‘Masonic Week 2013’

    
Magpie coverage of Masonic Week 2013 to come shortly.

In the meantime, an inside joke:

    

‘Mercedes mea culpa, maybe’

    
Merkley and Partners, the Manhattan-headquartered ad agency that gave us the Mercedes-Benz Super Bowl commercial, has issued a perfunctory apology on its Facebook page.

We apologize to anyone offended by the use of the ring worn in our commercial, “Soul,” that ran during the Super Bowl. It was not our intention to make any association with the Freemasons or any organization. In fact, neither we nor our client, Mercedes-Benz USA, were aware that the ring could be associated with the Freemasons. To avoid any confusion going forward, we will modify the commercial prior to any future television airings.

The full-length cut of the commercial, with shots of the famous ring, remains posted on the agency’s blog however.
    

‘WTF?!’

    
I leave town for two days, and some nut tries to burn down Cincinnati Lodge?

The lodge, chartered in 1803, is a special lodge in New Jersey Masonry; it is named for the Society of the Cincinnati. The brother who saved the building from devastating arson is well known about the apartments of the temple. I cannot even fathom what he went through and accomplished. The following is a story from the local paper:

Drew Jardine planned to snow-blow around the Morristown Masonic Center Friday night but said he wound up wrestling with a man who burst into the center carrying jugs of gasoline and hollering that he would burn the place down. Morristown Police Capt. Steve Sarinelli identified the suspect as John Mowbray, 50, of Morris Township.

“It’s unclear what his motive was,” Sarinelli said. There was vandalism to the Masonic Center a few days before Friday’s incident and police are exploring a possible connection between Mowbray’s alleged break-in and the earlier criminal mischief, Sarinelli said.

In an interview Saturday morning in the sitting room of the circa-1930, Colonial center on Maple Avenue, Jardine said he was waiting for the snow to wane so he could clear the sidewalks when he heard the front door being forced open around 10:20 p.m. “It’s a stroke of luck I was here. The building could have been burned down,” said Jardine, 57, a member of the center’s building committee. Jardine said he confronted the intruder, a stranger in his fifties, who was carrying four quarts of gasoline in milk containers. Jardine said he exchanged blows with the man, who was trying to get up stairs to the center’s second floor, and he was able to wrestle him to the floor. The jugs fell during the scuffle and one broke open so that the center’s sitting room and foyer still reeked of gasoline Saturday morning.

Jardine said he managed to hold the man on the ground while he called police on his cell phone. Police confirmed that the suspect was taken into custody, charged with attempted arson and burglary, and lodged in the Morris County jail on $100,000 bail. Jardine spent the night at the center, not fearful of more intruders but resigned to tackling the snow surrounding the center, which he planned to do Saturday. He said that detectives, firemen and sheriff’s office investigators were on the premises till nearly 1 a.m. “I’d never seen that man’s face before. There are a lot of strange things in the world,” he said.
  

‘Ben at Mariners’

  

RW Bro. Ben Hoff, Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 and Highland Park Lodge No. 240, will appear at the podium of historic Mariners Lodge No. 67 in New York City next Wednesday, the thirteenth.

Mariners meets in Masonic Hall (71 W. 23rd Street in Manhattan), inside the Doric Room on the eighth floor.

Ben, a Past Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, is well known about the apartments of the Temple here for his research into the origins and evolution of Craft lodge rituals. I don’t know what his topic for Mariners will be, but I highly recommend attending. It is important to hear a common sense approach containing factual information about Masonic rituals to help you discern reality and history from the fantasy and wishful thinking found in too many contemporary books and papers. Ben draws straight from the source materials – the ritual exposures, monitors, jurisprudence, and other texts – in his skillful investigations into how the degrees and ceremonies we employ today really came to be. Sometimes he travels with a few of these 18th and 19th century treasures from his library for the brethren to see.

