‘Philately Freemasons to examine Harry Potter symbolism’

     

The George Washington Masonic Stamp Club meets twice annually, and its second gathering of 2014 will take place Saturday, August 30 at the Baltimore Philatelic Exposition, President Walter Benesch announced during the weekend.

The club initiates members with a Master of Philately ritual, and dues consist of a single $20 payment for lifetime membership. Masons who in any way are interested in the unique mode of art collecting called philately should join.

The August 30 meeting will be held at the Hunt Valley Inn, across the highway from the Grand Lodge of Maryland, and will be open to the public. The program for the session will be “Is Harry Potter a Master Mason?” which will look at the Masonic symbolism found in the J.K. Rowling’s books. “This has been a very popular talk at various lodges, Masonic research organizations, and other Masonic bodies,” Benesch said. “What will be different is that some unique Harry Potter philately may come up for auction.”

Courtesy U.S. Postal Service

The U.S. Postal Service issued a series of twenty First Class “Forever” stamps inspired by the Harry Potter stories last November. Benesch explained how covers with the stamps were cancelled by the Mt. Vernon Post Office using the GWMSC cancellation stamp on February 22, 2014 (George Washington’s birthday). “This is a complete set of the stamps, one stamp per cover, with club’s Masonic cancellation,” He said. “There is only one such set in the world. The set will be up for sale, provided a collector is interested, and the proceeds of the sale of this collection of covers will go to support the club expenses and its selected charity.”

The meeting next month also will include door prizes and the sales of previous club covers. There may be balloting on prospective new members, although Master of Philately is conferred only at the annual meetings, the next to be held Sunday, February 22, 2015.
     

‘Intendants of the Building’

     
A mid-summer announcement from the Grand Lodge of New York, F&AM. Masonic Hall, the headquarters in Manhattan, will undergo some big changes, and it is time to say goodbye to a few familiar, beloved lodge meeting spaces.

I KNEW HIM WHEN—Happy times in the American Room include the Public Apron Presentation to then RW Bro. Bill Thomas, Grand Treasurer of the Grand Lodge of New York in September  2010. The entire 19th floor of Masonic Hall is slated for conversion to commercial rental property to enhance revenue for Grand Lodge. Here, Bill, now Grand Master, and wife Susan make their exit at the end of the night.

From the Board of Trustees

of the Masonic Hall and Home

As many of you have heard and as mentioned during our Grand Master’s Message on St. John’s Day Weekend, we have embarked on a major renovation project at the Masonic Hall in New York City. The project will include providing air conditioning to all the eleven lodge rooms, converting the Jacobean Room on the eighth floor and the French Ionic Room on the tenth floor to very elegant collation rooms and substantial alterations to the second floor banquet room to better serve the lodges, daytime tenants of the facilities, and for outside users. We will be converting the 19th floor to commercial space after the changes have been made on the other floors.

ROSE CIRCLE THINKING—Other American Room memories include the April 2008 Rose Circle Research Foundation conference, an amazing, mind-roasting day of enlightenment. Our speakers, from left: Michael A. Evans, Cliff Jacobs, Steve Vitale, Chic Cicero, Tabatha Cicero, who killed by the way, showing the audience never-before-seen A.E. Waite drawn tarot images; and Henry Marx.

The reasons are many including:

1. Providing air conditioning for those lodges who wish to conduct meetings and degree work in the summer months and even for those installations in June when it can get uncomfortably warm.

2. Provide more elegant collation rooms for special lodge social events, presentations, ladies’ nights, table lodges and training sessions.

Courtesy Bill Thomas

The Jacobean Room on eight.

3. Improve the second floor for the daytime seminars which were held 112 times last year. The improvements include up-to-date audio, data, and video capabilities.

4. The pantries serving the three floors will have full services including hot water heaters, refrigerators, ice makers, dishwashers, food warmers, sinks and cabinets for storage. For those who use Masonic Hall for their meetings and collations.

