The Journal
Of The Masonic Society
Summer 2009
THE JOURNAL OF THE
MASONIC SOCIETY Editor in Chief Christopher L. Hodapp Phone: 317-842-1103 editor@themasonicsociety.com 1427 W. 86th Street Suite 248 Indianapolis IN 46260-2103 Editorial Committee Jay Hochberg - Submissions Editor Shawn Eyer - Assistant Editor Submit articles by email to: articles@themasonicsociety.com Officers Roger S. VanGorden, President Michael R. Poll, 1st Vice President Rex R. Hutchens, 2nd Vice President Ronald D. Martin, Executive Secretary Nathan C. Brindle, Secretary/Treasurer Christopher L. Hodapp, Editor-in-Chief
Grand Master of Masons in Indiana, Most Worshipful Brother Charles F. Marlowe Roger S. VanGorden “All Masonry Is Local” Christopher L. Hodapp “Reviving Your Lodge” Tour the largest Scottish Rite Cathedral in the World! More presentations on the way! Registration $65, includes luncheon and banquet. Members of the Society and non-members are welcome to register and attend. Our Luncheon and Banquet will both be served in the main Dining Room of Indiana Freemasons’ Hall. Your Lady or Other Guest may attend the conference and banquet for an additional $65. Register online at www.themasonicsociety.com Deadline for registration is Saturday, October 17, 2009. All proposals for presentations and papers for consideration should be directed to Bro. Jay Hochberg, Submissions Coordinator of The Journal of The Masonic Society at articles@themasonicsociety.com. Please email your submissions no later than August 24, 2009. Please note that all submissions will be subject to review for suitability to the theme of the event. Accommodations The Society has arranged for a limited number of rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn Indianapolis Downtown, which is about seven blocks from Indiana Freemasons’ Hall. We have negotiated a rate of $109/night for Friday, October 23, 2009 (with checkout on Saturday, October 24, 2009). NOTE: If you plan to stay in the hotel, please reserve early as there is a large convention in Downtown Indianapolis winding up the same weekend of our meeting. Rooms may be reserved at the reduced rate through September 24, 2009. We cannot guarantee any room availability after that date. Rooms may be reserved online at this link. Alternately, you may call the hotel directly at 317-405-5709 and use the group name “The Masonic Society” and group code “TMS”. PLEASE NOTE: The special room rate is for registered and paid attendees ONLY. Because room availability is limited, we will monitor hotel reservations closely and will cancel all reservations for which there is no corresponding registered, paid attendee. Ladies are invited to join us for the presentations on Saturday, or they may choose to “wander” the amenities of Downtown Indianapolis. However, if your lady has an interest in attending a more formal ladies’ program, please contact the secretary-treasurer. (No guarantees, but if a sufficient number of ladies indicate an interest, we will do our best to accommodate them.) For updated information, see the official Semi-Annual meeting webpage at www.themasonicsociety.com
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Directors Ronald Blaisdell Robert G. Davis James R. Dillman Jay Hochberg James W. Hogg Fred G. Kleyn III Mark Tabbert
The Journal of The Masonic Society Summer 2009 Issue 5 Published by The Masonic Society Inc. 1427 W. 86th Street, Suite 248, Indianapolis IN 46260-2103. Full membership for Master Masons in good standing of a lodge chartered by a grand lodge that is a member of the Conference of Grand Masters of Masons of North America (CGMMNA), or recognized by a CGMMNA member grand lodge. (includes Prince Hall Grand Lodges recognized by their counterpart CGMMNA state Grand Lodge): $39/yr., ($49 outside US/Canada). Subscription for nonmembers: $39/yr., ($49 outside US/Canada). POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Journal of The Masonic Society, 1427 W. 86th Street, Suite 248, Indianapolis IN 46260-2103 © 2009 by The Masonic Society, Inc. All rights reserved.
THE JOURNAL OF THE MASONIC SOCIETY SUMMER 2009 Sections 4 President’s Message 5
News of the Society
7
Conferences, Speeches, Symposia & Gatherings
8
Masonic News
33 Letters 35 From The Editor
Articles 12 The Two Confessions of John Whitney: an examination of the conflicting theories as to the fate of William Morgan by Stephen Dafoe
Special Reports 28 The Orders of the Secret Monitor and the Scarlet Cord
17 Brother Bloom, The Most Influential Mason Who Never Lived by Kenneth W. Davis
By Richard L. Gan
30 International Conference on the History of Freemasonry 2009
19 Debunking Reality: Solomon’s temple and the Power of Allegory
by Christopher Hodapp
Masonic Treasures 36
The Washingtons of Donald De Lue by Marc Conrad
by Randy Williams 23
Multiple Dimensions of Silence in Freemasonry by Shawn Eyer
COVER: This issue’s cover features a Dutch engraving depicting Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple by Christian Van Adrichomd (1533-1585), “JERVSALEM et suburbia eius, sicut tempore Christi floruit .” From: “Jerusalem . . . et suburbanorum . . . brevis descriptio,” Köln, 1584.
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THE JOURNAL OF THE MASONIC SOCIETY
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
What Is The Masonic Society? By Roger S. VanGorden
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hen The Masonic Society sprang upon and need your help. the scene a little over a year ago the Your help brings the objective was to change the notion of discussion of the next feature what a research society was. Rather than of our Society. We are in become a group of guys only poring over old moldy the process of establishing books, printing biographies of dead famous Masons, or Second Circle Committees tossing criticisms at Grand Lodges we sought a different in jurisdictions where Grand and expanded path. We sought to build a Masonic study Masters give permission. The society using technology, a thirst for learning, an interest objectives of these Second Circle in what is happening today, and then adding a big dose Committees are to hold at least two events each year of brotherhood. in their area. One event will be an education seminar At the Masonic Library and Museum of Indiana is which all Master Masons in the area may be invited. posted a quote from Jacob Bronowski’s Ascent of Man, The second will be a social event for the enjoyment of “It is important that students bring a certain the Society’s members. Freemasonry teaches character ragamuffin, barefoot, irreverence to their studies; cannot be improved in isolation. The Masonic Society is they are not here to worship what is known, but to not about worshipping a selected few who allow you an question it.” opportunity to sit at their feet and bask in their wisdom. The same should be said of The Masonic Society. The Masonic Society is about you and me working We are a living, breathing, ragamuffin, barefoot bond of together to improve ourselves in both knowledge and brothers who love studying Freemasonry. We are each a character. scholar and at the same time each a student. We use technology “The Masonic Society is no more just a to increase and improve research society than Freemasonry is merely learning. We offer an a fraternal organization doing good works. internet discussion forum for our members which Masonic We are a fellowship of Masons dedicated to decorum is maintained. Also, studying Freemasonry and improving our we recently added mobile knowledge and our character.” features to our discussion forum so you can view and join in the discussions while on the go. We have a high So, The Masonic Society is no more just a research quality magazine utilizing modern printing techniques. society than Freemasonry is merely a fraternal Further The Journal is not some stuffy publication— organization doing good works. We are a fellowship rather, we think of it as a Time magazine for Freemasonry. of Masons dedicated to studying Freemasonry and Not only does The Journal contain research and study improving our knowledge and our character. By articles but also listings of events, news, and pieces for improving ourselves we thus improve our lodges just as personal reflection. the individual Mason improves his community and thus We have a group page on Facebook. If you are also the world. on Facebook please join The Masonic Society group. We are looking for more opportunities to use technology 4 • SUMMER 2009
THE JOURNAL OF THE MASONIC SOCIETY
News of the Society
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on’t miss the Masonic Society’s Semi-Annual Meeting on October 24th, 2009 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Indiana. The event will be held at Freemasons’ Hall, 525 N. Illinois St., Indianapolis, Indiana. The day will start at 9 AM Eastern Time. In the spirit of the recent Centennial Rededication of Indiana Freemasons’ Hall, the theme of The Masonic Society’s first SemiAnnual will be “Rededicating The Craft.” See details inside the front cover of this issue.
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ust in time for those lazy summer days reading under a tree, TMS has partnered with Cornerstone Book Publishing on a special summer membership offer. Any existing TMS Member who brings in two New Members to The Masonic Society between August 1st and October 31st, 2009, will receive a FREE copy of one of the following books: 1) The Freemasons Key - A Study of Masonic Symbolism, featuring works by Albert Mackey, Joseph Fort Newton, Oliver Day Street, H. L. Haywood and more. 2) Masonic Enlightenment - The Philosophy, History and Wisdom of Freemasonry. Includes: “The Meaning of Initiation” by Frank C. Higgins; “Operative Masonry: Early Days in the Masonic Era” by Robert I. Clegg; “Masonic Jurisprudence” by Roscoe Pound; “Freemasons in the American Revolution” by Charles S. Lobingier; “A Bird’sEye View of Masonic History” by H.L. Haywood; “Women and Freemasonry” by Dudley Wright; “In the Interests of the Brethren” by Rudyard Kipling; “The Egyptian Influence on Our Masonic Ceremonial and Ritual” by Thomas Ross; “Anderson’s Constitutions of 1723” by Lionel Vibert; “The Rise and Development of Anti-Masonry in America, 17371826” by J. Hugo Tatsch; “The Spiritual Significance of Freemasonry” by Silas H. Shepherd; “Rosicrucianism in Freemasonry” by H.V.B. Voorhis; “The New Atlantis and Freemasonry” by A.J.B. Milborne; “Masonry and World Peace” by Joseph Fort Newton and more. 3) Knights & Freemasons - The Birth of Modern Freemasonry, edited by Mike Poll and S. Brent Morris. Legendary Masonic authors, Albert Mackey and Albert Pike take us on an amazing venture from the days of the Crusades and the Knights Templar to the creation of modern speculative Freemasonry in a collection of inspiring papers. Includes the very rare, “The Order of the Temple” by Albert Pike. Here are the fine print details: New Members must state on their application that they were referred by you – otherwise we have no way of keeping track of who referred them. So, in the “How did you hear about us” line on the application they will need to write-in your name. Once two members have signed up identifying you as their contact, you will be notified. The choice of books is yours. Shipping and handling shall be paid for those within the United States and for those Brothers that live outside of the U.S. you will receive a $5 credit toward shipping and handling. Spread the word about the Masonic Society, and add to your library at the same time!
Brother Richard Vickery enjoying his Journal while on deployment in Afghanistan. “MAJ Adams took the attached picture of me looking at the journal while in lovely Helmand (I say that in jest because Helmand is a desert where the temperature is around 120 degrees in the afternoon). The Marines requested I come down and help them out with a few things, though they will never admit that publicly, because after all, they are Marines. I do miss being in lodge, and discussing Freemasonry, but I think of it often, particularly when I am interacting with the Afghan people (which could be a thesis in itself).”
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peaking of spreading the word, new color brochures are now available to promote the Masonic Society. Contact Executive Secretary Ron Martin at ronmartin.freemasonry@gmail.com
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harp-eyed readers will have noticed a change in the way we are numbering issues of the magazine. Up until this issue, we had been using the “Volume 1, Issue #” system that is useful for those who make annual bound editions of magazines. But because we did not follow the pattern of numbering pages for bound editions (Issue 1, pages 1-32, Issue 2 pages 33-64, etc.), this didn’t make logical sense. It needed to be one way or the other. So, this issue is now officially #5, and we will go forth simply numbering them sequentially. Internally, we have all been referring to them that way, so this just makes it official.
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ur “Conferences, Speeches, Symposia & Gatherings” section seems to be dominated by East Coast events. By that, we don’t mean to imply that nothing is going on anywhere else. It simply means that we need more input from midwest, southern and western members, and from our brethren outside of the U.S., about what is happening in your part of the Masonic world. Please send notices of your event to Jay Hochberg at articles@ themasonicsociety.com
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asonic Society brethren appeared in a new History Channel program in July, “Secrets of the Founding Fathers.” Mark Tabbert, S. Brent Morris and Chris Hodapp all SUMMER 2009 • 5
THE JOURNAL OF THE MASONIC SOCIETY
News of the Society ith great pride and appreciation, The Masonic Society welcomes the following brethren as our esteemed new members from May 1st through June 31st, 2009. George H. Anderson John Bishop Robert C. Blackburn Michael W. Brantley Dan Brewer R. Carlton Brumfield Johnny Joe Combs Brian Cors Patrick Carter Craddock Michael Cunningham Joe Dahl Ernest Ray Dees Saheb Singh Dewan Ferenc Attila Dobai Martin Faulks Michael J. Fiorella Scott Freeman Edimand C. Gilbertson Robert W. Gregory Jason Harrigan
Chris Harris Richard F. Harrod Keith Alton Hartless Thomas L. Hauder Jack C. Hennings, Jr. Russell E. Hennings Dr. Charles R. Hill John C. Hoenstine George L. Holbrook Andrew Horn Gene Hutloff Joe Kindoll Douglas W. King Michael J. Koziel Ivan D. Lancaster Jay M. Laser Dr. Aaron T. Lawwill John W. LeRoy, Sr. Richard M. Luther N Grant Macleod
attempted to provide truthful information about Freemasonry in a two-hour special that was considerably different from what had been originally proposed. Such are the pitfalls of dealing with television.
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rother Shawn Eyer has been engaged as the new editor of the Philalethes magazine, replacing Brother Nelson King. Brother King has served as the editor of the magazine for sixteen years, and has retired because of ongoing health problems. While we will miss Shawn’s insights on our Editorial Committee, we are certain he will accomplish great things. Shawn is a very dedicated writer and a Brother who sticks to traditional Masonic values and principles. All of us look forward to the positive changes that Shawn will bring to that publication. It is our understanding, based on what the new President of the Philalethes posted, that the first issue of the magazine that Shawn has full control over will be the October issue, as they are changing to a quarterly publication like TMS.
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f you have a Facebook account, be sure to add “The Masonic Society” group to your profile. And please remember, if you aren’t signed up and participating in our members-only online Forum, you are missing one of the biggest benefits of your membership. Exchange ideas, assist each other with research, keep up to date on news and Society activities. Simply go to www.themasonicsociety.com and follow the links and instructions to sign on to the Forum.
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Rodney Mann Robert C. Martin Bill McElligott Walter E. Metcalf Matthew Z. Mullins Gad Nevo Michael R. Northrup Mike O’Connell Benjamin H. Owens III Dennis W. Pothier Richard O. Randolph Raborn L. Reader, Jr. Nathan D. Riley Ruben Rosa Ed Santacruz Robert A. Scott Tom Seay Wayne E. Sirmon Kato Smith Water P. Sword
Don Tansey Trigger A. Twigg Matthew Vachon Fred Wade Gregory C. Walbridge Winn Walton Benjamin O. Weger Don L. Weilhamer Gregory Wentzel Charles Carter Wicks George R. Williams Jay Williams Thomas D. Worrel Brandon Yarbrough Dan C. Young III E. Arthur Young Wilson M. Young Mihailo Zdravkovic
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enewal notices have gone out for those members who first joined us between May and July of 2008. We do not bill like most Masonic groups, once a year. We send out renewal notices every quarter, depending on when you joined the Society. To save postage costs, we first send an e-mail renewal notice, and you can renew online with a credit/debit card via Paypal. We follow that up with a mailed notice. Many thanks to all of you who have renewed your membership after our first year. We appreciate your confidence in us. We have had a few bumps in the road getting started, but we are inching our way to 1,000 members after just over a year. That is a great milestone, and we are just getting started. New plans, offers, gatherings and events are coming. Stay tuned!
Renew your membership now online at www.themasonicsociety.com
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ooking for cool Masonic Society hats, shirts, cups, mousepads and more? Visit our Cafepress web store at www.cafepress.com/ tms where you’ll find a growing number of custom items to show your pride in membership!
