Life imitates art once again. A "secret tunnel" under George Washington's estate, Mount Vernon, has been opened to the public after it was depicted in National Treasure: Book Of Secrets.
History buffs have another reason to head to Mount Vernon soon: The cellar where Nicolas Cage kidnaps the president in “National Treasure: Book of Secrets” is open for the curious to inspect. The decision to open the basement to public tours was made when Mount Vernon staffers saw the movie. “When we saw what a pivotal scene it was, we knew the public would want to know about the secret tunnel,” said Emily Coleman Dibella, Mount Vernon’s director of public affairs. “For those of us who love history so much, it’s great to see it up on the big screen in such an exciting way.” The decision was a popular one. Visitor numbers for a mid-January weekend were up nearly 300 percent over a typical second weekend in January, Dibella said. If interest remains high, the basement might be opened to the public again. For now it will be open weekends through Feb. 10.
The brethren of Lewes Lodge in Sussex, under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England, have agreed to allow meetings of the female Sussex Lodge No. 17 of the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons to share their lodge facilities. The report today is in the Rye & Battle Observer.
Christine Chapman, preceptor of the newly reformed women's lodge, said: 'It all came about because one of our members went out for a bacon butty* and bumped into someone she knew from the Lewes Freemason's lodge.
'He asked her how it was going and she said not particularly well don't suppose there's any chance of using your building is there?
'They put it to the members and management committee, and they invited us to give a talk about what we do and to our surprise told us we could use the hall.
'We're absolutely delighted and can't wait to start a new chapter in the lodge's history.'
Robert Lewis, provincial grand secretary for Sussex, said: 'The rule is if the ladies meet the men don't.
'There is no objections to the ladies using the facilities and we have given our approval.
'The women's group is going from strength-to-strength which is why this has happened and I say good for them.'
Christine Chapman said there were many misconceptions about the Freemasons attitude to the women's groups but also sounded a note of defiance.
She said: 'It's wrong to say the Freemasons don't get on with women or recognise the groups.
'There is an awful lot of acceptance of what we do and we have been around for nearly a 100 years.
'We take it every bit as seriously as the men and we are not going away!'
Statement issued by UGLE - 10th March 1999
There exist in England and Wales at least two Grand Lodges solely for women. Except that these bodies admit women, they are, so far as can be ascertained, otherwise regular in their practice. There is also one which admits both men and women to membership. They are not recognised by this Grand Lodge and intervisitation may not take place. There are, however, discussions from time to time with the women's Grand Lodges on matters of mutual concern. Brethren are therefore free to explain to non-Masons, if asked, that Freemasonry is not confined to men(even though this Grand Lodge does not itself admit women). Further information about these bodies may be obtained by writing to the Grand Secretary.
The Board is also aware that there exist other bodies not directly imitative of pure antient Masonry, but which by implication introduce Freemasonry, such as the Order of the Eastern Star. Membership of such bodies, attendance at their meetings, or participation in their ceremonies is incompatible with membership of this Grand Lodge.
My Templar Commandery, Raper Commandery No. 1 in Indianapolis, has had a long and glorious history. I was poking around the Indiana University website the other night and came across a piece of sheet music published in 1913, called The Raper Commandery March, written by Sir Knight Louis G. Buddenbaum. Intrigued, I posted the links on Indiana's Masonic forum, Hiram's Forum.
A small article appeared in The Guardian today about UGLE's Internet Lodge No. 9659. Reporter William Shaw was true to his word when he spoke to me last week - he just couldn't resist the "rolled up trouser leg" reference.
The Wall Street Journal has an article today about the world wide wait for Dan Brown's sequel to The Da Vinci Code, which everyone is still saying will be called The Solomon Key, and will presumably still involve the Freemasons and Washington DC. The entire publishing world is impatient, since book sales are down, and the Harry Potter franchise is supposedly now dead and buried. This was the first year since DVC debuted in 2002 without some kind of sales bump from Brown's book.Now, the publisher is hinting that a manuscript is close. "Dan Brown has a very specific release date for the publication of his new book, and when the book is published, his readers will see why," says Stephen Rubin, president of Bertelsmann's Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group, whose Doubleday imprint publishes Mr. Brown. Mr. Rubin declined further comment.
