chapter, and others. I’m glad they were able to advance to this key Masonic experience. The Order of the Temple, in the hands of a Commandery that knows its business, makes for an unforgettable and inspiring experience.

The Order was followed by a round of awards presentations. It’s great to see friends recognized for the hard work they put into their Freemasonry. Honestly, “hard work” is an understatement in some instances.

X, a recent Past Commander of Trinity, who also is a veritable mainstay of many York Rite organizations and those organizations’ events near and far, was duly recognized with the Templar’s highest honor: the Knight Commander of the Temple. Here he is being invested with the jewel by Thurman.



Similarly recognized was Mike Lakat, Grand Commander of New Jersey. Despite serving on his staff as editor of our monthly magazine, I actually do not know Mike very well, but it is obvious to anyone that he exudes class, professionalism and fraternal friendliness. He is precisely what Masonry would want in its leaders. These top awards were given very correctly. Our fraternity too often heaps titles and jewels on those who do not necessarily earn them. Sometimes it is a kind of momentum, like a snowballing effect, where rank is bestowed upon one because he already has so many others. In these instances, merit clearly won the day.

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The Scottish Rite’s equivalent of the YR’s Commandery is its Consistory, which “consists” of 32° Masons. The 32° itself is titled “Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret,” and the meeting of New Jersey Consistory on Tuesday was devoted to a discussion of what that secret is, decoding the symbols and ritual that impart it.

The degree has changed over the generations, so what a Google search can yield might not reveal the current form of the degree. Our lecturer did his best to explain various ritual elements for the benefit of all present, especially those who had just received this degree on Saturday.

Most importantly the term “secret” should not be understood as something to be hidden from the world, but rather as synonymously with “mystery,” because it is something intangible that we ought to seek in every aspect of life, not just in ritual contexts.

The trestleboard of this degree, nicknamed “The Camp,” is pregnant with symbols, as it is the accumulation of the symbolism of the entire corpus of AASR degrees. The significance of Frederick the Great, the history of the Rite of Perfection, and other subheadings were covered.

The presentation concluded with a revealing look at what the 33° used to be. Not to be confused with the modern 33°, which was written about 50 years ago to impart a variety of Masonic ideals, this original 33° was intended to continue the Templar lessons of the 30th, 31st and 32nd degrees of Scottish Rite Masonry circa 1804. I’ll have to leave you in suspense on that one.
     

A pretty singular occurrence

     
Here’s something you don’t see every day: one grand lodge in the United States withdraws its recognition of another grand lodge… over the latter’s new lodge in Lebanon!

But that’s where we are.

On Wednesday, the Grand Lodge of New York adopted a resolution withdrawing formal recognition of the Grand Lodge of Washington, DC because GLDC chartered and consecrated Ahiram Lodge, No. 1000 in Beirut. (website under construction)


It might seem unlikely that anyone would want to meet in a Masonic lodge in that city, thanks to the decades of violence there, but actually the Grand Lodge of New York, the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and other jurisdictions have had lodges working in Beirut for many years. The GLNY formed its Syria-Lebanon district in 1925.

I won’t repeat what the respective grand masters have said on this matter. You can click on the images to read the correspondence yourself.

‘Just call me Frank’

Francis Scott Key III, a Scottish Rite Mason since 1944, when he joined the A&ASR in the Panama Canal Zone. He demitted in 1975 and joined the Valley of Northern New Jersey.

Naturally Freemasonry devotes a lot of time to history, whether its own history, or American history, world history, Biblical history, etc. But where the annals of Masonry and those of larger contexts intertwine is especially fascinating and worthy of study and preservation. That was the case today when Francis Scott Key III, the great-great-grandson of the author of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was honored with a very special luncheon followed by an interview filmed for posterity by the Supreme Council of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Northern Masonic Jurisdiction.

A very special day indeed. For the occasion, Ill. John William McNaughton, Sovereign Grand Commander of the AASR-NMJ, and his counterpart, Ill. Ronald A. Seale, SGC of the A&ASR-SJ journeyed to Jersey to be part of this celebration, joining local Masonic dignitaries from Scottish Rite and Grand Lodge alike.

“I just try to be a good citizen,” said Key when asked what it is like to share a name so well known from history books. “The name didn’t mean much to me until I was 21.” It was at that age when he began to learn about his family history. Key said his father never spoke much about the family, alluding to a rift among relatives concerning something called the Civil War. “I began reading about his father, a lieutenant during the Revolutionary War. He marched his men from Maryland to Boston to fight with Washington. When George Washington died, he (by then a general) got his men together and paraded behind the casket on the way to the cemetery. He spent three or four days with Martha Washington then; she had gotten to know the Key family quite well.”

