‘Geometry Salons at Anthroposophy NYC’

     
Saturday afternoon, the Anthroposophical Society of New York City will host a talk on Vedic Squares. This will be the first in a series running through next August. From the publicity:

Geometry Salon:

Vedic Squares

Saturday, September 14

at 1:30 p.m.

Anthroposophical Society of NYC

138 West 15th Street, Manhattan

Suggested donation: $5

The Vedic Square is a variation on a typical 9×9 multiplication table, which is a source of many Islamic patterns and symmetric art patterns.

Steve Pomerantz

The Geometry Salon meets monthly to explore the intersection of Art and Geometry. Topics have included Islamic and Cosmatesque Design, Projective Geometry, Classical Constructions, Form Drawing, and more. Our main presenters are Steve Pomerantz, John Lloyd, and Steve Bass. We rotate facilitators to lead discussions and drawing through a range of examples taken from history.

Steve Pomerantz

Accessible to people with all levels of drawing experience. Bring your imagination—and a ruler, compass, paper, pencils. Additional materials that could be useful include: colored pencils, watercolors, and some paper at least 8½ x 11. We will have some extra supplies for people who need them.

We will meet in a beautiful sunny room generously provided by Anthroposophy NYC. We are requesting a $5 contribution from everyone to cover the use of the space.

Future dates: October 12, November 9, December 21, January 11, February 22, March 14, April 18, May 16, June 6, July 11, and August 8.

Steve Pomerantz

At September’s meeting, we will be drawing patterns based on magic squares from the Vedic Tradition, which John Lloyd learned from Pieter Weltevrede and Mavis Gewant.

In October, Steve Pomerantz will show us how to draw Cosmati patterns. In November, Steve Bass will be showing us how to draw Rose Windows. In December, Steve Pomerantz will continue to show us how to develop Cosmati patterns. In January, Kelly Beekman will be show how to draw the planetary seals of Rudolf Steiner (based on a seven pointed star). In the Spring of 2020, we will explore patterns from Islamic Cultures and learn how to draw the Shri Yantra from the Vedic Tradition.

Geometry images below are by Steve Pomerantz.

‘The UGLE Americans?’

     
And from our Masonic Weird Facts Department…

Did you know the United Grand Lodge of England has not one, but two Craft lodges at labor on United States soil?

In St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, there are Harmonic Lodge 356 and its daughter lodge St. Thomas 9679. The former marked its bicentennial anniversary last October, and the latter reached its 20th year last November. They are part of the District Grand Lodge of Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean. Masonic Hall is located at 10 Wimmelskat Gade in the capital city of Charlotte Amalie.

And you shouldn’t have English lodges without a chapter, so there also is Zetland Chapter 356, chartered in 1871 by the Supreme Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of England.

     

‘Traubenfest: Sunday, October 6’

     
The official announcement is posted: Traubenfest is scheduled for Sunday, October 6!

Traubenfest, meaning “Strawberry Grape Festival,” is the annual all-day Oktoberfest bash hosted by the lodges of the Ninth Manhattan District at German Masonic Park in Tappan, New York.

Gates will open at 11 a.m., and the festivities—plenty of German food, beer, and music—will continue to sundown. It is a rain-or-shine event. Plenty of free parking. Admission: $5 for adults; free for children under 14.

German Masonic Park is located at 89 Western Highway South, very close to DeWint House, if you want to make more of a day of it.

Always a good time, and we never seem to suffer bad weather. (Watch, I probably just jinxed it.)
     

‘Book Club: Campbell and Ehre texts’

     
Bro. Jeph has announced the topics of the next Fourth Manhattan District Book Club meeting of October 16:

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell, and The Three Legged Table by Victor T. Ehre, Jr.

The book club will meet in the Wendell K. Walker Room on the ground floor of Masonic Hall at 7 p.m. The meeting will be open not only to all Masons, but also to interested people who are not Masons.

The Power of Myth is not a work authored by Joseph Campbell, but actually is taken from the lengthy interviews of Campbell for PBS by Bill Moyers in 1985 and 1986, which were broadcast in six one-hour episodes in the summer of 1988, shortly after Campbell’s death. They speak in some detail of the definition of myth, of the forms of myths, and, naturally, of Campbell’s work in delineating what he terms the monomyth.

Their interview, perhaps inevitably, turns to Freemasonry. Excerpted:


Moyers: Is the Masonic order an expression somehow of mythological thinking?

