‘Mark Stavish in the Reading Room’

    

Craftsmen Online’s next discussion in the Reading Room will feature Bro. Mark Stavish and the chapter titled “Occult Masonry in the Eighteenth Century” of his book The Path of Freemasonry. Click here for the reading material. Click here to join the discussion on Wednesday, October 30 at 7 p.m.

I have not read this book, but if Mark wrote it, then we’d be wise to invest the time to read it. Publisher Inner Traditions says:

A practical guide to the symbols and rituals of Freemasonry as a path of spiritual development and self-realization.

Explaining how Freemasonry promotes personal growth through the symbolic building of self and an inner Temple of Wisdom, Mark Stavish explores different areas of Masonic experience, including sacred symbols, tools, and rituals. He provides simple exercises and practices to help internalize and personalize the lessons presented, including dreamwork, journaling, meditation, and prayer.

• Shares the history and meaning of Freemasonry and its symbols

• Offers thoughtful explorations of different areas of Masonic experience, drawing on esoteric doctrines and paralleling them with experiences found in daily life

• Provides simple exercises and practices to help internalize and personalize the lessons presented, including dreamwork, journaling, meditation, and prayer

In this practical guide, Mark Stavish details the spiritual lessons and rituals of Freemasonry as a step-by-step path of spiritual development and self-improvement for both Masons and non-Masons—men and women, alike. He explores the history and meaning of Freemasonry and its symbols, from its origins in the Temple of Solomon to the medieval guilds to the Renaissance, and explains how the Craft promotes personal growth through the symbolic building of self and an inner Temple of Wisdom in much the same way that Masonry’s rituals symbolize the building of Solomon’s Temple in accordance with the mystical architectural instructions of Hiram.

Drawing on esoteric doctrines, including the Qabala, alchemy, sacred geometry, John Dee’s angelic magic, and the secrets of the Gothic cathedral builders, each chapter addresses an area of the Masonic experience, paralleling them with experiences each of us finds in our own lives. The author provides simple practices to help internalize and personalize the lessons presented, including dreamwork, journaling, meditation, prayer, and understanding sacred architecture. The author also examines the crafting and use of the spiritual and symbolic tools of Freemasonry, such as the trestle, or tracing, board and the Chamber of Reflection.

Providing the tools to make the Craft an initiatic experience of self-improvement, the author shows that, ultimately, the Masonic experience is the human quest for self-realization and self-expression, so that we each may find our place in the Temple of Wisdom.

Mark Stavish is a respected authority on Western spiritual traditions. The author of 26 books, published in seven languages, including The Path of Alchemy and Kabbalah for Health and Wellness, he is the founder and director of the Institute for Hermetic Studies and the Louis Claude de St. Martin Fund. He has appeared on radio shows, television, and in major print media, including Coast to Coast AM, the History Channel, BBC, and the New York Times. The author of the blog VOXHERMES, he lives in Wyoming, Pennsylvania.

Mark is at labor in Wyoming Lodge 468 in his hometown.

     

‘SRJ: Perspectives on Masonic Writing’

    

If your favorite newsstand is sold out, click here to read the new issue of Scottish Rite Journal, the bimonthly periodical of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction.

It’s been a long time since I’ve perused a Journal, and this September-October issue deserves your attention for many reasons. Magpie readers would want to begin on Page 4, I think, where we find “Perspectives on Masonic Writing” by Chris Ruli. At this point, I just assume Chris has been cloned a few times, but here he is imparting advice from experience on how to organize information and craft it into prose.

This isn’t about the toil of research; it’s about the art in writing. His five points of authorship give you the secrets of creating a paper or article based on investigated facts.

If reluctance has kept you from contributing to your research lodge or grand lodge magazine or from squandering sixteen years on a blog, then absorb Ruli’s rules of writing.

     

‘SRRS in Memphis next month’

    

The Scottish Rite Research Society will host its third symposium in Memphis next month, and the call for papers is out. From the publicity:

Call for Papers:

2024 SRRS Symposium

The Scottish Rite Research Society is accepting papers for its annual symposium to be held in Memphis, Tennessee on Saturday, October 19, 2024. Interested applicants must complete the form available here to be considered a symposium speaker. The deadline to submit papers is October 1, 2024. Accepted speakers will be notified via email several days after the deadline with further details.

Viable papers must be:

scholarly or academic in nature with a focus on the history, philosophy, symbolism, biography, or ritual of the Scottish Rite, Freemasonry, and/or an affiliated group;

the speaker’s own research that has not yet been published in Masonic or non-Masonic publication, with exception to a recent or upcoming SRRS publication; and

long enough to present on the topic for 15-20 minutes, plus additional time for question and answer by SRRS participants.

