Hall Stone Jewel
At a special meeting of The United Grand Lodge of England in June 1919, the Grand Master, the Duke of Connaught, expressed a wish that a memorial be established to commemorate those brethren who had made the supreme sacrifice in the 1914-1918 war.

It was agreed that this memorial should be a building of a central home for Freemasonry on a site to be selected in London.

The Masonic Million Memorial Fund was then launched in September that year and brethren both at home and overseas were invited to contribute to raise the £1m needed to finance the work. The contributions from individuals and Lodges were to be recognized by the award of a commemorative jewel.

For the jewel design it was decided to hold an open competition with a £75 prize for the winner, and at the Grand Lodge meeting in June 1921 it was announced that the design selected was that submitted by: Cyril Saunders Spackman.☞


The Masonic Million Memorial Fund
Commemorative Jewel
The design was described at the time as follows:

"The jewel is in the form of a cross, symbolizing Sacrifice, with a perfect square at the four ends, on the left and right squares being the dates 1914-1918, the years in which the supreme sacrifice was made.

Between these is a winged figure of Peace presenting the representation of a Temple with special Masonic allusion in the Pillars, Porch and Steps. The medal is suspended by the Square and Compasses, attached to a ribband, the whole thus symbolizing the Craft's gift of a Temple in memory of those brethren who gave all for King and Country, Peace and Victory, Liberty and Brotherhood."
excerpted from: http://www.mqmagazine.co.uk/issue-9/p-31.php

Three old dudes are out walking - First one says: "Windy isn't it?" Second one says: "No, it's Thursday!" Third one says: "So am I. Let's go get a beer."

Anti-Masonry
Leo Taxil - The Hoax of Luciferian Masonry
Leo Taxil was the pen name of Gabriel Antoine Jogand-Pages born in 1854. Gabriel was a French freethinker notorious for his irreligious and pornographic writing. In 1881, he published The Secret Loves of Pius IX and received his first degree in Freemasonry. One year later, he was expelled from his lodge without advancing beyond the degree of Entered Apprentice. Shortly after that he concocted his grand scheme to embarrass the Roman Catholic Church and wreak a twisted vengeance on his former Masonic brothers.

In 1885 after "converting" to Catholicism he began producing books that revealed the "secrets" of Freemasonry plagiarized from other exposes and he eventually began inventing Masonic Rites and rituals to keep up with demand from the growing number of his readers. He discovered that he could earn much more from Anti-Masonic writing by revealing "the Satanic guidance of the sect" as Pope Leo XIII put it. The culmination of his hoax was the invention of "Palladism or Luciferian High-Masonry.

This was the instructions from Albert Pike {a Freemason and the author of the book Morals & Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry) to the '23 Supreme Confederated Councils of the World telling them they could now reveal to their high-degree members that the "Masonic religion" is the worship of Lucifer.

In his book "Morals & Dogma" Albert Pike wrote that "Lucifer ", the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish Souls? Doubt it not!"

One quick aside: Lucifer is the classical Roman name for the morning star. When Albert Pike and other Masonic scholars spoke over a century ago about the "Luctferian path," or the "energies of Lucifer," they were correctly referring to the morning star, the light bearer, the search for light; the very antithesis of dark, satanic evil." Lucifer was never Satan, this was an error in biblical translations. The term "Lucifer" as a name for the Devil or Satan, cannot be traced any farther back than the Middle Ages, and was only widely popularized by Milton's epic poem, "Paradise Lost."

In April 1897, as the fabrication grew more complicated and threatened to collapse under its own weight, Leo Taxil finally confessed all. His confession was published six days later.

In spite of Leo Taxil's confession, his work is still widely quoted today as proof that Freemasonry is the work of the devil. There are about 20 books published in the last 30 years that cite Leo Taxil's works.
Excerpted from a paper ANTI-MASONRY presented by W. Bro. Darren Desker, W. Master of The Lodge of St. George No. 1152 at the Seminar held in conjunction with the Half Yearly Communication of the District Grand Lodge of the Eastern Archipelago, 9th June, 2007.

Q: Why is Ireland the richest country? A: Because its capital is always Dublin.

Spoonerism
Q. I've been told that the man who gave rise to the term Spoonerism never said one. Can this possibly be true?
A. The legends, mischievous inventions and simple errors that have accreted around the term obscure the truth. But there is evidence to suggest that the Reverend William Archibald Spooner rarely if ever uttered a Spoonerism.
Spooner spent all his adult life at New College, Oxford, joining it as a scholar in 1862 and retiring as Warden (head of college) in 1924. The term "Spoonerism" began to appear in print around 1900, though the Oxford English Dictionary records that it had been known in Oxford colloquially since about 1885.