5. We wish to make better use of our facilities. Our lodge rooms are currently used less than 50 percent of the time.

FRENCH IONIC INSPIRATION—Many warm memories of the French Ionic Room involve years of Communications of The American Lodge of Research. Shown here are then Worshipful Master Bill Thomas and Livingston Library Executive Director Tom Savini on October 29, 2008, the night the library's newly acquired facsimile of the Chinon Parchment and other Vatican documents pertaining to the Knights Templar were shown to the brethren. It is a gorgeous room, vibrant with color and texture.

6. By increasing the use of the rooms by non-masons, we can offset the continual cost increases we have had over the past decade. Our goal is to stabilize the costs to our lodges.

7. By having more commercial space available, we can continue our contributions for many of the programs and projects sponsored by the Board of Trustees such as Camp Turk, Empire State Mason magazine, the Livingston Library, the Masonic Care Community, Tompkins Chapel renovations, educational assistance, etc.

Some have expressed concerns, which need to be clarified: We are not increasing the rates for those lodges being moved from the 19th floor. It is our strong hope that the costs for second floor as well as the eighth and ninth floor collation rooms will remain at the current rates through next year. The 19th floor will still be available until January 1,
2015 so that it can be used for December functions. The current yearly rates for the lodge rooms are good for all 12 months. No lodge will be moved to accommodate an outside user, and if we would desire to make such a change, we will seek the lodges’ full consent. We expect all the work for the collation and pantry rooms to be done by September 15. The air conditioning will be in place before the cooling season in March of 2015.

We are excited about these changes and feel that they will have a dramatic impact on our Masonic Hall.

Fraternally,
RW Griffith Jones, III
President
Trustees of the Masonic Hall and Home
     

‘Upcoming Events in Freemasonry’

     
I can’t get to any of these, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t.


Saturday, July 19 – A big day in New York Capitular Masonry indeed. At 9:30 a.m. a short ceremony in front of the RAM Medical Research wing on the Utica Campus will honor ME Edmund ‘Ted’ Harrison, the first General Grand High Priest from New York State in more than 50 years, by presenting a $100,000 check from the RAM Medical Research Foundation. The patio before the building will be dedicated to Ted. All are invited to attend this open ceremony. Royal Arch Masons may wear red jackets.


July 25-27 – A grand event held annually by the Nobles of Mecca Shrine in New York City: Florence Weekend. Actually it used to be Florence Day, but Mecca exhibits great panache and gung ho in its social doings. Friday night, starting at six, fraternal festivities at The Monarch Lounge on West 35th Street in Manhattan. Bring your own cigars. Saturday, the Yankee-Blue Jays game (sold out). Sunday is the day everyone gathers at Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn at 12:30 to pay respects at the final resting place of Billy Florence, co-founder of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Click here to get a look at what this is like.

But that’s not all! After the visit to the gravesite, all are invited to the Annual Mecca Barbecue at the Bushwick Country Club (618 Grand Street), which you do not want to miss.


Monday, August 4 – Maryland Masonic Research Society to host its Annual Festive Board. To feature speakers S. Brent Morris and Arturo de Hoyos(!) on “The First Two Exposures of the High Degrees of Masonry.” Books for sale and signing after the program.

August 15-17 – The Masonic Restoration Foundation invites Master Masons to its Fifth Annual Symposium at the Cincinnati Masonic Center. Festive Board, workshops, lectures, a “Scotch Harmony,” and other attractions await. Registration: $100 per person. Click here to sign up.


Saturday, September 13 – A singular occurrence, as The Masonic Society and the Philalethes Society jointly sponsor a symposium at the Scottish Rite Valley of Chicago, located in Bloomingdale, Illinois. Registration costs only $15. Attendance is capped at 100, so click here to book your seat.

Speakers: Alton Roundtree, editor of The Phylaxis; Shawn Eyer, editor of The Philalethes; Steven Harrison, editor of The Missouri Freemason; and Mark Robbins, Education Officer for the Grand Lodge of Minnesota. Andrew Hammer, author of Observing the Craft, will be the keynote speaker at the banquet, a separate event with a $35 dining fee.