What date could that be? Since some of the leaders of the American Revolution were masons, including George Washington, an obvious reference point would be July Fourth. In addition to it being Independence Day, the cornerstone of the Washington Monument was laid on July 4, 1848 in a ceremony hosted by the Freemasons.
There are other more obscure dates that could be significant, however: On Sept. 18, 1793, President Washington led a Masonic parade down Pennsylvania Avenue to lay the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol. It is considered one of the most important events in Masonic history. A third choice? The cornerstone of the White House was laid on Oct. 13, 1792, during a Masonic celebration. (On that date in 1307, the King of France ordered the arrest of Knights Templar. There has been speculation connecting the Knights and the origins of the Masons, although the matter is in question.)
[snip]
Mr. Brown's income from all four books, including "The Da Vinci Code" and revenue from the film, has made him a rich man. Forbes magazine estimated Mr. Brown earned $88 million between June 2005 and June 2006, minus management, agent and attorney fees. Dan Burstein, editor of the best-seller "Secrets of the Code: The Unauthorized Guide to the Mysteries Behind The Da Vinci Code," thinks Mr. Brown may have earned as much as $250 million to $300 million from all related properties.
[snip]
"The Da Vinci Code" was also criticized for factual miscues; this time, he may be taking particular care. "He has toured a number of Masonic temples to get the historical facts correct," says Akram Elias, grand master of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the District of Columbia.
The Masons are a fraternal society dedicated to self-improvement and charitable works. Membership is open to all religions and political parties. Although Mr. Brown portrayed the secretive Roman Catholic group Opus Dei in a negative light in "The Da Vinci Code," Mr. Elias says he isn't worried. "Freemasonry will survive Dan Brown," he says.
Another magnificent temple will soon bite the dust. Hammond Indiana's Masonic Temple, affectionately known in the city as "the Grand Old Lady" will soon be demolished to make way for a new city charter school. Once home to blue lodges, the York Rite and the Shrine, the temple was abandoned in the 1990s.The mammoth cornerstone to the ornately elegant three-story red brick building on Muenich Court was laid May 1, 1907, to great fanfare. Speaker for the day was none other than Charles Fairbanks, vice president under U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt.
In 1921, the Masonic Building Association enhanced the building to the tune of $440,000. By the 1970s, its replacement cost was estimated at $4.8 million. Today, it is estimated its restoration could top $20 million.
Patrick Swibes, chairman of the Hammond Historic Preservation Commission, said the building was once a candidate for preservation.
"The building has been terribly compromised over the last 12 to 15 years," Swibes said. "Once the roof goes, it lets water into the building, which disintegrates a building pretty quickly."
Swibes said most of the damage is to the theater. The stage in the building's enormous auditorium once showcased Shrine circuses, basketball games, theater plays, miniature golf and concerts.
One of Hammond's most ornate buildings, it is heavily customized with terra-cotta designs. The Muenich Court entryway contains leaded glass windows, glazed multicolored Egyptian heads and arched, hooded door surrounds.
From the Winston-Salem Journal, the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day:In the annals of landmarks in race relations, the Jan. 5 installation of Joseph Adegboyega as the new Worshipful Master at an Ancient Free and Accepted Mason Lodge in Winston-Salem won’t rival Brown vs. The Topeka Board of Education or President Eisenhower sending the 101st Airborne to desegregate Central High in Little Rock.
Perhaps that’s a good thing, a sign that nearly 44 years after the Civil Rights Act, race relations continue to improve and artificial barriers continue to fall.
That’s the way Adegboyega wants to look at his accomplishment. While he’s rightfully proud that he is the first black man to hold high office in a traditionally white AF&AM lodge in North Carolina, he also thinks that it’s about time.
