Monday, April 9, 2018

‘BOTA’s Vibratory Attunement on World Healing Day’

     
Builders of the Adytum, the group that postulates certain meanings in “Qabalah, Sacred Tarot, Spiritual Alchemy, and Esoteric Astrology,” has a chapter that meets at Masonic Hall. On Saturday, April 28, it will host its annual Vibratory Attunement Ritual at 4 p.m. in the Chapter Room on 12. Admission is free and open to the public. Photo ID is required to enter Masonic Hall.

From the publicity: “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 several years ago, and 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. If you think this sounds like New Age gibberish, I would just say that sound and color, as manifestations of mathematics, were handed down by Pythagoras and other giants of Classical Greece, and should be fairly easily understood as patterns for harmony.

I am not a member of BOTA, but if you attend this open event, you’ll be supporting a long-term tenant of Masonic Hall. Also, Saturday the 28th is World Healing Day, so here’s something you can do.
     

Sunday, April 8, 2018

‘Is Harry Potter a Freemason?’

     
Maryland Masonic Research Society’s meeting on May 5 will feature a presentation on themes and symbolism in the Harry Potter stories. From the publicity:


Maryland Masonic
Research Society
Saturday, May 5 at noon
“Is Harry Potter a Freemason?”
Presented by Walter Benesch
Odd Fellows Lodge
6 Ingleside Avenue in Catonsville
RSVP for lunch here before April 30


Courtesy Scholastic Corp.
In the books from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone to Deathly Hallows, a careful reader can find multiple Masonic symbols—the first book alone traces Harry’s journey as an Entered Apprentice. How?

Come and listen to our talk. For those who are unfamiliar with the books, there will be a slideshow presentation to acquaint you with the charters and Masonic symbols used in the books. By reviewing how Masonic symbolism can be found in the Harry Potter books where you least expect, it may be found elsewhere.

After the presentation, you may want to take another look at other pieces of literature, movies, and plays in a new light, looking for the hidden and sometimes not so hidden Masonic symbols.

Join us for lunch to enjoy the company of MMRS members at the Odd Fellows. Enter at the side door on Orban Avenue.
     

Friday, April 6, 2018

‘Inklings celebration, Mythcon 49, coming to Atlanta’

     
Mythopoeic Society’s 49th Mythcon will be hosted in Atlanta in three months. Titled “On the Shoulders of Giants,” there is a call for papers underway and registration is open now.

The society is devoted to mythopoeic literature, particularly that of the Inklings, the Oxford University circle of friends that included J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis. From the publicity:


Mythcon 49
On the Shoulders of Giants
Atlanta, Georgia
July 20-23


The Mythopoeic Society’s annual conference, popularly called Mythcon, has historically been held at a college or university campus in late July or early August. Each conference is constructed around a theme related to Inklings studies and/or fantastic and mythic literature. Each conference also features an author and a scholar guest of honor. Papers, panel discussions, readings, entertainment, an art show, a dealers’ room, and other activities fill the four-day event. Another Mythcon highlight is our annual banquet, after which the Mythopoeic Awards are presented. A small (usually 100-200 people) and intimate setting makes Mythcon an excellent venue for meeting people with common interests. You may see the full history and individual conference pages by visiting our Mythcon History page.

Registration here.



Call for Papers

Our theme is suggested by the ways in which Inklings scholarship has built on such good foundations. Papers exploring this theme might include, but are not limited to any of the following:

• The past, present, and future of mythopoeic scholarship and independent journals
• Academic, audience, and critical reception of mythopoeic literature
• The history of fandom, fan communities, and fan-fiction
• Adaptations of mythopoeic literature — film, music, gaming, and more
• The mythopoeic giants who inspired the Inklings — including Homer, Dante, Milton, George MacDonald, William Morris, G.K. Chesterton, and the most prolific of them all, Anon.
• Giants as literary figures in myth, fairy tale, and mythopoeic literature — Atlas, Goliath, the Norse Giants, Grendel, Gogmagog, Tolkien’s Trolls, the Giants and Ettins of Narnia.
     

