On this Memorial Day I found myself thinking about the Civil War when Brother fought brother in this great country. I have recently had the privilege to edit a collection of works by Freemason writers which the Philalethes Society published in 2009 under the name Fiat Lux. Among the many fine articles is one written by Allen Roberts entitled “Masonry under Two Flags”. The following are a few instances involving Freemasons who fought and in many cases died, on both sides of this bloodiest of American conflicts.

Freemasons did not go easily onto the killing fields. For more than a decade Grand Lodges fought to prevent the slow slide into a bloody conflict which would set Brother against Brother. “Love S. Cornwell, Grand Master of Masons in Missouri in 1856, asked: ‘Is there a Mason hailing from the land of the Puritans, who so far forgets his duty as to set laws at defiance, and attempt to propagate his political creed by force of arms … or is there a Mason hailing from the sunny South, proverbial...

Read More »

The question above is one I received from a young man who stated he wanted to become a Freemason but the bloody penalties and the oaths which he had down loaded from an anti-Masonic website bothered him.

He had read that Master Masons would keep the secrets of another Master Mason and refuse to testify against another Mason even he had committed rape, kidnapping, or other heinous crimes. He wanted to know if he could alter the words of his oath so that I could feel more comfortable with them. Obviously, the young man had been fed some very untrue and malicious lies which distorted the language and intent of our Masonic oaths.



They say the first casualty in war is truth and one only has to turn on a television to understand how prevalent the total disregard for truth has become in our society today.  But, how does a man, particularly a Freemason, respond to such lies?

The words of our Masonic Oaths are close to 400 years old. They were penned at a time when the world was lit...

Read More »

Last night I attended the annual discussion on pending legislation and the presentation of the incoming budget. It was fun, entertaining, and sad, all at the same time. It was fun to see the Grand Lodge marshal its’ forces to deal with unnecessary and threatening legislation. The presentation of the 2010-2011 budget however, was sad. The new budget coming on the heels of last year’s $6 per capita increase was increased by another $60,000 and will require another $8 increase. The justification was the declining membership is now only 9,000 down 60% in the past 10 years! Unfortunately, not one of those pennies will be used be used to help the Membership of the Grand Lodge. You dear Brothers, will vote for it because you have a history...

Read More »

I get a lot of questions about the requirement to express a belief in a Supreme Being for a Candidate for Freemasonry.

I am not in any shape or form what you would call a religious person. I can’t remember the last time I walked into a house of worship. But I also can’t remember ever having a doubt about the fact that God not only exists but still performs miracles. I can count no less that 30 instances where my life has been impacted directly by events and circumstances that are impossible to comprehend without the existence of a Supreme Being. Many times this involved me living when I should, by all the laws of nature, have died.

All of these events have had a cumulative impact on my belief systems, but none more dramatically than the following incident which happened long before I married my wife of forty years.

It was late in November and I was logging a lot of hours in my single engine Piper Arrow before the weather really got bad. One evening, I arrived at the home of a gal I was dating...

Read More »

Beginning May 12th, 2010, the Phoenix Valley will host the Fifth Southwest Regional Scottish Rite Reunion which will make Scottish Rite history. Since it’s founding in 1801 the Supreme Council for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in North America has conferred the 4th through the 32nd Degrees leaving the Craft Lodges to confer the first three Degrees of the York Rite; everywhere, that is, except for a handful of Lodges in New Orleans where the first Lodge of Perfection was established in 1764.

Now for the first time ever, a Scottish Rite Reunion will exemplify all 32 Degrees of the Rite. For those who have never experienced the first three Degrees of Scottish Rite, this will be a once in a lifetime experience.

How different are these Degrees from those a candidate goes through in the Blue Lodge? Well, let’s just say it’s not for the feint hearted. The preparation room in the First Degree of Scottish Rite is styled “The Chamber of Reflection” and I still have a vivid memory...