The SRRS symposium will be held in-person and virtually for remote participants and more details will be provided in the coming weeks. Accepted speakers will not be reimbursed for travel to the symposium, and are therefore encouraged to present virtually. If you have any further questions, please contact Chris Ruli here.

I don’t think I knew the SRRS had such events, but I don’t get out much.

     

‘Go to Tappan on October 6’

    

Make sure you are free on Sunday, October 6 for two fun, family-friendly events in Tappan. Yes, once again both Grand Master’s Day and Traubenfest have been scheduled for the same day.

The former will be different from the customary tree dedication ceremony, and will be a relaxed picnic. The latter remains an Oktoberfest-style party with German food, beer, and music hosted by the Ninth Manhattan District. In my experience, the weather somehow always is perfect on these days.

And, later that month, look for Grand Master’s Family Day at West Point to see the Black Knights play the Pirates of East Carolina University. (I didn’t even know East Carolina was a state!) Outstanding autumn activities.

     

‘Our “cult of the Enlightenment”’

    

Historia Ecclesiastica

Can you imagine going through life thinking the Enlightenment was a period of darkness? That must be like having a perpetual headache. I picture a Gumby from Monty Python. Yet this is the psychology revealed, without any hesitation, mental reservation, etc. on YouTube’s Historia Ecclesiastica channel, which lately has been commenting on Freemasonry in the same exasperating way and manner we would expect from those blinded by their dogma.

Python (Monty) Pictures

From the podcast’s name, we can deduce Historia Ecclesiastica purports to present the history of the Roman Catholic Church (I’ll guess the title comes from Eusebius), but without watching all of its videos, I am going to surmise that it, in fact, does not candidly explore the entire history of the Church. And I’ll let that go at that.

Historia Ecclesiastica

On Freemasonry, the allegations in one slog of a video are formed by the usual sloppy errors and ignorance, but with this difference: Supposedly there is something called “The Alta Vendita” that host Daniel Sute claims is some kind of movement of Freemasons working toward “the final destruction of Catholicism and even of the Christian idea.” Have you ever heard of this? I’ve never heard of it, and I’ve been reading and writing about Freemasonry with some regularity for more than a quarter of a century. That doesn’t mean I know everything about Freemasonry, but if there existed a Masonic plot to destroy Catholicism and all Christianity, I think I might have heard of it by now. Yes, I checked my spam folder. Besides, there are fewer than two million Freemasons in the world versus one billion Catholics, so I think they’re safe. (You neo-Templars out there should pay attention to this.)

Here are several of the lame mistakes Sute provides his gullible audience:

✔︎ He thinks stonemason guilds of medieval times were bricklayers. He has no understanding of ashlar masonry and consequently does not know Freemasonry’s moral building metaphor based on the squaring of stones. Without this most basic grasp of what Freemasonry is about, he is unqualified to run his mouth about us.

✔︎ He repeatedly says Freemasonry is a religion. He ignores the overall purpose of post-1717 Freemasonry is to unite men of all kinds of religious backgrounds which, in 1717, was a completely new idea in the West. And everywhere else.

✔︎ He can’t even pronounce “Augustine,” mistakenly saying it the way one gives the name of the Florida city! He cannot pronounce “Desaguliers,” but I’ll grant him that.

✔︎ He mistakes “affront” for “a front.”

✔︎ In discussing “Jewish world domination,” which he graciously concedes is without evidence, he gives the title of the notorious book as “Protocols of the Elder Zion.”

William Blake’s The Ancient of Days is the frontispiece of his book Europe, a Prophecy from 1794. The British Museum says it depicts ‘a bearded nude male (probably Urizen) crouching in a heavenly sphere, its light partially covered by clouds; his left arm holding a pair of compasses and reaching down with them, measuring the surrounding darkness.’

✔︎ Very stupidly, he displays William Blake’s The Ancient of Days, and says it is “kind of a disturbing image—a weird image—this is a Masonic depiction of their vision of god.”

✔︎ He thinks Albert Mackey’s name is “Mackley” and Manly Hall’s name is “Manley.”

✔︎ He says “lodges typically have thirty-three degrees.” He calls the Royal Arch Degree the “Royal Arch Decree.”

✔︎ He mispronounces “Weishaupt” as something like “wash up,” but I’ll grant him that one too.

✔︎ He—yawn—dredges up the old Pike/Lucifer thing.

Decades ago in journalism, I was told—and it was said only once—that if you cannot get names correct, then your reader has no reason to trust anything else you say. This is something Mr. Sute needs to understand. He is a fifth grade teacher at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School in Farmington, Michigan, and he probably should stick to that. He can propagandize ten-year-olds with impunity, but showing off to the public his ignorance and inability to undertake basic research does him no favors. Then again, reading the comments on this video reveals who his audience is.

