‘Flashback Friday: Three Extinct Knocks’

     
I had meant for Flashback Friday to be a weekly feature here for telling you about events that I’d neglected to write about in a timely manner, but I haven’t even posted Flashbacks on time. It’s not for a lack of overdue subject matter, believe me. I never even addressed the International Conference on the History of Freemasonry at Alexandria, and that was three years ago and alone merits several thousand words, plus a few dozen photos. I’ll get to it. Eventually.

But today we travel back to Friday, February 8, 2013 when the Grand College of Rites met for its annual meeting at Reston, Virginia. I confess my notes from this occasion are with That Which Was Lost, but the meaningful artifact—my copy of Volume 22, Part 1 of Collectanea, distributed to members in attendance and later mailed to those wherever dispersed over the face of the earth—is handy. I really have been remiss in not telling you earlier about this great service to Masonry.

But first—and bear with me a minute—speaking of ICHF 2011, early in the conference, Professor William D. Moore, then of UNC-Wilmington and now of Boston University, presented “Darius Wilson, Confidence Games, and the Limits of American Fraternal Respectability, 1875-1915.” Excerpted from his abstract:

“This presentation will examine the forty-year career of Darius Wilson, who founded the Royal Arcanum, assumed the title of ‘Grand Master of the Venerable Symbolic Grand Lodge Ancient Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry for the United States of America,’ and claimed to have developed a cure for deafness. Between 1875 and 1915, Wilson was both hailed for providing insurance to poverty-stricken immigrants and decried as a fraud who foisted worthless fraternal, medical, and financial certificates upon a credulous public. A resident of Boston, Massachusetts, Wilson was a member of Rochester, New York’s Yonnondio Lodge No. 163, F&AM, before he was expelled. Subsequently he was repeatedly arrested and tried for improperly selling Masonic degrees.

William D. Moore at ICHF 2011.

“Wilson provides a case study for the exploration of issues of authority, legitimacy, and confidence within the American industrializing economy, and will provide new perspectives for understanding both fraternalism and Progressive cries for governmental regulation at the birth of the twentieth century.”

With that taste of context established, here are some of the salient details and eye-catching curiosities from this volume of Collectanea, titled “Darius Wilson’s Most Worshipful Grand Lodge Ancient and Accepted Scottish Free Masons of the United States of America,” edited by Arturo de Hoyos, Grand Archivist of the Grand College of Rites.

The book opens with several pieces of Masonic legal documents concerning the expulsion from Freemasonry of Darius Wilson, deemed an impostor. It was March 1902 when the charges made against Wilson were sent to Charles W. Mead, Grand Master of New York. Wilson was accused of “clandestinely and unlawfully” assisting in conferring the degrees of Masonry upon one Theodore A Tripp. Wilson answered the charge with a denial, but a finding of facts states that Wilson, acting at his professional office located at 41 West 24th Street in Manhattan (only steps from the previous Masonic Hall, headquarters of the Grand Lodge of New York, which meets there still today, in two buildings constructed approximately a decade later) did serve as a senior deacon in ceremonies that imparted the grips, signs, and words of the degrees of Craft Masonry, allegedly under the auspices of a lodge chartered by the Grand Lodge of Ohio on Friday, December 13, 1901.

Evidence in the case against Wilson included a handbill advertising the availability of the degrees of Masonry, courtesy of “the new Grand Lodge of Ohio,” which stated it was forming Masonic lodges in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and in New England. This document runs several hundred words, but I’ll quote the first sentences to show the more things change, the more they stay the same. See if this reminds you of the lunacy seen all over the internet, thanks to self-described, self-initiated, and self-deluded “Masons” who create or lend their names to websites that purport to be lodges, among other shams.

“Would you like to be a Mason? There is no patent right on Masonry, and no man or body of men have exclusive jurisdiction to work any degrees thereof. All Rites of Masonry are equally legitimate and regular.”

In a document offered by Wilson in his defense, the same logic was applied toward the High Degrees of Masonry and even the Shrine, as memberships in something dubbed King Edward Consistory 32° and something else named Aleppo Temple of the Mystic Shrine were offered free of charge to the intrepid men of the new Masonry. “Our Scottish Rite is neither the Northern or Southern Jurisdiction or either of the ‘Cerneau Rite’ Supreme Councils, but it is the genuine Scottish Rite as worked in Scotland, and ours is the only Supreme Council that was ever authorized by Free Masons of Scotland to work the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the United States. If you desire to take the degrees from the 4° to the 32° inclusive, and can come to my New York office during my office hours… I will arrange to have the degrees conferred upon you without any cost to you whatever, after which I can offer you something of perhaps greater interest.”

