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 was reanalyzing the expulsion of Kentucky Mason John Wright, and the thought occurred to me, was the gay issue in the charges or were they part of a means to color a (still) witch hunt based on otherwise slightly promiscuous behavior.
Reviewing the formal charge document, they read that the recipient “violated his oath and obligation, by his own admission, of having engaged in one or more relationships prior to the finalization of his divorce.
So no mention of his persuasion, but rather what seems to me an intrusion of his personal life.
Is it justifiable to questions a man’s oath and obligation on the grounds that he confesses pre-marital intercourse? And, if the answer is in the affirmative, is it reason to expell a member?
If we start to police with that kind of morality, how many others will be shown the door?
Maybe the conclusion that the issue was on the grounds of Wright being gay were premature, though its easy to lose the subtext to the overt finding.
But what does that say to the rest of the fraternity?
Are you guilty of premarital sex? Does that make you any less a “good man”?
No official press release has been forthcoming, but the website Kentucky.com is reporting:
An openly gay Mason from Kentucky has been suspended indefinitely from the fraternity after an April 8 Masonic trial found him guilty of “un-masonic conduct,” according to a letter from the group’s Grand Lodge of Kentucky in Jefferson County.
“It was tantamount to expulsion. I might as well be expelled,” said John Wright of Richmond.
Wright stood trial on charges leveled by five Masons from Central Kentucky that he deserted his wife due to his homosexuality and revealed Masonic information that was considered privileged.
This isn’t exactly new news, the trial was more than a week ago, but the story broke April 16th concluding, for now, the saga of the Masonic Trial of brother John Wright.
And yes, I said brother. You can expel the man from the fraternity, but can you really expel the teachings from his being?
Pending an appeal in ojne years time, Wright is quoted in the piece as believing there to be “a very strong anti-gay sentiment” within the fraternity in Kentucky.
The outcome, while a very tragic outcome to what was suppoed to be a very enlightened and modern society, was not unexpected. It seems that for a fraternity that loudly pronounces itself to not be a religion takes its moral ethics to the heights of a religious faith, when most faiths are opening its doors to the LGBT community.
One in an ongoing series I’ve planned to look at. The ideas expressed could probably apply to all walks fo life, from your work place, to the Lodge Room. Each one of us are leaders in one way or another, and these are lessons to help us be better.
In this video Four star general Stanley McChrystal shares what he’s learned about leadership over his decades in the military. Listening, learning, and the shared purpose. He also addresses the possibility of failure.
I happened onto a reference in a book I just finished reading, Occult America, about Gandhi that mentioned the influence of Theosophy in his life.
On a quick excursion to find the deeper connection, I happened upon a statement of Gandhi’s from his Harijan Journal about the philosophy that struck me. In the statement written January 30, 1948, Gandhi said:
“I have come to the conclusion that the Theosophy is Hinduism in theory, and that Hinduism is Theosophy in practice.”
“There are many admirable works in Theosophical literature, which one may read with the greatest profit; but it appears to me that too much stress has been laid upon mental and intellectual studies: upon argument, upon the development of occult powers, and that the central idea of theosophy, the brotherhood of mankind and the moral growth of man has been lost sight of in these.”
That same day Nathuram Godse, a Hindu nationalist, assassinated the pre-eminent political and ideological leader.
His proximity to the Theosophical movement was so close that in the founding of the Indian National Congress, which Gandhi assumed leadership over in 1921, we find the most eminent Theosophists at its inception.
“[the] Theosophical Society provided the framework for action within which some of its Indian and British members worked to form the Indian National Congress.” “The founders of the Indian National Congress relied on the contacts and commitments generated within the Society;” “Gandhi, like Malabari, Rao, and Sen, used theosophy to help restore his pride in his native culture to support his vision of ancient India as a vital, rational, and moral society (Gandhi 1948). British occultists, such as Besant, and western-educated Indians, such as Gandhi, turned to theosophy for different reasons, but once they had done so, they shared practices and intellectual commitments that helped sustain the nationalist movement.”
Mahatma Gandhi with Dr. Annie Besant in Madras, September 1921.
Such was the connection that Annie Besant of Co-Freemasonry fame was the Congress’ president in 1917, to which she later split off to form the Swaraj Party.
