Issue 49 (Summer 2020) of The Journal of the Masonic Society has been out for about a month, so let me tell you about it in case you are not yet a member. You’ll find a lot of facts, logic, and reason within its pages.

In fact, the Winding Stairway of the Middle Chamber Lecture in the Fellow Craft Degree (for a great many of us) is presented in several contexts. Jim Rumsey of Texas gives us “The Masonic Philosophy of the Winding Stairway: A Pathway to Enlightenment,” in which he leads us up the stairs, step by step. On Music, for example, this elected member of his grand lodge’s Committee on Work explains how “Music teaches us to manage our time…and to understand that it takes time and patience to accomplish life.” And that “Harmony is bringing all things together and managing conflict.”

Meanwhile, in his “Light from the East Coast,” the President of the Masonic Society brings to our attention the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher Thomas Reid, whose name is noted in the Second Degree section of William Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry. Reid is renowned as the Father of Common Sense. His treatise titled Inquiry into the Human Mind expounds on the Five Physical Senses, also known to Free and Accepted Masons through the MC Lecture, and the President’s point is to urge Freemasons to use their faculties and common sense during the pandemic so as not to be “affected by hysterical media or by politicians who never planned for any emergency.” Hmmm.

Pennsylvania’s William Britton shares “Reflecting on the Reflections of a Newly Made Mason,” an essay that was inspired by a talk he witnessed in a lodge he had visited and that made quite an impact. Sharing his thoughts, for example, on Astronomy, Britton says:

As the seasons change—winter to spring, spring to summer—so the morning changes to midday, then afternoon, and leads us into the center, or middle chamber of the day. With that advancement comes maturity—time when we are fully able to make intellectual decisions in life, rather than using our emotions, relying on rationality as a means to make decisions based on reason. It is here, in the middle chamber, we are given more refined tools that become essential to the precision required in the building process. When a building is being erected, every stone in it must be so placed that the stress of gravity pulls on all portions of the structure in such a manner that its unity and consistency are preserved. Such it is when we base our decisions upon the foundation of rational reason.

I like what he writes in this piece. I think it recalls Stoic philosophy, but you decide for yourself. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been telling anyone who would listen that when our GMHA avows “My l u ma tk; bt m intg nv,” he is not referring to pure, honest duty. He is affirming how his obligations are integral to his being. When one speaks of a building’s structural integrity, he is not talking about the building’s honesty; he is referring to the building’s very ability to exist per the proper applications of the useful rules of architecture. The Emperor Marcus makes this very point in his Stoic reflections we know as the Meditations.

Upon opening this issue of The Journal, I actually landed in the middle, where we find “Masonic Perspectives: A Second Look at Aspects of Controversial Topics in American Freemasonry.” This is one in a series where the authors reach into history to demonstrate how—to borrow Karr’s famous axiom—the more things change, the more they stay the same. In this case, John Bizzack (Masonic Society Board Member) and Dan Kemble examine two articles from the May 1929 issue of The Builder magazine. The first is titled “The Future of Freemasonry,” by Herbert Hungerford, and the second is “Where Are We Drifting?” by R.J. Meekren. You probably can guess what these two vintage articles say, because you probably have been saying the same thing, namely that “we in America have been bitten by the lust for size, for numbers, for wealth.” (Hungerford) And that the “leaders of the Craft have very frequently expressed grave fears in regard to losses from various causes, especially those by suspension for non-payment of dues. Rather less frequently, doubts have been voiced as to whether the growth in the last decade has not been altogether too rapid.” (Meekren)

There is much detail provided in membership statistics, but it is not dry reading. It really is a very important lesson in Masonic practice that future grand masters ought to read and comprehend, so the Craft may break its pointless cycle of initiating and losing such high numbers of brethren.

In The Journal’s Spotlight section, we find an interview with the irrepressible John “Coach” Nagy, a persuasive voice in social media and a prolific author. Here Nagy extols the urgency of research, and illustrates the value of etymology in understanding Masonic vocabulary—something I prize myself. We use the terms Free and Accepted, Freemason, and free stone often enough, and Nagy explains that our word “free” should not be taken merely as “unrestrained,” but as per its French origin, franche, meaning “superior, excellent, pure, master.” The discussion spans three pages, but I wish it went longer.

Likewise looking into word meanings and our need to guard the West Gate, Francis Fritz of Arizona asks “Are We a Secret Society?” It’s a pretty short, but thoughtful, opinion piece that just may cure brethren of reciting a certain ubiquitous catchphrase about a society with secrets. Check it out and decide for yourself.

Giovanni “Joey” Villegas of Manila, Philippines renders a lengthy study in the back of the magazine on the subject of “Masonry in the Time of the Corona Virus,” that naturally was written independently of the President’s message in the front of the magazine, but that synchronously also encourages us to keep calm. After a deep recitation of facts and numbers on how the fraternity worldwide is dealing with the pandemic, Villegas reminds us that “Masonry is indeed about applying the tenets and teachings for the benefit of our brethren and of all mankind. You don’t need to have a meeting to learn and serve Masonry. It was never about collecting degrees or aspiring for positions and awards. It always has been about Brotherly Love (caring), Relief (helping), and Truth (learning).”

The regular features of The Journal consistently help us navigate the Masonic world outside our lodges. In the reviews section, Steven Shimp, a Past Master of St. John’s Lodge 435 in Pennsylvania (I’ve never seen a St. John’s Lodge numbered so high!) praises the Masonic Lite podcast, hosted by five fellow Pennsylvanians. Shimp credits the show for using informal talk to present Masonic education. In the books department, Seth Anthony (another Pennsylvanian!) discusses the Roger Dachez and Alain Bauer book Freemasonry: A French View, which he lauds as “an excellent, short read that is absolutely packed with Masonic knowledge” and that clarifies for the American reader the often vexing story of Freemasonry in France. My friend Dave Tucker of New Jersey sizes up Michael Poll’s Measured Expectations: The Challenges of Today’s Freemasonry, which was honored as the Grand Lodge of Illinois’ book of the year. “Measured Expectations examines the needs of a newly raised Mason,” Tucker writes. “The book is full of very practical observations and suggestions.” Another(!) Keystone State Mason, M. Vincent Cruciani, reviews the insightful Roy Wells’ Some Royal Arch Terms Examined. Noting how the book is more useful to English Royal Arch Masons than to Americans, Cruciani encourages us to read the book for its decoding of Hebrew terms.