You get the idea, but I’ll point out the inconsistency of both insisting that “all Rites of Masonry are equally legitimate and regular,” and boasting of having “the genuine Scottish Rite as worked in Scotland.” Of course it is hilarious, especially if you possess a rudimentary knowledge of Scottish Rite, but it also is a “logic” key to today’s fakes, phonies, and frauds.

Courtesy Prof. Moore

In the end, Wilson—who is identified as grand master of this rite by a note within the text of the ritual—was expelled from the Grand Lodge of New York. Collectanea is unambiguous with the facts of Masonic jurisprudence; Professor Moore’s paper was lenient with Wilson.




(I chatted with Moore after his presentation, and it turns out he was a volunteer at the Livingston Library years ago.)

Now, to the ritual.

The language of these EA, FC, and MM degrees is, for the most part, easily recognizable to Masons today. The origins of these degrees are unknown, but there are elements of French work and custom. In fact, the Grand Orient is mentioned several times in the text in ways that suggest a relationship. French Rite ritual had been used in New York City in Grand Lodge of New York lodges for more than a century by this point. Regardless, there are unfamiliar idioms, some quirky, others hugely significant.

The Lodge Opening: The lodge is “well guarded,” not tiled. The Wardens, not Deacons, take up the Word. The Word is changed semi-annually. Visitors remain outside until after the “Family Work” (lodge business) is completed. Business is done on the EA Degree. The lodge is alternately called the “Respectable Lodge” and “Respectable Workshop.”

The lodge is opened, in part, with the members, in unison, giving a sign, a battery, and this, “the mysterious acclamation”: “Houze. Houze. Houze.” Or “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.” (This “houze,” as best I can guess, is a cousin of “huzzah,” a variation of “hurrah” or “hooray.” Anyone knowing for sure is asked to post a comment below.) In voting, the members raise their right arms, and “noisily” slap their hands on their thighs. To speak, a member first must obtain permission from the Master (imagine that) and, while speaking, make a hand gesture that I take to be a familiar one to Apprentices.

The initiation: An officer named Master Expert attends to visitors, ensuring they can prove themselves. Candidates for initiation are seated in the East, where the Master tends to interrogatories. These questions, perhaps unsurprisingly because we don’t know what, if any, inquiries were made into the characters and standings of prospective members, are not queries meant to elicit biographical information, but are mostly rhetorical questions intended to justify to the candidate the lodge’s existence. For example:

“If Masonry is good, why should not all good Masons rejoice when any profane is made a Mason, no matter whether by one Rite or another?”

And:

“Do you know that the Ancient and Accepted or Scottish Rite Masonry, the kind practiced by us, is the only universal Masonry—that is, the only kind that is practiced in nearly all, if not in all, countries of the world?”

Indeed, this appears to be a French Rite, or often called Scottish Rite, Entered Apprentice Degree, very similar to what the celebrated Garibaldi Lodge No. 542 works in Italian in New York City. There is Brother Terrible. There is “swordplay,” I guess I’ll call it. There are symbolic trials of fortitude and endurance, and sensory stimuli (e.g., a drink of water flavored with quassia). There are philosophical questions posed to the candidate by the Master (e.g., “What is ignorance?” “What is your opinion of fanaticism and superstition?” “What is error?”)

A first journey (widdershins) involves various spatial challenges, and symbolizes life’s passions, conflicts, and obstacles. A second journey (clockwise) is easier deliberately to symbolize “the effect of constancy in following the road of virtue.” A third journey, from West to East, is conducted silently and effortlessly as reward for perseverance.

There are two obligations. The first is rightly called an obligation for the way its bonds the candidate to his new brethren; the second is actually an oath, for the way it binds the candidate to the authority of his new lodge and grand lodge. The language of both is standard Masonic usage, and the penalty of the degree is consistent with what you’d expect.

There is the “triple bise,” as our French brethren might say, although this one includes a plant on the lips. No comment.

The second degree: It is worked in a Lodge of Companions. The degree strikes me as mostly standard European Masonic ritual, except for a few conspicuous allowances for modernity. The Industrial Revolution never impacted the ritual my lodge works, and I bet the same can be said of yours. Here, however, we find a frankly delightful alchemical nod to Bro. James Watt:

“Among men, one of the manifestations of life is the movement of blood, like the movements in a steam engine, which are repetitions of expansions and condensations of steam. In the engine, the actuating force is the fire which changes the water into steam in the boiler. Forced to find an outlet, the steam pushes the piston and excapes by an orifice to be condensed by the cold air, and returned to a reservoir as water, [and] reintroduced into the boiler by a feeding pump. This is perpetual so long as the fire, water, and air are thus utilized.”

