Category 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.

Thanksgiving Vespers

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quotes to inspire on the thanksgiving holiday
The first Thanksgiving

All of us at Freemason Information would like to offer you a happy and hearty Thanksgiving. Here is one of my favorite Thanksgiving Blessings from  Arthur R. Herrmann at the Masonic Poets Society.

A Thanksgiving Prayer

Oh, Lord, now this we’re thankful for:
The good things life has held in store;
The love of those within our home,
And friends to greet wherever we roam;
The health and strength wherewith to toil,
The bounteous food from freedom’s soil;
We thank Thee for the right to pray
And worship Thee in our own way;
To live within a land that’s free;
For this, dear Lord, our thanks to Thee;
And through these blessings, one by one,
May Thy will, Lord, on earth be done!

This collection of seemingly unrelated passages all seem to speak to the promise of a new world, a “new Jerusalem“, a crowning jewel of the world. It is to that vision that we are thankful for and celebrate this day. I am thankful for my country, its warts, blemishes and all. We daily strive to build our collective city upon a hill.

Happy Thanksgiving.

…for we must Consider that we shall be as a City upon a Hill, the eyes of all people are upon us…
John Winthrop

“God bless thee, my son; I will give thee the greatest jewel I have. For I will impart unto thee, for the love of God and men, a relation of the true state of Solomon’s House. Son, to make you know the true state of Solomon’s House, I will keep this order. First, I will set forth unto you the end of our foundation. Secondly, the preparations and instruments we have for our works. Thirdly, the several employments and functions whereto our fellows are assigned. And fourthly, the ordinances and rites which we observe.

“The end of our foundation is the knowledge of causes, and secret motions of things; and the enlarging of the bounds of human empire, to the effecting of all things possible….

… I give thee leave to publish it, for the good of other nations; for we here are in God’s bosom, a land unknown.”
Francis Bacon – The New Atlantis.

Dore_paradisio14

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Revelation 21:1-3

Now, therefore, I do recommend and assign Thursday, the 26th day of November next, to be devoted by the people of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be; that we may then all unite in rendering unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection of the people of this country previous to their becoming a nation; for the signal and manifold mercies and the favorable interpositions of His providence in the course and conclusion of the late war; for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty which we have since enjoyed; for the peaceable and rational manner in which we have been enable to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national one now lately instituted for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed, and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and, in general, for all the great and various favors which He has been pleased to confer upon us.
– George Washington’s 1789 Thanksgiving Proclamation

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Though our mouths were full of song as the sea,
and our tongues of exultation as the multitude of its waves,
and our lips of praise as the wide-extended firmament;
though our eyes shone with light like the sun and the moon,
and our hands were spread forth like the eagles of heaven,
and our feet were swift as hinds,
we should still be unable to thank thee and bless thy name,
O Lord our God and God of our fathers,
for one thousandth or one ten thousandth part of the bounties
which thou has bestowed upon our fathers and upon us.
– from the Hebrew Prayer Book

The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.
– H.U. Westermayer

Enjoy the blessings of this day, if God sends them, and the evils of it bear patiently and calmly; for this day only is ours: we are dead to yesterday, and we are not yet born to the morrow. When our fortunes are violently changed, our spirits are unchanged, if they always stood in the suburbs and expectation of sorrows and reverses. The blessings of immunity, safeguard, liberty, and integrity deserve the thanksgiving of a whole life.
– Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, Intendant of the Building

The hardest arithmetic to master is that which enables us to count our blessings.
– Eric Hoffer, Reflections On The Human Condition

Thanks are justly due for boons unbought.
– Ovid

Find the good and praise it.
– Alex Haley

Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes of which all men have some.
– Charles Dickens

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequalled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle, or the ship; the axe had enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to his tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union. It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord.
– Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1863
from the collection of Lincoln’s papers in the Library of America series

Managing the Future of Freemasonry – An Interview with Dr David West

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I spent some time talking with the author of Managing the Future of Freemasonry: The Book of Optimism, Dr. David West, about his work, the past and future of Freemasonry and what is at stake in moving into 21st-century fraternalism. Some of his ideas may surprise you, but when you consider what he says I think you may find some resonance in his ideas in addressing what’s at stake as we move into the new millennium.

Greg Stewart (GS) – Let’s start with who is Dr David West BA PhD

Managing the Future of Freemasonry A Book of Optimism
Managing the Future of Freemasonry A Book of Optimism

David West (DW) – I gained my first degree in Philosophy from the University of Exeter and my Doctorate of and in Philosophy from the University of Leicester. I taught university in England and Canada for several years, publishing in the academic press. My later business career included Ford and Xerox (President’s Award for exceptional service.) I served on several quasi-governmental committees on the future of work, was the special adviser to a Cabinet Minister (a bit like an Under-Secretary of State) and later founded The Working Manager Ltd, creating the core content of its web-based management education process. My books include:

My mother lodge is St Laurence No. 5511, a fast growing lodge which grows by 12% each year and is the subject of two of my books. I am a member of two other Craft lodges and three RA chapters under the English Constitution and am in the process of joining the Mark and the Royal & Select to trace Neville Barker Cryer’s footsteps in The Royal Arch Journey. I served as Grand Registrar of the Masonic Province of Essex and am now Past Provincial Junior Grand Warden.

I lecture on such Masonic topics as The cowboy, the devil and the Masonic hoax, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, The King and Raquel Welch, Never be short of candidates again, The law of paradoxical intent and King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. I write for The Square magazine.

I have been married to Jenny, a retired Consultant Clinical Psychologist, for forty-eight years and we have two children, one a lawyer on the side of the angels and the other a professional musician. We live in London, England.

GS – Tell us what’s behind your book, Managing the Future of Freemasonry: The Book of Optimism.

