Feeling Threatened

Afraid Of The Truth

Most of us have had the experience of being in possession of a piece of truth that we were afraid to share because we knew it would not be well received. There are also instances in which we ourselves have been unable to handle some truth confronting us. This might be a small truth, such as not wanting to see that our car needs repairs because we don’t want to pay for them, or a large truth, such as not fully accepting that someone close to us is pushing us away. Usually the truth is evident, and we can see it if we choose, but we have elaborate ways of hiding the truth form ourselves, no matter how apparent it is.


For the most part, we avoid the truth because it scares us, or makes us angry, or makes us feel like we don’t know what to do. We often create our lives based on a particular understanding, and if that understanding turns out to be fully or even partially incorrect, we may feel that our whole sense of reality is being threatened. It takes a strong person to face the truth in circumstances like these, and many of us run for cover instead. Nevertheless, we can only avoid the truth for so long before it begins to make itself known in ever more forceful ways.


Ultimately, there is no way to avoid the truth, no matter how painful it is, so the sooner we let down our defenses, the better. When we know the truth and accept that we may have to adjust our lives to accommodate, we are in alignment with reality. At the same time, we can be patient with people around us who have a hard time seeing the truth, because we know how painful it can be. Whatever the truth is, we make a sincere effort not to close our eyes to it, but instead to be grateful that we have access to it.

Oriental Masonry

Secret Societies that protected Truth arose from the natural and insuperable difficulty of communicating the great truths of astronomy to the ignorant, and of preserving records of the great phenomena of nature. Without universal relations no ethic, but only expediency, is possible. All the mystery and allegory grew upon the necessity of using symbols and characters by which the skilled might communicate with each other, but which the ignorant ran away with. And as they were infinitely in the majority, the learned found their symbols taken out of their own hands, and they were not allowed to rectify the errors of general ignorance, nor explain their own meaning. * Parsons, “New Light from the Great Pyramid.”

The Secret Societies “never” had any intention of being as secret as they are. Priests of the Religion were only too willing to teach the people, but the people “were no more willing to receive the truth then than they are now.” The ”accusation by religious” systems that the secret Orders are of the devil because they do not admit all, Initiated and uninitiated , is utterly false. It is not the Men of these Orders that exclude the people from them. It is the people themselves through their ignorance, that exclude them. The Elders of the “genuine” Orders have learned long ago as Christ taught: “Cast not pearls before swine, lest they trample upon them.” All Orders are open to the people if they are willing to learn. Freemasonry opens it door to Supreme Initiation, but it cannot take the ignorant on the same footing as the learned, for he who knows not the A.B.C. of Education cannot become the teacher of Latin, nor can the ignorant of Religion and Philosophy become the teacher of these systems. The “Secret Orders” are open to those “who are willing to learn and obey until such time as they are able to take care of themselves.”

All Masonry deals largely with ethics and symbolism of the Ancient Mysteries. The writer believes that through the well-timed efforts of Masons today the grandest achievements in knowledge ever gained by man, which originally concealed in the Greater Mysteries of Antiquity, and in time became lost to the world, may again be recovered. In the strictest sense this knowledge has never really been lost, as there have always existed those who were possessed of the great secret. It was originally veiled in order to conceal it from the profane, and written in a universal language of Symbolism that the wise among all nations and throughout all time might read it, as it were, in their own language. It is also written in parable and allegory, so that the unlettered and common people might not be deprived of its wise precepts, and of its force in shaping character, dissipation ignorance, and inspiring hope. This Ancient Wisdom is the foundation from which (all) Masonry takes its rise(accept American/English Masonry). The true Science of Symbolism in time became lost; the Temples of Initiation fell into decay, or were destroyed by priests and potentates, jealous of their influence. For many weary centuries men have been trying to recover the lost key and to restore the ancient wisdom from the parables and allegories in which it had been concealed. But progress in this inverse order is not only necessarily slow and uncertain, but all such attempts have, more or less, given rise to fantastic flights of the imagination, and resulted in confusion, rather than in enlightenment. The result has been to bring the whole subject under contempt, and to make the name “mysticism” mean something vague and uncertain, if not altogether foolish, to those ignorant of its true meaning.
Dr. R. Swinburne Clymer, M.D.

Why Is There So Much Evil In The World?

Why is there so much of the commonplace in the world? So much of the base and cruel? So much of the viscious and dishonorable? In reverse, so little of the beautiful and spiritual; of inner spiritual humility and native graciousness; so little of lovely kindliness and true fineness of human nature?

This question can be reversed and continued: Why are there so few really "wanted" children born into this world? Children, during gestation, should have all of the human warmth and the heart's love poured constantly over the deveolping embryo, like, if you will permit the homely comparison, "The Really Good Cook Bastes The Roasts In Her Oven And Proves By The Results Achieved, That She IS a Good Cook".

It is not stretching the truth to say that "hardly one out of every ten thousand children is conceived with 'plan and desire aforethought'". The others, that vast army of the unwanted are an "accident", each the result of a moment of seeking satisfaction of physical passion, often induced by an inflamed overy or congested prostate. An ugly statement, but truth with which all physicians are familiar. How can such a conception result in physical, mental and moral soundness and spritual greatness?

Unfortunately, for Humanity as a whole--and this deeply concerns each and every one almost as much as though it Were In Our Own Househould---the remaining nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety and nine are accursed with the gross acculumations of the sins weakness and vices of the parents, who, themselves, because of Ignorance Of The Right Way Out, are weighted down to earth, wholly earthly, and who recoil with a sense of dissatisfaction, if not with downright antipathy, at the very thought of being plagued with an unwanted child. Thus, the coming of one of God's little ones to all too many households is looked forward to with dread and doleful apprehension instead of what might be: THE ANTICIPATION OF A TRULY BLESSED EVENT; THE OPPORTUNITY OF GIVING TO MANKIND AND THE WORLD A TALENTED SOUL TO HELP AND GUIDE HUMANITY TO A GREATER DESTINY.

With this certainity of acualities in mind, is it any wonder that we find so much weakness, sickness, suffering, visciousness, drunkeness, licentiousness, murder and rape among all classes? Is it to be wondered at that we find so little of actual purity, chastity, manhood and womanhood, honor--- and that little understood but much-wanted generosity and craciousness of heart and Soul?


This treatise is prepared for those who up to now, have not believed in Prenatal preparation, or the influence of heredity and who possibly have little faith in God or an "absolute governing law". It is hoped that all these will be reminded rather pointedly of the ever-increasing number of institutions for either the training or imprisonment of the children who cannot be controlled in the home.


Most of these children were born "with"--as part of their make up--the propensity to lie, steal or kill; or lean toward degrading practices and visciousness, all ready to manifest themselves at the slightest provocation. These, now numbering into the millions, are "naturally" criminal. They have not learned of the world of evil by contact. Many of them have never been away from the farm, have lived in small communities, or remote places before being incarcerated in these institutions.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS CHANCE

It is necessary TO BE POSITIVE, "and to realize that there is no such thing as chance in the life of man from cradle to the grave." GOD'S LAW "is". IT IS EVER PRESENT AND CONTINUALLY OPERATING. IT IS AS CHANGLESS AS IS THE COURSE OF THE SUN. Were this not true, "then there would be neither God nor Law." This Law is active from the birth of the lowest to the highest form of life, as implied in the creation of "EVERYTHING AFTER ITS KIND."

Another way of saying this is to positively assert: "Everything according to its nature." The fig tree does not produce acorns; nor the apple tree plums. Everywhere there is Law; but man in his blindness either does not recognize its operation, or fools himself by believing that the Law can be circumvented or set aside.

The non-observance of Law, whether as a result of ignorance or defiance, enforces upon its violators the penalty of weakness and sickness; as well as mediocre or even criminal offspring. Observance of Law, not merely in letter, BUT IN THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW and with LOVING OBEDIENCE FOUNDED ON THE HEART'S DESIRE, clothes the newborn with the cloak of near perfection of form, feature, mentality and the possibility of achievement.


At present, the Divine Command "to multiply," the conception of children, with rare exception, IS NOT FULFILLED UNDER THE LAW--is mostly without the observance of a single principle of the Law. There is first, and most regrettable, neither desire nor plan for a child. There is not even a thought of preparation for the body, mind and Soul by either parent. All is left to chance, and, as is often the case with games of chance, "the dice are loaded."

The birth of a truly "loved-child" is, indeed, rare. More often than not, the term is applied in derision to the child born out of wedlock--the so called illegitimate child; but deny it as men will, these children are usually the superior children both in mind and body and, as history proves, have achieved the greatest success. This is not a plea for the birth of illegitimate children, but IS a slur on the millions of legally wedded fathers and mothers whose progeny are inferior. At this point we may well ask mothers, the world over, the question: "How many of "your" children were conceived in affection and brought forth into the world with rejoicing?"


