‘You can’t spell MASONS without SONS’

     

In the trestleboard from New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 this month is an interesting item concerning the Master Mason Degree and the Lewis. Submitted to the publication by one of its Past Masters:

There Is a Ritual for Everything

Believe it or not, there is diversity in Masonic rituals. What is worked in New Jersey does not match perfectly with rituals in neighboring jurisdictions, something you will notice instantly when visiting a lodge in Pennsylvania, and pretty quickly in a New York lodge. In addition to the official published rituals, lectures, and charges, there are other pieces that sometimes can be added to your degrees and meetings.

Perhaps you have joined a Chain of Union after lodge is closed. Maybe you have been lucky to hear the “Canadian Charge” (it goes by several names) after a Master Mason Degree. Some European forms of Freemasonry even have ceremonies in lodge for weddings and baptisms. That’s a bit much for my tastes, but here is an item I found while researching for a paper I’m writing. In the pages of the April 1915 issue of The Builder, the magazine published by the National Masonic Research Society, is an oration authored by brethren of Lyons Lodge 93 in Iowa. It is a charge a brother delivered to his son upon being raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason.

My son: Tonight you become a member of an order—not only of friends, but of brothers. In your life, as you master its teachings and experience its good influences, you will have a great mental growth.Masonry fosters only the right doers; its principles, its teachings, its mysteries all tend to the elevation of man.

Masonry gives maturity to the good character, and character may be likened to a universal bank. The deposits that are made in the bank of character bear an eternal interest. No thief can steal them; no panic can dissipate them. The life of him who is pure, just, honorable and noble, finds within the tenets of Masonry loyal protection “from the evil intentions of our enemies.”

We believe that you will be true and faithful to the teachings of Masonry, and we trust that you will so live that your words and your actions will be such as to brighten the memory of all the good men who have stood where you and I now stand—amid friends and amid brothers.You are the son of a Mason who reveres Masonry’s teachings and stands uncovered in the presence of its sublime mysteries.

If you will have your conduct in harmony with the principles of Masonry, you will aid my remaining years to pass in peaceful satisfaction.You are not only my son, but you are also my brother. Believing that you will always prove yourself as being worthy of having been this evening “raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason,” I hope to be steadied by your arm as my son and as my brother when I depart on the journey whose goal is the realm of silence.

Even the All-Seeing Eye has a tear after that. Please feel free to keep this handy if you or a lodge brother ever comes to enjoy the honor of seeing a son become a brother. Happy Fathers Day!

     

     

‘My Dinner with Andre’

   

It has been decades since I last watched it, so there’s a lot more to get out of it now. Try it.

Louis Malle seats you in a booth at Cafe des Artistes with Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory for quail entrees and conversation. The former, the attentive ear, is a Square of dependable, resolute ninety degrees. The latter, the instructive tongue, is the Compasses extended to extremity.

At length, Gregory tells of his extrinsic doings during bizarre travels about the face of the earth in recent years. A monk here. Experimental theater there. Observations on a world in waking sleep. There even is talk of a chamber of reflection in the woods followed by a ritual raising. Wally Shawn counters with rhapsody for simple domesticity: a coffee, a book, quietude with his girlfriend.

They would appear to be irreconcilable.

The film has the feel of improvisation, but in fact it was scripted meticulously. (Best Screenplay of 1982, BSFC.) The photography is scientific—you may catch yourself absentmindedly fiddling with the white tablecloth while listening. The restaurant actually was a set constructed inside a defunct hotel in Richmond, Virginia, but the orbiting waiter (Jean Lenauer), cadaverous and imposing, is a wry detail viewers of a certain age will smile at.

Oh, and music by Satie!

One year after the film’s release, critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, conversationalists themselves, asked the actors what in retrospect, if anything, they would do differently. We’d trade places, they answered.

     

‘Amity publishes The Acacia Book’

     

Courtesy Amity

The brethren behind Amity, the mobile app that helps sojourning Freemasons wherever dispersed about the face of the earth find regular lodges—and helps lodges identify worthy and well qualified Masons—have published The Acacia Book.

Think of it as the successor to Pantagraph’s old school (and typically out of date) List of Lodges Masonic. They say bulk shipments to grand lodges are imminent and copies for individual sales will be made available.

“New features” are promised too. We’ll find out soon.

There’s a lot to Amity. Plenty to read: Short Talk Bulletins and more too.

     

‘Those are different Veiled Prophets!’

