Joining Freemasonry – The First Five Years
Posted by Alexander Sives in Biography on February 2nd, 2010
Let me start by telling you all a little about myself. I was born in the new town of Livingston (located just outside the city of Edinburgh), Scotland in July 1970. My father joined the Craft in 1977 and both my parents joined the Order of the Eastern Star the following year.
My father stopped going to the lodges after a few years and became active as an Instructor in the Air Training Corps, until about 1999 when he decided to renew his Masonic Career. Soon after my three sisters joined the Eastern Star (2 in Mid Calder and 1 in Livingston) and left me pretty much outside the Masonic Family. I thought the Craft was invitational at this point and I kind of assumed that my Dad didn’t want me to join.
I was researching the Crusades in 2004 (which I have been doing on and off since I was teenager, fascinated by the Doctor Who story ‘The Crusades’ and the character of Nazir the Saracen in ‘Robin of Sherwood’) on the internet when I came across a link to Modern Day Knights Templars and its connection to Freemasonry and my interest was piqued.
I kept researching and trying to get my dad to answer questions, I had also been a bit wary of the Lodge because in Scotland its name is linked to The Orange Order – a anti-catholic order famous for its marches, but I was very much relieved when it was revealed that it had no part to play in Freemasonry. Until in early 2005 I asked him why he hadn’t invited me to join the lodge and lo and behold he told me “you have to knock on the door of the lodge yourself”.
My application form was submitted to my father’s mother lodge (in the nearby town of Mid Calder) in April 2005. I was proposed by my father and seconded by my Uncle. I was called to attend an Inquiry Meeting in November 2005 after which I was successfully balloted for membership.
I was initiated as an Entered Apprentice in Lodge St John Mid Calder, number 272 on the role of the Grand Lodge of Scotland on 17th January 2006.
I was passed as a Fellowcraft at the next meeting 7th February 2006.
On 7th March 2006 I was raised as a Master Mason and given the 5 points of fellowship lecture and demonstration by the Provincial Grand Master of Linlithgowshire, George M Preston.
Even before being Raised as a Master Mason I was aware of the Royal Arch (my father was a member) and wanted to join the Burnvale 397 Chapter of the Royal Arch, who also meet in my Mother Lodge’s building.
In Scotland you must be a Mark Master Mason to join the Royal Arch, so the Chapter graciously decided to work the Mark on me (otherwise I would have to wait until Christmas 2006 at the earliest to get my Mark in my Mother Lodge). So in April 2006 I was advanced to Mark Master Mason, with my dad being one of the overseers inspecting my work.
Just before the May 2006 Royal Arch meeting I was initiated in the Ancient Order of the Noble Cork by Dunearn 400 Lodge, meeting in Broxburn, this is a fun degree with the proceeds going to charity, I heartily recommend it to all mason’s
Then it was time to join the Royal Arch fully and I was exalted to Royal Arch Mason via the Excellent Master degree. I have always enjoyed these degrees in the Royal Arch more than any other- I am drawn to the story and theatrics.
I should also mention that my father and I are prolific visitors, I attended my first Masonic meeting 2 nights after being made an Entered Apprentice, we carefully selected meetings I could attend as I progressed through the Blue degrees and the same was true in the Royal Arch – the night after being Exalted I attended a Royal Arch meeting in Edinburgh.
After a busy summer recess (I attended as many Lodge and Chapter meetings as I could find) I was admitted into the Mid Calder (260) Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, which was attended and witnessed by my Mum and Dad and my three sisters in October 2006.
The same month I performed my first floor work in the lodge when I gave the North East Corner and 1st Degree Working Tools lectures as a prelude to becoming the Lodges Inner Guard, in the Royal Arch Chapter I was nominated and accepted the position of 3rd Sojourner and was dually installed at the October meeting, Then in December 2006 I was installed as Inner Guard in my Mother Lodge.
Of course by now I wanted to know even more about Freemasonry, and as luck would have it I was chatting to a Freemason at a Royal Arch Burns Supper and after talking about the Cryptic Council he invited me to join the council.
So in the space of a month between February and March 2007 I was elevated as a Royal Ark Mariner, received as a Knight of the East and West at Burnvale (397) Lodge and Council along with being Honoured, Chosen and Greeted as a Royal and Select Master at Strathbrook (237) Cryptic Council.
A truly bewildering area of signs, tokens and words from 7 degrees.
