Great article in the Boston Phoenix on Freemasonry and the “all-seeing eye of rock and roll.” Below are just a few of the quotes The Masons of Amicable Lodge have tattoos curling out from under their button-down shirts. They wear giant rings and waist aprons that look like oversize satin envelopes. They wear ties and […]
Continue readingCategory Archives: Masonic Traveler
Observations on the esoteric from author Greg Stewart (Masonic Traveler) about the fraternity of Freemasonry, its impact on civil society and contributions to the material culture.
Demons and demagoguery
This tale starts in an email I received on Valentines Day. The email was a resignation, a coup de grâce on a loose affiliation based on a common passion about Freemasonry because of a personal (or privately cultivated) belief that this websites general quality was in deterioration. I can surmise that most who read this […]
Continue reading
Freemasonry and the Great Depression
This was originally published in January of 2009 on the Masonic Traveler blog. Freemasonry moves through periods of ups and downs. Like the stock market, there are periods of increases and periods of decreases. Peaks and valleys, plateaus, and depressions, which is normal for any system, especially as nothing remains static, motion is a constant. […]
Continue readingHow much Masonic Charity is enough?
This story comes from the Concord Monitor story – Make Masons prove they shouldn’t pay from February 10th. New Hampshire Freemasonry wants some relief, tax relief, under the umbrella of being being a charitable organization. The question from the state – how much charity is enough to BE a charity? The push comes from five […]
Continue readingBeyond Belief from Fox News
I stumbled across this and thought it an amusing look back at the decade that was. This goes back a ways to 2008, Beyond Belief on Fox News’ Hanity’s America about “The Freemasonry…” I apologize in advance for the quality, it looks like someone ripped it right off from the television screen. Definitely interesting mix […]
Continue reading
The diminshment of religious liberty.
An interesting piece in Religion dispatches titled “The Quietly Crumbling Wall of Separation.“ The article makes an interesting case for the diminished protection over the free exercise of religion steaming from the 1990 Justice Scalia decision of Emplotment Division v. Smith – an interesting case in which the Court determined that the state could deny […]
Continue reading10,000 French defection a hoax?
It would seem so. The article in El Confidencial was refuted in a posting by the Grand Master Ortega of the SL España who denies the story (Thanks to Chirs Hodapp for the comment and link to the blog Worshipful Lodge No. 33 Añaza published today). In relation to information published in the secular press […]
Continue readingWomen and Freemasonry – We have met the enemy and it is us.
The title, in part, comes from the comments about an article that ran in the USA Today – online edition, titled Masons, other service groups fight membership declines. The article is the usual grouping of why the decline is happening, what groups are doing about it, and what the results are in the realities of […]
Continue reading
Symbolism on the Winding Staircase – Seven the Magic Number
The Middle Chamber From the three steps to the five steps, we now stand at the landing of of the middle chamber. On this journey we have climbed much – traversing up Jacob’s ladder in the first degree, climbed the first series of three steps and introduced to their significance in our maturity with an […]
Continue reading
Hidden Wisdom – Not So Hidden Anymore.
If Manly P. Hall’s Secret Teachings had a companion book, I think that Richard Smoley and Jay Kinney’s Hidden Wisdom: A Guide to the Western Inner Traditions would be it. Every bit as dense as Hall’s Secret Teachings but much more down to earth and embedded in the “real” rather than the idealized reality – […]
Continue reading