We need not wait for the answer to this question. The answer is all too plainly manifested in the ever-increasing number of the lame, the halt, the blind, the dumb, the idiotic, the drunken, the degenerate and vicious; all of them suffering because, "in most instances", their parents made them what they are through disregard or ignorance of the CREATIVE LAW.

By R. Swinburne Clymer, M.D.
1902

This is a couple of chapters out of the book "Prenantal Culture Creating the Perfect Baby", and within its philosophy about an attempt to teach mankind potential elements that can effect the disposition and constitution of a new being. This similar concept is an underlying theme in CC Zain's "Ancient Masonry". The idea that the "Ancients"(not Antients/Moderns) taught a type of birth control. The symbols of Freemasonry today, could have originally been used to teach this.

Controlling of one's passions?
creating a Temple for a Soul to Inhabit and Grow in?

When at a time when Churches and Monarchy wanted their "subjects" to have as many chilren as possible, so one had more slaves/servants and both more tax payers. This planet was filled with beings created just to create. The mindset of the people living within despotism and tyrannical authorities, created in an environment of "original" sin, guilt and unworthiness. There is a mindset that believes the "entity" which inhabits the body, has existed since time immemorial within the Creative Force/Being. As the VSL tells us, G-d created non physical entities, both good and bad, and could these be looking to inhabit a physical form to act out and divert mankind from their true progress towards Light. Random reproduction "could" set up an environment ripe for non harmonious/beautiful creations of G-d to flourish!?

I believe there is merit behind this concept which goes much deeper. I just touched the surface of this, but do believe it was the teaching of the Village Elders, the Keepers of the Secrets, etc......Our forefathers, if one does not believe the Spirit of Freemasonry strictly was spawned from the Operative Guilds, could find deep meaning behind the idea of Guided Birth Control and limiting the use of G-d's Creative Force, randomly and wantonly. Is there a deeper, more sublime meaning behind our working tools and symbols? Was the "Operative Theory" laid over the Original Spirit and Moral Teachings of an/the Ancient Craft?

I ask, would the world be a different place if only beings were created out of Love and Compassion? Could we take an obligation before inhabiting the Flesh and Blood, to control the Reproductive Forces, but when we FALL from TGAOTU, into the shell of a body, does the flesh create a veil from our Knowledge and Awareness of the Obligation we took before Human Consciousness took precedence? Is that the Blindness masonry speaks of? Maybe Humanity is a "Fraternity", and we DO take an Obligation of the Control of our Reproductive Forces, but "forget" because the Flesh/Material/Senses/Genitals are so dominant here in this plane?

Adam and Eve? An inability to control our Passions once within the Prison of the Flesh? Can the Spirit of Freemasonry be traced back to Adam and the Inability to Control their Physical Passions? Are Cain and Abel the allegorical symbols of the repercussions of different Intent behind reproduction? Cain came from Lust, where Abel came from Love? The fig leaf and apron for the control of the Gerative Forces? Could the Symbols and Spirit of Freemasonry be traced back to Adam, and it being G-d's Law, Illustrated by Symbols for the Men who could not see through the Veil of the Physical Passions? To be taught to the ones who do not exist/live/progress outside the 5 senses of the physical reality for Evolution of the Soul?

This is something I ponder on and wonder what kind of Society we would have if these Laws were ultimatley followed and taught?

The Martinist Doctrine: Could It Have Been Apart of Freemasonry of the 1700's?

Like all other esoteric doctrine, that of Martinism, as it was defined by Martinez Pasquales in his Treatise on the Reintegration of Beings uses exoteric means in order to make understandable the more subtle and refined esoteric points which are incomprehensible to the uninitiated when explained in themselves. The legend or myth upon which the Martinist doctrine is based is the reason why it is so intrinsically attached to the Western tradition and more particularly the Christian current.


Concerning the First Cause or God, Martinism is in agreement with the conclusions arrived at by the Christian theologians as well as the Hebrew Kabalists such as the Divine Ternary, or persons; emanations etc...but as far as the rest of the doctrine is concerned, it is more Gnostic since it affirms the equal necessity of faith and knowledge and postulates that divine grace, in order to be effective, must be followed by action, free and intelligent in Man. His is why Martinez Pasquales presented the Doctrine of his school under the Judeo-Christian aspect.


THE DOCTRINE

According to the Martinist Doctrine, the world, considered as a material domain which is subjected to our senses, as well as the spiritual regions above, are not the works of God as considered in His absolute form.


The Gospel of Saint John says: "In the beginning (which refers to the beginning of time, a period when relative beings began to manifest) was the Word" (the Logos, the Divine Word).


"The Word was near to God (and not with God). ...and the Word was God" (not the God but an Elohim or sons of God. The word Elohim is a Hebrew word meaning "Him-the-Gods").


"All things were made by Him, and nothing was made without Him."


The Logos is the one the Kabala calls Adam Kadmon; the one who created the inferior beings by His word "by calling" (bringing) them into manifested life. These beings are inferior only in relation to Adam Kadmon, the archetypal Man, by they inhabit the spiritual realms.



During this creation God used an intermediary. In Genesis chapters 1-3 it is said that the earth (which there means the primordial matter or chaos) was empty and without form, and the Spirit of God moved upon the waters (the Egyptian Nous is comparable to this matter). The term "Spirit of God" is referring to a spirit distinct from God in the sense that it wasn't God Himself since God is necessarily His own spirit.


Later we are told that God placed man in the "Garden of Eden" to watch and cultivate it. This "Garden" is a symbol referring to divine knowledge accessible only to relative beings.


The Man which Genesis refers to in its pure symbolic form is not a being of flesh but a spirit emanated from God and is made of a body (which is sometimes called the glorious body) created by God who infused it with a Divine spark which was, according to Genesis, the "very breath of God". According to this analysis, we see that archetypal man is semi-divine. He came from primordial matter (from chaos, made of symbolic earth and water) from where he got his form, and from the breath which animates him and makes him part of God.


Adam and the creative logos are the same thing. However, Adam and the Redemptory Logos are two different beings.


Parallel to Adam Kadmon, there were other beings from a previous creation. These beings were of a different nature and plane. These were the "Angels" of which it is said that "some were good and others evil". They got those qualities according to their fulfillment of the plan for which they were emanated from God. The "good" Angels were the ones who reintegrated after their mission was over and the evil ones were the ones who refused to reintegrate, choosing the self instead of the All-in-God. The "evil" Angels are the ones who withdrew themselves from God by an act of free will. They are the ones referred to by Pasquales as the "perverse beings".


Since anything that is corrupt tends by its very nature to corrupt other things, especially in the spiritual realms, these perverse beings of which the collectivity becomes an egregore of evil, symbolized by the serpent, was jealous of this being (Adam) who was superior to them and an image of God from whom they pretended to have withdrawn. These beings acted telepathically on Adam and incited him to go beyond the limits of his natural possibilities.


Being mixed by nature, half corporeal and half spiritual, as well as androgynous, Archetypal Man was to maintain a certain harmony, a necessary equilibrium in the domain where God put him. He was to be the Architect of the Universe more subtle than our own, the "kingdom" which was not of this world as mentioned in the Gospels.


Under the impulse of the perverse beings, Archetypal Man made himself an independent demiurge, thereby breaking the very laws he was ordained to observe. He dared to make himself a creator in turn and to be equal to God by his deeds. By attempting this feat, Archetypal Man only modified his original destiny. It is from this tradition that comes the custom of dedicating to the Gods or God the first fruits of the harvest or the first-born of a flock. And since God alone in his infinite possibilities can create or extract something out of nothingness, Archetypal man could only modify what already existed.


Archetypal Man, by wanting to create spiritual beings, only objectified his own concepts. By wanting to give them a body he only integrated them into grosser matter. By wanting to animate chaos, he only trapped himself.


In effect, God being the "I am that I am" rejects the possibility that any oblivion could exist. In order to create primitive matter, God only removed part of His infinite perfections from a part of His infinite essence. This partial retraction of His spiritual perfection resulted in the creation of a relative material imperfection. This is why in this world the creation of whatever it may be can never be perfect since it is not of God.


By imitating the absolute, Adam Kadmon tried to create the first matter. Being an inexperienced alchemist, to attempt such an endeavor only precipitated his fall.


Archetypal Man is an androgynous being: both male and female, positive and negative. It is the negative, feminine element that Adam is going to objectify outside himself. It is the left, feminine, passive, lunary, material side that he is going to separate from the right, masculine, active, solar, spiritual side. This is what gave birth to Eva, the Archetypal Woman.


