‘Journal 29 is out’

     

The Journal of the Masonic Society No. 29 has been reaching Society members these past weeks. Dubbed “The Review Issue,” this Journal offers opinions on a variety of goods marketed to Freemasons—from books to clothing to regalia, and beyond—in addition to feature articles, Masonic studies, analysis of the state of the Craft, plus the Journal’s regular features.

The Journal is the primary, but not only, benefit to members of The Masonic Society—the best $39 you’ll spend in Freemasonry. Membership is open to regular Freemasons from recognized grand lodges. Click here for more membership information.

Patrick C. Carr, the Right Worshipful Grand Senior Warden of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas, treats us to his “In Search of the Genuine Æthelstan,” in which he reviews the known history and biography of the early English king who figures so prominently in Freemasonry’s embryonic literature. Carr reasons “While we cannot ever know exactly what impact King Athelstan and his rule did directly for the Craft, we can agree that King Athelstan and his actions provided the world with a laudable set of values in which we should meet, act, and part. Whether or not it directly impacted the creation of the fraternity is irrelevant. What it did manage to do was place the beliefs of the king strictly into the rituals and the belief systems that Freemasonry still teaches today.”

Always a popular topic of conversation is Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma, the dense collection of lectures the early Sovereign Grand Commander of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction) intended to accompany the 32 degrees, as worked by A&ASR bodies for many decades. Giovanni A. Villegas, of Jacobo Zobel Memorial Lodge 202 in the Philippines, bravely offers his “Unabashed Literary Book Review” outlining the problems he perceives in the text. “The true test of understanding Morals and Dogma is finding the honesty to first admit that one does not fully understand it,” he says, “or at least not immediately.” He continues, explaining how factors such as the period style of the writing, Pike’s lifting of text from earlier sources, and Pike’s personal interpretations of mystical subjects conspire to leave readers in 2015 vexed. He concedes M&D is “essential reading” for the Scottish Rite Mason who can weather it, but also recommends the casual reader seek out more recent texts, including Rex Hutchens’ A Bridge to Light, and, of course, Arturo de Hoyos’ Annotated Edition, which provides tons of clarifications, corrections, references, and other useful guides to those who want the full Morals and Dogma experience.

Yasha Berensiner’s regular feature “Masonic Collectibles” treats us to a look at William Hogarth, the eighteenth century (today is his 318th birthday) English artist and satirist—and brother Mason—whose “comic histories” paintings chronicled London life, and didn’t spare the Masonic fraternity his lampooning. Perhaps you are acquainted with his Times of the Day prints but, if not, seek it out, and get an eyeful of the one titled “Night.”

Under “Thoughts on the Craft,” Stephen J. Ponzillo, III, a Past Grand Master of Maryland, visits the touchy topic of lodge dues and other expenses in his “The Cost of Belonging: Is it Enough?” In the early years of this century, when the Knights of the North and the Masonic Restoration Foundation were advancing the simple view that lodges must collect in dues the revenue they need to function properly and survive into the future, it was so inflammatory to the establishment that a mere whisper of responsibly addressing lodge financing would prompt anger and panic. Today, younger and wiser heads are prevailing in lodges all over the country, and appreciation for the cost of living these days affects how forward-thinking lodges plan their financial futures. In his article, inspired by a recent discussion on the Masonic Society’s Facebook page, he scores several points structured around his comparing and contrasting cost of living figures of 1957 and 2014. It’s actually not simply a matter of inflation; Ponzillo illustrates the more significant facts of what Freemasonry asked men to pay for initiation and dues during those two periods. It’s about the percentage of a man’s annual income. In 1957, for example, a lodge that collected a $75 initiation fee from a man who earned $5,000 for that year was taking 1.5 percent of that income. In 2014, a man making just less than $70,000, and paying a $250 initiation fee, gave about a third of 1 percent of his annual pay to join a lodge. Is it enough? Indeed.