Campbell: Yes, I think it is. This is a scholarly attempt to reconstruct an order of initiation that would result in spiritual revelation. These founding fathers [of the United States] who were Masons actually studied what they could of Egyptian lore. In Egypt, the pyramid represents the primordial hillock. After the annual flood of the Nile begins to sink down, the first hillock is symbolic of the reborn world. That’s what [the Great Seal of the United States] represents.


There is more significant talk of ritual and its potential powers, as well as a wealth of other subjects of interest to thinking Freemasons. Professor Campbell is beloved for making the esoteric aspects of mythologies accessible to the general public, and this book often surfaces in conversation in Masonic intellectual circles as the most useful entry point into Campbell’s work. Even if you cannot participate with the Book Club, do make a point of reading The Power of Myth when you can.

I am not familiar with Victor Ehre’s The Three Legged Table: The Three Principles of Life Living, but here is what Amazon says:

Isaac Newton’s Second Law of Inertia postulates that a body in motion tends to continue at the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an outside force. The book, The Three Legged Table, challenges the reader not to accept things in their lives as they are, but presents the three Principles in every person’s life and how one can affect the changes needed to redirect them towards the goals they seek. The Three Legged Table offers eighteen words that, when they are applied to the Personal, Social, and Spiritual principles which govern your life, will give you the choices to redirect the path you are on. This book will not only focus you on how to achieve success through these powerful words, but will also point out the pitfalls in life that often keep people from reaching their fullest potential. How can you achieve your fullest Personal Growth? There are only five words to greater success. How can you achieve greater Social growth? There are only ten words you need to live by to achieve stronger social interactions and success with others. Finally, how can you achieve greater Spiritual Growth and peace in your life? The Three Legged Table offers the three words that will lead you to understanding and recognition of God’s involvement in your Life. The Three Legged Table reaffirms the truth that each and every one has one Most Valuable and Precious Resource. To achieve your Maximum Potential and complete Balance in your life, a commitment to the eighteen words shared here to your fullest abilities and talents will allow you to apply the outside forces of change Isaac Newton postulated to alter your course through life and achieve lasting growth, success and peace.


Those 18 words? They are divided into three axioms, but I will give only the 10-word saying here since you will know it: “Treat others the way you would want to be treated.”

Taking on two titles for a single meeting of a book club is risky, but it should make for a lively evening together.
     

‘Their primitive Mason mark’

     
The Provincial Grand Lodge of Derbyshire maintains a busy presence on social media (and frequently does me the honor of sharing links to this website), and this morning published this poem by an unknown writer.

Mason Marks

They’re traced in lines on the Parthenon,

Inscribed by the subtle Greek;

And Roman legions have carved them on

Walls, roads and arch antique;

Long ere the Goth, with vandal hand,

Gave scope to his envy dark,

The Mason craft in many a land

Has graven its Mason mark.

The obelisk old and the pyramids,

Around which a mystery clings,-

The Hieroglyphs on the coffin lids

Of weird Egyptian kings,

Syria, Carthage and Pompeii,

Buried and strewn and stark,

Have marble records that will not die,

Their primitive Mason mark.

Upon column and frieze and capital,

In the eye of the chaste volute, -

On Scotia’s curve, or an astrogal,

Or in triglyp’s channel acute,-

Cut somewhere on the entablature,

And oft, like a sudden spark,

Flashing a light on a date obscure,

Shines many a Mason mark.

These craftsmen old had a genial whim,

That nothing could ever destroy,

With a love of their art that naught could dim,

They toiled with a chronic joy;

Nothing was too complex to essay,

In aught they dashed to embark;

They triumphed on many an Appian Way,

Where they’d left their Mason mark.

Crossing the Alps like Hannibal,

Or skirting the Pyranees,

On peak and plain, in crypt and cell,

On foot or on bandaged knees; -

From Tiber to Danube, from Rhine to Seine,

They needed no “letters of marque;” -

Their art was their passport in France and Spain,

And in Britain their Mason mark.

The monolith grey and Druid chair,

The pillars and towers of Gael,

In Ogharn occult their age they bear,

That time can only reveal.

Live on, old monuments of the past,

Our beacons through ages dark!

In primal majesty still you’ll last,

Endeared by each Mason mark.

Anonymous

     

‘Next year: Freemasonry on the Frontier’

     

Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 will return to the United States next September to host another conference. “Freemasonry on the Frontier” will be hosted at the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in Boston September 18-20, 2020.