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Conferences, October 6, 2009 Scottish Rite Research Society Membership Meeting Masonic News Speeches, 11:30 am in conjunction with the AASR-SJ Session. Speaker: Alain Bernheim, noted Masonic researcher and author, member Symposia & of the Regular Grand Loge of Belgium and to the Swiss Grand Lodge Alpina. Washington D.C. Gatherings October 9, 2009
July 17, 18, 2009 Rocky Mountain Masonic Conference 2009. Coeur D’Alene, Idaho
Garibaldi Lodge No. 542, New York City The Entered Apprentice Degree of the French Rite, as worked in Italian by this unique lodge. Lodge opens at 8 p.m.
July 22-25, 2009 York Rite Sovereign College of North America’s 52nd General Assembly Cincinnati, Ohio.
October 14, 2009 Alpha Lodge No. 116 in East Orange, New Jersey Founding Fellow Piers A. Vaughan, world renowned expert on the Rectified Scottish Rite, to speak on “Willermozism.”
August 15-19, 2009 64th Triennial Grand Encampment, Knights Templar of the USA Roanoke, VA
October 17, 2009 Rededication of J.J.J. Gourgas gravesite memorial By the Scottish Rite Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, Jersey City, New Jersey.
August 23-25, 2009 Supreme Council of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction Boston, MA August 24-28, 2009 “Rebirth of the American Spirit to Search for the Inner America” The Open Center’s 8th Esoteric Quest, near Woodstock, New York. Discussion relating to Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, and more. September 9, 2009 Alpha Lodge No. 116 in East Orange, New Jersey RW Rashied Sharrieff-Al-Bey of Cornerstone Lodge No. 37, MWPHGLNY, who will speak on the “Hidden Work of our Gentle Craft.” September 10, 2009 Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22, Alexandria, Virginia Bro. John Wade to give the United Grand Lodge of England’s Prestonian Lecture for 2009.
October 17, 2009 Peyton Randolph Lodge of Research No. 1774 Meets at Williamsburg Masonic Lodge No. 6, Williamsburg, Virginia 10 a.m. October 24, 2009 Pennsylvania Academy of Masonic Knowledge Masonic Cultural Center at Grand Lodge’s Elizabethtown campus, 9 a.m. October 24-25, 2009 The Masonic Society’s inaugural Semi-Annual First Circle meeting (With separate Board meeting) at Indiana Freemasons’ Hall in Indianapolis, Indiana. October, 28, 2009 The Masonic Lodge of Research of Connecticut Meets in the New Haven Masonic Temple (285 Whitney Ave.) at 7:30 p.m. October 28, 2009 Alpha Lodge No. 116 in East Orange, New Jersey W. Bob Gilbert, Past Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, to speak on A.E. Waite’s mystical approach to Freemasonry.
September 11-12, 2009 York Rite Northeast Conference Founding Fellow Brent Morris to be keynote speaker. Comfort Inn-BWI in Baltimore, MD.
October 29, 2009 American Lodge of Research French Ionic Room at GL of NY (71 W. 23rd St., NYC.) 7:30 p.m. Annual Meeting with election of officers, followed by W. Gilbert Ferrer’s presentation “The Anti Mason’s Toolbox: Abusing Logic to Attack the Craft.”
September 12, 2009 New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 Meets at 100 Barrack St. in Trenton at 10 a.m. All Master Masons welcome.
October 30-31 Valley of Toledo in Ohio, Annual Reunion TMS Founding Fellow Stephen Dafoe to be guest speaker.
September 12, 2009 Prestonian Gala Banquet: Prestonian Lecturer John Wade and two past Prestonian Lecturers, Trevor Stewart and Gordon Davie, to speak at black tie banquet/benefit for Masonic learning Center. Scotch Plains, New Jersey. Contact Jay Hochberg.
November 2, 2009 Nutley Lodge No. 25 in Nutley, New Jersey Founding Fellow Mark Tabbert, author of “American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communities,” to speak.
September 14, 2009 Williamsburg Lodge No. 6, Williamsburg, Virginia Bro. John Wade to give the UGLE’s Prestonian Lecture for 2009.
November 4-8, 2009 Masonic Library and Museum Association’s annual meeting To be hosted by the Henry Wilson Coil Library & Museum of Freemasonry in San Francisco, California.
September 16, 2009 St. John’s Lodge No. 1, Ancient York Masons, New York City Bro. John Wade to give the UGLE’s Prestonian Lecture for 2009.
November 9, 2009 Rededication of Daniel D. Tompkins gravesite, 131 East 10th St., New York City. AASR-NMJ to assist United States Daughters of 1812 in restoration, and unveiling.
September 23, 2009 The Masonic Lodge of Research of Connecticut New Haven Masonic Temple (285 Whitney Ave.) at 7:30 p.m.
February 12, 2010 The Masonic Society’s Second Annual “First Circle Gathering” Masonic Week, Alexandria, Va.
September 24, 2009 Peninsula Lodge No. 99, Bayonne, New Jersey Entered Apprentice Degree and Festive Board using Ancients ritual c.1760. (An exemplification of the First Degree, not a conferral.)
April 9, 2010 National Heritage Museum First biennial symposium: “New Perspectives on American Freemasonry and Fraternalism” Lexington, Massachusetts
September 26, 2009 Virginia Research Lodge No. 1777 10 a.m. in the Babcock Masonic Temple in Highland Summers, Virginia. October 5-6, 2009 Supreme Council 33° Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction Washington D.C.
April 23-25, 2010 Masonic Spring Workshop: Enlightenment: The Soul of Freemasonry Speakers to include Professor Margaret Jacob of UCLA and Founding Fellow Stephen Dafoe. Delta Lodge, Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada
Please send notices of your event to Jay Hochberg at articles@themasonicsociety.com
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Masonic News addresses delivered by three internationally acclaimed scholars: Dr Margaret Jacob, Distinguished Professor of History at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Professor Dr José Antonio Ferrer Benimeli, Founder and Director of the Centro de Estudios Históricos de la Masoneria Espanola (CEHME), Zaragoza University, and Dr David Stevenson, Professor Emeritus of Scottish History at the University of St Andrews. For any further information contact conference@ canonbury.ac.uk.
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f you saw the photo back in January 2004, the image of Bangor, Maine’s burned and ice-covered downtown Masonic building doubtless has remained a vivid image in your memory. The 1868 building was a total loss and was pulled down the day after the fire. For 5 1/2 years, the more than 2,000 members of Masonic bodies in Bangor have been nomads in search of a new home. The Bangor Masonic Foundation has purchased Wellman Commons, the Beach Chapel and the Ruth Rich Hutchins Center that connects them on the former Bangor Theological Seminary campus. The Foundation paid $500,000 for the historic property, and it will be home to Rising Virtue Lodge No. 10, AF&AM; St. Andrew’s Lodge No. 83, AF&AM; the York Rite Masonic Bodies; the Scottish Rite bodies; the Order of the Eastern Star; the Bangor DeMolay; the Bangor Rainbow Girls; and the Scottish Rite Learning Center. The Masons join a thriving community already on the campus, which is home to a public library, a local theatre, and apartments that will become assisted living units. Plans had been underway to build a new 19,000 square foot, $3 million facility, but the faltering economy and rising construction costs forced a change in direction. The result was this purchase of an historic property with 50% more space and architectural details no new building could compete with. Meetings are scheduled to be held in the new buildings beginning in September.
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he Canonbury Masonic Research Centre (CMRC) and the Centre for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism (CRFF) at Sheffield University are pleased to announce that tickets for their joint-venture 2009 conference on ‘The Origins of Freemasonry’ are now available from the CMRC priced £99. The conference weekend will commence on Friday, October 23rd with an evening showing (for conference participants only) the film The Scottish Key – a new documentary which examines various theories of Masonic origin – at University College London. The conference itself will take place on October 24-25th, and will feature keynote
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he 2009 Rocky Mountain Conference takes place July 1719th in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The theme will be Adapting Freemasonry to the 21st Century. Topics being presented include: • Special Purpose Lodges – (Colorado) Discussion of variations on the standard lodge format such as Traditional, Enlightenment, Daylight, etc. Evaluation of the benefits and potential problems, if any, of the different types. Who do these lodges appeal to most? • Lodge/Grand Lodge Leadership Training – (Utah) The best ways to train Lodge and Grand Lodge Officers. Not in principles of Masonry, but in what is expected of them as they perform their duties. Retreats? Classes? Local or Regional? Sources of funding? • Electronic Communications Beyond E-mail – (Wyoming) Techniques for mass communication and for meetings with widespread participants. Publishing on CDs that can be copied to an MP3 player. • TWAIN AWARD – (Nevada) Origin of the award and the requirements to receive it. Examples that lodges have used. Benefits for lodges. • Permanent Master Syndrome – (Idaho) The effect on vitality of lodges – and individuals – of keeping one man in the position of Worshipful Master. • Calling the Craft to Labor – Motivation from Within (New Mexico) What lodge leadership can do to inspire the craft to greater effort and quality of work. • Interest vs. Commitment (Montana) Are we committed to Freemasonry or just interested, and how do we help people to get from interest to commitment?
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ount Zion Lodge No. 266, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Kansas, operating in Topeka, Kansas, announces a call for papers and presentations for its first Modern Masonic Practices Symposium entitled The Gentleman, the Scholar, and the Mystic: Exploring Modern Masonic Practices in North America to be held from Friday, April 16 – Sunday, April 18, 2010. The Modern Masonic Practices Symposium will select and present original, scholarly research papers on the phenomenon of progressive development and modern trends in Traditional Observance and European Concept lodges in North America. Diverse perspectives and methods of examining this phenomenon are encouraged from a broad range of study.
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Masonic News Possible topics include, but are not limited to: • The development of modern and progressive changes to Freemasonry in North America, including its underlying causes. • Sociological challenges facing Freemasonry in North America today. • Governance and administration issues and solutions for Lodges adopting new practices. • The rebirth and importance of the philosophical and spiritual aspects of Freemasonry. • European Masonry reconciled with European Concept Masonry in form and practice. • Transcendent traditions in Freemasonry and their place in Modern American Masonic Practice. The papers should be scholarly in tone, with a maximum length of 4,000 words, which may be presented in a 30 -45 minute oral address to the symposium. All submissions must be from a Master Mason in a Lodge in amity with the Grand Lodge of Kansas. The symposium committee will award prizes as follows: First Place, Runner-Up, and Honorable Mention. Authors of the winning papers will be invited to present their work at the symposium as guests of Mt. Zion Lodge. Deadline for Submissions: November 1, 2009. Completed papers with a resume or c.v. should be sent to: Joesphe G. Stiles c/o Mount Zion Lodge 266 P. O. Box 1217 Topeka, KS Joesphe@gmail.com
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he Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania has a program to assist military service people, called “Change for the Troops” Each Blue Lodge is charged with collecting change at the end of each Lodge meeting. The money is then forwarded to the Grand Lodge, where pre-paid telephone cards are purchased and given to the war zone troops before they are deployed. In the year and a half that the program has been underway, more than $210,000.00 has been collected. For details on how the program works, go to: www. pagrandlodge.org/gmaster/changeforthetroops.html
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ythagoras Lodge of Research in Washington, DC invites the brethren to participate in its Masonic Research Awards Program, intended to encourage research and education work. The following criteria will be used to evaluate all submissions: • Originality: The topic introduces new ideas, innovative concepts, unfamiliar resources, and/or creative methods. Topic is the writer’s choice.
• Masonic connections: Interesting, informative, and innovative references to Masonic symbolism, ritual, practices, history, etc. are included. • Style: The author displays a thorough knowledge of the content. Alternative viewpoints are legitimately presented. The content is characterized by clear, unmistakable evidence, and focused on the central statement (thesis) or research topic with effective transitions between points. • Content: All information is well arranged with compelling presentation of the issue, question or problem. The research is supported by an investigation of facts and a development of the ideas. The paper is closed with strong supporting points that underline or expand the central postulate. • Persuasion: The concluding position provides coherent argument illustrative of critical analysis and a thoughtful level of inquiry, supported by well-founded, fact-based solutions and/or cause and effect relationships. • Format: The presentation is neat, correct and consistent in appearance, including margins, font size, indentations, titles, quotations, etc. • Grammar: The research paper is free of errors in terms of sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, and mechanics. • Person: The research paper is presented in perspective of Third Person focusing attention on the work, not on the author. Personal essays are not encouraged. • Citations: The bibliography demonstrates sufficient synthesis of relevant literature and practices. Citations are embedded, footnoted, and quoted correctly. A minimum of three external sources should be included. • Summary: An abstract briefly provides the key elements, main findings, and overall conclusions of the research. Entries are to be submitted as Word documents by e-mail to W. Bro. Ted Berry at eab_dc@yahoo.com no later than October 31st, 2009.
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cross countries and centuries, Freemasonry has shaped governments and societies. But only limited academic research and coursework has been devoted to the subject – until now. The Grand Lodge of California has announced the Grand Master’s Project to Advance the Study and Understanding of Freemasonry. The Grand Lodge has cemented a partnership with the University of California at Los Angeles, to encourage the academic world to study and define Masonry’s history in credible, fact-based terms. Project funds will be used in one or more of the following ways at UCLA: • Faculty research in the history of Freemasonry • Support the costs of research related to the history of Freemasonry and democratic society; establish a permanent chair for Masonic studies • Support development of a course in the history of Freemasonry and democratic society • Graduate student support • Support graduate student work and interest in the history of Freemasonry and democratic society • Lectures on the topic of Freemasonry SUMMER 2009 • 9
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Masonic News state. In England, freemasonry was non-political and the discussion of politics at Masonic meetings was forbidden (as continues to be the situation today) but after 1789 W. Bro. Trevor Stewart was back in the United States this fall,English freemasons had to deal with the consequences of A spring 2010 curriculum is already being developed for revolutionary politics and Masonic lodges avoided closure two separate classes, led by Dr. Margaret C. Jacob, professor only by agreeing to register lists of their members with of history at UCLA and one of the world’s foremost Masonic local authorities. This remained a legal requirement until scholars. For information about how to support the Grand 1967 when the Labour Government led by Harold Wilson Master’s Project, call the Office of Philanthropy at (415) 292abolished the Unlawful Societies Act. Freemasonry had 9117. spread from Britain across continental Europe in the early 1700s and there freemasons were blamed for causing the Revolution and the subsequent political and social unrest which many countries experienced. n a similar note, Brother Robert Davis reports that the The suspicion of freemasonry which arose at that time Grand Lodge of Oklahoma recently established a faculty has had a long-lasting impact on politics and society. The chair in Men’s Studies at Oklahoma State University. This is ‘Freemasonry and the French Revolution’ exhibition at the a venture which will allow a wide range of academic research Library and Museum of Freemasonry traces the impact of to be focused on what Masonry teaches and how it impacts the the Revolution on freemasonry in England and Europe. lives of men and society. Exhibition dates: Wednesday 1st July - Friday 18th December 2009. Exhibition free of charge to all visitors. Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 10am to 5pm. Museum he Grand Lodge of New Hampshire is closing its Masonic closed at weekends. Home in Manchester. Grand Secretary John C. Marden was quoted in news reports as saying, “We lost a huge sum of money out of our portfolio in a very short time.” He said it costs between $1.5-$1.75 million a year to keep the facility reemason and open. The Masonic Home opened its doors 105 years ago, but Academy Awardthe 52 bed facility is down to just 20 residents these days. This winning actor Ernest is even with a recent change that allowed non-Masonic related Borgnine has residents to use the facility. Masons and their families make up recently published only a fraction of the residents. his autobiography in the UK with the title, “Ernest Borgnine: I Don’t Want to Set the rother Adam Kendall reports that the new website for the World on Fire, I Just Henry W. Coil Library & Museum, housed at the Grand Want to Keep My Nuts Lodge of F. & A.M. of California, has been launched at www. Warm.” (It’s been masonicheritage.org. It contains links to view the museum and blandly titled in the library collection, which will grow as more objects are added U.S. simply “Ernie: to the database. Also included is the present exhibit, as well as The Autobiography”). other information. A video that accompanies the “Builders of Reporter Lee Randall the Dream” exhibit will also be posted. in an article in The The Henry Wilson Coil Library & Museum of Freemasonry Scotsman remarked is named after noted California attorney and Masonic author that Borgnine mentions God frequently in the book, and asked Henry Wilson Coil, whose most notable work is Coil’s Masonic if he is a religious man. Encyclopedia (1961, revised and updated by Allen E. Roberts “I am very happy to say that I’m a 33rd degree Grand in 1996). Founded in 1996 with a generous contribution from Cross Master Mason in the Scottish Rite. We believe in one Henry Wilson Coil, Jr., the library and museum collections and thing, God. We believe in another thing: to help your fellow archives cover centuries of Masonic history and more than 150 man. Be as kind as you can be to everybody. We support and years of Freemasonry in California. take care of our own hospitals; we have a retirement plan, charities. You don’t have to go to church. If you can do good like that, what’s better?” Brother Borgnine is a member of Abingdon Lodge No. f you have the opportunity to visit London this year, the 48, Abingdon, Virginia, and Hollywood Lodge No. 355 in Los Library & Museum at Freemasons’ Hall in Great Queen Angeles. Street is presenting an exhibit on “Freemasonry and the French Revolution.” From their website: • Support public lectures on topics related to Freemasonry delivered by invited scholars • Curriculum development
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The French Revolution which began in 1789 changed forever the relationship between freemasonry and the 10 • SUMMER 2009
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asonic Publishing Company in Glasgow, Scotland is offering a unique book, aimed at collectors and libraries.
