Dear and Respected Brothers,

I also participate in this challenge of our brother BF, because Light is needed, an answer to a seemingly simple question, but which opens the doors to deep reflection:

Are Freemasonry and friendship two separate concepts? Does being a Freemason involve friendship?

It requires not only conceptual delimitations but also deep reflections.

1. Freemasonry and friendship – different concepts, but not opposites

At first glance, the answer seems obvious: Freemasonry is a institution, friendship is a feeling. Two different realities. And yet, between them there is a secret connection built not on interests, not on fleeting sympathies, but on a common vision of Man and the World.
In Freemasonry, there is frequent talk of fraternity, often expressed by the motto:

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity!

Masonry cultivates fraternity – a form of human connection that, although it is not identical to profane friendship, it sometimes surpasses it in depth. Masonic fraternity is not based on personal affinities, shared histories, or social conveniences. It is based on initiative commitment: that of recognizing the other as a brother, even if we share opinions, characters or experiences.
Masonic fraternity is not identical to ordinary friendship, but it has many common features:
• supposes mutual respect,
• trust between brothers,
• moral support and sometimes, material.

In this sense, being a Mason involves a ritualized and idealized form of friendship – a moral commitment to the other members of the Order.

2. But "profane" friendship is neither required nor guaranteed
A Mason is not required to be personal friends with all siblingsYou can share Masonic values with someone without having an emotional connection or deep personal compatibility. It is a essential friendship, not emotional. In other words:
• Brother he is your brother through Masonic commitment.
• The friend is your friend through a personal and emotional choice.

3. Masonry can create true friendships. Which is desirable
Yes, Many real friendships are born in Freemasonry, because here:
• there is a meeting between people with common values,
• participate in a ritual lived together,
• silence and common reflection are cultivated,
• and symbolic teamwork…
… all of this can lead to stronger friendships than those in secular life.

4. The risk of confusion and disappointment
A real danger arises when someone assumes that Masonic fraternity means automatic and total friendshipWhich leads to disappointments. Not all brothers are loyal, empathetic, or sincere. Not all understand "brotherhood" in the same way.
Because Freemasonry does not guarantee friendship. It is not obligatory to be friends with all brothers – but you have a duty to respect them, support them, and help them become better, just as they have this duty to youThis is, perhaps, one of the highest forms of spiritual friendship.
In ritual silence, in working under the sacred signs of our symbols, sometimes arises a stronger closeness than in the profane: not a sentimental friendship, but a silent one, discreet, but full of meaningAt the same time, we must clearly recognize:
Masonic fraternity can sometimes be put to the test. Lack of sincerity, personal competition, or outside interests can erode trust. That is why, to keep alive the idea of essential friendship, is an act of mastery, even when there is no personal affection.
Being a Mason does not automatically mean being a friend, but it does imply a relationship ethics which can foster friendship.

Brothers,

In a world where friendship often becomes superficial, opportunistic, or transactional, Freemasonry offers us a sacred framework in which friendship can be regenerated – in form, in content and in purpose.

Conclusion:
Being a Mason does not automatically mean being a friend. But it does mean having the chance to become a true friend, where spirit and will meet in the Light.

So be it!

With great love and T⸫A⸫F⸫,
George

July 28, 6025 A⸫L⸫

Articolul Masoneria și Prietenia – O reflecție asupra fraternității inițiatice apare prima dată în SCAASR.

The early origins of the "Royal Secret Order" - the system of Freemasonry which became the parent of the Scottish Rite - are discussed in my recent book Étienne Morin: From the French Rite to the Scottish Rite (2024), which I wrote together with Josef Wäges. My presentation today is a brief summary of some of the main points in our study and helps explain why the Symbolic Degrees of the Scottish Rite were created.

It is important to note that although we have discovered many new things, there are still aspects that require further research. For example, we still do not know when and where Etienne Morin, the creator of this system, was initiated as a Mason. However, for now it is enough to know that the Royal Secret Order was his brainchild, and that he owed much to the "happy accident" of being taken prisoner during the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48) and again during the War of Seven Years (1756-63). The courtesy extended to him as a Freemason made it possible for him to receive the degrees and authority which he later used to spread High Degree Freemasonry.

First, however, let's take a brief look back at our Masonic origins to understand how these higher degrees developed.

Freemasonry early[1]

After the collapse of Roman society in Britain in the mid-5th century, Anglo-Saxon architecture consisted of a relatively simple style until the Norman Conquest in 1066. There is no evidence that any Roman Collegium or sophisticated building technology had persisted after withdrawal. Anglo-Saxon buildings were generally constructed of wood and clay with thatched roofs. After the Battle of Hastings, defensive structures were built - primitive castles made mainly of earth and wood. Although easy to build, they were vulnerable to the elements. Experimentation with new building techniques led to the development of superior stone structures that replaced earlier forms. The new fortresses not only protected borders, but helped define geographic regions. Many of these castles were granted to lords and nobles who acted on behalf of the king and administered his policies. Thus, castles also became important centers for government. Similarly, the Church improved its structures,[2] so that the stacked stone and mortar buildings were replaced by a more sophisticated and permanent stonework. Such improvements stimulated the development of society.[3]

The word "mason" (n.tr. "freemason") dates from after the Norman Conquest and was consecrated in the 12th century. It probably comes from Old French and means "to make or build".[4] The earliest known use of the word "Freemason" appears in a document dated 1325[5]. Even in their earliest uses, the words freemason and freemason they were interchangeable. Early English documents, spanning hundreds of years, make no distinction, and both words often appear in the same paragraph. The original use of the word in all its forms, "freemason"freemason"), "freemason" (n.tr. "freemason") and, finally, "freemason" (n.tr. "freemason”), probably comes from one of two sources. Substantial evidence supports the idea that he was referring to the cutters and setters of rough stone, "a homogeneous, fine-grained sandstone that can be worked equally in any direction".[6] A medieval "master mason" was distinguished from "rough masons, who only make walls".[7] This suggests that the term "free-stone-mason” was contracted to “freemason„.

However, a competing theory suggests that privilege, rather than ability, was responsible for the naming:

"A man admitted to the privileged position of master in a trade guild or as a citizen in a city became 'free' of the respective guild or city, becoming a "freeman" in the sense of be free to enjoy certain rights, and hence to appoint a fully qualified Master Mason a freemason or one freemason it was just a small step."[8]

Assembly of Freemasons for the Reception of the Apprentice (1745) – ARTURO DE HOYOS Collection

Classical medieval apprenticeships had both "guild pride, as much and as and guild secrets. By learning a trade from an expert, pride in the trade was passed on to the next generation of professionals."[9] These "mysteries" or secrets of the guild were not secret in the modern sense of the word, but rather referred to the practice of a trade[10] specific.

Thus, there were not only "Masonic secrets", but also mysteries of barbers, shoemakers, coopers, grocers, mercerists, winemakers and others. Although English "guilds" existed as early as around 950, there is no evidence of Masonic guilds until 1356-1376. However, even before this date, the "mysteries" of medieval constructions were preserved through the use of symbolic images.[11]

In 1583, King James VI of Scotland appointed William Shaw "Maister of Wark" to the top of his country's master masons.[12] In 1598 and 1599, Schaw issued statutes that introduced many concepts that survive in Freemasonry today. Together with the Old Duties, they formed a basis of government that influenced modern Masonic Grand Lodges. The Schaw statutes defined a hierarchy of "wardens, dekynis and mastery in all that concerns their work".

Masonic lodges were to be presided over by a "General Warden", while William Schaw himself presided over all the Masonic Lodges in his country, as Grand Masters do today in most parts of the world. A close reading of the Schaw Statutes also shows that originally there were only two classes of Masons, namely "prentice” and “fellow of craft„.

First Grand Lodge and the degree of Master Mason

Following the Great Fire of London in 1666, craftsmen were called upon to help rebuild the city, and it is likely that during the rebuilding, the masons shared their legends and traditions with each other. The transition theory suggests that, following Reconstruction, masons left London and activity declined until Freemasonry was "revived" on 24 June 1717, when four London lodges[13] they met at the Goose and Gridiron Ale House and elected a "Grand Master."[14] This act has often been regarded as the formalization of non-operative Freemasonry, although some scholars[15] suggests that the meeting, called the "Grand Lodge," was rather a "Quarterly Communication" and was merely the continuation of a discontinued practice. For this reason, certain authors suggest that a specific date cannot be stated for the institutionalization of speculative freemasonry.gentlemen's masonry"). Other historians note that the origins of modern Freemasonry are more complex and should be examined in the wider context of contemporary cultural, political, religious and scientific developments and influences.

