KNIGH T T E M P L A R
MASONIC CORNERSTONE CEREMONY REMNANTS OF ANCIENT STAR LORE IN THE TRADITION THE SINNER’S BIBLE
SYMBOLISM OF THE TEMPLAR BLADE POPE LEO XIV
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Grand Master’s Message
Sir Knight David J. Kussman, GCT Grand Master of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar
To the Sir Knights of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar Greetings in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ!
During my travels and visi -
tations, the first year of this triennium, I have had many conversations regarding what I believed to be the most significant issues facing the Grand Encampment. My response to these issues has been involvement and commitment.
In essence, involvement signifies taking part in something, while commitment signifies a strong dedication to a cause or goal, often involving a firm decision and willingness to follow through. Commitment suggests a deeper level of involvement and dedication.
When it comes to achieving success in any area of our fraternal brotherhood, involvement and commitment are two words that are often used interchangeably. However, there is a distinct difference between the two, and understanding this difference can be the key to unlocking your full potential as a leader in the Grand Encampment.
So, which of the two is the proper word to use? The answer is both. Involvement and commitment are both important, but they refer to different levels of engagement and dedication.
Involvement means being actively engaged in a particular activity or project. It means that you are putting in effort and participating, but it does not necessarily mean that you are fully committed to the outcome. For example, you might be involved in commandery leadership but not in ritual or tactics conferral. Are you a full-service leader?
Commitment, on the other hand, is a much deeper level of engagement. It means that you are fully dedicated to a particular goal or outcome and that you are willing to do whatever it takes to achieve it. When you are committed, you are willing to make sacrifices
and put in the extra effort required to succeed Involvement is the act of being included or participating in Templar activity. Commitment is a level of dedication or obligation to a task, project, or relationship. It refers to a willingness to invest time, energy, and resources to achieve a desired outcome. Commitment involves a sense of responsibility and accountability, and it often requires sacrifice and perseverance.
Commitment can be internal or external, and it can be influenced by a variety of factors, such as personal values, beliefs, and goals. It is often associated with a long-term perspective and a willingness to overcome obstacles and challenges to achieve success.
People often use these terms interchangeably. However, there are distinct differences which must be understood to avoid common error. Involvement refers to being a part of something, while commitment refers to a strong dedication or loyalty to a particular cause or goal.
Using these terms interchangeably can lead to misunderstandings and miscommunications, which can ultimately result in project failure.
Now that we have a better understanding of the difference between involvement and
commitment, it’s time to put that knowledge into practice.
As members and leaders in the Grand Encampment, we can foster more involvement by making sure each Sir Knight is included and participating in at least one Templar activity he can support and enjoy. We can inspire our brethren to find deeper levels of commitment by fully engaging in our own tasks with both joy and service in mind. We can remind each other why our activities matter, who they help, and how much fun they can be while still serving our fellows and giving glory to our Lord.
After exploring the differences between involvement and commitment, commitment is the key to achieving success in any endeavor. While involvement may provide some benefits, it is ultimately commitment that drives progress and produces results. Let's commit to be the change we want to see in our fraternity!
Our journey continues . . . .
David J. Kussman, GCT Grand Master
KNIGHT TEMPLAR
VOLUME LXXI SPRING 2025
Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the United States of America
David J. Kussman
Grand Master
Jack Harper
Grand Generalissimo & Publisher
ADDRESS CHANGE OR CHANGE IN MEMBERSHIP
Please report all changes in membership to the Grand Recorder:
Lawrence E. Tucker
Grand Recorder
Grand Encampment Office
3 Sugar Creek Center Blvd Ste 410 Sugar Land, TX 77478
Phone: (713) 349-8700
Fax: (713) 349-8710
E-mail: larry@gektusa.org
Magazine and correspondence to the editor should be sent in electronic form to the managing editor whose contact information is shown below. All photos or images should be property of the author, or used with permission or under license by the author, unless expressly noted otherwise.
Ben Williams Managing Editor
Laughing Lion 1100 W Littleton Blvd Ste 440 Littleton, CO 80120
Phone: (720) 328-5343
Fax: (720) 328-5297
E-mail: ben@ktmag.org
visit our website at:
by Josh Payne
Photos
Grand Encampment Easter Sunrise Service
The Grand Encampment's Easter Sunrise Sunday was held this year outside on the steps of the George Washington Masonic National Memorial, overlooking Alexandria. Approximately 250 Knights convened in the early morning light to participate in the service. Photos by Josh Payne.
Photos by Josh Payne
CONTRIBUTORS
Scott Knight is a Past Master of Denham Springs Lodge No. 297 in Denham Springs, Louisiana, and a member of Cervantes Lodge No. 5 in New Orleans, where he currently serves as Master of Ceremonies. He is also a member of the York Rite, the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction), and select invitational bodies. He serves as the Editor for the Louisiana Lodge of Research. His current research interests include masonic symbology as well as Rosicrucian and Western esoteric philosophy. Professionally, he works as a Data Automation Engineer for a private firm in the technology services sector.
Patrick Dey Dey is a Past Master of Nevada Lodge No. 4, Colorado’s only ghost town lodge, as well as their Secretary. He is also a Past Master of Research Lodge of Colorado, Past High Priest of Keystone Chapter No. 8, Past Illustrious Master of Hiram Council No. 7, and Past Commander of Flatirons Commandery No. 7. He is an avid researcher of Masonic legendry and symbolism, as well as of ancient mystery cults and the occult. Beyond Masonry he is an architectural designer in downtown Denver, with a Masters of Architecture from Colorado University, Denver, and a Certificate of Classical Architecture from the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art. He lives in Colorado Springs with his wife Sélah, his sons Enoch and ambrose, and his daughter, Merry.
Steve Flinn is a retired secretary (seven years) from Oakdale Lodge No. 669 and a member of all three York Rite Bodies. He is also a Tall Cedar of Lebanon -Wa-Cha-Gree Forest, and is in the Syria Shrine and Islam Grotto. He earned Bachelor’s degrees in journalism, Communications, and Sociology and a Masters in Business (MBA). He has been a freelance writer for over 35 years.
Editor
Ben Williams is a Registered Patent Attorney based out of Denver, Colorado. He’s a Past Department Commander for the Northwest Department and has held many Masonic offices in his home state of Colorado. He’s married to his patient and caring wife, Tiffany, a history teacher. They have a daughter, Adelyn, and a beagle, Warwick.
THE SINNER'S BIBLE
by Ben Williams
FROM THE EDITOR
AI is speeding up the world. But can it be more than an iterative intelligence, a rote synthesis of what is already known? After all, combination and recombination apply only to what already exists, building new houses out of the same bricks.
Certainly, new discoveries will abound. But such discoveries are necessarily confined to data that is already known, even novel enzymes arise from folding proteins in ways that aren’t so much as new but untried. This is where AI excels – crunching enormous data sets to key out “new” iterations. In this sense, what has been expressed is already discovered, we just don’t know it yet. Certainly there is great utility here, especially constructing mathematical laws that require known inputs. AI, as a modeling tool, will be exemplary.
Conceptually at least, AI must remain something of a facsimile. Large Language Models (LLMs) troll the world wide web synopsizing what has already been said. A great example is getting Chat GPT to do a tarot reading for you. Each card, in each deck, has been enumerated by different authors over the decades; each spread charted in the literature with a variety of meanings and card positions; and most of this material has been digitized and made available to LLMs. Chat GPT can apply these concepts in an instant to a spread entered by a querant. Chat GPT will spit out a tarot reading that is, frankly, disturbing. One feels like Chat GPT may be alive. It almost seems compassionate. But spend enough time with it, and the patterns begin to emerge – as well as the limitations. The formulaic presentation. The repetitive solutions. The continuing interrogatories that perpetuate the “conversation.”
Significantly, Chat GPT is biased to tell you what you want to hear. There is a sense of optimism
that is endearing. It comes with the algorithm because Chat GPT has been made to provide relevant answers. Relevance, in this sense, is a bias toward solving the question posed. To be useful, Chat GPT must give an answer sought for the question input. In the abstract rubric of tarot symbolism, then, Chat GPT is biased to provide the answer you’re looking for. But this isn’t always helpful.
This is an important concept to intuit. When people write about the inherent biases AI necessarily incorporates, they are touching upon this inescapable reality. AI employs a string of operations –logical determinations which are, by necessity, recursive and self-amplifying – to synthesize data and synopsize relevant results. For this reason, AI struggles in the legal field – it has great challenges in deciphering the “subjunctive mood,” for example, that hypothetical voice judges write in when enumerating the law. (Think of the difficulty in relaying sarcasm in an email, for example.) Resultantly, AI often inverts a holding in a case (because the judge is enumerating the inversion of a principle in codifying legal principles to unique facts) or, worse, invents cases – “hallucinating,” as the phenomenon is colloquially referred – by stringing together meaningful sounding nonsense. “Hallucination,” in this sense, is better termed “confabulation.”
None of this is meant to discount the impact that AI will have (and already is having). As a tool, it will revolutionize the world, more especially with how we as a species interact with data (simply quizzing results and conversing with a databank). The way humans interface with memory has inexorably been altered. Knowing the right question is more important than reasoning the answer. That, by itself, is powerful. Yet imagine a future where anyone can make a movie (tweaking pixels to the
utmost verisimilitude, without a camera or any actors), editing rote compositions to incorporate those blue notes that bend and break the score into humanist realms of passion and taste. Such abstractions (let’s call them, “bleeding notes”) must elude an iterative intelligence. But we will inject them into the output of this juggernaut, driving headlong into the abyss, reflecting the sum total of our desires.
There will emerge a whole AI spirituality, where “devotees” follow the milquetoast expressions of new age, recursively enumerated, angels of chaos scintillating between iterations of artificial expression. What god is this? Methinks he derives a human form.
With this vast iterative ability at his fingertips, man will find new expressions for his imagination. Pure art has arrived – the master craftsman need only envisage. The skill of his hands is just the press of a button. A danger, though, arises in the ability to create without discipline. The Craft teaches us that the workpiece and the work are one. What will we create without discipline and dedication? Without the tempering force of craftmanship, art is unleashed. Modernity has been associated with the deconstruction of craftsmanship, the modern masters plying expression as an outpouring of spirit onto the canvas: a Pollock splash of paint from a passionate stick; Burrrows cutting up Naked Lunch and throwing it onto the floor, to reassemble at seeming random; Damien Hirst extracting nine pints of his blood over the course of months to make a human blood-head frozen in time; or Warhol or Jeff Koons, relying on others to actually make their ideas. AI allows anyone to plumb the scope of their id: AI and id, a lattice of expression – like a tissue catching a sneeze.
In the future, it will be inter-
esting to note a demand for imperfection –human creation discerned not by the quest for perfection, but by the outliers, the offside, the distinctly human blemish. Society will come to crave the human abstraction in a world of synthesized, reiterated, milquetoast device (one might point to popular music, and say that this day has already come!). Is beauty in the mole?
Indubitably, AI will excel at war, diagnostics, and finance. You want to determine the exact angles to minimize air resistance? AI will ply the variables into surprising results. Working on a new drug? AI can fold the proteins a billion ways to optimize the receptor. Curious to determine mutagenic exposure and cross-contamination in pursuit of the etiology of disease? AI will make the correlation. Need to determine efficacy of ad copy, correlated by demographic, impression, and purchase? You will sell more. Want to set future trading across a panoply of conditions precedent and conditions subsequent? You’ll be able to buy and sell the world in a microsecond.
I am reminded of the scene in the 1998 movie Pi. In that film, a mathematician discovers the great name of God – a number that is the secret to everything, the solution to the random, allowing him to solve the stock market, crack computers, and pattern the very fabric of reality. But close attention to Darren Aronofsky’s masterpiece reveals the nub: the number generated didn’t come from the computer itself or the mathematician's theorizing. An ant – the biological influx, chaos itself –had got inside the hard drive and shorted the circuitry by probing around inside the machinery. The result that solved the random, then, was randomness itself.
Ben Williams Editor
172nd Grand Conclave of Grand
PITTSBURGH, PA – Around two-hundred Knights Templar from eleven states and over forty commanderies convened at the One-Hundred Seventy-Second Annual Conclave of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Pennsylvania at the Doubletree Hotel in Pittsburgh, PA, on Friday, May 30, and Saturday, May 31.
Highlights of the two-day program included elections and installations of grand and appointed officers, a conferral of Knights Preceptor, and brotherhood shared with the brethren and accompanying ladies. Also, a ladies’ program was held Friday afternoon, a Divine Service with communion was conducted Saturday morning, and various awards were presented at the formal banquet on Friday night.
Honored guests included Larry Derr, Grand Master of Pennsylvania, Lawrence Tucker, Grand Recorder; Kenneth
Caldwell, Northeast Department Commander of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar; and Grand Commanders of several states, including Llewellyn Manter, Grand Commander of Maine. Knights who are officers in other York Rite Bodies also attended.
Bro. Derr, Grand Master of Pennsylvania, a 51-year Mason, has been in commandery for over ten years. He enjoyed the fellowship and appreciated the ritual work performed.
“Ritual and ceremony are what push my buttons. That’s what separates us from being a social club,” Derr said. “I also had a chance to see some old friends I haven’t seen in years.”
S.K. Tucker, Grand Recorder for the Grand Encampment, who has enjoyed 45 years as a Mason and a Knight Templar, also appreciated the conclave.
“I enjoyed attending a conclave in the Northeast. I
haven’t been to Pittsburgh in probably 35 or 40 years,” Tucker said. “It’s important to meet and take care of all the necessary business on an annual basis.”
S.K. Caldwell, Department Commander, considered the awards ceremony at the banquet as a high point of the conclave.
“The highlights to me of attending a conclave are the awards that are presented,” Caldwell said. “Sometimes my job as department commander can be difficult, so I always enjoy doing the good part of my job like seeing awards passed out.”
S.K. Manter, Grand Commander of Maine, said fellowship is important for social and professional reasons.
“I like to meet other Northeast Department Grand Commanders,” Manter said. “If there’s an issue, it’s better to reach out to someone you know. If we know all our northeast department
dais officers, it makes for a lot more welcoming feeling.”
The Northeast Department is made up of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, New York, Massachusetts-Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania.
The elections and installations are conducted on an annual basis. During the conclave, Larry Horath, outgoing Grand Commander of Pennsylvania, celebrated the end of his one-year term and passed the torch to Joshua Nay, incoming Grand Commander of Pennsylvania. Also, Jerome Phillips was elected Grand Junior Warden, which places him in the line to advance to Grand Commander in six years.
S.K. Horath, Past Grand Commander, started planning this conclave six years ago, when he was elected Grand Junior Warden.
“I tried to make [the annual conclave] meaningful and enjoy-
Continued on page 14
Commandery of Pennsylvania
by Steven Flinn
provided by Steven
S.K. Larry Horath, Grand Commander, FY 2024-2025
S.K. Josh Nay, Grand Commander, FY 2025-2026
Photos
Flinn
Grand Commandery of Pennsylvania Ladies' Program
Hundreds of Knights Templar attended this year’s One-Hundred Seventy-Second Annual Conclave of the Grand Commandery of Knights Templar of Pennsylvania on May 30 and May 31. Most of them did not come alone, however. They were accompanied by their respective ladies.
Most Brethren would agree that their ladies play an important part in their participation in Freemasonry. Therefore, besides the usual business conducted at annual conclaves, such as officer elections and installations, it is just as vital to host activities for the ladies in attendance.
At this year’s annual conclave, Lady Rebecca Horath, wife of outgoing Grand Commander of Pennsylvania, S.K. Larry Horath, coordinated the Ladies Program, which included a luncheon on Friday and a jewelry craft event Friday afternoon.
“I think ladies programs gives us ladies an extra chance to enjoy some fellowship. It’s not just sharing a meal, but it gives us the opportunity get to know other ladies, both inside our own commandery or from other areas,” Lady Rebecca said. “If we put a good program together, it is an ice breaker and a good reason and chance to be engaged. We made crystal jewelry and some of the ladies even wore it to the banquet.”
She stressed organizing programs that reflect her values.
“I think it’s important to plan an event that showcases your personality. I like programs that don’t seem too stiff or formal but
are more hands-on and everyone seems to enjoy those and look forward to them,” Lady Rebecca said. “It was a lot of hard work but an immense amount of fun to plan this year’s ladies’ programs.”
S.K. Horath, Past Grand Commander, witnessed the work involved in coordinating the ladies’ programs for his outgoing conclave.
“My wife started planning a year ago and looked at what worked and what didn’t work,” Horath said. “Sometimes things worked better in different years. We looked at a lot of innovative ideas.”
He realizes the importance of the ladies in the lives of brethren and expressed his thanks firsthand.
“I stopped by [the ladies’ luncheon] and thanked them for their support throughout the year. It’s more than helping to keep our uniforms clean,” Horath said. “Our ladies accompany us in our various travels; they are an integral part in what we do. They have a large role. My wife is my biggest critic and my biggest supporter.”
S.K. Josh Nay, incoming Grand Commander, also stressed the importance of ladies in Brethren’s participation in Freemasonry.
“It’s wonderful that our ladies continue to support us so we can participate in Freemasonry and Templary,” Nay said. “We are continuing traditions in Templary that have been around for over a hundred years. The ladies have been an integral part for just as long.” KT
by Steven Flinn
Continued from page 12
able for all attendants. I appreciated all the support that was shown for Pennsylvania by the people that came from all over the country,” Horath said. “I started putting together an agenda, getting commitments from people, scouting venues, and looking at past conclaves to see what worked and what didn’t work.”
Although S.K. Horath had a rigorous schedule during his term, he still enjoyed the work.
“I have mixed emotions on finishing my term. I had a wonderful year traveling throughout the Northeast, the Midwest, and Central Departments, and I was on the go 365 days of the year,” Horath said. “It was a lot of work with traveling and phone calls all hours of the day and night, but it was enjoyable work. We asked what we could do to help. I will
probably sleep all day on Sunday.”
S.K. Nay, Grand Commander, expressed his plan to continue the foundation of Pennsylvania Templary while supplementing some enhanced objectives.
“I ask to continue to follow the path of feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and binding the wounds of the afflicted and also support the Knights Templar Eye Foundation,” Nay said. “My theme for the upcoming year is ‘Let Your Light Shine.’ I want to provide Sir Knights more accessible opportunities for training so our commanderies can perform the way we need to perform. Our ritual sets us apart. Commandery is unique in Freemasonry. It is a uniformed order and has a Christian element. That’s what makes us Templars.” KT
Photo provided by Steven Flinn
Knight Templar Association of Colorado Hosts 100th Easter Sunrise Service
by Patrick Dey
Denver, CO – On Easter Sunday, 2025, the Knights Templar Association of Colorado held their one hundredth annual Easter sunrise service – the longest-running Easter sunrise service amongst Knights Templar in the United States.
It was a chilly morning at the Denver Consistory, with some blankets of snow lingering on the ground. Yet the service was well attended. This long-standing tradition in Colorado Masonry suffered during and after the Covid19 lockdown, but the Knights Templar Association of Colorado has made strides to reinvigorate the event, and it shows. There were almost as many people in the seats as there were in 2019, when the Grand Master of the Grand Encampment attended the event.
The KTA Easter sunrise service is a unique event in Colorado Masonry because it is an
event where all the groups of the Colorado Masonic family actively participate together. It is not just an occasion where the visiting dignitaries get a moment to be recognized, but they all have an active part in the service. The President of the Social Order of the Beauceant, Denver Assembly No. 1, Janet Godsy, delivered the call to worship. The community prayer was delivered by the State Master Councilor of Colorado Order of DeMolay, Thomas Goodwin. Even though this is a Knight Templar event, with the sir knights prominently filling a cross on the main floor seating, the various Masonic bodies of Colorado have an equal part in the service. This is an old tradition of which the sir knights of Colorado remain proud.
Last year was the first time that Prince Hall participated. Last year was also the first time Rev. Dr. A. J. Bush (pastor at Trin-
ity United Methodist Church in Denver and a Past Worthy Advisory of the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls Assembly No. 12) gave the sermon. For years, the sermons had been delivered by Rev. Sir Knight Jim Harris but, his health failing, he recommended Rev. Dr. Bush fill in in his absence and it has been refreshing to have a new message by someone of equal caliber to Rev. Harris and still of the Masonic family. Rev. Dr. Bush’s sermon last year was well received, and she was invited back to deliver another Easter message this year.
This year was unique because the Reverend Doctor was seven months pregnant. Her sermon was therefore focused on new life and new growth – a fitting subject for Easter, and one symbolically evident. Birth, life, death, and resurrection: themes significant to all Knights Templar. Thus, there is a certain aptness to the Reverend
Doctor preaching these things on Easter while pregnant.
Consider, these Templar sunrise services are not just another formal Masonic gathering or just another occasion for conviviality – though there were smiles and joy shared among those present. It is a liturgy. Of course, many head to their local church afterward, when the service concludes early in the morning, but this is an occasion to worship with one’s Brothers in Masonry – with the whole Masonic family – and celebrate the resurrection of Christ as Brothers and Knights of the Temple. May the tradition continue another century, as light is added to light.
Photo by Scott Olson
The One Hundredth Easter Sunrise Seervice was held at the Denver Consistory on April 20, 2025. The service is the longest running Templar Easter Sunrise Service in the country and is attemnded by the whole Masonic family.
The Templar’s Double-Edged Sword
by Scott A. Knight
What does it mean to wield a sword in an age where battles are more often waged with words and ideologies rather than steel?
Throughout history, the sword has been a symbol of power, justice, and authority.
For Knights Templar of the medieval era, it was simultaneously a weapon of war and a symbol of their spiritual calling. The sword retains its symbolic weight in modern times as well, representing both the defense of faith and, to the adept, the work required to refine one’s inner sanctum.
The Templar’s path charges him with a dual responsibility: the outward duty to uphold righteousness in defense of his faith, and the inward duty to cultivate personal virtue and spiritual refinement. Understanding this balance is key to exemplifying true knighthood in today’s world.
Knights of the germinal Templar Order bore arms in defense of Christendom and devoted themselves as warriors and protectors of the Holy Land. They were not merely soldiers, but men who took vows of poverty, chastity, and undivided obedience. Their motivation was rooted in deep religious conviction, conviction which drove them to dedicate their lives to selfless duty in the name of their faith. For them warfare was both a physical engagement and a divine calling. These knights understood the risks associated with their station and considered their work a sacred duty that each was willing to assume, even at the cost of their lives. To fall in battle was viewed as martyrdom in service to God, which reinforced the idea that their engagement was as much spiritual as it was temporal.
While the original Order fought physical battles, the modern Knights Templar – that is to say, participants in today’s movement of cultural Templary – do not take up arms in a literal sense but are still called to defend truth, morality, and the principles of Christianity.
The sword wielded today symbolizes a knight’s duty to stand against injustice and to serve as beacons of integrity in an ever-embattled world. Modern Templars embody these principles through acts of service in the pursuit of preserving moral virtues and defending the Christian faith. As the knights of old fought external battles, the Templar in modern times must war against the outward enemies of ignorance, falsehood, moral complacency, and the erosion of ethical standards.
Beyond its physical significance, the sword
also bears a more spiritual edge. Unlike the physical edge as a tool for outward defense, the spiritual edge represents the inner warrior. Scripture likens the Word of God to a sword in the book of Hebrews: “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged [sic] sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12 [KJV]).
As it was specifically mentioned in the Holy Bible, one must consider the possibility that the medieval Templars may have understood the sword to bear a symbolic significance in addition to its more obvious uses. After all, Templars of the original Order were monastic, as can be appreciated by examining their original Rule (written by St. Bernard) instituted at the time of their creation during the Council of Troyes in 1129 A.D. It was incumbent upon members of the original Order to practice a communal, monastic lifestyle in strict observance of their faith. Assuming such a lifestyle speaks to their constant vigilance in spiritual tradition and reverence for the Almighty.
In a spiritual sense, the sword is not wielded against physical enemies but against unseen inner adversaries such as ignorance, ambition, fanaticism, materialism, and other sin. As a knight must sharpen his blade for battle, so must a Templar hone his inner self through prayer, diligent study, and self-discipline in pursuit of a greater alignment with the divine. His journey of inner enlightenment is no less arduous, and yet perhaps more important, than physical combat. Such a journey requires humility and a willingness to self-examine, opening oneself to be transformed by divine wisdom. As the blacksmith tempers his steel through fire and force, so must the Templar refine his spirit through trials and perseverance. Thus, the sword becomes the instrument of his transformation. To guard against these inner adversaries, the modern Templar is charged with building a spiritual temple within, emulating the original Templar Order. He must fortify a stronghold wherein he defends and nurtures his faith with as much vigilance and fervor as the medieval Templars engaged in physical battle in defense of it. The knightly path demands replacing personal vice
with a dedication to developing chivalric virtues such as patience, compassion, and wisdom. A knight who neglects this inner work renders him unprepared for the trials of life in the same way a dull blade is ineffective in combat.
However, Knights of the modern age should also contemplate the symmetrical nature of a sword’s blade, thereby understanding that there must always be a proper balance of the physical and the spiritual. To continue the metaphor, a knight who hones too much of the physical edge risks becoming a fanatic, strong in conviction but lacking wisdom and temperance. Conversely, a knight focusing solely on his inner work without action becomes passive, failing to stand against injustice when necessary. As scripture reminds us, “Faith without works is dead.” (James 2:26 [KJV]). Both edges of the sword must be sharpened. Therefore, maintaining the balance between action and contemplation is essential to knightly virtue. This is the essence of modern knighthood: to be warriors of righteousness and of the spirit.
Altogether, the Templar’s double-edged sword calls its bearer to serve as a defender of truth and a seeker of inner wisdom. To truly walk the knightly path, one must embrace both aspects. The sword as a symbol concerns understanding the will of God through diligent study, meditation, and contemplation, while then acting upon His will with righteousness and courage in the world.
In a world that often values power over principle, the modern Templar still has an important role to play. By wielding the physical edge of moral courage and the spiritual edge of inner refinement, today’s knights can justly uphold the tradition of those who came before. Only one question remains: will you take up the sword and live as a true Templar? KT
The Sinner's Bible
Modernly, the written word is so ubiquitous it is easy to forget its power. But reading and writing belong to the sentient species, tantamount to magic. Nonsense forms are standardized and become sensible to codify the innately human expression, speech It is a power like no other: the power to persuade, to enlighten, instruct, exalt, declaim, even damnify. The power to create ideas which cross time and space and move continents. It is, to a T, a power of spelling
In seventeenth-century England, this power was strictly controlled. Printing required licen-
sure by the Worshipful Company of Stationers and Papermakers, a livery company warranted by the crown. The Stationer’s grip was powerful – without their approval, or application for the right to copy or reproduce, the Company could seize books and arraign offenders. The Company was chief censor for the crown and the Church of England, persecuting material deemed inappropriate for circulation to an increasingly literate population. The Company exerted its monopoly over the written word – quite literally – under the blackletter of the law.
The history of printing is well known. Johannes Gutenberg,
by Ben Williams
widely credited for demonstrating the power of the press for his forty-two-line Bible, produced in 1455, had repurposed wine-presses and employed movable type, not to print the Bible for which he is remembered today, but to stamp out indulgences for penitent sinners. The reason was commercial. Indulgences were costly and time-consuming to produce. Each involved a form text, reiterated, typically by hand, with only the name of the penitent and amount in question requiring variation. Gutenberg realized he could print multiple indulgences at once. He printed forms wherein clerics could simply write the name of the penitent and collect the fee. The result was mass produced indulgences at a fraction of the cost. He printed thousands of them. He wouldn’t print his Bible for another three years.
Despite common knowledge to the contrary, Gutenberg’s contribution wasn’t really inven-
tion of the press, or even the invention of movable type (evidence suggests a similar, though nascent concept, existed in China as early as the eleventh century and the Jikji, a ritualistic text, was printed using metal type in Korea in 1377). But Gutenberg, a goldsmith, formulated a reliable method for mass production: a durable alloy of lead, tin, and antimony, and the molds by which letters could be set to create a standardized matrix configurable within an overarching frame. The alloy was utile –yielding at low temperature, but solid when cooled. The punches produced were durable, able to impress fine detail. The sharp lines were more definite than handcarved woodblocks, enabling high volume reproduction but also ligatures, character variation, abbreviations, and contractions, all set in uniformity, aligned on the page. In effect, the font was born: textura, bastarda, blackletter, letterpress, filled out the page in imitation
How a typographical error ruined Robert Barker, printer to the king of England, and member of the Worshipful Company of Stationers in London.
of scribal writ. The world would never be the same.
Austria, Italy, France, the Netherlands – all became hotbeds of printing. Innovations in the press evolved new lettering – Nicolas Jenson’s old-style Venetian, a roman type with rounded letters; Vindelin von Speyer’s roman text; the italic, invented by Francesco Griffo in 1500, chiefly to save space on each page; were mostly continental forms. Despite a foothold of the industry in England (William Caxton had brought the press to England in 1476), strict regulation by the crown in fear of disseminating heresy or sedition meant type was generally imported from the Netherlands. The English press was policed and restricted –for example, there were only five printers in London in 1500, all of which were foreign owned and operated. Over the next centuries,
though, things began to change. King Richard III and King Henry VII introduced policies to incentivize the press, lessening restrictions. Then, by the middle of the seventeenth century, the bishop of Oxford, John Fell, assembled a collection of types for the Oxford University Press (now called, the Fell Types).
In 1603, the Stationers incorporated a joint publishing company, consolidating their monopoly over almanacs, books of common prayer, and other best-sellers of the day. It was about this time that Stationer, Robert Barker, purchased exclusive rights to print the King James Bible, paying around £3,500 (about $1.3 million present value) for the manuscript in 1610. Barker had succeeded to the title Royal Printer in 1600, by virtue of his father, Christopher, a Stationer
who had acquired the monopoly in 1578 under Queen Elizabeth I. Robert printed the first edition of the King James Bible in 1611. But in 1631, when working on a subsequent print run, two errors in setting the type cost Barker dearly. Ultimately, they ruined him.
The first was an omission of the negative in the seventh commandment in Exodus 20. Instead of counseling monogamy, the Bible as printed instructed its readers, “Thou shalt commit adultery.” Oops.
The second purported error (though no copies of the Bible with this error survive) was allegedly a misprint of Deuteronomy 5, wherein the verse, “Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and greatness,” was rendered, “Behold, the Lord our God hath shewed us his glory and his great asse.” Certainly, an error
likely to rankle a pious age. In short order, as word spread, Barker and his partner, Martin Lucas, were called before the High Commission, a sort of special court founded in 1558 by Henry VIII to replace the ecclesiastical courts of the Catholic Church, empowered in equity to convene matters concerning religious conformity as well as to settle other questions not suited to the common law jurisdictions of the Court of Common Pleas or the Court of Kings Bench. After all, what actual crime had Barker and Lucas committed? The High Commission was empowered with wide discretion; it wasn’t a Court to be trifled with. It had inherited the powers of the Inquistion, to issue letters of attachment and compel appearance, as well as pursue inquiry at the judge’s own volition (in other words,
Exodus 20 in Robert Barker's 1631 "Sinner's Bible". Barker was the Printer Royal, with sole rights to produce the King James Bibe. The typographical error in verse 14 was devastating. It cost Barker everything.
Courtesy Museum of the Bible, The Signatry Collection. All rights reserved. © Museum of the Bible, 2021.
without a plaintiff) under the curious doctrine wrought by the Church of ex officio mero (essentially, conferring standing “by the power of the office”), whereby a defendant could be compelled without an injured party to take an oath de veritate dicenda – to speak the truth – thereby exposing their own silence to perjury. (The court was heavily criticized, even by its members and by legal scholar Edward Coke. It was disbanded by act of Parliament in 1641.)
Still, Barker and Lucas were forced to plead their innocence. It had been simple negligence, they said wringing their hands, it was not willful. Sabotage by a rival was suggested. But there were additional problems, the Court said. Chiefly, the inferiority of the paper and sloppy type versus foreign Bibles, printed on better paper with stronger impressions
which sold for 18 pence less than the English versions. Earlier that year, Barker had already seized around 60 of the unlawful imports in Bristol, which, curiously, he sold as his own.
The Court fined them both £300 (about $75,000 in modern currency). The Court held that their monopoly required them to maintain standards for which the fine was proper incentive:
There is cause begun against [Mr. Barker] for false printing of the Bible in divers places of it, in the Edition of 1631, vizt., in the 20 of Exod[us], “Thou shalt commit adultery”; and in the fifth of Duet[eronomy], “The Lord hath shewed us his glory, and his great asse”; and for divers other faults; and that they had printed it in very bad paper. And the Bishop of London shewed that this would undo the trade,
and was a most dishonorable thing; that they of the Church of Rome are so careful, that no a word or letter is to be found amiss in their Lady’s Psalter and other superstitious books; and that we should not be so careful in printing the sacred Scriptures [is unacceptable]; and that they in Holland, at Amsterdam, had got up an English press, and had printed the Bible in better paper, and with a better letter, and can undersell us 18d. in a bible. Mr. Barker and his partners endeavored in part to excuse themselves, and had advocates to speak for them, and were willing to submit [to penalty], and promised to amend their faults; but the Court would not remit their offence, but the cause was ordered to go on.
Considering his position,
Barker probably got off easy. The problem was, Barker had already invested around £3,000 of his own money (over $1 million in today’s currency) into the production. He was overleveraged. He was ordered to recall and correct all the Bibles he could find, at his own expense. This was largely accomplished, but the undertaking bankrupted him. It is not known if he ever paid his £300 fine. By 1635, he had mortgaged his interest in the press of the Royal Printer to pay off his debts. A decade later, in 1645, he died in debtors’ prison.
It is due to these unfortunate events, no doubt, that the original manuscript of the King James Bible has never been found. Barker may have hidden it somewhere in the village of Datchet, near Windsor, where his father had brought an estate back in 1583. KT
Artist's rendition of a seventeenth century print shop.
HABEMUS PAPAM
Pope Leo XIV
by Ben Williams
With 1.4 billion Catholics across the globe, the new pope will have opportunity to influence geo-political sentiment worldwide
Even as a boy, while his brothers were running in circles, cap guns snapping smoke, Robert Prevost was officiating communion. Back then, with his mother’s ironing board propped up as a makeshift altar, there was no transubstantiation. But his future seemed clear.
“He never really said he wanted to be pope,” his older brother John told CBS after his election on May 8, “but he did know right away that he was going to be a priest, and I really don’t think in his mind there was any other option. [He] was going to be a priest, period, end of discussion.”
Robert Francis Prevost, now Leo XIV, the new pope, was born in Chicago on September 14, 1955, the youngest of three sons. His father, Luis Marius Prevost (1920-1997), a Chicago native, was of Italian extraction – Prevost’s paternal grandfather, Jean Lenti Prevost, was of Italian-French descent from Settimo Rottaro, near Turin. His paternal grandmother, Suzanne Fontaine,
PAPAM:
Photo by Alberto Pizzoli, Getty Images
was from Le Havre, France.
Prevost’s father fought in World War II, commanding a landing craft on D-Day in Operation Overlord, opening the leaden bow to discharge soldiers into the hail of bullets. He also took part in Operation Dragoon, landing troops in the South of France two months later. Afterward, back home, he became superintendent of Brookwood School District 167 in Glenwood, Illinois.
Prevost’s mother, Mildred Agnes (née Martinez) Prevost (1912-1990), was also born in Chicago. Her family were Creoles from the seventh ward in New Orleans. Her father (Prevost’s maternal grandfather), Joseph Martinez, was mixed race, born in Santo Domingo, on Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles (modernly divided into Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Her mother, Louise Baquiet (also, Baquiex), was mixed-race, Black Creole. They moved to Chicago
around 1911. In 1947, Prevost’s mother graduated from DePaul University with a degree in Library Sciences and served as the librarian at Von Stuben and Mendel Catholic High Schools in the Chicago area. A contralto soloist in college, she sang in the Saint Mary of the Assumption Church Choir and served as president of the Altar & Rosary Society there. According to DePaul University, both Prevost’s parents attained graduate degrees.
Prevost grew up in a 1,200-square-foot home in Dolton, near Chicago’s southside. He was an altar boy in the Parish of Mary of the Assumption, in nearby Riverdale. He sang in the choir, too. He attended Saint Augustine Seminary High School, in Michigan, where he edited the yearbook, served as secretary for the student council, and attained academic honors. Matriculating to Villanova University, he graduated with a degree in mathematics. He also studied physics and philosophy.
In September 1977, when he was twenty-two, he joined the Order of Augustine as a friar, residing for a year at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Compton Heights, Saint Louis, Missouri. He returned to Chicago a year later to take the simple vows in September, and, completing his novitiate, took the solemn vows in August 1981, irrevocably devoting his life to the Church. Academic interests spurred him on. In 1982 he attained a Master of Divinity from Catholic Theological Union in Chicago.
Then, on June 19, 1982, at the Church of Santa Monica degli Agostiniani in Rome, Prevost was ordained by Archbishop Jean Jadot, Pro-President of the Vatican’s Secretariat for Non-Christians (now the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue). Two years later, in 1984, he received a Licentiate of Canon Law from the Pontifical University of Saint Thoms Aquinas in Rome and,
three years after that, in 1987, he successfully defended his thesis (on the role of the Prior in the Order of Augustine) to receive his Doctorate in Canon Law. Villanova University awarded him an honorary Doctorate of Humanities in 2014.
Prevost taught mathematics and physics at Saint Rita of Cascia High School until, in 1985, he was sent on his first mission to Peru. He returned stateside shortly afterwards to prove his thesis, before being sent back again two years later. Prevost served ten years in Trujillo, heading the Augustinian seminary where he taught canon law and served as the judge in the ecclesiastical court. He ministered in the outskirts – in the shanty towns and remote dioceses, sometimes traveling on horseback along roadless paths into the Andes. In 1998 he was elected Prior Provincial of the Order of Saint Augustine’s Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel, the
Undated picture of Robert Prevost, probably after pronouncement of the solemn vows and his ordination in 1982.
Prevost grew up in Dolton, Illinois, near Chicago's South Side.
Photo Courtesy of the Midwest Augustinian Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel
Protocol devised for James Ray, dated 1991, restricting his presence with minors without another adult present.
Midwest Augustinians, headquartered in Chicago, so he returned stateside to the city of his birth, taking up office on March 8, 1999. Then, in 2001, Prevost was elected Prior General of the Order of Augustine and served two consecutive six-year terms.
He drew some criticism then for housing James Ray, a known abuser, at Saint John Stone Friary in Chicago for two years. Ray had been suspended from public ministry since 1991 over credible allegations of abusing minors and, even though Ray’s accommodation at the Friary was under supervision, the Friary was close enough to a grammar school to raise concerns.
From 2013 to 2014, Prevost served as the director of formation at the Convent of Saint Augustine in Chicago until, on November 3, 2014, Pope Francis appointed him apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo and titular
bishop of Sufar. Prevost was consecrated a bishop on December 12, 2014, at Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Chiclayo by Archbishop James Green, Apostolic Nuncio to Peru.
On September 26, 2015, Prevost was named bishop of Chiclayo after becoming a naturalized citizen of Peru. For the next nine years he served his Diocese in South America. When the Venezuelan migrants came pouring across the border, more than 800,000, of them, he preached acceptance and community.
In 2019, he was appointed to the Congregation of the Clergy (now, the Dicastery of the Clergy), the administrative arm of the Curia over priests unaffiliated with a religious order. He worked with Caritas International (a group of 162 Catholic charities in over 200 countries) and, from 2018 through 2020, served on the council of the Episcopal Conference of Peru. In March 2021, Francis summoned
Memo by Rev. Patrick O'Malley, administrator of the Individual Special Protocol assigned to James Ray from 1993. Since 1991, Ray had been under daily reporting requirements and curfews and was not allowed visitors or to be alone in the presence of minors. Shortly after this protocol was relaxed by the Archdiocese, he was allowed to travel to Prague and Split (now in Croatia) where it appears something happened requiring stricter protocol. It is estimated James Ray molested at least thirteen boys (and maybe more). Complaints regarding his conduct continue to surface, most recently brought in 2020. He was officially laicized by the Church in 2008, fifteen years after this memo was entered into his file. (His file contains disturbing accounts of molesting young boys over several years which we chose not to publish here.)
AOC
BA-Chicago-Ray-114 of
Prevost to a private audience. Rumors began to spread that he would be leaving for Rome. But in 2022, three women came forward to allege two priests, Eleuterio Vásquez Gonzales and Ricardo Yesquan, had sexually abused then in 2007, when they were minors. Prevost conducted an investigation and sent the results to the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, but he was criticized for not doing enough. He told La Républica, a newspaper, “If you are a victim of sexual abuse by a priest, report it. We reject coverups and secrecy; that causes a lot of harm. We have to help people who have suffered due to wrongdoing.” Some allege Prevost’s role in suppressing the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae exposed Prevost to backlash from members loyal to the society. The Sodalitium was a Catholic lay society, composed of consecrated laymen and priests, formed in Lima, Peru, in 1971 by
Luis Fernando Figari and formalized by Pope John Paul II in 1997. It was the first lay society to receive Papal support. The society was dissolved by Pope Francis earlier this year over troubling accounts of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse. Regardless, from 2022, Prevost’s ascent to the Holy See was rapid.
On January 30, 2023, Pope Francis appointed Prevost prefect for the Dicastery for Bishops, giving him the title archbishop-bishop emeritus of Chiclayo. This was a prominent post; Prevost determined future bishops across the Holy See. He moved to Rome. Eight months later, on September 30, Francis created Prevost a Cardinal with the rank of cardinal-deacon and assigned him the Diaconate of Santa Monica degli Agostiniani. Thus elevated, he now recommended episcopal candidates worldwide. This brought his name into view – in the Curia, of
Photos Courtesy of the Midwest Augustinian Province of Our Mother of Good Counsel
Prior Provincial Anthony B. Pizzo, Order of Saint Augustine (left) and Pope Leo XIV (then-Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, Order of Saint Augustine) at an event in 2024.
Undated pictures of Robert Prevost with Pope John Paul II.
Undated pictures of Robert Prevost with Pope Benedict XVI.
course, but also across the episcopal conferences. In this capacity, Prevost recommended the removal of Joseph Strickland (a traditionalist, and strong critic of Francis) from the bishopric of Tyler, Texas. The move drew criticism from devout Catholics. A month after his elevation, Francis appointed him to seven additional Dicasteries –for Evangelization (non-Christian ministry); Doctrine of the Faith (one of the most prominent Dicasteries in the Curia); for the Eastern Churches; for the Clergy; for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life for Culture and Education; for Legislative Texts; and to the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State. In this latter role he traveled on Papal delegations. On February 6, 2025, Francis promoted him a cardinal-bishop, in the Order of Bishops within the College of Cardinals, titular bishop of the Suburbicarian Diocese of Albano, a prestigious diocese historically, covering seven towns in the Province of Rome, and located along the Appian way. When the Faithful prayed for Francis in the days
leading up to his death, it was Cardinal Prevost who prayed the rosary with them in Saint Peter’s Square.
He was elected pope on May 8, the second day of the Conclave, on the fourth ballot. Of the 133 Cardinals present and voting (the largest and most diverse Conclave in the Church’s 2,000-year history), 83 were appointed by Francis. Prevost needed 89 votes to win. It is believed the decisive votes were cast by Cardinals from Asia and Africa.
The white smoke plumed from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel at 6:07 p.m. He took the name Leo, the fourteenth of that name, later explaining that Leo XIII (who featured in our last issue as author of the anti-Masonic encyclical, Humanum genus) was a pope who fought for the common man in the industrial revolution. The suggestion seems to be that, in this, the fourth great revolution –of artificial intelligence, mass-automation, and quantum computing – the name Leo is again pertinent. The lion of Christ set forth to tame the world. His motto, In Illo Uno
unum (“in the One, [we are] one”) comes from a sermon by Saint Augustine given in Psalm 127, the essential premise of which is, “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.”
Who is Prevost?
Leo XIV is the first pope of the Order of Augustine, and the first native English speaker in 900 years, since Pope Adrian IV (r. 1154-1159). He speaks English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Portuguese fluently; he also has some German and, obviously, he reads Latin. While in Peru, to minister to the native population, Prevost became conversant in Quechuan, an indigenous language of the Andes. He is clearly intelligent. With doctorates in humanities and Canon law, he is a competent administrator well versed in the workings and mission of the Church. An ecclesiastical career with a focus on missionary work must cement his evangelism and longstanding, Augustinian sense of community. “No one is saved alone,” he said on Easter,
2021. “It is important to live an experience of community in the church.”
In the days following his election, the media painted Prevost as a “dark horse”; not a foremost papabile , a relative unknown whose election was something of a surprise. But in retrospect, this seems disingenuous (or perhaps just sloppy reporting). As Francis’s health declined, it is clear Francis elevated Prevost rapidly and prominently. Francis put him in places where he could quietly command authority, decisive roles by which to reveal his agency. For example, serving on the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State, then-cardinal Prevost accompanied the pope on Apostolic journeys and was present at both the first and second sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. His soft-spoken obedience must have become familiar.
Further, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, a United States Cardinal from New York, may have exerted influence here. Dolan was widely regarded as a “king-maker”
Robert Prevost, phtographed on the loggia when announced as Pope Leo XIV shortly after his election on May 8. Prevost opted to wear the traditional red mozetta and prayed in Latin, perhaps suggesting his intent to maintain some traditionalism
Photo by Alberto Pizzoli, Getty Images
among the cardinals; if he tipped his hat in favor of the Chicago-born Prevost, it could have tipped the scales. And, curiously, the U.S. based Papal Foundation (on which board Dolan serves as Chair) donated $14 million to the Vatican around the time of Francis’s death. A coincidence, no doubt, yet a cynical reader might deduce a million for each Leo.... Reportedly the Vatican, under a €73 million deficit on the heels of Francis’s papacy, welcomed the gift. And then, of course, the controversial A.I. generated image of President Trump as pope made the rounds, a signal underscoring a U.S. pope perhaps. (Interestingly, rumors linger on Catholic blogs that President Trump also donated a large sum to the Vatican, during his visit this past April. Oddly, Trump insinuated credit for Leo’s election, posting on his Truth Social platform that it was, “So funny to watch old timer Martha Raditz on ABC Fake News (the
Slopadopolus show!) this morning, blurt out that, effectively, Pope Leo’s election had nothing to do with Donald Trump. It came out of nowhere, but it was on her Trump Deranged Mind.”)
Italian Cardinal Guiseppe Versaldi, who was consecrated by Benedict XVI and served as prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education (2015-2022) and past-president of the Prefecture for the Economic Affairs of the Holy See (2011-2015), is also said to have built a support network around Prevost. Clearly, Prevost had support among powerful agents of the Curia.
Yet Leo might not be the liberal successor Francis (or the world) might have expected. When he took to the loggia to address the assembled after the famous words, Habemus papam (“we have a pope”), the first blessing Leo gave was in Latin (Francis had sought to abrogate use of the archaic tongue). In his first appear-
ance, Leo wore the red mozetta and red shoes, traditional garb eschewed by Francis. The next day, he officiated the mass in St. Peter’s using Latin prayers, singing the familiar words tunefully (he has a fair singing voice). He carried a Ferule of Benedict XVI at his first mass. Notably, he has not endorsed Fiducia supplicans, Francis’s 2023 declaration that allows priests to bless same-sex couples (he hasn’t denounced it, though, either).
And, unlike Francis, he is apparently not uncomfortable in the Papal Palace, the opulent residence of the pontiff, where he intends to move in once renovations are complete.
Much of his ideology is shrouded by his tenure in the Andes. Universally, Prevost is described by those who know him as “reserved.” He’s quiet, a man of few but well-chosen words. In the Catholic paper, The Remnant, Italian journalist Gaetano Masciullo describes Prevost as “undeniably
a reserved figure”; a “kind, quiet, reflective individual who is open to listening to all viewpoints.” He describes Leo as “a diplomatic pope . . . marked by a centralized and ideologically driven pastoral approach.” Yet Masciullo suggests during Leo’s papacy a “strengthening of the Curia” is likely. This suggests a man supportive of the traditional institutions of the Vatican. Still, Masciullo concedes, “Little is known about his position on various topics.”
May 8 is symbolically significant for Catholics. It is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompei and the date, in AD 490, in which Saint Michael’s apparition is said to have appeared on Mount Gargano in Italy. Of further note, Pope Leo XIII authored the Saint Michael Prayer, a Catholic invocation asking the Archangel Michael to intercede against evil: “Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the
Photo Courtesy of the Midwest Augustinian Province of Our Mother of
Cardinal Robert F. Prevost celebrates Mass at St. Jude Parish in New Lenox, IL, in 2024.
View from the Papal residence, Vatican City. devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do you, O Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the evil spirits who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls.
Amen.” These symbolic synchronicities may appear coincidental and insignificant. But to observant Catholics (and no doubt to Leo XIV), they must be notable. From the few homilies
Prevost has given which are accessible in the English-speaking world, his focus has frequently been on community. There is a touch of Liberation Theology, the movement promulgated in the 1960s by, among others, archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Hélder Pessoa Câmara of Brazil, that eschewed inequality and radically proposed redistributing the Church’s wealth to the sustenance
of the poor. Quoting the Book of Acts on October 9, 2020, Prevost said during a homily, “The group of the believers had one heart and one soul. No one called their own anything they had, for they possessed everything in common. God did not want the resources of our planet to benefit only a few. That is not the Lord’s way.”
He has expressed support for migrants. Speaking of the 800,000 Venezuelans who poured into Colombia following the economic collapse in that country, he tried to allay animosities. “We are called to accompany them,” he said, “welcome them, protect them, to promote an authentic experience of community without looking at nationality, skin color, religion, and so many other things that often separate and distinguish us. Migrants are our
brothers and sisters. Well, we are called to share.” This suggests a leftward stance. He also supported the COVID-19 vaccination. On Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021, he encouraged his congregants to get vaccinated. “We will overcome this [COVID-19] crisis, we will overcome this pandemic, but we need time, the help of God and science. When it comes – and hopefully it will come soon – the possibility of getting vaccinated, receive the vaccine,” he told his congregants.
Yet, in ascending Saint Peter’s throne, the so-called “grace of office” (or its sheer magnitude) may redirect his purpose. That seemed to happen to Benedict XVI, for example, once the darling of the liberal church at Vatican II, once Ratzinger became pope, his papacy devolved conservatism. Prevost, in choosing the name Leo,
has tipped his hat to Leo XIII who railed against the modern world (and featured in the last issue of this magazine as the author of the anti-Masonic Humanum genus). Leo XIII did not just push forward the rights of the workers in the industrial revolution, as is commonly being reported, he also declaimed the enlightenment and railed against a world which was evolving secular states in the name of science and progress. To Leo XIII, the enlightenment was a darkening, the republic, a crowd. And yet, we see an interesting tension between community (communism in the truest sense of the word, not the political coinage extending Marxism) and the hierarchy of the dexter path.
It is too early to tell exactly where Leo XIV stands. Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York
remarked before the election that whoever the next pope would be, he would almost certainly be “a blend of the last three.” That seems accurate. And maybe Leo XIV will succeed in uniting these extremes. He has already been represented as pontifex, the bridge-builder.
“Well, brothers and sisters,” he said as Cardinal to his congregants at Chiclayo, “as [a] church, we are responding to the Lord’s call to build a more human and more just society where no one is excluded.” KT
Above: the Palazzo Apostolico (Vatican Apostolic Palace), traditionally the home of the Pontiff. Pope Francis elected to live in more humble accommodations, in a suite in the Domus Sanctae Marthae, adjacent to Saint Peter's Basilica. Right: the Cathedral at Chiclayo, Lambayeque Region, Peru.
CORNERSTONES of TRADITION
Thousands of years of star lore evident in the Masonic cornerstone ceremony
“The laying of cornerstones with ritualistic ceremonies is as old as the art of building.”
– Grand Lodge of Colorado, Cornerstone Ceremony
“We have built no national temples but the Capitol; we consult no common oracles but the Constitution.”
–
Representative Rufus Choate,
1833
On the morning of September 18, 1793, as Jupiter was about to rise in the East and Regulus, the “heart” of the lion, to culminate at the meridian height, George Washington and the Brethren of Alexandria Lodge No. 22 assembled on the south bank of the Potomac.
The artillery fired a military salute and the drummers began.
Together with Brothers from Maryland Lodge No. 9 they crossed the river and marched to President’s Square to meet Lodge No. 15, newly chartered in the Federal city, and then two-by-two they marched, assembling in due and ancient form at Jenkins Hill.
George Washington, President of the United States; Joseph Clark, Grand Master pro tem; and Elisha Dick, Worshipful Master of
Alexandria Lodge No. 22, stood to the east of the large cornerstone prepared and ready for installation in the foundation of the Capitol.
The rest of the procession formed up to the west. If the sun had not been out, the bright planet Jupiter would be visible behind George Washington rising at the east angle, and above the assembly, at the mid-heaven, that “high meridian”, the royal star Regulus would
be seen to shine – one of the four “watchers”, ancient marker of the summer solstice in the heart of the constellation Leo, associated with the archangel Raphael, Michael, even Uriel by some.
Silence descended upon the group and then the volley from the artillery announced the moment.
The Grand Marshall delivered up a silver foundation plate to be read and then W.B. George Washing -
ton descended into the cavazion trench to deposit the plate himself. The ropes worked in the pulleys and the cornerstone was lowered down into the earth, atop the silver plate, and then the consecration with corn, wine, and oil. Reverential prayer stirred the group and then “Masonic chanting honors” were followed by fifteen volleys from the artillery.1 The assembly broke and repaired nearby as a 500 pound ox was brought to the fires already kindled on the hillside. The Brethren feasted in the newfound moment, an expanse of history stretching out before them. As the sun moved westward, and the feasting waned, fifteen more volleys culminated the proceedings and, before the shadows stretched into the darkness of night, the Brethren dispersed. This was not the first time a Masonic ceremony had been used in demarking a significant moment in the birth of the fledgling United States. Two years earlier, on Friday, April 15, 1791, the Brethren of Alexandria Lodge No. 22 (then No. 39 and operating under the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania) placed the first of forty boundary stones at Jones Point – a rounded peninsula jutting into the Potomac at the southernmost reaches of the region surveyed for the new capital. George Washington was not present at that ceremony; however history records he visited the site in March the same year. The Brethren first attended at Wise’s Tavern and, shortly after 3 p.m., upon the arrival of the Federal District Commissioners, Daniel Carroll and Dr. David Stuart (a member of Alexandria Lodge),2 they raised
1 See Columbian Mirror & Alexandria Gazette, September 25, 1793, as transposed at http://bessel. org/capcorn.htm (accessed Oct. 28, 2018).
2 Dr. David Stuart was one of the presidential electors and personal friend of George Washington. See Alexandria Lodge No. 39, Alexandria, Virginia 1783-1788, by Donald Robey, P.G.M. (VA 1987) and P.M. of Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 (1975), available at http://aw22.org/documents/ Lodge39.pdf.(Accessed Oct. 28,
a toast.
“May the stone we are about to place in the ground remain an immoveable monument of the wisdom and unanimity of North America,” they said.3 The gentlemen finished their wine and then, two-by-file, the Brethren marched to Jones Point where the stone was laid and consecrated with corn, wine, and oil. At 3:50 p.m. on Friday, April 15, 1791, Jupiter rose in the east, retrograde, with the Moon seven degrees from conjunction. The Reverend James Muir, Lodge Chaplain, lead the invocation:
“Of America it may be said as it was of Judea of old, that it is a good land and large….May this stone long commemorate the goodness of God in those uncommon events which have given America a name among the nations – under this stone may jealousy and selfishness be forever buried!” He said.
The specific location had been chosen by Benjamin Banneker, a free black man and autodidact who had proved himself one of the most capable astronomers in the new world. Legend holds that he fixed the position of the first stone by lying on his back to plot six stars as they crossed his position at a particular time of night.4 This no doubt ensured accurate placement of the boundary stone – the night sky has long been a determinant in gaining one’s bearings; most navigation in those times was greatly assisted by observations of the stars. In fact, Banneker had come to learn mathematics by consulting (and in at least one instance, correcting) the annual almanacs published by the Astronomer Royal, publications so necessary for ensuring viability of British 2018.)
3 See the City of Alexandria website, at https://www.alexandriava. gov/historic/info/default.aspx?id=41358. (Accessed Oct. 28, 2018.)
4 See the Arlington Historical Society, https://arlingtonhistoricalsociety.org/visit/boundary-stones/. (Accessed Oct. 28, 2018.)
Woodward, Fred E. Chart showing the original boundary milestones of the District of Columbia. [?, 1906] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/87694134/.
trade. But what of Jupiter, rising in the east? That certainly has no bearing on navigation or surveying, outside the conjunctions and occultations the planet might make, significant as a relative timing event in estimating longitude perhaps. But Jupiter rising in the east is indubitably of less significance for such calculations.
A third example can be found in the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument, laid with Masonic ceremony on July 4, 1848. At just after 1 p.m. that day, Jupiter exalted in Cancer culminated directly overhead in his own hour.
