The Journal of The Masonic Society, Issue #28

The Journal

Of The Masonic Society

Spring 2015

Issue 28

Spring 2015 THE JOURNAL

Issue 28

FEATURES

OF THE

MASONIC SOCIETY WWW.THEMASONICSOCIETY.COM

ISSN 2155-4145

Executive Editor Michael Halleran editor@themasonicsociety.com

1427 W. 86th Street, Suite 248 Indianapolis IN 46260-2103 Editorial Committee Kenneth W. Davis - Review Editor Queries concerning prospective articles should be sent to: paper-submissions@themasonicsociety.com Design & layout John A. Bridegroom, FMS - Art Director Advertising Jay Hochberg, FMS - Advertising Director ads@themasonicsociety.com Officers James R. Dillman, President Clayton J. Borne III, 1st Vice President Patrick C. Craddock, 2nd Vice president Nathan C. Brindle, Secretary/Treasurer Christopher L. Hodapp, Editor Emeritus

10

Three Great Knocks: Correlations between Cornerstone laying Ceremonies and the Ceremony of the Third Degree

by Richard B. Bunn, MMS

18

Paradigms and Periods of Transition in Freemasonry

by John Bizzack, MMS

22

George Washington meets a Past Grand Master of England

by Mark A. Tabbert, FMS

Directors Kenneth W. Davis José O. Díaz Andrew Hammer Aaron Shoemaker Gregg Hall Gregory J. Knott Gord Vokes

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Journal Name. Year; Issue:pp-pp. © the Journal of The Masonic Society.”

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Published quarterly by The Masonic Society Inc. 1427 W. 86th Street, Suite 248, Indianapolis IN 46260-2103.

Full membership for Master Masons in good standing of a lodge chartered by a grand lodge that is a member of the Conference of Grand Masters of Masons of North America (CGMMNA), or recognized by a CGMMNA member grand lodge. (includes Prince Hall Grand Lodges recognized by their counterpart CGMMNA state Grand Lodge): $39/ yr., ($49 outside US/Canada). Subscription for nonmembers: $39/yr., ($49 outside US/Canada).

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SECTIONS 4 President’s Message 5 News of the Society 8 Conferences, Speeches, Symposia & Gatherings 9 36 From the Editor 26 Masonic Collectibles 28 Thoughts on the Craft 30 Book Reviews THE COVER: The cover image for this issue is a representation of a typical Chamber of Reflection. Associated with several rites including the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the French Rite, and, where not prohibited, in some blue lodge ceremonies, little is known about its precise origins. There is some consensus that it first appeared in eighteenth century France, and the Hermetic influence of its symbolism suggests some influence of the Rosicrucians.

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PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

A Great Time to be a Member

by James Dillman, FMS

T

he program for The Quarry Project II is almost complete and I’m pleased to be able to share many more details about the conference with our members and subscribers. The conference will be held in Indianapolis September 18-20. As noted in my previous column, this year’s event will all be under one roof. The Hilton Indianapolis Hotel and Suites in downtown Indianapolis will host all TQP events. It is conveniently located just west of Monument Circle in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. The Circle Center Mall has over 100 stores and is located just across the street from the hotel. There are dozens of restaurants and entertainment venues within easy walking distance.

We have assembled an impressive list of presenters from within and without the Masonic fraternity who will offer instruction and guidance on a variety of topics associated with the three different program tracks.

I’d like to share some of the highlights with you. Please note that the programs are not completely etched in stone and remain tentative.

The research, writing, and editing track sponsored by The Masonic Society will feature keynote speaker David Hackett, PhD, who will present on academic research by the non-academic. Topics to be addressed in the breakout sessions include how to obtain original source materials, how to use an academic library, communicating your research, Masonic blogging, on-demand printing, and publishing options. One session will be devoted to the newly-released Quarry Project Style Guide, a project that was initiated at the first TQP in 2013. The first edition of the style guide has been released and is published on the TQP website. Several Masonic publishers have already agreed to adopt the style quide. The goal of this project is to establish some consistency in Masonic writing. A round table featuring editors of prominent national Masonic publications will discuss a topic related to publishing and public relations.

The library/museum track sponsored by the Masonic Library and Museum Association is not completed at this time, but the keynote address will be delivered by Helge Bjørn Horrisland, who will present on recovering Masonic history. Breakout session presentations will include library collection development, cataloging your library collection, using your museum collection in exhibitions, photographing and numbering your collection, connecting your audience to your collection, collection policies, and a case study on building a museum from the ground up. A round table discussion regarding procurement and use of college interns will also be part of this track. Additional presentations The public relations track sponsored by the Masonic Information Center (part of the Masonic Service Association) will feature keynote speaker Scott Monty, a former Ford Motor Company executive. The topic of his presentation is not available as this goes to print. The breakout session topics include use of social media, awareness via Masonic philanthropy, public relations and marketing, advertising and media campaigns, history of the MIC, and a look at Masonic public relations from outside the fraternity.

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After Sunday’s keynote address, a panel featuring the steering committee members will review the event, answer questions, solicit comments from attendees, and discuss the future of The Quarry Project.

The speaker at the Saturday evening banquet will be John Bizzack, who will address the perils and consequences of poorly conducted research.

We are very excited about adding the public relations track sponsored by the Masonic Information Center to The Quarry Project. Although this may extend somewhat beyond the stated mission of The Masonic Society, we are always interested in contributing to the education of the craft and in being of service the fraternity at large. Communication within Freemasonry at both the local and grand lodge level has not always been our greatest strength. Public awareness and media relations have become increasingly important and we have not always put our best foot forward. This is a great opportunity to hear from people who have managed communications effectively at every level.

The Masonic Society and Masonic Library and Museum tracks are open to anyone, Freemason or not, with an interest in Masonic writing, research, editing, and preservation. The public relations track breakout sessions will only be open to Freemasons from jurisdictions in good standing with the Conference of Grand Masters of Masons in North America. A valid dues card will be required for admission to those breakout sessions.

Please share this information with anyone you know who may be interested in attending. This conference is intended to be almost entirely instructional in nature. New and aspiring researchers and museum curators and librarians without formal training will profit tremendously from the information presented. It also gives attendees the opportunity to network and establish connections with experts in various aspects of writing, research, and preservation.

We particularly want to get information about TQP into the hands of the various lodges of research around the U.S. and Canada and we will be sending letters to as many of them as we can find addresses for.

These letters don’t always end up in the right hands, so if you belong to a lodge of research, please share this information with your fellow members. Encouraging them to become members of The Masonic Society wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

Go to The Quarry Project website at www.thequarryproject.com to find information on registration, accommodations, and the latest information on the programs.

Best wishes to all of you for a safe, healthy, and enjoyable summer. I look forward to seeing many of you in Indianapolis in September.

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News of the Society

Kenneth W. Davis

DAVIS STEPS UP A change in the leadership of The Masonic Society was announced in March. First Vice President Clayton J. “Chip” Borne, III retired from his position; succeeded him is Kenneth W. Davis, who had been serving on the Board of Directors.

A retired English professor and former chair of the English Department at Indiana UniversityPurdue University Indianapolis, Davis is an author of several books and is a Past Master of Lodge Vitruvian No. 767 in Indianapolis. He is active these days in several Masonic groups in Albuquerque, including New Mexico Lodge of Research. He has distinguished himself in The Masonic Society by serving as the Book Review Editor, and was instrumental in creating and writing The Quarry Project Style Guide. Returning to the Board of Directors in Ken’s place is Jay Hochberg.

FAMILIAR NAMES AMONG THE MRF SPEAKERS In April, the Masonic Restoration Foundation announced its roster of presenters for its Sixth Annual Symposium, scheduled for August 21-23 in Philadelphia. Among the ten speakers are seven members of The Masonic Society: Oscar Alleyne, Second Vice President Patrick C. Craddock, Shawn Eyer, Moises Gomez, TMS Director and MRF President Andrew Hammer, TMS Director Jay Hochberg, and Daniel Hrinko. Also on the agenda are Ryan J. Flynn, Robert Herd, and Brian Skoff.

BEY HIGHLIGHTS PENNSYLVANIA ACADEMY The Pennsylvania Academy of Masonic Knowledge had to make a quick substitution in the program of its March 22 session in Elizabethtown. TMS Fellow Rashied K. Sharrieff-Al-Bey saved the day when TMS Member George Braatz was unable to attend.

KNOTT NAMED MASON OF THE YEAR TMS Director and Founding Member Gregory J. Knott was named Mason of the Year by the Scottish Rite Valley of Danville March 28.

The one-time winner of the Mark Twain Award, Knott is editor of the Valley Echoes newsletter, and is the official photographer for the Valley of Danville. He has served as an officer in the Danville Lodge

of Perfection. Additionally he serves as a regular contributor to the Midnight Freemasons blog.

CREASON NAMED MISSOURI LOR FELLOW TMS Member Todd E. Creason has been named the 15th Fellow of Missouri Lodge of Research. Creason is the author of several books and novels, including the “Famous American Freemason” series. He also is the founder of the Midnight Freemasons blog (www. midnightfreemasons.org) and continues to be a regular contributor.

QUARRY PROJECT REGISTRATION OPEN The Quarry Project Phase II: Masonic Conference on Research and Preservation, a joint effort of The Masonic Society, the Masonic Library and Museum Association, and the George Washington Masonic Memorial, is set for September 18-20 in Indianapolis. See Page 7 for registration and accommodations info.

THE PLUMBLINE HAS A NEW EDITOR At the Scottish Rite Research Society, Robert M. Wolfarth, a Founding Member of TMS, stepped aside as editor of the SRRS’ quarterly newsletter The Plumbline in February to focus on his duties as the newly installed Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge of Utah. Stepping into the editor’s role is TMS Founding Fellow Adam Kendall of California, who also is the Collections Manager for the Henry Wilson Coil Library and Museum of Freemasonry in San Francisco.

MAD MEN MENTIONS MASONS The May 3 episode of the AMC drama Mad Men, titled “Lost Horizon,” offers a quick quip mentioning Freemasonry. As character Roger Sterling packs his things for a move to a new office, he produces a ceremonial Masonic trowel, and asks co-worker Peggy Olson if she knows any Freemasons. She giggles.

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News of the Society ith great pride and appreciation, The Masonic Society welcomes the following brethren as our esteemed new members.

Michael D Adams Neil J Alioto Sr. Patrick Andersen Brent D Atwater Michael T. Aycock Gregory John Bateman John Blythman Richard H. Bradbury Sr. Douglas H. Brown Sr. William J. Brown Christopher Scott Bunner Felix Calvillo Jr. Joseph T Cook Troy A. Cousin Todd E. Creason Eugene Patrick Crowder William G. Davis II

Felipe Eduardo Portela de Paulo Steven Edward Dieter Jonathan Michael Dowden Odilson Ferreira Nôvo Jr. Brandon Frie James R Gadsby Brian James Galloway Paul A. Gehrman Joshua RW Glass James William Gregg Robert E Grunin Gregory T Gustafson John W Hasty II Jerry L Hawk James Thomas Hendrickson II William H. Hochstettler III Elmer Joseph Kalal III

NEW YORK MASONS DIGITIZE LODGE RECORDS The Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library at the Grand Lodge of New York revealed in May that it has been undertaking the massive project of digitizing hundreds of thousands of pages, documents, and ephemera belonging to the constituent lodges of the Grand Lodge. The long term goal is to ensure all the data are preserved, up to date, and accessible.

RULES OF CIVILITY OFFERED FREE The George Washington Masonic Memorial is offering free copies of a newly published edition titled George Washington’s Rules of Civility. The book contains text from a seventeenth century guide to ethical conduct for young men that Washington, in his youth, hand copied to fashion a self-help book for himself.

Copies can be obtained by visiting gwmemorial.org/ civility.

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Tony Katawick III Greig J King Wayne R King II Robert Kliaman Donald R LeForce Nathan B. Long Daniel Wayne Lord Jr. Santino Lupini II Bob C Matthews Ryan Carl Mercer Marion J Michael Roger B Nelson Jr. Michael A Oliver Jeremy David Patches David Alden Pelton Kevin Eugene Perry Joel A. Porst

Michael J Postilli Ronny David Powell Anthony Eugene Price Jeremy J. Ramseyer Francisco Rosario Cesar Rubio Frank T Schenck Shane Philip Sheets Mikel Sinnott Michael Roy Snively Kenneth J. Stortz Dennis Henry Taylor Mat Madison Turner Carroll Edward Tynch Jr. Charles Everette Wilkinson III

IN MEMORIAM

B

ro. Harold L. “Dave” Davidson, 86 of Billings, passed away Friday, April 10, 2015 at his home.

