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Parts Authority Forum
Parts Authority Acquires Mainline Auto Parts
By APF, July 6, 2017 in Parts Authority Forum
Parts Authority has announced the acquisition of Mainline Auto Parts. Mainline Auto Parts has been one of the premier auto parts distributors in the Baltimore area for the past 30 years.
According to Randy Buller, CEO of Parts Authority, the decision was simple. "Marvin Miller and his team at Mainline Auto Parts, share the same philosophy and strategy for doing business in the 'Do It for Me' channel along with large branded inventory, expert counter people, fast delivery service and synergy with its wide installer customer base," said Buller.
For Mainline Auto Parts, Parts Authority delivers inventory support and buying power, access to its many locations in Maryland, Washington D.C. and New York, and excellent growth opportunities for its team members. The current staff of Mainline will continue to run the operation under the direction of Parts Authority. Marvin Miller is the president of Mainline Auto Parts.


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John Derbyshire On John Glad's FUTURE HUMAN EVOLUTION: EUGENICS IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
John Derbyshire
The contradiction between the vigorous, unapologetic ethnonationalism of Jews in Israel and the horror of other peoples' ethnonationalism expressed by Jews elsewhere has been a recurrent topic here on VDARE.com—see, most recently, Is Immigration Really A 'Jewish Value'? by Kevin MacDonald.
I think this contradiction is not hard to understand. If you are the ethnic majority in a nation, it is natural to wish to maintain the dominance of your ethny; if you belong to a minority ethny, especially one with as sorrowful a history as the Jews, it is just as natural to be hostile to the dominance of any other.
But these simple truths need restating, because the very peculiar cultural history of the Western world through the past few decades, leading to the widespread state of mind among whites that I call ethnomasochism, has made them nonobvious.
Cooper Sterling, writing, three years ago on VDARE.com, described a different, but related, contradiction—he used the word "paradox"—also concerning Jews.
Since the 1960s, a prominent group of Jewish public intellectuals has been systematically and unscrupulously campaigning to discredit eugenics—but, in a great paradox, other Jewish intellectuals, and Zionists, have been actively interested in eugenic principles, both historically and currently, to secure the posterity—health and wellbeing—of Jews. Collectively, it amounts to a case of Do As I Say—Not As I Do. 'Do As I Say': The Paradox Of Eugenics And The Jews."
Sterling was summarizing the thesis of a book: Jewish Eugenics, by John Glad.
Glad is a retired Professor of Russian Studies with a distinguished career as a scholar and author. He describes himself in the preface to Jewish Eugenics as "a dyed-in-the-wool universalist" with a long-standing, but not racially-oriented, interest in eugenics.
The main text of Jewish Eugenics—ignoring the bibliography, indices, and front matter—covers 377 pages. It has its origin in an earlier and much shorter book, Future Human Evolution: Eugenics in the Twenty-First Century (2006), which has a mere 111 pages of text.
That earlier, shorter book is the one I've just been reading, so this column is a companion to Cooper Sterling's 2011 review of Jewish Eugenics. Both books, Future Human Evolution and Jewish Eugenics, are available in printed-and-bound format or as free downloads from John Glad's website.
Future Human Evolution is, as its subtitle tells you, about eugenics in all generality. Only seven of its pages (35-6 and 83-7) are concerned with the Jews, so in writing the later book, Glad expanded that particular topic an impressive 54 times.
Needless to say, in the intellectual culture of the world today, "eugenics" is a scare word, at the sound of which goodthinkful persons are supposed to jump up on chairs, shriek, and clutch their skirts. I admire John Glad for approaching his subject matter calmly and without apology.
He works hard to point out that the obloquy that attaches to eugenics is mostly undeserved. Almost everyone who has supported eugenics since Sir Francis Galton coined the word in 1883 has done so for humane reasons, from an earnest desire to improve the lives of our posterity by doing gently what Nature does harshly. In Galton's actual words, which Glad quotes:
What nature does blindly, slowly and ruthlessly, man may do providently, quickly, and kindly. As it lies within his power, so it becomes his duty to work in that direction. [Eugenics: Its Definition, Scope, And Aims, The American Journal Of Sociology, July, 1904]
The association of eugenics with Hitlerism is much overblown. Glad conducts an interesting historiographical experiment. From a university library he selects 100 books that are (a) concerned with the Weimar and Nazi periods, and (b) have topic indices. (Some books only index names.) Only four of the books mention eugenics, and those cursorily.
Glad urges the reader to try this experiment for himself, and lists his 100 books in an appendix. One of them is Mein Kampf, which has no index entries for "eugenics." Certainly Hitler knew about eugenics; but so did every other educated person in the early twentieth century. He saw it as fitting comfortably into his world-view; but so did a great many other people of widely different—mostly Leftist—inclinations.
The involuntary sterilization law passed by the German parliament in 1933 is generally cited as a milestone in the advance of Nazi eugenics. But it was drafted before Hitler came to power—and, far from being eugenic in intent, it was mainly seen as a cheap alternative to welfare dependency. Most of the pre-Hitler enthusiasm for eugenics in Germany came from people Hitler detested: communists, anarchists, socialists, and social democrats.
The association of eugenics with early twentieth-century leftism—with social democracy in Europe, Fabian socialism in Britain, Progressivism in the U.S.A.—has not gone unnoticed by present-day conservative commentators. Indeed, they have built up a minor cottage industry from it. My former National Review colleague Jonah Goldberg got a whole chapter out of it for his 2007 book Liberal Fascism. Chapter title: "Liberal Racism: The Eugenic Ghost in the Fascist Machine."
This argument from eugenics to fascism actually takes some work, given that Hitler was hardly more of a eugenicist than his ideological enemies. And, indeed, the connection did not "take" in conventional intellectual culture until long after WW2. Glad:
Eugenics survived even the embrace of Nazi Germany, and in 1963 the Ciba Foundation convened a conference in London under the title "Man and his Future," at which three distinguished biologists and Nobel Prize laureates (Hermann Muller, Joshua Lederberg, and Francis Crick) all spoke strongly in its favor.
But the great turn against eugenics came soon afterwards, with the dogmatic race-denialism of the U.S. Civil Rights campaign, New Left romanticization of the Third World, and the Holocaust memorial movement that followed the Six Day War of 1967.
For all their scientific ignorance and hypocrisy about race, however, Goldberg et al. do have one point about pre-WW2 eugenics: it was a social-engineering project offensive to the sensibilities of leave-us-alone conservatives like me.
John Glad is scientifically better-informed. He frankly acknowledges race differences, as any honest writer at this point must:
We should all be able to agree that intergroup differences are a scientific, not a moral, question.
Nor does he shy away from the consequences:
History clearly demonstrates that social harmony is especially difficult to achieve in the face of diversity, whether religious, linguistic, or ethnic … When two or more ethnoses [sic] are clearly distinguishable from one another, the situation is fraught with even great stress.
He is even receptive to the topics dealt with in Nicholas Wade's forthcoming book:
The genetic bases of social and political structures constitute a topic that even bolder sociologists and political scientists have been leery of raising for two-thirds of a century. It is a taboo which grossly distorts our understanding of ourselves.
And there are some encouraging on-topic asides:
On the immigration front, the importation of low-IQ groups to perform unskilled labor at low wages must be recognized as a threat to the host population's long-term viability.
As far as the eugenics argument is concerned, [intergroup differences] are irrelevant in the most fundamental fashion … Each group contains a vast pool of talented individuals to draw upon in parenting future generations.
Huh? What if group A has a vaster pool of talented individuals than group B? If intergroup differences make social harmony "especially difficult," wouldn't you want to factor them in to your eugenics program?
In the matter of interventionist social policies, Glad is at one with the Progressive eugenicists of a hundred years ago:
Forced sterilizations of persons with genetically predetermined low IQ and major genetic illnesses should be reinstituted. This is an unpopular statement but it has to be said.
Where abortion is concerned, he is ahead of them:
Abortion should be actively promoted, since it often serves as the last and even only resort for low-IQ mothers who fail to practice contraception.
On polygamy he is way ahead of them:
Polygamy should be universally decriminalized. The legal enforcement of monogamy is a dysgenic intrusion into personal freedom.
(But the way marriage laws appear to be headed, our author should soon have his way on that point at least.)
While I appreciate John Glad's refreshingly non-hysterical approach to his main topic, and his realism about genetics and group differences, time and again when reading Future Human Evolution I got a whiff of utopian leftism and breezy love-the-world environmental flapdoodle:
The eugenics movement advocates a universalism that encompasses all humanity while recognizing the continuity of our species with all other species on this planet.
At one point Glad actually does promise utopia:
[Eugenicists] maintain that we can either work with nature and achieve utopia, or we can in our greed reject reform and perish.
I agree with John Glad that the West is currently on a dysgenic path, and that for the sake of our posterity we should change some of our social policies—certainly including our immigration policies.
I agree, too, that interested parties have imposed a grossly distorted view of 20th-century intellectual history in matters of race and eugenics. And yes, that "paradox":
In the words of a researcher at Ben-Gurion University: "Eugenic thinking is alive and well [in Israel] today" … There are now more fertility clinics there per capita than in any other country in the world (four times the number per capita in the United States). Abortion is subsidized if the fetus is suspected to be physically or mentally malformed.
Nor do I doubt that as our understanding of human genetics advances, consumer eugenics—embryo selection, eventually germ-line therapy, perhaps even cloning—will blossom, to the advantage of society.
Nevertheless…I still don't think I'm ready to sign up for the full eugenics deal, with polygamy and forced sterilizations.
No, of course eugenics is not fascism. And yes, of course we need to get people thinking in a serious, well-informed way about dysgenic trends.
Utopia, though? Didn't the original Utopia banish private life?
Utopia-wise, I'll stick with the devil I know.
John Derbyshire [email him] writes an incredible amount on all sorts of subjects for all kinds of outlets. (This no longer includes National Review, whose editors had some kind of tantrum and fired him. ) He is the author of We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism and several other books. His most recent book, published by VDARE.com com is FROM THE DISSIDENT RIGHT (also available in Kindle).His writings are archived at JohnDerbyshire.com. Readers who wish to donate (tax deductible) funds specifically earmarked for John Derbyshire's writings at VDARE.com can do so here.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Maps and GPS directions to Shopping Centre Galeria and other Shopping Mall locations in Czech Republic. Find your nearest Shopping Mall. Shopping malls, department stores and specialised retail outlets in Czech Republic.


Deakins, E. (2009). Helping students value cultural diversity through research-based teaching. Higher Education research & Development, 28(2), 209-226.
Although international students studying in New Zealand desire and expect contact with their domestic peers, the level of cross-national interactions remains generally low. This paper describes an initiative to promote more and better intercultural understanding within a target group of students having similar needs and interests in a higher education setting. A research-based teaching approach progressively increased student engagement with higher order cognitive skills and both topic and process were aligned in such a way that training opportunities in intercultural competence were explored while also providing a process that offered further training in intercultural competence. Enduring appreciation of cultural diversity issues was achieved via deep styles of teaching and learning that raised awareness, changed attitudes and behaviour and ultimately impacted classroom culture. Initiative design, evaluation and results are described and limitations noted. The findings should be of interest to teachers of multicultural students and to academics studying cultural diversity issues.


Designed by architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, this 60-story skyscraper planned for 56 Leonard in New York's Tribeca district has become known as the "Jenga Building" for its unusual design.
Nicknamed "the Jenga Building" after the 1980s game of wooden blocks, "the project is conceived as a stack of individual houses, where each house is unique and identifiable within the overall stack," according to the architects.
The building will stand at the corner of Leonard and Church. It will have 145 residential units, including 10 large penthouses.
The ground floor will house a small retail space, and could feature a spherical sculpture by Anish Kapoor, as well as a "vertical garden."
The residential units will have window walls up to 14 feet tall, with views of the New York skyline and surrounding rivers.
Only five of the 145 apartments will be repeated, so most of the residences in the building will be unique.


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Archive for the 'Freemasons' Category
inscribed thereon
A visit with the god of America.
Brazen and gilt, this representation of the American Augustus is appropriately found at the N.Y. Grand Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons on 23rd street in Mahattan. It adorns a library room, and honors a significant member of that centuried secret society.
The founder of our nation, as General Washington is known, enjoyed a lifestyle that could only be maintained by a subjugate army of slaves. I'd like to believe that he would be resistant to having his birthday celebrated with a crass and consumerist bacchanal, as he'd be embarrassed by it – but as I'm a non-slaver, it's difficult for me to imagine the mindset of the "founding fathers" and walk a mile in their proverbial moccasins.
Titled Washington's Birthday, the federal holiday was originally implemented by the United States Congress in 1880 for government offices in the District of Columbia (20 Stat. 277) and expanded in 1885 to include all federal offices (23 Stat. 516). As the first federal holiday to honor an American citizen, the holiday was celebrated on Washington's actual birthday, February 22. On 1 January 1971, the federal holiday was shifted to the third Monday in February by the Uniform Monday Holiday Act. This date places it between February 15 and 21, which makes the name "Washington's Birthday" a misnomer, since it never lands on Washington's actual birthday, February 22. A draft of the Uniform Holidays Bill of 1968 would have renamed the holiday to Presidents' Day to honor the birthdays of both Washington and Lincoln, but this proposal failed in committee and the bill as voted on and signed into law on 28 June 1968, kept the name Washington's Birthday.
The General died badly, but everybody does that, and one such as myself doesn't shed tears for a dead slave master even if they did accomplish a lot at their day jobs. Unfortunately, for a fellow so immersed in the "Enlightenment" and who was very much a rationalist and a logician – he thought the answer to illness was exsanguination (which was how his slaves were "cured" of ailments as well). His doctors bled him to death, but the holiday today is about his birth, not his death. This compound holiday (Washington and Lincoln's birthdays are celebrated coterminously) was offered to the nation, as of 1968, as it was determined that there were too many Monday holidays in February and it was getting in the way of business. I've often thought we should celebrate a Monday holiday which specifically mentions the subjugation and forced generational labor of millions, but there you go.
On Thursday, December 12, 1799, Washington spent several hours inspecting his plantation on horseback, in snow, hail, and freezing rain—later that evening eating his supper without changing from his wet clothes.
That Friday he awoke with a severe sore throat and became increasingly hoarse as the day progressed, yet still rode out in the heavy snow, marking trees on the estate that he wanted cut. Sometime around 3 a.m. that Saturday, he suddenly awoke with severe difficulty breathing and almost completely unable to speak or swallow. A firm believer in bloodletting, a standard medical practice of that era which he had used to treat various ailments of enslaved Africans on his plantation, he ordered estate overseer Albin Rawlins to remove half a pint of his blood.
A total of three physicians were sent for, including Washington's personal physician Dr. James Craik along with Dr. Gustavus Brown and Dr. Elisha Dick. Craik and Brown thought that Washington had what they diagnosed as "quinsey" or "quincy", while Dick, the younger man, thought the condition was more serious or a "violent inflammation of the throat". By the time the three physicians had finished their treatments and bloodletting of the President, there had been a massive volume of blood loss—half or more of his total blood content being removed over the course of just a few hours.
Recognizing that the bloodletting and other treatments were failing, Dr. Dick proposed performing an emergency tracheotomy, a procedure that few American physicians were familiar with at the time, as a last-ditch effort to save Washington's life; but the other two doctors rejected this proposal.
One of my little fantasies is the one where I magically pluck General Washington from the back of his horse and draw him into our future to witness that which has been wrought in his name. He gets introduced to the imperial majesty of present day America in this fugue of mine, and witnesses not just the modern military might but the relative luxury (compared to his era) and civil treatment that even the basest members of our society can and do expect. I suspect that the General would be shocked at the size and reach of a standing military which operates out of 900 military bases in 150 countries. I don't think he'd be surprised that the slaves had been freed and offered citizenship, nor the lousy treatment they'd received. More shocking to him would be the relative importance and status of France and almighty England, which were the Americas of their time.
Of course, that was before an American God came along who did the work of the Great Architect of the Universe.
Washington was initiated into Freemasonry in 1752. He had a high regard for the Masonic Order and often praised it, but he seldom attended lodge meetings. He was attracted by the movement's dedication to the Enlightenment principles of rationality, reason and fraternalism; the American lodges did not share the anti-clerical perspective that made the European lodges so controversial. In 1777, a convention of Virginia lodges recommended Washington to be the Grand Master of the newly established Grand Lodge of Virginia; however, Washington declined, due to his necessity to lead the Continental Army at a critical stage, and because he had never been installed as Master or Warden of a lodge, he did not consider it Masonically legal to serve as Grand Master. In 1788, Washington, with his personal consent, was named Master in the Virginia charter of Alexandria Lodge No. 22.
Posted in Freemasons, Manhattan, Photowalks, Pickman
Tagged with Freemasons, George Washington, Manhattan, New York City, photowalk, Pickman, Presidents Day
amiable normality
"follow" me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
Mayan Apocalypse Countdown: We are in the home stretch on Planet Earth. and just 4 days remain until the 13th b'ak'tun ends, initiating the Mayan Apocalypse on December 21st. Tick, tock.
In the face of predestination, prophetic warnings, and probable destruction- prosecution of all possible prophylaxis is both prudent and proper. Indisputable inklings of illuminated ideations, irresistible and insidious, inspired me to inquire whether the Free and Accepted Masons could intervene or otherwise interfere with the oncoming interval of destruction.
Saturnalia was supposed to have been held on December 17 (ante diem xvi Kal. Ian.) from the time of the oldest Roman religious calendar, which the Romans believed to have been established by the legendary founder Romulus and his successor Numa Pompilius. It was a dies festus, a legal holiday when no public business could be conducted. The day marked the dedication of the Temple to Saturn in the Roman Forum in 497 BC.
By the late Republic, the celebration of Saturnalia had expanded to seven days, but during the Imperial period contracted variously to three to five days. Under Augustus, there was a three-day official holiday.[48] Caligula extended it to five.
December 17 was the first day of the astrological sign Capricorn, the house of Saturn, the planet named for the god. Its proximity to the winter solstice (December 25 on the Julian calendar) was endowed with various meanings by both ancient and modern scholars: for instance, the widespread use of wax candles (cerei, singular cereus) may refer to "the returning power of the sun's light after the solstice".
December the seventeenth is another of those historical dates upon which the anniversary of several momentous events occur. In 546 AD- Rome was sacked by the Ostrogoths, and in 1398 Delhi fell to the armies of Timur.
In 1903- the Wright Brothers learned that men could fly if they were clever enough.
Looming loquaciously over the locus of 23rd street and Sixth Avenue, the Grand Lodge of the Masons and the group which inhabits it have been spoken about in four lengthy postings from way back in 2009.
Check out parts one, two, three, and four.
The Aztec calendar stone, Mexica sun stone, Stone of the Sun (Spanish: Piedra del Sol), or Stone of the Five Eras, is a large monolithic sculpture that was excavated in the Zócalo, Mexico City's main square, on December 17, 1790. It was discovered whilst Mexico City Cathedral was being repaired. The stone is around 12 feet (3.7 m) across and weighs about 24 tons.
