NOTE: THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED!

Alice Von Kannon and I will be speaking back to back in New York City at the 92nd Street Y at 92nd and Lexington Ave. as part of their Sunday Symposium Series on Sunday, December 4th. The topic is "Great Secret Societies Demystified." We'll be in the Weill Art Gallery, and the program begins at 11AM.

Tickets are $35 and can be ordered online at the website here.

From the website description:

Throughout its 300-year history, the Freemasons have been some of the world’s most revered leaders. However, its detractors have reviled it since its very beginning for its secretive nature, rituals and symbols. Christopher Hodapp, author of 'Freemasons for Dummies' and 'Solomon’s Builders,' explores society’s ongoing love/hate relationship with Freemasonry and its myths and legends.

From 'Foucault’s Pendulum' and 'The Da Vinci Code' to a recent lawsuit filed against the Vatican, Templar mania is as hot as it’s ever been. Alice Von Kannon, co-author of 'The Templar Code for Dummies,' looks at the improbable birth and tragic end of the Knights Templar.

Illus. Brother S. Brent Morris will be speaking at the South Bend (Indiana) Scottish Rite Research Guild on June 18th at the Scottish Rite Cathedral (Cathedral Room), 427 N. Main St., South Bend. His topic will be “Trends Affecting American Freemasonry." Meet and Greet begins at 12:30 pm (EST). Cost is $10.00 per person, and the event is open to all.

S. Brent Morris 33° is the managing editor of the Scottish Rite Journal of the Supreme Council, 33°, S.J. A former mathematician with the federal government (he holds a PhD in Mathematics from Duke University), he has lectured at over 100 universities, and has taught mathematics, computer science, and cryptanalysis at Duke University, Johns Hopkins Universities, and the National Cryptologic School. He is currently on the graduate faculty at George Washington University. He was the first American to be elected as the Worshipful Master of Quatuor Coronati Lodge, the oldest Masonic Research Lodge in the world. Among his many books are The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Freemasonry, A Radical in the East, and Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry? co-authored with Art de Hoyos.

Brother Grayson Mayfield on the Palmetto Bug blog is announcing that the South Carolina Masonic Research Society will hold its first symposium and banquet on April 22nd, 2011 at 7:00 PM in the Omar Shrine Temple, 176 Patriots Point Street, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina 29464. The cost is $25.00 per person and this will be a formal or semi-formal dress event.

More from Grayson's announcement:

The keynote speaker will be Brother Michael A. Halleran, author of The Better Angels of our Nature: Freemasonry in the American Civil War and editor of the Scottish Rite Research Society’s Plumbline. Halleran is a freelance writer and a practicing attorney in the Flint Hills of East-Central Kansas. A lecturer at Emporia State University, he is also an active Freemason, belonging to both Emporia Lodge No. 12, AF&AM, and Mount Zion Lodge No. 266, AF&AM, Topeka, Kansas. Halleran received the Mackey Award for Excellence in Masonic Scholarship by the Scottish Rite Research Society for his article on Civil War Freemasonry in that society’s journal: Heredom, vol. 14 (2006). In addition, he is the author of a regular column for The Scottish Rite Journal. He is a member of the Quatuor Coronati Correspondence Circle, and the Scottish Rite Research Society where he studies American military Masonry and the traditions of military lodges worldwide.

Texas brethren, mark your calendars for the 2010 State-Wide Philip Crosby Tucker Legacy Scottish Rite Convocation!

The Scottish Rite Orient of Texas (All nine Valleys — 9! Count 'em 9!— including 3 of the 5 largest in the U.S. - Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth) will be having its first ever statewide Biennial Convocation at the Scottish Rite Library & Museum in Waco on July 31-August 1.

This promises to be an outstanding event! There will be degrees, break-out sessions, a banquet and more. The Masonic Society will have a table there. Stop by and see Brother Roberto Sanchez.

The website for the event is at www.texasscottishrite.org

(Many thanks to Brother Pete Normand for the information.)