Harold was proud to be a Fellow with the Philalethes Society and of his long association with the Scottish Rite and as a 33rd Degree Mason. As a member of the Al Bedoo Shrine GI Drill Squad, Harold had worked tirelessly behind the scenes for the Shrine circus and was awarded ‘Hero of the Year’ (1992).

Brother Harold Davidson began the Billings Masonic Library soon after he retired as a professor of library science, and he was one of the best people one could hope to deal with on used Masonic Books; and when a Mason needed help with research Harold was not only eager to help, he was extremely capable.

Brother Harold was the only librarian The Philalethes Society has had. He served as the Librarian for over 30 years.

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WINTER 2015 • 7

Renew your membership now online at www.themasonicsociety.com

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Conferences, Speeches, Symposia & Gatherings June 5, 2015 Delaware Lodge of Research will meet at 7:30 p.m. at the Masonic Temple at 818 North Market Street in Wilmington.

Progress TBA. masonsindelaware.org/blue/research.htm June 13, 2015 Western New York Lodge of Research will meet at 10 a.m. as a discussion group at the Masonic Service Bureau, located at 121 South Long Street in Williamsville, New York. Progress TBA. June 13, 2015 New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 to meet at 10 a.m. at Hightstown-Apollo Lodge in Hightstown, New Jersey.

June 13, 2015 Wilkerson College Lodge No. 760’s Masonic Symposium at Greensboro Masonic Temple (426 West Market Street) in Greensboro, North Carolina. Speakers to include authors Steven Bullock and Robert Herd.

Contact Lodge Secretary Doug Calhoun at medic208@gmail.com June 13, 2015 New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 to meet at 10 a.m. at Hightstown-Apollo Lodge in Hightstown, New Jersey.

June 20, 2015 New Mexico Lodge of Research will meet.

Location and progress TBA. nmlodgeofresearch.org June 20, 2015 Texas Lodge of Research will meet in Grapevine, Texas.

Location and progress TBA. texaslodgeofresearch.org

June 26-27, 2015 The Grand Lodge of New Mexico MASONICon leadership and education workshop will be held at the Ballut Abyad Shrine center in Albuquerque. The keynote speaker will be Michael Halleran, Past Grand Master of Kansas. For more information visit masonicon.org July 8, 2015 Anniversary Lodge of Research will meet at the Portsmouth Masonic Temple, located at 351 Middle Street in Portsmouth, New Hampshire for its installation of officers.

Supper at 6 p.m. Lodge opens at 7. www.anniversarylodge.org August 4, 2015 Golden Compasses Research Lodge to meet at 7 p.m. at 1000 Duchow Way in Folsom, California. Progress TBA. August 15, 2015 David A. McWilliams, Sr. Research and Education Lodge in Washington, DC will meet. Progress and location TBA. mwphgldc.org August 21-23, 2015 Masonic Restoration Foundation’s Sixth Annual Symposium at Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania’s Masonic Temple in Philadelphia. Progress TBA. masonicrestorationfoundation.org September 6, 2015 George Washington Masonic Stamp Club will hold its semi-annual meeting at the Baltimore Philatelic Exhibition at the Hunt Valley Inn in Hunt Valley, Maryland. gwmsc.tripod.com September 12, 2015 New Jersey Lodge of Masonic Research and Education No. 1786 to meet at 10 a.m. at Hightstown-Apollo Lodge in Hightstown, New Jersey.

September 12, 2015 Western New York Lodge of Research will meet at 10 a.m. as a discussion group at the Masonic Service Bureau, located at 121 South Long Street in Williamsville, New York. Progress TBA. September 15, 2015 Northern California Research Lodge to meet at 7 p.m. at the Valley of San Francisco.

September 18-20, 2015 The Quarry Project, Phase II, in Indianapolis. Co-hosted by The Masonic Society, the Masonic Library and Museum Association, and the Masonic Information Center.

September 19, 2015 Texas Lodge of Research will meet in Galveston, Texas.

Location and progress TBA. texaslodgeofresearch.org September 26, 2015 Oklahoma Lodge of Research will meet at 10:30 a.m. for its Annual Meeting. Location and progress TBA. oklahomalodgeofresearch.com

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FROM THE EDITOR

A Brief Survey of Proficiency Standards

by Michael Halleran, Editor

At a recent lodge meeting, I observed a rare thing – a perfect proficiency examination. I don’t claim to be a ritualist, but this one was pretty easy to spot because the candidate kept correcting his mentor. This examination took place in open lodge, and it got me curious what other jurisdictions require.

A very through enumeration of proficiency is found in the Constitution of the Grand Lodge of Kentucky.

Some brief research discloses a common desire on the part of all jurisdictions to insure familiarity with Masonic catechism, but with slightly different mechanics nationwide. To that end, many, but not all, grand lodges require proficiency examinations. Among those that do require them, there are some interesting differences.

The Grand Lodge further defines what is meant by a suitable proficiency as

Before a candidate can be advanced to a higher degree he must be examined in open lodge as to his proficiency in the degree last taken, and such examination shall be so conducted that it can be heard by the brethren present.... Each Master Mason raised shall likewise stand a creditable examination in open lodge....5

the ability to satisfactorily answer the questions in the first section of the lecture of the degree on which the brother is examined. By first section is meant all parts of the ceremony through the explanation of the working tools in the Entered Apprentice Degree and through the reinvestment in the other degrees. Proficiency in any degree can be declared satisfactory only by an affirmative vote of a majority of the members

M

any, but not all, grand lodges require proficiency examinations. Among those that do require them, there are some interesting differences.

In most jurisdictions, the advancing brother is examined on the catechism. Sometimes the Master examines him personally, in other instances he is questioned by a mentor. Some jurisdictions allow this in a committee setting, others require it done in open lodge.

In my jurisdiction “before any candidate is advanced to the Second or Third Degree, he must exhibit suitable proficiency in the preceding degree, and on demand of any member of the lodge the ballot must be taken in the same manner as on the petition.” In practice, this examination covers the particulars of the degree, as well as discussing the implements of the Craft. This examination may be done by the Master, by a committee appointed by him, or before the lodge.1 The Grand Lodge of Ohio requires that the advancing candidate be examined in “open lodge as to his proficiency in the preceding degree and his examination has been approved by the lodge by a majority voice vote immediately following.” The Grand Lodge of Illinois rules are similar but allow for the examination to occur in front of a committee, or in open lodge. 2 The Grand Lodge of Florida requires both an examination in open lodge and additional instruction.

No candidate shall receive the Fellow Craft or Master Mason Degree unless and until he shall have passed a satisfactory examination in open Lodge upon the catechism of the preceding Degree. No degree shall be conferred until the candidate has received instruction in the “Lodge System of Masonic Education.”3 In Wisconsin, the Grand Lodge requires that “the Master shall be satisfied with the candidate’s comprehension of the lesson taught in each Degree as well as the form and symbolism of the Degree.”4

present, but a reexamination and another vote can be had at any time.6 This brief survey discloses that despite draughtsman’s differences, proficiency examinations are not meant to wave on an advancing brother who is proficient in nothing more than a willingness to pay his dues. Although some grand lodge standards are vague in the bylaws, the customs and traditions of each grand lodge will provide for specifications that may not be printed in the law books.

It seems clear that suitable proficiency means comprehension – not just a rote recitation – of the experience of the degree, enriched with appreciation of the implements of Masonry and some understanding of the symbolism of the fraternity, as specified by the grand lodge.

Sadly, we have all witnessed perfunctory examinations, but these do no one any favors. To the extent that we can promote seriousness and intellectual rigor in these exercises, the fraternity – and the advancing brother – will benefit greatly.

ABOUT THE EDITOR Michael Halleran is the immediate past grand master of the Grand Lodge of Kansas A.F. & A.M. NOTES 1 2 3 4 5 6

Grand Lodge of Kansas, Constitution, Art. X § 6 (2014).

Grand Lodge of Ohio, Masonic Code §27.02 (2014); Grand Lodge of Illinois, Laws Relating to Lodges, §361 (2014).

Grand Lodge of Florida, Digest § 37.12 (2011).

Grand Lodge of Wisconsin, Masonic Code § 74.03 (2009); Grand Lodge of Kentucky, Constitution, § 135 (2014).

Ibid., § 136.

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SYMBOLISM

Three Great Knocks: Correlations between Cornerstone Ceremonies & the Ceremony of the Third Degree

By Richard B. Bunn, MMS The laying and dedication of a cornerstone, once a more common and high-profile function of the Craft, is now a hallmark of a bygone era of Freemasonry; as a result, few Masons living today have actually witnessed the Masonic laying of a cornerstone. The years 1753 to 1923 may be regarded as the great age of Masonic cornerstone-laying ceremonies.

These were occasions of great pomp and ceremony, as well as publicity, for the Fraternity, featuring grand public processions, Masonic regalia, and brass bands playing “martial music.” Cornerstone ceremonies were considered newsworthy, and contemporary periodicals provided their readers with details of these curious ceremonies. For instance, The Scots Magazine for September 1753 gives an account of the laying of the “First Stone” of the Exchange in Edinburgh: Early in the morning, the society of free and accepted masons caused a magnificent triumphal arch, in the true Augustan style, to be erected at the entry leading to the place where the stone was to be laid.

In the niches betwixt the columns on each fide of the gate were two figures, representing GEOMETRY and ARCHITECHURE, each as big as the life. The entablature was of the Corinthian order. On the frize was the following inscription. QUOD FELIX FAVSVMQVE SIT [May this prove fortunate and auspicious]… 1

Arguably, America’s most famous cornerstone ceremony with President George Washington officiating as Grand Master.

The Scots Magazine goes on to report how the Freemasons gathered at St. Mary’s Chapel Lodge around 3:00 p.m., and formed a procession of about 672, representing twelve Scottish lodges; among them were two bodies of “operative masons,” visiting Symbolic Masons from “foreign lodges,” a band of French horns, and various other dignitaries. The procession of Grand Lodge officers bearing the ceremonial implements, namely the golden square, level, plumb, mallet, and a cornucopia, passed beneath the triumphal arch and the officers took their respective places in the 10 • SPRING 2015

east and west on platforms. The Grand Master descended the theatre/ platform in the East, and with two “operative brethren,” inserted three medals that had been specially struck to commemorate the occasion into three holes in the stone. On one medal was the effigy of the Grand Master in profile, along with the façade of the Royal Infirmary, and inscribed with the name of the architect, G. Drummond, while on its reverse side was a “perspective view” of the Exchange bordered by an inscription of the date of the ceremony.2 The second medal contained the same effigies of the former with the exception that its reverse side bore the Masons’ arms within a collar of St. Andrew, along with the traditional motto: “In The Lord Is All Our Trust.” 3 From the fact that the details of the third medal are not related to the reader seems to suggest that it was a duplicate of one of the two medals described above. After the insertion of the medals, and with the assistance of the operatives, “the Grand Master turned the stone, and laid it in its bed…This stone is in the fourth-east corner of the west wing.” 4 In ceremonious fashion the Grand Master then applied the square, plumb, and level to the stone, and finally “with the mallet he gave the stone three knocks.” 5 By the late eighteenth century, the ritual, protocol, and etiquette of how to properly lay and dedicate a cornerstone appears to have been considered an indispensable part of a Master Mason’s instruction, as evidenced by its inclusion in William Preston’s popular Masonic publication Illustrations of Masonry. 6 In Book II, Section VI, titled “Of ancient Ceremonies of the Order,” Preston dedicates considerable space to the “Ceremony of laying a Foundation-Stone,” and the “Ceremony of Dedication,” which for our purposes will be treated as comprising a single ceremony. Preston is correct as to the immemorial age of the ceremony and its connection with operative masonry. 7 One might be surprised to learn that the ceremony of the laying a foundationstone has a long history connected with ritual human sacrifice and the legend of the slain builder. The most famous example of the latter is the story of the so-called ‘Prentice Pillar’ at Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland.

According to legend, an apprentice mason completed the pillar, which was begun by his master, after the latter had been called away to Rome on business. Upon returning, the master seeing the beauty of the finished work, was filled with such envy, that in a fit of murderous rage he killed the young apprentice with a blow by a hammer to the forehead. A similar story is related about the Rose Window of Lincoln Cathedral, except in this version the master dies instead of the apprentice. 8 In his work, Builders Rites and Their Ceremonies: The FolkLore of Masonry, the famous Masonic historian George William Speth examined some of the traditions involving masons and human sacrifice.