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

‘Drama and music at Anthroposophy’

     
The Anthroposophical Society of New York City has a month of great programs for April, including these artistic evenings. That’s 138 West 15th Street in Manhattan. Admission: $10-$20 donation suggested. 7 p.m. start times. From the publicity:


Thursday the 12th
This War Is Not Inevitable
Lightweight Theatre presents a play

At the end of The Great War, sparked by bitter nationalist rivalries, Rudolf Steiner’s plan for a “Threefold Social Organism” aimed to make war impossible, limiting the power of the state by freeing cultural life and the economy as the state’s coequals. Two actors, Michael Burton and Ryan Kouroukis, playing a dozen parts between them, show how the rulers of the time received this idea. One hundred years later, could the time for Steiner’s approach be now?


Saturday the 14th
New York City Classical Guitar Society

An evening with members of the New York City Classical Guitar Society. Two seasoned performers enchant and entertain with a variety of pieces and styles.

Aryeh Eller studied guitar in Israel, earned a Bachelor of Music Degree from Brooklyn College and a Master of Music from Manhattan School of Music, and won the Andres Segovia Award for “Furthering the Spirit of the Guitar.”

Serguei Krissiouk studied guitar in Kiev, Ukraine, and music theory and composition in both England and Germany. His repertoire includes Renaissance, Baroque, Flamenco, and his own compositions.


Friday the 27th
Lecture: Heartfelt Thinking

Serguei Krissiouk returns to present “Heartfelt Thinking.”

How do we perceive? What is awareness? Through perception, our cognitive process constructs the world as we know it, but is it possible for us to perceive differently and to see what we usually do not notice? Is it possible to perceive the unknown? Is our thinking only a repetitive, analytic, and mechanical function? Or is it a living process warmed by the heart? As indicated by Rudolf Steiner, living thinking is a very important step in the process of development of higher cognitive abilities. Heartfelt thinking opens the doors of understanding.

Serguei Krissiouk is a student of life and a seeker of knowledge. He is an Anthroposophically trained physician, holistic counselor, homeopath, and musician.


Saturday the 28th
The Russian Art Song
Presented by Dorothy Emmerson

Traveling to Russia in the 1990s, Dorothy discovered the wonderful world of romansy. Her path to the Russian art song began when she lived and went to school in the late 1940s as a diplomat’s daughter. Accompanied by Elizabeth Rodgers, Dorothy brings to these soulful and intimate songs the clear and direct expression of her American musical comedy heritage.

Dorothy Emmerson is a professional actress-singer who has appeared on Broadway and in regional theater across the country. She was on the faculty of the Michael Chekhov Studio, and in Japan she recorded an album of classic Broadway show tunes for Columbia Records (which is available in the bookstore).
     

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

‘The Orphic Tradition and the Rosicrucian Manifestos’

     
The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library’s April installment of its lecture series will bring Angel Millar back to the lectern with Antonios Chrysovergis for a discussion of “The Orphic Tradition and the Rosicrucian Manifestos.”

This will be Thursday the 26th at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free. Photo ID is required to enter Masonic Hall. RSVP here. From the publicity:


An examination of the relationship between the Orphic and Rosicrucian traditions, and a philosophical interpretation of the Rosicrucian manifestos from the Orphic perspective.

Bro. Antonios Chrysovergis:

Antonios Chrysovergis

  • Master of Music, Music Education, Boston University, Boston, MA
  • Bachelor of Music, Music Performance, Berklee College of Music, Boston
  • National Diploma, Performing Arts, Chichester College, West Sussex, UK
  • Studies in Greek Philosophy at National Kapodistrian University of Athens
  • Studies in Kabbalah at Ben Gurion University
  • Member of Service City Geba Lodge No. 1009
  • Constitution Chapter No. 140, RAM
  • Rockville Centre, AASR


Publications:


  • The Spiritual Meaning of Music, From Ancient Greece to Today (2016, Dec. 4, Phalanx; Reprinted in Italy by generazionebio.com, 2017, Jan. 18).
  • The Sufi Mysticism of Music, Sound, and Vibration (2017, Feb. 25, Phalanx; Reprinted by BeHereNowNetwork.com, 2017, March 6).
  • Myth, Catharsis, and The Riddle of The Sphinx (2017, July 6, Phalanx)
  • In Search of Light: A Journey Through the Mysteries of the Great Gods (2017, Oct. 22, Phalanx)
  • Philosophy as the Art of Self-Initiation (2017, Nov. 11, Phalanx; Reprinted in Greece by JuniorsClub.gr, 2017, Nov. 17)


Bro. Angel Millar

Publications:

Angel Millar

  • Freemasonry: A History (Thunder Bay Press, 2005)
  • Freemasonry: Foundation of the Western Esoteric Tradition (Salamander and Sons, 2014)
  • The Crescent and the Compass (Numen Books, 2015; revised and expanded edition Torazzi Press 2017)
  • His writing has also been published in New Dawn magazine, Quest magazine, and The Philalethes, among others.