Tuesday, September 16 – Second District Masonic Book Club to discuss A Traditional Observance Lodge by Cliff Porter. Dinner at 6:30. At Fidelity Lodge No. 113, 99 South Maple Avenue in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Saturday, September 20 – The First Masonic Educational Symposium hosted by Wilmington Lodge No. 804 in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. Four speakers lined up: Charles M. Harper, Sr., author of Freemasonry in Black and White; Juan Sepulveda, of The Winding Stairs podcast; Adam T. Osman, author of Earning Freemasonry; and Shawn M. Gorley, author of Freemasonry Defined.

Open to Apprentices and Fellows. Cost: only $30 per person, in advance only, which covers breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Only 100 seats are available. For information, contact Bro. Gorley at shawn(at)drivenbylight(dot)net

September 25-30 – Joint Triennial Session of both the General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons International and the General Grand Council of Cryptic Masons International at Buffalo, New York. Click here for the registration info.

Saturday, October 11 – New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 to meet at 10 a.m. in the Haddonfield Masonic Temple in Haddonfield, New Jersey. Agenda TBA.

Steve Burkle

Saturday, October 18 – Pennsylvania Academy of Masonic Knowledge to host its Fall Session. Professor David G. Hackett will speak on topics from his book That Religion in Which All Men Agree: Freemasonry in American Culture. Steve Burkle will speak on “Early Adoption of Paracelsus’ Alchemical Catechism by the Craft.” Steve knows his alchemy, so check it out.

It’s a full-day affair, beginning at 8:30 a.m. in the Masonic Cultural Center on the Elizabethtown campus. No charge, but advance registration is required; do so by e-mailing to amksecretary(at)pagrandlodge(dot)org, including name, address, lodge name and number.


October 23-25 – The Masonic Library and Museum Association will hold its Annual Meeting at the Trenton Masonic Temple in Trenton, New Jersey. Here is all the information.
     

‘A Midsummer’s Night Mythology’

     
New York Mythology Group, the New York City Chapter of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, will take it outside for a night under the stars in Central Park on Wednesday. From the publicity:

A Midsummer’s Night Mythology:

Stories Under the Stars

With Antoine Faddoul

Wednesday, July 16 at 7 p.m.

Antoine will present stories of the constellations as viewed by different civilizations’ myths, with expressions through artworks, and artifacts. Join us for an enchanting evening. Bring refreshments, if you like.

Meet at Cleopatra’s Needle behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art at 79th Street.

Antoine Faddoul is a polymath designer, artist, storyteller, and futurist with a multidisciplinary approach combining elements of astronomy, general science, archaeology, history, art, ancient mythology, and linguistics. He has lectured, written, and edited dozens of books, papers, and articles.
     

‘A Thoreau understanding’

     
Born on this date in 1817 was Henry David Thoreau—philosopher, poet, abolitionist and, most importantly, tax resister.

(Do click this Christian Science Monitor link to see ten quotations in celebration of his birth.)
     
Speaking of whom: More great programming at the School of Practical Philosophy. From the publicity:

The American Transcendentalists:

Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman

Saturdays, starting September 27

(additional dates TBA)

10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

with Barbara Solowey

School of Practical Philosophy

12 East 79th Street

Manhattan

Join in an exploration of the spiritual and intellectual legacy of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, America’s greatest visionaries who can inspire our own work toward self-realization. The Transcendentalists are revolutionary and reflective, and their call is to spiritual insight and universal consciousness. Their writings proclaim and celebrate the need for self-reliance, and a love of freedom and brotherhood—each essential for humanity.

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he, who in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

          Emerson

Self-Reliance

Click here to register.
   

'Flashback Friday: Where no man has gone before'

     

DeWint House in Tappan, New York.

DeWint House is one of my favorite places in Freemasonry. Owned and operated by the Grand Lodge of New York as a historic site and museum in service to the public, it is a gem in Tappan. It was used repeatedly as headquarters by General George Washington, most significantly during the grim days of autumn 1780, when General Benedict Arnold’s treason was discovered. Bro. Arnold’s conspirator, British Major John André, was tried, convicted, and hanged in town.