Hilary Anderson Stelling

I don’t know how this is possible, and maybe I’m wrong, but it looks like only one presentation will address Freemasonry in New York! On Saturday the 19th, Hilary Anderson Stelling will deliver “Early New York City Mark Medals.” Looking forward to it. (Although I guess Jeff Croteau’s paper on Cerneau will include New York history too.)

Click here for the entire program. Click here for the brochure.

From the publicity:


The Conference, “Freemasonry on the Frontier,” focuses on key individuals and their lives, and broader themes, including the influence of the Irish and Scottish, Prince Hall Freemasonry, and the social and political impact of Freemasonry locally and nationally.

The Conference has been structured to reflect the westward expansion of the frontier from the Atlantic coast in the early eighteenth century, through the Midwest in the late eighteenth century and nineteenth century, to the Pacific coastal states at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth.

Our intention is to make certain that there is adequate time for attendees to question speakers and raise their own points, and to generate a stimulating discussion and debate across the floor. We have a world class line-up including Bob Cooper, Curator of the Grand Lodge of Scotland; Brent Morris, Editor of Heredom; Mike Kearsley, ANZMRC and Prestonian Lecturer; Ric Berman, the outgoing Master of QC and Prestonian Lecturer; Walter Hunt, Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts; Andreas Onnerfors, Associate Professor, University of Gothenburg Sweden, the incoming Master of QC; and other leading national and international speakers.


To register, click here.
     

‘The Dead’s Hero’s Journey’

     
The Aish Center on West 36th Street (between Eighth and Ninth) is a locus for Jewish learning and cultural activities. It offers a variety of resources to you online, one of which is a podcast series recently launched that aims to interpret some of the songs you’ve known for years. One of these, posted to YouTube last month, looks at the Grateful Dead’s “Terrapin Station,” which Rabbi Adam Jacobs describes thusly:


“Terrapin Station” discusses the concept of the Hero’s Journey—the quest to understand life and the striving to arrive at an elevated destination. It shows how each of us inhabits more than one world simultaneously.


“Terrapin Station” was written by Jerry Garcia and Robert Hunter. The Hero’s Journey, as defined by Professor Joseph Campbell, is a staple of storytelling as old as, well, storytelling. Thanks to Bro. Marco, who illustrated it in his 2008 Rose Circle lecture at Masonic Hall by recalling the character arc of Luke Skywalker, I’ll ask you to remember Skywalker’s actions in that original Star Wars movie from 1977 when you look at this:

Click to enlarge.

Aish’s Terrapin Station podcast:


     

‘Gurdjieff intro at Sheen Center’

     

The Gurdjieff Foundation’s next Introduction to the Gurdjieff Teaching will take place at the Sheen Center on Friday, October 4 at 6:30. “The event will be hosted by two senior members of the Gurdjieff Foundation, and provide an overview, a chance for exchange, and also feature a film on the subject of search,” according to the foundation’s website. To RSVP, send an email here.

The Sheen Center for Thought and Culture is located at 18 Bleecker Street, between Mott and Elizabeth streets.
     

‘For this, and this alone, does a man become a Freemason’

     
“Labor is an important word in Masonry; indeed, we might say the most important. For this, and this alone, does a man become a Freemason. Every other object is secondary or incidental. Labor is the accustomed design of every Lodge meeting. But do such meetings always furnish evidence of industry? The labor of an Operative Mason will be visible, and he will receive his reward for it, even though the building he has constructed may, in the next hour, be overthrown by a tempest. He knows that he has done his labor. And so must the Freemason labor. His labor must be visible to himself and to his brethren, or, at least, it must conduce to his own internal satisfaction. As we build neither a visible Solomonic Temple nor an Egyptian pyramid, our industry must become visible in works that are imperishable, so that when we vanish from the eyes of mortals it may be said of us that our labor was well done.”

Johann Christian Gaedicke


Gaedicke was a Mason in Germany, initiated in 1804 at age 41. A bookseller by day, he went on to author seminal books on Masonic vocabulary, so his elegant assertion here on the subject of labor is fitting. Nor is it surprising that he was a favorite of Albert G. Mackey, who of course would go on to write his own Lexicon and Encyclopædia of Freemasonry. It is in Mackey’s encyclopedia where I found this quotation of Gaedicke’s. (Mackey also alternately spells it Gädicke.)

Today is the national holiday Labor Day here in the United States. I normally do not seize on holidays for thematic content for The Magpie Mason, but I see it differently today thanks to a discussion on Facebook I saw earlier. A venerable Mason in my former grand jurisdiction has created a group where the brethren may openly discuss the shortcomings of the Craft there, not in complaint or derision, but in the spirit of seeking a better way forward. This post today concerns social media. I have edited it sharply for length to use here:


As we Masons begin labor in our Lodges, please consider the recommendations in this post. Thanks.