It is this new matter, the Eva or Archetypal Woman, that Adam penetrated in order to create life. The Archetypal Man thus degraded himself by trying to be like God. This new domain is what the Gnostics called the "hylic" world, which is our material universe filled with pain and imperfections. The little good that exists here comes from the virtues of Archetypal Man. Since being split into two beings, the sum of these imperfections cannot be in its totality with those two beings apart...thus we have the fall.


This is why the old cults deified nature. She was the mother of all that "was under the heavens". Isis, Eva, Demeter, Rea, Cybele, Erzulie, are the symbols of the material nature which is emanated from Adam Kadmon, personified under the aspects of the "Black Virgins" who are symbols of the prima materia.


The superior essence of Adam Kadmon thus integrated in the new matter to become the new SULPHUR, which is the alchemical expression referring to the soul of the world. The second essence which is the plastic mediator, that which constituted the "form" of Adam, his superior double became the MERCURY of the alchemists, referring to what the occultists call the astral world or intermediary world.


The matter which is from the second chaos, which is the SALT of the alchemists, is what became the support, receptacle or prison.


ADAM=SULPHUR
EVA=SALT
CAIN=MERCURY


This is why universal matter is alive and, also, why it can be more or less conscious and intelligent in its manifestations. Through the four kingdoms of nature; mineral, vegetable, animal and human, it is the Archetypal man, the Adam Kadmon, the demiurgic intelligence who is in action dispersed and imprisoned. This new universe also became the refuge of the fallen angels. They came into it in order to be further away from the Absolute.


The perverse beings thus have a primordial interest to see that man, dispersed but everywhere present in matter which constitutes the visible universe, continues to organize and animate this domain which they have claimed.


Just as the soul of Archetypal Man is prisoner of Universal matter, so the soul of individual man is prisoner of the physical body. Physical death and the reincarnations which follow are the means through which the fallen entities exercise their control over man.


The Wisdom, Strength and Beauty that are still manifesting in this material universe are the efforts of Archetypal Man to regain his position which he occupied before the fall. The opposite qualities are being manifested by the fallen entities so as to maintain the climate that they made him create in order to exist as they wanted when they refused to re-enter Omneity.


Archetypal man will not regain his first splendor and freedom unless he separates himself from this matter which binds him everywhere. For this to occur, all his individual cells (individual human beings) will have, after their natural death, to reconstitute the archetype by REINTEGRATING, thus escaping the cycles of reincarnation.


Only then will the Microcosm remake the Macrocosm. The individual human beings, who are but the reflection of the Archetype, will equally be the reflection of the divine as the Archetype himself is the reflection of God, of the Word or Logos, of the "Spirit of God" mentioned in Genesis.


This is why he is the "Great Architect of the Universe"; and all cults of adoration to this latter are ipso facto "satanic" because this adoration is offered to Man and not to the Absolute. In Freemasonry he is invoked but never adored.


But, since Man has to descend into the demoniacal atmosphere of this material world where he is constantly breathing the fruits of his malefic intellect, as Pasquales tells us, he is thus in a bad position to resist the constant temptations to which he is subjected. The CREATOR re-established the equilibrium by detaching from His Spiritual Divine Circle a Major Spirit to be the guide, counselor and companion of the Minor who descends from the celestial immensity to be incorporated in the material world; to work, according to his free will, on the earth plane.


But the counsel of a Superior Spirit is not enough, Fallen Man still needs the help of a "Minor Elect". The help that this "Minor Elect" will bring to him in order that he may achieve the "reconciliation" is of a two fold nature. He transmits to Man directly the instructions of the CREATOR on the theurgic practice which must be rendered; he also communicates to the Man of Desire to whom he is sent, the gift he has received himself by giving him the mystical seal without which no Minor can be reconciled.


This mysterious ordination is the essential condition of man's reconciliation, because without it, no matter how great the personal merits of the Minor, he remains in privation; that is, without any communication with God.


To escape the cycles of reincarnation in this infernal world, man must detach himself from everything that attracts him to matter as well as disengage himself from the slavery of material sensations. He also has to elevate himself morally. The fallen entities, however, constantly fight man's tendency towards perfection by tempting him constantly so as to make him stay in this world where they can maintain their rulership over him.


Individual man must constantly fight against these entities by unmasking and rejecting them from his domain. He will achieve this partly through initiation, which attaches him to the elements of the Archetypes already reunited and which constitute the exoteric "communion of Saints"-and secondly by the liberating knowledge which teaches him the faster means of helping the rest of blind humanity as well as enhancing his personal work.

THE HIGHER DEGREES AND THE SECRET TRADITION

Rectified Scottish Rite
THE HIGHER DEGREES AND THE SECRET TRADITION

By AE Waite



As soon as he had been raised, Waite began his quest for higher degrees in earnest. On 10 April 1902 he and Blackden were admitted to the grade of Zelator in the S.R.I.A., having been proposed by Palmer-Thomas and seconded by Westcott - both of whom were keen to have Waite as a member. The two new Rosicrucians then proceeded to the Holy Royal Arch, being exalted in Metropolitan Chapter No. 1507 on 1 May 1902, following this one week later with their Installation as Knights Templar at the Consecration of the King Edward VII Preceptory. Here they rested, and Waite prepared for a journey to Switzerland and for reception into the one Rite he craved the most: the Regime Ecossais et Rectifie and its grade of Chevalier Bienfaisant de la Cite Sainte (C.B.C.S.).

As a result of his earlier correspondence with Blitz, Waite had come to see the Rigime Ecossais et Rectifie as maintaining more than any other rite the essence in ritual form of that secret tradition that 'tells us not alone that the Soul "cometh from afar" and that the Soul returns whence it came, but it delineates the Path of Ascent'[62]. The theory that all esoteric practices and traditions, whether alchemy, the Hebrew Kabbalah, the legends of the Holy Grail, Rosicrucianism, Christian mysticism or Freemasonry, were secret paths to a direct experience of God had been developed by Waite over many years. He was convinced that the symbolism in each of these traditions had a common root and a common end, and that their correct interpretation would lead to a revelation of concealed ways to spiritual illumination. In his published works it is difficult to find this theory of the secret tradition clearly expressed, but it is put quite succinctly in The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry:[63] 'The Secret Tradition contains, firstly, the memorials of a loss which has befallen humanity; and, secondly, the records of a restitution in respect of that which was lost ... the keepers of the tradition perpetuated it in secret by means of Instituted Mysteries and cryptic literature' (vol. I, p. ix).

In itself 'The Secret Tradition is the immemorial knowledge concerning man's way of return whence he came by a method of the inward life' (vol. 11, p. 379). Common to all its forms is the evidence that 'testifies to (a) the aeonian nature of the loss; (b) the certitude of an ultimate restoration; (c) in respect of that which was lost, the perpetuity of its existence somewhere in time and the world, although interned deeply; (d) and more rarely its substantial presence under veils close to the hands of all' (vol. 1, p. xi). For Freemasonry 'that loss and restoration are essential . . . the middle term is absence, out of which quest arises. When one of the triad is wanting, whether implicitly or explicitly, the grade is not masonic' (vol. 11, p. 379). He further believed that a proper understanding of the tradition in Freemasonry would enable him to construct rituals of his own devising, the working of which would lead all those who took part to a spiritual enlightenment of their own.

It was thus of crucial importance for Waite to gain access to the Rectified Rite which represented, par excellence, the secret tradition in practice but, while he prepared the ground for his visit to Geneva, he was also collecting other rites and planning the moves that would lead him in 1903 to gain control of the faction-ridden Golden Dawn[64]. Contrary to appearances, he was not driven by a desire for power; all his eager gathering of masonic rites was for the dual purpose of bringing together the various lines of what he saw as a type of 'Masonic Apostolic Succession' and the subsequent quarrying of their rituals for the benefit of his own projected Order.

WIATE


So, here is a little more on this subject which is all new to me.
I love the different rites and their teachings.

"Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, born in Lyons, France on 10th July 1730, was 20 years old when he became a Freemason. In 1752, he was appointed Worshipful Master of his Lodge. In 1753, he founded the Lodge “La Parfaite Amitié”, of which he was elected Master on the feast day of St. John, 24 June 24 1753. In 1756, this Lodge joined the Mother Lodge of Lyons - its charter from the Grand Lodge of France is dated 21 November 1756. On 4 May 1760, with the approval of the Grand Lodge of France, a Provincial Mother Lodge called “Grand Loge des Maîtres Réguliers de Lyon” was founded and Willermoz was its Provincial Grand Master from 1762 to 1763 afterwards becoming the Archivist and Keeper of the Seals. In 1763, he founded the “Souverain Chapitre des Chevaliers de L”Aigle Noir - Rose-Croix”.