In his President’s Message, Jim Dillman humorously bemoans his efforts to meet his deadline, but in all seriousness, he writes on “Uncovering Freemasonry’s History,” urging us to look at what is right in front of us—as in lodge records, ephemera, books, etc. stored away in lodge closets and corners. “I’m going to challenge each of you to take a day, a week, or a month off from social media or your time-waster of choice, and devote the time you would have spent to some sort of Masonic research. Go back and read the minutes of your lodge from 50 or 100 years ago,” he says. “Dig through some of those old boxes lying around.” I know we all want to uncover the mysteries of Masonic secrets, but a curious and diligent brother can do his lodge great good simply by bringing to life local Masonic history for his own lodge.

There is a lot more to Issue 29: “The Masonic Baseball Game,” current news from around the globe, the detailed calendar of Masonic events through next May, and a great “Guide to Masonic Encyclopedias” by Tyler Anderson of New Mexico, among other attractions.

In other Masonic Society news, the Board of Directors and Officers gathered in St. Louis over the weekend to give shape to some serious plans for the Society’s future. We’ll meet again at Masonic Week to finalize some of these designs upon the trestleboard, and when you find out about them, your eyes will pop. Stay tuned to The Magpie Mind in February for those details.

The Masonic Society Board of Directors’ marathon planning session over the weekend at the St. Louis Airport Hilton just happened to coincide with the annual meeting of something named St. Matthew’s Grand Lodge. In fact, when I arrived at the hotel Friday afternoon, I found the lobby crowded with their members and Eastern Star ladies having a grand time. This photo partially shows the schedule of Saturday events posted in the lobby. Unfortunately, I couldn’t undertake my usual membership development efforts, as St. Matthew’s exists outside the mainstream of the Masonic fraternity. (Click here for membership guidelines.) I wonder what they thought of us!

And speaking of Masonic Week 2016, the registration information should be posted this week, I’m told, and you’ll see the Masonic Society’s banquet has been moved from the Friday night to Saturday, making us the only official dining choice for that evening. President Dillman will announce the choice of keynote speaker shortly, and I hope those of you who will attend Masonic Week will elect to be with us that night. We will have a number of big announcements.

See you there.

This blurry photo shows the left arm of the guy in front of me on line to board the plane back to New York. That tattoo is an attempt (it doesn’t have it quite right) to ink the Hand of Fatima, or the Khamsa, an ancient symbol from the Middle East that is significant to both Jews and Muslims. ‘The eye in its palm wards off the evil eye,’ according to The Element Encyclopedia of Secret Signs and Symbols. In modern times, it is a kind of peace symbol, showing how the two great faiths share much in common, the book also says.

     

‘Introduction to Martinism Saturday’

     
The Traditional Martinist Order will host an Introduction to Martinism Saturday afternoon in New York City. In January, the Order will undertake a new cycle of classes, and I gather this meeting will provide answers about the Order and its teachings. Julian Johnson will lead the discussion. From the publicity:

Introduction to Martinism

Saturday, November 14

1 p.m.

Rosicrucian Cultural Center

2303 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Blvd.

New York City

Focusing on the works of Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, we will explore the foundations of Martinism, a mystical movement deeply rooted in the Western Esoteric Tradition.

We anticipate people will ask about how and when they can receive the Associate Degree Initiation, as well as other questions pertaining to membership in New York Heptad.


On the following Saturday, November 21, the local heptad will confer the Associate Degree. (New York Heptad now meets at the Theosophical Society/Quest Bookshop at 240 East 53rd Street in Manhattan.)
     

‘Book sale’

     

Courtesy Kristine Mann Library

Just in time for the holiday gift-shopping season, the Kristine Mann Library at the C.G. Jung Foundation in Murray Hill is hosting its book sale again, now through December. Plenty of reading material by and about Carl Jung and countless related subjects await you—and at good prices—and your purchases will help the library’s fundraising endeavors too.

28 East 39th Street (between Madison and Park avenues). Open Mondays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. And Wednesdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

A word to the wise: don’t delay. The library is not a bookstore, so while it offers many great titles for sale, it does not replenish inventory.
     

‘Manhattan displays of Masonic material culture’

     
Eve M. Kahn’s antiques column in today’s New York Times discusses “Art from Fraternal Societies” (wasting no space before plugging Aimee Newell’s recent book), and reveals how two art venues in New York City will feature Masonic and other fraternal material culture in January.