A classic Spoonerism is the swapping of the initial sounds of two words: "young man, you have hissed my mystery lectures and tasted your worm and you must leave Oxford by the town drain"; "let us raise our glasses to the queer old Dean"; and "which of us has not felt in his heart a half-warmed fish?". When Teddy Roosevelt came to Britain in 1910, the heads of four Oxford colleges - Spooner among them - gave receptions in his honour. A US newspaper took the opportunity to retell some further examples:

He is said to have asked his neighbor [at lunch] to have "some of this stink puff", pointing to an ornamental dish of pink jelly. In chapel it is recorded that he has read out the first line of the well-known hymn which starts "From Greenland's icy mountains" as "From Iceland's greasy mountains", and has spoken of the wicked man whose words were "as ears and sparrows".

Virtually every example on record, including all the famous ones, is an invention by ingenious members of the university who, as one undergraduate remembers, used to spend hours making them up.

Spooner did transpose items, but not like this - his inversions were more often of whole words or of ideas rather than sounds. A reliable witness records him repeatedly referring to a friend of a Dr Child as "Dr Friend's child". One day he passed a woman who was dressed in black and told his companion that her late husband was a very sad case, poor man, "eaten by missionaries". He did things backwards sometimes. One story - well attested - recounts how he spilled some salt during a college dinner and carefully poured some claret on it to mop it up, a reversal of the usual process. He is also said to have remarked on the poor lighting of some stairs and then to have turned off the lights and attempted to lead his party downstairs in the dark.

Spooner was very well known in the small community of Oxford. He was instantly recognizable, since he was an albino, with the pale face, pink eyes, poor eyesight, white hair and small stature that is characteristic of his type. (Some writers have suggested his verbal and physical quirks may have been linked with his albinism, perhaps a form of what is now called dyspraxia.) Spooner later became famous for his verbal and conceptual inversions, so it's easy to see how his name could have become linked to products of undergraduate wordplay. This seems to have been from affection rather than malice, since Spooner (known as the Spoo) was kindly and well-liked.

Spooner was an excellent lecturer, speaker and administrator who did much to transform New College into a modern institution. But he was no great scholar, and it's a cruel twist of fate that he is now only remembered for a concept he largely had foisted upon him.
 . . . from: World Wide Words -- 16 Jun 07

Did You Know? In what is now The State of Israel, there existed a pioneer Lodge named "Suleiman El-Moluki". It was consecrated in 1873 on the roll of the Grand Lodge of Canada.

The Disney-Masonic connection

type "disney+freemasonry" into Google or another search engine, and you'll find yourself dwarf-deep in anti-masonic conspiracy territory, where you'll learn, not that it's true, that Walt Disney and Ronald Reagan were lodge brothers and 33rd-degree "high-ranking" Freemasons bent on controlling the minds of children and adults alike.

According to those who've done the research, neither Disney nor Reagan were Masons. Reagan was made an honorary Scottish Rite Mason while he was president, I've read somewhere slightly more trustworthy than the typical conspiracy site, but I don't recall where.

Walt Disney, on the other hand, was actually a member of DeMolay while growing up, and later, Disney authorized Mickey Mouse to be made an honorary DeMolay member, the only group Mickey ever belonged to, according to PhoenixMasonry.org.

During the 1950s Disneyland sponsored various clubs for its employees, including a knitting club, a shooting club, a skiing club, bowling and softball teams, and, curiously, a Masonic club, presumably for employees who were Freemasons. A blogger who collects memorabilia from Disneyland and other theme and amusement parks recently posted this photo of a Disneyland Masonic Club name badge for whom I presume we should refer to as Bro. Flemon A. Robbins.
. . . June 16, 2007 from: http://burningtaper.blogspot.com/2007/06/disney-masonic-connection.html

a CLEAN limerick There was a young girl from Madras Who had the most beautiful ass. It wasn't pink As you might think, But grey; had long ears; ate grass.

Nothing  in Freemasonry is more beautiful in form or more eloquent in meaning than the First Degree. Its simplicity and dignity, its blend of solemnity and surprise, as well as its beauty of moral truth, mark it as a little masterpiece. Nowhere may one hope to find a nobler appeal to the native nobilities of man. What we get out of Freemasonry, as of anything else, depends upon our capacity and our response to its appeal; but it is hard to see how any man can receive the First Degree and pass out of the Lodge room quite the same man as when he entered it.