From the publicity:

The lecture will be open to properly avouched Masons of every rank who hail from lodges in amity with the Grand Lodge of the State of New York. Lodge opens promptly at 7 p.m. in the Doric Room on the eighth floor of Masonic Hall. Dress is tuxedo or business formal.

The Communication should close at around nine o’clock, with our traditional Lodge Dinner commencing shortly thereafter. Mariners Lodge typically does not formally receive delegations or visiting officers of any kind below the level of a Grand Lodge officer. Master Masons are asked to be seated among the brethren for the Lodge Opening. Entered Apprentices and Fellowcrafts may wait in the anteroom until the lodge is lowered to the First Degree shortly after the lodge is opened.

If you plan to join us for the lecture and would like to get the “full Mariners Lodge experience,” I hope you will also consider attending Mariners Lodge’s own “Maritime Festive Board” Dinner which features our unique ritual and lodge traditions, as well as our well-known hospitality. The dinner will also offer an opportunity to chat with Bro. Hoff.

Seating is limited, however, so if you would like to attend please visit the Mariners Lodge website reservations page to reserve a seat. The cost is $35 per person. If you have any difficulties in reserving on the website, contact rsvpmariners67(at)gmail.com for assistance. Please reserve as soon as possible. Seating is limited to around fifty. (We hosted seventy Masons at our last lecture, meaning twenty were not able to attend the dinner. )
     

‘The Bernie’

     

The flier above says it all. Click to enlarge. See you there.

(Thanks to Bro. Mohamad for the tip.)

     

‘Masonic Super Bowl pick’

  
Super Bowl XLVII will be one of those forgotten contests for its improbable match-up of the San Francisco 49ers versus the Baltimore Ravens. As The Magpie Mason, my heart tells me to bet on the Ravens, but everything else compels me to go with the 49ers. But we, as Free and Accepted Masons, are obliged by our tenures to look beyond temporal indicators, and to consider the symbolic, the allegorical, the unexpected.

Analysis

The San Francisco 49ers’ name derives of course from California history. The Gold Rush populated the California territory and turned it into an economic powerhouse that helped shape the destiny of our country as a whole. Bank of America is, I suppose, the most obvious financial legacy to have survived to this day.

Gold. In alchemy, gold is that state of material perfection the ancient scientists tried to make from base metal, like lead. One of the most precious and beautiful metals, gold is linked to the element Fire and its planetary complement is the sun, unsurprisingly. Even when melted or liquefied by fire, gold retains its luster and spellbinding color. It is incorruptible, immune to tarnishing and corrosion, and has been the basis for wealth throughout recorded human history.

It's game time!

As the sun is the giver of life, so too gold has its connotations to immortality. It is believed the golden sarcophagi of ancient Egypt were meant to ensure the immortality of the souls departed from those deceased, encased earthly bodies. In Judaism, gold is, among other things, the emblem of the purity and goodness we want our own characters and behaviors to reflect. The Ark of the Covenant is laid with gold inside and out to remind us that our inner selves should be the basis of all our external characteristics. To be truly “good as gold,” and not just putting up appearances. In the New Testament, gold is one of only three gifts brought to the newborn Christ.

In spiritual alchemy, gold is emblematic of that same state of perfection, but this time the transmutation is that of mortal man to a being at one with god. (Many thousands of words could be written about this one aspect of symbolism, but it’s almost game time.) The alchemical symbol for gold is a design instantly recognizable to any Apprentice Mason.

And what is forty-nine? It equals 7x7. Seven is a holy, magic number reminding us of seven days, seven planets, seven rungs of perfection, the seven petals of the rose, seven archangels, seven steps of the Buddha, and many other signs to look for.

7 = 4 + 3. Four symbolizes earth, with its cardinal points of the compass. Three symbolizes heaven, with various trinities denoting many of humanity’s religious archetypes. A full moral life can be explained with the number seven, as the four Cardinal Virtues (Fortitude, Temperance, Prudence, and Justice) are matched to the three Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope, and Charity. Likewise the seven Liberal Arts and Sciences consist of its quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy) and trivium (grammar, rhetoric, and logic), making for a wholly rounded education.