From January 20 through May 8, 2016, Masonic and Odd Fellows pieces—gifts from collectors Allan and Kendra Daniel—will be shown at American Folk Art Museum.

Courtesy Folk Art Museum

Courtesy Folk Art Museum

Courtesy Folk Art Museum

Bruce Lee Webb, author of As Above, So Below: Art of the American Fraternal Society, 1850-1930, will bring certain pieces to sell at Outsider Art Fair, January 21-24 at Metropolitan Pavilion, just around the corner from Masonic Hall.

Courtesy Webb Gallery

     

‘Masonic miscellany’

     
This edition of The Magpie Mind admittedly is a mess, but here are announcements of some great local events, so be sure to scroll all the way through.

Last weekend, I had the chance to enjoy some time in my alma mater’s main research library and, instead of doing something useful, I poked through a tiny bit of the thousands of unusual texts pertaining to Freemasonry. Here are just a few images:

• Tomorrow night, The American Lodge of Research will meet to hear Worshipful Master Michael Chaplin present his paper “Patron Saints of the Operatives.” Eight o’clock in the Colonial Room on 10 at Masonic Hall (71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan).

• Monday, November 9 is the deadline for booking your seat at the Scottish Rite Valley of Central Jersey’s Rose Croix celebration featuring Billy Koon:

Click to enlarge.

• Next Wednesday, Bro. Mohamad will speak at Livingston Masonic Lodge in New Jersey:

Click to enlarge.

• Congratulations to the new officers of the Masonic Library and Museum Association: President Aimee Newell, Vice President Brian Rountree, Secretary Cathy Giaimo, and, returning for another term, Treasurer Eric Trosdahl.

• The MLMA’s 2016 annual meeting is planned tentatively for October at the Lee Lockwood Scottish Rite Library and Museum in Waco, Texas.

• Speaking of Masonic libraries, the Grand Lodge of Nebraska dedicated its library and museum last month at the grand lodge headquarters in Lincoln.

• On Sunday, November 8, Cincinnati Masonic Lodge No. 3 in Morristown, New Jersey (39 Maple Avenue) will unveil the Morristown Masonic Center Museum and Library with an opening reception. Dignitaries to include the chairman of the New Jersey Historical Commission, the chairman of the Morristown Historic Preservation Commission, and RW Bro. Glenn Visscher of the Museum of Masonic Culture in Trenton (and a Past Master of the lodge). 

• Looking around the interwebs, I recently found the finest source of Masonic news: The Past Bastard. Click here and be amazed!

• Madison Masonic Lodge No. 93 in New Jersey has undertaken the project of replacing the headstone of Jepthah B. Munn, who was Grand Master of Masons for the State of New Jersey in the 1820s. Donations are welcome here.

I shot these photos Monday in the Presbyterian cemetery across the street from the lodge and, as you can see, this stone has seen better times.

Munn deserves the overdue attention. He was grand master during the age when grand masters were graaaand! A quick history:

In 1837, the Grand Lodge of New York expelled a number of Masons and closed a few lodges that were at labor in New York City. (I haven’t yet learned why they were expelled.) These brethren regrouped and called themselves St. John’s Grand Lodge. At that time, the Grand Lodge of New Jersey adopted a resolution voicing its support of New York’s authority to expel these Masons. This resolution was passed to make it clear from the start that all New Jersey lodges were prohibited from having communication with this clandestine grand lodge.

However, St. John’s Lodge No. 2 in Newark (it became No. 1 later) ignored the prohibition and other, less formal, requests from individual grand officers, and had Masonic intercourse with these New York guys, hosting them in their lodge, etc. For their role in this, Jepthah Munn and John Darcy, both past grand masters, were punished by Grand Lodge of New Jersey for defying grand lodge’s order to not interact with those expelled Masons.

During all of this, some New York lodges, in retaliation for the New Jersey past grand masters’ meddling in this episode, refused to allow New Jersey Masons to visit their lodges. This feuding continued for a number of years, even into the 1850s. What has to be remembered during all of this is that this period is the tail end of the anti-Masonic era that came in the wake of the “Morgan scandal” that nearly saw the fraternity in New York and New Jersey wiped out. For example, in 1842 New Jersey Freemasonry consisted of 162 Masons in eight lodges. So this bickering is kind of like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Also, this episode is not all that unusual in the 19th century history of New York Masonry. In the early years of the 1800s, a split between the “country lodges” and the “city lodges” took place that really caused problems. Two very real grand lodges coexisted until 1827, when they united.