Speaking of Mike Poll, the Editor in Chief of The Journal, in his Editor’s Corner column, also addresses Masonic life during the pandemic. (Let me point out that this issue of The Journal went into production in April, so it’s important to appreciate the time lapsed.) He notes the online discussions among Masons, and the organized efforts of brethren to help, aid, and assist the needy, whether they are Masons or not. “We are Masons and have the need to act like Masons.”

Perhaps as a kind of bookend, Masonic Society Second Vice President Greg Knott, in his photography feature “Through the Camera Lens,” takes us on a tour of the Civil War battlefield of Fredericksburg. He shows us the statue of Confederate soldier Richard Kirkland, who was thus memorialized because he risked his neck to bring water to the wounded Union men strewn about the field. “This selfless act is a reminder of the obligation we have as Freemasons to assist our brothers and others who might need some aid,” Knott writes. “During this time of COVID-19 pandemic, let us remember to reach out to our brethren and their families to ensure their well being.”

SMIB.

There still is more to this issue of The Journal of the Masonic Society, but it’s hard for me to believe you’ve read even this far, so see for yourself. It’s the best $45 you’ll spend in Freemasonry.

Fiat lux. Fiat lex. Fiat pax.

Jay Hochberg
President

The faster society appears to spiral into oblivion, the more we, as Free and Accepted Masons, can be confident that our gentle Craft illumines the way forward. As I write this to you on the closing day of May, swaths of multiple American cities are left in smoking ruins following days of riots, looting, arson, and other savagery. Amid the current fog of war, seemingly everyone is pointing fingers at everybody else: It’s a rent-a-mob or it’s the far-Left or it’s the far-Right or it’s the Russians or maybe Martians. (The gallows humor in me recalls that funny hand gesture in the Table Lodge—following a very different kind of fire, and before a very different form of battery—when we ritually “Point! Left! Right! Point! Left! Right! Point! Left! Right!”)

In the rituals of many (most?) lodges in the English-speaking Masonic world, we reveal to the youngest Entered Apprentice the Four Cardinal Virtues: Fortitude, Prudence, Temperance, and Justice. Of the first, we, under the Grand Lodge of New York at least, say “this virtue is equally distant from rashness and cowardice, and should be deeply impressed upon your mind.” Of the second, we explain “Prudence teaches us to regulate our lives and actions agreeably to the dictates of reason, and is that habit by which we wisely judge and determine on all things relative to our present, as well as our future, happiness.” And Temperance, of course, is that “due restraint upon the passions which renders the body tame and governable, and frees the mind from the allurements of vice.”

That fourth virtue is considered apart from the first three. Whereas Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance concern our inner work, the refinements of heart, mind, and body, Justice causes us to look outward. It is a product of successful moral building in Fortitude, Prudence, and Temperance that we project toward others to aid in constructing a just society. The ceremony of initiation in my lodge says: “Justice is that standard which enables us to render to every man his due, without distinction. This virtue is not only consistent with Divine and human law, but is the very cement and support of society; and, as justice, in a great measure, distinguishes the good man, so should it be your practice to be just.”

The rituals most of us in America employ basically originate from the writings of William Preston, but there were other essential thinkers in Freemasonry in Preston’s time. William Hutchinson published his book The Spirit of Masonry in 1775. His book didn’t catch on quite as successfully as Preston’s Illustrations of Masonry, but, if nothing else, on the subject of Justice he thoughtfully advises:

“To walk uprightly before heaven and before men, neither inclining to the right or to the left, is the duty of a Mason, neither becoming an enthusiast or a persecutor in religion, nor bending towards innovation or infidelity. In civil government, firm in our allegiance, yet steadfast in our laws, liberties, and constitution. In private life, yielding up every selfish propensity, inclining neither to avarice or injustice, to malice or revenge, to envy or contempt with mankind, but as the builder raises his column by the plane and perpendicular, so should the Mason carry himself towards the world.”

And:

“Yet merely to act with justice and truth is not all that man should attempt, for even that excellence would be selfishness. That duty is not relative, but merely proper; it is only touching our own character, and doing nothing for our neighbor, for justice is an indispensible duty in each individual. We were not born for ourselves alone, only to shape our course through life in the tracks of tranquility, and solely to study that which should afford peace to the conscience at home, but men were made as mutual aids to each other.”

That sounds great, but where do we begin? In my April message to you, I urged we keep to the Masonic adage “Follow Reason” when trying to decode the various and changing communications from government to the public on the subject of COVID-19. This latest pandemic of rioting and destruction is said to have been ignited by a policeman’s killing of a civilian in Minnesota. The accused police officer is white; the deceased was black. It didn’t have to happen, and it shouldn’t have happened, but, for our purposes, Follow Reason holds true here too. There are facts that accountable public officials, civic leaders, news media, and others neglect to share with the American public. They have their reasons, but we have Reason. The Federal Bureau of Investigation publishes its annual Uniform Crime Report, a compendium of all kinds of data—some of them imperfect due to collection methods—concerning crime and punishment in the United States. Therein you will find how most arrest-related deaths result mostly in dead white people, and that white police officers kill white civilians. White police officers have killed black civilians. Black police officers have killed white civilians. Black police officers have killed black civilians. If fiery riots erupted after each incident, we’d be living in hell—an atmosphere of ceaseless deadly heat and no Light.

I close with more from Hutchinson: “Let us then, by our practice and conduct in life, show that we carry our emblems worthily, and as the children of the Light, we have turned our backs on works of darkness…preferring charity, benevolence, justice.”

Fiat lux. Fiat lex. Fiat pax.

Jay Hochberg
President

“May you live in interesting times,” goes the saying that simultaneously rings like a blessing, but actually is anything but well-wishing. You have to admit, these are interesting days. For the first time in living memory, people everywhere live in fear of a contagion that is killing thousands worldwide and leaving countless more infected. I, for one, am not panicking.