In May of 1767, Willermoz went to Paris, where he met Bacon de la Chevalerie, Deputy Grand Master of the Elus Cohen. He was initiated by Martinez de Pasqually himself in Verailles, France. In 1772, Willermoz learned of the existence of a German Masonic Order called the “Strict Templar Observance” and on 14 December 1772, Willermoz applied by letter for affiliation. He received an answer dated 18 March 1773 from Count Weiler. The Duke of Brunswick replaced Baron von Hund as the head of the Strict Observance. From the 11th through the 14th of August 1772, Count Weiler was in Lyons where he had come to personally establish a Strict Observance Lodge called “Loge Ecossaise Rectifiée ‘La Bienfaisance’”. In December 1777, three years after the death of Martinez de Pasqually, Rudolphe Saltzmann, “Master of the Novices of the Directoire of Strasbourg” arrived in Lyons, where he was received as an Elu-Cohen. We know that at the time, the Order of Elus-Cohen was suffering from internal dissentions and from a lack of leadership. Like many other sincere members, Willermoz saw that the Order was doomed and was anxious to preserve all that could be saved. With the help of Saltzmann, and with the approval of Bacon de la Chevalerie, Willermoz conceived a plan to implement the Secret Doctrine of the Elus-Cohen in the Rite of the Strict Observance. This he planned to do by adding to the degrees of the Strict Observance, a higher degree, called “La Profession”, called such because its members would be “professed”, i.e. under chivalric vows. It contained two secret degrees in which the doctrine of the Elus-Cohen would be transmitted, thus alleviating the disparition of the Réau-Croix but not implanting the theurgic operations of the Elus-Cohen into the Strict Observance.

A general meeting called the Convent of Gaul was held in Lyons from 25 November to 10 December 1778 at the instigation of Willermoz. It was decided to reform the Auvergne Province of the Strict Observance, the French Templars taking the name of “Chevaliers Bienfaisants de la Cité Sainte” or “Knights Beneficent of the Holy City”, commonly referred to as “C.B.C.S.”. It was absorbed into the “Rectified Scottish Rite” as follows:
1st Degree - Apprentice
2nd Degree - Fellowcraft
3rd Degree - Master
4th Degree - Maître Ecossais/Scottish Master
5th Degree - Ecuyer Novice/Squire Novice
6th Degree - C.B.C.S.
7th Degree - Chevalier-Profès/Professed Knight
8th Degree - Chevalier-Grand Profès/Grand Professed Knight

After this reformation, Willermoz decided that it would be right to expand this revision into the bosom of the Mother branch of the German Strict Observance. It was with this initiative in mind, that he went to the Convent of Wilhemsbad in 1782. He found supporters of his plan in the Princes Ferdinand of Brunswick and Charles of Hesse, but found stiff opposition on the part of the Illuminati of Bavaria (founded by Adam Weishaupt) and met hostility in the character of Francois de Chefdebien de Saint-Amand, representative of the Order of the Pilalethes, as well as resistance from Savalette de Lange. After heated arguments, Willermoz and his supporters won the day, and succeeded in having the title of C.B.C.S. adopted by all members of the Inner Order. A committee was formed under Willermoz to prepare the high degree rituals and those of the secret degrees of the Profession. This work was well advanced when the French Revolution interrupted Willermoz’ task. The “Rectified” temples of the C.B.C.S. and the temples of the Elus-Cohen which were still active had to suspend their works, the brethren being dispersed by the events of the period. After the Revolution, in 1806, the C.B.C.S. became active again in France and they soon joined the Grand Orient with which the Strict Observance had friendly relations. The Elus-cohen had not 'officially' resumed their Work. Their last Grand Master, Sebastian de las Casaa, had the archives of the Order handed over to the Philalethes. In 1806 moreover, Bacon de la Chevalerie, “Deputy Grand Master of the Northern Hemisphere”, sat in this capacity in the Grand College of Rites of the Grand Orient of France. He tried to obtain the authorization to re-organize the Order of Elus-Cohen within the Grand Orient, but was refused. The Rite of Knights Beneficent passed into Switzerland when the Directoire of Burgandy transmitted its powers to the Directoire of Helvetia. It is from this Swiss Jurisdiction, now headed by the Grand Priory of Helvetia, that the C.B.C.S. would be re-activated in France after World War II. On 5 May 1824, Jean-Baptist Willermoz died in Lyons.

For the famous occultist A.E. Waite, the Rectified Scottish Rite was the one Rite he craved the most. He "had come to see the Régime Ecossais et Rectifié as maintaining, more than any other rite, the essence in ritual form of that secret tradition that 'tells us not alone that the Soul "cometh from afar" and that the Soul returns whence it came, but it delineates the Path of Ascent'." It was, for him, truly the secret tradition in practice.

There are, at present, officially recognized bodies working the R.E.R. in France, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Spain, and now the U.S.A. There is much interest in the Rite being practiced elsewhere which has been duly noted."

Excellent stuff Brothers!

Tolerance: How Freemasonry has Helped Me

I have to relate an incident that happened at work yesterday that put me in a situation that had me have to deal with a weakness of mine. TOLERANCE. Lately I have been having problems verbally controlling myself when confronted with either hypocrisy or ignorance. I own and operate retail food establishments, and being open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, we experience all types of customers. Good, neutral and bad.

As a local business, we put out various coupons for patrons to use. Written on each coupon are the stipulations in which these offers may be used. We always get individuals who want to change the rules of use to meet their individual needs. They always have some story about their personal situation or have some analytical deduced action that can circumvent the stipulations, so instead of having to go through this clever circumvention of the rules, just break the rules for me now and we will be good. Insanity!

Written in bold print on these coupons are the words: “One coupon per person per item per day.” I also accept competitor’s coupons for similar items, and on their coupons it states the same thing. One could say it is pretty straight forward, right?

Yesterday, a woman dressed in a $250.00+ matching sweat suit, with a $400.00+ purse, was giving my manager a hard time about not being able to use three coupons on three items. After many attempts at my manager to explain the policy and our procedures, she demanded to see the owner( ME), well that does not have me in the most pleasant mood having to be called out about something of this nature, but duty called.

This woman, early 40’s or late 30’s, begins to complement me on my employees and how she is from the community and is patronizing me instead of my competitor down the street (a national franchise) and how I could be a big benefactor to help her out with her daughters school birthday party by allowing her to use all of these coupons. She explained how I should want to help out on this special day. I first thanked her for her support and the positive remarks about my employees. I then explained the stores policy which has been in existence for about 30+ years, and I would be more tolerant if the individual questioning the practice could not read the coupon to understand its usage. She exclaimed that she had a Master’s Degree. I replied “ And you are standing here arguing something in print?”

I explained that it was nothing personal, but her event is not special. Every day someone comes in to my establishment with a “story” about some “special” event in which the rules should be bent for them. I also stated that if I bent the rules for her, I would have to do it for it for others and allowing this would practically be giving the product away, and in the end, one could go out of business if they never charged full price for things. I explained there are ways to receive discounts and ways to use coupons, and that we would be happy to accommodate her in the future if she so wishes.

After trying to do more than one end around to get her way, and fully letting me know the error of my ways, I sent her off with this, “Mam, when you leave and go back into the community, make sure you tell everyone that you were treated EQUAL to everyone else.” That she did not get special treatment at the moment she wanted it. I felt good that I did not loose my temper and tell her to “Bug Off”, which in the past I could be pushed to that. I felt proud to be able to control myself and passions within the presence of the public. My food establishment is Kosher, so I had an orthodox Jewish Man comment to me on how I handled that situation. He claimed he probably would have lost it. Not having been exposed to the Masonic teachings and having some of it imprinted onto my core being, I would have handled it a lot different.

I give to charities and food shelters daily. A Prince Hall Brother and his wife come by every Wednesday to pick up product to feed the poor. If someone is destitute or in real need, we take of people and organizations. But an educated well to do suburban house wife trying to con me into “giving” her product for free virtually is enough to incite me. The young Orthodox Jewish man said he was embarrassed for her! He and I then had a discussion on the Torah, God, Christianity, Astrology and History. I have ex convict employees, illiterate employees, black, white, young and old working for me. I do not discriminate and allow peoples pasts to remain in the past and give second and third chances to individuals. That is why I had to laugh when Manny Blanco called me an Anti-Semite for referencing Mainstream Masonry and Pork Dinners in the same sentence with a derogatory undertone. I deal with Rabbi’s on a daily basis. I donate and get involved with private Jewish Academies within Cleveland. Cleveland has one of the biggest Jewish populations in America for being a smaller big city. Orthodox men call me brother, and some guy in California, Manny Blanco, is going to call me an Anti-Semite! In do not know what ritual they use in California, but I do not know where in the three degree lessons it is allowable to call one that? I am glad I am not a California mason if that is acceptable……………….

I had to pass on this story about what test’s get thrown at us. The Cosmos knows what ones weakness’s are and continually tests you to see if you have learned and evolved up the staircase or down it…. Which way are you evolving?