This book is based on the view that the golden years of Freemasonry have passed with the departure of a world never likely to return. We cannot pretend that our membership problem will simply go away. If we are to rescue our order, we must take an objective look at ourselves and understand the society we now face. Our challenge will be to renew our ideals and bring them to the attention of a new audience, one that we as yet know little about. This will require hard work, open-mindedness, creativity and above all leadership. The optimism that runs through this book depends upon our ability to change, knowing that holding on to the past will be the last thing our order does.

I compare our current situation with the years following 1800, a period in which 42% of English lodges were lost. In the earlier 18th century, the ideals of Freemasonry were in keeping with those of our craftsmen and tradesmen brethren. Those ideals were lost during the first part of the industrial revolution and Freemasonry almost died in massive social and economic changes during which the majority of these crafts and trades disappeared. There was no leadership during this vital time for our order and our survival was almost entirely accidental as, eventually, Freemasonry found a new source of membership in the growth of the middle class.

Odd as it may seem, given that the period saw two world wars, little changed in the social and moral life from 1850 to 1950, and the middle class sustained Freemasonry for a hundred years. We assumed that this would go on forever but, during the 1950s, a quite sudden change occurred, one which began the end of the middle class — and which despite promptings, our leadership currently seems content to ignore. Unless we recognize these changes, we will be unable to recognize the opportunities open to us.

This is a book of optimism. I believe that we can achieve a resurgence. More than this, I believe that we can become more relevant to and more important in society than ever before. I examine the absence of common ethical principles in today’s society and argue that this absence makes the moral life near to impossible. I argue that Freemasonry is a moral order, one in which the moral life can be sustained in the face of this new dark age. This is our purpose, our function in society. It is what we are here for. I argue that making the choice to become a Freemason provides a meaning to life, something that many men are looking for and that, in providing this meaning, we shall save ourselves.

There are many implications of this, one of these is that we must cease to listen to the siren voice of [public relations], and make a positive statement of what we are and what we offer. It is clear that the false gods of PR are seeking to change the excellences of our order, and they must be resisted. I describe the form of leadership we require, one that makes the three grand principles the basis of all we do. These principles also turn out to be the principles of effective management. I will not say that it will be easy and I recognize that resistance will be strong. There are many brethren who would see their lodge go dark rather than accept change. Many lodges will go under, but then many always have.

We must take action now, just as we did not take action back in 1830. We cannot rely on luck again.

GS – What, in a nutshell, did Masonry do in the 1830s to make that change? Or was it more of a social change (like the industrial revolution) that preceded the change mid-century?

DW – In the 1830s, there was no leadership in freemasonry capable of recognizing the need for change, let alone make it. Our survival in Europe at least was solely a matter of the serendipitous rise of the middle class.

GS – What inspired this work? What made you put pen to paper?

DW – I have been working up to this book in all my earlier works. I care deeply about Freemasonry but I am equally deeply worried about the emperor’s new clothes. There seems to be very little written in the UK which is anything other than hagiography, even if there is a lot more virility in American writers such as John Bizzack, Richard A. Graeter, Andrew Hammer and Kirk C. White. Reading Rudyard Kipling again, I became convinced that he loved the ideals and ritual of Freemasonry but not its management, which is why he attended lodge so remarkably rarely after he left India. I think we must talk about the management of Freemasonry before it is too late.

GS – Given its subject matter, without giving away all of your ideas, what do you think is behind the drop in numbers?

DW – The social democracy of the 1960s and 1970s seemed to be leading towards a more egalitarian and caring state, but from 1980 such decency was replaced by greed on the one hand and fear of poverty on the other. The establishment showed that it could not be trusted, with the absence of a relationship between pay and performance at the top, continued crime and dishonesty within the finance industry, expenses fiddles and cash-for-access in government, sex crimes among media personalities, racial gang rape, organized pedophilia, hucksterism, ‘clever’ tax schemes, fiddled automotive performance reports, unreliable drug studies, and too many other sins to mention. Life has become harder-edged and uncaring with fewer spiritual values.

Respect for senior management has declined to an all-time low and there is a meanness about life. The focus on money, an outcome of Thatcherism and Reaganomics, is not an environment in which Freemasonry can flourish. Brotherly love, relief and truth do not fit with greed and self-interest. Austerity has meant that the men that we seek to recruit and retain have less time, less money, less energy and less security. Brethren can not commit to regular attendance at lodge because they simply do not know what demands their employers will put on them. These changes go along with other uncertainties in religious belief and the role of the sexes.

GS – Is there any one “silver bullet” that lodges or even individual masons can do, starting today, to change that tide?

DW – As I say in my book, Things to do when you have nothing to do, when faced with a problem, we try to solve it on the basis of our experience. When we fail, we rarely question our experience and thus repeat the same failed attempts. The law of paradoxical intent holds that by doing something different, even the opposite of what we usually do, we will be more likely to succeed; in terms of Masonic recruitment that: Being busy not seeking candidates will actually cause them to appear.

Candidates will come to those energetic lodges that are involved, active and ready for something new — and thus feel good about themselves. People will rarely talk about dull, gray lodges that are doing nothing interesting but they will talk about lodges that are busy, exciting and vibrant. Members who feel good about their lodge will talk to friends, relations and neighbors about it; not overtly to recruit but simply because they are excited about the lodge — and excitement is infectious.

GS – “Being busy not seeking candidates,” what, in your opinion, are some of the things lodges could (or should) be busy doing?
 
DW – I use the ‘law’ of paradoxical intent. I wrote a whole book on what lodges can do. It is on Amazon. Things to Do When You Have Nothing to Do …: Or How to Find Those Candidates Who Have Been Looking for You All This Time. Just a few of the chapter descriptions include:
  • An entertainment using 18th century exposures of the ritual, featuring Prichard’s‘Masonry Dissected’ and exposing a dreadful cover up. ?- The truth about the words
  • Shock! Horror!The established theory is wrong.? – A White Table?
  • The complete ‘how-to’ with a full script and a discussion of openness.? – Success??
  • The design and use of websites, a caution, being interesting, contacts and how to manage them, getting to know candidates, mentoring recruits.? – Triple!
  • How to initiate three candidates at one meeting in a dramatic but personal way.? – Music for Exposure!

