the rising point - winter 2011

Rising PointThe

Volume 22. Issue 1 • • winter 2011BONI

STEE

LML.

ORG

Special Issue!

Fall 2010

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US Presidents∧∨

Made In Michigan

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� Rising point WINTER 2011

WELCOME TO WINTER 2011

Volume 22. Issue 1 - winter 2011

Contents

FEATURE ARTICLES

COVER CREDITS

For those of you who are new to this publication, we hope you enjoy what you see and come back. Suggestions and opinions are welcome.

3 ......George Washington5..............James Madison7................James Monroe9.............Andrew Jackson11...................James Polk13..........James Buchanan15..........Andrew Johnson17.............James Garfield19.........William McKinley21.....Theodore Roosevelt23.................Howard Taft25...........Warren Harding27.......Franklin Roosevelt29...............Harry Truman31...........Lyndon Johnson32..................Gerald Ford33,34...The Book Reviews

Editor’s Note: Graphics and articles about USA President was first published in The Masonic World Vol. 12, No. 1 September 1945. Reprint with permission of the Detroit Masonic Temple Library and Museum but © Unknown.

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WELCOME TO WINTER 2011

�

GE O R G E W A S H I N G T O N

1st President - April 30, 1789 to March 4, 1797

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George Washington 1732-1799EANov4,1752,FCMar.3,1753,MMAug.4,1753, inFredericksburgLodge(laterNo.4),Virginia,MM1753,namedWorshipfulMasterofAlexandriaLodge#22,inAlexandria,VA,April28,1788,andreelectedDec.20,1788,butthereis no evidence he was ever installed or presided over any Masonic meeting. Somewhat active and supportive ofFreemasonry

On April 30, 1789,

George Washington, standing on the balcony of

Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York, took his oath of office

as the first President of the United States. “As the first of every thing, in our situation will serve to establish

a Precedent,” he wrote James Madison, “it is devoutly wished on

my part, that these precedents may be fixed on true

principles.”

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James

M a d i s o n4th President - March 4, 1809 to March 4, 1817

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Madison made a major

contribution to the ratification of the Constitution

by writing, with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, the

Federalist essays. In later years, when he was referred to as the “Father of

the Constitution,” Madison protested that the document was not “the off-

spring of a single brain,” but “the work of many heads and many

hands.”

James Madison 1809-1817JamesMadisonwaspresumedaFreemasonatonetime,buttherecordsofthe lodgethathe isbelievedtohaveattendedhavebeenlostforthattimeperiod.


5th President - March 4, 1817 to March 4, 1825J a m e s M o n r o e

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James Monroe 1758-1831

EAinWilliamsburgLodge#6atWilliamsburg,VA.,Nov.9,1775,butthereisnorecordofhistakinganyfurtherdegrees.TherecordsofCumberlandLodge#8inTennessee,June8,1819,showareceptionforMonroeas“aBrotheroftheCraft.”possiblyMM1776

As a youthful

politician, he joined the anti-Federalists in the

Virginia Convention which ratified the Constitution, and in 1790, an

advocate of Jeffersonian policies, was elected United States Senator. As

Minister to France in 1794-1796, he displayed strong sympathies for the French cause; later, with Robert R.

Livingston, he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase.


Andrew Jackson7th President - March 4, 1829 to March 4, 1837

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Andrew Jackson 1767-1829-1837

MM1800?,hislodgeisun-knownbutheissaidtohaveattendedatCloverBottomLodgeundertheGrandLodgeofKentucky.HewaspresentinlodgeatGreenevillein1801andactedasSeniorWardenprotem.TherecordsofSt.TammanyLodge#29atNashville,whichbecameHarmonyLodge#1undertheGrandLodgeofTennessee,showthatJacksonwasamember.VeryactiveinFreemasonry,GrandMasterofTennessee1822-1823

More nearly

than any of his predecessors, Andrew

Jackson was elected by popular vote; as President

he sought to act as the direct representative

of the common man.

