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The Masonic Apron | Symbols and Symbolism

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In this episode we look at the definition of what the masonic apron represents. Of the many emblems of Freemasonry, none is more iconic that the lambskin apron.

Alien outside of the lodge, under the tiled lodge it represents the totality of what it means to be a Mason. It’s said to be more noble than the Roman Eagle or the Golden Fleece, the Masonic apron is literally, the badge of a mason carried with him into the next existence.

Albert Mackey, in his Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, says of the apron:

There is no one of the symbols of Speculative Masonry more important in its teachings, or more interesting in its history, than the lambskin, or white leather apron. Commencing its lessons at an early period in the Mason’s progress, it is impressed upon his memory as the first gift which he receives, the first symbol which is explained to him, and the first tangible evidence which he possesses of his admission. Whatever may be his future advancement in the “royal art,” into whatsoever deeper arcana his devotion to the mystic institution or his thirst for knowledge may subsequently lead him, with the lambskin apron — his first investiture — he never parts. Changing, perhaps, its form and its decorations, and conveying at each step some new but still beautiful allusion, its substance is still there, and it continues to claim the honored title by which it was first made known to him, on the night of his initiation, as “the badge of a Mason.”

The Beehive | Symbols and Symbolism

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In this episode of Symbols and Symbols we examine the Masonic symbol of the beehive, a symbol that Mackey, in his Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, calls a symbol of an obedient people. In masonic parlance, the symbol is more recognizable as an emblem industry. The Master Mason degree says of the beehive that it is an emblem of industry, and “recommends the practice of that virtue to all created beings, from the highest seraph in heaven to the lowest reptile of the dust.” Yet, as Mackey explains, the emblem is much, much, more.

A symbol that Albert Mackey, in his Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, says “was among the Egyptians the symbol of an obedient people”, because, as he quotes Horapollo, “…of all insects, the bee alone had a king,” what we know now to be a queen. Mackey continues “Hence looking at the regulated labor of these insects when congregated in their hive, it is not surprising that a beehive should have been deemed an appropriate emblem of systematized industry. Freemasonry has therefore adopted the beehive as a symbol of industry, a virtue taught in the instructions, which says that a Master Mason” works that he may receive wages, the better to support himself and family, and contribute to the relief of a worthy, distressed brother, his widows and orphans. In the Old Charges, which tell us that “…all Masons shall work honestly on working days, that they may live creditably on holidays.”

There seems, however, to be a more recondite meaning connected with this symbol. The ark has already been shown to have been an emblem common to Freemasonry and the Ancient Mysteries, as a symbol of regeneration—of the second birth from death to life. Now, in the Mysteries, a hive was a type of ark. “Hence,” says Faber (Origin of Pagan Idolatry, volume ii, page 133), “both the diluvian priestesses and the regenerated souls were called bees; hence, bees were feigned to be produced from the carcass of a cow, which also symbolized the ark; and hence, as the great father was esteemed an infernal god, honey was much used both in funeral rites and in the Mysteries.”

Footsteps of the Gods

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fingerprints of the gods, magicians of the gods, Graham Hancock, book review
Having just finished Graham Hancock’s Fingerprints of the Gods and Magicians of the Gods, I feel as though I’ve been walking in the footsteps of the gods, and it’s made me a believer.

Seldom do I binge watch more than a few TV episodes at a time. When I do, it feels like an information overload that makes the whole thing hard to process and nearly impossible to enjoy. The same could be said for books and reading. When I finish one book on a particular subject I like to move on to another, to cleanse the mental palate and process what I just read.

I thought about this when I picked up Graham Hancock’s Fingerprints of the Gods. Fingerprints was one of those books I’d spent the better part of 30 years avoiding just out of sheer will because, I had thought, it was an alt-history cavalcade and the well-spring of countless conspiracy, cryptozoology and pre-history anecdotes. This hesitancy in picking up Fingerprints was on the heels of an Art Bell fascination and right around the time I became a Freemason.

Still, like the mantra emblazoned on Fox Mulder’s poster — I wanted to believe.

The idea of a pre-history has always fascinated me. I had my own theories from history courses in college. Early on, I considered a minor in Greek and Roman art history, but sufficed myself on being an armchair historian consuming academic and literary explorations of ancient history. Field work on the subject, however, wasn’t in the cards.