Alexandria Washington Lodge No. 22, which meets in the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, continues its 'Silent Summer' film series in the GW Memorial Theater. Silent films will be run Wednesday evenings in the theater this month at 7:30.

This Wednesday, July 28th will feature Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

The next Wednesday, August 4th, will be F.W. Murnau's Sunrise.

Sponsored by the Lodge, admission is free and open to the public.

Thanks to W:.B:. Andrew Hammer, AW22's Master this year, for the heads up.

Alexandria-Washington Lodge No. 22 is one of the oldest Masonic Lodges in the United States. It was founded in 1783 as Lodge No. 39, under warrant from the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Five years later, the Lodge sought and received its charter from the Grand Lodge of Virginia, as Alexandria Lodge No 22, with George Washington listed as its Charter Master. In 1805, the Lodge changed its name to honor its most famous and illustrious brother.

A good friend passed along a a win for the home team here in Indianapolis.

Oh sure, we'll have the Super Bowl here in 2012. Big deal.

The real news is that the Imperial Session for Shriners International in 2013 will be hosted here. As long as that whole Mayan Calendar thing is a bust. Dates are June 30th - July 4th, 2013.

Approximately 10,000 Shriners attended the 136th annual session in Toronto earlier this month.

Other upcoming sessions will be Denver, CO in 2011 and Charlotte, NC in 2012.

July 31-August 1, 2010
Scottish Rite Library & Museum in Waco
Scottish Rite Orient of Texas, featuring 9 Valleys (including 3 of the 5 largest in the U.S. - Dallas, Houston and Fort Worth) will hold its first ever Biennial Convocation.
www.texasscottishrite.org

August 5, 2010
Southeastern Masonic Conference
Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
50th anniversary of the annual conference, at the Mt. Pleasant Holiday Inn.

August 15-21, 2010
Western Esotericism and its Boundaries: Between Discourses of Identity and Difference at IAHR Quinquennial World Congress, Toronto, Ontario.
www.religion.utoronto.ca/resources/iahr/Home.htm

Aug. 20-22, 2010
Midwest Conference of Masonic Grand Lodges
Best Western Ramkota Hotel, Sioux Falls, SD

August 28-29, 2010
Masonic Restoration Foundation’s National Symposium, Colorado Springs, CO. Attendance capped at 120. www.traditionalobservance.com

August 30-31, 2010
Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction Annual Meeting In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Saturday was a fantastic evening in Albuquerque, NM, as W:.B:. Ken Davis is New Mexico's Masonic Society 2nd Circle Chairman (He is a Past Master of Lodge Vitruvian No. 767 in Indianapolis, and now transplanted to NM). Ken arranged the first dinner meeting of the New Mexico 2nd Circle last Saturday evening.

This past weekend was huge in the Masonic world. While I was out at the the Rocky Mountain Masonic Conference 2010 in Albuquerque, Brother Ed King passed along news of something just as important in the world of Masonic education at the opposite end of the country. The Maine Masonic College held their first Convocation, and it too was a roaring success.

Ed notes that they also had an all-star lineup of Masonic luminaries. Brother Mark Tabbert from the George Washington National Masonic Memorial, and author of American Freemasons: Three Centuries of Building Communities, addressed the topic of how our society is changing through his presentation titled ‘The Tenet of Truth: how it has been interpreted over the last 250 years and how it is interpreted today ‘. Continuing with the theme of change in the world and Freemasonry, Bro. Robert G. Davis spoke on ‘The new American Mason: generations together in private conclaves of manhood’. William D. Moore, the author of Masonic Temples: Freemasonry, Ritual Architecture, and Masculine Archetypes also was there and spoke on ‘Freemasonry and the problem of the Ph.D.’ explaining why those seeking careers in academia are now avoiding anything which might appear to not be laser-focused on their campus involvement.

Dick Fletcher, the Executive Secretary of the Masonic Service Association was there to lead a panel discussion on ‘Issues we sweep under the rug’ which included panelists Richard Curtis, former editor of the Scottish Rite Northern Jurisdiction’s Northern Light magazine, Robert Davis, and Ed. From homosexuality and changing sexual roles to bogus Masonry, it was a thought-provoking discussion.