In June 2007 I accepted a promotion at my work and relocated to South Yorkshire in England and for the next two years I only managed a few visits to my mother lodge, I was however still active in online Masonry and joined many Internet forums and groups. I returned home to Scotland in March 2009 and immediately set about getting back into the Craft.
After just two months I was invited to join the Preceptory of the Lothians, Knights Templar which I was delighted to accept, I submitted my memorials right away and passed the ballot for membership in October 2009!
I joined the Corporation O’ Squaremen on Saturday 5th September in Kinross. where I was initiated in due style into Buchan Shed, I also decided to affiliate to the provinces Lodge of Research and Instruction, Lodge Pioneer 1305 which holds its meetings in Linlithgow, I was proposed by Brother William SC Renwick a past master for my mother lodge and Brother Tom Scott from Lodge Kirknewton and Ratho 85 and also the Depute Provincial Grand Master of Linlithgowshire.
On Thursday 24th September
I stood in as 1st Sojourner in my Royal Arch Chapter in order to Exalt my brother in law Paul into the order. I was also then elected into that Position for 2009 – 2010, with the Installation taking place on the 22nd October 2009.
I became an affiliate member of Lodge Pioneer on 20th November 2009, before being installed as Inner Guard for the second time in my mother lodge in Early December, I was very lucky that a Office Bearer slot had become open.
I entered my fifth year in Freemasonry in January 2010, My wife who had expressed a interest in joining the Order of the Eastern Star, when we returned home last March was finally initiated in February 2010 and the same month I completed the York Rite of Freemasonry when I was completed as a Knights Templar.
As you can imagine I now have more than enough Masonic Activities to keep me occupied for years so I have decided to sit back now and enjoy the orders I have joined and the positions I have undertaken, as I continue the slow march towards the Chairs of King Solomon (estimated 2018), Prince Zurrababel (2011) and Commander Noah (2011) over the next few years.
The Spirit of Brother Robert Burns
Posted by Alexander Sives in Biography, Masonic History on January 19th, 2010
In order of the Celebration of Scotlands most famous Freemason, I thought it would be nice to republish this address given by Brother Reverend Doctor Fort Newton, Past Grand Chaplain, Iowa, USA. He gave this address in proposing the toast “To the Immoral Memory of Brother Robert Burns” at the Burns Meetings of the Scots Lodge, No. 2319 EC on 24th January 1918.
We are met this evening, as I understand it, just to love Robert Burns and one another. Somehow I feel that Burns would rejoice to be here, for he love more than all else that festival that was half a frolic and the feast where joy and goodwill were guests.
The social magnetism of his spirit found its way into his songs, and we feel it to this day, and he was nowhere more happy, nowhere more welcome than in the fellowship of his Masonic Brethren.
Higher tribute there is none for any man to say, justly, that the world is gentler and more joyous for his having live – and this was true of Burns, whose very name is an emblem of pity, joy and the genius of fraternity. And it is therefore that we love Robert Burns, as much for his weakness as for his strength, and all the more for that he was such an unveneered human being.
If he was a sinner, he was in that akin to ourselves, as God wots, a little good and a little bad, a little weak and a little strong, foolish when he thought he was wise and wise, often, when he feared he was foolish.
It is given but to few men thus to live in the hearts of their fellows; and today, from Ayr to Sydney, from Chicago to Bombay, the memory of Burns is a sweet perfume. Yet, more that a fragrances, it is a living force uniting men of many lands, by a kind of Freemasonry, into a league of liberty, justice and pity.
If ever of any one, it can be said of Robert Burns, that his soul goes marching on, striding over continents and years, trampling tyrannies down. He was the harbinger of the nineteenth century, the poet of the rights and reign of the common people, whom, it has been said, God must love because He made so many of them.
That which lives in Robert Burns, and will live while human nature is the same, is his love of justice, of honesty, his touch of pathos, of melting sympathy, his demands for liberty, his faith in man, in nature and in God – all uttered with simple speech and the golden voice of song. His poems were little jets of love and liberty and pity finding their way out through the fissures in the granite-like theology of his day. They came fresh from the heart of a man whom the death of a little bird set dreaming of the meaning of a world wherein life in woven of beauty, mystery and sorrow.
Such was the spirit of Robert Burns – a man passionate and piteous, compact of light and flame and beauty, capable of withering scorn of wrong, quickly shifting from the ludicrous to the horrible, poised between laughter and tears – and if by some art we could send it into all the dark places of the world, pity and joy would return to the common ways of man.