Masonic Harmony? Has It Ever Existed?

Our Fraternity was founded out of disharmony.
Disharmony created by Kings, Clergy and Potentates of all time.
Inflamed by Edicts and Inquisitions sent out by men, believing they were superior to the commoners, and fervently defended to keep their seats of control and power.
The first hundred years of our Fraternities existence was in disharmony, but the Spirit of Freemasonry continued to grow while Dukes and Lords quarreled over who controlled Freemasonry and it constituents. Here is a little history of Freemasonry during its infancy compiled by Brother Rebold, M.D. from 1860.
Harmony is mentioned by the Senior Warden in regards to the pay to the craft. The idea is equal pay will create harmony, or just rewards for labor procured, in conjunction with the quality of the work. Merit and Equality was what created Harmony, not everyone getting along and everyone avoiding the discussions of politics and religion.
Harmony can be created by the equaling out of opposite forces/opinions, not all conforming and being loyal subjects!
Dukes and Lords and Potentates created the UGLE for control purposes only. Not Harmony amongst the Craft. That will come from equality, not creating Titles of Prince of East and West or Illustrious Potentates. A fraternity professing equality then creates “Higher Degrees” with fancy little Titles, so a commoner can achieve the Title of Prince, Or King, or Potentate. The Fraternity of Nobility that Freemasonry fought, had infiltrated the order, and created Titles for the Commoners to chase, to feel equal to a Duke or some other nobility (Shriners are called Nobles). The Jesuits, Stuarts and Hanovers used Freemasonry as a battle ground for power and control.
True Equality, True Liberty and True Fraternity will equal Harmony.
Equality amongst Grand Lodge’s and their members,
Liberty to Travel and meet with all Freemasons and Freedoms of Speech and Associations.
Fraternity of All Mankind as Equal Laborers of the Ultimate Lodge: Earth.

“The three Grand Lodges of Great Britain, thus constituted, propagated the new Freemasonry (Grand Lodge of London) upon every portion of the globe, so that in 1750, we find it extended into nearly every civilized country; but its humanitarian doctrines, like the dogma of “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” which it exhibited, frightened the kings and the clergy, who sought to arrest its progress by issuing decrees and edicts against it. In Russia, 1731, in Holland, in 1735, in Paris, 1737, 1738, 1744, and 1745, the meetings of lodges of Freemasons were interdicted by the government; while at Rome and in Florence its members were arrested and persecuted, and in Sweden, Hamburg, and Geneva they were prohibited from meeting or assembling themselves in the capacity of lodges. The Holy Inquisition threw Freemasons into prison, burnt; by the hand of the public executioner, all books which contained Masonic regulations, history, or doctrines; condemned at Malta to perpetual exile, in 1740, a number of knights who had organized a lodge on that island; in Portugal it exercised against them cruelties of various kinds, and condemned them to the galleys; while in Vienna and Marseilles, as also in Switzerland, and in the canton of Berne, the iron hand of that “Holy” institution was felt in 1743. In 1748, at Constantinople, the sultan endeavored to destroy the Masonic society. In the states of the Church, the King of Naples prohibited Masonry, and Ferdinand VII, King of Spain, issued an edict that prohibited the assembly of Freemasons within his kingdom, under penalty of death. In 1751, Pope Benedict XIV renewed the bull of excommunication promulgated against the Fraternity by Clement XII, while the threat of the death menaced all who should be known to attend Masonic meetings.

But all these exhibitions of the rage of kings, princes and potentates were ineffectual to stop the onward course of Freemasonry, which continued to be propagated upon all the surface of the earth with a rapidity that no power could arrest. Braving the bull of Benedict XIV, Freemasonry is openly practiced in Tuscany, at Naples, and in many other parts of the Italian peninsula. At Rome even the partisans of the Stuarts founded some lodges, which they took but feeble pains to hide from the authorities.

The activity of the Grand Lodges of Great Britain, and above all, of that of London, was not confined to the establishment of lodges in Europe between the years 1727 and 1740; they had already transplanted Masonry to Bengal, to Bombay, the Cape of Good Hope, New South Wales, New Zealand, and Java, and as early 1721, lodges of Masons were established in Canada. Before 1740 Masonry existed in the principal colonies of the now United States of America, such as Massachusetts, Georgia, South Carolina and New York. In those colonies the lodges had created Grand Lodges independent of the Grand Lodges of England, of whom they had in the beginning received their authority.

The Lodge of London, notwithstanding its astonishing prosperity, was not permitted to enjoy that prosperity without great internal struggles, caused first by the Grand Lodge of York, and subsequently by the schism of a great many brethren, who adhering to the claims of the latter, went out from the former and took the name of “Ancient Masons,” in contradistinction to the membership of the Grand Lodge of London, who remained true to their engagements, and whom this schismatic party styled “Modern Masons.” These schismatic lodges, composed in great part of Irish Masons- who accused the Grand Lodge of altering the rituals and introducing innovations- and of Masons who had been expelled, in 1751, constituted a rival power to the Grand Lodge, under the title of “The Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons of England.” Notwithstanding its inferiority, and a few lodges which it represented or was enabled to establish, this schismatic party, in 1772, requested the Duke of Athol, who had already filled that office in the Grand Lodge of Scotland, to become its Grand Master, a request with which he complied.

To give itself importance, and to influence to its ranks the nobility, this schismatic party added to the degrees with which it had started some of the high degrees created in France by the [artisans of the Stuarts, and which they imported into England about the year 1760, and combined them the symbolic degrees into a rite of seven degrees, the highest of which they called the Royal Arch. This Grand Lodge of self-styled Ancient Masons transplanted its rite into the lodges which it constituted in America, and there produced the same disorders and the same schisms among the fraternity that the “high” degrees had already provoked in all the sates of Europe.

This unhappy division in the bosom of English Masonry, commenced in 1736, was continued for a long time, by the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland recognizing the schismatic “Grand Lodge of Ancient Masons,” to which they in this manner gave a character that it did not merit, but which continued until 1813, when at this time it ceased, by the schismatic Grand Lodge, which then had its Grand Master the Duke of Kent, and the Grand Lodge of London, styled by these schismatics “Modern Masons,” and which had as its Grand Master his brother, the Duke of Sussex, uniting under the title of the “United Grand Lodges of England.” In this union the ancient laws, as well as written as traditional, were taken as the basis, and the spirit that influenced the organization of 1717 was recognized, and it was then and there announced and proclaimed that the ancient and true Freemasonry was composed of but three degrees, viz: Apprentice, Fellow-craft, and Master Mason. Unhappily, however, the legitimate Grand Lodge conceded to the party self-styled “Ancient Masons,” who necessarily had to abandon their rite of seven degrees, a division of the degree of Master Mason practiced by this party, and taught as a supplementary portion of this degree, under the name of Royal Arch. This concession, which the schismatic party exacted as a sine qua non of their union with the legitimate Grand Lodge and surrender of their rights to that body, was an act of feebleness, on the part of the Grand Lodge of London, which has destroyed, in a great degree, the unity and the basis of true Masonry, as it had been practiced by that body, up to that time, with a laudable firmness.

In the connection of its moral effects and civilizing influence, English Freemasonry—we say it with sorrow--- has made but slight advances in the last half century; while, as we have seen, it was once the active pioneer everywhere. It exercised by its introduction into France an immense influence upon the principles of 1789, and started the development of liberal ideas throughout the whole of Europe; while in Oceanica, Hindostan and China its principles have modified the religious beliefs of the sectaries of Brahama, of the Persians and the Mussulmans, of whom are composed the majority of the lodges founded in those countries; yet to-day the Grand Lodge of England, like its sisters, those of Scotland and Ireland, seems satisfied to repose under its glories of the past and rest upon its laurels.”

Thanks Brother Rebold for this.....

Lodges During the Revolutionary War and Post War

Doing some reaearch the other day I came across American Union Lodge No 1. This Lodge has an interesting history. It is considered the first Ohio Lodge set up within the Northwest Territories, as it was called. General Rufus Putnam led a group of Revolutionary veterans to settle the land in 1788.

"These American Pioneers to the Northwest Territory arrived at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers, on April 7, 1788, and established Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory. Putnam went on to serve as a Supreme Court judge for the Northwest Territory. Brother Putnam established American Union Lodge No 1 in Marietta, but American Union Lodge did not start out in Ohio. Since this was a military Lodge, it was chartered in Boston Mass. in 1776 and by virtue of the warrant the brethren met on February 16th, an Entered Apprentice Lodge having been opened, proceeded to elect the following subordinate officers: John Parks, Senior Warden; Thos Chase, Junior Warden; Jonathan Heart, Secretary, and Samuel H. Parsons, Treasurer.