We, as Free and Accepted Masons, are taught to train our minds so that we seek information, refine it into knowledge, and then carry on with some degree of wisdom. The truth about this COVID-19 is, yes, it is lethal to some and is present practically everywhere, but this is not the end of times. Let us, as the Moderns of the eighteenth century said in motto, “Follow Reason.”

The number of Americans diagnosed and recovered vastly exceeds the number of patients who have succumbed. In my own life, I just received word—as I write this—that my 96-year-old aunt, who had been convalescing in physical therapy following recent shoulder surgery, has died. The facility has been quarantined for weeks for everyone’s safety, but nothing is foolproof.

Oscar Alleyne, the First Vice President of the Masonic Society, is an epidemiologist who serves as chief program officer for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. Oscar earned a Doctor of Public Health Degree at New York Medical College, and he has years of experience with far more serious outbreaks (H1N1, Smallpox, MERS, West Nile, etc.). In addition appearing frequently on television to reassure a jittery public, Oscar also has been co-hosting web conferences for Masonic audiences to explain what he knows about staying safe. Seek him out in these media because I can’t avouch for a more rational source of information. For raw data, please keep up with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention here. At four o’clock every weekday afternoon, the CDC updates the statistics on the nationwide total deaths and total COVID-19 cases. Right now, there have been 3,603 deaths. I recommend ignoring the “death ticker” that one self-described news channel on cable television is maintaining. The number shoots up like the dollar amount on a gas pump. If nothing else, remember the flu is killing tens of thousands of Americans this season. Funny how we don’t hear about it.

In fact, I advise against consuming too much “news media.” The initiated eye will see it is intended to hold a fearful audience captive for increased clicks or viewers or readers or whatevers. Instead, Follow Reason. We Freemasons keep our faith in God and fear no danger. We’re not imprudent but, armed with the Cardinal Virtues and the Theological Virtues, we are better able to keep healthy, safe, and sane.

If you now are coping with a lot of extra time due to interruptions in your working life, please know there are myriad sources of Masonic interaction being kept current. There are webinars hosted by lodges, grand lodges, and other groups. Podcasts abound seemingly everywhere, including the new Meet, Act and Part co-hosted by Greg Knott, the Second Vice President of the Masonic Society. Just today, Founding Fellow Piers Vaughan released his translation of an obscure French text concerning Freemasonry, Martinism, and other topics here. And wherever you are at 9 p.m., please take part in the worldwide Time to Toast, organized by the United Grand Lodge of England, when we raise our glasses to absent brethren—because right now, we all are absent until we return to less interesting times.

Fiat lux. Fiat lex. Fiat pax.

Jay Hochberg
President

The following was read on behalf of WBro. Davis at the 2018 Annual Meeting of The Masonic Society on February 9, 2018, in Alexandria, Virginia.

Brethren and guests,

I regret that treatment for prostate cancer prevents my attending this meeting, but I know I am leaving it in good hands.

In October 2015, my predecessor, Jim Dillman, called and chaired a board retreat in St. Louis, Missouri, to set strategic goals for The Masonic Society. We were one vote short of a quorum, so the gathering was not an official board meeting, but several of us attending said that the meeting was one of the most productive we had ever participated in. At the meeting, we set three initiatives for the next two years, and distributed them to the members for online discussion.

I subsequently, before taking office at Masonic Week 2016, talked with each board member separately, as well as other key members of TMS, and learned their own priorities and commitments.

Our first initiative was an annual TMS conference, and indeed we had TMS’s first two annual conferences, a small but excellent one in San Jose, California, in October 2016, organized by board member Gregg Hall, and a larger one in Lexington, Kentucky, in September 2017, organized by board member John Bizzack. Chris Hodapp, editor emeritus of the Journal of The Masonic Society, called it “one of the very best and most useful Masonic symposiums I’ve attended in a long time.”

My own hope is that TMS Conferences will attract and serve not only Masonic leaders and researchers, as Masonic Week does so effectively, but also more and more of the many Masons who have, perhaps only recently, become interested in the history, philosophy, and symbolism of the Craft. If they attend only one national Masonic event, I hope it will be ours.

But conferences are expensive, and require an extraordinary amount of planning and preparation time, so our now-available funds and volunteers may not be able to support an annual conference. Increasing our membership may allow us to continue annual conferences, but for now at least, we may be able to hold conferences only biannually.

Our second initiative was a TMS School. So far, the school has offered one course, in the history and philosophy of Freemasonry, created and conducted online by Michael Poll, editor of our journal. The board has begun discussing another TMS School program, an educational tour of Masonic sites in the UK, organized by board member Greg Knott.

Our third initiative was a TMS Scholar program, to offer financial support for a major project by a selected Masonic researcher, who in turn would be available to speak to lodges of research and other Masonic organizations during his or her term of service. Planning for this initiative is ongoing.

And I know that many of you share my view that under Mike Poll’s editorship, The Journal of the Masonic Society continues to be Freemasonry’s leading periodical.

My personal highlight during my term as president occurred a year ago, at Masonic Week 2017, when board member Greg Knott and his lodge brother Todd Creason arranged for past president Jim Dillman and me, representing TMS, to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, at Arlington Cemetery. We did so, in full Masonic regalia. I was especially honored to be allowed, as a veteran, to render a hand salute to our fallen heroes.

In conclusion, it has been an honor for me to serve as The Masonic Society’s president during the last two years. It has been a pleasure to know and work with my brother directors and officers, as well as many other TMS members. I am very optimistic about the society’s future.

Again, I’m sorry I can’t be among you tonight. But I know you’ll proceed to meet on the level, act by the plumb, and part on the square.

Fraternally and sincerely,

Ken Davis, President, The Masonic Society

President’s Message, Issue #34, The Journal of The Masonic Society

How good and how pleasant it is …
by Kenneth W. Davis, FMS

I’m recently back from one the most interesting and informative Masonic events of my life, the 2016 Annual Conference of The Masonic Society, which took place October 7-9, in beautiful Morgan Hill, California.