His real failure is evident in “The Greatest Danger of the Freemasons,” where the biggest canard in a one-hour clown show is Sute’s citing of the Carbonari as a Masonic group. It is in the final minutes that Alta Vendita finally is addressed. What was the Carbonari? Writing in 1908 as chairman of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario’s Correspondence Committee, MW Henry Robertson, who had served as Grand Master in 1886-88, explains:

While there is no doubt that societies of the same name existed in Europe in the eighteenth century, the Carbonari proper first came into prominence about the year 1808. The Carbonari (Italian: Carbonaro, charcoal maker) had no direct connection with Masonry, but a large number of its forms were borrowed from that source. It was in Italy, toward the close of the Napoleonic wars, that this society first began to assume importance. In 1808, the Republicans, disgusted alike with the Bourbons and Napoleonists, retired to the mountain resorts of the Abruzzi and Calabria. In this latter region, charcoal burning was the chief industry of the poorer classes, and these Republicans, forming themselves into a secret society, borrowed their phraseology in numerous instances. Thus a lodge was called a baracca (a hut), an ordinary meeting a vendita (or sale), while an important meeting was alta vendita, all well known terms in the charcoal burning industry. The Carbonari were Christian, but anti-Papal, and borrowed their rites from that religion; thus Christ the Lamb, as the victim of tyranny, put to death by the wolf, gave them their watchword. There were four grades of the Carbonari, with Alta Vendita at Naples and Salermo. These two latter lodges tried to exercise authority over the rest, but failed in their efforts.

Coaxed to join the Bourbons, the Carbonari were driven back to their mountain fastnesses by King Murat, and their leader, Capobianco, was treacherously betrayed and put to death. A few years later they helped to overthrow the French power in Naples, but Ferdinand, when once in power, proved false to them and refused them permission to establish their lodges in Naples, as they had previously done in Sicily under English supremacy. Enraged at this treachery, they conspired against the Bourbon Government, and rapidly formed lodges all over Italy. They were the prime movers in several rebellions that took place about this time. The Neapolitan revolution of 1820, the disturbances in the Papal States the same year, and the Piedmontese revolution in 1821 can all be traced to them. Originally composed of members of the lower classes, about this time they obtained thousands of recruits from all classes of society. Army officers, students, artists, and even priests flocked to their standard, and their numbers are said to have reached 700,000. So strong did they become that, at last, Austria became alarmed and the military power of this nation was called in to crush them. Though still remaining active until 1831, they never fully recovered from this setback, and most of their numbers were swallowed up by the society of “Young Italy,” founded by Mazzini.

In 1820, the Carbonari took root in France, where their organization was much more perfect. A Supreme Council, presided over by the great Lafayette, and a complete hierarchy of societies, by which the will of the Chief was handed on from the highest to the most remote lodge. Attempting to raise an insurrection in 1821 at Belfort, LaRochelle, and other places, they were promptly suppressed and suffered terribly, but owing to the wonderful fidelity of the members, only those immediately connected with the revolution could be punished. The Carbonari still continued to take an active part in all revolutionary matters till 1831, when, after helping in the July revolution of that year, the majority of its members associated themselves with the government of Louis Philippe. Dating from this time the society became practically extinct.

So you see why the Catholic Church wouldn’t like the Carbonari, but to claim the Carbonari is Freemasonry and to blame Freemasonry today for what the Carbonari thought, said, and did two centuries ago is a totalitarian method of accusing and convicting.

Python (Monty) Pictures

I guess we should expect the Spanish Inquisition.

He calls on Freemasonry to end its secrecy by disclosing to the public all of its rituals and meeting minutes. Sure thing. Right after the Vatican does likewise.

Actually, Mr. Sute, I don’t like the idea of you teaching young children (or anyone else). You are an ignoramus, and your contrived libels against Freemasonry work only on your fellow idiots. I’d recommend authors like Joseph Fort Newton and Carl Claudy to you, but you wear blinders on your brain, which is what fanaticism is all about.

Historia Ecclesiastica

To his credit, Sute does state that Freemasonry is not Christian. Freemasonry is not aligned with any religion (except the Scandinavian grand lodges, which have a different idea).

His other videos include “How Modern Art Caused World War I” and “Mother Was a Red.”

     

‘Greenwich Tea Time, 250 Years Later’

    

An interesting item in the September trestleboard of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 ties together history and current events.

Greenwich Tea Time,

250 Years Later

On Saturday, October 5, the Cumberland County Historical Society will commemorate the semiquincentennial anniversary of the Greenwich Tea Burning, a local pre-Revolution act of rebellion against the Crown that has a Masonic connection.

History remembers how on the night of December 22, 1774, twelve months after the Boston Tea Party, colonists in Greenwich, New Jersey expressed such disdain for British taxation that they burned a cargo of tea owned by the East India Company, the same victim as in Boston on account of its tea monopoly in British North America. Boston had the inundation; Greenwich the conflagration.