“When I got older and read about Francis Scott Key, I wanted to be like him, but I couldn’t be. He was a highly educated man, and I am not. I only went to high school. He was a lieutenant during the war – not a fighter, but a lawyer. And he did a lot for people beside writing “The Star-Spangled Banner.’ ” But Key and his historic ancestor do share traits. “He knew what he wanted (in life) and he got it,” Key explained, “and I did too. I got to work in South and Central America, Africa and Europe, and met a lot of people. The good lord has been with me.”

“It is an honor to have this great name,” he added. “For what those people did, I feel very proud to be related to them. I was in the Navy, and every time they played the National Anthem it meant a lot to see what that song meant to other people.”

That shared sense of pride he witnessed is important to Key, not only for the way it honored his namesake’s memory, but because to him that common bond of American identity is what can reverse the biggest problems he sees confronting America today. “I have been on different Army and Navy posts, and in many lodges too, and watched everybody gather. Everybody stands up and really honors that song.”

“I don’t know how young people feel about it,” he added. “I know today many people – even older men – cannot sing even the first part of it. I do want people to respect the American flag and show it. And you should know the first stanza of “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

“I want for America what we had before,” he continued, alluding to a national identity. “I want to see our country get back like it was years ago. There’s nothing I can do about it. I’m just an ordinary old man.” He also explained in detail his admiration and hopes for President-elect Barack Obama, looking to him for leadership in uniting Americans of all backgrounds. “He wants to make something of this country, and I think he will.”


Francis Scott Key III was born September 23, 1912 in Panama City in the Republic of Panama. His family lived and worked there in the Canal Zone thanks to his father’s personal friendship with Theodore Roosevelt. Key made his life there into adulthood, working on Canal projects and for United Fruit, and was made a Mason there as well. He progressed to the Scottish Rite in 1944, joining the Valley of Balboa. He has resided in New Jersey since 1960, and joined Tilden Lodge, No. 183 in Dumont (now Alpine-Tilden-Tenakill Lodge, No. 77). He received a demit from those four A&ASR bodies in the Panama Canal Zone in 1975, when he joined the Valley of Northern New Jersey.

“We can’t look backward. We have to look forward. I have traveled all over the world, and we’ve got everything here,” Key said. “If the people would get together behind this new president – he’s got enough ‘upstairs’ – we can make this a better country again.”

Visiting an old Valley

I attended a concert last night and unexpectedly found myself inside an old Scottish Rite building, formerly the home of the Valley of New York City.

We arrived near the end of the opening act’s set, so it was dark. While wrestling myself out of my overcoat my gaze was directed to the ceiling where, staring back at me, was a foursome of Rose Croix emblems. Then next to that I see the Consistory’s Double-Headed Eagle. Then the Council’s Scales of Justice, etc., etc.

I had no camera with me, and my phone of course is useless for such shooting, but the room can be see here.

The building is the Manhattan Center, home of Hammerstein Ballroom, which I’ve walked past maybe a thousand times, but had never entered. We were in the Grand Ballroom on the seventh floor. I later got to talking with someone sitting in front of me, who said he’d attended a show three weeks ago on another floor, and that hall had an Arabic design, so maybe that was once a Shrine facility?

The New York Times has this to say:

Masonic Movements

Q. On my way to work, I pass a building on West 34th Street now called the Manhattan Center. Carved into its facade are the words ''Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite.'' What does this mean?

A. The phrase refers to the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite of Free Masonry, an order of the New York Freemasons who once occupied that building.

A well-known fraternal organization, the Freemasons have been in New York since the place was called New Amsterdam. The first Grand Lodge of Freemasonry was opened in New York in 1781 (until then all Freemason lodges were part of a grand lodge in England). In 1789 George Washington was sworn as America's first president at Federal Hall in Lower Manhattan on a bible borrowed from the Freemason grand lodge on Lower Broadway.

In 1867 the Freemasons moved their grand lodge to 23rd Street and Sixth Avenue. In 1910 a new grand lodge was constructed in an adjacent lot at 24th Street. Over the years, several Freemason lodges have sprung up around the city, including the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, who occupied the Manhattan Center at 311 West 34th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues, for just over a decade in the 1920's and 30's. Today the Scottish Rite, and 64 other Freemason lodges, meet at the Grand Lodge, still on 24th Street.

