Antiques Road Show Features Navajo Masonic Carpet

by Christopher Hodapp

The long-running Antiques Road Show on PBS visited Akron, Ohio for this week's program, and a local Mason showed up with a unique 1930s Navajo rug woven with Masonic symbols. 

As he explains, his grandfather was Freemason in the 30's, as well as a construction worker. While previously visiting a lodge near Gallup, New Mexico, he spotted one of these hand-woven rugs filled with Masonic symbolism, and the local brethren told him the nearby tribe had made it. Subsequently, he installed flooring for several buildings on the nearby reservation in return for them making this rug. Over time, it was passed to his lodge, then came back to the family.

The Freemasons of TikTok

by Christopher Hodapp

UPDATED May 28, 5:00AM: This story has been corrected. I mistakenly said that Tyler McKenzie is from Texas. He is actually a Mason in New Mexico.

Interesting article this week on the Input Magazine site about Freemasons using TikTok to counter hysterical conspiracy theories and other misinformation about the fraternity. The article "TikTok’s Freemasons are battling the haters and conspiracy theorists" by Jessica Lucas highlights Brothers Tyler McKenzie from New Mexico ("@harp.o.crates"), Zak Wyatt from Texas ("@brotherfluffmm"), and Aidan Mattis from Pennsylvania ("@theaidenmattis"). 

If you're over the age of 40, you've probably only heard of TikTok's reputation as a social media phenomenon favored by teenaged girls, dance party ravers, and Chinese intelligence services, along with its perpetuation of stunts, tricks, giggly kids making goofy faces, and viral "challenges" ("Take the Best Braless TikTok Girlz Dance Challenge!" or "Does This Make My Butt Look Big? Challenge"). Indeed, their most recent demographics show that 41% of all users are between 16 and 24. Appealing to short attention spans through brevity is the name of the game on nearly all social media these days: think of Twitter's original 64 character limit or the rise of the text message acronym 'TL;DR' ("Too Long; Didn't Read" - I get a lot of those reactions to my posts). Instead of typing out messages, TikTok is all video-based, and users create short video snippets between 15 seconds (!) and 10 minutes long.

We used to call that "Short Attention Span Theatre."

Deride it if you like, but TikTok has over 100 million regular users in the U.S. alone, and another 23 million in the U.K. And in what is inevitably the next step in attention deficit communication, the use of TikTok videos to replace written employment resumés for job seekers is beginning to gather momentum (which will of course lead to HR managers' making snap visceral reactions: "Ugh! Lookit that guy's SHIRT! Gross! Don't hire HIM!"). 

Anyhow, the brethren cited in the article are TikTok warriors fighting the enormous pile of anti-Masonic screeds that appear on the service day in and day out.

“There’s so much negativity about Freemasonry, and conspiracists on TikTok are nonstop. I figured if we’re going to be on here to teach about Freemasonry, we need to be as calm and correct as possible,” says McKenzie. . .

[snip]

Ultimately, TikTok Freemasons stand steadfastly behind their organization of choice — and think their videos are changing things for the better. “There’s always going to be the negative person. The troll. The hater. But I honestly think we’ve overcome it now,” says McKenzie. “If you went on TikTok a year ago and you typed in Freemasonry, you would find nothing but conspiracy theories.

“But now, you’ll find this fuzzy face and a whole bunch of other brothers that are ready and willing to give you light, truth, and knowledge,” says the impressively bearded McKenzie. “It’s brought so many to Masonry, and I think that it’s going to help us grow.”

These brethren have a big job to counteract the anti-Masonic stuff that litters TikTok. For every one of their positive messages there are dozens of the "Lookit all the sooper secret Illuminati Mason symbols hiding in plain sight!" imbeciles.

Read the whole article HERE.

Meanwhile, from the Stray Ferret website in Britain:

In an effort to bring the fraternity into the modern era and attract younger members, Freemasons in Yorkshire are attempting to become TikTok famous.

