Freemasonry in Costa Rica

This is taken from the Coast Rica Star...

At a recent gathering that took place in the capital city of Costa Rica,men wearing ceremonial garb over their business suits conferred about topics such as apprenticeships, fellowcraft, medallions, seals, rituals, and the famous Scottish poet Robert Burns. This special meeting was presided by a special guest from a faraway land who bore gifts, including a medallion that was placed in a museum dedicated to holding artifacts belonging to a fraternal order that people often associate with mysticism.

Freemasonry in Costa Rica dates back to 1865. By 1871, a handful of Fraternal Orders had been established around the country, and they adopted abstract names such as Charity, Hope, Fatih, Progress, Wonder, Concord, Providence, etc. As with other Freemasonry organizations around the world, the Fraternal Orders in Costa Rica are thick with symbolism, allegory and ritual, but they share similar goals with regard to promoting fraternity between members and undertaking business, educational and charitable undertakings.

The “secret society” sophism of the Freemason movement in Costa Rica is intrinsic to the Roman Catholic constitutionality of our country. In the past, the Vatican has condemned Freemasonry (perhaps fearing a power struggle), and thus at one point Freemasonry was not particularly welcome and was ignorantly associated with heresy. It is interesting to note, however, that Freemasonry was introduced in our country by a Roman Catholic priest.

The following report was “secretly shared” on the Facebook Timeline of the Club Masonico Internacional of Illinois:

International Lodge Visit To Costa Rica

Report of Grand Lodge of Illinois Grand Representative, R.W.B. Joseph F. Loayza (Past Master of Glenview United Lodge No. 1058, Glenview, Illinois), for the Grand Lodge of Costa Rica.

R.W.B. Joseph F. Loayza made an official visit to Lodge La Luz No. 3 in San Jose, Costa Rica. This lodge was chartered in the late 19th Century, before the Grand Lodge of Costa Rica was organized in 1899. He was a special guest in the East for the evening. His visit coincided with the conferral of an Entered Apprentice Degree, and a Grand Lodge of Costa Rica visit.

La Luz Lodge No. 3 has green bordered aprons, and uses the ritual as established by the Grand Lodge of Scotland which R.W.B. Loayza is familiar with since he also saw a Fellowcraft Degree conferred in Edinburgh, Scotland when he visited the lodge of the famous Scottish Poet, Robert Burns, on a previous European trip.

Additionally, R.W.B. Loayza presented the Illinois Grand Master’s Recognition of Unity Medallion to a PGM of the Grand Lodge of Costa Rica who was representing Grand Master Hirish that evening. There was a formal exchange of greetings on behalf of both Grand Lodges and assurance that the medallion would be placed in the Museum of the Grand Lodge of Costa Rica recognizing the fraternal bond between both Grand Lodges. After the Degree Work, a dinner was held and toasts were made to both Grand Lodges.

The picture [herein] is of R.W.B. Loayza in the back row with a member of the Grand Lodge while the current dais officers are in the front row.

Respectfully Submitted,

R.W.B. John Loayza

Assistant Grand Chancellor

Grand Lodge of Illinois, A.F. & A.M.

Old apron goes under hammer

This apron - described as late 18th or early 19th century - is going under the hammer at the Reeman Dansie saleroom in Colchester, Essex.

It has an estimate of £150-200.

Mason in amazing sense of smell recovery

I know this guy is a Mason, because it's me.

This is from the Daily Mail

A man who has been unable to smell properly for 20 years sniffed out a major gas leak just days after a kick to the head during a rugby match restored his lost sense.

Edward Baker's ability to smell gradually deteriorated throughout his adult life after he repeatedly broke his nose playing his favourite sport.

He has even undergone surgery to fix the problem, without success. 

During a recent game of rugby, he received a kick to the face which left him with another bruised and bloody nose.

Incredibly, after the swelling went down, he realised he was able to breathe properly and that his sense of smell had been restored.

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Edward Baker had not been able to smell for 20 years due to a broken nose, but recovered his lost sense after being kicked in the head in a rugby match (pictured)

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Just days after recovering his sense of smell in the  match between Poole and New Milton (right) he sniffed out a gas leak next to a school (left)

The 41-year-old marketing director put his newly-restored ability to good use when he smelt a gas leak near a school in Bournemouth, Dorset just days later.

He immediately called the gas board and engineers rushed out to seal off part of the residential road and fix the leak.

Mr Baker said: 'Although I haven't been able to smell gas for years, I still recognised the pungent smell straight away.

'The leak was in a built-up area with a school and nursery just yards away so the guy who kicked me in the face potentially saved a serious situation.'

Mr Baker said he first broke his nose at the age of 14 and then on frequent occasions over the next 25 years.

Eventually he couldn't inhale properly through his nose and his ability to sniff scents and odors completely faded.