Social Media Thoughts

and Commentary

I am convinced that social media could well be a solution to help solve some of the issues that plague our Grand Lodge. If used properly, I believe that we could utilize the reach of social media to address issues such as recruiting new members, retaining absent brothers, educating ourselves and the uninformed, and reinforcing core Masonic values.

As some of you might know, I underwent a very serious surgery this past February and as a result, I had a lot of time on my hands recovering from the operation…. While sitting in my comfy chair, I observed many posts covering after-meeting get-togethers, dinners, and other social functions.

Very rarely did I see anything written about the greatness of our fraternity, what it means to be a Freemason, or simply the honor of being a Master Mason. I wondered why so much time and effort went into posting pictures of smoking cigars, or eating and drinking, and claiming “another night of friendship and brotherhood.” I even saw a post with brothers in high positions of Grand Lodge leadership mocking another brother for something he had said. Yet, I found nothing written about the beauty, the mystery, or the honor of being a New Jersey Master Mason. Imagine if social media posts were inspirational, aspirational, and/or informational….

Why not address subjects as “Why I became a Freemason,” “What Freemasonry has done for me,” or “A year in the life of an active Freemason and his lodge.” With very little effort, I can identify at least a dozen other subjects. Along with a thought-provoking or informative article, why not post it with a picture of your lodge building, lodge room, or something with a Masonic theme?... I think posts that reflect our feelings about this great fraternity will be more helpful in attracting new members and retaining our absent brothers than scotch and cigars.


I can’t argue with that.

Regular readers of The Magpie Mason know I’m not against enjoying cigars, spirits, and fellowship, but I am against making these extra-curricular activities the focus of the lodge. (That is what, for example, the Grotto is for.) There is labor, and there is refreshment—and even during refreshment we are ever reminded to keep our wits. I have seen years worth of the Facebook posts our good brother laments above. I’ve seen dozens of photos of guys’ socks, their motorcycle rides, their restaurant entrees, and other attractions anyone could enjoy without ever considering becoming a Freemason. And this is nothing new. More than a decade and a half ago, I visited a lodge in New Jersey to join in its sesquicentennial celebration. The keynote speaker was the current grand master, who really had nothing Masonic to say, but instead spoke insistently and happily that Freemasonry could be stripped of its teachings, rituals, and symbols without detriment, because we’ll all still be friends anyway. That’s a kindergarten mentality that ripples through that jurisdiction.

We are here for our labors. Masonic Man is at once the builder, the raw building material, and the finished building block. Strip the Craft of its lessons and modes of instruction! Indeed.

In the wake of the Black Death in 14th century England, King Henry VI and Parliament endeavored to check the power of masons with a law that superseded the masons’ own regulations for wages. It became a felony for masons to gather for their “yearly congregations and confederacies” whereby these Statutes for Laborers “be openly violated and broken, in subversion of the law, and to the great damage of all the Commons.” The penalty for masons meeting illegally included imprisonment, fines, and ransom “at the king’s will.” The Statutes of Laborers were repealed under Queen Elizabeth I, as they were shown to have carried “no force or effect.” The labors of masons will not be infringed.

We Speculative Masons have our signs, grips, and words to demonstrate our fitness to receive Masons’ wages. We wield our Working Tools. Our lodges open for labor. Those labors include making Masons, and imparting good and wholesome instruction. You get the idea, but not everyone does.

Embedded somewhere, but I know not where, in the Masonic corpus is the Latin “Ora et labora,” meaning “to labor is to pray,” borrowed from Saint Benedict’s rule for monastic life. But that’s a topic for a future Labor Day.
     

‘Mississippi Lodge of Research DCXL’

     
I was wrong. Yesterday’s edition of The Magpie Mason does not close out the month of August. This one does.

Just a few hours ago, Mississippi Lodge of Research held its Called Communication in Jackson. What made this meeting different is the brethren chose to adopt aspects of Observant Masonry.

The research lodge dressed up its meeting with candlelight, music, and incense, according to an update on its Facebook page. For their meal together, the brethren went Festive Board-style. “This will be the standard format of our meetings in the future,” it says.

Courtesy Mississippi Lodge of Research DCXL

Makes me wonder if someone there attended the Masonic Restoration Foundation symposium two weeks ago. 