The Convocation’s theme was “Planning for the Future: Reaching for Humanitas ~ Building for Humanity” and continuing that theme, Wayne T. Adams, a Past Grand Master of Maine who has done presentations in a number of jurisdictions, headed a discussion panel in which he presented his overview of where we as Freemasons can be headed, if we choose to do so. Panelists included two very successful young lodge Masters, W:.B:.s Randy Elliott and Chris Disotto.

Ed presented a romp through the world of Masonic education showing how various communications modalities like the internet and the iPhone are changing Freemasonry. Ed has been and continues to be nearly everywhere online. Many Masons online today know Ed through his long-time endeavor masonicinfo.com. Dr. Eric Kuntz, a child psychiatrist with a long and lasting interest in the psychology of symbols and ritual, talked about ‘Translating our Masonic learning into practice’ and those who’ve been to Eric’s presentations simply can’t get enough.

At the Friday night banquet, Philosophy professor Michael W. Howard from the University of Maine at Orono spoke on ‘The legacy of the Enlightenment: Challenges and Responses’. The program was conceived by Past Grand Master Walter M. Macdougall, now a retired professor of philosophy from UMO. Walter’s just published book, “Freemasonry, The Vital Exploration”, is one which any Mason will enjoy. It blends thoughtful analysis of our Craft with warm memories of times gone by. It’s available now from Macoy Publishing. The Masons of Maine revere Walter, as he does them, and this program reflected both his exceptional mind and tireless efforts.

The location was at the new Hollywood Slots Hotel in Bangor, Maine’s only gambling facility, but I’m told that not a single person left wearing a barrel. In fact, I understand that the food was so sumptuous that several attendees will need new belts for a time, a small price to pay. I am, of course, now immune to the allure of food's tempting tentacles. Not even Ed's sensual descriptions of stuffed French Toast will make me stray.

There are loads of exciting things happening in Masonic education today, and my congratulations to Maine for their leadership in this area. The Maine Masonic College has a completely unique program unmatched, as far as I know, by other jurisdictions. They offer lifelong learning type courses which, while based on the seven liberal arts and sciences, reach for the practical and extend that education to, not only Freemasons, but their families and communities as well. They offer extension and classroom courses, field trips, book recommendations, and more. I applaud them for this obviously successful program and wish them all the best as they move forward in their endeavors. I commented over the weekend that, up until the last few years, these types of gatherings were uncommon. But while many were sitting in bars wagging their fingers and shouting, "Ya know what's wrong with Freemasonry?!" more than a few brethren were stepping up to the plate and doing something more constructive than just idle bitching. These gatherings seem to be building great momentum, and the internet allows them to be publicized farther and faster than ever before. Positive brethren are sharing their knowledge, and new men are coming along with new points of view.

I keep telling everyone we live in an exciting moment of time as Masons. Weekends like this keep proving it.

Many, many thanks to Ed for passing along a very detailed account of the event. No doubt about it. I gotta get to Maine.

We wrapped up the Rocky Mountain Masonic Conference in Albuquerque this morning, and it was an outstanding program. Yesterday began with representatives from the Conference's attending jurisdictions discussing, not what's wrong with Freemasonry, but what is going right for them in their jurisdictions. Great ideas were shared, and it was truly a productive series of remarks. The remarkable message I kept hearing over and over is that education and leadership programs are working, popular, and having positive effects. That is great news for all of us. More important, cookie-cutter solutions don't work everywhere, so the answer is to provide a wide range of programs, that are at their best when they are grass-roots solutions created by the lodges. It was one more illustration that we all need to share our successes and our failures, to help other lodges find the path that is best for them. Active members build and restore lodges by making them a place they can't wait to come back to. Grand Lodges can't do that for them.

I was humbled to be included on the same program with three men I have long admired: Art de Hoyos, Neil Neddermeyer, and Rex Hutchens. In retrospect, I think it was as close to a perfectly balanced lineup as I have ever seen in a Masonic conference.