Stories of blood sacrifice of a human or animal to consecrate a building (especially a temple), Speth points out are universal. Speth distinguishes between two types of human sacrifice, a “foundation sacrifice” and a “completion sacrifice.” 9 These sacrifices correspond with the laying of a cornerstone and the dedication of a building respectively. Speth believes the well-known legend of the “Prentice Pillar” is a vestige of the almost universal custom of a building sacrifice. Speth provides eight legends, each relating how a builder or apprentice is murdered (or barely escapes

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The “Apprentice Pillar” at Rosslyn Chapel.

being murdered) at the completion of a building. In each the slain builder served as a human sacrifice in order to appease the God or gods to gain favor for the building. 10 In The Golden Bough Sir George James Frazer writes: The object of the sacrifice is to give strength and stability to the building. But sometimes, instead of killing an animal, the builder entices a man to the foundation-stone, secretly measures his body, or a part of it, or his shadow, and buries the measure under the foundation-stone; or he lays the foundationstone upon the man’s shadow. It is believed that the man will die within a year…persons passing by a building which is in course of erection may hear a warning cry, “Beware lest they take your shadow!” 11 In many cultures stealing a person’s shadow is equivalent to robbing the victim of his or her soul. Frazer says that there were “shadow-traders whose business it was to provide architects with the shadows necessary for securing their walls.” 12 Other legends recount how masons walled up their victims alive.13 Thankfully now Freemasons only anoint their cornerstones with the customary corn, wine, and oil, as opposed to human blood.

It is, therefore, reasonable to infer that the cornerstone, or foundation stone appears to have been viewed as a kind of primitive altar. Ancient altars were typically a single stone, like the one upon which Abraham prepared to offer up his son Isaac on Mount Moriah as a human sacrifice to appease his god, Yahweh. Thus, Mount Moriah, purported to be the site of the Solomon’s Temple, is viewed as a kind of cosmic foundation stone, the eben shatijah alluded to in Job 38:4. 14 Incidentally, this world foundation-stone appears to have connections with five other Masonic symbols: Jacob’s Ladder, the two Pillars J & B, the Temple, the Cubical Stone, and the Ineffable Name; according to tradition, it became the cornerstone of Solomon’s Temple.

And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it.

And he called the name of that place Bethel…And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God’s house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee. 15

Abraham preparing to sacrifice Isaac on Mount Moriah.

According to one Masonic legend, typical of the haute grades that were products of the continental Templar fervor of the second-half of the eighteenth century, the medieval order of the Knights Templar, whose headquarters in Jerusalem was located near the Temple Mount, discovered three stones while workers were digging a foundation for a Church at Jerusalem. These three stones had apparently been parts of the original foundation of Solomon’s Temple. Moreover, they were part of the foundation that had supported the Holy of Holies, or Sanctum Sanctorum, which in Solomon’s time had housed the Ark of the Covenant. The Knights Templar noticed that the stones seemed to form a triangle, and on one of the stones was engraved the secret Ineffable Name of God; “…the famous word lost by the death of Adoniram.” 16 In this legend the Templars removed the stones from the site and transported them to Europe after the Crusades; they eventually took the stones with them when they fled to Scotland to escape Papal persecution.

When the Templars concealed themselves by joining the Scottish medieval operative mason lodges, and resurfaced later as Freemasons, the stones became the first foundation stones of their “first Lodge,” which they dedicated on St. Andrew’s Day. The Scottish Freemasons “entrusted with the secret” became the Templar’s “successors.” 17 Other legends identify the foundation-stone as the Stone of Perth, or the coronation stone of Scottish Kings, now housed at Edinburgh Castle. 18 We also encounter interesting convergences within the medieval Grail cycle; in Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival, the Grail is described as a stone, or the “Lapis exillis:” “This Stone is also called ‘The Gral’,” writes Eschenbach 19 In Parzival the guardians of the Grail are the Templars, who are not only the sworn protectors of the Grail, but are sustained by its mysterious powers: SPRING 2015 • 11

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Whether these same Templars reap trouble or renown, they bear it for their sins…I will tell you how they are nourished. They live from a Stone whose essence is most pure…By virtue of this Stone the Phoenix is burned to ashes, in which he is reborn.—Thus does the Phoenix moult its feathers!...For if anyone, maid or man, where to look at the Gral for two hundred years, you would have to admit that his colour was as fresh as in his early prime, except that his hair would grey! Such powers does the Stone confer on mortal men that their flesh and bones are soon made young again. 20 Similar analogies of regeneration are prevalent in alchemistic literature of the sixteenth century concerning the preparation and powers of the Philosopher’s Stone. It is possible that the Grail and the Philosopher’s Stone are one and the same, or at any rate evolved from the same root tradition. Suffice it to say, the stone figured in prominently in ancient and medieval legends.

“Visit the interior of the earth, through rectification, you will find the hidden stone.”

Thomas de Quincey, the author of Confessions of an English OpiumEater, was a proponent of a Rosicrucian origin of Symbolic Freemasonry.

For him, both the stone and Hiram Abiff, allude to Christ, who is also another example of a slain builder and a human sacrifice in the form of the paschal lamb who is offered up on Golgotha, referred to in the Gospels both as the “stone the builders rejected” and the “cornerstone.”

21 In his essay “Historico-Critical Inquiry into the Origin of the Rosicrucians and Freemasons,” de Quincey, citing the Summum Bonum, whose author, the English physician and theosophist Robert Fludd, de Quincey believed to be the “immediate father” of Symbolic Masonry, writes: What rock, and what building? Says Fludd. A spiritual rock, and a building of human nature, in which men are stones and Christ the cornerstone.

But how shall stones move and arrange themselves 12 • SPRING 2015

into a building? They must become living stones: ‘Transmutemini, transmutemini,’ says Fludd, ‘de lapidibus mortuis in lapides vivos philosophicos.’ But what is a living stone? A living stone is a mason who builds himself up into a wall as a part of the temple of human nature…In these passages we see the rise of the allegoric name masons upon the the extinction of the former name [Rosicrucians]…They [the English Rosicrucians] were thus able to realize to their eyes the symbols of their own allegories; and the same building which accommodated the guild of builders in their professional meetings offered a desirable means of secret assemblies to the early Freemasons. 22

Granted, overarching mythological and archetypal themes do exist between these builder’s legends and the Hiramic legend, and it is tempting to see connections between these legends and modern Masonic ceremony; this tendency, however, must be tempered with the acknowledgement that the fabricators of Masonic ritual immediate source of inspiration was the 1611 King James Bible, namely, the book of I Kings where we meet with two “widow’s sons;” one being Hiram the artisan, and the other the widow son that Elijah “stretched himself upon” three times and raised from the dead with the exclamation: “Oh Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child’s soul come into him again.” 23 There is also the possibility that early ritualists may have drawn from even more contemporary sources. Consider the following article that appeared in a British newspaper, The Newcastle Courant in November of 1712: The Curate of the French Church of St. Lewis not coming on Sunday at the usual Hour to Divine Service, one of the Clergy went to his House to know the Reason of it, and found him stretched out on the Ground, with his Skull beaten into his very Brains by one or more Strokes he had received from an Hammer. The Governor of this City being informed of it, went thither immediately with the Officers of Justice and several Surgeons, and having searched the Body, caused two Masons, who were at Work in the House, to be seized, because it appeared that the Curate had been struck with a Mason’s Hammer or Mallet; but we hear, that being examined, they declared it was one of their Fellows that had committed the Murder, and made his Escape. 24 The Church referred to is the San Luigi dei Francesi, in Rome’s historical French quarter. Although it is devoid of romance, might something as ‘recent’ and trivial as a headline have equally provided inspiration for the mystery drama of the Third Degree? Must the answer always be sought for in remote antiquity and exotic lands?

The earliest examples of modern Masonic cornerstone ceremonies appear in Dr. James Andersons Constitutions of 1723, and the revised and expanded edition of 1738. In the 1723 edition the cornerstone ceremony for St. Martin’s Church constitutes only a footnote, whereas, in the 1738 edition, Anderson elaborates upon the entry and promotes it to the main text, as well as includes two additional of cornerstone ceremonies, one of which, occurred in 1601. This is reminiscent of another footnote in the 1723 edition that likewise would be promoted

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and fleshed out in the 1738 edition, concerning a certain Phoenician craftsmen named Hiram, or “Huram Abbi.” 25 It is interesting that in the 1723 account of the ceremony, Anderson is unsure as to whether there were “two, or three knocks,” but by 1738 he has settled upon the scenario of three “Great Knocks.” 26 Are we to accept that someone of Anderson’s position in the Première Grand Lodge serving in the dual capacity of historian and the complier of the rules, charges, customs, and regulations of the Free-Masons was unsure of the number of “knocks” to be given at a Masonic ceremony that took place in 1721? Moreover, why was he more certain of the details of the events some seventeen years later, when he inserted the qualifier “Great” to describe those three knocks?

The events recorded by Pritchard agree on most of the essential points with those taken from another Masonic exposé, titled Three Distinct Knocks, published thirty years later in 1760, with the curious exception that the murder weapons employed by the Ruffians are the 24 inch Gauge, the Square, and the Setting Maul, the same as they are now, as well as identical to those tools employed by the Grand Master when ‘trying’ a cornerstone in the ceremony of laying a foundationstone. What this tells us is that in the course of the thirty years following the publication of Masonry Dissected the details of the Mystery Drama of the Third Degree were more or less worked out and concretized.

Anderson revised the 1738 edition of his Constitutions in part to reflect the inclusion, or recognition of the Third While it would be convenient to Degree. Anderson’s certainty in 1738 attribute the discrepancy of the two may be seen as evidence that the public versions of the 1721 ceremony to the cornerstone ceremony and the private fact that Anderson had more space ceremony of the degree of Master in the revised and enlarged 1738 Mason evolved contemporaneously, edition, and that possibly he had come or at any rate, the symbolism of the into possession of new information former was updated, so as to reflect concerning the number of knocks, and be compatible with that of the there is a more plausible scenario, which latter. For example, Anderson’s use of not only accounts for the change and the phrase “Three Great Knocks” when Anderson’s newfound certitude, but also describing the laying and dedication of causes us to reevaluate the importance a cornerstone alludes simultaneously to of those “three Great Knocks.” Between Hercules, who by his strength raised Theseus from the dead, the Three Great Knocks a candidate is ascends triumphant over grave.

1723 and 1738, Masonic historians caused to give at the door of a Lodge to generally agree that there occurred the gain admittance, as well as to the Three creation, adoption, or recognition of the Third Degree, or the ‘Master’s Great Knocks that leveled Grand Master Hiram Abiff, in that it took him Part’ by Grand Lodge. The great nineteenth century Masonic scholar from a perpendicular standing position to a horizontal laying position Robert Freke Gould in his Concise History of Freemasonry best sums in the same way that a Grand Master lays a cornerstone in the corner of it up when he says: “All we know with certainty is, that two degrees a foundation. Symbolically speaking, the suffering of Hiram Abiff, who [Entered Apprentice and Fellow-Craft] are officially recognized by the represents the stone at the hand of the three renegade laborers, is the Constitutions of 1723, and three by the Constitutions of 1738.” 27 The symbolic fitting of the stone, wherein it is tried and found to possess all first irrefutable proof of the existence of a Third Degree did not appear those qualities and virtues that make it ‘square’. The grave alludes to the until 1730 with the publication of Samuel Pritchard’s Masonic exposé trench wherein the foundation-stone is laid into its final resting place titled Masonry Dissected. with the blow from a mallet. Christian Masons might alternatively view the Three Great Knocks as alluding to Triclavianism, or the belief that It is in Samuel Pritchard’s 1730 exposé, Masonry Dissected, that we first three nails driven by a mallet were used in the crucifixion of Christ. learn the details of how Hiram Abiff met his sudden death by three Though the sacrificial stone is buried beneath the earth, or partially blows from a Setting Maul, Setting Tool, and Setting Beadle, the last submerged, in becoming the cornerstone is has a second life in the sense and “Greater Blow’ coming from a Mason’s mallet. 28 The relevant that it is raised in the building that rises perpendicular from it. 30 The passage from Pritchard, which appears in the form of a catechism speculative alchemists referred to this process as Rectificando, as there is between examiner and candidate, is as follows: an earthly stone that shares an analogy with the corpus, or the body, and a philosophical, or spiritual stone, that answers to the soul, or spirit.