Anyway, the clandestine grand lodge Munn aided is not unknown to New York scholars (there actually is a New York lodge named after Munn). He was an interesting man: Born in East Orange in 1780, where there is a Munn Avenue; a renowned medical doctor, who served as president of the Medical Society of New Jersey in 1828, and a co-founder and eventual president of the Morris District Medical Society; a respected member of the New Jersey General Assembly.

He was made a Mason in 1804 in Paterson Orange Lodge 13; affiliated with Cincinnati No. 3 in Morristown, serving as Master from 1809 to 1814; was warrant master of Chatham Lodge 33 (now Madison 93) from 1814 to 1819; and affiliated with St. John’s No. 1 in 1850. Was elected Senior Grand Warden of Grand Lodge in 1817, and served as Grand Master from 1820 to 1824.

Because of his activity in the New York episode, Munn—and this is why I’ve been crazy about him from the minute I learned of him about seven years ago—was subjected to charges of unmasonic conduct in 1842. Charges dropped the next year. Censure was imposed by Grand Lodge in 1850, but withdrawn in 1852. He continued to attend grand lodge communications through 1860, until ill health slowed him down. He died in 1863 in Chatham.
     

‘Plato and Emerson just off Central Park’

     
The School of Practical Philosophy on 79th Street offers two great programs next month characteristic of its mission to show how philosophical concepts can be applied to our daily lives. Tickets are selling out, so don’t delay. From the publicity:


All are welcome to attend the School’s special events program, which draws from a broad spectrum of disciplines in the arts and sciences. The programs are organized and presented by senior students in the School who speak from direct experience in seeking to make philosophy practical within their chosen field. Each event offers good food for the mind, body and spirit and is open to school members, their family, friends, colleagues as well as the general public.

Plato Study Day

Alcibiades I

Sunday, November 8

8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

$45 (includes materials, refreshments,

lunch, and wine reception)

The Study Day program comes from Plato’s Alcibiades I, an imagined conversation between the great philosopher Socrates and the 18-year-old Alcibiades, an ambitious and talented youth who would later play a major role in Athens and on the world stage. In this dialogue, Socrates takes the lead in trying to awaken Alcibiades to the ignorance that prevents him from understanding the true qualifications for achieving his enormous ambition, and, more importantly, from realizing his own true nature.

As we watch Socrates’ intelligence at work, it becomes apparent that, not only Alcibiades, but we ourselves will benefit from examining our beliefs, priorities and actions in light of the questions raised in this dialogue:

• What are the most damaging ideas to hold?
• How can ignorance be removed?
• What are the success factors for a happy life?
• What is self-knowledge?

Our active participation and self-examination during the day will make it abundantly clear that philosophy works!

Emerson and Spiritual Knowledge

with Barbara Solowey

Saturday, November 14

7 p.m.

$25 (includes refreshments)

The teaching of Ralph Waldo Emerson is an expression of the highest spiritual knowledge, the philosophy of Unity known as Advaita. Drawing on the wisdom of Plato and the Eastern spiritual traditions, he proclaims the Supreme Reality: the Oneness of God, the Soul, and the Universe.

Emerson knew from direct experience and observation that realization of this Unity is possible. His call to humanity was for a new consciousness “to restore that bond by which their own self was linked to the Eternal Self; to recover that unity which had been clouded and obscured by the magical illusion of reality, by the so-called Maya of Creation.” (The Orientalist note-book)

Join us to discover how Emerson’s transcendental teaching to discover “the infinitude of the private man” can inspire us in our own journey to be Self-reliant, to awaken Reason, and to follow Divine Law.
     

‘Social Media Lodge to form in Middlesex’

     
It’s too much of a commute for me, but I want to share the news of the Freemasons in Middlesex, England soon launching Social Media Lodge, which is welcoming Founder Members now. Of course, the United Grand Lodge of England already has Internet Lodge, but the focus of this new endeavor is to establish and maintain an active voice on the web. From the publicity:

Social Media Lodge

Meeting

Monday, November 30

Brethren, as you will know, the Province of Middlesex is looking at forming a new Lodge aimed at using social media and the internet to promote, recruit, and communicate.