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Masonic News It is a 250 copy limited edition reprint of the First Minute Books 1648-1758, and 1758-1807 of Edinburgh’s Lodge Mother Kilwinning No. 0. These are the oldest Masonic Minute books in the world. They are hand-bound in calf-skin leather on cottoncontent paper, and delivered in a wooden presentation box. The price is £1950. There is no online ordering method, but they can be contacted at macash@btinernet.com, or by mail from: Masonic Publishing Company, 30 Loanbank Quadrant, Glasgow G51 3HZ, Scotland.
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he New York Times, the Washington Post, the Associated Press and international news organizations have all reported on recent events within the Grand Lodge of Georgia. Members of Atlanta’s Gate City Lodge No. 2 initiated, passed and raised an African-American candidate, among the first in the state’s history. That action caused enough comment within Georgia lodges that the Grand Master, J. Edward Jennings, Jr., felt compelled to issue a statement that the brother in question had indeed been properly admitted as a Georgia Mason. (Georgia’s Masonic Code does not contain any written rules concerning race as a qualification for or against Masonic membership.) As a result, two Masters of Georgia lodges brought Masonic charges against Gate City No. 2 and its Master, charging them, among other offenses, with violating what they referred to as “moral law” for raising a black man. If found guilty of the charges, Gate City faced the possible loss of its charter. Consequently, Gate City Lodge filed civil suit in a Georgia court to stop all action being taken against it. Further stirring the story were reactions by two political candidates who are both Freemasons. Both former Governor Roy Barnes and David Poythress are vying for the Democratic nomination for governor this year, and as a result, both have been dragged into the controversy over race in the Grand Lodge of Georgia. In an interview with InsiderAdvantage/Georgia, Poythress said he is certain that are some individual Masons in Georgia who are racially biased, but does not believe they represent the bulk of Masonic membership or the precepts of the organization. “Are there individuals who have a 19th Century attitude? Of course, just like in church there are so-called Christians who have socially unacceptable ideas. But Masonry as an organization is far from it. Its principles are very much egalitarian,” Poythress said. Barnes also responded, saying, “As stated by Grand Master Ed Jennings . . . there is no color or racial prohibition to be a member of the Masons . . . I would not be a member of an organization that would exclude persons on the basis of race.” At press time, the Masonic charges against Gate City Lodge have been dropped, but the civil case is still pending, as Gate City seeks assurances that it will face no further Masonic action against it. Grand Master Jennings has said that a public announcement on the situation will be made in mid-July.
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ritain’s The Economist recently featured an article about the influence of personal networking groups on business, focussing on France. Interestingly, it leads with the use of
Freemasonry as a business connection in France. Indeed, the article is headlined “LinkedIn v. Freemasons.” François Pérol, the adviser whom Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, controversially appointed in February to head two merging mutual banks, is not known as a champion of transparency. But Mr Pérol has let it be known that he intends to reduce the influence of freemasons at Caisse d’Epargne and Banque Populaire. He has refused an invitation to a ‘tenue blanche ouverte,’ a masonic meeting that non-freemasons may attend. And he does not want senior posts shared among the banks’ various rival lodges.
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uthor Brad Meltzer (The Book of Fate) has teamed up with the Masonic Geocaching Society to launch the first GPS treasure hunting game to accompany a novel. This coincides with the May paperback release of his novel The Book of Lies. Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, and then share experiences online. The Book of Lies geocache is made up of a series of 11 caches in the Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia area that are based on Meltzer’s novel.
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n the United Kingdom, it is not unusual to find the question, “Are you a Freemason?” on job applications, especially in law enforcement and judicial positions. Masons alone are singled out for this kind of scrutiny. Now, in the wake of European Union anti-discrimination laws and court decisions, the United Grand Lodge of England is taking steps to battle bias against Freemasonry in Britain by pressing municipalities, as well as the Ministry of Justice, to drop discriminatory, anti-Masonic questions from job applications.
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an Brown’s sequel to The Da Vinci Code, now titled The Lost Symbol, will hit stores September 15th, 2009, and the Freemasons will definitely be at the center of it. The book covers were released just as we went to press. The U.K. version depicts a key with a square and compasses, looking extremely close to Brother Robert Lomas’ “Hiram Key” logo (note to his attorney). The U.S. version shows a red wax seal (note to our attorney), stamped with a double-headed eagle emblazoned with a triangular shield and the number “33” (note to the Scottish Rite’s attorney). Even the release date, 9/15/09, adds up to the number 33. Look for 33rd degree Masons to somehow be depicted in a less than flattering manner. The Masonic Society will be launching a website to counter the discrepancies and distortions of Masonry in the book once it arrives in stores.
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HISTORY
The Two Confessions of John Whitney: an examination of the conflicting theories as to the fate of William Morgan by Stephen Dafoe
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n September of 1882, the Chicago-based National Christian Association unveiled a 35-foot tall monument to William Morgan in a cemetery in Batavia, New York, unveiling a new round of anti-Masonic feelings in the process. It had been more than a half century since William Morgan had vanished from the village—kidnapped and murdered, it was said, by members of the Masonic fraternity who were outraged that a man they had welcomed as a brother had betrayed them by exposing their mysteries to profane eyes. And yet the murder of William Morgan was never proven. The discovery of a body on the shores of Oak Orchard Creek on October 7, 1827, at first supposed to be that of William Morgan was just as quickly supposed to be that of Timothy Monro, a Canadian who had allegedly drowned a few weeks before the discovery. And so the matter was brought to a close. No corpse, no crime. In 1831, Victor Birdseye, who served as the last special council in the Morgan investigations concluded on his report to the New York State legislature that: The information thus elicited, is sufficient, I trust to satisfy the public mind as to the ultimate fate of Morgan: that he was taken into the Niagara, at night, about the 19th of September and there sunk. Yet the evidence, although apparently sufficient for all purposes of human belief, is not sufficient to establish, with legal certainty, and according to adjudged cases, the murder of Morgan. 1 Birdseye could not help but be frustrated as he saw his efforts, as well as those of his predecessors (John C. Spencer and Daniel Mosley) thwarted when key Masonic witnesses and accused parties either dodged questions in the witness box, refused to testify or fled the scene altogether to avoid prosecution. Five years of legal investigation and prosecution on the matter of Morgan’s disappearance resulted in 20 grand juries and 15 trials. Of the 54 Freemasons indicted by the grand jury, only 39 were brought to trial and only 10 of those were convicted. 2 Although the 10 Masons convicted of abducting Morgan served light sentences ranging from one month to 28 months, the Craft as a whole served a nearly twodecade-long period of Masonic caliginosity, a backlash against the Craft that punished all of Freemasonry for the actions of a few of its misguided members. Nevertheless, Freemasonry survived and grew to strength in the years after the American Civil War, her opponents less vocal than they had been when anti-Masonry had passed through the churches on its journey from the honest indignation of the citizens of Western New York to the political machinations of the Anti-Masonic Party, a party led by men like Thurlow Weed. Weed was a Rochester newspaperman and editor of the Rochester Daily Telegraph when William Morgan was abducted and soon took an active interest in the investigations. Although publicly humiliated and ridiculed for his alleged desecration of Timothy Monro’s corpse in October of 1827 to make it look like Morgan, Weed continued to attack Freemasonry throughout the remainder of his life, launching his final Parthian arrow at the unveiling of 12 • SUMMER 2009
The Morgan Monument was erected in the Batavia Cemetery by the National Christian Association and unveiled during their 14th National Convention on September 13, 1882. The monument stands 35 feet from the ground and is capped with a seven-foot tall likeness of William Morgan, based on an engraving by A. Cooley.
the Morgan monument in 1882, just weeks before his death. Although he was unable to attend in person, Weed sent a letter to the organizers that told of the confession of John Whitney, one of the men convicted of abducting Morgan, and a man who not only fled to New Orleans to avoid prosecution, 3 but who also refused to testify in one of the later trials.4 In Weed’s account of things, while visiting in his home in 1831, John Whitney confessed to murdering Morgan in the fall of 1826: Whitney then related in detail the history of Morgan’s abduction and fate. The idea of suppressing Morgan’s intended exposure of the secrets of Masonry was first suggested by a man by
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the name of Johns. It was discussed in lodges at Batavia, Le Roy and Rochester. Johns suggested that Morgan should be separated from Miller and placed on a farm in Canada West. For this purpose he was taken to Niagara and placed in the magazine of the Fort until arrangements for settling him in Canada were completed, but the Canadian Masons disappointed them. After several meetings of the lodge in Canada, opposite Fort Niagara, a refusal to have anything to do with Morgan left his “kidnappers” greatly perplexed. Opportunely a Royal Arch chapter was installed at Lewiston. The occasion brought a large number of enthusiastic Masons together. “After labor,” in Masonic language, they “retired to refreshment.” Under the exhilaration of champagne and other viands the Chaplain (the Rev. F. H. Cummings, of Rochester) was called on for a toast. He responded with peculiar emphasis and in the language of their ritual: “The enemies of our order may they find a grave six feet deep, six feet long, and six feet due east and west.” Immediately after that toast, which was received with great enthusiasm, Col. William King, an officer in our war of 1812, and then a Member of Assembly from Niagara county, called Whitney of Rochester, Howard of Buffalo, Chubbuck of Lewiston, and Garside of Canada, out of the room and into a carriage furnished by Major Barton. They were driven to Fort Niagara, repaired to the magazine and informed Morgan that the arrangements for sending him to Canada were completed and that his family would
assisting with Morgan’s murder. Whitney’s account of things is told in chapter seven of William Morgan and is claimed to be information Whitney gave to Morris in 1859.7 The Morris / Whitney story tells us that it was John Whitney and Nicholas Chesebro who engineered Morgan’s deportation to Canada, assisted by a handful of other dedicated members of the Masonic fraternity, viz. Col. William King, Burrage Smith, Loton Lawson and Sheriff Eli Bruce,8 the entire plan organized with the full understanding, acceptance and financial support of Governor De Witt Clinton.9 Morris claimed that John Whitney told him he went to visit Clinton at Albany in August of 1826, returning to Rochester with a detailed plan and a signed letter from the Governor making it clear that “no steps must be taken that would conflict with a citizen’s duty to the law.”10 Clinton’s plan, according to the Morris / Whitney story was to attempt to buy Morgan’s manuscript and get him to agree to a deportation to some foreign country where he might be separated from his publishing partner David Miller.11 The governor also assured Whitney of $1,000 if required, and the assurance that those involved would be sustained by Masonic authorities within New York State, so long as things were kept legal.12 Whitney allegedly went to Batavia on September 5, 1826, where he offered Morgan $50 cash and the payment of his debts if he would destroy his exposé and leave the country.13 With Morgan’s willingness to leave taken care of, Whitney then went to Canandaigua the next day to involve Nicholas Chesebro
“With no conviction in the murder of William Morgan, all we are left with today is a 183-year-old cold case.” soon follow him. Morgan received the information cheerfully and walked with supposed friends to the boat, which was rowed to the mouth of the river, where a rope was wound around his body, to each end of which a sinker was attached. Morgan was then thrown overboard. He grasped the gunwale of the boat convulsively. Garside, in forcing Morgan to relinquish his hold was severely bitten. 5 Weed’s version of Whitney’s story was pretty strong evidence against the Masonic fraternity at a time when Freemasonry was once again feeling the pressure of anti-Masonic inquiry. The letter, which was published by the National Christian Association in pamphlet form in 1882 also found its way into many New York newspapers including the December 7, 1882 edition of The Malone Palladium, which ran the letter below the headline, The Death of Morgan: Thurlow Weed’s Dying Revelation.6 It is doubtless that few readers, particularly those predisposed to a mistrust of Freemasonry, gave any critical thought to Weed’s claims, accepting the account as a true and accurate depiction of what really happened. But the same could be said of the Freemasons who accepted, without question, another version of the Whitney confession: the one offered by the Masonic author Rob Morris. In 1883, the year after the raising of Morgan’s monument in the Batavia cemetery, Morris, a well-known and well-loved Masonic poet and author, wrote a book called William Morgan or Political Anti-Masonry, its Rise, Growth and Decadence. The book presented the argument that Morgan was not abducted and murdered by Freemasons, but deported to Canada at his own request. Morris’ account of the series of events from Morgan’s arrest in Batavia on September 11, 1826 until his disappearance at Fort Niagara is largely based on the alleged oral testimony of John Whitney—the same man Thurlow Weed claimed confessed to
in the plan, both men being known to each other through their membership in the Knights Templar at Rochester.14 The two men agreed that the easiest way to get Morgan quietly out of Batavia was to have him arrested,15 an innkeeper named Ebenezer Kingsley being persuaded to press charges against Morgan for the shirt and cravat Morgan had borrowed from him the previous May, but had yet to return. Morgan’s journey from the jail at Canandaigua to Fort Niagara is covered by Morris in the course of a few pages that make a hero of Whitney for staying with Morgan the whole journey as they changed horses and carriages, all donated by Masons willing to help separate
William Morgan: This posthumous illustration of William Morgan was drawn by Noel Holmes under the direction of G. Vorpe, one of the editors of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who commissioned him to do the piece based on a legal description of Morgan. The image was used as the frontispiece of Thomas Knight’s 1932 book, The Strange Disappearance of William Morgan. Knight titled the image, “William Morgan, the traitor.” Of all the Morgan portraits, Holmes’ may be the closest to an honest depiction of what the man may have looked like in life. SUMMER 2009 • 13
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Col. William King. “First. That he had contracted with Miller and others, to write an exposition of Masonry, for which he was to receive one halfmillion dollars compensation. “Second. That he had never been made a Mason in any Lodge, but had received the Royal Arch Degree in a regular manner. Furthermore, that he felt bound by his Royal Arch obligation and never intended to reveal the secrets of that degree. “Third. That Miller and the other partners had utterly failed to fulfill the terms of contract with him. “Fourth. That Whitney had paid him $50 at Danolds’ Tavern (Batavia), and he had agreed to destroy the written and printed work so far as possible and furnish no more, and that before leaving Batavia he had done what he promised in that way. “Fifth. That it was impossible now for Miller to continue the “Illustrations,” as he [Morgan] had written them. If he published any book, it would have to be made from some other person’s materials. “Sixth. That Miller was only an Entered Apprentice, and ‘rusty as hell’ at that. “Seventh. That he had been treated by Chesebro, Whitney, Bruce and all of them, with perfect kindness in his journey, and he had nothing but the best of feelings for them. “Eighth. That he was willing and anxious to be separated from Miller and from all idea of a Masonic Exposé; wished to live in habits of industry and respectability before all men; wished to go to the interior of Canada and settle down as a British citizen; wished to have his family sent him soon as possible; might want to go to Quebec some time and have his eyes operated on; expected five hundred dollars when he reached the place as agreed upon; expected more money from year to year to help him out if necessary and if he should show himself worthy of it. Journalist and politician Thurlow Weed became involved in the Morgan investigations early on and was intimately involved in having the corpse believed to be Morgan’s exhumed. Weed went on to be one of the prime forces in the Anti-Masonic Party and resurrected anti-Masonic feelings in 1882 when he brought out his alleged John Whitney confession to support the National Christian Association’s Morgan Monument.