Courtesy Mississippi Lodge of Research DCXL

In other news, this research lodge is part of various programs in the jurisdiction of Mississippi that have educational components, like Deputy School, for example, and the Emerging Leaders Program. Imagine that: The Craft’s leaders being educated on the subject of Freemasonry. I’m in somewhat regular contact with many lodges of research and education around the country, and I cannot name another that is part of such initiatives. Bravo!

The lodge will meet for its quarterly communication on Monday, October 14 at the York Rite building in Jackson.

There also is the Collegium Masonicum, which unites the state’s Craft lodges under a single purpose to educate Masons. Each member of the college is already a member of the research lodge, and serves as a delegate from his mother lodge. The master of the research lodge is the magister of the Collegium Masonicum, and he appoints brethren to the college.

On August 8, Indianola Lodge 450 hosted its quarterly Masonic Education Lecture Series meeting, welcoming the research lodge’s senior warden who discussed the moral applications of the working tools. Indianola Lodge submitted a press release and photo to the local newspaper, which published the news.
     

‘September 14: How to Serve as Lodge Historian’

     
The Magpie Mason closes the month of August with news of events in two weeks. On Saturday, September 14, I will attend the meetings of both my research lodge and my AMD council to present “How to Serve as Lodge Historian.”

This is not something I have written myself, but is useful information I found in an early 20th century Grand Lodge of California book of proceedings. Actually, the original source of this item is an older Grand Lodge of Texas book of proceedings, but I haven’t been able to put my hands on that yet. I never have served as a lodge historian, so this opened my eyes to a few things. Anyway, I also will publish this here on the Magpie in two weeks.

New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 meets on the second Saturdays of March, June, September, and December at Hightstown-Apollo Lodge 41 (535 North Main Street) in Hightstown. Lodge opens at 9:30 a.m. Master Masons. Attire: suit and tie with regalia (the host lodge supplies aprons in case you don’t have yours). Breakfast and lunch will be served.

On the agenda for our next meeting:

“A Masonic View of Benedict Arnold” by Frank Conway. I haven’t met Frank yet. He is the author of this book.

“How to Serve as Lodge Historian,” as described above.

At eight o’clock that night, J. William Gronning Council 83 of Allied Masonic Degrees will meet in that same lodge room for its quarterly meeting. I do not have the information on the presentations then except for my own, as described above. AMD brethren only. Suit and tie with your regalia. (And preferably, your own suit and tie too!)

In other research lodge news, W. Bro. Jeriel Smith will be among the speakers at the Esoteric-Con next Saturday at San Pedro, California, presenting “The Tarot and Freemasonry.” Definitely interests me, but that’s beyond my customary orbit. Tickets to this Esoteric-Con—they seem to be springing up all over the country these days—can be had, at only $12 each, here, at Keepers of the Word.

Smith is Worshipful Master of Southern California Research Lodge (not to be confused with Northern California Research Lodge), and serves on the editorial board of its wonderful periodical Fraternal Review. SCRL will have a booth at Esoteric-Con where you may purchase its annual books of transactions and copies of the magazine.

SCRL’s next meeting will be Monday, October 21, for its election of officers, at South Pasadena Lodge 290 in South Pasadena.

Closer to home, but still beyond my cabletow, is Civil War Lodge of Research 1865, which will meet Saturday, September 28 (note: NOT the usual first Saturday of October) at Day Lodge 58 in St. Louisa, Virginia. From the publicity:

After our normal business meeting, we will move to the dining room where Worshipful Gregory Hasaflook will give a presentation on Civil War-era carbines. That will be followed by lunch, and then we will tour the Trevilian Station Battlefields. This will be conducted by Worshipful Ed Crebbs. Both of these brothers are members of both CWLR and Day Lodge, and both are experts in Civil War history, particularly that of the local area.

The Battle of Trevilian Station was fought for control of the Virginia Central Railroad and happened over two days in June 1864.

The lodge shares a building with Louisa United Methodist Church. This is a wonderful history that started when the building was constructed in the mid 1800s. It is a beautiful building in its meeting/dining hall, its church sanctuary, and its Masonic lodge room.
     

‘Esoteric music symposium upstate’

     

Nazareth College’s School of Music will host this symposium next year. (Hat tip to the lovely and talented Chuck Dunning for sharing this on Faceypage today.)

Esoteric Music, Music Performance,

and Music Research Symposium

February 22-23, 2020

Nazareth College

Rochester, New York

Paper Submission Deadline: November 15, 2019.
Proposals received by October 15 will be given priority consideration.

