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BACK NEXT Winter 2005 Issue 31 Letter from the Editor News and Views On The Level News Beyond the Craft International News Julian Rees Peter Harrison Interview Sacred Sleep Freemasonry Serving Egypt Not A Crime, But A Sin? The Society of Rosicrucians Robbie Burns' Maul and All Brother Lightfoote's Journal Letters to the Editor Review: Science, Consciousness and Ultimate Reality Review: Policing the Rainbow Review: Magus: The Invisible Life of Elias Ashmole Review: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Canon Richard Tydeman Copyright 1997-2008 FREEMASONRY TODAY Designed and Maintained by: Cyberpoint Limited

FREEMASONRY TODAY Winter 2005 - Issue 31 - Index Michael Baigent - Letter from the Editor In the review pages of this edition of Freemasonry Today there is a report of Toby Churton's biography of that enigmatic early Freemason, Elias Ashmole. Ashmole had a life-long interest in alchemy and in 1652 published a compilation of alchemical texts entitled Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum. Despite his scholarship, his interest was not just intellectual, he knew the secret of the Art. He knew that it involved an experience; one that would change a life. In his introduction to his book he revealed that any true lover of wisdom ... News and Views North Wales has new Provincial Grand Master — East Kent Welcomes New Leader of Province — New Provincial Grand Master for Wiltshire — Wren's Masterpiece Returns to London — Cornwall Tribute to Jill Farwell MBE — Scottish Demonstration in York — Lancashire Freemasons go to the Opera — Yorkshire Masons Working with Wetherby Scouts — A Freemason Once Again Lord Mayor of London — Freemasons Resist Discrimination — Northern Cornerstone Conference in Leyland — Freemasons Work with Police in Nottingham — Unknown Jewels in the Museum of Freemasonry, London On The Level Widows' Brooches — Somerset Freemasons Keep Lifeboat Afloat — Lodge Social Events Help Fund Charity — Operatic Masons — Canonbury Masonic Research Centre — Centre for Research into Freemasonry — The Cornerstone Society — Quatuor Coronati News Beyond the Craft Royal and Select Masters History Made in Devon — Allied Masonic Degrees Annual Grand Council — A Mark of Generosity — New Royal and Select Masters Consecration — Mark Masons' Hall Celebrates 25 Years — Red Cross of Constantine New Intendant General for North and East Yorkshire International News Massachusetts Advances Brother from Cheshire — Supreme Grand Chapter of Ireland Celebrates 125 Years — Consecration in France of New Knights Templar Preceptory — Masonic Architectural Heritage Rescued in Washington — Freemasonry in the Russian Far East — New Zealand's Most Generous Masonic Benefactor Julian Rees - Our Deeds Still Travel With Us As you know, Freemasonry this side of the Atlantic views with a good deal of dismay the practice of some Grand Lodges in the United States of mass initiations. I say mass initiations rather than the term they use, ‘one-day classes’, as that tends not only to mask this infamous practice, but to lend it an air of respectability, which it certainly does not deserve. Many Grand Lodges in the United States have not adopted this means of boosting membership, and in the interests of obtaining a broad view of how this practice is treated by all United States Grand Lodges, we conducted a straw poll of all of them ... At The Helm - Gerald Reilly Discovers Peter Harrison's Courage, Competence and Control We are grateful to a reader of Freemasonry Today for suggesting that we might wish to interview Peter Harrison. Given that our interviews seek to cover masons doing interesting things it did not take us long to decide that we really did want to meet this man and mason ... Sacred Sleep The practice of ‘temple sleep’ involved sleeping at a special temple or a venerated natural site with the aim of having dreams for initiation, divination or healing purposes. Certain ritual actions collectively known as “incubation” would be conducted prior to sleep to help direct the dreaming mind. Such dream-seeking procedures go back to the dawn of history ... Freemasonry Serving Egypt Today it is a tragic irony that Freemasonry is falsely derided in much of the Muslim world as a stooge of Zionism, when some of the great names of the Islam have in fact been keen Freemasons. And foremost among these were two towering figures of nineteenth-century Islamic modernism - Jamal al-Din al Afghani and Sheikh Mohammed Abduh - both actually members of the same Egyptian lodge ... Not A Crime, But A Sin? For the first time in twenty years, Catholic priests and laymen met in an open and mostly friendly discussion with a representative of German masonry in November 2003. There has been a long silence between the Catholic Church and masonic institutions in Germany since the Conference of German Bishops pronounced an unequivocal ban on Catholic membership in all masonic lodges in 1980. At the time, this came as a surprise to German Brethren, as a decade of seemingly friendly and open discussions ... The Society of Rosicrucians The Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia is administered by the High Council from the Society’s headquarters located at Stanfield Hall, 88 Hampstead High Street, London. It regulates the affairs of the Society and extends control over a series of nine graded ceremonies, the philosophy of which, is mirrored in other rituals practised within Freemasonry ... Robbie Burns' Maul and All Edinburgh is a beautiful City and Grand Lodge is situated in its heart. The bus I took to get to the George Street address let me down at the stop named Freemasons’ Hall; festive decorations around the Street had one of the Christmas trees highlighted Grand Lodge of Scotland. This overt approach to freemasonry ... Brother Lightfoote's journal Saint Nicholas was a Turkish Bishop. He is reputed to have saved three orphaned sisters from prostitution by filling their stockings, hung out to dry, with gold coins. This pleasant practice is recalled in the tradition of children hanging their stockings up on Christmas Eve in the hope of similar reward. He is, understandably, the patron saint of unmarried girls. He is also the patron of pawnbrokers, apothecaries, perfumers, sailors and schoolboys. Some contend that the three gold balls hung up outside pawnbrokers’ shops allude to his generosity to the three sisters ... Letters to the Editor What's For Afters — Good Preparation — Ancient Charges — Masonic Saints — An Inadvertent Mishap — Royal Arch Changes — Band of Brothers — Music in Lodges — Morgan Lodge? Book Reviews Review: Science, Consciousness and Ultimate Reality Review: Policing the Rainbow Review: Magus: The Invisible Life of Elias Ashmole Review: The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography Canon Richard Tydeman - Fathers and Sons Of all the Freemasons I have met, the one I have most admired was my own father. That is quite natural you think? And yet it has always surprised me that so many sons of masons never go on to become masons themselves. Why is that I wonder? Could it be due to lack of encouragement? In years gone by, the ‘secrecy’ of the Craft meant that masons would never talk about masonry – even to their own sons, and so the sons tended to feel that perhaps they were not wanted It was quite the opposite in my own case: I always knew that my father was a mason, and I am told that from the age of about sixteen I had begun to ask questions about the lodge ...   Issue 31, Winter 2005 © FreemasonryToday 1997-2008