GS – From your perspective, what was the hardest thing about writing this book?

DW – As with all books, deciding what NOT to include.

GS – Any glimpse of what you chose NOT to include?

DW – I very nearly wrote a program for change but realized that it was too detailed. I would have liked to have gone into more detail on middle class values and their development and on change of employment 1799 to 1899. [I] could have gone on forever!

GS – Any plans for future books?

DW – I am currently working on an update of my leadership book, Employee Engagement and the failure of leadership and collecting material for a series of essays for a book to be called Masonic legends and puzzles. The latter keeps interrupting work on the former. I find that books being researched are almost alive; like pets demanding constant attention.

GS – Where can people find you? Any social or traditional websites?

DW – I avoid social media but the website of my mother lodge http://stlaurencelodge.org.uk/ contains a lot that I agree with and also includes information on our busy lodge.

In doing this interview, Dr. West included the following statement on the craft. He listed it as his Statement for Freemasonry, which reads:

  • Freemasonry is a moral practice. We enable good men to live respected and die regretted.
  • There are periodic intervals in human experience when the moral life comes under attack. Now is such a time, and we must respond.
  • We will become a reservoir of social capital, enabling society to preserve the virtue of trust.
  • We will provide a bastion for the virtues in an amoral world, maintaining a community within which the moral life is lived.
  • In choosing to become a Freemason, a man accepts an obligation to live according to the virtues of the order. Such a choice cannot be made lightly.
  • There is no sense in which a man can say, ‘I want to be a Freemason but not a good one.’
  • To be a good Freemason is to exhibit specific virtues. The most important of these are the three grand principles — brotherly love, relief and truth — and the four cardinal virtues — prudence, fortitude, temperance, and justice.

My thanks to Dr. David West for taking the time (and having the patience) for getting this interview out there.

You can read the press release on his books publication here, and you can find Managing the Future of Freemasonry: The Book of Optimism on Amazon.

Why a Masonic Ring on the Donald Trump Statue?

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By now you’ve heard the sensational news of five Donald Trump statues, The Emperor Has No Balls, that were placed around the country. If you haven’t heard about it, you can read about it in Slate, the Daily Beast and in the The Washington Post – just to name a few. Even Chris Hodapp, over at Freemasons for Dummies, made a mention of it (taking no public sides in the political debate) on the day the statues appeared.


As strange as the appearance of this statue was, even stranger was the inclusion of a Masonic Ring on the nude presidential contender, rendering a strange message on an even stranger figure upon which to associate it. The inclusion reminded me of a certain car commercial that ran during a certain super football game in 2013 with a devilish Willem DaFoe (you can read about it here and here) sporting the square and compass on his finger which ended up garnering nearly 3000 signatures to have the image removed.

masonic ring, Donald Trump, statue

Masonic ring on Donald Trump Statue

And yet, here we have another example of the iconic square and compass stealthy sneaking its way back into the material culture*, now poised eloquently on one of the most in-eloquent of presidential candidates in an unflattering of pose. Alas, the Hans Christian Andersen appellation of the Emperor Has No Clothes is perhaps one allegorical tale to be told about the presidential contender. But, an emperor without balls, wearing a Masonic Ring? The only question I can imagine on the minds of most Freemasons (after the obvious statement of how ludicrous it is) is …why? Why a Masonic ring on a naked Donald Trump?

I wondered that too. So, I asked the artist behind the statue “Ginger” (aka Joshua Monroe), why. Why a naked Donald Trump wearing only a Masonic Ring?

I should probably say that replicas of the sculpture, which are now priced at $10,000 with multiple buyers lining up, was a commissioned piece by the activist collective Indecline. In a recent press release, Indecline says “Museums in Miami (Wynwood), Germany, Arizona and California have also contacted INDECLINE in attempts to secure Trump statues for gallery shows.” The statue (and by circumstance, the ring upon it) further seeps into the material culture.

This was my conversation with the artist Ginger about it.

GS: A masonic ring is a pretty unique thing to have on hand, even for an artist. After watching the making of video where you cast the model (at bottom), was the ring the models or something you had on hand in your studio?

Ginger: It was not very hard to acquire the ring. Then the model was not [a mason] as I believe most Mason’s would want nothing to do with a project like this. I meant absolutely no disrespect to the Masons but they are the world’s most recognizable secret society.

GS: It’s an interesting juxtaposition, the naked figure clad only in a Masonic square and compass ring. The Washington Post mentioned that it represented his (Trumps) access to secret or elitist power (attributing to the artist “emblematic of privilege, secret handshakes and cloistered groups of powerful people”). I’m curious, as an artist, is that a real part of the philosophy you see in [Trump] or just a design element meant to connect disparate elements into a new reality? Was the inclusion of the ring just a “secret society” prop, or did you mean to link the “naked emperor” with a Masonic ring as his only garment (which itself has a strangely symbolic reverse meaning within Freemasonry)?

Ginger: The reason that I myself chose to put the Masonic ring into the sculpture was to symbolize the fact that Donald Trump, who I know is not a mason, is most definitely involved in secret dealings and secret societies that the general public will never be aware of.

My grandfather was a high-ranking mason. I myself, being a legacy, have been asked to join several times by several members. As far as owning the Mason’s ring there’s actually artist and vendors that sell them on the street.

GS: Having a background in art, I think I understand how the ring is being used, but I know that a huge community of Freemasons are just dumbstruck (if not outright offended) at its use. Knowing that it’s the artist prerogative to choose what goes in or stays out of a piece is their own, I wonder what your thought is about how the community-at-large reads or interprets the association? Do you have any thought on how the community of Freemasons would interpret the inclusion? (Do you care or does it matter?)?

Ginger: I considered it a very tongue and cheek wink to the secret societies and their Quest To Rule The World. I have many friends who are masons and they joke about their meetings being held Pinky and the Brain style to try and take over the world. But it’s mostly crappy food that their wives have made. I myself have done lots of Charity and volunteer work and that’s why I’ve been approached by Masons I respect what you do and I hope you guys are not offended.

