Plans for St. John’s Day

While normal people devote time and energy in December planning things to do on Christmas or Hanukkah or New Year’s Eve, there exists a subculture of people like myself who plan for St. John’s Day.

Unfortunately it appears that the Festive Board I had been hoping St. John’s Lodge would host at Fraunces Tavern on the 27th is not to be, but of course in Masonry we have the law of duality, which guarantees something else is bound to pop up.

And so it has.

Tonight, Bro. Makia will be installed into the Solomonic chair of Fairless Hills Lodge No. 776 in Pennsylvania. His first event in what will be a very productive year will be a St. John’s Day celebration at the lodge on the 27th. More than great fellowship and food, the day will include The Rev. Canon William V. Rauscher, a longtime Mason from New Jersey, speaking on “Religion and Masonry.”

Very much looking forward to being there.

‘Deep Purple II’

The East of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 in Trenton, NJ.

Saturday was the Installation of Officers of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 (where no prices are lower prices than New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786’s!), and it was an extra special occasion because the new Master is one of the lodge’s top scholars. Having just completed a second term as Master of Highland Park Lodge No. 240, Bro. Ben Hoff is sufficiently seasoned for a two-year term in the East of our research lodge.

RW Jim Ross, Installing Master, greets W. Ben Hoff in the East of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 in Trenton Saturday morning.

The lodge is in very good hands.

True to form, Ben began his term by presenting a thought-provoking paper. It was topical also; he wrote of how Freemasonry in the pre-grand lodge era defined Masters. Where they Master Masons, as we understand the term today, or were they Masters of lodges?

Taking from Regius, Cooke, Edinburgh Register House and other seminal texts, Ben illustrated the differences between Masters and Fellows, and the differences between Masters of construction sites and those under his authority. A number of revealing details were highlighted. For example, one item of moral instruction found in the Grand Lodge Manuscript (c. 1583), says that no Fellow shall “go into the town on an evening when there is a lodge of Fellows, unless he has a Fellow with him that might bear witness that he was in honest places.” And so we see a clear difference between competency and conduct in the workplace by day, and moral rectitude while on Refreshment at night.

Another eye-opener was revealed in the Trinity College MS (1711) and Sloane MS No. 3329. These documents show that the FPOF and the Master's Word existed well before the late 1720s, when the MM Degree we know today is believed to have debuted.

A great start to what will be a very productive period for the lodge.

‘Big Night’ (continued)

Bro. Robert L. Barrows, Grand Organist of the Grand Lodge of New York, was next on the program Monday night, speaking on “Freemasonry and Music.” A musician himself, even a choral director, Bob is well known for his lectures on a variety of music subjects. “This is what it’s all about, isn’t it?” he said, opening his remarks with a rhetorical question about culture, either the Craft or life in general. “Or it should be.” He came not to discuss famous musical Masons like Mozart, Haydn and Sibelius, but to explain “the why” of music in Freemasonry. “Why should the arts concern us at all?”

He answered his own question in two parts.

There is a shared camaraderie. Music in lodge should be accessible to “the rankest amateurs in the room,” he explained. “I don’t know about your lodge, but in my lodge….” Laughter ensued. Getting serious again, he explained that music serves a unifying purpose that reinforces what perhaps is the most important goal of the lodge: to bring people together. Freemasonry adopts no creed, but its use of music appears to have been borrowed from church and synagogue. “It’s not that we ‘took,’ but our use of music comes from the same source.”

Secondly, Barrows cited “an enormous craving” for a personal relationship to the mythos of Freemasonry, especially to the Sublime Degree. The lodge’s use of music “creates a timeless and perfect parallel universe that connects all of us in a virtual temple not made with hands,” he said.

“You can’t just do that by talking about it, folks. You have to do it. And we do that through the evocative power of the arts,” he added. Through the arts we can evoke the richness of the whole of the gentle Craft.” To not have that would be a “tragedy,” an atmosphere “we can get at the corner bar.”

“The arts are, for us, more than a paste-on adornment,” Barrows said in conclusion. “They are the core. Without them, we cannot express our true Masonry.”

During the Q&A, Bro. Barrows said something else equally worthy of notice: that Ludwig van Beethoven and J.S. Bach were Freemasons. He explained that a coffee house the two composers frequented was known to be an establishment where Masons gathered.


