Volume 68 No. 01
January-February 2021
Albert Pike
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ELS&L
Calendar
Get your Shirts
pg 10
pg 15
pg 14
2 Seattle Scottish Rite
Scottish Rite Communicator Valley of Seattle
www.seattle-scottishrite.org
SCOTTISH RITE OFFICERS Ill. James D. Cole, 33° Sovereign Grand Commander Ill. Alvin W. Jorgensen, 33° S:.G:.I:.G:, Orient of Washington Ill. Sat Tashiro, 33° Personal Rep. of S:.G:.I:.G:. pr@seattle-scottishrite.org Daniel Southerland, 32° KCCH General Secretary Communicator Editor secretary@seattle-scottishrite.org Gene Ulrich, 32° KCCH Treasurer Ill. Tom Lamb, 33° Almoner PRESIDING OFFICERS Bob Gunther 32°KCCH Master of Kadosh, Consistory Ian Hyde 32°KCCH Commander, Council of Kadosh Jeff Hardin 32° KCCH Wise Master, Chapter of Rose Croix Kirk Stensvig, 32° Venerable Master, Lodge of Perfection Seattle Scottish Rite Center 1207 N 152nd St. Seattle, WA 98133-6213 206 324-3330 voice 206 324-3332 fax
The Communicator (USPS 485-660) is published by the Valley of Seattle, A&A Scottish Rite, 1207 N 152nd St., Seattle, WA 98133-6213, for the benefit of its members, bimonthly and is mailed as a non-profit publication to all members of the Valley of Seattle and to specified other interested parties. $2.00 per member is assessed for the publication of The Communicator. Periodicals postage paid at Seattle, Washington and at additional mailing offices. The material contained within this publication is intended for the education and enjoyment of the members of the Masonic Fraternity and all material published becomes the property of Seattle Valley of Scottish Rite. Postmaster: Send address changes to — The Communicator at 1207 N 152nd St., Seattle, WA 98133-6213.
The Struggle for Freedom Albert Pike The Ancient Wrong rules many a land, whose groans Rise swarming to the stars by day and night, Thronging with mournful clamour round the thrones Where the Archangels sit in God's great light, And, pitying, mourn to see that Wrong still reigns, And tortured Nations writhe in galling chains. From Hungary and France fierce cries go up And beat against the portals of the skies Lashed Italy still drinks the bitter cup, And Germany in abject stupor lies The knout on Poland's bloody shoulders rings, And Time is all one jubilee of kings. It will not be so always. Through the night The suffering multitudes with joy descry Beyond the ocean a great beacon-light, Flashing its rays into their starless sky, And teaching them to struggle and be free, The Light of Order, Law, and Liberty. Take heart, ye bleeding Nations and your chains Shall shiver like thin glass. The dawn is near, When Earth shall feel, through all her aged veins The new blood pouring and her drowsy ear Hear Freedom's trumpet ringing in the sky, Calling her braves to conquer or to die. Arm and revolt, and let the hunted stags Against the lordly lions stand at bay! Each pass, Thermoplæ, and all the crags, Young Freedom's fortresses! and soon the day Shall come when Right shall rule, and round the thrones that gird God's feet shall eddy no more groans.
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News from the Personal Representative
HAPPY NEW YEAR
We are in the midst of the winter months, with the short days and long nights, and the corresponding drop in temperature. However we are reminded how fortunate we are to live in the Pacific Northwest with moderate temperatures.