R. The Master-Mason’s Word.

Ex. How was it lost?

R. By Three Great Knocks, or the Death of our Master Hiram. 29

In the operative alchemical writings the laboratory of the Philosopher’s Stone is Nature, specifically: “subterranean places.” 31 The seventeenth century Rosicrucian apologist, Michael Maier, however, best summarizes the situation for both speculative alchemy and speculative Freemasonry post-1620, when he observes, “Man, then, shall we SPRING 2015 • 13

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conclude at length, is the true laboratory of the Hermetic art, his life the subject, the grand distillatory, the thing distilling, and the thing distilled, and self-knowledge is at the root of all alchemical tradition.”

32 The speculative alchemist’s view that both the laboratory and the Great Work is the individual, a view that would greatly influence and resonate in the future works of archetypal psychologists, such as Carl G. Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz, is also expressed in the words of the Arabian alchemist, Morienus who says, “This thing [the philosopher’s stone] is extracted from you: you are its mineral, and one can find it in you, to put it more clearly, they [the alchemists] take it from you.” 33 But the medieval operative alchemists viewed stones and minerals, from an animist’s perspective, in that they possessed a life similar to humans and animals; thus, the Stone must gestate in the dark dank womb of the Earth prior to birth. Likewise, the grave was seen as constituting a second womb. It is common to find alchemists burying various objects of their trade in earth, or dung, to speed up the process of putrefaction.

Putrefaction, which the alchemist George Ripley termed the “Fifth Gate,” is an essential stage in the alchemical process and production of the Philosopher’s Stone, and is mirrored in the Third Degree by the discovery of Hiram’s partially decomposed corpse. 34 The future rectification that followed putrefaction is prefigured in the architectural device of the Roman triumphal arch that Preston informs us was “usually erected at the place” 35 where the ceremony was to be held; aside from its practical application, the arch is used as a symbol, obviously of triumph as the name suggests (in this case a triumph over the grave), as well as the transition from the earthly to the heavenly and the material to the spiritual. 36 Lest we give to much credit to the renegade craftsmen by assigning to them the role of builders, we must remember that they did not lay the foundation-stone, but rather they cast the perfect stone aside; rather it was the Master, Wardens, and faithful Brethren who laid a proper foundation, as symbolized by the reinterment of Hiram Abiff. The renegade workmen are analogous to the builders mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments who rejected the stone, and who we can well imagine discarded it in the refuse heap on the construction site.

If the Freemasons had been farmers then they would have seized upon the metaphor of the seed, as utilized by ancient agrarian societies in their mystery dramas, the most famous example being the Persephone myth, which esoterically elucidates on the exoteric phenomenon of sowing, i.e., the seed, after being buried in the earthen furrow, rises again in the new stalk, but as the Gentlemen Masons were Symbolic builders they chose the stone, like the medieval alchemists before them, to teach the same lesson of regeneration, or immortality of the soul. Regrettably, with the ceremony of the laying/dedication no longer being in highdemand, twenty-first century Freemasons are rarely, if ever, exposed to the profound symbolism attached to one of the Fraternity’s most ancient and important observances. The symbolism of the ceremony of the laying of a cornerstone and the degree of Master Mason is so interconnected that it is my contention that if the mystery drama of the latter did not directly arise from the former, then at any rate, the two ceremonies, one public and exoteric, the other private and esoteric, evolved contemporaneously.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR Richard Bradley Bunn, 32°, KCCH, KYCH, MMS., is Past Master of Queen City Lodge No. 602 in Rocky Mount, NC, and a member of the Valley of Raleigh, Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, S.J., U.S.A.; NC College of SRICF; Royal Order of Scotland; Saint Bernard Commandery No. 21, K.T.; Rocky Mount Chapter No. 57, R.A.M.; Cryptic Council No. 26, R. & S.M.; Ish Sodi Council No. 196 and Cassillis Council 2-A, AMD; Harp, Cross, & Eagle Council No. 3, Knight Masons; York Rite College No. 69, as well as various other Masonic research bodies. A native of North Carolina, he now resides in Madison, Florida, with his wife and a menagerie of pets.

NOTES 1 “The Ceremony of Beginning the Edinburgh Works.” The Scots Magazine, September 03, 1753. www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk. Web. 426-430.

2

Ibid.

3

Ibid.

4

Ibid.

5

Ibid.

6

.B., Preston’s book has the distinction of being the second work, after Anderson’s N Constitutions of 1723/38, to receive official sanction from Grand Lodge.

7

hose persons interested in a more in-depth study are advised to consult G.W. T Speth’s Builders Rites and Their Ceremonies: The Folk-Lore of Masonry, and Sir George James Frazer’s The Golden Bough.

8

eorge Oliver’s, introduction to The Spirit of Masonry by William Hutchinson.

G (Kessinger Publishing, 2010), 28.

9

eorge W. Speth, Builders’ Rites and Ceremonies: The Folk Lore of Masonry, (Kessinger G Publishing, 2010), 15.

10

Ibid. 37, 58.

11

James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, (Simon & Schuster, 1996), 222.

12

Ibid.

13

Speth, 14.

14

ichael Halleran, “The Jebusite’s Jobsite: The Masonic Significance of Ornan the M Jebusite & his Threshing Floor,” The Plumbline, Vol. 17, No. 2 (Summer 2010)

15

enesis 28:18 KJV; Alchemists often employed familiar biblical imagery and G iconography for the purpose of both concealing from the profane and revealing to the cognoscenti the secret processes of their work. The stone upon which Jacob rested his head and dreamed his heavenly vision of the ladder was adapted by the alchemists as emblematic of the unrefined earthly stone, i.e., the rudimentary stage of achieving the Philosophical Stone. For this reason the images of Jacob, the stone, and the ladder, were incorporated in the title page of the Mutus Liber (‘Silent Book’), a book, first published in 1677, allegorically illustrating the alchemical process of attaining the spiritual stone. The cognoscenti would recognize from the motif of the first plate the author’s true intent.

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16

Augustin Barruel, Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism, (RVB, 1995), 312-313.

17

Ibid.

18

Kenneth Mackenzie, The Royal Masonic Cyclopedia of History, Rites, Symbolism, And Biography, (Cambridge University Press, 2012), 698.

19

Wolfram Von Eschenbach, Parzifal, (Penguin Classics, 2004), 239.

33 Marie-Louis von Franz, “The Process of Individuation,” in Man And His Symbols ed. Carl G. Jung, (Dell, 1968), 225.

20

Ibid.

34

21

ipley, George, “The Compoude of Alchymie,” in Theatrum Chemicum Brittannicum R

by Elias Ashmole. (Kessinger, 1992), 148.

Acts 4:11 KJV.

22

35

William Preston, Illustrations of Masonry, (Kessinger Publishing, 2003), 94.

hoams De Quincey, “Historico-Critical Inquiry into the Origin of the Rosicrucians T and the Freemasons.” Confessions of an English Opium-Eater, With Levana, The Rosicrucians and Freemasons, etc. (Walter Scott, 1886), 204-207. N.B., Alchemy, or the ‘Royal Art,’ as it was termed, was popularized in Europe about the twelfth century AD, and is derived from earlier Hellenic-Egyptian, as well as Arabic sources. By the time of the death of the German theosophist, Jacob Bohme in the seventeenth century, operative alchemy, like medieval operative masonry, had fallen into a state of decay. It is during this period that we meet with the first purely speculative alchemists in the guise of the Fraternity of the R.C., i.e., the Rosicrucians. It is also during this period that factions in both alchemy and masonry separated from their operative roots, but retained much of their former technical jargon and symbolism. With these changes, so to, the aims of both operative masonry and alchemy changed; Speculative Freemasons were no longer occupied with building cathedrals, nor were speculative alchemists attempting to transmute lead to gold: the aims of both had become in a word subjective.

36

Jean Chevalier and Alain Gheerbrant, Dictionary of Symbols, (Penguin, 1996), 40.

23

I Kings 17: 17-24 KJV.

24 Newcastle Courant. November 26, 1712. The British Newspaper Archive. www. britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk.

25

James Anderson, Constitutions of 1723, (The Masonic Service Association, 1924), 41.

26

I bid., 74-75; James Anderson, Constitutions of 1738, (Kessinger Publishing, 2003), 121.

27

Robert F. Gould, Concise History of Freemasonry, (Kessinger Publishing, 1994), 234.

28

Samuel Pritchard, Masonry Dissected, (Kessinger Publishing, 1996), 16-17.

29

Ibid., 26-27.

30

S imilarly, the individual by sacrificing certain self-interests lends strength and support to, and in a sense, becomes the institution, in the same way that a brick in the wall, by lending its support and strength, becomes indistinguishable from the wall when viewed as a whole. This metaphor can be extended to the Mason’s participation in the institution of Masonry.

31

Paracelsus, The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus, trans. Arthur Edward Waite (Martino Publishing, 2009), 65.

32

Michael Maier, “Atalanta Fugiens,” in The Works of Michael Maier, (Kessinger Publishing), 92.

IMAGE CREDITS Fig. 1 Allyn Cox, Capitol Cornerstone Ceremony, 1773. Oil on canvas, 1973-1974, available from: Commonswikimedia.org. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:Flickr_-_USCapitol_-_Capitol_Cornerstone_Ceremony_-_1793.jpg.

Fig. 2 “Apprentice Pillar,” Available from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ jamescanby/179851978/in/photolist-7Zv3ct-jRZ6Y6-hYcuBE-9EDvKj-9EAFyi9EDVAA-c3PpJs-5nkc9B-gTMYh-gTN4W-gTMJb-gTP4s-3emh7p-iq6gBiq6g9-iq6fN-iq6hg-gTLYF-gTNXL-bdTyhT-gTLRV-bdTwSV-iq6vp-k2266B Fig. 3 Andrea del Sarto. Il saccrificio di Isacco. Oil on panel, circa 1552. Avaliable from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Andrea_del_Sarto_-_Il_sacrificio_di_ Isacco_(Prado).jpg.

Fig. 4 (Anonymous) “MS. 39,” Eighteenth Century German ink on paper. From Alchemy: A Comprehensive Bibliography of Books and Manuscripts in the Manly P. Hall Collection Including Related Material on Rosicrucianism and the Writings of Jacob Boehme, ed. Ron. Charles Hogart, (The Philosophical Research Society, 1986), 194. [Translation from the Latin, mine.]

Fig. 5 “Plate 15.” in Mutus Liber by Altus, 1677. Avaliable from: Bibliotheque Numerique Alchimque du Merveilleux. http://www.bnam.fr/ N.B. The image contains several familiar Masonic emblems, such as the sun, moon, ladder, rope, and the lion’s paw (on Hercules’ shoulder).

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RETROSPECTIVE

VOICES FROM THE PAST – 1864 Edition Excerpted from ‘The Ballot,” published in Masonic Monthly, Vol. II, No. 1 (1864).

It is late in the history of Freemasonry to raise any question on the subject which requires more than a moment’s debate. The practice of balloting for the degrees in Freemasonry, one would think, is too intimately connected with the every-day work of the lodges for doubts to arise in the mind of any member of the Fraternity with regard to the ballot of to any usage associated therewith. Yet among the later tendencies that have exhibited themselves ibn our Order— tendencies, so many of which threaten injury and destruction to our institution if not checked—is a disposition to disturb the regulations affecting the ballot.

The extraordinary and ruinously rapid growth which Freemasonry has experienced during the past few years has only become possible in consequence of a neglect properly to exercise the privilege of the ballot. Hundreds, nay...thousands of improper persons have been permitted to receive the degrees, who, under a proper exercise of the ballot, would never have been allowed to cross the threshold of our institution.

The admission of destructive elements can only be prevented by making it the duty of every member to vote on the application of candidates for degrees or membership, and every member of the lodge should feel that the responsibility of rejecting the unworthy rests upon himself. The ballot is resorted to more to give an opportunity to reject unworthy material, than to admit the worthy.

We are ready with open arms to admit “the worthy and well qualified” to our Fraternity, but we ballot in order to have the opportunity to reject the unworthy applicant.