But all the while, nagging at the back of my brain (along with Fingerprints maybe) was the notion that the timeline of history couldn’t possibly be sufficient to achieve some of the marvels that spawned out of a few short centuries only to go so silently quiet.

So, I’d passed on Fingerprints… and waited. I waited so long I had, for the most part, forgotten about it and lost myself in studying Freemasonry. Fingerprints of the Gods had receded so far in my head that when I caught a YouTube video with Graham Hancock presenting his ideas and theories, it all came back to me such that, within a week I was out at my local book seller buying a new copy to start reading on the spot.

So, in the span of a few weeks, I consumed Fingerprints of the Gods, feeling as though I was right there with Graham climbing the steps of the Giza pyramid and digging around in the water worn stone of the Sphinx. Reading it slowly, I measured every word of every chapter and gave considerable thought to the ideas he put forth — ideas, I’ll add, that while on the fringe of academic study, are not outside the philosophical reality as they intersect the realms of the history before history. Isn’t that part of the great mysteries of the human species? How did we build the pyramids? Why did we build them?

In Fingerprints of the Gods, Hancock sets the theoretical stage for a cataclysmic event at about the period of Younger Dryas (about 14,500 years ago) that wiped out a civilization more advanced than its contemporary hunter-gatherer counterparts. His theory is that this civilization, in collapse, struck out across the globe establishing megalithic monuments and reorganizing the hunter-gathers enclaves they encountered into porto-civilizations turning them into agricultural-socities. Hancock’s theory in Fingerprints was an earth crust displacement that moved and sizable landmass from a habitable zone into an inhospitable one — destroying in an instant an ancient advanced civilization. Upon its demise, this great civilization fled the disaster zone and seeded themselves around the globe erecting megalithic monuments to memorialize the event and warn subsequent generations of the cataclysm that happened to them and it’s recurrence in the future.

Immediately I was sucked into the text with the mention of an ancient map accurately depicting the coastline of Antarctica. It was compelling, and took me down the rabbit hole I’d so long resisted — loving every word of it. While some of the conclusions were broad in their scope, I had to admit that the conclusions were plausible and worth greater consideration. Why couldn’t a species that’s been on the planet only have created a “modern” society in barely the last 7,000 years. Personally, I don’t take this to mean there were flying machines in antiquity or weapons of mass destruction that wiped out society. But, notion of history before history was just as intoxicating to think about in consideration of the imaginings from the sundry religious texts Hancock sites as parallels to his theories.

Finishing Fingerprints, I was compelled to immediately start reading his follow up book Magicians of the Gods.

Written in the same mesmerizing fashion as his earlier work, Magicians was different. Published 22 years after Fingerprints, Magicians of the Gods felt in one hand a mia culpa (on the earth crust displacement and link to the Mayan calendar 2012 debacle) and a in the other a substantiation on the cataclysm of the Younger Dryas period, illiterated across the globe in the surviving (and reachable) megalithic structures, in particular the nascent discovery of Gobekli Tepe in the Anatolia region of Turkey. As in his earlier work, Hancock paints an even greater detailed picture of the province of ancient antediluvian culture. In Magicians of the Gods, with the aid of science and observational inputs, Hancock adds further mass to his scaffold of an ancient civilization being wiped from the memory of time. I don’t want to give too much away but Hancock’s arguments are compelling and worthy of deep consideration and, dare I say, exploration further.

A point in the work I did find of great interest was a reference in the text to the esteemed Masonic author Timothy Hogan and his observational analysis of marks in Temple of Bacchus in Lebanese megalithic structure at Baalbeck. Another was, much to my surprise, was a broad weaving in of the Hermetic texts, expounding the very oft mentioned “as above, so below” but with great consequence in his meaning. In a very brief encapsulation, resting on Hermetica, the thrust of his hermetic connection is that the universe affects life on Earth, and the Earth reflects the effect of the universe upon it. This reflection is encoded in the megalithic monuments of that share uncanny similarities in their construction and in the sheer mass of their existence from a time before recorded history.

In a general reference, Hancock writes of the cataclysmic events that they were,

…embedded in myths and legends and in mathematical and architectural precepts that would be passed on and renewed again and again by the different cultures that received them, thus boosting the signal and allowing it to remain intact for thousands of years. Even if those through whose hands and minds the signal passed no longer understood its meaning, the weight of sacred tradition, hoary with age would ensure that they were continued to transmit it and would do their utmost to keep it free from interference.

Throughout Magicians, Hancock seems reflective of what on what he’s discovered — different than the tone of the Fingerprints when the reporter turned author was carving out a Hyperborean like view of humankind emerging out of the era of hunter-gathers in the prehistoric Clovis period. Maybe the reflectiveness comes at the realization of what he’s proposing is very real and, again, set in a framework of a very clear and present danger in the annual annual passing through the Taurid meteor showers.

Yet, the cycle of the universe moves slowly, and the mysteries of processional time and the rise and fall of the human species is forgetful — it’s an informational overload at a glacial pace. Hancock’s declaration may be a solitary voice in the wilderness with the message of Fingerprints of the Gods and Magicians of the Gods. But science, it seems, is teasing points of validation to both works, if even in validating ancient comet strikes or finding ancient megalithic sites bedecked in astronomical corollaries dating to near the period of the Younger Dryas event. Hancock made me a believer, or at least validates my suspicions of ancient history and the history before history, whether upon the shores of Antarctica or the now underwater regions submerged in the great flood, a point Hancock brings into full focus with the mystery of Atlantis.

Yes, it’s extraordinary. Yes, it’s a lot to take in. And, no, it isn’t a scientific treatise. Fingerprints of the Gods, and it’s follow up Magicians of the Gods, are fantastical works about the fluid history past, present and future of humankind. And, just as Hermetica (and Hancock in the conclusion) reminds us,

The forces do not work upward from below, but downward from above…All the world which lies below has been set in order and filled with contents by the things which are placed above… The source of all earthly things are on high: those sources pour forth upon us by fixed measure and weight; and their is nothing that that has not come down from above.

Graham Hancock knows it, his Fingerprints of the Gods and Magicians of the Gods illustrates the points. You should probably know it, too. Even if you have to binge read it like I did.

Meet Brother Tehuti Evans

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Tehuti Evans

Brother Tehuti Evans is a member of Redemption Lodge No. 24 MWPHGLDC. He is currently Secretary (and Past Master) of the David A. McWilliams Sr. Research and Education Lodge and also Grand Historian and Archivist for the Grand Lodge and Secretary and Keeper of the Seal and Archives for Jonathan Davis Consistory No. 1, ASSR,S.J., PHA.

Evans studied at Howard University, Federal City College, the University of the District of Columbia and Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts where he pursued his doctoral studies.

Evans is a well traveled veteran of the Air Force where he was a military engineer and a decorated Vietnam War veteran.

https://youtu.be/EZ-ErwqEsrA

Biography of Alonzo Tehuti Evans

In 1983, Evans was named the Washington Urban League’s Man of the year and promoted to Director of Employment and Training.

In 1984 brother Evans became Director of Operations for International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation, (ITI) in Washington DC and in 1986 he became a educational consultant with KJ Associates of Silver Springs, Maryland.

Brother Evans was a founding member of the University of the District of Columbia Alumni Association in 1978 where he served as its Chairman of the Board of Directors 1979-86 and as a member of the Board of Trustee of the University of The District of Columbia from 1988 -1992.

Since 1993, He has worked with several Washington DC study groups out side of the campus environment, working to bring such African scholars as Doctors Ben, John Henry Clark, Dr. Van Sertima, Charles Finch, Francis Welsing, Neely Fuller, Tony Browder and many others to the greater Washington area for lectures and discussions on issues pertinent to African and African-American history and social development.

Brother Evans was The Dean of the School of Behavior and Social Sciences for the Washington Saturday College at Howard University from 1997-1999.

In 1995 Brother Evans was a co-founder of, and the resident scholar at The House of Khamit Book Store and Cultural Shop, which was located on historic Georgia Avenue in Washington, DC.

Brother Evans counts his tour of Egypt in 1998 with Dr Yosef ben-Jochatumn, the most preeminent Black scholar of Egyptian history, as one of his top life experiences. Saying of the tour, “Touring with a master scholar opens ones eyes unlike any other educational experience.”

Evans has lectured as a main presenter for the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization (ASCAC), as well as several mainstream American universities such as the University of Massachusetts, University of Maryland, Wayne State University, The University of Chicago, Morgan Slate University, Temple University and Howard University.