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James Polk11th President - March 4, 1845 to March 4, 1849

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James K. Polk 1795-1849?-1845-1849EA,FC,MM,inColumbiaLodge#31,Columbia,Tenn.,1820,exaltedaRoyalArchMasoninLaFayetteChapter#4atColumbiain1825

He offered to

settle by extending the Canadian boundary,

along the 49th parallel, from the Rockies to the Pacific. When

the British minister declined, Polk reasserted the American claim to the entire area. Finally, the British

settled for the 49th parallel, except for the southern tip of Vancouver Island. The

treaty was signed in 1846.

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James Buchanan

15th President - March 4, 1857 to March 4, 1861


JamesA.Buchanan 1791-1868-1857-1861EADec.11,1816,LancasterLodge#43,Lancaster,PA,FC&MM1817,JuniorWarden1821-1822,Master1825,exaltedinRoyalArchChapter#43,in1826,DeputyGrandMasteroftheGrandLodgeofPennsylvania

Tall, stately,

stiffly formal in the high stock he wore

around his jowls, James Buchanan was the only

President who never married.


Andrew Johnson17th President - April 15, 1865 to March 4, 1869


AndrewJohnson 1808-1875-1865-1869EA,FC,MM,inGreenevilleLodgeNo.119now#3atGreeneville,Tenn.in1851,probablyamemberofGreenevilleChapter#82,RoyalArchMasons,sincehejoinedNashvilleCommanderyofKnightsTemplar#1in1859.HereceivedtheScottishRitedegreesintheWhiteHousein1867

Born in Raleigh,

North Carolina, in 1808, Johnson grew up in

poverty. He was apprenticed to a tailor as a boy, but ran

away. He opened a tailor shop in Greeneville, Tennessee, married Eliza McCardle,

and participated in debates at the local

academy.


James Garfield

20th President - March 4 , 1881 to September 19, 1881

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James A. Garfield 1831-1881

EA&FCMagnoliaLodge#20,Columbus,Ohio,MMColumbusLodge#3O,1864,AffiliatedwithGarrettsvilleLodge#246in1866,AffiliatedwithPentalphaLodge#23Washington,D.C.aschartermemberin1869.ExaltedinColumbusRoyalArchChapter1866,andKnightTemplar1866,14thDegreeScottishRite1872

As the last

of the log cabin Presidents, James A.

Garfield attacked political corruption and won back for the Presidency a measure of

prestige it had lost during the Reconstruction

period.


William McKinley24th President - March 4 , 1897 to September 14, 1901

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WilliamMcKinley 1843-1901

1897-1901issometimessaidtohavereceivedEA,FC,MM,inHiramLodge#10inWinchester,WestVirginia,in1865,butWilliamMoseleyBrownisauthorityforthestatementthatthiseventtookplaceinHiramLodge#21atWin-chester,Virginiainthatyear.McKinleyaffiliatedwithCantonLodge#60atCanton,Ohioin1867andlaterbecameachartermemberofEagleLodge#43.HereceivedtheCapitulardegreesinCantonin1883andwasmadeaKnightTemplarin1884

At 34, McKinley

won a seat in Congress. His attractive personality,

exemplary character, and quick intelligence enabled him to rise rapidly. He was appointed to the

powerful Ways and Means Committee. Robert M. La Follette, Sr., who served

with him, recalled that he generally “represented the newer view,” and “on the great new questions .. was

generally on the side of the public and against private

interests.”

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Theodore Roosevelt25th President - September 14, 1901 to March 4, 1909

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TheodoreRoosevelt 1858-1919-1901-1909

EA,FC,MM,inMatinecockLodge#806,OysterBay,NYin1901.Somewhatactive,andverysupportiveofFreemasonry

He took the view

that the President as a “steward of the people”

should take whatever action necessary for the public good unless expressly forbidden by law or the Constitution.” I did not usurp power,” he wrote, “but I did greatly broaden

the use of executive power.”