Although we remain under restrictions because of the COVID-19 surge, we look forward to a more normal year in the coming months as the impact of the vaccine soon take hold. The Scottish Rite year for our Valley was difficult year. We look forward to a great year in 2021 as we have learned to adapt. We are on firm financial grounds, due, in great part, to the due to the efforts by the office staff to curtail expenses, while making our facilities ready for the near future with hand sanitizer where masks, social distancing and hand washing will become the norm. In addition the Finance Committee oversees the expenditures consistent with the budget approved by the Lodge of Perfection. Summarizing the events since the last Communicator, we had two virtual degree reunions in the fall and winter months, an Orient wide reunion in October-November and a dedicated Seattle Valley virtual degree reunion in the first two weeks of December. The SGIG authorized and participated in these reunions. We were able to confer all the Scottish Rite degrees on twelve (12) new Master of the Royal Secret. We look forward to the involvement of our new Master of the Royal Secret with us in the activities of the Seattle Valley meetings and degrees. We want to welcome these new members into our Valley, As we begin the 2021 year the following members have agreed to become our body leader for the 2021 year. They will be installed at our virtual meeting in January 19, 2021. Lodge of Perfection:VM Richard Brzustowicz 32°; SW Jeff Hardin, 32°KCCH; JW Ian Hyde, 32° KCCH Rose Croix: WM Gerry O’Brien 32°, KCCH; SW Bryan Reagan 32°, JW; Adam Creighton 32° Council of Kadosh: Cmdr. Arturo Ortiz 32°; 1st LC Todd Pike, 32°KCCH; 2nd LC Carl Bronkema, 32° Consistory: Master of Kadosh Bob Gunther, 32° KCCH; Prior John Hannaman, KCCH 32°; Preceptor, Jaime Speicher, 32° Treasurer: Gene Ulrich, KCCH 32°, and Almoner, Illustrious Tom Lamb, 33°, will continue in these positions in 2020. The contribution of the members of the important committees is also acknowledged. They provide the necessary oversight for our valley.
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We have two brothers who were unable to participate in the virtual degree reunions and it will a major goal to present to them the terminal degrees as soon as we are given the authorization to proceed by the Grand Master, and the SGIG. Our goal for 2021 is to increase the participation of our many black hats in the valley. Plans are underway to give them increased roles, give them opportunities to assist in the degrees and bring forth new ideas, ever mindful of their valuable time. Our virtual stated meeting in 2021 will be 19 January, and will be installation of the new body officers, directors and committeemen for 2021, followed by our usual brief, but necessary business meeting. The meeting will start at 7:00 PM. In addition we will be planning is underway to have major speakers this year to provide to our members increased light and education consistent with our charter to be the University of Freemasonry. These meetings will have been preceded by our EXCOM meeting on 9 January, where we will have met and started the planning and decisions for 2021 calendar. The results will be on our web page. As we start this year, you are reminded that we will not be able to start our 2021 terminal degrees until the pandemic is under control, and we receive permission to have meetings. Hence you are encouraged to inform new and/or interested Master Masons into our Scottish Rite, and our valley. Petitions are included in this Communicator We will continue our efforts to bring meetings of interest to our members in outlying areas through the use of virtual meetings. Our two Scottish Rite clubs, sponsored by the Valley of Seattle, will be having their meetings in the coming weeks. The Eastside Scottish Rite Club (ESRC) will expand its educational efforts to cover both the esoteric aspects of Masonry as well as in-depth study into the Master Craftsman program. The esoteric aspects and mystical concepts of Masonry is normally held at the Issaquah Masonic Center (IMC) located in Issaquah, under the direction of Illustrious Brian Thomas. These meetings are temporarily on hold until meetings can resume. He can be contacted at bjt19@comcast.net or 425-226-0463. All Scottish Rite members of the Seattle Valley receive the Communicator but may miss the fellowship with their fellow members within the valley and find the difficult-travel-miles to-and-from our Shoreline building a major problem. For these members, you are invited to attend one of the virtual meetings by clubs in the valley, i.e., DVD Club. Your attendance at the club meetings is tantamount to attending our stated meetings.
Fraternally, Sat Tashiro 33° Personal Representative of the S:.G:.I:.G:.
