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BACK NEXT Autumn 2001 Issue 18 Letter from the Editor News Briefing News and Views On The Level International News Julian Rees The Heart of Freemasonry New Light on Sir Christopher Wren Anti-Masonic Laws in Occupied France "Close to the Edge" Making Your Mark The Rosicrucian Furore Masonic Tattoos Temples of the Sons of May Brother Lightfoote's Journal Letters to the Editor Review: In the Dark Places of Wisdom Review: The Sacred Place Review: Close to the Edge Review: The Secret Scroll Review: The Other God Canon Richard Tydeman Copyright 1997-2010 Grand Lodge Publications Ltd Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint

FREEMASONRY TODAY Autumn 2001 - Issue 18 - Index Michael Baigent - Letter From the Editor Differences should be encouraged; they truly add spice to the flavour of life. In Freemasonry, many Lodges have variations of procedure, of floor-work and alternative renderings of parts of the ritual, yet all Freemasons work under the guidance of the Great Architect and are dedicated to Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth. Differences bring alternative perspectives, bring insight and understanding; and understanding lies upon the path to Truth. The path to which we, as Freemasons, are devoted; hence, differences enrich us all. Differences though can be put into the dangerous service of sectarianism. When one group, lauding their particular type of difference ... News Briefing New District Grand Master for South Africa, Western Division — Department of Environment Register — Changing Attitude Toward Masonic Declaration — Freemasons Raise £1.87 Million in Leicestershire and Rutland — Oxfordshire Millennium Festival exceeds £1.3 million News and Views In Free Fall for Charity — Pedal Power in China — Nautical Evening Raises Money for Hartlepool Lifeboat — £200,000 Underwrites Breakthrough in Asthma Research — Advancing the Frontiers of Surgery — A Wheelchair for Jamie Sutherland — Ambulances Donated by Mark Masons — Dyfed-Powis Police Receive Defibrillators On The Level Funds for Children’s Hospice — Chichester Scanner Appeal — New Tent for Scouts — Eric Knowles at the Library and Museum — Wirral Masons Aid Scanner Appeal — Rape Crisis and Victim Support — £25,000 to Fight Meningitis — Canonbury Masonic Research Centre — The Cornerstone Society: Northern Conference — University of Sheffield: Centre for Research into Freemasonry International News The KGB’s Masonic Files Returned to France — Recognition of Prince Hall Supreme Councils — New Dutch Chair in Freemasonry — Masonic Indian Team Gives 800th Performance — Masonic Museums Conference Prize Honour and Virtue Above Rank One of the best things about Freemasonry is the opportunities it gives us to be sensitive to other people – putting them at the centre so to speak, after having (yes, you’ve guessed it) spent some time there ourselves. So I hesitate to once again approach this question of rank in Freemasonry, because I know how much some Brethren seek rank as a reward for their masonic progress, not perhaps perceiving that it may appeal only to their ego and vanity. A brother who was mildly opposed to my point of view wrote to me. "I cannot tell you" he said (but he did anyway) "what a source of pleasure it is when yet another promotion in this or that order comes slipping through my letter-box..." The Heart of Freemasonry The Pro Grand Master in conversation with Michael Baigent: "Freemasonry is a system of becoming; becoming something better than you are now". Lord Northampton spoke with great enthusiasm. "And above all, Freemasonry is a system which teaches us to be openhearted..." New Light on Sir Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren is undoubtedly England's most celebrated architect; for Freemasons there has long been the whisper that he was also a Brother. Contemporaries clearly stated that he became a Mason, yet many writers have tended to regard these accounts as little more than fables. However, evidence reveals that there has been a fatal flaw in the way historians have approached the origins of the craft, and which places the story of Wren's ... Anti-Masonic Laws in Occupied France Traditionally, French anti-masonic sentiments were based on the two themes of politics and religion. Freemasonry’s enemies were right-wing anti-Republicans and the Catholic Church. In no other Occupied country were the Germans given so much assistance in their anti-masonic policies. After