Edward Baker recovered his smell after being kicked in the head

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Mr Baker (third from left) gradually lost his sense of smell after repeatedly breaking his nose playing rugby

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He said the player who kicked him to the head did a great service both to himself and those who would have potentially been affected by the gas leak

In a bid to restore his lost sense, Mr Baker underwent an unsuccessful operation last year which involved doctors drilling into his nose to try to improve his breathing.

But, where skilled surgeons failed, a burly rugby player succeeded.

Mr Baker's latest nasal injury happened during a game involving his team, Hampshire-based New Milton III and Poole 1st last month.

He said: 'I've broken my nose a number of times over the years and it gradually got worse and worse until I couldn't breathe through it or smell through it.

'I had an operation last year where they drilled into my nose to make me breathe better through it, but it didn't work.

'So where the surgeons failed this bloke's size 12 boot worked. It was at the end of the game and there was a bit of a melee on the pitch and my nose got kicked.

'As the swelling started to go down about a week later I realised I could breathe and smell again.

'I had sensed it was coming back, and then as I was walked up the road and I could smell gas, something I'd never been able to detect before.

'I called the gas board. What I had smelt wasn't the source but gas was creeping into a chamber nearby. But it highlighted the area and they were able to fix it.'

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Authorities moved into the street in Bournemouth after Mr Baker put his newly-restored sense to good use

Silver matchbox for sale

This silver matchbox is going under the hammer at Matthew Barton in London with an estimate of £100-150.

The catalogue description reads: "A SILVER MASONIC BOX, TOYE, KENNING & SPENCER, BIRMINGHAM, 1989

oblong, the lid with an enamelled panel of Masonic symbols surrounded by a wheatsheaf border, 5cm long; together with a George V silver card case, plain except for the shaped sides and an applied vacant roundel, Saunders & Shepherd, Birmingham, 1910, 9.3cm long; and a Continental silver pill box, rectangular with pyramidal lid, stamped leaf decoration, import marks for London, 1985, 2.7cm long."

Grand Master engraving for sale

This engraving is being sold by Boningtons of Essex and is estimated to sell for between £350 and £500.

It depicts the installation of the Prince of Wales as Grand Master in 1875.

The catalogue description reads:

A 19th Century Masonic Engraving: The Installation Of H.R.H. The Prince Of Wales K.G. As Most Worshipful Grand Master Of The United Grand Lodge Of Ancient Free And Accepted Masons Of England 28th April 1875, H 61 x W 94 cm, gngraved by A. Lurat and Edward G. Hester, printed by McQueens, published Jan 1st 1878 By Bro. E. J. Harty 213 Regent Street

Soane's models go on display

From the Sunday Telegraph

Bank of England architect Sir John Soane's models to go on display

Miniature models collected by the renowned British architect will be unveiled at the Sir John Soane’s Museum next year

The Temple of Zeus or Apollo 

These are some of the models commissioned and acquired by one of Britain’s most influential architects, to form a collection that has remained behind closed doors for more than 160 years.

They include a series of plaster reconstructions of some of the world’s best-known buildings, cork models of ancient ruins in their contemporary state of disrepair and designs used for his own architectural commissions.

Sir John Soane’s collection of 117 architectural models is to go on display to the public for the first time since the room in which it was housed was dismantled after his death in 1850. Soane, who designed the Bank of England and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, used some of the miniature models as teaching tools for his pupils.

They were also a way to transport the classical architecture of far-flung parts of the world and past eras to his busy central London office.

Soane, who was the son of a bricklayer, insisted it was crucial for architects to create models of their designs before construction.

“No building – at least none of considerable size or consequence – should be begun until a correct and detailed model of all its parts has been made.”

Soane, a neoclassicist, had his office in his home at Lincoln’s Inn Fields near Holborn, which is now a museum of his work.

But the room on the second floor of the building where he displayed his collection of miniature models was taken apart after his death, and much of the collection kept in storage.

Now the museum is to restore the collection – the largest of its kind – and unveil it to the public next year.

It includes 14 miniature cork models that replicate ruins of some of the best-known ancient buildings and other archeological sites in Italy.

The use of cork for creating models of ancient structures had been popular since the 16th century, because the texture of the material is similar to that of weathered stone.

The work of cork model-makers such as Domenico Padiglione, who was based in Naples, was brought to Britain by wealthy travellers as souvenirs of their trips. For Soane, who bought them at salerooms in England, they served as a reminder of his own Grand Tour of Italy between 1778 and 1780 and acted as teaching aides in his role as professor of architecture at the Royal Academy.

The cork models include a large model of Pompeii which belonged to his first pupil, John Sanders.

They contrast sharply with a collection of pristine reconstructions of classical buildings and monuments acquired by Soane in 1834. The 20 plaster models were made by the Parisian model-maker François Fouquet between 1800 and 1830.

They include reconstructions of the Roman Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, Italy, the Parthenon in Athens and the Tomb of Mausolus built at Halicarnassus, now Bodrum in Turkey.

The models created for Soane’s own architectural practice were mainly made of wood. They included a lime wood model of Tyringham, a country house he built for William Praed, a banker and MP, between 1792 and 1800.