A Welsh truck driver was convicted yesterday of causing the deaths of two other drivers by his own reckless driving. But that didn't stop him from claiming he was framed by a Masonic plot.
The first issue of the newly merged MQ and Freemasonry Today magazines is now up on the Freemasonry Today website. It is now the official magazine of the United Grand Lodge of England.
It was enough of an upheaval that Masonic Week in Washington DC has, after almost four decades, been moved from the venerable Washington Hotel (now closed) down the road to a chrome and glass Hilton in Alexandria. Change is certainly inevitable, but the move brings an end to the many traditional gatherings in around the old haunt that had become so comfortable. 
Now comes word that yet another tradition has been lost. Tom Sarris' Orleans House was the annual dining location for the Indiana contingent for many, many years. 
The study, reported in the Nursing Standard magazine, found all the 250 patients aged between four and 16 they quizzed disliked the use of clowns, with even the older ones finding them scary.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution is reporting this week on the trial of terrorism suspect Syed Haris Ahmed, a Pakistani-born former Georgia Tech student arrested in March 2006. Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee stand accused of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists. Ahmed told agents that his jihadist thoughts led him to contemplate attacks on Dobbins Air Reserve Base in Marietta, the Masonic Temple in Washington and oil refineries in Texas. Ahmed said he contemplated attacking Dobbins because he once lived near there. He said he believed Freemasons were like the "devil."
Freemasonry doesn't have the corner on the market for its symbolism, but when more than a few of same images show up in one place, you have to wonder if Freemasons were involved. Given the large influx of Methodists into Freemasonry in the mid 1800's, have a look at the stained glass windows in the Chappell Hill, Texas United Methodist Church, built in 1901 by Henry Brandt: All Seeing Eye, corn (wheat), wine, handshake, beehive, anchor, crown and cross.
Because Louisiana Masonry was born of a diverse parentage, its origin and early history had a marked effect on the esoteric work. Although Charters were granted Lodges in Louisiana by Grand Lodges working in the York Rite, nevertheless, the new Lodges continued to work in the Mother tongue and used Rituals largely derived from the French or Modern Rite. When the Grand Lodge of Louisiana was organized, there were Lodges working in the York Rite, the French or Modern Rite and one in the Scotch Rite under a Charter from the Grand Consistory of Jamaica.
The divergent views held because of the several Rites during the early period of Masonry in Louisiana was the cause of much strife and dissension. In an effort to give each Rite proper recognition, the Grand Lodge was made up of Symbolic Chambers, one for the York Rite, one for the Scottish Rite and one for the French Rite. This chapter of the history of Louisiana Masonry is most interesting, and perhaps might well be the subject of a future article.
After the adoption of the Constitution in 1850, the York Rite was the only official Rite recognized, but the old Lodges adhered to forms of the Scotch Rite and the French or Modern Rite. Even after 1885 when, through the work of R.W. Brother John C. Gordy, the esoteric work was made uniform, the Lodges mentioned continued to use the same rituals and have done so to this day with the permission of the Grand Lodge. It was not until 1921 that the Grand Lodge passed a resolution prohibiting any new Lodges except those working in the York Rite in which same year the last of the Scottish Rite Lodges was chartered.
The ten Lodges in the City of New Orleans which do not use the York Rite and are commonly referred to as the
"Scottish Rite Lodges" are as follows:
Etoile Polaire No. 1 .(1794) (French)
Perserverance No. 4 (1810) (English, formerly French)
Cervantes No. 5 (1842) (Spanish)
Germania No. 46 (1844) (English, formerly German)
Kosmos No. 171 .(1864) (English, formerly German)
Union No. 172 (1865) (English)
Dante No. 174 (1866) (Italian)
Galileo Mazzini No. 368 (1917) (English, formerly Italian)
Albert Pike No. 376 .(1919) (English)
Paul M. Schneidau No. 391 (1921) (English)
The Lodges now working in English use the same Ritual but it is different from the ones they formerly used before converting to English. Neither is this Ritual a translation of either the French, Italian or Spanish Ritual and, therefore, there is no uniformity in Ritual among these ten so called Scottish Rite Lodges.