Frank D. Andrews, author of The Tea-Burners of Cumberland County, printed in Vineland in 1908 to memorialize the dedication of the tea-burning commemorative monument (fourteen feet of granite with Corinthian columns front and back) in Greenwich, writes:

“With the beginning of the year 1774, the agitation regarding the rights of the colonists and the unjust and tyrannical course of the British Parliament became a subject of general discussion throughout the country. At Greenwich, many sided with the king and condemned any opposition to his authority. Others there were, with an ardent love of liberty who freely discussed the political situation, taking sides with the Boston patriots, commending their action in destroying the tea in Boston Harbor, and giving with a liberal hand toward the relief of the sufferers from the Port Bill which Parliament had decreed as a punishment.”

The action, in short, was the ship Greyhound, bearing tea to Philadelphia, was warned off that port due to a potential Boston-like reception. Seeking a safer landing, the captain diverted into the Cohansey River to reach Greenwich. Amid as much secrecy as possible, the cargo was unloaded and placed inside the cellar of the Market Square home of Mr. Dan Bowen. A group of liberty-minded area men organized and headed to this house. Again, from Mr. Andrews:

“At Market Square, they halt before the building in which the tea is stored, speedily effect an entrance, and soon we may see the boxes passed from hand to hand into the neighboring field where the broken chests and contents form a goodly pile.”

It wasn’t long before it all was set ablaze.

As with Boston, anonymity of the rebels was essential because capture would mean brutal punishment, including death. In time, of course, that jeopardy expired, and partial credit for the raid since has been given to Andrew Hunter, Jr.

revolutionarywarnewjersey.com

The side of the Greenwich monument bearing Hunter’s name.

Born in 1752, Andrew was the son of David Hunter, a retired British Army officer settled in Virginia. David’s brother Andrew, for whom the boy was named, asked David to send young Andrew to him in New Jersey to receive an education. He graduated from the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) in 1772 and soon was licensed to preach. Following that uncle’s career, he was attached to the Presbyterian Church at Greenwich.

During the Revolution, he served with distinction in both militia and the Continental Army as a chaplain, even receiving public praise from Gen. George Washington.

njcincinnati.org

Andrew Hunter also was an original member and the first Secretary of the Society of the Cincinnati in the State of New Jersey.

Andrew Hunter, Jr. was a Freemason, according to RW Joseph H. Hough, author in 1870 of Origin of Masonry in the State of New Jersey and a longtime Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey. In this book, he explains how the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania had issued a warrant on September 2, 1782 to Masons serving in the Continental Army’s New Jersey Brigade, and thus Rev. Andrew Hunter became Worshipful Master of Lodge 36.

After the Revolutionary War, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1784 recalled all warrants it had issued to traveling military lodges. No. 36 complied and ceased to be.

There is no evidence of anyone from No. 36 participating in the organization of the Grand Lodge of New Jersey at New Brunswick two years later, but Hunter reappears in 1787 in Grand Lodge’s records. At the Grand Lodge Communication of December 20, it was ordered that Hunter be invited to give a sermon the following St. John the Baptist Day in New Brunswick, as part of the first Grand Lodge installation of officers celebration. It doesn’t look like he attended, but Hunter’s name is on the roll of visiting brethren at the January 13, 1802 meeting of Grand Lodge at Trenton. Later that year, he was appointed Grand Chaplain.

He was appointed chaplain to the U.S. Navy in 1810, and so made Washington his home until his death in 1823.

Should any brethren find themselves at Gibbon House (960 Ye Great Street in Greenwich) for this 250th anniversary bash on October 5, be sure to raise your glass to the memory of our historic Masonic ancestor.

They’ll be burning tea at three o’clock too!

     

‘Lodge of Excellence in New York (where else?)’

     

Hailing from a lodge named Publicity, the Magpie Mason takes interest in market research conducted in the Masonic world. Yesterday, the Grand Lodge of New York revealed its latest initiative under MW Steven A. Rubin which aims a) to help lodges reflect on their strengths and weaknesses; and b) to have Grand Lodge salute and/or assist as needed.

(I couldn’t help noticing this comes on the eve of the Masonic Restoration Foundation’s weekend, but that is coincidental.)

We, as Free and Accepted Masons, speak of strength in the midway point of our trigradal system, in the Second Degree—the one dealing with mind and senses while ascending certain stairs—when the Pillar on the left hand is introduced. This Lodge of Excellence enterprise starts with a question. From the publicity:

The program begins with a simple survey to help us understand your Lodge’s strengths and identify the areas where we can assist. During the Masonic year, your Grand Lodge Officer will work with your Lodge leadership to complete this 29-question survey in yes/no format. There are no “right” or “wrong” answers—only valuable insights. The information we gather will give us a clear picture of our Lodges and help us to customize programs to assist with Ritual, Administration, Social Activities, and Community Involvement and more.