Among his current interests include serving as the Resident Agent and member of the Board of Directors for the Mignon L. I. Ford Foundation which he says is his most satisfying. The foundation is an Ethiopian/American organization committed to continuing the legacy of a great Family which migrated to Ethiopia in the 1920’s and established the first co-educational school for Ethiopian children.

Today Brother Evans is retired but still travels and lectures at schools, colleges, and community centers around the United States. He sits on the board of directors for the The Phylaxis Society.

 

 

 

Albert Gallatin Mackey

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masonic author, encyclopedia of freemasonry

In Masonic circles, few names carry the weight that comes with the eminent that of Albert Gallatin Mackey. Mostly known as a Masonic historian, author, and scholar, Mackey was also an educator and a medical doctor prior to his lifting the Masonic pen. Yet, this great accomplishments are eclipsed in the shadow of two of his biggest achievements in collecting and publishing Masonic wisdom and knowledge in his magnum opus, the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, in 1873, and through his Masonic periodical works including The Southern and Western Masonic Miscellany — a project he maintained at his own expense, in 1852. Although Mackey’s life work centered on Freemasonry, it didn’t start out that way — beginning with much simpler objective that would come to fuel his passion for chronicling the world of Freemasonry.

Born on March 12, 1807, in Charleston, South Carolina, a young Albert Mackey began his working career as an educator. Once through his studies, Mackey worked as a teacher to earn the resources necessary to attend medical school. Upon completion, Mackey returned to Charleston to begin his life. After twenty years of practicing medicine (1834-1854), he left the profession in order to become a full-time author writing about a variety of subjects but in particular about the Middle Ages, language, and Freemasonry.

An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, 1916

Mackey was initiated into Saint Andrews Lodge No. 10 in Charleston, South Carolina in 1841 where he moved through the lodge chairs. Mackey went on to associate with Solomon’s Lodge, No. 1, in Charleston where, 1842, he was elected “Worshipful Master.” He then held the position of Grand Secretary from 1842 until 1867. Albert Mackey went on to hold numerous positions and to be affiliated with numerous other Masonic Lodges.

In the time that he was affiliated with Freemasonry, Mackey produced many different works about the fraternity. His first Masonic piece, A Lexicon of Freemasonry, was published in 1845. He then wrote The Mystic Tie in 1851, History of Freemasonry in South Carolina in 1861 and, in 1874, the opus he is most known for, the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry. At different intervals, Mackey edited the Western Masonic Miscellany (1849-54), the Masonic Quarterly Review (1857-58), the American Freemason (1859-60), Mackey’s National Freemason (1871-74) and the Voice of Freemasonry (1875-79). Said of Mackey and his work to encapsulate the Masonic landmarks:

…his reduction to writing of twenty-five principles of Masonic law, whether or no they are all true landmarks, was a feat of no mean proportions. His list gave other Masonic thinkers a solid foundation from which to take off on expeditions into what was then an unexplored Masonic field. (read more of variations of the landmarks under Masonic Symbols)

After a long and illustrious career, Albert Gallatin Mackey passed away in Fortress Monroe, Virginia, on June 21, 1881. Said before the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction by Past Georgia Grand Master Henry Buist at Mackey’s eulogy:

He was a fearless and gifted speaker; his language was courteous and manner dignified; and occasionally, in his earnestness to maintain what he conceived to be right, he became animated and eloquent. Positive in his convictions, he was bold in their advocacy. His course of action once determined on, supported by an approving conscience no fear or disfavor or discomfiture could swerve him from his fixed purpose. Whatever was the emergency, he was always equal to it. Where others doubted. he was confident; where others faltered, he was immovable; where others queried, he affirmed. He was faithful to every public and Masonic duty. Treachery found no place in his character. He never betrayed a trust. He was eminently sincere and loyal to his friends, and those who were most intimately associated with him learned to appreciate him the most. He was generous and frank in his impulses, and cherished malice toward none, and charity for all. His monument is in the hearts of those who knew him longest and best. He is no longer of this earth. His work among men is ended; his earthly record is complete.

In 2001, the Scottish Rite Research Society established the Albert Gallatin Mackey Award for Lifetime Achievement and Excellence in Masonic Scholarship. The lifetime achievement award is given to individuals whose works have received longstanding universal recognition by Masonic scholars and the excellence in Masonic scholarship is presented to individuals whose original works published by the society are distinguished by their superior achievement.

Today you can find the tomb of Albert Gallatin Mackey at Glenwood Cemetery in Washington D.C.

Works by (and with) Albert Gallatin Mackey:

Interview With Patrick Craddock, The Craftsman’s Apron

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We last visited Patrick Craddock in June of 2013 with an article on Freemason Information that you can see HERE. Since that time Craddock has increased his product line.

https://youtu.be/Da1DCHXx08w

While he may not make all his accessories personally they are his design. Everything on Craddock’s Site for sale has been personally designed by him and for him. They cannot be found elsewhere.

“Throughout the early 1990’s to 2009, Patrick produced aprons in the evenings and on weekends as a sideline business. From a hobby born of necessity, The Craftsman’s Apron has become the foremost purveyor of quality Masonic regalia in North America. Today our aprons are worn in twenty-seven States and two foreign countries. In addition to our aprons we have increased our product line to include custom ties, Lodge banners, cuff links, t-shirts, officer jewels and collars.”

Of course, Craddock’s mainstay is still his handcrafted, hand painted aprons. A large portion of the aprons Craddock makes are custom designs special ordered. Whether you want to design your own apron or just give Craddock some of your favorite Masonic symbols and let him work with them to make a one of a kind creation, you will be hard pressed to find anybody else in the United States that can do that for you.

Craddock also delivers lectures, most often a power point presentation of the Evolution of the Masonic Apron in the United States. He travels to many Jurisdictions to their Grand Session and he is available to speak anywhere upon request.

To contact Patrick Craddock  visit his wonderful website: https://www.craftsmansapron.com/ and The Craftsman’s Apron Facebook page.

 

The Hermetic Foundations of the American Republic

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hermetic, freemasonry, masonic tradition

How many of us understand what Hermetic thought is, beyond the idea of “hermetically sealed”?

Some time back I attended a lecture, presented by a lodge here in Southern California, by Dr. Stephan Hoeller, the Gnostic “Bishop” of Los Angeles. His title, I assure you, is not a pun or insult, but a very fitting description to a very intelligent man.

The lecture was on The Hermetic Foundations of the American Republic, which essentially suggested that the ideas and efforts of the founding fathers were the result of a broader subcurrent of the intelligentsia within society and whose ideas manifested themselves into the early documents and foundation of the American Republic.

But first, a note on Hermetic thought

A tradition of knowledge said to date into Ancient Egypt, Hermetic thought is associated with the god Thoth, who the Greeks later related to Hermes. Thoth’s title (one of many) was three times great, which the Greeks translated to Hermes Trismegistus or the thrice great Hermes, and who is believed to be the author of the Emerald Tablet, and Asclepius, within the hermetic texts.

It’s thought that Hermeticism flourished in ancient Alexandria, but moved underground and fell out of common knowledge with the fall of Rome and the onset of the middle ages.

The Renaissance brought about this resurgence of knowledge, including a rediscovery of Hermetic texts (see the Hermetica: The Greek Corpus Hermeticum and the Latin Asclepius in a New English Translation, with Notes and Introduction), brought to Europe by the Medici family from sources in Byzantium. What these texts contained were ancient ideas of wisdom that talked in detail about a dual nature to man and his pursuit to unify them. The two sides were made up of a human lower self that includes feelings, thoughts, sensation, and ego, the human traits we recognize today. The other half consisted of the spirit, that intangible, ineffable thing that gives us that higher conscience. Its efforts were to cultivate the conscious coming together of the initiates self with his spirit.

The idea within Hermetics was the joining of the two, the transformation of two separate elements into a new one. Some believe that Hermetic tradition survived the fall of Rome and the middle ages in the mystical field of Alchemy, which has existed in different forms for many centuries.

With the dawning of the Renaissance, so too brought the return of Hermetic thought which began to seep into Christian tradition. This movement was quickly stamped out by the doctrinal inquisition, which has since walled itself off from and philosophical idea of a personal God consciousness. Some examples of this era of sanitization of this transformative self, he suggests, could be seen in the extermination of both the Templars and Cathars in France. But again, the ideas did not die, nor were they eradicated. The Hermeticists moved underground into the “secret societies” of the age, two of those societies were the Rosicrucian’s and the other was Freemasonry.

One of the traits of Hermetic study was a progression of steps, or degrees, where the initiated would learn different aspects of the knowledge slowly to cultivate the eventual merger into the self, which was the physical and mental awakening of the God conscious, epitomized in the phrase “Know Thyself.”