Next on the agenda was to be the lovely and talented Bro. Robert G. Davis, author, lecturer, Secretary of the Valley of Guthrie, &c., &c.

But he couldn’t make it, due to a sudden scheduling conflict. But the paper he was to deliver did arrive, and was presented by Bro. Marcus Fuller of King Solomon-Beethoven Lodge No. 232 in NYC. Its title: “Freemasonry and the Theater Arts.” Bro. Fuller, an actor seen in several television series, including “Law & Order,” was wisely chosen to give the talk.

“DEAD! Dead! This whole deed is done!” Fuller cried, beginning the paper with an excerpt from “The Ruffians Lament,” a drama set in the wake of You Know What.

Fuller explained how Masonic degrees are all theater. Hundreds of degrees that are “ritual in structure, but theatrical in nature.”

“All the stories of human occurrences become plays,” he explained, alluding to Aristotle. “Comedy, tragedy, pleasure, magic, education. Man loves to imitate. What we Masons do is basically theater, so why aren’t we better at it?” To answer that question, Fuller took us on a historical tour, back to the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance, to examine the period when craft guilds staged mystery plays in their towns. These plays, with the supervision of the church, even turned into competitions among the various guilds. They influenced the social lives and education of the thousands of people who saw them, until the plays were outlawed by King James, “making them at least semi-secret, or at least deeply esoteric.” The Master Mason Degree is a mystery play.

Of course the obvious theatrical experience in American Freemasonry is found in the Scottish Rite where, since the 1880s, the AASR has used all the tools of the stage to introduce its initiates into “a rich world of fantasy and pageantry.”

“Masonry had reinvented itself as an art,” Fuller said. The degrees went from the dark rooms of the lodge to the pageantry of “a powerfully heightened initiation,” that made it possible to “mass produce” Masons. “It is a highly charged romantic experience” to those found on both sides of the footlights.

Fuller closed with a quote of his own: “I went to the theater as a child and looked into the lights,” he said. “And men told me the truth.”

From left: Bros. David, Philippe, Rob and Luther.

‘Deep Purple’

   

Tis the season of Masonic Installations. This week a busy one in particular.

On Wednesday at historic Alpha Lodge in East Orange, David Lindez was found qualified and then installed into the Solomonic chair in the company of about 100 brothers, friends and well wishers. Masons from throughout New Jersey, from New York City, from Britain, France, Bermuda and elsewhere convened at Alpha to witness the event.

W. Bro. Lindez, left, receives the congratulations
of VW Piers Vaughan, in his ecclesiastical attire.

A delegation from St. John’s Lodge No. 1, AYM in New York City braved the winter elements to conduct the storied George Washington Inaugural Bible to the lodge, for placement upon the altar next to Alpha’s Bible. This is the very same Bible put to use for the first inauguration of President George Washington on April 30, 1789, and has been employed similarly by other presidents since.

A Past Supreme Magus here, a Past Prestonian Lecturer there, the mayor of the city, our junior Past Grand Master, and other dignitaries made for quite a remarkable event. It is highly unusual for a Mason to achieve an international reputation in the Craft, especially for work in education and esoterica, before serving as Master of his own lodge, but David has been known across America and far beyond for several years.

Arise my Brother.

Congratulations David!
     

Washington Whiskey

On this day in 1799, Bro. George Washington died at his home at Mount Vernon in Virginia. Victorious general, signer of the Constitution, and first president, Washington undoubtedly is best remembered as the only Founding Father who commercially operated a distillery.

At peak production, Washington's Distillery employed five stills and a boiler and produced 11,000 gallons of whiskey, yielding $7,500 in 1799, one of the most financially successful operations at Mount Vernon.

Washington lives on today, as Mount Vernon’s Distillery is the only site which still demonstrates the 18th-century distillation process.

Alas, my Brother.

At the beginning of Fifth Avenue, on the north side of Washington Square Park, stands the Beaux Arts monument of Tuckahoe marble displaying two huge likenesses of George Washington, warrior, statesman, distiller.

‘Big Night,’ Part Deux

Hamming it up with hats – Bro. Ari Roussimoff and his wife strike a pose.

“I love the holiday season,” said Ari Roussimoff, beginning his presentation Monday night at La Petite Auberge. This second annual dinner-lecture is the doing of the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, whose trustees selected the topic “Freemasonry and the Arts.” The fine arts and various performing arts, and even a by-gone era’s ways Masons promoted the arts were the subjects discussed. “It’s Christmas. It’s Hanukkah,” Roussimoff added. “I wish it would snow!”