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Greetings All, Happy New Year to you all. Lets hope the year bring us back to a normal way of life and we are able to see each other once again in person. I know if you are getting as restless as I am then we all are about ready for some fellowship. I know we have all found different ways to communicate and visit one another. Mainly by using a social media platform and if you are like me its been a learning experience. I have enjoyed the ways it brings us together from afar. I recently attended a Jobs Daughters installation on zoom to see my granddaughter installed as Junior Princess and found myself meeting people from all over. We had ladies and Masons alike from Canada, Oregon, California and the east coast on our little meeting. Now that’s something we would never get at a regular installation so there are many benefits to these meetings. I know there are so many out there to join so if you get the opportunity, go to a meeting you would never have done before. Meet your brothers from all over the world. I have attended several from the east coast and England . They are very happy to have you involved. As you all know the Orient held a virtual degree initiation for all the valleys and what a great turn out we had. So much fun and to see the different valleys do their degrees was an eye opening learning experience. I so enjoyed seeing theses great brothers do them. They were so well done. Seattle Valley had six candidates that could not make the original date so we did an extra set of degrees a couple weeks later. We had six candidates as we ll as Bremerton Valley had two and Tacoma Valley had one. Another great success. I know its not what we all want to see so we will be putting on the degrees as soon as we are able and would encourage all new members to attend and see what they missed. As always we welcome any one who would like to join in on these degrees. There is always room for you. There has been quite a bit of discussion on what the future will hold for Seattle Valley in the way we do our meetings and many functions. The discussion is about how we will integrate a virtual factor into what we do. The one thing we have discovered during these time is the online virtual opportunities are here to stay so we will be looking at how we can bring them into our functions. Its been awesome to see so many brothers join in with us that would normally be staying home for some reason. To have them involved it such a better way to be so we will try to come up with Our Early Life Speech & Language clinicians are always working to make so many childrens lives better. I have been receiving quite a few letters from grateful parents about the great work they are doing even during these tough times. So I ask you to please remember our great work as you donate this year. They always need our help and will continue to make so many kids lives better. We already have a couple of brothers interested in the next class of new members and are looking for more to join them so get out there and talk with your lodge brothers about the great benefits of being a Scottish Rite Mason. If you are enjoying the benefits why are you not talking to all about their ability. We will be planning a whole new class for 2021 and look forward to having more this year than last. Last year we had fourteen new members so let get that number even higher. And last but not least its that time of year again, yep dues time. You have probably received your notice already but if not just let me know and we can get you taken care of. You can do it online or just mail it right to me here at the valley.
Fraternally, Daniel Southerland, 32° KCCH General Secretary
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Albert Pike Author unknown Albert Pike found Freemasonry in a log cabin and left it in a Temple. He was the master genius of Masonry in America, both as scholar and artist. No other mind of equal power ever toiled so long in the service of the Craft in the New World. No other has left a nobler fame in our annals. A great American and a great Mason, the life of Pike is a part of the romance of his country. Outside the Craft he was known as a poet, journalist, soldier, jurist, orator, and his ability in so many fields fills one with amazement. Apart from the chief work of his life in Masonry, he merits honor as a philosopher and a scholar. Indeed, he was one of the richest minds of his age, resembling the sages of the ancient world in his appearance and in the quality of his mind. Those who do not know Masonry often think of him as a man whom history passed by and forgot. Pike was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 29, 1809, of a family in which are several famous names, such as Nicholas Pike, author of the first arithmetic in America, and the friend of Washington; and Zebulon Pike, the explorer, who gave his name to Pike's Peak. His father, he tells us, was a shoemaker who worked hard to give his children the benefit of an education; his Mother a woman of great beauty, but somewhat stern in her ideas of rearing a boy. As a child he saw the festivities at the close of the War with Great Britain, in 1815. When Albert Pike was four his father moved to Newburyport, and there the boy grew up, attending the schools of the town, and also the academy at Framingham. At fourteen he was ready for the freshman class at Harvard, but was unable to pay the tuition fees for two years in advance, as was required at that time, and proceeded to educate himself. Had he been admitted to Harvard he would have been in the class of Oliver Wendell Holmes. As a lad, Albert Pike was sensitive, high-strung, conscious of power, very shy and easily depressed; but, ambitious and determined to make his place in the world. Always a poet, while teaching school at Fairhaven he wrote a series of poems called "Hymns to the Gods," which he afterward revised and sent to Christofer North, editor of "Blackwood's Magazine," at Edinburg, receiving in reply a letter hailing him as a truly great poet. Had Pike given himself altogether to poetry he would have been one of the greatest of American Poets; but, he seemed not to care for such fame but only for the joy, and sometimes the pain, of writing. Indeed, the real story of his inner life may be traced in his poems, a volume of which was published as early as 1813, in honor of which event his friends gave him a reception. In a poem called "Fatasma" he pictures himself at that time as a pale-faced boy, wasted by much study, reciting his poems to a crowded room. As his lips move his eyes are fastened on the lovely face and starry eyes of a girl to whom he dared not tell his love, because she was rich and he was poor. No doubt this hopeless love had much to do with his leaving New England to seek his fortune in the West. Anyway, it made him so sore of heart that the word God does not appear in his poetry for several years. Another reason for going away was the rather stern environment of New England, in which he felt that he could never do and be his best. So, he sings: Weary of fruitless toil he leaves his home, To seek in other climes a fairer fate. Pike left New England in March, 1831, going first to Niagara, and thence, walking nearly all the way, to St. Louis. In August he joined a party of forty traders with ten covered wagons following the old Santa Fe Trail. He was a powerful man, six feet and two inches tall, finely formed, with dark eyes and fair skin, fleet of foot and sure of shot, able to endure hardship, and greatly admired by the Indians. He spent a year at Santa Fe, the unhappiest months of his life. Friendless, homesick, haunted by many memories, he poured out his soul in sad-hearted poems in which we see not only the desperate melancholy of the man but the vivid colors of the scenery and life round about him. Shelly was his ideal, Coleridge his inspiration but his own genius was more akin to Bryant than any other of our singers. What made him most forlorn is told in such lines as these: Friends washed off by life’s ebbing tide, Like sands upon the shifting coasts, The soul’s first love another’s bride; And other melancholy though.