Gandhi, in this swirling sea of occultists, is said to have met Blavatsky in 1889. In those pre-Mahatma years the great philosopher was a student of law at London University. In the book Occult America, Mitch Horowitz says it was in this period that Gandhi read the Bhagavad Gita for the first time writing in his memoirs that he “felt ashamed…as I had read the divine poem neither in Sanskrit nor in Gujarati …that I had not read the Gita.”
It was in this interesting connection that I felt necessitated a closer examination of the religious group.
Theosophy, a system of religious philosophy, was founded by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott, and William Quan Judge in 1889 (previous incarnations stretch back to 1875). Defined in its present day incarnation by the Theosophical Society, in Pasadena, California, the name Theosophy is derived from the Greek theos (god, divinity) and Sophia (wisdom). It goes on to say that Its “philosophy is a contemporary presentation of the perennial wisdom underlying the world’s religions, sciences, and philosophies.” That same Pasadena Society goes on to say that the Theosophical Society is a worldwide association of men and women dedicated to the uplifting of humanity through a better understanding of the oneness of life and the practical application of this principle.
Interesting to note, there are several branches that exist, all as offshoots in one way or another of the original organization founded by Blavatsky in 1875.
…by reference to the three great principles which underlie all life, as well as every religion and every philosophy that ever has been, or ever can be. They may be briefly named: (1) The Self, as reality in man; (2) Law, as the processes by which man evolves both in form and soul; (3) Evolution, as the design of life in terms of meaning and purpose.
Masonry and Theosophy come together at a point in the formation and work of Le Droit Humain, the French obedience of Co-freemasonry which began in the 1880’s. The early prominent members of the Theosophy movement: Annie Besant, George Arundale, Charles W. Leadbeater, C. Jinarajadasa and Henry Steele Olcott soon became prominent members of Co-Freemasonry.
Brought to England and founded by Annie Besant the Order of Universal Co-Freemasonry in Great Britain and the British Dependencies was founded in 1902 with the creation of Lodge Human Duty No. 6 in London. Her working of the system evolved the then ritual to into the working called the “revised ritual” which was called the ‘Dharma Ritual’, also known as the ‘Besant-Leadbeater’ and more recently as the ‘Lauderdale’ working. Of note, the Dharma ritual is said to of been an attempt to restore an esoteric tone and mysticism back into the degrees as the theosophical authors believed that this spirituality was (is) at the heart of what Freemasonry represented. Their work of Co-Freemasonry has been called “Occult Freemasonry” because of these inclusions.
From the Grand Lodge of Freemasonry for Men and Women website of the degree:
In 1904, the Dharma Ritual was published in which the Supreme Being or God was firmly established as essential to the Ceremonies in that Ritual….
In 1925, speaking in Kensington to a Theosophical audience, Dr.Besant expressed her differences with the French approach, and summarized the agreements that had been made with earlier Supreme Councils as follows:
‘If (Masonry) is really anything, it is a presentment by symbol and by legend of the great fundamental truths of human life and human evolution; and therefore, just as in the great Mysteries – of which its forms are really the vessels surviving – no distinction of sex is permitted; and because of that act in what we call Co-Masonry, it came into the position of being a possible instrument for helping in the evolution of mankind …. into the really Universal Brotherhood which it proclaims. The difficulty in the French Masonry, where this movement, Le Droit Humain originated, was that they left out that universal landmark of Masonry, the recognition of the Great Architect of the Universe. But when some of us here, Theosophists, became Masons, taking our Initiations, as we had to, from France, we said quite frankly that we could do nothing (with Freemasonry ) in England unless that great landmark was restored, as we believed in the Existence (of God). As they were willing to accept us believing in Him, it was necessary that we should be given perfect freedom to use His name in our Rituals and to acknowledge His Power in our workings. So that, in this respect, English Freemasonry differs from the French – certainly so far as we are concerned, we follow the English usage and not that of the French’.
Although today Masons do not call their Craft a religion, it has nevertheless a religious origin, as we have already seen, and it does religious work in helping its initiates and through them the rest of the world. To many of the Brn. it is the only real religion they have ever had, and certainly many of them put its principles nobly into practice: for masculine Masonry is a stupendous charitable organization as well as a “system of morality”, and it offers a splendid training in practical kindliness and fraternity.
