The Grand Lodge in Session

This cartoon is available on ebay currently awaiting a starting bid of £20.

The listing states: "Postally used 1907 cartoon postcard of the Mason's Grand Lodge in Session.

"Publisher:-  Millar & Lang..."

Indian Masons open up

Here is an interesting article from The Hindu explaining why there is nothing secretive about Freemasonry.

The ‘secretive’ Freemasons, the stuff of lore, have opened up their doors for the public to know what the group is all about. After staying closed for more than two centuries in India, the group held its ‘Divine ceremony’ on Saturday and allowed media and public to be part of it.

The ceremony was held at the three-century-old Goshamahal Baradari Masonic Building here on Saturday. The city last played host to such an event 22 years ago. The service was conducted by Grand Master of Grand Lodge of India Vasudev J. Masurekar.

Dressed in the customary dress, the Grand Master and his subordinates marched up to the stage in a procession holding different religious scriptures.

After a brief welcome address, a few verses from the Bhagavad-Gita, Quran, Bible, Guru Granth Sahib and Zend Avesta were read and their meanings explained in English so as to emphasise oneness and commonality of all religions.

A portrait of the Grand master was also unveiled on the occasion.

For most in the audience, the event resembled a stately function as the group members were attired in dresses and uniforms similar to those worn by royals.

People also got to know about the activities and meetings.

“There is nothing secretive about the society or its activities.

The group with over four million members world over does not want to make public its charitable activities,” the Grand Master told presspersons on the sidelines of the event.

Freemasonry came to India in 1730 with officers of the East India Company holding their meetings in Fort William, Calcutta. In Hyderabad, it was started in 1810 and now has about 17 lodges (branches) in the twin cities with about 700 members.

Quartlery comms typo

Here's the published transcript of the Pro Grand Master's quarterly communication - complete with missing word. Can you spot it in the first paragraph?

Despite that, well worth a read, of course...

Quarterly Communication
13 March 2013
An address by the MW the Pro Grand Master Peter Lowndes

Brethren,

In my address to Grand Lodge last December I commented that we should be proud of our history. I therefore have no qualms – indeed I believe it is important – in mentioning that this year marks an important landmark in the history of our Grand Lodge: the two hundredth anniversary of the between the Ancients and Modern Grand Lodges. The actual – forming the United Grand Lodge of England – took place at Freemasons’ Hall on St John’s Day, December 27th 1813.

It is therefore more appropriate that we mark this major anniversary later in the year at the December Quarterly Communication. At that time I hope that Brothers Hamill and Redman will give us an account of the intriguing story of how the was finally achieved and its importance to English Freemasonry in particular and world-wide Freemasonry in general.

However, I mention this anniversary today for two main reasons. First, because those of you who are also members of the Royal Arch know that the Order is holding its own celebration in October of this year. It is to mark the decision, achieved during the negotiations leading to the, that the Royal Arch be recognised as an essential part of pure ancient Freemasonry, forging an indissoluble link between the Craft and the Royal Arch.

Secondly, and importantly for us, rather than making major celebrations this year we have decided to concentrate our efforts on 2017 and the celebration of our tercentenary of the formation of Grand Lodge in 1717. This is considered the more important of the two events and a celebration of both would inevitably stretch all recourses beyond any reasonable limit. It is intended that these celebrations will take place throughout the constitution both at home and overseas.

Freemasonry is good at celebrations. Lodges are usually very keen to celebrate their important anniversaries, and rightly so. There can be few, if any, other organisations that have so many individual component parts that survive to celebrate 50, 100, 200 years and beyond. We should be immensely proud that our Lodges not only survive and thrive, in most cases, for so long, but that they also keep full and accurate records of all their meetings. It is, of course, a prerequisite of the granting of a Centenary or Bicentenary Warrant that the Lodge can show continuous working. Some latitude is given to take account of war time conditions, but, otherwise, we are firm about this.