Read More »

When Dan Brown selected Washington D.C. for the locale of The Lost Symbol, he picked a place rich in history and controversy. While our readers are surely no strangers to the silly conspiracy theories surrounding the design of the Capital City, Mr. Brown sidestepped these easy targets and, in doing so, provided the reader with a far richer experience for their literary visit to the District of Columbia. The result is a tome that provides a fruitful platform for those interested in Masonic sightseeing and to re-experience the city for the first time, even for locals or those who have already made repeated visits to DC.

The House of the Temple



“The colossal edifice, located at 1733 Sixteenth Street NW in Washington D.C., was a replica of a pre-Christian temple – the temple of King Mausolus, the original mausoleum… a place to be taken after death. Outside the main entrance, two seventeen-ton sphinxes guarded the bronze doors.1”

...

Read More »

When asked about Freemasonry and what it does, perhaps the most popular answer is that Freemasonry makes good men better, but how does it accomplish that goal?

The fact that every Masonic meeting opens and closes with prayer has often led to unfounded allegations that Freemasonry is a religion. It isn’t of course, Freemasonry is open to good men of all religions, but it does say a lot about the type of men who are attracted to our Fraternity. The first step in improving the nature of any group of men is a belief in the inherent goodness that lies within them. In Freemasonry that common belief is that we are a Brotherhood of men under the fatherhood of God.

Prayer really works and I can prove it: In Freemasonry you are taught the importance of looking to God for his blessings in everything you do. This is very important because it frames the character of a Freemason. You may lie to yourself and others but no rational thinking man can lie to his creator. If we are to implore God’s...

Read More »

Even before the devastating earthquake which struck the capital of Haiti last week the country was widely recognized as the poorest in the Western world.

But, just two hundred years ago Haiti was a thriving example of success.

The country, once known as Hispaniola, began as a French colony in which hundreds of thousands of African slaves worked the sugar plantations under horrific conditions. Many of them were literally worked to death. The news of the French revolution would ignite a bloody revolution and the loss of Haiti led to Napoleon giving up a vast portion of North America in what is known as the Louisiana Purchase.

What is not so widely known, is the important part Haiti played in the liberation of South America, and the spread of the Scottish Rite in France in 1804. The key players in this Masonic history were Estienne Morin, originator of what we know today as the Morin Rite, Alexandre Francois Auguste Comte de Grasse, and Jean Baptiste Delahogue (two of the eleven...

Read More »

There’s been plenty of controversy about what has been dubbed “The Dan Brown Effect;” caused when readers are misinformed about the actual intent or history of an organization when it is placed in the fictional plot of one of Mr. Brown’s novels. But, consider the alternative. If Batman weren’t a gadget-toting millionaire and the effects of a radioactive spider didn’t give Spiderman his amazing abilities, something would be lost. Perhaps it is even worse today, where Dan Brown’s novels have to compete with the re-imagined characters of a boxing Sherlock Holmes and an Iron Man that both have the rugged good looks of Robert Downey Jr. But just as these superheroes are given amazing abilities and sex appeal, there is a natural necessity to use the artistic license that every author of fictional has, to ignite our imaginations and encourage us to turn page after page of his novels.

The Lost Symbol is no different. Mr. Brown uses a mixture of history and imagination to talk about the Masonic organization...

Read More »

A recent email I received stopped me cold.

It came from a Brother in Europe who I have known for almost a decade. He is a very knowledgeable and respected Masonic researcher and someone who will shortly become one of our mentors for the Freemason Academy. I had emailed him asking how things were going on that side of the pond. His answer was to say the least, very dramatic.

“Our Masonic Academy is a great success and takes a lot of my time. As you remember it's totally different from what you call by the same name in the USA.  There you tend to consider the "traditional" type of Masonic research as mostly related to studying the past, a post-mortem of Freemasonry as if it were a dead body.

“We are concentrating on an aspect of the Craft which has mostly been neglected. Carefully and intentionally and coyly neglected, I'm afraid. We consider Freemasonry as a living, developing, changing body endowed with a soul, with a philosophy, with a future. It's that soul, that philosophy...

Read More »