Call for Papers

This symposium seeks to bring together music scholars, performers, and teachers with a sincere interest in the intersection of music and esoteric ideas and practices. Proposal abstracts should be limited to 500 words and sent in PDF form to Marjorie Roth.

Topics touching upon, but not limited to, the following are welcome:

• Music and the Pythagorean Tradition (numbers, sacred geometry)
• Music and Esoteric Experience (spiritual/religious/mystical)
• Music and Cosmology
• Music and Contemplation
• Music and Esoteric Symbol (sound, text, image)
• Music and Esoteric Traditions (alchemy, astrology, Hermeticism, Freemasonry)
• Music and Alternative Realities
• Esotericism and Music Pedagogy
• Esotericism in Music Performance and/or Composition
• The Harmony of the Spheres

Contacts: Marjorie Roth, Nazareth College; and Justin Ray Glosson, Texas Tech University.
     

‘Special screening of Hidden Treasures’

     

Tickets went on sale yesterday to a special screening of the film Hidden Treasures at the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism.

You’re all members of ARAS, yes?

From the publicity:

Hidden Treasures screening

Archive for Research

in Archetypal Symbolism

Friday, September 27 at 7:30 p.m.

28 East 39th Street, Manhattan

Tickets here

Join us at ARAS for a very special screening of Hidden Treasures: Stories from a Great Museum.

The film will be followed by a question-and-answer session with the director of the film, Alexandra Isles with some of the film’s participants, and a wine and cheese reception.

This is all in support of a great cause! All proceeds will benefit Pioneer Teens, a program for high school students that focuses on deepening the relationship to art and image.

This program is dedicated to the memory of Jungian analyst, Armin Wanner (1938-2011), Diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich and long-time faculty member of the New York Jung Institute and the Jung Foundation.

The art and symbols that capture our attention and draw us in are what psychologist C.G. Jung might call the mysterium fascinosum (seductive mystery). We each have our favorite images, whether it is St. George slaying a dragon, Mickey Mouse brandishing a top hat, or a winged Nike. These images each call out to us differently and illuminate our lives with their archetypal energy. You are invited to support the educational outreach of ARAS (Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism) a unique archive of more than 18,000 images and archetypal commentaries spanning human eras and cultures.

Film synopsis:

Every year, millions of people visit the Metropolitan Museum, but how many are able to find the secrets and powers hidden in the works of art? Museum staff, who spend their days, and sometimes their nights, restoring, guarding, moving, cleaning, and teaching about the art, reveal some of the magic they have discovered. Their stories include a wish-granting statue, a sword with a secret compartment, a time-traveling melody, a portrait that has become a trusted mentor, a famous landscape with an unexpected population, and rooms and objects that brought joy to a dying woman.

Alexandra Moltke Isles grew up in New York where her father was a permanent member of the Danish Mission to the United Nations, and her mother was an editor at Vogue magazine. As a child she hated school but always had her nose in a book. Growing up as a U.N. brat honed her sensitivity to injustice and a theme running through all her work is social justice and dignity for the outsider. Her historical documentaries are as notable for the memorable personalities interviewed as they are for the richness of the archival material. Isles’ passion for research was developed during her years as a Researcher and then Assistant Curator at New York’s Museum of Radio & Television, now the Paley Center of Media. Her previous films are The Power of Conscience: The Danish Resistance and Rescue of the Jews (1995); Scandalize My Name (1999) about the black listing of African-American performers during the Red Scare; Porraimos: Europe’s Gypsies in the Holocaust (2002); The Healing Gardens of New York (2007); and Hidden Treasures: Stories from a Great Museum (2011). Isles also has been an interviewer for Stephen Spielberg’s Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Project and an ESL tutor at the Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of Torture. Since the making of this film her passion has led her to become a docent at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
     

‘Do you Grotto?’

I do, at least as of five months ago, and come Saturday, you can too.

Living vicariously through Isaac’s entertaining Facebook updates for several years was satisfying to a certain extent, but I had to join Azim Grotto No. 7 in New York City in March to experience it firsthand. It’s my one frivolity in Freemasonry, and if you are able to get to Masonic Hall, then I recommend joining this hilarious band of…uh, Prophets.

The actual name is Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, so you know instinctively that it’s levity. The Grotto is yet another fraternity in the Masonic family tree that was founded in the State of New York—it’s hard to count them all—and Azim 7 is the place to be in New York City. The embryonic Grotto was hatched at Hamilton Lodge 120, where the first meeting was held September 10, 1889. The Supreme Council was formed only nine months later, and the lovable band of brothers attired in allegedly Persian garb (today a proper and dignified fez suffices) was on its way.