So this unconscious cognition moved though Europe finding a receptive home in England where it was nurtured and incubated amidst revolution and religious freedom, away from the Catholic Church.

So what does this have to do with the foundation of America?

Many of the ideas, inherent in the fabric of our country within our constitution, have direct connections to the tenants of Hermetic thought. One such connection is the separation of Church and State. Hermetic tradition says that the individual chooses his path to the divine, and is not directed or influenced one way or another. Freedom of religion here is a direct extension of this idea, that the state is the vessel of the people and should not dictate one faith by presuming authority of one faith or another. The initiated must find his self and not be told where or what it is.

Public education is an extension of the Hermetic idea of finding the god consciousness, though the exploration of the physical universe. How does one attain this consciousness, by learning about their physical universe and its furthest reaches. Education creates the “divine metal” of the body, giving it its strength and resiliency.

And lastly, the three branches of government work in conjunction of opposites striving to find a balance for the good of the body, the ultimate attainment of the self.

The lecture made some interesting links and offered some tantalizing food for thought. Somewhere within our collective body of knowledge, behind the fog of memory, lay the history of Freemasonry.

Works by Dr. Stephan Hoeller include:

The Masonic Handshake

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What does the Masonic handshake represent?

Now and then I like to write about Freemasonry, an ancient fraternity I have much respect for. It dates back several centuries, back when operative Masons were building the great churches, cathedrals, castles and other buildings of the time. Working as a group, the Masons of that period would mentor and teach their skills and building techniques to younger members of their group, thereby improving craftsmanship and bonding as a set of trustworthy brothers. Over the years, the society evolved to allow others to join the fraternity in order to build better men.

Today, the Masons are a very tight knit group who actively participate in their communities, promote morality, and come to the assistance of others, not just members of their own group. As the fraternity spread around the world, certain words and handshakes were invented to identify Brother Masons. Such protocol helped establish relationships between Masons, such as that between Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during World war II. It also opened doors to visiting Brothers and welcomed them to communities, and was used to request assistance in times of peril. The grip between Masons, therefore, is an important symbolic gesture of trust.

The Secret of the Masonic Handshake

The secret to the Masonic handshake is not in how it is given, but what it represents.

Those who learn it are taught to subscribe to the three basic tenets of Freemasonry, which are “Friendship, Morality, and Brother Love.” This is more than a catch-phrase, it represents how Masons are to treat each other; to meet on the level as friends, the expected rectitude of conduct, and how to work with others, such as offering wise counsel between brothers. Such a handshake creates a bond between people, just as the ancient Masons tried to build in their society of fellow craftsmen.

Most Masons take the handshake seriously and are mindful of what it represents. Unfortunately, there is a small minority of people who join the fraternity for ulterior motives, such as to build a network of contacts to promote their business. Such people learn the customs of the Masons and use them for personal gain as opposed to the three tenets of the fraternity. I personally have a problem with this and refuse to shake the hand of someone I do not believe embraces the true concept of the handshake.

Over the years I have met a handful of Masons who use the handshake for political purposes and have forgotten its original intent. This is a small number of men, but they do exist and, to my way of thinking, besmirch the character of Freemasonry and hurt the society in the process. If you cannot trust the person, there is little point in extending your hand, regardless of their Masonic title.

So, the secret of the Masonic handshake as a Masonic symbol is that it represents a type of relationship and rapport you expect between Brothers. I would like to believe the Masonic handshake is foolproof. Unfortunately, it is not. Without a clear understanding of what the handshake represents, it becomes meaningless and a symbol of the fraternity’s decay.

Keep the Faith!

Note: All trademarks both marked and unmarked belong to their respective companies.

Tim Bryce is a freelance writer and mnagement consultant in the Tampa Bay area of Florida. He is a member of Dunedin Lodge No. 192 F.& A.M.

For Tim’s columns, see:   timbryce.com

Tim’s columns in the THE HUFFINGTON POST
Copyright © 2017 by Tim Bryce. All rights reserved.

Dr. Bro. David Harrison And The Genesis Of Freemasonry

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Phoenixmasonry Live Interviews Dr. Bro. David Harrison

Genesis of Freemasonryby Dr. David Harrison explores the way in which Freemasonry developed in England during the late 17th Century and all of the 18th Century. The book takes us through The Three Transitional Periods of English Freemasonry. Firstly, the transformation from Operative to Speculative during the 17th and early 18th Centuries. Secondly, the foundation of the London Grand Lodge in 1717 and the subsequent modernization of the ritual. Thirdly, the schisms and rebellions within Freemasonry, which forced the society to rebuild and reconcile in 1813.

Elias Ashmole

Yes, the founding of the Grand Lodge of England in 1717 is discussed. But even more revealing, we learn some fascinating history of the players involved and their philosophical pursuits.

Prominent in the discussion is Elias Ashmole, the first recorded English Speculative Freemason to enter into an unknown Lodge in Warrington, Lancashire, in 1646.  Warrington is Dr. David Harrison’s Lodge.

Other interesting players in this formation of English Freemasonry and its development are Dr. John Theophilus DeSaguliers, Dr. John Anderson, Sir Christopher Wren, John Dee, Sir Robert Moray, Francis Bacon, Inigo Jones, Isaac Newton, Alexander Pope, Thomas Paine, Jonathan Swift, William Preston and many others. Of all of these perhaps Dr. John Anderson and his “Book of Constitutions,” and Dr. John Theophilus DeSaguliers who wrote and inserted the Third Degree into Masonic ritual, stand out the most.

Weaved into all the personalities of this era of English Masonic development was the philosophical schools of thought that influenced Freemasonry and the schools of study that linked onto the Craft.

So we learn about Kabbalism, Rosicrucianism, Hermeticism and Druid culture. The schools of the Occult figured prominently into the development of

Dr. John Theophilus Desaguliers

English Freemasonry – astrology, numerology, magic, alchemy, necromancy to name a few. Balancing this was the influence of science and Natural Philosophy.

Then there was the almost worship of architecture and the fascination with the dimensions of King Solomon’s Temple. This gave rise to the cult of Palladian Architecture and the attempt to make St. Paul’s Cathedral a representation of Solomon’s Temple. Dr. Harrison also provides his reader with a deep discussion of Masonic symbolism and how symbols changed over time. Featured prominently in all the philosophical, architectural, political, occult and religious discussions and influence on Freemasonry was The Royal Society. Many early influential Freemasons were also members of the Royal Society.

Although Lodges were prohibited from engaging in politics, still the machinations of everyday life played into the story of Freemasonry. Thus we see how the political interaction of Royalists, Parliamentarians, Jacobites, Whigs, and Tories influenced who had the upper hand in decision making within the Craft.

Not to be forgotten is the book’s treatment of the ever changing world of Freemasonry. So we learn of the battle between the Antients and the Moderns, The York Grand Lodge and The Wigan Grand Lodge. The coming together, the reconciliation of English Freemasonry in 1813 which resulted in the United Grand Lodge of England culminates the story.

Genesis of Freemasonry is a book that came out of Dr. Harrison’s Ph.D. thesis. Consequently, this work is free of legends, theories, hypothesizes, speculation, suppositions, conjecture and other non-evidentiary thinking. As Sgt. Friday used to say on Dragnet, “Give me the facts, nothing but the facts.”

Here we have a book that is well done, very complete and that covers most everything you ever wanted to know about the who, what and where of the rise of English Freemasonry. It is by far the best factual rendition of how English Freemasonry bloomed and became everybody’s Mother Lodge. Do not miss adding this to your Masonic Library.

ARE YOU INTERESTED OR COMMITTED!

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“When you have a million dollar vision you don’t surround yourself with one cent minds.”

R. Lucille Samuel
The 8th Grand Princess Captain
Lone Star Grand Guild

Once again I am pleased to present R. Lucille Samuel, Grand Princess Captain of the Lone Star Grand Guild, Heroines of the Templars Crusade of Texas,  PHA Texas, with her annual (2017) Allocution. This is her last Allocution as Grand Princess Captain as she will be moving on to Royal Grand Perfect Matron of the Texas LOCOP in September.

Samuel is a fighter for being all you can be and getting the most out of your participation in your Fraternity. Never the shy one, she is not afraid to speak up and speak out to inspire and encourage those that she leads to step up to the plate and hit a home run. As many a great leader has done before her she is not afraid to criticize her fraternity or herself when the effort is lacking or the decisions are poor.

A very hard worker, a great speaker, and the definition of a leader here is what she had to say:

ARE YOU INTERESTED OR COMMITTED!

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.  For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow; but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.  Ecclesiastes 4:9-10.

