Freemasonry is a post-collegiate mostly-all male fraternity dedicated to the social development of the member to form a broader sense of the self and their community.
I can’t help but make some comment about the latest in the line of SNAFU‘s, this time taking place in Arkansas. I don’t want to make any particular comment on what’s going, its my hope that all involved are true and acting above board and that the situation will resolve it self int he best way possible for the fraternity. But for now, a SNAFU is what it is indeed.
With this situation in Arkansas, and those of the past including West Virginia, Ohio, Alabama, and across orders with the Jesters, it begs the question what is our responsibility as a member of the order?
The easy answer is to say the things to which we take the obligations over, and further, the things that we sign on and linked to our states Masonic constitution. But that covers the physical or tangible things to do or not to do. What about the less obvious? And, from the other side of the fence, how do our own actions carry out the principals that we espouse. Really, there are four, Temperance, Prudence, Fortitude, and Justice. Maybe your jurisdiction has others, maybe none of these, but by and large, these 4 tenets are the foundation of our being.
Masons are Temperate: In their consumption, in their excesses, in their sensibilities. Masons are not excessive, not marked or driven by passion.
Masons are Prudent: They make sound and carefully weighed decisions, their mind is on the greater good over the individual end. Masons are CAREFUL of their management.
Masons have Fortitude: Where others will crumble or compromise their morals, Freemasons have the Moral Fortitude to stand upright in the light, rather than hide in its shadow. Still human, Masons try harder to just and upright. Masons have the ability to face adversity with cool connectedness and courage.
Masons believe in Justice: Not in the strict sense of an eye for an eye, but rather the dispensation of the moral law, the divine mercy that even the Great Architect of the Universe gives to all of us in our weakest failings. Masons have a rightness and rectitude in all things, and an integrity in our dealings.
So, in the wake of these minor incursions in these remote places of American Masonry (not some far away place, but your fraternity in the next state over, your neighbors, your brothers), is this YOUR Masonry? Are you a Mason to practice the Royal Art whilst those who claim governance (see leadership) re-write what the moral value is to fit their actions?
Is that what the fraternity has de-evolved into? Would we better off without a centralized governance, where lodges govern and maintain their own members, where they interact with the community spreading the word of Masonry? Is it because of a lack of professional Masons (see paid), except at the Grand Lodge level, that like a Robber Baron Mob Boss, the future of the fraternity is being ground into dust for the gain of a few fancy jewels, a title or two, and a pay check.
Would we be better of incorporating the whole thing and making every member a single share holder responsible for a part of the whole?
Or, maybe Masonry just isn’t important to its members anymore with thinking that because its not happening in your own back yard, it has no overall effect to your membership. Is the system safe from a philosophical chain reaction with each instance triggering an invisible event somewhere else down the line?
This isn’t an indictment to the system of Grand Lodges, or those who staff them per-se, but a question as to what value they bring to the system overall. Is it a necessary layer of governance to a system that is otherwise set up to do it itself at the lodge level?
Could it be done without the leadership of a Grand Lodge, or does a Grand Lodge make YOUR individual Masonry more valuable? Somehow this period of SNAFU’s has got to come to a head, the question is what are you doing to help point it where you want it to go?
What follows is the story of a young Mason who is caught in the middle between a Grand Master who is stuck in the past, in pre Civil War Masonry and those of us who have an improved 21st century view of life and practice Masonry accordingly. Far from being some firebrand, screaming reformer, Derek Gordon is a mild mannered, respectful Mason who has no ax to grind. He only wished to present his Lodge as favorable towards the civil rights of all citizens regardless of color. For that he is going to pay the ultimate price for being a human being.
This is his story as he told it to me:
You are secretary and webmaster of your Lodge, Sebastian Lodge #706, Grand Lodge of Arkansas F & AM.. You are a 23 year old student studying law in the neighboring state hundreds of miles from your Lodge. You have decided to volunteer to help Peruvians caught in northern Chile in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake. As you stand in line to board your international flight to Peru your cell phone rings. It is the Worshipful Master of your Lodge with an important message – the Grand Master wants an immediate meeting with you. You convey to the Worshipful Master that will not be possible for a number of weeks, but that when you return you would be most happy to accommodate the Grand Master. The Worshipful Master is unable to tell you what this request is all about.
You immediately call the Grand Secretary and apprise him of the situation. He tells you that the Grand Master is in a meeting but that he will pass on to him your information and travel itinerary.
You make your trip to Peru and in your time there you make numerous phone calls back to Arkansas, leaving messages with the Grand Master’s wife at his residence and the Grand Secretary. None of your phone calls are ever returned.
You learn that while you were away that the Grand Master did not wait for your return but proceeded ahead all guns blazing! With just two days notice the Grand Master came to Sebastian Lodge to pull its charter and announce formal charges against you.
You can’t understand how this could all happen. What’s the beef? Friends notify you that the problem was the posting on the Lodge website of the Grand Master’s request that Arkansas Masonic license plates not be purchased by members of the Grand Lodge of Arkansas AF & AM. Other Lodges in the state made similar postings on their websites and their charters are still intact and their webmasters still honored members. Perhaps it was the sentence at the end that this was not necessarily the view of the Lodge. But you complied with the Grand Master’s edict that all members of the Lodge be notified of his ruling.
Other members get in touch with you to tell you that the Grand Master said in his visit to Sebastian Lodge to pull its charter that there were thousands of complaints received by the Grand Lodge about the website of Sebastian Lodge. They tell you that you are being charged with placing Grand Lodge and Masonic information on a public website in violation of a recent Grand Lodge ruling. You are also charged with posting Grand Lodge Resolutions to the Grand Lodge publicly.
You find this hard to believe. You have taken whatever Masonic information is posted on Sebastian’s website from three other Arkansas Lodge websites. A 1700’s lecture is really a historical document not an expose of Masonic secrets & ritual and other Arkansas Lodges have considered it so much a part of their Arkansas Masonic tradition that they have also posted it on their websites. None of them are having their charters pulled. Huntsville Lodge has ten times the Masonic information publicly displayed on its website. You had picked just a few interesting posts from this Lodge to include on Sebastian’s website. Boone Lodge, among others, has posted publicly on its website the Grand Master’s ban on license plates.
Huntsville has posted much more Masonic information publicly for a longer period of time. While you created Sebastian’s website in May of 2009, Huntsville and other Lodges have had posted Masonic information for up to 10 years. Your sources from which you copied the material you posted on Sebastian Lodge’s website included Crossett Masonic Lodge #576 F & AM and The Carroll County Mason, both of which were hosted by the now defunct Geocities. Another source was Key Lodge #7. None of these other Lodges are under indictment.
