Mother and Son Lost At Sea Last December Were 'Cleansing' Her of Freemasonry

by Christopher Hodapp

Sometimes a story comes along that is so completely odd that I just sit and stare at the screen and wonder how to even begin to describe it.

An elderly dementia sufferer from Australia named Felicity Loveday (84) and her son , Adrian Meneveau (56), were lost at sea last December during a three-day boat trip. Adrian had been caring for his mother for seven years before they disappeared after December 13th. A photograph of the two of them preparing to leave a wharf in Frankston, Victoria, Australia was snapped on December 11th by Felicity's daughter, Christina, and family members were sent a text message by Adrian two days later. But their submerged boat was found by a fisherman on December 15th, about 15 miles away, and their bodies were never found. 

The photo showed Ms Loveday seated in an upright position wearing a life jacket. She looked extremely pale and was staring ahead, rather than at the camera, which is why police questioned her condition. 

The story first appeared last December, but it got fresh legs in June after daughter Christina made a statement to the press, stating that her mother was definitely alive when the boat left the wharf. (The Daily Mail version of the story in June gives a decent recap of the facts and is not behind a paywall.)

So what does this have to do with Freemasonry? 

Felicity Loveday, sitting in the center, had served as the Master
of a lodge of Co-Masons several years ago

It seems that Felicity had been the Worshipful Master of an Australian Co-Masonic Le Droit Humain (French for 'The Human Right') lodge in the mid-2000s before her dementia set in. Police have been told the boat trip was part of a plan to 'cleanse' Felicity of 'evil spirits' of Freemasonry that had somehow 'awoken' in her. 

No, I'm not kidding.

Senior Police Constable Chris Obst told the Herald Sun that "Adrian and Felicity were practicing meditation for some time and believed Felicity had woken black magic and Adrian felt responsible for it... The boat trip was a means of reversing it – they needed to be on the salt water to get rid of the black magic."

Co-Masons on Australia's Gold Coast were contacted by police and the press about this daffy development, and they responded as respectfully as they could in the face of the allegation.

"The personal beliefs and practices are in no way associated with Freemasonry nor are they associated with her role as a former presiding officer of one of our Lodges," the Federation's Grand Commander and Supreme Council Representative (who was not named in the press accounts) said. "Freemasonry has nothing to do with evil, black magic and cleansing ritual."

Of course it doesn't. But that never stopped the press from plastering the word Freemasonry in the headlines.

This is a tragic story, especially since Felicity suffered from dementia, so it's entirely possible she was the one who insisted on 'cleansing' herself in this way. There's no way of knowing if her son and the rest of the family bought into it as well, or if they were merely humoring her. It's just a shame that the press would go nosing around and seize upon this purported Masonic connection.

The Australian Federation of Le Droit Humain is part of the world's largest variety of Co-Masonry, which accepts both men and women as members. Le Droit Humain has been around since 1893 when it started in France, and today it claims 32,000 members in more than 60 countries working a variation of the 1-33 Scottish Rite degrees. It is considered as irregular and unrecognized by the vast majority of the more than 4 million male-only Freemasons throughout the world. 

Who also don't have anything to do with evil, black magic or cleansing rituals.