Praising what he called the universality of this season of Jewish and Christian holy days, Roussimoff introduced the two paintings he brought to the restaurant. The pair are two-thirds of a triptych devoted to Masonic symbolism. All three components are oil-on-canvas paintings that lead the initiated eye through multiple Masonic degrees. Both of these measure 24x36, but the third portion was too large to transport. The complete triptych is on exhibit at the Livingston Library, located at the Grand Lodge of New York at 71 W. 23rd St., near Sixth Avenue.

Roussimoff spoke on “Freemasonry and Painting & Sculpture,” and he is worthy and well qualified to do so. The prolific painter and sculptor has had his work exhibited in 80 galleries, museums and other venues around the world, where his Russian, Ukrainian and Jewish imagery has won accolades. When not tending to those labors, Ari is a prize-winning maker of documentary films.

“The contributions to Freemasonry of artists are seen in aprons, tracingboards and too many artifacts to mention here,” he said. “Before standardized aprons, Masons wore hand-painted, individualized aprons. They used water-based paints, and some aprons even had jewelry. Still, you can’t call them folk art. For example, Jeremy Cross and Amos Doolittle actually signed their painted aprons.” He then lauded diverse artists who contributed to culture, from the famous Masons, like William Hogarth, to lesser known creators, including Lovis Corinth, Juan Gris and even Grant Wood. (The “American Gothic” painter also created a lithograph titled “Shriner’s Quartet” in 1939.) Roussimoff described Gris’ career, lamenting how despite being Master of his lodge, he never painted a Masonic picture. “It’s ironic. Gris was a Cubist, so he worked in geometry, in cubes.”

Focusing on his own work, Roussimoff displayed the two outer portions of his triptych, which he dubbed a “Parable of Light and Dark.” It is for the enjoyment of Mason and non-Mason alike, he explained. They parallel the legend of Hiram Abiff. The left portion is titled “Foundations.” It challenges the eye to keep pace. From the top left, the All-Seeing Eye surveys a cultural evolution. From the bottom, the operative workmen swing their tools. Emerging above are the Grand Masters of legend. A menagerie of architectural styles leads the viewer around the center of the painting. Beginning with the Beehive, a building of nature, the trail leads to classical temples, medieval cathedrals and Yakovlev-like towers, with Enlightenment icons the Statue of Liberty and the Eiffel Tower along the way. Observing from above are Pushkin (poetry), Wilde (theater), Twain (fiction) and Mozart (music).

Ari discusses his ‘Rebirth.’

The other painting available to us Monday was “Rebirth,” the third story of the triptych. Similarly it gives the eye a lot to consider. I suppose I ought to convey the artist’s explanation of the obvious eye-catcher: that double-vision pair of peepers denoting the supernatural Hebrew figure Melchizedek. “ ‘Rebirth’ is about today, not tomorrow. It is a rebuilding,” Roussimoff said. “The two sets of eyes show spirituality/creativity and the mind/intellect. I wanted to convey heart, soul and logic.”

Part III to come!

Another Big Night at ‘The Little Inn’

Tonight the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, of the Grand Lodge of New York, returned to La Petite Auberge in Murray Hill for its second annual dinner-lecture, this one titled “Freemasonry and the Arts.”

I’ll continue with a Magpie account of the evening shortly, but for now I’ll just share some photos.

These photos deny Bro. Ari Roussimoff’s work the justice it deserves. The colors, even in the subtly lit restaurant, are captivating and thrust the viewer into fantasy.

Thanks to the familiar symbols, the scenes are not entirely foreign, but clearly you’re taken into another world. (The poor quality of these photos is attributed to the need to shoot from an angle for lighting purposes. Really the best that could be managed without using more equipment.)

RW Bill Thomas, center, greets two of his guests. Bill is a Trustee of the Library. On Monday the 29th, he’ll be installed in the East of American Lodge of Research.

From left: artist Ari Roussimoff, Mark Koltko-Rivera, Daniel from the Livingston Library, and Tom Savini, Director of the Library.

That’s Bob Stutz on the right, as if you’re looking at him.

In the meantime, to read about last year’s festivities, click here.

‘The King and Jung’

   

The Ardagh Chalice, from Ireland, c. 8th century CE.