So it was a no-brainer to visit the spot again on the sunny blue sky morning of Sunday, February 19, 2012 to hear Bro. Mark Tabbert speak as the highlight of the celebration of Washington’s 280th birthday. (Click here to see past Magpie posts of DeWint events, including some nice photographs.)

Once again, my notes of this lecture are with That Which Was Lost, but I had the presence of mind to shoot four and a half minutes of the ensuing Q&A. The audience was a bit reluctant, so I asked Mark to describe what Freemasonry was like during Washington’s time. I expected a sharp and unique answer, so as he began to reply, I reached for my little Panasonic and started shooting video, thus capturing a brilliant analogy that could come only from Mark. Sorry the audio is muffled (I was standing all the way in the rear of the room), but it is audible.

Enjoy.

   

‘The Garden of Eden in Midtown’

     
An exhibit underway at the Museum of Biblical Art in New York City may be of interest to all manner of esotericists, students of symbology, and art lovers. “Back to Eden: Contemporary Artists Wander the Garden” aims to serve “as a lens through which to view the relationship between humans and the natural world.”

Courtesy MOBIA.

Study for Expulsion by Fred Tomaselli.

Leaves, pills, acrylic, photo collage, and resin on wood panel, 2000.

From the publicity:


Artists in the Western world have used elements of the Garden of Eden story for centuries as potent symbols: the Creation of plants and animals, the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life, the Forbidden Fruit, the Serpent, the Fall of Man and the Expulsion from Eden. In this exhibition, contemporary artists continue to mine this rich resource for metaphors that are both personal and universal. Barnaby Furnas’s The Fruit Eaters takes the classic subject of Adam and Eve biting the apple, and renders it fresh and vital, with paint that seems to still be dripping, and a violent and malevolent serpent circling menacingly. Jim Dine’s Garden of Eden evokes happy childhood memories of his family’s tool store. Mark Dion, in a work created especially for this exhibition, presents a fantasy diorama of the serpent, imagining how he looked with legs, before he was cursed by God to crawl on his belly.

The garden has for centuries represented a perfect natural paradise that we have now lost. Several of the artists in the exhibition consider the ways in which humans have tried to recreate a “perfect garden.” Naomi Reis’ drawings of imaginary Modernist buildings are overlaid with lush plants and fountains that, like the Gardens of Babylon or the botanical gardens of Victorian times, show the attempt to recreate an exotic paradise within a completely foreign environment. In Lina Puerta’s installations, nature becomes the intruder, reinserting itself into the urban environment, intertwined with manmade sequins and buttons: a garden that is a mix of the natural and the manmade. Mary Temple’s garden appears as a shadow cast on a gallery wall, caused by light streaming through an imaginary window.

Courtesy MOBIA.

Dwarfed Blue Pine by Rona Pondick.
Painted bronze,
unique, 2009-10.

Courtesy MOBIA.

The Fruit Eaters by Barnaby Furnas.
Acrylic on linen, 2013.

Courtesy MOBIA.

Gowanus, by Alexis Rockman. Oil on wood, 2013. 

The exhibit will close September 28. MOBIA is located at 1865 Broadway (at 61st Street) in Manhattan. Admission is free. The museum is closed Mondays. A pretty remarkable schedule of free events in connection with Eden runs through the exhibit’s duration. Click here, and do take part. You won’t regret it. (I love this place.)
     

‘This Week at the Rosicrucian Cultural Center’

     
A busy schedule of most interesting programming at the Rosicrucian Cultural Center is coming this week. The Center is located at 2303 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard in Manhattan.

Nightly, from Tuesday the eighth through Thursday the tenth, 6:30 to eight o’clock, will be experiential workshops led by the Grand Master of the Rosicrucian Order. In “Learn Rosicrucian Healing Techniques,” Julie Scott will guide the group through “the process of using Rosicrucian techniques to create radiant physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.”

At the end of the week, it’s a new Mystical Weekend.

On Saturday, from 1 to 5 p.m., Dr. Lonnie Edwards, author of Spiritual Laws that Govern Humanity and the Universe, returns to lead another discussion of those spiritual laws.