GS: I’m curious, do you see Trump as an emperor with no cloths because of what he’s done before the election or because he’s running now? Do you think it’s that secret access that makes him so naked?

Ginger: The title of the installment was actually set in stone long before the collective even found me as an artist.

The overall concept and look was their idea and their political statement. I am just the artist who brought it to life. However it was my idea to add the Mason ring not to insult Masons but  [it] suggests his involvement in secret societies.

Also the saggy inflamed butt was my idea.

– End

And there you have it.

The Emperor Has No Balls from Indecline on Vimeo.

*Material culture is defined as: the physical evidence of a culture in the objects and architecture they make, or have made. The term tends to be relevant only in archaeological and anthropological studies, but it specifically means all material evidence which can be attributed to culture, past or present.

From Wikipedia, Material Culture.

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Author Interview – Joshua Lorenzo Newett on In Remembrance of Things Lost

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author, interview, In Remembrance of Things Lost

Joshua Lorenzo Newett

Masonic author Joshua Lorenzo Newett spent some time recently to talk about his new work of fiction, In Remembrance of Things Lost. Yet, as Joshua tells it, the work is underpinned with Masonic and esoteric themes that center on purpose, recovery and the story of one mans journey of becoming a Freemason, a journey that, in some respects may mirror the authors.

Masonic Traveler (MT): Joshua, thanks for taking the time to talk about yourself and your new book. Let’s start at the beginning, tell us, who Joshua Lorenzo Newett is?

Joshua Lorenzo Newett (JLN): Well here are the particulars. I am 36 years old, and am currently a lecturer at the Korean Navy Academy in Jinhae, South Korea, although I am originally from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I am a member of Pusan, Korea Lodge, No. 1675, on the Rolls of the Grand Lodge of Scotland as well as a member of the Seoul Valley of the Scottish Rite (SJ).

MT: How long have you studied Freemasonry? What led you there?

JLN: An uncle of mine is a Freemason so, from a young age, I’ve been aware and interested in the organization.

In high school and university I got into existential philosophy which asks all of the big questions: Where are we? What are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? Why does it matter? What is the good life? Existential philosophy led me to the study of history and International Relations which eventually led me back to the original questions posed.

When I was thirty three I contact a member of Pusan Lodge via the internet and went to my first meeting.

In Remembrance of Things Lost

In Remembrance of Things Lost by Joshua Lorenzo Newett

MT: Interesting age to seek something like that. So, with that background, tell us about your latest book In Remembrance of Things Lost.

JLN: I originally started it as a first person narrative written from the vantage point of Count St. Germaine but that story-line took a back seat to a third person narrative about Thad Gordon, a boy who becomes troubled after his family moves from Walpole, Massachusetts to East Hampton, New York. He is a bit self-defeating in his undertakings and sabotages several important relationships in university. He becomes totally disillusioned and moves to Korea to sort of drink himself to death. I don’t want to spoil the plot for anyone so I won’t go any further.

MT: You mentioned in your initial inquiry that that the protagonist meets a man that may, or may not, be the legendary Count St. Germain who leads him to find Freemasonry which later helps him put his life in order. Would you say this is more a story about the journey, the destination or both?

JLN: I’d say this story is more about the journey. In most tales I find the journey is the most interesting part of the story. For example I recently read a book about the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, (The Devil in the White City) and while the fair was interesting the journey undertaken to bring it into existence was far more so.

MT: What inspired the book? What made you put pen to paper?

JLN: With all my books I try for three things; the reader learns something about the world at large, they relate to the characters and when the book is finished it stays with them, maybe even changes them in some small way. Ralph Waldo Emmerson said “I cannot remember the books I’ve read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.” I really believe that. Reading is such an intimate thing. It lets you occupy the same mental space as the author. For me there is nothing like finding an author I can really relate to. I guess at the end of the day that’s why I write.

My books usually start out as something completely different. I think the genesis of this one came years ago while I was reading Blood Meridian. The Judge Holden character leapt off the page. I loved the way Cormac McCarthy wrote him, how it was subtly suggested he may be immortal and have supernatural powers, but I didn’t like the way Holden, who was a real historical figure, represented the animalistic and base aspects of humankind. I wanted to create a similar character but make him more benevolent and nuanced. A few years later I was reading up on Count St. Germaine and I thought this guy is your Judge Holden.

Another aim I had in writing the book was to pique the curiosity of non-masons and get them interested in masonry.

MT: How so? What were some of the kernels of Masonry that you included?

JLN: First there are several images used, such as a description of a masonic ring. Thad picks up a thread with what may or may not have been the journal of CSM and follows it to his local lodge. He joins it then he joins the SR. I purposefully left the details sparse so if the readers’ interest was piqued they’d look for answers on their own.

MT: What was the hardest thing about writing this book?

JLN: For me the hardest part about writing in general are the endless revisions. When I finish a first draft of a book I let it sit for a bit and then go back and reread it. For the most part I usually really like it and actually often surprise myself like “oh wow I wrote that? I don’t even remember writing that!” I like that a lot. Then comes the hard part, rewrites and revisions. I’ll do several rewrites and revisions before I send it away to my agent for an initial read. He’ll send it back with suggestions. Several more rewrites later I’ll send it to my editor, then when it comes back rewrite it again. That process repeats several times.

By the time the book is ready, I’ve read the material so many times I’m sickened at the thought of having to read it again.

MT: I totally get that feeling. Sometimes it’s nice to be able to shoot from the hip, but unless you’re a dead-eye, you end up with some pretty wild grammar. Any future book plans?