What memories come back to us when we think of the time when we took our first step in Freemasonry. We had been led, perhaps, by the sly remarks of friends to expect some kind of horseplay; but how different it was in reality. Instead of mere play-acting we discovered, by contrast, a ritual of faith and moral law, an allegory of life and a parable of those truths which lie at the foundations of manhood. Surely no man can ever forget that hour when, vaguely or clearly, the profound meaning of Freemasonry began slowly to unfold before his mind.
excerpted from: BROTHERS and BUILDERS: The Basis and Spirit of Freemasonry. BY Joseph Fort Newton (Litt.D.)

At birth we set sail with sealed orders. - Kierkegaard

A Sinister Society -
The Know-Nothings
Aim: To restrict immigration
Dates active: 1849 to 1860

a  nativist organization that began life as a secret society, the Order of the Star-Spangled Banner.

The group was founded in 1849 by native-born Protestants who resented the heavy influx of Catholic immigrants from Ireland and southern Germany. Members were supposed to respond: "I know nothing" if an outsider asked about their activities.

They became known as the Know-Nothings and the name stuck, even after they went public as the American Party. After early success, the Know-Nothings fell apart over the slavery issue. When they ran Millard Fillmore for the White House in 1856, the former president won only one state. But the Know-Nothings had cleared the way for the rise of the new Republican Party.
from:http://www.forbes.com/careers/2007/04/30/secret-societies-history-lead_cx_ml_07n

A Mason’s Last Will - Year 1616
Being in poor health, Thomas Midhaste, a Freemason of St. Osyth, Essex, England, had a Will written for him in 1616. He left 5 shillings to his brother and his tools and clothes (apron and gloves?) to his apprentice.  Here is his last Will as translated from the old English of the time:

“In the name of god Amen, I Thomas Midhaste of St Oseth in the countie of Essex freemason , in good minde and rememberance but sick in bodye being in good and perfect mynd and rememberance god be thanked therefore, but sick in body, do make and ordaine this my last will and testament the 26th daye of Aprill the 14th year of King James king of England, Frances and Ireland and the 49th of Scotland , revoking and calling back all previous wills whatsoever heretofore made.

First I yealde and beqethe my soule to Almightye god my creator and to Jhesus Christ his sonne my onlye redeemer and saviour by and through whose death blood(s)heding I do hope and trust to be saved and my body to be buried in the p(ar)ishe churchyard of St Oseth aforesaid. to be buried in the churhcyard of St Oseth to Joane my wife the howse or tenement in North Street in my owne tenure and occupation with all and every th'app(ur)t(enance)s there unto now belonging, late Henrie Bassetes, provided that should it happen that my wife be now with childe then my wille is that my said child or children yet unborne shall have my sd howse after the decease of the said joane to my child/ren yet unborne and their heirs lawful of the body begotten. If she is not with child, then the howse etc shall remayne to Marie Hunte daughter of Edward Hunte and her heirs lawfullybegotten for ever.

To John Midhaste my brother 5s of good and lawful money of England to be paid him when he shall lawfully demand it. To John Wodde my apprentice all my working tools to be delivered top him in one moneth of my decease and to the said john Wodde my suit of ap(ar)ell now uppon my back to be delivered in one moneth ...
Item all the rest of my goods and chattells unbequethed my debts beinge paid and my funeralls discharged I give and bequethe unto Joane my wife, whom I make and ordaine my executrix for the p(er)formance of this my last will and testament. In witness whereof I have set my hand and seal date the day and year above written”

        his m (?mark) Thos Midhaste & seal
        witnesses not legible on copy

- posted on the internet by a Mason from an UGLE Lodge


YEAR'S END
What is symbolism with us was the actual life of Masons in days of old. An Apprentice presented his masterpiece, and if it was approved, he was made a Master and Fellow. He could then take his kit of tools and journey wherever his work called him, a Freemason - free, that is, as distinguished from a Guild Mason, who was not allowed to work beyond the limits of his city. Thus he journeyed from Lodge to Lodge, from land to land, alone, or in company with his fellows, stopping at inns betimes to rest and refresh himself. Sometimes, as Hope describes in his Essay on Architecture, a whole Lodge travelled together, a band of pilgrim builders.

Like our Brethren in the olden time, we too are pilgrims - life a journey, man a traveller - and each of the Seven Ages is neighbour to the rest; and so the poets of all peoples have read the meaning of life, as far back as we can go. It is a long road we journey together, but there are inns along the way, kept by Father Time, in which we may take lodging for the night, and rest and reflect - like the Inn of Year's End, at which we arrive this month, in which there is goodly company, and much talk of the meaning of the journey and the incidents of the road.