Sunday afternoon, from one to three o’clock, Julian Johnson will lead the Third Temple Degree Review Forum for Rosicrucians in the Third Temple Degree (or beyond). At 3:30, a period of silent meditation will begin, followed by a Convocation at four o’clock.

The full moon will arrive on July 12. I haven’t heard if there will be a Full Moon Meditation at the Center this month, but I’ll update this if one is announced.
     

‘Flashback Friday: The Mt. Nebo apron’

     
If I had to choose a favorite aspect of Masonic history—defined by period, rather than subject—I would pick Freemasonry in the United States from Colonial times to the Federalist era. Records, while not scant, are neither abundant nor pregnant with detail, so most of what we know derives from official sources, like grand lodge proceedings, which I believe tend to be more subjective (even political) than candid and complete. This means there are many pieces to find and fit into the puzzle, and it is fun to read what scholars come up with.

Mt. Nebo Lodge No. 91’s historic George Washington apron.

Then there are artifacts: the furniture, regalia, publications, folk art, ephemera, porcelain, ceramics, glassware, pewter, silver, gold, and, in this case, textile crafts that have survived the centuries, enduring inundations, conflagrations, thieving, and neglect. Things you can see and maybe touch today. As today is Independence Day in the United States, the inspiration of this week’s “Flashback Friday” is a certain apron kept for the ages by Mt. Nebo Lodge No. 91 in West Virginia.

Click to enlarge.

This Masonic apron created a buzz three years ago on the occasion of the lodge’s bicentenary celebration, at which time the apron was shared with the Masonic world, making the impression that it was something newly discovered when it really had been displayed on the north wall of the lodge room at Mt. Nebo for generations. That same year coincided with the hosting of the International Conference on the History of Freemasonry by the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria. The apron was displayed proudly inside the main lecture hall where I shot these photos on the first day of the conference. This apron was worn by George Washington. It is not the only such apron, and is not “THE” George Washington apron, which is a misnomer. It was a gift from the Grand Lodge of France, presented to Washington by Marquis de Lafayette.

When the apron was unveiled at ICHF, Worshipful Master George Alwin offered these remarks, copied from the lodge’s website:


“George Washington is known as a man of courage from his life as a general. He is known as a leader from his life as president. But George Washington was known as a man of character by his life as a Mason. During his life, Washington received two French aprons as gifts, which he cherished. One is known as the Watson-Cassoul apron. The second apron was presented to him by his good friend and fellow Mason, General Lafayette of France. That apron is before you now.

“When Brother Washington passed in 1799, the Lafayette apron was sold at a family estate sale for six dollars. Thomas Hammond, husband of Washington’s niece Mildred Washington, bought the apron. Hammond became a member of Mount Nebo Lodge in Shepherdstown, Virginia in 1815, and gave the apron to the lodge as a gift. Shepherdstown became part of West Virginia after the Civil War.

Courtesy Mt. Nebo 91

“In 1892, the apron was loaned to the Grand Lodge of Minnesota for their Annual Communication. In appreciation for the loan of such a valuable object, the Grand Lodge had a beautiful hand-carved frame built to display the apron. The Grand Lodge transported both the apron and the frame to Chicago, where a camera was available to photograph them. That photo is included in the Mount Nebo Lodge Bicentennial Brochure.

“For over a century, the George Washington/Lafayette apron has hung in Mount Nebo Lodge, protected from the sun in a dark lodge room. Without publicity and out of the public eye, it came to be known by many as ‘the Lost Apron.’

“Today, to celebrate the bicentennial of Mount Nebo Lodge No. 91 in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, I am honored to present to you the George Washington/Lafayette Masonic Apron.”

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

On July 3, 1776, Continental Congress Delegate John Adams, in a letter to Abigail, said of the Fourth of July: “It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.” I hope you get some of that today, and I wish you a joyful Independence Day.
     

‘Exeter nixes EXESESO’

     

The Spring issue of ESSWE Newsletter, the periodical of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism, reports the closure of Exeter University’s Centre for the Study of Esotericism. The text of the article is reproduced below.
(h/t Mark Stavish.)

