Book Review: The Masonic Myth
The Masonic Myth by Jay Kinney
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
If you’re a mason, this is the book to give your friends who ask you what freemasonry is. Well-informed and written with sufficient detachment to inspire confidence, the tone is neither reverential nor apologetic, and makes needed criticism of the institution where it’s deserved.
Familiar anti-masonic claims are debunked efficiently, placing their origins in historical context.
Book Review: I Just Didn’t Know That
I Just Didn’t Know That by Neville Barker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
While it needs some editing and is a little amateurishly presented, the content of these lectures is very interesting if you are a mason who has wondered why we do things the way we do.
This book is worth the asking price if only because it provides the best explanatory summary of the masonic journey from Initiation to Royal Arch that I think I have found. Useful for explaining to a mason what they have experienced and why in about seven paragraphs.
Books for freemasons: Wilmshurst’s “The Meaning of Masonry”
Written in the 1920′s, the writer interprets Masonic ritual and mythology in a deeply mystical light, positing the Craft as a spiritual system. Its style can appear dated and overly tinged with the theosophical influences of its era, but it rewards in the end. For those masons who prefer not to see the Craft in such a way, this book can be startling, but for those who are truly “speculative” it provides a sane and informed perspective. If you view Masonry simply as an ethical dining club, this is not for you! Otherwise, an important classic of its type.
Incidentally, if you are curious about Wilmshurst’s legacy, he founded a lodge in Leeds, still going strong today, called the Lodge of Living Stones.
A functional and elegant makeover for the UGLE website
The United Grand Lodge of England’s website has had a pretty professional-looking redesign. It’s much more accessible to the non-mason and spells out, in a more articulate, eye-catching and , above all, contemporary way, what we are about.
Cultural prejudice and booksellers’ responsibility
I’ve just returned from a trip to a bookshop in Gloucester. Browsing the history section, I noted that the shelves containing books on German history were dominated by books on the Second World War, the Nazis and the Holocaust. One of the very few books that had significant coverage of Germany before 1933 was itself a highly controversial account by A.J.P. Taylor notable for the extremes of opinion it contains. Moving to the section on Freemasonry, I noted the unusually large number (no doubt boosted by the success of The Da Vinci Code) of books there were dominated by books pandering to the Freemasonry-as-world-conspiracy mythology accompanied by dubious (by academic standards) pseudo-historical accounts of Freemasonry’s origins.
I moved on to the reference section in search of a Welsh dictionary to help me better understand the language of the neighbouring country, a language being taught in schools less than thirty miles from Gloucester, a language that is the descendant of the original British languages spoken throughout this island, long before English arrived and a language whose number of speakers is growing. No dictionary to be found, of course. Only a couple of Welsh course books among the huge array of Spanish, French, Italian….
The choices the shop’s management (or distant corporate HQ?) had made obviously reflect what they believe will sell; choices, one presumes, based on the perceived interests and prejudices of the local marketplace. What might that tell us then about the shop’s beliefs about the typical Gloucester book shopper when seeking information on these subjects? – that Germany has little history or culture of interest beyond the Nazi era – that Freemasonry is a sinister secret society bent on world domination or something equally dodgy – the indigenous language of England’s immediately neighbouring country doesn’t matter much.
Form, Function and Renaissance
The Marquess of Northampton, Pro Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England (governing body of Freemasonry in England and Wales) delivered a speech in June. Its text has recently been published in Grand Lodge’s house magazine MQ and I have just picked myself up from the floor after reading it. The speech expresses in bold terms his radical vision of Freemasonry’s function as a vehicle for personal enlightenment and doesn’t shy away from proposing that the way to reverse Freemasonry’s decline is for its membership to rediscover the spirit of enlightenment that guided its founders.
He acknowledges that we are in decline, that new members are rushed through the essential degree ceremonies and lose interest quickly. He goes on to explore the motives of the founders of the fraternity, who, he argues, were motivated by idealistic visions of a perfect society in an age of political and religious intolerance.
Rejecting unfair criticism of the Craft based on ignorance and prejudice, he urges more openness of the Craft’s membership which exists in a society that demands disclosure, even going as far as to recommend that Masons should talk about the lessons learned in the degree ceremonies. To potential detractors appalled by his suggestion to invite non-Masons to buy and read our ritual books for themselves, he points out that you can no more appreciate the profound lessons Freemasonry can offer by reading a ritual book than you can learn to swim by reading a book about swimming.
