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BACK NEXT Autumn 1997 Issue 02 Tobias Churton - Editor's Letter Some Personal Thoughts on Freemasonry The Eye News in Brief Making History Grand Charity Fascist Attack Challenges, Not Problems It Doesn't Have to Be Like This Review: Secret Societies Review: The Elixir and the Stone Review: Blow the Wind Southerly Old Fireglass The Artist's Palate Norman Stote Letters to the Editor Diana, Princess of Wales Copyright 1997-2008 FREEMASONRY TODAY Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Autumn 1997 - Issue 02 - Index Tobias Churton - Editor's Letter In a world of media mass-think (or no-think) we are proud to be part of an organisation wherein we learn by degrees to think and act for ourselves, to judge a thing to be straight because it is straight, by the square of enlightened discrimination and the plumbline of spiritual, ethical and practical experience. This issue contains an account of what happened in European societies when individual freedom of thought was greeted with a jackboot at the door and a bullet to the head. The story of the persecution of Freemasonry by fascist powers is a story we need to know. It may come as a surprise to those who strive to oppose our progress that their stance may put them ... Some Personal Thoughts on Freemasonry The move towards openness in Freemasonry which began in the eighties and continues to this day is to be welcomed. There are, however, some members who feel apprehension about this new direction and whether it is desirable or not. Openness may seem to be a recent trend in Freemasonry, but openness of the heart is now, and always has been, the goal of a master mason. We need to be more open because our reticence to answer questions about ourselves has led to a difficult situation where the public’s perception of us, fuelled by media speculation ... The Eye Devastated New Guinea Lodge Needs Help — New Lodges in Moldova — Knights Templar Conference — Iowa Visit Delights Midlands Masons — London Internet Site News in Brief New Member of Supreme Council — Newfoundland Becomes a Grand Lodge — Scotland Museum Re-Opens — Province of Essex Publishes New Book — Warwickshire Scouts Lodge Founded — Centenary Celebration — Anglo-Belgian Lodge to be Formed — A Family Affair in Portugal Making History On 27 March 1638, Elias Ashmole married Eleanor Mainwaring. While it seems that the couple had met in London (where Ashmole was soliciting in Chancery), Eleanor seems to have spent most of her short married life at her father’s house at Smallwood in Cheshire, just over the Staffordshire border. Ashmole visited regularly ... Grand Charity The Freemasons’ Grand Charity supports masons and their dependants in need. It also contributes to a huge variety of non-masonic charities which address causes of concern to masons and society in general. Richard is a 20 year old who cannot read or write. The only employment he has known since leaving school is helping on his father’s pig farm. Now he is rearing his own weaners for the market. When 87 year old Mrs Smith slipped and fell on her kitchen floor, she was unable to get up again. Luckily she was wearing a signalling device which automatically alerted the emergency services ... Fascist Attack In May 1940, as the Battle of Britain raged in the skies above southern England, Nazi intelligence officers in Berlin were busily preparing for the expected invasion. Yet few people today realise the hatred reserved for Freemasonry, and to what extent this would have been vented in the event of a German victory over Britain. Upon the outbreak of war, Adolf Hitler ordered the creation of an overall directorate of Reich Security ... Challenges, Not Problems Jane Reynolds practises what she preaches : life is for living and living to the full. As a woman in a distinctly man’s world, the chief executive of the RMBI is very much her own person, possessing an elegance of enthusiasm and vitality, readily admitting to both working and playing hard, devoting anything up to 70 hours a week, including many weekends, to a job she describes as “a way of life”. From an office overlooking Grand Lodge ... It Doesn't Have to Be Like This Try this and see how it fits. Freemasons belong to an organisation which ought to be dedicated to self-knowledge, the nature of being, love, tolerance, the brotherhood of man, liberty of conscience and, yes, perhaps a brush with the Deity on the way. However, we have become bogged down in systems resembling officaldom, obsession with promotion to higher rank, discussions about precedence, confused notions about God, the relative merits of this or that dining venue and the parrotting without meaning of what is in itself a very meaningful ritual. And perhaps worst of all, we call ourselves a charitable organization, when what we are really is an organisation with ... Review: Secret Societies Review: The Elixir and the Stone Review: Blow the Wind Southerly Old Fireglass Greetings again my beer-loving brothers! Have I got some tasty tipples to talk about today. Our generous Editor sent me on the most tortuous quest : to seek out the best real ale at the Lichfield Jazz & Blues Festival, an arduous task entailing the consumption of countless pints and ... The Artist's Palate Summer had arrived and thoughts turned to eating beyond the metropolis. To Henley-on-Thames therefore, where I asked friends which was the best restaurant in this delightful old town; the majority opinion favoured the Villa Marina, just over the bridge on the banks of the river ... Norman Stote So now it’s Openness. Well it ain’t for me squire! It’s like leavin’ yer front door open with an invitation plastered on the double garage-door to come and meet the wife. Doors are for closin’ and that’s what makes masonry special. Just cos some misguided geezer reckons we’re on the make in local government and all that doesn’t mean we’ve all got to spill the beans and turn ourselves into the rotary-club. Nuthin’ ‘gainst rotary-clubs of o’course -ol’ Tony Maccetti’s an honourable rotarian - but we’re different. Always ‘ave been. Bein’ in the double-glazin’ trade meself ‘as taught me ... Letters to the Editor The Turn of the Key — A View From Malta — Strange Fate — Charity Boost Diana, Princess of Wales The public life of Diana, Princess of Wales, was a fairy tale. She entered as a Royal Princess; she ended, England’s Rose, as Lady of the Lake. Fairy–tale is an expression of underlying myth. All Freemasons know the power of myth, borne upon the shoulders of symbol and allegory. In our rituals we act out our myth; for the duration of the ritual, we are moved by the myth, we become part of it. And it is this participation which brings changes within us all, for our myth conveys a moral message. However, it is not often that we can participate openly in an emerging mythology and feel ourselves moved by its power ...   Issue 02, Autumn 1997 © FreemasonryToday 1997-2008