     

Monday, April 2, 2018

‘MRF is headed to Santa Fe’

     
The Masonic Restoration Foundation’s Ninth Annual Symposium will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico August 10 through 12. The host lodges will be Montezuma 1 and Cerrillos 19, which is the Observant lodge in the jurisdiction.


More info to come in a few days.
     

Sunday, April 1, 2018

‘This week at the Rosicrucian Center’

     
Great events coming this week at the Rosicrucian Cultural Center in New York City (2303 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard). From the publicity:


Pythagoras
and the Pythagorean School
Monday at 6:30 p.m.

Pythagoras is one of the most important philosophers in the history of the Western world. He deeply influenced astronomy, cosmology, mathematics, and philosophy—especially the Rosicrucian tradition.

Join Grand Master Julie Scott in this exploration of Pythagoras and the inspiring school he founded.


Rosicrucian Alchemy Museum
Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

Join Grand Master Julie Scott to hear the latest plans for the Rosicrucian Alchemy Museum, opening in 2020, which will be the largest Alchemy Museum in the world and the first in the United States.

The museum will offer an interactive introduction to the fascinating history of Alchemy (with its origins in Egypt), as well hands-on demonstrations involving the seven steps of the alchemical process, lab workstations for up to twelve students, and Alchemical meditation chambers.

Be a part of creating the Rosicrucian Alchemy Museum! Click here.


Mystical Music
Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

Join Grand Master Julie Scott in experiencing mystical music, including Rosicrucian music.

In this experiential workshop, we will explore music from prehistoric times to today, including the music of the Pythagoreans, Troubadours, Alchemists, and Rosicrucians from 1617 to today.
     

‘Deceased on this date two centuries ago’

     
William Preston by Samuel Drummond
William Preston died on this date in 1818. My friend Ben, the most prolific scholar in New Jersey Freemasonry, once described Preston to me as “the original Magpie Mason,” and for good reason. He is often remembered inaccurately as the author of Masonic rituals in the late 18th century, but in truth he was an anthologist of the rituals and lectures that are so influential to our degrees today. An editor and printer by profession, Preston was naturally inclined to gather and compile elements of the Craft degrees and other customs he witnessed into a holistic—if that’s the right word—body of ritualized lessons in the meaning of Masonry.

His book, Illustrations of Masonry, was reprinted an unusual number of times in the first years of its existence, with changes made along the way, and was the basis of Thomas Smith Webb’s own Freemason’s Monitor, which really was a key source in the development of rituals in the United States.


He was an amazing figure in and out of Freemasonry. If you undertake no other form of research into the Craft’s history, make a point of reading Preston, and reading about him. He is near and dear to my heart in large part because he was expelled from Freemasonry in 1777 by the Premier Grand Lodge, but he didn’t stop serving for the benefit of the fraternity and, a decade later, the Grand Lodge reversed itself and restored Preston to all the rights and benefits of Masonry.

And, of course, he is the namesake of the Prestonian Lecture, established posthumously with a bequest from Preston who, again, was raised to the Lodge on High on this date 200 years ago.

Read about William Preston at Masonic Dictionary here; at the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon here; and at Masonry Today here, for starters.

I know it’s a holy day, but raise a glass of whatever you’re enjoying to the memory of a Mason to whom we are greatly indebted.
     

‘Masonic secrets coming to Netflix’

     
This is not an April Fools joke.

Beginning in two weeks, Netflix will provide subscribers a look at Masonic secrets of recognition.


Courtesy Python (Monty) Pictures Ltd.

On April 15, the entirety of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and films Holy Grail and Life of Brian, plus other titles featuring live performances and oddities, will be available.

The How to Recognize a Mason” sketch comes from Season 2 of Flying Circus, in an episode titled The Buzz Aldrin Show.



You’re welcome.
     