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William Taft

26th President - March 4 , 1909 to March 4, 1913


WilliamH.Taft 1857-1930-1909-1913

EAFeb.18,1909,MM“MasonatSight”inKilwinningLodge#356,Cincinnati,Ohio,in1901?,Evidently,thatmadehirnamemberatlarge,fortheGrandLodgeissuedhimademitandhebecameamemberofthatlodge.Somewhatactive,andverysupportiveofFreemasonry

Born in 1857, the son of

a distinguished judge, he graduated from Yale,

and returned to Cincinnati to study and practice law. He rose in politics through Republican

judiciary appointments, through his own competence and availability, and because, as he once wrote facetiously, he always had his

“plate the right side up when offices were

falling.”


Warren Harding28th President - March 4 , 1921 to August 2, 1923


WarrenG.Harding 1865-1923-1921-1923

EALodge#7O,Marion,Ohio,Jun28,1901,receivednootherdegreeuntilafterbecomingU.S.President,FC&MMinMarionLodge#70in1920(MMAug.27,1920),RoyalArchChapterdegreesinMarionChapter#62in1921;KnightTemplarinMarionCommandery#36,in1921,ScottishRiteandShrinein1921

Warren G. Harding

declared, “America’s present need is not heroics, but healing; not nostrums,

but normalcy; not revolution, but restoration; not agitation,

but adjustment; not surgery, but serenity; not the dramatic, but the

dispassionate; not experiment, but equipoise; not submergence

in internationality, but sustainment in triumphant

nationality....”


Franklin Roosevelt

31st President - March 4 , 1933 to April 12, 1945


FranklinD.Roosevelt1882-1945-1933-1945

EAOct11,1911,FC,MM,inHollandLodge#8,NewYorkCity,in1911,ScottishRiteinAlbanyConsistory1929,Shrinein1930.Somewhatactive,andverysupportiveofFreemasonry

Assuming

the Presidency at the depth of the Great

Depression, Franklin D. Roosevelt helped the American

people regain faith in themselves. He brought hope as he promised

prompt, vigorous action, and asserted in his Inaugural Address, “the only thing

we have to fear is fear itself.”


Harry Truman32nd President - April 12, 1945, to 1953


HarryS.Truman 1884-1972-1945-1953EAFeb.9,1909,BeltonLodge#450,Grandview,Missouri,MM1909.In1911,Trumanwasthe1stWMofthenewGrandviewLodge#618.GrandMasterofMissouri1940-1941.VeryactiveandsupportiveofFreemasonry,MasterofMissouriLodgeofResearchwhileU.S.President,MasonicRitualist,districtlectureranddeputyGrandMasterforseveralyears,hediedDecember26,1972,buriedwithMasonicritesinIndependence,MO,intelevisedceremony.

Dangers

and crises marked the foreign scene as Truman campaigned

successfully in 1948. In foreign affairs he was already providing his

most effective leadership.

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Lyndon B. Johnson

36th President - 1963, to 1969

Lyndon B. Johnson was initiated on October 30, 1937 in Johnson City Lodge No. 561, at Johnson City, Texas, but completed only the Entered Apprentice, or first, of the three Masonic degrees.

He was a Freemason in the sense that he took the Entered Apprentice, or 1st Degree, but did not continue to the 2nd and 3rd degrees. Some would consider him to have been a Freemason, but others would not.

Photo Credit:LBJ Library photo by Yoichi Okamoto - Public Domain

“A Great Society”

for the American people and their fellow

men elsewhere was the vision of Lyndon B. Johnson. In his

first years of office he obtained passage of one of the most

extensive legislative programs in the Nation’s history. Maintaining collective security, he carried on

