‘King Hiram’s Lodge AF&AM

     

To continue from last Tuesday (see post below) about a quick trip to Massachusetts in May, my stay on Cape Cod coincided with the monthly meeting of King Hiram’s Lodge.

As I recall, this was the brethren’s second lodge meeting since the end of COVIDmania. It was obvious they were very grateful for their Masonic labors!

King Hiram’s is a historic lodge. When you’re a Freemason in the eastern United States, it is easy to take for granted the existence of lodges set to labor during the eighteenth century, that even may be older than the country itself, and which have included historic personages in their memberships over the passing centuries. This is one such Craft lodge.

Warranted by Paul Revere in 1795, when he was grand master of the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, King Hiram’s Lodge has counted among its members a number of town fathers, a proud tradition that continues today.

While greeting and meeting everybody present that night of Monday, May 3, I shook hands with several local VIPs. The proprietor of one of the historic, renowned restaurants, for one. After the meeting, a few of us grabbed a few drinks around the corner; one of those brethren is Provincetown’s new Town Crier.

This was the lodge’s 2,184th Communication. In its 226 years, King Hiram’s Lodge has not missed a meeting. During the War of 1812, one of His Majesty’s warships blasted the hell out of this tiny town. A ship’s chaplain was sent ashore to enquire about a surrender. During the discussion, it was ascertained that the ship’s captain and others were on the Square. They were invited to attend the lodge’s meeting, and they did so. Even through the COVID-19 scare, a nucleus of devotees kept the Great Lights beaming (and the bills paid).

On the agenda this evening was the reception of RW John Allen Eldredge, the District Deputy Grand Master, who was making his Fraternal Visit. (Other grand lodges term these events Official Visits, or something similarly institutional. Kudos to Massachusetts for this choice of words.) As a fraternal visitor myself, I was invited to join the DDGM’s procession into the lodge room. I tried to talk my way out of it, not knowing if it involved any floor work unfamiliar to me, but the hospitality is strong at King Hiram’s, so in I went, getting a taste of the grand rank life. My rationalization was “Well, why not? I am President of the Masonic Society after all!” Massachusetts also has District Deputy Grand Secretaries and Marshals.

It was a very enjoyable experience. I’m surprised I didn’t snap more photos, but here are the best of what I have:

Bro. Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States, used this trowel in the cornerstone ceremony of the Pilgrim Memorial Monument, August 20, 1907.

The Pilgrim Memorial Monument.

It must be remembered that Paul Revere was a silversmith. He crafted this set of officer jewels for King Hiram’s Lodge. The set is one of eleven known to exist.

Edward Horseman (sometimes Horsman) (1775-1819) made these aprons in 1814. 

I have been hoping to have an apron almost exactly like this made for me for my travels.

Tracing board.

Altar Bible.

Murals in the lodge room.

As I get older, I appreciate these lodge officer portraits more.

Provincetown was my family’s vacation spot during the 1960s and ’70s. I was there in May to scatter my mother’s ashes. I really doubt I’ll ever get there again.

     

‘Fascinating Masonic fact!’

     

While there may be a lot to say for Masonic online activities, there is no substitute for getting out and visiting in person. In May, I had reason to travel to Cape Cod, and while there, I enjoyed attending both King Hiram’s Lodge and DeWitt Clinton Lodge. Don’t ask why I still haven’t posted photos after two months, but those will come in the next editions of The Magpie Mason. Today’s Magpie post imparts a fascinating Masonic fact:

The Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, on Boston Common, is just a few hundred feet from L.J. Peretti!

Located at 186 Tremont Street, this headquarters of the hemisphere’s eldest grand lodge actually is its third location, dating to 1898. L.J. Peretti, nexus of avid enthusiasts of tobacco, opened for business in 1870.

I think we can see why our brother Masons settled on that neighborhood!

But now, some photos:

A tobacco scale featuring pillars, an arch, and a keystone!

Various Dunhill straight shapes.

My purchase consisted of an ounce of each of various English, Balkan, Oriental, and Cavendish mixtures. The quality is superb! If you’re agonizing over trying to get a sample of any Esoterica mixture, do yourself a favor and just order L.J. Peretti house blends. They’ll ship to you. I’ve been puffing happily since I left the store. 

I was on my way home, and it was almost past visiting hours at the grand lodge, so I didn’t knock on the door. Nor did I have time to get to Leavitt and Peirce in Cambridge. Definitely next time.

     

‘The Mosaic Pavement and the Chessboard’

    

Here’s a lecture topic that’s near and dear to my heart: “The Mosaic Pavement and the Chessboard: A Lesson for Life.” It’s not that I know what W. Bro. Massoud El Baini is going to say, but we chess players have to stick together. (Chess players are a little loco in the cabeza. And chess-playing Freemasons? God help us.)