The new Lodge also will be looking at running itself using technology, rather than paper, where appropriate.

If you are interested in being a Founder Member of, or simply joining, the Lodge, we will be holding a meeting, which the Pro Provincial Grand Master will attend, on Monday, November 30 at Staines Masonic Hall at 7.30 p.m.

I would be grateful if you would email me to confirm your attendance so we have an idea of numbers.

If you are aware of others who you think might be interested in joining as a Founder Member, please pass the information to them.

In the true spirit of the new Lodge, please Like, Share, Retweet, Favourite on the various social media channels.

Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you.

Stewart Graham,
Provincial Communications Officer
     

‘Elias Ashmole’s alchemy anthology’

     
Initiated into Freemasonry on this date in 1646: Elias Ashmole!

It’s been a while since I posted an unsolicited promotional announcement of Ouroboros Press’ wonderful publications, but the books these people produce are of such luxurious and dazzling quality, that I am happy to help spread the word.

Courtesy Ouroboros Press

Ouroboros’ latest is Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, the Complete and Corrected Edition, which is “An Annotated Catalogue of Printed Books on Alchemy, Chemistry and Cognate Subjects.” Manly Hall called the text “marvelous” and by “the most learned antiquarian of his age.”

In Freemasonry, Ashmole is merely a curiosity, remembered only because someone discovered his brief notes among his personal papers recording the day—October 16, 1646—when he was initiated into the fraternity. Outside Masonry however, Elias Ashmole (1617-92) was an aristocrat, public official, Fellow of the Royal Society, gentleman, doctor of medicine, Royalist for Charles II, and, among other admirable pursuits, the benefactor of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford University—regarded as the first public museum in the West.

Courtesy Ouroboros Press

“Wherefore you that love to converse with the Dead, or consult with their Monuments, draw near: perhaps you may find more benefit in them then the Living; There you may meet with the Genii of our Hermetique Philosophers, learne the Language in which they woo’d and courted Dame Nature, and enjoy them more freely, and at Greater Command, (to satisfie your Doubts) than when they were in the Flesh; For, they have Written more then they would Speake; and left their Lines so Rich, as if they had dissolved Gold in their Inke, and clad their Words with the Soveraign Moysture.”

Elias Ashmole
Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum


This book, first published in 1652, is an anthology of poetry written by diverse English authors on alchemy. I’m sure there are other editions available, but none like this. From the publicity:

Courtesy Ouroboros Press

The Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum is a major collection of English alchemical texts which encapsulate the arcana of the Magnum Opus in poetic form. Originally gathered by Elias Ashmole from several rare medieval manuscripts, the text represents the largest collection of verse concerning the production of the Philosopher’s Stone to be brought together in one volume. Ashmole’s pride in English literature was amplified through the consideration he gave to the project. In deciding which texts should be included in the book, he details ancient British examples among the Druids and the Bardic Tradition and explains that poesy is much better than mere verse. Here we find well-known names in the alchemical corpus, among whom are included: Thomas Norton, George Ripley, Geoffrey Chaucer, John Daston, Pearce the Black Monke, Richard Carpenter, Abraham Andrews, Thomas Charnock, William Bloomefield, Edward Kelley, John Dee, Thomas Robinson, William Backhouse, John Gower, John Lydgate, W. Redman, and several anonymous authors. This who’s who of English alchemists is placed in historical context by a Prolegomena by Ashmole, which supports his thesis that England may be proud of its alchemical literary heritage. In addition, Ashmole has provided ample annotations and commentary on each of the texts as supplementary material in the concluding chapter of the book. The text has a new introduction by William Kiesel and a full bibliography of alchemical and bibliographic materials used in researching the text.

Click here for a full list of the contents.