the rapidly growing struggle to restrain Communist encroachment in Viet

Nam.Photo Credit:LBJ Library photo by Arnold Newman - Public Domain


MASONIC RECORD

Initiated: September 30, 1949, Malta Lodge No. 465, Grand Rapids, Michigan, along with his half-brothers Thomas Gardner Ford (1918-1995), Richard Addison Ford (1924-) and James Francis Ford (1927- ). The Fellowcraft and Master Mason Degrees were Conferred by Columbia Lodge No. 3, Washington, D.C., on April 20 and May 18, 1951, as a courtesy to Malta Lodge. Brother Ford was made a Sovereign Grand Inspector General, 33°, and Honorary Member, Supreme Council A.A.S.R. Northern Jurisdiction at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia, on September 26, 1962, for which he served as Exemplar (Representative) for his Class. Brother and President Ford was unanimously elected an Active Member of the International Supreme Council, Order of DeMolay and its Honorary Grand Master, at its Annual Session held at Orlando, Florida, April 6-9, 1975; Brother Ford held this post until January 1977, at which time he became a Past Honorary Grand Master, receiving his Collar and Jewel on October 24, 1978 in Topeka, Kansas, from the Hon. Thomas C. Raum, Jr., Grand Master, Order of DeMolay.

http://www.pagrandlodge.org/mlam/presidents/ford.html

Lithographic copy of an engraving of U.S. President Gerald R. Ford by the staff of the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. - http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/avproj/portraits.asp

Gerald R. Ford

Thirty-eighth President (1974-1977)

When Gerald R. Ford took the oath of office on August 9, 1974, he declared, “I assume the Presidency under extraordinary circumstances.... This is an hour of history that troubles our minds and hurts our hearts.”

Ford was confronted with almost insuperable tasks. There were the challenges of mastering inflation, reviving a depressed economy, solving chronic energy shortages, and trying to ensure world peace.


Jan Potocki (1761 – 1815) lived a life that reads more like fiction than fact. A Polish nobleman, army officer, novice Knight of Malta, ethnologist, linguist, early balloonist, and world traveler, he is without question one of the most intriguing figures of his age. Yet there is more to Potocki, including some rather dark rumors too. Potocki had a keen interest in the occult and was an acquaintance of Alessandro Cagliostro (into whose elaborate Egyptian-styled Masonry

he may have been initiated). Potocki’s two marriages ended in accusations of incest. Thereafter, Potocki retreated to his estate where he is said to have committed suicide with a silver bullet he fashioned from a sugar bowl handle - a gift from his mother – which he had blessed by his priest.Potocki wrote several travelogues documenting his adventures. He also left a novel, originally written in French, titled The Manuscript Found in Saragossa (1814). A literary nesting doll, the book is a collection of interwoven stories adopting a variety styles and conceits. The “manuscript” is said to have been found by a French military officer who, following his capture, is presented with a translated copy of the work. Superficially, it is the diary and recollections of a young army captain in the Walloon Guards who has been called to Madrid for a new posting. While en route, this Alphonse van Worden is separated from his companions and forced to take refuge in an abandoned hostelry. Here he meets two beautiful Muslim princesses who may, or may not be, the ghosts of two recently hung bandits, the Zoto brothers. Bound by his strict code of honor, if not chastity, the young soldier’s word is repeatedly tried and tested as he encounters the Inquisition, a religious hermit, bandits, cabalists, gypsies, a mathematician, the “Wandering Jew,” and a mysterious Muslim sheik that controls the lonely Spanish countryside where the story takes place.The Manuscript Found in Saragossa is a delicious rabbit

hole down which the Masonic reader will, at times, feel he is witnessing a series of obscure Ecosais degrees. Its 66 stories are by turn humorous, picaresque, erotic, gothic, and esoteric. Many incidents and characters call to mind the cards from the Tarot’s Major Arcana. Even the protagonist, Van Worden, is left to wonder whether he hasn’t been caught up in a vast conspiracy, the substance of which is always just beyond his grasp:

…I recognized the ill-starred gallows of Zoto’s brothers. The sight of this made me curious. I hastened down and indeed came to the foot of the gallows from which the two hanged men were suspended. I looked away and sadly climbed back to camp. The gypsy chief asked me where I had been. I replied that I had been down to the gallows of Zoto’s two brothers. ‘Where are they,’ asked the gypsy.‘What do you mean,’ I replied. ‘Are they in the habit of absenting themselves?’‘Often,’ said the gypsy, ‘especially at night.’These few words made me very pensive. I found myself once again in the neighborhood of those damned ghosts and whether or not they were vampires or had been used to persecute me, I believed that I had much to fear from them. I was morose for the rest of the day, did not eat supper and went to bed, where I dreamed of vampires, phantoms, nightmares, spectres and hanged men.