But on Saturday at 11:30 a.m. (New York time), something called the Masonic Circle will open a meeting online. Thirty minutes later, Bro. Massoud will begin his presentation. From the publicity:

The mosaic pavement and the chessboard have a lot in common. They teach life lessons that go beyond time, space, and matter as they are universal in their content. They remain valid in all times and in all societies. As a professional chess player since 1997, W. Bro. Massoud El Baini will take us on a journey on the chessboard to meet the pieces. During 40 minutes, we will live their adventures and learn the messages they convey to us, although in complete silence.

With all our different backgrounds, traditions, and languages, we will live the chess motto, “We are one people,” same as we do in our lodges.

Attendance is free, but register in advance here.

     

‘Grand Lodge at Utica this fall’

     

While this is not a Masonic secret, I don’t know how widely known it is because I don’t hear any talk of it, but Grand Lodge will host its next Annual Communication this fall.

That will be Saturday, October 23 in the Masonic Care Community at Utica for the first full session since COVIDmania ruined everything. The highlight, of course, will be the election of officers, particularly that four-way contest of superstars for Deputy Grand Master.

Also, please know there will be “Welcome Back” festivities in September to herald our return to regular labors. Two Saturdays: September 11 and 18, the first at Vestal, out in Broome County, and the second at DeWint House in Tappan.

I think we can expect more than the typical food and fellowship because of the added energy we’ll all feel from being liberated and together again after so long. I can’t even remember when I last visited DeWint House.

     

     

‘Jeremy Bell at Livingston Library’

     

UPDATE: My mistake. This actually will be an online event. Click here to RSVP.

From William Hogarth: A Freemason’s Harlot.

Bro. Jeremy Bell, the art historian who postulates on Masonic clues he discerns in the artwork of Bro. William Hogarth, will lecture at the Livingston Library on Thursday, July 29 at 7 p.m.

The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library is located on the fourteenth floor of Masonic Hall at 71 West 23rd Street in Manhattan.

Photo ID is required to enter the building, and you should reserve your seat by contacting the library here.

For more on Bro. Bell and his research, click here.

     

‘Masonry Dissected is MBC’s next’

    

Courtesy MBC

The recently relaunched Masonic Book Club notified its members Wednesday how its next offering will be Masonry Dissected, the seminal ritual exposure that informs historians of the earliest available form of the Master Mason Degree.

So, yes, you’ll want to make certain you have this. The MBC did print this title back in the seventies, but this edition will augment that classic text (with Harry Carr’s commentary) with new thoughts from Brent Morris and Arturo de Hoyos. MBC members will get the memo when it’s time to place orders.

Masonry Dissected burst onto the London Masonic scene in 1730, and was reprinted and reproduced multiple times around England in just a couple of weeks. Whether it was intended to be an aid to the memory for the brethren’s benefit or a malicious betrayal of secrets, I don’t know. What I can promise you is you’ll be amazed by both the form of Masonic ritual in the early eighteenth century and by how much you’ll recognize from what your lodge does today.

     

‘Masonic folk art coming to museum’

     

And speaking of Masonry in museums (see previous two posts), an exhibit is coming this fall to Texas.

“Masonic and Odd Fellows Folk Art” will run from November 13 through March 2022 at Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin.

From the publicity:

Through arcane and alluring artifacts, such as grave markers, serpent-headed staffs, richly embroidered textiles, and ceremonial regalia, this exhibition showcases the “Golden Age” of American secret societies, when folk art and decorative art were brought together to confer a sense of legacy, status, and belonging in a newly established country. The exhibition is drawn from a curated collection donated to the American Folk Art Museum by Kendra and Allan Daniel.

Visit the museum here.

     

‘Are the Ancient Landmarks Ancient?’

     

Policy Studies Organization’s World Conference on Fraternalism will do it again in Paris next spring.

The topic: “Are the Ancient Landmarks Ancient?”

That will be May 26-28, 2022 at the Grand Orient of France’s Museum of Freemasonry.

No word yet on a call for papers, but save the date. Hopefully this will be a live, in-person event available to see via the web.

     

‘Masonic museum explores York Rite’

     

A museum exhibit will open tomorrow that will showcase the York Rite of Freemasonry.

The Iowa Masonic Library and Museum will unveil “York Rite Freemasonry: The Story Continues.” Various pieces of regalia, ephemera, documents, and more from the institution’s collections will tell the story of Royal Arch, Cryptic Rite, and the Masonic Templars.

The exhibit will run through the end of the year. The Iowa Masonic Library and Museum is located at the Grand Lodge campus in Cedar Rapids. The museum is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Well done, Bro. Bill!

     

‘Research society to honor Brent Morris’

     

The flier explains it all:

Click to enlarge.