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Happily, new scenes, new friends, and new adventures healed his heart, and a new note of joy is added to his rare power of describing the picturesque country in which he was a pilgrim. In 1832, with a trapping party, he went down the Pecos river into the Staked Plains, and then to the headwaters of the Brazos and Red Rivers. It was a perilous journey and he almost died of hunger and thirst, as he has told us in his poem, "Death in the Desert." After walking five hundred miles he arrived at Fort Smith, Arkansas, friendless, without a dollar, and well-nigh naked. He was soon teaching school in a tiny log cabin near Van Buren, and, tired of wandering, his life began to take root and grow. Again his pen was busy, writing verses for the "Little Rock Advocate," as well as political articles under the pen name "Casca," which attracted so much notice that Horace Greely reprinted them in the New York Tribune. Soon the whole state was eager to know the genius who signed himself "Casca." Robert Crittenden and Judge Turner rode through the wilderness and found the tall, handsome young man teaching in a log schoolhouse on Little Piney River. Charmed with his modesty and power, they invited him to go to Little Rock as assistant editor of the Advocate. Here ended the winter of his wanderings, and his brilliant summer began among friends who love him and inspired him to do his best. Pike made an able editor, studying law at night, never sleeping more than five hours a day - which enabled him to do as much work as two men usually do. By 1835 he owned the Advocate, which contained some of his best writing. He delved deep into law, mastering its history, its philosophy; and, once admitted to the bar, his path to success was an open road. About this time we read a tender poem, "To Mary," showing that other thoughts were busy in his mind. That same year he married Miss Mary Hamilton, a beautiful girl whom he met on a June day at the home of a friend. A few months later appeared this "Prose Sketches and Poems," followed by a longer poem; bold, spirited, and scholarly entitled "Ariel." His poems were printed, for the most part, by his friends as he seemed deaf to the whispers of literary ambition. In the War with Mexico Pike won fame for his valor in the field of Buena Vista, and he has enshrined that scene in a thrilling poem. After the war he took up the cause of the Indians, whose life and languages fascinated him and who, he felt, were being robbed of their rights. He carried their case to the Supreme Court. to whose Bar he was admitted in 1849, along with Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. His speech in the case of the Senate Award to the Choctaws is famous, Webster passing high eulogy upon it. Judged by any test, Pike was a great orator, uniting learning with practical acumen, grace with power, and the imperious magnetism which only genius can command. Pike was made a Master Mason in Western Star Lodge No. 1, Little Rock, Arkansas, July, 1850; and the symbolism of the Craft fascinated him from the first, both as a poet and scholar. Everywhere he saw suggestions, dim intimations, half-revealed and half-concealed ideas which could not have had their origin among the common craft Masons of old. He set himself to study the Order, his enthusiasm keeping pace with his curiosity, in search of the real origin and meaning of its symbols. At last he found that Freemasonry is the Ancient Great Mysteries in disguise, it's simple emblems the repository of the highest wisdom of the Ancient World, to rescue and expound which became more and more his desire and passion. Here his words: "It began to shape itself to my intellectual vision into something imposing and majestic, solemnly mysterious and grand. It seemed to me like the Pyramids in the grandeur and loneliness, in whose yet undiscovered chambers may be hidden, for the en-lightenment of the coming generations, the sacred books of the Egyptians, so long lost to the World; like the Sphinx, half- buried in the sands. In essence, Freemasonry is more ancient than any of the world's living religions. So I came at last to see that its symbolism is its soul."