The Province of Yorkshire West Riding has posted two videos on its new account – @wrfreemasons – including a take on the staircase scene from Titanic, set to Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On. CLICK HERE.

UPDATE:

When I circulated this story on Facebook, Zackery Wyatt provided the following figures about a video post: 

"Almost 2,500 viewers tonight, and at least 50 men asked how to find a lodge. Will they petition? Maybe, maybe not, but the first step was definitely made."

Pretty impressive reach for a single post in a very short time.

Help With Route 66 Masonic Sites This Week

We crossed from Arizona into New Mexico this afternoon on I-40 and the legendary "Mother Road" of Route 66. We crossed through downtown Santa Rosa, New Mexico late in the day and I spotted Liberty Lodge No. 51's Masonic hall from the 1940s right on the town square - a location that almost every early U.S. Masonic lodge once coveted, and far too many have fled in the last fifty years.

Masonic hall in Santa Rosa, NM

Since we're staying along this historic route all the way eastward to St. Louis, I'm wondering how many Masonic halls still remain in the Route 66 towns along the way? (I do know about the historic Elk City Lodge 182 room in Elk City, Oklahoma at the National Route 66 Old Town Museum location, but I'm danged if I can find a web page, contact info, or even photos of anything but the door.)

I should have asked this back in Arizona, but I didn't. I did swing past Chalcedony Lodge No. 6 in the fun town of Holbrook, Arizona two nights ago - just around the corner a few blocks from the kitschy and world-famous Wigwam Motel - but no one was around. 

Chalcedony Lodge No. 6, Holbrook, AZ

If you read this message this weekend and can point me at the Masonic halls or significant Masonic sites on the Route 66 road in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma or Missouri, please pass it along to me as either a response with the form below, directly to my email at hodapp@aol.com, my Facebook page, or to my Facebook Messenger account. 

New Book: The Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple

In the last 15 years or so, there has been a growing interest by art historians and architectural preservation experts in something Freemasons have taken for granted for over a century – the practical ways in which we have performed and presented our degrees onstage.  The dramatic presentations of Masonic and fraternal degree rituals reached their pinnacle in the United States at the turn of the last century in the purpose built theatres of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite.  In the explosive period of growth from the late 1800s up through the beginning of the Great Depression, U.S. Freemasonry's ranks swelled to new heights, and this was coupled with the City Beautiful architectural movement that encouraged government and the private sector to design buildings to be timeless, majestic, and most of all, intrinsic to the communities in which they existed.  Every architect had a copy of John Ruskin's The Seven Lamps of Architecture on his bookshelf as inspiration, and the greatest building boom of what were deemed 'important buildings' began.

But along with the building craze among fraternal groups to out-do each other with their impressive clubhouses, there was a revolution going on in theatrical staging technology.  New electric lighting, elaborate stage rigging and on-stage theatrical visual tricks, acoustic auditorium design, fireproofing, complex pipe organs with sound effects, and much more moved out of just Broadway and big city venues and fanned out into these enormous but private theatres constructed solely for the purpose of conferring fraternal degree rituals upon thousands of candidates each year.  The fastest growing fraternal group in the U.S. during this period was the Scottish Rite, and for good reason.

The Santa Fe, New Mexico Scottish Rite Temple, designed by Isaac Hamilton Rapp and opened in 1912 for the Scottish Rite Valley of Santa Fe, is a unique landmark Masonic building for a variety of reasons that extent beyond just its distinctive Moorish-revival, pinkish exterior (derided by some locals as "the Pepto-Bismol building"). Like so many other Masonic buildings across the country, it has teetered back and forth on prosperity or extinction over the years, as the fraternity wrestles with plunging membership, criminally low dues, too much real estate, and failure by our forefathers to create foundations and long-range planning. Nevertheless, there remains a longstanding interest by area Masons and non-Masons alike to preserve and maintain this particular unique Masonic temple, and it has recently been made available to the public for event rentals.