Instead of prepared remarks, Arturo de Hoyos fielded questions from the audience, on everything from Mormonism and Masonry to Albert Pike. Art has an amazing memory, speaks and reads several languages, and has studied the writings of Pike and others, along with the written rituals and arcana of the fraternity since its beginnings, perhaps in more depth than anyone alive. The question session allowed him to explore avenues a more structured talk would have missed.

Since 1999, Neil Neddermeyer has amassed quite a collection of anecdotes and practical applications to the fraternity—you might best know him for his weekly newsletter CINOSAM (Masonic spelled backwards). Neil gave a rousing presentation about how we present Masonry to our members, with entertainingly practical applications to real-life situations. He stressed the importance of our legends for teaching Masons, because the Truth is in the parable. In an allegory about the fraternity, he told the story of Heinz ketchup and how they wrestled for decades with the problem of getting their sauce out of the troublesome bottle. Company advisors wanted to water down the product, compromising the quality. The real answer was to think differently about the bottle itself, not the ketchup. And he passed along a cautionary tale of teenaged passion and danger that was only circumvented by the whisper of good counsel in his ear by a more cautious friend (his backseat paramour and the object of his momentary and unrestrained affections). Neil puts on a presentation you won't soon forget.

Rex Hutchens is a legend in the field of Masonic scholarship. His gruff public persona belies an understanding of philosophy, symbolism, religion and language that is second to none. Rex's presentation was a rollicking slaughtering of sacred Masonic cattle. In his well-constructed opinions, in spite of what we claim, Freemasonry is a religion. He argues for a devoted study of the Bible. We claim the Bible is the rule and guide of faith, yet Masons rarely read it, or even read the passages from which our rituals and lectures are derived. He explored suggestions for different ways to present teaching in the lodge, demanding that we all seek to truly understand the words we say, and the origins of their meanings. He even explains that black is white, and vice versa.

Rex presents himself as the guy who will piss off everyone in the room with his opinions, but that was not the case here. Perhaps there was a time when the things he said would rankle Masons, but the room I was in today reacted with interest. What has happened is that the fraternity has matured intellectually, and is continuing to do so. Both Art and Rex talked about Pike's book Esoterika, his lectures of the Blue Lodge degrees. Pike lamented the superficial explanations in his day about the degrees of the lodge, and wondered why Masons simply accepted them and didn't ask serious questions about the ritual. There's a new crop of men joining this fraternity who are finally asking those questions, seeking the answers, and not leaving when no one can give them the easy explanations. The fraternity is valuing education again, and that was clear in the presentations this week. And as I said during my talk, walking out of a Masonic conference feeling jazzed about the concepts discussed is no longer a rare occurrence. I am seeing it everywhere I go. That's a good thing for us all.

To wrap up the conference, all four of us were called back up for an open mic panel Q&A session, with truly thought provoking questions.

Many, many thanks to Grand Master Gary Deck, Grand Secretary Danny Calloway, Nate Calloway, Tom Goodgame, and everyone in New Mexico who worked so hard to make this a successful, informative and fun event. John Liley and the brethren at next year's conference in Salt Lake City have their work cut out for them. I am looking forward to being there.

I am attending the 73rd annual Great Smokey Mountains York Rite gathering in Maggie Valley, NC. There were close to 400 at the picnic on Sunday, and 270 brethren from 20 states at the session Monday. The food and fellowship has been nothing short of fantastic. This may well be the best kept secret in York Rite Masonry.

Read more about it here.

It's a beautiful location, and the most low-key, laid-back Masonic session of any kind you'll ever attend.

Monday afternoon, we all made a pilgrimage to the North Carolina Masonic Shrine, or Marker, at an altitude of 4,522 feet at Black Camp Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Comprised of over 100 stones donated from all over the world, it is truly a unique monument to Masonic cooperation and friendship. A new installation this year was the addition of a 1,000 pound stone step donated by the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the USA.