We do have Lodges that fail and at every Quarterly Communication there is a list of lodges to be erased. Sad as this is, it is inevitable when overall numbers have fallen, the redressing of which is on the top of any list of priorities that is drawn up. Conversely we still have new Lodges being consecrated, which may seem something of a paradox in the face of falling numbers, but I would argue that, if there is a group of like minded people who want to get together to form a Lodge and they can show reason for doing so as well as an ability to sustain it in the future, why not? The members will have considered the sustainability of the Lodge carefully and, even if it only survives for, say, 50 years, many people will have derived great enjoyment from it and many people will have been introduced to our great institution who might otherwise have missed out.
Brethren let’s celebrate on all possible occasions.

@MS_Fund

A good spot by the Masonic Samaritan Fund, which tweeted the above pic and explained: "Part of our history captured by BBC, nurse with Queen trained at Royal Masonic Hospital wears belt buckle and jewel"

@MS_Fund

A peach of a clock

This early 19th Century tall case clock made by Henry Peach of Beaminster in Dorset, England, is going under the hammer in North Carolina, US.

It came from the estate of the late Colonel "Pappy" Leland Martin. The clock is decorated with Masonic symbols and the base front is inlaid with a diamond-shaped checkboard pattern.

It measures 80x16.25 x 10.75 ins.

The clock will be sold at Leland Little Auctions on March 15 with an estimate of $3,000 - $5,000.

Unpublished Kipling poems discovered

It has been reported, by the BBC among others, that previously unseen poems by renowned Freemason Rudyard Kipling have been discovered.

From Wiki: "According to the English magazine Masonic Illustrated, Kipling became a Freemason in about 1885, prior to the usual minimum age of 21.^[53] He was initiated into Hope and Perseverance Lodge No. 782 in Lahore. He later wrote to The Times, "I was Secretary for some years of the Lodge . . . , which included Brethren of at least four creeds. I was entered by a member from Brahmo Somaj, a Hindu, passed  by a Mohammedan, and raised by an Englishman. Our Tyler was an Indian Jew." Kipling received not only the three degrees of Craft Masonry, but also the side degrees of Mark Master Mason and Royal Ark Mariner.^[54] Kipling so loved his masonic experience that he memorialised its ideals in his famous poem, "The Mother Lodge"."

From the BBC

More than 50 unpublished poems by Rudyard Kipling have been discovered by a US scholar.

Thomas Pinney found the manuscripts in a number of places including a Manhattan House that was being renovated and among the papers of a former head of the Cunard Line.
Pinney described it as a "tremendously exciting time for scholars and fans".
The poems will be published alongside 1,300 others in the first ever complete edition of Kipling's verse on 7 March.
Kipling, who lived from 1865 to 1936, was best known for his fictional short stories including The Jungle Book and poems Mandalay and If.
The newly discovered poems include several from World War I, including one titled Never Again In Any Port, as well as notes from a journal the writer kept on a tour of the war graves of Belgium and France in 1924.
Pinney, Emeritus Professor of English at Pomona College in California, said: "Kipling has long been neglected by scholars probably for political reasons. His texts have never properly been studied but things are starting to change.
"There is a treasure trove of uncollected, unpublished and unidentified work out there. I discovered another unrecorded item only recently and that sort of thing will keep happening."
One poem from 1899 comprises a diatribe against media intrusion titled The Press, which was one of Kipling's pet hates, echoing present day worries.
He wrote: "Had you friend a secret / Sorrow, shame or vice - / Have you promised not to tell / What's your lowest price? / All the housemaid fancied / All the butler guessed / Tell it to the public press / And we will do the rest."
There was also Kipling's comic verse, including an example written on a ship sailing from Adelaide to Ceylon, Sri Lanka, which is thought to have been read aloud by Kipling to those around him.
"It was a ship of the P&O / Put forth to sail the sea," he wrote, going on to show his frustration with the pace of the liner. "The children played on the rotten deck / A monthly growing band / Of sea-bred sin born innocents / That never knew the land."
Linda Bree, arts and literature editorial director at Cambridge University Press, said: "Kipling's If is one of the most popular poems in the English language, but this edition shows that he wrote much else to entertain, engage and challenge readers."
Kipling was born in Mumbai, India, and moved to England for schooling when he was five years old.
For much of the 20th Century, his reputation was damaged by his jingoistic imperialist views, with George Orwell describing him as "a prophet of British imperialism".