"And each accepted and took their seats with the usual ceremonies." Jacob Dickerson was appointed Tyler during the Lodge's pleasure and a committee of three named to prepare a "body of laws for the regulation of this particular Lodge." Four persons were proposed to be made Masons, three of whom were elected to receive the Entered Apprentice degree. On February 20, the organization was completed and the first Masonic work was done. The Lodge was opened in due form with the officers in their proper stations and eleven members and three visitors present. The Entered Apprentice degree was conferred and "the committee having made a report and the laws read, they were agreed to and ordered to be entered," and a Masonic body destined to experience every vicissitude of fortune in the Revolutionary Army and finally to light the torch of brotherly love and service anew in the great Northwest was launched on its career.

These were the times that tried men's souls. The Army was before Boston, which was held by 10,000 British troops, well equipped and well supplied, while their ships commanded the ocean....



"Gen. Washington was obliged to present a bold front but was unable to undertake any active movements or explain the reason for his inaction." At any moment they might be attacked by the enemy and none could tell what the final outcome was to be. Amid these conditions the American Union Lodge was born.



February 20 to April 2, 1776 meetings were held in Roxbury, Massachusetts. On March 28, Grand Master John Rowe was present.



In April, 1776, the Army, having moved to New York City, a meeting was held on April 23 At Bridgewater Hall. Eleven subsequent meetings were held between that date and August 15. The Battle of Long Island brought to an end the series of convocations. Two of the brethren were killed and nine others, including the Worshipful Master, Joel Clark, were captured.



February 15, 1779, Secretary Heart issued a call for a meeting at Reading, Connecticut, April 7. Joel Clark had died in prison, and Gen. Samuel H. Parsons was chosen as Worshipful Master.



A meeting was held at Nelson's Point, New York, June 24, 1779 at which Gen. George Washington was present. It was during this second sojourn in New York that Brother Rufus Putnam, afterwards leader of the pioneer settlement to Marietta, and eventually the first Grand Master of Ohio, was initiated, passed and raised. Brother Moses Cleaveland, who was one of the leaders of the Connecticut pioneers to northern Ohio, was made an Entered Apprentice.

During the Army's occupation of New Jersey in the winter of 1779-80 a few meetings were held in Morristown. The meeting of December 27, celebrating the festival of St. John the Evangelist, was the largest in numbers, thirty-three members and sixty-nine visitors, including General Washington.



No record of meetings in 1781, but meetings were held at different places in New York. The last meeting was held April 23, 1783.



From now on the meetings of the Lodge were very irregular and but little Masonic work was done.



The war was over and the soldiers returned to their homes to take up the duties of peace. The Lodge had come into existence while the conflict was in its infancy and had continued to its close. Her first Master had died a prisoner. Her second, General Samuel H. Parsons, had rendered distinguished service to his country, attained the rank of Major General and was a member of the military court which had tried Major Andre. Major Heart, the third Master, enlisted in time to take an honorable part in the battle of Bunker Hill and continued in the army until he met a soldier's death striving to rally Gen. St. Clair's troops in the West. The members came from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Delaware and Virginia....



More than once disaster had brought the Lodge to the brink of destruction, but it had survived and, though the brethren knew it or not, in the providence of God it was destined to light the fires of Masonry in a land which they had not seen. An interval of seven years elapsed and when the Lodge again assembled, it was to find a permanent home on the banks of the Ohio.



The little band of pioneers who landed at Marietta on April 7, 1788, and those who come after them, contained members of American Union Lodge and others of the fraternity who were anxious to erect an altar of Masonry in the wilderness. Soon this came to pass and the wandering of the Lodge had ceased. Here it was to remain, a powerful influence for good in the settlement for generations yet to come. In the words of Brother Martin R. Andrews: "The year 1790 marks the beginning of a new era in the history of American Union Lodge." For five years it continued to be in reality a military Lodge, receiving and initiating recruits as they passed on their way to conflict. Yet the Lodge had found a permanent home. She stood at the portals of the great Northwest, and at the altar many a pioneer halted long enough to light a torch which he could bear far away into the wilderness. This, then. was the Golden Age of our history, not because it was free from trials and cares, for the whole period is full of struggles and perils. Rest is not the ideal of men who meet for the purpose of learning how to labor for the good of others. The period was truly golden in the opportunities it afforded the little group of brothers on the frontier to make their influence felt throughout a vast empire and into successive generations."...




Jonathan Heart, third and last Worshipful Master of American Union (Army) Lodge, was mustered out of military service in December, 1783. Two years later Brother Heart, as a captain in the army raised for the protection of the western frontier, brought the Warrant of American Union Lodge to the west.



In November, 1785, a detachment of troops under Ma jor and Brother John Doughty had been sent to the mouth of the Muskingum River and there erected Fort Harmar. Under the leadership of General Rufus Putnam the Ohio Company of Associates - New England veterans of the Revolution - landed at the mouth of the Muskingum, opposite Fort Harmar, April 7, 1788, and began the settlement of Marietta, the "Plymouth Rock of the West." Log cabins were built and a stockade, called Campus Martius, was erected as a refuge against the Indians. Such was the beginning of the first permanent settlement planted within the limits of the Northwest Territory.

On May 21, 1792, a letter was received from the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania which read in part: "It was with equal surprise and pleasure the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania received intelligence of the formation of a Lodge in the midst of the immense wilderness of the West....As the account which you have given of the origin of your warrant is perfectly satisfactory and as the succession to the Chair has been uninterrupted, your authority for renewing your work appears to be incontestable." Thus were the Brethren assured of the right to carry on the work of the Craft in their new land.

On March 24, 1801, fire destroyed the Lodge hall and with it were lost its Warrant, furniture, jewels and implements. On November 7, 1803, Wor. Bro. Putnam reported that he had received a Charter from the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, "renewing the rights, privileges and precedence of this Lodge as heretofore established."



The early Masonic home of American Union Lodge is an historic matter of special interest. From the date of establishment of the Lodge until 1794, the home of Major Sergeant at Campus Martius was used. Following this date, for several years the Lodge met a different places and in many records of the Secretary the place of meeting is not given. From January until August 1800, the Lodge had met at Campus Martius, but for the remainder of the year and the early part of 1801 the meetings were held at Bowen's Inn. After the fire of March 24th a new home was necessary and Lincoln's Inn was secured as a temporary movement where meetings were occasionally held. From December 5, 1803 until 1810 the office of Bro. Putnam was used as the meeting place.



Ohio became a state in 1803, and Chillicothe continued to be the capitol of Ohio until 1810. Prior to the year 1810, Masonic Lodges had been established at Marietta, Cincinnati, Warren, Worthington, Zanesville and Chillicothe. These Lodges were widely separated and travel between the settlements was chiefly on horseback. It was probably at the legislative sessions at Chillicothe that discussion relative to the formation of a Grand Lodge of Ohio first took place.



On January 7, 1808, the Brethren then in session took steps which led to the organization of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, F. & A. M., on which occasion a series of resolutions signifying conditions associated with membership were adopted. Bro. Rufus Putnam of American Union Lodge was chosen Grand Master and the first Grand Communication was to be held on the first Monday of the year 1809, "at whatsoever place the Legislature of Ohio shall then be in session."

At the 1810 session of Grand Lodge it was "Resolved, that the several Charters surrendered to this Grand Lodge by the Lodges under its jurisdiction be endorsed by the Grand Secretary, 'surrendered and canceled in due form, by order of the Grand Lodge,' and then returned to the respective Lodges to remain in the archives thereof for safe keeping; subject, however, to the order of the Grand Lodge at all times. "



Up until this time American Union Lodge No. 1 had maintained itself in an independent position as concerns proper and subordinate relationships with the Grand Lodge of Ohio. Regardless of this fact, Grand Lodge saw fit to reserve the number one position on its roster for American Union Lodge because of its age and military service during the Revolutionary War. A letter of invitation to identify itself with the Grand Lodge of Ohio was received from that body by American Union Lodge and read in open lodge in 1814. The following action was considered necessary: "On motion, it is Resolved, that it is pre-expedient to resign the present Warrant to the Grand Lodge of Ohio; or to any other Lodge; because that in so doing it will annihilate the Royal Arch Chapter working under said Warrant. Therefore this Lodge rejects any jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Ohio over this Lodge."



This controversy between the Grand Lodge of Ohio and American Union Lodge continued for several years. The situation was finally brought to a head in 1823 when several worthy brethren who had previously broken away from the old Lodge petitioned the Grand Lodge of Ohio for the right to revive and organize the defunct American Union Lodge No. 1 under jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Ohio. The Grand Lodge, after due investigation, granted the Charter, thus ending the long and unfortunate controversy between American Union Lodge and the Grand Body."


This is an interesting statement: "The situation was finally brought to a head in 1823 when several worthy brethren who had previously broken away from the old Lodge petitioned the Grand Lodge of Ohio for the right to revive and organize the defunct American Union Lodge No. 1 under jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Ohio."