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Thus a great poet saw Freemasonry and sought to renew the luster of its symbols of high and gentle wisdom, making it a great humanizing, educational and spiritual force among men. He saw in it a faith deeper than all creeds, larger than all sects, which, if rediscovered, he believed, would enlighten the world. It was a worthy ambition for any man, and one which Pike, by the very quality of his genius, as well as his tastes, temper and habits of mind, seemed born to fulfill. All this beauty, be it noted, Pike found in the old Blue Lodge - he had not yet advanced to the higher degrees - and to the end of his life the Blue Lodge remained to him a wonder and a joy. There he found universal Masonry, all the higher grades being so many variations on its theme. He did not want Masonry to be a mere social club, but a power for the shaping of character and society. So far Pike had not even heard of the Scottish Rite, to which he was to give so many years of service. He seems not to have heard of it until 1852, and then, as he tells us, with much the same feeling with which a Puritan might hear of a Buddhist ceremony performed in a Calvinistic church. He imagined that it was not Masonry at all, or else a kind of Masonic atheism. His misunderstanding was due, perhaps, to the bitter rivalry of rites which then prevailed, and which he did so much to heal. At length he saw that Masonry was one, though its rites are many, and he studied the Scottish Rite, its origin, history, and such ritual as it had at the time, which was rather crude and chaotic, but sufficient to reveal its worth and promise. The Scottish appeared in America in 1801, at Charleston, South Carolina, derived from a Supreme Council constituted in Berlin in 1786. For its authority it had, in manuscript, a Grand Constitution, framed by the Prussian body - a document which Pike afterwards defended so ably, though toward the end of his life he was led by facts brought out by Gould and others, to modify his earlier position. The Council so established had no subordinate bodies at first, and never very many, in fact, until 1855, a very natural result in a country which, besides having Masonry of its own, regarded the Rite as heresy. None the less Pike entered the Scottish Rite, at Charleston, March 20, 1853, receiving its degrees from the fourth to the thirty-second, and the thirty-third degree in New Orleans, in 1857. The following year he delivered a lecture in New Orleans, by special request, before the Grand Lodge of Louisiana; his theme being "The Evil Consequences od Schisms and Disputes for Power in Masonry, and of Jealousy and Dissensions Between Masonic Rites" - one of the greatest single Masonic lectures ever delivered, in which may be found the basis of all his Masonic thought and teaching. Masonry, as Pike saw it, is morality founded in faith and taught by symbols. It is not a religion, but a worship in which all good men can unite, its purpose being to benefit mankind physically, socially, and spiritually; by helping men to cultivate freedom, friendship and character. To that end, beyond the facts of faith - the reality of God, the moral law, and the hope of immortality - it does not go. One is not surprised to learn that Pike was made Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, in 1859. He at once began to recast the Rite, rewriting its rituals, reshaping its degrees, some of which existed only in skeleton, and clothing them in robes of beauty. To this task he brought all his learning as a scholar, his insight as a poet, and his enthusiasm as a Mason. He lived in Little Rock, in a stately home overlooking the city, where he kept his vast library and did his work. In the same year, 1859, he was reported dead by mistake, and had the opportunity of reading many eulogies written in his memory. When the mistake was known, his friends celebrated his "return from Hades," as it was called, by a festival.
