Rising Point, Fall 2010

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INTERNATIONAL MASONIC REVIEW PUBLISHED BY BONISTEEL MASONIC LIBRARY

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Rising Point Volume 21. Issue 2 •

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• FALL 2010

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Contents

Volume 21. Issue 2 - fall 2010 MAILING ADDRESS THE RISING POINT Bonisteel Masonic Library 2520 Arrowwood Trl Ann Arbor, MI 48105 Web site: www.bonisteelml.org Bro. Mitchell Ozog , 32º Editor in Chief. mozog@bonisteelml.org Bro. Karl Grube, Ph.D., 32º Managing Editor kgrube@bonisteelml.org Bro. Robert Blackburn 32º Book Review Editor LAYOUT & DESIGN Bro. Mitchell Ozog COVER CREDITS Photo, Bro. Mitchell Ozog BONISTEEL MASONIC LIBRARY FUND RAISER The Bonisteel Masonic Library of Ann Arbor & Detroit has established a goal of raising $5,000 for 2011 operations.

Your contribution will assure the continuance of our award winning quarterly publication Rising Point and the yearly costs of online publication. Simple scroll down to Pay Pal on the Index page at Bonisteel Masonic Library website donate by using a credit card. www.bonisteelml.org

FEATURE ARTICLES

3 4 11 14 18 20 24 25 27 28 30

The Ancient Arabic Order of The nobles of the mystic shrine Who are the shriners

I believe I can fly The Jebusite’s Jobsite Bro. Alphonse Mucha From Darkness To Light To Darkness CROWN OF SERPENTS The book review The Intellectual Qualifications of Candidates Freemasonry in Reich Puts Ban on Politics THE NEW MEMBER: WHAT HE MAY EXPECT FREEMASONRY AND RELIGION

And More!!!

THE RISING POINT is the official publication of Bonisteel Masonic Library and is published four times per year. Masonic Bodies are welcome to reprint from this publication provided that the article is reprinted in full, the name of the author and the source of the article are indicated, and a copy of the publication containing the reprint is sent to the editor. Submissions to this publication and all Correspondence concerning this publication should come through the Editor Mitchell Ozog. The Editor reserves the right to edit all materials received.

Fair Use Notice: The Bonisteel Masonic Library web site and publication THE RISING POINT may at times contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc.. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site or the publication Rising Point for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on The Bonisteel Masonic Library web site and publication Rising Point is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml United States Code: Title 17, Section 107 http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/unframed/17/107.html Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include - (1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes; (2) the nature of the copyrighted work; (3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and (4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

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HISTORY

I

The Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine

n 1870, there were several thousand Masons in Manhattan, many of whom Commonly lunched at the Knickerbocker Cottage at a special table on the second floor. known as There, the idea of a new fraternity for Masons stressing Shriners and abbreviated fun and fellowship was discussed. Dr. Walter M. A.A.O.N.M.S., established in Fleming, M.D., and William J. Florence took the idea 1870 is an appendant body to seriously enough to act upon it. Florence, a worldFreemasonry, based in the United renowned actor, while on tour in Marseilles, was States. The organization is bestinvited to a party given by an Arabian diplomat. The known for the Shriners Hospitals for entertainment was something in the nature of an Children they administer and the elaborately staged musical comedy. At its conclusion, red fezzes that members wear. the guests became members of a secret society.

Florence took copious notes and drawings at his initial viewing and on two other occasions, once in Algiers and once in Cairo. When he returned to New York in 1870, he showed his material to Fleming.

♣

Fleming took the ideas supplied by Florence and converted them into what would become the “Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (A.A.O.N.M.S.)”. Fleming created the ritual, emblem and costumes. Florence and Fleming were initiated August 13, 1870, and initiated 11 other men on June 16, 1871. The group adopted a Middle Eastern theme and soon established Temples meeting in Mosques (though the term Temple has now generally been replaced by Shrine Auditorium or Shrine Center). The first Temple established was Mecca Temple (now known as Mecca Shriners), established at the New York City Masonic Hall on September 26, 1872. Fleming was the first Potentate.

In 1875, there were only 43 Shriners in the organization. In an effort to spur membership, at the June 6, 1876 meeting of Mecca Temple, the Imperial Grand Council of the Ancient Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine for North America was created. Fleming was elected the first Imperial Potentate. After some other reworking, by 1878 there were 425 members in 13 temples in eight states, and by 1888, there were 7,210 members in 48 temples in the United States and Canada. By the Imperial Session held in Washington, D.C. in 1900, there were 55,000 members and 82 Temples.

Shriners often participate in local parades, sometimes as rather elaborate units: miniature vehicles in themes (all sports cars; all miniature 18-wheeler trucks; all fire engines, and so on), an “Oriental Band” dressed in cartoonish versions of Middle Eastern dress; pipe bands, drummers, motorcycle units, Drum and Bugle Corps, and even traditional brass bands.

The Emblem Shrine Emblem The Crescent was adopted as the Jewel of the Order.

Though any materials can be used in forming the Crescent, the most valuable are the claws of a Royal Bengal Tiger, united at their base in a gold setting. In the center is the head of a sphinx, and on the back are a pyramid, an urn and a star. The Jewel bears the motto “Robur et Furor,” which means “Strength and Fury.” Today, the Shrine emblem includes a scimitar from which the crescent hangs, and a five-pointed star beneath the head of the sphinx.

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A Who are the Shriners?

brotherhood of men...dedicated to fun and fellowship...but with a serious purpose.

Shriners are distinguished by an enjoyment of life and a commitment to philanthropy. They enjoy parades, trips, dances, dinners, sporting events and other social occasions. They support what has been called the “World’s Greatest Philanthropy,” Shriners Hospitals for Children, a network of 22 pediatric specialty hospitals, operated and maintained by the Shriners.

All children, up to 18 years old, may be eligible for treatment at Shriners Hospitals if they, in the opinion of the hospital’s chief of staff, could benefit from the specialized care available at Shriners Hospitals. Eligibility is not based on financial need or relationship to a Shriner.

What is Masonry and what is the connection to the Shrine?

In order to become a Shriner, a man must first be a Mason. The fraternity of Freemasonry is the oldest, largest and most widely known fraternity in the world. It dates back hundreds of years to the time when stonemasons and other craftsmen gathered in shelter houses or lodges. Over the years, formal Masonic lodges emerged, with members bound together not by trade, but by their own desire to be fraternal brothers.

The basic unit of Masonry is the Blue Lodge, where members earn the first three Masonic Degrees known as the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason. There is no higher degree than that of Master Mason (the Third Degree).

Join the Fraternity: For information about joining Shriners International, please visit www.shrinershq.org From Detroit Area: 24350 Southfield Rd. Southfield MI 48075 248.569.2900 Fax 248.557.4402 Moslem Shriners Business Office Hours: Monday through Friday - 9am to 4pm Weekends - Closed

After he becomes a Master Mason, he can belong to many other organizations which have their roots in Masonry and which have Blue Lodge Masonry as a prerequisite. Only when a man has achieved the status of Master Mason can he petition to become a Noble of Shriners International.

Other affiliated Masonic organizations include the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry (Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A., Northern Jurisdiction, U.S.A and Canada) and the York Rite.

What is the relationship between Shriners and Shriners Hospitals?

In a unique interdependent relationship, the Shriners and Shriners Hospitals are separate but inseparable.

Shriners International supports Shriners Hospitals in many ways:

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Shrine Temples and clubs often help arrange and pay for transportation for children and parents to the hospitals, and thousands of Shriners spend many hours of their own time driving families to the hospitals and entertaining the patients.

In addition, Shriners helps support the hospitals financially, with each Shriner paying an annual $5 hospital assessment. Temples and clubs also hold many fundraisers, some of which benefit Shriners Hospitals for Children.

What are the benefits of becoming a Shriner? ► Membership in a well-known fraternal organization recognized for its social and philanthropic activities. ► Opportunity to develop lasting friendships with others from all walks of life ► A variety of social activities available for the entire family and many special-interest groups to meet individual interests ► The privilege of being part of the “Worlds Greatest Philanthropy,” offering Shriners many opportunities to find personal fulfillment and satisfaction through supporting Shriners Hospitals for Children.

Photos By Mitchell Ozog 2010

Robert Pate - Oriental Guide

Southfield

Illustrious Sir Michael J. Dib - Potentate

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First Hospital:

B

efore the June 1922 Imperial Session, the cornerstone was in place for the first Shriners Hospital for Crippled Children in Shreveport, Louisiana. The rules were simple: To be admitted, a child must be from a family unable to pay for the orthopaedic treatment he or she would receive [this is no longer a requirement], be under 14 years of age [later increased to 18], and be, in the opinion of the chief of staff, someone whose condition could be helped. The Shriners Hospitals network is supervised by the members of the Board of Trustees, who are elected at the annual meeting of the hospital corporation. Each hospital operates under the supervision of a local Board of Governors, a chief of staff and an administrator. Members of the boards are Shriners, who serve without pay.

The network of orthopaedic hospitals grew as follows: Shreveport, Louisiana - 16 September 1922 Honolulu, Hawai‘i - 2 January 1923 Twin Cities (Minneapolis), Minnesota - 12 March 1923

San Francisco, California - 16 June 1923 [relocated to Sacramento in 1997; the old building is now a pensioners’ assisted living facility] Portland, Oregon - 15 January 1924 Saint Louis, Missouri - 8 April 1924 Spokane, Washington - 15 November 1924 Salt Lake City, Utah - 22 January 1925 Montréal, Québec - 18 February 1925 Springfield, Massachusetts - 21 February 1925 Chicago, Illinois - 20 March 1926 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - 24 June 1926

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Lexington, Kentucky - 1 November 1926 Greenville, South Carolina - 1 September 1927 MĂŠxico City. MĂŠxico - 10 March 1945 Houston, Texas - 1 February 1952 Los Angeles, California - 25 February 1952 Winnipeg, Manitoba - 16 March 1952 [turned over to Canadian Ministry of Health on 12 August 1977; now the Rehabilitation Centre For Children] Erie, Pennsylvania - 1 April 1967 Tampa, Florida - 16 October 1985 Northern California (Sacramento), California - 14 April 1997 The first patient to be admitted in 1922 was a little girl with a clubfoot, who had learned to walk on the top of her foot rather than the sole. The first child to be admitted in Minneapolis was a boy with polio. Since that time, more than 835,000 children have been treated at the twenty-two Shriners Hospitals for Children. Surgical techniques developed in Shriners Hospitals have become standard in the orthopaedic world. Thousands of children have been fitted with arm and leg braces and artificial limbs, most of them made at the hospitals by our in-house expert technicians.

Orthopaedic and Burn hospitals Canada

Mexico

Chicago

Erie

Honolulu

Houston

Lexington

Los Angeles

Northern California

Philadelphia

REFERENCES: http://www.westsuburbanshrineclub.org/History-Shriners.htm#Evolution-Philanthropy-ShreveportCornerstone Courtesy: George Washington Masonic Memorial

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Entering the Burn Care Field This expansion of orthopaedic work was not enough for Shriners. They had enough funds to further expand their philanthropy.

The only question was: What unmet need could they fill?

A special committee was established to explore areas of need and found that burn treatment was a field of service that was being bypassed. In the early ’60s, the only burn treatment centre in the United States was part of a military complex. The committee was ready with a resolution for the 1962 Imperial Session in Toronto. The resolution, dated July 4, 1962, was adopted by unanimous vote.

On 1 November 1963, Shriners opened a seven-bed wing in the John Sealy Hospital at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston as an interim centre for the care of severely burned children. On 1 February 1964, Shriners opened a seven-bed unit in the Cincinnati General Hospital on the campus of the University of Cincinnati. A third interim operation, a five-bed unit, was opened 13 March 1964, in the Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston) under the direction of Harvard Medical School.

While children were being treated in these units, separate buildings were constructed near each interim location. These buildings, three 30-bed pediatric burn hospitals, were designed to meet the special needs of burned children. At each, the staffs remain affiliated with their neighbouring universities so they may better carry out their three-fold programme of treatment, research and teaching.

Greetings and Salutations of the Shriners: Since 1872, Shriners have used the salutation “Es Selamu Aleikum,” Arabic for “Peace be with you!” The response: “Aleikium Es Selamu,” or “With you be peace.”

The Chain of Command: To better understand it all, it helps to begin at the local chapter level. The group of elected officers who run the temples is called the Divan. Granted, the number one definition of divan is a long, backless sofa, but a Divan also refers to a government bureau. If you go to Detroit Area Shriners you can find the Divan: Sources: Web site of Detroit Area Shriners - http://www. detroitshriners.com

Illustrious Sir Michael J. Dib Potentate (President - CEO)

Robert Lee Chief Rabban (1st VP)

Michael Spensley Asst. Rabban (2nd VP)

Robert Pate Oriental Guide (4th VP)

The top dog in the Divan is known as the Potentate, defined as “one who has the power and position to Charles Baer High Priest rule over others.” & Prophet (3rd VP)

The second in command is called the Chief Rabban.

Sources: Web site of Shriners International http//www.shrinershq.org

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Within each chapter there can be any number of “clubs” or “units” formed for a certain purpose. The best known examples are the units of clowns and motor patrols (the “little-car” guys), often the most visible in the community. There are also clubs and units for people with various other interests as well. From golfing and boating, to classic cars and motorcycles—there truly is something for everyone! Just like the countries of North America are governed by representative bodies, so are the 191 chapters. The group of representatives, called the Imperial Council, convenes once a year to make policy decisions and legislation regarding the fraternity and philanthropy. Representatives strive to become one of the 13 members of the Imperial Divan, Shriners’ international governing body. The chief executive officer of Shriners of North America is the Imperial Potentate, who serves a one-year term.

Fez The fez - the rhombusshaped, tasseled, red hat most commonly associated with Shriners.

The fez was adopted as the official headgear of Shriners in 1872. Named after the town of Fez, Morocco, where it originated, the hat seemed to portray the Near East theme the original founders of the fraternity were looking for. Today, the fez is worn at Shriners functions and in parades and outings as an effective way of gaining exposure for the fraternity. It’s not unlike wearing a baseball cap to support your favorite team. Only, in this case, the fez draws attention to the fraternity, helps recruit new members and spreads the word about the Shriners’ philanthropy, Shriners Hospitals or Children (more on page 14). There are strict rules when it comes to the fez, though. Only certain ranking Shriners Terms and Titles Shriners may have their titles on their fez, and the tassel can only be secured with two pins or clasps on the left side of the fez. Additional pins or adornments are off-limits!

The Shrine Circus T

he Shrine Circus is a circus founded in the United States in 1906.

It travels to roughly 120 cities per year in the United States and a separate unit travels to about 40 in Canada. It is affiliated with the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, a.k.a.

Shriners.

History

The first Shrine Circus was held in Detroit, Michigan, for the Moslem Shrine Center. There is a State historical marker at the former site which proclaims its contribution to circus history. The circus was originally a one-ring affair, but by 1925 it had grown to three rings. Despite now traveling to many cities, the Detroit affair is still the largest. In 1996, it ran for 17 days with 40 performances making it not only the oldest Shrine Circus, but also the most attended.

By the 1920s Shrine Circuses were being conducted throughout the country, and each year additional Shrine Centers introduced circuses to their communities. The first Shrine Circus each year is usually in Flint, Michigan, each January. The circus then travels to at least one city per week through November. The last performances are usually being held Thanksgiving week in Evansville, Indiana, and New Orleans, Louisiana. The 2005 season ended in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, rather than New Orleans, due to Hurricane Katrina.

The term “Shrine Circus” is usually prefaced by the name of the host Shrine in each geographic area. Over the years many circus stars have appeared in Shrine Circuses, including: Clyde Beatty, the Wallendas, Emmett Kelly, the Flying Concellos, the Hannefords and the Zacchinis. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Rising point fall 2010

The Shrine Peace Memorial, erected in Toronto in 1930, serves as an ongoing reminder that Freemasonry actively promotes the ideals of peace, harmony, and prosperity for all humankind.

O

Shrine Peace Memorial

n 12 June 1930, this Peace Memorial was presented to the people of Canada by Imperial Potentate Noble Leo V. Youngworth, on behalf of the 600,000 members of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine to commemorate the peaceful relationships existing for over a century between Canada and the United States. This gift was received by Illustrious Noble the Honourable George S. Henry; then both the Premier of Ontario and the Potentate of Rameses Shriners in Toronto; representing Her Majesty’s subjects in Canada. On 20 August 1958, the surrounding garden and fountain, created by the Toronto Parks Department, were official opened and the Memorial was re-dedicated to the cause of peace

by Noble the Right Honourable John G. Diefenbaker, Prime Minister of Canada, and future Potentate of Tunis Shriners in Ottawa.

upon a globe held aloft by female sphinxes. The inscription around the base reads “Peace be on you,” and its response, “On you be the peace,” the English translation of the Islamic greeting used by Shriners.

The Right Honourable Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, was not present at the 1930 dedication, but stated via radio: “I should like to add the thanks of the Canadian people as a whole for the inspiring monument which your Order has erected on the shores of Lake Erie and which you are now about to dedicate in the cause of peace. It is indeed a worthy addition to the art treasures of the province of which Toronto is the capital city. It will be cherished by Canada as a national possession and by our continent as an abiding symbol of international good will.”

Photo: Courtesy of Rameses Temple, Toronto, Ontario, Press Corps

Located in Exhibition Place, on Toronto’s lakeshore just west of downtown, the Shrine Peace Memorial faces southerly, toward the Niagara River and the United States. The statue was designed by noted sculptor, Noble Charles Keck of Kismet Shriners in Brooklyn (now New Hyde Park), New York; and depicts a winged angel holding aloft a laurel crown and standing 10

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“Live seeking God, and then you will not live without God.” And more than ever before, all within me and around me lit up, and the light did not again abandon me. A Confession Leo Tolstoy

I believe I can fly

By Mitchell Ozog

M

any times people wonder what is life all about. Most of them see it as mystery.

On many occasions they ask themselves a question “ How has the life begun and what had been a purpose of it? As one analyzes the whole existence he/she puzzles over some concepts that are hard to understand. Although, each individual has his/her own theory on how the life has initiated, he/she could not understand why the world had been created in its specific way; there is a universe where everything seems to have perfect order and fulfills particular function. The sky, the earth, the ocean, mountains are there for human beings, animals and other creatures to suit their convenience. How clever! Despite the big unknown one try to enjoy his life as much as possible trying to find his own purpose to continue this existence.

Everybody can find their own path to complete their lives, which depends on what they value the most in their lives. Some people enjoy having them as enjoyable as possible and some have an urge to constantly advance their lives through searching for more opportunities. There are also these individuals in the world who carefully evaluate their lives and concentrate on nurturing of their inside. . These people become strict to themselves through learning to be self-disciplined. Many of them are political leaders and religious fanatics. Rest of people is ones who struggle to find meaning in their lives, as they believe that human’s life is senseless.

One of those individuals who are not satisfied of their existence and who always seek for meaning of their lives is Tolstoy. In “Confession” Tolstoy introduces some thoughts on the meaning of the life and deeply analyzes this matter by trying to find answers to some difficult questions. The writer presents his true thoughts

and reflections on his own life and people who he knows and socializes with. Although, he is a man with a good position and a great reputation he is not able to acknowledge that he deserves a special treatment. He is in tremendous emotional pain and his sorrow reflects his inability to find a balance between himself and his consciousness. He feels guilty of possessing of those qualities, which he does not consider to be valuable.

He realizes that a person should be judged according to who he/she and not just because of what he does or possesses. Yet, he is confident that people with a great position brainwashed other people to get what they want. Often they educate them although they are not oriented in a specific field. He notices that there is no order and agreement between thoughts and ideas presented by some religious leaders and teachers, which proves that these people are not knowledgeable as much as they should. Which also means that they confuse people by their false theories. . Therefore, he finds it very ironic.

Although, I agree with Tolstoy’s opinion that individuals should not be judged according to their welfare. , Position or education I admit that there are people among us who are decent and moral. It is not fair to say that everybody is an evil and that life is meaningless.

If one wants to experience true meaning in his life he will accomplish it through his right actions and good deeds. It is not enough to talk about it. One has to be proactive. He/she needs to change his attitude in order to fix the world. However, Tolstoy who was a valuable individual was not able to do it because he did not have faith in himself. He also did not believe in people. He saw many of them as incompetent in promoting the world. Perhaps, he was depressed and therefore he could not find any sense in his life.” The view of life of these people, my comrades in authorship, consisted in this: that life in general goes on developing, and in this development we-men of thought it is we-artists and poets-who have the greatest influence. Our vocation is to teach mankind. And lest the simple question should suggest itself: What do I know, and what can I teach? It was explained in this theory that this need not be known,

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Continued from page 11

and that the artist and poet teach unconsciously. For this I was paid money; I had excellent food, lodging, women and society; and I had fame, which showed that what I taught was very good”. (Tolstoy, p. 12-13).

When analyzing Tolstoy’s personal reflections on life and its meaning I wondered about my own life.

Although, am not reach and famous I think that my life is meaningful. I have a purpose to live: I was created

by God to fulfill my mission including raising my children and learn new things. My task is to pass on my knowledge to my children so they learn too. I am honest when preaching. I always reveal true about our world. This is what Tolstoy has missed in his life: he refused to be truthful to himself and the world that he lived in. Therefore, he felt like an empty educator and shallow poet.

There are many ways people complete their lives and it depends on what they value the most in their lives. Some of them have selected simple ways of living concentrating on fulfilling their basic needs, which satisfy them completely. However, for others like myself it is not enough. I seek for more of excitement in my life including exploration each aspect s of it. I am adventurous and a risk taker. I am proactive individual who expect to promote life in order to gain knowledge on certain phenomena and matters. I am desperate to learn more each day of my life. This is my purpose.

This is my goal.

It seems that my interests influence the way I live. I love reading. And I spend hours performing this fascinating activity. This is how I feed my sole. Unfortunately I am never satisfied. I feel like my passion is a great addiction. However, I cannot help it. When I read I am above myself. I am pulled inside of my story. . I become a character of it. I am completely disconnected from the world and reality. So I am there and experience moments of excitement with my characters, which come in various colors. I can experience different emotions when in my own world. I can be nervous excited or happy excited. On other occasions, I am puzzled by my character/s behavior and attitude. And sometimes it seems like I going through four stages of emotions including denial, anger, acceptance and grieving. When reading. However, The worst thing in this moment is that am not able to do anything about this. I cannot connect physically with my characters, although I sense and share their emotions. But those stories provoke my cognitive skills: logical thinking and problem solve. Through them I connect to the world as slowly begin to understand meaning of life, especially 12

I try to sympathize with my characters and put myself in their shoes. . My stories help me to be a deeper thinker and analyzer of my own actions. I admit that I have a lot of in common with my characters: I am complex. I am strong and weak I am happy and sad, I am eager and without motivation, I am attractive and ugly. I am wise and with no commons sense. It all depends what I wear, what month of year it is, what I do and with whom I socialize. I play many roles in my life. Often I act to get attention and sometimes I want to be invisible.

That happens because I feel small or great. I treat it as normal behavior because I am human being.

Most of the time I am fascinated by some stories. In fact, reading for me is a certain escape from reality to world where I can experience something new. I select stories that inspire me to be proactive. I read them and then deeply analyze events and characters. I compare characters to each other and try to find qualities in them. I wonder why they act in their particular way and how they would react when experiencing different circumstances. I wonder what influences their behavior and attitudes when in a particular situation or life setting. Would they act different if the circumstances were different, or would their attitude change if they lived in different times?

Let’ s say that we live during War World II. Bombs destroyed our house and we do not have accommodations and food. We are very desperate.

We are parents and have tired and hungry children.

We got to do something about this. We cannot let hem die from starvation. We have to put them to sleep. Let’s say that we were lucky to find an empty apartment in an abundant building. We realize that belongs to somebody else, but we have no other choice. We have to put our pride and beliefs aside in order to rescue our own family. We would not do it when circumstances were different. It would be against ethics and morality.

Although, the above behavior is undesirable, it is acceptable by majority of society. It is not right to steal, but sometimes it is necessary evil. We know that hungry man do not steal for profits but to satisfy his physical needs. Hungry people deserve compassion but not punishment. Aren’t they already punished by dramatic experiences in their lives?

Our behavior and attitudes have changed greatly. We have become materialistic and careless society. We spend money to satisfy our desires. We buy more than we should and spend more money than we own. We waste food not realizing that there are some people all

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Continued from page 12

over the world who starve to death. Who is responsible for this? Should we be more considered about others?

And maybe we do not have enough of information on the above? It seems that nobody cares. Everybody is involved in his or her own business. There is a gap a big between rich and poor. Rich lives in luxury and poor lives from check to check.” In spite of American image as a cornucopia of plenty, where the shelves of supermarket are always fully stocked, 10 millions of Americans go hungry each day, 40% of them are children and majority members of working families.”

(DeGraaf.p.83). I am very pleased that John DeGraaf has had a brilliant idea to create book, which he called “Influenza”. This is very informative book. I believe that this book has helped some Americans to understand more what is going on around them. Perhaps, they will be now more analyze each step in their lives before taking decisions. Reading evokes a special feeling in me: I feel powerful. I feel enriched and satisfied.

Through reading I develop my necessary skills in order to be a good reader. The good reader for me means to be able to understand a message that a writer introduced in his/her story. It also means to go deeper into a text by undressing each expression in order to find a true meaning. I study each word carefully and try to find interesting quotes to highlight essential ideas/thoughts. I enjoy talking about my books with people over coffee. I love sharing my experiences with other individuals. Through our mutual discussion we exchange our opinions and learn new things. We expand our knowledge by completing each other. ”It is tempting to quote authors when they express our own thoughts but with clarity a psychological accuracy we cannot match. They know us better than we know ourselves. What is shy and confused in us is succinctly and elegantly phrased in them, our pencil lines and annotations in the margins of their books and our borrowings from them indicating where we find a piece of ourselves, a sentence or two built of the very substance of which our own minds are made-a congruence all the more striking if the work was written in a age of togas or animals sacrifices. We invite these words into our books as a homage for reminding us of who we are” (Botton, p.161).

satisfying. Perhaps, for a moment people feel good about themselves. In fact they waste their money, time and other opportunities like talking about good story for instance. Theme about shopping is boring. Who would like to discuss it non-stop? However, when we talk about books we build good relationships, exchange ideas and get oriented on specific matters or issues.

Reading books is some kind of addiction but this habit brings valuable benefits. Thanks to books we become more knowledgeable each day of our lives.” But unlike racism, the addiction to stuff isn’t challenged in our society. In fact, says Terry Pauly” It is a very socially acceptable way to be addictive to get a temporary high, to feel good. I am feeling depressed today-let’s go shopping. As far as society goes, it’s sanctioned.

They get a lot of social reinforcement for it. And yet, adds Mike, just like with a drug or alcohol, when its wears off its still the same world and people have to deal with that emptiness inside, which is really what causes people to go out and spend”. (DeGraaf, p.49).

One of my College professors once said” Books are a wisdom of each nation”. I totally agree with this statement. Our lives without books would be empty and shallow. Books guide and motivate us to promote our lives. They give us some advice on how to live our lives they entertain us and connect us emotionally and cognitively. Books are Thing that I value in my Life unique. I am fascinated with books and find pleasure in reading books from various fields, especially interested in politics, history, science and religion. I read them everywhere and anywhere. I am unsatisfied a book collector who constantly looks for an adventure, new exploration, discovery and excitement. I have a dream to come true. I would like to establish my own library, which could provide books in many languages and a variety of topics. I also would like to work on my own book that could be about my life. These are my goals for future. And my future depends on what our economy and how much money I will have in my pocket. Yet, I neither do nor lose my hope. Everything is possible to achieve. I believe I can fly.

By Mitchell Ozog References: De Botton, Alain. (2001). The Consolations of My books provide me some kind of asylum when having Philosophy, Publisher, Vintage; First American a bad day. I hide myself from the rest of the world to Edition forget about my dilemmas. I escape from reality to be Degraaf, John., Wann David., & Naylor, Thomas H. in the world of fiction. With this kind of book am able (2005) Affluenza: The All-Consuming, Berrettto relax. There I find happiness. However, people not Koehler Publishers; 2nd edition. always find rescue in books when depressed or sad. Tolstoy. Leo (2006) A Confession, Publisher, Aegypan Many of them go shopping which I do not find this activity Rising point fall 2010

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The Jebusite’s Jobsite The Masonic Significance of Ornan the Jebusite & His Threshing Floor

By Michael A. Halleran

T

he column of dust would have been visible for miles. So too, the tramp of hundreds of stoutly shod feet would have echoed through the valley, accompanied by the rustling, jangling din of the army as it slowly approached the citadel. But this is merely supposition; we don’t know the conditions that David’s army faced as it marched toward the fortress city of Jebus—it could, after all, have been raining. What we do know, however, is that David had set his army in motion and when at last they reached the gates of the city, they came for a reckoning.

At his ascension as King of Israel, representatives of the various tribes came to David at Hebron and offered him fealty and tribute.1 He was thirty years old, and his road to the throne had been circuitous and by no means certain. Saul, Israel’s first king, had been killed in battle at Mount Gilboa.2 Saul’s fourth son, Ishbaal had survived and inherited Saul’s kingdom only to have been murdered thereafter. Following the subsequent assassination of Abner, David found the way to power spread before him. He ascended the throne sometime around 1000 B.C. and began consolidation of his kingdom. Yet there remained, despite popular acclaim, one people who refused him homage: the Jebusites.3 In some jurisdictions, Masonic ritual expressly mentions the Jebusites. In some explanatory lectures new Master Masons are introduced to these people in the person of one Ornan, who owned a threshing floor that was later purchased by the victorious David. But even in those lectures that include mention of Ornan, the acquaintance is brief, and he appears nowhere else in the Masonic catechism. However, his inclusion in the ritual begs the question, who was Ornan? And for that matter, who were the Jebusites and why are they part of Masonic instruction? The key to understanding who Ornan was, and why he remains important to the Craft lies with an understanding of the city of Jebus.

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The City of Jebus Jebus, the home of the Jebusites, is none other the precursor to Jerusalem, a fact which is well known to Bible scholars, but which may not be evident to the Craft as a whole. Clearly an ancient city, the name Jerusalem appears in nearly forty of the sixty-six books of the Bible under one name or another. The original name of the settlement was Uru-Salim, a Babylonian name meaning “the city of Salim,” and this name was later shortened to “Salem” as reported in the book of Genesis. The town was, and remains, situated on the southern slope of two ridges of land which terminated to the south by the intersection of two valleys, Hinnom and Jehoshaphat. The western ridge is Zion and the highest section of the eastern ridge is Moriah, and the southern part of Moriah is the Ophel spoken of in the Bible.5 The earliest historical mention of Jerusalem is found in the letter which its king, Abd-Khiba, wrote to Amenophis IV 6, king of Egypt about 1400 B.C. It is clear from these letters that Jerusalem was at that time an important city, the head of a considerable territory, although its ruler was a vassal of the Egyptian king. The territory of Jerusalem at that period was approximately the territory which afterward comprised the kingdom of Judah. A passage in one of Abd-Khiba’s letters… shows that the Jerusalem of that day had a wall… “We will open Jerusalem to the guards whom thou shalt send us by the hand of Khaja.” If Jerusalem could be “opened,” it was a walled city.7 This correspondence, known to historians as the Amarna tablets 8, and the use of the name UruSalim has led to speculation about the origin of the Jebusites who are variously described in the Bible and in subsequent scholarship as Canaanites, Hittites

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or Amorites. In the book of Numbers, and in Joshua, we are told that the Jebusites dwell in the mountains with, or as, the Hittites.9 In support of this theory, some scholars assert that Abd-Khiba is a Hittite name, which is suggestive of the fact that the Jebusites are of Hittite origin. Biblical references to a later king of Jerusalem, Adoni-zedek, are also used to reinforce the theory of the Jebusite’s Hittite origin.

After Joshua‘s initial victories it was Adoni-Zedek, king of Jerusalem, who united the kings of the south against Joshua. He and the others were killed after a battle that took place west of Jerusalem. However, the book of Joshua does not tell us what happened to his city after the battle. The city was apparently occupied by another people, the Jebusites, who spoke a language related to Hittite. The Hittites were a people that lived in Asia Minor and parts of Canaan and spoke an IndoEuropean language. The book of Joshua tells that Jerusalem was inhabited by the Jebusites: “As for the Jebusites settled in Jerusalem, the tribe of Judah could not drive them out; the Jebusites lived beside the tribe of Judah in Jerusalem to this day.” Who were the Jebusites? The prophet Ezekiel described the origin of Jerusalem in the following way: “Thus says the Lord God to Jerusalem: your origin and your nativity is of the land of Canaan; your father was an Amorite and your mother was a Hittite.” The Amorites were western Semites. In the Bible the word Amorite is often used as a general term for the people in Canaan or those that lived in the Judean Hills. The origin of the Jebusites is not clear, but they lived among the Hittites and Amorites in the Judean Hills.10 This supposition is disputed by some scholars, however.

Recent scholarship suggests that the Jebusites were an Amorite tribe, and evidence collected in Syria appears to bear this theory out.11 The truth concerning the Jebusites, however, is still far from certain, but it is likely that the Jebusites were the occupants of the town site of what is now Jerusalem from the first half of the third millennium B.C.12, and that it was continuously occupied since that time, or nearly so, until David beset the city sometime around 1005 B.C. 13 There is no dispute, however, that during the period of Judges, Jerusalem was certainly a Jebusite city.14 This fortress, and that Hebrew stronghold which was afterward called the “city of David,” were situated on the southern end of the eastern hill of Moriah in the place referred to as Ophel.15 It is equally clear that the town was a fortress, strongly constructed, sitting astride the plateau of Ophel in command of thenorth-south artery

of the country. By some accounts it was the strongest citadel in the kingdom of Judah at that time, analogous to a medieval European stone-keep or castle. Before the arrival of David it is thought that Jebus functioned only as a military stronghold and administrative center, without any market or commercial activities.16 Not much is known about David’s assault on Jebus, but the Bible relates that the people of the town apparently rebuked David’s demand for its surrender with haughty defiance. “You shall not come in here; but the blind and the lame will repel you, thinking, David will not come in here.”17 Never one to refuse a challenge, David took the city, but he spared the lives and property of the inhabitants, and they continued to live there on the Ophel while David and his followers settled on Mt. Zion and began building Jerusalem.18 This event marks the beginning of Israelite Jerusalem.

The Last King of the Jebusites Of Ornan himself, there exists only the biblical accounts he had no biographer but he was almost certainly the last king of the Jebusites. We can make this assumption based on the Hebrew texts that concern him. There are four different versions of his name in the Hebrew bible.

The chronicler refers to him as Ornan in chapter 21 of Chronicles, but three different versions of his name occur in Chapter 24 of the second book of Samuel where the Hebrew text names him Ha’awarna, then Arania and finally Arwana. These appellations are claimed by some scholars to be not a name, but a rank.

[T]he proper version is probably “Arwana,” and should be connected [linguistically] with the Khurrite “Ewerina,” which means “the King,” “the Ruler,” “the Head Man.” This is not a proper name, but probably a title. We have two hints that help this suggestion.… The first time the man is called ha’awarna hayyebhusi, “The Jebusite Arwana.”

It is a bit strange, if we consider “Arwana” as a proper name to have the definite article [ha’] before it. A later reference says: “Everything was given by Arwana (Arawna), the King, to the King”; “the King” means to David. It is reasonable to suggest that ha’awarna, the King, was the last Jebusite king of Jerusalem, and it was not his proper name, but his title, the King. It is in Khurrite. The Jebusites were not Israelites and did not speak Canaanite or Hebrew.

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Despite this linguistic confusion, it is likely that Ornan, as we have come to know him, was a person of some consequence because of his ownership of a threshing floor—a facility which may have been used by other members of the town similar to that of a mill or to the grain elevators of the present day. We know he had at least four sons, but beyond this, he remains an elusive figure. But as the authors of the Masonic lectures in which he figures, his is importance to the Craft, comes from his link to that great monument of antiquity, the Temple of Solomon.

The Threshing Floor In the Bible, we are told that David sees the destroying angel over the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite.

A threshing floor is a level piece of ground, probably without a roof, in which chaff is separated from grain by means of winnowing or flailing. The chronicler relates; And God sent an angel unto Jerusalem to destroy it: and as he was destroying, the LORD beheld, and he repented him of the evil, and said to the angel that destroyed, It is enough, stay now thine hand. And the angel of the LORD stood by the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David lifted up his eyes, and saw the angel of the LORD stand between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders of Israel, who were clothed in sackcloth, fell upon their faces. And David said unto God, Is it not I that commanded the people to be numbered? Even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed; but as for these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, O LORD my God, be on me, and on my father’s house; but not on thy people, that they should be plagued. Then the angel of the LORD commanded Gad to say to David, that David should go up, and set up an altar unto the LORD in the threshing floor of Ornan the Jebusite. And David went up at the saying of Gad, which he spake in the name of the LORD. And Ornan turned back, and saw the angel; and his four sons with him hid themselves. Now Ornan was threshing wheat.20 Following the instructions from on high, David negotiated the purchase of the threshing floor with Ornan who initially offered David the property at no cost. David refused, not wishing to sacrifice to God something given as a gift, and finally bartered with Ornan for a suitable price. The account in Samuel 16

recites a sum of fifty shekels of silver for the threshing floor and some oxen, while the passage in Chronicles states that six hundred shekels of gold were paid.22 According to the second book of Chronicles, the threshing floor was on Mt. Moriah.23 Contemporary scholarship bears this out. Where was this threshing floor of Arwana? Certainly the threshing-floor must have been outside the limits of the city at the time.

There is only one place where the topography allows for such a floor, where people can gather in masses, to the north of the south-eastern hill, which represents the remains of the Canaanite, Jebusite, and later David’s city. And this is exactly the place known as har habbayit, “The Mount of the Temple.” 24 Har habbayit, then, is without question the future site of the Temple of Solomon, and Ornan is the conveyor of that property to David. Since David’s day, the threshing floor has assumed even larger importance.

A 19th century American traveler, John Franklin Swift, described his visit to the sacred site in 1860s which by that time was surmounted by the Mosque of Omar.25 The [mosque] in the eyes of pious Moslems ranks in sanctity second only to that of the Caaba at Mecca.

It occupies, in their opinion, and probably in fact, the precise spot upon which was the thrashing-floor of Ornan, or Araunah, the Jebusite, where David sacrificed, and which afterward became the site of the great altar of burnt-offering. Long before this, Abraham had offered up his only son Isaac upon the same spot, and here upon the top of Moriah was afterward built the Temple of Solomon. To these events, equally sacred in the eyes of the Moslem, the Jew and the Christian, was added the fact that from here the Prophet [Mohammad], mounted upon his steed Borak, set out upon that marvelous voyage of a night, destined to reveal to the eyes of Mohammed the wonders… and the ecstatic delights of that heaven which he had promised and which he was to describe to the faithful.26 The site remains a focal point for the three Abrahamic faiths to this day.

Full Circle Why Ornan the Jebusite is mentioned in some Masonic rituals and omitted from others cannot be satisfactorily

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answered. In those rituals in which he does appear, however, his importance may only be guessed at by the newly-raised. But, his distinction to the Craft is two-fold. In his capacity as the King of the Jebusites, he represents the last obstacle overcome by David.

The taking of Jebus and the creation of Jerusalem is central to the story of David and additionally, a significant event for Freemasons—without David, and without Jerusalem, there can be no Temple of Solomon. But Ornan is critical for another reason, as well—his threshing floor constitutes the very bedrock the Temple itself, situated on Mt. Moriah which in ages past was the landmark associated with the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22. So it is that through Ornan, David comes full circle, and Ornan the Jebusite is remembered because of his role as an instrument in the creation of that edifice, a bit part to be sure, but nonetheless a crucial one.

Peeters, 2004), 502.

12. W.F. Albright. “The Jordan Valley in the Bronze Age,” The Annual of the American Schools of Oriental Research, Vol. 6 (19241925), 63, n. 170.

13. Wilfred G. E. Watson. “David Ousts the City Ruler of Jebus.” Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 20. Fasc. 4 (October 1970), 501, n.1.

14. Barton, op. cit., 12.

15. Ibid., 13-4.

16. Ibid., 17.

17. 2 Samuel 5; 6.

18. Orr, James, Ibid.

19. S. Yeivin. “The Threshing Floor of Araunah,” Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol 36, No. 8 (April 1963), p. 398. See also 2 Samuel 24:23; Gary A. Rendsburg, “Reading David in Genesis,” Biblical Archaeology Review, (Winter 2005) http://www.bib-arch.org/bswb_BR/ brf01reading_david.html, (Accessed April 5, 2007), Nicolas Wyatt. “David’s Census and the Tripartite Theory,” Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 40, Fasc. 3, (July 1990).

20. 1 Chronicles 21: 15-20.

21. Although not apropos in this research, it is nonetheless interesting to note the parallels between David’s negotiation for the threshing floor with Abraham’s bartering for the purchase of Sarah’s grave. See Sean M. McDonough. “And David Was Old, Advanced in Years: 2 Samuel XXIV 18-25, 1 Kings I 1, and Genesis XXIII-XXIV,” Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 49, Fasc. 1 (Jan., 1999), 128-131.

22. See 1 Samuel 24:24; 1 Chronicles 21:25.

23. 2 Chronicles 3: 1. See also, Moses Wolcott Redding. Masonic Antiquities of the Orient Unveiled (1894); Kessinger Publishing Company, 1997, 399.

24. S. Yeivin. “The Threshing Floor of Araunah,” Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol 36, No. 8 (April 1963), 400.

25. The Mosque of Omar was built in its current shape by the Ayyubid Sultan al-Afdal bin Saladin in 1193 A.D. 26. John Franklin Swift. Going to Jericho: or Sketches of Travels in Spain and the East, New York: A. Roman & Co., 1868, 230-1.

1. “Then came all the tribes of Israel to David unto Hebron, and spake, saying, Behold, we are thy bone and thy flesh.” 2 Samuel, 5: 1.

2. As told in 1 Samuel, Saul, whose fate was foretold by the Witch of Endor, fell on his own sword following his defeat at the Battle of Mount Gilboa by the Philistines in 1013 BC. During the battle Saul’s heir, Jonathon, was killed outright. R. Earnest Dupuy et al., The Encyclopedia Of Military History From 3500 B.C. To The Present, 2nd Ed. New York: Harper Collins, 1986, 10.

3. Michael Grant. The History of Ancient Israel, Chas. Scribner’s Sons, New York (1984), p.77-8.

4. James Orr, ed. “Entry for ‘JEBUS; JEBUSI; JEBUSITE’”. “International Standard Bible Encyclopedia,” 1915; <http://www.studylight. org/enc/isb/view.cgi?number=T4888>.(Accessed April 4, 2007). See also; Genesis 14:18.

5. George A. Barton, “The Jerusalem of David and Solomon,” The Biblical World, Vol. 22, No.1 (July 1903), 8-10.

6. Amenophis IV is also known as Amenhotep IV, and still better known as Pharaoh Akhenaten of the Eighteenth dynasty who was notable as the architect of the restructuring of the pantheistic Egyptian religion to a monotheistic worship the god Aten. Clyde E. Fant, Mitchell G. Reddish. Lost Treasures of the Bible: Understanding the Bible Through Archaeological Artifacts in World Museums, Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2008, 43.

7. Ibid., 10-11.

8. The Amarna Letters—are an archeological find of some 350 clay tablets found in 1887 in the ruins of the ancient Egyptian city of Amarna which is located between Memphis and Thebes in Upper Egypt. They contain a record of correspondence between Egyptian officials and their imperial representatives in Canaan. William L. Moran. The Amarna Letters, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992, xxvi.

See also William M. Flinders Petrie. Syria And Egypt: From The Tell El Amarna Letters, New York: Scribner’s, 1898.

9. Numbers 13:29; Joshua 11:3.

10. Yisrael Shalem. “History of Jerusalem from Its Beginning to David,” Jerusalem: Life Throughout the Ages in a Holy City. Bar-Ilan University, Ingeborg Rennert Center for Jerusalem Studies, (August 26, 2002), <http:// www.biu.ac.il/JS/rennert/history_2.html> (Accessed April 4, 2007).

11. See Edward Lipinski. Itineraria Phoenicia, Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 127 (Leuven:

Photo By Mitchell Ozog

Endnotes:

Bro. Michael A. Halleran a freelance writer and a practicing attorney in the Flint Hills of East-Central Kansas, He is Worshipful Master of Emporia Lodge No. 12, A.F.&A.M. Bro. Halleran received the Mackey Award for Excellence in Masonic Scholarship for his article in Heredom, vol.

14 (2006), and is the co-author of a regular column for Upland Almanac. His articles have also appeared in Shooting Sportsman, Midwest Outdoors, and FUR FISH GAME. A devoted husband and father, he is a member of the Quatuor Coronati Correspondence Circle and the Scottish Rite Research Society where he studies Freemasonry in the American Civil War and the traditions of military lodges worldwide. In his spare time he enjoys hunting pheasant, quail, prairie chicken, and defense counsel.

This article was first published in The Plumbline - Summer 2010 Volume 17, No. 2. Reprint with permission of the author.

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Bro. Alphonse Mucha: Artistic Visionary & Freemason

“The purpose of my work was never to destroy but always to create, to construct bridges, because we must live in the hope that humankind will draw together and that the better we understand each other the easier this will become.”

This sensitive and insightful quote is by a Freemason w h o transformed himself from an average student and amateur musician into one of the most imitated artists and designers of all time. Indeed, he is widely considered the father of what came to be known to the world as Art Nouveau, one of the most important aesthetic trends of the last 200 years. Alphonse Mucha not only exemplified the artist as a visionary, but also as a storyteller. If it is the duty of the artist to explore the currents of emotion, identity, and mythology that influence civilization, then the philosophy credited to the Art Nouveau movement was that everything could and should be art. It was this artistic worldview that also influenced him in his Freemasonry as he is also considered the father of Czech Masonry and not only served as Grand Master, but also in the capacity of Sovereign Grand Commander of the A.&A.S.R. of Freemasonry for Czechoslovakia.

he would be initiated into Freemasonry in 1898) and after a few sponsorships dried up, he was left broke and adrift at the age of 27 as a proverbial starving artist—a role that he was to play to perfection for five years.

At the age of 34, after designing posters for several plays starring the legendary Sarah Bernhardt, Mucha became an overnight sensation. He designed stamps, wallpaper, lamps, sculpture, and type fonts, all while creating heavily thematic and lush paintings for clients such as the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris.

His intention was that his vision not be confined solely to personal artistic copyright, and in 1905 published the seminal “Figures Decoratives” as a manifesto to pass on his artistic philosophy and theory to the next generation of artists and his style became a frequently imitated blueprint. Four years later he was commissioned to paint a series of murals for the Lord Mayor’s Hall in Prague, a project that was to consume the next 18 years of his life. The end result was “The Slav Epic,” a set of 20 massive 24-footby-30-foot paintings chronicling the Slavic people’s historical evolution and representing Mucha’s hopes and dreams for his Czech homeland.

In the years following World War I, Mucha became Mucha was born in 1860 in Ivancice, Moravia. Despite an anachronism. While his art was still relatively his father’s wishes, he became an artist as a young popular, political attitudes changed and the kingdoms man after being inspired by the paintings in local of the Czech region united to form the nation of churches. As was typical of almost every aspiring artist Czechoslovakia. In the face of these changes, his in fin-de-siècle Europe, Mucha moved to Paris (where stylized, romantic imagery was increasingly derided 18

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as old-world—an unforgivable sin in the artistic and political communities of the day. Nevertheless, whether it was due to his sizable influence, his deep involvement with Freemasonry, or both, he was still important enough to be arrested when the Nazis invaded Czechoslovakia. After returning home on July 14, 1939, following a questioning session by Gestapo agents, Mucha died. His violent demise was ironic for a visionary who believed in the inherent artistic merit and humanity of his culture, as well as the rest of the world. Tragically, it was a world that would continue to plunge into barbarism and ultimately set his beloved country aflame.

A 1932 Masonic address to by Mucha to his lodge in Pilsen: “A Masonic lodge is not a club where precious time and brotherly togetherness are wasted in chattering about everyday things, social matters and the like, which could be just as well discussed elsewhere.

Nor is Masonry a monastery where every monk builds his own salvation in sombre secrecy and isolation from the world...

No! Our work is strictly self-discipline, so Alphonse Mucha. The Apotheosis of the Slavs. 1926. Oil on canvas. Private collection. that we may set a shining example to others Alphonse Mucha. Holy Mount Athos. 1926. Tempera on canvas. in our land whom we wish to draw towards 405 x 480 cm. Mucha Museum, Prague, Czech Republic. our light.”

Bro. Adam G. Kendall PM Henry Wilson Coil Library & Museum of Freemasonry Grand Lodge of F. & A.M. of California Published with permission of the author.

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Karl W. Grube, Ph.D., 32º is a Founder and President of the Bonisteel Masonic Library. He was for many years Lodge Education Officer of Ann Arbor Fraternity Lodge #262. He also is a life-time member of the Craft. For more information on this article, e-mail Bro. Grube - kgrube@bonisteelml.org

From Darkness To Light To Darkness

A Short Talk

by Karl W. Grube

ABSTRACT Upon being raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason, the candidate has achieved a semblance of “light” in Freemasonry. A choice now looms for the newly-made Mason; he can seek further light in Masonry through education or retreat to the darkness of the North as an illiterate member of the Lodge.

OFFICER PROGRAM: At the Regular Monthly meeting, the Lodge Education Officer hands out a Masonic book to each Officer.

These Officers include WM, SW, JW, SD, JD, Treasurer, Secretary, Almoner, Chaplain, Tyler, and 2 Stewards = 12 books are needed for distribution to all Officers.

This is a $300 investment by the Lodge treasury and ordered from www.amazon.com At the next monthly Wisdom ● understanding ● knowledge! meeting the Officers exchange books. Each month one of the Officers provides a four minute oral report OFFICER PROGRAM: on his monthly reading. Eight minutes are reserved for At the Regular Monthly meeting, the Lodge Education questions from the sidelines. These twelve minutes can Officer hands out a Masonic book to each Officer. Next become a strong monthly Lodge Education Program. month Officers exchange books. The WM selects an Officers to give an oral report on his monthly reading.

NEWLY-MADE MASON PROGRAM: Newly-made Masons are given one book per month to NEWLY-MADE MASON PROGRAM: read and write 100 words as to the Masonic message Newly-made Masons are given one book per month to of the book. These written materials are submitted to read and write a 100 summary. The LEO meets with the Lodge Education Officer, aka LEO. The LEO meets the newly-made Masons monthly to review their written with the new Masons monthly to review the written submissions. The best of these written materials are submissions. The best of these written materials are published as an educational unit. published as an educational unit and distributed to all newly-made Masons with multiple copies placed in the Lodge Library.

From Darkness To Light To Darkness In 1874 Mackey reported that only 1/3 of Masons were readers who strive to improve their understanding of the Masonic literature. Today the percentage of Masons who actively read Masonic books and articles remains unchanged.

If today’s Lodges fail to encourage reading, the Craft in America will continue to decline. Ref:Reading Masons and Masons who Do Not Read, Alberrt G. Mackey, 1874 (Republished by Stephen Dafoe in Masonic Magazine Issue , p-5) Upon being raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason, the candidate has achieved a semblance of light in Freemasonry. A choice now looms for the newly-made Mason; he can seek further light in Masonry through education or retreat to the darkness of the North as an illiterate member of the Lodge. www. bonisteelml.org/intender2.htm - Intender 20

The Bonisteel Masonic Library – Ann Arbor/Detroit has reviewed all major Masonic works offered by Amazon. com. Twelve books have been selected for these programs in Masonic literacy. www.bonisteelml.org/Books.htm - A description of 12 Masonic books which are necessary for Masonic literacy.

One book a month will offer “more light” for the newlymade Mason.

Results: Officers achieve “more light”. Twelve Masonic books are read during the Masonic year.

The conversation at the Lodge dinner table is enriched.

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Results: After a few short years, Freemasons who attend Lodge are become more literate. Discussions between Masons on is elevated.

Attendance at monthly Lodge meetings usually increases.

Continued from page 20

Wisdom ● understanding ● knowledge!

1. Symbols of Freemasonry - Daniel Beresniak Richly illustrated, Symbols of Freemasonry provides a synthesis of one of mankind’s oldest existing secular brotherhoods. It is designed both for the initiated and for newcomers interested in gaining a better understanding of this fascinating but often misrepresented society.

2. Born In Blood - John Robinson Unlike most of its five million members, including many world leaders, who believe that the Freemasons, the world’s largest fraternal organization, evolved from the guilds of medieval stonemasons, historian Robinson persuasively links Freemasonry’s origins and goals to the once powerful and wealthy Knights Templar order. Banned and persecuted by a 14th-century papal bull, he claims, the Knights were forced to form an underground society.

3. Detroit’s Masonic Temple - Alex Lundberg and Greg Kowalski The largest Masonic Temple in the world, Detroit ’s Masonic Temple is a monumental structure with a rich and colorful history.

4. A New Encyclopedia of Freemasonry - Robert MaCoy Here is a remarkable history, encyclopedia and symbolic dictionary of Freemasonry all in one convenient volume and attractively illustrated with 300 nineteenth-century engravings.

5. Freemasonry A Journey Through Ritual and Symbol W. Kirk MacNulty If you are a Freemason, or are even remotely interested in the subject, you should own this book....if, for no other reason than the fact that this book contains many, many full-color, full-page pictures & other graphics, such as Craft Symbolism, the “Tools” of the Craft, Trestle Boards, etc.

This book also contains an overview of Freemasonry, including some of the esoteric aspects of The Craft--even mentioning the Hermetic axiom: “As Above, So Below.”

6. Freemasons for Dummies - Christopher Hodapp The book profiles famous Freemasons throughout history including many of America’s Founding Fathers as well as prominent politicians and business leaders offers a balanced assessment of the many controversies and conspiracy theories that continue to swirl around Freemasonry.

For anyone who wants an evenhanded overview of Freemasonry’s past, present, and future, this guide is the key.

7. The Builders - Joseph Fort Newton Masonry, which had started as an underground association of building trade workers, evolved into a fraternal group which included both members of the English royal family and American revolutionaries. Despite his rational stance, Newton is rhapsodic about the progressive influence of the Masonic movement and philosophy, both for individuals seeking ‘the lost word’, and for society as a whole. Newton claims that the world has benefited greatly because of the Masonic ideals of liberty, fraternity and equality. The Builders tells the Masonic side of this story.

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8. The Secret Architecture of Our Nation’s Capital - David Ovason This book, the result of a decade of thought and research, establishes the plausibility of Ovason’s theory. However, the volume A a labyrinthine, illustrated tomeAalso contains a good deal of wild speculation. Ovason posits, for example, that the “earthly triangle” formed

by Capitol/White House/ Washington Monument mirrors a triangle of stars in the constellation Virgo, an astrological sign important to the Masons. This, he contends, proves that Masons secretly consecrated the nation’s capital to the celestial Virgo. It’s an interesting, if dubious, suggestion Abut Ovason never establishes the significance of the link between the capital and the occult.

9. House Undivided - Allen Roberts House Undivided - The Story of Freemasonry and the Civil War. This book is by Allen Roberts and was published in 1976 by Macoy Publishing and Masonic Supply Co. It has 356 pages and explains the Masonic role in the Civil War. The brotherhood was confronted with a difficult conflict when the Civil War broke out in 1861. Freemasons, both northern and southern, were forced to choose a side and go against the very foundation of the society of Freemasonry. Despite all their differences, Masons continued to practice their principles of brotherly love and good will on the battlefield, thus proving that the men who joined under the order would not, under any circumstances, sever their bonds of Masonic unity. Here is their story told by the famous Masonic author Bro. Allen E. Roberts.

10. The Craft and Its Symbols - Allen Roberts This book does an excellent job explaining some of those rather obscure symbols that you may have happened across. From the EA thru MM, the high points are covered without giving too much away.

11. The complete Idiot’s Guide to Freemasonry - S. Brent Morris, Ph.D The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Freemasonry is well-written and easy to read, being easily read from cover to cover within a single day. While one may certainly choose to read the book from cover to cover (I did), it is also a book that serves as a useful reference of Masonic facts and trivia, history and practice. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Freemasonry also has fun and interesting bits of trivia and Masonic facts that give one a bit more insight into different parts of the Craft.

12. Solomon’s Builders: Freemasons, Founding Fathers and the Secrets of Washington D.C. - by Christopher Hodapp

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Solomon’s Builders transports the reader back to the birth of a radical new nation and tells how a secretive society influenced and inspired the formation of what would become the most powerful nation on earth. A history that reads like a thriller, it follows George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and the other Founding Fathers who transformed the lessons of their Masonic lodge rooms into models for a new democracy. In the process, it pieces together the still-visible clues of the Freemasons as it uncovers the mystical Masonic symbolism hidden in the design of the city and in its monuments, statues and buildings. From “all-seeing eyes,” pentagrams, and Egyptian-inspired obelisks to the imposing and mysterious Masonic temples of the “Widow’s Sons,” Solomon’s Builders guides readers on a Freemason’s tour of Washington, D.C. as it separates fact from myth and reveals the background of the sequel to The Da Vinci Code.

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At the age of 34, after designing posters for several plays starring the legendary Sarah Bernhardt, Mucha became an overnight sensation. - Bro. Adam Kendall

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T

CROWN OF SERPENTS

o the delight, and sometimes chagrin, of forward for a closer inspection. “Hey, Freemasons, the Fraternity and its members are I know that symbol,” he said. “It’s the winding up in a variety of action packed, treasure Rotary Club.” hunting pot-boilers these days. Pseudo-historical conspiracies, cryptograms, gruesome murders, and “No you fucking idiot,” mumbled Nero high-tech gadgetry are essentials in this growing without looking up. “It’s the symbol of literary subgenre. Indeed, such stories have come a the oldest and largest fraternity in the long way from Daniel Dravot and Peachy Carnehan in world, the Freemasons. The square, Kipling’s The Man Who Would Be King (1888). While the compasses, and the letter G for Crown of Serpents may not be the next Da Vinci Code Geometry.” or Lost Symbol, it satisfactorily covers the expected terrain, offering up a pulp-fiction extravaganza with Expletive aside, Alex Nero’s response reads more than a heaping side of Freemasonry. more like a statement from a Masonic information pamphlet rather than the angry outburst of a Crown of Serpents is set almost exclusively in the hardboiled crime boss. But of course, Crown picturesque Finger Lakes region of New York. Major of Serpents is less about compelling dialogue Jake Tununda, a seasoned combat veteran, has just than it is about fast-paced action and treasure taken a new position as a historian with the U.S. Army’s hunting. This is pure guilty pleasure reading.

Military History Institute. En route to a conference in Michael Karpovage became a Freemason Rochester, he makes a fateful decision to assist local while researching Crown of Serpents. His police and firemen rescue a victim who has fallen portrayal of the Fraternity is, not unexpectedly, into a pit. This detour brings Major Tununda face to positive and seemingly face with his own Native American roots and past, designed to intrigue a Revolutionary War mystery, and a centuries-old non-Masons about our conspiracy involving the Iroquois “White Deer Society” real history and work. and Freemasons like himself.

Crown of Serpents is an entertaining book.

Michael Karpovage, a native of New York, knows his It would also be nice setting well and uses it to good effect in Crown of to see it, along with Serpents. If there is a problem with this book, it is the other positive Karpovage’s over-explanation of his historical teasers press circulating about and Masonic allusions which tend to burden his Masonry today, launch narrative. It is also leads to some awkward dialogue: more good men on true adventures of a …Nero laid the rifle on the table and lifetime. flipped it over. He ordered Kantiio and Michael Karpovage, Crown Rousseau to each hold one end while of Serpents (Jacks River he pried at what looked like a tiny round Communications 2009, plug the size of a dime… Kantiio leaned $19.99 USD) 24

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The Intellectual Qualifications of Candidates T

By Albert G. Mackey

he Old Charges and Ancient Constitutions are not as explicit in relation to the intellectual as to the moral and physical qualifications of candidates, and, therefore, in coming to a decision on this subject, we are compelled to draw our conclusions from analogy, from common sense, and from the peculiar character of the institution. The question that here suggests itself on this subject is, what particular amount of human learning is required as a constitutional qualification for initiation? During a careful examination of every ancient document to which I have had access, I have met with no positive enactment forbidding the admission of uneducated persons, even of those who can neither read nor write.

The unwritten, as well as the written laws of the Order, require that the candidate shall be neither a fool nor an idiot, but that he shall possess a discreet judgment, and be in the enjoyment of all the senses of a man. But one who is unable to subscribe his name, or to read it when written, might still very easily prove himself to be within the requirements of this regulation. The Constitutions of England, formed since the union of the two Grand Lodges in 1813, are certainly explicit enough on this subject. They require even more than a bare knowledge of reading and writing, for, in describing the qualifications of a candidate, they say: “He should be a lover of the liberal arts and sciences, and have made some progress in one or other of them; and he must, previous to his initiation, subscribe his name at full length, to a declaration of the following import,” etc. And in a note to this regulation, it is said, “Any individual who cannot write is, consequently, ineligible to be admitted into the Order.” If this authority were universal in its character, there would be no necessity for a further discussion of the subject. But the modern constitutions of the Grand Lodge of England are only

of force within its own jurisdiction, and we are therefore again compelled to resort to a mode of reasoning for the proper deduction of our conclusions on this subject. It is undoubtedly true that in the early period of the world, when Freemasonry took its origin, the arts of reading and writing were not so generally disseminated among all classes of the community as they now are, when the blessings of a common education can be readily and cheaply obtained. And it may, therefore, be supposed that among our ancient Brethren there were many who could neither read nor write. But after all, this is a mere assumption, which, although it may be based on probability, has no direct evidence for its support. And, on the other hand, we see throughout all our ancient regulations, that a marked distinction was made by our rulers between the Freemason and the Mason who was not free; as, for instance, in the conclusion of the fifth chapter of the Ancient Charges, where it is said: “No laborer shall be employed in the common work of Masonry, nor shall Freemasons work with those who are not free, without an urgent necessity.”

And this would seem to indicate a higher estimation by the fraternity of their own character, which might be derived from their greater attainments in knowledge.

That in those days the ordinary operative masons could neither read nor write, is a fact established by history. But it does not follow that the Freemasons, who were a separate society of craftsmen, were in the same unhappy category; it is even probable, that the fact that they were not so, but that they were, in comparison with the unaccepted masons, educated men, may have been the reason of the distinction made between these two classes of workmen. But further, all the teachings of Freemasonry are delivered on the assumption that the recipients are men of some education, with the means of improving their minds

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Continued from page 25

and increasing their knowledge. Even the Entered Apprentice is reminded, by the rough and perfect ashlars, of the importance and necessity of a virtuous education, in fitting him for the discharge of his duties.

To the Fellow Craft, the study of the liberal arts and sciences is earnestly recommended; and indeed, that sacred hieroglyphic, the knowledge of whose occult signification constitutes the most solemn part of his instruction, presupposes an acquaintance at least with the art of reading. And the Master Mason is expressly told in the explanation of the forty-seventh problem of Euclid, as one of the symbols of the third degree, that it was introduced into Masonry to teach the Brethren the value of the arts and sciences, and that the Mason, like the discoverer of the problem, our ancient Brother Pythagoras, should be a diligent cultivator of learning. Our lectures, too, abound in allusions which none but a person of some cultivation of mind could understand or appreciate, and to address them, or any portion of our charges which refer to the improvement of the intellect and the augmentation of knowledge, to persons who can neither read nor write, would be, it seems to us, a mockery unworthy of the sacred character of our institution. From these facts and this method of reasoning, I deduce the conclusion that the framers of Masonry, in its present organization as a speculative institution, must have intended to admit none into its fraternity whose minds had not received some preliminary cultivation, and I am, therefore, clearly of opinion, that a person who cannot read and write is not legally qualified for admission. As to the inexpediency of receiving such candidates, there can be no question or doubt. If Masonry be, as its disciples claim for it, a scientific institution, whose great object is to improve the understanding and to enlarge and adorn the mind, whose character cannot be appreciated, and whose lessons of symbolic wisdom cannot be acquired, without much studious application, how preposterous would it be to place, among its disciples, one who had lived to adult years, without having known

Graphic Design Solutions By

Mitchell Ozog www.mitchozog.org 26

the necessity or felt the ambition for a knowledge of the alphabet of his mother tongue? Such a man could make no advancement in the art of Masonry; and while he would confer no substantial advantage on the institution, he would, by his manifest incapacity and ignorance, detract, in the eyes of strangers, from its honor and dignity as an intellectual society. Idiots and madmen are excluded from admission into the Order, for the evident reason that the former from an absence, and the latter from a perversion of the intellectual faculties, are incapable of comprehending the objects, or of assuming the responsibilities and obligations of the institution. A question here suggests itself whether a person of present sound mind, but who had formerly been deranged, can legally be initiated.

The answer to this question turns on the fact of his having perfectly recovered. If the present sanity of the applicant is merely a lucid interval, which physicians know to be sometimes vouched to lunatics, with the absolute certainty, or at best, the strong probability, of an eventual return to a state of mental derangement, he is not, of course, qualified for initiation. But if there has been a real and durable recovery (of which a physician will be a competent judge), then there can be no possible objection to his admission, if otherwise eligible. We are not to look to what the candidate once was, but to what he now is. Dotage, or the mental imbecility produced by excessive old age, is also a disqualification for admission. Distinguished as it is by puerile desires and pursuits, by a failure of the memory, a deficiency of the judgment, and a general obliteration of the mental powers, its external signs are easily appreciated, and furnish at once abundant reason why, like idiots and madmen, the superannuated dotard is unfit to be the recipient of our mystic instructions.

From Book of The Principles of Masonic Law A Treatise on the Constitutional Laws, Usages And Landmarks of Freemasonr, By Albert G. Mackey. Project Gutenbergâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s - http://www.gutenberg. org

Mitchell Ozog offer academic and professional experience in graphic design and desktop publishing, with comprehensive photography background.

Proficiently design, edit and coordinate web site and newsletter, with strong focus on accuracy and visual appeal.

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: k c

a b h

s a l F

Report from Masonic Journal of South Africa, April, 1947.

Freemasonry in Reich Puts Ban on Politics

Washington has on hand a recent article by Georgi Dimitrov, Bulgarian Communist leader entitled “Freemason Lodges are agencies of alien espionage and treachery” which indicates Cleary the antiFreemasonry attitude of Soviet satellite regimes in the Balkans.

In the article Mr. Dimitrov denounces Freemasonry Freemasonry in Europe according to reports is having in most scathing terms. He says: “Masonic lodges its problem, as well as certain success, in getting re- are being revived in our country and are rallying old established in that war stricken continent.

Freemasons and trying to recruit new ones from the ranks of public workers and politicians. These lodges Recently it has been disclosed here, the United States are centers of alien espionage and treachery. The are Military Government in Germany has readmitted a menace to the freedom and independence of our Freemasonry to the American zone in Berlin. Last people and our country.”

December the “Great Lodge of Freemasons in Germany” was approved for the American zone.

Mr. Dimitrov then calls on all Bulgarians to liquidate these “nests of antagonism.” He adds: “Everyone The lodges in Germany it was learned have announced should realize clearly that it is impossible to be a they regard their task as working for “the moral Bulgarian politician, public worker, minister, deputy, rejuvenation of political neutrality.” Thus, from the leader of political party or of social organization and at beginning of their rebirth, they are publicly disowning the same time a Freemason, dependent on the will of any interest or interference in politics a charge which other and subject to discipline imposed by others.” in the pre-war period won them the disfavor of certain governments.

Editor Note: Unlike the Masonic Order in the United States, Freemasonry abroad sometimes has included phases of political activity. In some countries it has constituted one of the last refuges of liberalism in the face of authoritarian regimes.

The reappearance of Freemasonry in Germany with the approval of authorities is in marked contrast, however, with the lot of Freemasonry in other parts of Europe. In the Balkans, in particular, persecution and defamation of Freemasonry continues, officially sanctioned and inspired.

Dimitrov was Bulgarian communist leader. He helped found the Bulgarian Communist Party in 1919. After leading a communist uprising in 1923 that provoked fierce government reprisals, he was forced to live abroad and became head of the central European section of the Comintern in Berlin (1929 – 33). He won worldwide fame for his defense against Nazi accusations in the Reichstag fire trial of 1933. He headed the Comintern in Moscow (1935 – 43), then returned to Bulgaria, where he served as prime minister (1945 – 49).

He effected the communist consolidation of power that formed the Bulgarian People’s Republic in 1946.

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By Michael VanArsdale

U

THE NEW MEMBER: WHAT HE MAY EXPECT

pon becoming a master mason and paying his annual dues the new member is issued a dues receipt card, the possession of which is one of the requirements for admission as a visitor to a lodge other than his own. The new member is at this point entitled to all the rights and privileges of Freemasonry, and he is fully obligated to conform to the teachings of the fraternity. He is also obligated to discharge the duties of a master mason. The rights and privileges of a master mason are often one and the same, but are often also distinguishable. A mason, for example, has the right to participate in the affairs of his lodge; he has the privilege of visiting other lodges.

The former cannot be denied him, the latter can - but rarely is. A new mason discovers he has entered into a highly protective organization. Members will rally to his support in time of his need, even though he may be among strangers. It does not matter what the nature of his need, the worthy Mason can always depend upon the support of his brethren, collectively and individually, at home or abroad. Although help in time of need is most often thought of as financial aid, and frequently is, masons also come to a brother’s aid in time of emotional crisis, they assume another’s duties when he is unable for good cause to perform them, they see to the needed care and safety of a brother’s loved ones, and in many additional ways faithfully support and sustain each other. Such support is not guaranteed by the fraternity, it is instead the consequence of the obligations Masons assume. It will be more readily forthcoming in some areas than in others, and the kind of Mason a man is and has been will often affect the extent of the assistance he receives in time of need. A Mason is not obligated to assist an unworthy brother. Masons are very supportive of the widows and children of deceased members. In many states a mason’s membership entitles him and his wife (and other close relatives, in some instances) 28

to admission into Masonic homes for the aged. The foregoing benefits however important they may be in time of need, are not the chief or most often enjoyed benefits of Masonic membership. Perhaps the greatest single benefit of Masonic membership is the sheer joy of participation. To be a part of Freemasonry’s fellowship, to be active in all Masonic activities particularly in helping confer the degrees, and to merit the approbation of his brethren, are benefits the practicing mason would not trade for any material gains. An integral part of participating in Freemasonry is helping provide assistance to deserving members, as earlier described. In Masonry, as everywhere, it is infinitely more blessed and more satisfying to give than to receive. But full participation includes so much more. The mason that regularly attends lodge meetings soon discovers this is at least one place where he can temporarily escape the controversies and pressures of today’s living. In a lodge he meets with men from every walk of life, with men of every religious and political persuasion, and who come together in a Masonic lodge with one common purpose - true fellowship. In a Masonic lodge he will not hear one religion advanced as being superior to any other. This is forbidden, as noted in an earlier chapter. He will not hear a political party or candidate promoted. This, too, is forbidden. He will not hear a business or a product extolled. Also forbidden.

Simply put, he will not hear any non-Masonic position or argument advanced in a Masonic lodge. He and his fellow members will sit in complete harmony, because they share a unity of purpose. The new mason may be the richest or the poorest member present, or he may be the most or the least prominent citizen in his community, but none of this will work to his advantage or disadvantage in a Masonic lodge. Each and every member has one voice, one vote, and identical rights.

A sergeant in the army can be master of and preside over a lodge which includes generals and other high

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ranking officers among its membership, and this has happened on numerous occasions. The only significant rank in a Masonic lodge is Masonic rank, and that is conferred by vote of the members. It has been reported that when Theodore Roosevelt became a mason he discovered his gardener was serving as master of the lodge-the presiding officer. No resentment is evidenced by men of high station outside Masonry when men of lower outside station occupy positions of greater Masonic authority. Somehow Masonic lodges are able to function without snobbery. Members meet on the level, a phrase explained in an earlier chapter. Another great benefit of Masonic membership is Masonry’s universality. No matter where a mason goes in the United States, or in other free countries, he is never far from a Masonic lodge. The lodge is a home away from home for countless masons who would otherwise on many occasions be extremely lonely. An American member can feel at home, for example, in a French or a German lodge, although he may not understand a word that is spoken. The ritual will differ in some respects from nation to nation, even from state to state, but the teachings and the basics will be the same. And the all-important fellowship is ever present. Lodges go to great lengths in making welcome a visitor from far away. Few things can be more valuable to a mason than the friendships he establishes in Freemasonry. It is said of the fraternity that it “conciliates true friendship among those who otherwise might have remained at a perpetual distance,” and few truer statements were ever made. Extremely shy individuals, men that A light on top of Detroit’s temple The giant temple I slowly trouble At it’s massive size The city despising it’s temple of boom you enter threw, Boom!

The spiritual Degrees Of the building That masons step up the steps of spiritual rebirth The hard earth core. Climb the Steps to get lighting Enlightens in the fire eyes Smocking powerful.

Nights of glory Nights of glory!

NIGHTS OF GLORY!!!!!!

WELL WRITTEN Story, don’t ignore The sward, which, shines like twilight at night to ignite A flame in a Masonic Heart they build

previously found it difficult to mix with others, have been known to establish friendships by the score upon becoming Masons. Time after time Freemasonry has demonstrated its ability to bring together and unite men who would have otherwise been forever separated.

The unique bonds of the fraternity are invaluable to its members. Many lodges regularly schedule functions enabling members to involve their wives and families, thus providing family outings at which a member can be assured his family will be exposed only to that which is wholesome and uplifting. Such assurance in most modern activities is becoming ever more rare and ever more precious. Such are some of the benefits of Masonic membership, full appreciation of which can be realized only in attainment. As earlier noted, at the same time a Master Mason becomes entitled to the rights and privileges of Freemasonry, he also obligates himself to many and various Masonic duties. These duties are not onerous. In fact, the performance of Masonic duties is the most rewarding facet of Masonic membership. To begin with, the new Mason is obligated to live by a strict moral code, the requirements of which will not be unfamiliar to any good man accustomed to living according to the teachings of his religion and according to the laws of the land. And the new Mason assumes unique new obligations to his fellow members and their families, and to all mankind.

Masonry’s success probably stems in large part from the fact that wherever a member turns he is reminded of the fraternity’s teachings and of his obligations to be true to them. These reminders come in such beautiful form, or in such unobtrusive manner, that the Mason never has the feeling he is being hounded or badgered.

So Freemasonry expects its members to be good men and true to their church, their nation, their family, their friends. Masonry encourages each member to be active in the affairs of his community and state and nation, but always as an individual citizen and never attempting to represent Freemasonry in these matters.

Masonry will not lend its name or permit its members to use its name in any political, commercial, or religious activity, but urges each member to be individually active in these areas, so long as their activities are morally correct.

Brother Michael is member of Cloverdale Lodge No. 132 Cloverdale, Indiana and He was initiated as an Entered Apprentice on June 9, 2007, passed to the degree of Fellow Craft on July 12, 2007, and raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason on August 10, 2007 by Brother David L. Nolton.

By Radek Ozog

Published with permission of the author.

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I have often heard people make the claim of Freemasonry promoting satanic worship or make claims of blasphemy. I tired of hearing these claims made out of ignorance so I wrote an article in an attempt to enlighten those who know nothing about our wonderful fraternity. If you feel the article is worthy, then please feel free to use it.

F

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FREEMASONRY AND RELIGION

reemasonry, while religious in nature, is not, does not profess to be, and does not wish to be, a religion. Nor does it promote any particular religion. So long as they meet the qualifications for membership, Masonry accepts men from every religious faith - Protestant, Jewish, Roman Catholic, and others. It does not bar any man because of his religious learning, so long as he believes in a Supreme Being and so long as his beliefs are not characterized by that which is generally deemed morally unacceptable.

Many ministers of many denominations are members of and ardent supporters of the Masonic Fraternity, and many ministers of the same denominations vehemently oppose Freemasonry. This division of opinion also exists among lay members of the various religions. It has been found that religious opposition to Masonry almost always stems from a failure to properly inform oneself, such opposition usually arising from a mistaken belief that Masonry seeks to supplant religion. Members of the various religions who have become Masons almost never make religious objection to the fraternity, or to its teachings and practices. In fact, it is usually found that men become even stronger supporters of their churches after becoming Masons.

To become and remain a Freemason a man must believe in a Supreme Being. His method of worshipping his Deity is none of Masonryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s business. He will not, in a Masonic lodge, be permitted to urge his religious beliefs upon any other member, nor will any other member be allowed to promote his particular faith while in lodge.

Even the discussion of various religions, or of any other topic liable to excite arguments or animosities, is forbidden in a Masonic lodge.

be remotely construed as supplanting any religion or which would conflict with the activities of any church.

Members of a lodge frequently attend worship services as a group, as evidence of their support of religion, and these attendances are not restricted to any particular denomination/s.

Finally, Freemasonry makes no attempt to save menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s souls, or even to reform them; these functions it properly leaves to churches and religions. Masonry does not even want men whose souls need saving, or who are in need of reformation. It wants as members only those men who are already good, hoping and believing their Masonic association will further enrich their lives. It expects its members to conduct themselves in accordance with a strict moral code, and it feels the requirements of that moral code are not repugnant to the teachings of any religion or to the beliefs of any good man.

Michael VanArsdale Brother Michael is member of Cloverdale Lodge No. 132 Cloverdale, Indiana and He was initiated as an Entered Apprentice on June 9, 2007, passed to the degree of Fellow Craft on July 12, 2007, and raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason on August 10, 2007 by Brother David L. Nolton.

Masonry openly urges each member to be faithful to and to participate in the religion of his choice. It studiously avoids any teaching or practice which could 30

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Published with permission of the author.

Worldwide Exemplification of Freemasonry Dwight L. Smith Lodge of Research, UD with the support of the Grand Lodge of Indiana, F&AM is pleased to bring you…

Masonic Awareness @ the Speed of Light.

Begin and end 2011 with Freemasonry on your mind! The Dwight L. Smith Lodge of Research, UD will present a series of free lectures beginning January 1, 2011, through December 31, 2011, via the Internet at www.

WEOFM.org. A list of the diverse international presenters and stimulating topics can be found on the “Trestle Board” at the WEOFM website.

These lectures will be presented on the web at www.WEOFM.org on an announced basis, the first one being shown January 1, 2011 and continuing throughout the year. We are pleased to offer this group of experts in their subjects to bring you Masonic Awareness @ the Speed of Light. Each presentation will conclude with an on-line chat room where you may provide feedback to others as well as the lecturer. The exact time of the lectures will be made available as soon as an appropriate time is coordinated with the lecturer. These times and additional information about the series will be posted on www.WEOFM.org no later than December 1, 2010.

We encourage you to visit the website at your earliest opportunity and leave us a message by using our contact tab. You may join the site as a user and view the trestle board at any time. Furthermore, join us, January 1, 2011 and enjoy Masonic Awareness @ the Speed of Light.

For additional information please contact Al McClelland at WEOFM2011@live.com.

Do you know that the world’s oldest man is Brother Mason?

Bro. Walter Breuning on September 21 2010 just turns 114 - Bro. Walter Breuning was born in Melrose, Minnesota, on September 21, 1896. He worked for the Great North Railroad from 1913 to 1963. A member of Great Falls, Montana, Lodge No. 118 since 1925 (Master 1934), he served... as Lodge Secretary for 25 years. Since joining the Scottish Rite in 1937, Valley of Great Falls, he has served on various work committees, including Director of Work, from 1940 to 1985. Bro. Breuning served as Venerable Master in 1950, received the K.C.C.H. in 1949, and was coroneted an I.G.H. in 1958. He is a frequent speaker for Masonic occasions and is still active in a number of Masonic groups including the Shrine, DeMolay, Royal Order of Scotland, and Royal Order of Jesters.

“Lift mine eyes from earth and let me not forget the uses of the stars. Forbid that I should judge others, lest I condemn myself. Let me feel the glory of the world, but walk calmly in my path. Give me a few friends who love me for what I am and keep ever burning before my vagrant footsteps the kindly light of hope. Though age and infirmity overtake me, and I come not within sight of the castle of my dreams, teach me still to be thankful for life and for time’s golden moments that are good and sweet.”

Illustrious Walter Breuning, 33° Photo from: http://www.srmason-sj.org/council/journal/may00/breuning.html Rising point fall 2010

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With the discovery of a campaign journal from an American Revolutionary War officer who fought against the Iroquois Indians, the U.S. Army calls in their top field historian to assess its contents. Jake Tununda, combat vet, Freemason, and half-Seneca Indian is stunned when he gleans from the journal’s cryptic Masonic passages clues to the location of an ancient shaman’s crown once protected by the White Deer Society, a secret cult of his forefathers.

Jake soon realizes why his ancestors’ history was best kept buried. And why peaceful, rural central New York’s Finger Lakes region can be deadlier than any battlefield he had ever faced.

CROWN OF SERPENTS, a mystery thriller set in the former heartland of the Iroquois Empire, takes Jake on a fast-paced hunt to find the elusive crown ­ and protect it. He teams up with Rae Hart, an alluring state police investigator, as they snake their way across a politically turbulent landscape marked with murder, arson, lies, and deceit. Deciphering codes, digging up war loot, and fending off the henchmen of billionaire Alex Nero, a ruthless Indian casino magnate, Jake and Rae’s survival skills are put to the test.

The clues to the crown ultimately lead them deep within sacred Indian caves hidden under the abandoned Seneca Army Depot where the magnitude of the crown’s power is revealed.

More info: http://www.crownofserpents.com

CROWN OF SERPENTS

By Michael Karpovage

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The Book Review on page 24

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