The Magpie Mason is an obscure journalist in the Craft who writes, with occasional flashes of superficial cleverness, about Freemasonry’s current events and history; literature and art; philosophy and pipe smoking. He is the Worshipful Master of The American Lodge of Research in New York City; is a Past Master of New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786; and also is at labor in Virginia’s Civil War Lodge of Research 1865. He is a past president of the Masonic Society as well.
Never before have I heard of an Eastern Star chapter hosting an event like this, so I cannot resist forwarding the news. On Friday, Lorelei Chapter 581 will welcome Michelle Snyder, Ph.D. to present “The Feminine Divine.”
Click to enlarge.
From her blog: “Michelle earned her post-graduate degree at the University of Wales, decoding prehistoric images, mythology, folklore, and fairy tales, and tracing them to their roots. She is an author, columnist, publisher, artist, and teacher. Her artwork, inspired by her love of symbolism and folklore, has appeared in galleries from Massachusetts to California. Michelle is co-owner of White Knight Studio.” Her books, on symbology and fairy tales, include: Symbology ReVision: Unlocking Secret Knowledge Symbology: Hidden in Plain Sight Symbology: My Art and Symbols Symbology: Fairy Tales Uncovered Symbology: Decoding Classic Images Symbology: World of Symbols Symbology: Secrets of the Mermaids and: A Tale of Three Kingdoms, Book One: The Lost Unicorn A Tale of Three Kingdoms, Book Two: The Lost Mermaid The Fairy Tales: Once-Upon-a-Time Lessons She has spoken from the lectern to a variety of Masonic audiences.
Big news from the irrepressible Piers. He has translated this historic text, and has made it available to you. From the publicity:
Courtesy Piers Vaughan
I’m delighted to announce that Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin’s second book, Natural Table, is now published and available. First published in 1782, seven years after Of Errors & Truth, Saint-Martin was still a Freemason and avid follower of Pasqually and his teachings, even though his Master had died years earlier, and the Elus Cohen was almost defunct. This book shows how he continued to develop the Theosophy, and this great image of God, Man, and the Universe examines Pasqually’s theology from ancient mythology and the Old Testament. He continues to the advent of Christ, whom he called the Repairer, and continues to the Apocalypse. We also should remember that this work was published in the same year as the Convent of Wilhelmsbad, at which Jean-Baptiste Willermoz received authority to rework the Order of Strict Observance into the Scottish Rectified Rite, forever preserving Pasqually’s teachings in one of most sublime Masonic Orders of all. It’s available in hardcover and paperback, and at a discount for now, so act fast!
American roots music spans a galaxy of styles and traditions, regions and generations. I practically used to live on the music of contemporary singer-songwriters from Texas, Louisiana, and environs. Guy Clark, Robert Earl Keen, Lucinda Williams, Joe Ely, Townes Van Zandt, and many more. I had the good fortune to see them perform when they came to New York. You’d pay something like $12 to sit at their feet in the Bottom Line back in the 1980s and ’90s. I would leave class, or the library, or my desk at the student newspaper, and would just cross the street and fold into my usual seat. One night in December 1990, I saw Clark, Keen, and Van Zandt sharing the stage. I’ve been revisiting this music lately. Got a lot of CDs. Van Zandt’s historic double album Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas captures a night in 1973, pretty early in his career. It was released on New York City-based Tomato Records in 1977. I had totally forgotten this song. “Fraternity Blues” is about the college fraternity game, of which I never was part. Musically, this is in the tradition of Talking Blues. Think Woody Guthrie and those first Bob Dylan records, for example.
Fraternity Blues
Townes Van Zandt
I decided to improve my social station
I joined a fraternity organization
Tucked in my shirt
Signed on the line
Right away they set about to improve my mind
The car I drove
The books I read
The food I ate
The booze I drank
The girls I took out
My breath
Said “kid, we don’t much like the way you walk
And you gonna have to change the way you talk”
They said “your dress is kind of slouchy
And your attitude is mighty grouchy”
Said “you got to learn to bubble”
“You got to bubble with enthusiasm” I started to bubble
“Most important thing you can’t forget
Is learning the entire Greek alphabet”
I never did really understand
That that’s gonna make me anymore a man
But I learned it
I can whip through that son-of-a-beta backwards in five seconds
Then they hit me with some pretty bad news
Concerning the payment of monthly dues
I never did know where that money went
I never was sure it was well spent
But I paid it
I’m no trouble-causer and besides I figured that’s life
If you want good friends it gonna cost you
Well, finally got to be party time
I got a great big old jug of wine
I went back to the house in about an hour
when the boys were drinking whiskey sours
brandy alexanders
frozen daiquiris
Reciting the Greek alphabet to one another
I could see I was gonna have to do my very best
To get myself out of that fraternity mess
I stood right there outside the door
And I chugged that wine like never before
Walked inside and bubbled
All over a couple of their dates
So now everything’s back to normal again
But there is still lots of room for improvement my friend
On this Jewish calendar date, the Ninth of Av, Nebuchadnezzar’s troops took Jerusalem and destroyed King Solomon’s Temple in the year 587 BCE, and the Second Temple was destroyed by Roman forces in 70 CE. Many other calamities occurred on this date in Jewish history right up to the modern era. Synagogue lights will be dimmed, fasting will commence, and the Book of Lamentations will be read. It’s worth the attention of Freemasons too.
Save the date: Saturday, September 22, at the Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel, for the Mid-Hudson District Grand Lodge Officers Apron Presentation. Bro. Oscar Alleyne, the Right Worshipful Junior Grand Warden, with five other Grand Staff Officers, will receive their purple and gold. Beyond the installation of officers, New York Freemasonry offers a terrific tradition of formally presenting the grand rank aprons in local settings. Details about this event are still to come, and I’ll share them here when they’re available.
The School of Practical Philosophy’s “Summer Stories” series is near. If you’ve never attended a lecture or taken a course at the school, this opportunity offers a great way to get acquainted with the quality of instruction and socialization at the townhouse. We won’t know what the stories will be until we get there, but the schedule is: Wednesdays July 11 and 18 Tuesdays August 21 and 28 Seven o’clock starts. Only $20 per person, which includes wine and light refreshments. Click here for tickets. The school is located at 12 East 79th Street, just outside Central Park.
If you were afraid of having nothing to do in the summertime, don’t worry, and get thee to Masonic Hall. On Saturday, July 14, a day of—well—enlightening lectures will be presented by four of the best speakers one could hope for. From the publicity:
“Since 1717, there have been over 1000 ‘Masonic’ degrees created. The most popular survived and are included in many of the rites, orders, and systems we know today. Like a meal, each degree is only as good as its creator. The recipe may include many of the same ingredients as other meals, yet taste completely different. By analogy, we may see many of the same ‘ingredients’ (features like the use of the term Scottish) in a number of degrees which teach completely different things. The predilections of a degree’s author affect the content as much as the taste buds of a chef. The ‘flavor’ of the foundational Craft degrees in various rites, orders, and systems (Webb working, Scottish Rite, York Rite, Swedish Rite, RER, etc.), differs immensely, and in the ‘Higher Degrees,’ the differences are even more dramatic and pronounced. Some are philosophical, others practical; some present allegory, and others offer discourses on symbolism or (quasi-) historical themes.” Arturo de Hoyos “Esotericism is a Matter of Degrees”
The Legends of the Craft Symposium “Masonry During the Age of Enlightenment” is a one-day educational experience for Master Masons interested in the development of many of our rituals. The focus this year is on degree systems and rituals developed during the 18th century in Europe. We’re filling the room with Brothers, Companions, Sir Knights, and Sublime Princes from around the nation. The Symposium is free and features a 30-minute talk followed by 15 minutes of Q&A. After, there will be an amazing Festive Board (only $55 per person). The goal is to get the smartest minds in Freemasonry in one room, and then learn a whole lot from each other. The hosts are Shakespeare Lodge 750, Continental Lodge 287, and memorizemore.com.
The Lectures
The Legend of Comte de St Laurent
and his role in Scottish Rite Freemasonry
By E. Oscar Alleyne
In 1832 there arrived in the City of New York the Count de St. Laurent. He was a member of the Supreme Council of France and Grand Commander (Ad Vitam) of the Supreme Council 33º for Terra Firma, New Spain, South America, Puerto Rico, Canary Islands, etc. He found the old council sleeping in consequence of political and anti-Masonic troubles existing at that time. This lecture discusses his role in resuscitating that council, and many of the mysteries connected to him as he introduced Scottish Rite to African-American Masons.
Early Scots Masonry, the Royal Arch,
and the Scottish Rite
By Arturo de Hoyos
In the early 1730s in England there were “Scotch Masons” or “Scots Master Masons,” a step after the Master Mason Degree (and apparently unrelated to Scotland). By 1742 in Berlin there was talk of “higher or so-called Scottish Masonry.” In 1743 the Grand Lodge of France adopted a regulation limiting the privileges of “Scots Masters” in lodges. It’s clear from these few mentions that something was going on behind the scenes with “Scottish Masonry,” but we’re not quite sure what. These developments were happening at the same time the Royal Arch was gestating before its birth. It’s even possible the Royal Arch and Scottish Masonry came from the same sources. We just don’t know, until now. “Early Scots Masonry, the Royal Arch, and the Scottish Rite” explores the early migration of Scots Master from Britain to Europe, its association with Royal Arch Masonry, and how it became the foundation for the Scottish Rite degrees.
The Magician, the Mystic,
and the Mason:
The Unlikely Origin of the Rectified Rite
By Piers A. Vaughan
Pasqually, Saint-Martin, and Willermoz are names which are revered in continental European Freemasonry, yet are scarcely known in England or the United States. Nevertheless, their influence has spread far beyond the borders of France, and what they established has affected Freemasonry—and other Orders—ever since. In this talk, you will learn how an almost chance encounter between these three men in the latter part of the 18th century led to the creation of one of the most astonishing orders in Freemasonry, one which still exists and which is considered one of the highest honors to be invited to join. Yet few of its members really understand the gnostic, theurgic, and symbolic underpinnings of an order which, had the French Revolution not taken place, was set to become the standard work across Europe for the following centuries. Had this order become the basis of Freemasonry, there would have been no doubt that the fraternity would have indeed been based upon deeply spiritual and magical practices, and would indeed have been full of “secrets!”
Stephen Morin
and the Baylot Manuscript:
The Origins of the Order
of the Royal Secret
By Josef Wäges
One of the most elusive questions of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite concerns its origins. Where exactly did it come from, and from what source do its rituals emanate? Many scholars have rightfully determined that Étienne Morin, also known as Stephen Morin, is the founder of this system, but it is even less certain precisely from whence his authority came, let alone who Étienne Morin was. The truth is that we only have a partial picture of who he was and the circumstances concerning his authority to establish the rite. Nevertheless, when one assembles all of the evidence and gathers still more, there is still enough light left in the fragments to project a more complete vision of the truth. A close examination of the Baylot Manuscript, in comparison to the Francken Manuscripts in particular, is necessary because it reveals that this manuscript forms the nucleus of what became the Order of the Royal Secret, and later the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
I screwed up by not posting this a month ago, when I should have, but fortunately the secretary says there still are seats available—including for non-members—even though the RSVP deadline passed, so check it out.
Freemasons are notorious for their “secrets”—real or imagined, benign or sinister. The year 1637 saw the first known mention of the “Mason Word,” the Freemasons’ method of identifying (and commanding?) each other. This paper looks at the known references to the Mason Word during the eighteenth century and follows the evolution of public understanding of this central piece of Masons’ identity. Bro. Morris, 33º is a Past President of the Maryland Masonic Research Society, and a Past Master of both Patmos Lodge 70 in Ellicott City, and of Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076 in London. He is the managing editor of The Scottish Rite Journal, is Grand Abbot of the Society of Blue Friars, and is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on Freemasonry. He is a mathematician by training and a magician by inclination. RSVP here.
A blog post today by the secretary of Covenant Lodge 4344 under the United Grand Lodge of England offers a great idea others might want to adopt:
New Masons Reception
A little more than a month ago, I responded positively to an invitation to arrange for any new members of the Covenant Lodge to attend a welcome presentation at our headquarters in Great Queen Street, London. For anyone who has not previously visited the building, I heartily recommend it. It is open to the public most days of the week. That said, I booked two tickets that covered the cost of wine and canapés, after speeches and presentations. What a surprise and delight it all turned out to be! I speak as a long-in-the-tooth Freemason of many years standing. We were treated to a very good “no holds barred” speech by one of our Assistant Metropolitan Grand Masters, followed by a most erudite, amusing, and informative mini-lecture on the topic of the history of Freemasonry. We broke off from that and adjourned to a warm reception of wine, food, and chat in an area packed with new Freemasons, their friends and partners. I was most impressed with the energy, enthusiasm, and general level of intellect of all the newcomers to Freemasonry I encountered that evening. The new member of Covenant Lodge and I then adjourned to a nearby pub for further chats, and then home. What a worthwhile exercise.
The Fourth Manhattan District of the Grand Lodge of New York (my home district!) is the sponsor of the next lecture at the Livingston Library on Thursday. Free and open to the public. Photo ID is required to enter the building. From the publicity:
Lecture No. 6:
“Mystical Symbolism and Music”
Chancellor Robert R. Livingston
Masonic Library
Thursday, June 28 at 6:30
Masonic Hall
71 W. 23rd Street, Manhattan
Sponsored by the Square Club of the Fourth Manhattan District, Thursday, June 28, the Livingston Masonic Library will host Bro. Tony Crisos and Bro. Angel Millar, who will present a lecture and concert titled “Mystical Symbolism and Music: a Salon de la Rose Croix Lecture and Concert.” The short introductory talk will be on the Salon de la Rose Croix and on the relationship between music and spirituality. A musical performance will follow the lecture with four original compositions utilizing the Hermetic Laws as they appear in the Kybalion and as inspired by the Orphic, Hermetic, and Rosicrucian traditions. The evening is fashioned aesthetically after the famous Salon de la Rose+Croix movement which took place in Paris, France, between 1892 and 1897.
Courtesy Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library
This class is selling out very quickly. If you are interested, act now. The School of Practical Philosophy will remain pretty busy during the summer recess with a variety of special events. Such as:
The Truth Will Set You Free Who are You? What is Truth? What is Freedom? How Can You Be Free?
Throughout the ages, philosophers of East and West have responded to these questions through thoughtful analyses and inspiring stories and myths. Join us for an entertaining evening exploring the profound wisdom these sages present, and discover time-tested practices that can set us free today—free from anxiety, free from fear, free to realize our true potential, free to be happy, free to be oneself. Tickets, at $25, which includes light refreshments, are available here.
I floated the idea of starting a book club in my lodge a number of months ago, but it didn’t catch on, so I’m very happy to see the Square Club of the Fourth Manhattan District is launching a book club for all our lodges.
The first meeting will be Wednesday, June 27 at 6:30 p.m. in Room 1615 at Masonic Hall. The chosen reading is A Pilgrim’s Path by John J. Robinson. I read this one during my early years as a Freemason, and I’ll need to revisit it to refresh my memory. Robinson also is the author of Born in Blood, the maddeningly fanciful theory of medieval Templar origins of Freemasonry. Robinson was not a Freemason when he wrote that one but, if memory serves, he had become a Mason by the time he’d written A Pilgrim’s Path. Book clubs provide possibly the best way for Freemasons to learn together. It’s not about ritual performance, etiquette, or anything formalized, so there’s no pressure. Just read the book, and come discuss. RSVP here.
The 2018 Dr. Charles A. Sankey Lecture has been rescheduled for Sunday, September 9.
Hosted by the History Department of Brock University in Ontario, in cooperation with the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario, the annual affair will host William D. Moore, who will present “Catechism, Spectacle, Burlesque: American Fraternal Ritual Performance, 1733-1933.” Moore is director of the American and New England Studies Program, and is associate professor of American Material Culture of the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Boston University. The event will take place in the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre at Brock University. All are welcome, and tickets are available here.
Have you seen Garibaldi Lodge’s Italian-language Entered Apprentice Degree? You will have a chance to see the same ritual in its original French on Tuesday, when l’Union Française Lodge 17 will initiate four candidates at Masonic Hall. From the publicity, courtesy Bro. Francis:
The oldest lodge of the 10th Manhattan District, l’Union Française 17, will initiate candidates Tuesday, June 19, in the French Doric Room on the 10th Floor of Masonic Hall, located at 71 West 23rd Street. We open at 6 p.m., and the degree should start around 6:45. No one can be admitted after the degree has begun. Please have your current dues card ready for the Tiler. Our First Degree does include the rites of purification of Rosicrucian origin, not seen in the traditional American degrees, which we have kept alive since 1797. This degree will be conducted in French by our Worshipful Master with the able assistance of our Senior Deacon and his College of Officers in the intimate setting of our regular lodge room, which gives every visitor the instant feeling of being actively part of the proceedings. There will be a post-meeting dinner in the restaurant Saju (120 West 44th Street, between Sixth and Seventh avenues, near Times Square) at the cost of $50 (cash) per person, including wine, tax, and tips. You can make your necessary reservations with our Secretary here. I hope that the length of your cable tow will permit you, and all other interested Brothers who may want to come with you, to join us for this ancient esoteric ceremony, and to help us welcome these four candidates into our Royal Craft. Fraternally, RW Francis Dumaurier, 33°, MSA, KYCH Grand Representative of France
Previous Magpie posts on Haiti have been getting a lot of traffic the past few weeks, so I went looking for reasons why—and found this: The Abrazo Interno Gallery of The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center in Manhattan is the place to see the exhibit “Vernacular Universalism: Freemasonry in Haiti and Beyond” through June 23. There will be a panel discussion on Friday, June 22 at 6:30 p.m. From the publicity:
Courtesy The Clemente
In Haiti, during the colonial era, the Freemasons were one of the few European institutions that allowed black membership. Freemasonry still thrives in contemporary Haiti, and its visual world pervades the Haitian imaginary. The symbols that recur throughout this exhibition once tethered a web of ideas that stretched across the Atlantic, encrypting the most precious values of the Enlightenment.
Courtesy The Clemente
This exhibition aims to visualize the mesh of magic and reason; alchemy and science; trade and metaphysical exchange that has stretched into the 21st century. By focusing on Haiti, this exhibition sheds light on the relationship between colonized peoples and the Enlightenment. It suggests that for some, Freemasonry offered a path to becoming an agent of modernity, rather than its reviled “other.” This exhibition will be a timely and significant contribution to an understanding of Freemasonry through the lens of the Black Atlantic.
Courtesy The Clemente
This exhibition is compiled by Leah Gordon and transgresses the borders between fiction and non-fiction; reality and imagination and will feature original and commissioned works by Haitian, American, and European artists Yves Delva, Ernest Dominique, Marg Duston, Andre Eugene, Leah Gordon, Lazaros, Michel Lafleur, and Molej Zamour. The pairing of document and artifact mirrors the binaries between Magic and Modernity inherent in Haitian Freemasonry. (The title is from a conversation about Haitian Freemasonry between Sibylle Fischer and Katherine Smith, and I thank them for their generosity in granting me permission to temporarily adopt it.) The Clemente is located at 107 Suffolk Street, between Delancey and Rivington streets.
New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education 1786 will host its quarterly communication next Saturday with an interesting full agenda. Worshipful Master Bob has been undertaking a review of the Masonic life of James Anderson, the Presbyterian minister who authored Freemasonry’s first Book of Constitutions, and will report his findings. Senior Warden Michael will present his analysis of the Scriptural passages employed in the three Craft degrees. In New Jersey, they are Psalm 133, Amos 7, and Ecclesiastes 12. Other jurisdictions use different verses, so I’m curious to see if this talk will cover those also. Bro. Don will review Margaret Jacobs’ book The Origins of Freemasonry, Facts and Fictions. Enlightening discussions always ensue, and are worth the price of admission themselves. Saturday, June 9. We meet at Hightstown-Apollo Lodge 41, located at 535 North Main Street in Hightstown, not far from the Turnpike. Opening at 9:30. Wear a suit and tie. Bring your regalia and membership card. All Master Masons are welcome, not just LORE members. We’ll most likely close around 1 p.m.
I see the MRF website is up. Click here to start planning your trip. The Masonic Restoration Foundation’s Ninth Annual Symposium will be held in Santa Fe, New Mexico August 10 through 12. The host lodges will be Montezuma 1 and Cerrillos 19, which is the Observant lodge in the jurisdiction.
Congratulations to Bro. Michael Karn upon being tapped to serve as the United Grand Lodge of England’s Prestonian Lecturer for 2019! His paper is titled “English Freemasonry During the Great War.” I hope his travels take him to New York City.
Michael Karn Wearing Royal Arch regalia.
Bro. Karn has been a Freemason 31 years, during which time he has excelled in the field of Masonic education, having written and presented numerous works of research, and has held all kinds of stations and places and ranks. He is very keen on music as well, being an organist and a vocalist—and is a member of a lodge of musicians too. (You may recall I reported his paper was honored with the Norman Spencer Prize four years ago.) Having enjoyed Trevor Stewart and other Prestonians discuss the First World War in Masonic contexts, I very much look forward to Bro. Karn’s lecture.
The Masonic Philosophical Society will have its hands full two Sundays from now, when the topic of discussion will ask “How does the Existentialist viewpoint influence our reality?” From the publicity:
Masonic Philosophical Society
How Does the Existentialist Viewpoint
Influence Our Reality?
Sunday, June 3 at 2:30 p.m.
Whitestone Masonic Temple
149-39 11th Avenue
Whitestone, New York
June’s topic will be conducted by Bro. Anthony Sokol on a study of “Freemasonry: How Does the Existentialist Viewpoint Influence Our Reality?” After a short lecture, a discussion and debate by the group will follow.
The Truman Show, starring Jim Carrey and Ed Harris, is a movie about a television show starring Truman who lives his entire life in a fabricated reality. In the movie, the focus is on the philosophy of existentialism and skepticism. As with existentialism, the character Truman explored the questions: Is our existence absurd? Where am I going? What is the meaning of life? As in this movie we can ask ourselves if what is true for one person is true for another. We then have to ask ourselves if truth is perhaps subjective. Join us this month as we look at how Freemasonry relates to existentialism as we explore it against the backdrop of The Truman Show.
I don’t know about you, but the closest I’d ever get to Yale University would be as a tourist. Fortunately, the research lodge that meets in New Haven will host a presentation Wednesday that will Masonically decode the university’s campus. Bro. Larry Bowman will deliver his research paper titled “Masonic Insignia Around Yale’s Memorial Quadrangle” at the New Haven Masonic Building (285 Whitney Avenue) at 7:30 p.m. Take that, you Bonesmen, with your really running the world and all that!
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