Suffice it to say that the continuation of these various Rituals in Louisiana is unique, and Masons from other Jurisdictions who have witnessed the Degrees here, or in their own Jurisdictions when the work was exemplified by visiting teams, had naught but praise for their beauty, eloquence and profoundness of meaning.
Doctors told me to take it easy over the last couple of weeks. I cooperated by getting reelected to the Indianapolis Masonic Temple Board, appointed as Sword Bearer in Raper Commandery No. 1, Knights Templar, and elected as Sovereign Master of Allied Masonic Degrees Imhotep Council No. 434. 
Thanks again to the many, many folks who have written and called with thoughts,prayers, good wishes and dirty jokes over my Christmas week health issues. To bore everyone with an update on my health scare, I went to a head and neck guy last Wednesday who looked at all of the CT scans, the radioactive iodine scan, blood work and x-rays, and said he's 95% certain what I have is a sub-sternal goiter. I have a 4 cm "mass" on my left thyroid lobe, and then this massive blob down behind my sternum. Only surgery will tell if it's got any cancer in it, but he tells me that only a small percentage of goiters become cancerous. And even if they do, they are thyroid tissue and so react great to being nuked, since thyroid absorbs radiation like mother's milk. They should be able to remove the whole mess by slitting my throat from ear to ear (!) and not having to crack my sternum. They tilt my head back, and out it slips, like a life-size Pez dispenser.
"Has anyone revealed that after Jesus married the notorious Freemason Mary Magdalene in a ceremony on top of the Great Pyramid of Giza, she spirited him off to the south of France in one of the FBI's black helicopters? If not, it can only be a matter of time. We are living in a golden age of fake history and archaeology – historical counterknowledge, . . . some of which is easily identifiable as rubbish and some of which is pseudo-scholarship carefully dressed up to look authentic. And you do not have to root around the internet to discover it: every major bookshop in Britain stocks bogus history."
Sarkozy Holds to the Separation of Church and State
by Catherine Coroller
Wednesday January 9, 2008
Nicolas Sarkozy will shortly travel to the Grand Orient of France (GOF), where he will meet with various French Masonic obediences. He made this agreement yesterday with a delegation of Freemasons led by Jean-Michel Quillardet, Grand Master of the GOF. The brothers sought an appointment after Sarkozy's visit to the Vatican on December 20. He had supported a "positive secularity" and had expressed doubts about "moral secularity," saying that it is "always in danger of exhausting itself or changing into fanaticism when it is not associated with a longing which is filled with an aspiration for the infinite."
According to Jean-Michel Quillardet, Sarkozy said yesterday that he would give as much respect to secular morals as to religious morals, and assured that the 1905 law on the separation of church and state would not be touched except for a few "technical adjustments." "He wanted to reassure us about his intentions, but we will be watching him very, very carefully," Quillardet warned at the end of the interview. The visit of the Head of State to the GOF has been agreed to in principle, it only awaits a "formal invitation" to set a date.
Ah, you have to love stories in the British press, especially when a completely anachronistic Masonic reference sneaks in:Differences in the way various communities of chimpanzees eat, dance and court are "cultural" and down to what they have learned from fellow chimps, according to the new work.
The research showed that chimpanzee role models influence their culture. Historically, scientists believed that differences in behaviour between communities of chimpanzees were due to variations in genetics.
More recently, there has been debate about whether they copy each other or instead figure out how to do something desirable themselves.
Now scientists have discovered that variations in behaviour in the cultures, such as Masonic-style handshakes, are down to having a chimpanzee role model. . .
This is significant, says Prof Whiten, because imitation is more likely to produce a community of apes that all do a job the same way than is emulation. It will thus preserve features of ape culture more faithfully.
The Missouri Masonic Library and Museum, on the campus of the Masonic Home of Missouri in Columbia, will open officially on February 25th. It will be housed in the building that is home to the Grand Lodge of Missouri. According to an article in the Missourian:Exhibits include five themed galleries that focus on different individuals throughout history who have contributed to the Masonic Fraternity and its charity.