Morgan from his publisher David Miller.16 In Whitney’s account of the story, he was joined by Sherriff Eli Bruce and Col. William King at Lockport and the three men traveled with Morgan from Youngstown to the soldier’s burial ground, a half mile from Fort Niagara in the early hours of September 14, 1826.17 When Whitney, King and Bruce arrived at the river’s edge, Edward Giddins and Elisha Adams transported the three men and Morgan across the river to a deserted bank on the Canadian side, a mile from the Village of Niagara.18 Morgan remained in the boat with Giddins and Adams, while Bruce, King and Whitney went to the village and met with two Canadian Masons, men Whitney was unprepared to reveal to Morris 33 years after the event.19 After a while, the Canadian Masons returned to the boat with their American counterparts and Bruce summoned Morgan to join the five men on the shore. It was here under the moon and stars that Morris alleges that William Morgan entered into an agreement with the Masons regarding his situation, points that were recorded by 14 • SUMMER 2009
“Ninth. Finally he was sorry for the uproar his proceedings had made; was sorry for the expense he had put the Masons to; sorry for the disgrace he and his family had suffered; sorry for the shame and mortification of his friends, and he ‘had no idea that David Cade Miller was such a damned scoundrel as he turned out to be.’” 20 Whitney claimed that the Canadian Masons, although prepared to take Morgan as agreed, couldn’t do so for a week and were unprepared to keep him during the interim. Morgan consented to being locked up in the powder magazine at Fort Niagara until that time and Edward Giddins prepared the room with a mattress, chair and other items for Morgan’s personal comfort.21 Morgan finally left the magazine on September 17, 1826 when the two Canadians came over to the American side, gave Whitney a receipt for the $500 they were to give Morgan and returned to the western side of the river. Whitney claimed that the two Canadian Masons rode on horseback with Morgan from the Village of Niagara to a spot near present day Hamilton, Ontario where they had him sign a receipt for the $500 and a document outlining the circumstances of his deportation, as well as a promise not to return to the United States without the permission of Colonel William King, Sheriff Eli Bruce or John Whitney.22 It is important to remember that, at the time Morris published his book on Morgan, Freemasonry had only recently returned from
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a period of Masonic darkness that ran for nearly two decades and was only now beginning to grow to strength after the conclusion of the American Civil War. But it was also a time when The National Christian Association, assisted by Thurlow Weed, were rekindling anti-Masonic feelings with the former’s erection of the Morgan monument in 1882 and the latter’s death bed support of the same. Like Thurlow Weed’s account of the Whitney confession, Rob Morris’ version has also attracted its supporters. In fact, a number of books written by Masonic authors since the publication of William Morgan have parroted – sometimes verbatim – the claims of Rob Morris. But is either version of events a true account of what happened? Given that John Whitney died in 1869 and left behind no written confession in his own handwriting, all we have are the two alleged confessions he made, both given on the ipse dixit of the men who presented them as truth. With respect to Thurlow Weed’s version of the story, Morris was critical of the fact that Weed did not seem to know the date of Whitney’s death; having claimed in his National Christian Association communication to have attempted to get Whitney to put his confession in writing in 1861, only to discover the man had died. This was of course eight years before Whitney’s actual death. However, in his posthumously published autobiography, two letters are presented that claim the request was made in 1868: London, October 10, 1868. DEAR OLD FRIEND,—I have often thought during the last four or five years of writing to you on the subject of our conversations, first in Albany, more than thirty years ago, and then in Chicago in 1860. If I then understood your feelings, it was a relief to them to talk over the event to which I refer, in confidence, with friends. It is forty-two years since William Morgan disappeared. You alone know all that occurred to him from the time he left Canandaigua. You alone can give to the world an authentic history of the transaction, and unless you should think proper to do so, the last scene in the last act must forever remain unwritten. Perhaps you will remember that I stated in my paper, in 1826 and 1827; that in whatever you did, you acted from a mistaken sense of duty; that, like a soldier on his post, or a sheriff who obeys the laws, you simply executed the orders of your superior. 23 *** New York, July 18, 1869. I resume this letter, after a long interval, considerably improved in health, and hoping to be able to prepare a history of my life. If you feel at liberty to put on paper a part or all that you said to me verbally, I shall endeavor to make a proper use of it, doing some justice to yourself, and being just to history. Please write to me soon. Very truly yours, Thurlow Weed.24 If these letters are authentic, it suggests that there had been some communication over the matter of Morgan’s fate three decades earlier; however, it does not prove the nature of those conversations. Given that John Whitney fled soon after Morgan’s disappearance, was convicted in his abduction and subsequently refused to testify what he knew when others accused in Morgan’s disappearance were put on trial, it presents some reasonable suspicion that Whitney knew something of substance; however, it does not prove either Morris’ or Weed’s account of his confession.
Rob Morris was one of America’s best known Freemasons in 1882 when the Morgan Monument was unveiled. Within a year of the unveiling, Morris released his book William Morgan or Political AntiMasonry, its rise, growth and decadence, a book that gave birth to the idea that Freemasons deported rather than murdered William Morgan.
With respect to Rob Morris’ account we encounter some confusion when we realize that William Morgan was not Morris’ first book on the subject. In 1861, two years after his alleged interview with John Whitney, he published 1,000 copies of the book The Masonic Martyr: The Biography of Eli Bruce, Sheriff of Niagara county N.Y., who for his attachment to the principles of Masonry, and his fidelity to his trust, was imprisoned twenty-eight months in the Canandaigua jail.25 This book, as the lengthy title implies, was designed to remove the shadow that had been cast over the name of Eli Bruce, who had received the harshest sentence of any of the Morgan conspirators. Although the bulk of the book recounts the 28 months Bruce spent in the Canandaigua jail (the same jail from which Morgan was taken in the middle of the night) Morris offers a chapter on the abduction of Morgan and one on the anti-Masonic party. It is these two chapters that are particular interesting in light of Morris’ later treatment of the subject. Although frequently softening the blow against Freemasonry, Morris presents his reader with a fairly straightforward account of the Morgan story up to his placement in the powder magazine at Fort Niagara, even leveling criticism at Freemasons for being imprudent in their actions and murderous threats against Morgan.26 It is only in his closing paragraphs that Morris provides us with some of the themes he would expand on in his later treatment of the subject: “Our own surmise, which, after a careful perusal of all the testimony, and much questioning of the remaining actors in the abduction who still survive, may perhaps be as good as any other, is that Morgan was abundantly supplied with money by those who had expended so much, and run such risks to separate him from Miller and his confederates, and that he was assisted to pass into Canada, the scene of his former adventures, where among a rough and lawless border population, he met the end likely to befall a drunken, boasting fellow, whose pockets were sufficiently well lined to render him a desirable prey. SUMMER 2009 • 15
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“Certainly, there is no evidence that he was murdered by Freemasons. The facts that they took him openly from the jail at Canandaigua, that they left a broad trail behind them, for more than one hundred and fifteen miles through a thickly settled country, and, that so many were admitted into the secret of the abduction, forbid such a supposition; the character of all the actors from Mr. N. G. Chesebro, the earliest, to Col. William King, the latest, forbid it even more strongly. That the abduction was a consummate piece of folly, from first to last, it is easy at this period to affirm; but, those who affirm it the most loudly, had they felt the provocations the brethren in Western New York experienced, might have committed the same error. In our private notes of Masonic History since 1846, we find more than one “Morgan case,” which was only prevented from coming to a head by the prudence of a few, who remembered the dark days of Eli Bruce and Col. King, and taught discretion to the more rash and indignant.” 27 In the foregoing excerpt we see a Rob Morris who was willing to accept that Morgan was likely murdered, albeit by a lawless band of Canadians waiting at the border for wealthy American drunkards, but perhaps more importantly, we see an acceptance that Freemasons could and did act rashly and improperly in the abduction of William Morgan in the fall of 1826. Morris accepts that the abduction of Morgan was “a consummate piece of folly,” but defends the abductors against the pointing fingers of their detractors by stating that “had they felt the provocations the brethren in Western New York experienced, might have committed the same error.” If, as Morris claimed, John Whitney told him the full story in 1859, why did he not include it in his 1861 biography of Eli Bruce? It is certainly possible that Morris promised to keep the information confidential until Whitney’s death, but the man died in 1869. And yet, Morris waited until 1883, more than a decade later to finally put the story in print. The timing of his book to coincide with renewed anti-Masonic attacks is reasonable cause for suspicion, a suspicion that is raised in reading the closing lines of Morris’ 1883 book: But I protest that I never would have published this work— though I had long been collecting materials for it—if that old man’s drivelings had been suppressed. The Masonic Order had so completely outlived Weed and his party and his hatreds, we were doing so well, that I should have buried the subject in oblivion and destroyed the material so laboriously accumulated rather than open a quarrel of which [Millard] Fillmore, [William H.] Seward, John Quincy Adams, Thaddeus Stevens and all the more respectable members of the Anti-Masonic party had become heartily ashamed before they died. Only one man was left, and he imbecile in body and mentally feeble, who could reopen the subject. Of all men living he was most interested in keeping the matter still. What evil spirit was it, then, that drew Thurlow Weed from his retirement to poison the community with Anti-Masonic slanders even with his dying breath.28 With no conviction in the murder of William Morgan, all we are left with today is a 183-year-old cold case. Opinions on the ultimate fate of William Morgan have been largely shaped by the alleged confessions of John Whitney as presented by Rob Morris, an active and passionate Freemason and Thurlow Weed, an active and passionate anti-Mason. But neither confession can be accepted as a true account because neither account presents any
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evidence that removes reasonable doubt, something that five years of investigations and trials in the 1820s failed to accomplish. To truly understand what led to William Morgan’s abduction and what happened to him after he was arrested on September 11, 1826, we must piece together the trail of evidence that is left behind in the many affidavits and trial notes that were accumulated between 1826 and 1831, but that is another story. Stephen Dafoe is the author of Morgan: The Scandal That Shook Freemasonry, published by Cornerstone Book Publishers. He is a past Grand Steward of the Grand Lodge of Alberta, former publisher of Masonic Magazine and the author of several books on the Knights Templar. His website can be found at www.stephendafoe.com . Endnotes
1. Stone, William L. Letters on Masonry and Anti-Masonry addressed to the Hon. John Quincy Adams (New York: G. Halstead, 1832), 538. 2. Berry, Robert. The Bright Mason: An American Mystery (Booklocker, 2008), 142. 3. Stone, Op. cit., 281. 4. Morris, Rob. William Morgan; or Political Anti-Masonry, its Rise, Growth and Decadence (New York: Robert Macoy, 1883), 75. 5. Weed, Thurlow. The Facts Stated. Hon. Thurlow Weed on the Morgan Abduction (Chicago, IL: National Christian Association, 1882), 11–13. 6. The Malone Palladium, December 7, 1882. 7. Morris, Op. cit., 163. 8. Ibid., p. 164. 9. Ibid., p. 165. 10. Ibid., pp. 168, 169. 11. Ibid. p. 169. 12. Ibid., 169. 13. Ibid., 170–173. 14. Ibid., 174. 15. Ibid., 175. 16. Ibid., 183–185. 17. Ibid., 192. 18. Ibid., 193. 19. Ibid., 193. 20. Ibid., 194, 195. 21. Ibid., 196. 22. Ibid., 194–196. 23. Weed, Thurlow. The Life of Thurlow Weed, Vol. 1 (New York, NY: Harriet A. Weed, 1883), 334, 335. 24. Ibid., 335. 25. Morris, Op. cit., 204. 26. Morris, Rob. The Masonic Martyr; The Biography of Eli Bruce, Sheriff of Niagara County, New York (Louisville, KY: Morris and Monssarrat, 1861), 16. 27. Ibid., 23, 24. 28. Morris, William Morgan. Op. cit., 387, 388.
THE JOURNAL OF THE MASONIC SOCIETY
LITERATURE
Brother Bloom, The Most Influential Mason Who Never Lived by Kenneth W. Davis
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hree Freemasons have influenced my life and contributed to my interest in becoming a Mason. The first was my maternal grandfather, Tom West, a second generation Welsh-American and a postal worker. The second was Ernie Bryan, a friend and mentor. And the third, I’m proud to say, was one of the most influential Freemasons of the twentieth century. This influential Mason didn’t actually exist, although I know him better than all but five or ten people in my life. I’m talking about Leopold Bloom, the hero of James Joyce’s Ulysses. I have read this novel repeatedly since high school, and have taught a course on it for most of the past eighteen years because I believe it is the greatest novel ever written. Not everyone agrees of course, but almost all scholars agree that it’s the most influential novel of the past century, profoundly affecting nearly every book written afterward. A recent survey of experts listed Leopold Bloom as one of the best four characters in twentieth century fiction. Most people who haven’t read Ulysses know two facts about it: that it is based on The Odyssey by Homer, and that it was once banned in the United States for its alleged obscenity. But what most readers don’t know—what even many Joyce scholars don’t seem to know—is the importance of Freemasonry to the story. A brief introduction: The novel indeed parallels The Odyssey. In Homer’s epic, the Greek hero Odysseus tries for ten years to get home from the Trojan War, which he helped the Greeks win by designing the Trojan Horse. Many obstacles delay him: cannibals, seductive sirens, a cyclops, a sorceress, and others. Meanwhile, his grown son, Telemachus, has left home to search for him. In short, The Odyssey is the story of a husband and father trying to get home to his wife and son, and the story of a son searching for a father. Joyce’s Ulysses reduces the ten years to a single day, June 16, 1904, and it reduces the vast eastern Mediterranean to the city of Dublin. June 16, 1904, thus comes to stand for all days, and Dublin for all places. What Joyce adds to Homer is a completeness of action. For example, we see all three main characters urinate; one defecates. One character has sexual intercourse; at least one, but probably two, masturbate. Such realism was new when the novel was published in 1922, at least in serious literature, and it led to the book being banned. Readers today view the completeness of action in Ulysses as an acceptance and celebration of all aspects of life. And though you’ll never find Ulysses in a so-called religious bookstore, I, for one, regard it as one of the spiritual classics of the past century. (Incidentally, I had the great privilege of studying Ulysses at Columbia University under William York Tindall, who is said to have taught the first course in Ulysses in the United States. Reportedly, Professor Tindall bought a copy in Paris, smuggled it into the United States, rebound it in plywood, and chained it to a desk in the library of New York University. This predated photocopying, so Professor Tindall’s students had to make reservations to have time each week to read their assignments in the chained, single copy.) The book has three main characters. Stephen Dedalus is 22 years old, and a would-be writer who has rejected the Catholic Church. Stephen’s mother has recently died, and he carries guilt for refusing her deathbed request that he kneel and pray for her. He is estranged from his reprobate father and is struggling to find himself. Although
James Joyce
Stephen doesn’t know it, he is Joyce’s Telemachus, the son in search of the father who can teach him what it means to be a man. The second main character is Molly Bloom, 34 and a concert singer. Eleven years ago she and her husband had a son, Rudy, who died soon after birth. Since then, their sex life has been incomplete. The third main character—and the book’s hero—is Molly’s husband, Leopold Bloom, 38, a non-practicing Jew and an advertising salesman. We follow him through the day as he cooks breakfast, visits the outhouse, attends a funeral, does some work, has lunch, and so on. We listen in on many of Bloom’s thoughts, and we observe that his mind is preoccupied with persistent grief over the loss of his son, and the suspicion that Molly is having a sexual tryst, that very afternoon, with her manager. Although Bloom doesn’t know it, he is Joyce’s Odysseus, a father in need of a home and a son. And Bloom is widely assumed around Dublin to be a Freemason.