Are you committed to help our fellow brother or sister?

Last year was the Big “D” and now we have arrived in the ALAMO!

R. Lucille Samuel
The 8th Grand Princess Captain
Lone Star Grand Guild

I am thrilled to bring you greetings on behalf of the Lone Star Grand Guild, Heroines of the Templars Crusade of Texas, PHA!  The best in the WORLD!

So much has changed since we convened at this time last year.  Again there are smiles that are missing and empty voids in our lives.  However we continue our Crusade as Christian Soldiers in protecting our banner!  2017 is a New Year and we will embrace it.

Psalms 37:5 – Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

When you are interested in something you tend to do things when it is convenient for you.  When you are committed you make no excuses and you only produce results.  So you set goals for yourself and you start to become immersed in your work.  You put in long hours and become consistent in your strategies.  You are focused and feel confident in yourself.

Well, one day you wake up and you think I have achieved everything that I dreamed about and this show can run itself on autopilot.  So you start to slack off and start making excuses instead of keeping your commitment.

In these organizations today we have too many members that are only interested until they get in the door.  Once they become members we lose their commitment that they swore upon at the Altar.  They start with well you know I have to work late or I have something at church or I forgot about the meeting.   Well as long as you were looking pretty in your aprons, collars and bling it was all great.  When we asked you to serve the needy or feed the hungry or assist with a donation you lost interest.

You start out with innovative ideas and some where along the road you debated in your head and lost your commitment.  All those promises you made fell by the wayside.  Your total behavior has gone South.  Your service is the price you pay to occupy space on this earth.  It is the least you can do.

I have never known anyone to be successful by just being interested.  You have to have that driven desire to be committed.  Talk is cheap.  Put your work where your mouth is and Put Up or Shut Up!

Have you ever met people that have been everywhere and done everything?  Or as soon you speak they speak behind you to belittle you?  Like Social Media Stalkers when you post they are just waiting to post behind you.

If we as members do not retain our commitments to the Masonic Order it will die.  Some are already in the Hearse headed to the cemetery now.  Just because you may be the Leader does not mean you are LEADING!!!!!  When you stand before your Body and notice there are more empty seats than members Houston you have a problem!  They have lost interest in you and the organization.  Some of you that have reached the top floor in the elevator need to send it back down because you need HELP!  There is a fine line between “The Good of the Order and the Good of Self!  Stop promoting your own Agenda.  When your most passionate people become silent or walk away you need to realize your leadership is failing.

We need to switch our focus from our needs to their needs.  Take an interest in your membership.   How often do you visit your local organizations?  I don’t mean when you need a free trip but to really teach and talk to your membership.  Are you an assignment or an attachment?  You must seek to understand before seeking to be understood.  You cannot continue to be selfish and significant at the same time.

Another issue is worrying about what others think of you.  If Christ didn’t care why should we?  Never allow someone else’s opinion of you become your reality.  Education is when you read the fine print and experience is what you get when you don’t.

We need change!  We can’t keep doing the same repetitious programs and expect new results.  Sometimes people need to leave their positions in order for it to work.  Complaining every year about attendance and members not working for the order will not make progress.  I was once told when you have a million dollar vision you don’t surround yourself with one cent minds.

R. Lucille Samuel
The 8th Grand Princess Captain
Lone Star Grand Guild                                                                                                                                                               In closing I ask that we all remember “Wherever you go no matter the weather, always bring your own sunshine!”
I will continue to lead BY THE CROSS,
Lucille Samuel
The 8th Grand Princess Captain
Lone Star Grand Guild

You need to commit to the Order and realize that if you don’t peak their interest or motivate the body you will continue to sink like a Rock!  You have to lead from the front and the back.  If you are not willing to show your sweat and labor then don’t expect it from the members.  Encouragement is oxygen for the soul.  You can begin with an attitude of gratitude and stop being arrogant but try being humble!  You can’t gain the respect of others if you have no respect for yourself.  Materialist items don’t make you important.  Whether you drive a Mercedes or a Hyundai or you use words to intimidate others your effectiveness as a leader is defined by results not attributes.  The only man who never makes a mistake is the man who never does anything.

Your Energy is Contagious and either you affect people or you infect people.  Which are you?  If you affect people in a positive way it is always a plus.  But if you are a virus that infects people in a negative way then you need to remove yourself before you contaminate your membership.