     

Princeton University

Ellie Kemper

Amid the flotsam of “news media” this morning is the non-story of how a fairly obscure and innocuous actress had been an honoree at a debutante ball more than twenty years ago.

The organization that hosted the ball is named the Veiled Prophets. For reasons not explained in any of the “reportage” that I’ve seen so far, the group is being called racist. In the depravity of social media, it is likened to the Klan, etc.

Search Ellie Kemper, and you’ll see what I mean.

Whatever these Veiled Prophets are, they are not associated with Freemasonry’s lovable Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm, also known as the Grotto. This other group is local to St. Louis and predates our Grotto by a decade or more.

     

‘Don’t be like Joey Ramone!’

     

I never imagined these words could pass my lips, but, for this one time, in this unique context, never to be repeated:

Don’t be like Joey Ramone!

Instead, join me in my travels this month to the research lodges in the general area.

New Jersey Lodge

of Masonic Research

and Education 1786

Saturday, June 12

9:30 a.m.

The lodge will allow me some time to speak from the lectern about the Masonic Society. Real research papers are on the agenda also. Then, we will retire downstairs to watch the first half of Terra Masonica. Then, we’ll enjoy a picnic feast to send us into the summer refreshment.

At Hightstown-Apollo Lodge 41 (535 North Main Street) in Hightstown.

Pennsylvania

Lodge of Research

Saturday, June 26

10 a.m.

Installation of Officers: My old friend, Senior Warden Yasser Al-Khatib, to be seated in the Solomonic chair. Other old friend Moises Gomez to present his paper “Freemasonry in Cuba.”

At Fritz Lodge 308 (1801 Fayette Street) in Conshohocken.

The American

Lodge of Research

Tuesday, June 29

8 p.m.

Finally something close to home: I think this will be The ALR’s first meeting in several years, and it’ll be the Installation of Officers. I’m told a new leadership team is being chosen to get this historic institution back to labor.

Inside the Colonial Room of palatial Masonic Hall in beleaguered New York City.

And, the following night, live from Maryland Lodge of Masonic Research 239:

Click to enlarge.

     

‘CoinWeek tries again for Masonic angle’

     

Courtesy PCGS

Obverse and reverse of a 1950 Franklin half dollar (proof, deep cameo).

CoinWeek, an online periodical for numismatists, published a story days ago headlined “History Hidden in Plain Sight: Freemasons on United States Coins.”

The reporting this time is more detailed, accurate, and useful than the previous story that purported to discuss Masonry. I see Bro. Todd Creason in an acknowledgment at the bottom.

     

‘A St. John’s Lodge Bible’

     

So you know about the famous Bible owned by St. John’s Lodge 1 in Manhattan—that employed for George Washington’s first presidential inauguration in 1789–but does anyone know about the Bible associated with St. John’s Lodge 1 in New Jersey?

That’s an inquiry, not a rhetorical question, into the existence of a 500-year-old Matthew’s Bible.

What is a Matthew’s Bible? Click here.

In my reading about rare and historic Bibles owned by Masonic lodges, I came across this item in the book Masonic Bibles by Charles S. Plumb from 1936:

Click to enlarge.

I suspect that mention of 1519 is a typo that should read 1539.

This lodge is still at labor, although it moved to the suburbs long ago. I emailed the principal officers and others four weeks ago to ask if this unique VSL is in use today, but it doesn’t look like I’ll get the courtesy of a reply. It’s possible this is the first they’re hearing about it. If anyone knows anything, please leave word in the comments section. (Make mention if you don’t want me to publish the comment.)

     

‘New Grotto in Jersey’

     

Courtesy Simba Grotto

Congratulations are in order to Monarch Mark, Chief Justice Donald, and Master of Ceremonies Craig—Esteemed Prophets all—on becoming the principal officers of the newly warranted Simba Grotto!

The Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm has been absent from New Jersey for many years. Until a few decades ago, there had been one in Secaucus (Yalomed, I think) and one somewhere in south Jersey. A hundred or so years ago, there was Zem Zem in Jersey City, and New-Ark in...Newark. Starting in about a month, Simba will fill the air with the boos and hollers of Sympathy and Good Fellowship in Cherry Hill.

Some kid stopped me on 23rd Street a couple of months ago and asked why I’m so interested in the MOVPER. Just when I was about to say “Snap it, pal!” I caught myself and instead decided to answer him. I said because it is and it does what it says it is and does. Also, the Freemasons who take lodge and chapter seriously can appreciate having a Grotto for frivolous refreshment. Now get away from me, kid. Ya bother me.