Long live the Spirit of Robert Burns, may it grow and glow to the confounding of all unkindness, all injustice, all bitterness.
He haunts his native land As an immortal youth; his hand Guides every plough His presence haunts this room tonight A for of mingled mist and light From that far coast
His feet may be in the furrow, but the nobility of manhood is in his heart, on his lips the voice of eternal melody, and in his face the light of the morning star.
Robert Burns
The Life of Captain George Smith
Posted by Alexander Sives in Biography on December 29th, 2009
Captain George Smith was a Freemason of some distinction during the latter part of the 18th century. Although born in England, he entered the military service of Prussia (being connected with noble families of the kingdom). During his residency in the kingdom he was initiated in one of the German Lodges.
On his return to England he was appointed Inspector of the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, and published The Universal Military Dictionary in 1779ce, and Bibliotheca Miliaris in 1783ce.
Brother Smith devoted much attention to Masonic studies, and was noted to be a good workman in the Royal Military Lodge at Woolwich, of which he spent four years as Master. During his Mastership the Lodge had been opened in the King’s Bench prison, and some persons who were confined there were initiated. For this the Master and Brethren were censured, and the Grand Lodge declared that “it is inconsistent with the principles of Masonry for any Freemason’s Lodge to be held, for the purpose of making, passing, or raising Masons, in any prison or place of confinement”.
Brother Smith was appointed by the Duke of Manchester to be the Provincial Grand Master of Kent in 1778ce, and on that occasion he delivered his Inaugural Charge before the Lodge of Friendship at Dover. He also drew up a Code of Laws for the government of the Province, which was published in 1781ce.
In 1780ce he was appointed Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge; but objections having been made by Heseltine, the Grand Secretary, between whom and himself there was no very kind feeling, on the ground that no one could hold two offices in the Grand Lodge, Smith resigned at the next Quarterly Communication. As at the time of this appointment there was really no law forbidding the holding of two offices, its impropriety was so manifest, that the Grand Lodge adopted a regulation that “it is incompatible with the laws of this society for any Brother to hold more than one office in the Grand Lodge at the same time.”
Captain Smith, in 1783, published a work entitled The Use and Abuse of Freemasonry: a work of the greatest utility to the Brethren of the Society, to Mankind in general, and to the Ladies in particular. The interest to the ladies consists in some twenty pages, in which he gives the “Ancient and Modern reasons why the ladies have never been accepted into the Society of Freemasons,” a section the omission of which would scarcely have diminished the value of the work or the reputation of the author.
The work of Brother Smith would not at the present day, in the advanced progress of Masonic knowledge, enhance the reputation of its writer. But at the time when it appeared, there was a great dearth of Masonic literature — Anderson, Calcott, Hutchinson, and Preston being the only authors of any repute that had as yet written on the subject of Freemasonry. There was much historical information contained within its pages, and some few suggestive thoughts on the symbolism and philosophy of the Order. To the Craft of that day the book was therefore necessary and useful. Nothing, indeed, proves the necessity of such a work more than the fact that the Grand Lodge refused its sanction to the publication on the general ground of opposition to Masonic literature.
Northouck, in commenting on the refusal of a sanction, says:
No particular objection being stated against the abovementioned work, the natural conclusion is, that a sanction was refused on the general principle that, considering the flourishing state of our Lodges, where regular instruction and suitable exercises are ever ready for all Brethren who zealously aspire to improve in masonical knowledge new publications are unnecessary on a subject which books cannot teach. Indeed, the temptations to authorship have effected a strange revolution of sentiments since the year 1720, when even ancient manuscripts were destroyed, to prevent their appearance in a printed Book of Constitutions! for the principal materials in this very work, then so much dreaded, have since been retailed in a variety of forms, to give consequence to fanciful productions that might have been safely withheld, without sensible injury, either to the Fraternity or to the literary reputation of the writers.
To dispel such darkness almost any sort of book should have been acceptable. The work was published without the sanction, and the Craft being wiser than their representatives in the Grand Lodge, the edition was speedily exhausted. In 1785ce Captain Smith was expelled from the Society for “uttering an instrument purporting to be a certificate of the Grand Lodge recommending two distressed Brethren.”
Brother Doctor George Oliver describes Captain Smith as a man “plain in speech and manners, but honourable and upright in his dealings, and an active and zealous Mason.” It is probable that he died about the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th century.
Most of the information in this blog comes from the article GEORGE SMITH - From Albert Mackey’s Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry