All things Shrine International on Masonic Central.

The song bring out the clowns starts to ring in my head when ever I start to think about the Shrine in a large way.  Not out of any misanthropy but because of their excellent work and commitment to the happiness and well being of so many children.

To say the name of the Shrine International and instantly the image of charity, children’s hospitals, and Red Fez’s comes to mind, but behind those iconic images is an organizational powerhouse that, some suggest, drives the future of the Masonic fraternity.

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Joining Masonic Central this week is Imperial Sir Jeff Sowder who is Imperial Outer Guard for Shriners International to talk about all things big and small as it relates to the Shrine.  Of particular interest:

• The History of the Shrine – How it formed, why it formed, and how its original formation has evolved.
• The Present Day Shrine International – The Hospitals, Conventions, the 1.8 million a day in Charity, The iconic Clowns, and some of the recent controversy.
• The Future of the Hot Sands – Growth, Diversity, and Its lineage to the ancient fraternity.

So many questions have swirled about the connections of the Shrine and the blue lodge that its time to put them to task and ask them of the Shrine themselves, and Imperial Sir Jeff Sowder has graciously stepped up to explore these topics and more about the “world’s greatest philanthropy.”

You can join the live Masonic Central program on Blog Talk Radio Sunday May 2nd, at 6pm PST/9pm EST and join our live interactive chat room to send us your questions and talk about the program, or you can call in with your live questions to 347-677-0936 during the show.

It promises to be an interesting and entertaining evening to say the least and a great way to discover more about this charitable powerhouse of the Masonic family.

Listen to Masonic Central on Blog Talk RadFor more information on the Shrine, visit: Shrine International

To Be a Shriner Now, visit: Be A Shriner Now

Social Capital and the era of Gate City Lodge

What makes a lodge successful? Is it the energy behind the lodge, the people that create it? And, does that energy come at a cost? Is there a social capital that is bartered in an invisible exchange that at times reflects a huge value where at others it challenges its very existence.

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One such lodge happens to be a nexus for this very question, and has had a year to barter and trade on its own social capital building a reputation amongst its community and amongst its peers. And this development has not been free of cost. Gate City Lodge in Atlanta Georgia has had a dynamic year, from a public forum on Catholicism and Masonry to a feature article about them in the New York Times. All in all, Gate city is not unaccustomed to controversy or at least some growing pains since its founding in 1887.

Since then, Gate City has suffered war, fire, growth and decline, all of which are no strangers to lodges of this age, yet Gate City has re-awoken as a cosmopolitan styled lodge, progressive in its ideas (even if they do not see themselves as such) and yet still as traditional as the day they fought to become the 4th lodges in the already crowded Georgian capital.

Join us Sunday, April 4th, as Masonic Central welcomes the brothers of Gate City Lodge No.2 from the beautiful city of Atlanta, Georgia. We look forward to a healthy discussion of the lodges antebellum origins and is present day revival in a city known for its diversity of population and as one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in America. The Show will record live at 6pm PST/9pm EST at Masonic Central on Blog Talk Radio. If you have questions or comments for the brothers, you can dial in to the live show by calling 347-677-0936 during the program.

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The Better Angels of Our Nature – a Review

In the wake of the most turbulent period of American History stories about the intersection of Freemasonry and the Civil War have been many and profound – fact and fiction have become impossibly merged until now.  In an eloquent narrative story telling,  Michael Halleran‘s new book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Freemasonry in the American Civil War separates the dime store novel and after dinner yarns from the real and verifiable stories of the American Civil War.

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The reality of the The Better Angels of Our Nature could perhaps be summed to say that when looking at the past, we strive to see it in the best light we can; reality and myth blurring together becoming one.  We remember what we want to remember.  And as this idea filters down from those who so daringly attempt to assimilate and speak about it, the line between what really happened and its retelling becomes even further blurred.  The myth of the story takes a life of its own over the reality of what happened which is lost to the memory of time.  We see it in the news, in the origins of religion, and in the annals of history – the stories of the past evolving and taking on a life of their own giving them greater depth, and consequently meaning, to the both the story tellers and their audience.  But truth is liberating when it comes to the fraternity and the Civil War and Halleran’s new work The Better Angels of Our Nature is a welcome does of reality from a sea of historical myth.

The Better Angels of Our Nature dissects the war in its many facets into a sensible approach to the myths of Freemasonry and its part in the Civil War, from the very top in correspondence of Grand Lodges, first about preserving the union and later to sovereignty of action, to the rank and file interaction of soldiers on the lines spared by a token, a word, or a gesture, and to the gewgaws made by prisoners of war while being held in some of the harshest of p.o.w. camps.  What Halleran captures in his work is not so much the acts of mercy between soldiers (of which he details many), but the agent of that mercy – Freemasonry.