In the friendly air of the Inn of Year's End, where we make merry for to-night, there is much congratulation upon so much of the journey safely done, and much well-wishing for the way that lies ahead. Also, there is no end of complaint at the aches and ills, the upsets and downfalls, of the road. All kinds of faiths and philosophies mingle, and there is no agreement as to the meaning or goal of the journey. Some think life a great adventure, others hold it to be a nuisance. Many agree with the epitaph of the poet Gay in Westminster Abbey:-

"Life is a jest, and all things show it:
I thought so once, and now I know it."

But a Mason, if he has learned the secret of his Craft, knows that life is not a jest, but a great gift, "a little holding lent to do a mighty labor." He agrees with a greater and braver poet who said:

"Away with funeral music,
Set the pipe to powerful lips,
The cup of life's for him that drinks,
And not for him that sips."

Excerpts from: “The Inn of The Year’s End” by Joseph Fort Newton


NEW EVENING CLASSES FOR MEN!!!
All Are Welcome - Open to Men Only

Note: due to the complexity and level of difficulty, each course will accept a maximum of eight participants.  The course covers two days. Topics covered in this course include:

DAY ONE
How to Fill Ice Cube Trays

- Step by step guide with slide presentation.

Toilet Rolls - Do They Grow on the Holders?  

 - Roundtable discussion

Differences Between Laundry Basket & Floor

- Practising with hamper (pictures and graphics).

Dishes & Silverware; Do They Levitate/fly to Kitchen Sink or Dishwasher by Themselves?

- Debate among a panel of experts.

Loss of Virility

- Losing the remote control to your significant other

 - Help line and support groups.

Learning How to Find Things

- Starting with looking in the right place instead of turning the house upside down while screaming
- Open  forum.

DAY TWO
Empty Milk Cartons; Do They Belong in the Fridge or the Garbage Bin?  

- Group discussion and role play.

Health Watch; Bringing Her Flowers Is Not Harmful to Your Health

- PowerPoint presentation.

Real Men Ask for Directions When Lost

 - Real life testimonial from the one man who did.

Is it Genetically Impossible to Sit Quietly as She Parallel Parks?

- Driving simulation.

Living with Adults; Basic Differences Between Your Mother and Your Partner

 - Online class and role playing.

How to Be the Ideal Shopping Companion

- Relaxation exercises, meditation and breathing techniques

Remembering Important Dates & Calling When You're Going to Be Late

- Bring your calendar or PDA to class.

Getting over It; Learning How to Live with Being Wrong All the Time

- Individual counsellors available.

author unknown

He is a hard man who is only just, and a sad one who is only wise. - Voltaire

Yuletide
My dictionaries of British origin firmly mark this as archaic or dialectal, which  will come as a surprise to all the journalists, advertisers and Christmas card scribes who have cheerily borrowed it in recent weeks as a useful alternative name for the Christmas season. Traditionally, it's true, it has been more a Northern English and Scots word than a common southern English one, and you will be very unlikely to hear it casually used at the supermarket checkout.

 Yule and Yuletide don't refer only to Christmas day but to all the traditional festive twelve days of Christmas. That goes back to a time before the Christian festival had been thought of. It derives from the Old Norse "jol", which was the name of a pagan festival at the winter solstice (and which survives in the modern Scandinavian greeting "god jul", Good Yule or Merry Christmas). The beginning of that festival was marked with the ceremonial lighting of the Yule clog or Yule log, a big log laid across the hearth and lit with a piece of wood from the previous year's log.

A traditional Scots dish was Yule brose, the seasonal version of a kind of porridge made from oats on which was poured the juices from boiled meat. The Edinburgh Magazine reported in 1821 that it was usual to put a ring in the communal bowl of Yule brose; the person who got it in their spoon was taken to be the member of the company to be first married.
from: World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion 2006. All rights reserved. The Words Web site is at http://www.worldwidewords.org

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple.

Is Your Ritual the only One?
Did you know there is more that one authorized Masonic  working in the jurisdiction of The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE)?

Apparently there are some 50 or so workings including the following names:
“Emulation, Nigerian Emulation, Sussex, West End, Logic, Stability, Universal, Poynters, Taylors, EasternCraft, Schroder, Craft Guide, Camden, Calvers, East End, Loyalty, Newman Goldman, Henley, Oxford, Paxton, Wanderers, Unique, Tredegar, Benefactum, Emulation In Italian, Veritas, West Lancashire own ritual, Revised, Merchant Navy and New London.”