Why & when were there breakaway brethren from the American Union Lodge No 1?
What transpired between 1809 & 1823?
Why would not Putnam be behind this movement to "revive and organize" this "defunct Lodge? He was alive until 1824.

Here is another claim of meeting and operating in 1814: "A letter of invitation to identify itself with the Grand Lodge of Ohio was received from that body by American Union Lodge and read in open lodge in 1814."

In 1814, the Brethren apparently voted to not fall under the jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Ohio?

In December of 1808, as the first Grand Master, Rufus Putnam, who was also the founder of Marietta, found it necessary to resign from the office of Grand Master because of advanced years and ill health. Brother Putnam served honorably as Master of American Union Lodge in 1794, 1798, and 1800. His death occurred in 1824, being 86 years of age, at which time he was, with the exception of Brother (General) Lafayette, the last surviving general officer of the Revolutionary Army.

Ill health in 1809, lived till 1824, American Union Lodge No 1 was Indepedant until 1823?
Were the breakaway brethren really worthy?
To take away the Independant status of an American Military Lodge that represented American Freemasonry and its Unilateral fight for Freedom and against oppression by the Crown............
America was about Independance.
American Freemasonry was unique in that is was a breeding ground for education and lessons in Liberty, Equality and Fraternity!

Brother and General Rufus Putnam and his revolutionary war veterans seemed to emody the Spirit of Freemasonry within American Freemasonry and the American Union Lodge No 1!

A Beacon of Universal Brotherhood on the edge of the Wilderness.
Two enemies during that time period. The Indians and The Crown's attempts at the reclaiming of America. He staid Vigilant till his death.

One question to leave all of you with: How would the Freemasonic, Revolutionary War Veteran feel about American Freemasonry's path during the years of 1800-1830?
Some of these Brothers had to militarily defend America again from Britian during the War of 1812?


Thanks to http://www.mariettamasonicbodies.com/au1history.htm for some of the Historical information.

EXERCISES IN BROTHERHOOD

I have been working on what I call a Lodge project. I am currently working on what I would consider a program on "Exercises in Brotherhood" to bring before the Lodge for discussion, additions or subtractions, then an implementation of a program that would build our Brotherhood muscles. I played college football and other various recreational sports, and there were specific exercises for building any muscle in the body if one so desired. There are specific brain exercises to strengthen ones brain power. There are also meditative exercises, that once practiced, one becomes stronger/better at meditating/reflecting.

I firmly believe there are "exercises" that must build Brotherhood. I also believe that Dr Anderson and his cronies were concerned with building Brotherhood amongst all mankind. The Church and Crown had done such a wonderful job creating the Dark Ages and trying to perpetuate it into the future, that the common man had been ground down to dust. Too much guilt and degradation had destroyed any sense of a United Family/Brotherhood of Man and the concept that every human was special and beautiful, not evil. The early 1700's was the beginning of the movement of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. These tenets where what was going to heal Mankind. The founders of Organized Freemasonry I believe were trying to put down in a set of codes how to create Universal Brotherhood amongst Mankind, and remove the veil of superstition put in place by the Church and Crown. Man needed to be lifted up(raised) from being knocked down for centuries by our supposed annointed leaders.

Somewhere along the way, Freemasonry, at least in America, has lost its way from what Dr. Anderson and his cronies had in mind for what the purpose of Freemasonry was to be. We get a little "brotherhood" when performing ritual, but is not masonry supposed to be more? Is ritual the only thing that seperates us from other volunteer fraternal org's? Or should what we do once we tyle the Lodgeroom door determine our distinction? I feel that mining the past, what Anderson and his fellows were ultimately trying to accomplish by stamping the orgs charges and constitutions to paper, making it official that an order has become public, and has a purpose.
I believe that there are specific exercises that can be done in a Lodge of mason that build the bonds of brotherhood in the same way our tendons become stronger when we exercise our muscles. the bonds that tie us together will become stronger as we strengthen our Brotherhood muscle.

I will update this post frequently with results and information I come across with what could be considered "Brotherhood Building Exercises". Time to start stretching Brothers and limber up for a workout!

See you at Lodge.
Nemo me impune lacessit!

Degrees: What Thomas Jefferson Thought.........

Thomas Jefferson, Founder and Patron of the University of Virginia, never allowed his university to give degrees. He considered them pretentious, irrelevant to learning and unconnected to the preparation for responsibility. This was not idealism. It was the opinion of the most successful practitioner of Reason. The purpose of Universities has now been inverted. Learning has become a goal-oriented process aimed at winning a degree.

Could this be true of Masonry?
Original masonry consisted of 2 degree's, with a third, for occult reasons, added later. It was a calm and peaceful useful society for the times. Once the "higher degrees" were introduced for membership purposes; knowing how man is gluttonous and awestruck easily, the Aspirant then began his goal oriented membership aimed at "winning" degrees.
For what, I ask?
Outside of satisfying the Ego, what do these "higher degrees" add to Freemasonry?
Having gone through the Scottish Rite and York Rite degree's, they added nothing to "bettering" me, they just added to the amount of dues I had to pay, also I had a couple of more "guys" trying to tell me what to do!

If Thomas Jefferson knew the folly in degree chasing, why are masons so hungry for degrees and titles?
Not only hungry: but impatient?
How can letting in people, in one day, without any training or proficiency, sit within a tyled Lodge Room and it be an environment of Equality?
Letting in cowans this way has cheapened our "university", and the selling of degree's to just about anyone, and then letting them loose on society as 32 degree dousche bags will cause irreparable damage to your craft and name.....
Why have our Leaders left Jeffersonian Reason for UGLE Obligatory neutered masonry?
Degree factories instead of Learning Temples for those searching Enlightenment...

Are we not supposed to be HUMBLE servants of the Craft?
Not egotistical title craving degree hounds?
The opposite of Thomas Jefferson………..
Time to go Old School with Freemasonry

Jefferson:
"Though you cannot see, when you take one step, what will happen next, yet follow truth, justice and plain dealing, and never fear their leading you out of the labyrinth, in the easiest manner possible. The knot which you thought a Gordian one, will untie itself before you. Nothing is so mistaken as the supposition that a person can extricate himself from difficulty by intrigue, by chicanery, by dissimilation, by trimming, by an untruth, by an unjustice."

Chicanery,trimming and untruth equate to one day masons enjoying the rights and benefits that many have died and laboured for throughout the Ages.
Shame

French masonic history and its historiography

French masonic history and its historiography

Presented at CMRC by Pierre Mollier on 9 Jun 1999

When I start giving a lecture about masonic history in France, I usually quote, as a precious advice, this wonderful sentence of the great French historian Marc Bloch: "There is a mortal sin for historians: anachronism". Being a Freemason in France is of course a quite different thing at different times — 1760, 1830, 1905 or 1999. When, in circumstances similar to this one, where I am giving a public lecture in France, I tell those present “Please, if you want to understand this lecture, forget what you know as a Freemason living in Paris in 1999”. Of course anachronism is a danger in all fields of historical research, and it is worth noting that Marc Bloch never dealt with masonic history. But I do think that masonic historians are, more than their colleagues in other branches of historical research, exposed to this “mortal sin”… especially in France. There is another difficulty which we face here today — I have heard that here in Britain, there is an organisation which is also called Freemasonry even if it appears to be quite different from what we, the French consider Freemasonry to be! So the word Freemasonry could be a concept that the French and English do not agree about. Of course, I am teasing the audience — but scholars should be careful about the differences which exist between the various masonic traditions. So, what could be the origin of interest for a British scholar to study French masonic history? I will try to convince you that there are some good reasons for you to look at French masonic history.
The first reason is the study of an original institution which played an important role in the development of one of the leading countries in Europe during the last three centuries. French Freemasonry was involved in the political, artistic and philosophical life of France. Even if French professional historian discovered it only twenty years ago, in most of the fields of French Modern History [XVIII to XX centuries] you cannot make a serious study without considering the role of Freemasonry.

You cannot study French Enlightenment without a glimpse at the history and work of the lodge Les Neuf Soeurs (The Nine Sisters) in the 1780s. You cannot understand the Napoleon adventure without considering the Grand Orient at that time, and so on. August Viatte, a historian of literature who wrote Les sources occultes du Romantisme demonstrated the great influence of esoteric masonry on Romanticism. But, at this academic centre for the study of Freemasonry [CMRC], I presume the public will be more concerned about motives to study French Freemasonry which are linked more to the general history of Freemasonry.
Most of continental Europe discovered Freemasonry through French Freemasonry. So in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, masonic brothers practice masonry which is influenced by the French system. Their rituals have strong French origins. Masonic meetings are organised around lectures and debates on a philosophical or symbolic matter. A good knowledge of French masonic history is very useful if one wishes to get some key information about the history of the lodges in general in continental Europe. Moreover Latin-American Freemasonry could not be understood without taking into account the strong French influence in the 19th century. Masonry has played quite an important role in politics in Mexico and Argentina and you will find a bust of Voltaire [an embodiment of French Freemasonry] in the Hall of the Grande Lodge of Chile.
Even for British masonic history, the studying of French Freemasonry is very interesting. With original documents on lodges being so rare in Britain, French masonic archives from the period around 1740s to the beginning of 19th century could be very important.