     

‘Our first meeting back’

     

Publicity Lodge 1000 met tonight for the first time since March of last year. A short one, just for our elections.

If you’re looking for us, we’re at Tappo on 24th.

     

‘Book launch: Freemasonry on the Frontier’

     

At last, the fruits of the research that went into the Freemasonry on the Frontier conference will be published soon.

It’s remarkable because the conference never took place. Organized by Quatuor Coronati 2076 and announced in September 2019 for a weekend at the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts the following September, it was cancelled about midway due to the pandemic.

But it seems much (all?) of the papers that would have been presented are to be available to us in book form. 

A video book launch is planned for next week, on Friday the 28th.

     

‘BBC video today is latest publicity win’

     

A three-minute video from the BBC today is the latest in a number of recent positive portrayals of Freemasonry in British news media following the release of the United Grand Lodge of England’s 2020 Annual Report.

I know what you’re thinking: “British journalism, Eddie—best in the world.”

Well, have a look. Click here for “Freemasons: Young people ‘on waiting lists’ to join notoriously secretive society.”

And now, Tatler is in on it!

     

‘Pennsylvania Lodge of Research’

     

Pennsylvania Lodge of Research will meet next month in Conshohocken for its Installation of Officers and to hear Moises present a paper. From the publicity:

Pennsylvania Lodge

of Research

Saturday, June 26

10 a.m. to noon

Fritz Lodge 308

RSVP (a must) here

Agenda items to include:

• Installation of Officers, including the Brother Senior Warden, Yasser Al-Khatib, being seated in the Solomonic chair.
• Moises Gomez, the Right Worshipful Grand Historian of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, to present “Freemasonry in Cuba.”
• Lodge business and lunch.

1801 Fayette Street in Conshohocken.

     

‘A look at the Philly Temple’

     

The executive director of the Masonic Temple in Philadelphia will be available Saturday for an online talk on what it’s like to manage one of the magnificent Masonic landmarks in the United States. From the publicity:

An Executive Director’s

Look at the Masonic Temple

Saturday, May 15

3:30 to 4:30 p.m.

Reserve here

Hear from Masonic Library and Museum Executive Director Mike McKee on what it’s like to lead the Temple. He will take you through the daily maintenance operation and event management. Both will show and hold true to Masonic principles.

Michael McKee

Since 2019, Bro. Michael D. McKee, of Jerusalem Lodge 506, has overseen operations for the Masonic Library and Museum of Pennsylvania as its executive director. Previously he was director of compliance and risk management for the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. He has a B.S. in business administration from Peirce College and an Executive M.B.A. from Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business.

     

‘Three held in thwarted lodge attack plot’

     

French authorities arrested six today, having prevented their alleged plot to attack a Masonic lodge in eastern Moselle, according to news reports and a statement from the Grand Lodge of France.

Three of the suspects were held and were referred to anti-terrorism prosecutors for possible indictments, said the Associated Press, which cited French media in labeling the suspects “neo-nazis.”

The trio, two men and a woman, already were being surveilled by police, said the AP, attributing the information to Le Monde.

Grand Master Pierre-Marie Adam released this statement via social media:

Click to enlarge.

Adam said he is amazed by the news of the alleged plot, and he praised law enforcement for their speed and efficiency.

The Grand Lodge of France is not the French jurisdiction that enjoys fraternal relations with grand lodges in the United States. (Instead it is the National Grand Lodge of France, established 1913, that has ties to the Anglo-American Masonic world.)

Read L’Est Républicain here.

     

‘The Order of the Phantom Knighthood’

     

Why can’t the makers of crappy movies leave us alone?

Incidentally, this is the kind of nonsense inspired by silly neo-templarism.

     

‘Brethren and allies in the Masonic war’

     

Allies Day, May 1917 is an oil-on-canvas by American artist Childe Hassam from 1917. It is said to be the most famous of his ‘flag paintings,’ and it captures a scene on Fifth Avenue, not far from his studio.

If you remember the game show Concentration, you may appreciate pattern recognition skills. This edition of The Magpie Mason is inspired by a match made of mind in me while reading a book of Grand Lodge proceedings and recollecting the painting above.

On this date, and at this very hour, in 1917, the Grand Lodge of New York opened its 136th Annual Communication inside the Grand Lodge Room of Masonic Hall, off Fifth Avenue.