JLN: This is my third book. My second, Wine Tasting is Bullshit, will be out in December of 2016. I am also finishing the first draft of a new one tentatively titled Hiraeth about a great cataclysm that brings civilization to its knees and the survivors who restart and preserve the knowledge of the past. I’m also working on a concept album and an accompanying book of short stories about the fictional character of John Melhern (1898- 1983). The album and stories are about his life. A lot of it is about war. The time he spent in Europe in WWI, losing one of his sons in WWII, and his grandson being drafted into the Vietnam War. It’s also about the passage of time and his inability to understand what the world has become.

And of course there are a few loves stories thrown in for good measure.

MT: Joshua, thanks so much for taking the time to share your work with us. It sounds like a non-traditional take on some old traditional themes.

You can find Joshua Lorenzo Newett’s book, In Remembrance of Things Lost, in print and as an epub on Amazon. And, you can follow more of Joshua Lorenzo Newett’s work at his website, joshua-lorenzo-newett.com.

Author Interview-Rob Lund on The Hidden Code in Freemasonry

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Rob Lund, author, book, Hidden meaning in Freemasonry

Rob Lund

Robert V. Lund believes that The Hidden Code in Freemasonry: Finding Light through esoteric interpretation of Masonic Ritual is a book that should be read by all Freemasons. The work, he says, strives to provide a deeper understanding of the hidden information at work behind the scenes of the rituals of Freemasonry. What makes this book different, the author claims, is that it looks beyond the literal veil to the hidden code that underlies each of the craft rituals and the truer meaning of its ceremonies. I talked recently with Robert about his book in hopes of catching a peek behind the veil.

Masonic Traveler (MT): Let’s start at the beginning. Who is Robert Lund?

Rob Lund (RL): I am a Past Master of Kilwinning Lodge #565 of Toronto, Ontario (Canada), and currently serve as Secretary. I have served as Chairman of the Toronto West District Education Committee for a number of years and served one year in the Grand Lodge Committee on Masonic Education. I am [the] editor of our Lodge newsletter and write at least one article for it every month. I also run our Lodge website.

I have written lectures on the esoteric meaning of our rituals and presented them numerous times throughout the district. I have also presented at one of the Ontario Masonic Education Conferences. I have had articles published in The Lightbearer, a magazine of the Canadian Theosophical Association.

MT: Do you belong to any other esoteric or initiate rites or bodies?

RL: I am a member of the Rosicrucian Order AMORC, and the President of the York Lodge of the Theosophical Society (founded by H. P. Blavatsky) and a member of the Board of the Canadian Theosophical Association. For a couple of years, I was a member of another masonic Rosicrucian order, the SRIA.

MT: How long have you studied Freemasonry?

RL: I’ve been a Mason for around ten years now. I always knew I would be a Mason since my early twenties but just never got around to pursuing it.

MT: What finally led you there?

RL: For the past forty years, I have been a seeker of truth: the truth behind religions (especially Christianity); the truth behind human origins, and the truth regarding our existence and purpose on earth. These interests go back to my teens. I’ve always felt that there is more to life, this world, and the universe than meets the eye and it’s only in the last decade that I started doing something about it.

The Hidden Code in Freemasonry: Finding Light through esoteric interpretation of Masonic Ritual

The Hidden Code in Freemasonry: Finding Light through esoteric interpretation of Masonic Ritual

MT: Tell us about your new book The Hidden Code in Freemasonry: Finding Light through esoteric interpretation of Masonic Ritual.

RL: My book [The Hidden Code in Freemasonry] is a product of my Masonic, Rosicrucian, and Theosophical journeys and it ties them together. It shows how the composers of our Masonic ritual have embedded information taken from the esoteric mystery traditions and teachings perpetuated for thousands of years, to be discovered by those who have eyes to see, and to be acted upon in order to fulfill their purpose. The book provides the evidence of this hidden “code” and gives a detailed analysis of the three craft degrees showing what these hidden messages are and what they mean. And, since knowing is of little avail without action, the book makes suggestions for next steps.

MT: Interesting. What inspired you to put pen to paper (or finger to keys)?

RL: All through the three degrees, I was waiting for the “secrets and mysteries of Ancient Freemasonry” to be revealed to me. They never came. I was disappointed enough to consider leaving Freemasonry.

All Masons talk about receiving light but, how many actually know what that means? How many actually actively seek further?

It was after reading certain Masonic authors such as Manley P Hall, JSM Ward, and more especially W. L. Wilmshurst, that I began to see the light. That’s when I started my own analysis of the craft degrees, using Rosicrucian and Theosophical teachings. My discoveries are what I want to share with all Masons because the underlying messages are very important to everyone.

MT: What was the hardest thing about writing it?

RL: Let me first tell you the easiest thing about writing this book: finding the material.

Over the years, as I learned things, I wrote articles and lectures and so the material was at hand. What was much harder was putting them together in a cohesive way in a structure that would make it readable. I had help from some of my Masonic Brethren which assisted in achieving this.

MT: I love the cover, is there any particular symbolism at work there?

RL: The cover photo is one of the many fine lodge rooms in the Detroit Masonic Center. I added the additional artwork.

The parchment background is to signify the contents being of ancient origins. The symbols signify the source of the knowledge (Theosophical, Rosicrucian, and Vedic).

MT: Plans for future books?

RL: I am working on another book that deals more specifically with the symbols within Freemasonry and its rituals. However, this will not be ready for quite some time.

Thanks for this Robert. I can’t wait to read the book and I wish you the best for its success.

You can find a sample of Robert’s work by reading his article, Evidence of Hidden Meaning in Masonic Ritual. And, you can find his book, The Hidden Code in Freemasonry: Finding Light through esoteric interpretation of Masonic Ritual, in print and as an epub on Amazon.

You can find more on Robert Lund on Facebook.

MOLOR – The Missouri Lodge of Research

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Recently, the great work of the Missouri Lodge of Research was brought to my attention.

The Research Lodge was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Missouri, AF&AM on September 30, 1941 under the direction of MWB Harry S. Truman with the purpose of gathering and disseminating historical information pertaining to the origin and development of Freemasonry and to its members who have contributed to its growth and development.