Famous New York Freemasons include Fiorello H. La Guardia, Harry Houdini, Duke Ellington and John Jacob Astor.

Anyway, it was a damn fine show, replete with the performer's justified cursing out of one rowdy audience member. Happy birthday Lara!

ALR looks at Templars

RW Thomas Savini, director of the Grand Lodge of New York’s Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, displays the painstakingly replicated facsimile of the famous Chinon Parchment to interested brethren of American Lodge of Research Wednesday evening.

What better setting than the French Ionic Room could there be to display the documents of the Avignon Pope’s trial of the French monastic order we call the Knights Templar?

There we were at the Regular Communication of American Lodge of Research Wednesday night in the Grand Lodge of New York building to view these spectacular reproductions of historic documents. I have heard of the quality of Vatican publications, but I was unprepared for the lavish packaging and the exacting detail created by the publisher in the production of “Processus Contra Templarios.”

It isn’t only a book. In addition to the oversize multi-lingual tome there are multiple facsimile copies, published on a realistic synthetic fabric that retains the look and feel of medieval parchment, of many ancillary documents – including one text that happens to record Pope Clement’s absolution of the Templar Order of the most serious charges against them. This item, dubbed the “Chinon Parchment,” was discovered in the Vatican Secret Archives in 2001 by a researching scholar, who found it and recognized its significance. It simply had been misfiled all these centuries, obscuring a giant historical fact.



The reproduction of the Chinon Parchment.

This stunning package of historical documents was purchased by the Grand Lodge of New York’s Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, disbursing $8,600 from a fund bequeathed to the library for the purpose of acquiring singular research materials that otherwise would elude the brethren. But what has the fate of a crusading order of knights to do with Freemasonry, and why would one of the most important Masonic research libraries in the world acquire these archival reproductions?

RW Bro. Thomas Savini, director of the library, explained, saying part of the library’s mission is to “provide resources for the experiential side of Masonry – the intangibles that drove us all to become Freemasons – for our discussion, and study, and growth.” (The only other known Masonic organization in the United States to have acquired a copy is the House of the Temple, headquarters of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in Washington. The November-December issue of “Scottish Rite Journal” features a cover story on Ill. Hoyt Samples and his wife Mitzi who lavished that donated copy of “Processus.”)

Savini and RW Bill Thomas, who was acting Master of the lodge for the evening, continued the talk with a history of the medieval Knights Templar, from its founding to its dissolution, a story popular enough among Masons that it need not be related here, except for one interesting point Savini noted about the relationship between the French king and the Catholic pope. Explaining how Philip IV exerted control, “flexing his muscles,” Savini placed this political situation into the context of the Age of Reason. We see “a secular authority can hold more power than the pope,” he added, and in fact the king ordered the Church Inquisition to arrest the Templars. To make a long legal story short, the Order had been charged with the capital crime of heresy, plus a variety of lesser crimes, like sacrilege and sodomy, and were absolved by the pope of the former, but convicted of the latter.

I guess by today’s standards, the knights would be fit to serve in Congress.

RW Bill Thomas, a Trustee of the Livingston Library, noted the similarity of the Templar organization structure to Freemasonry, and how that affected the Inquisition’s prosecution, explaining how junior members of the Order were arrested, but were unable to answer the Inquisition’s most serious questions due to their lack of seniority.

But about these wonderful documents and their value to historian and hobbyist alike.

They provide “a real tactile experience,” Savini said, explaining how the synthetic material employed in the construction of the “parchments” and the deliberately placed folds, and even the replica mold stains all combine to recreate the originals. Having these facsimiles grants great freedom to scholars. “Here’s something you’d never see me do, and that would give me a heart attack if I saw anyone else doing,” he said, holding aloft one parchment measuring more than six feet in length, demonstrating how these can be handled, studied, and admired, while sparing the originals the wear and tear.

And the reproduction process involved much more than photographic copying. Because of the advanced age of the documents and the manner they were folded and stored, it was necessary for restorers to employ a Wood’s lamp to project ultraviolet light onto the original parchments to reveal handwritten content otherwise misunderstood or unintelligible.

In addition to the massive book itself, and the Chinon Parchment, and that six-footer, the package includes smaller parchments containing interrogation notes, summary documents, and executive findings, some of which show Pope Clement’s handwritten notes and signature.