Thursday, March 29, 2018

‘Testament of Solomon the King’

     
Many years ago, I had the good luck to speak from the lectern at a statewide Allied Masonic Degrees event. While the title of my presentation is long forgotten, I recall it discussed the narratives of several tales of King Solomon—one from an extra-biblical Jewish source, and the other from a Muslim source. (My primary source was a trio of books penned by a favorite professor from my university days.) It went over very well, partially because outside in the world a war was being fought between Israel and one of its perennial tormentors. The Jewish text inspired the book described in the publicity below from Ouroboros Press, a book I think you will want to read.


Testament of Solomon the King
Notes on King Solomon’s Magic Ring
Indexed Demonology,
Angelology, and Deities
Fine Book Arts:
72 pages with ornaments,
illustrations, and index
All editions are now being bound
and will begin shipping in April

Title Page
Solomon, son of David, is famous in many texts of Western Esotericism as being a master of magic and wisdom. His fame extends through Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

The Solomonic grimoire cycle is among the most cited and most used of magical texts, and the Testament of Solomon provides a background for one of Solomon’s potent acts: the building of his Temple. Dating from the first to third centuries A.D., this apocryphal text describes how King Solomon summoned, bound, and commanded a host of demons to build his Temple through the use of a Magic Ring. In addition to the original text, the book also includes an appendix on the lore surrounding Solomon’s Magic Ring and an index of more than 100 names of angels, demons, and gods mentioned in the text.

Ouroboros Press

Orders accepted here.
     

‘Esoteric Book Fair returns’

     

Esoteric Book Fair will be back in 2018! Details to come later in the spring, but note the dates September 15 and 16. It will take place at Greenwood Lodge 253 in Seattle (7910 Greenwood Ave. North).

It’s now a book fair and no longer called a conference, but there also will be “a literary colloquium on esoteric thought and practice.” Recommendations for guest speakers are being accepted. “The Texts & Traditions Colloquium offers the attendees an opportunity to experience presentations from contemporary authors, scholars and practitioners in the spirit of cultural discourse. Two days of talks allow for questions and conversations within a convivial context.” Send an email here. Read more here.
     

Tuesday, March 27, 2018

‘The professor’s reading list’

     
I meant to get to this yesterday, but let me send belated happy birthday wishes to the late Joseph Campbell, who would have turned 114 years old on March 26. To mark the anniversary, let me share the professor’s reading list from his days—38 years, actually—teaching at Sarah Lawrence College. This comes courtesy of Mr. David Kudler, publications director of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, and via goodreads.com, where Mr. Kudler is a librarian. Now read these books before Monday for a group discussion.


Ovid. Metamorphoses.

Frazer, Sir James George. The Golden Bough. One-volume ed. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922.

Durkheim, Emile. The Elementary Forms of Religious Life.

Levy-Bruhl, Lucien. How Natives Think. Trans. Lilian A. Clare. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Freud, Sigmund. The Interpretation of Dreams. Trans. James Strachey. New York: Basic Books.

Three Contributions to a Theory of Sex. Trans. A. A. Brill. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1962.

Totem and Taboo. Trans. A. A. Brill. New York: Vintage Books, 1950.

Moses and Monotheism. Trans. Katherine A. Jones. New York: Vintage Books, 1967.

Jung, Carl Gustav. Integration of the Personality. Trans. Stanley M. Dell. New York and Toronto: Farrar & Rinehart, 1939.

The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life. Translated and explained by Richard Wilhelm, with a foreword and commentary by C. G. Jung. Revised and augmented edition. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1962.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead, or, The After-Death Experiences on the Bardo Plane: according to Lama Kazi Dawa-Samdup’s English renderings. Compiled and edited by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. New York: Oxford University Press, 1960.

Coomaraswamy, Ananda. The Dance of Ṥiva. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent and Co., 1924.

The Bhagavad Gita. Trans. W. J. Johnson. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Okakuru, Kazuko. The Book of Tea. Tokyo & New York: Kodansha International.
Watts, Alan. The Way of Zen. New York: Pantheon, 1957.

Herrigel, Eugen. Zen in the Art of Archery. Trans. R. F. C. Hull. New York: Vintage Books.

Lao-Tze, The Canon of Reason and Virtue (Tao Te Ching). Chinese and English. Trans. D. T. Suzuki and Paul Carus. La Salle, Ill: Open Court, 1974.

Sun-Tzu, The Art of War. Trans. Thomas Cleary. Boston: Shambhala.

ConfuciusAnalects. Trans. and annotated by Arthur Waley. Reprint of 1938 Allen & Unwin edition. London and Boston: Unwin Hyman.