As Master of The ALR, I started completing the survey, but this obviously isn’t intended for research lodges. The questions concern lodge proficiencies in ritual, education, communication, community relations, social events, charity, and more. Lodges excelling will be recognized appropriately, and lodges needing help, aid, and assistance will receive the same from well informed brethren.

What more could you want?

And where else would you find a resource like this? Excelsior—“Ever Upward”—is New York State’s motto. Lodge of Excellence will enhance Grand Lodge’s efforts to serve our lodges, taking the Craft ever upward.

     

‘Lafayette at the Livingston Library’

    

If you are active at all in New York Freemasonry, you have at least heard about our celebration of the bicentenary of Bro. Lafayette’s history-making tour of the United States, a lengthy visit to all twenty-four states that was prompted by our fraternity to honor the last surviving general of the Revolutionary War. In fact, celebrations are happening around the country now, plus a book by Chris Ruli, published just this week, chronicles Lafayette’s progress from east to west, and from north to south, and back again.

Chris will be the Livingston Library’s guest lecturer, presenting his findings one night next month. From the publicity:

Chancellor Robert R. Livingston

Masonic Library

Live Lecture Series

Thursday, September 26 at 7:30 p.m.

“Lafayette & The Mystic Tie”

RSVP here

Join Chris Ruli as we examine the Marquis de Lafayette’s legacy with Freemasonry and his fraternal activities during his final American tour. 

The presentation is based on Ruli’s new book Brother Lafayette, copies of which will be available at the presentation.

Chris Ruli is a historian and researcher on early American Freemasonry and its often-overlooked relationship with politics and culture. He is an associate director of the Scottish Rite Research Society, Third Vice-President of the Philalethes Society, and a researcher at the House of the Temple in Washington, DC.

The Library will host this discussion in Masonic Hall’s Ionic Room on the sixth floor. Photo ID is required to enter the building.

     

‘Best Practices in College Station’

    

To whet your appetites before the Masonic Restoration Foundation Symposium this weekend, budget about an hour and a half to watch this new episode of the Masonic Improvement podcast. Pete Normand, a past president of the MRF, converses with co-hosts Justin Jones and Dennis Yates on the topic of the best practices set to labor in St. Alban’s Lodge 1455 in College Station, Texas.

Normand helped establish this lodge in 1992 with the specific goal of curating a certain Masonic experience, one far away from what was typical in that area at that time. An antidote to the deleterious mix of tedious meetings, non-Masonic activities, uninspired food, and lackadaisical attire that are the hallmarks of lodges that have given up.

Pete does about 99 percent of the talking in this interview, but it’s all instructive to the attentive ear. Listen to him recount how he explored Freemasonry for years before even learning how to petition for the degrees. How he recognized the lodge experience he inherited was not optimal. How he discovered the components of what some today call an “Observant lodge,” and the smart way to incorporate them into lodge culture.

Some of these ideas later became Grand Lodge law.

To Pete, it’s just common sense “best practices,” and he communicates it in recollections of how St. Alban’s accomplished it. The best kind of lesson.

Find Masonic Improvement on YouTube and your favorite podcast platforms. Feel free to skip the first sixty seconds to spare yourself the grating theme song, and enjoy the conversation.

     

‘To rekindle the rhyme of Regius’

    

UPDATE—October 1: Macoy Masonic Supply Co. is accepting pre-orders, so save some money on shipping. $59 per copy. Click here.

Lewis Masonic

I admit I’m trying to stop acquiring Masonic books, but it isn’t easy, and Lewis Masonic isn’t helping. The venerable publisher now has an edition of the Regius Poem that bridges the Middle English to the Modern in a translation that revives the rhyme. From the publicity:

Freemasons throughout the world are finally able to study a 600-year-old manuscript of The Old Charges thanks to an unprecedented translation in modern English that has preserved the original rhyme scheme. For these Brothers, it may provide new and meaningful insight into the history of the Craft from a medieval perspective, which is more about the actual dos and don’ts for ancient stonemasons than today’s Brotherhood and its symbolism. Nonetheless, it offers a lot of recognition when it comes to the origin of modern Masonic practices.

Ever since James Halliwell (1820-99) discovered The Regius Poem in 1842, English-speaking Masons have had to make considerable effort to cope with its language, which dates approximately to 1425. Until now, the manuscript could be read only in its original wording, in modern prose, or in attempts that failed to qualify as poetry. This implies that, in actual practice, the earliest document of The Old Charges has mostly been appreciated for its wisdom and strength—at the expense of its beauty.

Lewis Masonic

To reinstall this trinity, Brother Harry G. de Vries has translated the old text from rhymed Middle English to rhymed Modern English for the first time. It was his aim, he says, to facilitate his English-speaking brothers with a version in which the essential literary ingredient of rhyme would be revived in order to rekindle the poem’s 600-year-old beauty. As a result, it helps bring today’s Masons much closer to the impact the poem would have had on its medieval audiences.