‘A confederacy of moral republics’

Magpie file photo

George Washington’s ‘Sun’ chair inside Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

Without anything original or profound to say on the occasion of Independence Day, I instead will reproduce a snippet of history recently reported by the Masonic Society. The following few sentences move me simply because we don’t hear oratory like this from the Craft’s leaders anymore, and one cannot help but wonder about that when looking at the state of American life today.

Masonic Lodges are a confederacy of moral republics—her temples, centers of law and order, citadels of stability—for aside from its spiritual, altruistic significance, a Masonic Temple has its utility side. It is as practical as a soldier’s ration. It has to do with government and with the home. It is an auxiliary in the State house, to the church, to legislation, and an active partner to any institution or cause whose aim is the uplift and betterment of man. This Temple will be a college of manhood, a university where Americanization will be fostered, a home of brotherhood and fellowship, and a sanctuary of friendship and a school of patriotism and liberty. It is the reserve line in every battle for free government, good citizenship, civic virtue, and education. It has enemies, as all have who aggressively fight ignorance, bigotry, and wrong. They affect our purposes no more than winds against granite rock, and to those enemies Freemasonry sends its challenge:

“Hammer away,

ye hostile hands,

Your hammers break,

God’s anvil stands.”

When completed, there will be built within this Temple an altar; upon the altar, a Bible; draping both, an American flag. Upon their knees, with hands upon these symbols of faith, every Mason must pledge his loyalty to God, country, home, and his fellow man. In Masonic temples, creed is optional, loyalty to country and God imperative. All in all, Masonry is organized righteousness—mobilized patriotism.

Those words were spoken by Bro. Alva Adams in 1921 at the cornerstone ceremony for the Rocky Mountain Consistory. Adams had served three non-consecutive terms as governor of Colorado, and also was prominent in Freemasonry there, having been Grand Lecturer of the Grand Lodge, and the Sovereign Grand Inspector General of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite at that time. The couplet comes from the poem “Hammer and Anvil” by Samuel Valentine Cole, which I recommend to you.

If your lodge is reducing Independence Day to a cookout and maybe participation in a local parade, remember Adams’ clarion for a moral republic and a college of manhood.

     

‘Fascinating Facts discussion’

    

Fifty-five years ago on this very date, MW J. Blan Loflin, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Oklahoma, granted the dispensation that launched Oklahoma Lodge of Research. What does this have to do with you?

Well, the least you can do is sit in when the lodge will host a discussion via Zoom next Saturday morning.

W. Bro. Daniel Hanttula, the Junior Warden, will present “Fascinating Facts in Masonic Research” on July 10 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Get started here.

And if you’re motivated to do more than the least you can do, membership info is available here.

     

‘Masonic Week 2022’

    

I know it’s still early, but in case you haven’t heard:

• Masonic Week 2022 is a “go.” We are scheduled and booked to resume our regular, live, in-person meetings and events in February!
• The voting members of the Grand Council of Allied Masonic Degrees of the USA met virtually recently and voted to remain at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City for the three ensuing years (2023-25).

A tentative schedule for 2022 is ready and will be disseminated soon. As you know, the Masonic Society’s dinner is the highlight of the five-day affair. I’ll let you know about the menu and dining fee as soon as I can.

My tenure as president of the Masonic Society will end Friday, February 11. Don’t despair! On that afternoon, current First Vice President Oscar Alleyne will accept the presidency, so come to our dinner and cheer him on.

I have been mentioning in private conversation here and there how Masonic Week 2022 most likely will be my last. My first—back when it was humbly AMD Weekend—was 2002. (I still cherish a certain cork and a small stone, souvenirs from late night sacred rituals upstairs in the Hotel Washington.)

But we’ll have fun next February! See you in Arlington.

     

‘The ALR resumes its labors’

    

The American Lodge of Research meets in the Colonial Room on the tenth floor of Masonic Hall, but is free to meet anywhere in the State of New York.

The American Lodge of Research—not the first, but now the oldest lodge of research in the country—was recalled to labor Tuesday night.

Most Worshipful William Sardone, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New York, sat in the East and sounded the gavel at 7:36 p.m., ending a period of darkness that had spanned approximately four years.

“This is the time to reboot, to get back on track, and to move things forward,” he said.

This meeting was for a quick election and installation of officers. Working behind the scenes, Sardone and Right Worshipful Oscar Alleyne, Junior Grand Warden, assembled a team to take the elected offices for this term. They are:

Worshipful Master

Conor M.

Senior Warden

Angel Millar

Junior Warden

Michael Livschitz

Treasurer

David Pearlmutter

Secretary

Michael Chaplin

Our appointed officers, which I believe are only the deacons, are yet to be announced.

There already is a website available, and other improvements will be coming soon.