This complete edition of Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum goes beyond the mere reprinting of the original pages as past facsimiles have done. Using the original errata sheets provided by Ashmole, the entire text has been corrected and reset in a more readable typeface and features clear reproductions of the original engravings produced by Robert Vaughan. In addition, this edition features a more complete version of the Breviary of Natural Philosophy by Thomas Charnock by employing a complete manuscript of the text not available to Ashmole in 1652. This is the most ambitious publishing project embraced by Ouroboros Press in its years of laboring to bring source works of western esotericism to scholars and collectors alike. Over a dozen individuals and institutions worked hard to bring the book into this complete and corrected edition. This is fine esoteric book arts at its best, a volume Elias Ashmole himself would be proud of.


“In scope, these poems encompass all of the aspects of the great work: theory and practice, instructions on furnaces and vessels, or on substances to be avoided, and allegorical accounts intended to convey the most important secrets.”

Didier Kahn, author of Alchemical Poetry in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: A Preliminary Survey and Synthesis Part I — Preliminary Survey
Ambix Volume 57, Number 3, November 2010

Courtesy Ouroboros Press

Robert Vaughan’s Engraving.

Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum features several engraved plates by Robert Vaughan (not to be confused with Thomas Vaughan, author of Lumen de Lumen.) C. H. Josten notes “these engravings are probably the earliest engraved reproductions of miniatures from an illuminated manuscript.” The manuscripts in question are preserved in the British Library. The engravings are certainly among the most beautifully rendered in the alchemical corpus. Heralding from the emblematic tradition, such engravings are by now hallmarks of the famous alchemical books extant. According to Ashmole’s diary, Vaughan actually came to stay with him where the artist “wrought and finished all the Cutts.” The images themselves feature several alchemical scenes depicting famous alchemists, work in laboratories, astrological charts, as well as allegorical themes, and the larger images are each surrounded by foliated borders which are also populated with animals, insects, and birds. The book also has a few engraved ornamental grotesques, alchemical dragons, trees, and fleurons scattered throughout the text.

Courtesy Ouroboros Press

The Folding Plate: John Goddard’s Diagram.

In addition to Vaughan’s engravings there is a folding plate by another artist which is to be found in the Compound of Alchemie, or Twelve Gates by George Ripley. This typographical diagram labeled “Here followeth the Figure conteyning all the secrets of the Treatise both great & small” was originally rendered by John Goddard. Again in keeping with the original, the folding plate is included in the Ouroboros Press edition with the Latin parts translated into English by Darius Klein.

Text designed by William Berkson, is based on an early font cut by William Caslon who in the 18th century made British printers’ dependence on Dutch type a thing of the past. Caslon’s typeface was also popular in America and it was utilized by Mary Katherine Goddard of Baltimore for the printing of the Declaration of Independence. The Fleurons Garamont ornaments, based on 16th century originals, were designed by Bruce Rogers, the famous American book and type designer. The fine engravings by Robert Vaughan were scanned from a first edition copy of the Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum which was originally owned by Isaac Newton.


Two versions of this text are still available.

Trade Cloth Edition: Gilt-stamped cloth over boards in letterpress printed dust jacket. Over thirty alchemical texts in 528 pages. Illustrated, bibliography and table of obscure words. $75.00

Special deluxe bindings in leather and vellum will be executed with traditional bookbinding technique by the studios of Ars Obscura Bookbinding utilizing antique book presses.

Deluxe Leather Edition: Full tanned goat with gilt-stamped spine bands and central ‘grotesque’ ornament to boards. Ebony and gilt leather spine label, silk bookmark and hand-marbled endpapers. Limited to 200 copies only. $250.00


Click here to make your purchase.
     

‘Rose Circle: alchemy in the Hermetic tradition’

     

I haven’t been able to say this in a long time, so it gives me great pleasure to tell you the Rose Circle Research Foundation has a new event scheduled for next week in New York City. From the publicity:

Rose Circle Research Foundation Presents

Spiritual Alchemical Bodies

in the Hermetic Tradition

presented by Tommy Westlund

of Stockholm, Sweden

Saturday, October 24

2 p.m.

Masonic Hall

71 West 23rd Street

Manhattan

$25 per person, in advance, available here

Tommy Westlund is a trained therapist in psychosynthesis, and since 1990 has pursued studies and research in esotericism and the Western Hermetic tradition. With an academic background in psychology, the history of religion, and the history of ideas, he writes and lectures internationally on esotericism, alchemy, Golden Dawn, gnosticism, Martinism, and Freemasonry.