(In my jurisdiction, The Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario (GLOCPOO), we only use the Ontario Ritual which is based on the Emulation working; with the exception of a Lodge in London, Ontario, which is working a ritual of Irish origin.  . . editor)

Famous Masons Quiz
from WB Gerald Edgar
M atch the Mason to his accomplishment:

Mason	Accomplishment
Simon Bolivar	Academy award-winning Director/Producer
Harold Lloyd	Founder of a major namesake film studio
Oliver Hardy	Stepped on the Moon, July 20. 1969
Audie Murphy	1st man to reach the North Pole in 1909
Robert W. Service	Explorer who had 2 countries named for him
Gen. Eddie Rickenbacker	Liberator who had a country named for him
Dr's Karl & Wm. Menninger	Race driver & most decorated pilot of WWII
Dr's Charles & Wm. Mayo	Most decorated soldier of WWII; also an actor
Robert Burns	Canadian who invented Basketball
Adm. Matthew Peary	1st inductee to the Baseball Hall of Fame
Cecil B. DeMille	Half of one of comedy's greatest teams
Jack Warner	Silent films comedy star & Imperial Potentate
Dr. James Naismith	Scotland's poet laureate
Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin	Canada's famous poet
Cecil Rhodes	Founded world famous Psychiatry clinic
Ty Cobb	Founded world famous Medical clinic

             
                  
                     

Preparation:
There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.
- Colin Powell

Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised.
- Denis Waitley

It is better to look ahead and prepare than to look back and regret.  
- J. J. Kersee

A group of Canadians was travelling by tour bus through Holland. As they stopped at a cheese farm, a young guide led them through a process of cheese making, explaining that goats milk was used. She showed the group a lively hillside where many goats were grazing. These, she explained, were the older goats put out to pasture when they no longer produced. She then asked, "What do you do in Canada with your older goats?" A spry old gentleman answered, "They send us on bus tours."

DID YOU KNOW?
W. Bro. Allen Bristol Aylesworth (1854-1952)
By W. Bro. Paul Skazin, Ionic Lodge No.25 GRC

W. Bro. Aylesworth was initiated into Ionic Lodge on February 1st 1887 and was installed as Master on December 3rd 1895.

W. Bro. Aylesworth was born in Camden Township, Upper Canada on November 27, 1854. He achieved prominence when he was appointed Postmaster General of Canada in 1905. He then served as Minister of Justice for Canada from 1906 to 1911.  In the early 1900s he was part of a Commission that argued the Alaskan/Canadian boundaries. In 1910 he acted as British Agent in the North Atlantic Coast Fisheries arbitration at The Hague. For that achievement he received a Knighthood and became known as Sir Allen Bristol Aylesworth.

He was appointed to the Senate in 1923 where he served until 1952. He nominated MacKenzie King for leadership of the Liberal Party, resulting in King later becoming Prime Minister of Canada. His portrait, done be E. Wyly Grier, hangs at Osgoode Hall in Toronto.
W. Bro. Aylesworth was a distant relative of the Presidential Bush family through a connection dating back to the late 1600s in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

W. Bro. Ayelsworth passed to the Grand Lodge Above on February 13, 1952 in Toronto.





Canada Post . .
issued a setenant pair of stamps in October 2002 to honor two events in the history of communications technology.

One pictures Bro. Sandford Fleming who initiated the Pacific Cable project that linked the British Empire. The other pictures Guglielmo Marconi.

Bro. Fleming was initiated in St. Andrew's Lodge No. 16, G.R.C., Toronto, Ontario, Canada in May 1854 and passed in November of that year. There are no further records of his participation in the lodge bylaws or minutes.

Born in January 1827 in Kirkcaldy, Scotland, Bro. Fleming was educated in that country and moved to Canada in 1845. At the age of 21 he developed a prototype for an in-line roller skate and later designed Canada's first adhesive postage stamp - the Three-Penny Beaver which was released in 1851. His engineering accomplishments were many and impressive: chief engineer for the construction of the Inter-colonial Railway spanning Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific; establishment of the present system of Universal Standard Time and the all-British expanded telegraph route.

He was knighted by Queen Victoria in 1897 and died in July 1915 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
. . . from: The Northern Light, February 2007 by Robert A. Domingue, St. Matthew’s Lodge, Andover, MA and editor of “The Philatelic Freemason”.