And a moment later, some thoughts on natural electricity from the Worshipful Master—and remember this comes from the early years of man-made electricity. Excerpted:

“With electricity, the most intense heat known to man can be produced. Under its devouring influence, the metals volatize in an instant, and stones melt like the snow in a hot fire.”

The Number Five is presented by five symbolic journeys about the lodge, each involving a pair of working tools or Liberal Arts and Sciences. Most are familiar, but there also is the “pinch,” a small crowbar. The five physical senses are discussed as “symbols of our spiritual faculties.” And the letter G? It is “the image of universal intelligence,” as Geometry supports Astronomy, which “has given us the courage to measure the sun, moon and myriad other stars…”

It is worth noting that the Word of the Rose Croix Degree is imparted here, as explanatory of the neophyte’s fourth journey in this degree.

The third degree: A Lodge of Masters, termed the Middle Chamber, receives the Companion seeking advancement in the form of “an augmentation of salary.” You know what he’s getting at. The talk, again, goes philosophical, as the candidate is asked to describe his understandings of “right,” justice, and conscience. Whatever his answers, it is the Worshipful Master who informs the lodge that:

“Right is that which we are permitted to do in accordance with the dictates of our conscience. Each man has the right to assure, protect, and develop his material existence, his intellectual faculties, and his moral qualities…. Justice is the highest of virtues; it makes us respect the rights of others and render to each that which belongs to him. This virtue is then essential to every true Mason…. Conscience is the sense of justice which we have naturally in us in our quality of reasonable beings. It is the cry from the heart of man, the marvelous voice which he hears from the depths of his soul, which tells him that which is just and good, and which saves him from inclination to evil.”

The Wilson ritual’s greatest departure from the work standard in most of America is embodied by “the cooling corpse.” There is no candidate raising in this MM°, but rather the Companion is conducted toward a coffin (occupied by the previously made MM, dubbed the Respectable Master). The trials of our GMHA are consistent with what you know, but with a different tool here, and a different injury there, and the hurried burial of “Hiram Abiff or Adon Hiram” (sic) differs a bit, but in the degree’s spiritual essence we see something highly unusual.

Arturo de Hoyos at the meeting.

The exemplar MM in the coffin is raised to his feet in a way you’ll know. The Worshipful Master exclaims: “Our Master has returned today. He is reborn in the person of [candidate’s name].” Of course, the talk of rebirth catches the eye. The mainstream of Freemasonry does not promise the supernatural, especially in the forms of resurrection or reincarnation. The degree continues, taking another Rose Croix turn with the WM saying “Thus day by day, each hemisphere afflicted by the absence of the father of light, assumes again, when he reappears, its cheerfulness and brilliant dress; thus, the torch of genius and of truth dissipates the shades of ignorance and error.” The Wardens reply: “Let us unite, my Brothers, to celebrate the return of light and truth.” Then follows the obligation (no surprises), and the instruction in the Five Points of Mastership: “hand to hand I greet you as a Brother; foot to foot I will support you in all your laudable undertakings; knee to knee the posture of my daily supplication shall remind me of your wants; breast to breast, your lawful secrets, when entrusted to me as such, I will keep as my own; and hand over back, I will support your character in your absence as in your presence.”

At the end, the Worshipful Master delivers the Allocution, a fairly lengthy and poetic legendary history of Masonry that renders GMHA superior over Solomon, as it is Hiram who is “the personification of humanity working and struggling without ceasing, succumbing sometimes, but always returning stronger, more active and more courageous to continue the march and arrive at the supreme end—eternal truth.”

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

Pierre 'Pete' Normand
Grand Chancellor, 2013

At our meeting back on February 8, 2013, a new Grand Chancellor was installed. Pierre “Pete” Normand of Texas is well known about the apartments of the Temple, especially the libraries and reading rooms. He most definitely is an education Mason, perhaps best known for championing the 21st century revival in American Masonry that has become known collectively as the “Traditional Observance” movement. Pete’s lodge, St. Albans No. 1455 in College Station, helped spark that revolution when he co-founded it ... in 1992!