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Alas, then came the measureless woe of Civil War, and Pike cast his lot with the South, and was placed in command of the Indian Territory. Against his protest the Indian regiments were ordered from the Territory and took part in the Battle of Elkhorn. The battle was a disaster, and some atrocities by Indian Troops, whom he was unable to restrain, cause criticism. Later, when the Union Army attacked Little Rock the Commanding General, Thomas H. Benton, Grand Master of Masons in Iowa, posted a guard to protect the home of Pike and his Masonic Library. After the War Pike practiced Law for a time in Memphis. In 1868 he moved to Alexandria, Virginia, and in 1870 to Washington. Again he took up his labors in behalf of Masonry, revising its rituals, and writing those nobel lectures into which he gathered the wisdom of the ages - as though his mind were a great dome which caught the echoes of a thousand thinkers. By 1871 the Scottish Rite was influential and widely diffused, due, in part, to the energy and genius of its Commander. In the same year he published "Morals and Dogma," a huge manual for the instruction of the Rite, as much a compilation as a composition, able but illarranged, which remains to this day a monument of learning. It ought to be revised, rearranged, and reedited, since it is too valuable to be left in so cumbersome a form, containing as it does much of the best Masonic thinking and writing in our literature. It is studded with flashing insights and memorable sayings, as for example: Man is accountable for the uprightness of his doctrine, But not for the rightness of it. The free country where intellect and genius rule, will endure. Where they serve, and other influences govern, its life is short. When the state begins to feed part of the people, it prepares all to be slaves. Deeds are greater than words. They have a life, mute but undeniable, and they grow. They people the emptiness of Time. Nothing is really small. Every bird that flies carries a thread of the infinite in its claws. Sorrow is the dog of that unknown Shephard who guides the flock of men. Life has its ills, but it is not all evil. If life is worthless, so is immortality. Our business is not to be better than others, but to be better than ourselves. For all his strength and learning, Pike was ever a sensitive, beauty-loving soul, touched by the brevity and sadness of life, which breathe in his poems. His best known poem, but by no means his greatest, was written in 1872 entitled, "Every Year," in which this note of melancholy is heard: Life is a count of losses, Every year; For the weak are heavier crosses, Every year; Lost springs with sobs replying, Unto weary Autumn's sighing, While those we love are dying, Every year. To the past go more dead faces, Every year; As the loved leave vacant places, Every year; Everywhere the sad eyes meet us, In the evening's dusk they greet us, And to come to them entreat us, Every year. But the truer life draws nigher, Every year; And the morning star climbs higher, Every year; Earth's hold on us grows slighter, And the heavy burden lighter, And the Dawn Immortal brighter, Every year. Death often pressed the cup of sorrow to his lips. Three of his children died in infancy. His first son was drowned; his second, an officer, was killed in battle. His eldest daughter died in 1869, and the death of his wife was the theme of a melting poem, "The Widowed Heart." His tributes to his friends in the Fraternity, as one by one they passed away, were memorable for their tenderness and simple faith. Nothing could shake his childlike trust in the veiled kindness of the Father of Men; and despite many clouds, "Hope still with purple flushed his sky." In his lonely later years, Pike betook himself more and more to his studies, building a city of the mind for inward consolation and shelter. He mastered many languages - Sanskrit, Hebrew, old Samarian, Persian - seeking what each had to tell of beauty and of truth. He left in the library of the House of the Temple fifteen large manuscript volumes, translations of the sacred books of the East, all written with an old- fashioned quill, in a tiny flowing hand, without blot or erasure. There he held court and received his friends amid the birds and flowers he loved so well. He was companionable, abounding in friendship, brilliant in conversation, his long white hair lending him an air of majesty, his face blushing like a child's at merited praise, simple. kindly, lovable. So death found him in April, 1891, fulfilling his own lines written as a boy: So I, who sing, shall die, Worn thin and pale, by care and sorrow; And, fainting. with a soft unconscious sigh, Bid unto this poor body that I borrow, A long good-by - tomorrow To enjoy, I hope, eternal spring in high Beyond the sky. So passed Pike. No purer, nobler man has stood at the Altar of Freemasonry or left his story in our traditions. He was the most eminent Mason in the world, alike for his high rank, his rich culture, and his enduring service. Nor will our craft ever permit to grow dim the memory of that stately, wise, and gracious teacher - a Mason to whom the world was a Temple, a poet to whom the world was a song.
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Lets all take a moment to remember the great work our Clinics and Speech Pathologists continue to do every day. Here in Seattle our two Clinicians continue to see patients virtually even with the current situations. We all need to continue our assistance to our great philinthropic.