Other attractions appeal to a broader scope of researchers. The original documents’ authenticity and authority were attested by the wax seals of the three Papal commissioners who examined the Templars. And sure enough, viewers of the replica collection are indeed greeted by three intricately molded replica wax seals, which brought students of that art to view the collection during its seven-stop tour of the state this month in the care of Thomas and Savini. The calligraphy also lured mavens of that craft.

“This is fascinating,” said ALR Secretary Harvey Eysman, at right. “I have a facsimile of Anderson’s Constitutions. It’s one thing to see the imperfections on those pages, but those are just copies. This is history!”

This copy of “Processus” is on hand at the Livingston Masonic Library. Library hours are:

Mondays, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Tuesdays, from noon to 8 p.m.
Wednesdays through Fridays, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The library, located on the 14th floor of the Grand Lodge building, is open to the public.

The showing of “Processus” was not the only highlight of the lodge’s meeting. ALR also elected its officers for the ensuing year. Bill Thomas, at left, is the Master-elect, and after about a decade of service at the Treasurer’s desk, RW Ron Goldwyn was honored with unanimous election as Treasurer Emeritus. Plus a bunch of others were elected to Corresponding Membership. Congratulations brethren! The Installation of Officers will take place Monday, December 29. The 2009 meetings of American Lodge of Research are scheduled for Monday, March 30 and Thursday, October 29.

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Whenever reporting from the Grand Lodge of New York, it is necessary to try to relay the marvelous architecture and design. In addition to viewing these photos, do take the virtual tour of the French Ionic Room.

Freemasonry’s ‘Time’ magazine

     
Membership in The Masonic Society is nearing 500 after only five months of existence, and will grow further thanks to the quality of its quarterly periodical, The Journal of the Masonic Society.

Issue No. 1 began arriving in our members’ mailboxes about a month ago, providing a much needed service and filling an obvious void in the Freemasonry of North America: a literary and informative magazine. There was a time, early in the last century, when such magazines flourished. Freemasonry had a more literate membership back then that supported publications like The Builder and The Master Mason, among others. These were nationally distributed magazines that delivered contemporary scholarship and current events to their readers, and were supported by revenues from both subscribers and advertisers. Only the devastation of the Great Depression could stop the presses.

TMS President Roger VanGorden summarized the mission of The Journal best: that it be the Time magazine of Freemasonry.

A mix of research papers, news coverage, informed opinion, creative fiction, colorful illustrations and other editorial elements recalling that golden age of Masonic publishing are compiled from writers from all over the world. Contents of Issue No. 1 include:

“The Ceremonies of St. John the Baptist and the Circle of Swords Contained Within the Entered Apprentice Degree” by James Hogg of Florida.

“Initiation in the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite” by Leon Zeldis of Israel.

“The Story of the Lost Word and the Power of Myth” by John L. Cooper III of California.

“Lodged in the Canon” by Quatuor Coronati Worshipful Master Brent Morris.

“Ethiopia in Freemasonry” by Timothy Hogan of Colorado.

Its introductory editorial explains:

The goal of The Masonic Society is not just to look backward at the history of Freemasonry, but to foster the intellectual, spiritual and social growth of the modern Masonic fraternity.

Our name intentionally alludes to the Royal Society, the innovative organization of visionary men who were at the forefront of the Age of Enlightenment, many of whom were present at the formation of what became modern, speculative Freemasonry. Likewise, The Masonic Society will be at the forefront of a new age of Freemasonry, and we intend to be a vibrant, active community within the fraternity.

To that end, The Masonic Society extends the hand of assistance and cooperation to individual Masonic research lodges in North America. It is the desire of The Masonic Society to be a partner with these lodges, to give their members the regular opportunity to publish their papers for an international audience, to applaud their achievements, and to publicize their activities.

What’s not to love? (Disclaimer: I am a member.)

A subscription to this magazine is only one of the benefits of membership in The Masonic Society. We also are working on building a schedule of events for our members’ enjoyment. First and definitely foremost will be our first (and thereafter annual) banquet on the Friday evening of Masonic Week in February.

In addition, members are granted access to the Society’s on-line forum, where hundreds of Masons from around the globe interact every day, helping each other advance in their Masonic knowledge.

And of course it wouldn’t be a Masonic organization without goodies like pins and membership cards, but the Society cranks up the quality of these items, producing elegant symbols of membership that are earning accolades. In addition, each member receives an 11x14 patent, personalized and highly stylized that you’ll want professionally framed. It is a very impressive document, on parchment with a hand-stamped wax seal.