A new book has just been published that captures the Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple in a unique manner. The Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple: Freemasonry, Architecture, and Theatre edited by Wendy Waszut-Barrett with photography by Jo Whaley has just been published by the Museum of New Mexico Press ($39.95 hardcover).  Nearly 150 photographs document the Temple inside and out, including images of every hand-painted backdrop used by Santa Fe to present the 29 degrees of the Scottish Rite of the Southern Jurisdiction.  But in a departure from just flat photos of painted scenery, Whaley has brought them to life by populating every scene with Masons and other actors appropriately costumed as they would appear in each degree.  

In 2000, Wendy Waszut-Barrett founded a company specializing in historic theater scenery restoration, and led the restoration of the Santa Fe Scottish Rite scenery collection starting back in 2002.  Her illustrated article, “Theatrical Interpretations of the Indispensable Degrees” appeared in Heredom No. 12. It discussed how the Scottish Rite grew so fast and so large, principally by its use of theatrical presentations.  Today she is president of Historic Stage Services LLC in Minnesota, and is widely considered to be the top expert in restoration and preservation of these unique backdrops that we Masons (and those who inherit or purchase our abandoned buildings) tend to take for granted.

Today (Sunday, June 24th), there will be an open house, presentations, the kick-off release of the new book, and tours of the Sante Fe Temple between 4-6 p.m. Bagpiper Robert Schlaer will welcome the public at 4 p.m., followed by Eric Fricke playing the center’s organ, presentations by editors Wendy Waszut-Barrett (text) and Jo Whaley (photography), and then a “Scenic Spectacle” with Masons in costume and Morrow Hall playing the organ. There will also be tours of the building, book signings, and refreshments in the grand ballroom. The presentation and Scenic Spectacle repeat at 6 p.m.

The Scottish Rite Center is located at 463 Paseo de Peralta in Santa Fe.

For much more information, see Making Like Masons by Paul Weideman on the Pasatiempo website today HERE.


Incidentally, the Masonic Restoration Foundation 2018 Symposium will be held at the Santa Fe Scottish Rite Temple August 10-12th. CLICK HERE for more information.

Albuquerque on April 2nd

I will be in Albuquerque, New Mexico on April 2nd for three events.

10:00 a.m.—New Mexico Lodge of Research

The event will kick off the distribution of a customized copy of Freemasons for Dummies to all new EAs in New Mexico. (Breakfast will be available at 9:00 a.m.) Guests are welcome. Sandia Mountain Lodge building, behind the Grand Lodge, 1638 University Boulevard N.E., Albuquerque.

1:00-4:00 p.m.—Workshop: Masonic Research 101

A workshop on the basics of Masonic research and publication, including individual discussion of attendees’ own research interests. Open to both Masons and non-Masons. $25, payable to The Lodge of Research of New Mexico. Limited to 25 participants. To reserve a seat, please e-mail kdavis@nmmasons.org. Please bring work in progress. Sponsored by the New Mexico Lodge of Research.
Temple Lodge No. 6, 3801 Osuna Road N.E., Albuquerque.

7:00 p.m.—Festive Board

I will speak on “The Future of American Freemasonry.” Three-course dinner, with the Ceremony of the Seven Toasts. Ladies and other guests are welcome. Black tie (tuxedo), dinner dress for ladies. $35, including tax and tip, payable to Bro. Jay Williams. Seating is limited. To reserve seats, please e-mail kdavis@nmmasons.org.
Sponsored by the New Mexico 2nd Circle of The Masonic Society.
Chama River Brewing Company, 4939 Pan American N.E., Albuquerque.

My trip is sponsored by the Grand Lodge of New Mexico, MWB Gary M. Deck, Grand Master; the New Mexico Lodge of Research, WB Stephen Balke, Worshipful Master.

For further information on any of these events, contact WB Kenneth W. Davis, kdavis@nmmasons.org.