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ames Joyce was not a Mason, so why does he include the possibility of Bloom’s Freemasonry in his book? Few scholars have addressed that subject, and those who tried were misinformed about Freemasonry. Some have questioned if Bloom even is a Mason. Bloom’s Freemasonry serves three main functions: it adds to Bloom’s alienation from most Dubliners, it contributes to the depiction of his moral character, and it provides a reference point for the most important experience of Bloom’s day. First, Bloom’s alienation. In 1904 Catholic Dublin, Bloom, as a Jew, is already an outsider. Throughout the day he experiences numerous instances of anti- Semitism. By late afternoon, this antiSUMMER 2009• 17
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Semitism explodes into direct Jew-baiting by an Irish nationalist— the Cyclops figure—who Bloom encounters in a pub. Bloom’s Freemasonry adds to this alienation. In Ireland, as elsewhere, Masonic Lodges welcomed Jews as members, something few other institutions did, and the Catholic Church condemned Masonry. Like some conspiracy theorists today, many late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century conspiracy mongers viewed Jews and Freemasons as conspirators in a demonic plot to take over the world. In 1899, Arthur Griffith, Irish nationalist and founder of Sinn Fein, said “the three evil influences of the century were the Pirate, the Freemason and the Jew.” In Ulysses, when the anti-Semitic Cyclops figure first sees Bloom, his first comment is not about Bloom’s Jewishness. Instead, he asks, “What’s that bloody Freemason doing. . . prowling up and
Remember that Bloom, symbolically, is a father in search of a son. Stephen Dedalus, symbolically, is a son in search of a father. As June 16 draws to an end, Bloom encounters the drunken Stephen and becomes concerned about the young man’s safety. His concern leads him to follow Stephen into Dublin’s red light district, where the long dreamlike chapter takes place. At that chapter’s conclusion, Stephen is knocked out in a confrontation with two English soldiers. Bloom rushes to his aid, bends over, and talks to him until he begins to regain consciousness. Bloom, then—and note the words—“stands erect.” He speaks: Face reminds me of his poor mother. In the shady wood. The deep white breast. Ferguson, I think I caught. A girl. Some girl. Best thing could happen him. (he murmurs) . . . . . swear that I
Can any Mason fail to recognize Brother Bloom as a member of our Craft? down outside?” What Bloom is doing outside leads us to the second function of Freemasonry: its contribution to the depiction of his moral character. Bloom had attended a funeral, and now he is waiting for a friend who is going to accompany him to the widow’s home. The deceased had borrowed against his life insurance policy, leaving his family destitute, but Bloom and his friends have discovered a loophole in the policy that they will exploit to help the widow receive her benefits. This is just one of a number of charitable acts Bloom performs that day, and his virtue is sometimes associated with his rumored membership in Freemasonry. At one point he is described as the “prudent member,” and at another point, two Dubliners discuss Bloom and pay grudging respect to his Masonic charity:
will always hail, ever conceal, never reveal, any part or parts, art or arts . . . . . (he murmurs) . . . . . in the rough sands of the sea . . . a cabletow’s length from the shore . . . . where the tide ebbs . . . . and flows . . . .
Nosey Flynn made swift passes in the air with juggling fingers. He winked. —He’s in the craft, he said. —Do you tell me so? Davy Byrne said. —Very much so, Nosey Flynn said. Ancient free and accepted order. He’s an excellent brother. Light, life and love, by God. They give him a leg up. I was told that by a—well, I won’t say who. —Is that a fact? —O, it’s a fine order, Nosey Flynn said. They stick to you when you’re down. I know a fellow was trying to get into it. But they’re as close as damn it. By God they did right to keep the women out of it. . . . . — . . . He’s a safe man, I’d say. —He’s not too bad, Nosey Flynn said, snuffling it up. He’s been known to put his hand down too to help a fellow. Give the devil his due. O, Bloom has his good points.
Bloom is not a conventionally religious man. He was born Jewish, but left the faith of his father and was baptized in order to marry Molly; yet he is not a practicing Christian either. But as he tends to the welfare of Stephen, he begins to sense that something mystical is happening. Lacking conventional religious language, he automatically begins reciting the sacred language he knows best, the words of his Entered Apprentice Obligation. And immediately he is “brought to light” and sees the vision of Rudy. In seeing Rudy at the age he would have been, Bloom experiences a deep, psychological breakthrough. The vision of Rudy at peace, even smiling, allows Bloom to find peace, free from grief. He now is able to become the father Stephen needs, and he proceeds to play that role by unwittingly initiating the 22-year-old (as in of lawful age) symbolically, by reciting for him the obligation Stephen must take to become a man. Can any Mason fail to recognize Brother Bloom as a member of our Craft? James Joyce once told a friend that he chose Odysseus as the inspiration for his book because he regarded Homer’s hero as the most “complete man” in literature. We should take pride in the fact—and it is a fact—that in creating his twentieth century version of the “complete man,” Joyce chose to make him a Freemason.
Later, in the longest chapter, a kind of dream (or nightmare) in which much that has been unconscious is revealed, we hear a chorus of women, holding prayer books and candles, kneel and pray to Bloom, “Charitable Mason, pray for us.” And indeed, near the end of the book, Bloom performs an extraordinary act of charity and equanimity, successfully “subduing his passions”—an act that I won’t spoil for you. So far there is no evidence that Bloom is a Mason, only that other people believe him to be, but the end of this chapter leaves no doubt, which leads to the third function of Freemasonry in Ulysses: providing a reference point for Bloom’s most important experience of the day. 18 • SUMMER 2009
(Silent, thoughtful, alert he stands on guard, his fingers at his lips in the attitude of a secret master. Against the dark wall a figure appears slowly, a fairy boy of eleven, a changeling, kidnapped, dressed in an Eton suit with glass shoes and a little bronze helmet, holding a book in his hand. He reads from right to left inaudibly, smiling, kissing the page.) BLOOM (wonderstruck, calls inaudibly) Rudy!
Dr. Ken Davis is former professor and chair of English at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and the author of The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course in Business Writing and Communication. He is the Worshipful Master of Lodge Vitruvian No. 767 in Indianapolis, Indiana, and has recently moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
THE JOURNAL OF THE MASONIC SOCIETY
ALLEGORY
Debunking Reality: Solomon’s temple and the Power of Allegory by Randy Williams
A painting by Bro. John Wesley Kelchner, depicting the Temple of Solomon as it is described in the Biblical text, including its traditional height. Some archaeologists speculate that the historical Temple may have begun with a more humble design.
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n his classic 1922 work, Symbolism of the Three Degrees, Masonic scholar and author Oliver Day Street describes the Jerusalem Temple of King Solomon as “the most perfect building known,” one naturally fitted to serve as the “symbol of a perfect character.”1 He then offers a three-page depiction of the architectural splendor of the Temple, including what Street sees as the strong “logical” case for its having been built by “societies of Masons” that were not unlike our modern fraternity.2 Two recent, updated reprints of Street’s book have omitted this section, most likely out of a concern not to convey to today’s readers the impression that the Masonic fraternity of today literally had a direct predecessor at the time that Solomon’s Temple was built. Because this is the legend taught in our ritual, many Masons have tended to accept it as an historical likelihood. Impressive traditions of the majestic opulence and theological significance of Solomon’s Temple have existed at least since the biblical Book of Kings was compiled in the years spanning approximately 600–550 BCE. This narrative effectively united the Jewish people during the years of the Exile, and they have since become part of the central teachings in Craft Freemasonry (including the Holy Royal Arch), and in a large number of other degrees in the Scottish Rite and other concordant bodies. However, from a strictly historical perspective, it must be acknowledged that academic biblical scholarship, informed by recent archaeological studies, has tended to discredit some of the ancient descriptions of the Temple. It may be that the Temple of Solomon was a much more modest structure than has traditionally been believed. For Masons, the question in light of this scholarship is: Can the story of the Temple’s construction still be used to inspire
the hearts and minds of Masons, or is our tradition, if the reader will pardon the expression, built atop a faulty foundation? e should begin by examining the biblical record on King Solomon in the Hebrew Scriptures, as these ancient writings were for many years the only source for his story. William Hamblin and David Seely, in their 2007 book, Solomon’s Temple: Myth and History, assert that “until the Enlightenment, the Bible was read as revelation and authentic history, with the underlying assumption that the Temple existed just as it describes.”3 But sometimes a literalistic approach makes differences among accounts seem like contradictions. For example, there are two versions of the Temple narrative found in the Bible, one in the Book of Kings and another in Chronicles, and they frequently seem to disagree with one another. Many scholars believe that neither book is the work of a single author writing over a period of a few years; rather, they are what biblical scholar John Riches describes as “compilations which reflect communal traditions which may go back many centuries.”4 According to this view, oral traditions and long-lost literary sources combine within these texts to provide narratives that were intended address the needs of the community at the time of compilation. Masonically, we might say that these texts “gather what was scattered.” This approach potentially helps us understand the apparent differences between the two biblical accounts of Solomon and his Temple. The first account of its construction, in the Book of Kings, was probably written at least 400 years after the events it describes. According to The New Oxford Annotated Bible, the material was likely compiled by two separate author-editors between 600 BCE
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First Temple-era ceramic model of a temple, possibly used as a household shrine, depicting pillars similar to those described in the accounts of Solomon’s Temple. From Amihi Mazar, Archaeology of the Land of the Bible, 10,000586 BCE (New York: Doubleday, 1992).
and 550 BCE.5 The first of these authors would have been writing in a time just before the destruction of the Temple, while the second would have been writing during the Babylonian exile. Classicist Simon Goldhill notes that the Book of Kings was therefore completed “after the Temple had been destroyed, and it looks back at the Temple’s foundation with yearning for past glory.”6 Goldhill further explains that even if [Kings] contains material that stretches back to the times it portrays, it has certainly been edited – rewritten – from a new perspective. Like all military, religious, and political history, it has an agenda. Solomon was already a legendary figure of a golden age, when the kingdom of the Israelites was united and internationally powerful, and when religion flourished, quite unlike the weakened, impoverished and fragmented Jewish people of the later period, always under the power of one empire or another. This glorious Temple was already an object of ancient nostalgia.7 As an example of this effect, many scholars would agree with John Van Seters, who qualifies the Bible’s descriptions of the Temple’s elaborate decorations and extensive use of precious metals (gold, in particular) as “ideological embellishments to enhance the time of Solomon.”8 As we shall see, the quantities of gold would become even greater in the later description of the Temple in Chronicles. Still, while the Book of Kings may present a uniformly glorious Temple, it does not flinch in presenting a “warts and all” portrait of its patron. Masters of Masonic Lodges are accustomed to referring to themselves as the humble representatives of King Solomon — but many of today’s Masters are less familiar with the traditional biblical accounts than were the Masons of the past, and might be shocked to read the sordid details of this wise king’s final days. Solomon is described as having some 700 princesses and 300 concubines, and many of his wives were foreign women – even though such marriages were apparently forbidden by the prevailing religious law.9 According to the account in Kings, these still-pagan wives saw to it that the Temple was far from Solomon’s only major building project. According to 1 Kings 11.6, Solomon “did what was displeasing to the Lord and did not remain loyal to the Lord like his father David.” According to Goldhill, Solomon not only “follow[ed] the divinities of the Phoenicians and the Ammonites, he even built shrines for them on the hills around Jerusalem.”10 The moral of Solomon’s downfall in this account seems to be that his Temple and his kingdom were doomed to fall precisely 20 • SUMMER 2009
because he had strayed from the exclusive worship of the God of Israel. Yet, in the Book of Chronicles, written an unknown period after Kings (some scholars estimate its compilation as occurring between 400 and 250 BCE, using Kings as source material11), both Solomon and his father, King David, are portrayed with fewer rough edges. For example, the scandalous circumstances of Solomon’s birth are not mentioned,12 nor is his apparent polytheism detailed.13 The Chronicler’s emphasis seems to be the perpetuation of the legendary status of Judah’s mighty rulers and their heroic deeds. Many scholars feel that this tendency to perpetuate legend rather than historical fact extends to descriptions of the Temple that can seem to dwarf those found in the Book of Kings; the editors of The New Oxford Annotated Bible describe the dimensions of the Temple in 2 Chronicles 3.4 as “either a textual error or a typical exaggeration of the Chronicler to emphasize the impressiveness of the ideal temple.”14 These same editors question the quantities of precious metals used in the building of the Temple: In 1 Chronicles 22.14, we read that King David had left to Solomon some 100,000 talents of gold (approximately seven million pounds, at the editors’ conservative conversion rate of 70 pounds per talent) and 7,000 talents of silver (about 490,000 pounds) for the construction of the Temple and its furnishings; then, in a statistic that does not appear in Kings, we read in 2 Chronicles 3.8-9 that the walls of the Temple were overlaid with 600 talents (about 42,000 pounds) of gold, held in place by gold nails weighing another fifty shekels.15 Biblical scholar Steven S. Tuell echoes the concerns of the Oxford editors, citing “the tendency of the Chronicler to exaggerate numbers” and describing these quantities of gold and silver as “extravagant” and calculated to “awe the reader with the Temple’s opulence.”16 Masonic writers have often followed the Chronicler’s lead. For example, the 1818 Freimaurer Lexicon of Johann Christian Gadicke states in its entry on King Solomon that the ancient ruler’s “fame was immortalized by the building of the Temple, which for size, magnificence, and beauty, far exceeded all the works of architecture ever before seen.”17 However, some modern biblical scholars and archaeologists have increasingly come to question the historical accuracy of the ancient portrayal of the powerful united kingdom of David and Solomon. These researchers now believe that the Jerusalem of Solomon’s time was considerably smaller than the texts imply: a mountain village of moderate size and means in comparison with its contemporary counterparts in Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon.18 Many such scholars now believe that the actual Temple of Solomon would have been a rather “typical example of Syrian imperial architecture.”19 If these scholars are correct, the idea that such a structure could have physically contained the vast quantities of gold and silver described in the Book of Kings and Chronicles seems less likely. Even so, Solomon’s Temple continues to endure, as it has for millennia, as a powerful symbol in the teachings of Judaism and Christianity, and one that has been established as the primary setting for the legends of the Masonic tradition. After all, it is likely that the biblical authors were writing about the Temple not only as a physical structure, but one that represented, at the same time, the perfect ideal of a sacred edifice, an inspirational symbol of human potential, and the meeting place between heaven and earth. Returning to our original question: If it turns out that Solomon’s Temple was not as ornate as the description found in biblical passages, does the story of the building of the Temple still properly serve as the inspirational centerpiece of our Masonic teachings? Certainly, there are critics of Freemasonry who would feel justified in using modern scholarship to discredit the Craft as an order built on a foundation of lies. Some might even point to the crumbling Masonic buildings in many large cities as an all-too appropriate metaphor for the deconstruction of the scriptural accounts of the First Temple.