But the true benefit of membership in The Masonic Society is the learning experience. Whether it’s an eye-popping topic in the magazine, or just simple conversation in the forum, there is no end to what a curious Mason can learn from his brethren in this organization. http://themasonicsociety.com/

In addition to President Roger, we’re fortunate to have as our Editor-in-Chief W. Bro. Chris “Freemasons for Dummies” Hodapp. And our Directors, Officers and Founders include many leaders in Masonic education, including authors, publishers, curators, lecturers and more.

Full membership for Master Masons in good standing of a lodge chartered by a grand lodge that is a member of the Conference of Grand Masters of Masons of North America, or recognized by a CGMMNA member grand lodge, including PHA jurisdictions duly recognized by their in-state neighbors.
     

‘Heredom’ and Other New Treasures

     


And speaking of Masonic research and education, the Scottish Rite Research Society made available this afternoon its previous volumes of “Heredom,” the annual book of the Society’s transactions. These books have been available for retail sale through the Society’s website at $35 each (and sometimes for higher prices in the second-hand market, like eBay), but because storage space is needed, these books will be sold for only $10 each.

Specifically those for sale in this offer are Volumes 3-10 and Vol. 12. The offer is valid through Dec. 1, but these are limited quantities that I think will sell briskly. It was announced originally in “The Plumbline,” the Society’s newsletter, that sales would be made to SRRS members only (who would have to enter their membership numbers), but that does not appear to be the case at the moment.

And speaking of “Heredom,” Vol. 15 for 2007 was released this month, consisting of a dozen papers that sound very interesting, and the three I’ve read so far are thoughtful and provocative.

Leading the charge is Joshua Gunn, 32°, who is an assistant professor of communications studies at the University of Texas at Austin, and author of “Modern Occult Rhetoric: Mass Media and the Drama Secrecy in the Twentieth Century,” published in 2005. His paper in “Heredom” is titled “The Two Rhetorics of Freemasonry, or On the Function & Necessity of Masonic Secrecy,” which I take to be a précis of his aforementioned book. He also has written on this subject for the “Scottish Rite Journal.”

His thesis, if I understand correctly, is a negative view of the contortions undertaken by Freemasonry – er, excuse me, by regular Freemasonry – to render itself more marketable to the public, at the expense of the very same secrecy of Masonic ritual and symbol that helps unify the fraternity. Yes, the author is aware that Masonic “secrets” are published, accurately and inaccurately, all over the web and in countless books, but his point concerns “the function of secrecy” in the fraternity. He eschews the denial of secrecy, as in the now popular insistence that Masonry’s ceremonies are “private” but not secret, and goes as far as naming names of those he faults for downplaying the mystery of Freemasonry.

In short, his dichotomy is Why swear a man to secrecy as a means of bonding him to the others in the fraternity (as in “What makes you a Mason?”), and then present the fraternity to the public as just another cute little community service club that undertakes no serious effort to impart any moral, spiritual, psychological, etc. transformation of these men?

I agree with Gunn 100 percent, but for the following reasons methinks he doth protest too much.

Christopher Hodapp and S. Brent Morris are among Gunn’s targets for their authoring, respectively, of the popular sellers “Freemasons for Dummies” and “The Complete Idiots Guide to Freemasonry.” I know for a fact that neither author views his readers as dummies or idiots, and it is regrettable that their critics are oblivious to the self-deprecating point of those publishers’ titles.

I can’t say Gunn’s thesis is wrong. When our grand masters take to their podiums to say “The real secret of Freemasonry is there IS no secret,” I leave the room. I know, as does Gunn, that the key to building membership smartly relies in large part on our ability to entice men with what Lord Northampton calls “the enchantment of Masonry.” My disagreement with Gunn concerns his findings; I believe I recognize in his paper an oversight of certain facts in Masonic history. I’ll explain with a few examples:

The Masonic fraternity we know today took its form – I’m talking about Craft lodges subordinate to a grand lodge, and employing the three-tier system of initiation – around 1730, the very same year Samuel Prichard published his ritual exposure “Masonry Dissected.” So, we have the publication of Masonic “secrets” at the very start of the fraternity’s revival, with many more exposures to follow during the next century. Concurrent to all this, countless other books and pamphlets would be published about Freemasonry; whether these texts were supportive of, combative toward or mocking thereof, they had the effect of enhancing the stature of the Fraternity.