In other news, the College’s Knight Grand Cross was awarded to several greatly surprised brethren. It was fun watching Bill Brunk, Paul Johnson, and Joe Manning be summoned to the East, and a great honor to stand with them and receive the prestigious award. I don’t want to gush, but I’ll say it means a lot.

     

‘One flew east, one flew west’

     

Fantasy Films

‘Summer Solstice with the Rosicrucians’

     
I am looking forward to the “Sophia Tradition” lecture later today at the Rosicrucian Cultural Center (6:30 at 2303 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd. in NYC, if you’re interested), but coming Saturday afternoon, the Rosicrucian Order will celebrate the Summer Solstice.

From the publicity:

The Summer Solstice is one of the four solar celebrations of the year. In the Northern Hemisphere, it marks the height of Summer, and provides a time of the greatest power of the Light. In celebration of this festival, which has been commemorated throughout human history, Rosicrucians consider the harmony of the four elements.

Our discussion will include a consideration of the significance of the Solstice in world spirituality and cultures across the ages, and astrological and other esoteric considerations. Participants are invited to share their own experiences of the Summer of the year, and its resonances in their lives.

The facilitator of this workshop, Steven A. Armstrong is a professional historian, philosopher, and teacher based in the San Francisco Bay area. He serves at the Grand Lodge in Membership Services. He is an active member of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC and the Traditional Martinist Order, serving as an officer in both.

The workshop will take place from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. At three o’clock the Imperator's Universal Attunement Exercise will begin.


At the same time on Saturday and continuing into Sunday at Rosicrucian Park in San Jose, California, the Rosicrucian Order will host these events:

Saturday

Noon – Imperator’s Universal Attunement (Grand Temple)

12:30 – Summer Solstice Ceremony (Grand Temple)

1:30 – Tour of the Rosicrucian Research Library

Sunday

Noon – Rosicrucian Peace Day Ceremony in the Rosicrucian Peace Garden

12:30 – Tour of Rosicrucian Park
     

‘What would a wise person do now?’

     
It’s such a simple idea couched within that easy question.

What would a wise person do now?

It is the overall theme of Part 1 of the School of Practical Philosophy’s five-section course of instruction in workable wisdom. That’s practical philosophy—the lessons deal in What Is, and not the speculative What If.

I am winding down my first term as a student in the School, with a penultimate class this evening and the final class next Friday at the School’s townhouse on East 79th Street. I have decided, without any hesitation, to proceed into the second course, aptly named Part 2, which will begin in late September and run into early December. While I have promoted hundreds of events over the years, and encouraged Magpie readers to attend them, it’s very rare that I push membership in any group, but the School of Practical Philosophy surely would be of interest to anyone who regularly reads this website.

Part 1 is a fast-moving pastiche of disparate topics. It is introductory, geared to touch on ten ponderous, vital techniques of realization. At their root is Plato’s hopeful belief that wisdom is innate within each of us, and the lessons clear pathways in the mind by imparting exercises that compel wisdom to triumph over equally instinctive obstacles (e.g., ego, emotions, negative feelings, desires, et al.) so that a state of higher consciousness can be attained and can become one’s default setting in every waking moment. It’s about attaining a state of being, not just a state of mind.

I suppose that is too ambitious after only the introductory ten weeks, but after eight Friday nights, I do not doubt that after assiduous study through the five courses it is attainable, and I expect to work my way through to the end. (I should mention there are no exams or quizzes. You learn because you want to learn.)

It would be wrong to reveal details of the School’s proprietary instruction, and it is not my job to intrude into their marketing, but just to share a bit of what we have covered these past weeks, I’ll explain a little.

In any explanation of the School, it is necessary to begin with The Exercise, a multi-stage, yet silent and motionless, process that arouses one’s waking consciousness. Again, I won’t give it away, but it is an activity of the mind—not to be confused with meditation, which is something else—that focuses on the five physical senses to squelch the confusions, distractions, stresses and other externalities that actually cause us to go about our day in a state of “waking sleep,” meaning we can be engaged in our usual daily activities without being fully mentally aware.

It works. And it is something worth undertaking more than once a day—as an antidote whenever the concerns and employments of the world threaten to lessen our ability to be fully awake.

Some of the principal principles of Part 1:

What would a wise person do now? – It’s so deceptively simple. This uncomplicated idea, when put into practice—again, remember this is about practical philosophy—can have the result of changing you. Had I the presence of mind to ask myself this question earlier in life, I could have avoided all manner of trouble and aggravation countless times. What would a wise person do now? It applies to any occasion. Try it.