Filled with a series of questions which only those who know the truth of history might answer, your humble narrator journeyed to Manhattan and joined one of the free tours regularly offered by the group. The tour follows a twisting path, entering rooms with a right turn and exiting with a left, moving in weird diagonals throughout their building.
The guide recognized my need for guidance, and soon I was brought before the God of America. Brazen, the gaze of the eidolon bore into ones soul, an accusatory and knowing permanence of vision radiating from beneath carven brows. The greatest of the Masons would have been resolute and unflinching in the eye of any storm, let alone some silly Mayan Apocalypse.
The prophet is commemorated in the Coptic Church on the 23rd day of the Coptic month of Baramhat.
On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, the feast days celebrating St. Daniel the Prophet together with the Three Young Men, falls on December 17 (during the Nativity Fast), on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (the Sunday which falls between 11 and 17 December), and on the Sunday before Nativity. Daniel's prophesy regarding the stone which smashed the idol (Daniel 2:34-35) is often used in Orthodox hymns as a metaphor for the Incarnation: the "stone cut out" being symbolic of the Logos (Christ), and the fact that it was cut "without hands" being symbolic of the virgin birth. Thus the hymns will refer to the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) as the "uncut mountain"
Daniel is commemorated as a prophet in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod together with the Three Young Men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), on December 17.
Tribulations such as the forthcoming apocalypse and the embrace of such dubious reasoning would have embarrassed him. Rational men, Washington and his fellow conspirators against the Hanoverian throne knew the illuminable truth of things, that the world will continue on and on. His graven image assures and assuages.
Today, Washington's face and image are often used as national symbols of the United States. He appears on contemporary currency, including the one-dollar bill and the quarter coin, and on U.S. postage stamps. Along with appearing on the first postage stamps issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1847, Washington, together with Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Lincoln, is depicted in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial. The Washington Monument, one of the best known American landmarks, was built in his honor. The George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, was constructed between 1922 and 1932 with voluntary contributions from all 52 local governing bodies of the Freemasons in the United States.
Still, trepidation and timorous doubt haunt. The cogs and wheels of the universe are immutably in motion, spinning in uncertain ways. Quantum theory teaches that all things are possible at all times, and that the condition of observed reality depends upon the quality and perceptions of the observer.
The Mayan calendar has been right before in its predictions of cultural doom, for was it not prophecied that at a certain time on a certain day in a certain year that a bearded man would arrive at Veracruz and signal the destruction of their own civilization? And did Cortez not arrive at the appointed moment? It occurs to your humble narrator that we should not fear the arrival of Nibiru, but rather the imminence of Quetzalcoatl.
from nasa.gov
Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?
A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.
Posted in Freemasons, Manhattan, Mayan Apocalypse, Midtown, Photowalks, Pickman
Tagged with Free and accepted Masons, Manhattan, New York City, photowalk, Pickman, queens, weirdness
amused irritation
A humble narrator loves his conspiracy theories and crackpot notions.
Accordingly, as we only have a single score of days left until the end of the world on December 21 when the Mayan Calendar's 13th b'ak'tun ends, I thought it important to tie up a few loose ends before the Apocalypse gets rolling. First off, the portents are painted all over the 20th century, if you care to look.
Also, as a note, the calendar stone which most websites seems to be using to illustrate the story- this one for instance, is actually Aztec (it's the sun stone of Tonatiuh, silly).
Aztecs and Mayans are wildly different groups, comparable European populations would be Germans and Greeks, and Asian would be Mongol and Khmer.
in 1920, H.P Lovecraft saw his short story "Polaris" published in the December issue of an amateur publication called "The Philosopher"- an excerpt:
"Slumber, watcher, till the spheres,
Six and twenty thousand years
Have revolv'd, and I return
To the spot where now I burn.
Other stars anon shall rise
To the axis of the skies;
Stars that soothe and stars that bless
With a sweet forgetfulness:
Only when my round is o'er
Shall the past disturb thy door."
Galactic Alignments, coupled with the return of our solar system to the same spot it occupied some 226 million years ago– part of Sol's galactic year, provide much fodder for those eager to meet their maker. Doomsday enthusiasts like to point out that this was the age of Dinosaurs, but they stuck around until 65 million years ago, so whatever hellish condition which is waiting for us- down the road- is still a pretty long way off.
This is 21st century America, where science and logic are a shunned belief system rife with disturbing assertions that challenge medieval superstitions and mythologies. You've only got 20 days to get that bunker set up in your apartment, best get to Home Depot before the lines get too long.
Apocalypse. Scary. Go buy stuff- Guns. Food. Store water and fuel. Feel better.
on December 1st, 1948, Australian Police opened what would become known as the Taman Shud case in Adelaide.
Around the same time as the Inquest, a tiny piece of rolled-up paper with the words "Tamam Shud" printed on it was found deep in a fob pocket sewn within the dead man's trouser pocket. Public library officials called in to translate the text identified it as a phrase meaning "ended" or "finished" found on the last page of a collection of poems called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The theme of these poems is that one should live life to the full and have no regrets when it ended. The paper was blank on the reverse and police conducted an Australia wide search to find a copy of the book that had a similar blank reverse but were unsuccessful.
As New York has recently undergone its own form of apocalypse, in tune with the Assyrian mythos which predict the worlds end as an oceanic flood (accompanied by the return of the chaos dragon Tiamat and her horde of battrachian children rising to devour the land and all of its dwellers), it would be hoped that we might be able to avoid the end times fever which will certainly sweep across the planet. Remember- only 20 days left…
It's 12/1/12- only 28,800 minutes, or 480 hours, left. If you divide 480 by the number of the beast- 666- you get the number 0.720720720720720. That probably means something important for the forthcoming Mayan Apocalypse, huh?
Why 666, do you ask?
Also, on this day in 1947, Aleister Crowley died at Netherwood. There is no such thing as coincidence, at least according to science, which deems it statistically unimportant.
Posted in Freemasons, Mayan Apocalypse, Photowalks, Pickman
Tagged with Aleister Crowley, Free and accepted Masons, Mayan Apocalypse, New York City, occult, photowalk, Pickman, Talman Shud
Tales of Calvary 2- Veterans Day
-photo by Mitch Waxman
21 Roman Catholic Union soldiers are interred amongst the 365 acres of first Calvary Cemetery in Queens, nearby the cuprous waters of the much maligned Newtown Creek.
The wars of the 20th century, terrible in scope and vulgar in effect, cause us to overlook these men who vouchsafed the American Republic in the 19th century as we focus in on the veterans of the second thirty years war which modernity myopically calls World Wars One and Two. Woodrow Wilson proclaimed a federal holiday called Armistice Day in 1919, celebrating the anniversary of the legal end of the first World War in 1918. Congress agreed, seven years later, and then took six years to pass an act which made Armistice day an official United States federal holiday celebrated on November 11 annually.
Ed Rees, a populist Representative from the state of Kansas during the post World War 2 era, spearheaded a successful campaign in 1953 to have "Armistice Day" reclassified as "All Veterans Day" so as to include the veterans of WW2, and the ongoing conflicts fought by our "permanent government" on the world stage.
from nycgovparks.com
On April 28, 1863, the City of New York purchased the land for this park from the Trustees of St. Patrick's Cathedral and granted Parks jurisdiction over it. The land transaction charter stated that Parks would use the land as a burial ground for soldiers who fought for the Union during the Civil War (1861-65) and died in New York hospitals. Parks is responsible for the maintenance of the Civil War monument, the statuary, and the surrounding vegetation. Twenty-one Roman Catholic Civil War Union soldiers are buried here. The last burial took place in 1909…
The monument features bronze sculptures by Daniel Draddy, fabricated by Maurice J. Power, and was dedicated in 1866. Mayor John T. Hoffman (1866-68) and the Board of Aldermen donated it to the City of New York. The 50-foot granite obelisk, which stands on a 40 x 40 foot plot, originally had a cannon at each corner, and a bronze eagle once perched on a granite pedestal at each corner of the plot. The column is surmounted by a bronze figure representing peace. Four life-size figures of Civil War soldiers stand on the pedestals. In 1929, for $13,950, the monument was given a new fence, and its bronze and granite details replaced or restored. The granite column is decorated with bronze garlands and ornamental flags.
Many of the combatant nations observe November 11th as Armistice Day, or Remembrance Day.
It is hard for we moderns to conceive of the psychological pathologies of the post Victorian era, as our "end of the world scenario" is played out as either an expanding cloud of nuclear fire, or some "romeroesque" dystopia populated by hordes of disease maddened and resource starved ghouls- either way- it involves the apocalyptic ascendance of one of the "ism's".
Have no doubts though, that the world which created Calvary ended in an apocalypse, and our modern world was built upon the ashes of the Fin de Siècle.
The date was declared a national holiday in many allied nations, to commemorate those members of the armed forces who were killed during war. An exception is Italy, where the end of the war is commemorated on 4 November, the day of the Armistice of Villa Giusti. Called Armistice Day in many countries, it was known as National Day in Poland (also a public holiday) called Polish Independence Day. After World War II, the name of the holiday was changed to Veterans Day in the United States and to Remembrance Day in countries of the British Commonwealth of Nations. Armistice Day remains an official holiday in France. It is also an official holiday in Belgium, known also as the Day of Peace in the Flanders Fields.
In many parts of the world people take a two-minute moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. as a sign of respect for the roughly 20 million people who died in the war, as suggested by Edward George Honey in a letter to a British newspaper although Wellesley Tudor Pole established two ceremonial periods of remembrance based on events in 1917.
The soils of Calvary, a vast cocktail of loathsome and ghoulish ichor, contain many Civil War dead- as well as citizen soldiers from every conflict since. Forgotten and long neglected, the obelisk and its attendant bronzes are in a tremulous condition, etched at by a century of pervasive industrial pollution arising from Newtown Creek, and the greater city beyond.
from a newtown pentacle post, from july 31 of 2009, titled "Up and through Calvary"
Daniel Draddy was an irish speaker from County Cork, and the son of John Draddy- a stonecarver and prolific author in the Irish language who hailed from a family on Quaker Road. In context, they came from what modernity would describe as "an oppressed religious underclass involved in an ethnic and cultural war with an aggressive and powerful neighbor willing and and able to actively engage in state sponsored genocide and ethnic cleansing" but which they would have called the Irish Potato Famine.
Daniel maintained his marble studios on 23rd street in Manhattan, near the east river. Known as a cultured and gracious host, he was beloved by the Tammany men. Contemporaries describe him as a first class carver, mechanic, historian, and he had the ability to write in the Irish language "druidically".
Resemblance of the monuments to the tombs of ancient Egypt is no accident. The men who built this were Free and Accepted Masons.
This is masonic iconography, with its obelisk splitting the solar wisdom into the four cardinal directions and the four deities of the spaces found between standing watch at intersecting 45 degree vectors. Such falderol was quite in vogue after the Civil War, look at the Capitol Dome or Supreme Court building in Washington D.C. for similar thematic elements.
Don't forget- Draddy was a stonecutter, from a family of stonecutters. That made him a Free and Accepted Mason, who's existential threat was the subject of much Catholic liturgy. The Masons, especially after their successes in the Lowlands and North America in the 17th and 18th centuries, were considered a dangerous fifth column in the power structure of Europe. In the United States, the origins of the mythology surrounding them was beginning to form. In the 19th century men like Draddy would have been considered as subscribing to an "ism", and its odd to find such iconography in a Catholic cemetery. The Church bore a special antipathy toward the Masons in this period of time, and even today they officially shun members.
The statues here at Calvary's Soldiers Monument seem to have been the original castings of a much reproduced statuary design. Placed here in 1866, they predate the identical statues found at Green-Wood Cemetery, and exact issuance of the mold has been confirmed in New England, North Carolina, and all over New York State. As early as 1875, fumes from a nearby Ammonia Factory at Newtown Creek were graving pitted marks into them.
Check out this amazing nytimes.com report of the ceremonies held, at this very spot- on Memorial Day, June 1, 1875.
In accordance with a resolution to celebrate the ceremony of decorating the graves of their dead comrades with more impressiveness than had attended that event in the past, John A. Rawlius Post, No. 80, with the members of the veteran corps of the old Sixty-ninth Regiment, Meagher's Irish Brigade, Corcoran's Irish Legion…
Observation, Speculation, and musing- the thinking out loud section
During the Civil War, the United States Union organized its troops by State, City, and town- hence the "XXth New York Regiment" or the "XXrd Illinois". What this meant, in a meat grinder conflict like the Civil War with its high casualties, was that an entire neighborhood or town could lose ALL of its sons in a single battle.
The long economic decline of upstate New York, New England- especially Massachusetts- began soon after the Civil War partly because of this depopulation- and a generation of widows it created (the decline of "green energy" powered cotton cloth production in area textile mills is a major factor as well). The population important to politicians ceased being the rural mill town or agrarian producer and shifted to the newly crowded urban centers. In "the country", a fascination with Spiritualism took hold while "the cities" set about building concrete cathedrals.
Radical politics, moralist movements, and fringe religion ruled in a depopulated countryside. The worn out land of the family farm wound inexorably toward a dust bowl, and there was no way to keep your sons and daughters from moving to "The City" and its possibilities. Stricken by endemic poverty, disease, ethnic violence, and starvation, the reality of "the good old days" before the Fin de Siècle is something that just doesn't jibe with "you could leave your doors unlocked when you went to sleep, back then" that my grandfather used to proclaim.
The next generation of women that came along, who saw their widowed mothers and aunts running businesses and farms and participating in government– they were the Suffragettes.
Posted in Calvary Cemetery, Freemasons, Long Island City, Maspeth, newtown creek, Photowalks, Pickman, Uncategorized
Tagged with Calvary Cemetery, cemetery, Free and accepted Masons, Long Island City, newtown creek, queens, Veterans Memorial
Masonic Lodge part 4
The last installment of a Newtown Pentacle accounting of the Open House New York tour of NY's Masonic Grand Lodge in Manhattan. (check out part one here), and (part two here), with (part three here).
Ritual magick (Crowley added the "K", to distinguish it from stage craft) claims to alter, influence, and control a field of undetectable energy which surrounds and suffuses the material world. Its practitioners, both alone and in groups, enact ceremonial analogies whose imagery and environment stimulate and accentuate sensitivity and control over this ether.
Before you snicker, remember that this is a long winded way to describe faith and prayer, and that energy might as well be called God. I tend not to judge, as I believe in Superman– hey you have to believe in something…
I'm not joking. "What would Superman do?" pops up a few times a week in my internal dialogue, as I make my travels across the poisoned loam of the Newtown Pentacle.
Masonic Lodge offices, from wikipedia
Worshipful Master
The senior officer of a Masonic Lodge is the Master, normally addressed and referred to as the 'Worshipful Master' (in Scotland, and in Lodges under the Scottish Constitution, the 'Right Worshipful Master'). The Worshipful Master sits in the East of the lodge room, directs all of the business of his lodge, and is vested with considerable powers without further reference to the members. He also presides over ritual and ceremonies.
The office of Worshipful Master is the highest honor to which a lodge may appoint any of its members. The office is filled by election, generally by means of a secret ballot. However, in most lodges the progression is such that the post will almost always be filled by the previous year's Senior Warden.
It should be noted that the honorific "Worshipful" does not imply that the Master is worshiped. Rather, use of the word implies its original meaning, "to give respect", similar to calling a judge "Your Honor" or a mayor "Honorable". In fact, mayors and judges in parts of England are still called "Worshipful" or "Your Worship." French Masons use the word Vénérable as the honorific for their Masters.
The corresponding grand rank is Grand Master. The Grand Master may preside over his Grand Lodge when it is in session, and also has certain rights in every lodge under his jurisdiction. Grand Masters are usually addressed as "Most Worshipful".
If you patiently read the following paragraphs of historical explanation, you may come to an understanding of "the hidden mysteries of nature and science". Then we can discuss Freemasonry, and you will see truths your Worshipful Master has never contemplated.
From the Garden of Eden a battle has raged between two deadly enemies. The battle began when Lucifer incarnate the serpent, a man-like creature – great giant of a fellow, until God changed every bone in his body and put him upon his belly. Lucifer being God's right-hand man, knew that God's Plan was to build a kingdom. Knowing it would be inherited by Michael, (or Christ), he became jealous and set about gaining it for himself.
God commanded man to multiply, fill and subdue the earth, and to have dominion over it. But by his wisdom, Lucifer knew that as the seed of a horse can fertilize a donkey to produce the hybrid mule God never created, so the seed of the serpent could fertilize the woman and create a hybrid species uncreated by God. And whenever the offspring of Eve by the serpent intermingled with the seed of Adam, the progeny would always be serpent's seed, and NOT on the Book of Life. So he incarnate the serpent and seduced Eve.
From that time to this there have been two races of people on this earth. The seed of Cain, and the seed of Adam. Cain was begotten of that wicked one (I John 3:12). Abel was the son of Adam who was the (only) son of God (Luke 3:38). God placed enmity, that's "hatred," between us. Lucifer knew that by miscegenation, he could exterminate the seed of Adam and thus fall heir to the kingdom of Christ.
Belief in magic(k) is widespread. Psychology calls this a functionalist perspective, which defines varying and random events as having meaningful and interrelated significance and eventually gives way to the phenomena of magical thinking. Believers enact daily and seasonal rituals and even perform pilgrimages to remote locations, performing little acts of magick. Crossing oneself, or washing when returning from a cemetery, are symbolic acts meant to curry harmony with this energy. Other people have found different sets of rituals, and symbols.
note: The Grand Lodge room of the Free and Accepted Masons of NY can seat 1,200 people, and is adorned with 54,000 sheets of gold leaf. The Masons will rent it to you for $2,100 a day. A yearly rent would concurrently be $766,500- but if we could get 1,200 people together at $1.75 a head… the possibilities are unguessable.
Senior Warden
The 'Senior Warden' (sometimes known as First Warden) is the second of the three principal officers of a lodge, and is the Master's principal deputy. Under some constitutions, if the Worshipful Master is absent then the Senior Warden presides at meetings as "acting Master", and may act for the Master in all matters of lodge business. Under other constitutions, including Grand Lodge of England and Grand Lodge of Ireland, no mason may act as Worshipful Master unless they have previously been a Master, and so the Senior Warden cannot fulfil this role unless he is a Past Master. In many lodges it is presumed that the Senior Warden will become the next Worshipful Master.
Often, in previous postings, I have mentioned the extreme discomfort I feel when in the company of others. Always, I must remain so, an Outsider.
The things I know are learned from relict books scribed by suspect authors, whose out of print tomes were found on the dusty shelves of resort town thrift shops and long gone East Village storefront churches. Too skeptical to believe even in myself, I nevertheless have tried to find out a lot about what other people believe in.
Or at least- I've read books about belief systems, and glimpsed the hidden and wondered as it illuminates the lives of the others.
Junior Warden
The third of the 'principal officers' is the 'Junior Warden' (or Second Warden). In some jurisdictions the Junior Warden has a particular responsibility for ensuring that visiting Masons are in possession of the necessary credentials. In others, this is the job of the Tyler. The Junior Warden is charged with the supervision of the Lodge while it is in recess for meals or other social purposes.