Fast forward a century and a half: “Esoterika” written by Albert Pike in 1888 (and reprinted by the SRRS in 2005) gives another view of how the mysteries of Masonry were communicated, or not. Pike writes:

“My faith in the value of Masonic symbolism had been rudely shaken at the very beginning, by the explanation in the Apprentice’s Degree of the purpose for which I had been subjected to the gross indignity of having a halter knotted round my neck, though it was called by the more euphonious name of ‘cable-tow’ and it seemed to me that I had heard and read all the monitorial explanations, that most of the symbolism was of the nature of that of a bush over the door of a wine shop.

“Of some things that I saw and heard, no one could give me an explanation at all; and indeed, it did not seem ever to have occurred to some of those of whom I asked light that they had any special signification. No one could tell me what the length of a cable-tow was, or the symbolic meaning of the halter round the neck. No one had thought that there was any special meaning in the sacred numbers, in the pass words, in the substitute word, or in certain phrases.

“And no one could resolve my doubts and difficulties. Of course I could learn nothing in the Lodge. No one ever learns anything there, in regard to the meaning of the symbols, after he has received the degrees. If he desires to know more, which most Masons do not, he must seek to find it in books printed to be sold to anyone, Mason or profane, who may wish to purchase; and these I bought and eagerly read, finding here and there among the rubbish of useless writing, a clue now and then, which lead me towards the truth.”

So we have a problem if we are to blame modern interpretations of Masonry for the fraternity’s blandness and the ignorance of its members. If anything, Prichard’s exposure (and the many subsequent exposures, except I suppose, Morgan’s) had the positive effect of providing the brethren a book to study, through which to gain an understanding of these peculiar ceremonies. Masonry didn’t lose its significance as a result; in fact, it flourished and spread around the world.

In more recent times, I can attest as an eyewitness that one night last December scores of Masons, many of whom I would not know to be voracious readers, if you know what I mean, lined up and patiently waited for more than an hour for the chance to purchase Chris Hodapp’s “Dummies” book. I saw the same thing occur two months later in Virginia at Masonic Week, except Chris was kept busy for several days.

Not to be a wise guy, but I’ll point out that Prichard begins his exposure of Craft ritual with a statement to his readers: an “Oath that the Copy hereunto annexed is a True and Genuine Copy in every Particular.” In closing, I say I’m appreciative of Bro. Gunn’s paper. In the on-line forum of The Masonic Society, it stirred quite a buzz, and I think that’s a good thing because some brainy debate among peers is one of the activities absent from the Masonic scene, so, again, Bro. Gunn is correct in observing an absence of critical thinking in this organization.

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In addition to “Heredom” and “The Plumbline,” members of the SRRS receive an annual bonus book, often a reprint of a rare title from long ago. The hardcover book, weighing in at more than 800 pages, being delivered by (none too happy) postal workers right now is “Light on Masonry: The History and Rituals of America’s Most Important Masonic Exposé.”

So we return to published exposures and their effects on the fraternity. If you’re not familiar with this title, it is a masterpiece of anti-Masonic propaganda. The inside dust jacket explains:

“In 1826 William Morgan, who claimed to be a member of the society of Freemasons, boasted of his intention to publish the fraternity’s secret initiatory rituals. Soon thereafter he disappeared from his New York hometown and was never seen again. The public soon asserted that he was ‘murdered by the Masons’ to prevent the exposure. In spite of this, Morgan’s book was published and his disappearance and presumed murder resulted in an intense period of anti-Masonry which swept America from 1826-42. While many Masons quietly quit the fraternity, some found quick money by exposing and ridiculing the society’s ceremonies. In an effort to reveal all of Masonry’s ‘secrets,’ David Bernard, an ex-Mason from New York, gathered together all the rituals he could obtain from other ‘seceding Masons,’ and published ‘Light on Masonry’ (1829), the single most important exposé of American Masonry ever published. In addition to printing the rituals, Bernard included anti-Masonic committee reports, sermons, and letters.”


From left: Postmaster General William T. Barr, Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury, Secretary of War Lewis Cass, Secretary of State Edward Livingston, and President Andrew Jackson, originally published in “No. 4. New England Anti-Masonic Almanac” in 1832, and reproduced in the SRRS’ publication of “Light on Masonry.”


Once again it is A&ASR Grand Historian and Grand Archivist Arturo de Hoyos who compiles, edits and submits to you a massive work. He is careful to point out that this book “is not a study of present-day Masonic ritual. The rituals included represent pre-1831 Freemasonry.”

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I quickly mentioned “The Plumbline” newsletter. Let me close with a description of the current issue. There seems to be a theme indeed. Pete Normand writes an editorial many of us can relate to. Lamenting how major changes are undertaken in Masonry for no better reason than the limited vocabulary of today’s Masons, he explains how the “culture of the Scottish Rite” is gradually erased.