The origins of most of the oldest masonic traditions are of course British, but the first testimonies are often French, especially regarding the history of rituals. The great Harry Carr has made brilliant proof of this in his Early French Exposure. Just as an example, the oldest knight Templars rituals in Britain are the Sheffield rituals circa 1790. In France the oldest ritual, recently discovered, dates 1750 and there are tens of manuscript copies dating before the 1790s.
As a final point by which I will try to persuade you of the importance of studying the history of French Freemasonry, I will mention the development of the higher degrees. I truly believe that the oldest higher degrees which are part of the first British Speculative Freemasonry have their origin between 1740 and 1760 and this phenomenon is particularly linked to French developments. All the documents on the higher degrees before 1760-70 are French, even the first rituals of Royal Arch degrees, for instance.
Petit résumé historique

The classical historiography of French Freemasonry relies on three names: Thory, Ragon and Clavel … even if we know today that their books are quite unreliable, historically speaking! Thory published in 1812 Histoire de la Fondation du Grand Orient de France and in 1815 Acta Latomorum. Clavel is the author of Historie Pittoresque de la Franc-Maçonnerie published in 1843, and Ragon wrote in 1853 the Ortodoxie Maçonnique. For many years the three authors have been regarded as the main source of research by those who investigated Freemasonry in France. Masonic authors — I intentionally do not say historians — took all their historical informations from the three mentioned works. The story of French Freemasonry and its historiography is the chronicle of how historical researchers authenicate or invalidate the work of Thory, Ragon and Clavel.

Rebold’s Histoire des Trois Grandes Loges, Daruty’s Histoire du Rite Ecossais Ancien et Accepté and Jouaust’s Histoire du Grand Orient de France (1866) represent the second step in the development of masonic bibliography in France. These authors tried to be a little more scientific then their predecessors, but for most of the time and whenever in doubt, they still referred to Thory. Rebold is a good source of information for the study of Freemasonry in XIX century France, as he was quite a reliable witness. Darury’s book is an honest compilation of what has been written on the high degrees during the XVIII century. For the study of the Scottish Rite, Daruty is an interesting account. His book presents the oldest version — not the original — of Patente Morin that Pike sent him; this is quite a valuable account as other versions of Pike’s document have been lost. Jouaust wrote his short book as if he was in the Grand Orient Archives for one day only! His book is probably the first historical essay on Masonry made at a quasi- professional standard.

Looking further for the sources to study French Freemasonry we come to the strange book of an antimasonic millitant. In 1912, La Franc-Maçonnerie en France des origines à 1815, les ouvriers de l’idée révolutionnaire appeared, written by Gustave Bord. This work quotes many new sources, but very unfortunately without giving any references. When the documents which refer to this work, however, are discovered from time-to-time, they usually show that Bord was right. His book is difficult to use, but the information given should be taken into account in a serious study of French Freemasonry.

With all these books we come closer to the issue of studying Freemasonry from the archival sources.

Arthur Groussier, The Grand Master of the Grand Orient was a socialist MP and an engineer, who in 1931 published the first book using modern historical methodology. When in 1931 he published Constitution du Grand Orient de France par la Grande Loge Nationale — 1773, for the first time a special point in masonic history was studied with critical examination through the use of the archives. Moreover, this work gave for the first time in the appendix a full transcription of many important masonic documents which nobody seems to have seen since the eighteen century. Arthur Groussier’s work is in this sense a model for historical methodology in the study of French Freemasonry. What he wrote might have been evident for a classical historican, but it was very new in the field of masonic history.

Two further works have introduced high levels of research standards in French masonic erudition — Roger Priouret’s book La Franc- Maçonnerie sous les lys and especially George Luquet’s wonderful book La Franc-Maconnerie et l’Etat en France au XVIII siècle. Georges Luquet was an acclaimed scholar in Philosophy and the Grand Chancellor of the Grand Collège des Rites (The Grand Orient Supreme Council). Both of the afore mentioned authors, but particularly Luquet, discovered new information on masonry in the classical sources of the Enlightenment. They studied diaries and memoirs of the XVIII century, correspondence available in the archives, Police Archives etc. and found numerous quotations on Freemasonry which gave direct testimony on the development of the Craft in France. For the first time Priouret and Luquet took masonic history out of the masonic ghetto. Even if Luquet’s book is not known as it deserves to be, he is as important an author for French history as Knoop, Jones and Hammer were for masonic scholarship in Britain. His work is especially important for giving hundreds of XVIII century testimonies and quotations on the establishment of the first lodges in France.

It is quite peculiar that the two most important historians of French masonry of the late XX century were not masons. During the 1960’s Pierre Chevallier published two master-pieces with Les Ducs sous l’Acacia and La Première Profanation du Temple Maçonnique. Those books extended the research of Priouret and Luquet. Chevallier was a qualified historian specialising in the XVIII century. He had a deep knowledge and insight into the classical sources and especially of the police archives. His book gave for the first time a quite accurate description of the development of French masonry between 1725 and 1750. The information contained in this work is about who joined masonry, where and when, where the first lodges were etc.. But, as the atypical scholar Robert Amadou once said — we will learn very little in those books about our predecessor’s Freemasonry. The question of rituals, masonic systems used, what was the regarded substance of Freemasonry in those times, what the people were looking for when joining — these are the questions which were left unanswered. Pierre Chevallier give very little information on these questions and it may be that as a professional historian he limited himself to the traditional methods of historical erudition and did not find that kind of information in the sources he most usually consulted — police archives. There is a part-truth in the following bad review of Chevallier’s book given by Amadou:

Book superficially perfect… but perfectly superficial!

Nevertheless Chevallier’s books are essential for masonic scholars looking at French Freemasonry. Chevallier published also a classical and enchanting — although maybe not academic — Histoire de la Franc- Maçonnerie Française in three volumes.

Another author who advanced scholarly research into Freemasonry in France was Alain Le Bihan. Franc-Maçons et ateliers parisiens de la Grande Loge de France au XVIII siècle and Loge et Chapitres de la Grand Loge et du Grand Orient de France are the daily tools of the French masonic scholars. If Pierre Chevallier got the maximum of information from the classical historical resources of the XVIII century, Alain Le Bihan for the first time gave a global approach and showed the treasure of French masonic archives. Alain Le Bihan was the first modern scholar to work on the Grand Orient Archives.
Resources for the study of French Freemasonry
Libraries
The Grand Orient Archives
The Grand Orient Library
Masonic department of the National Library
Regional and local monographs
Tours and Touraine — Fénéant
Toulouse — Taillefer
Normandie-Le Havre — Lecureur-Pringard
Aix-en-Provence

Information on bibliographical resources may be gained from La Lettre de l’IDERM, a monthly newsletter of the Institute for the study of Freemasonry at the Grand Orient. For further details refer to the Paris Pages; Musée du Grand Orient de France de la Franc-Maçonnerie Européenne — Information.




http://www.canonbury.ac.uk/lectures/maconnerie.htm

The Liberty Tree

This was brought to Light by a fellow French Orient Free-Mason



Liberty Tree
In a chariot of light from the regions of day,
The Goddess of Liberty came;
Ten thousand celestials directed the way,
And hither conducted the dame.
A fair budding branch from the gardens above,
Where millions with millions agree,
She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love,
And the plant she named Liberty Tree.
The celestial exotic struck deep in the ground,
Like a native it flourished and bore;
The fame of its fruit drew the nations around,
To seek out this peaceable shore.
Unmindful of names or distinctions they came,
For freemen like brothers agree;
With one spirit endued, they one friendship pursued,
And their temple was Liberty Tree.
Beneath this fair tree, like the patriarchs of old,
Their bread in contentment they ate
Unvexed with the troubles of silver and gold,
The cares of the grand and the great.
With timber and tar they Old England supplied,
And supported her power on the sea;
Her battles they fought, without getting a groat,
For the honor of Liberty Tree.
But hear, O ye swains, 'tis a tale most profane,
How all the tyrannical powers,
Kings, Commons and Lords, are uniting again,
To cut down this guardian of ours;
From the east to the west blow the trumpet to arms,
Through the land let the sound of it flee,
Let the far and the near, all unite with a cheer,
In defence of our Liberty Tree.

Thomas Paine