Honoring the conference theme, “Freemasonry on the Frontier,” speakers took participants on a fascinating historical tour of the expanding North American frontier, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Kicking off the conference Friday evening was Jefferson H. Jordan, Jr., immediate past grand master of Masons in New Mexico, speaking as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, “Mark Twain.” Clemens’s talk emphasized his Masonic experience and his travels on the Western frontier of the United States.

The first presentation Saturday was by William Miklos, who invited us to participate in “an Imaginary Conversation among the Thirteen Masons of the Continental Convention.” Bill is founding master of the Golden Compasses Research Lodge, past master of the Northern California Research Lodge, and a founding member of TMS.

Following Bill were Moises Gomez, past grand historian of the grand lodge of New Jersey, who spoke about the early traveling lodges of his home state, and Kyle Grafstrom, junior warden of Verity Lodge 59 in Kent, Washington, speaking on “Freemasonry in the Wild West.”

Saturday afternoon began with Adam Kendall, a founding fellow of TMS and editor of The Plumbline, the journal of The Scottish Rite Research Society, who presented “Pilgrimage and Procession: The 1883 Knights Templar Triennial Conclave and the Dream of the American West.”

He was followed by Wayne Sirmon, treasurer of Mobile Lodge 40 and past master of the Texas Lodge of Research, who spoke on “West by Southwest: The Expansion of Frontier Freemasonry from the Old Southwest”—by which he meant, to my surprise, not New Mexico and Arizona, but Alabama. (Who’d have thought?)

The “frontier-themed” presentations ended with a fascinating look at “Freemasonry and Nation-building on the Pacific Coast,” by John L. Cooper III, past grand master of the Masonic Grand Lodge of California. We were especially honored to have John present, as he is currently president of our sister organization, The Philalethes Society.

After Saturday dinner was a special bonus presentation by Moises Gomez, who in addition to his Masonic honors is a twenty-eight-year veteran of the Emergency Service Unit of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. As such, Moe was among the first responders at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. He spoke on his experiences at “Ground Zero” and the Masonic values he saw embodied there, and he presented conference participants with a commemorative pin.

The single most important person in making the conference a success was TMS board member Gregg Hall, who coordinated all local arrangements and pitched in with preparing our gourmet meals.

The year 2017 will include two already-scheduled TMS events. The first will be our seventh annual dinner at Masonic Week, February 9-12, at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington, Virginia. The dinner will take place Friday, February 10, at 6:30 pm, and will feature an after-dinner talk by Mike Poll, past president of TMS and editor of this journal. All Masons, ladies, and guests are welcome!

Our 2017 conference will be held September 7-10, at Embassy Suites in Lexington, Kentucky. The conference, tentatively titled “Celebrating 300 Years of Freemasonry,” is being coordinated by Masonic author and TMS board member John Bizzack and is being cosponsored with Lexington Lodge 1 (chartered in 1788), The Rubicon Masonic Society, The Grand Lodge of Kentucky Education Committee, William O. Ware Lodge of Research, and Ted Adams Lodge of Research.

Besides presentations by nationally known speakers, the conference will include tours of the Kentucky Horse Park and Ashland Estate, the home of famed nineteenth-century Mason Henry Clay, as well as a formal festive board at historic Spindletop Hall.

As a former faculty member at the University of Kentucky, a thirteen-year resident of Lexington, and an official, governor-proclaimed Kentucky Colonel, I know first-hand the beauty of the Bluegrass State and the hospitality of its people. Just as my wife, Bette, and I took advantage of the location of our 2016 conference to make a spectacular trip down the California coast, I hope many of you will take advantage of the equally beautiful and historical setting of the 2017 event.

(An aside: when I lived in Lexington, I was not yet a Mason and did not know John Bizzack. Only recently did we discover that I served on the very grand jury that indicted the criminals whom John and his fellow police offers rounded up in a sting operation. The Masonic world is a small one.)

I look forward to seeing many of you at Masonic Week in Virginia in February and at the TMS Conference in Kentucky in September. Each of them will be a must-go event in this Masonic anniversary year. Be there, and on the square!

Fraternally,

Kenneth W. Davis

President’s Message, Issue #33, The Journal of The Masonic Society

Point to Heaven . . .
by Kenneth W. Davis, FMS

You won’t be surprised to learn that my Masonic e-mail signature block includes the line “President, The Masonic Society.” However, the line before that carries another Masonic title, “Chaplain, Albuquerque Lodge 60 and the New Mexico Lodge of Research.” I value deeply my office in TMS, but I value equally the honor of serving as a chaplain. As chaplain, I try (succeeding only in part, of course) to follow the injunction given me when I was installed (from the monitor of the Grand Lodge of New Mexico):

“Reverand Brother . . . it is your special duty to conduct the devotions of the Lodge, and to present before the throne of Heavenly Grace the spiritual needs of your Brethren. In all your intercourse with your Lodge, it is expected that you will ‘point to Heaven and lead the way.’”

As chaplain, I recite the opening and closing prayers, as well as the prayers within degrees. But I also love—though I am a layman—the occasional opportunities to be “pastoral” for my brothers.

When we elect a new candidate for degrees, and after the secretary has called him, I give the candidate a phone call. I introduce myself, extend my congratulations, and ask him three things.

First, I ask him what Volume of Sacred Law he wishes to take his obligations on. I tell him that no one, at least in the context of blue-lodge Masonry, will ask about his specific religious tradition again. As our twenty-first landmark requires (again in the version within the New Mexican monitor), “that a Book of the Law, a religious code of some kind puporting to be an exemplar of the revealed will of God, shall form an essential part of the furniture of every Lodge.”

I often ask the candidate to check the website of the Grand Lodge of Israel. In that highly contentious country the seal of the Grand Lodge of Israel displays the Jewish Star of David, the Christian Cross, and the Muslim Crescent.

Second, I ask the newly-elected candidate to not read any details of the degree rituals, so he can experience the degrees without foreknowledge and preconceptions.