If the Grand Lodge is so concerned about electronic transmission of Masonic material why has it posted a link to Huntsville Lodge on the Grand Lodge website for years?
This makes no sense to you. The recent ruling on not posting any Masonic matter on a public website nor the use of the internet for any Masonic matters, including E-Mails was just passed at last month’s Grand Session. It was a little known resolution that received no debate and was passed with a vote made with it grouped with other matters. As secretary of the Lodge you have never received official notification of this ruling in the mail as is the usual custom. You also have not received any written notification of any charges preferred against you.
Perhaps the problem also stems from the fact that you tried to form a committee for Prince Hall recognition. But the Grand Master told you that Prince Hall did not desire to have anything to do with the Grand Lodge of Arkansas AF & AM. Recognition is ten years away if at all, you remember the Grand Master saying.
Later you are notified that the Lodge on 3/24/10 has finally received the letter of charges against you and the date for a Masonic trial. You are now back from Peru. This document should have been sent to you personally and you should have been the first person to read it. Along with the document of charges in the mail comes the official Grand Lodge notification of the ban on any and all Masonic electronic transmissions. You check with other Secretaries in other Arkansas Lodges. They have just received the same official notice of the new ruling and this is the first time they have heard of it. So it seems that you will be prosecuted for violating a ruling before it was officially put into place.
You are told the date for your Masonic trial is a date you will be on maneuvers with the Arkansas National Guard. You feel that the Grand Lodge knows that you are a member of the National Guard, knows that it is holding weekend maneuvers which require compulsory attendance and has thus scheduled your Masonic trial on the Saturday of these maneuvers deliberately. But the document is still not in your hands. Your information is second hand.
Finally the document of charges comes into your possession:
As a parting gesture you post this parting message on Sebastian’s website.
UPDATED: 27 March 2010.
SebastianLodge.Com is down for the foreseeable future.
Thank you for visiting.
We have had well over 20,000 visitors in our one year in operation. We hope that we can return and provide one of the most-visited Masonic website on the net.
Our charter was revoked for being un-Masonic as to our website. I, Derek Gordon, apologize for mentioning the order to not purchase license plates. As the order said, all members must be notified. This seemed to be a great way to get it there as many members visited.
I, being secretary, webmaster, legal domain owner, and creator of this website, never meant to upset Grand Lodge. Rather, I sought to protect our lodge because so many saw the letter as racist. I realize it was not meant to taken that way, but its poor penmanship didn’t get the proper message across. Other Arkansas lodges have the same kind of post, yet they still have their charter. Some Arkansas lodges and members have posted the entire letter from the Grand Secretary online and those two have yet to see punishment.
*REGARDING other information supplied and provided on the Sebastian Lodge website, it was all found on other Arkansas lodge websites. Some of those were created as far back as 2001; this site was created in May of 2009. I never typed a single word regarding the lectures and Masonic history. The page source-code made light of that. I posted the Masonic informatoin because it had been written by and posted on other Arkansas lodge websites for years; I thought it must be acceptable by precedent. As a Mason of 2.5 years, I was foolish to believe that if other lodges are allowed to do something (created by Masons who have been in much longer than I have), it would be acceptable for our lodge to display as well.
To my former brethren of Sebastian Lodge, I apologize to you for this instance. I felt that we were safe after finding the post on so many other sites. There’s much more to the story, but out of respect for Masonry and for the title of Grand Master and the Grand Lodge I will humbly refrain.
I further urge all Masons to support Sebastian Lodge in reobtaining its charter. By this I outline that I was doing what was seen as acceptable by precedent. The lodge itself was not involved in this directly. I am ashamed at the outcome.
Currently, I’m awaiting a Masonic trial for expulsion that I cannot make it to. It is scheduled for the weekend of April 17th, 2010 when the Military has summoned me to work. The Grand Lodge will not return my phone calls and one can only imagine the desired outcome.
Should you wish to contact me, it is possible by emailing webmaster706 @ sebastianlodge.com. I’d suggest removing the spaces around the @.
“Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.” – George Washington
Fraternally,
Derek Gordon
Former Secretary, 706
Thanks.
All this was told to me by Brother Derek Gordon whose Lodge Sebastian Lodge #706 is no more and who awaits expulsion at a very young age from the Craft he loves. This is his story in his words.
But our observations are really questions. We are perplexed. What was the rush? Why could this whole affair have not waited until Gordon returned from his trip? Why would the Grand Master not wait for a personal meeting before proceeding unilaterally? Why prosecute a Brother for posting material that was already published 300 years ago and as recently as last month on other Arkansas Lodge’s websites? Why schedule Gordon’s Masonic trial on a weekend when you (GL) were told he was on maneuvers and why have you yet to make arrangements to reschedule? WHY HAS THE GRAND LODGE OF ARKANSAS’ WEBSITE BEEN SHUT DOWN?
To those who would like to support Brother Derek Gordon we urge you not only to get in touch with him but also to voice your opinion with the Grand Master of Arkansas.
The Banks of the Euphrates–The First Year e-Book is now available!
It is finally here! I have finished putting together the free e-book that I promised to create which celebrates the first year of the Banks of the Euphrates on Freemason Information Magazine. This book features the best of the articles which were featured on the Euphrates over the past year. I thoroughly enjoyed reviewing the articles and selecting some of my favorites for this e-book and I hope that you will enjoy revisiting some of the moments from the past twelve months as well.
The book is available for download in .pdf form by clicking on the link above. Thanks for reading and I hope that there are many more years of articles to come!
Like what you are reading at the Euphrates? Email the author at euphratesblog@gmail.com to join the Banks of the Euphrates mailing list.
The second day of the Phylaxis National convention saw us get right down to work. This day and the next we were primarily devoted to presentations of papers written by learned members of a certain field. Out of all the presentations made I will feature three.
The first paper was Masonic Jurisprudence by our National President, John B. Williams, FPS. He told us that because most Grand Lodges have incorporated there has been imposed on them civil rules, regulations and restrictions that were never previously considered. Prior to incorporation Grand Lodges were restricted only by the rules that they imposed on themselves. Civil courts generally do not meddle into private concerns.
But once a Grand Lodge incorporates it is no longer a private society and is governed as the state incorporation statues specify and to which the Grand Lodge who incorporates agrees to when it signs the article of incorporation.
So what’s the big deal?
Well let’s take the common practice of Grand Masters to rule and govern by edict when the Grand Lodge is not in Session. Most Grand Lodge by-laws stipulate that the Grand Master rules in absentia. This is a Masonic tradition and how most Grand Lodges have been governed for centuries. However, in most cases, depending on the state, this is not legally correct. Most state’s corporation rules state that the corporation is governed by a Board of Directors when the Grand Lodge is not in session. Corporate rules supersede any organization’s by-laws. This means that the Grand Master cannot decide matters at all, he must refer all business over to the Board.