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The Mother Grand Lodge SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.VI December, 1928 No.12 by: Unknown
It has often been remarked how casually , if not accidentally, so many great movements seem to start. They seem to spring up of themselves, at the bidding of impulses of which men are only vaguely aware, and the full measure and meaning of which they do not know. As in the Alps, a shout or the report of a gun may start an avalanche of ice and snow, because of the poise of forces, so in history a little act often releases a vast pent-up power. A perfect example is the “Revival” of Masonry in 1717,. which, not only gave a new date to our annals, but a new form and force to the Craft, sending it to the ends of the earth on its benign mission. So true is it that we almost say that modern Masonry, in its origin and organization, is as much a mystery as ancient Masonry with its symbols and rites, and the mystery may never be solved. Out of a period of dim half-light and much obscurity the new Masonry arose, and knowing what it is, we have a keen curiosity to know how it came to be what it is. How many questions we are eager to ask, answers to which are not found, or likely to be found, unless un-guessed records should leap to light. Anyway, our brethren of those formative days practiced the Masonic virtues of silence and circumspection to an extraordinary degree, telling us very little of what we should like to know so much. How many lodges of Masons existed in London at that time is a matter of conjecture, but there must have been a number. What tie, if any, united them for common action and fellowship we do not know. Some were purely operative lodges, others seem to have been purely speculative - there were such lodges, such as the one in which Ashmole was initiated as early as 1646 - while others, as we shall see, were mixed; made up of men part of whom were Accepted Masons and part actual working masons. The Craft, as all agree, was in a state of neglect, if not disintegration. It enjoyed a period of prosperity in the rebuilding of London after the great fire in 1666, but as we read in the only record we have, “the few lodges at London finding themselves neglected by Sir Christopher Wren, though it fit to cement under a Grand Master as the centre of union and harmony.” Wren was the great architect of the day, the builder of St. Paul’s Cathedral. Whether he was actually a lodge member or not is uncertain, but such was the reason given for the forming of a Grand Lodge.
Gould, our great historian, in describing “the assembly of 1717,” out of which the first Grand Lodge grew, remarks that “unfortunately, the minutes of Grand Lodge only commence on July 24th, 1723 - six years after the event! For the story of those first six years we are dependent upon an account not written, or at least not published, until the second edition of the Constitutions of 1738 - twenty-one years after the event to which it refers! Surely, no other movement of equal importance ever left so scanty a record made so long after the fact.
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Why no minutes were kept - or if kept at all, were lost we do not know. Still less do we know why the first Grand Lodge was formed without a Constitution/ The General Regulations did not appear until 1721, the Constitutions in 1723. The impression is unmistakable that is was only an experiment, in response to a growing need for a “Center of Union and Harmony,” and that those who took part in it did not dream that they were launching a movement destined to cover the earth with a great fraternal fellowship. Four lodges united to form the Mother Grand Lodge, those that met: 1.At the Goose and Gridiron Ale-House in St. Paul’s Church Yard. 2. At The Crown Ale-House in Parker’s Lane, near Drury Lane. 3. At the Apple-Tree Tavern in Charles Street, Covent Garden. 4. At the Rummer and Grape Tavern in Channel-Row, Westminster.
In those days. as in our own day in London. lodges met in taverns and ale-houses - the hotels of the time. Their meetings were festive, and often convivial, in the manner and custom of the day. A rare old book called “Multa Paucis” asserts that six lodges, not four, were represented, but there is no record of the fact, though members of other lodges were no doubt present as guests. Indeed, we have a hint to that effect in the meager record, as follows: “They, (the four lodges) and old Brothers met at said Apple-Tree, and having put into the chair the oldest Master Mason (now Master of a lodge) they constituted themselves a Grand Lodge pro Tempore in Due Form, and forthwith revived the Quarterly Communication of the Officers of Lodges (called the Grand Lodge), resolved to hold the Annual Assembly and Feast, then Chuse a Grand Master from among themselves, till they should have the honor of a Noble Brother at their Head.” Such is the record of the preliminary meeting - what would we not give for a full account of its discussions and proceedings! Diligent search has been made among the records, diaries and papers of the time, but few facts have been added to this record. Even the date of the meeting was omitted, but it must have been in the spring or early summer of 1717, as the meeting at which the Grand Lodge was actually organized took place shortly afterward, in June of that year, and was held in the Goose and Gridiron Ale-House in St. Paul’s Churchyard, near the west end of the Cathedral. The old Ale-House had a long story, being one of the most famous in the city, whereof we may read in “London Inns and Taverns,” by Leopold Wagner. Before the Great Fire it had been called the Mitre, the first “Musick House” in London, and the meeting place of a Company of Musicians, its sign being a Swan and a Lyre. Its master had gathered many trophies of travel, which he displayed, and which are said to have formed the nucleus of the Britian Museum. After the fire it was rebuilt on the same site, but the new sign was so badly made that the wits of the town called it the Goose and Gridiron, and the name clung to it. The record goes on: “Accordingly, on St. John Baptist’s Day, in the 3rd year of King George I, A.D. 1717, the assembly and Feast of the Free and Accepted Masons was held at the foresaid Goose and Gridiron Ale-House. “Before dinner, the oldest Master Mason (now the Master of a Lodge), in the Chair, proposed a list of proper candidates; and the Brethren by a majority of Hands elected Mr. Anthony Sayer, Gentleman, Grand Master of Masons (Mr. Jacob Lamball, Carpenter; Capt. Joseph Elliot, Grand Wardens), who being forthwith invested with the Badges of Office and Power by said oldest Master, and installed, was duly congratulated by the Assembly, who paid him the Homage.