After an extended section proposing that Freemasons are “the inheritors of an important initiatic system containing universal truths”, and participants in a “system which guides man in his search for the sacred”, Lord Northampton expands on his understanding of Freemasonry’s role in individual enlightenment, using illustrations from, among other sources, the Bhagavad Gita, Emmanuel Swedenborg and Walt Whitman.
In what may become known as modern English Freemasonry’s first call to return to its core values, he states that “Anglo-Saxon Masonry has strayed from its original purposes and no longer teaches its candidates the fundamental truths which underpin the Craft”. Freemasonry, he suggests, can offer an answer to those men who are seeking “spirituality” in their lives without dogma and doctrine.
Why is this so significant? Well, it is unheard of in modern times for a leader of the Craft to set out such a challenging and personal vision. And challenging it will be for those who believe that the Craft is nothing more than an eccentric dining club.
The speech was not delivered to Grand Lodge and was prefaced by a disclaimer that the views expressed therein were personal and not those of Grand Lodge, but it is still a remarkable text and one which must have taken courage to make public. I, for one, heartily endorse its sentiments and hope it has the desired effect. If you are curious about what Freemasons do and why and you never read anything else about Freemasonry, read this speech.
Dinner in Oxford, the Kabbalah Denudata and a walk
On Saturday, K and I were invited to dinner at a college in Oxford. Good company and fascinating surroundings made for a really enjoyable evening. For the record, the menu was:
Potage d’Hiver au Gingembre
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Sorbet au Champagne
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Noisettes d’Agneau
Pommes de Terres Nouvelles
Carottes
Tomates Farcies
Asperges
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Eton Mess
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Diable à Cheval
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Dessert, Café et Chocolats
The meal was served, by candlight in the old library of the college, a narrow two-storey wood panelled room, filled, of course with books. With champagne aperitifs, white and red wine, followed by port, it was a sumptuous affair. We fairly rolled back to our rooms afterwards. Between courses I browsed the shelves stuffed with vast, old leather-bound volumes, among which I was excited to find an orginal edition of Johnson’s Dictionary and an edition of the occult classic Kabbalah Denudata. What was that doing there and who had been reading it?
Today we went as far north along the west bank of the Wye as we could with a toddler (Little A.) in a push-chair. That was about an hour each way and we crossed the border into England. Trees are beginning to turn colour but the rolling, Arcadian landscape was still mostly a rich green.
Hopefully this week we will have our offer accepted on a semi-detached 1970′s house in the suburb of Wyesham on the east bank of the Wye, overlooking Monmouth. The neighbourhood is fairly suburban, but has a nice enough feel to it and importantly, is around the corner from the bungalow for which Mum has just made a successful bid.
National Cliches
Happy New Year!
As a Freemason and film enthusiast, I took the opportunity of seeing the Nicholas Cage vehicle “National Treasure” recently. It concerns the attempt by Cage’s character to locate a vast treasure hoard brought to America by the Knights Templar and guarded by their supposed heirs, the Freemasons. You might think that the portrayal of Freemasons as noble guardians of a “national treasure” would make me well disposed towards the film. I mean, it’s not as if we Freemasons get favourable exposure in the media very often, is it?
As you may have guessed by now, I thought the film failed in several respects. From a film critic’s perspective, it was cliche-ridden: it had all the standard elements of Hollywood thrillers from the self effacing hero, blonde, feisty love interest, computer geek who could get past security systems, car chase, British villain (you knew the Sean Bean character was going to turn out to be the baddy simply because he was cast in the film), huge holes in the plot’s plausibility, etc. It was boringly predictable in those respects. But don’t watch it and get the idea that you now know some history about Freemasonry. The background story, about how the mediaeval Knights Templar brought a vast treasure hoard from Europe to America where they somehow changed into Freemasons is wildly off the mark. Firstly, Freemasonry, it is agreed by most scholars, was a British phenomenon that started in Britain and spread from there to Europe and America in the eighteenth century. Secondly, the whole “Templars as precursors to Freemasonry” theory is still very much conjecture and lacking in good evidence. Thirdly, there is, indeed, a myth in Freemasonry dealing with something important that has been lost, but it is not a treasure hoard under a church in America. We have enough silly myths about us to deal with already and even though this one, for a change, puts us in a good light, it’s still nonsense.
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