Among the orators that day were Bro. Theodore Roosevelt, former President of the United States—whose remarks deserve their own Magpie post—and a Brother Mason visiting from Canada.

Less than a month earlier, the U.S. Congress declared war on Germany, bringing America into what we today term World War I.

The Canadian visitor was The Hon. William Renwick Ridell, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ontario. With his nation being integral to the British Empire, and having deployed an enormous number of troops—disproportionate to its population, in fact—to France and Flanders, Ridell could not have neglected to discuss the war that day. The comforting notion of Freemasonry transcending nationalities to cement a Brotherhood of Man has its practical limits, you understand.

I can’t reproduce Ridell’s complete remarks here, so I’ll zero in on what prompted my memory of Childe Hassam’s Impressionist painting Allies Day, May 1917.

Most Worshipful Sir and Brother Masons: I was prepared this afternoon to make a set speech. I prepared myself with manuscript and notes. I threw them away after the reception which I have received from you, my brethren of the United States, and I shall speak to you as a brother—as an American, if you will, because I was born on the Continent of North America, and a Briton as I am to my fingertips, and Canadian to the last drop of my blood, I claim the privilege and the heritage which Americans have wrought out for Canadians and Americans and Britons together. ...

But our Masonry as we know it, our Speculative Masonry as we know it, the Ancient Free and Accepted Masonry as we know it—it was organized and placed in systematic form and made eternal by the work of the English Masons who had drunk deep of that which characterized the Masons and that which characterized the Englishmen, that which characterizes all those who have received even a part of their institutions from old England: liberty.

Let it not be forgotten, Oh you Americans, proud of your own United States and of your Declaration of Independence—let it not be forgotten that the Declaration of Independence is the last outcome of the long struggle for liberty which took place in the little island from the time of the Dark Ages—because the English could never willingly bow the knee to the tyrant, and he was the only man throughout the ages—and I am not even excepting my own ancestors of Scotland—the only man throughout the ages who never yet bowed the knee to a tyrant. That freedom which characterizes English Freemasonry characterizes our own Freemasonry. When we are told that when English Freemasonry was introduced into France and Germany that which characterized it most was its brotherhood, we begin to appreciate the significance of our brotherhood. It was Masonry’s brotherhood which attracted the attention of the Frenchmen and which attracted the attention of the Germans, and it was its brotherhood which was the great theme throughout all these lodges which had their origin, which spring out from the great mother across the sea. ...

This is a Masonic war. This is a war for that which Masonry has always stood, for which Masons stand, for which Masonry must always stand, unless it denieth itself and sells itself for a mess of pottage. This is a war for the brotherhood of the world. This is a war for that which is the finest characterization in public life of the democracy of the Masonic life, of the brotherhood of the Masonic Lodge: democracy. ...

Masonry is democracy; true Masonry is democracy. There are no grades in Masonry. The degrees in Masonry are open to all honest men alike. Those there are indeed in authority over us, but those are elected by the free vote of their fellow Masons. There is no King or Kaiser or Czar born to govern and born to rule. Masonry is in itself democracy, and it is for that reason that this war should appeal to all Masons. ...

Coming down Fifth Avenue today I saw a sight that made my heart leap for joy: The Stars and Stripes, Old Glory, hanging in the center, flanked by the Tricolor of France and the blood red banner of England. That is the place for the American flag. It is the place for the American flag to be in advance of both those flags and between them. There was the American Revolution, sir, which was the origin and spur for the French Revolution, and it was that thin line of farmers which stood embattled on Bunker Hill, owing little to the recruiting officers and none to the drill sergeants, but everything to their own strong hearts and determination to be free, it was that thin line of farmers standing on Bunker Hill which forced democracy, which was nearly dead in England, which forced democracy to the front. ... If the United States spends their last man and last dollar, it is their intention that the very soul of Masonry shall not die from off the face of the earth.

Childe Hassam (1859-1935) studied in Paris in the late 1880s. While he is considered an Impressionist, and does employ those techniques here, he also uses an architectural precision that you can see in the many clear lines that shape the pieces in the composition.

It was the June 29, 2020 post of the great Ephemeral New York blog that introduced me to this artist and this painting. I find this image so gripping I remembered it immediately upon reading Ridell’s description of the scene.

     

‘The ALR and YOU, Part II’

     

I’ll close out a pretty inactive month of April with the encouraging news coming from The American Lodge of Research.