A hundred years ago, the Grand Lodge of North Dakota (wherever that is) made it an offense for a Master Mason to join the Grotto. The Grand Master of Indiana forbade Grottos to meet in Masonic lodge rooms. The Grand Master of Louisiana ruled the Grotto to be viewed in the same regard as the Knights of Columbus, the Druids, Odd Fellows, and other non-Masonic fraternities. Yeah, well who is laughing now?

On Friday, Grand Monarch Michael G. Hosler and his Lady Jan will pay a social call on us in Manhattan at a location only three minutes away from the Nat Sherman Townhouse—that’s a hint to the hosts—because…

The next day, Saturday the 31st, the Grand Monarch, accompanied by Deputy Grand Monarch Tali Atala, will pay a visit to Azim at Masonic Hall for our Ceremonial—that is the unforgettable induction of members—and a private tour of the majestic building.

Tour at 4 p.m. Social hour at five o’clock. Azim business meeting at six. The Ceremonial at 7 p.m. (which is not to say the business meeting will run an hour!). In the Jacobean Room on eight.

I’d say it is okay to arrive Saturday and complete a petition then and there, because that’s what I did in March on National Grotto Day. Things are pretty informal, as you might guess. Do it. When has this blog ever steered you wrong?
     

‘York Conference for the Study of Western Esotericism’

     
That’s York, England, not New York.

The theme this year is “Inside Esotericism,” but there is a curious absence of Freemasonry from the talks to be presented—very strange, in fact, given the location of the conference, which was the home of Athelstan and Edwin, and is the nexus of Masonic authority prior to the events of June 24, 1717.

But don’t let that stop you.

It looks like a dream event for the topics of discussion and the setting. The location is 23 Stonegate, and it will span the weekend of September 14. For registration, click here. Travel and accommodations are up to you.

Four panelists will address attendees. From the publicity:


Paul Bembridge

A regular presenter for the New York Open Center’s conferences on the Western Esoteric Traditions, Paul was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in connection with his work on the Rosicrucian interests of the poet Andrew Marvell. He became an Honorary Fellow of the University of Exeter where he taught alongside Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke at the Centre for the Study of Esotericism.

Bob Bows

A former electronics designer and teacher at Leeds University, Bob has been a follower of Gurdjieff since the 1970s. A co-founder of the Leeds Gurdjieff Society, he actively disseminates Gurdjieff’s teachings. In addition, he has studied the energy fields of humans, animals, and plants, in the tradition of Mesmerand von Reichenbach.

Judith Mawer

A long-standing admirer of the works of Frances Yates, and a former newsletter editor for SHAC (the Society for the History of Alchemy and Chemistry), Judith holds a Master’s degree in Western Esotericism and is currently working on the seventeenth century alchemist Thomas Vaughan for her doctorate.

Malcolm Peet

Is a retired Consultant Psychiatrist and was Honorary Professor in the School of Health at the University of Sheffield until 2017. Internationally recognized for his research on the relationship between nutrition and mental well-being, Malcolm holds a Master’s Degree in Western Esotericism and has recently published a book on Garth Wilkinson, Swedenborg and nineteenth-century esoteric culture, Medicine, Mysticism and Mythology (London: The Swedenborg Society, 2018).


The presentations themselves will be:

Saturday

• Ancient Origins of Esoteric Culture
• Esoteric Christianity
• The English Rosicrucians
• Visit: Magic & Mystery exhibition in Barley Hall
• The Spiritual Alchemy of Thomas Vaughan

Sunday

• Mesmerism, Magic, and the Dawn of Modern Psychology
• The Esoteric Quest in the Twentieth Century
• Gurdjieff and the Work
• Esoteric Christianity, a Postscript of Our Times

Frustrating. I was planning a vacation to Blighty for that very week to visit Quatuor Coronati 2076 and the London Pipe Club, but it isn’t working out.
     

‘Calling all St. Albans lodges’

     

UPDATE: MAY 20, 2020

This event is canceled

due to the pandemic.

In Freemasonry, there used to be an interesting practice of lodges sharing a common name, but that are spread across grand jurisdictions around the country, uniting in a chain and occasionally meeting for fellowship—and, I guess, celebrating how their lodges’ name rocks. For example, there once was a St. John’s Lodge brotherhood.