My word is my bond. – You say you’ll meet your friend at eight o’clock, but you don’t arrive until 8:20. Every time. It’s not a superficial tic. It is a discrepancy between who one claims to be, and who one is. And of course it is a principle that applies to far more serious matters.

Whoever or whatever is in front of you is your teacher. – As observation is the primary method used in the course, we are to practice approaching life with an open mind, and we begin to see more clearly what is true and what is not true.

What you give your attention to grows. – In the process of waking up, there are only two useful states of attention: Attention Open, where the attention is not caught by anything in particular, but open to everything in general; and Attention Centered, where the attention is focused on one thing with great clarity and precision. Choice is possible only when we begin to wake up.

There are many more. You get a few of these principles and practices each week.

In addition to schools located around the country, the School of Practical Philosophy offers distance learning. Whichever your choice, go for it. I cannot imagine anyone regretting it. It is a wise thing to do.
     

‘St. John’s Fest at Anthroposophy NYC’

     
On the first full day of summer—Sunday, June 22—the Anthroposophical Society in New York City will host its St. John’s Fest, a Festival Celebration and Potluck with Music, Song, Poetry, Thoughts, Food, and Friends at four o’clock. From the publicity:

St. John’s Tide is traditionally celebrated with a huge evening bonfire, around which we give back to the cosmos offerings of song, music and poetry. We won’t have a bonfire in our auditorium, but will certainly have music, song, and poetry. The opening presentation will be by Joyce Reilly. The artistic programming is coordinated by Dorothy Emmerson. As is our custom, we invite you into a beautifully decorated space, and will provide all liquid refreshment. The offerings of our buffet table are up to you. Please bring something yummy and seasonal to share with all.

Courtesy Anthroposophy NYC

We depend on your donations to make events like this possible so we’re suggesting a $5 donation to cover costs.

The program will begins at 4 p.m. Please plan to arrive by 3:30 to set out your food and get settled. We look forward to a delightful Mid-Summer festival. Contact Phoebe: email phoebe(at)artopathy.com.
     

‘Stories That Can Change Your Life’

     
I’m drafting a Magpie post that will praise the School of Practical Philosophy, and explain why you should enroll, but in the meantime an unsolicited, unremunerated, etc. advertisement of upcoming events we learned about in class last night.

Next month, a three-night series titled “Stories That Can Change Your Life” is scheduled. Each night is to be unique in content, and requires separate registration. (This is the New York City school on East 79th Street.) From the publicity:

Stories That Can Change Your Life

Can a story change your life?

An ancient legend teaches that if you enter a spice shop and do not even buy anything, you will leave smelling a little differently than when you walked in. So it is with stories, with their capacity to enrich and enlarge our lives and remind us of truths we may have forgotten.

Come listen to “Stories That Can Change Your Life” three Mondays in July. Invite family and friends for evenings of good company, engaging conversation and light refreshments.

Click on these links for tickets: Mondays, July 7, 14, and 21
at 7 p.m. $10 each evening.


Also, Mr. David Beardsley will return to the school on Wednesday, July 16 at 7 p.m. to present his lecture “Homer’s Odyssey as Spiritual Quest,” described thusly:

Along with the Iliad, Homer’s Odyssey is the wellspring of Western literature. It offers a glimpse into the lives of humans and gods in ancient Greece and a rousing adventure story with evil monsters, beautiful goddesses and narrow escapes. But it’s also an allegory of a soul journeying from multiplicity and strife back to unity and love. Overcoming trials and temptations, including a visit to Hades, Odysseus casts off his warlike persona and learns to restrain his senses and desires. In this presentation we will trace his return from darkness to light, his reunion with his family, and his reclaiming “my very self,” the rightful ruler of “my native land.”

$15 per person. Click here for tickets.


I attended Mr. Beardsley’s lecture last month, and can tell you it is very worthwhile, and that tickets sell out.
     

‘BOTA Vibratory Attunement’

     
Builders of the Adytum in Philadelphia will host—and open to the public—a special ritual working later this month. This Vibratory Attunement Ritual will be worked Saturday, June 21 at 3 p.m. (after the regular 1 p.m. study group) at the First Unitarian Church, located at 2125 Chestnut Street.

From the publicity:

Courtesy BOTA

BOTA members, their guests, and the general public are invited to participate in this beautiful ritual of healing and transmutation by building patterns of harmony through ancient vibratory formulae of color and sound.