S e a t t l e S c o t t i s h R i t e 13
“Sayer, Grand Master, commanded the Masters and Wardens of Lodges to meet the Grand Officers every Quarter in Communication, at the place that he should appoint in the Summons sent by the Tyler.” So reads the only record that has come down to us of the founding of the Mother Grand Lodge. Who were present, besides the three officers named, has so far eluded all research; their faces have faded, their names are lost - but imagine the scene. The big room extended the width of the house, thirty feet one way and nearly twenty the other. In the center was an oak table, around which the delegates from the various lodges sat on chairs, smoking their pipes. The seat of Anthony Sayer was before the fireplace, with its polished brass fire-irons, with chestnut-roasters and bed-warmers hanging on either side of it. It was an hour of feast and fun and fellowship, as they sat down to dinner together, as English lodges do today. Each man had a rummer of foaming ale before him on the table, and as he drained it betimes it was refilled by a handsome maid, Hannah, whose name has survived long after others were lost. Only a few memories live of that event which divided the story of Masonry into before and after; the famous sign in front of the house, so ugly that a Swan and a Lyre were mistaken for a Goose and a Gridiron; the skittleground on the roof; the small water-course, a rivulet of Fleet Brook, for which a way had to be made through the chimney; the pillar that propped up the chimney, and - Hannah, the maid. How strange that the Masons of England allowed the old Ale-House to be taken down in 1893 it ought to have been kept as a shrine of fellowship and fun. But so little interest was taken in its fate that the historic sign was sold to a citizen of Dulwick, who put it in his greenhouse. Later on, however, the old relic was recovered, and it now has a place of honor in the Guildhall Museum, along with other tokens of the London that is no more. Alas, so little do men see, and so lightly do they value what is passing before their eyes. What of the men who formed the Mother Grand Lodge? They did not - could not - realize what they had done so casually and in the spirit of frolic, much less foreknow its meaning and future. They merely wanted to make a “Centre of Union and Harmony,” as they called it, between the lodges of the city. There was no thought of imposing the authority of Grand Lodge upon the country in general, still less upon the world, as is clear from the Constitutions of 1723, which are said to be “for the use of Lodges in London.” Yet, so great was the necessity for a Grand Lodge, that, once started, the impulse spread to Ireland, Scotland, and the ends of the earth. Link was added link until it put “a girdle around the earth.” As a great man of the Craft has said so picturesquely, it is possible, and it is true, to say that Masonry was born in a Tavern, but it belongs to Almighty God; and so gentle was its spirit, so friendly and tolerant and wise withal, that it began to make the life of the Tavern like a vestibule for the life of the Church.
14 S e a t t l e S c o t t i s h R i t e
Messages Happy Birthday!
Congratulations from all your Scottish Rite Brethren To our members over 90 who have reached a very important birthday!
January
February
William D. Dodd 01/26/1929
Kjartan J. Ask 02/22/1928
Joseph L. Hoskins 01/01/1930
Cecil W. Sundbeck 02/18/1929
John M. Elbert 01/25/1930
Kenneth D. Freese 02/05/1930
John F. Parks 01/14/1931
Frank J. Walters 02/21/1930
Robert J. Pratt 01/31/1931
Frank M. Perkins 02/10/1930 Walter R. Bollman 02/25/1931
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S e a t t l e S c o t t i s h R i t e 15
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