Potocki’s Manuscript is meant to entertain rather than illuminate. It deservedly draws comparisons with The Arabian Nights, Canterbury Tales, and Decameron. Whether The Manuscript constitutes “Masonic” literature, on the other hand, is up to the reader to decide. But be forewarned, there will be as many twists and turns to reach that conclusion as there are in the book itself.

Jan Potocki, The Manuscript Found in Saragossa, trans. by Ian Mclean (Penguin Books 1996, $ 17.00 USD)

The ManuscripT Found in saragossa

Gerald R. Ford


INTERNATIONAL MAsONIc REVIEW PUBLIsHED BY BONIsTEEL MAsONIc LIBRARY

INTERNATIONAL MAsONIc REVIEW PUBLIsHED BY BONIsTEEL MAsONIc LIBRARY - WWW.BONIsTEELML.ORG

In April 2010, the Grand Orient of France, the largest and oldest Masonic jurisdiction in continental Europe, ruled that women can be initiated as full members of its lodges. While this decision is of limited importance to regular Masonry (such jurisdictions having severed ties with the Grand Orient of France in 1877 over its admitting atheists), it is nevertheless historic. Women, for the first time in more than four hundred years, are being admitted directly into our mysteries. Or so we have been lead to believe. Such milestones are rarely so simple.

Karen Kidd’s Haunted Chambers: the Lives of Early Women Freemasons has two apparent goals. First, to demonstrate that women have already had a share, albeit a small one, in regular Masonry since its inception. Second, that female Freemasons, possessing the same abilities and Masonic passions as their

male counterparts, deserve to enjoy full recognition and acceptance by all-male lodges. Kidd acknowledges the meagerness of her source material, yet manages to build some interesting biographical sketches of women who claimed Masonic affiliation with regular Masonry. Her plea for full female recognition, on the other hand, is another matter altogether.

Kidd contends that mainstream Masonic histories unfairly conceal the existence of female craft masons when discussing the Fraternity’s origins. She notes that the “Old Charges,” being a body of some hundred or so early manuscripts, contain numerous references to women, including the use of the word “Dame” in some texts as the equivalent of “Master.” Of particular interest is York MS No. 4 (dated 1693):

The one of the elders takeing the Booke and that hee or shee that is to be made mason shall lay their hands on thereon, and the charge shall be given.

Kid also provides examples of women operative apprentices and men being assigned to female masters as late as the early 18th century. So why, ponders Kidd, were women excluded from speculative Masonry? Regrettably, there is no certain answer to this question. Andersen and Desaguliers made the injunction explicit in Masonry in 1726. Kidd, in a nutshell, believes it was because 18th century women were not “free” under the law and moral codes of their day and that women posed a sexual threat of

Haunted CHambers: the Lives of early Women Freemasons

Page 1

For the First time

ever, the most complete stories oF early women

Freemasons




Karen Kidd, Haunted Chambers: the Lives of Early Women Freemasons (Cornerstone 2009, $24.95 US). Website: http://www.hauntedchambers.com

scandal for speculative lodges making a break from their operative origins.