     

‘Philly temple on TV’

    

UPDATE: August 11, 2022–This episode of Movers & Makers has been nominated for an Emmy Award. Watch it here.

Courtesy GL of Pennsylvania

The Masonic Temple in Philadelphia will be featured on a local television show Thursday night.

The episode of WHYY’s Movers & Makers is at hand. It seems the building’s history and architecture will be highlighted. That’ll be 7:30 p.m. Click here for a teaser. (Try to ignore whoever said there are no secrets in Freemasonry.)

Watch it on the web later.

     

     

‘Project Lyre goes live’

    

I think this is something like three years in the making, but one California Mason’s goal to return music to ritual work advanced one big step this afternoon when Project Lyre went live on Reverb Nation.

Geoffrey Schumann, of North Hollywood Lodge 542, has posted four compositions on the musician networking site:

The Exalted Jewel March

The Grand Theme

The Staircase

Time to Vote

The objective is to return That Elevated Science to the ambiance of lodges that are bereft of organists. Schumann previously made files available by request, but this endeavor seems to be for the benefit of the Masonic world. I think the grand lodge’s website will host the files later.

It is a lamentable fact that the fraternity suffers a shortage of musicians today. There’s no rule anywhere that stipulates organ playing for lodge life, but that evidently was the tradition for many years. Plenty of lodges today have a large keyboard instrument neglected somewhere on the north side. Other instruments could be played, but I suppose the power of a reed or electric organ really fills the room. (At Masonic Hall, a pipe organ occupies the west of the lodge rooms, behind the Senior Warden, and I don’t know where my lodge would be without Bro. Erik.)

Well done, Bro. Schumann!

     

‘Congratulations are in order’

    

Tremendous news broke earlier today.

Bro. Oscar Alleyne, the Right Worshipful Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of New York, the First Vice President of the Masonic Society, and a lot more, has been elected to membership in Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 in London.

Holy cow!

If you’re not familiar, that’s a kind of immortality in Freemasonry.

Meanwhile, at the meeting of Pennsylvania Lodge of Research, Bro. Moises Gomez was named a Fellow of the lodge! Huzzah! Moe is the RW Grand Historian of New Jersey.

I don’t know if I can sit with you guys at lunch anymore. I’ll certainly avert my eyes in the hallway.

But, wait, there’s more!

In the outside world, two Prince Hall brethren are on their way to elected public office.

RW Bro. Darren Morton, the Grand Senior Warden of the MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of New York, won the Democrat Party primary Tuesday for Comptroller of the City of Mt. Vernon. And Bro. Malik Evans, of Eureka Lodge 36, won the party’s nomination for Mayor of Rochester.

Well done, brethren, and good luck in November!

     

‘Bailey’s boycott’

    

Cameron M. Bailey

The Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the State of Washington published a personal statement Sunday saying he believes it is necessary for grand lodges to withdraw fraternal recognition now from those few remaining jurisdictions that still have not established relations with their Prince Hall Affiliated neighbors.

Writing on Substack, Cameron Bailey, in an essay titled “Prince Hall Recognition: It Is Well Past Time,” says:

By recognizing as legitimate those jurisdictions that refuse to recognize their Prince Hall counterparts, the Grand Lodge of Washington, through its silence, gives its consent to an ongoing moral wrong. It stands silent as a discrimination that should have been done away with in 1897 continues in a small handful of states.

This was wrong in 1897, it is wrong today, and if we don’t do something about it, it will be wrong next year as well.

It is well past time that the Jurisdictions that do recognize their Prince Hall counterparts take positive action standing up for that which is good and right and moral.

This is no sudden outburst from the Grand Master. His opinion has been known for a long time. His reference to 1897 is a recollection of how his Grand Lodge made the extraordinary move to close the racial divide by recognizing PHA Freemasonry. At that time, the other grand lodges in the United States beat Washington into submission by withholding their recognition of that jurisdiction.

Washington tried it again in 1990, and that time the diplomacy worked, sparking the revolution that has spread across the country to all but six jurisdictions in the South.

My thoughts on this may be primitive, so please be patient. First, I don’t know that instigating less recognition is the best way to create more recognition. Maybe it would be. I do not know. Second, recognition between two parties must be mutual. I can’t say for a fact that the PHA grand lodges affected today even want the friendship of these now rogue southern grand jurisdictions. Maybe one or more or all would choose to establish mutual relations. I don’t know. (I’m one of the few who admits publicly that I don’t know things. My motto, “I drink and I don’t know things,” was co-opted and turned upside down by that dumb TV show.) Thirdly, it’s possible that progress is being made already in one or more of these southern states—say it with me: I don’t know—and an audacious provocation like this might be counterproductive.

Should make for lively conversation at the Conference of Grand Masters next February!

    

‘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.