Boynton Lodge Esoteric Research Group Presents W.Chris McClintock

Boynton Lodge Esoteric Research Group Presents W.Chris McClintock from Ireland

Presented by Boynton Lodge No. 236 Free & Accepted Masons of the State of Florida

Saturday, November 16, 2013 from 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM (EST)

Boynton Beach, FL

W. Chris McClintock - Master Masons Only Event: Four hour seminar : Catered lunch : Dues Card and ID required for Entry (Suit and Tie) Tickets: 30

Reserve here

Chris McClintock is an author specializing in ancient symbolism. He became an Irish Freemason in 1991, joining Lodge No. 754 Coleraine in the Province of Londonderry/Donegal. He became Master of the lodge in 2005. From the very moment he first set foot in a lodge room he was intrigued by the curious symbolism and gestures used within the workings and felt they were not a hotchpotch of pseudo arcana coggled together at the emergence of the Craft in the 18th century, but alluded to a single spiritual principle. His intrigue built as the years passed and ten years ago he set about investigating those rituals in earnest to try to discover if they did indeed have an underlying meaning. The focus of his research was not the written records of the emergence of the Craft, rather it was the symbols and rituals themselves. Rather than look at them with ‘Masonic’ eyes and try to explain them from within the current view of the origin of the Craft, he cleared his mind of such things and simply contemplated what he saw. He looked in from outside as it were.  

What he saw carried him way beyond the Craft, into the realms of ancient astronomy and sun-veneration and the mythology that grew from those ancient studies. Many of the tales of ancient heroes, and more importantly the gods, were shown to be derived from the movements of the heavens - stellar myths - and were found to have remarkable resonance in the symbols and rites of the lodge room. The ancient myths had a very specific purpose, and that was to honour the sun and its part in the light and dark rhythm of the year. Many ancient myths contain the death, or temporary defeat, of an adversary followed by his later reappearance and rise to power - a notion that follows closely the rhythm of the sun, and finds very precise resonance in the 3rd Degree.

Beyond the Craft Chris McClintock has had an interest in the history of spirituality since his schooldays. In particular his interest was in the ancient veneration of the sun, and its absorption into Christianity as that new faith rose to prominence. In his working life he is a stained glass artist - a craft that continued his interest in spiritual symbolism. All helped to develop a profound interest in the symbolism of the Craft, and once he settled himself to make it his study he joined Lodge 200 the Irish Lodge of Research to further his studies and to seek assistance to ground his work within a framework that was ritualistically accurate. He delivered his first paper in 2006 and has since presented the lodge with two more. Those papers were the result of seven years research, and became the basis of his first book - The Craft and the Cross - which sought to show a common origin of the symbolism of both Freemasonry and Christianity in the ancient, sun-worshipping past. Finding his research growing into many fields - many beyond what would normally be termed Masonic - he parceled the various strands into four sections, which is intended to become four major books on the origin of the symbolism and rites of the Craft. 

The first of these was published in 2009 as The Craft and the Cross. A second, smaller book became the second published. This book was largely derived from the Craft and the Cross, and took a very specific part of it - the square of the sun in Ireland and its importance in pre-Christian religion - and developed its continuance into Christianity through the Celtic Church under the auspices of Saint Columba. The title of the book is ‘Columba - the last Irish Druid.’ It very specifically does not mention the word Freemasonry, though because it lays a basis for the veneration of the right-angle of the sun in ancient times, it has been described to the author by some of those who have read it as the most Masonic book that does not actually mention the Craft. This was deliberate, because the symbolism has importance in a much wider field, and he believes it important to tell the story of the square of the sun on its own without reference to modern Freemasonry - for those readers who have no interest in the Craft - because it has huge importance to Christianity in Western Europe. The lack of reference to Freemasonry does not, however, lessen its importance to the story of the Craft.

The second book of the main series will be ready for publishing later in 2013 under the title Rhythm of the Cosmos, and shows the birth of a spiritual path more than five thousand years ago - a path that comprehended the heavens, and therefore God, through Geometry. More specifically, the focus of that path was the right-angle of the sun, which even then had connotations of cosmic harmony. The path will be traced from the ancient British Isles to Egypt, and from there, ultimately, to Freemasonry, which will be shown to be the modern repository of knowledge of the cosmos that emerged five thousand years ago and still lies completely undimmed in the symbols of the Craft.