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 Jim
Tresner, 33°, Grand Cross
P.O. Box 70, Guthrie, Oklahoma 73044–0070
Book Reviews Editor, The Scottish Rite Journal
The 10th edition of Heredom is in the hands of the members
of the Research Society, and what a book it is! Heredom
is the Transactions of the Scottish Rite Research Society, a compilation
of papers written by scholars exploring various areas of Freemasonry.
It has become the premier Masonic research publication.
If you are not a member of the Society already, I'd certainly
urge you to join. (See page 14.) The dues are very low ($30),
and you receive not only Heredom, a substantive hardbound
book (in this case 394 pages), but you also get bonus publications
each year and the Society's quarterly newsletter, the Plumbline.
It's a terrific value. Dr. S. Brent Morris, 33°, Grand Cross,
is the editor. He always does a great job, but this 10th edition
of Heredom is surely among his very best efforts. Here is what's
inside.
"Understanding Manhood in America:
The Elusive Quest for the Ideal in Masculinity"
by Robert G. Davis, 33°. Brother Davis and I have been friends
for far more than a decade, and I have watched this article grow
from an idea into a really fine essay. What does it mean to be
a man? That isn't an easy question, and over the centuries, societies
have come up with different answers. Brother Davis traces those
in this article and shows how Freemasonry plays a role in the
answer-with some interesting implications for the future of the
Fraternity. I strongly recommend the article. This article, greatly
expanded from what you will find here, will be published as a
book later this year by Anchor Communications. I'll let you know
when the book is available.
"A Visit with General Albert Pike"
Those of you who read the article by Brother Jack Rucker, 32°,
in the March issue of the Journal know that we have made
a videotape and DVD of a visit a contemporary Mason makes to General
Albert Pike. This article is the script from which we started
shooting. There is material here which did not make it into the
final edit, so it's actually more complete. My thanks to the Journal
office staff and Dr. Morris who added both contemporary and historic
photographs to my text to make it much more visually interesting.
"Presenting Freemasonry through
a Public History Exhibition" by Mark Tabbert,
32°. This is a jewel of an article, both in its contents and
its many color photographs of the exhibit. Brother Tabbert, as
he tells us, had only been a Mason for 18 months and on the staff
of the National Heritage Museum for five months, when he was given
the task of creating a major exhibition telling the story of Freemasonry
and its historic involvement with the community. It would have
been a daunting task for anyone, but reading between the lines,
I suspect Brother Tabbert was advantaged by his newness to the
Craft. The moss has not yet had time to start growing. What he
produced was a dynamic and vital exhibit, illustrated in the article.
The fascinating story involves the decisions as to how to present
the Fraternity, what point of view to take, and how this enormous
project came together. The exhibit's title is "To Build and
Sustain: Freemasons in American Community" and will be displayed
in the National Heritage Museum of the Supreme Council, 33°,
Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, in historic Lexington, Massachusetts,
until June 2004. Don't miss it, but, if you can't get to Lexington,
reading this article is a virtual visit to this modern and impressive
exhibit.
"James Anderson: Man & Mason"
by David Stevenson. Very few things truly make me furious, but
one of them is the tendency of people to judge men and women of
the past in terms of contemporary standards rather than in the
terms of the standards of their own time. It's unforgivably intellectually
sloppy. You know, people who accuse Julius Caesar of being a sexist
because he did not have women in the Roman army, castigate George
Washington as being evil because he owned slaves at a time when
that was considered the norm, or sneer at Albert Pike because
he didn't write in 21st Century sound bites. Our venerable Brother
James Anderson has been much the victim of such attacks. High
thanks, then to David Stevenson for setting that record straight
and giving us an account of Anderson's work, with its strengths
and weaknesses, based on what he did write rather than on what
someone thinks he should have written. In 1721, Anderson was given
the task of pulling together such material as he could find about
the history and traditions of Freemasonry. The result was the
work we usually refer to as Anderson's Constitutions. Not
much is known about this interesting man, but the author has done
a fine job of giving us what information is available and writing
about Anderson in the context of his own time. The notes are excellent,
and I think you'll find the article very interesting.
"Is Freemasonry Afraid of Its Own
Shadow? Masonry's Love/Hate Relationship with the Esoteric Traditions"
by Jay Kinney, 32°. Bless Brother Kinney for this article.
It has long needed to be written. The "shadow" in the
title is from the works of C. G. Jung, the famous psychologist.
It is a term he used "to refer to those parts of our psyches
and personalities that we are shamed of or embarrassed by."