The Wardens are 'regular officers' of the Lodge, meaning that the positions must be filled.
The ritual space of the western hermetic traditions are always somewhat similar, and adjust for scale. There is always a magickal language, often accompanied by harmonic music. This ritual language may be sourced from another- often ancient- tongue, but its always a bastardized form bent to the specific needs of the ritual and will be sung or chanted in a phonetic and memorized call and response fashion. The Jesuits have Latin, the Kabbalists Hebrew, the Sufi's have arabic and so on. Ceremonial languages are guided by some sort of hierarchy, whose leader is signified by jewelry or regalia- and in many traditions- the priestly figure will carry a sword and or chalice, sometimes both.
The role of the 'Treasurer' is to keep the accounts, collect annual dues from the members, pay bills, and forward annual dues to the Grand Lodge.
The annual presentation of accounts is an important measure of the lodge's continuing viability, whilst the efficient collection of annual subscriptions is vitally important, as any lapse in payment (deliberate or unintentional) can lead to a member losing voting rights, being denied the opportunity to visit other lodges, and finally even being debarred or excluded from his own lodge.
A system of apprenticeship, with transmitted knowledge passing from master to acolyte via ritual attainments, vouchsafes the sacred ritual space against profane intruders. Iconic representations of earlier magickal traditions will be displayed, connoting a connection to some long vanished civilization. The root of magick in the west often refers back to either Egypt or Sumer, which has been the case since the time of the Roman Amulet Trade. The modern connections to the Egyptian mysteries were made when Napoleon invaded Egypt, sparking a fashionable interest in hidden knowledge from "The Black Land" back in the 19th century. Before it became an analogous adjective, the Rosetta Stone promised revelation to academic and magick worker alike.
Although any member may hold the office of 'Secretary', it is almost universal practice for an experienced Past Master to hold this position. (One notable exception to this norm was the appointment of Rudyard Kipling as Secretary of Lodge of Hope and Perseverance No 782 (English jurisdiction) at Lahore, Punjab, India in 1886: Kipling was just 20 years old, and had only just been admitted as a Freemason; indeed, he recorded the minutes of his own initiation).
It is also common for the same member to hold the office of Secretary for a number of years, for the sake of continuity; although again, there is no rule to this effect, and annual re-election/appointment is necessary in all jurisdictions.
The Secretary's office is sometimes said to be the real power base of a lodge. It is certainly true that the position is an influential one, and in those lodges which do not have an active general committee, the Secretary inevitably ends up making many key decisions in the life of the lodge.
The Secretary's role includes issuing the 'summons' (a formal notice of an impending meeting, with time, date and agenda), recording meeting minutes, completing statistical returns to the Grand Lodge, and advising the Worshipful Master on matters of procedure. In many lodges it is also the Secretary who determines (with consultation) the progression of officers within the lodge. The Secretary is almost always a key figure in the interviewing of potential new members of the lodge.
The magickal societies which are offshoots of Masonry are too numerous to mention, but here are a few notable examples which have had staying power.
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which has a stormy and tragic history due to the influences of Aleister Crowley, was founded by 3 masons.
Predating the modern Freemasons, the Rosicrucians or Knights of the Rosy Cross, have contributed significant ritual and symbolic iconography to the Hermetic Traditions.
The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor, which is a bit more theosophical than Hermetic, but nevertheless worthy of mention.
The Theosophical Society of Madame Blavatsky, which is actually a VERY important and influential group that shaped modern society. Kindergarden and Montessori education for young children is theosophy made mainstream. So's the concept of "karma" as it is defined in Pop-Culture.
Ordo Templi Orientis, Crowley's gnostic cult, which popularized the practice of Yoga, Free Love, and the notion of "do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law".
A Deacon is a junior officer in the lodge. In the traditions of most Grand Lodges each subordinate lodge has two Deacons, styled 'Senior Deacon' and 'Junior Deacon' (though 'First Deacon', and 'Second Deacon' is sometimes encountered as an alternative.)
The principal roles of the Senior Deacon are to conduct candidates around the Lodge during certain ceremonies and formally to assist the Worshipful Master and to carry messages between the Master and the Senior Warden.
The office of 'Junior Deacon' is similar in many respects to that of Senior Deacon. The principal roles of the Junior Deacon are to assist the Senior Warden, conduct certain candidates, and carry messages between the two Wardens. In some jurisdictions he is also responsible for guarding the inside of the main door of the lodge and ensuring that the lodge is tyled (in other jurisdictions this duty is given to the Inner Guard or Inside Sentinel).
The end of the Victorian world, and the dawn of modernity, came at the end of the second thirty years war (the composite World Wars One and Two). The Forty years war (aka Cold War) saw the hermetic tradition compressed into paperback books, horror films, and during the 1970's- manifested in the United States and western Europe through a three fold process. A fad of commune living and cultic activity in the late 60's and 70's, revelation en masse via the burgeoning Evangelical Christianity movement, and large populations experimenting with fashionable psychedelic drugs. Magical thinking had taken hold, and our culture simply wrote off the past.
Through all this chaos, however, the Masons "kept on keeping on".
'Stewards' are commonly appointed to fulfill a number of junior assistant roles. There is considerable variance, even within the same jurisdiction, as to the precise roles played by Stewards. Some of their common duties could include the following:
Stewards are often tasked with an understudy role to fill the position of the Senior Deacon or Junior Deacons, in their absence.
When a degree ceremony is performed, one or more Steward(s) may be required to assist the two Deacons is conducting the candidates around the temple.
Stewards have a traditional role in many jurisdictions of serving wine during any meal served after the lodge meeting.
Some jurisdictions specify that each lodge has two Stewards, known as the 'Senior Steward' and 'Junior Steward'. Other jurisdictions put no limit on the number of Stewards who may be appointed, and in this respect the office is unique. The Worshipful Master may appoint any number of Stewards, according to the size and requirements of his lodge.
Although newer members usually fill the office of Steward, in some lodges it is traditional for a Past Master to be appointed to supervise the work of the Stewards.
Apologies for the depth and exhausting detail in this series of posts on the Masonic Lodge of NY, and I realize that I've gone off in wild tangents, years of reading obscure texts and gathering of information on my part- research if you would- has pointed out that you cannot understand the Masons unless you understand the world that created them.
Modernity has simplified and streamlined the sophisticated political and philosophical tumult which spawned the "Brotherhoods". The powers that be, in media and government and university, offer pat historical narratives portraying the past as some logical progression of events that ultimately, inevitability, results in an America or a European Union or a Soviet Union. The beauty of organizations like the Masons, with their long history, is that they make a convenient tent pole for whatever crazy story they're selling.
Political observation and bias time:
Institutional memory is a big issue for me. Our lack of it results in the sort of disastrous political culture now enjoyed by the United States. Want conspiracy? Chew some of the following Black Mayonnaise…
Senator Strom Thurmond fought to keep black people from attaining their Civil Rights with a 24 hour fillibuster and also ran for President on a Segregation ticket in 1948. Strom died in office, in 2003. Lifelong Mason, Strom was.
Senator Arlen Specter is the author of the single bullet theory found in the Warren Commission report on the Assassination of President Kennedy, and has been a Senator since 1981. In April of 2006, Time magazine named him one of America's 10 best Senators. He was recently the head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as a Republican, and is now switching parties. Here's somebody else's take on Arlen.
Ted Kennedy was driving drunk one night, and drove his car off a bridge, which drowned his date. This derailed his ambitions for the Presidency, but after a long service in the Senate, he died in office- like Strom Thurmond. His funeral was attended by one sitting President, 3 former Presidents, one sitting V.P. and three former ones, 58 sitting Senators and 21 former electors, a sizeable portion of the House of Representatives, and a host of foreign dignitaries. Here's somebody else's take on Ted.
Donald Rumsfeld and later Dick Cheney oversaw the disastrous retreat of military units from Viet Nam as key players in the Ford administration.
Gerald Ford of course, served as part of the Warren Commission, was a prominent Mason, and was almost killed by a member of another influential (and still very much alive and well) Magickal Society. He had to choose a Vice President, and the field narrowed to George H.W. Bush or David Rockefeller.
Richard Nixon signed the Clean Water act, part of the raft of legislation that created the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA is currently considering the Newtown Creek for inclusion in it's clean up efforts. Nixon wasn't a Mason.
I mention the above info just to point out that here in the "real world", we have to remember that monsters stand in the light of day, and are not some shadowy cabal. The Masons who conducted the tours at their Grand Lodge seemed to be nice guys.
The Trusts, and the Banks, and the Railroads, the Oil men, and the Factory Owners, and the politicians– these are the faces in a traditional rogue's gallery of American Villiany.
That's it, I'm done, and will head down into the bunker now.
The 'Tyler' is sometimes known as the 'Outer Guard' of the lodge. His duty is to guard the door (from the outside), with a drawn sword, and ensure that only those who are duly qualified manage to gain entry into the lodge meeting. In some jurisdictions, he also prepares candidates for their admission. The Tyler is traditionally responsible for preparing the lodge room before the meeting, and for storing and maintaining the regalia after the meeting,
In some Jurisdictions the Tyler is a Past Master of the Lodge while in others he may be an employed brother from another lodge.
Posted in Freemasons, Manhattan, Open House New York 2009
Tagged with Free and accepted Masons, Manhattan, Masonic Lodge, Open House NY 2009
The third installment of a Newtown Pentacle accounting of the Open House New York tour of NY's Masonic Grand Lodge in Manhattan. (check out part one here), and (part two here).