Twenty-four hours ago, a Zoom meeting was co-hosted by Grand Master Bill Sardone, Junior Grand Warden Oscar Alleyne, and ALR WM Henry Abel to announce plans and to listen to ideas concerning returning the lodge to its urgent and prestigious labors.

1. There will be elections and installations of officers on June 29 at Masonic Hall. If I understand correctly, there will be an infusion of new leadership. I do not know any names of who may become involved in moving the lodge forward. Henry did state he doesn’t want to be Master for the rest of his life, and he will step aside.

2. Improving communications with the lodge’s brethren and with the fraternity at large is a vital goal. For years there has been no website, no social media presence, and, to my knowledge, contact only with a limited number of ALR members. Fair enough, perhaps, since there haven’t been any meetings either.

3. It wasn’t defined in detail, but there is to be a kind of working relationship with the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library. As you know, the library has maintained a longstanding monthly schedule of popular lectures. There is a lot of logic in the two institutions collaborating on projects of mutual interest. If I’m not mistaken, the library and the lodge were created by many of the same Masons way back when, so we’re close family.

Surely other things to do will arise as progress develops. For my part, I volunteered to assist with reigniting The ALR’s social media activity. (I do that for other lodges and Masonic groups, including New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education’s Faceypage.) I also made myself available to the fledgling officer line. I had served in the Deacons’ chairs for a total of three years long ago, and with 19 years of experience in New Jersey’s research lodge, and as president of the Masonic Society, maybe I can help there. I definitely would want to discuss making a few logistical changes to The ALR.

We’ll know more in two months.

     

‘Raise your glass to Horus Lodge’

     

With all the gods of ancient Egypt that were connected to the brewing and drinking of beer, it’s unexpected how the Masonic Craft Beer Society would inherit Horus Lodge, but that’s how it shook out.

Named, warranted, and consecrated in 1906, the lodge met in various London neighborhoods before settling into Great Queen Street in 1942, according to Lane’s Masonic Records. Numbered 3155, the lodge is among the founders of the Metropolitan Grand Lodge and also is a Hall Stone Lodge.

The MCBS announced yesterday that Horus 3155 is now the official lodge of the society. Two meetings a year, on third Saturdays in May (Installation) and October (Regular Meeting), at Freemason’s Hall.

Membership is open to brethren from outside the United Grand Lodge of England (providing, of course, your grand lodge is in amity). Dues and fees, including dining fees, are stated here.

Every meeting shall feature the wares of a different craft brewery. Maybe they’ll be able to arrange something with these guys in California.

Courtesy MCBS

Best wishes to you, brethren! Vivat!

     

‘Our last lunar lodge’

     

Courtesy Steven A. Rubin

Under the Grand Lodge of New York, there have been several lodges named for Revolutionary martyr Joseph Warren; up the Hudson in Rhinebeck, there is at labor Warren Lodge 32–our last “moon lodge.”

Of course human progress has obviated all need for lodges to await the light of the Full Moon to convene, which makes Warren 32 a portal to our past, replete with lantern lighting for the lodge Opening.

As Rhinebeck is a hundred miles from Masonic Hall, I haven’t visited yet. Still, I bet a moon lodge today is not mere quaintness, nor stubbornness, and certainly not an affectation. I have been reading a lot of New York Masonic history lately, to the exclusion of everything else, and it’s surprising how many appealing traditions have been lost to changing times or changing rules. Meeting on or about the night of the Full Moon is a tradition that defies orderly convenience in favor of a thoughtful nod to the spheres in the heavens. (Does your smartphone’s calendar app report the lunar cycles?) To be accurate, Warren meets on the Thursday preceding the Full Moon.

Courtesy Steven A. Rubin

In his very enjoyable newsletter The Craftsman, Grand Treasurer Steven Rubin has been championing Warren Lodge, and he reports today that those of us who do not have the good luck to be at labor there still can support our last moon lodge another way. Warren offers a “Midnight Rider Subscription.” At $32 annually, a Mason receives the lodge newsletter, a handsome certificate, and, of course, a lapel pin that will identify you as a Mason who knows his waxing gibbous from his waning crescent.

Visit Warren’s Faceypage to read more and for contact info.

     

‘Philly temple on TV’

     

Courtesy Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania

I’ll be sure to update this when the broadcast date is known but, in the meantime, it has been announced that WHYY has been recording in the Masonic Temple on North Broad Street for an upcoming episode of Movers & Makers.

The program consists of feature stories about local cultural places and events, and the people behind them.

Courtesy Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania