The Arizona Keystone Scientia Coronati Research Lodge #4 F. & a. m. Newsletter APR – JUN 2009 A.L. 6009
Symbols - Are they important?
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Volume 2, Issue 2
The Arizona Keystone Volume 2, Number 2 Apr - Jun 2009 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Keith Rosewitz, Master MANAGING EDITOR George E. Weil, Secretary The Arizona Keystone is an official publication of Scientia Coronati Research Lodge #4 F. & A. M. and printed quarterly. Unless otherwise noted, articles appearing in this publication express only the private opinion or assertions of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of Scientia Coronati Research Lodge #4 F. & A. M. or the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Arizona. Articles are subject to editing and becomes the property of Scientia Coronati Research Lodge #4 F. & A. M. No compensation is allowed for any article, photographs, or other materials submitted for publication.
Permission to reprint articles will be granted upon written request to the Editor. When reprinted, articles should note “Reprinted with permission of The Arizona Keystone (Month, year).”
CONTENTS FEATURES 3. EDITORS NOTES 4. PEN AND PAPER 5. FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER 6. WHITHER ARE YOU GOING 7. MASONIC SYMBOLISM
Please direct all correspondence to: Editor: The Arizona Keystone 773 S. Maple Lane Chino Valley, AZ 86323
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E d ito r ’s N o t e s My Brothers, Bro. Norm Leeper, PM of Southern California Research Lodge said some words (01 February 2009 Newsletter) that I would like to echo on this page about leadership in an organization. For decades, and maybe longer, Grand Masters of every jurisdiction, and by extension their Grand Lodges, have advanced Masonic education. Some Grand Lodges even have programs of Masonic education. Then I ask, why do most Masonic Lodges not emphasize that every member and future member immerse themselves in Masonic If it weren’t for the likes of National Treasure and The Da Vinci Code, Freemasonry’s fraternal membership would still be in decline. Only the excitement of perceived mysteries and secret cabals has the craft experienced a membership surge. The current mantra of leadership preaches the morality of Freemasonry with slogans like “we make good men better.” This may be true especially with the involved and active Masons. But then this begs another question. Why do only ten percent, plus or minus, attend Lodge or participate in Lodge activities? To best achieve what our brethren want and deserve is to create a fraternal culture that fulfills the needs of its membership. Our brethren do not need or want a fraternity that has nothing to offer but a ritual. The fraternal tradition is and has always been one of educating its members. The beauty of the initiatory experience is clearly harmed by poor ritual and bone dry lectures— both often misunderstood. It would seem that the time has come to re-direct our fraternal course to the educational needs of our brethren. “To be a worthy Mason is to be a well informed Mason, and as the high standard attained by this Lodge is due to the efforts of dedicated brethren, may the Lodge continue to maintain this status with your assistance and keep alive the impetus of improving Masonic education by showing there is more to Freemasonry than mere knowledge of ritual.” [Address to the Brethren, R. W. Bro. T G N Carter, PGW, PM, Research Lodge of Wellington, February 2004] Brethren, our primary focus is in the field of Masonic research and education. Members of our Lodge are united by a thirst for knowledge that has been lacking in our parent Blue Lodges. We must as a new Research Lodge canvass our Masonic neighborhoods for potential prospects for membership into our Lodge. We all should have an immediate awareness that membership makes us prosper in perpetuating the continued existence of our Lodge. The cover of this issue asks about symbols. What the cover fails to show is a Mason as a symbol of his Lodge. It is the internal and not external qualifications that recommend a man to be made a Mason. We live or die by the dedication of our membership. The contract of renewing our membership every year is hugely beneficial to our organizations and we all understand that significance. Let us promote our Research Lodge and the benefits it provides.
George WWW.Scientiacoronati.org
P E N A N D PA P E R “…Break as thieves into the house, and like foxes endeavor to root up the vineyard…” -- Pope Clement XII THE INQUISITION AND FREEMASONRY
This essay is a very small snapshot into the European era of the 1700s. In no way should this reflect upon the present-day Catholic Church. It is meant as a vehicle for discussion and to hopefully generate more interest in Masonic history.
HISTORICAL NOTE: The Inquisition or “The Holy Office” came into being to eradicate clearly defined and organized groups of people who propagated ideas that represented more than simple opposition to the Church, thus threatening the basis of medieval society. The Holy Office was concentrated in Spain, Portugal and Italy. The word ‘heresy’ or ‘heretical movements’ were used more or less loosely to cover a wide variety of phenomena.
Some so-called heretical movements were simply expressions of disgust at the excesses of the clergy and the wealth of the Church, while at the same time coming into conflict with social groups that it could not assimilate, and whose defense of their own identity was seen as heresy. When Freemasonry began a rapid expansion in the 1730s, with new lodges being established all over Europe, it generated a scare within the Catholic Church. In Rome, on 28 April 1738, Pope Clement XII issued a decree (Papal Bull) against Freemasons. Its title was, “The Condemnation of the Society of the Freemasons, under the penalty of Excommunication, the Absolution of which is reserved to the Pope alone, except at the point of death.” In this decree Freemasons are picturesquely described as men who “break as thieves into the house, and like foxes endeavor to root up the vineyard.” In language that signified a serious threat to the hegemony of the Catholic Church, this Papal Bull forbade Catholics from participating in any Masonic activity, under the penalty of excommunication. It also instructed clerics and members of the Catholic Inquisition to persecute masons and punish the infringers, if necessary with help from secular and local authorities. The Pope’s Bull was enforced in many Catholic countries, but not in all. The Pope himself enforced it within the Papal States in Italy. In Italy, the effects of the Papal Bull were immediate: the officer of the lodge in Rome was imprisoned by the Inquisition, ‘as a terror to others’; in Florence a man named Crudeli was arrested, imprisoned and tortured by the Inquisition on charges of having furnished asylum to a Masonic Lodge. In Portugal, a lodge of Irish Catholic refugees had been formed in Lisbon. As soon as they heard about the Pope’s Bull they dissolved their lodge, and informed the Inquisition on what they had done. As the members had already dissolved the lodge as soon as they heard the Papal Bull, the Inquisition decided to forgive them and not to punish them. These dreadful years helped to break up many of the lodges. Masons were forced to disguise their activities and conceal them from the close surveillance of the police. It is reported that in 1797 Portuguese, British, and French masons attended a Masonic meeting held on board the frigate Fenix. The Fenix lodge would give birth later to several other lodges, including The Fortress, of which Jose Liberato Freire de Carvalho was a member, who became one of the first Portuguese Grand Masters. The government of Spain was slower to act, but in 1740 the Freemasons were banned. The greatest charge against Freemasons was of being a secret society, and thus suspected of ‘occult heresy’. In France the Inquisition was used against the Knights Templar: warrior monks of the Middle Ages. The Knights Templar were initially arrested by agents of the King of France, and not by the inquisitors. However, King Philip cleverly asserted that the arrests were being made in ‘the name of the Inquisition’. At the moment of the arrest of the Templars on 13 October 1307, Philip claimed that the Inquisitor-General had informed him of the corruption of the Knights Templar. This information never specified or mentioned again in the trials, was supposed to be his only motive in ordering the arrests. No fewer than 104 articles were brought against the Templars. These were based on testimony from Philip’s informers and on confessions made under torture. The intent in medieval heresy trials was more to convict the already guilty than to discover the truth. SUMMARY: The Inquisition is synonymous with terror, nocturnal arrest and torture. It is a chapter in history that involves the Freemasons as victims in an age of intolerance. However, even after serious attempts of Masonic extermination, the Craft and brotherhood survive. WWW.Scientiacoronati.org
FO R TH E GOOD OF TH E O RD ER ARIZONA RESEARCH LODGES
1. ARIZONA RESEARCH LODGE No. 1 William A. Garrard Jr., Master Paul J. Dore Sr, Secretary
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2. SOUTHERN ARIZONA RESEARCH LODGE No. 2 John Shattuck, Master Joseph F. Edwards, Secretary
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4. SCIENTIA CORONATI RESEARCH LODGE No. 4
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Keith Rosewitz, Master George E. Weil, Secretary
5. REX R. HUTCHENS RESEARCH LODGE No. 5 Jeffery S. Carlton, Master William E. Phelps, Secretary
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W HITHE R A RE YOU GOIN G?
The Square and Compasses, the best known symbol of a Mason, cannot replace the identity of living the life of a Mason, which is itself perpetually in a state of improving ourselves in body, mind and spirit. Masonic imagery is a valuable resource when it inspires us to take new action consistent with our personal growth and enlightened thought. We must discover our own Masonic calling, our own place in the history of Masonry, by making authentic Masonic performance our top priority.
The Eternal Quest
by Manly P. Hall
The true student realizes most of all that the taking of degrees does not make a man a Mason. A Mason is not appointed; he is evolved and he must realize that the position he holds in the exoteric lodge means nothing compared to his position in the spiritual lodge of life. He must forever discard the idea that he can be told or instructed in the sacred Mysteries or that his being a member of an organization improves him in any way. He must realize that his duty is to build and evolve the sacred teachings in his own being: that nothing but his own purified being can unlock the door to the sacred libraries of human consciousness, and that his Masonic rites must eternally be speculative until he makes them operative by living the life of the mystic Mason. WWW.Scientiacoronati.org
MASONIC SYMBOLISM FROM THE PAGES OF ALBERT MACKEY’S ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FREEMASONRY, LET US REVISIT SOME AREAS OF MASONIC SYMBOLISM. SHOCK. A striking of hands and feet, so as to produce a sudden noise. There is a ceremony called the shock, which was in use in the reception of an Apprentice in the beginning of the nineteenth century and is still used by some Lodges in what is called the Shock of Evidence, and by all in the Shock of Enlightenment. Remember the 1st Degree ceremony and you will see that we use the Shock of Enlightenment when the Master says, “Brethren, stretch forth your hands and assist me in bringing the candidate from darkness…” SHOCK OF ENLIGHTENMENT. It is a ceremony used in all the Degrees of Freemasonry. By it we seek to symbolize the idea of the birth of material light, by the representation of the circumstances that accompanied it, and their references to the birth of intellectual or Masonic light. The Shock of Enlightenment is, a symbol of the change which is now taking place in the intellectual condition of the candidate. It is the symbol of the birth of intellectual light and the dispersion of intellectual darkness. SHOCK OF ENTRANCE. A ceremony formerly used on the admission of an Entered Apprentice, but becoming obsolete. In the initiation of an Entered Apprentice a lesson is taught, focusing on the entering upon a new life and new duties, disrupting old ties and forming new ones and passing into a new birth. This lesson, was or should have been accompanied by some ceremony which would symbolically represent this great moral change. Therefore, the impression of this idea is made by the symbolism of the shock at the entrance of the candidate. The Shock of Entrance is then the symbol of the disruption of the candidate from the ties of the world, and his introduction into the life of Freemasonry. It is the symbol of the agonies of the first death and of the throes of the new birth.
My Brothers, Until the next issue...May the light shine brightly in your lives forever and ever.
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