Horatio Herbert Kitchener . . .
was born on 24 June 1850 near Ballylongford, Kerry, Ireland.
He was 33 when initiated in the Italian-speaking La Concordia Lodge No. 1226 in Cairo in 1883.

Some doubt as to the Lodge at which he was initiated has arisen as a result of hand annotations in the records of the listing of Grand Officers in Grand Lodge in England.

The annotation states: “presumed to have been initiated in Star in (sic) the East Lodge 1355 Egyptian Grand Lodge in 1883, OR if not there, in La Concordia No. 1226".

La Concordia Lodge consecrated with a group of other Lodges in 1868.  It was erased in 1890 and there are no surviving records.

A soldier in the British Army, he was posted to Egypt in 1882. Freemasonry was brought to Egypt in 1798 by Napoleon's armies and quickly spread through the region. High-ranking French officers were active members, encouraged by Napoleon himself.

 In October 1902, Kitchener was posted to India as commander-in-chief of the army, where he remained from 1902 till 1909 and was appointed District Grand Master of the Punjab.

He belonged to 15 Lodges and Chapters while serving as District Grand Master of Egypt and the Sudan and of the Punjab in India.  He was Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Army and later in India.

With the outbreak of the Great War in 1914, Kitchener was called home and the Prime Minister Herbert Asquith appointed him Secretary of State for War, the first time a military man had held the post. In spring 1916, Asquith posted Kitchener to Russia in an attempt to encourage the country to maintain the fight against Germany.

On 5 June, HMS Hampshire, on which Kitchener was sailing to Russia, struck a mine off the Orkneys. The British cruiser sank and Kitchener lost his life. It was a sad end to an amazing life.
excerpts from MQ magazine, issue 12, January 2005
at: http://www.mqmagazine.co.uk/issue-12/index.php


The Passing of a Brother
    The Knight's Tomb
        Where is the grave of Sir Arthur O'Kellyn?
        Where may the grave of that good man be?--
        By the side of a spring, on the breast of Helvellyn,
        Under the twigs of a young birch tree!

        The oak that in summer was sweet to hear,
        And rustled its leaves in the fall of the year,
        And whistled and roared in the winter alone,
        Is gone,--and the birch in its stead is grown.--

        The Knight's bones are dust,
        And his good sword rust;--
        His soul is with the saints, I trust.
 - Coleridge


The Three Virtues

These are what are termed the Masonic Virtues of Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth.
The Christian Graces are Faith, Hope and Charity. The four Cardinal Virtues are Justice, Prudence, Temperance and Fortitude.
.  .  . from: http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/art/three_virtues.html

fundamentalism (n.): fund = give cash to; amentalism = brainlessness

Cherokee Wisdom
Two Wolves
One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two 'wolves' inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

 The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied: "The One you feed."



Masonry In Thailand
There is no Grand Lodge of Thailand, it’s considered open territory.  There are lodges from six different grand lodges in the kingdom:

    * United Grand Lodge of England
    * Grand Lodge of Ireland
    * Grand Lodge of Scotland
    * Grand Lodge of the Netherlands
    * MW Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Delaware
    * National Grand Lodge of France (GLNF)

All but the Prince Hall lodge are in amity and frequently brethren are members of lodges in different constitutions.

While not formally recognized, there is informal fellowship with the members of the Prince Hall lodge. In fact, they hold an annual river cruise which was a big hit last year.
Jim Smith Loge Erasmus (Dutch) and formerly a member of Lodge St John (Scottish).  Both are in Bangkok.    Also see:  http://www.thaifreemason.com/

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. - Dale Carnegie

Martinism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Martinism is a form of mystical or esoteric Christianity, which envisions the figure of Christ as "The Repairer" who enables individuals to attain an idealised state such as that in the Garden of Eden before the Fall. As an informal practice, Martinism dates back to late 18th Century France. In the late 19th Century it was established in France and elsewhere as a formal order meeting in lodges. During the 20th century there has also been a revival of some of the practices which pre-date Martinism proper and which directly inspired it.

Today, there are three separate concepts which come under the umbrella of the general term "Martinism":

Martinism itself - which is a Mystical tradition in which emphasis is placed on Meditation. This was founded in the 18th Century by Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, and was formalised in 1888 by Augustin Chaboseau and Gerard Encausse (aka Papus).

The Elus-Cohens. This relies on Theurgy (i.e. Ritual Magic) to attain the same ends as Martinism. The Elus-Cohens were founded by Martinez De Pasqually, who was Saint-Martin's teacher. The original Elus Cohens ceased to exist sometime in the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, but it was revived in the 20th century by Robert Ambelain, and lives on today in various Martinist Orders, including the branch reinstigated by Ambelain himself.