And third, I tell him about chambers of reflection. Like, I suppose, most North American lodges, the two blue lodges of which I’ve been a member do not have such chambers. So I ask the candidate to find three blocks of time between then and the degree—at least fifteen minutes each—when he can sit alone, in the dark and in silence, and meditate on his past, present, and future, including his eventual death.

(Incidentally, though I don’t have a skull on my personal home “altar,” I do have the polished box, provided by our cremation service, that will one day hold my ashes. That’s a pretty good memento mori for me.)

The most moving event in my service as chaplain happened in June of this year. John Baker, a fifty-year Mason and Albuquerque 60’s marshall and oldest active member, passed away. I had sat next to him in lodge for several years, and had come to rely on his friendship, advice, and occasional prompting.

While John was hospitalized, I had visited him and said a prayer, but a Masonic commitment prevented my attending his funeral. So I was grateful to be invited to his cremation. Three members of the lodge were there, along with John’s son-in-law, an artist.

We gathered around the uncovered cardboard box in which John’s unembalmed body lay. We each said our goodbyes, and I offered prayers. John’s son-in-law, though not a Mason, had painted on wood an abstract image of an all-seeing eye. He laid it on John’s chest, and asked him to personally present it as an offering to God.

With the funeral director, we put the cover on the box, wheeled it into the cremation room, and slid it through the open door of the furnace. The funeral director closed the door, and the other four of us together pushed the green button that started the flames. I had never before felt so powerfully the reality of the words from Ecclesiastes 12:7 recited in the Master Mason degree: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was; and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” I’ll tangibly felt John’s spirit making its final exit from his body.

Thanks for letting me honor John by telling that story. Please send me your own “chaplain” stories, or better yet, post them on the TMS member’s forum.

By the way, an excellent source for Masonic prayers, for many occasions, is the pocket-sized Compendium of Masonic Prayers and Graces, by Rev. Neville Barker Cryer, published by Lewis Masonic.

A final note:

This journal’s editor-in-chief, Michael Halleran, who gave us more than four years of excellent work, has resigned. I’m proud to announce that he has been replaced by Michael Poll, whose service begins with this issue. Mike Poll is eminently qualified for the job, and he has gathered an outstanding team: Assistant Editors Mark Robbins, Christopher Rodkey, and Christian Christensen; Art Director John Bridegroom; Advertising Director Jay Hochberg; and Review Editor Tyler Anderson. Please give them your thanks and support!

Fraternally,

Kenneth W. Davis

Important: For new information on the TMS Conference, Scholar, and School, see the tabs above.

By the Exercise of Brotherly Love . . .
by Kenneth W. Davis, FMS

Here in New Mexico, the first-degree lecture lists the “Tenets of a Freemason’s profession” as “Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth”—doubtlessly not a surprise to Masons everywhere.

The lecture continues by defining brotherly love:

By the exericise of Brotherly Love, we are taught to regard the whole human species as one family—the high, the low, the rich, the poor—who, as created by one Almighty Parent, and inhabitants of the same planet, are to aid, support, and protect each other. On this principle, Freemasonry unites men of every country, sect, and opinion; and conciliates true friendship among those who might otherwise have remained at a perpetual distance.

In the US, the “perpetual distance” between people of different religious and political tribes seems large. Even in some Masonic lodges, religious and political differences among brothers are causing discord, even hatred. Young brothers are being told, for example, that Freemasonry is for members of only one religious tradition.

How did our Craft get into this situation, and how do we get out? One answer, although certainly not the only answer, may seem puzzling at first. I suggest there may be a correlation between true brotherly love and a deep devotion to our ritual—including lectures like the one I quoted above—and to what it stands for.

Freemasonry is often defined as “a peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.” We live in an age filled with signs but almost devoid of symbols. In the sense I am using the word sign—a sense drawn from the science of semiology—signs have single, simple, explicit, surface meanings. An octagonal yellow road sign usually means stop, and nothing else. (Even those who choose to ignore that meaning acknowledge it.) In contrast, symbols have multiple, complex, implicit, deep meanings. The American flag is not just a sign, but a symbol, with a wide range of meanings around the world, positive or negative or both.

To complicate the matter, something can be a sign to one person and a symbol to another. To someone who lost a loved one because of a driver running a stop sign, the octagonal yellow road sign may call up a host of associations and feelings; it may become a symbol. And to someone in the world with no particular feelings either way about the United States (can we imagine such a person?) the American flag will be just a sign, simply identifying the USA. The fading Coca-Cola painted on the side of my childhood home (an apartment over our newspaper shop) can be seen as a mere sign, pointing to a particular brand of soft drink, or as a symbol, representing a whole cluster of economic and sociological and psychological and historical meanings.

In some earlier cultures, people lived lives surrounded by what they saw as symbols. A rock wasn’t just a rock; it was a part of the body of Mother Earth, or the residence of a god, or an emblem of solidity, or an instrument of punishment, or all of the above. Our culture, in contrast, has few symbols. We tend to focus on surface meanings. A rock is just a rock—or at best an example of granite or marble or sandstone. Most of us are “fundamentalists” in one way or another, taking what could be symbols and reading them as if they were merely signs, with simple, single, knowable meanings, religious or scientific. The literalist religious fanatic and the radical atheist have much in common.

The language and imagery of Freemasonry is remarkably rich in symbols, if we respect them as such. As Masons, we have the opportunity, in every lodge meeting, to move beyond our everyday world of signs into a highly charged, deep symbolic world.

In my mother lodge, one of my brethren was an ordained Gnostic bishop steeped in Western esotericism, while others declared—quite vocally—that they hold little truck with esoteric interpretations. From my Gnostic brother, I was reminded that the letter G in the east end of a lodge can stand not only for geometry and God (the latter mostly only in Germanic languages), it can also stand for gnosis, the inner sacred knowledge—light, if you will—that we Freemasons seek. For me, now, when I see the G, I recognize that it is not just a sign: it has at least three symbolic meanings for me.

So Masonic ritual, if taken seriously, is deeply symbolic. What’s that have to do with brotherly love?