So, with seven squared, you’re really looking at something!

Now the Ravens.

In recent centuries, the raven has been a symbol of death and bad omens, but in the larger picture of human culture, this bird has an overall favorability. In Genesis, Noah deploys a raven to find land, making the bird a symbol of clear-sightedness. Likewise to the ancient Greeks, the raven was sacred in the Apollo cult, and served as a messenger of the gods in addition. In myths from Ireland to Scandinavia to Africa, the raven played its part as symbol of creativity and other positive meanings.

The Baltimore football team chose its name in honor of Edgar Allan Poe, the poet who lived and worked much of his life in Baltimore. And died there. In fact, the 168th anniversary of the publication of “The Raven” was only a few days ago.

Again thousands more words could be spilled on this subject, but kick-off is moments away. Enjoy the game.
  

‘Mercedes employs Faust to slur Masons’

  
During the Holocaust, Daimler-Benz was one of the German manufacturers that exploited slave labor, so it knew something about cutting deals with the devil. Therefore it doesn’t faze me in the least to see today its descendant company Mercedes-Benz will borrow from the Faust story to sell its low-end sedans.

During the Super Bowl tonight, a spectacle as famous for its multi-million dollar advertisements as for the football game itself, several ads from the German luxury car-maker will run. One, titled “Soul,” features Willem Dafoe as the devil and the Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil” in the soundtrack; it shows a young man about to sign away his soul in exchange for the Merc he sees in the billboard being posted across the street. View it here.

Courtesy New York Daily News

Dafoe proffers a golden fountain pen to the impressionable guy. After a lengthy sequence of fantasy scenes, including an indelible image of Kate Upton, the Faust-like character accepts the pen, sets nib to parchment (which, incidentally, depicts something similar to the Chi Ro), only to spy the just posted price of this new Mercedes model on that billboard. Rating his soul at a value higher than the car’s sticker price, he declines the devil’s offer.

Devil Dafoe, attired in black, also sports two rings on his left hand, one of which bears a square and compasses-like sigil. It does not look to me precisely like the square and compasses. Its square is anything but square, and the compasses simply are not compasses, but clearly the design is meant to mimic the primary symbol of Freemasonry. There’s no mistaking it for any other symbol, emblem, logo, letter, word, or character.

“It is what it is,” as the kids today say.

So what can ya do?

The Magpie Mason and other blogs ask you to lend your name to a petition calling on the advertiser to change this ad. In all likelihood, this ad won’t be seen after the game, except maybe on the web for a while. I suppose there also is the chance that an abbreviated version of this commercial could run later this year when this model actually goes to market, but I’m sure shortening the spot would result in losing the shots of that ring. One can hope, anyway.

But the petition: change.org makes it available. Freemasons by nature are not activists, but objecting to such slurs is good exercise. Click here for the petition.

(By the way, my money is on the Ravens, but only because I’m a Magpie.)


MAGPIE EDIT: This spot just aired a second ago (10:23 p.m.), and I did not even see Dafoe’s rings. Perhaps Mercedes learned a lesson after the Masons killed the electricity in their stadium.
  

‘George Washington Masonic Stamp Club’

  
The 2013 annual meeting of the George Washington Masonic Stamp Club, with the conferral of the Master of Philately ceremony to make new members, will take place Sunday, February 24 at the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia.

The agenda for the day:

Noon – An optional ($5) tour of the upper floors and tower will begin.

1:30 – Review of Covers/social hour in North Lodge Room.

2:00 – The annual meeting, with Master of Philately.

4:45 – Regroup at Joe Theismann’s Restaurant at the bottom of the hill.

5:30 – The 56th Anniversary Dinner (“no host,” with ladies and guests welcome).

Dinner Speaker: To Be Announced.

Those desiring to receive the Master of Philately should reserve in advance by contacting Secretary John R. Allen at gwmsc1956(at)gmail.com

Membership proposals are balloted upon at each meeting. Each requires a completed application, including payment of the $20 Life Membership fee, and evidence of current membership in a recognized Blue Lodge. For a Life Membership Application, see the Membership button on the club’s home page.
  

‘St. Patrick’s No. 4’

  
There are plenty of blogs out there devoted to Freemasonry, but it can be more fun reading blogs from outside the fraternity that occasionally focus on Masonry from their perspectives. It’s usually history.

The New York History blog, a collaborative effort of twenty writers catering to history professionals and other history lovers, published some research this afternoon on St. Patrick’s Lodge No. 4 in Johnstown, New York written by Ms. Wanda Burch, Vice President of Friends of Johnson Hall and former site manager of Johnson Hall State Historic Site.
  

‘A mystic tie?’

    
The Masonic Society’s club tie is available for sale!

Note the quills and the TMS emblem. The color looks great too. (No, it’s not the same as I.R.A.’s tie.)

Also available as bow tie. Click here for the TMS store to place your order.
     

‘Livingston Library lecture’

    
The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library will host its next lecture February 25, when Bro. Patrick Craddock will present “Admit Him If Properly Clothed: The Evolution of the Masonic Apron in America, 1740 to the Present.”

Patrick, of course, is The Craftsman’s Apron.

This lecture is open to Master Masons, Fellows, and Apprentices from lodges under or in amity with the Grand Lodge of New York.

The library is located on the fourteenth floor of Masonic Hall, at 71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan.

    

‘As Above, So Below’

    
On Saturday at 6 p.m., New York Open Center will host the opening reception of an art exhibit titled “As Above, So Below,” featuring works by four artists conveying their conceptual interpretations of geometry. This is related to a lecture series NYOC will present next month titled “Sacred, Symbolic, and Creative Geometry.”

From the publicity:

AS ABOVE, SO BELOW

Sharon Ligorner, Karl Lorenzen, Luisa Sartori and Kenneth W. Walker

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 26, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Exhibition Run: January 26 to February 23

Free and open to the public.

Join us on Saturday, January 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. for the group art opening reception of As Above, So Below. Each artist explores, through their artwork, the mathematical and geometric constants that are woven into the very fabric of all life with the recognition that this order provides an interface between the visible and the invisible world.

Strongly influenced by nature’s patterns and geometry, Sharon Ligorner allows the process of change; building up, burying, and scraping away, to inform her paintings.

Sharon Ligorner, Watersign #24, oil and silkscreen on glass, 1995, 8x14.

Karl Lorenzen’s body of work utilizes the Flower of Life motif to illustrate the vocabulary and alphabet of Sacred Geometry.

Luisa Sartori, Untitled 1, graphite and oil on prepared paper, 2010, 14x17.

Luisa Sartori’s collection of drawings and paintings reflect the artist’s fascination with the construction process of decorative patterns that ultimately opens the way for more complex patterns and forms to emerge.

Kenneth W. Walker’s paintings revolve around the nature of monumentality. Employing the triangular form, he creates visually oscillating structures that refer to domestic interiors, architecture and spirituality.

As Above, So Below is curated by Lola C. Shepard.


Click here for information and registration for the lecture series.

New York Open Center is located at 22 East 30th Street in Manhattan.
    

‘Your brother will rise again’

  
A lot of positive things are happening in New Jersey, among them the creation of a “new” lodge in the Camden area.

This edition of The Magpie Mason borrows its title from the Gospel of Saint John, Chapter 11, when Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. There are different interpretations of these verses, one of which posits how Jesus in fact did not restore physical life to a four-day-old corpse, but instead brought to light a man living in darkness. Another suggests Jesus returned to community/brotherhood a man living in exile.

There has been a lodge in Camden, New Jersey named Lazarus Lodge 001 at labor under something called United National Masons. Full name: The United National Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Free Masons of the World, 33rd and Last Degree and Order of Eastern Stars, Inc., headquartered in North Carolina.