The Great Digest and Unwobbling Pivot. Trans. Ezra Pound. New York, 1951.

Chiera, EdwardThey Wrote in Clay; The Babylonian Tablets Speak Today. Ed. George G. Cameron. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1938.

Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm. The Birth of Tragedy. Trans. Walter Kaufmann. New York: Vintage Books, 1967.

Bible, New Testament, Book of Luke.

Aeschylus. Prometheus Bound. Trans. James Scully and C. J. Herrington. New York: Oxford University Press, 1975.

Euripides. Hyppolytus. Trans. Richard Lattimore, In Four Tragedies. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1955.

Alcestis. Trans. William Arrowsmith. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974.

Sophocles. Oediups Tyrannus. Trans. and ed. by Luci Berkowitz & Theodore F. Brunner. A Norton Critical Edition. New York, Norton, 1970.

Plato. Phaedrus. Trans. R. Hackforth, in The Collected Dialogues of Plato. Ed. Edith Hamilton & Huntington Cairns. Bollingen Series LCXXI. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1961.

Symposium. Trans. Michael Joyce, in The Collected Dialogues of Plato.

The Koran. Trans. N. J. Dawood. 3rd rev. ed. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1968.

The Portable Arabian Nights. Ed. Joseph Campbell. New York: Viking Books, 1951.

Beowulf. Trans. Lucien Dean Pearson. Ed. Rowland L. Collins. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1965.

Prose Edda of Snorri Sturluson. Trans. Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1916. Also, trans. Jean I. Young. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964.

Poetic Edda. Trans. Henry Adams Bellows. New York: The American-Scandinavian Foundation, 1926. Also, trans. Lee N. Hollander. 2nd ed., rev. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1962.

The Mabinogion. Trans. Jeffrey Gantz. New York: Dorset Press, 1985.

Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. Grimm’s Fairy Tales. New York: Pantheon, 1944.

Adams, Henry. Mont Saint Michel and Chartres. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1932. Also New York: New American Library, 1961.

Boas, Franz. Race, Language, and Culture. New York: The Macmillan Co., 1940.

Mann, Thomas. “Tonio Krøger,” trans. H. T. Lowe-Porter, in Stories of Three Decades. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1936.

Thompson, Stith. Tales of the North American Indians. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1929.

Opler, Morris Edward. Myths and Tales of the Jicarilla Apache Indians. New York: The American Folklore Society, 1938.

Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1934.

Stimson, John. E. Legends of Maui and Tahaki. Honolulu: The Museum, 1934.

Melville, Herman. Typee. The Library of America. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, distrib. by the Viking Press, 1982.

Frobenius, Leo, and Douglas C. Fox. African Genesis. New York: B. Blom, 1966.

Radin, Paul. African Folktales and Sculpture. 2nd ed., rev., with additions. New York: Pantheon Books, 1964.

Deren, Maya. Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti. New Paltz, NY: McPherson, 1983.
     

Sunday, March 25, 2018

‘Islamo-Nazi barbaric subhuman murders Freemason in France’

     
UPDATE: 2023—Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame would have reached his fiftieth birthday this year. To commemorate his life, La Poste, France’s postal service, issued a stamp with his likeness in March. He was a Freemason with the Grand Lodge of France.

UPDATE: March 28—France honored Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame with a daylong tribute that included a eulogy by President Emmanuel Macron, who also awarded the murdered hero the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award.



Courtesy Ministry of the Interior, France
Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, Freemason.

The Gendarme officer slain during the string of terrorist attacks in France on Friday was a Brother Freemason, according to a statement released last night by the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of France.



It is with great emotion that the Brothers of the Grand Lodge of France learned today of the death of their Brother, Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, member of the Respectable Lodge Jerome Bonaparte in the Orient of Rueil-Nanterre.

They join forces to pay homage to this “hero-driven” man, who has demonstrated a sense of duty and exemplary sacrifice. This act of bravery and its unfailing patriotism saved lives and reminded us that we must never bow to barbarism. All the thoughts of our Brothers accompany his family in this moment of great sadness.

The Grand Lodge of France continues to greet representatives of the forces of the Order of the Republic who fight all forms of ostracism, xenophobia, and terrorism—in a word, to all forms of rejection of others, our brothers and sisters in humanity.