“Tishri, Kadosh, Almoner, Elu, Zerubbabel, Chancellor, Beauseant, Rose Croix, Consistory, Noachite, Turcopilier, Tetractys, Heredom, and many others.... If we, as Scottish Rite Masons, don’t know what these words mean, then who does? If we don’t keep Scottish Rite culture alive, then who will? And if the fraternal culture of the Scottish Rite that has existed since our earliest beginnings does not pass the meaning of these words on through the annual process of educating our present members, and practicing, conferring and observing the ancient ceremonies, degrees and feasts of the Order, then how will they be passed down to our sons and grandsons?”

“The challenge before us,” he continues, “is to educate our leadership and membership in the rich and complex culture of the Rite…. If we don’t take the initiative to emphasize education, and support the great programs that have been offered to us, then many of our Scottish Rite leaders, rather than pick up a book and learn about the Rite, will be tempted to take the easy road and simply remake the Scottish Rite into a giant Rotary Club whose only culture is that of family nights, service projects, leadership programs, open houses, etc., all of which are fine in their own right, but those casual outreach programs threaten to become the heart and soul of a new Scottish Rite – while the history, symbolism, traditions, philosophies, lessons, and culture of the Scottish Rite get tossed out.”

Anti-Masonry is well explained by Gary Leazer, who publishes here his important paper “Anti-Masonry: The Present Scene,” explaining the reality of the Southern Baptist Convention’s view of the fraternity. This is the paper Gary presented to the Consistory of the Society of Blue Friars in February.

Rounding out the newsletter is Pete Normand’s review of “Builders of Empire: Freemasonry and British Imperialism, 1717-1927.”

“In this well-researched book, Harland-Jacobs argues that British Freemasonry began accepting the indigenous colonials primarily for the purpose of strengthening the empire. What the fraternity could not foresee was the transformation that the empire would have on Freemasonry. The author does a masterful job of demonstrating how the fraternity and empire came to define and transform each other.”

If you’ve read this far, you should join the Scottish Rite Research Society.
     

Time to “respice, adspice et prospice” at Quatuor Coronati

     

Peter Currie and Brent Morris at La Petite Auberge
in New York City, December 10, 2007.

And speaking of new Masters at lodges of research, we are near that time of year when Quatuor Coronati Lodge, No. 2076 in London elects and installs its new officers.

It seems like only yesterday when W. Bro. S. Brent Morris was installed in the East of QC2076, becoming the first American to attain that station, but it’s been almost a year. On Thursday, November 13, the Master Elect, W. Bro. Peter Currie, will be installed in the Solomonic Chair of the world’s first lodge of Masonic research. If you’ll be in town, the meeting will open at 5 p.m. precisely at Freemasons’ Hall on Great Queen Street. Dress is morning dress or dark suit, undress regalia and white gloves.

This communication also will be the annual Festival of the Four Crowned Martyrs, a belated observance of the November 8 feast day honoring the namesakes of this lodge.

The Inaugural Paper of the Worshipful Master concerns Stability Ritual, which was devised in 1817 by the Stability Lodge of Instruction and has since spread around the globe. W. Bro. Currie served as secretary to the Stability Ritual Association for 14 years, and edited the Stability Ritual book in 1992, so his explanation and insight into this topic is sure to enlighten, especially if you think Emulation is the only ritual worked in England.

According to the summons for this meeting, W. Bro. Currie is the editor (since 1999) and indexer (since 1993) of Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, the annual book of transactions of the lodge. His published papers include “The Growth and Development of Masonic Ritual,” “The H. S., Whence Did It Take Its Rise?” and “Two Masonic Arks,” which won the lodge’s Norman B. Spencer Prize in 1998.

His work on the archives of this lodge will prove priceless. Currie and W. Bro. David Peabody, a Past Master of QC2076, have digitized every volume of AQC in searchable PDF format. That’s the entire library of lodge transactions from 1886 through today. When a complete set of books becomes available somewhere, it fetches several thousand dollars. I don’t know how the lodge or its Correspondence Circle plans to distribute the CDs, but Masonic scholars, libraries and research lodges all over the world will be lining up to purchase these discs. This modernization of media represents more than just a new format for old texts; this venerable lodge is weighing other options as it investigates the best ways to remain an indispensable leader in Masonic education and a peerless conservator of Masonic heritage.