One of the projects the Missouri Lodge of Research is undertaking is the digitization of its rare holdings resulting in a number of works made available for download and reading on the secure issuu.com format. What makes this digital library unique is that it’s member and participant sponsored giving allows members the opportunity to contribute to this preservation and knowledge transfer work.

One of the annual events that the Missouri Lodge of Research sponsors is the Truman Lecture, which has hosted a number of notable Masons over the years on a wide of topics (you can find a list of them here). Most remarkable about series is that it represents Freemasonry in action, the act of presenting to its membership a breath of knowledge and information by some of the most notable speakers in the contemporary craft.

Membership to MOLoR is open to any Master Mason in or out of the state of Missouri. In-state members may participate as an active member giving them access to lectures and events in state. Out of state correspondent members receive MoLAR’s quarterly newsletter, an annual book selection published by the Lodge of Research and all of their other corresponding materials.

King Solomon’s Temple as a Symbol to Freemasonry

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I found this piece on an old disc the other day. I wrote it as a piece of architecture to a, now, defunct Masonic Club here in Los Angeles – the Hermes Trismegistus Traditional Observance club in Culver City. It dates back to August 22, 2006, almost ten years to the day.

Reading through it, I thought it would be fun to share it again to see if it still holds it esoteric weight.

King Solomon’s Temple – A Symbol to Freemasonry

Sanctum Sanctorum
Sanctum Sanctorum

Solomon’s ancient temple was built a top Mt. Moriah in Jerusalem between 964 and 956 B.C.E. Its construction is chronicled in the First Book of Kings, which begins at the end of King David’s reign and the crowning of Solomon.  As king, Solomon continues the task his father began which was to build the temple. The text tells us that God restricted David, having collected the materials to construct the temple, from building it because of the blood he shed at the conquering of Israel. Ultimately, Solomon completes work on the temple, which was built to house the Ark of the Covenant, and become “a glorious temple for which God was to dwell”. (1 Kings 8:13).

Chris Hodapp, in his manual Freemasons for Dummies, defines Solomon’s Temple as a representation of the individual Freemason, where both an individual man and the physical temple take “many years to build” as a “place suitable for the spirit of God to inhabit.” The work of a becoming a Freemason is, in my opinion, a metaphor to the construction of the temple. This definition is not far off the mark, but alone it says nothing of why this bold metaphor is used.

Through deeper explorations of this topic, I was lead to a broader understanding of the temple and its relevance to the Freemasonry we practice today. One path of that exploration led me to understand it from the perspective explored in the works of John Dee, Henry Cornelius Agrippa and Francesco Giorgi, each an important Renaissance philosopher.

In Dame Frances Yates text The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age, she suggests that early Renaissance Cabalists felt the temple represented a definition of sacred geometry that was mirrored in the temple by reflecting a perfect and proportional measure made “in accordance with the unalterable laws of cosmic geometry.” These ideas formed from the work of Francesco Giorgi in De Harmonia Mundi, which drew in Vitruvian principals of Architecture and integrated the foundation of Christian Cabalism with the ideas from Hermetic study to create “connections between angelic hierarchies and planetary spheres” that [rose] “up happily through the stars to the angels hearing all the way those harmonies on each level of the creation imparted by the Creator to his universe, founded on number and numerical laws of proportion.”

kabbalah, Cabbalah, tree of life, Hermetic Qabalah

These ideas are from an early Christian Cabala (c.1525), before the open appearance of Freemasonry, and Solomon’s temple, as we know it today. Building on the ides of Giorgi, Cornelius Agrippa explored the ideas of Alchemy, Hermetic, Neoplatonic and Cabalist thought, and wrote about them in his book De Occulta Philosophia (Three Books of Occult Philosophy), published in 1533.  In this text, one important idea was that the universe was divided into three worlds (degrees), which consisted of an elemental world, a celestial world, and an intellectual world, each receiving influences from the one above it.  The first world was believed governed by natural magic (element) and arranged substances “in accordance with the occult sympathies between them.” The second world is concerned with celestial magic that governed “how to attract and use the influences of the stars.” Agrippa himself calling it “a kind of magic mathematical magic because its operations depend on number.” The third world represented ceremonial magic “as directed toward the super celestial world of angelic spirits.” Beyond that, Agrippa says, is the divine itself.  These ideas are not about the physical temple, but instead I see it representing an unseen or perhaps inner temple, the travel in what we call today the self.

This philosophy of this divine self, interacting with the magical principals I suggest, merged at that time into the then strong and intelligent stone mason guilds, blending their practical application of numbers and formulation with the exploration of the divine worlds that many worked to physically construct. These ideas were accepted and adopted into the early landmarks of Freemasonry where, I believe, that the temple was perceived as more than a representational place of being. Over time, as philosophy and understanding changed, much of the fraternity lost sight of why Solomon’s Temple was important, that it represented a more mystical and philosophical construct akin to Agrippa’s spheres. Its interpretation has, today, moved into a metaphorical position becoming a part of the metaphorical stage in which our craft is set. But by examining how the temple exists in our degrees today will see some of that connection to the Renaissance philosophy.

Samuel Lee depiction of Solomons Temple
Samuel Lee depiction of Solomons Temple

In modernity, King Solomon’s Temple, within Freemasonry, appears in each of the three degrees (or worlds) as different aspects within each degree. Within the first, it is represented as the ground floor, the allegorical entrance into the fraternity. The temple is not depicted as the complicated structure; instead it is as an unfinished edifice, which is implicit to the ritual. Like Agrippa’s first elemental sphere, the first degree of masonry is the initiate’s entry point into Freemasonry and its philosophy, giving the initiate the elemental components to start his formation, only the work is not the rough labor of the operative, but instead the work of the speculative.

The Second Degree makes use of the temples middle chamber, whose dual meaning represents the halfway point into the temple, and the halfway point of Freemasonry. But interestingly we are taught here that the second degree is the most important of the three degree, as it is here we are lead through the 15 steps from the ground floor to the middle chamber of King Solomon’s Temple, where we as masons are instructed on our “wages due and jewels.” The various adornments of the temple have a multifaceted meaning that is described in this degree, which again factor into the representation of the temple.