Philippe Charuel, Grand Master
Grand Lodge of France


Lt. Col. Beltrame, age 44, was the last of four to lose their lives Friday during a terrorist spree that left 16 others injured, two seriously. He placed himself in danger’s way by volunteering to be held hostage in an attack on a Super U supermarket so that a woman could be freed. He died later of gunshot and stab wounds.

“Beltrame was a highly-regarded member of the Gendarmerie Nationale, and was described by France’s president on Saturday as someone who ‘fought until the end and never gave up,’” the BBC reports today. “He graduated in 1999 from France’s leading military academy in Saint Cyr, and, in 2003, became one of just a handful of candidates chosen to join the gendarmerie’s elite security response group GSIGN.” He also had special training in combating terrorist attacks in supermarkets, having taken part in a simulated such attack in December.

The violence began Friday morning when the Islamo-Nazi barbarian carjacked a vehicle, killing one person. He then shot at a group of policemen, wounding one. In his attack on the Super U, the animal murdered one customer and one employee, and then held others hostage. Most of the hostages were freed, except for one woman who was held as a human shield, according to news accounts.

Beltrame offered to take the place of the female hostage. He surreptitiously used his cell phone to allow police to monitor events inside the market. Upon hearing shots fired, police charged into the store, killing the barbarian, and discovering Beltrame gravely wounded.

Beltrame is to receive a national honor for his heroics, according to The Washington Post.

When Islamo-Nazi scum strike in France, they seem to find Freemasons to kill. Three years ago, in the Charlie Hebdo attack, two Masons of the Grand Orient of France were murdered.
     

Friday, March 23, 2018

‘Behind the Scenes of the Secret Triangle’

     
Courtesy Grand Lodge of France

It is without hesitation, secret reservation, etc., etc. and with free will that I admit to knowing nothing of graphic novels, comics, and other illustrated media. Nothing against them; it’s just that other things come first. Anyway, there is in France a series named “The Secret Triangle” that involves Freemasons at the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of France. (The GLdF is the French Masonic jurisdiction that is regular, but is not recognized by grand lodges in the United States, because we recognize the National Grand Lodge of France, which was created by the United Grand Lodge of England a little more than a century ago. If you’re keeping score.)

The Grand Lodge of France will present an exhibition on “The Secret Triangle” comic in its museum next month. Running from April 16 through June 22, “Behind the Scenes of the Secret Triangle” will “summarize this saga with the presentation of boards, accompanied by explanatory texts to share the general context of the series,” says the GLdF publicity. “Cult objects that inspired the author will also be placed in the windows of the museum atrium.”

More from the publicity:

The famous esoteric series “The Secret Triangle” sold more than 2 million copies, being a precursor to The DaVinci Code as an adult comic strip bridging science and the occult. Author Didier Convard has permitted his seven chapters of the story to be the basis of this museum exhibit.

There will be three events in connection with the exhibit:

Saturday, April 21 at 1 p.m. – In the presence of the author, the museum will host a public conference to discuss “The Legend of the First Lodge” inside the Pierre Brossolette Temple of the Grand Lodge.

Wednesday, May 16 at 3 p.m. – To Be Announced.

Thursday, June 21 at 4 p.m. – Music Festival.

Register for these events here. More on the exhibit here.

Courtesy GLdF
Didier Convard began as a draftsman. At Glénat, he succeeds François Bourgeon on Brunelle and Colin. In 2000, he published the first volume of the famous esoteric series composed of seven chapters, “The Secret Triangle,” drawn by several authors. He continues the exploration of “The Secret Triangle” with “INRI,” “Hertz,” and finally “The Guardians of the Blood,” three series with 1 million readers again. In 2016, he released a new hit series from the world of “The Secret Triangle”—Lacrima Christi.

Courtesy GLdF

Didier Convard sweeps the last 2000 years of our history, starting from a mad and reckless hypothesis: The Church hides a terrible secret since the arrival of Jesus on earth, leaving mankind in ignorance and deception. The story of the first volume of “The Secret Triangle” thus draws directly on the sources of metaphysics and religion. It features two researchers, Didier Mosèle and Francis Marlane, who, initiated together in Freemasonry, have been working for nine years on the mysteries of the Dead Sea Scrolls, through the restoration of one of the scrolls that deals with the origins of Christianity.

This quest for meaning is coupled with a real investigation, because Didier sets out in search of his missing friend, who, through a recorded tape, confesses that he has seen the Light, but that he will not deliver the truth, in order to preserve it.