Exeter MA in Western Esotericism

and EXESESO Close

By Mark Sedgwick

Exeter University has announced the closure of the Exeter M.A. in Western Esotericism and of the Exeter Centre for the Study of Esotericism (EXESESO). Both were started in 2005 by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, whose early death in 2012 triggered the closure of the program and of EXESESO.

The program and EXESESO opened in 2005, with Goodrick-Clarke as professor and a number of part-time lecturers, including Peter Forshaw (who now teaches in the Amsterdam M.A. program), Hereward Tilton, Clare Goodrick-Clarke, and Christopher A. McIntosh. It was the third European program of the kind, joining Paris and Amsterdam, from which it differed in that it was a part-time distance-learning program, taken over two years. It was supported financially by the Blavatsky Trust, a British charity set up in 1974 “to advance education in and promote or further the study of or research into religion, philosophy, and science” in cooperation with the Theosophical Society in England.

The program started with eight students, and within five years had admitted more than ninety M.A. students and several Ph.D. students. By 2012, five Ph.D. dissertations had been completed (one on Theosophy), and eight were in process (two on Theosophy). A small cloud over the program’s success was cast by occasional rumors of lack of rigor and of some students failing to distinguish clearly enough between academic study and their own personal practice, however, and according to a senior researcher who preferred to remain anonymous, Exeter was not entirely happy with the program. It consisted of a number of optional modules and two required modules before the thesis, one on “The Western Esoteric Traditions: Historical Survey and Research Methods” and one on “Theosophy and the Globalization of Esotericism.” This perhaps gave Theosophy a slightly more prominent position than some would see as appropriate, but only slightly, as the role that Theosophy has played in the development of modern Western Esotericism has certainly been major.

Goodrick-Clarke’s early death in 2012 marked the beginning of the end. According to Exeter’s press office, the decision to close the center and program followed “an internal review and discussions with the [Blavatsky] Trust,” and Goodrick-Clarke’s death “sat alongside consideration for the program as a whole.” Exeter’s press office was unable to comment on the conclusions of the internal review, but there were suggestions that it was not entirely positive. Exeter has made arrangements for the centre’s remaining Ph.D. students to complete their projects in the history department, where there are still scholars working on related subjects, such as Richard Noakes, whose research interests include Victorian psychical research, and Catherine Rider, who recently published Magic and Religion in Medieval England. But Europe now once more has only two M.A. programs in Western Esotericism, not three, which is an unfortunate setback for the development of the study of Western Esotericism in Europe.
     

‘Rosicrucian Digest: Martinism’

     

The new issue of Rosicrucian Digest, the periodical of the Rosicrucian Order, is devoted entirely to the subject of Martinism. It is the sixteenth such thematic issue expounding on aspects of the Rosicrucian tradition. The Rosicrucian Order’s sister society is named the Traditional Martinist Order.

As always, the Digest is available on-line, and there even are occasional on-line discussions on Facebook for further learning. 


The contents:

The Traditional Martinist Order—Introduction

Martinism: History of a Traditional Order

Take Back My Will by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

Martinist Lessons

Aurora: Jacob Boehme

Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings by Martinès de Pasqually

Of Errors and Truth by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin

What Becomes of the Dead by Papus

Traditional Martinist Order Discourse: Kabbalah

Ieschouah, Grand Architect of the Universe

The Cloak

Martinism: The Way of the Heart

The Holy Spirit


Supplementary web articles also:

The Judeo-Christian Aspect of Martinism

Jakob Boehme: The Spiritual Awakening of the Teutonic Philosopher

The ‘Stage Set’ for the Agent of Omneity

The Traditionalist Martinist Order and Sacred Scriptures

On Equilibration: The Rose Cross Martinist at the Still Center

The Kabbalah: Secret Tradition of the West

The Kabbalistic Order of the Rose-Croix


I’m guessing there will be lectures and other programs on Martinism coming soon to the Rosicrucian Cultural Center, and I’ll pass along that information as it come.