Underlying the details of the book is the idea that the power of the fraternity and its ability to transcend lines acting in a way greater than that of organized religions, such that in times where even local denominations avoided helping those in desperate need, the bonds on Freemasonry, and the invisible connection between brothers, would prevail.  In one instance, Halleran details the delivery of food and  necessities to prisoners, not out of the compassion of similar religion, but out of the brotherhood in the craft all on the simple sign of a gewgaw.  But, as much as the Better Nature leans on the leverage of membership, it almost equally illustrates the aversion brothers had to leverage it for their benefit.  And for those such as Union prisoner John L. Ransom who witnessed Masonry in action noted in his diary the things to do following the war to include: “…visit all the foreign countries that prisoners told me about…wear silk under clothing, join the masons.”

The Friend to Friend Masonic Memorial monument located in the annex of the
Gettysburg National Cemetery in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

One of the prime examples that Halleran uses to dissect the problem of the past and illustrate the point of the layers of mis-telling is the exchange between General Armistead and Captain Bingham, to which Halleran says

“…the legend of Armistead’s dramatic Masonic death scene simply did not happen.” “There was no Masonic huddle with Doctor Bingham, ho hand-off of a Masonic bible, and no meeting with Hancock.”

General Lewis A. Armistead

All of which may come as a shock to the system to any armchair historian, but in painstaking detail, Halleran pieces together Armistead’s wounding, those closest to him, and what they said about those moments on the battlefield and the events immediately following his demise several days later.

Despite the retelling of the greatest Masonic tale of the Civil War, what Halleran does uncover are an even greater number of instances where brotherhood works to save wounded soldiers, save a family from starvation, and in one instance where the war stops for a day to bury a fallen brother in a Masonic service attended by both sides of the conflict.  The Better Angels of Our Nature illustrates the profundity of the fraternity to its practitioner of the age, leaving us with the question if the modern soldier of Masonic affiliation encountered a brother across the lines, would it have the same ability to lay down hostilities to appeal to their fraternal bonds?

Halleran tells a compelling story about the fraternity and the Civil War and how The Better Angels of Our Nature have retold the stories over and over to make them more appealing and sympathetic to the ears of the audiences they were being told to, and by dissecting the facts from the years of fictionalized beliefs, the truth is much richer and comforting once the haze of time is cleared away.  Truly it was the Better Angels of the Our Nature, as a fraternity, that prevailed.

The Better Angels of Our Nature by Michael Halleran is published by Alabama University Press and is Available on Amazon.

Also, look for Michael Halleran on the Masonic Central podcast, Sunday, March 28th!

The Occult of Personality on Masonic Central

The Occult of Personality

Few places give you consistent discourse on the occult and the western mystery tradition. And even fewer present the thought leaders within that field. Masonic circles aside, few are the sources to find this type of conversation, and even fewer that produce it with the passion that c does.

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Greg is the spirit, production, and host of the Occult of Personality podcast which has an ever increasing inventory of programs centered squarely on the idea of the occult and how it intersects with those of us who are interested in its practice and wisdom.

He could perhaps be called a techno mage, but In light of the conversation, I’d like to call him brother.

Joining us this week on Masonic Central is brother Greg Kaminsky, host of the Occult of Personality Podcast to talk all things esoterica and including some of the interesting spaces between Masonry and the broader esoteric/western mystery traditions.

The show starts promptly at 6pm PST / 9pm EST on our home at Blog Talk Radio/Masonic Central where you can join in on the live chat during the program.

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Traditional Observance, what is it, and is it the future of American Masonry?

Masonic Restoration

“Curious about how to bring Masonry into the Tradition it came from?”  “Whats this new Concept I’ve heard about called European Masonry?”

You may of heard these questions tossed around in some of the more secluded or private conversations at a lodge meeting.  Or, perhaps in one of the many web forum discussions that  so often ask the meaningful questions about where Masonry has come from, where it resides today, and where its headed.  And all the while in those discussions, the term Traditional Observance Lodge or European Concept seems to be mentioned as one of the strongest possible paths of preserving the past and future of the American styled Gentleman’s Craft.

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But, from a top down view, to preserve something necessitates a point of restoration, to a point of origin perhaps? And, in this modern day of busy lives, hastened schedules, and from a Masonic perspective – lackluster meetings, a point of restoration was in order.  Which brings us to the Masonic Restoration Foundation.   At its heart, the MRF has at its focus the  identifying of solutions and implementation of programs aimed at reinforcing and expanding positive trends at local, state and national levels in Freemasonry.

From its website: http://www.masonicrestoration.com

The MRF provides education and training to individuals, lodges and Grand Lodges on ways to establish quality programs, academic excellence and social relevance in their Masonic communities. As American Freemasonry faces some of the most important challenges in its history, the MRF stands to ensure a sense of purpose and identity for the Craft.

Joining us this week on Masonic Central to talk about the Masonic Restoration Foundation, Traditional Observance Lodges (TO), and the European Concept Lodge (EC) are Marc Conrad and Cliff Porter, both of whom  are active Board members of the Masonic Restoration Foundation.  What exactly is a EC lodge? Are TO lodges the wave of the future? How do I start the conversation on forming a TO lodge? Listen in and ask the questions with us as we explore the TO and EC lodge archetypes with the Board of the Masonic Restoration Foundation.

The show starts promptly at 6pm PST / 9pm EST on the home of Masonic Central on BTR where you can join in on the live chat room during the show.

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