Thus, when the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster (later called the First Grand Lodge of England) was organized in 1717, it continued the ceremonial practices of operative Masons,[16] , but with a different philosophical approach. The creators of this Grand Lodge wanted an organization in which they could promote their ideals.[17] In simple terms, the founders of the Grand Lodge system took over the older system like well-intentioned pirates.

The New Grand Lodge continued the early Masonic structure, with the two levels of membership – Apprentice and Journeyman – both titles being borrowed from Scottish Freemasonry. As the fraternity developed, changes were introduced. Levels of membership have been referred to as "grades" since 1723.[18] We have very little information to explain exactly how this happened, but we also know that by 1725 the material had been rearranged to formalize the three degrees as they are known today.[19] The original Apprentice material was split to create a new Journeyman degree, and the material from the former Journeyman ritual was transformed to create the Master Mason degree.[20] The earliest known conferral of the Master Mason degree took place on May 12, 1725, when brothers Charles Cotton and Papillon Ball "were regularly made Masters."[21] One of the most obvious persistent artifacts of this transition was the retention of the term "fraternity points"points of fellowship”) in English Freemasonry – words that originally referred to the degree of Journeyman. Some ritualists later changed this term to "points of mastery"[22] (n.tr. in the text " points of mastery”) or “points of Masonry”. As far as we know, the emergence of the Master Mason degree as a separate degree within the fraternity represents the emergence of the first "High Degree". This important fact extends the tradition of the High Degrees to near the beginning of the fraternal phase of Freemasonry.

THE EMERGENCE OF OTHER HIGH GRADES

Freemasonry is generally considered to have arrived in France in 1725, the same year that the Master Mason degree appeared in England. Soon after, other high degrees began to appear in England, including "Harodim", "Excellent Mason" and "Grand Mason".[23] Among the earliest and most important High Degrees was the "Lodge of Scottish Masons," which appeared about the year 1733. The Lodge conferring this degree had no warrant, and never paid for a charter, but was thoroughly regular. Apparently it existed only to confer High Degrees.[24] Interestingly, it met in the same building where the Grand Lodge used to meet.[25] Between 1733 and 1740 we have records showing that the degree of "Scottish Master Masons" was conferred on "regular" Master Masons in Bristol, England, in regular token lodges.[26]

High Grades, or hauts grades, became an important part of the early Masonic history of France, and their development and popularity eventually brought them to the New World with the coming of the French voyagers. As Freemasonry spread throughout the world, modifications to its rituals were gradually introduced at the local level. The basic themes of the three primary grades have remained relatively uniform, as have the ways of recognition. However, different lodges have retained or eliminated some practices and procedures while developing new ones. Just as the evolution of language and customs creates new cultures among peoples, so Masonic practices developed unique characteristics or expressions of ritual which later allowed them to be classified as separate "rites". In simple terms, a rite is the association of degrees intended for initiation or instruction, under a governing authority.

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE TRADITION OF THE SCOTTISH MASTER

Early Scottish Freemasonry was closely associated with the Master Mason degree and added to the story of Hiram Abif, the architect of Solomon's temple. Although the origins of the hiramic legend have not been satisfactorily discovered[27] The Graham Manuscript (1726) preserves a similar legend, with important differences. Instead of Hiram, his legend has as its protagonist the biblical Noah, the creator of the great ark.[28] After his death and burial, his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, go to his grave to search for a valuable secret he had. They agreed that if they couldn't find the real secret, they would adopt a substitute. Arriving at Noah's grave, they find his body. They attempt to obtain the secret by lifting the corpse, first by grasping the hand in various ways, and finally by lifting it in a ritual embrace. The final touch they used was at elbow level and was the Scottish Master's touch.[29]

The Ceremony of Making a Free-Mason (1766) – ARTURO DE HOYOS Collection

Scottish Freemasonry was the ancestor of several Masonic rites, including the Royal Arch in the 1740s. The Royal Arch probably arose out of the Jacobite rebellion. Bona fide English Masons would not have wanted to be called Scottish Masters during this rebellion, so they kept the essential features of the ritual, introduced some changes and called it the Royal Arch. However, there are still many similarities between them.

The tradition of the Scottish master is why we have names like the Scottish Philosophical Rite and the Scottish Rite. A comparison of the first French and German copies, dating from the 1740s, shows us common elements which probably represent the traditions of the original English ritual. In fact, there are still many parts of the Scottish Master degree preserved in various rites.

As a merchant, Etienne Morin traveled between Europe and the New World. In 1744 he traveled from Bordeaux to Martinique. During this trip, he was initiated as a Scottish Master by Governor William Mathew at the Grand Lodge of St. John's, Antigua.[30] The following year he was the driving force behind the Ecossais Mother Lodge in Bordeaux and signed the regulations of the Lodge of Perfection of Scots.[31] As a promoter of the High Degrees, in 1761 the French Grand Lodge of Paris, together with a ritual body of the higher degrees, issued Morin a Grand Inspector's patent, "authorizing and empowering him to institute perfect and sublime Masonry in all parts of the world".[32] However, in 1762 he was taken prisoner and sent to England, where he met Earl Ferrers, who was Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Moderns (ie the First Grand Lodge of England).

The English Grand Master approved Morin's patent issued by the Grand Lodge of France and declared him a life member of the lodges in England and Jamaica. This fact paved the way for Morin to operate anywhere in the Caribbean. From the time he returned to the Caribbean until his death, he founded 11 Blue Lodges under the authority of the Grand Lodge of France. These lodges used a number of different French rituals to confer the blue lodge degrees.

To exercise his increased authority, Morin took the High Grades he had received and began to restructure them, creating the Royal Secret Order. Although the Royal Secret Order was once believed to have been created by the Council of Emperors of the East and West, evidence suggests that it was Morin's idea,[33] , although it was not fully developed until after his death.

Most of the rituals of this Order were selected from a collection of bound manuscripts that Morin owned; this is now known as the "Baylot Manuscript". It included some of the most popular degrees practiced at the time.

In any case, in late 1762, Morin introduced the High Degrees to Kingston, Jamaica, and it was not until 1764 that the High Degrees were brought to North American territory, when they were established in New Orleans, Louisiana. At this early period, only a few degrees were conferred, and these were controlled by the blue lodges which were created by Morin through the authority he received from the Grand Lodge of France. At first Morin's blue lodges also conferred the Degrees of 4th Expert, 5th Elu, 6th Scottish Lodge of Perfection, 7th Knight of the East, and 8th Prince of Jerusalem.[34] As he improved his system, he removed the powers and privileges of the Princes of Jerusalem, who had once been the highest rank.

Around the same time, Morin empowered an enthusiastic Dutch Mason, Henry Andrew Francken, to establish Masonic bodies in the New World, including the United States.[35] On December 6, 1768, Francken appointed Moses Michael Hays Deputy Inspector General of the Rite, for the West Indies and North America.

Over the years, he continued to collaborate with Brother Francken and improve his system, until he died in November 1771. The story of the development of the Royal Secret Order as a 25-degree system is another story, which is somewhat complicated. Brother Josef Wäges and I are close to completing our next book, which will tell this story and include all the original rituals.

Morin's powerful influence had effects he could not have foreseen, as his system eventually led to the creation of the Scottish Rite in 1801. We know that following the Haitian Revolution, many of the French left the Caribbean and they returned home. After arriving there, some of them founded the Triple Unité Ecossaise lodge in Paris. This was, of course, after the creation of the Scottish Rite. Members of this lodge were prominent members of the Scottish Rite in France and created the first Scottish Rite for the symbolic lodge. The brothers most likely responsible for creating this ritual were Alexandre François Auguste de Grasse-Tilly, Pierre Mongruer de Fondeviolle and Germain Hacquet.