THE JOURNAL OF THE MASONIC SOCIETY
But such arguments miss the point. Most scriptures, along with writings from many esoteric traditions, deal not just in mundane facts, historical events, or blunt statements, but in great and enduring truths. The intended lesson is often obscured within parables and metaphors, allegories, and poetry. Perhaps it is up to each reader to sift through the layers of meaning to find the essential wisdom at the center of the stories, either through determined contemplation on one’s own, or within the context of a living esoteric tradition. Neither the profound insights available to us in the pages of ancient texts nor the powerful lessons which speak to us through the allegory of Masonic ritual are diminished by the findings of historians. The facts do not debunk the myth; rather they can actually make the symbol more relevant as a beacon of hope to guide us beyond the “reality” of the profane world. Surely we can learn a more profound moral lesson from Solomon’s all-too-human failings in the Book of Kings, and from the disastrous consequences of his failure to “remain loyal to the Lord like his father David,” than we can from glossing over his imperfections and painting him as a fount of infallible wisdom. And the actual, physical appearance
the Temple was successfully completed and stood for a time as a symbol of the most golden era of a powerfully united kingdom; in Masonic ritual, the lesson is that no matter how great our earthly accomplishments may be, our work – our striving toward contact with the divine – is never truly finished in this lifetime. As William D. Moore has written, “The story of the architect does not exist as a text outside of the context of the ritual, nor does the ritual have any shape without the structure of the narrative.”24 And yet the ritual does have an enduring shape and a timeless impact, and this is because it works on a personal level; of all the symbols used in Craft Freemasonry, Hiram the Builder is the only one that directly represents us. We in turn figuratively represent him when we are raised to the sublime degree of a Master Mason. Mackey, writing in his Manual of the Lodge, explains that “the Temple Builder is, in the Masonic system, the symbol of humanity developed here and in the life to come, [and] its architect becomes the mythical symbol of man, the dweller and worker in the world.”25 In other words, we are Hiram, and Hiram is us. Ultimately, the power of the allegory of Solomon’s Temple is
For the readers of Hebrew scriptures, the most important message was that the Temple was successfully completed and stood for a time as a symbol of the most golden era of a powerfully united kingdom; in Masonic ritual, the lesson is that no matter how great our earthly accomplishments may be, our work – our striving toward contact with the divine – is never truly finished in this lifetime. of the long-fallen Temple of Solomon has no bearing on its enduring meaning to us as Freemasons and people of whatever faith we may be. As Albert Mackey wrote in The Symbolism of Freemasonry, “If there would be any who would deny all connection of King Solomon with the origin of Freemasonry, except it be in a mythical or symbolical sense, such incredulity will not at all affect the chain of argument that I am disposed to use.”20 For centuries, our ritual has taught that our ashlars — that is, our minds — are to be worked from the rough to the perfect state for a purpose far beyond the merely mundane: that is, ultimately to be raised into the building of a supreme and celestial temple, a “house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” This is a powerful and deeply intimate symbol that we can, at present, contemplate and perceive only within our hearts. One of the first descriptions of Freemasonry that I ever encountered was this: “It is a beautiful system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.”21 What would it mean to pierce that veil of allegory? Memorization is not enough, as we need to interpret what we have learned. As Mackey’s book on Symbolism clarifies: “[A]llegory itself is nothing else but verbal symbolism; it is the symbol of an idea, or of a series of ideas, not presented to the mind in an objective and visible form, but clothed in language, and exhibited in the form of a narrative.”22 Elsewhere, Mackey refers to the stories of the Temple as legends, and he argues that “the object of the Masonic legends is not to establish historical facts, but to convey philosophical doctrines,” and that they are “a method by which esoteric instruction is communicated, and the student accepts them with reference to nothing else except their positive use and meaning as developing Masonic dogmas.”23 An impressive illustration of this method may even be the Hiramic legend itself. After all, the Masonic story of Hiram Abiff has no specific basis in the ancient texts. The biblical story seems to indicate that Hiram satisfactorily completed his work for the king, whereas Masonic ritual portrays that work as being tragically interrupted, with great secrets lost as a consequence. For the readers of Hebrew scriptures, the most important message was that
in the unique, singular imagining. As Freemasons, we share many common symbols, but each of us must construct our own individual temple, however humble it may be, and invite the Great Architect of the Universe into that space. And we need not imagine our inner Temple as anything ornate, elaborate, or ostentatious. Our building materials are simply these: our bodies, our minds, our thoughts and our actions. Let us, as Masons, strive at all times to represent all that is good and hopeful about being a simple “dweller and worker in the world,” toiling toward that perfect moment when God dwells among us. Randy Williams is a writer, editor, and educator who resides with his wife and two daughters in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. He was initiated, passed, and raised in Dominion Lodge No. 117, A.F. & A.M., G.R.A., where he will soon be installed as Lodge Secretary. He is also a member of Capital City Chapter No. 13, Royal Arch Masons, and Yellowhead Council No. 220, Allied Masonic Degrees.
Endnotes 1. Oliver Day Street, Symbolism of the Three Degrees: The Entered Apprentice Degree (Washington, DC: American Masonic Press, 1929), 25. 2. Ibid., 27. 3. William J. Hamblin and David Rolph Seely, Solomon’s Temple: Myth and History (London: Thames and Hudson, 2007), 193. It should also be noted that allegorical readings of scripture were common within both Judaism and Christianity from ancient times. They became increasingly popular and influential during the medieval period and the Renaissance. Such symbolic readings were, of course, seen in most cases as dimensions of meaning in addition to the plain or literal sense. After the advent of the printed SUMMER 2009 • 21
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Bible, the Protestant impulse away from high church tradition led to a new emphasis on the literal meaning of the text within Christianity. The emphasis on literalism alone is actually a fairly recent phenomenon. 4. John Riches, The Bible: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2000), 23. 5. Herbert G. May and Bruce M. Metzger, eds., The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apopcrypha, Revised Standard Version (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), 413.
18. Israel Finkelstein and Neil Asher Silberman, David and Solomon: In Search of the Bible’s Sacred Kings and the Roots of the Western Tradition (New York: Free Press, 2006), 21-22. 19. David Ussishkin, “King Solomon’s Palaces,” The Biblical Archaeologist 36 (1973): 78-105. 20. Albert G. Mackey, The Symbolism of Freemasonry: Illustrating and Explaining Its Science and Philosophy, Its Legends, Myths, and Symbols (New York: Clark and Maynard, 1869), 265.
9. Goldhill, 35.
21. There are many slight variations on the phrase, but this is the wording that is used in the Canadian Rite practiced by my Mother Lodge. The oldest form of this definition can be traced to Preston’s Illustrations, which gives a more complete version: “The whole is one regular system of morality, conceived in a strain of interesting allegory, which readily unfolds its beauties to the candid and industrious inquirer.” The final clause of Preston’s definition reminds us of our responsibility to be active and contemplative in our Masonic work. See William Preston, Illustrations of Masonry, Second Edition of 1775 (Bloomington, Illinois: Masonic Book Club, 1973), 74.
10. Ibid., 37.
22. Ibid., 71.
11. May and Metzger, 495.
23. Ibid., 4.
12. While 2 Samuel contains the disturbing tale of David’s betrayal of Uriah in the course of his affair with Bathsheba, and the subsequent birth of Solomon from that union (11.1–12.24), in 1 Chronicles Solomon is matter of factly listed as a son of David and Bathsheba (3.5). (See the following note.)
24. William D. Moore, Masonic Temples: Freemasonry, Ritual Architecture, and Masculine Archetypes (Knoxville, University of Tennessee Press, 2006), 10.
6. Simon Goldhill, The Temple of Jerusalem (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2005), 19. 7. Ibid., 32. 8. John Van Seters, “Solomon’s Temple: Fact and Ideology in Biblical and Near Eastern Historiography,” The Catholic Biblical Quarterly 59 (1997): 55-57.
13. In 1 Kings, Solomon’s later heresies and his punishments for them are described in detail (11.1–27), but in 2 Chronicles there is only a brief reference to his marriage of the daughter of a Pharaoh, after which he prudently erects a palace for her removed from the Temple area, owing to her pagan ways (8.11). Even so, it would not be fair to suggest that the Chronicler was suppressing these details. For example, he also writes, “The rest of the events of Solomon—earlier and later—behold, they are written in the records of Nathan the Prophet and in the Prophecies of Ahijah the Shilonite and in the visions of Jedo the Seer...” (2 Chronicles 9.29) Given Nathan’s involvement in David’s punishment for his appropriation of Bathsheba, it is reasonable to surmise that some of these sources contain tales about Solomon that the Chronicler did not include, but which he also expected his readers to study. (Sadly, all of these texts are lost, as is the book of the Acts of Solomon, mentioned in 1 Kings 11.41.) Note also that 2 Chronicles 14.1–4 describes how King Asa destroyed the pagan shrines in the land, without a suggestion that Solomon was complicit in their appearance. 14. Ibid., 532. 15. Ibid. 16. Steven S. Tuell, First and Second Chronicles: Interpretation (Westminster: John Knox Press, 2001), 125. 17. Johann Christian Gadicke, “Freimaurer Lexicon” (1818), quoted in George Oliver, A Dictionary of Symbolical Masonry (New York: Leonard & Co., 1855), 342.
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25. Albert G. Mackey, A Manual of the Lodge; or Monitorial Instructions (New York: Macoy & Sickles, 1865), 100.
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PHILOSOPHY
Multiple Dimensions of Silence in Freemasonry by Shawn Eyer
Cease Clamour and Faction, oh cease, Fly hence all ye cynical train; Disturb not, disturb not the Lodge’s sweet peace, Where Silence and Secrecy reign. The Freemasons’ Ode, 1776
T
he profound silence of a tiled Lodge during ceremonies such as the initiation of a candidate can be deeply impressive, and naturally induces solemn reflections upon the essential meaning of the work. Pythagoras taught that a man should “either remain silent, or say something better than the silence he disturbs.”1 This is certainly consistent with Masonic practice, for within a tiled Lodge, brethren are expected not to converse in a casual way, as if the lodge were no different from the street outside. Many writers have misinterpreted the fact that English and early American Masons first met in the private rooms available for rent above certain taverns to imply that those early Lodges were boisterous scenes devoid of solemnity and contemplation. But even the 1723 first edition of Anderson’s Constitutions stressed the seriousness of the ritualistic work and the importance of remaining completely silent unless one is recognized from the Chair: You are not to hold private Committees, or separate Conversation, without Leave from the Master, nor to talk of any thing impertinent or unseemly, nor interrupt the Master or Wardens, or any Brother speaking to the Master: Nor behave yourself ludicrously or jestingly while the Lodge is engaged in what is serious and solemn; nor use any unbecoming Language upon any Pretence whatsoever; but to pay due Reverence to your Master, Wardens, and Fellows, and put them to worship.2
For centuries, a hallmark of the finest lodges has been the conscientious observance of this regulation, while lodges which disregard it have risked alienating some serious-minded Masonic seekers. Surely the purpose of the traditional silence is to maintain a decorum appropriate to every performance of the Masonic ceremonies. The overall effect of such a respectful approach to the work is beautifully described by the Masonic philosopher W. L. Wilmshurst, who taught that an ideal Lodge, when properly tiled and duly opened, would be a sanctuary of silence and contemplation, broken only by ceremonial utterances or such words of competent and luminous instruction as the Master or Past Masters are moved to extend. And the higher the degree in which it is opened, the deeper and more solemn would be the sense of excluding all temporal thoughts and interests and of approaching more nearly that veiled central Light whose opening into activity in our hearts we profess to be our predominant wish. In such circumstances each Lodge meeting would become an occasion of profound spiritual experience. No member would wish to disturb the harmony of such a Lodge by talk or alien thought.3
Allegorical statue of “Silence” (Angerona), sculpted by William Rush, on display at the Philadelphia Temple of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Photography by Thomas J. Monteforte. SUMMER 2009 • 23
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So important is a deep and abiding silence to the dignity of the degree conferrals that Masons have often introduced symbolic images and slogans to remind one another of the requirement never to disturb the solemnity of the Lodge. Several of these will be explored below.
A Goddess Of Silence
The Craft has traditionally personified this important characteristic of a properly opened Lodge as an allegorical figure whose presence is verbally or architecturally represented. One early example, John Bancks’ To Masonry: An Ode (circa 1730), entreats: “Come . . . Silence, Guardian of the Door!” The allegorical figure of Silence was frequently referenced in the forms of ancient gods named Harpocrates and Angerona, both of whom are typically shown holding a finger to their lips. Although Harpocrates seems more familiar to Masons today, actually Angerona was traditionally the more popular of the two. She was a deity in the Roman pantheon, considered to be the goddess of secrecy. She was also known as Diva Angerona and Ancharia, and may have been identical with or conceptually linked to Volupia, the goddess of pleasure.4 Her most important duty was the maintenance of perfect secrecy. December 21 marked the Divalia or Angeronalia, her annual festival, which was held in the temple of Volupia. The priests gathered there to offer sacrifices before her statue. This image depicted Angerona with her finger held up over her mouth, which was itself bound and sealed. The ancient Roman writer Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE) says that this ceremony “bears especial reference to the inculcation of silence on religious matters.”5 One of the secrets she guarded was the secret or mystical name of Rome, “long kept buried in secrecy with the strictest fidelity and in respectful and salutary silence,”6 the divulgence of which would imperil the city. Her name means “she who raises up,” and this may refer to the finger raised to her lips, her role of guarding the city, or her connection to the rebirth of the sun—or any combination of the three. Angerona is perhaps first mentioned Masonically in 1756 by Lawrence Dermott in his Ahiman Rezon: “The Romans had a Goddess of Silence named Angerona, which was pictured like Harpocrates, holding her Finger on her Mouth, in Token of Secrecy.”7 Some later monitors add: “Hence the Latin sentence linguam digito compesce, check your tongue by your finger.”8 An early Masonic image of Angerona is plainly visible on the frontispiece of the Free Mason’s Calendar and Almanac of 1775. Although the drawing is poorly executed, it says much. The goddess holds close to the altar in the center of the Lodge, her fingers to her lips. Above the drawing is the motto Est et fideli tuta silentio merces, a saying from the Latin poet Horace. This translates, “There is, indeed, a sure reward for trusty silence.”9 Lodges named for Angerona have existed in Arkansas, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee; Eastern Star chapters have also been named after her. Mackey’s Encyclopedia reports that “her statue has sometimes been introduced among the ornaments of Masonic edifices.”10 Corroborating this, we know that prominent sculptures of a goddess of Silence were commissioned for several important Masonic temples, including the Grand Lodges of Pennsylvania11 and New York,12 and the Scottish Rite Temple of Guthrie, Oklahoma.
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A Silent Lecture
The ancient “sign of Harpocrates” has sometimes been used as a Masonic gesture—sometimes even at public ceremonies. For example, at the April 16, 1841 cornerstone-laying of a new Masonic hall for the brethren of the city of Lincoln in England, we see the interesting nonverbal lesson enacted before some two hundred guests, including George Oliver and Edward George Bulwer-Lytton: [. . . The] architect [of the hall] . . . produced the plans for the inspection of the Prov. Grand Master. The D[eptuy] P[rovincial] G[rand] M[aster] turning to the Master of the Lodge, said, “Worshipful Master, what will your Lodge be like?” To this no answer was given, but the W. Master pointed up to the heavens, then down to the earth, and then extended his hands horizontally, pointing outwards. The D.P.G.M. then said, “That is a good plan, W.M., but what more have you to tell me?” No answer was made, but the Master first placed his right hand upon his heart, and afterwards his left to his lips. The D.P.G.M. said, “The Master does well, Brothers; let us copy his example,” on which each member gave the same signal of sincerity and silence.13 This extremely evocative ceremony powerfully recalls the duty of every Master to ensure that his Lodge continually strives toward the emulation of the ideal which is symbolized by the Masonic notion of the Celestial Lodge, and that it does so in a way that benefits the wider community as well as the inner lives of its brethren.