I have missed too many meetings of the Joseph Campbell Foundation’s New York City Chapter this year, but that wasn’t going to happen Wednesday night, when a trip uptown was scheduled to enjoy a lecture at the 92nd Street Y. The C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology sponsored “C.G. Jung and the Mythology of King Arthur,” for which Dr. Beth Darlington, professor of English at Vassar College, skillfully explained the Arthurian legends in the Jungian context. She also is a board member of the Foundation’s Jung Institute of New York, which trains mental health professionals in Jungian analysis, and she herself is a psychoanalyst in private practice.

Janet M. Careswell, Executive Director of the C.G. Jung Foundation, introduces Professor Beth Darlington, with her own Grail, to discuss Jung and the Mythology of King Arthur at the 92nd Street Y in New York City December 3.

When examining the psychological aspects of the rituals and symbols of Freemasonry, it is inevitable that Jung’s ideas – for example, on archetypes, individuation and the collective unconscious – will factor into one’s studies, even unintentionally. And when examining Jung himself, one learns of the importance he placed on the myths inspired by the legendary King Arthur, how elements of the stories gratified his theories on the psyche.

But anyway, when viewing these legends and considering them as “cultural dreams,” the Masonic eye can’t help but see thematic connections. There are far better sources to read about the Arthurian legends than I could provide myself, so without getting into too much detail – and there are many trails to follow in different directions – I’ll quickly sketch what I think are the two main branches of the myth.

Joseph of Arimatheaea, as painted by a monk 
of the Brotherhood of St. Seraphim of Sarov
in Norfolk, England.

1. The Grail is the chalice from which Christ drank at the Last Supper, and into which His blood was collected during the Crucifixion, and which was brought to Glastonbury by Joseph of Arimathaea. Christians know this symbol in their Eucharist.

The Last Supper inspired King Arthur's Round Table. Thanks to Michelangelo, we think of the table at the Last Supper as rectangular, with Christ and the Apostles improbably seated on one side, facing us. But pre-Renaissance understandings of the scene place all participants at a round table.

2. The Grail is not a vessel at all, but is a stone, possibly an emerald which had fallen from Satan’s possession during his fight with God. From this understanding, it also could be construed as the Philosopher’s Stone of Alchemy.

Either way, it is the subject of The Quest. In his own travels, Masonic Man ventures from East to West in search of That Which Was Lost.

Here are the other Grail-Craft parallels that appear to me:

There is a theory that Arthur himself is based on King Athelstan, to whom Masonic legends, dating nearly as far back as the dawn of the Arthurian myth itself, attribute Masonic parentage.

A temple is built on the Mountain of Salvation for the purpose of housing the Grail, and an Order of Grail Knights is formed. The Grail keeper is a king. Solomon built his temple on Mt. Moriah for the purpose of housing the Ark and providing his people a religious centrality. He is king, but there is a priestly Order.

This king suffers a wound; he survives but is in agony. His torment causes his idyllic land to degenerate into the Waste Land. In other words, the leader suffers an act of violence, and in the absence of his leadership, there is confusion and suffering. The return of the Grail restores peace and harmony.

The Grail, as a vessel, has the power to nourish the peoples of the Waste Land. It is bottomless. Think Cornucopia.

Three seekers succeed in finding the Grail, with varying degrees of success. There is Galahad, the virtuous knight; Perceval, the Fool character; and Bors, the ordinary man. All three are present the final time the Grail is used ritually. This takes place in the Heavenly City in the East.

There is a ritual question that must be asked by the true quester: Whom does the Grail serve? In other versions, the question is: What ails you? The answering of these questions allows the wounded king to recover (but die in peace) and for the waters of the land to return to the Waste Land, restoring its beauty and bounty.

Throughout, there are noticable opposites and dualities. There are events in the East and West. Themes intertwine Christian and pagan beliefs. Human and divine. Good and evil. Males and females are at odds. "Only conscious compassion can heal these divisions," said Professor Darlington. That compassion is that ritual question, the asking of which triggers the rebirth of the Waste Land, not very different from how the loss of the Word throws the workmen into chaos until the giving of the substitute, upon the highly symbolic Five Points of Fellowship, allows for the completion of KST.