I’ve read in several online forum that the Lauderdale working is still in practice with Le Droit, but for those not involved with the Co-Masonic Order one can get a sense of what the Dharma ritual may look like in a through reading of Leadbetter’s book, especially as it really relates the practical to the esoteric in the working.
Theosophy, however, has not aged well and their following seems to be increasingly diminishing. They do have some organization that remains, but not the tooth it had in the days of Blavatsky and Besant. Theosophy has moved on from those days with mostly the echos of its past projecting onto the modern stage. They still have lodges and study libraries, but like so many “occult societies” it would seem their days in the sun have waned, if one could argue that they ever had one.
Notables of Theosophy you might recognize include:
Rudolf Steiner
A literary critic and cultural philosopher of the early 20th century. He founded the spiritual movement, Anthroposophy, which is an esoteric philosophy growing out of European transcendentalism and with links to Theosophy. Steiner later became most famous for his ideas about education, resulting in an international network of “Steiner Schools”, also known as Waldorf schools.
L. Frank Baum
Author of the book Wizard of Oz, in addition to many other children books and fantasy novels.
Paul Gauguin
The french artist who made beautiful and colorful works that idealized Polynesian life as being tropical and mostly unclothed.
William Butler Yeats
The Irish poet and dramatist, and one of the foremost figures of 20th century literature. A pillar of both the Irish and British literary establishments, in his later years Yeats served as an Irish Senator.
Others include Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Franz Kafka.
The English Gentlemen by Richard Brathwait’s (1630) showing the exemplary qualities of a gentleman which are Youth, disposition, Education, Vocation, Recreation, Acquaintance, Moderation, and Perfection.
The art of being a gentleman is lost.
Nowadays, you can see few real gentleman in the course of your your day to day activity.
In this modern day and age, acting like a gentleman is considered a forgotten art. How could it not with so many examples of men behaving badly, from Hollywood Actor Charlie Sheen to Political talking head Newt Gingrich. If society is to do any following by example, the media shouldn’t be the source for proper behavior.
But with a little bit of commitment and an ounce or two of discipline, one can become a changed man and transform himself into being a true gentleman.
By actuating this little measure of discipline you will enable yourself to change your own personal view of yourself, change how others see you and alter your perception of the world in general.
Here are some tips that will help you improve yourself and in your relationships with others (professionally and socially) at home and in your workplace and hopefully put you on the road to become a true gentleman.
Being a true gentleman entails having pride in your physical appearance. More people will respect you when they see you are clean and neat in the grooming of your body and in the clothes that you wear. You will also become highly regarded when you are equipped with complete and suitable wardrobe and wear decent clothes as fittingly as possible. In other words, if you look the part, you will BE the part.
Be mindful of the way you carry yourself. It might be OK for JayZ to walk around with a chip on his shoulder, but it dosen’t speak well to how others perceive you to be a gentleman. Having attitude and swagger is one thing, but to much bravado is quite another. And, don’t forget the golden rule, and do unto others…but you have to act the way you want to be treated – respectfully, and with considerate kindness.
Did I mention respect? When you want to be respected, it is also imperative that you return respect to others especially for women and older folks. Always show respect in everything you do. Modern manhood necessitates being sensitive to others needs and making life easier for them. Therefore, when we see a stalled car in the middle of the road, the best we can do is to stop and help the one in need. Perhaps a bit more closer to home – the next time we see a women or older people standing in public places or public transportation, the most likely thing for a gentleman to do is to offer his seat. A good rule of thumb whenever you see a men who helps an elders or disabled persons cross the street, open a door for a women or give up their seats for them – these are the actions of a true gentleman.
Always practice good manners and avoid offense. It is best to avoid using foul language, profanity, or committing vulgar acts such as spitting, shouting, rudely gesturing, threatening, or raising one’s voice in public. Sometimes elevating the voice is necessary, but to do it in poor taste or to simply rise above the din is uncalled for.
Don’t stink. Sweating happens, and a distinct part of being a gentleman is that your still a man. And to be a man means you have to work which often leads to sweating. But, as the saying goes ‘Cleanliness is next to Godliness’ (which actually came from Cleanness of body was ever deemed to proceed from a due reverence to God from Francis Bacon’s Advancement of Learning). Clean up after yourself with some soap and water.