Silence And Circumspection
Just as the ideal of Masonic silence can be personified in the allegorical figures of Harpocrates and Angerona, so it is intended to be realized in the life of every initiate. It is no mere abstract, but is intended to be an essential part of our applied Masonry— practiced even when we are not in Lodge. Indeed, William Preston taught that silence is “the Mason’s chief virtue,”14 and that “[of] all the arts which the Masons profess, the art of secrecy particularly distinguishes them. Taciturnity is a proof of wisdom, and is of the utmost importance in the different transactions of life.”15 Similarly, in most forms of the American work, the Monitor instructs us that:
First Seal of the Antient Grand Lodge of England, founded in 1751, depicting the traditional “wavy” or flaming sword of the Tiler guarding the interlaced Square and Compasses.
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The Book of Constitutions, Guarded by the Tyler’s Sword, reminds us that we should be ever watchful and guarded in our thoughts, words and actions, particularly when before the uninitiated; ever bearing in remembrance those truly Masonic virtues, silence and circumspection.16 Such virtues are internal traits, most effectively cultivated through careful self-reflection. The annual Installation Ritual makes it explicit that the Tiler’s sword is something that, in a way, we all carry: As the sword is placed in the hands of the Tyler, to enable him effectually to guard against the approach of cowans and eavesdroppers, and suffer none to pass or repass except those who are duly qualified, so it should admonish us to set a guard over our thoughts, a watch at our lips, post a sentinel over our actions; thereby preventing the approach of every unworthy thought and deed, thus preserving consciences void of offense toward God and man.17 In other words, the Tiler’s sword should be used to fend off the cowans in our minds: those ideas not fit for entry into the Temple of our lives. This deeply interior perspective reinforces the powerful role that contemplation and self-reflection possess in the overall moral constitution of a Mason.
“And all the contention ’mong Masons shall be, Who better can work, or who best shall agree.” — James Sterling, 1730
United States may be partly traced to the often-expressed desires of younger Freemasons to see the dignity of the Craft re-elevated to its former levels.18
Vide, Aude, Tace
One of the old Latin mottos of the Order is Vide, Aude, Tace— three verbs in the imperative or “command” tense. Vide in Latin means “see” in both the literal and figurative senses, and thus is connected to our words “visual” and “wit.” The first refers only to the fact of seeing or not seeing something with our eyes, but the metaphorical meaning is clear in those moments of sudden understanding, when we naturally exclaim, “Ah, I see!” Aude means “dare,” and is the root of our word “audacity.” A Mason must dare to apply to the Craft of his own free will and accord, and after he is initiated, it is his responsibility to embody such fortitude that he will be able to put the lessons of Freemasonry into practice. Aude follows Vide because there is no benefit from uninformed daring, nor from understanding without practical application. Tace means “be silent,” and is related to our words “tacit” and “taciturn.” The command to remain silent may allude to the theme of Masonic silence in all of its dimensions: from the obligation that
Silence in the Ancient Temple
The emphasis on silence within Masonic temples is not without an ancient parallel. There survives a very interesting first-person account of a visit to the Temple in Jerusalem around 200 BCE by a writer named Aristeas, who wrote to his brother: The Service of the priests is in every respect unsurpassed in the physical strength (required of them) and in its orderly and silent arrangement. For they all labour spontaneously, even though the exertion is great, and each one takes care of an appointed task. And they minister without a break, some offering the wood, some the oil, some the fine flour, some the incense, others the sacrificial portions of flesh, using their strength in different degrees for the different tasks. For [rest] there is a place where those who are relieved from duty sit down. When this happens, those who have rested rise up at the ready, since no one gives orders about matters of the Service.
“Understand It, Boldly Practice It, Remain Silent about It.” —truly a fitting summary of the most important things required of a Masonic initiate. binds a Mason to his Craft, to the duty of every Mason to maintain in trust the secrets of his brethren. Some would even interpret this to imply a duty to preserve esoteric wisdom from the abuses of the profane. All together, the motto literally means “See (or Understand), Dare, Be Silent,” and its essence is best expressed as “Understand It, Boldly Practice It, Remain Silent about It.”—truly a fitting summary of the most important things required of a Masonic initiate. The recent resurgence in the popularity of this motto in the
And a complete silence reigns, with the result that one might suppose that there was not a single person present in the place, even though there are around 700 ministering priests present and a great number of men bringing up the sacrifices; but everything is discharged with awe and in a manner worthy of the great Godhead. And I am certain that everyone who comes near to the sight of the things described above will come to astonishment and indescribable wonder, and will be stirred in mind by the holy quality which pertains to each detail.19 SUMMER 2009 • 25
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Aristeas, as an ancient traveler, was profoundly affected by what he saw in the Temple. And every experienced Mason knows that when we show similar respect for the work being done in our temples today, our “travelers” (that is, our candidates) are inspired with a similar wonder. When our officers know their roles and need no prompting, the work is much more powerful to see. Consistently doing so creates a space in which powerful and lasting impressions can be made, and in which the teachings of Freemasonry can be more clearly transmitted from each generation to the next. Silence therefore is not emptiness. A deep and abiding silence is not a null or a void. It is a container, holding within it both the impressive words of our ceremonies and the often difficult to express wisdom that we may slowly come to perceive through our practice of Freemasonry. The first step toward this “deep silence” is a simple, unwavering respect for the correct flow of work within the Lodge. A reverent atmosphere will take our work to a higher level, and allow us—and the many we shall initiate—to begin to hear more of the wisdom so carefully implanted within our rites so many centuries ago. ***** “Finally, silence, silence, silence, should be the first, second and third degrees of every man’s Masonry.” M.W. Bro. Abraham T. Metcalf Grand Master of Masons in Michigan 1871 Shawn Eyer is the Worshipful Master of Academia Lodge No. 847 (http://academialodge.org), and was recently appointed the editor of The Philalethes Society’s quarterly journal.
8. For example, the 1805 first American edition of Dermott’s Ahiman Rezon and James Hardie’s Monitor (New York, 1819). The actual classical phrase was digito compesce labellum, as given in Juvenal, Satires 1.160. 9. Horace, Odes 3.2.25–28. Horace is specifically referring to the ritual secrecy of the Eleusinian mysteries, as the passage continues: “Never would I allow one who has profaned the mysteries of Ceres [Demeter] to stay with me beneath the same roof, nor to set sail with me in the same fragile ship.”Author’s translation. 10. Albert G. Mackey, An Encyclopædia of Freemasonry and Its Kindred Sciences (Philadelphia: Moss & Co., 1879), vol. 1, 70. 11. Z. A. Davis, The Freemason’s Monitor (Philadelphia: Desilver & Muir, 1843), 126. 12. Commissioned by the Grand Lodge of New York and sculpted by the famous artist Augustus Saint-Gaudens in 1874. This Angerona, perhaps the finest of them all, stood at the main staircase in the Grand Temple from 1876 until it was removed to the New York Masonic Hospital in Utica in 1923. See John H. Dryfhout, The Work of Augustus Saint-Gaudens (Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 2008), 75. 13. Charles Whitlock Moore (Ed.), The Freemason’s Monthly Magazine, vol. 1 (1842), 85. 14. Colin Dyer, William Preston and His Work (Shepperton, UK: Lewis Masonic, 1987), 175. 15. William Preston, Illustrations of Masonry, Second Edition (London: J. Wilkie, 1775), 173. 16. Jeremy Ladd Cross, The True Masonic Chart, or Hieroglyphic Monitor (New York: Cross, 1850), 39. 17. Charles Whitlock Moore & S. W. B. Carnegy, The Masonic Trestle-board (Boston: C. W. Moore, 1846), 77.
1. Stobaeus, fragment 24.
18. An example of the renewed interest in this traditional Masonic motto is the popular ring designed by Bro. Andrew Horn in 2003, featuring the words Vide Aude Tace as its central motif and inspiration.
2. James Anderson, The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (London: J. Senex, 1723), 52. Similar to this is the note about the quarterly Grand Lodge communication: “[A]ll Matters that concern the Fraternity in general, or particular Lodges, or single Brethren, are quietly, sedately, and maturely to be discours’d of and transacted.” (63)
19. Letter of Aristeas § 92, 94–95, 99. Translation and commentary in C. T. R. Hayward, The Jewish Temple: A NonBiblical Sourcebook (London: Routledge, 1996), 26–37. What the traveler Aristeas describes deeply resonates with a verse from Habakkuk: “The Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.” (2:20)
Endnotes
3. W. L. Wilmshurst, The Masonic Initiation, Revised Edition (San Francisco: Plumbstone, 2007), 30–31. 4. Lesley Adkins & Roy A. Adkins, Dictionary of Roman Religion (New York: Facts on File, 1996), 9, 242–43. 5. Naturalis Historia 3.9. 6. Ibid. 7. Laurence Dermott, Ahiman Rezon, or A Help to a Brother (London: James Bedford, 1756), 7. 26 • SUMMER 2009
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ALLIED MASONIC DEGREES
The Orders of the Secret Monitor and the Scarlet Cord By Richard L. Gan
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t has been said that the England and the United States of America are two peoples separated by a common language. The same can also be said about Masonry in the two countries. It is true that many of the degrees beyond the Craft worked in Great Britain originated in the United States, including the Order of Secret Monitor (OSM). In the United States the OSM is one of thirteen degrees controlled by the Grand Council of the Allied Masonic Degrees of the United States of America (GCAMD-USA). Until 1931, the OSM in England came under the control of two Masonic bodies: The Grand Council of the Allied Masonic Degrees (GCAMD) and the Grand Conclave of the Order of the Secret Monitor (GCOSM). The OSM under the control of the AMD in both nations consisted of a one-degree ceremony while the OSM under the control of the Grand Conclave was, and remains, a three-degree system. In England in 1931 a concordat was drawn up between the Grand Council of the AMD and what was then called the Grand Council of the OSM, to the effect that the control of the OSM was relinquished Grand Conclave. Interestingly enough the GCAMD had also relinquished control of what is now the Order of the Knights Templar Priests in 1923, but that is another story, as is why the Grand Council of the OSM ultimately became the Grand Conclave of the Order. From 1931 until 1992 the OSM in the USA remained a one-degree ceremony. In February 1992, at the invitation of the AMD Grand Council of the USA, the then Grand Recorder and the present Grand Supreme Ruler, Peter Glyn Williams, carried out the ceremonies of the first and second degrees of the Order upon some 200 brethren in Washington. The trigradal OSM system is now practised by the AMD in the United States and is identical to those degrees as practised within Conclaves in the British Isles. Originally it had been hoped that the Order of the Secret Monitor in the USA might develop along lines similar to that established throughout the world. For one reason or another, the original intent has not materialized. No new conclaves have been consecrated in the USA. Instead, the degrees of the OSM are normally carried out on an annual basis under the auspices of the Grand Conclave as part of the annual meeting of the GCAMD-USA. The other degrees under the control of the AMD are carried out on a similar basis during the Allied Masonic Week convention which is held annually in Alexandria, Virginia. While this method may be entirely different in comparison to British practice, it is also valid.
England and U.S. Sign New Concordat
A new concordat was negotiated by the Deputy Grand Recorder of the Grand Conclave, Richard Gan and signed by the Grand Master of the GCAMD-USA, Allen Surratt in Washington in February 2008 and by the Grand Supreme Ruler, Peter Glyn Williams, at the meeting of Grand Conclave in Birmingham in November 2008. In order to establish a greater level of cooperation and interaction between the GCAMD-USA and the Grand Conclave of the Order of the Secret Monitor of the British Isles, the new concordat enables: 1. A Mason who has taken the degrees of the OSM under the jurisdiction of the Grand Council of the AMD of the USA is able to attend meetings of Conclaves in England and to become a joining member of a Conclave without having to undertake the degrees for a second time. 2. A Secret Monitor who has been Installed Supreme Ruler under the jurisdiction of the Grand Council of the Allied Masonic Degrees of the United States of America would be recognised as such in England. 3. The Sovereign Grand Master of the Grand Council of the AMD of the USA would be recognised as the Head of the Order of the Secret Monitor in the United States of America; and the Officers of the Grand Conclave of Secret Monitor shall be recognized in accordance with their concomitant rank in the Grand Council of the Allied Masonic Degrees of the United States of America. A measure of the growing friendship and closer working relationship between the two Constitutions resulted in the Grand Supreme Ruler travelling to Washington D.C, in February 2009, accompanied by senior Grand Officers, not only to formally deliver a copy of the concordat, but also to confer the Order of the Royal Masonic Knights of the Scarlet Cord upon over two hundred and fifty brethren. 28 • SUMMER 2009
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The Order of the Scarlet Cord Revived
More About the Order of the Secret Monitor
he Order of the Scarlet Cord—or more correctly, the Royal Order of Masonic Knights of the Scarlet Cord—has always been an integral part of the Order of the Secret Monitor and was worked until 1929 when it fell into abeyance. The Ritual of the Scarlet Cord had been deposited in the archives of the OSM at Mark Masons’ Hall where, prior to his Installation as Grand Supreme Ruler, Peter Williams, had not only been Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons, but also Grand Recorder of the OSM. On Tuesday, December 5, 2006 another 40 members joined and the OSM Scarlet Cord Conclave No. 500 was consecrated with 52 Founders, with the purpose of providing an environment for fostering the future development of the Scarlet Cord. Such has been the success of the Conclave that it now has in excess of 700 members and still growing. Knowledge of the revival of the Scarlet Cord has even spread around the world. In November 2008, the Grand Supreme Ruler accompanied by a team of senior Grand Officers travelled to India where in New Delhi and Chennai the degree was conferred on members of the English Constitution. Some 20% of the membership of the OSM is based in India, and hence it was no surprise that the Scarlet Cord would be warmly embraced by the brethren from all parts of the Indian sub-continent. The team from Grand Conclave then travelled to Singapore where members of the OSM from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore were inducted into the Scarlet Cord, and where the Scarlet Chord Conclave of the East had previously been consecrated to facilitate the development of the Order in that part of the world. In addition to conferring the Scarlet Cord on members of the English Constitution, the Grand Supreme Ruler also conferred the Order on Grand Supreme Rulers and senior representatives from Oceania, including Northern Australia, Papua and New Guinea; Southern Australia; New South Wales and ACT., and New Zealand. In so doing, he was also able to authorize and enable the Order to be developed within those Sovereign bodies. Having established the Scarlet Cord in the Eastern and Southern hemisphere, the Grand Supreme Ruler travelled in February 2009 to Washington D.C., again accompanied by senior Grand Officers to confer the Order on over two hundred brethren from the USA and Canada, thus establishing the Scarlet Cord in the Northern and Western hemisphere. It is truly remarkable that, in such a relatively short period of time, yet another Masonic order has so captured the imagination of so many senior Freemasons, whose thirst for Masonic knowledge seems to know no bounds.
n Order of David and Jonathan existed in Holland in the 18th Century but our present Order was brought from America by Dr. I. Zacharie about 1875. Originally the Order, as worked in America, consisted of a single degree, which could be conferred on any worthy Master Mason by another brother who had received it himself. Under Zacharie, a Grand Council was formed in 1887 and the ritual was extended to the present system of three degrees. Later there followed a problematic period when the Grand Council of the Allied Masonic Degrees was empowered to confer the American version of the Degree. The conflict between the two bodies was resolved in 1931 when all rights were transferred to the Grand Council (later Conclave) of the Order of the Secret Monitor. The degrees of the Order are Secret Monitor, Prince and Supreme Ruler. In the First Degree the candidate is “inducted” as a Secret Monitor. The ceremony is based on the friendship between David (father of Solomon) and Jonathan (son of Saul the first King of Israel). David was a great warrior and a servant of the King. Saul however, soon became jealous of David’s brilliance and plotted to kill him. Through his friendship with Jonathan, David was informed of the plot and fled to the hills for safety. In order to keep David informed of developments within the King’s court, Jonathan devised a special system of communication upon which the Degree embraces and develops. Saul was informed of the association between David and his son and blamed those around him for encouraging it. Saul embarked on a major search for David, slaughtering many whom he believed to be involved in his concealment but David triumphed and eventually became the second King of Israel. His friendship with Jonathan remained unbroken until the death of the latter. This is the main theme of the Second Degree in which the candidate is “admitted” as a Prince of the Order The Third Degree of the Order is unique in English Freemasonry in that it is also the ceremony of installation, in which the elected brother is installed as Supreme Ruler of his Conclave. As part of the ceremony the newly installed Supreme Ruler also receives his “commission” (usually from the Provincial Grand Supreme Ruler), which carries the rank of “Supreme Ruler within the Order.” These ceremonies are very moving and it is upon the principles exemplified therein that the system of communicating friendship and caring among the members of the Order is promoted in a practical way.