In the foreword, the Dutch author explains why being a native speaker of Dutch may have been a considerable help to understand and translate the language of The Regius Poem. You can check the results of his labor in this edition, in which each left-hand page has the original text and each right-hand page displays the modern translation.

Lewis Masonic

Brother Harry takes you back to a medieval lodge where a travelling word artist served masons the history of their craft as it was seen at the time—after the day’s work had ended. At Lewis Masonic we are sure that this unique version in rhymed modern English will provide Freemasons with a new perspective on the beauty of their Craft.

◆ Limited Edition of 500 only

◆ Printed on Artisanal Textured Italian Paper

◆ Cloth Bound

◆ Beautiful End Papers

◆ 152 pages

◆ 168 x 240

◆ 978-0-85318-655-7

£39.00 ($50) Click here to order.

     

‘St. Alban Masons coming to Philly’

    

St. Alban Lodge 529 in Philadelphia celebrates its sesquicentennial anniversary this year, in part, by hosting the 71st Annual International Gathering of Lodges Named for St. Alban. This will be the weekend of September 13 at the Masonic Temple in the City of Brotherly Love.

In Freemasonry, there used to be an interesting practice of lodges sharing a common name, but that are spread across grand jurisdictions around the country, uniting in a chain and occasionally meeting for fellowship—and, I guess, celebrating how their lodges’ name rocks. For example, there once was a St. John’s Lodge brotherhood.

Of course, the Holy Saints John are integral to Masonic ritual and symbolism, and I imagine every grand lodge in the United States has a St. John’s Lodge, very often numbered first. New York’s eldest extant lodge is St. John’s 1 in Manhattan, dating to 1757.

There is another saint whose name figures prominently in lodge nomenclature around America and beyond: St. Alban. His presence in Masonic culture is not obvious. First, let’s look at some biography, courtesy of Catholic Encyclopedia. Excerpted:

St. Alban. First martyr of Britain, suffered c. 304. The commonly received account of the martyrdom of St. Alban meets us as early as the pages of Bede’s “Ecclesiastical History” (Bk. I, chs. vii and xviii). According to this, St. Alban was a pagan living at Verulamium (now the town of St. Albans in Hertfordshire), when a persecution of the Christians broke out, and a certain cleric flying for his life took refuge in Alban’s house. Alban sheltered him, and after some days, moved by his example, himself received baptism. Later on, when the governor’s emissaries came to search the house, Alban disguised himself in the cloak of his guest and gave himself up in his place. He was dragged before the judge, scourged, and, when he would not deny his faith, condemned to death. On the way to the place of execution Alban arrested the waters of a river so that they crossed dry-shod, and he further caused a fountain of water to flow on the summit of the hill on which he was beheaded. His executioner was converted, and the man who replaced him, after striking the fatal blow, was punished with blindness. A later development in the legend informs us that the cleric’s name was Amphibalus, and that he, with some companions, was stoned to death a few days afterwards at Redbourn, four miles from St. Albans.

With Freemasonry arising in the British Isles, it is easy to understand how the first martyr in Britain could be cited as a kind of spiritual founding father. The earliest mention of him in Masonic literature is found in the Cooke Manuscript from the early 1400s, which is the second oldest known publication in Masonic letters, junior only to the Regius MS, and is the oldest of the Gothic Constitutions. It echoes in Anderson’s Constitutions and in the ritual probably used in your lodge. Cooke, at line 602, briefly says:

“And soon after that came Saint Adhabell into England, and converted Saint Alban to Christianity. And Saint Alban loved well masons, and gave them their first charges and manners first in England. And he ordained convenient [times] to pay for the travail.” (Spelling modernized.)

Another document, known as the Grand Lodge Manuscript, that is said to date to 1583, illustrates more:

England in all this time stood void of any Charge of Masonry, until St. Albons’ time, and in his days the King of England, then a pagan, did wall the town that is now called St. Albons. And St. Alban was a worthy Knight and Steward of the King’s household, and had the government of the realm, and also of the walls of the said town; he loved and cherished Masons right well, and made their pay right good (according the standing of the realm), for he gave them 2 shillings 6 pence a week and three pence to their cheer [food and drinks]; for before that time, throughout all the land, a Mason took but a penny a day and his meat, until St. Alban amended it. He procured for them [the Masons] a Charter from the King and his Council, to hold a general council together, and gave it the name of Assembly; and after having himself [become a Mason], he helped to make men Masons, and gave them a Charge, as you shall hear afterwards right soon.

Personally, I believe St. Alban endeared himself to masons through the act of improving the food and drink allowance! His feast day is June 22. Vivat!

A quick look through a search engine shows there are St. Albans lodges at labor in Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Quebec, Rhode Island, Texas, Vermont, West Virginia and, of course, St. Albans in Hertfordshire!

To register for the Philadelphia event, click here.

     

‘A Friday the 13th Masonic Moment’

    

You’re in luck! Mitch Horowitz will return to Masonic Hall next month for “The Masonic Moment,” a speaking engagement hosted by Aurora Grata-Day Star Lodge 647. From the publicity:

On this special Friday the 13th lecture, historian and scholar of esotericism Mitch Horowitz will explore the origins, meanings, and purposes of modern “secret societies.” Rather than sinister power centers, authentic esoteric thought movements, including Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, and Illuminism, vouchsafe esoteric ideals from deep within ancient and modern traditions and use symbolical philosophy as a means to ethical self-development. Mitch makes particular note of Masonry’s role in instilling values of ecumenism and protection of the individual search for meaning in America—and how Masonry may yet rescue us from the descent of factionalist politics and culture.

As always, Mitch allows ample time for exchange. Following the talk, he will sign copies of his book Modern Occultism.

Tickets, at $40 each, here.

     

‘Rhetoric and the Columbians’ historic membership growth’

    

The Knights of Columbus, the fraternal service order of the Roman Catholic Church, announced recent growth in membership that pushes its enrollment past 2.1 million worldwide, says its senior officer. If this is accurate, and if I’m not mistaken, they now are larger than all Masonic regular grand lodges combined, as the United States accounts for fewer than 900,000 Masons.

Patrick E. Kelly

At their 142nd Supreme Convention, held in Quebec last Tuesday, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly said 92,000 men joined during the past year, making it “one of our best years of growth in a century,” according to La Croix International, a Catholic news source based in France. “In these challenging times, our mission matters. We must start by building up a new generation of Catholic men—men formed in faith and virtue; men prepared to be missionary disciples.”

And that is where it becomes impossible to contrast their gross gain to Freemasonry’s net losses, because the Columbians rally around their church and doctrine, while Freemasons consistently remain confused or uninformed of who they fundamentally are. However, those two states of consciousness produce dissimilar messaging which we can juxtapose:

Freemasonry: 2B1ASK1

Columbians: “Knights come from every stage of life, in countless corners of the world. Join us as we celebrate real role models in a world that needs men who lead, serve, protect, and defend.”

Freemasonry: We make good men better.

Columbians: “No matter what stage you are in your life, we are all on a journey together. Join us as role models in a world that needs men who lead, serve, protect, and defend.”

Freemasonry: Not just a man. A Mason.

Columbians: “You are a key part in bringing a culture of faith to life in your home, council, community, or parish. Let the Knights help you.”

Freemasonry: Where men build meaning.

Columbians: “There is nothing more effective at evangelizing the culture, than regular, everyday people choosing to live their faith in their homes, councils, community, and parish.”

Obviously, Freemasons cannot speak to any particular religious faith, because we are not a religion or an adjunct of any religion, but it is the pride that shines through the Knights’ words that grabs me. They sound assertive, specific, unflinching. We speak timidly in empty phrases from marketing consultants who have no understanding of who we are, because they’ve been hired by leaders who don’t know either.

Furthermore, Freemasonry is tongue tied by a misunderstanding of our own prohibitions of discussing religion and politics. We are enjoined from arguing over sectarian differences and partisan politics, but we can talk ideas. I’ll avoid the word philosophy, because that frightens some of the brethren, but we, as Free and Accepted Masons, may exchange views, impart wisdom, and uphold truth.

We speak of virtue and morality. We too can speak to leadership and service, to protecting and defending.

Coming next week.

The Lafayette bicentenary is upon us; the anniversary of his arrival in New York is days off. Freemasonry is commemorating this, but does anyone not named Chris Ruli know precisely what we’re celebrating?

The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is twenty-three months away. Are we preparing a jubilee for Americanism, a salute to the Freemasons, famous and obscure alike, who risked life and liberty to establish our country? Will we trumpet their ideas, or would doing so mean PoLiTics? 

At the rate I’m going, I can’t say when I’ll finish it, but for months I’ve been drafting a speech that borrows from Masonic oratory of previous generations to portray how Masons once viewed their fraternity, and thereby maybe help today’s brethren find the confidence to talk about the tenets of our Craft. Unlike the Knights of Columbus, Freemasonry cannot speak of any particular sectarian beliefs, but we do speak of God, and we should voice our universal message for free minds and free societies. Masonry has no canonized saints, but we do have our civic heroes who exemplified these concepts, as expressed in various speeches a hundred years ago:

▪︎ Freemasonry is a college of manhood.

▪︎ Its lodges are moral republics and centers of law and order.

▪︎ We offer a sanctuary of friendship and a school for liberty.