Of course the Holy Saints John are integral to Masonic ritual and symbolism, and I imagine every grand lodge in the United States has a St. John’s Lodge, very often numbered first. New York’s eldest extant lodge is St. John’s 1 in Manhattan, dating to 1757.

There is another saint whose name figures prominently in lodge nomenclature around America and beyond: St. Alban. His presence in Masonic culture is not obvious.

First, let’s look at some biography, courtesy of Catholic Encyclopedia. Excerpted:

Courtesy St. Alban's Episcopal Church.

St. Alban. First martyr of Britain, suffered c. 304. The commonly received account of the martyrdom of St. Alban meets us as early as the pages of Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History” (Bk. I, chs. vii and xviii). According to this, St. Alban was a pagan living at Verulamium (now the town of St. Albans in Hertfordshire), when a persecution of the Christians broke out, and a certain cleric flying for his life took refuge in Alban’s house. Alban sheltered him, and after some days, moved by his example, himself received baptism. Later on, when the governor’s emissaries came to search the house, Alban disguised himself in the cloak of his guest and gave himself up in his place. He was dragged before the judge, scourged, and, when he would not deny his faith, condemned to death. On the way to the place of execution Alban arrested the waters of a river so that they crossed dry-shod, and he further caused a fountain of water to flow on the summit of the hill on which he was beheaded. His executioner was converted, and the man who replaced him, after striking the fatal blow, was punished with blindness. A later development in the legend informs us that the cleric’s name was Amphibalus, and that he, with some companions, was stoned to death a few days afterwards at Redbourn, four miles from St. Albans.


With Freemasonry arising in the British Isles, it is easy to understand how the first martyr in Britain could be cited as a kind of spiritual founding father. The earliest mention of him in Masonic literature is found in the Cooke Manuscript from the early 1400s, which is the second oldest known publication in Masonic letters, junior only to the Regius MS, and is the oldest of the Gothic Constitutions. It echoes in Anderson’s Constitutions and in the ritual probably used in your lodge.

Cooke, at line 602, briefly says “And soon after that came Saint Adhabell into England, and converted Saint Alban to Christianity. And Saint Alban loved well masons, and gave them their first charges and manners first in England. And he ordained convenient [times] to pay for the travail.” (Spelling modernized.)

Another document, known as the Grand Lodge Manuscript, that is said to date to 1583, illustrates more:


England in all this time stood void of any Charge of Masonry, until St. Albons’ time, and in his days the King of England, then a pagan, did wall the town that is now called St. Albons. And St. Alban was a worthy Knight and Steward of the King’s household, and had the government of the realm, and also of the walls of the said town; he loved and cherished Masons right well, and made their pay right good (according the standing of the realm), for he gave them 2 shillings 6 pence a week and three pence to their cheer [food and drinks]; for before that time, throughout all the land, a Mason took but a penny a day and his meat, until St. Alban amended it. He procured for them [the Masons] a Charter from the King and his Council, to hold a general council together, and gave it the name of Assembly; and after having himself [become a Mason], he helped to make men Masons, and gave them a Charge, as you shall hear afterwards right soon.


Personally, I believe St. Alban endeared himself to masons through the act of improving the food and drink allowance! His feast day is June 22. Vivat!

Where was I going with this? Yes! An organization of St. Albans lodges.

There is an international gathering of lodges named for St. Alban called for next year in New York, it was announced yesterday. It will be hosted in Rockville Center on October 2 through 4, 2020 at the Scottish Rite Valley there. For information, contact W. Bro. Harrison Greene of St. Albans Lodge 56 here.

A quick look through a search engine shows there are St. Albans lodges at labor in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia and, of course, St. Albans in Hertfordshire!

Please help spread the word.
     

‘Grand Master’s Day at DeWint House’

     

Kudos to the planning committee of Grand Master’s Day 2019! There is a change of program this time that can only make the day even more fun. There was nothing wrong with the previous way of doing things, with a killer brunch before the festivities at DeWint House, but having a barbecue at DeWint House will be awesome.

I think this flier says it all, so I have nothing more to add except that if you’ve never been to DeWint House, you should make the effort. Even if you cannot attend Grand Master’s Day, please make the trip another time at your convenience. It is more than a historic site with an impressive museum; this special place offers beautiful grounds with exotic trees and other attractions. A very peaceful space.

See some old photos here.

Listen, the organizers need your reservations. They don’t need surprises. They say the site can accommodate 100 cars, but I think that’s pretty optimistic. See you there.