But what makes this degree so important to me is that it is not the middle chamber, but the odyssey across the three, five and seven steps to it that mark it as important. Across those steps we are taught about the three stages of human life, the five orders of architecture, and the seven liberal arts (amongst other things), and like Agrippa’s second sphere of celestial magic, its mathematical influence can be felt throughout.

This path is the important symbolic link to the temple, where our ritual goes so far to remind us that of the three degrees, the Fellowcraft is the one that applies “our knowledge to the discharge of our respective duties to God, our neighbor, and ourselves; so that when in old age, as Master Masons, we may enjoy the happy reflections consequent on a well spent life, and die in the hopes of a glorious immortality.” The importance being laid on the journey of a Fellowcraft.

king solomon and the ark
Sanctum Sanctorum or, Holy of Holies

The third degree, or the consequence of that well spent life, ultimately represents the Sanctum Sanctorum or, Holy of Holies, in King Solomon’s Temple. Mentioned at the end of the Fellowcraft, this is where the brother reflects on the “well spent life” by the rewards of his work. The symbolism here is that it is the deepest heart of the temple and the furthest attainment of a Freemason. It also is to represent the deepest penetration into the psyche of the man. This is also the pinnacle of the ritual without the further exploration of the additional rites. The Holy of the Holies is representational of the celestial realm defined by Agrippa, and is the closest sphere outside of the divine itself. It functions as the house of God, both literally in the constructed temple, and metaphorically within the newly raised Mason.  This echoes the ideas mentioned by Giorgi and later expanded on by Agrippa and Dee.  Dee’s further expansive ideas later went on to influence early Rosicrucian thought in a similar fashion.

Agrippa’s three worlds, I suggest, form (in part) the basis of the steps and the journey through King Solomon’s Temple through the degrees of Freemasonry. The presence of King Solomon’s Temple in ancient thought, from the earliest Old Testament writings to the pinnacle of renaissance occult philosophy has preserved it as an iconographic representation of the path to the divine. Solomon’s temple is not a solitary place in history, used as a simple metaphor in which to base an allegorical play. Instead, it is a link in early Christian Cabala and Hermetic thought, which is just as vital today, as it was then, to the tradition of Freemasonry. Still a metaphor but a more profound one whose importance is not often explored or represented in modern Masonic thought. Looking at the ideas of this renaissance philosophy, I believe that philosophy becomes squarely linked to the past, present, and future of Freemasonry and to King Solomon’s Temple.

Sources:

  • Duncan, Malcom C., Duncan’s Ritual of Freemasonry. New York: Crown Publishers. 2005.
  • Hodapp, Christopher, Freemasons for Dummies. New Jersey: Wiley Publishing, Inc. 2005.
  • The Holy Bible, NIV, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing. 1984.
  • MacNaulty, W. Kirk, A Journey Through Ritual and Symbol. London, Thames and Hudson. 1991.
  • Vitruvius, 10 Books on Architecture. Trans. Morgan, Morris Hickey. New York: Dover 1960.
  • Yates, Frances, The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age. London/New York: Routledge, 2003.

The Chamber of Reflection

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One of the greatest enigmas of contemporary Freemasonry, the Chamber of Reflection is a little-used aspect in the rituals of a newly made Mason. Yet, the symbolism of the Chamber has roots in Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism and other occult traditions.

More installments of Symbols & Symbolism are available here and on YouTube.

In the French and Scottish Rites, a small room adjoining the Lodge, in which, preparatory to initiation, the candidate is enclosed for the purpose of indulging in those serious meditations which its somber appearance and the gloomy emblems with which it is furnished are calculated to produce. It is also used in some of the advanced degrees for a similar purpose. Its employment is very appropriate, for, as Gädicke well observes,

It is only in solitude that we can deeply reflect upon our present or future undertakings, and blackness, darkness, or solitariness, is ever a symbol of death. A man who has undertaken a thing after mature reflection seldom turns back.

Manly P Hall, in his Secret Teachings of All Ages, writes of the use of V.I.T.R.I.O.L. – beginning with the word VISITA and reading clockwise, the seven initial letters of the seven words inscribed in the outer circle read: VITRIOL. This is a very simple alchemical enigma but is a reminder that those studying works on Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, alchemy, and Freemasonry should always be on the lookout for concealed meanings hidden either in Parables and allegories or in cryptic arrangements of numbers, letters, and words.

Maundy Thursday, Relighting of the Lights, mystical rose

Lux in Tenebris-Maundy Thursday in Freemasonry

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Knight of the East and West Morals and Dogma
Knight of the East and West

This seems fitting giving the present state of things in Freemasonry. Lux in Tenebris – From Darkness Comes Light.

Maundy Thursday, or also known as Covenant Thursday or simply Holy Thursday, is the annual Christian holy day that occurs on the last Thursday before Easter. It is a remembrance day for the last supper that Jesus and his twelve apostles, as was described in the canonical gospels, it is also for remembering The Maundy, which was the washing of the feet, particularly the Maundy that Jesus performed.

The moment when the Word was recovered; when the Cubical Stone was changed to the Mystic Rose; when the Blazing Sun reappeared in its entire splendor; the Columns of the Temple were re-established; and the Working Tools of Masonry restored; when True Light dispelled the Darkness and the New Love began to rule upon the earth.

On this day, Christians all around the world take time out of their day to reflect on the life of Jesus Christ, leading up the point of the last supper where he sat down with his apostles and shared food and wine, proclaiming that it was his body and blood.

Maundy Thursday
The Last Supper – Champaigne,Philippe de (1602-1674)

The actual date of Maundy Thursday is between the 19th of March and the 22nd of April, however, these dates can fall on specific days depending on if it was the Gregorian calendar or the Julian calendar that is used. Eastern churches are generally using the Julian calendar and thus, celebrate Maundy Thursday between the 21st of April and the 5th of May.

In Western Churches, Maundy Thursday is when the Chrism mass is celebrated in every diocese, usually held in each diocese’s cathedral. This mass involves a bishop blessing chrism oils, oil of catechumens and oil of the sick. The Oil of chrism and catechumens will be saved until Easter Saturday where they will be used to bless the attendees of the mass.

There is an ancient tradition that on Maundy Sunday, you should visit 7 different churches, this is called the seven churches visitation, and this practice originated in Rome and is now practiced in many countries around the world.

The term Maundy is said to be a corruption of the Latin word mandatum – meaning “command.”

In a Masonic parlance, the Maundy Thursday is envisioned as a ceremony to commemorate the Extinguishing of the Symbolic Light, more specifically the crucifixion of the Christ in the gospel telling. On the immediate Sunday, there is a follow-up observance aptly called the Relighting of the Symbolic Light which marks the resurrection. The key point of this observance is to remember those brethren who have passed on in the preceding year. Where once these events were mandatory attendance events for Knight Rose Croix, in most locations they serve as remembrance events open to all.

Knight Rose Croix

While an observance event, the Maundy gathering in some respect serve to supplement the Rose Croix Chapter of the Scottish Rite in the 17th (Knight of the East and West) and 18th (Knight Rose Croix) degrees, both of which attempt to invest candidates with an understanding of Religion, Philosophy, Ethics, and History. While seemingly a religious (Christian) observance, it’s been written that the observance seeks to “to commemorate the death of our most wise and perfect Master – not as inspired or divine, but as at least the greatest of humanity.” In one description of the event, Arturo De Hoyos says,

The Ceremony of Remembrance and Renewal, including the Mystic Banquet, is not a religious observance.  It is neither the Feast of Passover nor a Sacrament of Holy Communion, although it commemorates the spirit of both days. Annually, the observance is held near the vernal equinox.

From the Builder Magazine, April 1924, the observance is thus described,

sol

The ceremonies of Maundy Thursday made obligatory on each Rose Croix Chapter of the Scottish Rite, is a festival almost as old as the world, for it has been observed in some form or other from time immemorial. It began with early man’s naive wonder at the coming of spring, an event to him of the very greatest importance since it represented the return of the sun god from the death of winter to the resurrection of the vernal equinox. “The years at the spring,” that was his feeling, and this feeling took a thousand forms of expression, some of them magical, some religious, some of them a joyous human merry-making. Whatever the form the kernel of feeling remained the same; the god of light, warmth, and life, whatever may have been his name Mithra, Attis, Cama, Osiris, Ormuzd, Dionysus had been dead through the winter time, and now he had come back to life again, and would bestow life on his people, therefore there were solemn rejoicings.

Of the ceremony itself, it says,

The Symbolic Lights are Re-lighted; it is a time of rebirth, rehabilitation, regeneration and renewal of life and energy. Death and darkness have departed and the earth sings its joy of Love and of Living. What before was desolation of spirit and of thought, has the crucible of Light and the revivification of those for whom life had lost its meaning.

Just as the dark ages in Europe were followed by the Renaissance of learning, so had the new light of Easter come, bringing with it the new life of Love and understanding.

The new Commandment has been fulfilled.

This is a time, then, for each of us to search our Souls and see if we truly and devotedly are living the Life of Love —Not just in mere outward similitude. But in our innermost, personal, private lives. Are we — in business, at home, in our pastimes — living the life of the New Commandment? If we weigh ourselves in its light and find ourselves wanting. Then it is time for us to do something sincerely and devotedly about it.

Let us at the Symbolic Relighting of the Lights, dedicate ourselves to duty, renew our vows, so often repeated in our Rite, and lead the Life of Love, one to another, that our light will shine among men in the world, that we may be known truly as men and as Masons who mean eternal truths learned in our Rituals and who, by our personal acts and conduct, portray those meanings to their ultimate fulfillment.

book, fellow craft book, masonic education

Fellow of the Craft, the book

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This was written as a second attempt at approaching how to introduce the new book Fellow of the Craft – a Treatise on the Second Degree of Freemasonry.

Passing

fellowcraft, masonic, second degree, masonic

Fellow of the Craft – a Treatise on the Second Degree of Freemasonry

The challenge has been in how to reveal something that is and should be already apparent and known. That is not meant as flippant or assuming. To the contrary, it is to express a sentiment we are each taught from the very earliest of days in our Masonic upbringing, that our progress is measured and celebrated in what we learn and how we grow from those lessons. That is the heart of what it means to be passed as a Fellow of the Craft.

That craft is the intangibility behind the scenes of doing Freemasonry. It’s in the catechism, the lessons of association and the mechanism by which good men become better. The intangibility comes in the day-to-day lessons of knowledge we gain and its byproduct of wisdom. Certainly, it has been written and codified in a myriad of teachings esoteric and exoteric, hidden in plain sight and cloaked in unintelligible symbols the meaning of which we devote lives to the study of.

So then, the becoming of a fellow is the degree of passing, the movement through time and space such that its transit is imperceptible and shapes our moral vantage point.

The importance of it all is in how we go about that transit. This is the heart of BECOMING – the path of time and space along the curve of the compass turn. In a more esoteric sense, it is the replication of the first which makes two – the same unit in its polar opposite, the Janus head or the opposite side of the same coin.

This understanding may seem unimportant, but that is not the case. It is as important as becoming the reflected image in the mirror who stares back in contemplation as one gazes into their soul. It is you, the same but no longer the Apprentice. It is as a fellow amongst many on that journey.

So would have begun the Fellow of the Craft. What was that alternate path? You can find that answer and more in the release of the new book Fellow of the Craft – a Treatise on the Second Degree of Freemasonry.

Fellow of the Craft is out now and available on Amazon in traditional hardbound and Kindle ebook format. Also available, The Apprentice – a Treatise on the First Degree of Freemasonry.