▪︎ Masonry is a voluntary league for the promotion of freedom and virtue.

▪︎ We inculcate the principles of equality, the necessity of law, and the excellence of order in all things.

Sensible people who pay attention to life realize we are stumbling through frightening times. Historically, there always have been scary things happening, but today too many institutions we once trusted are corrupted and the social customs that guided us are perverted. We are eyewitnesses to reality being contorted and made nonsensical all day, every day.

‘Rhetoric,’ per the Grand Lodge of New York.

In his Daily Masonic Progress essay today on Substack, titled “Why Freemasons Must Study Rhetoric,” Bro. Darren Allatt writes:

Why does Freemasonry instruct us to study Rhetoric, one of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences? This ancient discipline, respected by great thinkers throughout history, holds the power to transform not only our communication but our very thought processes.

Click here.

As Masons, we are called to improve ourselves in all aspects of life. But how does mastering Rhetoric contribute to this journey and what wisdom can we uncover from this timeless art?

In today’s fast-paced world, the art of effective communication is more crucial than ever. Yet many of us, Masons included, often overlook the importance of Rhetoric in our personal and professional lives. This oversight leads to missed opportunities for growth, influence, and understanding. Without a grasp of Rhetoric, we may find ourselves struggling to express our ideas clearly, persuade others, or fully understand the messages around us.

Decent men are looking for stability, order, real equality, virtue, morality, freedom, and manhood. For everybody’s sake, Freemasons ought to be as unapologetically bold and clear in speaking the truth as are our neighbors in the Knights of Columbus. The kind of man we seek will respond.

     

‘Of Philalethes and fairy elves’

    

The upcoming issue of The Philalethes, the quarterly journal of the Philalethes Society, was emailed to members last week as a PDF in advance of the print version. As usual, there are many interesting points within.

I won’t take you page by page, but if you, like me, are curious about “The Fairy Elves Song,” as printed in Cole’s Constitutions of 1728, then W. Bro. Nathan St. Pierre, of Lodge of Nine Muses 1776 in Washington, has what you seek—and then some.

In his “Whilst We Enchant All Ears with Musick of the Spheres: The Esoteric Significance of ‘The New Fairies: Or, The Fellow-Craft’s Song,’” St. Pierre takes us back several centuries to gain an appreciation of the Masonic dinner song. Maybe you know Matthew Birkhead, but there is much more to early eighteenth century Masonic music than what appears in Anderson’s Constitutions.

A few bars of St. Pierre:

Fairies are complex preternatural creatures appearing in poetry, trial documents, popular pamphlet stories, and demonologies across northern Europe in the early modern period. While often associated with Celtic beliefs and folklore, fairies also appear in Germanic, Nordic, and Eastern European tales. They are sometimes used interchangeably with ‘elves’ and are related to creatures such as goblins, hobgoblins, ouphs, and urchins. Fairies could be seen as magical helpers in healing and finding lost goods or as familiar spirits of witches. The reclassification of fairies as demonic entities became more common after the 1563 Witchcraft Act. Shakespeare’s fairies, particularly in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, exhibit these characteristics, operating both benign and malevolent magic and interacting authoritatively with the human world.

Elves are creatures similar to fairies, or interchangeable with them, forming part of a wider realm of northern European preternatural beings. In Old English, an ælf was a spirit associated with a particular environment or element, such as water. Elves could cause sickness in humans and animals, leading to the need for charms to ward them off.

And:

The first time “The New Fairies: Or, The Fellow-Craft’s Song” is presented in its entirety is in A Curious Collection of The Most Celebrated Songs in Honour of Masonry, published for Benjamin Creake in collaboration with Benjamin Cole. In that publication, the song is indicated, “as sung at the Lodge in Carmarthen South-Wales.” This very likely refers to the constitution of Naggshead and Starr Lodge in Carmarthen, South Wales on the 9th of June in 1726. The pillar officers installed that day were Master, Emanuel Bowen; and Wardens, Edward Oakley and Rice Davis. Brother Oakley would soon take this song to London where it would capture the attention of the Masonic world.

Edward Oakley, initially recorded in 1721, was actively involved in the foundation and operation of Masonic lodges both in Carmarthen and London. By 1724 or 1725, he co-founded the Naggshead and Starr Lodge in Carmarthen and served as its Senior Warden in 1726. He later became a prominent member of the Three Compasses Lodge in Silver Street, London, where he served as Senior Warden in 1725 and as Master. On December 31, 1728, Oakley delivered a significant speech outlining the qualifications and duties of Masonic members, emphasizing the importance of spreading architectural knowledge through lectures and books. This speech was published in Benjamin Cole’s edition of The Ancient Constitutions of the Free and Accepted Masons (1728), thus reaching a wide audience.

Much more information and context awaits you in this deep paper, but I zeroed in on what attracted me.

Click here for membership information.