Let the ballot be maintained in all its purity, with all its secrecy. Exercise the privilege conscientiously, faithfully, freely and fearlessly. Never hesitate to reject, where there is any doubt. Let the lodge and not the applicant have the benefit of such doubt where any exists. The lodge has rights and the applicant has none, except to have his application treated in the spirit in which he offers it, of willingness to submit to a fair and honorable ballot. Never fail to remember that it is infinitely better to reject ten good men than to admit one unworthy member. In this spirit select your ballots and deposit them, and while your conscience approves, the Order will be benefitted.

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BEST PRACTICES

Paradigms and Periods of Transition in Freemasonry

By John Bizzack, MMS Freemasonry has its own paradigm, as do all institutions, organizations, businesses and even our personal lives. Paradigms breathe; they move and shift and fall into imbalance and can become one-sided. They grow and they shrink. Some can gasp for air yet struggle forward. Some adapt, while others perish from their own sluggishness. Even those who objectively study their own paradigm do not always recognize the signs that it is slowly shifting or agree that the turbulence inside is a clear signal that there are matters to address.

A paradigm is simply a set of rules, a model or pattern. More specifically, a paradigm can be a concept, theory, model, protocol, routine, set of assumptions or habits The word “paradigm” may seem esoteric or mysteriously cryptic to some, but understanding what paradigms are and studying how they affect us all can not only make clear the historical aspects of a topic or concept, but also yield a less blemished portrait of its present while offering hints of how it is likely to evolve next.

A paradigm is simply a set of rules, a model or pattern. More specifically, a paradigm can be a concept, theory, model, protocol, routine, set of assumptions or habits; it may take the form of mind-sets, frames of reference, traditions, customs, ideologies, or policies. Paradigms are important to societies, cultures, businesses, organizations and institutions of all sorts, and to the basic way of perceiving, thinking, valuing, and doing. When we are in the middle of a paradigm, it is hard

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to imagine what might replace it or how we might move into a new one, or recognize the significance of small shifts within it HOW A PARADIGM WORKS Paradigms can limit and restrict our ability to look at problems and issues clearly. People who develop the ability to think in new ways often develop powerful new ways of thinking. This is easy to conceptualize, but difficult to practice. We are all attached to our own personal paradigms because they make us feel comfortable, but they can also paralyze our thinking.

And what is perfectly clear and visible to one person may be invisible to another because of differing paradigms. Old paradigms can easily block our ability to view new ones emerging, and new ones struggle to get through the filters of the old, since they trap many people into seeing the world in only one way.

But all paradigms change eventually, and when they do there is a new game, a new set of rules and a deeper or another way of thinking.

This change is known as a paradigm shift. Established paradigms are comfortable. It is natural we resist to some degree changing them, but as their effectiveness comes into question, it still takes time to adapt to new paradigms with ease.

A paradigm begins to shift when those affected by it sense that the situation has altered, and begin to lose confidence in the old rules. This

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creates turbulence within the community or organization. As a result, new paradigms surface and turbulence increases as a new paradigm conflicts with the old — especially when the new one offers something that works better than or improves upon the existing paradigm, even in a small way. As those fixed in the old paradigm become more aware of what the new one offers in terms of resolving issues within it, they may at first ignore or actively resist it.

Why do men join fraternities? They join because it gives them a sense of belonging, and in the case of Freemasonry, even a sense of family like no other.

With stronger support and action, however, the new paradigm gains momentum. Turbulence begins to wane as the new paradigm proves it can solve problems that the old one could not, and the community sees a new way to deal with its world. Eventually the new ways become accepted and eventually institutionalized.

In 1962, Thomas Kuhn wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolution, and fathered, defined and popularized the concept of “paradigm shift.”

Kuhn argues that advancement is not evolutionary, but rather is a “series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions, and in those revolutions, one conceptual world view is replaced by another.” 1 Today, understanding paradigms and their use in forecasting trends, developing marketing strategies and predicting progressive changes for businesses and industry is commonplace. Paradigms were brought into contemporary use largely as the result of a bestselling book written

by Joel Arthur Barker in 1993, entitled Paradigms: The Business of Discovering the Future. Barker, who began his work in the early 1970s, was the first person to popularize the concept of paradigm shifts for the corporate world. Today, exploring solutions to many issues facing corporations, small businesses, universities, and institutions both private and public has become a commonplace activity, and the characteristics of paradigms and their effects are part of the curricula of many business schools.

Although Freemasonry is not a business or corporation, it is far from being immune to paradigms, their effects, and undoubtedly their shifts.

HOW PARADIGMS RELATE TO FREEMASONRY Why do men join fraternities? It is easy to slip into pontificating deep and even moving explanations of what drives men to be with other men in answering this question, but the answer is quite simple whether we are talking about fraternities in college, Freemasonry, or any other clubs or organizations. They join because it gives them a sense of belonging, and in the case of Freemasonry, even a sense of family like no other.

It is an understatement to say that the technological and social fabric of the world has changed significantly since 1717 when the Grand Lodge of England was formed. However, the Landmarks of Freemasonry, its principles and tenets, hidden mysteries, ritual, gift of bonding, and ability to pull good, like-minded men together who hunger in their search for truth and knowledge about themselves and the world around them continue to stand today, as unassailable and unchangeable as many a physical edifice built by its operative counterparts.

There is no paradigm shift in society’s need for what Freemasonry stands for, and has stood for in the nearly three hundred years since it was formalized. Character, values, faith, brotherly love, truth and justice never lose their innate worth, although they may fall out of favor or seeming importance from one generation to the other.

The idea has never been for men to change Masonry, but for Masonry to change men. Its core values and lessons can be challenging to incorporate into one’s life. It takes discipline of the mind. It takes effort. But the fraternity offers true camaraderie for those who choose this difficult psychological and philosophical journey. Incredible, lifealtering changes occur as a man develops and uses a value-driven moral compass.2 Yet, as previously noted, Freemasonry as an institution, regardless of the noble purpose for which it was designed, has hardly been immune SPRING 2015 • 19

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to paradigm shifts since the formation of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717.

We tend to look more at the history of the fraternity than at its evolution as an institution against the changing social and technology fabric of the society in which it exists. We revel in and celebrate the longevity of its principles within that historical setting, but we miscarry in our perspective at times when we look at it in modern-day terms. It’s always difficult to see a picture if you are inside the frame.

When we step outside the frame and view the twin issues of declining membership and decreased active involvement with the lodge against the backdrop of the paradigm shifts which have occurred in the 20th century alone, some answers to the problem, ironically, may be found in the historical practices of the fraternity: everything old becomes new again.

The paradigm in which Masonry exists today is one that has created a mounting concern in the fraternity about the future of the institution — not due to a failure of its principles and lessons, but purely on the basis of numbers. The relevancy of the lessons of Masonry in today’s world is not in question. Demonstrating its applicability is today and always has been the issue, but in the past we were not as obsessed with defining the Craft by the number of members.

Masonry is not alone in this quandary. The decline is mirrored in other fraternities, civic clubs, service groups and even churches. Of course no other fraternity offers precisely what Freemasonry does, but nonetheless they illustrate the collective decline. For example, The Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks has lost 100,000 members over the last two decades. Rotary clubs have dropped nearly 42,000 in ten years.3 A study published in 2005 by the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs showed that traditional membership organizations such as veterans’ groups, fraternal organizations, and civic groups have seen the largest declines in membership. Almost half (47%) of mutual benefit groups, including veterans’ and fraternal organizations, reported a decrease in membership over the three years prior to the survey (completed in 2002), as did almost a third (32%) of civic associations.4 This and similar studies consistently identify causes for declining numbers. The Indiana study proposes that one reason for this decline may be related to how long a group has existed, in that the community conditions under which they were initially established were “radically different” from what they are today. In some respects, it is easier to start a new organization than to change an existing one. The study’s senior author, Kirsten Grønbjerg, explains, “Older organizations tend to have well-established traditions and may find it difficult to make significant changes to their operations or focus, even if doing so would help them acquire new members and or retain current ones.”5 The landscape has changed. Freemasonry is indeed in a paradigm shift, one that was readily identified by leaders in the fraternity in the mid1960s and that set the course for the natural turbulence that follows any time a paradigm begins to shift. That very shift gives us the signature of the fraternity today: dwindling numbers and a sense of baffling urgency to find answers, to stop the revolving door of men in and then out after only a couple of years of membership.

Some believe the culture is too panicked into thinking that the introduction of candidates and the work of degrees are the most 20 • SPRING 2015

important facets of our Masonic calendar.6 This is a misjudgment.

What is of paramount importance is that we know who we are; what we are about and what we are trying to achieve - as individuals, as a Lodge and within our community. This understanding can only be achieved through Masonic education. 7 If our numbers decline, yet the relevancy of our fraternity are not in question, we have to seriously examine why. Part of that examination requires us to focus on how we can offer what is relevant, in contrast to the overall paradigm in which we exist today.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR John Bizzack, Ph.D., is an active member of Lexington Lodge No. 1 F &AM, Lexington, Kentucky and the Louisville Scottish Rite.

He is a member of the Journal of Masonic Society, Texas Lodge of Research, Southern California Research Lodge, Scottish Rite Research Society, and the Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076, Correspondence Circle.

A twenty-five year veteran of policing, retiring from the Lexington Division of Police in 1996, Bizzack’s career experience ranged from uniform duties, to detective, Commander of the Bureau of Investigation, Planning and Research, and Office of the Chief of Police.

He is the author of eight books and numerous essays and articles dealing with leadership, criminal investigations and other topical issues in the field of law enforcement, criminal justice, Kentucky history and Freemasonry. He is active with various state and local boards, task forces and non-profit community organizations dealing with issues facing policing and criminal justice other components of the criminal justice system and community service. He speaks nationally on the issues of police standards and leadership in the criminal justice system along with various topics related to Freemasonry.

NOTES 1 Thomas, S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2d, University of Chicago Press, 1970.

2 “Paradigm Shift: Rebel Masons,” 2011, navallodge87.org/2011/03/ paradigm-shift-rebel-masons (accessed November 1, 2012).

3 Jon Ostendorff, “Masons, Other Service Groups Fight Membership Decline,” USA TODAY, January 31, 2012, usatoday30.usatoday.com/ news/ nation/2011-01-31-masons31_ST_N.htm (accessed October 12, 2012).

4 Kirsten A. Grønbjerg, “Indiana Nonprofits: A Profile of Membership Organizations,” Indiana University School of Public and Environmental Affairs, September 2005, indiana.edu/~nonprof/results/npsurvey/ insmember.html (accessed October 12, 2012).

5 Indiana University Newsroom, “IU study finds involvement down in veterans groups, fraternal organizations and civic clubs,” October 19, 2005, newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/2541.html (accessed October 12, 2012).

6 Emmanuel Anthony, “Masonic Education Must be Inclusive,” speech at the opening of the Fifth Conference of The Australian & New Zealand Masonic Research Council, August 2000.

7

Emmanuel Anthony, “Masonic education must be inclusive.”

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COMMENT

George Washington meets a Past Grand Master of England

By Mark A. Tabbert, FMS

On November 4, 1753, 20-year-old George Washington was initiated into the Masonic Lodge at Fredericksburg, Virginia. Two months later he was commissioned a major in the Virginia Militia. After turning 21, Washington was passed to the Degree of Fellow Craft and on August 4, 1753 raised to the sublime Degree of Master Mason.

He attended the next lodge meeting in September, but in October Maj. Washington was sent by Governor Dinwiddie to western Pennsylvania.

He was instructed to tell the French to vacate the Forks of the Ohio River or suffer the consequences.

Accompanying Washington was Jacob Van Braam (1725-1784). A former Dutch military officer, Van Braam immigrated to Maryland in 1750. In 1752 he was living in Fredericksburg and was a member of the lodge when Washington joined. After fulfilling his mission (including a harrowing escape), Washington and Van Braam arrived home in January 1754.

Promoted to lieutenant colonel, Washington spent most of 1756 commanding militia garrisons in several frontier forts near Winchester.

The British Crown, however, had bigger concerns. Arguably the first true world war, the Seven Year’s War (1754-1763) was fought not just in North America and Europe but in the Caribbean, and parts of Africa and India. Besides the French and British, the combatants included Prussians, Swedes, Austrian, Russian, as well as forces from Portugal, Spain and the Mughal Empire.

In 1756, the British Crown sent a new North American Military Commander. Gen. John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun (1705-1782), like the Braddock he was a Scotsman and a Freemason. But Lord Loudoun was a not just any Freemason, he had served as Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England in 1737-38.