One final note for you neo-Templars: In at least one Grail legend, the Knights Templar themselves appear as guardians of the Grail Castle. Their suppression in the early 14th century had the effect of almost outlawing the Grail myths, which had to be perpetuated sub rosa.

     

Just ‘beaux’ with me

     
In January, the Beaux Arts Alliance will sponsor four illustrated lectures on the history, architecture and arts of Western Europe, and it is the first of the presentations that I bring to Masons’ attention.

Titled “French Cathedrals: Faith and Glory: Paris, Chartres and Rheims,” the Jan. 5 program undoubtedly will showcase the stunning stonework of these cities’ medieval cathedrals. David Garrard Lowe, the noted author on the history of architecture, will be our tour guide.

This will take place in the Undercroft of the Church of the Resurrection, a landmark itself, located at 115 East 74th Street in New York City.

(This is a second chance for those of us who missed his presentation on this subject last April at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

Reservations are required. Phone: (212) 639-9120. Admission costs $30 per lecture.
     

OKLAHOMA!

Hmmm. So it is possible for a Masonic grand lodge in this country to be relevant today.

This news – actually it’s so old it can’t be called news – was just brought to my attention via the Masonic Library and Museum Association. Bravo Grand Lodge of Oklahoma!

Masonic Charity Foundation’s $500,000 gift to create gender studies chair at OSU
Gift to focus on role men play in enhancing society


(STILLWATER, Ok. July 16, 2008) – Oklahoma State University announced today a $500,000 gift from the Masonic Charity Foundation of Oklahoma (MCFO) to create a chair in gender studies at OSU. Once fully matched dollar-for-dollar by T. Boone Pickens’ $100 million chair match commitment, as well as the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education, the gift will have the impact of $2 million in endowed funds.

The gift will create the Masonic Fraternity of Oklahoma Gender Studies Chair, which will be housed within the College of Arts & Sciences.

“The response from our alumni and friends has exceeded our wildest expectations and we applaud the Masons’ on this generous gift,” said OSU President Burns Hargis. “We sincerely appreciate what the Masonic Fraternity is doing for OSU academics and research.”

In order to take full advantage of the state’s dollar-for-dollar match, and make the most significant impact on OSU academics, MCFO made the gift prior to the July 1 change in the state’s endowed chair matching program. This gift is part of the $66.8 million in endowed faculty gifts OSU announced recently.

The interest of the Masonic Fraternity lies in academic disciplines like sociology, psychology, history, and philosophy aimed at researching the importance of men and the role men play in enhancing the stability of family and social life, as well as the economic and social progress of society. (Emphasis added by Magpie.)

“Our fraternal society is first and foremost the study of men and manhood,” said Robert G. Davis, MCFO board member. “There are few academic studies which have focused on the role gender-specific organizations have played in enhancing the physical, social and psychological health of individuals.”

Davis continued, “Our hope is that this partnership with OSU will enhance family, social and community life through gender studies aimed at focusing on the needs of men, the ideals of manhood and a higher awareness of the importance of men in society.”

Endowed professorships and chairs are academic designations which provide support for faculty salary, graduate assistantships, equipment and research needs, as well as other support. These endowed faculty positions allow a university to attract and retain the best and the brightest academic minds in the world.

S.M.I.B.

Suedama Ensemble’s Masonic music

“Music teaches the art of forming concords, so as compose delightful harmony, by a mathematical and proportional arrangement of acute, grave and mixed sounds,” writes the venerable ritualist William Preston. “This art, by a series of experiments, is reduced to a demonstrative science, with respect to tones, and the intervals of sound. It inquires into the nature of concords and discords, and enables us to find out the proportion between them by numbers.”

On Thursday, the 11th of this month, Suedama Ensemble will perform at the 92nd Street Y. It’s a program titled “A musical exploration of Freemasonry and Kabbalah.”

David Greilsammer, artistic director, piano, conductor

Guy Feder, guest conductor

Gilad Harel, clarinet

Ethan Herschenfeld, narrator



RAMEAU: Overture to Zoroastre

MOZART: Masonic Funeral Music for Orchestra in C minor, K. 477

KEREN: On the Bridge of Words: A Triple Concerto for Narrator, Clarinet, Piano, and Chamber Orchestra (world premiere)

MILHAUD: La création du monde, Op. 81

MOZART: Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major, K. 482


Tickets available here.

“Mozart would have loved this!” - LE FIGARO

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.

▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼ ▲▼



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!