the German victory in the French campaign, the Armistice was signed on the 22 June 1940 and France was divided into Occupied and Unoccupied zones ... "Close to the Edge" Worshipful Brother Jim Davidson OBE is one of the best known comedians in the United Kingdom. He has always driven himself hard, eagerly seeking excess, until that excess began seeking him; then he pleaded for help. By surviving such relentless waywardness, his life is a testimony to inner strength prevailing over external folly. He has entered alcohol rehabilitation several times, passed through four marriages and indulged in affairs beyond anybody’s ability to count. He has also personally raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity ... Making Your Mark After the three degrees of Craft Freemasonry, many brethren look to “make a daily advancement in masonic knowledge” as instructed in the Charge after Initiation. The United Grand Lodge actively encourages Master Masons to 'complete the third degree' by seeking exaltation in a Royal Arch Chapter; it makes no suggestion that they should complete that of the Fellow Craft by advancement as a Mark Master Mason. However, one would hope that all Master Masons ... The Rosicrucian Furore A cipher note made by Freemason, Elias Ashmole, during the early 1650’s reads: "The Fratres RC: live about Strasburg : 7 miles from thence in a mon[a]st[e]ry." In fact, there were no fratres R.C. anywhere, but for nearly a decade after the printing of the Fama Fraternitatis, the first `Rosicrucian Manifesto’, by Wilhelm Wessel in 1614, a ‘battle of the books’ convinced thousands of European scholars that there were. ... Masonic Tattoos In 1849, the body of an unknown man was found drowned in San Francisco Bay. The only available signs for his identification were the emblems of an Entered Apprentice tattooed on his left arm and the emblems of a Fellow Craft on his right arm. On his left breast were the Lights of Masonry and over his heart was the pot of incense. Other tattoos of masonic symbols found elsewhere on his body were the beehive, the sword and heart, the all-seeing eye, the hourglass, sun, moon, stars and comet, the three steps, together with a weeping virgin and Father Time ... Temples of the Sons of May When the dull haze lifts from the black peat at Lindow Moss it is still possible to envisage why, for our predecessors, this was a sacred location. And although silence may still skulk – as it did limitless lifetimes ago – there also remains an overwhelming babble of recollections cradled by the secret and coiling wind blowing in across the Cheshire Plain from the Irish Sea. It was here, on August 1, 1984 (the Celtic festival day of Lugnasad ... Brother Lightfoote's Journal Homobonus is the patron saint of tailors. Sadly, my tailor passed away earlier this year. Like Homobonus, he was a good man, and he is sorely missed by all who knew him. Homobonus is also, by the by, the patron saint of the city of Cremona, where the violins come from, but no-one was ever fiddled by Bilgorri; let light perpetual shine upon him. Mrs. Lightfoote has been most disagreeable of late, I know not why, I find myself easy enough to agree with. She, on the other hand, finds nought but fault in me: if I stand, I should go, if I go I should stand. On Wednesday evening last ... Letters to the Editor International Co-Freemasonry — Appalled By Co-Freemasonry — Swami Vivekananda And Freemasonry — Hope For The Future — The Essex Police And The Defibrillators — Support For The Essex Police — Masons No Threat To Police — A Lewis, Perfectly Cubed? Review: In the Dark Places of Wisdom Review: The Sacred Place Review: Close to the Edge Review: The Secret Scroll Review: The Other God Taken for Granted Masonic ritual, as we know it, dates from the early eighteenth century and makes statements that were taken for granted in those days – but are they still true today? The one that immediately springs to mind is the mention of `the posture of my daily supplications’. This statement makes two questionable assumptions: first, that every candidate is in the habit of saying prayers every day, and secondly, that he kneels down to say them – of what else could a `knee’ remind him than the act of kneeling? Kneeling has always been a demonstration of humility, and many a potentate has demanded that his subjects should only approach him on their knees. Kneeling for prayer to God, however ...   Issue 18, Autumn 2001 © Grand Lodge Publications Ltd 1997-2010