I attended a presentation of this ritual in April in Manhattan, and I found it very interesting. Knowing only a whiff of conversational knowledge about esoteric uses of sound and color, I was very lost, but not hopeless. The ritual involves enough elements that are very familiar (archangels, cardinal directions, prayer, meditation, Scriptural passages, et al.) so that those experienced in other esoteric streams can grasp what’s being done.
     

‘The moon is in the east’

   
“When the sun and the moon are separated by the entire extent of the firmament, and the moon is in the east with the sun over against her in the west, she is completely relieved by her still greater distance from his rays, and so, on the fourteenth day, she is at the full, and her entire disc emits its light.”

Vitruvius
The Ten Books of Architecture
Book IX, Chapter 2


It’s a pleasure to read Vitruvius. Augustus was fond of saying how he found Rome built of brick but left it made of marble, but history remembers it was Vitruvius who made the transformation a reality. His decalogue on architecture encompasses far more than the technical know-how on constructing enduring buildings for all human needs. He provides insight into the ancient mind, and how it knowingly set about ordering life in that age. That long sentence quoted above is Vitruvius borrowing from Berosus, the Chaldean historian.

Moonlit Sea by Shoda Koho, woodblock print, 1920.

Anyway, you know the Summer Solstice is near when the Rosicrucian Order’s monthly Full Moon Meditation comes at the nine o’clock hour. I recommend this rewarding experience to you, and remember it is not necessary to be a member of the Order to participate.

June’s Full Moon Meditation will take place on Friday the 13th at 9:30 p.m. I have class at the School of Practical Philosophy and cannot join you, but gather at the Rosicrucian Cultural Center (2303 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd. in Manhattan) for a period of mindfulness exercise at 9:30, after which the group will proceed to a nearby park for more spiritual work under the gaze of the full moon.

Trust me, if you’ve never done such a thing, this is fun if nothing else, but if you know about meditation, then this exercise will suit you in ways more direct.
     

‘Rosicrucian Mystical Weekend’

     
The Rosicrucian Cultural Center in New York City (2303 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard) will host its June Mystical Weekend.

Saturday, June 7

1 to 5 p.m.

Discuss Spiritual Laws with Dr. Lonnie Edwards,

author of Spiritual Laws that Govern Humanity

and the Universe.

Sunday, June 8

1 to 3 p.m.

Second Temple Degree Review Forum

with Julian Johnson (open to members

in the Second Temple Degree or beyond).

3 to 3:30

Guided Meditation: overall exercise

and vowel intonations.

3:30 to 4

Silent Meditation

4 to 5 p.m.

Convocation

     

‘Words and wishes of the gods’

     
Morbid Anatomy will continue its Death and the Occult in the Ancient World lecture series next month with another illustrated presentation. This one will be in Manhattan, rather than Observatory’s Brooklyn location. From the publicity:

Possession and Prophets

Illustrated Lecture

with Ava Forte Vitali

of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Thursday, June 12 at 8 p.m.

Morbid Anatomy Museum

424A Third Avenue (at Seventh Street)

$8 per person—click here

The new year festival of Opet.

On the ancient Mediterranean, the words and wishes of the gods were handed down through a number of different conduits – some human and some not. What were the vehicles for prophecy and how were they interpreted in ancient Egyptian society? From omens to offerings to the ancient equivalent of ‘phone a friend,’ the manner in which the living communicated with their deities varied, across economic levels and with the development of time. We often see instances of both godly and demonic possession, and will discuss the different vehicles through which the gods could speak, including statues, smells, wind, light, and humans and animals, briefly expanding our dialogue to include neighboring Greece and Rome.

Ava Forte Vitali

Ava Forte Vitali completed her Master’s Degree in Art History and Archaeology, with a specialization in the Egyptian and Classical World, at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Her research interests include the interaction of the physical and spirit world in Ancient Egypt, archaeology of the household, and Ancient Egyptian domestic and ancestor cults, on which her Master’s focused. She has excavated at sites in Egypt and Turkey, and is a Collections Manager for Greek and Roman Art at the Metropolitan Museum. She is currently writing a contribution on the Arts and Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, for an upcoming textbook on the introduction to Art History.

Death and the Occult

in the Ancient World Series

Death and the Occult in the Ancient World is a new series of monthly lectures, workshops, and tours that aim to examine the way people along the ancient Mediterranean interacted with the unseen forces in the world. While many basic ancient myths and mortuary traditions are known to most people with a casual interest, often this barely scrapes the top of a rich wealth of information and long history of interesting, engaging, and surprisingly weird traditions and beliefs. Through illustrated lectures, guided tours, and occasional workshops, we will strive to understand the different approaches that the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans had to explain the world around them and challenge popular misconceptions held by the public today.