I had the honor of speaking at Monday's session, and Tom Jackson will address them today. Rex Hutchens was to speak as well, but was unable to attend because of business back home.

Many thanks to all of the Masonic Society members who stopped by and chatted. Great to see you all!

I drive home later today, and then I fly to Albuquerque, NM Thursday for the Rocky Mountain Masonic Conference.

London's Canonbury Masonic Research Centre is pleased to announce that tickets for its twelfth annual conference, which this year is on the theme of ‘Anti-Masonry’, are now available.

Tickets for the conference are £100. Price includes entrance to the film screening of the film Les Forces Occultes during the evening of Friday 29 October at University College London and a wine reception, as well as two buffet luncheons over the conference weekend. Tickets for the Saturday evening conference dinner are an additional £40.

The film Les Forces Occultes was made in 1943 by two "former Masons", Jean Marques-Riviere and Jean Mamy. Both men were Vichey supporters and collaborated with the Nazis to produce anti-Semitic and anti-Masonic propaganda. When the war ended, Mamy was sentenced to death for his work with the Gestapo, and was shot in March 1949. Marques-Riviere escaped prosecution, and was condemned to death in absentia. He died in 2000.

The following lectures are scheduled to be presented at the conference:

• Keynote lecture: Protocols of the Elders of Zion Professor Michael Hagemeister, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich

• Anti-masonry and masonic transnationalism: a complex interplay
Dr. Joachim Berger, Institute of European History, Mainz

• Blaming the Great War on the masons' entente: Friedrich Wichtl, 1872-1921
Dr. Reinhard Markner, Berlin

• The anti-masonic writings of General Erich Ludendorff
Jimmy Koppen, Free University of Brussels

• Anti-masonry as political protest: Fascist attitudes to Freemasonry in interwar Romania
Roland Clark, University of Pittsburgh

• Keynote lecture: Franco's persecution of Freemasonry
Professor José Antonio Ferrer Benimeli, University of Zaragoza

• 'Anti-masonry' in nineteenth-century Ottoman Lebanon: an offensive against Anglo-Saxon and protestant missionaries?
Saïd Chaaya, L'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes/Sorbonne

• Anti-masonry among the Ottomans and in contemporary Turkey
Professor Thierry Zarcone, CNRS, Paris

• Trends of anti-masonry in Eastern Orthodox cultures
Dr. Yuri Stoyanov, Research Fellow, SOAS, University of London

• 'The Devil's sons': one century of anti-masonry in the Arab world
Stephan Schmid, American University of Beirut

• Keynote lecture: Professor John Robison (1739-1805)
Professor Andrew Prescott, Hatii, University of Glasgow

• The reception of anti-masonry in the eighteenth-century English press
Dr. Róbert Péter, Senior Assistant Professor, University of Szeged

• Barruel's conspiracy theory - a theoretical approach
Claus Oberhauser, University of Innsbruck

• A Swedish diplomat's recently deciphered perspective on the Unlawful Societies Act of 1799
Dr. Andreas Önnerfors, University of Sheffield

• The voice of Morgan's blood cries from the ground': reading American anti-masonry through anti-masonic almanacs, 1827-1837
Jeff Croteau, MA MLS, National Heritage Museum, Lexington, Massachusetts

• Keynote lecture: War on the Freemasons: the fate of Nazi and Soviet seized books and archives
Dr. Patricia Kennedy Grimsted, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

• Anti-masonic thought in France: the example of Bernard Faÿ
Jen Farrar, University of Sheffield

• Visual evidence used by Franco's Police in the persecution of Spanish Freemasons Dr. Sylvia Hottinger, Carlos III University, Madrid

• Stolen truth or truth stolen?
Dr. Hans Kummerer, Quatuor Coronati Research Lodge, Austria

• The ongoing restitution of the Norwegian masonic library and archives
Helge Bjørn Horrisland, Norwegian Order of Freemasons

For further information please contact conference organiser, Matthew Scanlan, Tel: 020 7226 6256 Email: conference@canonbury.ac.uk Website: http://www.canonbury.ac.uk