The manuscript of the ritual of this lodge is still extant and corresponds to the first printing of the blue lodge ritual of the Scottish Rite,[36] showing that they created it. It was based on a French translation of the exposition Three Distinct Knocks, published in 1760, and was supplemented with material from the rituals used in the Caribbean by Étienne Morin's lodges.

By creating this ritual, they ensured that some of the practices of those lodges would be perpetuated in the memory of ritual language and ritual procedure.

To put it bluntly, the Scottish Symbolic Rite of 1804 was a skillful synthesis of the traditions of Saint-Domingue Symbolic Freemasonry. Although it was created by a small group of people, its influence was far-reaching. The ancestral traditions, emanating from the French Rite, the Antients Rite and The Rite of Ecossais, had a wide impact, attracting many enthusiasts. This continues to happen today as the symbolic ritual of the Scottish Rite is the most popular type of ritual in the Masonic world; it is practiced in more countries than any other form of Symbolic Freemasonry. Thus, even if we ignore the High Degrees that became the Royal Secret Order – and later the Scottish Rite – this ritual of the blue degrees, which was created by those influenced by the work of Stephen Morin, remains a legacy of his boundless energy and passion unfettered in the pursuit of Masonic excellence.

Translation and adaptation, Alexandru-Răzvan Jeciu

Notes

[1] This summary it omits many important events and facts, which should be studied. On the development of Freemasonry, see, for example, Robert F. Gould, Concise History of Freemasonry (New York: Macoy Publishing, 1924); Douglas Knoop and GP Jones, The Genesis of Freemasonry: An Account of the Rise and Development of Freemasonry in Its Operative, Accepted, and Early Speculative Phases (Manchester University Press, 1947); Bernard E. Jones, Freemasons Guide and Compendium, rev. ed. (London: Harrap, 1950, 1956); David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century, 1590-1710 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001); David Stevenson, The First Freemasons: Scotland's Early Lodges and Their Members (Aberdeen, Scotland: Aberdeen University Press, 1988); Richard Berman, The Foundations of Modern Freemasonry: The Grand Architects – Political Change and the Scientific Enlightenment, 1714-1740 (Sussex Academic Press, 2012).

[2] Guy Points, An Introduction to Anglo-Saxon Church Architecture & Anglo-Scandinavian Stone Sculpture (Rihtspell Pub., 2015) is a simple but informative introduction to the subject.

[3] An extremely interesting text on the development of Anglo-Saxon society, which also examines architecture, is John Blair, Building Anglo-Saxon England (Princeton University Press, 2018).

[4] Carl Darling Buck, A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages (University of Chicago Press, 1949), 538; Robert Claireborn, The Roots of English (New York: Times Books, 1989), 158. In a different opinion, George Bullamore, Ars Quatuor Coronatorum [hereinafter AQC] 38 (1925), observed that the term mason arose when chisel work came into use in English architecture. He suggested that it might be related to the mazo, "a mace [which] was originally a club of any kind". Therefore, the author suggests, those who used these tools were masons.

[5] Reginald R. Sharpe, ed., Calendar of Coroners Rolls of the City of London AD 1300-1325 (London: Richard Clay and Sons, Ltd., 1913), 130-31.

[6] James Geikie, Structural and Field Geology (New York: D. Van Nostrand Co., 1905), 60.

[7] From Sir Thomas Elyot's Latin Dictionary (1538), quoted in GG Coulton, Art and the Reformation (Oxford: Basil Blackwell & Co., 1928), 183.

[8] stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry (1988), 11. Emphasis added. Bernard E. Jones preferred this view and notes: “Versions of old revised documents for Scottish lodges may include the word, but only as an echo of English usage. Where the old English operative documents refer to a "Freemason", the Scottish documents refer to "a Mason". The Lodges of Edinburgh and Kilwinning did not use the speculative term 'Freemason' until some years later than 1717." –Bernard E. Jones, Freemasons' Guide and Compendium rev. ed. (London: Harrap, 1950, 1956), 124-25.

[9] Charles Sides and Ann Mrvica, Internships: Theory and Practice (Routledge, 2017). See also Mary Carruthers, The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400-1200 (Cambridge University Press, 2000), 29.

[10] Knoop and Jones, The Genesis of Freemasonry (1947), 41-44; Bernard E. Jones, Freemasons' Guide and Compendium (1956 ed.), 56-68.

[11] Mary Carruthers, The Craft of Thought: Meditation, Rhetoric, and the Making of Images, 400-1200 (Cambridge University Press, 2000), 29.

[12] On the growth and development of Freemasonry in Scotland, see David Murray Lyon, History of the Lodge in Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel), no. 1. Embracing an Account of the Rise and Progress of Freemasonry in Scotland (Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1873; reprint ed.: Gresham Publishing Co., 1900); David Stevenson, The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century 1590-1710 (Cambridge University Press, 1988); David Stevenson, The First Freemasons: Scotland's Early Lodges and Their Members (Aberdeen University Press, 1988)

[13] The four original Lodges were (1) At the Goose and Gridiron Ale-house in St. Paul's Churchyard; (2) the Crown Ale-house in Parker's Lane, near Drury Lane; (3) The Apple-Tree Tavern in Charles Street, Covent Garden; (4) Rummer and Grapes Tavern in Channel Row, Westminster.

[14] James Anderson, The New Book of Constitutions of the Antient and Honorable Fraternity of Free and Accepted Masons (London: Casar Ward and Richard Chandler, 1738), 109-10. This was the title given to the second edition of Anderson's famous work, The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (London: William Hunter, 1723).

[15] JAM Snoek, “Researching Freemasonry; Where are we?" Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism. 1.2 (2010), 227-48.

[16] When Dr. John Theophilus Desaguliers visited Edinburgh Lodge on 24 August 1721, was found to be "properly qualified in all aspects of Masonry" and was received "as a Brother into their society". John R. Dashwood, trans. and Harry Carr, ed., The Minutes of the Lodge of Edinburgh, Mary's Chapel, No. 1 1598-1738 (London: Quatuor Coronati Lodge 2076, 1962), 269-70. For an excellent study of this important period, see Christopher B. Murphy and Shawn Eyer, eds., Exploring Early Grand Lodge Freemasonry (Plumbstone, 2017).

[17] Berman, Architects, 17

[18] The earliest known use occurs in the unveiling of the Post Boy (1723): "Q. What's your name? A. Base or Capital, according to my Degree.". For the full text, see S. Brent Morris, "The Post Boy Sham Exposure of 1723", Heredom 7 (1998): 34.

[19] Christopher Powell, "The Hiramic Legend and the Creation of the Third Degree," AQC 134 (2021), 91-92.

[20] Lionel Vibert, "The Evolution of the Second Degree," The Collected Prestonian Lectures. Volume One, 1925-1960 (London: Quatuour Coronati Lodge 2076, 1965; reprint ed., Lewis Masonic, 1984), 47-61.

[21] Charles Cotton was made a Mason on 22 December 1724, and later became a Fellow Craft (date not specified). RF Gould, “Philo-Musica et Architectura Societas Apollini. [A Review.]', in AQC 16 (1903), 112-28.

[22] For example, the 1801 revision of Friedrich L. Schröder, used by the lodge Absalon zu den drei Nesseln (Hamburg), uses the five points of mastery (five points of the Championship).

[23] Bernheim, "Did Early 'High'...", 96-97

[24] John Lane, "Masters' Lodges," AQC 1 (1888), 167-75

[25] "For a long time after the revival of Freemasonry in 1717, Masonic lodges continued to meet, as they had done before that time, in taverns. Thus the Grand Lodge of England was organized, and, to use Anderson's language, "quarterly communications revived," by four lodges, whose respective places of meeting were the Crown Ale House, the Apple-Tree Tavern, and the Rummer and Grapes Tavern. For many years the Grand Lodge held its quarterly meetings sometimes at the Apple-Tree, but mostly at the Devil Tavern, and the Grand Feast was held in the hall of one of the Livery Companies." -Albert G. Mackey, "Hall, Masonic," Encyclopedia of Freemasonry (Philadelphia: Moss & Co., 1873, 1878)

[26] Eric Ward, "Early Masters' Lodges and their Relation to Degrees," AQC 75 (1962), 131. At Bear Lodge in Bath, the degree continued to be popular for the next 20+ years: "An undated page of minutes belonging to the end of October or the beginning of November 1735 is entitled "The Lodge of Masters met extraordinarily and our following worthy brethren were made and admitted Scots Mast. Masons". Over the next twenty-three years, this degree was conferred at four more reunions, three of which were "extraordinary," on twenty-one other brethren. All the candidates, so far as can be ascertained, were Master Masons, some of very recent date. For example, the two visitors made Scottish Master Masons on 17 February 1756 had been initiated on 3 February and raised on 13 February in the same month." -PR James, "The Bear Lodge at Bath 1732-1785, Now the Royal Cumberland Lodge No. 41", in AQC 59 (1948), 69.