Through this series we hope to bridge the gap that often exists between academic disciplines and the public audience, bringing the two together in an approachable forum. Led by a trained archaeologist and art historian Ava Forte Vitali of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this series will expand on topics including religion, art, archaeology, and texts, to further our understanding of both our world and theirs.
     

‘Dead Sea Scrolls at Yeshiva’

     
Professor Lawrence Schiffman, of Dead Sea Scrolls, Yeshiva University, and NYU fame, announces YU will host its Second Annual Dead Sea Scrolls Seminar next month.

This will take place Sunday, June 8, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the Kovno Room in the Center for Jewish History’s Yeshiva University Museum. 15 West 16th Street in Manhattan.

I always say, if you think the Essenes have something to do with your secret society, you owe it to yourself to learn about Qumran from true scholars. The truth is more interesting than fantasy.

The program:

1-1:05 Opening Remarks

Lawrence H. Schiffman, Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Education and Professor of Judaic Studies, Yeshiva University


1:05-1:45 “Creature of Clay: Humanity According to the Thanksgiving Hymns”

Jeffrey Garcia, Lecturer in Bible, Nyack College


1:45-2:25 “When Insiders Become Outsiders: The Fear of Deviance in the Community Rule”

Ari J. Mermelstein, Assistant Professor of Bible, Yeshiva University


2:25-2:35 Break


2:35-3:15 “Torah and Prayer as Replacements for the Temple: Qumran and the Rabbis”

Azzan Yadin-Israel, Associate Professor of Jewish Studies and Classics, Rutgers University


3:15-3:55 “Looking for ‘Literature’ in the Dead Sea Scrolls: The Poetry of the War Scroll (1QM) from Qumran”

Moshe J. Bernstein, Professor of Bible and Jewish History and David A. and Fannie M. Denenberg Chair in Biblical Studies, Yeshiva University


3:55-4 p.m. Closing Remarks

Professor Schiffman


After the lectures, attendees are invited to tour the YU Museum exhibition Modeling the Synagogue: From Dura to Touro, featuring seven scale models of historic synagogues.
     

‘The coming week at Anthroposophy’

     
No fewer than three lectures to take place at the Anthroposophical Society in the coming week. That’s 138 West 15th Street in Manhattan.

Tomorrow night, Eugene Schwartz will complete his four-part series titled “In the Midst of Life:
Understanding Death in Our Time.” 7 p.m. $20 admission. From the publicity:

Eugene Schwartz at his lecture
last month.

In these talks, Eugene Schwartz has been exploring Rudolf Steiner’s often surprising and sometimes counter-intuitive indications about life after death and the dead, and how they may help us face the challenges of modern life.

Lecture 4: Heaven Can Wait. The presentation of death in today’s world—literary and lowbrow alike—may give us insight into the strange and subtle ways that light from “across the threshold” is shining into the darkness of our century. We will explore some manifestations of this light as they appear in popular culture, and witness the surprising ways in which we are coming to understand death in our time.

Eugene Schwartz has been a Waldorf school teacher,
an educator of teachers, and an educational consultant for 33 years. He has given nearly 2,000 lectures on Waldorf education and Anthroposophy. His articles, podcasts, and videos are here.


On Monday, Memorial Day, at 7 p.m., 
László Böszörményi will present “A Meditative Experience: Becoming Silent Inwardly.” No admission fee, but donations are welcome. From the publicity:

When I sit in an attitude of inner silence, I expect heaven to open up and to behold Jacob’s Ladder reaching to heaven, the angels of God ascending and descending. That would happen if I were healthy. Instead, my consciousness is overwhelmed by magnified images of my egoistic everyday obsessions. Becoming inwardly silent has to be learned; opening myself to heaven, earned. In our meditation together we will learn exercises that help us to become silent. In preparation, take the following meditation from Georg Kühlewind: “What in the visible is light, in the hearable is stillness.”

László Böszörményi

László Böszörményi, a friend of Georg Kühlewind and a founder of the Kühlewind Foundation in Budapest, is head of the Institute of Information Technology and Research Group Distributed Multimedia Systems, Alpen-Adria University, Klagenfurt, Austria.



Mr. Böszörményi will return to the podium next Thursday, the 26th, to present “The Limits of Science and the Limitlessness of the Human Spirit” at 7 p.m. $20 admission.