Undoubtedly, the list could go on and on, and perhaps at some future date we will do just that. But for now, consider this the entry level list of becoming a gentleman.
Why you might be asking should you strive to become a gentlemen? Men who do enjoy life more when they consider themselves gentlemen because they are soon regarded as one. By following the steps of being a gentleman, very soon they too will reap the fruits of their labor when other people reflect their meritorious behavior.
It is gratifying and satisfying when people regard you as one which means that you are doing well in your relationship with others especially at home, in the workplace, or in the lodge room
First the roses, the Grand Lodge of Nebraska is taking their schism by the horns and taking the dialog into the inboxes of their members no matter the “legitimate arguments and sleaze”.
Addressing the continuing issue of who’s Grand Master now, Past Grand Master and Jurisprudence Committee member Dean Skokan writes for the membership in the quarterly Nebraska Mason newsletter. He reports that “These are dark days for Nebraska Masonry…” a sentiment that he is expressing over the illegitimate installation of E. David Watts who is still under the specter of both criminal and Masonic Charges.
Skokan holds no punches and clearly is writing from the position of the Jurisprudence Committee and the lawful installed (and less issue encumbered) Grand Master John Parsons. Rightfully so, he calls it as he sees it to the membership declaring the situation a mess but then spells out the undisputed facts and the letter of the law, Masonic law at least.
The issue still comes down to the ability to serve while an issue of moral turpitude hangs over the incumbents head. The “official” charge is that Watts promised to resign to the Grand Lodge Advancing Line Officers should he be charged with felonies after his preliminary hearing. A month later he was charged, and then didn’t resign but not before internal Masonic charges were filed against him. With charges pending against him, Watts went ahead and was installed in a ‘secret’ installation days before the ‘official’ Grand Lodge installation.
Locks were changed, financials redrafted, and staff were instructed to avoid contact and conversation. Watts became Masona non grata, and face charges with three outcomes: acquittal, suspension, or expulsion, with additional charges pending for the illegal installation.
My favorite line in the 2 page break down is the commentary at the end where Skokan says of Watts “There will likely be some brief period of time when E. David Watts may pretend to be Grand Master, but it will not be long.” And speaking about whose well meaning brothers who support Watts “…Watts’ attempt to be installed in an unannounced “ceremony” is not more legitimate than his claim. In doing so, he has crossed the lin between legitimate arguments and sleaze. No Mason should support that decision.”
He concludes his update with the observation saying Watts “walked away from that process [his assertion to the position]. He may have walked away from the Fraternity in doing so.”
I have to say, I applaud the Grand Lodge of Nebraska for their frank openness of this situation and their willingness to address the Schism of Grand Masters in a transparent manner. Without a doubt Watts has his hands full in the coming months, and the move to attempt to usurp the leadership amidst the turmoil was a gross over assumption of authority. The sooner this is resolved, the better for the fraternity.
Now the Thorns.
The Charges against Kentucky Mason John Wright still stand without sign of changing.
Not surprising, especially given the comments that are still coming in on the fraternity’s willingness to even allow gays amongst its rank. It’s hard to say for sure if the comments on the issue are real since they have such a cartoonish tone to them, but when you place them side by side with the issue standing before Past Master Wright makes them impossible to refute them.
In this story, Wright was the focal point of Grand Lodge legislation that failed to make Freemasonry in that state a singularly heterosexual male fraternity. Following the failure of the legislation change, charges were brought against Wright for a sundry of charges including spousal abandonment, Openly forsaken his belief in God, refusal to obey the Moral Laws by his declaration of his homosexuality (citing the moral law as it being an abomination to the law of God).
So, as progressive as was the defeat of the marriage provision to the Grand Lodge body, the allowance of the Grand Lodge to allow these charges to go through is still a travesty for all involved. As passions are so elevated about the issue there is for sure to be causalities on both sides of any final decision on the charges. No one wins in this, and without taking on the dialog about it, it’s really a moot point.
If Wright wins and the charges are found to be bogus, you lose the support of those who may hold similar sentiment as the moralists (of whom there are no doubt many).