Since their beginnings in those authoritarian and tyrannical states so typical of 18th and 19th century Europe, the Freemasons and their principled set of beliefs have exerted a strong influence on the culture that created, surrounds, and persecutes them. Orthodoxy and status quo conservatism damned them, and accusations of sensational malfeasance abound.
One of the Masons, Giuseppe Garibaldi, made himself a particular thorn in the side of the Catholic hierarchy in Rome itself. Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy, Garibaldi's opposition to the church- and its Papal States– may explain some of the animosity exhibited by the Holy See toward the Masons ever since.
It can be argued, since prominent Masons have been key players and organizers in many world events, that the revolutions in North America and France – organized and led by prominent Masons- began a process ultimately resulting in the sustained existence of liberal democracies in our modern world. With their ideal of an austere pluralism concerning religion and political affiliation, public service, and an uncompromising devotion to the concept of "progress"- the core principles of Masonry have become constitutional rights in many of these "liberal democracies". The Freemasons would seem to have been the authors of a blueprint by which our society was organized.
This notion, of course, overestimates the power and reach of this organization. Many powerful men are Masons, and many Masons have shaped our culture, but this is more coincidence than it is conspiracy. The notion of a secret society with sometimes sinister secrets rather than a sinister secret society fits my view of the world more comfortably than some overarching global conspiracy whose tendrils reach into every facet of life, and which excludes half the human race.
The subject of women and Freemasonry is complex and without an easy explanation. Traditionally, only men can be made Freemasons in Regular Freemasonry. Many Grand Lodges do not admit women because they believe it would break the ancient Masonic Landmarks. However, there are many non-mainstream Masonic bodies that do admit both men and women or exclusively women. Furthermore, there are many female orders associated with regular Freemasonry, such as the Order of the Eastern Star, the Order of the Amaranth, the White Shrine of Jerusalem, the Social Order of Beauceant and the Daughters of the Nile.
Remember, faithful readers of the Newtown Pentacle, that the Church spoken of here is the political and financial entity that existed before the 20th century. This organization maintained an army, fought wars, and held a significant portion of the Italian peninsula where it levied taxes, ran prisons, and banned books.
Absolute control over Europe (inheritance, marriage, heredity, legitimacy, status) for nearly 1,000 years, and the infiltration of high church office by bureaucrat and feudal nobility– resulted in a distrustful resent of both the Roman Catholic Church and the unpopular Nobles by Europeans in the 18th and 19th centuries. Newly emerged, and affluent; a social underclass of makers, money changers, manufacturers, and merchants– the Bourgoisie- smarted at the arrangements which limited their ambitions.
They were being barred from the corridors of power, blocked by armies of corrupt priests and the unnecessary aristocracy that sheltered them. The temple doors barred, these Middle Class "Gentlemen" created and joined Brotherhoods or Fraternities, and built their own temples- which used esoteric and often occultist philosophies as articles of faith. One of these Gentlemen's Societies, the Free and Accepted Masons, would have an interesting and portentous future. So would another fraternity of honorable men, that had a more "mediterranean" feeling.
Ultimately, these conditions led to an Anti-Christ burning Europe down at the beginning of the 19th century- and another doing it all over again at the end of the age– the orchestral progression of the fin de siecle.
The Vatican has long been an outspoken critic of Freemasonry, and has prohibited Catholics from joining the fraternity since 1738. Over subsequent years the Vatican has issued several papal bulls forbidding Catholics from becoming Freemasons under threat of excommunication. Today, the Church's stance is that "The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion."
Vast populations of this "middle class" fled the chaos on the Continent- some to mercantile Britain, and others to the new American Republic in its former colonies. They took their capital with them- both intellectual and financial. Shaken and somewhat broken after the revolutionary warfare that swept away the old order, Europe shifted its eyes to the future, and to its empires in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
This immigrant diaspora spread out over the planet, and the Bourgosie brought their culture with them- including Freemasonry.
In America- Masonry became Pop-Culture.
"Masons don't want to control the world, man, they already do. If you betray them, they cut you up… Lookit the dollar bill… dude… and they killed JFK– Marilyn Monroe too… They're connected to these sick warrior monks from the Dark Ages called the Knights Templar, who fought a crusade to capture Jerusualem and found an idol to the Serpent of Eden that talked to their leaders buried in Solomon's Temple, and when the Pope had them killed for being devil worshippers the idol was hidden away in Scotland and then carried to the colonies where it told Washington to fight the English… and Jack the RIpper – awww… just read "From Hell"… if Alan Moore says it- it must be true… and 911 was part of a secret astrological war between the Masons and the Arabs".
It's a great rap – a real crowd pleaser and I'm guilty of it, I'm afraid. I've also got one ready to go for ghost hunting, also for UFO's, and general witty remarks about passersby (which is all improv).
An argument for the Masonic "way", which is probably an endorsement of corruption
I've got a buddy who makes keys. You tell me that you need to have a set of keys made at the shop on the corner. I tell you about my friend's shop, on the next corner, and recommend his services. You are satisfied with the service, which was discounted when you mentioned my name. My buddy thinks better of me, and so do you. Networked transactions like these are based on "who you know". Now- imagine that "who you know" includes a group of rich and sort-of powerful men who belong to the same exclusive club as you.
That is the core of "Masonic Conspiracy" theories. It would also probably constitute a violation of the RICO statutes, depending on circumstance.
Among the allegations were that Freemasonry denies revelation and objective truth. They also alleged that religious indifference is fundamental to Freemasonry, that Freemasonry is Deist, and that it denies the possibility of divine revelation, so threatening the respect due to the Church's teaching office. The sacramental character of Masonic rituals was seen as signifying an individual transformation, offering an alternative path to perfection and having a total claim on the life of a member It concludes by stating that all lodges are forbidden to Catholics, including Catholic-friendly lodges and that German Protestant churches were also suspicious of Freemasonry.
The 1980 German Bishops Conference produced a report on Freemasonry listing twelve points and allegations.
Unfortunately for the sake of conspiracy stories, most of what the Masons seem to be up to- here in their hidden temples- is providing for the urgent medical care of poor and disadvantaged children.
The Shriners Hospitals, a masonic charity, has been providing world class hospital services- including transportation- to children, free of charge, since 1922. They specialize in pediatric orthopedics, burn care, and the correction of craniofacial abnormalities like a cleft palette or split lip, as well as treating a host of other maladies.
The earliest anti-Masonic document was a leaflet printed in 1698 by a Presbyterian minister by the name of Winter. It reads:
TO ALL GODLY PEOPLE, In the Citie of London. Having thought it needful to warn you of the Mischiefs and Evils practiced in the Sight of God by those called Freed Masons, I say take Care lest their Ceremonies and secret Swearings take hold of you; and be wary that none cause you to err from Godliness. For this devllish Sect of Men are Meeters in secret which swear agains all without ther Following. They are the Anti Christ which was to come leading Men from Fear of God. For how should Men meet in secret Places and with secret Signs taking Care that none observed them to do the Work of GOD; are not these the Ways of Evil-doers? Knowing how that God observeth privilly them that sit in Darkness they shall be smitten and the Secrets of their Hearts layed bare. Mingle not amoung this corrupt People lest you be found so at the World's Conflagration.
A guy I used to have beers with, at a bar in the pre-fashionable meat market district of Manhattan, was a Mason. He was literally a concrete and sheet rock contractor, so the whole Masonic thing was a natural fit, I guess. He lived on… Staten Island…. which is far more macabre and sinister than any mere membership in a magickal fraternity. Good food out there, though. Garibaldi, incidentally, hid out on Staten Island during one of his banished periods.
Many Islamic anti-Masonic arguments are closely tied to both Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism, though other criticisms are made such as linking Freemasonry to Dajjal. Some Muslim anti-Masons argue that Freemasonry promotes the interests of the Jews around the world and that one of its aims is to rebuild the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem after destroying the Al-Aqsa Mosque. In article 28 of its Covenant, Hamas states that Freemasonry, Rotary, and other similar groups "work in the interest of Zionism and according to its instructions…." Many countries with a significant Muslim population do not allow Masonic establishments within their jurisdictions. However, countries such as Turkey and Morocco have established Grand Lodges while in countries such as Malaysia, and Lebanon there are District Grand Lodges operating under a warrant from an established Grand Lodge.
The sort of tabernacle, an exclusive club for successful men- replete with ritual and regalia, is not so different from the sweat lodges of Manhattan's original occupants. All tribal groups create buildings such as this, an Aztec House of the Eagles– or in the case of a culture that can and has sent a Man to the moon – a 19 story landmarked skyscraper on 23rd street in Manhattan. Look past the iconography in these garish decorations, notice the proportion, and the larger design of the place- the negative space formed by them. Most importantly, notice the lighting.
Conspiracy theorists who are fervent anti-Masons believe that "high-ranking" Freemasons are involved in conspiracies to create an occult New World Order. They claim that some of the Founding Fathers of the United States, such as George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, had Masonic symbolism and sacred geometry interwoven into American society, particularly in the Great Seal of the United States, the United States one-dollar bill, the architecture of National Mall landmarks, and the streets and highways of Washington, D.C.. They speculate that Freemasons did this in order to mystically bind their planning of a government in conformity with the luciferian plan of the Great Architect of the Universe whom, they are said to believe, has tasked the United States with the eventual establishment of an hermetic "Kingdom of God on Earth" and the building of the Third Temple in New Jerusalem as its holiest site.
Such wide eyed scrying actually leads me back to the beginning of this long posting- on the people who aren't represented in this long and storied milieu of institutional memory and struggle. Women and Freemasonry is a bit of sticky issue for me. Since my understanding of "how business is done" is largely satisfied by my little argument in praise of corruption evinced above, and since this is a male only society- the ladies are cut out of lot of opportunity by this group. There are female Masons in France, but… France?
Also, racial segregation was a big part of American Masonry for a long time, as evidenced by the Prince Hall branch of Freemasonry.
Jahbulon (or Jabulon) is a word which was used historically in some rituals of Royal Arch Masonry. According to Francis X. King, it is also used in Ordo Templi Orientis rituals.
There has been much debate over the origin and meaning of this word. There is no consensus even among Masonic researchers as to its meaning or legitimacy: one Masonic scholar alleges that the word first appeared in an early 18th Century Royal Arch ritual as the name of an allegorical explorer searching for the ruins of King Solomon's Temple; another Masonic scholar believes it is a descriptive name for God in Hebrew; other, non-Masonic, authors have alleged that it is a Masonic name for God, and even the name of a unique "Masonic God", despite repeated statements by Freemasonry's officials that "There is no separate Masonic God", nor a separate proper name for a deity in any branch of Freemasonry. It is this interpretation of a "Masonic God" that has led to debates about and condemnation of Freemasonry by several religious groups. In England, no ritual containing the name has been in official Masonic use since February 1989.
Of course, we still need to talk about magick. Why is it that whenever all the lines and patterns have been traced, here at the Newtown Pentacle, we always end up back in the company of Aleister Crowley?
Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.) (Order of the Temple of the East, or the Order of Oriental Templars) is an international fraternal and religious organization founded at the beginning of the 20th century.
Originally it was intended to be modelled after and associated with Freemasonry, but under the leadership of Aleister Crowley, O.T.O. was reorganized around the Law of Thelema as its central religious principle. This Law—expressed as "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" and "Love is the law, love under will" —was promulgated in 1904 with the dictation of The Book of the Law.
Similar to many secret societies, O.T.O. membership is based on an initiatory system with a series of degree ceremonies that use ritual drama to establish fraternal bonds and impart spiritual and philosophical teachings.
O.T.O. also includes the Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica (EGC) or Gnostic Catholic Church, which is the ecclesiastical arm of the Order. Its central rite, which is public, is called Liber XV, or the Gnostic Mass.
In 1917, Reuss wrote a Synopsis of Degrees of O.T.O. in which the third degree was listed as "Craft of Masonry" and listed the initiations involved as "Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, Master Mason" and elaborated on this with "Full instruction in Craft Masonry, including the Catechism of the first three degrees, and an explanation of all the various Masonic systems." The same document shows that the fourth degree of O.T.O. is also known as the Holy Royal Arch of Enoch. It was summarized by Reuss as the Degree of "Scotch Masonry", equivalent to "Scotch Mason, Knight of St. Andrew, Royal Arch", and he described it as "Full instruction in the Scottish degrees of Ancient and Accepted Masonry."
In 1919, Crowley attempted to work this Masonic based O.T.O. in Detroit, Michigan. The result was that he was rebuffed by the Council of the Scottish rite on the basis that O.T.O rituals were too similar to orthodox Masonry. He described this in a 1930 letter to Arnold Krumm-Heller:
"However, when it came to the considerations of the practical details of the rituals to be worked, the general Council of the Scottish Rite could not see its way to tolerate them, on the ground that the symbolism in some places touched too nearly that of the orthodox Masonry of the Lodges."
Crowley subsequently rewrote the initiation rituals of the first three degrees, and in doing so removed most of those rituals' ties to Masonry. He did not, however, rewrite the fourth degree ritual, which remains in its form and structure related to the various Royal Arch rituals of Masonry.
The second installment of a Newtown Pentacle accounting of the Open House New York tour of NY's Masonic Grand Lodge in Manhattan (check out part one here).
The French Doric room is meant to evoke a rustic feeling, picking up its decor and theme from the country houses of the lords of Gaul. Its red, white, and blue lighting scheme combines and illuminates the interior with a soft purple hue– purple being the representative color of imperium in European iconography since the days of Caesar.
The architecture of the place imparts a feeling in the observer that the individual is profoundly small and isolated in comparison to the vast and unknowable universe, but that with a proper structural foundation of conviction and principle surrounding him, every virtue is within reach.
The Grand Lodge of the State of New York (GLoNY) is the governing body of Freemasonry in the State of New York. The Grand Lodge is over 220 years old, having been founded December 15, 1782. GLoNY acts as the coordinating body for many functions undertaken throughout the state. Its various committees organize blood drives, Masonic Child Identification Programs (CHIP) and charitable events around New York. The GLoNY has jurisdiction over approximately 60,000 Freemasons, organized in more than 800 Lodges, most of them located within New York State.
The enlightenment era philosophies of the post reformation European landscape– such as the "the golden liberty" of the Poles or the "democracy" of the English, French, and Dutch- are hinted at in the Mason's ceremonial architecture. Such "common sense" idioms as the equanimity of and gray areas between divinity and diabolism, empathy for the plight of others, the thirst for scientific knowledge and ultimate truth, the Christian ideal of forgiving the trespass of enemies- taken for granted as inalienable rights in modernity- are core Masonic ideals which have become encoded in the global culture.
It is not known when the first Freemason set foot in the American colony of New York, but the first documented presence dates from the mid 1730s, when Daniel Coxe was appointed by the Duke of Norfolk, then Grand Master of the Premier Grand Lodge of England (known to historians as the "Moderns") to act as a Provincial Grand Master for the provinces of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. As no authenticated records exist of his tenure as Provincial Grand Master, it seems doubtful that he exercised any authority in Masonic endeavors. From 1738 to the 1780s additional Warrants were issued by GLE (Moderns) to Francis Goelet (1738-1753), to George Harrison (1753-1771) and to Sir John Johnson (from 1771). As Johnson was a supporter of the British during the American Revolution, he is believed to have taken his warrant with him when he fled to Canada, thus leaving the Moderns Lodges without a Provincial Grand Master.
There are certain qualities that a Masonic Lodge seek to encourage, and ideally cause its membership to emulate. When a man knows how to make and keep friends, hunt birds without a gun, exult in the sound of a child's laughter, stand in bright rectitude when confronted by the meaner forces of life, when the sight of star crowned trees and the mesmerizing glint of sunlight upon the water fills a man with reverie and contemplative thoughts, and a resolute response to another's peril is not so much a response as it is a reflex- then that man is on the road to being considered a Mason.
To make matters complicated, by the 1750s, the Antient Grand Lodge of England (known to historians as the "Ancients"), a rival Masonic Grand Lodge, had also created a Provincial Grand Lodge of New York, which subsequently chartered lodges under its own jurisdiction. Additional lodges were chartered in New York by the Grand Lodge of Scotland and the Grand Lodge of Ireland. The Ancients retained their charter throughout the Revolution, however, and it was based upon this charter that an independent Grand Lodge of New York was created in 1781, with Robert R. Livingston as Grand Master. The Grand Lodge of New York was officially organized on December 15, 1782 under the Provincial Grand Warrant dated September 5, 1781 from the "Athol" or Antient Grand Lodge of England. The Grand Lodge declared its independence and assumed its modern title "Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of New York" on June 6, 1787.) While the "Athol" Charter descended from the "Ancients", Livingston himself was a member of a "Modern" Lodge. Thus the two rival Grand Lodge traditions, which in England did not unite until 1813, had already merged before that in New York State.
Other traits familiar to modernity have been carefully shepherded by the Masons over their long history- a pluralistic view of religion (in which any methodology that brings men into communion with the divine and majestic is valid, noteworthy and deserving of respect), an ability to see beyond the surface and judge the world in an objective and situationally appropriate manner, and the notion of a reluctant warrior forced by circumstance to defend his community (God's lonely man who is forced to drop the plowshare by his conscience- sword in hand, who is glad to live- but is not afraid to die for a righteous cause).
form nymasoniclibrary.com (The Masonic Library is open to the public, incidentally)
Library Acquires Copy of…
PROCESSUS CONTRA TEMPLARIOS
The Chancellor Robert R Livingston Masonic Library of Grand Lodge has announced the acquisition of Processus Contra Templarios, an unprecedented publication containing a collection of facsimile manuscripts relating to the trials of the Knights Templar.
The Holy See shocked the world when it announced that the Vatican Secret Archive would publish exclusive and previously unavailable source material on the hearings against the medieval warrior-monks. The announcement was of special interest to Freemasons and students of Masonic history, as many theorists trace modern Freemasonry's origins to the military-religious order, and the modern Masonic Templar organization is an important part of the fraternity today. To date, there is no proven historical link between the medieval Knights Templar and modern Freemasonry.
The Masons moved the largish and increasingly disorganized tour groups from room to room, a dizzying cavalcade of baroque color and sharp turns on marble mosaic floors. Their craft, with its signature emblems and sigils, was reinforced in every stair or window sconce observable from these public areas of the building. The continuing impression of their organization was that of a Glacier- impossibly gargantuan, inexorable, and steadily flowing out of time itself.
from nymasons.org
Masonry is the oldest fraternity in the world, although no one can claim to know its exact origins. There is evidence that the Masonry we know today probably grew out of the guilds of stonemasons who built the castles and cathedrals of the Middle Ages. In the U.S., many of the Founding Fathers were Masons, including Benjamin Franklin and George Washington. From presidents, astronauts, and sports heroes to carpenters, CEOs, and bus drivers, millions of Masons have made our country what it is today. As Masons, history, tradition, and pride are central concepts in our lives.