My answer is that the way we see things as signs or symbols is reflected in the way we see people. In the industrialized, materialist West, too many of us—especially men, I think—see most other people has having simple, single meanings. One way we do that is through labeling: he’s a Republican, she’s a Mexican, he’s gay. By giving a person a neat label, we can avoid—we can’t not avoid—looking into the depths of meaning that person carries. Another way we attribute simple, single meanings to people is through seeing them as functionaries, as things that exist solely to serve a narrow function for us. As an unknown (to me) writer put it, “People were made to be loved. Things were made to be used. The reason why the world is in chaos is because things are being loved, and people are being used.” We go through our days not really seeing the people who wash our cars, or clean our restrooms, or fight our fires, or teach our children.

A former colleague of mine who taught psychology was once leaving a ice cream shop near the University of Kentucky campus holding hands with his wife and carrying their young daughter on his shoulders. They passed two students heading toward the shop, then overheard one of the students whisper to the other, “If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that guy was my psych professor.” To that student, my friend existed only in the classroom; he couldn’t possibly eat ice cream, much less have a wife and daughter.

Because we men, especially, tend to look at other people in these ways, we find it very hard to develop close, initimate, deep male friendships. I suggest that a fundamental cause is our male tendency to dismiss other people as having simple, single, superficial meanings rather than complex, multiple, deep meanings.

When, as a brand new Mason, I learned that some of my brothers had partisan political views almost diametrically opposed to mine, I honestly questioned whether I had joined the right lodge. After all, I had spent much of my adult life avoiding relationships with “that” kind of people.

I’ve since learned how foolish that reaction was. (I was about to say “juvenile,” but realized that would be an insult to children.) I share with those brothers a respect for the deep symbolic language of our ritual, for its rich multiple meanings. Having this mutual respect, we are able to look past surface differences into the depths of each other’s being and respect what we find there. That’s not sappy sentimentalism, but a truth I’ve learned, to my great surprise, in my seventh and eighth decades of life. I believe I was a good man when I became a Mason at the age of sixty. Now, thanks to Masonry, I’m a lot better.

Millions of men in our culture are seeking that truth, without even knowing it. They are looking for deep symbolic meanings below the surface of things, and they are looking for deep male friendships. I suggest that those two yearnings are closely related, and that Freemasonry is uniquely positioned to fulfill them. Many lodges are finding that deep respect for ritual can lead to deep respect for one another.

In our time—with deep divisions among people and cultures that seem to remain “at a perpetual distance” from each other—the world desparately needs Masonic respect. It’s a gift Freemasons, in our daily encounters, can give the world. We call it Brotherly Love.

Fraternally,
Kenneth W. Davis

Past, Present, Future

I grew up in the rural Midwest, in an apartment above the eight-page weekly newspaper our family ran. Across the alley from my bedroom window was the only three-story building around the town square, the brick Masonic building, with the town’s most popular café on the first floor. I wondered sometimes what happened on the second and third floors, behind the dark shades that got pulled down some evenings. But I guess I didn’t wonder enough to ask.

My maternal grandpa, in a nearby town, was a Mason. I remember that some evenings he would “go to lodge,” but he never talked about it. Apparently based on his membership, my mom was in Eastern Star, and my sister was a Rainbow girl, but I wasn’t interested enough to ask what all that was about either.

I stayed uninterested until my middle age.

For several years I had been part of an informal men’s support group, a group of men young and old, married and unmarried, gay and straight, who got together every week to share our inner and outer experiences of being male (in the words of a song from the musical Rent) “living in America, at the turn of the millennium.”

When the group broke up, I found that I missed their fellowship. And like many American men, I realized that I didn’t have many male friends outside of my workplace.

Along came the book The DaVinci Code, with its slight references to Freemasonry. Then along came the movie National Treasure, with its portrayal of Masons as keepers of an apparently long-lost, but actually long-held, treasure. Near the film’s end, when a close-up shot revealed that Harvey Keitel’s character, FBI Agent Peter Sadusky, was wearing a Masonic ring, I realized that I wanted, for the first time, to find out more about Freemasonry.

So I went on the Web and found my way to a lodge, and within a year, at the age of 60, I became a Master Mason. And indeed what I discovered was the male support and fellowship I had been missing.

But there was more. My doctoral dissertation had been on the teaching of mythology, a focus I had left behind professionally when I moved into the field of business communication, but one which had never stopped fascinating me. So it was a bonus for me that the fraternity I was joining had such a rich tradition of myth and ritual.

And it was an extra bonus to learn that Freemasons were indeed keepers of an apparently long-lost, but actually long-held, treasure, one much richer than the movie National Treasure could show.

As I explored the fraternity further, I found great pleasure in applying my knowledge and skills as an academic to a whole new world I felt passion for. And that led me to The Masonic Society.

Now, ten years after giving my first three distinct knocks on the door of a lodge, I find myself as TMS president. It’s a honor I prize almost as much as my PhD diploma and my DD Form 214. I truly love The Masonic Society—what it has done, and what it can do.

The bylaws of the society say it is “organized exclusively as a center of union for Freemasons who desire to study and promote Freemasonry, its history, philosophy, rites, customs and practices while promoting the common good and general welfare of its mystic art.”

It may be because I’ve been a career teacher, but the key phrase, for me, in that mission statement is “study and promote.” The words are a reminder that “promoting”—not so much in the sense of “marketing” as in the sense of “furthering”—the benefits of Freemasonry, for individual men and for the world as a whole, requires study.

As my immediate predecessor, WB Jim Dillman, has told you, the leaders of TMS who could attend met in November in St. Louis. Out of that intense one-day meeting emerged a focus on study, on learning. What also emerged were three programs I am happy to announce.

First is an Annual Conference of The Masonic Society, taking place this year October 7-9, at Morgan Hill Masonic Lodge, Morgan Hill, California (just twenty minutes from San Jose International Airport). The theme of the conference will be “Freemasonry on the Frontier,” the role of Masonry in the westward expansion of the US and Canada.

The conference will begin Friday evening with an informal dinner and end with lunch on Sunday. The event is being coordinated by TMS Director Gregg Hall.

Details on the conference, along with a call for presentations, will appear in the Spring 2016 issue of The Journal of the Masonic Society. To receive advance information when it’s available, please email conference2016@themasonicsociety.com and ask to be put on the conference email list.

The second new program is The Masonic Society School, a program of noncredit online Masonic “courses,” study groups, and reading groups, as well as possible tours and other experiences, exclusively for TMS members. We expect to launch the first offerings at the October conference. The school is being coordinated by TMS Director Greg Knott.

Details on the school will appear in the Spring 2016 issue of The Journal of the Masonic Society. To receive advance information when it’s ready, email school@themasonicsociety.com and ask to be put on the school email list.

The third new program is The Masonic Society Scholar, an annual award to a Masonic researcher/educator. During the year of the award, the recipient will make himself available to speak at a number of lodges of research and other Masonic bodies throughout the world (with travel expenses paid by the local organization).

The first TMS Scholar will be announced at the Annual Conference this October. The program is being coordinated by the immediate past president of TMS, James Dillman.

Details on the program, along with a call for nominations, will appear in the Spring 2016 issue of The Journal of the Masonic Society. For advance information, email scholar@themasonicsociety.com and ask to be put on the scholar email list.

(Secretary-Treasurer Nathan Brindle has rightly asked me to make you aware that by sending email to these addresses, you are opting-in to receive occasional emails about the three programs.)

So you see why I am so happy to help lead TMS through this exciting time.

Please let me introduce the other members of the leadership team, and the special projects they will be “owning”:

• First Vice President Patrick Craddock, who, with me, is looking at the society’s overall, long-term strategy

• Second Vice President Jay Hochberg, who is overseeing our presence on social media

• Secretary-Treasurer Nathan Brindle, who continues his excellent and expert job of keeping TMS operating

• Executive Editor Michael Halleran, who, with the help of Art Director John Bridegroom, produces Freemasonry’s best journal

• Fellow Director José Díaz, the “information architect” for our website

• Fellow Director Aaron Shoemaker, coordinator of our relationships with lodges of research

• Fellow Director John Bizzack, who is doing the initial work on a 2017 Annual Conference in Lexington, Kentucky

• Fellow Director Mark Robbins, who is leading our discussion of how to best use the wealth of knowledge that has appeared in the more than thirty issues of this journal

• Member Director Gregg Hall, who, as I’ve said, is coordinating the Annual Conference this October

• Member Director Greg Knott, “dean” of The Masonic Society School

• Member Director Oscar Alleyne, who is exploring the future of the Quarry Project

I also want to acknowledge our four past presidents, whose wisdom, skill, and commitment brought TMS to where it is today. As a further indication of that commitment, all have agreed to take on continued leadership roles. In chronological order of their presidencies, they are

• Roger Van Gorden, who will be consulting with Patrick and me on long-term strategy

• Michael Poll, who will work with Jay on social media

• Bo Cline, who will work with the other past presidents on membership development

• James Dillman, who, as I’ve said, is coordinating the TMS Scholar program

And you, as a TMS member or subscriber, have a leadership role too. Please let us know what you want from TMS, and more important, what you can give TMS. Just email me at president@themasonicsociety.com, and I’ll get your message to the right person.

Thanks for continuing support of, and faith in, TMS! I’m excited to be working with you!

Fraternally,
Kenneth W. Davis

The program for The Quarry Project II is almost complete and I’m pleased to be able to share many more details about the conference with our members and subscribers. The conference will be held in Indianapolis September 18-20. As noted in my previous column, this year’s event will all be under one roof. The Hilton Indianapolis Hotel and Suites in downtown Indianapolis will host all TQP events. It is conveniently located just west of Monument Circle in the heart of downtown Indianapolis. The Circle Center Mall has over 100 stores and is located just across the street from the hotel. There are dozens of restaurants and entertainment venues within easy walking distance.

We have assembled an impressive list of presenters from within and without the Masonic fraternity who will offer instruction and guidance on a variety of topics associated with the three different program tracks. I’d like to share some of the highlights with you. Please note that the programs are not completely etched in stone and remain tentative.

The research, writing, and editing track sponsored by The Masonic Society will feature keynote speaker David Hackett, PhD, who will present on academic research by the non-academic. Topics to be addressed in the breakout sessions include how to obtain original source materials, how to use an academic library, communicating your research, Masonic blogging, on-demand printing, and publishing options. One session will be devoted to the newly-released Quarry Project Style Guide, a project that was initiated at the first TQP in 2013. The first edition of the style guide has been released and is published on the TQP website. Several Masonic publishers have already agreed to adopt the style quide. The goal of this project is to establish some consistency in Masonic writing. A round table featuring editors of prominent national Masonic publications will discuss a topic related to publishing and public relations.

The library/museum track sponsored by the Masonic Library and Museum Association is not completed at this time, but the keynote address will be delivered by Helge Bjørn Horrisland, who will present on recovering Masonic history. Breakout session presentations will include library collection development, cataloging your library collection, using your museum collection in exhibitions, photographing and numbering your collection, connecting your audience to your collection, collection policies, and a case study on building a museum from the ground up. A round table discussion regarding procurement and use of college interns will also be part of this track.

Additional presentations

The public relations track sponsored by the Masonic Information Center (part of the Masonic Service Association) will feature keynote speaker Scott Monty, a former Ford Motor Company executive. The topic of his presentation is not available as this goes to print. The breakout session topics include use of social media, awareness via Masonic philanthropy, public relations and marketing, advertising and media campaigns, history of the MIC, and a look at Masonic public relations from outside the fraternity.

After Sunday’s keynote address, a panel featuring the steering committee members will review the event, answer questions, solicit comments from attendees, and discuss the future of The Quarry Project.

The speaker at the Saturday evening banquet will be John Bizzack, who will address the perils and consequences of poorly conducted research.

We are very excited about adding the public relations track sponsored by the Masonic Information Center to The Quarry Project. Although this may extend somewhat beyond the stated mission of The Masonic Society, we are always interested in contributing to the education of the craft and in being of service the fraternity at large. Communication within Freemasonry at both the local and grand lodge level has not always been our greatest strength. Public awareness and media relations have become increasingly important and we have not always put our best foot forward. This is a great opportunity to hear from people who have managed communications effectively at every level.

The Masonic Society and Masonic Library and Museum tracks are open to anyone, Freemason or not, with an interest in Masonic writing, research, editing, and preservation. The public relations track breakout sessions will only be open to Freemasons from jurisdictions in good standing with the Conference of Grand Masters of Masons in North America. A valid dues card will be required for admission to those breakout sessions.

Please share this information with anyone you know who may be interested in attending. This conference is intended to be almost entirely instructional in nature. New and aspiring researchers and museum curators and librarians without formal training will profit tremendously from the information presented. It also gives attendees the opportunity to network and establish connections with experts in various aspects of writing, research, and preservation.

We particularly want to get information about TQP into the hands of the various lodges of research around the U.S. and Canada and we will be sending letters to as many of them as we can find addresses for. These letters don’t always end up in the right hands, so if you belong to a lodge of research, please share this information with your fellow members. Encouraging them to become members of The Masonic Society wouldn’t be a bad idea either.

Go to The Quarry Project website at www.thequarryproject.com to find information on registration, accommodations, and the latest information on the programs.

Best wishes to all of you for a safe, healthy, and enjoyable summer. I look forward to seeing many of you in Indianapolis in September.

James R. Dillman, FMS
President, The Masonic Society

The Masonic Society, the Masonic Library and Museum Association, and the Masonic Information Center, a branch of the Masonic Service Association, are pleased to announce that Phase II of The Quarry Project will be held September 18-20, 2015 in Indianapolis, IN. The conference will be held in a downtown Indianapolis hotel. As this goes to print, we are ready to sign a contract with a hotel and the registration page will be up by the time you receive this issue of the magazine.

The Quarry Project is a continuing effort designed to promote Masonic research and preservation by providing instruction and guidance to Masonic writers, researchers, and editors both within and without the fraternity and also to Masonic librarians and museum curators on the display, preservation, and cataloging of Masonic archives. Phase II will feature a third track on Masonic public relations sponsored by the Masonic Information Center, an arm of the Masonic Service Association. The public relations track will address topics such as effective use of social media, publications, and best practices.

The format for Phase II will remain basically the same with a few tweaks based on feedback from Phase I attendees. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday will begin with a general session featuring a keynote speaker. Attendees will then break out to the instructional sessions of their choice on Friday and Saturday with both days adjourning at approximately 5:00 P.M. Lunch on Friday and Saturday will be included in the registration fee. A banquet will be held on Saturday evening. Sunday will feature a roundtable discussion immediately after the morning keynote address and the conference will adjourn by noon.

We invite anyone, Freemason or not, with an interest in these topics to attend the conference. The programs are currently being developed and will be made available as soon as they are complete. Further information will be released as it becomes available. Registration will be begin on March 1, 2015. The Quarry Project website is www.thequarryproject.com .

In conjunction with The Quarry Project, The Masonic Library and Museum Association will hold their annual meeting prior to this event on Thursday, September 17. Please contact the MLMA for further details on their meeting. Their website is located at www.masoniclibraries.org .

One of the presentations offered during Phase I of The Quarry Project addressed a proposed style sheet for Masonic organizations and publications who have never adopted one. The response to the proposal was positive. Kenneth Davis, a member of the TMS Board of Directors, and Brent Morris, Editor of the Scottish Rite Journal, have completed the first draft of the style sheet, which was introduced at Masonic Week 2015. The style sheet is now available on The Quarry Project website, which is linked above. We are encouraging the organizations and editors of Masonic publications to officially adopt the style sheet. A list of adoptees will available on the website as well. We wish to thank all of those who contributed to the style sheet with your comments and recommendations.

The Annual Meeting of The Masonic Society was held on Friday, January 30 at Masonic Week in Reston, VA. Approximately fifty-five guests enjoyed a very nice evening of food and fellowship. M. Wor. Bro. Michael Halleran, Editor of The Journal of The Masonic Society and current Grand Master of Kansas, gave an informative presentation on changes implemented in his jurisdiction during his year in the Grand East. As usual, we were pleased to welcome dozens of visitors to our hospitality suite. It is always a pleasure to renew acquaintances with so many TMS members and friends that we only see at this event. We also enjoy meeting many first-time attendees.

Masonic Week 2016 will move to an area known as Crystal City in Arlington, VA. This location is near Reagan National Airport. There are plenty of restaurants and shopping venues nearby. This location will also offer quicker and easier access to Washington, D.C. for those who wish to sightsee. My understanding is that there will be significant program changes next year that spread the various events out over the course of the week and also allow more time for other activities. We look forward to seeing you there next year.

We are constantly looking for ways to grow The Masonic Society as well as to enhance the value of membership in TMS. At the Board of Directors meeting during Masonic Week, we discussed a variety of topics. One of the principal areas of discussion concerned how we will deliver The Journal of the Masonic Society. More and more publications are going strictly digital. We do not anticipate that happening anytime in the near future, but we do have to consider the increasing costs that accompany a high quality paper magazine and increased postage, particularly overseas. One of the major concerns associated with going digital is protecting our material. We will be investigating one potential solution to that problem in the near future. We have yet to reach a consensus on precisely how to proceed, but it is unquestionable that a digital version of The Journal of The Masonic Society will be available in the not too distant future for those who prefer to receive their magazine in that format.

We want TMS to be more than just a magazine and, as such, we are looking at various methods of providing content above and beyond what you get in The Journal. This would include video and podcasts. We will be consulting with professionals in the field in order to determine the best path forward. As always, I welcome any comments or suggestions you may have concerning the future of the organization. Please send them to president@themasonicsociety.com .

We live in a world that seems to become more dangerous and divided every day. Wherever you live, please pray for your country’s leaders as well as for those in uniform protecting our freedom. As Freemasons, we can remain proud of our long history of friendship and brotherly love and especially our record of tolerance, which we find so lacking in the profane world. Thank the Grand Architect for the opportunity to be part of the world’s greatest fraternity.

James R. Dillman, FMS
President, The Masonic Society