Tommy Westlund

He is one of the founders of the initiatic Order of the Sodalitas Rosae+Crucis & Solis Alati, which perpetuates many of the old esoteric currents and Hermetic filiations of Europe, and he is director of the Swedish Alchemical Academy, which offers alchemical courses, workshops, travels, and literature.

Tommy holds the highest degree (X°) in the Swedish Rite of Freemasonry and has held his position as Deputy Master of one of Sweden’s oldest St. John lodges (St. Erik, originated in 1756) for the past six years.

He continues to serve as archivist of the Swedish Masonic Grand Archive, a position he has held since 2009, and as secretary of the Swedish Masonic Education Committee, since 2012. He also is a member of the oldest Provincial Grand Lodge of the Royal Order of Scotland.


If you have attended previous Rose Circle events, you have experienced the pleasures of learning firsthand from some of the most knowledgeable and sharpest minds in the Western Mystery Traditions. As you can see, this commitment to excellence will continue October 24. (Consistent with the frustration that seems to govern my life, I will not be able to join you that day. I’ll be just about a mile down the street at another event.)
     

‘Freemasonry: The World’s First Global Social Network’

     
As reported here yesterday, Bro. Richard Berman, the 2016 Prestonian Lecturer, will chair a session titled “Freemasonry: The World’s First Global Social Network” at the American Historical Association’s annual meeting in Atlanta in January, and will present a paper then also. The meeting will run from January 7 through 10, and this period on Freemasonry is scheduled for January 8, from 10:30 a.m. to noon.

To attend, register here.

From the publicity:

In the 1700s, Masonic lodges and Freemasons could be found from the East Indies to the West Indies, to Indian country of the North American frontier, all across Europe, and throughout the farthest flung colonial possessions of the British, French, and Dutch empires. By the end of the century it had become an important organizing tool and intellectual force in the African Atlantic diaspora as well.

Freemasonry was an emergent, self-created social movement of the 18th century Enlightenment that boasted its own faux history, republican ideology, international diplomacy, meta-economy, and extensive organizational structures. Within a few decades of the formation of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717 there were Masonic lodges and grand lodges throughout the Americas, the Caribbean, India and in some parts of Africa. Ideologically and socially, Freemasonry connected men across political, ethnic, racial, religious, and class borders. It served as a vital fraternal link in the lives of Atlantic seafarers, soldiers, planters, and craftsmen, and formed a vast network of overlapping networks that greatly impacted social and commercial relations both within and between far-flung communities in every corner of the globe where European culture had penetrated.

This panel will seek to explore the role of Freemasonry as an international phenomenon, elucidating the nature and implications of the overlapping social, commercial, and intellectual networks created by Freemasons, white and black, on both sides of the Atlantic.


The presenters:

Hans Schwartz

Clark University

Navigating the Republic of Masonry:

Print Culture in Masonic Communication

and Connection

in the 18th Century Atlantic and Beyond

Within a few decades of the foundation of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717, the Masonic fraternity could be found from the East to the West Indies to American Indian country and was a major social movement of the Enlightenment throughout Europe and the European colonial world. In a speech before Paris’ Lodge of Nine Muses, Benjamin Franklin referred to this international brotherhood as “The Republic of Masonry.” One of the most fascinating and little understood elements of Freemasonry’s successful spread is the manner in which Masons, often merchants or sea captains, were able to arrive in ports of call from Batavia to Boston and beyond and easily locate the meetings of this “secret” society. This investigation demonstrates how various types of print culture were created or adapted to the purposes of Masonic. Specifically, this presentation will focus on Masonic almanacs and lists of lodges printed and distributed by Grand Lodges in Europe and reprinted in a wide variety of pamphlets and books; the use of colonial newspapers, particularly in Boston, the most prominent hub of British Masonry in the Americas to circulate Masonic news and contact information; and the highly detailed Tableaux of the French Caribbean Masonic network centered in Saint Domingue. This will include the use of print culture in the early republic to promote black Freemasonry emanating from Boston. All of these sources were circulated, exchanged, and reprinted in a manner that linked the widespread Masonic networks of Bostonian merchants, French Creole planters, and European seafarers.