If the anti-gay advocates win because of their interpretation of a Moral Law, then Masonry loses and puts another nail in the coffin of social obscurity.
The latest development along the road to the April 8th trial is the letter that the trial is a closed door event that only Masons with dues cards will be allowed to attend.
It’s a difficult road to travel, but I think most would agree that the Grand Lodge of Kentucky could do more to address the issue and take a stand on the issue. They were strong to announce the failure of the resolution to change their Masonic Law, but unfortunately very silent on this moral witch-hunt.
In the story it reports that Canadian Intelligence in 2009 issued a brief on Freemasonry and Islamist Extremists, and it paints a pretty grim picture.
Because of the release of the Da Vinci Code book and National Treasure film some have come to see a “conspiracy against Islam.”
I’m sure this won’t come as much of a surprise, but the report says that Islamist extremists see the Masons as part of a Western crusade against Islam. More so that Freemasonry is seen as a direct threat to Islam.
Quoting from the story in the paper:
While most rational thinkers can tell fact from fiction, CSIS warns that we should not have such high expectations for the cave-dwelling sages at al-Qaeda HQ
“It is easy to dismiss belief in an all-powerful Freemasonry movement as akin to conspiracy theories prevalent on the Internet, fed by popular films and literature,” it [the report] says.
“It is important to underscore, however, that these theories are consistent with the Islamist extremist common narrative: in this light, the Freemasons are believed to be taking part in attacks against Islam.
Attached below are the pages of the report for your review, and a link to the original pdf at the bottom. One part of me wants to say that this is a hoax, an unfunny April fools joke, especially when you look at the unkept CSIS website and some of the gross errors in the report (what exactly was the Lost Symbol?), but whose to say for sure.
Or, view the originally posted document on Scribed
I was reading through Pikes 11th degree – Prince Ameth for a paper I’m working on and ran across this passage which I liked and wanted to share.
The people that does not subjugate the propensity of the wealthy to avarice, ambition, and sensuality, expel luxury from them and their families, keep down pauperism, diffuse knowledge among the poor, and labor to raise the abject from the mire of vice and low indulgence, and to keep the industrious from starving in sight of luxurious festivals, will find that it has cherished, in that avarice, ambition, sensuality, selfishness, and luxury of the one class, and that degradation, misery, drunkenness, ignorance, and brutalization of the other, more stubborn and intractable despots at home than it ever encountered in the field; and even its very bowels will be continually teeming with the intolerable progeny of tyrants.
These are the first enemies to be subdued; this constitutes the campaign of Peace; these are triumphs, difficult indeed, but bloodless; and far more honorable than those trophies which are purchased only by slaughter and rapine; and if not victors in this service, it is in vain to have been victorious over the despotic enemy in the field.
For if any people thinks that it is a grander; a more beneficial, or a wiser policy, to invent subtle expedients by stamps and imposts, for increasing the revenue and draining the life-blood of an impoverished people; to multiply its naval and military force; to rival in craft the ambassadors of foreign states; to plot the swallowing up of foreign territory; to make crafty treaties and alliances; to rule prostrate states and abject provinces by fear and force; than to administer unpolluted justice to the people, to relieve the condition and raise the estate of the toiling masses, redress the injured and succor the distressed and conciliate the discontented, and speedily restore to every one his own; then that people is involved in a cloud of error, and will too late perceive, when the illusion of these mighty benefits has vanished, that in neglecting these, which it thought inferior considerations, it has only been precipitating its own ruin and despair.
While every ox and horse can find work, and is worth being fed, it is not always so with man. To be employed, to have a chance to work at anything like fair wages, becomes the great engrossing object of a man’s life. The capitalist can live without employing the laborer, and discharges him whenever that labor ceases to be profitable. At the moment when the weather is most inclement, provisions dearest, and rents highest, he turns him off to starve. if the day-laborer is taken sick, his wages stop. When old, he has no pension to retire upon. His children cannot be sent to school; for before their bones are hardened they must get to work lest they starve. The man, strong and able-bodied, works for a shilling or two a day, and the woman shivering over her little pan of coals, when the mercury drops far below zero, after her hungry children have wailed themselves to sleep, sews by the dim light of her lonely candle, for a bare pittance, selling her life to him who bargained only for the work of her needle.