Richard L. Gan is the Deputy Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Mark Master Masons in London.
—from the website of the Provincial Grand Conclave of Surrey in the Order of the Secret Monitor http://www.orderofthesecretmonitor.co.uk/
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International Conference on the History of Freemasonry 2009 by Christopher Hodapp
T
he second International Conference on the History of Freemasonry in Edinburgh, Scotland was held May 29-31st, 2009. More than 70 papers were presented over the course of the event, which was held again at the beautiful Grand Lodge of Scotland’s Freemason Hall on Edinburgh’s George Street. The conference brought together approximately 170 Masonic and non-Masonic academic historians, researchers, authors and interested parties from all over the world. The ICHF is the brainchild of Scotland-based Supersonic Events Ltd., and is co-sponsored by the Centre for Research into Freemasonry, University of Sheffield; Centre interdisciplinaire bordelais d’étude des lumièresLumières Nature Société, Université de Bordeaux III; Centre d’Étude de la Langue et de la Littérature Françaises des XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (CELLF), Sorbonne IV, Paris; Chair of Freemasonry, Faculty of Religious Studies, University of Leiden; Centre de la Méditerrannée Moderne et Contemporaine, Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis; and the Interdisciplinary Research Group Freemasonry, Free University of Brussels.
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In addition, the conference had the support of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, the Grand Lodge of Ireland, and the United Grand Lodge of England. The gathering coincided this year with the 250th anniversary of the birth of Robert Burns, currently being celebrated all over Scotland as “The Homecoming”, and there were many papers that explored Burns’ life, works, and connection (both real and imaginary) with Freemasonry. The spirit of Burns was immediately called to mind, as the 11th Earl of Elgin helped to open the first day’s session with the display of the Masonic apron of Burns, accompanied by a piper. (Paul Rich’s talk on Friday discussed the controversy over competing Burns aprons that are in circulation, and came down in favor of the apron presented by Lord Elgin as the authentic one). Lord Elgin, Andrew Douglas Alexander Thomas Bruce, is a direct living descendant of Robert the Bruce, and served as Grand Master of Scotland between 1961 and 1965. He serves as the head of the Royal Order of Scotland. In many ways the conference is an overwhelming experience. Apart from the plenary lectures, the sessions ran in three concurrent tracks, so no matter how hard you tried, you missed 2/3 of the papers. On the other hand, that
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usually meant there was something being presented at any time that would appeal to your interests. The first plenary lecture of the conference set the tone for the weekend. If we are to encourage the scientific and academic study of Freemasonry, said France’s Pierre-Yves Beaurepaire, we must nurture authentic, scholarly courses in universities. Freemasonry is a social and historical movement that must be studied in its proper context, and not just down the dead end road of “masonology.” The goal Masonic scholars and researchers must strive for, argued Beaurepaire, is academic legitimacy. Papers presented covered a far-reaching range of topics, on history, ritual, material culture, and the role of Masonry in society throughout the centuries. Even an exhaustive history of the legendary “lodge goat” was given by University of North Carolina’s William D. Moore. The variety of papers on Masonic history and customs stretched from the U.S. and Britain, Mexico and Japan, to Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The Masonic Society was well represented at the Conference by attendees and presenters. Brother Adam Kendall presented his paper, “Klad in White
TMS’ Mark Tabbert, speaking American “Scottishness.”
about
Hoods and Aprons: The K.K.K. and the Infiltration of California Freemasonry.” England’s John Belton (with his co-author Bob Cooper) presented “Scotland’s Masons - Membership and Occupations of Freemasons 1800-2000.” Mark Tabbert gave a presentation on “Prince Hall, African Lodge # 459 and the American Masonic Landscape of the 1770-80s.” In addition, Mark spoke about the digital archives project at the George Washington Masonic Memorial. Mark was also called upon to read the paper of an absent presenter, but when the paper also failed to show up, he gave an off the cuff presentation about the changes in ethnic perceptions in American history, how “Scottishness” was defined over the years in the U.S., and how both Burns and Scottish heritage have been adapted for use by Freemasonry over time. Brethren visiting Edinburgh were given the unique opportunity to sit in lodge meetings at Robert Burns’ lodge, Canongate Kilwinning Lodge No. 2, and Lodge of Edinburgh, Mary’s Chapel No.1, the oldest extant Masonic lodge, with records dating back to 1599. Nearly 100 brethren packed Mary’s Chapel No. 1 lodge room for the conferral of an Entered Apprentice degree on the Monday night after the conference’s end. The prevailing hope is that the 2011 conference will be held in Alexandria, Virginia at the George Washington Masonic Memorial, and then in a variety of European cities every two years. But Edinburgh is the conference’s spiritual home, and rightly so, with the city’s rich history of Freemasonry and its role in the origins of the modern fraternity.
TMS’ Adam Kendall answers a question as Todd Kissam and James Daniel look on.
TMS members David Naughton-Shires, Martyn Greene, Chris Hodapp, Leif Endre Grutle, and Adam Kendall enjoy a coffee break between lectures. (Photo by Adam Kendall. All others by Christopher Hodapp.) SUMMER 2009 • 31
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Letters To The Journal Masonic Baptism
Dear Brother Chris, First, let me congratulate the Masonic Society on another wonderful issue. I enjoy the mix of news, current events, and philosophy. That being said, I received a number of calls, e-mails, and texts (still learning that whole deal) concerning the Masonic baptism article that appeared in the last edition. The correspondence concerned the fact that the ceremony printed in the Journal was not the ceremony or ritual used in Colorado during the Baptism that occurred at the Southern Colorado Consistory put on by members of Enlightenment Lodge 198. The reason for the contacts are multifold, but I believe it is because the ceremony was very special for those who participated and it has caused a bit of a “stir” in some circles that are debating the practice and whether or not such practices make the Craft appear more religious than it should. With such conversations occurring, it is important that any information shared about it is accurate so that we avoid miscommunication which often results in misunderstandings. First, Pike’s ceremony, the revised version by Brother Michael Poll (excellent job by the way Brother Mike) is not “the” Masonic Baptism. The practice has roots in Europe, has been referenced as being used in England and France. It has also been referenced in both the Southern and Northern Masonic Jurisdiction publications. The ceremony printed and accredited to Pike is likely a French adaptation. The point being, Pike promoted and adapted a practice already in use. Being inspired by Pike, the ceremony used in Colorado was written for that purpose and did borrow from Pike, but not enough that the ceremonies would seem similar to those watching them. The Pike ritual, although beautiful, had some elements that would likely not have been found acceptable in ADVERTISEMENT
today’s world. For instance, the “oath” taken concerning the children in the Pike ritual is different for boys and girls and not necessarily reflecting the values of equality common in our culture today. The Masonic youth group, Job’s Daughters was included in the ceremony, the Latin was removed, parts and officers changed, and the ideals of the Fraternity and of alchemy were highlighted within the process. What remained similar was the principle behind the ceremony. That of a beautiful and fraternal ceremony, not meant to infringe upon religion, that allowed for the members of the Craft to declare to some of their families that their children never need feel alone in this world again. The ceremony was attended by hundreds, children from two different countries and both coasts of the United States were baptized. Those that attended arrived at about a 70/30 split, with many wanting to watch the ceremony but believing it somehow irreligious. I know of no one that watched the baptism that held anything less than a positive opinion of it. There were few dry eyes at the conclusion and many approach me to say it reminded them of what it meant to be a Mason. The ceremony has been published and is available at www. masonicbapstim.com . A portion of the proceeds are being used to fund travel to those places that wish to hold the ceremony and providing information and assistance in accomplishing it. Thank you Brothers for allowing an opportunity to clarify the information. Yours In Brotherhood, Cliff Porter (Editor’s Note: The Masonic Baptism article generated more discussion on TMS online than any topic since the forum opened—over 200 responses .)
Discover the history behind Dan Brown’s “The Lost Symbol”
SUMMER 2009 • 33
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FROM THE EDITOR
Get Ready For The Dan Brown Effect
I
by Christopher l. Hodapp
t’s official. The Dan Brown Effect is rushing headlong at the Masonic fraternity like an angry lodge goat and will be upon us on September 15th. That’s the day 6.5 million copies of Brown’s sequel to The Da Vinci Code, now titled The Lost Symbol, will hit stores worldwide. As reported in the News section, the covers of The Lost Symbol were revealed just as the Journal was about to go to press. Both the U.S. and U.K. covers have Masonic symbols prominently displayed. My guess, based on the covers and a growing list of online clues being released by his publisher on a daily basis (see how I do come September) is that Brown will tell a story of some secret brotherhood, formed in the late Middle Ages, and eventually headed by Francis Bacon. The group discovered America, then sailed back and founded the New Atlantis, a utopian experiment in government that became the United States. This brotherhood eventually became the Freemasons. Within it are the super secret group of string-pullers and evil, bald-headed super-criminals—the 33rd degree Masons of the Scottish Rite, who meet once a year in their creepy secret fortress, the House of the Temple in Washington. Murders will undoubtedly ensue, probably at all of those “Masonic” zodiac symbols David Ovason droned on and on about in The Secret Architecture of Our Nation’s Capitol, before he admitted in the last five pages the Masons didn’t actually put them there. That 6.5 million copies, that’s just a dribble in the bucket. Da Vinci Code eventually sold 81 million and was the sixth most popular book in the English language. Let’s say The Lost Symbol stinks on ice. Let’s say just half as many folks snap up this one—a paltry 40 million readers, not counting the Scroogy skinflints who go borrow their roommate’s copy or steal it from the library instead of actually buying it. So let’s be charitable and say another 10 million. That’s a minimum of 50 million pairs of eyeballs reading what pours forth from Mr. Brown’s brain about the Freemasons. Plus all of the tie-in books and TV shows that will add further confusion and misinformation in an attempt to cash in. So who cares about a stupid novel, anyway? Well, we Freemasons had better be caring, for one. That’s where the next wave of new members will come from. And consider this: the Baby Boomers who didn’t join in their 20s and 30s are now in their retirement years. The biggest (and richest) demographic wave of retirees in history do a lot of beach reading of books like Dan Brown’s. And the Freemasonry of their fathers and grandfathers is a dim memory from their childhood. It’s hard-wired into their collective conscience. “Didn’t grandad have a Masonic ring?” This is a truly once-in-a-lifetime chance for this fraternity. Not to go trawling in shallow waters for new members, but to educate the public and make sure men know who we are, where we are, and what we offer them. And how to knock on our doors. If we blow this, we deserve to vanish into obscurity. This is a gift that few are given, and it’s being handed to us on at least 50 million platters. Freemasonry has to be giving the facts, setting the agenda, and most important, directing the media to the true experts. These tasks aren’t just a good idea, they’re vital. We have to be there with the truth: a world of others will be out there serving up lies. This isn’t some argument about whether Masonic billboards or NASCAR sponsorships are appropriate. This is a major development that will affect the public perception of Freemasonry for years. Don’t forget that tens of millions of people think they understood what Opus Dei was after they read Da Vinci Code. This could have as much effect on the fraternity as the Morgan Affair or WWII. That
is not hyperbole. Masons all over the world need to polish up their ‘elevator explanations,’ and grand lodges need to be prepared for greater interest, and lots of scrutiny. Stonewalling is not the answer. When reporters come calling attempting to get an interview for the 6 o’clock news, we must not fall victim to what we’ve always done in the past: sending a goodintentioned grand master to stand out in front of the grand lodge building to tell the world we have no secrets except a few funny handshakes, that “all” the founding fathers were Freemasons, that we give 2 or 3 million dollars a day to charity, and that we’re having a CHIPS event next week (“No, heh heh. We don’t microchip the kids. Heh heh.”). Don’t forget to mention George Washington. So that is really the next question—how do we get out in front of this juggernaut and make the preemptive strike? Our official spokesmen had better have read Brown’s book and have the answers for the tough questions, because trust me, every grand lodge and an awful lot of local lodges will be getting these calls on September 16th, and long after that on slow news days. Our people need to know what they are talking about. (“No, heh heh, I haven’t actually read Dan Brown’s book, so I don’t know what you’re asking about, but my granddaughter said it was a real page turner.”). The press isn’t necessarily out to get us. They ARE out to get ratings and sell newspapers. But the reporters themselves don’t know the first thing about who and what Freemasons are. I got a call from some reporter at Entertainment Tonight in early July who sounded like she was 12 years old and wanted to know what the heck Freemasons were, simply because Dan Brown’s book covers had been released. We are an alien species. If they only do cursory Internet ‘research,’ we appear as a bunch of grumpy old white guys, possibly racists, who can’t even get along with each other at the lodge picnic. Or we’re a bunch of cloistered world takeover plotters. The purportedly serious TV stations aren’t kind to us either. I can think of precisely one documentary on History/Discovery/ National Geographic/A&E/TLC in the last ten years that was factually correct, well shot, well edited, and not compelled to put raving madmen on as “counterpoint”. It was made by a Canadian Mason, for Canadian TV, and when it ran in the US, a full hour was chopped out of it. Yet, if we don’t go on these shows, and patiently answer their questions, that crucial job will be handled by the Ralph Eppersons, the Christopher Knights, and the David Ickes, declaring us evil, anti-religious reptilian aliens. The Masonic Society is creating an Internet resource for reporters, curious Lost Symbol readers, and Freemasons alike, that will address the questions raised by Brown’s book. Obviously, we are all mostly in the dark until his book hits the streets on September 15th. But our goal from the beginning has been to be a research society that educates and stands by the side of regular, recognized Masons, lodges and grand lodges. This is part of that mission. The waves will be coming, whether we agree with why they’re coming or not. Dan Brown’s book will have the same kind of effect on men seeking membership that Born In Blood and National Treasure did, but a thousand fold. How we handle that at the grand lodge and local lodge level will literally determine where the entire fraternity goes. For those who wring their hands and make empty comments about “guarding the West Gate,” there will be no shortage of candidates to investigate thoroughly. This is not just a grand lodge issue—they’ll be pounding on the doors of your Mother Lodge. How will you and your lodge present Freemasonry to them? Be ready. We fail to prepare at our own peril. SUMMER 2009 • 35
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Masonic Treasures
A
lmost as ubiquitous as the places George Washington slept are the statues of America’s most famous Mason sculpted by New York City artist Donald De Lue (1897-1988). This massive bronze was commissioned by the Grand Lodge of Louisiana in 1959; upon completion it was dedicated to the City of New Orleans, and it stands before the Main Public Library. Visitors to the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia have been greeted by its twin. If his style looks familiar, it may be because De Lue’s many other Washington sculptures are found in well known Masonic and other historical sites. His 9-foot bronze of Washington at prayer was a gift from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania to the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge in 1967. Its twin is found in George Washington Memorial Park in Paramus, New Jersey. De Lue’s other Masonic Washingtons can be seen at the AASR’s National Heritage Museum in Lexington, Massachusetts, and the Masonic Home and Hospital in Wallingford, Connecticut. Others are located at Mariner’s Church in Detroit, in front of the Indiana statehouse in Indianapolis, at the site of the New York World’s Fair in Flushing, New York, and in Lansing, Michigan. But his work was not limited to George Washington and other historical figures. De Lue specialized in Biblical, mythological and esoteric subjects, from Eve to Icarus to “The Alchemist,” which is found at the Chemistry Building of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. - Marc Conrad