Currently located near our Valley of Southern New Jersey in West Collingswood, Lazarus Lodge, through certain personal contacts, expressed an interest in affiliating with the Grand Lodge of New Jersey. Last December 17 came the dispensation needed to create Lazarus Lodge under the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, with our Deputy Grand Master and Grand Wardens serving as the Master and Wardens of this lodge, which will meet in Haddonfield, where our Rising Sun Lodge meets. On Saturday, February 2, Grand Lodge will convene a one-day class to initiate, pass, and raise the men from Lazarus, “healing” them (although that is not a term we use), and preparing them to begin new Masonic lives as New Jersey Masons. This will take place at USS New Jersey Lodge No. 62 in Cherry Hill.

Throughout 2013, the brethren of Rising Sun Lodge will teach the Lazarus Masons the rituals, jurisprudence, etiquette, etc. of their adopted grand jurisdiction. At a certain point, Lazarus will take up permanent residence inside the Camden Performing Arts Center, and New Jersey Freemasonry will have a lodge inside Camden for the first time, probably, in decades. Its warrant will be issued when Grand Lodge meets in April.

Cheerful best wishes and congratulations to all involved.
    

‘Sunday Morning on CBS’

     

Courtesy Mo Rocca/Twitter

Word comes from Bro. Piers of the taping today of a segment on the George Washington Inaugural Bible that will be broadcast Sunday, January 20 on CBS between 9 and 10 a.m.

The program, aptly titled Sunday Morning, sent correspondent Mo Rocca and a crew to Masonic Hall, where the priceless historical artifact was displayed on the altar of the Grand Lodge Room.

The bible is owned by St. John’s Lodge No. 1, several of whose brethren were on hand to explain this singular VSL’s amazing history, like Worshipful Master Piers and Bro. Conor Moran.

Click here for a little more info on this bible.


Magpie edit: Click here to see the broadcast.

     

‘Pennsylvania Academy’

  

I would love to attend – it’s been three or four years since I last visited the Academy – but New Jersey Council of Deliberation will meet that very day, and I am obligated to be there. You should go though. Pennsylvania Academy of Masonic Knowledge will be brought to order Saturday, March 16 at Elizabethtown.

Click on the agenda to enlarge it. Looks like a great line-up. Enjoy!

  

‘The Quarry Project’

    
For months throughout the Masonic world there was whispering of the initials T.Q.P. among the knowing and the curious alike.

“What is it?”

“I don’t know, but I want in!”

Then the Dummies blog broke the news last week and directed much traffic to the website of The Quarry Project, and as of today, registration for attending this groundbreaking conference and for the recommended hotel accommodations are accessible on our webpage. Click here to check out this singular occurrence scheduled for September 27 to 29.

The Quarry Project is a joint effort by The Masonic Society, the Masonic Library and Museum Association, and, our host, the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, and will be three days of valuable instruction in all facets of research, education, writing, publishing, curating, organizing, archiving, displaying, and other ing’s that most of the Masonic world takes for granted, but that cultured Masons – like readers of The Magpie Mason – recognize as essential to preserving and sharing our heritage.

There’s no sense in copying information from the webpage, so to see the agenda, click here. For registration, click here.

This conference is not just for us eggheads, but is intended to educate everyone who wants to be productively engaged in the transmission of Freemasonry’s archives and material culture to future generations. Yes it’s true that Masons make Masons, but in addition to what can be imparted only by the grip and by mouth-to-ear instruction is a vast wealth of accumulated knowledge and wisdom, and amassed artifacts, records, and ephemera – and somebody has to keep it together!
    

‘ALR: January 30’

     

The American Lodge of Research will meet Wednesday, January 30, a Special Meeting for our October meeting that was canceled by Hurricane Sandy – so expect a blizzard on the 30th. That is at Masonic Hall: 71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan.
  

‘Artist Ari exhibit’

    
Bro. Ari Roussimoff will have his recent paintings exhibited in Masonic Hall, the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of New York in Manhattan, in March.

The exhibit, “A Traveling Artist: Russian Soul, American Magic and the Light of Freemasonry,” will be held March 12-19 inside the French Doric Room on the tenth floor, and will be open to the public from 2 to 8 p.m. The opening of the exhibit will be Tuesday the 12th at 6 p.m. Other of Roussimoff’s works can be seen inside the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library, on the 14th floor of Masonic Hall. Click here to see those paintings when the artist brought them to the Big Night at the Little Inn a little more than four years ago.

Masonic Hall is located at 71 West 23^rd Street in Manhattan.

Hiram's Apron by Ari Roussimoff.

See symbols but do not expect allegory in Ari’s images. He is a builder of bold colors and vivid likenesses that cannot be misunderstood. His paintings do tell stories, but I think it’s safe to say the stories are not open to interpretation, and are narratives Ari shares with his audience.

Definitely make a point of seeing them for yourself.
    

‘MRF this August’

     
W. Bro. Paul C. Smith in New Hampshire shares the following news about the Masonic Restoration Foundation’s 2013 conference. Check out this line-up of speakers!

MAGPIE EDIT: Click here for more information and to register.

My Brothers, I had made it a point to release some of the details of our upcoming MRF Fourth Annual Symposium, which will be held August 16-18 in Manchester, New Hampshire. While we are working on a website and graphic layouts and the like, I wanted to keep my word and share with you our session breakouts and presenters, as well as our keynote speaker. So without further ado, please allow me to share!

“The Middle Chamber: The State of Observant Masonry Today”

W. Bro. Andrew Hammer 

“The Magic of Masonry: Pathways to Apotheosis”

W. Bro. Kirk White 

“Visionary Leadership: How to Achieve your T.O. Goals”

W. Bro. Robert Herd 

“Admit Him If Properly Clothed: The Evolution of the Masonic Apron in America”

W. Bro. Patrick Craddock 

“Recapturing the Educational Legacy of Traditional Observance”

VW. Bro. Piers A. Vaughan 

“A Survey of the Creation, Rise, Progress and Future of the Masonic Restoration Foundation”

W. Bro. Mark Tabbert 

“The Potential for Advancement of Masonic Knowledge in the Age of New Media”

Bro. Kyle Ferguson 

“Remove Not the Ancient Landmarks: A Classical and Traditional Vision for Lodge Observance”

W. Bro. Shawn Eyer 

And our Keynote Speaker: RW Bro. Thomas Jackson, Past Grand Secretary of Pennsylvania, etc.

This is not all that’s in store for you in Manchester, but I hope it has sparked your interest!

S&F,

Paul
     

‘Mohamadmania’

     
W. Mohamad Yatim is on the road again. He has five dates so far on his winter speaking tour of the central New Jersey area.

Monday, January 14 at Theodore Roosevelt Lodge No. 219 (82 Elm St. in Carteret), speaking on “The Chamber of Reflection.” (Open to Apprentices and Fellows.)


Monday, January 21 at USS New Jersey Lodge No. 62 (1201 Berlin Rd. in Cherry Hill), speaking on “The Myths Behind Who Killed Hiram Abiff.” (Master Masons only.)


Friday, February 1 at Hightstown-Apollo Lodge No. 41 (535 North Main St. in Hightstown), speaking on “Masonic Membership Promotion and Retention.” (Open to Apprentices and Fellows.)


Monday, February 25 at Cincinnati Lodge No. 3 (39 Maple Ave. in Morristown), speaking on “Freemasonry and the Mystic Schools of the East.” (Master Masons only.)




Tuesday, March 5 at Loyalty Lodge No. 33 (1912 Morris Ave. in Union), speaking on “The Myths Behind Who Killed Hiram Abiff.” (Master Masons only.)