The Scottish Rectified Rite or Chevaliers Beneficient De La Cité-Sainté (CBCS). This was originally a Masonic rite, a reformed variant of the Strict Observance which, in its highest degrees, uses Masonic-type rituals to demonstrate the philosophy which underlies both Martinism and the practices of the Elus-Cohens. The CBCS was founded in the late 18th Century by Jean-Baptiste Willermoz, who was a pupil of Martinez de Pasqually and a contemporary of Saint-Martin. The CBCS has managed to survive as a continually practiced rite from its founding until the present day, both as a purely masonic rite, and as a detached rite open also open for women.
from: Wikipedia



VSL’s In India
All Lodges in India have 5 books on the altar:
    1. Geeta for Hindus.
    2. Qur'an for Muslims.
    3. Avesta for Zoroastrians.
    4. Granth Sahib for Sikhs.
    5. Bible for Christians (and Jews).

In my Lodge, there is a tradition that at the opening, after the Chaplain opens the Volumes of Sacred Law (There are five in all Lodges in India), prayers, consisting of a para or verse or portion of each scripture as there are brethren of that faith present, are recited. If we have a visitor whose faith is not the same as any member of the Lodge, the D. of C. goes up to him and inquires if he would like to offer a prayer, and if so, conducts the visitor to the Altar to enable him to offer the prayer.

This is not a general practice in all Lodges here, but just a few have it. And again, at the closing of the Lodge, and before the Chaplain closes the Volumes, one brother from each faith amongst those present, goes to the Altar and offers a prayer.
Tofique FatehiPM - Lodge Al-Ameen No. 1412 (GLoScot), located in Mumbai, INDIA - http://tofique.fatehi.us



Koran From 1203 A.D. Fetches Record $2.3 Million at Christie's
By Farah Nayeri
An 800-year-old Koran sold for £1.14 million ($2.34 million) at Christie's International in London yesterday (ed.’s note: 23 October 2007), setting a world auction record for a Koran and for an Islamic manuscript.

Written entirely in gold, with margin notes in silver, the 1203 A.D. manuscript -- probably from Mesopotamia, and signed by Yahya ibn Muhammad ibn 'Umar – had been estimated at £250,000 to £350,000, Christie's said in a statement. It is the earliest known complete manuscript of the Koran written in gold.

“Today's extraordinary sale total is one of the highest ever for Islamic art at Christie's, reflecting the depth of demand and very strong prices realized throughout the field,” William Robinson, director of Islamic art and carpets and head of the sale, said in the statement.

A Kufic Koran from the early 10th century, of North African or Near Eastern origin and almost complete, also exceeded its estimate of £400,000 to £600,000, selling for £916,500.

from:  http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601088&sid=afW5JiD.2lYk&refer=muse

Too Fast . . . Many of our most accomplished Masons do their work and lecturing too fast. A solemn and stately motion is appropriate in Masonry.  We believe in “memorizing” one’s part, but not in repeating it as if from memory. The nearer it sounds like extemporizing the more impressive it will be to the candidate.  Avoid the error, then, of working too fast. - Robert Morris, American Freemason, Oct. 15, 1845

A.A.S.R. France

Part of the fire journey (through the elements) in the AASR , just before the “giving light” in a French Lodge.
Illustration is a detail of a 'later state' of Print 1 [pl. 2] of a set from the book 'Histoire Pittoresque de la Franc-Maconnerie et des Societes Secretes Anciennes et Modernes' by F T B Clavel, published in 1843. The title is 'Reception of an Apprentice'.
Source: Plate 22 [on page 50] of E J Lindner's The Royal Art Illustrated: The Iconography of Freemasonry' [ISBN 3-201-00952-0],published by Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalz, Graz, 1976.