[27] rev. WW Covey-Crump researched the sources of the legend, without concrete results. See his work The Hiramic Tradition: A Survey of Hypotheses Concerning It (London: Masonic Record, Ltd., [1924]). It has also been suggested, without evidence, that the Hiramic legend derived from medieval "mystery plays", "morality plays" or "miracle plays". See Edward Conder, Jr., "The Miracle Play," AQC 14 (1901), 60-82.

[28] Robert F. Gould wrote that he "rejected as inconceivable the theory that the ceremonial of 1730 [the Hiramic legend] was introduced into Masonry after 1717" and that "the main point he wishes to establish ... is the moral certainty of ceremonial from 1730, being older than the Grand Lodge of England".

[29] The four touches correspond to the degrees: (1) on the finger, disciple; (2) from joint to joint, Fellow Craft; (3) on the wrist, Master Mason; (4) in elbow, Scots Master.

[30] Le Quarre ou le parfait Elu Ecossais, Grand Collège des Rites Ecossais, 29-30.

[31] Alain Bernheim, "Notes on Early Freemasonry in Bordeaux (1732-1769)", AQC 101 (1988), 110-113; see especially 81-82. "Estienne Morin et l'Ordre du Royal Secret", Acta Macionica (Brussels) vol. 9 (1999), 20.

[32] Since Charles Porset published the correspondence between Mathéus, Constant de Castelin and Fleuret de Turville (Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris, FM2 544, fol. 7-36) in Chroniques d'Histoire Maçonnique no. 48 (IDERM, Paris 1997), 10-47, the existence of Morin's patent can no longer be doubted.

[33] For arguments in favor of the view that Morin falsified his authority, see Alain Bernheim, "Une decoverte etonnante concernant les Constitutions de 1762," Renaissance Traditionnelle no. 59 (July 1984), 161-97; ACF Jackson, "The Authorship of the 1762 Constitutions of the Ancient and Accepted Rite," Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 79 (1984), 176-91. ACF Jackson, Rose Croix: A History of the Ancient and Accepted Rite for England and Wales rev. & enl. (London: Lewis Masonic, 1980, 1987), 46-54. For the opposite view, see Jean-Pierre Lassalle, "From the Constitutions and Regulations of 1762 to the Grand Constitutions of 1786," in Heredom 2 (1993), 57-88.

[34] Mrs. 104 D. LII. Haut Grades de l'Orient de Paris. Archives of the Grand Lodge of Sweden.

[35] The Albany body was only active for seven years and ceased to function entirely in 1774. See "The Original Minutes of Ineffable and Sublime Grand Lodge of Perfection of Albany, NY, from 1767 to 1774," in 1906 Proceedings of the Thirty-seventh Council of Deliberation for the Bodies of the State of Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, USA, of the State of New York (Printed by Order of the Council, 1906), supplement, p. 130. The High Degrees of Albany were revived forty-six years later, in 1820, by Giles F. Yates, and came under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Council of Charleston . See Arturo de Hoyos, "The Supreme Council of the 43rd Degree," in de Hoyos and S. Brent Morris, Cerneauism and American Freemasonry (Washington, DC: Scottish Rite Research Society, 2019), 146-74.

[36] See Pierre Noël, Guide des Masons Écossais. To Edinburgh. 58\ Les grades bleu du REAA: genesis et développement (Paris: A l'Orient, 2006)

Articolul Influența lui Étienne Morin asupra ritualurilor simbolice ale Ritului Scoțian apare prima dată în SCAASR.

When I start writing a text, I couldn't tell where it would take me, what I would encounter along the way and how it would end.

Of course, the conceptual point is clear in my mind. But, starting from, they are like those navigators who, on board the caravels, ventured out into the sea looking for the "way to the Indies"

They didn't get there, but some "discovered" the Americas and, also unintentionally, "proved" that the Earth is round.

Others, of course, perished along the way – their journey turning into a metaphor for no return.

Writing the text puts me in a similar position: with some or with the others.

Thought in this way the text becomes travel.

Recorded as such, why wouldn't it also become the journey text.

Both the text and the journey mean departure: from a present, which is yours, to another present.

Through the journey, you alienate yourself and deny yourself from your present, in order to define yourself ("to come true" says Noica) through the present of the Other: which thus becomes your contemporary - even if, in time, you are separated by years, centuries, millennia .

An old "tradition" states that "In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth"; or that "In the beginning was the Word" - as if this "In the beginning" were an adverb of time, suggesting an indefinite sequence False. Although poorly translated, it is an adverb of manner. It implies not "when" but "how" it all happened.

How? Bereshit, according to Genesis. En arché, says the evangelist. I mean in principle. And the Principle includes, in the same arch, the Beginning and the End. In other words: Steadfastness. Permanence. Concurrency, in the last resort, by no means the succession.

There is, in all of this, a "dialectical movement"... "Only, says Noica, modern man does not complete the entire dialectical movement: he stops too often at alienation. This is how it happens that the same employments of his that can be full of sense become nonsense».

I like to think that, based on Tradition, our modernity - as bearers of the high degrees of Freemasonry - is safe from the danger of senseless alienation; that, departing from our "actual" present, we have entered, if only for a moment, into one historic present which, as Noica says, has us certified once again: as Brothers and as Romanians.

This is the conclusion to which the three "trips" occasioned by our (ritual, in its own way) meeting in Suceava led me; Extended meeting over two days: August 9 and 10

At first reading, the program of the meeting seemed simple - even banal...

On the first day: visit to the "Holocaust Memorial" in the town of Siret; afternoon break; "country evening" at the cabin "Căprioara" in Adâncata. The next day, Saturday: visit to the Cetatea de Caun of Suceva, in the premises of which he was going to give a lecture. John Aurel Pop; visit to the Dragomirna Monastery, in whose refectory we will also have lunch; in the evening, "festive dinner" at the "Polaris" hotel restaurant.

Five "points" in the program; cells in a honeycomb…

Friday actually started at "breakfast": an opportunity to meet again Brothers whom I had not seen since the "last Odeon"; opportunity to meet others, whom we had never met before - but with whom we instantly became close as if we had known each other forever.

When we left for the town of Siret, it was going to rain... In the end, as if to create a certain atmosphere, it just "sprinkled": The visit to the "Jewish Holocaust Memorial in Bucovina" is the first of the trips - in spirit - through which we they revealed significant aspects of the Upper Country.

Jewish communities have existed in this corner of the world since ancient times... But, starting from the second half of the 18th century, the Jewish element became - in number and affirmation - more than present: contributing to the spiritual and material effervescence of the region.

In this sense, I will mention, briefly, only three "landmarks" - with the regret that I cannot relate them in their amplitude. It is about three people of these places - their destiny seems to me emblematic of Jewish spirituality and, no less, for what they were given to suffer.

"Two hundred years ago, in a remote hut in the Carpathian Mountains, there lived a miracle worker named Rabbi Israel. Some say he never lived»

This is how one of the books begins about Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (1700-1760), founder of Hasidism and nicknamed, during his lifetime, Baal Shem Tov - which means "Master of the Holy Name"

As a mystical movement within Judaism, Hasidism promotes a more open "form of worship" in relation to the rigors of the Talmudic Teachings - the Baal Shem Tov asserting that God is immanent in all things and that devotion is more important than scholarship.

Most Hasidim fell victim to the Holocaust.