The library portion of the museum has not been thoroughly developed yet.
A few recognizable Masons of the area who will be honored are historical figures Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Omar Bradley, Harry S. Truman and Laura Ingalls Wilder, who was involved the Order of the Eastern Star. She will be the subject of a gallery that shows how education and music are important in Masonry.
A new film on the origins of Freemasonry has just recently been released in Europe, with a US/NTSC version promised soon. Written by Belgian researchers Tristan Bourlard and François De Smet, The Scottish Key assembles quite a lineup of Masonic scholars in its interviews: Andrew Prescott, Keith Moore, Roger Dachez, Jessica Harland-Jacobs, David Stevenson, Ewan Rutherford, John Hamill and Robert L.D. Cooper all appear in the film. 
The Philalethes Society's Annual Assembly, Feast and Forum
If you're a Freemason and have trawled around the Internet for more than a few weeks, you have undoubtedly come across the writings of Wbro. Tim Bryce, a Freemason from Florida. His weekly column is regularly posted at the Freemason Information website.
This message was posted on the Mased Yahoo list. Soon Kentucky will be hosting the Conference of Grand Master's of North America. The Committee on Masonic Education will also be hosting one of their Leadership Training Conferences on Saturday, February 16th, at the Scottish Rite Temple in Louisville. The Temple is just down the street from the Marriott, where most will be staying.
As the Chairman of the Committee on Masonic Education, I would like to extend an invitation to all Master Masons that will be in the Louisville Area on that date. We are very proud of what we have developed for the Craft of our state and would love to share it with you.
I know that there are several events planned that day for some of those attending the Grand Masters' Conference so I will not extend an invite to those individuals. (Sorry, I don't want to upset my GM.) But if you are otherwise uncommitted we would love to have you.
We will start at 9:00 AM and finish prior to 1:00 PM. If you have any questions please email me. If you can not arrange for transportation from the hotel we will be happy to come get you.
Fraternally thine,
John Cauley, Chairman
Committee on Masonic Education
Grand Lodge of Kentucky, F&AM
jcauley@logantele.com
In trying to classify Freemasonry into “operational styles,” I have observed what I perceive to be four distinctive styles. They are philosophical, sociological, political, and charitable. These styles are based upon the emphasis placed on them by the jurisdictions where they are found and in turn the jurisdictions have evolved into that particular approach as a result of societal pressures. The tenets of Freemasonry were ever present, but the forces driving the fraternity made it relevant to the social structure in which it existed. In almost all environments where Freemasonry is found, its character has been shaped by the society it’s in. (The only exception that I have found was in early Russian Freemasonry prior to Catherine the Great where the fraternity tended more to shape its society.)
European Freemasonry, for example, operates in more of what I refer to as the “philosophical style,” retaining much of the philosophical and intellectual approach to the Craft from the age of the Enlightenment. South and Central America, although retaining much of the philosophical style, are more idealistic as a result of the pressures of their societies, hence I have termed it a “sociological style.” Mexico, on the other hand, has a tendency to be more involved politically, and for lack of a better term I refer to Mexican Freemasonry as a “political style.”
The character of Freemasonry is almost paradoxical in the sense that even as it changes it remains the same. North American Freemasonry has probably deviated more from its roots than any other form of Freemasonry and has developed into an almost pure “charitable style” to the neglect of much of the philosophical character for which it is known over most of the world. Dr. E. Scott Ryan in his book, The Theology of Crime and the Paradox of Freedom, observed, “The wonderful work of Masonic charities is by no means synonymous with the wonderment of Masonic spirituality—and that’s a shame, when one considers how many fine charities there are and how few fine spiritualities there are”. Although we do not normally regard Freemasonry as spirituality, much of its character tends to edge it close to that niche. Any attempt, however, at a universal definition of Freemasonry based upon North America’s charitable style could not be successful, and yet even as it is different, it remains the same; it continues to be Freemasonry.