In total, 44 models were created for the Bank of England, Soane’s first major commission and his best-known work.

Sir John Soane’s Museum is now seeking donors who will adopt individual models to help fund the reinstatement of the model room.

Abraham Thomas, the museum’s director, said: “The models … are powerful, compelling gateways to other architectural ideas and concepts, to other far-flung sites around the world and across time periods ranging from the ancient world to the contemporary setting of Soane’s Regency world.”

Some of the models on show

Temple of Vesta

The Temple of Vesta at Tivoli in Italy was Soane’s favourite ancient building, the ruins of which he said “present an idea of peculiar elegance and rich taste”. This is a cork model made by Giovanni Altieri in the 1770s.

Temple of Zeus or Apollo

(the so-called Temple of Neptune or Poseidon)

The temple was built in Paestum, then in ancient Greece, around 450 BC, about the same time that the Parthenon in Athens was constructed. It is considered one of the best preserved Doric temples. Soane began to incorporate the early Greek Doric designs into his work from 1779.

The Arch of Constantine

One of 14 cork models acquired by Soane of ancient ruins. The Arch of Constantine stands between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill in Rome, where it was built in 315 to mark Constantine I’s victory over Maxentius at the Battle of Milvian Bridge. It acted as an inspiration for the facade of Soane’s Pitzhanger Manor House in Ealing, west London.

Bank of England

This painted wooden model was created as one of 44 for Sir John Soane’s first major architectural commission, the Bank of England. Crafted in 1805, it shows the north-west corner of the bank, which he extended to form the “Tivoli Corner”, based on the ancient Temple of Vesta
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Masons in China

From the South China Morning Post - Hong Kong

 

Masons 'mysterious, not secret', top English Freemason says on Hong Kong visit

Grand secretary of English lodge tries to dispel some of the myths surrounding controversial order as city receives new grandmaster

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Top English Mason Nigel Brown in Hong Kong. Photo: Felix Wong

Freemasonry is not a "secret society" but must still preserve an element of "mystery" as it opens up to scrutiny, a leading figure in the organisation said as he visited the city yesterday.
Nigel Brown, grand secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England, was speaking before yesterday's installation of a new district grandmaster for the Hong Kong Freemasons, a once-in-a-decade transition.
The masonic order has long been fodder for conspiracy theorists - accused of everything from plotting a "new world order" to, more credibly, serving as an old boys' network, with members helping one another advance.
But Brown declared: "We are not a secret society.
"There is no secret handshake," he said, adding that "it is also absolutely true that there is no obligation [to fellow members], no business networking. We are always mindful of the needs of others, so it's caring for others, not 'jobs for the boys'."
Brown was accompanied by Peter Lowndes, pro-grandmaster of the English lodge and second-highest-ranking mason after the Duke of Kent, to oversee the ceremony to install Vivian Lee as Hong Kong's new grandmaster.
About 200 people joined the members-only ceremony at the order's Zetland Hall headquarters in Mid-Levels.
Lee, who works in finance, succeeds lawyer David Fok, grandmaster for the past 10 years.
The succession comes at a time of internal strife for Hong Kong's Freemasons. Many members expressed unease at the handling of a case in which a high-ranking Freemason was cleared in September 2011 of three counts of indecently assaulting a secretary at Zetland Hall. And there were claims of a cover-up over the theft of more than HK$500,000 by a non- Mason bartender at the hall.
On the theft, Brown said "it was a matter that had been taken care of and settled", and on the indecent assault case, he said the accused "was absolutely cleared, so there was no case to answer".
Most of Hong Kong's 27 Masonic Lodges continue to affiliate to the English lodge, with a smaller number affiliated to the Scottish and Irish lodges.
A Grand Lodge of China also exists, based in Taipei.
Describing the Hong Kong chapter as "very important", Brown said: "We could be very inward-looking, but we are outward-looking, and we are very proud of those people in Hong Kong who have wanted to stay in the English constitution."
Hong Kong's "English" Freemasons number about 1,000 and have long included many prominent figures in local society.
And, despite claims by some members that numbers were slipping, Fok said the figures had remained consistent during his decade in office.
And Brown agreed, adding: "We are getting lots of new members. Recruitment is going up. What we've got to do is to make [sure] that everybody who joins is looked after and stays."
But another row is brewing involving John Chynchen, a senior Mason and honorary chaplain at St John's Cathedral, who has been accused of not properly attributing sermons to their original source.
"Plagiarism by a senior Mason is completely at odds with the high standards of morality and ethical conduct expected of a mason," said a member, adding that Fok's failure to investigate "smacks of bias and cronyism".
But Fok, a Mason since 1979, said: "This is nothing to do with masonry. This is a matter for the church."
Brown added: "What sermon is not plagiarised? I can't think of any religious person who doesn't use material from somewhere else. There's nothing here that would have brought Freemasonry into disrepute."
Chynchen did not return calls from the Post.