The Holocaust, the great tragedy that befell the Jews, struck mercilessly and indiscriminately at everything that was Judaism: values and people. Especially people... The aberrant "final solution" envisioned by Hitler's Germany aimed at the physical elimination of all Jews in Europe - just because they were Jews. From this perspective, no victim should be forgotten: all together, and each individually, have the same profound significance. That is the point of a Holocaust memorial: to pluck the victims from the anonymity of death.

In the sense of what has just been said, I evoke two names; two poets of European scope: Benjamin Fundoianu (1898–1944, born in Iași, gassed in Birkenau) and Paul Celan (1920–1970, originally from Chernivtsi, committed suicide in Paris – irreparably marked by the death, in the camp, of his entire family and of millions of compatriots).

Both debuted in Romanian; but, later settled in Paris, they asserted themselves as poets of the first rank: in French, B. Fondane; in German by Paul Celan.

Influenced by Hasidism, both assumed their Jewishness to the last consequences: a fact that, in their own circumstances, led to their death. Not forgetting, but...

I end this account with a revelation, although it is not a secret - but only discretion: as early as 10 or 12 years ago, Brother Stelian Nistor told me about his intention to conceive and complete a memorial of the Holocaust of the Jews throughout Bucovina; i.e. from the Upper Country in its historical borders... Intention "with a long shot", so to speak. What, then, was just an idea - a bit of a gamble, I told myself - became over time the memorial edifice that I saw: a well-founded, measured and prepared construction, as it should be, in all its articulations.

Vocation of free mason. Is there anything else that needs to be added?

For me, Seat Fortress of Suceava remains indestructibly linked to the figure of "old Stefan - Voievod, the father of Moldova" - as Sadoveanu calls him in the opening of his last great historical novel, Nicoara Horseshoe.

The capital of Moldova during the reign of Iua Ștefan, when Moldova experienced its period of maximum cultural-economic flourishing and territorial expansion, the Citadel could never be conquered... It was set on fire and demolished in peacetime, by order of the Turks, by- its construction stretching over several decades.

Walking through the city, and bearing all this in mind, I walked through it more with my mind than with my step.

The conference of the president of the Academy related - equally, I would say - to Stephen the Great and to Sadoveanu (the one who glorified him, like no other, in the "trilogy" The Jderi brothers).

We knew that one of the best was speaking to us medievalists; I knew, from previous meetings, the rhetorical gift/grace of the speaker: his ability to shape/modulate his speech on the breadth of ideas, rigorously presented, that structure it... But Mr. Ioan Aurel Pop added, to all this, an impeccable knowledge of the literature - as a phenomenon - of Iua Sadoveanu, as the author of great historical novels.

The reign of Iui Ștefan, a true "golden age" in the history of Romanians, was thus revealed to us as a turning point between parallel mirrors: evoked through a "game of images" that enhanced its meanings.

As a true historian, who researches the past not only "in itself", but for a fairer understanding of the present, Mr. Ioan Aurel Pop referred, along the way, to certain aspects of the immediate reality; aspects approached with moderation and rigour.

The echo of this approach was also found in the questions that, after the presentation, were addressed to him; and which, in turn, generated ample, competent answers - the fact must be noted - direct; without circumstantial detours.

It is therefore not surprising that - transposed on social networks - some "fragments" of the meeting with the president of the Academy have become viral.

The meeting ended with an "autograph session" - after which, together with our distinguished guest, we left for the Dragomirna monastery.

In the form of an elongated rectangle, rounded at the ends, the Dragomirna (built between 1606 and 1609) seems to have been conceived as a ship meant to be weathered through time... Which it did.

Foundation of Metropolitan Atanasie Crimca, whose bones rest in the premises, the monastery looks like a city: not only literally - in 1627, ruler Miron Barnovschi surrounded it with a strong defensive wall - but also figuratively, as Iași, the reference of Romanian Orthodoxy.

Austere on the outside, Dragomirna is richly ornamented on the inside - truly delighting the eyes of those who know how to see... In addition, the related museum houses a rich collection of medieval art, silver bookcases, icons and cult objects - all of a exquisitely chosen.

If the Moldavian Petru Movilă arrived in 1633, metropolitan of "Kiev", Halichi and all Russia", through his spiritual work Orthodoxy beyond the Dniester, it is appropriate to mention, "in the mirror", the Ukrainian Palsie Velichikovski ( 1722–1794): naturalized in Moldova after a "maturing" internship at Mount Athos, Paisie was abbot at Dragomirna from 1763 to 1775 (when the Austrians occupied Bucovina); a refugee, for a few years, at the Secu monastery, he settles, from 1779, at the Neamț monastery - which, under the leadership of this great abbot, becomes the center of Romanian monasticism and hesychastic school of living for the entire Christian East. But it all started in Dragomirna.

The lunch offered to us, with discreet generosity, by the pious nuns took place in the refectory, according to the typical monastery: Our Father, spoken before; prayer of thanks, said after.

And there was this lunch, rich and tasty - although all the dishes were "for fasting".

Having said that, we can consider usefully concluded the three journeys - in Spirit - through the Upper Country of Moldova.

For those who perceived and understood them as such, their ascending meaning it is clear. They join the natural mother of our Work as members of RSAA in Romania.

But I counted, from the beginning, "three plus two" trips.

Therefore, next to the three, recorded so far, we also place the two evenings spent together: "Country evening", from Adâncata, and "Festive dinner" that ended the second day... We add them, considering them "riders", not by equivalence, but by similarity.

We traveled tasting the abundance of the fruits of this land, which is ours. And we were happy: because we are Romanians and nothing Romanian is (or should not be) foreign to us.

With the clarification that we, as initiates, understand, by all this, the virtues rather than the demerits of our being.

Anyway, I think I went through the "events" in Suceava living a real one sense of settlement in Tradition - in that of our Order, as well as in our own, as Romanians.

And it's not a matter of circumstance, what I'm saying: only settling in Tradition, and only it, gives us the strength and wisdom to move forward.

Fast forward!

Nicolae Ulieru, 33 °

Articolul Țara de Sus a Moldovei – în trei (plus două) călătorii apare prima dată în SCAASR.

We live in times when the freedom of speech, later regained, tends to turn into an opportunity to intimidate the opponent through the barking noise of insult, slander and barely veiled threat. So I propose to invigorate our ears for a moment with the evocation of a character who, although an intellectual and a public figure who has expressed himself incessantly in speeches and in writing, imposes himself on history through something more old-fashioned today: by deeds.

His name is Jean Zay. He was born in France at the beginning of the 20th century, from a family of Jewish origin from Alsace. After the disaster of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, his grandfather opted for France. His father was a radical socialist politician in Orléans, where he also edited the journal Le progrès du Loiret. His mother was a Protestant teacher. In the starving France of the Third Republic, Jean Zay was born as a triple minority! It was just the beginning. After graduating, he became a journalist at Progrès and was initiated on January 24, 1926 in the "Etienne Dolet" Lodge in Orléans, in the Obedience of the Great East of France. He holds a bachelor's degree in law and a bar exam. Lawyer Jean Zay married in 1932 in the Protestant temple in his hometown, in the religion in which he had been raised.

In the same year, he was elected deputy of the radical party, the youngest elected in the history of the Third Republic, a friend of Pierre Mendès-France and Pierre Cot. Four years later, the Popular Front government offers him the portfolio of Minister of National Education and Fine Arts. There were still times when Education and Culture were seen as an indivisible instrument of a nation's future.

In three years and two months in office, Brother Jean Zay has shaken up mentalities, initiated and often imposed radical measures at the time, inspired and modern for those today, who are often proud of them without knowing in whose minds they are. they gave birth. I warn you, the following list is not exhaustive: it has unified the school curriculum at the national level; extended compulsory education from 13 to 14 years; introduced compulsory physical education for students of both sexes; promoted reading for all, setting up the famous Bibliobuses, free itinerant libraries that could reach even the most isolated villages; founded the National Center for Scientific Research, the famous CNRS which is still a world reference; founded the National School of Administration ENA, the factory of senior officials that endowed the French state and today the European Union with a new race of public administrators; unified national theaters and launched free matinees for students and the poor.

I could go on, but I prefer to limit myself to mentioning one more legislative initiative: as Minister of Arts, Jean Zay demanded that any order for a public building, from the palaces of the Republic to the last primary school, to dedicate at least 1.5% of budget for decorative works, so that the connection between citizen and state is strengthened through artistic beauty and so that entire bodies of traditional trades - which had been the glory of France for centuries - do not disappear in the pursuit of efficiency of an industrial society. After fights with all political opponents, but also with party colleagues, he managed to snatch 0.5% and pass it into the law. I leave you to appreciate how urgent this measure seemed to some deputies who already managed the artistic heritage of a country like France and who, after introducing the annual paid leave, still had to face the other costly promises of the Popular Front. Oh, let me not forget a detail that surprised many at the time, introducing a new sense of urgency: the galloping rearmament of Nazi Germany…

At first glance, a crook might say, with that damn word of ours, that "it was not the time," that such measures by the left were preparing for the defeat of 1940. You will be surprised: the radical-socialist humanist Jean Zay, the Jew, the Protestant and Mason Jean Zay was not an angelic pacifist. In all his public action, he supported the Republic of Spain with ideas, programs and funds, rearmament as a priority and fought exemplary the pact of cowardice in Munich. It was a rare voice in France in those days, a leftist who spoke like Winston Churchill! But he was not just a man of words.

As a minister and deputy, he was exempt from mobilization. Jean Zay resigned as minister, remained a deputy, but gave up immunity and in 1939 volunteered for the regiment. In May 1940, he went on leave to Paris to take part in the parliamentary session as German troops approached. Authorities fled to Bordeaux, then sank the Republic and called on Marshal Pétain to sign the surrender. Together with 27 other deputies, Jean Zay embarked on the ship Massilia to Morocco, wanting to form a government in exile, to continue the fight in the colonies or in London. Arriving at their destination, the deputies were detained on the orders of the Vichy government. Jean Zay and three other deputies were in the military. They were transferred to France, where in the meantime the new authorities had revoked their permits. Jean Zay was demoted and sentenced to life imprisonment "for desertion in front of the enemy, as a front-line officer." The other three received 6 years, 8 years with suspension and a payment…

In their honor, upon hearing the sentence, dozens of magistrates protested publicly, signing a petition entitled "The honor of the French Justice refuses to be tainted with a new Dreyfus affair." Even the Nazis had to back down a bit, commuting the exile in Papillon's prison in Guyana to a prison sentence in France.

Where does the difference in treatment come from? Where does so much hatred come from? Before and throughout the trial, a furious press campaign had been launched, in which all factions of the French far right had found their most suitable scapegoat in Jean Zay. How else? For fascist collaborators, as well as for ultra-Catholic nationalists, the 1940 disaster could only be the work of a Jew, a Protestant, a left-wing agitator, or a Freemason. Jean Zay was all this together. He was the ideal traitor. For the fascists, it was a mess, at most a mess. At the time, it was said that "baptism can eventually make you a Christian, but not French." For the communists he could no longer bear, Jean Zay would have been a cosmopolitan, that is, a man without roots. It was he, who had so many…

I wonder, Brethren, what would we call the free, balanced and sophisticated people of today?
The fashionable term, although technically correct, already scares large segments of the population: Jean Zay was a product of multiculturalism. I do not want to influence anyone's judgment, but I have a request: when we hear this term blown as a threat to modern society, let us not forget that it also produces such rare pearls as Jean Zay. Believe in the word of a Brother who shares neither his religions nor his political affiliation.

Multiculturalism is today part of an older family of words, of which I remind you only the plutocracy, the Judeo-Masonic occult, the Judeo-Bolshevik conspiracy and, more modestly, but closer to us, those who “did not eat soy salami ”. As Freemasons, tolerance requires us to accept and respect otherness. As modern people and responsible citizens, we have a duty to explore its exoticism and to extract from it the light elements that we sometimes lack. Any horse breeder or viticulturist can confirm to us that the elite of a thoroughbred or a DOC wine is just the result of many happy races.

Returning to Jean Zay, he spent the next four years in prison, in contact with the French Resistance, which offered to help him escape. He refused, arguing that he was not a skilled partisan and that he was more useful behind bars, constantly writing and still using his sharp mind to invent new initiatives and reforms necessary for the reconstruction of France after the Liberation. A cellmate of Rabbi Gurevici confesses that he never considered himself a Jew, although he was convicted of it: from so many persecutions. I am here with you only because outsiders are not free. ”

This is what Brother Jean Zay thought on June 20, 1944, 75 years ago without three days, when three fascist militiamen took him out of his cell, waving a transfer order motivated by the landing in Normandy. They took him to the outskirts of the city, between a forest and an abandoned stone quarry, to a place called by the peasants Râpa Diavolului. There they murdered him, stripped him naked and stole his wedding ring, before throwing some grenades to bury him under the boulders. Does this scene sound familiar to you? I ask you not only as Masons, but also as simple Romanians.

He was to turn 40 a month later. Yes, Brethren, all this work was done before the age of 36!

This is how Brother Jean Zay's biological life ends. But posterity was no less unjust to him. Although he was rehabilitated posthumously in 1945, although his body was found and identified in 1946 after the dental record and the measures carefully recorded in the notebook by his Jewish tailor in Paris, he also disappeared, although the assassins were captured by allies in Naples in 1947 and sentenced to forced labor for life, they were released from prison after only two years and Jean Zay's name was completely forgotten.

Why, you ask me. How was this possible in a free and anti-fascist world? It's painfully simple. Post-war France needed new figures of heroes to erase the shame of the 1940 capitulation. The two most important parties of the time, the Gaullist and the Communist, were both dedicated to instrumentalizing collective memory. In addition, each had to claim half of the French Resistance - sometimes FFI, sometimes FTP - with many glorious names of true martyrs of Freedom. Unfortunately, Jean Zay was not on any of these lists. He did not even figure in that of the surviving Jewish organizations, because he had only one Jewish grandfather, and that of his father. With the taste of the conspiracy we have, we can only ask ourselves this: who is left not to forget him? The answer belongs to everyone.

I will now give you the opportunity of each one to look into the eyes of this Brother of ours who, although passed to the Eternal East, you will discover that he is still active! In this capacity, but also for the exemplarity of his entire existence, I ask the permission of the Venerable Master that the photograph of this Brother remain in the Orient, as the guest of honor of our agape.

I confess that, although passionate about the history of France, I had not met his name until a few weeks ago. To double my shame, I found out about my filmmaking profession.

I kept the last of Jean Zay's inventions. In 1938, the French minister noticed that the most important film festival in the world, the Venice Film Festival, had become a megaphone for the dictatorship. No wonder. Mussolini had proclaimed a few years earlier that "of all the weapons of fascism, cinema is the most powerful." A diligent man, he founded the Cinecittà studios and the Venice Film Festival, then gave them substantial credits. Mussolini was right. Stalin understood and copied it. In 1938, the Venice Exhibition was already under the command of a third disastrous figure: Dr. Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda of the German Reich. While Europe was delighted to find the bunch of stars in Venice, Jean Zay had a flash: democratic countries should boycott this propaganda and have a festival of their own, celebrating democratic values. Why not in a lovely place like Cannes?

Said and done. Jean Zay contacted everyone from Gaumont and Pathé to Hollywood studios and invited them to the Cote d'Azur on September 1, 1939.

But the beginning of the war turned everything upside down. The Cannes Film Festival did not appear until a few years later, when Jean Zay's assassins were released from prison, amnestied in the name of national reconciliation.

I told you earlier that there was probably someone who would NOT forget Jean Zay all these years. A few mayors were found. Today, a dozen streets in France and several general schools bear his name. However, free people of good morals were found to bring him back to the attention of the authorities. In 2015, 70 years after his rehabilitation, his remains were transferred to the Panthéon. In the speech of the President of the Republic, "Jean Zay was one of the few who shaped from time to time the French rebellious nature in the living and ultimately victorious spirit of the Resistance." This year, President Macron, in the ambition to put France at the forefront of nations developing artificial intelligence, equipped CNRS with a supercomputer. The researchers decided to name it Jean Zay. But that's not all.

Brethren, a group of enthusiasts set out to finally organize the 1939 Cannes Film Festival. You heard me right, the one from 1939, with the films selected then. And what movies! Unlike Jean Zay, they have not been forgotten all these years: The Wizard of Oz, Pacific Express and Mister Smith going to the Senate are just some of those weapons of freedom and democracy temporarily defeated that will fight for a Palme d ' In a few months, in this late but essential year of 1939.

Because yes, it will be a real festival, with a jury, competition and prizes. As a special attention for Goebbels, the organizers proposed him to be the president of the jury of Amos Gitai, a huge Israeli filmmaker who, after accepting, apparently cried for two days. The jury will include, in addition to specialists, Jean Zay's two daughters, Hélène and Catherine, the last born when his father was already in prison. There will also be a red carpet, on which the stars of 1939 or their descendants are already invited, there will be conferences and debates, it will be all that the Cannes Film Festival means in a free world.

What does it matter that we are not in 1939? What does it matter that it is called Cannes, but it will take place in Orléans, in the city once liberated by Joan of Arc, so that Jean Zay could be born there later as a Frenchman? No, Brethren, for the Jean Zay Committee, as some organizers who are categorically free and of the best morals modestly call themselves, it is NOT
NEVER TOO LATE. Or, in other words that you dream more and more Romanian, "right now is the time". Today, in the world of Trump and Putin, Brexit and Korean missiles, Erdogan or Viktor Orban, the Jean Zay Committee has decided that it is still time to respond to Mussolini and Goebbels.

I have the honor to present to you, Brothers, the poster for the 1939 Cannes Film Festival. The one planned for then and the one for today. You will be able to notice in the illustrations the fragility of the world in front of the Nazi boots, but also the contemporary nostalgia for the elegance of a lost era. Yes, you can still get your tickets! For once, 1939 does not end in its time, but only when it should…

You are probably impressed, as I was, by learning about this event and the destiny of this Brother. But I would put your patience to the test for a few more minutes to modestly share with you the thoughts he has aroused in me in recent weeks, thoughts for which I ask your permission in advance.

Jean Zay moved to the Eternal Orient a long time ago, but his work will not be completed until November in Orléans. Yes, I am alluding to that phrase in the Ritual, which often goes almost unnoticed at the end of the Outfit, when the spirit is already longing for the warmth of the agape conversations and the body hears the siren call of the meatballs. This is where I was when I heard the symbolic voice of Brother Jean Zay.

"The work of a mason never ceases." In his absence, after him, she falls on the shoulders of the remaining Brothers. It doesn't stop, it doesn't go out of style, it doesn't prescribe. Do we claim from the builders of the temples, do we want to be the descendants of the cathedral builders? Very well. The most ungrateful of their duties was to devote themselves entirely to a work begun long before them, and the end result of which they will see only with their eyes closed. Masons pass, but Freemasonry advances without stopping, generation after generation. When we unite in the Brotherhood Chain, we do not shake hands only with the Brethren of Australia and Patagonia. The universal declines in space, but also in time. Along with us are Franklin and Mozart, but also Bălcescu or the Golești brothers. The mourning we carry includes them, along with the least famous, but surprisingly important, of which today we met only one.

A long, profane summer awaits us, but our work never ends. As a real lazy person, who knows that the hardest thing is not the work itself, but to start it without delay, I am glad that it started long before us. I'm thinking of the glorious Pasoptist generation and I can't help but wonder how can I make the Chain with such figures without being considered a perfect imposter? I wonder what was chosen for their work. I reread the Islaz Proclamation and, although at first sight it is made, if I replace a few names of institutions and opponents, I can guess the answer to the following question: how much Justice I find out in the morning news and how much Brotherhood day? Worse, how much Brotherhood remains in my Lodge, when we approach, even on the Diverse group, the themes of society that we really miss? How much longer do we have to fight the censorship reflex or, much more harmful, the self-censorship reflex? Is it the work of those Brothers from the completed history textbooks or do we just pretend not to see it, from the middle of our Workshop to the small borders of profane Romania?

Of course, for tolerance and harmony, we force ourselves not to do partisan politics or religious proselytism. But I don't think we can fight Impostor, Tyranny and Fanaticism in silence, be it dignified. I also thought that these dragons spat out flames only in the 18th and 19th centuries, that humanity was detoxified from fascist sadomasochism and communist heroin, that the Berlin Wall collapsed for good, but then I lived. I lived not only the Islamist attacks or the wars in Yugoslavia, but, less heroically and closer to home, the plagiarized doctorates, the Collective, the midnight ordinances and the referendum to redefine the family. Before we bring our nation to light, the dragon still has many heads to cut.

The Romanian social hive has various categories of bees. We are here a Lodge, a handful of people who were not content to be just drones or workers, but we dreamed a little about our sentences. In addition to the spiritual search, eminently individual, our Workshop should also be a laboratory of ideas with social applicability and these are usually born from the debate between opposing opinions. Some opinions may wrinkle our ego or ideological beliefs, but I allow myself to consider this normal. Some more dangerous substances are also handled in a laboratory. You sneeze, you cry more, you burn or run, but that's part of the contract. Nobody wants to poison you, everyone is looking for a cure for old and dangerous diseases together. As Jean Zay dramatically reminds us, the actions that are worthwhile are not without risks.

For now, we don't care about the Canal, Aiud or Periprava if we talk, but just a slightly wrinkled pride.

In classical democracies, political disputes take place in Parliament. There, honest people, educated people, dedicated people gather. Although our country is too small for such a large Parliament, how many elected people qualify for these chapters? Although we have many parties and leaders, after 30 years of democracy we are still waiting to have a left-wing and a right-wing party, with at least a national, if not European, vision.

By left, I mean a party that promotes access to dignity for the disadvantaged, through health, education and economic support, not through ghettoization and total dependence on discretionary aid. On the right, I imagine a party that supports the freedoms and individual initiative, the dreams and projects of ambitious Romanians, by creating a modern administrative apparatus, degreased to the needs and capabilities of our society, but trained and digitized to EU standards. By national I do not mean either the Dacians or the Hungarians, but the Romanian SMEs, subject to global competition at home and crushed at the same time under the non-Phanariot fiscal pressure. We will be able to talk about the European vision when we ask ourselves if, with public money, a government would decide to support a Romanian group in Brussels to be able to buy 1% from Deutsche Telekom, not always and always the other way around.

When we have at least these two games, I want to believe that our society will be less vehement on Facebook, on blizzard boulevards or in hot markets. Moreover, even on our group of Miscellaneous. Until then, it is up to us to contribute honestly, even if it hurts, to this difficult birth. It is our oldest duty, the one inherited from all the "devil's ravines" of our country. We have several essential advantages over politicians: Freemasonry teaches us to speak one by one and to look for the part of the Brotherhood in any adversary. It's not small at all. I do not propose to move the mountains, but only to have the courage to talk more, even on WhatsApp. Let us have the courage to call an impostor an impostor; a plagiarist - plagiarist; and a thief - a thief, without asking us if it is red or blue, if it is claimed from a left without Justice or from a right without Freedom.

I know, it's hard, but only at the beginning. It's only hard until you get the hang of it. If we have sworn to uphold the laws of the Land, we should react when others break them, not flaunt our modesty at the Brotherhood's discretion. If we are proud to be Brothers with some big street names, let's honor them somehow. In parenthesis be it said, our generation has not yet been able to properly sweep or illuminate, let alone pave these boulevards. As Brother B.'s board inspired me not long ago to say, there are stones that grind us. The glory inherited from the Pashoptist Freemasons needs to be dusted off and polished, but not through festive commemorations, but through modest, anonymous, disinterested work. It starts with more dialogue and acceptance between us. Then in the profane, day by day, with the patience and pedagogy that will bring some of you children that we can all be proud of. Let's use these qualities, even if we sometimes feel like we're wasting them on a neighbor, an office colleague or a more agitated customer in a cafe. The soul is also a muscle that needs to be trained.

The Romania we dream of must contain and convince them as well, to attract and warm those who - with millions - have already taken the world in their heads. I do not know how much Freemasonry wants to lead by example in society, but I believe that we must not lose that initiative inscribed in the DNA of the Brotherhood and confirmed by history with a united country, with somewhat protected minorities, in a sovereign state. and somewhat democratic. It is time to contribute more energetically to this edifice, to finally end the nineteenth century according to the original specifications.

In the permanent festival of vanity in Dâmboviţa, it is difficult and rare to be a Jean Zay, but I think it is extremely feasible and deeply honorable to initiate a Jean Zay Committee. If the Cannes Film Festival of 1939 takes place in November, maybe it's time for us to dare to talk freely about the diseases of Romanian society, not to hide our blisters under the eyeshadow or to be polite that we don't see them. In those around us and, not infrequently, in ourselves. Personally, I don't think that means partisan politics, but minimal hygiene and sanitary prevention.

I can't promise you that it will be easy, but only that we can start easily, untying our tongues between us. I can't promise you that we will ever have boulevards like the Pasoptists, but only that the light of our debates will be at least as long as a light bulb is missing from these boulevards. I'm not even sure it will be enjoyable, but just honest and according to our Oaths and the handshake - so contractual - in the Universal Chain.

I can be sure of one thing: that on a particularly busy day with all sorts of important things, we will each be torn apart and thrown at the gates of the Eternal East. On the threshold, all those great shadows will probably be waiting for us, who, after the natural fraternal embrace, will ask us - with the delicacy of their age, in which all education began and ended with a solid mode of good manners - one but terrible question: "Tell me, please, dear Brother, how long have you been able to move on from that old work of ours?"

I am confident that autumn will bring me new signs from my Brothers that our generation will identify its 1939 year to complete, and will one day be able to answer the question of the Boulevards with its head held high.

Articolul Bulevardele datoriei apare prima dată în SCAASR.

Together with others, of a smaller scale, these measures have, of course, aroused the dissatisfaction of those directly targeted; and probably the perplexity of others - unusual, too, with such "radicalisms".

The explanation is, however, simple and understandable to all: non-participation in Masonic life there is a centrifugal force that slowly throws you / places you on the periphery of the Rite, and even beyond it… So those measures have only eliminated two, perhaps the most powerful, of the parasitic segments of the composition of the Rite; and which, agglutinating over time, risked becoming a “stagnant factor” in the proper functioning of what needs to be really RSAA from Romania.

Be careful, though! Although in the same context, the need to establish a new climate, anti-stagnant, in the life of the RSAA in Romania, the two measures, true acts of Masonic authority, are not linked by the "sign of equality": if the first visa, categorically, disinterested and sanctioned as such, the Decree of June 15 this year correction a state of affairs still easy to remedy. And only in this sense should we understand it.

Thus, the Brethren of the temporarily dissolved lodges of perfection are called to work, for at least a year, in another lodge, activate - only after that having the fall to ask the Supreme Council re-consecration which was, by Decree, revoked.

They are thus offered a Masonic "examination of conscience" which the respective Brethren have given primarily to themselves… Therefore, not dissolution, but re-construction: in full consensus with the essence of the doctrine from which we also claim whose arcana we set out to decipher.

For, although we perceive them in succession, mystery and act They presence they are, in fact, concomitant; and their simultaneity, perceived as such, is the guiding factor of our cycle of existence.

Articolul Vreme în schimbare apare prima dată în SCAASR.

If we were to look for / assign a “classic profile” to him, I think the one that suits him best is that of a Ianus bifrons: scrutinizing, with the same lucid / penetrating gaze, East and West… Going up to the sources, it must be said that - in early Latin mythology - Janus and his sister Iana personified the Sun and the Moon: illuminators of day and night, respectively. And that, from another perspective, Janus must be understood as "gate": as opening to realms inaccessible to "ordinary" knowledge (= knowledge undertaken in the absence of initiation).

For those who can read, all this can be found in the - complex and profound - personality of René Guénon: as it transpires from what he wrote… Finally, let's take into account that, born a Catholic, he attended early various (alleged) initiatory structures / organizations - including French Freemasonry of the early twentieth century - to spend the last twenty years of his life in Cairo: where he adopted all Muslim rites and customs, after, in 1911-1912 , had attached himself to Sufism (the “esoteric core” of Islam), receiving the name of Abdul Wahed Yahia (= “John, the servant of the One”)… Above all, however, lies the “fact” (undocumented) that In 1912, Guénon was invested by Superiores Incogniti, with the position of restorer of the Primordial Tradition in the West.

With this, his metaphysical realization was a fulfilled fact; fact perfectly deducible from (and proven by) everything he wrote / published: articles, studies, books - all focused on the idea (and promoted for the purpose) of converting the Western mentality to Tradition and the Sacred.

We understand, therefore, why none of the moderns, like him, has succeeded in deciphering and interpreting the sacred texts: bringing to us the light of the eternal Orient; as no one caught in more powerful, more subtle and more rigorously argued formulations, what he himself called "the degree of degeneration reached by the modern West”.

In our country, during the communist regime, Guénon was known especially through Vasile Lovinescu: contemporary, correspondent and, to a certain extent, emul / disciple of the master… Their relationship, strictly epistolary, dates from the 30s: in 1936-37 , magazine Traditional Studies, led by Guénon, publishes V. Lovinescu, in five issues, the study Hyperborean Dacia (Hyperborean Dacia), signed "Geticus"; because, two or three decades later, books like The fourth hagialac (in 1981) and, in particular, Branch and Golden Branch (in 1989) to attest how fruitful, not only "indebted", can be the systematic attendance and in-depth knowledge of the Guénonian universe of ideas.

Approaches of vast scope, and of unique deepening of the old Romanian spirituality, V. Lovinescu's books have, in their texture, frequent references to these ideas, as well as substantial quotes from Guénon's studies: ideas and quotes that acquainted him, how rather, on the Romanian reader with a vision of the World (and, implicitly, of History) in total contradiction with the official ideology (infested with dogmatism, and which promoted the so-called “dialectical and historical materialism” not as a possible “basis of discussions ”, but as a“ weapon ”to exclude any different point of view - exclusion accompanied, more than once, by heavy criminal convictions).

After 1990, the one that (re) brought Guénon into the Romanian language space was the Humanitas Publishing House - under the auspices of which, in less than four years, three reference works appeared: The crisis of the modern world (1993), The rule of quantity and the signs of the times (1995), Symbols of Sacred Science (1997). The suite of these translations, intelligently arranged in this way, encompasses a specific meaning: what transcends, so to speak, the "immanent" matter of each of them… introduction ”in a universe of ideas as fascinating as it is complex: the first two deal with one of the major coordinates of Guenonian thought, and the other proposes the“ key ”to the correct decipherment of the symbols that make up the ancestrality and substratum of the Indo-European imaginary.

After entering the new century and millennium, the relay was taken over by the Herald Publishing House - specialized in writings of such an invoice; since 2005 and until now, no less than 12 books signed by René Guénon have appeared here - among them, the one presented / recommended, or rather, in our column… Impressive in size and rhythm, this editorial approach (which does not stops here, other appearances being announced) shows "thinking" and "program" - completely worthy of man and the work of the unnamed, by some contemporaries, the prince of arcana.

You will ask me, and rightly so, why - of all things - I chose this one (published in 2008 and translated, impeccably, by Roxana Cristian and the late Florin Mihăescu)… It's true, I could have chosen any other; for, as in a point situated in space an infinity of lines can intersect, each able to (lead) to the Center, so René Guénon's books complement and illuminate each other: calling each other and sending , any of them, to the "hidden core" of his thinking.

I chose this one, though, because the problem of initiation is becoming more acute today than ever… Proliferation - and in Romania, as everywhere in the world - of all sorts of societies and “confraternities” that are more “mystical”, more “esoteric”, as well as, quasi-generalized, confusion between “initiation” and “mysticism”, it demands (as a matter of urgency, I would say) the separation of land waters: by defining, objectively and rigorously, initiation; as well as through its strict delimitation - not only of "mysticism", but also of its own counterfeit "forms".

Such a rehabilitation, to bring to light the concept, undertakes - with its well-known spirit of finesse, but also with relentless irony - René Guénon. Everything, subscribed to a vast cultural horizon: which, either directly or by suggestion, gives the impression that the author is exhausting the data of the problem.

Articolul René Guénon: SCURTĂ PRIVIRE ASUPRA INIȚIERII apare prima dată în SCAASR.