Loudoun joined the army in 1727, and during the Scottish Jacobite rebellion of 1745 raised his own regiment. This regiment, however, was comprised of Scots loyal to the Hanoverian King George II. Although his regiment was devastated at the Battle of Prestonpans (September 21, 1745), his connections and administrative skill brought him further promotions.

Two months later Gov. Dinwiddie again sent Washington with Van Braam and 200 soldiers back western Pennsylvania. This time Washington mission was to forcibly protect and extend British interests. Washington George Washington by Charles Wilson Peale, showing Col. badly mismanaged the expedition Washington in the uniform of the Virginia Regiment during the and after a short siege and battle at French and Indian War. Soon after arriving in New England and makeshift Fort Necessity, he surrendered surveying the situation, Lord Loudoun determined the best strategy to the French. Van Bram was taken as a prisoner to Quebec and was cut the French supply lines.

To this end, he focused on a naval Washington returned home. Van Braam returned from Canada and was expedition to capture Fortress Louisburg on Cape Breton Island, Nova commissioned in the 60th “Royal American” Regiment of Foot.

Scotia. If taken, the British Navy could prevent the French from reaching Back in Fredericksburg and thoroughly defeated, Washington attended Quebec via the St. Lawrence River. Either by incompetence or through lodge in January 1755. (This would be the last recorded meeting he the efforts of French counter-intelligence, Lord Loudoun’s great plans attended until the War of Independence.) Four months later, however, never launched. When not contemplating Louisburg, Loudoun also the newly arrived Commander-in-Chief, General Edward Braddock considered another expedition to take Fort Duquesne.

(1695-1755) determined to march to the Forks of the Ohio and expel the French. Both a Scotsman and a Freemason, Gen. Braddock Hearing Loudoun was traveling to Philadelphia to meet with recognized Washington’s talents and encouraged him toward receiving several governors, Washington wrote a long letter to him. The letter described Indian raids and the plight of Shenandoah Valley settlers. a King’s military commission.

It also reviewed the past campaigns to secure the Forks of the Ohio The expedition left Fort Cumberland, Maryland on May 29 with some – vaguely mentioning the surrender at Fort Necessity. Washington’s 1,300 men, both British regulars and colonial militia. Tragically, on letter argued for one more expedition—launched from Virginia and July 9 as they neared Fort Duquesne, the expedition was ambushed by led by a Virginian—to end the war and save numerous settlers’ lives. a combined French and Indian force. Braddock was mortally wounded Washington finished with a wish to consult the commanding general and Washington took command of the retreat. He buried Braddock in on these matters. The letter was acknowledged by one of the general’s an unmarked grave and brought the remaining force back to Virginia. aide but no invitation to Philadelphia was forthcoming.

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Ever a bold Virginian, Washington invited himself. Upon receiving permission from Gov. Dinwiddie, he left his command in early February 1757. Rather than include Washington in the governors’ conference, Lord Loudoun made the 23-year-old wait six weeks.

When at last the Commander in Chief agreed to see the Virginia militia commander, it was not to receive advice but to issue orders. No expedition to Pennsylvania would happen and indeed South Carolina needed Virginia soldiers more than Pennsylvania. The meeting was short and curt and as Washington’s biographer, James Flexner wrote: ‘Washington had received from Loudoun the roughest treatment he had known in his public career.”

More importantly, the brief encounter brings further light on Washington’s membership in, and relationship with Freemasonry.

Clearly, even on the frontier of the British Empire in the 1750s, Freemasonry and Freemasons were prevalent. Beside Van Braam, Braddock, and Loudoun, George Washington certainly knew many Freemasons in Fredericksburg, and met more in Philadelphia and when he traveled to New York and Boston after the Braddock disaster. It is more likely that Washington came to understand Freemasonry not by the meetings he attended or the books he might have read, but the Masons he met.

Again while it is unlikely, when Washington met Lord Loudoun he knew him to be a Past Grand Master Back Washington went to the of England, but it was the first time frontier—so much for Freemasonry, Washington was in the presence brotherly love, Scottish of such a great and powerful sentimentality, or any warm fraternal British lord. Certainly the young A portrait of Gen. John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun. Loudon was greetings!

Washington had his own level of Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of England in 1736. pride, but it was nothing compared Of course, it is doubtful Washington to Lord Loudoun’s. Such an knew Loudoun was a Past Grand Master. It is even less likely Loudoun encounter could be seen among the first of many rebuffs that directed knew Washington was a Master Mason. But certainly, if he had, he Washington toward eventual rebellion against the Crown. would not have cared. To paraphrase an old cliché, “Scottish aristocrats do not become British commanding generals by granting fraternal Lastly, this short paper is a reminder that history, and more especially wishes to young colonial bumpkins.”

Masonic history, is not simply names of men who happened to be Loudoun left the colonies later in 1757 for Portugal and concluded his career as Governor of Edinburg Castle. Dying in 1782, he lived to know General Washington’s campaigns in War for Independence.

Col. Washington did get one more chance at Fort Duquesne. In late 1758, General John Forbes, another Scotsman, conducted a wellplanned and methodical march across Pennsylvania. Lacking sufficient counter forces, the French burned Ft. Duquesne and retreated to Canada. With his part of the war over, Washington, now 26, resigned his commission, married Martha Custis and “retired” to Mt. Vernon.

Lastly, in July 1758, the Grand Lodge of Scotland issued a charter for the Lodge of Fredericksburg. How and when it was delivered to the lodge is unknown, for it is not mentioned in the lodge’s minutes until 1767.

While the brief encounter between Bro. Master Mason George Washington and Most Worshipful Brother Past Grand Master Lord Loudon is a trivial fact, it does beg a few trivial questions. Was Loudoun the first Past Grand Master to visit North America, and since his time when have other British presiding or Past Grand Masters visited Lodges in the United States?

Freemasons and dates of lodge meeting or events. History is placing names, dates, and events within the broader context of human relationships—as friends, neighbors, military comrades, subordinates, or superiors.

It is not enough that Washington became a Freemason or knew many Freemasons, rather historians must seek to understand if he indeed judged the Craft by the action of the men who claimed to be Freemasons.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Mark Tabbert is the Director of the Museum and Library Collections at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, VA. He is the author of American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communities (2005), Museum and Memorial: Ten Years of Masonic Writings (2011), and with Prof.

William D. Moore, Secret Societies in America: Foundational Studies of Fraternalism (2012). He is currently working on a new book “A Deserving Brother”: George Washington and Freemasonry.

SPRING 2015 • 23

T

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he scene amidst which C

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SPRING 2015 • 25

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Masonic Exposures: Ephemeral Pamphlets The term ephemera is defined as any paper item printed with a view of its being discarded after use. The derivation of the word is from the Greek ephemeros, which translates as lasting only a day. Typically, leaflets, handbills, pamphlets, and posters cover all the items classically associated with printed ephemera. Considering their immediate and speedy discardment after use, it is surprising that they are all, today, a valuable and important reflection of contemporary views and tastes as well as activities. They often give an insight into aspects of our society not to be found elsewhere.

Among the earliest printed evidence of the antagonism towards our fraternity is a single small leaflet, 100mm by 165mm, of which only one copy is extant. This leaflet is a good example of the importance of an ephemeral item to the study of the development of Freemasonry in its early days. The leaflet is headed To All Godly People, in the Citie of London and dated 1698, nearly two decades before the formation of the premier Grand Lodge.

The text, which has been frequently published, states: Having thought it needful to warn you/ of the Mischiefs and Evils practiced/ in the Sight of GOD by those called Freed Masons, I say take Care lest their Ceremonies and secret Swearings take hold of/ you; and be weary that none cause you to err from Godliness. For this Devlish sect of Men are Meeters in secret which swear against all without their Following. They are the Anti Christ which was to come leading Men from Fear of GOD. For how should Men meet in secret Places and with secret Signs taking Care that none observe them to do the Work of GOD; are not these the Ways of Evil-doers? Knowing how that GOD observeth privilly them that sit in Darkness they shall be smitten and the Secrets of their Hearts layed bare. Mingle not among this corrupt People lest you be found so at the World’s Conflagration.

Three lines outside the body of the text, at the base, state: Set forth as a Warning to this Christian Generation by M Winter, and Printed by R Sare at Gray’s Inn-gate, in Holborn. 1698.

Very little is known about the circumstances under which the pamphlet was issued. In the leaflet, Freemasonry is condemned for the anti-religious standing of its membership. Knoop and G P Jones in their article in AQC 55 (1942) titled “An Anti‑Masonic leaflet of 1698,” give a prime example of

26 • SPRING 2015

how much consequential information can be obtained from the content of this apparently simple ephemeral item.

They speculate that the denunciations in the leaflet against Freemasons may have been based on fact. The content of the leaflet confirms that Freemasonry was considered an evil institution because of its secret signs and meeting places.

The only known extant copy of the leaflet was discovered by Albert Frost of Sheffield and donated by him to the United Grand Lodge of England Library in 1943. The 1698 leaflet stands out as an exceptional rarity. There are no other early leaflets which have survived, which so blatantly attack Freemasonry. We have to look at exposures, also printed as one or two sided broadsheets, to appreciate the continued antagonism towards our fraternity.

Single sheet exposures The Library and Museum of Freemasonry in London houses a rich collection of ephemera. One section is devoted to Anderson’s late Constitutions housed in the pages of an album, which are interspersed with various prints and portraits. Among a multitude of ephemeral treasures is a unique single sheet 190mm x 300mm in size, attacking Freemasonry by exposing its supposed secrets.

It is the earliest known Irish exposure dated 1725 and entitled The Whole Institutions of Free-Masons Opened. It is printed on both sides. It was published by William Wilmot who has been identified as a Dublin printer who flourished between 1724 and 1727. The importance of this single sheet document, inter alia, is the disclosure of the early use of words and signs for the third degree - without evidence, however, that three separate ceremonies were in practice. The document also mentions, for the first time in print, the word Jehovah.

Again, however, without detail of any ritual working related to the word. It gives us a minute insight into anti-Masonry during the periods concerned as it does to the Royal Arch degree. Had more leaflets survived we may have learnt more of such attitudes.

A total of nine manuscripts dated between 1696 and 1750 are listed and discussed by Knoop, Jones, and Hamer in their The Early Masonic Catechisms, published by Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1975. It is, however, my own Grand Lodge (of England) minutes

Perhaps the first printed anti-Masonic screed, this 1698 pamphlet appeared nearly two decades before the formation of the premier Grand Lodge. Credit: The Library and Museum of Freemasonry, London.

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that allow us a view of the mode of distribution of such leaflets. The minutes for the 28 August 1730 Quarterly Communication of the United Grand Lodge of England refer to Dr Desaguliers’ concern over ‘a printed paper lately published and dispersed about Town’. The reference is to the very rare ‘Mystery of Free-Masonry’. William James Hughan, the renown Masonic scholar, reported in 1909 that there were then only two known examples of the original broadsheet still in existence. This ephemera sheet would have been distributed in coffee shops, taverns and sold in pamphlet-shops in the centre of the city. Consequent to the printing of the leaflet a series of letters appeared in The Daily Journal starting with the edition of Saturday 15 August 1730, in which a letter referring to the activities of the fraternity and signed ‘F.G.’ concludes with a full version of the exposure.

This was followed by a letter by a reader with the initials ‘J.B.’, published on Saturday, August 22 (No 3004) quoting in detail the obligation taken by the candidate.

Dr. John Theophilus Desaguliers (1683 –1744), Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England expressed concern over Masonic exposés that appeared in the English press.

The extent of the interest in these exposures is reflected in the widespread re-publication of the letter and attachment.

In addition to several newspapers in England, the letter and exposure were also published in full in December 1730 edition of Benjamin Franklin’s own Pennsylvania Gazette. It may be worth noting that Dr Franklin had not yet joined the fraternity at the time.

This widespread circulation and apparent popularity of the catechisms disclosing Masonic ritual may not necessarily have been induced by the curiosity of the general public. There is the distinct possibility that these leaflets, just as Prichard’s well documented Masonry Dissected and other exposures, may have been popularised by Freemasons themselves purchasing the literature in order to use them as aidés-memoir.

The economic aspects of setting and printing such leaflets suggests just a small number being produced.

This explains, to some extent, their rarity. We still cannot escape the intriguing possibility, however, that hidden somewhere, most likely in collections totally unrelated to Freemasonry, lie more of these priceless fascinating documents, waiting to be discovered.

Benjamin Franklin reprinted one English exposé in 1730 before becoming a member of the fraternity.