Quoting from Early French Exposures, edited by Harry Carr:
p. 339 - La Desolation des Entrepreneurs Modernes, 1747:
"They take away his Sword, if he has one, & all metals that he may have about him. His right knee is made bare. He wears his left Shoe as a Slipper, & he is blindfolded.
In some Lodges they also remove, his coat, & pull the left arm out of the sleeve of his shirt, which makes his attire even more noble. However, this custom is not common, & I have only seen it done once." Later, for the oath, he "uncovers his left breast, takes in that hand the half-open Compasses which the Grand-Master gives him, holds it up with one point applied to the bare breast. . ."

p. 410 - L'Anti-Macon, 1748: "His right knee is uncovered, & he is made to wear his left shoe as a slipper." Later, for the oath, "they uncover his left breast on which they place the point of an open pair of Compasses which is given to him by the Grand-Master."
 
p. 429 - Le Macon Demasque, 1751: "At last he broke his mysterious silence to tell me that it was necessary to divest myself of all metals, Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, Steel, &c., to take off my left shoe, & put on a slipper, make bare my left breast, & right knee. . . "

Le Progres de l'Oceanie, 1843, translation by Jacques Huyghebaert:
Apendix, p. C-9: "He makes him to have his left breast and left arm bared, the right knee bare and the left foot slipshod."
. . . from the internet

R.A. Certificate - 1797

Masonic Certificate issued 17 March 1797 by Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Super excellent Masons of Lodge 670, Londonderry, Ireland to Captain William Cunningham. On display at the Adelaide, Australia, Masonic Centre Museum.

St. John The Baptist - 24 JuneSt. John The Evangelist - 27 December

Masonry in Postage Stamps
V.W. Bro. Don Dyson, Wyndham Lodge No. 688 GRC, is an enthusiast of postage stamp history; particularly those stamps with a Masonic connection.  The RCMP ship St. Roch was pictured in a 14 cent Canadian Postage stamp.  The St. Roch was captained by RCMP Sgt. Henry Larsen, a member of Mount Newton Lodge No.89, Sanichton, BC.  Don suggested I write on this subject in “The Warbler”; which I am glad to do.
- editor

The following from Wikipedia:
St. Roch is a Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner, the first ship to completely circumnavigate North America, and the second sailing vessel to complete a voyage through the Northwest Passage. It was the first ship to complete the Northwest Passage in the direction west to east, going the same route that Amundsen on the sailing vessel Gjøa went east to west, 38 years earlier.

St. Roch was made primarily of thick Douglas-fir, with very hard Australian "ironbark" eucalyptus on the outside, and an interior hull reinforced with heavy beams to withstand ice pressure during her Arctic duties.

In 1940–1942 she became first vessel to complete a voyage through the Northwest Passage in a west to east direction, and in 1944 became first vessel to make a return trip through the Northwest Passage, through the more northerly route considered the true Northwest Passage, and was also the first to navigate the passage in a single season. Between 1944–1948 she again patrolled Arctic waters. In 1950 she became first vessel to circumnavigate North America, from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Vancouver via the Panama Canal. Finally in 1954 she returned to Vancouver for preservation. In 1962 St. Roch was designated a Canadian National Historic Site at the Vancouver Maritime Museum.

The following is from the website of the Grand Lodge BC and Yukon at:
http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/larsen_h/larsen_h.html

Henry Asbjørn Larsen
September 30, 1899 - October 29, 1964
Born in Fredikstad, Norway, Larsen took out Canadian citizenship in 1927 and in 1928 he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Shortly thereafter he was assigned as master of the St. Roch. Rising to the rank of Sergeant, in 1940 Larsen was ordered to attempt to navigate the Northwest Passage. The St. Roch became the second ship to sail the passage, and the first ship to sail it both ways in a single season. The St. Roch left Vancouver on June 23, 1940 reaching Halifax harbour on October 11, 1942. In 1944, the St. Roch left Halifax, arriving in Vancouver on October 16, 1944




Editor’s Note: I include the following material from my files, however, I don’t know the source nor the author’s name.  As it is a pleasing story, and I hope it is accurate, it is submitted with the above caveat. - Cal

“The RCMP patrol ship St. Roch was the first ship to navigate the North West Passage, passing eastward through the Arctic Ocean . Built to supply arctic detachments, her hull was of Douglas Fir, two-thirds heavier than usual hull woods, and sheathed in Australian gum wood, or iron-bark, the only wood known to be capable of resisting ice pressure.

The ship had all Masonic crew, but for the cabin boy, who was only 15. The trip took over two years. They were iced-in the winters of 1940 and 1941.

A cairn was found at 66 degrees North at one of the places the ship stopped.  Atop the rock pile was a jar or tin, which had inside the minutes of the Lodge meetings held by the Masonic Mounties at that very spot. This would make it the most northerly lodge meeting ever held.

The St. Roch’s Westward return trip, in 1944, took a little under three months.
The St Roch is now permanently dry-docked in the Vancouver Maritime Museum as a major display, well worth a visit when you can. The Captain, Sergeant Henry Larson, was a member of Mount Newton 89 near Victoria.”

See you later Brother

Cal Christie - editor

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