Some states require all corporations be governed by a Board of Directors at all times and the President (Grand Master) acts under the powers granted to it by that Board but whether that Board can delegate its fiduciary responsibilities is open to question. If so interpreted the Grand Master could, then, in some states be nothing more than a ceremonial figure head.
Secondly Williams also informed us that incorporated Grand Lodges are then subjected to corporate tax laws as applies to tax exempt corporations.
This means that there can be restrictions on fund raising
That using funds for purposes other than purposes stated could be in violation of tax law
That polling Board members by E-Mail could be a problem as the absence of a signature in corporate matters can sometimes be illegal.
In summary if a Grand Lodge is incorporated then it is now Government Protected. Final say rests with a Board of Directors and not with the President (GM). This contradicts traditional Masonic practice where the Grand Master and only the Grand Master is all powerful. Grand Lodge by-laws must conform to the state corporation laws that issued that GL’s corporate status. In essence by incorporating a Lodge or Grand Lodge is no longer a private society but becomes a public one much more readily sued.
It is good to remember that corporate law is state and (corporate) tax law is federal. The bottom line is that if a GL is incorporated it is now civilly regulated.
When we broke for lunch we all went to the Phyllis luncheon in the banquet hall. A catered lunch was followed by some presentations, recognitions and awards from our OES sisters.
The other presentation for the day which I will report on was “Prince Hall Freemasonry and the National Grand Lodge” by Alton G. Roundtree, FPS. This is a subject that is mostly of interest to just Prince Hall Freemasons and can be a very contentious sore spot.
Roundtree has done extensive research on the subject spending many weeks at the Iowa Masonic Library which houses much of Prince Hall Masonry’s archives. He wrote the book “Out of the Shadows” in collaboration with Paul Bessel. His latest book The National Grand Lodge and Prince Hall Freemasonry is the same title as his Phylaxis presentation and should be out and available in April.
Roundtree tells us that in 1847 all existing regular Negro Lodges formed a National Grand Lodge or National Compact. The controversy comes in because it is alleged that the National Grand Lodge shut down and disbanded itself, some say in 1877, others say in 1878. Later, according to the accusations Lodges and Grand Lodges who did not dissolve or who suddenly appeared claimed to be the continuation of Compact Negro Freemasonry. Some Prince Hall scholars and officials say that any restart was bogus and illegal and the Compact Lodges of today are clandestine and are not legally chartered.
Roundtree disputes these claims in a systematic point by point refutation. He asserts that the National Grand Lodge never dissolved or disbanded. At the Phylaxis Society National Convention his presentation was a power point quiz question and answer format projected on a large screen. He pointed out that many of today’s PHA Grand Lodges were formed by the Compact PHO and thus their point of origin is the National Grand Lodge. PHA, Prince Hall Affiliated,
Grand Lodges are those that broke away from the National Compact and became independent or were formed without Compact assistance after 1878. Today’s PHO, Prince Hall Origin, Grand Lodges of the Compact still exist in many states but are not as numerous as PHA. Today traditional Black Masonry is concentrated in state PHA Grand Lodges just as its Mainstream counterparts. But the few National Compact Lodges still around practice regular Freemasonry and according to Roundtree have a legitimate claim to be equal and recognized Brothers.
Before adjourning for the day a special award was presented to Dr. Robert L. Uzzel who will be the third paper presentation featured in The Third Day. He received the prestigious Harry A. Williamson Masonic Hall of Fame Award.
The Phylaxis Society’s Hall of Fame is named for Harry A. Williamson, the founder of the Harry A. Williamson Collection on Black Masonry at the Schombug Center for Research on Black Culture, the Harlem branch of the New York Public Library.
Bro. Williamson was born in New York in 1873. He was raised as a Master Mason in Mount Olive Lodge #2 in New York on March 5, 1904. He served the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of New York in the following capacities: Deputy Grand Lecturer, Grand Secretary, Grand Senior Warden, Deputy Grand Master, Chairman of the Diamond Jubilee Celebration, Grand Historian, and Grand Lecturer.
Bro. Williamson was a member of the Manchester Association for Masonic Research in Manchester, England; Dorsett Master’s Lodge #3366 in Poole, England; and the National Masonic Research Society of the U. S. A.
Bro. Williamson was the author of:
Freemasonry among the American Negroes (1920),
The Negro in Masonic literature (1922), Men of Mark in Prince Hall Freemasonry (1943),
and Prince Hall Primer (1956)
Uzzel is an ordained minister, a professor and PHD and a prolific Masonic writer and researcher. His record includes:
MEMBERSHIPS
Pride of Ennis Lodge #420, Free and Accepted Masons (Prince Hall Affiliation), Ennis, Texas
Dale Consistory#31, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Dallas, Texas
Zakat Temple #164, Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, Dallas, Texas
AWARDS
Actual Fellow of the Phylaxis Society (1985)
1985 Phylaxis Certificate of Literature
Dr. Charles H. Wesley Medal of History
Blue Friar #92 (2003)
Founding Fellow of the Masonic Society (2008)
Harry A. Williamson Hall of Fame (2010)
After adjourning for the day and freshening up at our hotels we returned for the hospitality of the MWPHGL of Arkansas – libation, epicurean delights and fellowship. Another great day in the annuals of Masonic fraternalism.
In the wake of the most turbulent period of American History stories about the intersection of Freemasonry and the Civil War have been many and profound – fact and fiction have become impossibly merged until now. In an eloquent narrative story telling, Michael Halleran‘s new book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Freemasonry in the American Civil War separates the dime store novel and after dinner yarns from the real and verifiable stories of the American Civil War.
Listen to the Masonic Central Podcast with Michael Halleran on his book Better Angels of Our Nature.
The reality of the The Better Angels of Our Nature could perhaps be summed to say that when looking at the past, we strive to see it in the best light we can; reality and myth blurring together becoming one. We remember what we want to remember. And as this idea filters down from those who so daringly attempt to assimilate and speak about it, the line between what really happened and its retelling becomes even further blurred. The myth of the story takes a life of its own over the reality of what happened which is lost to the memory of time. We see it in the news, in the origins of religion, and in the annals of history – the stories of the past evolving and taking on a life of their own giving them greater depth, and consequently meaning, to the both the story tellers and their audience. But truth is liberating when it comes to the fraternity and the Civil War and Halleran’s new work The Better Angels of Our Nature is a welcome does of reality from a sea of historical myth.