Richard Berman

Oxford Brookes University

Ancients or Moderns?

Reflections on the Genesis

of American Freemasonry

American Freemasonry was created in the mould of the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster, later the Grand Lodge of England, and initially reflected the pro-establishment mores of its founders, providing its affluent upper middling members with an exclusive blend of “ancient” ritual, fraternal association and drinking and dining. But from the late 1750s and 1760s, the organization split, a division not based more on social differences than political differences: loyalist against patriot.

Dr. Richard Berman

Dr. Berman’s paper traces the debt American fraternalism owes to the more egalitarian and inclusive Irish form of Freemasonry, pushed not only by the Grand Lodge of Ireland but by the more aggressive Antients Grand Lodge, formed in London in 1751 and shaped by London’s Irish diaspora, especially Laurence Dermott, its pioneering and long-serving Grand Secretary and later Deputy Grand Master.

Antients Freemasonry became a locus for the aspirational lower middling rather than the incumbent social and political elites, and developed a powerful social and economic function, providing mutual financial assistance and an accessible social infrastructure for those seeking self-betterment. It extended formal sociability beyond the elites to create one of the first modern friendly societies and, in an American context, took over the mantle of revolutionary Enlightenment politics in the upswing to the War of Independence.

Eoghan Craig

Caliban and the Widow’s Sons:

Some Aspects of the Intersections and Interactions

between Freemasonry

and Afro-Caribbean Religious Praxis

After Freemasonry spread across Europe in the 18th century, it was inevitable that its influence should reach the Caribbean. Masonic lodges were founded in France’s colony of Saint Domingue as early as 1738. It was not long before men of African descent entered the fraternity. Some of these men went on to hold leadership positions in the Haitian Revolution. It was inevitable, given the wide distribution of African inspired religious practice in the Caribbean, that Freemasonry would interact with African religions. Elements of Masonic symbolism reflect back from the graphic systems employed in Haitian Vodou and Afro-Cuban Palo, a religion of Congo origin. Hand gestures and ritual movements in the Asson tradition of Haitian Vodou have been credited with Masonic influence, and significant elements clearly identifiable as being of Masonic origin, comprise parts of the intiation rituals of Quimbisa, a religion of Central African origin in Cuba. Such exchanges do not reflect a single direction. Recently a Grand Commander General was appointed to the Scottish Rite for Cuba, who is a practicing member of the Abakuá, a tradition originating in the Cross River area of Nigeria, and also one of the founding Babalawo’s of Cuba’s internationally recognized Yoruba annual divination committee, which is viewed as religious guidance on three continents. In Haiti, a Masonic Rite was founded which invokes certain Lwa or spirits of Haitian Vodou, which are recognized throughout the international community of Vodou religious praxis as Masonic spirits. One of Vodou’s most iconographic spirits, Baron Samedi, the lord over the dead, unmistakably combines Masonic regalia with the iconic skull used in the initiatic Chamber of Reflection. Even in Brazil, the temples of Umbanda, a modern Afro-Brazilian faith, are replete with Masonic elements, and it is not uncommon for Freemasons in Brazil to also be initiates in Umbanda.
     

‘Masonic Hall in Open House NY’

   
Masonic Hall, the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York, again will be among the Open House New York destinations. OHNY of course is the annual availability of scores of architectural wonders and other treasures throughout New York City open to the public during an adventurous weekend, in this case October 17-18.

Tours of the Masonic landmark will be conducted Saturday the 17th and Sunday the 18th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Masonic Hall is located at 71 West 23rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth avenues, in Manhattan. Reservations can be made beginning today at 11 a.m.

Nicolas Lemery Nantel for OHNY

From the publicity:

Just steps from Madison Square Park stands the headquarters building of the Grand Lodge of Free Accepted Masons of the State of New York. The building contains a total of 13 Masonic lodge meeting rooms, each with its own distinctive design and character highlighting some aspect of the history, symbolism, or philosophy of the Masonic fraternity.

Tours ongoing throughout both days will explore approximately five of the building’s ornate historic meeting rooms.

Click here to join Open House New York.