Southern California Research Lodge

FRATERNAL REVIEW

Editor - Ralph A. Herbold     (9-1-92)                     No. 656
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GEORGIA MASONIC MESSENGER
Would call your attention to the enclosed copy of the July 1992 issue of the
above publication for several reasons:

Page 7:  Brother James A. Sledge, Grand Chaplain, is a member of our Lodge.

Page 10:  The Book Review is authored by another of our members.
Incidentally, we have been handling this book for some time and our price is
$25.00 for the soft cover, $35.00 for the hard cover and $150.00 for the
Limited Edition (Diamond Jubilee Edition) and we absorb shipping costs and
sales tax (CA), to both domestic and foreign destinations.  And I would add
an Amen to the last paragraph of the review, reading it is a must.

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DEGREE WORK
The July 1992 Trestleboard of Consuelo Lodge No 325 included:

"Deacon's Night will be held at San Dieguito Lodge this year on Tuesday,
July 21st.  Our Deacons, along with those from Ramona, Vista, Oceanside,
Fallbrook and San Dieguito will be doing a First Degree."

When serving as Senior Warden of my Lodge I organized a Senior Warden's
Night, inviting all the Senior Wardens of the area (some Lodges were more
distant but the SW lived in the area so checked the Grand Lodge roster to
invite as many as possible) to confer a Third Degree and all had a wonderful
time.

The following year termed it a Master's Night and so many Masters came that
we had to limit the ritualists to being one section only and still some left
out.  With this and the preceding year's degree, we really developed a fine
relationship and several opted for the same event in their Lodges.  An
example, my brethren, worthy of all imitation, Consuelo Lodge, I mean.

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DRUG PROGRAM
From time to time we receive requests for information at to the availability
of the "Say No To Drugs" stamps.  They are available from Grand Lodge of
California, 1111 California St., San Francisco CA 94108, 2400 for $10, check
to California Masonic Foundation, proceeds from the sale to support the
Grand Lodge Drug and Alcohol Abuse Program.

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LIBRARY - BOOKS
Had a phone call from one of our members, Brother Roy M. Skeirik, with the
result we received an order for a selection of books, "Freemasonry -
A Journey Through Ritual and Symbol," "The Craft And Its Symbols," and
"Born in Blood."  The nice part of the order was the last paragraph:
"These books are to be presented to the Beaumont District Library to aid in
the further understanding of Freemasonry to the non-Masonic public."
Another example, my brethren, worth of all imitation.

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RESEARCH
Comment by Bro. John Hamill, P.M. of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, in the August
1991 Transactions of the Western Austrailian Lodge of Research No. 277
W.A.C.:

"I had the pleasure of meeting and talking with David Stephenson, a Reader in
Scottish History at Aberdeen.  He again is not a mason but is very interested
in freemasonry as an aspect of Scottish history.  He has produced two very
good and very interesting books on Scotland as the birthplace of freemasonry
using the transitional operative-speculative theory as the basis of his work
bringing in something which a lot of writers of masonic things have not done
by putting the evidence in the context of its time.

"As an expert on Scottish history, he knows the periods to put it in and one
of the things which he did and one of the interesting things in recent years,
has been the academics who are not freemasons but who are becoming interested
in freemasonry as a part of social and intellectual history.  The one great
virtue they have is that they come with open eyes and one of the things that
David Stephenson did was to look at two documents, the Schaw Statutes of 1598
and 1599.

"They must have been written about by virtually every masonic historian of
any worth in Scotland or England who was writing about the origins, but few
of them could actually have read them in any sort of detail.  He picked up in
it a reference to what is called the 'Art of Memory,' the passing on of ideas
in a mnemonic way, and the way that we do by the use of allegory and
symbolism which is a very long tradition of doing things and which goes back
to classical and even Egyptian times.  He looks at freemasonry as being the
modern occurence of that system of the passing on of ideas and passing on of
knowledge.

"I think it is a very interesting point but I think it might be a coincidental
point.  Those who are looking at freemasonry from the point of coming
indirectly from the operatives, have been looking at the 'why' and if you look
at the 'why' that was the way you passed things on.  Professor Wallace McLeod,
one of the Past Masters of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, is at the moment
revaluating the texts of the 'Old Charges' to see if he can find any similar
references in there and to see if that will bear out what Stephenson says.  At
the moment I think it is just one of those circumstances.

"The Schaw Statutes happen to mention it.  Freemasonry passed on its ideas
using the art of memory by using allegory and symbolism.  I would not like to
draw anything major from it at the moment until we can find instances of other
references of a similar nature.

"To use a cliche, 'one swallow dos not make a summer.'  One bit of evidence
does not produce the answer.  I think it is a very interesting and valid point
that it should be brought in by a non-mason.  I am sure it shows how useful it
is to have non-masons looking at material that I think sometimes, we always
look at without actually reading because we have read about it so much, we
think we know what it contains."