The Better Angels of Our Nature dissects the war in its many facets into a sensible approach to the myths of Freemasonry and its part in the Civil War, from the very top in correspondence of Grand Lodges, first about preserving the union and later to sovereignty of action, to the rank and file interaction of soldiers on the lines spared by a token, a word, or a gesture, and to the gewgaws made by prisoners of war while being held in some of the harshest of p.o.w. camps. What Halleran captures in his work is not so much the acts of mercy between soldiers (of which he details many), but the agent of that mercy – Freemasonry.
Underlying the details of the book is the idea that the power of the fraternity and its ability to transcend lines acting in a way greater than that of organized religions, such that in times where even local denominations avoided helping those in desperate need, the bonds on Freemasonry, and the invisible connection between brothers, would prevail. In one instance, Halleran details the delivery of food and necessities to prisoners, not out of the compassion of similar religion, but out of the brotherhood in the craft all on the simple sign of a gewgaw. But, as much as the Better Nature leans on the leverage of membership, it almost equally illustrates the aversion brothers had to leverage it for their benefit. And for those such as Union prisoner John L. Ransom who witnessed Masonry in action noted in his diary the things to do following the war to include: “…visit all the foreign countries that prisoners told me about…wear silk under clothing, join the masons.”
The Friend to Friend Masonic Memorial monument located in the annex of the Gettysburg National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
One of the prime examples that Halleran uses to dissect the problem of the past and illustrate the point of the layers of mis-telling is the exchange between General Armistead and Captain Bingham, to which Halleran says
“…the legend of Armistead’s dramatic Masonic death scene simply did not happen.” “There was no Masonic huddle with Doctor Bingham, ho hand-off of a Masonic bible, and no meeting with Hancock.”
General Lewis A. Armistead
All of which may come as a shock to the system to any armchair historian, but in painstaking detail, Halleran pieces together Armistead’s wounding, those closest to him, and what they said about those moments on the battlefield and the events immediately following his demise several days later.
Despite the retelling of the greatest Masonic tale of the Civil War, what Halleran does uncover are an even greater number of instances where brotherhood works to save wounded soldiers, save a family from starvation, and in one instance where the war stops for a day to bury a fallen brother in a Masonic service attended by both sides of the conflict. The Better Angels of Our Nature illustrates the profundity of the fraternity to its practitioner of the age, leaving us with the question if the modern soldier of Masonic affiliation encountered a brother across the lines, would it have the same ability to lay down hostilities to appeal to their fraternal bonds?
Halleran tells a compelling story about the fraternity and the Civil War and how The Better Angels of Our Nature have retold the stories over and over to make them more appealing and sympathetic to the ears of the audiences they were being told to, and by dissecting the facts from the years of fictionalized beliefs, the truth is much richer and comforting once the haze of time is cleared away. Truly it was the Better Angels of the Our Nature, as a fraternity, that prevailed.
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Michael Halleran is published by Alabama University Press and is Available on Amazon.
The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power
What would you say if I told you that a secret cabal of ultra fundamental extremists were secretly at the heart of the American government? And what if I said to you that the very same secret cabal has held power and sway for near on the last century, with its present zenith starting in the last 50 years, and now at its most powerful, its voice is a capable vehicle to the extermination of several hundred thousand people on the basis if helping those you consider family. Such a cabal would be a frightening and dangerous monster, especially as each and every would be political player pays some homage to them and their power. And, to make it even more unfathomable, at its reigns is one man, an American Pope if you will, who wields this groups girth and influence with a few words of encouragement and an occasional memorandum in the right places and at the right time.
Before I read the book, I was skeptical myself, but having just finished Jeff Shartlet’s non-fiction, The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, I was immediately struck by the connections he draws, all based on a who’s who road map of American political power elite today. What made it more interesting was that this power structure didn’t meet in dark smoky alleys, or in secret liars with special knocks and hand gestures. To the contrary, the members of this cabal meet at the local church down the street (when they attend church) or in your weekday prayer meeting. The Family, is the story of the real American right, whose actions and activities overshadow even the most elaborate fantastical connections of the Illuminati.
The argument that Sharlet presents is that the present day organization behind the
Jonathan Edwards
Fellowship Foundation (the subject of the book) has a traceable lineage to 1735, which started in a less than ubiquitous fashion under a pastor named Jonathan Edwards, socially and ideologically an early architect of “the Great Awakening,” which was an early colonial religious passion movement. For its time it created a type of zealotry that some of his congregants, reportedly, began to hear voices that instructed them to “slit their own throats.” For their zeal, Shartlet says that “Edwards staked out a political position as well as a spiritual one, a subtly elitist conception of knowledge as a property to be possessed in different portions according to a divine hierarchy. The wise man of Christ knows that only to some does God give a calling, the power to draw closer to Him and understand His grand plan.” What it seems to of created, however, was a ferocious case of “the emperors new cloths”, as most in the growing following wanted to be an awoken to hear the message. Following these events, Edwards was purged from his congregation in 1750 for the destruction he had wrought on the “Puritan order”, something they would never reclaim. It was Edwards, who’s ideas of an unrestrained Christ could be intimately contacted (and heard) and an unrelenting wild energy which made his religiosity the prime shaper of things to come, especially as his religion looked to rebuild a Jerusalem from the wilderness, the Great Awakening had begin.
Charles Grandison Finney
From there, the book jumps forward in time to a spiritual descendant of Edwards, found in Charles Grandison Finney, whose populist revivals across the North East America and Britain led him to construct the first mega church seating 2,500 in 1832 (called the Broadway Tabernacle), and the hand behind the Second Great Awakening. Finney ‘s oratory and presence were such, Sharlet writes, that “‘under my preaching,…judges and lawyers and educated men were converted by the scores.” Finney’s message found its way into the minds of the most receptive who were “the new little big men of the nation, the petit bourgeoisie, physicians, inventors, entrepreneurs, self-made men, and their wives” wealthier than the old Puritan aristocracy. Interesting to note that this is the period following the Morgan Affair (in 1825) where those self same followers of Finney were leaving in droves the temples of Freemasonry. Finney’s connection to Edwards style of Awakening began in 1821 upon his own decision to either believe or not believe (in a very Shakespearean fashion) and it was in his revelation in hearing the voice of the divine which immediately solidified his as an evangelist. Finney’s conversion mirrored the conversions experience by Edwards, the intimate relationship with the divine, the aspect of communicating (hearing, feeling, exchanging) in a physical and tactile way with the spirit of the divine. Essentially, he experienced the “before God, you are nothing” state of being. The eventual message behind Finney was simple “‘knowing your duty, you have one thing to do, PERFORM IT.'” Finney’s faith became “faith enacted” the “exerted influence to secure to secure a legislation that is in accordance with the law of God” Finney’s was both an individual encounter with Jesus and the mass contagion of the anxious pew.
Finney also happened to be a Freemason before leveling his own charges against it, perhaps to pull from the growing discontent following the Morgan Affair.
The history of The Family next turns to Abraham Vereide, a immigrant Norwegian, who next takes the reins of this awakened idea of evangelism crafting it into his own Fellowship Foundation, through a dubious power struggle, to the contrary, through the simple vision from a divine source to work to help those who are in the best position to help those in need.
Vereide emigrated to America in 1905 and eventually settled in Seattle in 1906/7 where he was given the vision, Sharlet says, that to the big man went strength, to the little man went need. “‘Only the big man was capable of mending the world,'” said Vereide who realized that “to help such [wretched] creatures, the derelicts, the failures” he would help “those who could help them – the high and mighty – that they might distribute the Lord’s blessings to the little men, whose envy would be soothed, violence averted, and disorder controlled.”
It’s important to say that Vereide was very much pro business, and not a proponent of labor. It was in his early wrangling of local prominent business men that his calling of a top down change was what was necessary, to make things right. What he sought, (such that his supporters firmly believed), was the remedying of the economic ills afflicting the nation (this was the period of the Great Depression) which were caused “by disobedience to divine laws” with the ideal solution being a “revival of genuine religion…a return to prayer and the bible”, and if not “we are headed for chaos.” The leaders of industry were more than ready to steer the entire nation back onto a godly (non union/pro capitalism) path. It was in this period, and the spread of the movement, that a decided fear of Marxism and Socialism crept into this new conservative Christianity, omitting the ideals in the bible of community (communal-ism) and social justice. This was a top down theology, a wealthy mans ideal of Christ, rather than the view of a redeemer, capitalizing on the idea of conviction with out the efficacy of why.
From the the February 18, 1960 Presidential Prayer Breakfast. From left to right – Abraham Vereide, organizer of the prayer breakfast movement; President Dwight D. Eisenhower; William Jones, a California businessman and host of the breakfast. Image from Wheaton College
Vierde’s power grew and his connections expanded all the way to Washington D.C. as Vereide ‘s key business men expanded from the Seattle elite to the Washington State elite, carrying his name and work to those in Federal houses in the east. Vereide ‘s spiritual influence, Sharlet suggests, was such as to break union bosses to the will of the pious business men and focused to eradicate the New Deal of FDR. Sharlet goes into great detail about the close following Vereide gave to the busting of union strikes and his affectionate leanings towards Hitler’s socialism (this was pre-World War II and the Nazi atrocities and many American business men found resonance with the Nazi socialism movement for its effectiveness in organization and production. Such was the case that entrepreneur Henry Ford, it’s said, had exchanged portraits with Adolf which he hung on his office wall). Vereide ‘s outlook was very straight forward, that “‘Top Men’ had a responsibility to do for God what lesser men couldn’t. Their failure to take on this burden has led the nation to its terrible position. ‘Obedience’, concluded Abram is ‘the way to power.'” And that, duty as “obedience,” was/is at the heart of this present tense fundamentalism, but not necessarily an envisioned obedience from Jesus, but from a less distinct organization of key men who are, in a sense, doing the work of Jesus, with the expectation of obedience to their instruction. It’s this formula that led to Vereide organizing the still functioning National Prayer Breakfast which, Sharlet reports, created a networking group of like minded individuals to congregate and network in the very heart of American political power.
In Vereide ‘s time, his organization grew and multiplied into several smaller units branching into “cells” which would grow and disseminate their ideals to those interested in a wide and diverse way some examples cited include prayer circles, outreach organizations, residential homes, and similar prayer meetings abroad. In this same period, Vereide ‘s sentiment and leadership dovetailed with the growing rise of anti-communism (but with a healthy dose of admiration for Nazi socialism) that eventually guided the creation of the red-scare film “The Blob” in 1958, all with the goal of striking the fear of communal work to that of individualism, an ideal that still pervades today.
Following Vereide, Sharlet’s work follows the transition of leadership to Doug Coe, who in taking a greater leadership role, began to grow it into an international fellowship, one that worked intimately with the U.S. State Department (if at times covertly) and did its best to make international connections with the “key men” from around the world, stimulating prayer meetings to discuss the idea of this corporate model of Jesus vs. the communal savior of antiquity. This was the new model Christian Soldier, not evangelizing to the downtrodden, but to the down-trotters, the policy makers and enforcers of the world.
Siad Barre
Their vision became less the body of Christ and more the corporate ideal of his word with the goal of shaping the international world into the Christian model that they want so desperately to shape the U.S.A. Sharlet details the connections (with evidential reference) to the Somalia genocide under Siad Barre, who was an intimate “Family” member who happened to exterminate hundreds of thousands of people. The Vereide/Coe “Family” organization didn’t provide the means for the Aiad Barre regime, but it facilitated the connections with the U.S. government to facilitate his activities, which in itself is an example of the power behind this “New World Order” (remember, a term Sharlet says was coined by Vereide) organization (the author goes into detail in how the “Family” was tied to the murder of more than 500,000 Indonesians under Suharto in 1965).
Under Coe, Sharlet writes, The Family is of such influence that both conservatives and liberals take their lead citing instances where both Al Gore and Hilary Clinton refer to him in their decision making processes. Gore, Sharlet says, invokes Coe to end a challenge by Senator James Inhofe in 2007. Its easy to see in the glimpses Sharlet provides of the power that the The Family wields but even easier to see the power in the spaces between the examples. In 1966, Sharlet explains, Coe instructed the core of the organization to “submerge” erasing all outward appearance of an organization, taking it back to Vereide’s original vision of a “backroom brotherhood,” and today very little outward expression of it exists.
Ultimately, the way in which Sharlet defines the prevailing ideal principals, as evolved from Edwards, Finney, Vereide, and under Coe’s pastoral, a Czarist leadership was as a Jesus plus nothing ideal which is a formula to exclude a dogmatic understanding of the Christ, and stripping him out of the literal text to instead use the literal interpretation of him as an entrepreneurial force to build following under what the ideal of his being would be, if the textual version could be re-written and re-fashioned. The religious context of The Family became the Jesus plus nothing equation, It was the idealized spirit of the Jesus figure as envisioned by the leadership and communicated down to the duty bound. What the Jesus + 0 equaled was Power: J+0=P with the power being the loyalty of a duty bound following to the same singular vision.
I highly recommend reading The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power. It is a rich and complex narrative that at times meanders, but only to make the details of the point that much more sound. Sharlet leaves no stones unturned (at least of those he could find) and presents the evidence in a manner for the reader to make any judgments for themselves. The depth to which that he has traced the Family will surprise even the most skeptical readers and give pause to reconsider the ramifications of just such a networked body, a contingent whose ideal of a Jesus plus nothing else, no history, no orthodoxy, no church, nor bible, is a powerful thing. No matter where you land on this, agreeing or disagreeing with the ideals behind it, I think you will definitely take something away from this book.
You can find The Family – The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power on Amazon.
The spring equinox is upon us, and in this present age, the tilt of the planet is of little concern. But in this period of the equinox, an interesting thing happens. for the briefest moment of time the planet becomes suspended in place, A point when the earth is neither closer to or further away from the sun.
The equinox’s, vernal (spring) and autumnal(fall) are the middle points to the summer and winter solstice. This is an echo to the balance of all points, and from each of those compass points, there is a center, a middle aspect of the compass from which the needle point pivots.
The middle space is similar to the point in which a pendulum on its back and forth motion for the briefest of instances touches an absolute 0 point, the moment between the furthest of its arc’s reach. At that middle point, some say, is where miracles happen, where for the briefest of moments the motion of balance is in perfect harmony before the plumb line swings away in its motion. it also suggests that at these instances of the pendulum 0 point are the high (or low) points of our lives, the punctuated moments of transition between two periods.
From a Masonic perspective, we can equate this time of year, this equinox to the measuring of our point within a circle, the plumb line achieving that 0 center point in its swing up to its furthest reaches. Tradition tells us that the plumb measures our vertical, but when given motion, even something so slight
Foucault’s Pendulum
as the earths rotation, it can also demonstrate the path of our circumference, our diameter, and our rotational motion around our axis (see Foucault’s Pendulum). As the plumb traces its circumference, in the space of the sphere, the plumb also orients back through the center of the circumference, when marking the furthest points of our radius.
In a more metaphysical aspect, the idea of the equinox could be viewed as a more than the transition point, but the idea of the position movement, the transition from one place to another, from one idea to another. And in an even more profound way, this can be seen as at once not being initiated, to being initiated encompassing the start of transition from one inner idea to another, the growing path of our thought and its sway of our own internal gravity. In this point of view, we can easily see the similarities to the ideas of alchemy and the changing of states.
One caution, however, is that there is no definition of what the states are, or if they are up into a higher realm or down into a lower attitude. Remember, Jacob’s ladder was both a a way to ascend to heaven and a way to descend to earth (and possibly sub-terra). In reflecting on this, it is good to keep in mind that your mental state defines your position, and with some exertion, you can manifest the power of your position.
Adoration of the Mystic Lamb – Jan van Eyck
In more traditional celebration, the Equinox is as much a means to reflect on our relative state as it is a means to celebrate our resurrection and means to create life (fertility). Following close behind the first day of spring is the celebration of Palm Sunday, Passover, and Easter, and in the months to come the celebrations of Beltaine, Walpurgis and Floralia, each of which from Pagan (Roman era) celebrations of the blossoming spring renewal and the return of the sun.
What ever your celebration, welcome to the spring, and the renewal of life. Welcome the vernal equinox and our changing of states.
While not a Freemason, President Bill Clinton did however spend some time as a member of the DeMolay.
Clinton was initiated into Hot Springs Chapter in Hot Springs, Arkansas, in 1961, where he served as Master Councilor. He received the Chevalier in 1964, and the Legion of Honor in 1979. Clinton was inducted into the DeMolay Hall of Fame on May 1, 1988. Saying of DeMolay:
“For sixty-nine years, the Order of DeMolay has prepared young men to become better citizens and leaders for our country. My DeMolay experience gave me the confidence to develop my skills as a speaker, team member, and leader, and then to realize and accomplish my dreams. I will always be thankful for the guidance given to me by my friends in DeMolay. ”
I had been home only three days from the Arkansas Prince Hall Grand Session when it was time to turn around and go back to the place whence I came. So at 3:00 AM on 3/4/10 I headed out from home back to Arkansas. Nellybelle knew her way by heart now and we even stopped at the same IHOP in Texarkana. After revitalizing my protoplasm I hit the road for the Grand Lodge of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Arkansas, arriving at 9:00 AM, just in time to walk in on the opening Phylaxis/Phyllis ceremonies.
The 37th Annual Phylaxis Society Convention and the 27th Annual Phyllis Chapter Convention opened together with each presenting a Memorial Service for those members who joined the Celestial Lodge above in 2009.
After which we all adjourned to freshen up and reconvene for a field trip the rest of the day. Two charter buses took us all to Little Rock a trip of about 40 miles. First stop was the Clinton Presidential Library. Pictures of that visit will be presented in a separate post.
Next we went to the Mosaic Templars Association; the website of this organization provides an explanation of this organization which was entirely new to me.
“The Mosaic Templars organization, founded by John E. Bush and Chester Keatts in Little Rock in 1883, had been established primarily to provide burial and life insurance and other services to its members, which were few in the beginning. In addition to the fraternal lodges, the Templars started the Mosaic National Building and Loan Association in 1884. The organization continued expanding its fraternal organization by adding chapters in other states, and through steady growth in the next decade had amassed sufficient capital assets to construct the headquarters building at 9th and Broadway. By the 1920’s the 2nd Floor of the Mosaic Temple Building housed offices for the Mosaic Templars; H. A. Powell, Dentist; F. C. Goodwin, Dentist; Dr. J. Z. Barguh and Dr. J. M. Robinson; North Carolina Mutual Life Ins Co.; W. A. Singfield, Lawyer; and Standard Life Insurance Co.”
“The Mosaic Templars National Headquarters Building was constructed between 1911 and 1913 and is still located at the southwest corner of 9th and Broadway Streets. The building embodies the history of the organization and black community in Little Rock. It connects this urban experience to other Arkansas towns as well as 26 states and six foreign countries through the Templars’ myriad programs, political, business and leadership networks.”
“The economic effect and example set by the Mosaic Templars were felt throughout the state, the nation, and beyond. By the 1920s the organization was noticed as one of the largest black-owned business enterprises in the world. The organization and its membership services had not only extended to the urban and rural statewide black population, but had also evolved to reach people around the globe. As it grew, the Templars organization served 100,000 members at various times. The Mosaic Templars also operated a business and loan association, a newspaper (The Mosaic Guide) and printing plant, a hospital and nurses training center, and other successful enterprises like the Mosaic Apartments, located on the second floor of their state Temple headquarters at 906 Broadway.”
“In addition to the organization’s remarkable feats in industry, particularly between the 1890s and the 1930s, one of the most important results of Mosaic Templars’ self-help initiatives was that through the programs and services offered, black people were able to receive marketable skills training that would have otherwise been unavailable. In the History of the Mosaic Templars of America – Its Founders and Officials, authors Bush and Dorman state that by 1924 the Endowment Department, with approximately 20 employees processed the organization’s entire volume of business; i.e. $475,000 annual income, $250,000 annual death loss claims paid in 1924. Hundreds of jobs were afforded throughout the Mosaic system.” (1)
The final stop on our Little Rock tour was a brief glimpse of the infamous Central High School of Little Rock. I was struck by its large size and beautiful architecture. It looked more like a college campus than a high school. Unfortunately we did a drive by which didn’t afford me the opportunity to take any pictures except through the bus window.
Upon arriving home we all headed back to our hotels. That night the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Arkansas received the Phylaxis Society in a formal Lodge visitation ceremony.
One of the great things about the internet is how people with seemingly nothing in common can exchange ideas without ever actually meeting in person. Such is the case when I recently began exchanging emails with an amateur historian, an epidemiologist, and a professor of sociology. At first, it seemed that our only common bond was that we all share an interest in Freemasonry; however over time it developed that we all had some questions about our gentle Craft that have never been satisfactorily answered. As we began discussing the dilemma, we also found that we were able to integrate our various fields of knowledge in order to work through the problem. In doing so, we believe that we have managed to solve one of the most puzzling issues in the early history of the fraternity.
We now have some serious evidence pointing to the origins of what is commonly known as The Hiramic Legend in the Master Mason degree.
Some brief background: Early Freemasonry had only two degrees, the Entered Apprentice, and Fellowcraft (i.e., Fellow of the Craft). This situation was extant before the 1717 formation of the Grand Lodge of England, and continued for some years afterward. Yet, sometime in the mid-1700s, records show that various lodges seemed to have begun performing some variation of this legend. The origins of the drama are unknown, but is often attributed to being some kind of morality play. The drawback of this theory is that the legend draws on the Biblical story of Hiram Abiff; in the Old Testament, Hiram is a relatively minor character. More confusing is the rather obvious paradox in which the Masonic legend deviates so drastically from the actual Old Testament story: in the OT, Hiram Abiff comes to help King Solomon build his famed Temple, and when finished, goes home to his family with some considerable payment. In the Masonic drama, however, Hiram is shown to be struck down before the completion of the Temple by three Fellowcrafts, who then attempt to hide his body in a makeshift grave out in the dessert. This is the most extreme departure from Biblical scripture recorded in any of the dozens of Masonic ceremonies, and it stands to reason that there is a purpose for this. By taking what we know about Masonic history from that era, and placing it within the context of the social and cultural aspects of the time, we believe that we have discovered that purpose.
Victorian Memento Mori
To understand the social context, we need to consider that the early 1700s was the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; prior to this period, most people lived an agrarian-based lifestyle. However, as more factories were built in and around the cities, larger populations were drawn into the urban areas, and by the mid-1700s, larger numbers of people left the farming communities to see work in the factories. Not surprisingly, the population explosion led to issues of public hygiene: the spread of disease, the disposal of wastes, and the proper internment of the growing number of the deceased.
Although we can trace Freemasonry back to the late 1400s and early 1500s, it wasn’t until the early to mid 1700s that we see the rise of organized networks of Masons, via the formation of Grand Lodges. There are no records as to why several London lodges decided to formalize their arrangement, but it wasn’t long before other lodges joined the network — and it was a network, as the lodges we more able to freely exchange information, including the variations of their rituals and ceremonies. It is significant to note that during this period, There were still only the two degrees in Masonry; “Master” Masons were those who were literally Masters of their lodges. Likewise, the degree ceremonies were relatively simple and the basic ceremonies were essentially the same in each lodge, although many lodges had their own particular set of “lectures” for the candidates.
At some point in the early to mid 1700s, we see records of lodges adding a type of morality play to the degree ceremonies. The main character varies in some of the earliest versions, but by the third quarter of the 1700s, that character was solidified as Hiram Abiff, and the stories became more consistent. Interestingly, they all contain similar elements: A character is beset by three assailants, and is then murdered; each assailant using a different weapon and attacking a different part of the character’s body. In many variations, the Hiramic legend specifies that Hiram is struck across the throat, in the chest, and in the head. The assailants (often referred to as the “Ruffians” in North America) strike with tools commonly associated with Masons: A square, a rule (sometimes called the 24 inch gauge), and a mallet or setting maul.
While Masons often assume that the assailants use those particular tools as a way to tie in to the traditional working tools in the various degrees, as we unearthed more information about the underlying social context, it became obvious that this line of reasoning has it backwards; that is, the legend itself is an instructional play that uses these tools as a way to reinforce knowledge to which only a few were at one time privy. And while we can not yet account for the reasoning behind using the character Hiram Abiff (except that he is a relatively minor character in the OT, and the change of storyline would be easily forgotten), we believe that the traditional lessons taught by this drama — about his integrity and bravery in the face of death — intentionally overshadow the real lessons that needed to be passed down to the new generations of Masons living in the crowded cities and urban areas. In this light, it is the Ruffians themselves who are the teachers and exemplars.
Consider: the three blows to Hiram are the neck, chest, and head. Why? Ignoring the symbolism behind this, those are the traditional and time-tested points of attack in order to dispatch revenants; those re-animated corpses that wander the countryside in search of living flesh.
It appears that the Three Ruffians are exemplifying the secret art of what the popular media now might call zombie hunting.
It’s easy to dismiss this as nonsense because in our modern era, revenants are portrayed as either sexy, sparkly, quasi-supernatural creatures, or as shambling, brain-devouring bogeymen. But before modern medicine and proper burial techniques, folks in the rural areas and countryside knew that periodically some unknown force would re-animate the newly buried, who then roamed the area terrorizing the denizens with their mindless taste for flesh until they were put down. In fact, until Bram Stoker’s fictional account in the late 1800s, there really were few distinctions between what we now call vampires and zombies; they were simply the re-animated, walking dead.
The question now presents itself: how do the Freemasons figure into this?
Wild Revenants Afield
Consider that before the late years of the Industrial Revolution, firearms were rare, and most people themselves could not afford metal tools and implements, let alone weaponry (and at some points in history, metal weapons were forbidden to those not of the noble class).This is one of the reasons that a wooden stake through the heart became part of vampire lore: no rural farmers had swords, but skewers, posts, and spindles were easy to come by. Although superstitions attached more importance to the idea of using wood, obviously the important part was destroying the heart.