Our science is as good as our way of knowing is. Modern science was born from the revolutionary changes in the Renaissance, following the medieval scholastic way of knowing. The new way of knowing is based in the almost perfect separation of thinking, perceiving, and feeling, which frees knowing for a science which can deal with the dead and past world in an amazingly efficient and creative way. On the other side, this science is not able to deal adequately with life and human beings. László Böszörményi will bring examples of limits of modern science and of this way of knowing. The main part of the talk then deals with extending the borders of consciousness in full wakefulness, without illusions. A new science can be based on new ways of knowing that we develop in ourselves. Such a science strives to read the signs of nature and people, not to analyze and measure them. Such a science is, in a way, science, art, and religion in one. This would bring a new revolution, gentle and self-aware—not damaging anything, but recreating everything.
     

‘A Saturday Satie memory’

     
For some reason—I don’t know why, and I’m not necessarily proud of it—many of my earliest memories are of things seen on television. Bill Jorgensen with that day’s Vietnam body count on the Ten O’Clock News. Nixon’s resignation speech. Munich. A snippet of some cartoon showing anthropomorphized vegetables (e.g. an ill-tempered tomato) splashing down inside a stomach, or maybe a garbage can, and bickering among themselves about it.

One day at age three or four—definitely before kindergarten—I squeezed in a full morning of Sesame Street and other such programming before it was time for a nap. I abandoned the television in the master bedroom, but left it turned on, and walked a straight line of no more than twenty feet to my bed. Sacking out for a while and still able to hear the TV, I held still as haunting music reached my ears. A melody so laden with pathos that it made me afraid and sad. My eyes began tearing. I listened for maybe a minute more, feeling very uneasy, before venturing back to my parents’ room to see whatever trouble the program was. It showed wild animals, in slow motion, running through the grass and trees of some jungle-like setting. Which animals I do not remember; the music stayed with me for life.

Erik Satie

It was Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie No. 1, as I would learn some 35 years later, in an arrangement—if I really can recall correctly—for guitar.

Erik-Alfred-Leslie Satie, says Encyclopædia Britannica, was a French composer “whose spare, unconventional, often witty style exerted a major influence on 20th-century music, particularly in France.” If you’re a fan of John Cage, you are acquainted with the sparse composition style and unconventional harmonies that are Satie’s legacy.

My proper introduction to M. Satie came courtesy of the Rose Circle Research Foundation, specifically Trevor Stewart’s lecture at our first conference, held in April 2006. Trevor spoke at length on the Salon de la Rose + Croix movement, led by Joseph Péladan in fin de siècle Paris. In short, it was an artistic movement wed to Péladan’s self-styled Rosicrucianism, a highly idiomatic esoteric Christianity indeed. (Now that is a subject any Rosicrucian ought to explore for personal edification.) The goal of the annual art salons was to restore the expression of spirituality to the Paris art scene, which at the time was devoted almost entirely to Realism. The art itself expressed themes from mythologies, mysticism, dreams, and other such intuitive inspirations. We can tell these paintings were generations ahead of their time because today they are merely awesome. A hundred and twenty years ago they were explosive.

Armand Point's poster promoting the 1895 Salon de la Rose Croix depicts Greek mythical hero Perseus, slayer of Medusa the Gorgon, holding up decapitated Emile Zola. 

In the liner notes of the CD Musique de la Rose-Croix (LTMCD 2469), James Nice summarizes Satie’s involvement with this arts movement:

A Templar Knight Rose Croix meets
Leonardo da Vinci in this Salon poster.

For a short period Erik Satie was appointed official composer for the esoteric Ordre de la Rose-Croix Catholique du Temple et du Graal, founded in Paris by the flamboyant mystic ‘Sar’ Joséphin Péladan. The first Salon de la Rose-Croix was held in March 1892, at which Satie’s solemn Trois Sonneries de la Rose + Croix were performed for the first time. Satie also composed music for Péladan’s play Le Fils des Étoiles (Son of the Stars), as well as two preludes for a chivalric play, Le Nazaréen. Satie subsequently broke from the Order in August 1892.

It would be too wonderful a coincidence for the sublime melody that upset me in a moment of early childhood to be among the composer’s Rosicrucian works I enjoy in middle age, and that is not the case, but I am delighted—très content—to connect the pieces and enjoy them. Erik Satie was born on this date in 1866, and when today settles down enough so I may sneak off with some tobacco and a glass of whiskey, I surely will toast his memory.