Freemasons Make a Deal With the Devil
Of the PR variety, that is. After literally centuries of mystery and subterfuge, the Freemasons have done the unthinkable: They've hired a publicist. According to the Times, a flack from Dan Klores Communications has been calling around trying to advertise Masonic locations in New York, in conjunction with the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets. (Seriously.)
“We’ve gotten a lot of bad press over the years,” explained Thomas Savini, the librarian at the Grand Lodge of New York. “We reached a point we saw ourselves being represented as conspirators or useless old men, neither of which is an accurate representation of Freemasonry. For a couple of centuries, we sat back and stayed quiet and let our actions speak for themselves. But we decided to open up our mouths a little bit more and draw some attention to the positive role that Masons play in the public world.”
Masons from throughout Ohio descended on Chillicothe Friday to kick off the bicentennial celebration of the founding of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio.
The masons, including past state officers, met in a private banquet and meeting at the Masonic Temple where members got the chance to see the original Statehouse cornerstone laid by the masons here in Chillicothe. The Chillicothe Gazette building is a replica of the first Statehouse.
Members also got to review several 7-by-3 foot panels that depicted a timeline of the founding of the Grand Lodge of Ohio, said member William Bennett. . . The Grand Lodge was created over four days in January 1808 when members of the Scioto Lodge and others around the state met in a tavern on the site of Oak Hill Bank on Water Street today.
In the early days, members often met in taverns because they were the only meeting places available, but the Scioto Lodge 6 moved to the Majestic Theatre, now known as the Majestic Performing Arts Center, where murals on upstairs walls remain today that various Masonic bodies used during their meetings.
So as I'm doing research this week, for recreation I'm also reading Bob Arnebeck's Through A Fiery Trial
, which is a mind-numbingly detailed account of the building of Washington DC, the subject of my book Solomon's Builders. As I hit the stories of 1793 and the building of the White House and the Capitol Building, I came across a reference that leapt off the page, screaming Dan Brown Alert. It talks about a large rock outcropping in the Potomac River called, of all things, The Key Of All Keys.In colonial days the first solid ground on the marshy north shore of the Potomac, just north of where the Lincoln Memorial is now, was an outcrop of Piedmont rocks which jutted out into the river. This promontory served as the starting point for surveys establishing property lines for the early settlers. On several old maps it is labeled "Key of All Keys," and for many years it bore a surveyor's benchmark. Its more popular name was Braddock's Rock reportedly because General Braddock and his red-coated soldiers accompanied by Lieutenant Colonel George Washington landed there in 1755 on their ill-fated journey to Fort Duquesne.
In time Braddock's Rock became a quarry. It is said to have furnished stone for the foundations of both the White House and the Capitol. Later, stone from Braddock's Rock was used in the construction of the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. About 1832, when the canal was extended below Georgetown to connect with the Washington City Canal, nearly all that was left of the original outcrop of Braddock's Rock was blasted away. The riverside swamps have long since been filled and the land raised above the level of the original surface.
All that remains of Braddock's Rock can still be seen enclosed in a circular granite-lined well south of the grounds of the old Naval Hospital, amidst the approach ramps to the Theodore Roosevelt Bridge. An iron grill covers the top of the well, and a ladder leads down to the rock, which is about 16 feet below the present land surface and is usually covered by several inches of water.
Now, if you are a believer in David Ovasson's book The Secret Architecture of Our Nation's Capital then all this observatory business does make a Masonic connection, since Ovason contends that the Masonic designers of Washington were all obsessed with the zodiac, star charts and other such stellar stuff. The Old Observatory still stands in what is now the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery complex, just north of the Lincoln Memorial and just up the hill from the Key of All Keys. The original dome can still be seen and a larger telescope was used in what is now called the Old Transit House. Two notable links with the Old Observatory - it was located very close to what was to be the so-called "Washington Meridian," (16th Street) a somewhat ballsy contender for the Prime Meridian for about ten seconds in the late 1700's; and in 1877, astronomer Asaph Hall discovered the moons of Mars from here.