You can get a fair donnybrook started in almost any watering place
after a Masonic meeting by introducing the question of esoteric
traditions. Some Brothers will flash into anger, insisting that
there is no such thing as esoteric Masonry (unless you are talking
about unwritten ritual) and never has been. Others will asperse
their sanity, saying "What about the Middle Chamber? The
Candidate standing between those two pillars obviously symbolizes
the middle pillar of the Tree of Life." "Nonsense,"
comes the rejoinder, and the fight is on. Brother Kinney has done
a good job in a short article of setting forth the issue. And
one sentence, especially, I would like to see engraved above the
door of every Masonic Temple and in the heart of every Masonic
leader: "If we let the anti-Masons define what we feel safe
to discuss about our own complex history, and if we allow sensationalistic
authors to have the final say on how people perceive Freemasonry,
then we are surely doomed." (Click here
for the article by Bro. Kinney appearing in this issue.)
"Parisian Masonry, the Lodge of
the Nine Sisters, & the French Enlightenment"
by R. William Weisberger, 32°. There are more turns in this
story than the maze at Chartres. The story of Freemasonry in Paris
involves the highest ideals of man and his lowest politics as
well. The relationship between the Grand Lodge of England and
the Grand Lodge of France was cordial, with the French Lodges
eagerly searching into the symbols of English Masonry for insights
into the ancient modes of thought and wisdom. But in Paris, political
winds were starting to blow as the stirrings of the Enlightenment
were making themselves felt. Into this mixture comes the Lodge
of the Nine Sisters, with members from the highest levels of society
as well as some of the most brilliant men of the age. And the
world changed. It's a fine story and a well-written article.
"In the Eye of a Hurricane: German
Freemasonry in the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich"
by Ralf Metzer. By most accounts, the anti-Masonry in Germany
following the end of the First World War was even more strident
and hateful than the American anti-Masonry of the mid-1800s. The
Lodges were easy targets and handy scapegoats for those who were
unwilling to accept the changes made in the nation at the end
of the war. In spite of this, the Fraternity was experiencing
rapid growth. The growth, however, was anything but orderly. There
were eight individual Grand Lodges. Three of these were of the
old Prussian Masonic extraction, highly conservative with a strong
military tradition and connection. The remaining five Grand Lodges
were much more liberal and populist. They reflected the division
in the society, of course, and that division would play out inside
the Fraternity with almost as much violence as in the German society
itself. This is a good article, well researched, and easy to read.
"Albert Pike's Address before the
Grand Consistory of Louisiana" by Michael R. Poll,
32°. This is a fascinating article. I had always thought Oklahoma
was unique in that our Grand Lodge was formed by the merger of
two existing Grand Lodges. Not so. The same thing and more happened
in Louisiana. The article discusses Pike's speech when he was
elected Commander in Chief of the Grand Consistory. It's a real
service to Masonic scholarship. Prior to this, the speech has
been virtually unknown. It is at the very beginning of Pike's
career, and those of us who love to read Pike have a chance to
see here his earliest "Masonic style" which is very
different from what it would later become. Equally interesting
is the information about Masonry in Louisiana at the time. Brother
Poll gives us a vivid picture of turmoil. Many of the Lodges spoke
only French. Some were ardently American. Two Grand Lodges were
established, and the Grand Lodge of another state was chartering
Louisiana Lodges. Some were working the Webb or "York Rite"
Lodge rituals, others the Scottish Rite rituals of the first three
Degrees. And into this walks the brand-new Mason, Albert Pike.
It's a great story.
"Anti-Masonic Conspiracy Theories:
A Narrative Form of Demonization and Scapegoating"
by Chip Berlet. Chip Berlet is senior analyst at Political Research
Associates-an independent nonprofit research center which studies
extremist groups. Freemasonry has, of course, often been the target
of such groups and is especially so today. Berlet traces some
of the history of conspiracy theories (and a dishonorable history
it is) and sounds a clear warning about what we must watch for
and what informational techniques we need to employ. Critical
reading, this.
"Cumulative Index, Volumes 1-10"
by S. Brent Morris, 33°, Grand Cross, Norman D. Peterson,
32°, K.C.C.H., SRRS Fellow, and Ron Schwartz, 32°. The
best information in the world is of no value if you can't find
it. A good index makes a good book. Incidentally, it's one of
the first things I check out when I'm looking at a new book. A
puny index doesn't necessarily mean a puny book, but it usually
means a book that's going to be hard to use. Kudos to Brothers
Morris, Peterson, and Schwartz for their combined effort! This
94-page index covers all 10 years of Heredom. It's good
and easy to use. Preparing it was a major job, and it was a job
well done.
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