SPRING 2015 • 27

Their Names Were in Silver: The Cornerstone Laying of the U.S. Capitol

by Stephen J. Ponzillo, III, MMS Cornerstones, particularly those connected with Freemasonry, have recently been in the news. Paul Revere and Sam Adams were remembered when the cornerstone of the Massachusetts State House in Boston was opened. Again, another cornerstone was discovered during recent excavations around the Washington Monument in Baltimore.

While reading and reflecting on these rediscoveries, I could not help but remember the most famous of cornerstone layings, namely that of the Capitol of the United States when George Washington laid a silver plate on that cornerstone. It was on Wednesday, September 18, 1793.

Perhaps there is no better description of what transpired on that day than the following found in Edward Schultz’s The History of Freemasonry in Maryland, (1884) and it is no doubt reflective of descriptions found in The Annapolis Gazette or The Alexandria Gazette and Columbian Mirror.

These ceremonies took place on the 18th of September, 1793, and General Washington, then President of the United States, joined in them as a Mason, was honored with the chief place in the Masonic procession, took the Square and Gavil [sic] in his hands, and laid the stone according to the ancient form prescribed by Masonic Rites.

A Silver Plate, having upon it an inscription, was ordered to be read by the Commissioners, and was as follows: This southeast corner of the Capitol of the United States of America, in the City of Washington, was laid on the 18th day of September, 1793, in the thirteenth year of American Independence, in the first year of the second term of the Presidency of George Washington, whose virtues in the civil administration of his country have been as conspicuous and beneficial, as his Military valor and prudence have been useful in establishing her liberties – and in the Year of Masonry 5793, by the President of the United States, in concert with the Grand Lodge of Maryland, several Lodges under its jurisdiction, and Lodge No. 22 from Alexandria, Virginia.

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Thomas Johnson, David Stuart and Daniel Carroll, commissioners; Joseph Clark, R.W.G.M. p. t., James Hoban and Stephen Hallate, Architects, Collin Williamson, M. (Master) Mason.

Who were these men whose names were engraved on that silver plate deposited by President Washington? We know much about Brother Washington, but the rest, prominent men of their day, are unknown to us.

Joseph T. Clarke: Junior Grand Warden, Worshipful Master of Amanda Lodge of Annapolis, Maryland and Grand Master pro tem of the Grand Lodge of Maryland for the cornerstone ceremonies. Clark was serving as the Charter Master of Amanda Lodge which had received its charter on April 12, 1793. Joseph Clark was an architect by profession. He designed several prominent projects in Annapolis including McDowell Hall at St. Johns College and most notably the dome of the Maryland State House. Clark’s dome was the second on the old State House as the first was too flat for water to properly drain. Trained in London, Clark took three years to see his wooden dome completed. Interlocking beams pieced together with wooden pegs and not nails attest to Clark’s ingenuity.

On the historic occasion of the cornerstone ceremony, Clark said in part: My Worthy Brethren I beg leave to declare to you that I have, and I expect that you also have, every hope that the grand work we have done today will be handed, as well by record, as by oral tradition, to a late posterity, as the like work of that ever memorable temple to our order erected by our ancient G.M. Solomon.

Captain James Hoban was the first Worshipful Master of Federal Lodge No. 15, Clotworthy Stephenson, was Senior Warden, and Andrew Eastave, served as Junior Warden. Hoban, known as Captain, was an architect like Clark. , and he served as such in the building of the Capitol. Indeed Federal Lodge’s first meeting was held on September

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15, 1793 in the home of one of the lodge brothers on the site of the present chambers of the U.S. House of Representatives. Many of the brothers of Federal Lodge were engaged in building the Capitol and wanted to be present in their own lodge for the impending cornerstone ceremonies. Hoban had come to the U.S. from Ireland at the request of President Washington to design and construct the Executive Mansion and was later put in charge of building the Capitol. Hoban and Collin Williamson, both members of Lodge No. 9 at Georgetown, had been present at the laying of the cornerstone for the President’s House.

Brothers Hoban, Williamson, and Stephen Hallate were named on the silver plate that was laid on the cornerstone.

Daniel Carroll: Daniel Carroll was one of the Commissioners appointed for laying out the District of Columbia. Born in Maryland, he was a cousin of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. A delegate to Congress from 1780 – 84, Daniel Carroll was also a signer of the Constitution. Additionally, he was a commissioner present at the laying of the cornerstone of the Capitol Building.

Carroll’s farm formed a large portion of the present site of Washington, D.C. His father had bequeathed 160 acres to him to develop Carrollsburg near the eastern branch of the Potomac, now part of Washington. It was divided into 267 lots. He reserved six lots for himself. His farm was one of four taken to create the District. He was initiated in Lodge No. 16 on May 9, 1780, and he was raised on May 8, 1781.

Collin Williamson: Collin Williamson is listed on the silver plate as “Master Mason” and was indeed an operative and speculative Mason.

He superintended the setting of the cornerstone while in full Masonic regalia. A native of Scotland, he, like so many other Scottish Masons, literally left his mark on this building and the President’s House.

There are other names engraved on the silver plate deposited on the cornerstone. A review of some records reveals that: Thomas Johnson: Thomas Johnson was the first Governor of the State of Maryland and is claimed by some to have been a Mason. However, no records exist that corroborate this claim.. Johnson was to serve on the first U.S. Supreme Court.

David Stuart: David Stuart is mentioned in several sources as being a Freemason, but this is not confirmed. He was born in Scotland, studied medicine at the University of St. Andrews and was practicing medicine in 1783 in Alexandria. He married the widow of Washington’s stepson, John (Jackie) Parke Custis.

Stephen or Etienne Hallate: Stephen Hallate, another architect, came in second to Dr. William Thornton in the competition for the design of the Capitol. Hallate and Dr. Thornton equally shared in the winners’ prize. Both Hallate and Hoban were in charge of construction.

However, Hallate’s name, not Dr. Thornton’s, was engraved on the dedicatory plate. Hallate was later fired by Secretary of State Jefferson

for altering Thornton’s design. Speculations by some scholars claim that Stephen Hallate was a Freemason.

Cornerstones signify beginnings and an enterprise well begun. The names of those whose projects were built upon those foundations were preserved to pass on and to be remembered. The silver plate and the cornerstone itself of the U.S. Capitol have not been located. No doubt they are still in place waiting to be rediscovered. The Masonic connection to projects well begun and of great purpose cannot be coincidences. In his book, Revolutionary Brotherhood, Steven Bullock states that the Freemasons of the 1790s were the “High Priests” of the Republic. There were seen as believing in the Enlightenment virtues which echoed the New Republics values. They were nondenominational and thus a good choice to dedicate the new Capitol building in a nation that just cast off, not just a king, but a state church. Today, Freemasons remain committed to concepts such as the rights of men. Projects such as the U.S. Capitol and the Massachusetts State House, or the first architectural monument to George Washington that is located in Baltimore, remind us to do the symbolic work of building our spiritual building on good foundations. It is unlikely that our efforts will be engraved on plates of silver, but how much better to have those efforts remembered in the hearts of men.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Stephen J. Ponzillo, III is a Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Maryland, Past Chair of the Conference of Grand Masters of North America, KYGCH-4, 33° AASR, retired school principal and university lecturer.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bullock, Steven C. Revolutionary Brotherhood, Freemasonry and the Transformation of the American Social Order, 1730 – 1840. U. of North Carolina Press. Chapel Hill. 1996.

Chernow, Ron. Washington: A Life. Penguin Books. New York. 2010.

Harper, Kenton. History of the Grand Lodge District of Columbia.

Beresford Printer. Washington, D.C. 1911.

Keating, George. The Maryland Ahiman Rezon of Free and Accepted Masons. W. Pechin. Baltimore. 1797.

Kennon, Donald R. Ed. A Republic for the Ages, the U.S. Capitol and the Political Culture of the Early Republic. U.S. Capitol Historical Society.

U. of Va. Press. Charlottsville. 1999.

Tabbert, Mark. American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communities. New York University Press. New York. 2005.

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IN PRINT

Book Reviews: Current Magic and the Masculine: Ritual Magic and Gender in the Early Modern Era

by Frances Timbers When

it

comes

to

discretionary reading, some choose a book for its cover art, others by its title, and still others by its popularity, a list, a recommendation, or a review.

A small minority carefully examine reviews and lists they trust, read through several pages at random, and learn about the author in an effort to determine whether it is worth the investment.

Magic and the Masculine: Ritual Magic and Gender in the Early Modern Era by Frances Timbers has striking, even titillating, cover art and a better than average title, and the author has the finest of recommendations, for no less an expert than Ronald Hutton wrote her cover blurb. Timbers is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Victoria with an interest in both ritual magic in the modern era and the uneven social impact of its practice upon practitioners of different gender and socioeconomic backgrounds.

In the early pages of her treatise, Timbers tells us that “the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were a time of transition from the ancient worldview to the modern one, and this included a change in gender ideologies. The medieval values of martial manhood were gradually shifting to the eighteenth-century model of the polite gentleman. The performance of ritual magic reflects the shift in the performance of manhood.”

Timbers’s message is timely, for we live in a time of transformation in gender ideologies and performances, and understanding how men of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were impacted by, and reacted to, those shifts may help us understand the changing roles of manhood and learn how to adapt to the demands of the new world view.

Timbers’s definitions of basic religious and ritual magic terms and practices are helpful for those who have little idea of these practices.

I found her chapter “Fraternity and Freemasonry,” which explored the Royal Society and Freemasonry, and her later chapter telling the story of John Dee and his scryer, Edward Kelley, to be both especially entertaining and captivating.

Magic and the Masculine reads more like a series of individual lectures arranged to prove Timbers’s argument that gender differences,

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the type of ritual magic practiced, and social standing made the performance of magic socially more beneficial for upper class males than for any other demographic subgroup. This produced redundancy from chapter to chapter and made it feel disjointed.

While Timbers has written an excellent primer on the topic, she does not generally dive deeply into each subject presented to the satisfaction of a seasoned researcher. The book is a significant investment, and you may find $90 to be a bit much for a primer.

I did, however, find it to be competently written and enjoyed her insights relating to ritual magic, the early modern era, and the characters involved. It is a good starting place for anyone with a durable interest in the subject matter.

Reviewed by Lorenzo Tibbitts I. B. Tauris (2014), 304 pages Hardcover £56.00 (US$90.00) Knight Templar Magazine Biographies

by Ivan M. Tribe; John L. Palmer, ed.

From 1993 through 2012, featured nearly a hundred Masonic biographies written by Ivan M. Tribe, a distinguished Mason and professor emeritus of history at the University of Rio Grande in Ohio. John L. Palmer, current managing editor of Knight Templar, has edited and collected them into this handy volume.

Knight Templar magazine

The book is limited to US Masons, but sensibly avoids founding-father Masons such as Washington and Franklin, whose Masonic biographies are readily available. Instead the book spotlights nineteenth- and twentieth-century figures who are—or should be—well known, but generally not as Masons.

A third of the biographies are of statesmen, and a fourth are of entertainers. The rest cover educators, athletes, military men, business and labor leaders, lawmen, explorers, writers, and religious leaders. As someone who grew up with TV westerns and who has chosen New Mexico as a home, I especially enjoyed the inclusion of a number of western frontier figures, as well as actors who played western roles.

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The book has some odd omissions: it includes twentieth-century Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Gerald Ford, but not Franklin Roosevelt or Harry Truman—as past grand master of Missouri the highest-ranked Mason to occupy the White House.

In all, the biographies are entertaining while seeming thorough and academically sound. Masons will find the book enjoyable and informative, and Masonic libraries should definitely include it.

Reviewed by Kenneth W. Davis Cornerstone (2014), 476 pages Paperback, US$24.95 Handbook of Freemasonry

by Henrik Bogdan and Jan A. M. Snoek, eds.

Brill, a Dutch publishing house, was established in 1683 and is today a leading publisher of academic works within the fields of humanities and social sciences. In its series Handbooks of Contemporary Religion (BHCR), each book offers an extensive collection of articles in which authorities in their respective fields illuminate various religious or spiritual traditions. The series aims to present cutting-edge scholarship within the themes favored by a release, but simultaneously to challenge further research.

Handbook of Freemasonry was published in this series in 2014, and thus a wealth of updated knowledge is made available in one single volume. The publisher and the editors deserve our gratitude for collecting and presenting recent results from such a wide range of research areas, and making it ​​available to a wider audience.

The Handbook of Freemasonry is edited by academics who are themselves Freemasons: Professor Jan Snoek, formerly at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, and Henrik Bogdan, assistant professor in Gothenburg, Sweden. Through more than six hundred pages we are presented with a wide range of topics, and the twenty-seven authors who have shared their expertise in the thirty articles of the book come from various parts of Europe and North America. Most are professional researchers, but a few amateurs have also contributed. The articles are organized into five sections: Historical Perspectives; Freemasonry and Religion; Ritual, Organisation, and Diffusion; Freemasonry, Society, and Politics; and Freemasonry and Culture.

The first part of the book offers the reader an excellent introduction to main themes within Masonic history. In the short opening essay the editors present a concise, balanced, and systematic overview of this complicated matter, covering also some events and

organizations outside “mainstream” Freemasonry. The subsequent articles go deeper into the topic, with a thorough presentation of the Old Charges by Andrew Prescott and outstanding reviews of early traditions in Scotland and England by David Stevenson and Matthew Scanlan. Pierre Mollier and Margaret Jacob cover Templarism and the Enlightenment in their contributions, but I can’t help thinking that the book would have profited by more detail in their texts.

The next section is dedicated to Freemasonry and religion, and this is, in my opinion, the most important part of the book. Not only are the eight articles written by specialists in their fields, but more important, I don’t think this subject ever has been dealt with in such a level of details in the same volume before. The section describes the relationship of Masonry with the Catholic Church, the Orthodox churches, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Eastern religions, Western esotericism, and some newer religious movements. The section has 180 pages, packed with essential and valuable information!

Of the other articles in the book I suspect that the review by Arturo de Hoyos of various Masonic rites, systems, and higher degrees will be found to be of value by many. The article illustrates admirably the complexity of the Masonic world, and the manner the text is structured lets the reader use it as a work of reference. The short article by Jan Snoeks on the relationship among grand lodges is also very important and could well be mandatory reading for all brethren in higher offices worldwide. The article about women and Freemasonry by the same author will probably be an eye-opener for many readers. Other entries in the book are so specialized that they will probably appeal most to readers with a particular interest in their particular subjects, but let me finally mention Malcolm Davies’s inspiring article about Masonic music. I had the pleasure of meeting Malcolm on a few occasions, and started to collect some material for him on the music within my own Masonic tradition, but unfortunately I was not able to send him anything before his untimely death in 2010. His contribution to the Handbook is probably among his last completed works.

Overall, the Handbook of Freemasonry contains so much wellstructured information and so many well-founded conclusions, that it will be an excellent starting point for anyone who wants to familiarize himself with Masonic history and the social significance of Freemasonry past and present. The book is compulsory for those who want to acquaint themselves with the relation of the Craft to the major religions, and its value as a reference work can hardly be overrated. My primary objection with the book is the pricing.

Products from Brill are consistently expensive, and the Handbook of Freemasonry does not stand out in this respect, but at a price of €207 or $268 (for both the hardcover edition and an electronic format), the availability of the book will probably be limited.

Thus, it is not certain that the book will have the large audience its contents deserve, an outcome that would be most regrettable.

Hopefully many libraries (both Masonic and academic) will be able to purchase a copy and make the contents of the handbook available to interested brethren and other researchers.

Reviewed by Leif Endre Grutle Leiden: Koninklijke Brill (2014), 689 pages Hardback or e-book, €207, US$268 SPRING 2015 • 31

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Cincinnati’s Freemasons

by Donald I. Crews

Freemasonry Decoded: Rebuilding the Royal Arch

by Kevin L. Gest A walk back through the rich history of Masonic lodges and the contributions they made to the spread of Freemasonry reminds us of the significant role the fraternity played in shaping the heritage and character of communities. The story of the first lodge in Cincinnati, chartered in 1791, and its help in spreading the Craft throughout Ohio, leading to the majestic Cincinnati Masonic Temple is 1926, is one of those great stories.

Donald I. Crews delivers a tremendous service to the fraternity in telling this story in the popular Arcadia Publishing Series, Images of America, which celebrates the history of neighborhoods, towns, and cities throughout North America.

Captured in unique vintage pictorial format, small slices of Masonic history are brought to life in Crews’s Cincinnati’s Freemasons, covering the 226-year history of the fraternity in the Queen City.

This book offers an introduction to the members of the order, its buildings, and its related organizations in southwest Ohio, revealed through 210 captioned images from lodges and other bodies, buildings, individuals, and numerous other sources. His work offers a specific chapter on the “Bigger Circle of Freemasonry” in Cincinnati, exploring the evolution of the appendant bodies and their impressive structures and facilities.

One of many attention-grabbing photographs in the collection is of the Supreme Court chief justice, secretary of War, and twenty-seventh president, William Howard Taft, wearing George Washington’s Masonic apron and holding the trowel used by Washington to lay the cornerstone of the Capitol. Taft, a Cincinnati native, is the only president to have been made a “Mason at sight.”

He was a member of Kilwinning Lodge 356, along with his halfbrother and father.

Crews’s work is an example of how researchers around the country might approach preserving the history and culture of Freemasonry in their cities and states, as well as the priceless photographs and images scattered in private and public collections.

Reviewed by John Bizzack Arcadia Publishing (2014), 128 pages Paperback, US$21.99; Kindle e-book, US$9.99

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Kevin L. Gest has published three other books: The Secrets of Solomon’s Temple; Chivalry: The Origins and History of Orders of Knighthood; and The Mandorla and Tau, of which Freemasonry Decoded seems almost a sequel.

The book is written by a British Freemason from a British point of view, so many of the references and examples he gives may be unfamiliar to the American reader.

Gest begins with a rather exhaustive explanation of English, Irish, and Scottish political intrigue as it relates to Freemasonry, an explanation that may be a little confusing to the American reader. He then suggests that Masonic allegory can be traced back to the writings of Josephus. Another chapter contains a discussion of the history of architecture including the contributions of Plato, Euclid, Pythagoras, Brunelleschi, Palladio, and Vitruvius.

Gest suggests that many of the Bible-based allegories used in Masonic ritual were selected in order to portray European and British events that occurred in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when speculative Freemasonry was evolving. He includes a lengthy explanation of his interpretation of the symbolic significance of Craft Lodge, as well as Royal Arch regalia used in the British Isles, significantly different from that used elsewhere.

He also puts a great deal of emphasis on the knowledge imparted to past masters of the lodge and how it relates to the Royal Arch Degree.

Woven throughout the book are complex explanations of how geometry is used to derive Masonic symbols, including a discussion of how an operative apprentice may have been trained in this subject. The last two chapters relate specifically to the Royal Arch degree and especially the symbolism and derivation of the triple tau.

If you are interested in speculation about how Freemasonry is related to the political, religious, and academic environment in Great Britain, this book may be of particular interest to you. Also, if you are interested in thoughts about sacred geometry, you may wish to see what Gest does with it in this work. There is also a section about the emperor Julian, which may be of special interest to the Knights of the Red Cross of Constantine.

The criticism I have is that the author is prone to make unsubstantiated statements, which he then uses to lead him to some of his conclusions. At one point, he makes the statement that in a “proper” tau, the ratio of the two perpendicular lines must be the golden mean. I had never heard that before, and he offers no source for this information. In another place, he refers

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to Christ’s “beloved disciple” as Mary Magdalene. Biblical scholars for centuries have insisted that the “beloved disciple” was Saint John the Evangelist and have put forward an excellent case for that conclusion. Gest simply makes the statement and moves on. These sort of unsubstantiated statements undermine the credibility of the work and make me question the validity of any conclusion put forward.

In summary, if you are interested in geometry and British history as it relates to Freemasonry, you may want to read this book, taking its conclusions with a grain of salt.

Like Pound, I tend to favor the more “pragmatist-pluralistic” interpretation of Freemasonry. It is my personal belief that the purpose of Freemasonry is the individual improvement of man in both quality and character, and by his action, the overall improvement of society as a whole. Pound himself describes the purpose of Freemasonry as the advancement of human civilization.

He says, “Each of us by developing himself as a civilized, in the real sense, as a cultured man according to his lights and his circumstances can find reality in himself and can bring others and the whole nearer to the reality for which we are consciously or unconsciously striving—the civilization of mankind.”

Reviewed by John L. Palmer Lewis Masonic (2014), 286 pages Hardback, £19.99

Reviewed by Bo Cline Available in multiple free or low-cost paperback, e-book, and Web editions

Book Reviews: Classic Lectures on the Philosophy of Freemasonry

by Roscoe Pound Recently I’ve been rereading Roscoe Pound’s (1870–1964) Lectures on the Philosophy of Freemasonry (1915). Pound was a botanist and legal scholar, and in 1916 became dean of Harvard Law School. The book is based on a series of lectures that Pound delivered before the Harvard chapter of the Acacia fraternity during the school year 1911-1912.

The five lectures deal with Pound’s own Masonic philosophy and the philosophies of four Masonic luminaries: William Preston (1742–1818), Karl Christian Friedrich Krause (1781–1832), George Oliver (1782–1867), and Albert Pike (1809– 1891). Pound points out that the philosophies held by these scholars varied markedly and were influenced by their personal experiences and the times in which they lived. He describes two of the philosophies as practical (Preston and Krause), and two as more spiritual (Oliver and Pike).

Lectures on the Philosophy of Freemasonry can be read in an afternoon.

Small though it is, it speaks volumes to me. The most important lesson I take from this book is that the philosophy of Freemasonry has been interpreted by every age and every generation and that each Mason may interpret it for himself. As Pound says, “We have long outgrown the notion that Masonry is to be held to one purpose or one object or is to be hemmed in by the confines of one philosophy.”

MEET THE REVIEWERS John Bizzack, PhD, is a member of Lexington Lodge 1 in Lexington, Kentucky, and the Louisville Scottish Rite. He is the author of three books about Freemasonry: Discovering Freemasonry in Context; When History Fails, Legend Prevails; and For the Good of the Order.

John R. “Bo” Cline is past president of the Masonic Society, a past grand master, twice past master of Matanuska Lodge 7 in Palmer, Alaska, and a member of various Masonic research groups. He is a staff reviewer for the Journal of the Masonic Society, with special interest in the study of Masonic history and symbology.

Kenneth W. Davis is chaplain of Albuquerque Lodge 60 and the Lodge of Research of New Mexico, and is past master of Lodge Vitruvian 767 in Indiana. He is a fellow of the Masonic Society, its current first vice president, and review editor of its Journal. He holds an appointment as professor emeritus of English at Indiana University.

Very Rev. Leif Endre Grutle is a member of Lodge Syvstjernen 19, Kristiansund, Norway, and was promoted to the Xth degree of the Swedish Rite in 2013. He is one of only twenty-seven full member of Niels Treschow (the only lodge of research in Norway), where he currently holds office as junior warden. He is a regular contributor to Acta Masonica Scandinavica, the annual transaction jointly published by the Scandinavian Lodges of Research.

John L. Palmer is past grand master of Masons in Tennessee, managing editor of Knight Templar magazine, and a staff reviewer for the Journal of the Masonic Society.

Lorenzo (Lon) E. Tibbitts, PM, 32°, KCCH, serves as the grand orator of the Grand Lodge of Utah and assistant director general for the Orient of Utah. A staff reviewer for this journal, he currently resides with his wife, Lana, in South Jordan, Utah.

SPRING 2015 • 33

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reemasonry and the founding of the United States have been intertwined since the very beginning. Now discover the brotherhood of Freemasons at the center of Dan Brown’s novel, The Lost Symbol. Follow fictional symbologist Robert Langdon’s factual trail through the streets and monuments of Washington D.C., and into the innermost lodge rooms and temples of the Masons.

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The Masonic Society 1427 W. 86th Street, Suite 248 Indianapolis, IN 46260-2103

Masonic Treasures

Art of the Tracing Board These classically inspired twenty-first century tracing boards grace the interior of Grapevine Lodge No. 288 in Grapevine, Texas.

Commonly used by lodges in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to teach Masonic symbolism, tracing boards began to be replaced at the end of the nineteenth century by magic lantern slide shows, and by the twentieth century they had all but disappeared from most lodges. These examples,

by Bro. Jorge Soria, a member of Grapevine Lodge, hearken back to a time when artistic expression was one of the true gems of this great fraternity.

Wrought by a master of his craft, they will no doubt be treasures of Grapevine Lodge No. 288 for many years to come, and will be enjoyed by all the brethren who are privileged to visit its halls.