As the need for Masons grew during the period from the 1300s on up, Masons became a well-traveled, and therefore, more educated, class of worker. Small groups of Masons were almost always carrying various tools and implements, often made of metal. Our research suggests that when traveling through sparsely populated areas, some Masons, being less superstitious than the local population, developed a means of eliminating these revenants in such a way as to expose themselves to as little harm as
Traveling Mason
possible. This information they eventually passed on to other traveling brothers, after making sure that those brothers would not reveal such secrets to the superstitious; the Catholic Church was still strong in Europe, and since most Masons were employed at cathedrals and monasteries, they would not want to be perceived to be trafficking with the undead.
This brings us to the methods that the early Masons used to eradicate the revenants. Since Masons often traveled in small groups, each would step in for a short, quick attack, then step aside to allow the next attack. While it is suggestive that this two or three pronged approach may have been passed along from the Knights Templar, this is mere conjecture on our part, as the evidence for the link between the early Freemasons and the Templars are unsubstantiated, and beyond the scope of our research. Perhaps at some future time we will be able to explore Templar history to determine how much exposure they would have had to revenants in the Middle East, but for now, we are only concerned with the suppression of the living dead within England and western Europe.
Ruffian Hunter
The Masonic method itself is ruthlessly simple. Upon being confronted with an approaching revenant, the first Mason steps in to strike a blow across the throat with an edged implement, such as a rule or stick. If the implement is an edged weapon, such as a sword (a Tyler’s sword?), full or partial decapitation would be the hoped-for outcome. However, even wooden measuring sticks will serve to damage the airway of the creature.
That Mason steps out of the way, and the second traveler will strike a blow across the chest or midsection. This serves to momentarily stun and confuse the creature for the (quite literally) coup d’etat, in which the last, and presumably strongest Mason smashes a hammer, mallet, setting maul, or some other heavy, blunt instrument into the head of the stunned revenant. Minimal risk, maximum damage.
It should be pointed out that blows to these three areas correspond to killing points in more conventional zombie and vampire lore: midsection (heart), neck, and head (brains). Again, understanding that folktales from the middle ages made little distinction between what we now think of as vampires or zombies, it’s easy to see why this method was adopted.
As notions about public health, medicine, disease, microbes, sewage, control, etc., became more widespread, the cases of revenants declined. Soon, entire lodges of Masons might form without any of the members ever having seen, or indeed, having heard of one. Freemasons became one more of the dozens, nay, hundreds of social clubs in metropolitan Europe. As this happened, the secrets of revenant killing were being lost. We believe that it is safe to assume that some inner group kept these secrets alive by codifying them into a ritual in which new generations of Masons could be taught, without making it obvious, and therefore, more more public. Thus, the legend of Hiram being killed by the Ruffians was developed.
When our researches led us to these conclusions, we spent some time in wondering if there were something that we were missing; given our assumptions, wouldn’t that make Hiram Abiff a zombie or vampire of sorts? Possible signs in the drama we noticed in context were the disagreeable effluvia and the mangled condition of his body (both zombie and vampire lore make references to the unbearable stench of death from the creatures), and certainly one could make conjectures about “raising” him from the grave. But eventually we decided this line of reasoning was inane, and stuck to the more reasonable explanations. In fact, this could well explain why the early dramas featuring other Biblical characters, notably Noah and his three (note the number!) sons eventually morphed into the lesser known Hiram: the lessons about how to defend against the revenants was a lesson hidden inside another lesson, i.e., the morality play about Hiram’s integrity and honor.
Indeed, when you look at the dramatic enactment of Hiram and the Ruffians in the Temple of Solomon, it becomes clear that the Masons actually have been passing down a secret; only, it’s not the esoteric knowledge that we tend to associate with Freemasons, but practical, operative knowledge. Indeed, in some areas Masonic ritual explains that “tools and implements are carefully chosen by our Fraternity to imprint upon the memory [certain] wise and serious truths.” In other words, to the true initiates, the ceremony was to reinforce the time-tested method of eradication. If it weren’t making light of so serious a situation, I’d suggest that this parallels the “wax on, wax off” education shown in the old “Karate Kid” movies.
Why teach in this manner? Because in sparsely populated agricultural regions, infestations of revenants were probably rare occurrences, and few Masons had to opportunity to experience such circumstances in person. However, as more people moved to the cities in the early 1700s, public hygiene and proper burial techniques did not keep up with the population boom. As the infection which causes “zombieism”, i.e., re-animation became more wide-spread, Masons, with their tools of the trade and penchant for secrecy, were particularly well-suited to deal with the threats. We believe that the Freemasons of London (and later, those in other cities and countries) entered into an agreement — a conspiracy of sorts — with the local and national governments: Masons would continue to practice their strange rituals without interference as long as they continued to watch for and exterminate the reanimated creatures — quietly, of course, so as not to cause a wide-scale panic. From this, it’s not hard to see how rumors of secret Masonic / government conspiracies could have grown into the outlandish idea that the anti-Masons now have.
Early Masons degrees in practice to eradicate the revenants.
Now that we have come close to establishing the origins of the Hiramic legend, where do we go from here?
We suspect that there is still a core group, an inner cadre of Freemasons who are knowledgeable about the existence of the revenants, and who still maintain the agreements with world governments so as not to cause wide-spread panic. While we still believe that such cases are rare because of modern technology and medicine, there is some evidence that whatever causes zombieism has not been eradicated. Occasional news reports of unusual animal maulings, unexplained violent attacks, or mysterious disappearances of people hiking in wilderness or areas of low population seem to indicate that the dangers of zombie infestation are still a small, but extant threat.
Having made these discoveries, we are trying to convince the Grand Lodges of various jurisdictions to open their archives on this matter in order that we might better educate the public — both to make them aware of the potential dangers, and to teach them how to cope if faced with such a situation. Unfortunately, the several Grand Lodges that we have contacted about this issue have either denied any knowledge, or have completely ignored our communications.
We further believe that Freemasons of every jurisdiction have a duty to be alert, aware, and educated in these lost arts, should the situation arise in which — Grand Architect forbid! — the number of revenants overwhelm that small inner cadre. Remember, brothers: it’s quite possible that you and your lodge may be the only source of protection in your community.
separates the dime store novel and after dinner yarns from the real and verifiable stories of the American Civil War.
, I was immediately struck by the connections he draws, all based on a who’s who road map of American political power elite today. What made it more interesting was that this power structure didn’t meet in dark smoky alleys, or in secret liars with special knocks and hand gestures. To the contrary, the members of this cabal meet at the local church down the street (when they attend church) or in your weekday prayer meeting. 
overwhelm that small inner cadre. Remember, brothers: it’s quite possible that you and your lodge may be the only source of protection in your community.