Fathers and mothers slay their children, to have the burial-fees, that with the price of one child’s life they may continue life in those that survive. Little girls with bare feet sweep the street-crossings, when the winter wind pinches them, and beg piteously for pennies of those who wear warm furs. Children grow up in squalid misery and brutal ignorance; want compels virgin and wife to prostitute themselves; women starve and freeze, and lean up against the walls of workhouses, like bundles of foul rags, all night long, and night after night, when the cold rain falls, and there chances to be no room for them within; and hundreds of families are crowded into a single building, rife with horrors and teeming with foul air and pestilence; where men, women and children huddle together in their filth; all ages and all colors sleeping indiscriminately together; while, in a great, free, Republican State, in the full vigor of its youth and strength, one person in every seventeen is a pauper receiving charity.
How to deal with this apparently inevitable evil and mortal disease is by far the most important of all social problems. What is to be done with pauperism and over-supply of labor? How is the life of any country to last, when brutality and drunken semi-barbarism vote, and hold offices in their gift, and by fit representatives of themselves control a government? How, if not wisdom and authority, but turbulence and low vice are to exalt to senatorships miscreants reeking with the odors and pollution of the hell, the prize-ring, the brothel, and the stock-exchange, where gambling is legalized and rascality is laudable?
He follows it up saying:
Masonry will do all in its power, by direct exertion and co-operation, to improve and inform as well as to protect the people; to better their physical condition, relieve their miseries, supply their wants, and minister to their necessities. Let every Mason in this good work do all that may be in his power.
Once started, it delivers – developing a body of ideas creating an evolution of thought influenced in an era before the Catholic witch trials of Cagliostro and began in the new world with the voyage of the Quaking Shaker Ann Lee (later to re-dubbed Mother Ann) who traveled from Manchester in 1774 to New York with a cohort of 8 followers who together cobbled resources to form a small religious colony in Niskayuna near Albany.
Horowitz takes on a daunting task, the challenge of not sounding encyclopedic and pulling a variety of disparate pieces of Americana together to tease this occult history out from the facts. In some ways, the telling of Occult America mirrors the troubled story of Mother Ann that Horowitz introduces us to in the opening of the book, inauspiciously to the unintentional spread of ideas everywhere.
So as not to ruin the fun of discovering the secret history for yourself Occult America links together a progression of thought, in an age not known for its wide degree of communication, that at its present day apex has shaped the widest segment of religious and spiritual thought to such a degree that, Horowitz suggests, shaped the 1980 to 2001 “Be all you can be” slogan of the U.S. Army as a mantra of sorts to the ultimate of New Thought self development. His suggestion is that many aspects of the New Age philosophy (what was at first called “New Thought”) have become integral to much (if not most) of out day to day life.
Sydney Omarr, son of a grocer and housewife, was at one time dubed by Time magazne Astrology’s “most skillful and sober public protagonist.” In Occult America, Horowitz explores how Omarr went from magic shop cruiser and Atlantic City fortune teller to the grandfather of modern newspaper astrology still published in newspapers today.
How so, you might be wondering?
Just a few of the ideas that were at one point considered occult include the evolution of human consciousness, the connection of the mind-body-spirit health, and the ever growing trend of people moving (which data supports) away from organized religion to pursue instead a spirituality. All of these various aspects, he says, have a root in the developments of the past 200 years through this subculture of Americana. For those who may not remember, even the Scottish Rite Journal was titled the New Age for many years and represented a fraternal flag ship to the movement.
In some respects, you could bookend Occult America with Jeff Sharlet’s The Family because as the Family chronicles the rise of the Fundamentalist religious right, Horowitz traces a line through the various sub culture movements that transmitted one idea to the next movement and so on. As a Masonic reader you will be interested to know that at points he acknowledges the presence of Freemasonry as well as other esoteric/occult groups as major players to the dissemination of ideas.
What the book doesn’t do, which might be a product of necessitating many more pages, is chronicle the earlier presence of occult ideas that at the time were a regular part of the American landscape. For instance, it’s impossible to look at the early American development without seeing Freemasonry (Washington was inaugurated on a Masonic bible which speaks to its presence) as a major contributor in many earlier instances. Horowitz does touch on this earlier history, but he starts his telling with the founding of Mother Ann’s religious Shaker colony and its promulgation of ideas forward.