Corinthian Room appointments were elegant, and its particular Masonic speaker possessed that ineffable quality of charisma called "the common touch". A likeable, confident aura and regionally appropriate urban patois suggested to me that in his profane life he might be a police officer, but this is pure speculation on my part. He spoke with an air that suggested familiarity with speaking to, and commanding definite action from, large groups- a certain "Bossitude". In his sacred incarnation, he is of course, just another Mason.
from their list of famous masons- John Jacob Astor (1763-1848)
When John Jacob Astor left Germany in his late teens years, he worked his way to London and eventually to America. During his voyage across the Atlantic, he met a man who was a fur trader. That acquaintance convinced him to explore the fur trade., and with determination he amassed a fortune from his fur empire. At one time, he was considered the wealthiest man in America. Astor was Master of Holland Lodge #8, New York City in 1788 and later served as Grand Treasurer for the Grand Lodge of New York.
Officially, (and this is hearsay of course, because the real Masons don't EVER talk about this stuff with outsiders- just like everything you've heard about organized crime is hearsay) there are only three degrees of illumination in Masonry. There are secondary rituals which increase rank horizontally after the third level, and there are certainly splinter groups who commit "heresy" pursuing unorthodox and unaccepted knowledge, and there are rogue lodges. Of course, I'm not implying anything sinister, as other magickal (that's magick with a "k", kids) societies spawn such groups, all the time. The nice part about Masonry is that even the future Kings of England join the Free and Accepted Masons at the initiate level.
from their list of famous masons- Harry Houdini (1874-1926)
Harry Houdini began performing magic at the age of sixteen under the name of Eric the Great. He later changed his name from Eric Weiss to Houdini, hoping to become like his mentor, internationally known magician Robert Houdini. In 1916, Houdini began a film career but was best known for his great escapes. He executed the largest stage illusion of his day making an elephant disappear. Houdini was a member of St. Cecile Lodge #568 in New York City.
Newtown Pentacle policy on the freemasons, as if it mattered, is that they are not a sinister secret society but rather a secret society with sometimes sinister secrets. I'm fine with the hermetic ideal of a fraternity devoted to opposing tyranny in the name of furthering science and illuminating the great architecture of the universe via thousands of individual magickal temple lay societies. I also like their approach to charity, and overall- the resume of the Freemasons is pretty impressive and seems to be on the right side of history- but I was educated in a school which espoused these principals so my viewpoint is suspect. Good music, too.
I'm sure there's some truth to the wack job stories out there- but there's a LOT of masons- and simple demographics dictate that some Masons, over the centuries, must have been bad guys. Given the political realities of much of their existence, I can understand why the Masons deny or just won't speak about a lot of stuff.
from their list of famous masons- George C. Marshall (1880-1959)
Marshall was a general of the army and US Army chief of staff during World War II and later Secretary of State and of Defense. The European Recovery Program he proposed in 1947 became known as the Marshall Plan. He received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1953. General Marshall was made a Mason "at sight" in 1941 by the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia.
The Freemasons were born in hell.
The official story told by the Masons involves the building of Solomon's Temple and some sort of continuance as a stonecutter's guild for all of recorded history, and they have all sorts of manuscripts to prove it. The Catholics have little scraps of a 2,000 year old veil, the Mormons have angelic gold plates Joseph Smith found buried in upstate New York, the Muslims have the footprints of the Prophet's Horse Buraq at the Well of Souls. The reality of who these people are and what they did for mankind began in the apocalyptic landscape of 17th century Europe.
also from nymasons.org, the Masonic Compact
Because I am a Freemason…
… I believe that freedom of religion is an inalienable human right and tolerance an indispensable trait of human character; therefore, I will stand in my Lodge with Brothers of all faiths, and respect their beliefs as they respect mine, and I will demonstrate the spirit of Brotherhood in all aspects of my life.
… I know that education and the rational use of the mind are the keys to facing the problems of humanity; therefore, I will bring my questions and my ideas to my Lodge, and strive to advance the growth of my mind alongside my Brothers.
… I know that the rich tradition of Freemasonry and its framework of Ritual are important platforms for growth and learning; therefore, I vow to stand upon these platforms to improve myself as a human being, and I vow to help in the mission of the Craft to provide tools, atmosphere, challenges and motivation to help each Brother do the same.
… I know that charity is the distinguishing human virtue, and that personal community service is the best demonstration of one's commitment to humanity; I acknowledge that words without deeds are meaningless, and I vow to work with my Lodge to provide service to the community, and to promote charity, friendship, morality, harmony, integrity, fidelity and love.
… I know that my obligation to community extends beyond my local sphere and is partly fulfilled in my patriotism: love of my country, obedience to its laws and celebration of the freedoms and opportunities it symbolizes.
… I know that leadership is best demonstrated by commitment to serving others; I will therefore participate in, and help work at improving individual leadership skills, and serve the Brothers of my Lodge to the best of my ability.
… I know that friendship, fidelity and family are the foundations of a well-lived life; I therefore vow to be a faithful friend to my Brothers, as I expect my Lodge to respect my personal obligations, and to treat my family as though my family were their own.
… I know that the last great lesson of Freemasonry — the value of personal integrity and the sanctity of one's word– is a lesson for all people in all times; I therefore vow to be a man of my word.
… I know that Masonry's power is best exercised when its Light is shared with the world at large; I therefore vow to bring the best of myself to my Lodge, in order that my growth might be fostered and nurtured, and to present myself to the world as a working Freemason, on the path to building a more perfect temple.
Because I am a Freemason, these values and aspirations are guideposts for my progress through life.
In 1517, Luther published his 95 theses. The Protestant Reformation broke Europe into two halves, constantly at war and funded on one side by a river of gold and silver flowing from Mexico and other holdings in the Americas, and on the other by a spice and sugar mercantile trade route skirting the coastlines of the Atlantic and Pacific.
Curiously, the Protestant and Catholic borders which became apparent at the end of the century were very similar to the borders of the Roman Empire as defined by Augustus (another coincidence of this type is found in the map of communist and capitalist Europe during the Cold War).
By the beginning of the 17th century, 1618-1648 to be exact, what modernity calls the Thirty Years War had murdered Europe.
The Peace of Westphalia in 1659, the first modern diplomatic accord, ended the Thirty Years war- and also settled the Eighty Years War between Hapsburg Spain and its former Dutch holdings. This treaty set the map of Europe, pointed to what would be known as the Great Powers concept, and allowed a parasitic class of noble born warlords to entrench and inherit themselves in power all over Europe for the next 100 years. The dynastic chaos following their reigns was a time for opportunistic men to consolidate power and authority onto themselves, and like all who hold power too closely, they nervously squashed dissent and opposition.
Esotericism or Esoterism is a term with two basic meanings. In the dictionary sense of the term, it signifies the holding of esoteric opinions, and derives from the Greek ἐσωτερικός (esôterikos), a compound of ἔσω (esô): "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward", mystic. Its antonym is exoteric. In the scholarly literature, the term designates a series of historically related religious currents including Gnosticism, Hermetism, magic, astrology, alchemy, Rosicrucianism, the Christian Theosophy of Jacob Böhme and his followers, Illuminism, Mesmerism, Swedenborgianism, Spiritualism, the theosophical currents associated with Helena Blavatsky and her followers. There are competing views regarding the common traits uniting these currents, not all of which involve "inwardness", mystery or secrecy as a crucial trait.
Esoteric knowledge, in the dictionary (non-scholarly) sense, is thus that which is available only to a narrow circle of "enlightened", "initiated", or specially educated people. Esoteric items may be known as esoterica. In contrast, exoteric knowledge is knowledge that is well-known or public; or perceived as informally canonic in society at large.
Finally, it can be noted that esotericism, beside its scholarly and dictionary definitions, can be used in a loose, popular sense: not in order to denote e.g. mystical knowledge or practice, but rather informally to mean any perception or knowledge that is for the advanced individual such as theoretical physics, or that pertains to the minutiae of a particular discipline, such as "esoteric" baseball statistics.
The governments of the 18th century, obsessed with the amalgamation of bureaucratic control and suppression of popular dissent which had led to the disastrous religious wars of previous centuries, sought stability. On the whole, they ignored the secrecy and ritual of the medieval guilds of artisans and trade- who had been loyal and useful to previous kings- while brutally attacking religious splinter groups and issuing lists of banned books. The various church organizations, who had been shown their place by the Kings of England and France, worked as an organ of these new states as proselytizer and informant. Here's the place in 1700, on the eve of the war of Spanish Succession, and in 1805 at the start of the War of the Third Coalition.
A burgeoning new social class was emerging in this predictably cruel and impartial world, merchants and manufacturers who represented the beginnings of a modern economy, that called themselves the Bourgosie.
Rational, utility minded, and patient– these "New Men" were the wet nurses of many nascent secret societies, where they could gather together without government or church tenders.
also from wikipedia
In the early 17th century, esotericism is represented by currents such as Christian Theosophy and Rosicrucianism. A century later, esoteric ideas entered various strands of Freemasonry. Later in the 18th century, as well as in the early 19th century, the diffuse movement known as Mesmerism became a major expression of esotericism. In the 19th century, esotericism is also represented e.g. by certain aspects of the philosophy, literature and science associated with Romanticism, by spiritualism, and by a notable French wave of occultism.
The major exponent of esotericism in the latter part of the 19th century is the Theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky, not to be confused with the Christian Theosophy mentioned above. In the 20th century, Theosophy was reformulated by Annie Besant, C. W. Leadbeater, Alice Bailey, Rudolf Steiner and many others, and became the source for a whole range of post-theosophical movements such as The Summit Lighthouse. A particularly successful post-theosophical movement is Anthroposophy, a synthesis of occultist, Christian and neo-Platonic ideas with Western esoteric concepts as formulated in the wake of Theosophy. Anthroposophy, which was founded by Rudolf Steiner in the early part of the 20th century, includes esoteric versions of education, agriculture, and medicine.