From Humble Origins

admin — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 21:23:56 +0000

Sometimes we get so caught up with the symbolism and philosophy of Masonry that its humble origins are forgotten. Then a message comes back from the past – in this case across 4,000 years – to remind us that the original brethren were labourers and artisans living in an agriculturally based economy.

A recent “dig” in Egypt has revealed information on the life and the social position of the stonemasons who built the great pyramids. Those men who built the only remaining great wonder of the ancient world ate meat regularly, a rarity in those days. They lived communally while on shifts of three-months-on and three-months-off, and when they died, they were honoured with burial in brick tombs within the shadow of the sacred pyramids they had worked on.

Slaves? No way! Popular history is wrong. They were paid wages and, in addition, their food was supplied. According to Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, records tell them ten thousand masons working on the project were supplied 21 cattle and 23 sheep per day, all raised on local farms.

But that was Egypt and our study is in the building of the Temple at Jerusalem. So why is it significant?

There was a constant flow of people, goods, and technology from ancient Palestine and the Nile. Joseph led the way to Egypt and was followed by Jacob and he rest of his sons.

In later years, Moses led their descendants back along a similar track. The first building that Solomon undertook was a palace for his wife, Pharaoh’s daughter, and undoubtedly the architecture had an Egyptian influence.

Similarities continue. Foresters for Lebanon and quarry workers went on three-month contracts. Apprentices were fed, but skilled workers, craftsmen, were paid their wages in specie, or coinage.

As for the columns in the temple, they were the same as those in Egypt. The Corinthians, the Ionians, and the Doric came centuries later.

The transfer of knowledge continues to this day. Drip irrigation successfully developed by Israelis in the Negev Desert is now providing Jordan, descendants of the Ammonites, with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and succulent melons.

A Brief History of Masonry

admin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:42:43 +0000

The origins and early development of Freemasonry are a matter of some debate. A poem known as the “Regius Manuscript” has been dated to approximately 1390 and is the oldest known Masonic text. There is evidence that there were Masonic lodges in existence in Scotland as early as the late sixteenth century (eg the Lodge at Kilwinning, Scotland, has records that date to the late 1500s. There are clear references to the existence of lodges in England by the mid-seventeenth century.

The first Grand Lodge, the Grand Lodge of England (GLE), was founded on 24 June 1717, when four existing London Lodges met for a joint dinner. This rapidly expanded into a regulatory body, which most English Lodges joined. However, a few lodges resented some of the modernisations that GLE endorsed, such as the creation of the Third Degree, and formed a rival Grand Lodge on 17 July 1751, which they called the “Antient Grand Lodge of England”. The two competing Grand Lodges vied for supremacy – the “Moderns” (GLE) and the “Antients” (or “Ancients”) – until they united 25 November 1813 to form the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE).

The Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland were formed in 1725 and 1736 respectively. Freemasonry was exported to the British Colonies inNorth America by the 1730s – with both the “Antients” and the “Moderns” (as well as the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland) chartering offspring (“daughter”) Lodges, and organising various Provincial Grand Lodges. After the American Revolution, independent U.S. Grand Lodges formed themselves within each State. Some thought was briefly given to organising an over-arching “Grand Lodge of the United States”, withGeorge Washington (who was a member of a Virginian lodge) as the first Grand Master, but the idea was short-lived. The various State Grand Lodges did not wish to diminish their own authority by agreeing to such a body.

Although there are no real differences in the Freemasonry practiced by lodges chartered by the Antients or the Moderns, the remnants of this division can still be seen in the names of most Lodges, F.& A.M. being Free and Accepted Masons and A.F.& A.M. being Antient Free and Accepted Masons.

The oldest jurisdiction on the continent of Europe, the Grand Orient de France (GOdF), was founded in 1728. However, most English-speaking jurisdictions cut formal relations with the GOdF around 1877 – when the GOdF removed the requirement that its members have a belief in a Deity (thereby accepting atheists). The Grande Loge Nationale Française (GLNF) is currently the only French Grand Lodge that is in regular amity with the UGLE and its many concordant jurisdictions worldwide.

Due to the above history, Freemasonry is often said to consist of two branches not in mutual regular amity:

the UGLE and concordant tradition of jurisdictions (mostly termed Grand Lodges) in amity, and
the GOdF, European Continental, tradition of jurisdictions (often termed Grand Orients) in amity.

In most Latin countries, the GOdF-style of European Continental Freemasonry predominates, although in most of these Latin countries there are also Grand Lodges that are in regular amity with the UGLE and the worldwide community of Grand Lodges that share regular “fraternal relations” with the UGLE. The rest of the world, accounting for the bulk of Freemasonry, tends to follow more closely to the UGLE style, although minor variations exist.

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From Humble Origins

A Brief History of Masonry