One of the more entertaining chapters that I enjoyed was the lineage of the Ouija Board, started in the age of séances and the selling of spiritualism. He makes a very good case for how the rapping tables and automatic-writers of the burgeoning psychic era moved from formalized sitting room sessions to game boards made by Hasbro (now Glow in the Dark) to sit between two kanoodling lovers knees playing slide the planchette.
You can almost sum up the history of the Occult in America in the story of the Ouija Board, from the home spun to the highly processed and manufactured message, but to do so would omit so much of the rich history that the Occult has traced through America, and Horowitz has really captured in an album of snapshots of our esoteric landscape starting with Mother Ann, who was at the time called by her followers “Christ returned in female form.”
This originally appeared in the Masonic Traveler blog in 2008.
Have YOU ever heard of the The Ancient and Honorable Order of E Clampus Vitus?
Neither had I. But there was a story about them in the New York Times today that linked their distant and ancient past to that of Freemasonries… Well, not really, they just said that they came about as a parody of “…more serious minded groups like the Oddfellows and the Freemasons”.
It was, I suppose you could say, the poor miners version of Masonry back in the 1800’s
In some ways too, they could be the Shrine’s 2nd cousin as its said that they stem from the Gold Rush Era of quick and dirty shanty towns, whose purpose eventually took on the hallmarks of caring for the sick and injured members and to the caring for of widows and orphans. Not that the Shrine originated in shanty towns, but that its less about the ritual and more about the charity and fun.
And from the looks of it, the E Clampus Vitus like to party…Be warned, the page these images originated from is not for the faint of heart (sadly, the original page is gone).
But its not until you get into the meat and potatoes of their initiation and ritual that you really start to see the parallels to Masonry…fancy titles and all that.
Besides, they get to wear some really cool bling…
And, by their own admission, the purpose of the society are well known: Members swear to take care of the Widows and Orphans — especially the Widows.
And, if you want to be a Clamper? A chapter website says it all:
The prime requisites to becoming a Clamper are a good sense of humor, an interest in Western history, an open mind, and a cast iron stomach. If a man has those qualities, and strikes up a friendship with a Clamper or two, he may find himself taken in to (and by) the Ancient and Honorable Order. But one can’t simply walk up and say, “Can I be a Clamper?” It is for the Brethren of ECV to invite prospective members to join. And if a man is asked, he should know that the invitation is only given once. If it is refused, it is never tendered again. But a man of any intelligence and character so invited would hardly be likely to turn down such a signal honor. And remember, as the Brethren of E Clampus Vitus maintain, Clampers are not made, they’re born. Like gold, they just have to be discovered.
They are a fraternal organization dedicated to the study and preservation of Western Heritage, in particular the history of the Mother Lode and gold mining regions of the area. There are chapters in California, Nevada and other Western states. Members call themselves “Clampers.” The organization’s name is in Dog Latin, and has no known meaning; even the spelling is disputed, sometimes appearing as “Clampusus”[citation needed], “Clampsus”, or “Clampsis”. The motto of the Order, Credo Quia Absurdum, is generally understood as meaning “I believe it because it is absurd.”; the proper Latin quotation Credo quia absurdum est, is from the Christian apologist Tertullian (140-230), who rejected rationalism and accepted a Gospel which addressed itself to the “non-rational levels of perception.”
On their initiation:
By tradition, a man can only become a Clamper by invitation. However, one can express his desire to join. Initiation rites are sometimes spur-of-the-moment, such as forcing a blindfolded candidate to be lifted into the air by a block and tackle. Other times, the blindfolded initiate is seated upon a wet sponge in a wheelbarrow, and taken upon the “Rocky Road to Dublin” (a ladder lying on the ground). The initiations are secret and vary greatly in execution and severity. Once he has been asked to answer several questions, the Scales of Darkness (the blindfold) are removed, the new member “sees the light”, is handed the Staff of Relief, is presented the Stone of Enigma, and appointed Chairman of the Most Important Committee. Afterward everyone toasts the new member with drink. Once enlightened,a brother is a brother for life.