Bro. Currie also has edited, typeset and designed several books in recent years, including “Tracing Boards: Their Development and Their Designers” and “Royal Arch Masons and Knights Templar at Redruth, Cornwall, 1791-1828.”

In the works currently are his updated versions of Knoop, Jones and Hamer’s three seminal books on Craft history: “Early Masonic Catechisms,” “Early Masonic Pamphlets” and “The Genesis of Freemasonry.” Also, he is revising and compiling “The Masonic Yearbook Historical Supplement,” a Who’s Who of England’s grand lodge officers from 1717 to date, which also will appear in PDF format. And on top of all that, Bro. Currie is QC2076’s webmaster.

Currie was initiated into Hundred of Axstane Lodge, No. 7722 in the Province of West Kent, where he served as Master in 1991-92. He also is a Past Master of Queens College Taunton Lodge, No. 6988 in Somerset, and is a Past Zerubbabel of Royal Naval and Military Chapter, No. 2404 of Royal Arch Masons in East Kent, to name only a few of his Masonic affiliations.

The QC2076 meeting schedule for 2009 is:

Thursday, February 19
Thursday, May 14
Thursday, June 25
Thursday, September 10
Thursday, November 12

The paper at the February meeting will be “Miners, Mariners and Masonic Mobility: The Membership of West Cornwall Masonic Lodges During the Victorian Period” by W. Bro. Roger Burt.

According to the summons for this meeting: “This paper focuses on ten Craft lodges to the west of Truro, analyzing the social and economic backgrounds of their membership during the second half of the nineteenth century. It notices that the inland lodges were dominated by mining men, while those on the coast included very large numbers of master mariners and other maritime related activities. While this is to be expected in lodges that represented local communities, closer investigation strongly suggests that many were joining to facilitate migration and travel, at home and abroad. Consideration will be given to the role of Freemasonry as an international fraternity and the importance of ‘migratory Masons’ in maintaining close bonds between emerging national grand lodges worldwide. In brief, what did Masonry offer to highly mobile occupational groups, and what did migratory Masons offer to Freemasonry?”

Front: Trevor Stewart and Roger Burt.
Rear: John Acaster and Peter Currie.
At Alpha Lodge No. 116 in New Jersey, December 12, 2007.

W. Bro. Burt, again according to the meeting summons, “spent an academic career at the University of Exeter, teaching and researching the influences that shaped the evolution of modern industrial and post-industrial society. In that context, he now uses his own experience of Masonry to shape and inform a longstanding program of research into the socio-economic structure of Masonic lodges at home and overseas during the Victorian period. With most of his previous publications in the field of mining history, he has chosen to place these enquiries largely within the context of the mining regions and mining communities which he knows well. Bro. Burt has now retired and is an Emeritus Professor of the University of Exeter and an Honorary Professor in the Center for Research into Freemasonry at the University of Sheffield. Bro. Burt is a Past Master of Vectis Lodge, No. 3075 and a member of Royal Arch.”
     

American Lodge of Research in October

The French Ionic Room at the Grand Lodge of New York is the place to be on the evening of October 29, where American Lodge of Research will hold meet for its election of officers.

The Senior Warden needs no introduction, but I have to write something! RW Bill Thomas is one of the friendly faces encountered wherever something educational is afoot in New York Masonry. Magpie readers know all about "Our Dinner with Trevor" (see below) and he is involved in the upcoming second annual dinner-lecture of the Livingston Library.

In addition to the election, this meeting will feature the display of the rare Vatican Secret Archive publication titled "Processus Contra Templarios." This limited edition (799 copies published at $8,000 each) contains hyperquality reproductions of medieval manuscripts recording the Vatican's trial of the Knights Templar, including the Chinon Parchment, unearthed seven years ago by a researching scholar. This documents Pope Clement V's absolution of the Order on the heresy charges brought against it.

I have it on good authority that there are notable typos in the book but, to be fair, they didn't let me edit it.

While there is zero evidence connecting the medieval Knights Templar to Freemasonry, the popular legend of Masonry descending from the monastic military order persists and even seems to gain momentum with every goofy exploitative book and television program that appears, recycling the same opinions and myths.

Nevertheless, I am glad there is room in Freemasonry for lavish oddities like this. The other Masonic research library that owns a copy is the House of the Temple in Washington. Otherwise, aside from private collections, there are only three universities (Cornell, Stanford and Lambuth in Tennessee) where this historical treasure can be found in the United States.

Have a look at Bro. Brian Kannard's blog, "Grail Seekers," to view the display of Lambuth's copy.