In order to understand the timing of these events, to coincide with such celestial alignments, and why cornerstone laying has been attended by “ritualistic ceremony”, we need to entertain a more ancient worldview, one almost entirely forgotten in modern times. A worldview that
reached a significant perfection in the Renaissance and one that nonetheless informs our society still to this day, hidden in plain sight all around us.
The anonymous author of the famous medieval grimoire, the Picatrix, summarizes this worldview thus:
The ancient Greeks specialized in the nayranjat, flipping the eye, ‘Tarjih’, and talismans, which they called syllogismus, which means bringing down the high spirits…. The ancient Greeks were not able to deal with this science without astrology.5
5 Picatrix, ch. 2. Ouroboros Press Edition. The Picatrix is an Arabic transmission of Hellenistic philosophy, called Ghayat al-Hakim in Arabic, or “the way of the wise”. It first came to note in the thirteenth century when it was translated into Latin in Portugal, and the court of King Alphonse the Wise.
First of the District of Columbia's forty boundary stones, laid at Jones Point in 1792. Seawall south of lighthouse, Jones Point Park, 1 Jones Point Drive, Alexandria
It bears reflecting that, thousands of years ago, efforts directed toward the construction of large stone edifices were chiefly for reasons other than simple habitation. Such constructions seem to have been first oriented to evince the passing of the year, marking the rising and setting of the Sun on the corners of the year and aligned to forecast the appearances of various stars (such as the helical rising of Sirius in ancient Egypt, for example, which corresponded with the rains and the flooding of the Nile). The vast undertaking of the Temple of Solomon likewise suggests that, in the ancient world at least, large building projects (which employed thousands of people over scores of years) were typically undertook for purposes of divine scope. The ancient site of Göbekli Tepe likewise suggests early human endeavor in constructing stone monuments to be aligned to catalogue, forecast, and perhaps
synergize, celestial events.6
In a very practical sense, all knowledge has come from above. In determining the course of the year, in observing the passage of the Moon, and devising the geometry necessary to predict the return of the seasons, the mathematics of the circle was born – perhaps the first and most fundamental expression of humankind’s desire to understand the unknown, but, more practically, to make preparations for the future – to know when to sow and when to reap,
6 Göbekli Tepe is a site in Turkey, dating to the tenth millennium BC and includes imagery suggestive of celestial imagery. It appears to have been a temple and is considered significant in the archaeological record as, if built by hunter gatherers, it represents the apparent movement from nomadic tribesman to settled dwellers and thus agrarianism. “First came the temple, then the city,” in the words of Klaus Schmidt, one of the archaeologist excavators at the site.
when to travel and when to stay put, to know one’s location relative another, and to understand relative distance and the passage of time. These determinations marked the origin of our species, of collective organization and governance, and must have been the earliest focus of human ingenuity in fostering livelihood against the elements.
Humans have forever kept time. And time is universally observed on the gnomon of the night – the Moon – which appears and disappears each month, finding fullness twelve to thirteen times each year and, by its course in opposition to the Sun, portraying the annual position of the Sun itself. As the seasons brought change, seemingly marked by the Moon’s passage through the constellations, so meaning was ascribed to the heavenly houses.
Meaning that reflected the mortality of man – the rise and fall of age, the spring, summer, autumn and winter of our years. Just as the helical rising of Sirius, heralding the spring, and thus the annual flooding of the Nile with its rich alluvial sediment, became associated with the flooding itself – and thus good fortune, plenty, and longevity and, ultimately, the goddess Isis
For thousands of years, then, a tradition of star lore occupied human endeavor, and significant for our purposes here, the art of building particularly.
As early as 2872 BC (and likely earlier still) the historical record preserves that astrology was in use at the royal court. Sargon of Akkad, who conquered all of southern Mesopotamia, parts of Syria, Anatolia, and Elam (in present-day Iran) enlisted the
Babylonian kudurru of the Kassite Period, known as the "Michaux Stone". The stele bears an inscription (a property charter) in Akkadian script. Black serpentine, from the reign of Marduknadin-akhi (ca. 1099–1082 BC), found near Baghdad in 1784 by the French botanist Michaux, hence the name.
aid of astrologer priests. By 1960 BC the great observatories were built at Ziggarut, Urak, Ur, and Babylon. The Enuma Anu Enlil, written in Babylonia around 1600 BC, comprises seventy tablets in cuneiform detailing astrological omens informed by the planetary positions. Particular attention is given to Venus and Jupiter –after the Moon, the two brightest bodies in the night sky, and known as the lesser and greater fortunes respectively. By 1350 BCE, during the Kassite dynasty in Babylon, boundary stones appear on the record as royal charters, calling on the gods to witness and protect the
ownership of land.7
This tradition appears to have persisted – informing much of occult science and influencing the development of humanity for millennia. Consider that the Baba Batra in the Talmud records that “[Rabbi] Eliezer the Modiite said that Abraham possessed a power of reading the stars for which he was much sought after by the potentates of East and West.”8 And that in Psalm 19, the Psalmist writes
7 See for example, John H. Rogers. "Origins of the Ancient Constellations: I. The Mesopotamian Traditions," Journal of the British Astronomical Association, vol. 108, no. 1, 9-28. 1998.
8 Talmud – Mas. Baba Batra, 16b.
Ziggurat Birs Nimrud, the mountain of Borsippa in Iraq.
Election of the first stone for the city of Baghdad in 762
that, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge.”9 King Solomon, as putative author of Ecclesiastes, reminds us that, “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”10 and, significant for our purposes here, he enumerates, “a time to build”.11 Indeed, the specific application of astrological timing to mark the dividing of land or the laying of the first stone founding a building or city is prominent throughout the historical record.
For example, the founding of the city of Baghdad was famously elected for the Caliph Abu Ja’far Al-Mansur by his court astrologer, the Persian Magician Nawbakht, with the assistance of the famed Jewish Astrologer, Mashallah. At (what we would identify today as) 2:40 p.m. Local Time, on July 31 in the year 762, the first stone of the great city was laid with ceremony and 100,000 workmen began construction. Significantly, Jupiter, fortified in domicile, is
9 Psalm 19: 1-2, NIV.
10 Ecclesiastes 1: 1, KJV.
11 Ecclesiastes 1: 3, KJV.
rising in the east. Jupiter is stationary – at the so-called second station – and about to go direct. That is, the planet is about to resume a forward course through the Zodiac after a temporary period of retrogradation. Jupiter further rules the fourth house, the house of immovable goods (such as real estate) bringing longevity and plenty to the undertaking.
The enemies of the state – signified by Mercury in this chart, the ruler of the seventh house – are conjunct the Dragon’s Tail (the malefic place of the eclipse – and thereby occulted), retrograde (going backwards), peregrine (without assistance from the other planets), and malevolently disposed in the eighth house of death (the eight house corresponds to the diurnal declination of Sun during the hottest time of the day). The Moon, a benevolent waxing gibbous, is parallel the fortuitous fixed star, Sirius (the star most sacred to the Egyptians), and the Part of Fortune (a mathematically derived point applied by taking the longitude of the Moon from the ascendant and subtracting the longitude of the Sun) is conjunct the mid-heaven bringing fortune to the rulers of the city and the
city-state as a whole. The ruler of the ninth house of learning and wisdom is the Sun, which is in trine aspect (the most benefic aspect) with Jupiter and the Ascendant – thus knowledge, literally “light” – comes to the people to bring fortune and enlightenment. That Baghdad would become a center of learning and a prominent center of knowledge and science is discernible in the symbolism intended by the chart.
But this tradition was not exclusive to the Levant or the Arab world (note, for example, that the election of Baghdad was undertook by a Zoroastrian astrologer (not a Muslim) with the aid of a Jewish astrologer for the Abbasid Caliph). The Arabs transmitted the Hellenistic and Babylonian traditions alongside the westward expansion of Islam, and preserved the teachings of ancient Greece and the Levant that were lost in Western Europe during the dark ages following the collapse of the Roman empire. (It’s for this reason that many of our star names are principally derived from Arabic words – such as Alderberan, Algol, Zuben Elgenubi, 12 etc.)
12 Meaning “the follower”, “the head of the demon”, and “the claws of the
There is no doubt that the practice of electing times to begin specific undertakings informed medieval Christendom as well. William the Conqueror invaded the British Isles when a comet (most likely Halley’s comet) was prominent in the night sky, causing one chronicler, Elimer of Malmesury, to remark, “You’ve come, have you? … You’ve come, you source of tears to many mothers, you evil. I hate you! It is long since I saw you; but I see you now you are much more terrible, for I see you brandishing the downfall of my country.”13 Halley’s comet was particularly close to the Earth in 1066 CE – less than 10 million miles away – and was relatively bright. That William took the comet as a sign portentous of his invasion will never be known, but considering the worldview prominent in his time – and the theological practices at the royal courts common to his day – such an assertion does seem plausible. The comet is given prominence in the Bayeaux Tapestry, for example, a contemporaneous medieval embroidery commemorating William’s victory.
Great exertions of human labor were typically undertaken in consideration of the stars.14 At the very least, forecasting the origin of an undertaking to coincide with fortunate stars must have provided a fitting reason for such exertions to be begun.
It should be no surprise, then, that electing times for building edifices became commonplace to the Roman Church and, through it, among the operative Craft who devised the geometries necessary to align the great Cathedrals with scorpion,” respectively.
13 William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum (“The history of the English Kings), ed. and trans. R. A. B. Mynors, R. M. Thomson, and M. Winterbottom, 2 vols., Oxford Medieval Texts (1998–99),121
14 Note that the word “consider” derives etymologically from the Latin con • sideris, “with the stars”. See for example https://www.etymonline.com/word/consider, accessed November 2, 2018.
the heavens. Cathedrals such as Santa Maria del Fiore, in Florence; St. Petronio, in Bologna; and churches like Santa Maria degli Angeli e die Martiri, in Rome, among many others, which all incorporate meridian lines where solar noon casts a ray onto a calendar upon the floor, readily demonstrate such mastery during the Renaissance.
Certainly, this philosophy was not merely geospatial –although that was a significant part of it. The movements of the heavens might be thought of as openings in a great machine that reveal and conceal different irradiances issuing from the divine source of all. When certain openings overlap, for example, a greater irradiance of a particular nature would be represented. This is well summarized by the great Platonic scholar and fifteenth century Renaissance philosopher, Marsilio Ficino, in his famous treatise, the De Triplici Vita:
By a similar system they think a chain of beings descends by levels from any star of the firmament through any planet under its dominion. If, therefore, as I said, you combine at the right time all the Solar things through any level of that order, i.e., men of Solar nature or something belonging to such a man, likewise animals, plants, metals, gems, whatever pertains to these, you will drink in unconditionally the power of the Sun and to some extent the natural powers of the Solar daemons.15
The laying of a cornerstone, then, when set according to an equivalent scheme represented in the heavens, was thought to incorporate the heavenly virtues that informed the moment, to resonate those virtues and sustain them – like a chord struck on the great harp of heaven, some tuneful note that constructively reinforces harmonics to fade over time, as compared to, say, a disharmonic, destructively interfering chord that
15 De Triplici Vita, Book III, ch. 14. Marsilio Ficino.
cacophonously dissipates in short order.
This music, though, was wrought on the world itself, played first by tuning the moment in line with the significances represented in the heavens, and then struck by incorporating such elements as words, music, and substances, which corresponded with and represented the quality of the moment and, therefore, the endeavor undertook at that time.
This view is echoed by the famous Renaissance monk, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (1486-1535), writing in the early sixteenth century for his patron, the great Trithimeus (1462-1516), in collecting the hidden philosophies:
By which forms [the soul of the world] did in the heavens above the stars frame to herself shapes also, and stamped upon all these some properties; on the stars therefore, shapes and properties, all the virtues of inferior species, as also their properties do depend; so that every species has its celestial shape, or figure that is suitable to it, from which also proceeds a wonderful gift of operating, which proper gift it receives from its own Idea, through the seminal form of the Soul of the World.16
We see this in the thirteenth century as well, referring again to the Picatrix:
An image to strengthen and make fortunate a city. Make an image with the ascendant and the tenth house and their lords fortunate, with the fortunes aspecting them, and make fortunate the lord of the second house and the eighth house, and make fortunate the lord of the ascendant and have him aspecting a fortune, and make fortunate the house of the lord of the ascendant, and the Moon and the lord of the house of the Moon. And when the image is
16 Three Books of Occult Philosophy, Book I, ch. 11. Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa
made as described, bury it in the middle of the city and it shall be as you wish.17
And also, succinctly put:
Existence is the acceptance to reflect the picture so that the primordial acceptance and the picture become one….18
And we find vestiges of this worldview preserved in the early catechisms of the Craft, about the time when speculative Masons ceased also to be operative Masons. (Bear in mind that operative Masons in the Middle Ages were also speculative – they were engaged in building edifices suited for the indwelling of Deity. The lecture on the middle chamber, in the Colorado work at least, readily reminds us of this fact: “Our ancient brethren wrought in both operative and speculative. They worked at the building of King Solomon’s Temple and many other
17 Picatrix, ch. 5. Greer & Warnock translation.
18 Picatrix, ch. 4. Ouroboros Press Edition.
sacred and Masonic edifices.”)
The Graham Manuscript (c. 1726) records an early Masonic catechism consisting of thirty-seven questions and answers, and a historical lecture (or account). It almost certainly predates the Hiramic legend, because the context is focused on the raising of Noah by his three sons to retrieve the antediluvian secrets lost after the flood. It also includes an account of Bezaleel, one of the builders of the Ark of the Covenant, and clearly includes material significant to what we would now recognize as the Holy Royal Arch. It begins by establishing the need for prayer to essentially exorcise the building and, in so doing, demonstrates a culture of incantation prevalent in the eighteenth century operative Craft:
Q: What is your foundation words at the laying of a building where you expect that some infernal squandering spirit hath haunted and may shake your handiwork?
A: Come let us and you shall have […]
Illustration of the Great Chain of Being, by F. Didacus in Retorica Christiana, published by Diego Valdes in 1579.
Excerpt of the Graham Manuscript, dated to 1726, contains early renditions of Masonic ritual. It is believed to be a transcription of an earlier manuscript which is lost to time.
Q: To whom do you speak?
A: To the blessed Trinity in prayer.
Q: How do you administer these words?
A: Kneeling, bareheaded, facing towards the east.
Q:What mean you be the expression thereof?
A: We mean that we forsake self-righteousness and [differ] from these Babylonians who presumed to build to heaven, but we pray the blessed Trinity to let us build truly and square, and [the Trinity] shall have the praise to whom it is due.
Q: When [were] these words made or what need was [there] for them?
A: I answer into the primitive [world], before the Gospel [was] spread[,] the world being encumbered with infernal squandering spirits[,] except that men did build by faith and prayer, their works were often assaulted.
Chief among the concerns is the transmission of a name of God, all powerful in accomplishing the banishment of “infernal squandering spirits”, which could not be communicated without three persons present, else the name be desecrated if spoken in its entirety by a single voice:
Q: What did you see in Lodge when you did see?
A: I saw truth the world and Justice and brotherly Love.
Q: Where?
A: Before me.
Q: What was behind you?
A: Perjury and hatred of brotherhood forever if I discover our secrets without the consent of a Lodge, except that have obtained a treble voice by being entered, passed, and raised and conformed by three several Lodges and not so except I take the party sworn to be true to our articles.
The recitation “treble voice” likely refers to a triple voice – that is, three voices, not the unbroken voice of the upper register. See for example the following, also from the Graham Manuscript:
Q: What are they [the 12 jewels]?
A:The first 3 jewels [are] Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; Sun, Moon, Master Mason; square, rule, plumb; line, mall, and chisel.
Q: Prove all these proper.
A: As for the blessed trinity they afford reason; as for the Sun, he renders Light day and night; as for the Moon, she is a dark body of water and doth receive her Light from the sun, and is also queen of waters, which is the best of levels; as for the Master Mason, he teaches the trade and ought to have a treble voice in teaching of our secrets if he be a bright man because we do believe into a super oratory power for although the seventy had great power yet the eleven had more for they chose Matthias in place of Judas; as for square, rule, plumb, line, mall and chisel, they are six tools that no mason can perform true work without the major part of them.
Significantly, aside from the reference to water seeking its own level, and thus being “the best of levels”, and inference of water’s general dominion under the rulership of the Moon (the “queen of waters”), the candidate states that, in order to teach the Craft, the Master Mason “ought to have a treble voice” because “we do believe into a super oratory power”, that is, a power of words that transcends mere utterance. This is again discernible in the later lecture, related by the candidate in this form:
…then was born Bezaleel who was so called of God before conceived in the [womb] and this holy man knew by inspiration that the secret titles and primitive pallies of the Godhead was preservative, and he built on them in so much that no infernal
squandering spirit durst presume to shake his handiwork so his works became so famous while the two younger brothers of the aforesaid king Abloyin desired for to be instructed by him his noble science by which he wrought, to which he agreed conditionally they were not to discover it without another to themselves to make a treble voice so they entered oath and he taught them the theory and practical part of masonry and they did work.
Thus, in search of the antediluvian secrets revealed to the great artisan, Bezaleel, the two younger brothers of this king, Abloyin, were instructed to find another individual because, “without another to themselves to make a treble voice” they were “not to discover it”. Again, a clear enough allusion to the need to pronounce the Holy incantation between three persons less they desecrate the holy name of God. It is also important to note in this passage that Bezaleel “knew by inspiration the secret titles and primitive pallies of the Godhead” that such were “preservative” to his buildings, “in so much that no infernal squandering spirit” would “shake his handiwork”. The “titles and primitive pallies of the Godhead” probably refer to the names of God and his ministering angels which, pronounced to proper effect, would prevent the “infernal spirits” from undoing the construction.
The medieval word pally means “friendly”, as in “familiars” and is possibly the origin of the Americanism, “pal”, for friend. The sense is that Bezaleel knew the names of God and the names of the ministering Host by which Bazaleel’s great works stood without collapse or misadventure. A similar design is perhaps alluded to in the derivative, modern cornerstone ceremony worked present day by the Grand Lodge of Colorado, when the Orator is heard to state that the ceremony, “implores the divine blessing of God, to protect the workmen from acci-
dent, to bless those who conceived the erection of the edifice and its humanitarian purposes, and all who will enter through its doors.”
The names of God and his ministering Host are certainly significant to the planets and the signs. Each planet was believed to represent a divine agency – a sphere of heaven wherein holy quires of angels took dominion. The planets were not seen as material bodies per se; in much the same way that a particle in modern physics is not really considered a spherical object but rather a range of positions and propagations discernible mathematically, so the planetary bodies represented something else – something discernible mathematically and geometrically. Thus, the opening of a dominion revealed in an astrological chart was, to a sense at least, sealed by the utterance of the correct name whereby an angelic agency could be elicited.
History records such ceremonies of a mystical, even theurgical nature. For example, in April, 1543, Pope Paul III commissioned the famed Renaissance astrologer, Luca Gaurico (1475-1558), who had recently been appointed
bishop of Giffoni (after correctly predicting the pope’s election no less), to elect the time to lay the cornerstone for the new Farnese Wing of the Vatican. Luca Guarico was an accomplished forecaster – he served as the court adviser to Catherine de Medici and had made significant predictions based on interpretations of the heavenly bodies.19 Referring to himself in the third person, Guarico records the cornerstone laying in his Tractatus Astrologicus thus:
Luca Gaurico computed the 19 History records Gaurico predicted the defeat of Francis I at the battle of Pavia; the death of the Duc de Bourbon on the city walls during the sack of Rome in 1527; the fall of Giovanni Bentivoglio the “tyrant of Bologna”; and the election of Alessandro Farnese as pope; and, perhaps most famously, the death of the French monarch, Henry II, in his 42nd year and on the tournament ground in single combat – a prediction published in 1552 which came to fruition on July 1, 1559 when Henry died after a splinter of a broken lance pierced his eye in a freak accident.
hour and erected the celestial figure for the laying of the first stone of the foundation of the building near St. Peter’s. But Vincenzo Campanozzi of Bologna used an astrolabe to determine the suitability of the time, crying out with a loud voice, “Behold, the sixteenth hour from the accustomed setting of the clock is now complete.”20 And straightway Ennio Verulano, cardinal of Albano most reverend, clad in a white stole with a red tiara on his head, set in the foundation a huge marble block beautifully polished and engraved with the papal arms of Pope Paul III.21
20 Campanozzi is referring to the planetary hour – the unequal hour – wherein the planetary rulership of the moment was said to obtain dominion.
21 Tractatus Astrologicus, L. Guarico. 1552, as presented by Anthony Grafton Cardano’s Cosmos: The worlds and Works of a Renaissance Astrologer (Harvard University Press, 2001), 100.
Similarly, Tycho Brahe, the famed Danish astronomer, performed a ceremony for the laying of the first cornerstone for his observatory, Uraniborg, upon the island of Hven, on August 8, 1576, “while the Sun rose one with Jupiter next to Leo’s heart [Regulus], the Moon occupying Aquarius in the west….”22 The dedication rite involved libations of wine and the stone was inscribed with astrologically potent text.23
Even the first astronomer royal, John Flamsteed (16461719), cast an astrological chart for the laying of the cornerstone of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich,24 outside London, England,
22 Tychonis Brahe Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica, Tycho Brahe, as cited by Alistair Kwan, Tycho’s Talisman: Astrological Magic in the Design of Uraniborg. Early Science and Medicine 16.2 (2011): 95–119.
23 See John Robert Christianson On Tycho’s Island: Tycho Brahe, Science, and Culture in the Sixteenth Century; and Tycho’s Talisman: Astrological Magic in the Design of Uraniborg, by Kwan ibid.
24 Greenwich Observatory was de-
for August 10, 1675, at 3:14 p.m., local time. This chart still survives. And while Flamsteed is often presented as opposing astrology due to an unpublished paper he wrote denigrating the “vanity of astrology and the practice of astrologers” (potentially directed more at the rife charlatanry plaguing the era than his own determinations of the art), there are several interesting features to the chart he cast probative of his familiarity with the discipline.
First, Flamsteed’s chart is exceptionally well done. Casting astrological charts is hard work, especially in a time before computers and global positioning systems by which latitude and longitude and all the planetary positions, parts, and dignities, can be automated. At 3:14 pm, local time, Jupiter, the greater fortune, rises fortified by domicile, Sagittarius, in his hour – the ninth hour of signed by none other than Christopher Wren. Although he is often cited as a Grand Master of the early speculative Craft, evidence to support such a claim in fact is lacking.
Palazzo Farnesein Vatican City, the cornerstone for which was astrologically elected by Luca Gaurico, bishop of Giffoni
Royal Observatory at Greenwich, designed by Sir Chirstopher Wren, the cornerstone for which was astrologically elected by the first astronomer royal, John Flamsteed
Saturday. Jupiter is in orb with the Moon by benevolent trine aspect. The Sun, ruler of the ninth house of long distance travel, higher learning, and inspiration, is fortified by domicile and near the ninth cusp. Mercury, natural significator of astrologers and learning – the messenger of the gods – is fortified by sign, conjunct Mars, in the ninth house (though retrograde). The fourth house of buildings is ruled by the Sun as Almuten25 and Mars naturally, both significant in the Chart. The chart follows almost all of the requirements set forth in the Picatrix for strengthening a city (as cited above).
25 The word “Almuten” is a medieval corruption of the Arabic al-mutazz, meaning “the conqueror”, or potentially al-mateen, “the one in power”, and applies to the planet with the most essential dignities at the house cusp in question. This may or may not be the natural ruler of the sign wherein the dignities are calculated.
If Flamsteed’s object in erecting the chart was jest, it would have been far easier for him to have just thrown a chart together rather than take pains to do a highly competent work. And, also, then why hold the ceremony at all? Secondly, Flamsteed wrote on the chart a quote from the Latin poet Horace, On the Arts Poetic: Risum teneatis amici – “could my friends refrain from laughing”.
It is perhaps interesting to consider that in the above examples both the seats of religious and scientific authority appear to be operating within the same realm of an inspired philosophy.
Evidence of this philosophy de facto informs the degrees of speculative Masonry. Consider as a ready example the lecture on the middle chamber of the second degree, wherein the Senior Deacon remarks: “Astronomy is that divine art by which we are taught to
read the wisdom, strength, and beauty of the Almighty Creator in those sacred pages, the Celestial hemisphere” and “[w]hile we are employed in the study of this science, we must perceive unparalleled instances of wisdom and goodness; and through the whole creation trace the glorious Author by his works.” This devolves to mere hyperbole without the context of the foregoing worldview.
We see more evidence of this worldview and this philosophy stamped on Masonic trestle boards, particularly pertaining to the Royal Arch where the vernal and estival signs are sometimes shown divided upon the individual stones forming the arch, with Cancer on the keystone. Frequently the glyph for Jupiter is shown likewise upon the keystone, or close to it, or as one of seven stars nearby. Cancer, the domicile
of the Moon, is yet the “exaltation” of Jupiter, a secondary dignity of great significance. Royal Arch Masons are, of course, “exalted” just as Master Masons are “raised.”
So why is Jupiter so prominent in all these cornerstone charts? Traditionally, Jupiter was considered significant of kingship, priests, good fortune, righteousness, benevolence, majesty, power, and health (the name for Jupiter in Hebrew is Tzedeck – meaning, “to be righteous”). The consecratory corn, wine, and oil are thereby attributable to the Jupiterian virtues (as well as in some respects to Venus, the Moon, the Sun, and Mercury, significantly fortuitous and generally pleasant planetary archetypes). For example, Cornelius Agrippa defines “what things are under the power of Jupiter, and are called Jovial” in book one, chapter twenty-six, of his famous Three Books:
Cornerstone dedication of the Washington Cathedral, April 23, 1929. The gavel used was George Washington's, the same which was used in the cornerstone ceremony for the U.S. Capitol in 1793
Mercury adorning the architrave of Grand Central Station, New York City. The interior of the station is decorated with zodiacal themes.
Things under Jupiter, amongst Elements, are the Air: amongst humors, blood, the spirit of life, also all things which respect the increase, nourishment, and vegetation of the life. Amongst tastes such as are sweet and pleasant…. Amongst plants and trees…. the Vine, the Plum tree… the Olive tree, and also Oil…. Also all manner of Corn, as Barley, Wheat, also Raisins, Liquorish, Sugar, and all such things whose sweetness is manifest….26
The “corn of nourishment” likely finds symbolic place under a Jupiterian intelligence. Insofar as the oil of joy was historically applied to make priests and kings, which are also naturally signified by Jupiter, the oil of joy also finds a Jupiterian association. Wine, as made of the grape, and refreshing to the spirit, also has Jupiterian resonances. Thus, the three traditional consecrating elements, used in the present today in Masonic cornerstone ceremonies, still bear the symbolism of an earlier worldview of sympathies and correspondences and, in this case, with the planetary archetypes associated
26 Agrippa Three Books of Occult Philosophy. Book I, Chapter XXVI.
with Jupiter.
Thus, in charts cast for timing cornerstone ceremonies, Jupiter will typically be well disposed and prominent – either ascending or culminating, typically in sign or exaltation, and in his hour. The Moon will likely be applying by benevolent aspect (trine or sextile), sometimes via conjunction (not traditionally an aspect). Additional fortifications may include strengthening the ruler of the fourth house, the ruler of the tenth, and perhaps culminations or conjunctions with eminent “fixed” stars (such as Regulus, Sirius, Aldebaran, Fomalhaut, among others). These times would be augmented with actions and elements that resonate the Jupiterian archetypes – corn, wine, and oil; incense, incantations, prayer, the invocation of the angels that minister under this sphere of heaven (such as, for example, Zadkiel, Iophiel, Hismael, Raziel, et seq., in addition to other invocations such as the “planetary pnuemata” and the planetary hymns of Orpheus). These might be accompanied by Jupiterian music, such as music played in the Lydian mode, which is associated with the sphere of Jupiter. These things, then, performed at the
significant moment, were believed to augment the virtues, as summed by the Hermetic maxim: like makes like. Present day, the Masonic cornerstone ceremony is a vestige of this earlier tradition. Typically, the stone is applied to the building last, to commemorate it in a public fashion that provides closure to the construction process in a fitting and meaningful way. The stone typically has no structural integrity with the building proper, and acts more as a sign – a declaration that the building was completed. Often a time capsule is put in the cavity behind the stone, a cavity typically cut into a non-load bearing part of the building exterior. But the ceremony is still informed by these ideals – the tradition is yet alive in it – and the consecration thereby maintains its symbolic power. It should be done with some intent and mind to this history.
“The laying of cornerstones with ritualistic ceremonies is as old as the art of building. It began with the most ancient civilizations and has come down to us through the civilizations of Egypt, Babylon, and Jerusalem.”27
For thousands of years, then, the contemplation of heavenly causes has occupied the brightest minds. And, for millennia, great works were undertaken in supposed microcosmic symmetry with the macrocosmic phenomena informing the moment. As a result, the rituals we perform today remain pregnant with meaning; a traditional worldview which, like so much in our Craft it seems, remains hidden in plain sight. KT
27 Grand Lodge of Colorado, Cornerstone ceremony.
Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold: There’s not the smallest orb which thou behold’st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubins; Such harmony is in immortal souls; But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth grossly close it in, we cannot here it.
Lorenzo. The Merchant of Venice, Act 5, Scene I.
Page from Girolamo Cardano's De rerum varietate, published in 1558, showing the Saturnine sigil adopted by Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin (bottom left in the image).
Ben Williams
Dallas
Assembly No. 63 & Arlington
Assembly No. 189 Host the Supreme Worthy President at the Scottish Rite Hospital for Children in Dallas
Sby Cynthia Marr
upreme Worthy President, (Mrs. David) Wynn Evans with members of Dallas Assembly No. 63 and Arlington Assembly No. 189 visited the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, March 19, 2025, prior to the Supreme Worthy President Official Visit on March 20. Books, toys, stuffed animals, Legos, and many more items were donated by the two assemblies and by Phoenix Assembly No. 213, Arizona. Refreshments were enjoyed by all after the tour.
Among those attending was (Mrs. Earl) Audry Tweed who is 104 years young and continues to be an active officer in Dallas Assembly. Mrs. Evans, our 104th Supreme Worthy President, could not help but note and smile at the numerical connection. KT
(Front) Mrs. Kenneth Wofford, Past President; Mrs. Billy Ray Bell; Mrs. Earl Tweed, Past President; Mrs. Timothy Stenner, Supreme Mistress of the Wardrobe; Mrs. M L Blackman, President of Arlington Assembly; Mrs. David Evans, Supreme Worthy President; Mrs. Jimmy Huckabay, President of Dallas Assembly; Mrs. Jerry Marr, Supreme Marshal; Mrs. Henry Martin, Past President; Mrs. Donna Kelley, Past President; Mrs. Linda List. (Back) Mrs. Penny Hix; Mrs. Herb Garon, Past President; Mrs. Floyed Rutledge; Mrs. Matthew Fisher, Worthy President, Waco Assembly No. 199; Mrs. Thomas R Derby, Supreme Recorder (pro tem), Past Supreme Worthy President; Mrs. Miles Sheerin; Mrs. Lawrence Troy; Mrs. Rex Lewis, Past President; Mrs. CJ Laney, Past President
PSWP 50-Year Pin
Past Supreme Worthy President (Mrs. Jay U.) Nancy Ipsen receives her 50-year pin. Shown in photo are Mrs. Barbara Lang, Worthy President, on the left, Mrs. Ipsen and (Mrs. Hans) Marjorie Engebretson, Recorder, on the right, all members of Minneapolis Assembly No. 46, Minneapolis, MN. Mrs. Ipsen joined the Social Order of the Beauceant on February 3rd, 1975. KT
(Mrs. Earl) Audry Tweed, Past President Dallas No 63; (Mrs. David) Wynn Evans, Supreme Worthy President
Supreme Worthy President Official Visit:
Denver Assembly No. 1
IBy Melissa Spann
t is always a special occasion for the Supreme Worthy President to conduct her official visit where it all started – Denver Assembly No.1. Mrs. Evans’ visit was no exception. Denver Beauceant Sisters and Sir Knights rolled out the red carpet and received Mrs. Evans in a royal manner. Keeping to tradition, all in attendance had a lovely time demonstrating their faith, loyalty, and love. KT
(From Left) Sir Knight Ron Birely, Past Grand Commander; Sir Knight John Zeaphey, Past Grand Commander; Sir Knight Grover Sardeson, Grand Recorder; Sir Knight Joe Kier, Georgetown No. 4; Sir Knight Mark Ralston, Georgetown No. 4; Sir Knight Robert Kerr, Denver-Colorado No. 1; (Mrs. David) Wynn Evans, Supreme Worthy President; Sir Knight Keith Anderson, Coronal-Ascalon No. 31; Sir Knight Ricky Benish, Grand Commander; Sir Knight Jerry Rice, Georgetown No. 4; Sir Knight Don Nichols, Georgetown No. 4; Sir Knight Al Ulibarri, Coronal-Ascalon No. 31; Sir Knight Steve Davis, Past Grand Commander; Sir Knight Joe Summers, Past Grand Commander.
(Front row): Ms. Nancy Frieburg; (Mrs. Robert) Ann Kerr; (Mrs. Mark) Lauren Ralston, Supreme Daughter of the Household; (Mrs. David) Wynn Evans, Supreme Worthy President; Ms. Janet Godsy, Worthy President; (Mrs. Tom) Norma Shafer, Supreme Credentials Committee; Ms. Laura Lambird; (Mrs. Ron) Elaine Birely, Past President; (Mrs. Steve) Sheila Davis. (Middle row): Ms. Falon Ulibarri; (Mrs. Robert) Kay Applegate; (Mrs. Joe) Debby Kier, Past President; Ms. Rose McDonald, Past President; (Mrs. John) Margaret Zeaphey; (Mrs. Kent) Mona Eckley; (Mrs. Joe) Sue Summers; (Mrs. Keith) Cathy Anderson; (Mrs. Mel) Jeanne Thompson, Past President; and (Mrs. Ricky) Cheryl Benish, wife of Grand Commander. (Back row): Sir Knight Ron Birely, Past Grand Commander; Sir Knight John Zeaphey, Past Grand Commander; Sir Knight Grover Sardeson, Grand Secretary; Sir Knight Joe Kier, Georgetown No. 4; Sir Knight Mark Ralston, Georgetown No. 4; Sir Knight Robert Kerr, Denver-Colorado No. 1; (Mrs. David) Wynn Evans, Supreme Worthy President; Sir Knight Keith Anderson, Coronal-Ascalon No. 31; Sir Knight Ricky Benish, Grand Commander; Sir Knight Jerry Rice, Georgetown No. 4; Sir Knight Don Nichols, Georgetown No. 4; Sir Knight Al Ulibarri, Coronal-Ascalon No. 31; Sir Knight Steve Davis, Past Grand Commander; Sir Knight Joe Summers, Past Grand Commander.
by
Photos
Wynn Evans
GRAND MASTER’S CLUBS
FEBRUARY 2025
AL Johnnie Butler
AL John L. Cobb
AL Robert D. Legg
AZ Donald R. Tapia
AR Paul H. Craig
CA Richard O. Wright
CT Mark S. Agnew
CT James S. McNeely IV
DC Nicholas Mastron
DC Kevin S. Matthews
FL Paul W. Friend
FL Richard A. Vogt
FL Frank R. Wilson III
GA James G. Mashburn
IN Mark A. Elder
IN Dominic J. Hamblin
IA Thomas D. Lindblom
MD Clyde F. Ebersole
MA/RI Kevin T. Jones
MI Daniel Ayoub
MN James A. Henderson
MN Joel R. Porter
MS John R. Fielder Jr.
MS John B. McKelvy
MT Kenneth P. Richardson
NV Adrian G. Eriksen
NH Thomas X. Tsirimokos
NY Robert A. Miller Sr.
NC Timothy M. Farris
NC Louis E. Lamphear
NC James B. Steele
OH Terry W. Lowe
OH John E. Stuckey
OH Frank C. Sundquist
OK Robert L. Bradway
OK Gerald K. Hornung
PA James D. Amos
PA Nigel K. Foundling
PA Robert Hafft
PA Bruce K. Kelley
PA William F. McQuade
PA Earl T. Myers Jr.
Philippines McKentyre V. Cabrera
SC Emerson R. Couch
SC James S. Harrison Jr.
TX Raymond Caruthers
TX Michael T. Malone
TX Michael D. Phillipus
TX Gary E. Rock Jr.
VT Pierre N. Letourneau
VA Jimmy D. Davis
VA Raymond P. Raehn
VA Bradley J. Watts
VA Alan K. Webster
WA Earl W. Fordham
WV Jeffrey D. McKenzie
MARCH 2024
AL Amos G. Welborn
CA David J. Kussman
CA Socrates E. Patronas
CO Darren Klinefelter
DC Roger E. Cundiff
DC Kevin S. Matthews
FL Jeff W. Agan
FL Todd M. Connor
FL Benjamin P. Minichino
FL John J. Pugliese
GA James D. Arnold
GA Jeffery F. Hightower
GA Bryan J. Stanley
HI Robert M. Sanchez
ID Robert A. Farrow
ID James C. Herndon
ID Allen D. Simmons
ID Edgar R. Simmons
IL Robert W. Bigley
IL Robert B. Dement
IN Nicholas A. Andryuk
KS Bernhard O. Eggel
LA Luke Joseph
LA James G. Russell
MA/RI Robert M. Hopkins
MN Eric J. Thiem
MO Chad E. Wagoner
NV Joseph R. Miller
NJ Michael Cefaratti III
NC Louis E. Lamphear
OH Daniel A. Cook Jr.
OH Erick D. Felt
OK Robert L. Bradway
OK David A. Sikes
PA Brenden R. Hunter
PA Adam C. Hyde
PA Donald Kline
PA Mark D. Naglee
PA Jason R. Oudit
PA Donald C. Seibert
PA Donald E. Zipp III
SD Ronald R. Hammer
TN Dickie W. Johnson
TX Eugene C. Peters II
TX Francis P. Santandrea
UT Paul D. Erickson
UT Gary T. Roberts
VA Michael T. Huff
GRAND COMMANDER’S CLUBS
FEBRUARY 2025
CT James S. McNeely IV
IN Mark A. Elder
KY Isaac May
LA Mark A. St. John
LA William J. Surls
MD Clyde F. Ebersole
MA/RI Kevin T. Jones
MI Daniel Ayoub
MN James A. Henderson
MT Kenneth P. Richardson
PA James D. Amos
PA Michael O. Arce
PA Bruce K. Kelley
PA Keith W. McKeon
SC Hoyt B. Palmer
TN James H. McCraw
TX Fabriel Cisneros
VT Bruce R. Howard
VT Pierre N. Letourneau
VA Christopher O. Dalton
VA Joseph M. Matthews
VA Raymond P. Raehn
WA Charles R. Davis
MARCH 2025
AL Michael A. Chieffo II
AL Amos G. Welborn
CA Eugenio T. Tianero
CT Mark S. Agnew
FL Todd M. Connor
FL Benjamin P. Minichino
FL John D. Pickford
FL John J. Pugliese
WA Barron J. White
WV Michael T. Mahony
WI Richard J. Rausch
APRIL 2025
AZ Donald R. Tapia
CA Michael L. Miller
CA Edgar Tuna
CO Daniel A. Rivers
CT Mark S. Agnew
CT Eric H. Hoy
FL Henry A. Adams
FL Carlos Correa
FL Brett A. Gordon
FL John D. Pickford
FL Steven Q. Steele
IL Michael D. Millette
ME Peter L. Quimby
MI Christopher Devriendt
MI Jeffrey M. Lewis
MN Alan Mackenzie
MO Donald J. Newman Jr.
NM Stephen A. Balke
NY David A. Carsno
NC Paul W. Brown
NC Louis E. Lamphear
NC Hugh L. McLaurin III
NC James B. Steele
NC Brian M. Turner
OH Douglas K. McIe
OK David A. Sikes
PA Raymond J. Hartman II
PA Scott R. Hilsee
PA Joshua J. Nay
GA James G. Mashburn
IL Stephen T. Adamson
IL Robert B. Dement
IL John B. Gates
IN Nicholas A. Andryuk
KS Bernhard O. Eggel
MN Joel R. Porter
MN Eric J. Thiem
MS John B. McKelvy
MT James P. Wolfe
NV Michael A. Edge
NV David J. Morgan
OH Paul D. Andrews
OH Frank C. Sundquist
OR Fritz H. Thomas III
PA John W. Berry
PA Adam C. Hyde
SD Ronald R. Hammer
TN James H. McCraw
TX Gary E. Rock Jr.
TX William B. Travis
TX Larry S. Wall
VA Joseph B. Hale
VA George C. Walton
WA Charles R. Davis
WI Lester C. Paulson
WI Richard J. Rausch
WY Lewis E. Shepherd
PA Frederick C. Koeck II
PA Stephen A. Perichak
PA Donald E. Zipp III
TX Larry V. Hall
UT Leon W. Crockett
UT Gary T. Roberts
VT David W. Schuler
WV Harold L. Hadley
WI Richard J. Rausch
APRIL 2025
CA Frank H. Nappi
CA Edgar Tuna
CT Eric H. Hoy
DC Nicholas J. Sampogna
FL Brett A. Gordon
FL Charles R. Jordan
FL John D. Pickford
MI Jeffrey M. Lewis
MO Jerry M. Laflen
NM James E. Bungard
NC Hugh L. McLaurin III
PA Joseph G. Coniglio
PA Roger B. Early
TX Larry S. Wall
TX Deon R. Williams
UT Paul D. Erickson
VA Joseph B. Hale
VA David E. Potts
VA Donald S. Truslow
WA Charles R. Davis
WI Richard J. Rausch
NINETEEN SWORDS OF MERIT AWARDED
by Ben Williams
The KTEF awarded a record number of Swords of Merit in FY 2024-2025. Each Sword of Merit is awarded for a donation totaling $25,000 or more, either as a single gift or via the culmination of twenty-five Grand Master Clubs.
The KTEF awarded nineteen Swords of Merit from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025, representing a total of $475,000 in donations from Sir Knights across the Grand Encampment. Additionally, during the same time frame, the KTEF awarded nine Golden Chalices, representing an additional $90,000. The KTEF funds cutting-edge research to cure childhood blindness. It is the largest and most respected non-governmental foundation funding pediatric ophthalmological research in the country. KT
SWORDS OF MERIT
Milford Commandery No. 11 (Single Donation) Massachusetts / Rhode Island
Sir Knight Louis N. Abreu III (25 GMC) St. Lucie Commandery No.17, Florida
Sir Knight Armen Ulyan (25 GMC) Los Angeles Commandery No.9, California
Sir Knight Jabe R. Hammond (25 GMC) Nativity Commandery No.71, Pennsylvania
Sir Knight Carl Henry Reusser III (25 GMC) Marysville Commandery No. 7, California
Sir Knight Raymond Douglas Steele (25 GMC) Commandery Nos. 12, 19, and 37, Virginia
Sir Knight Leland George Routt (25 GMC) Pacific Commandery No. 3, California
Sir Knight George Ross (25 GMC) San Luis Obispo Commandery No. 27, California
Sir Knight William Robert Clark Jr. (25 GMC) Temple Commandery No. 4, Iowa
Sir Knight Kenneth Leroy Morris (25 GMC) Melita Commandery No. 9, Nevada
Sir Knight Thomas Xenophon Tsirimokos (25 GMC) Trinity Commandery No. 1, New Hampshire
In Memory of Sir Knight Steve Lutz, REPGC (Single Donation) St Johns Commandery No. 9, New Jersey
Sir Knight Thomas D. Lindblom (25 GMC) Columbian Commandery No. 18, Iowa
Sir Knight Robert Lynn Bradway (25 GMC) Oklahoma Commandery No. 3, Oklahoma
Sir Knight Donald Ray Tapia (25 GMC) Phoenix Commandery No. 3, Arizona
Sir Knight Michael Lee Miller (25 GMC) Santa Monica Bay Commandery No. 61, California
Sir Knight Donald Joseph Newman Jr. (25 GMC) Ivanhoe Commandery No. 8, Missouri
Shasta Commandery No. 17 (Single Donation) California
Nashville Commandery No. 1 (Single Donation) Tennessee
GOLDEN CHALICES
New Orleans Scottish Rite Foundation, Inc.
Sir Knight William R. Clark, Jr. - Temple Commandery No. 4 Iowa
Sir Knight Gary D. Winter - Washington Commandery No. 15 Oregon
Sir Knight Chase May - Phoenix Commandery No. 13 Arizona
Sir Knight Clinton & Emilie Christensen - Fairbault Commandery No. 8 Minnesota
Sir Knight Monte L. Harris - St. Simon of Cyrene Commandery No. 9 Iowa
Sir Knight Edward J. Newton, Jr. - Milford Commandery No. 11, Mass/RI
Sir Knight Glen M. Cunningham - Milford Commandery No. 11, Mass/RI
Sir Knight Victor D. Vaitkunas - Milford Commandery No. 11, Mass/RI
SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
by Robert Bigley and Ben Williams
GRAPEVINE, TX – Thirteen of the world’s leading clinicians and research scientists convened in March to review applications for grants on behalf of the Knights Templar Eye Foundation.
Due to severe weather in Dallas, some committee members attended by ZOOM.
Members of the committee hail from across the country – clinicians, research scientists, and practitioners working in labs, hospitals, and universities as far afield as California, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Each is a world-recognized expert in their field.
The committee reviewed thirty-four career starter grants, and nineteen competitive renewal grants. After discussion on each grant, the committee awarded a total of twenty-six grants: sixteen career starter grants and ten competitive renewal grants, a total of $2,339,762 in research funded. Recipient institutions included post-doctorate researchers at the Department of Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins University; the Wilmer Eye Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; University of Alabama’s Cell, Development, and Integrative Biology department; Department of Ophthalmology, Columbia University; University of Wisconsin, Madison; the F.M. Kirby Center for Molecular Ophthalmology, Department of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania; Emory University School of Medicine; Miami University Department of Biology; University of Michigan; Stanford Ophthalmology Advanced Research (SOAR), Stanford University School of Medicine; Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital
of Chicago, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine; Boston Children’s Hospital Harvard Medical School; University of California San Francisco; University of Virginia, Department of Biology; and the Vascular Biology Center at Augusta University.
Career starter grants comprise essential funding for scientists looking to establish proof-of-concept to cutting-edge research. Grants awarded include funding to study development of nerve cells and inflammation pathways in developing retinas to better understand etiology of, and potentially less invasive treatments for, retinopathy of prematurity, a common cause of childhood blindness; investigation of mitochondrial damage as a cause of Stargardt disease, a genetic eye disease involving mutation of a specific gene affecting 1 in 8,000 children; application of a new imaging tool (called visible-light optical coherence tomography, or “vis-OCT”) to study retinal development in a particular species of shrew with similar optical characteristics as humans to better detect and prevent onset of developmental diseases affecting vision; among other specialized research with potential to yield useful discoveries in understanding human vision and the detection, prevention, treatment, and even cure for childhood blindness.
Each grant application is reviewed prior to the meeting and scored by committee members. Each application is ranked based on the scores allotted. At the meeting, based on each application's ranking, detailed discussions take place. After discussion, each application is rescored. After all applications are reviewed again, a final score-based ranking is determined. Any committee member can request any application
be reviewed a final time.
After final discussion, the committee decides which applications should be awarded and submits its decisions to the KTEF officers present for approval.
After the meeting, the KTEF office sends out a letter to the applicants detailing whether their application was selected for funding. Final comments from committee members are sent with the letter. Award recipients are also sent final agreements to sign. Once the final agreements are received by the office, checks are drafted and sent to the various institutions.
A Few of the Grants
Dr. Cao, M.D., Ph.D., from John Hopkins University School of Medicine, Wilmer Eye Institute, is studying the role of a protein, High Mobility Group Box 1 (HMGB1), in signaling inflammation in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), a leading cause of childhood blindness worldwide.
HMGB1 takes different roles intracellularly, regulating transcription of sequences of genetic code interior to the nucleus, and –secreted by white blood cells – signaling inflammation response in the cytoplasm. Antibodies that neutralize HMGB1 prevent damage in surrounding tissue during inflammation states. Research has documented significant increases in HMGBI in the eyes of mice suffering oxygen-induced retinopathy. Dr. Cao’s study aims to determine the role and mechanisms of HMGB1 in oxygen-induced retinopathy to develop treatments targeting the protein in children suffering from ROP.
Dr. Lima de Carvalho, Jr., M.D., from the Kirby Center for Molecular Ophthalmology,
Continued on page 49
Photo provided by KTEF Office
2025 Knights Templar Eye Foundation Travel Grant Support for AAPOS
by Robert Bigley
The Knights Templar Eye Foundation, (KTEF) Ophthalmology Resident/ Medical Student Travel Grant provides critical support that enabled sixty-five emerging medical professionals – including thirteen residents and fifty-two medical students – to attend the 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Assoication for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus (AAPOS) in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The grants are given to third or fourth year medical students, or to physicians early in their residencies.
The grant application process is admin-
Continued from page 49
Dept. of Ophthalmology, Perelman School of Medicine, at the University of Pennsylvania, is mapping models of a mutated gene expression. The Outer Mitochondrial Membrane Lipid Metabolism Regulator (OPA3) gene is believed to regulate expression of proteins vital to mitochondrial function. Mitochondria, intracellular organelles, are the principal means by which cells derive energy. Mutations in this gene are associated with autosomal dominant optic atrophy and cataract (ADOA), a devastating disease where the optic nerve degenerates. Cataracts can also proliferate. Additionally, mutations to OPA3 may manifest additional diseases due to improper division of mitochondria leading to cellular collapse affecting multiple organ systems, including the eyes, muscles, and the nervous system. Dr. Lima de Carvalho’s research aims to map in vitro retinal atrophy associated with OPA3 expression to better understand the role of this gene and its muta-
istered under the direction of a dedicated AAPOS selection committee. Oversight was provided by AAPOS in collaboration with the KTEF office. AAPOS received 116 applications and our support of $100,000, allowed sixty-five scientists to attend this conference.
This funding significantly enhanced educational and professional development opportunities for all participants. Many of the grant recipients contributed to the scientific program through posters and research presentations, gaining valuable academic experience.
This meeting is an opportunity for these
students and residents to learn and network. It pays dividends as they opt to pursue pediatric ophthalmology for their careers.
The KTEF continued investments in trainee travel support plays a strategic role in AAPOS’s effort to attract, inspire, and develop the next generation of pediatric ophthalmologists.
Showing our continued support for AAPOS, David D. Goodwin, Executive Director and Past President of KTEF attended the meeting. KT
tions in causing disease with mind to developing diagnostic and therapeutic remedies.
Dr. Perez-Estrada, Ph.D., from Miami University Department of Biology, is researching the processes by which newts are able to regenerate their eyes. Specifically, Dr. Perez-Es-
trada is studying the metabolic pathways by which energy is derived to form and regenerate the eyes of newts to see if these unusual biological processes can be leveraged to create treatments to cure childhood blindness. KT
Photos provided by AAPOS Committee
95 STUDENT TRAVEL GRANTS FOR ARVO's ANNUAL MEETING
by Ben Williams
Representing the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc. at this year’s ARVO Annual meeting pictured above with the travel grant recipients was David D. Goodwin, Executive Director, Past President and Director; Robert W. Bigley, Assistant Secretary; and Marci L. Martinez, Director of Operations KTEF Office
The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology (ARVO) convened its annual meeting in Salt Lake City this year. Over 10,000 members attended – the largest gathering since 2019.
Consistent with its vision to incentivize research at the cutting-edge of ophthalmological science, the Knights Templar Eye Foundation (KTEF) funds travel grants to students otherwise unable to attend the convention to present their research.
ARVO’s annual meeting is widely seen by those in the industry as vital for networking, to inspire, and be inspired by, others working in the same space. Science is a conversation over centuries; gathering 10,000 scientists of a particular field in one place at one time catalyzes contemplation. Interaction between researchers broadens horizons and connects people pursuing similar goals: to cure blindness.
KTEF has increased its support of ARVO up to $100,000. “We believe this is an ideal expansion of our funding concept,” KTEF Assistant Secretary, Robert Bigley, said. “By stretching out a helping hand to those just starting their careers, we hope to encourage and expedite successful careers in pediatric ophthalmology.”
KTEF awarded ninety-five travel grants this year, 24% of the 396 travel grants awarded by ARVO and the ARVO Foundation this year.
57th Voluntary Campaign Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc. CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN'S REPORT
Ihad the privilege to attend the Knights Templar Eye Foundation Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) meeting held in Grapevine, Texas, thank you President Kussman for the invitation. Wow! One of the most impressive meetings I have attended. If you are ever afforded the opportunity to sit in at this meeting, take it. Your heart will be touched. I cannot fully express what I saw. I don’t know the right adjective. Awesome, amazing, wonderful, stupendous, blessed, eye opening, they all come to mind and all fall short. I dare say, these individuals, knowingly or not, are doing God’s work. And they do it on your behalf and for no fee or reward.
These doctors are some of the most highly respected people in their profession. They are sought after for their talents, skills, and intellect. The pressures they face, the demands on their time are overwhelming. Yet, they chose to spend their valuable time with us. Why? Why would they, some of the most important people in the field of ophthalmology, believe it in their best interests to take the time not only to attend this meeting but spend the many hours it takes to study each request for funding?
Could the Knights Templar Eye Foundation be that important to their profession? I asked the Chair of the Committee (Dr. Bela Anand-Apte) how she heard of, and why she was involved with, the Eye Foundation. She looked at me with bewilderment that I would even have to ask that question. She told me anyone in pediatric ophthalmology knows the Knights Templar Eye Foundation. She said we are hugely important in the field. With less and less government funding, this group is becoming even more important. Without us, many if not all, of these research projects would go unfunded and thus unstudied. If that
happened, very few advancements in treatments would occur. Without these improvements, childhood blindness would continue. The research you fund provides for improved treatments, detection, and better tools for the doctors to use in providing care for children with eye issues.
Let me try to summarize what I saw.
First, at dinner on Friday I was greatly disappointed to learn no one at my table was a Dallas Cowboys fan. But I managed to put that aside and give them a chance to impress me. I was. Humbled and impressed at what I saw on Saturday.
We get between 50-60 requests for funding each year. Historically around 52% of the requests get funding from us. Remember we are mostly in the starter grant funding. Someone early in their career in pediatric ophthalmology research fills out a request for funding and our SAC makes the determination which ones to fund. Each request is assigned to two members of the Committee. Those two are responsible for a full examination of the request and then they make a report to the full Committee. They also score the request on a scale of 1 to 10. These two Committee members make the case supporting their score and answer questions from the remaining Committee members. I quickly learned most of the Committee members were very familiar with the request and what they were trying to study. The time they must spend on these requests, on their own time with no pay, is in the hundreds of hours.
It is fascinating to listen to the discussion. Oh, I don’t mean to say I understood a single word of what they were talking about, but their knowledge of each subject was clear to understand. I was very impressed with the care in their voices, the open and honest discussion of their opinions, especially when they did not agree. On each request they wanted to know, how will this research move pediatric treatments forward? They determine if the research is even pediatric in nature. Is it really a starter grant? I heard often “The Knights are raising money for Pediatric Eye Care, does this proposal fit with the mission of the Eye Foundation. Is this the type of project the Knights are working so hard to raise money for?” The doctors are fully aware of our goals, our mission, and they hold those in high regard when spending the money you have raised. They are very conscientious with our funds. They showed great concern for help -
by Richard Jernigan
ing new researchers so the future of their field will have strong leaders.
Every member of this Committee makes a strong contribution. They take this very seriously. They do not waste our funds. They understand, more than any of us, just how important this work is. They are on the front lines of Bringing the Light to those that sit in darkness.
After the two assigned to the specific grant request have made their case, the entire Committee scores the request. The scores are tabulated by the Eye Foundation staff and the highest scoring requests are granted. They set a minimum score for which a grant will be made. This ensures we are only funding requests that will have an impact in the future.
Here are some random notes I made during the meeting: “These people are amazing”, “We are the number 1 donor to the American Academy of Ophthalmology”, “Very blunt and honest in their assessment.”, “I understand every word, ha ha.”, “Pediatric Cataracts, I didn’t even know existed. This study will give doctors a way to identify this in a child.”
The Knights Templar Eye Foundation is fulfilling the mission we set for it. It has, is, and will continue improving the detection, treatment, and sometimes elimination of Pediatric Eye diseases and blindness. Your Scientific Advisory Committee cares deeply about this field of medicine and cares deeply about being good stewards of our funds. I cannot imagine a better mix. Sir Knight DeLamater would be proud of what he created. This Eye Foundation and the SAC is a blessing from God. I urge you to continue your support. Raise funds anyway you can. The work you are doing is invaluable and no one else has as much impact on the lives of children and generations to come as a single Knight making even a small donation to this worthy cause. There are children now and yet to be born counting on the Knights Templar to save them from a lifetime of darkness. You can and are making a difference. Our mission is clear, it is up to each Knight Templar to continue supporting this mission. It is critical to so many.
God Bless each of you, and God continue to Bless those brilliant, caring doctors You have placed on this SAC.