N.G.H. The Noble Grand Humbug
C. The Clampatriarch
G.N.R. The Grand Noble Recorder
G.I.H. The Grand Imperturbable Hangman
G.M. The Grand Musician
R.I. The Roisterous Iscutis
R.P. The Royal Platrix
C.P. The Clamps Petrix
C.M. The Clamps Matrix
C.V. The Clamps Vitrix
D.F.D. #1 Damfool Doorkeeper Number One
D.F.D. #2 Damfool Doorkeeper Number Two
From their ritual…
The Order and Liturgy of Initiation
N.G.H. raps with his Clampregnant Scepter for order.
N.G.H.: Let there be Order in the Hall of Comparative Ovations.
Let all the Brethren maintain seemly decorum.
N.G.H. solemnly raps again three times.
Grand Musician, sound the Hewgag.
G.M. stentoriously sounds the Hewgag.
Grand Noble Recorder, what is the occasion of this riotous assemblage?
G.M.R.: Noble Grand Humbug, without yon impenetrable portal there attend certain Supine Suckers, without honor, shame or sense, who have nevertheless signified their aspiration to become members, even Brothers’ of our Ancient and Honorable Order.
N.G.H.: Have these brazen individuals made fitting and appropriate supplication?
G.V.R.: Verily, sir, they have.
N.G.H.: Have they deposited the prescribed treasure?
G.N.R.: Their gold dust is securely within our custody.
N.G.H.: Are they attended by the Clamp Functionaries thereunto privileged?
G.V.R.: They are indeed.
N.G.H.: Clamps Vitrix, have these pitiable wretches been duly interrogated?
C.V.: Verily, sir, they have.
N.G.H.: And are their responses satisfactory?
C.V.: Such, sir, is the report I have received.
C.: Well, sons, what the Heck are we waiting for?
N.G.H.: Yea, Brethren, what might in anywise necessitate delay?
G.N.R.: Naught, sire, save the Hewgag’s mournful Bray.
C.: In due course let her Bray, but first make due obeisance to him from whose unpublished, nay unwritten words, arises our Brotherhood’s Clampotent liturgy Our Worthy Patron Vitus.
All Functionaries bow and tip hats. N.G.H. raps thrice with his scepter.
N.G.H.: Rise, Brethren of E Clampus Vitus.
All rise.
C.: Repeat after me HAIL VITUS, NOBLE CLAMPATRON.
ALL: HAIL VITUS, NOBLE CLAMPATRON.
C.: Give unto him the Sign of the Well Jackass. All give the sign with vigor.
N.G.H.: Let us repeat his words CREDO QUIA ABSURDUM. I believe because it is absurd.
ALL: CREDO QUIA ABSURDUM. I believe because it is absurd.
N.G.H.: And our benevolent motto PER CARITATE VIDUARIBUS.
ALL: PER CARITATE VIDUARIBUS.
N.G.H.: ORPHANIBUSQUE.
ALL: ORPHANIBUSQUE.
N.G.H.: SED PRIME VIDUARIBUS.
ALL: SED PRIME VIDUARIBUS.
N.G.H.: For the benefit of widows and orphans, but more especially of widows.
Let us repeat the majestic Password THE HEWGAG BRAYS.
ALL: THE HEWGAG BRAYS.
N.G.H.: And the memorable Response BEFORE OR AFTER THE FULL MOON.
ALL: BEFORE OR AFTER THE FULL MOON.
N.G.H.: Brethren of E Clampus Vitus, it is for you to signify whether the Hewgag shall be sounded and these miscreant malefactors immolated. What say the Brethren?
ALL: Satisfactory!
G.N.R.: And so recorded.
and so on…
It actually seems pretty passive and a good tongue in cheek way to celebrate history with your friends and not worry about the apron strings or the height of the fez.Instead you can just roast some weenies and marsh mellows and let the hair down while your Clampin.
, about 
, C.W. Leadbetter says of the fraternity:
I was reading through Pikes 
and am a bit surprised at the story it tells, and some of what it doesn’t.
because as the Family chronicles the rise of the Fundamentalist religious right, Horowitz traces a line through the various sub culture movements that transmitted one idea to the next movement and so on. As a Masonic reader you will be interested to know that at points he acknowledges the presence of Freemasonry as well as other esoteric/occult groups as major players to the dissemination of ideas.