Haunted Chambers also contains a catalogue of women alleged to have breached regular Masonry’s gender barrier. The number, it should be noted, is little more than a handful and several strain credulity. Only three are generally accepted to have been initiated - Elizabeth St. Leger Aldworth (1712), Henriette Heinken (1795), and Helene, Countess Hadik Barkoczy (1875) – having drawn particular notice and either recognition or censure from their local Masonic communities. The others constitute an array of eavesdroppers who, like Elizabeth Aldworth, may or may not have been regularly initiated, two early “adoptive” masons, a transvestite (who, being a man, really oughtn’t count), and one or two more whose Masonic pedigrees persist more in the realm of legend rather than historical fact. It is also clear that none, other than perhaps Elizabeth Aldworth, was ever permitted to enter a regular lodge again.

Karen Kidd is a member of a co-Masonic lodge and Haunted Chambers, a little too frequently, reads more like a polemic against gender exclusivity in regular Masonry than a straightforward history. There is no reason to question her or any woman’s commitment to Masonic ideals and principles. They are, after all, universal. But speculative Masonry, regardless of operative masonry’s actual traditions, was established as an all-male organization. And there need not be anything sinister or controversial in this fact. During an age of clubs, men liked to organize socially as men. And we still do. Let those who wish pursue co-Masonry, adoptive Masonry, or female lodges do so. They do not need our permission, nor is there any reason for regular Masonry to recognize them. It is enough that we have our traditions and they have theirs.

Haunted Chambers contains some very interesting and useful material. It is a shame that Kidd did not discuss the advent of either co-Masonry or female Masonry. Women being barred from regular Masonry, it would have been interesting to learn more about the development of these bodies and their early female champions. Perhaps Kidd is leaving that to another book. I must also point out that there are two factual errors which caught my eye and which, I confess, irritated me (as they do in any non-fiction work). On p. 64, Kidd refers to “Ancient Mason Laurence Dermott,” author of Ahiman Rezon, as “Grand Master of Ireland.” Dermot was a Past Master of an Irish lodge and Grand Secretary of the Ancient Grand Lodge of England from 1752 to 1771. He was never Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland or any jurisdiction. Also problematic is Kidd’s assertion on p. 42 concerning whether or not Elizabeth Alworth received the 3rd degree in Masonry:

These Masonic historians seem not to know, forget, or ignore the fact that what was known as “the Master’s Part” was not yet separated into its own degree from the Second Degree. The Third Degree did not yet exist this early in the 18th Century.

Kidd is apparently unaware that the Trinity College, Dublin MS, dated 1711 (a year BEFORE she suggests Aldworth was initiated) demonstrates that in Ireland, at least, all three separate degrees were already being worked. Given that Aldworth accidentally overheard the Fellowcraft Degree, there is no reason to assume that she ever received any more “light” in Masonry than what she had already improperly obtained, let alone be granted the Master Mason degree or be allowed to sit in the East. On the contrary, common sense dictates she would only have been obligated as far as necessary to maintain secrecy. But all of this, like so much concerning these early women Freemasons, is conjecture owing to the scant historical record.

Page 2

According to her web site, She was initiated into Freemasonry in August 2006, into a Seattle, WA-based Lodge that works under the Honorable Order of American Co-Masonry, American Federation of Human Rights. The Honorable Order is based in Larkspur, CO, and was founded in the US in the early 20th Century. She is also a member of the Honorable Order’s Lodge of Research, for which she written several architectures/research papers and more are in the works. In March 2008, She was honored by many of Malecraft Brethren during a ceremony in Machester, England. Karen essay, “I am Regular”, won the World Award in Internet Lodge No 9659’s Short Paper’s competition. Internet Lodge is a Lodge in Manchester England that works under the United Grand Lodge of England. It’s biannual short papers competition attracts entrants the world over. She was the first Co-Mason and the first woman Freemason to win such an award in a contest sponsored by a Lodge under the UGLE. During the ceremony, She was addressed as “Brother” and She received the award from the then Pro Grand Master of the UGLE, the Most Hon the Marquess of Northampton.

Source: http://www.hauntedchambers.com/About__Biography_.html

www.bonisteelml.org

“If I have any hopes for “Haunted Chambers”, it’s that the book gets to the readers who most want it. There are quite a few folks who will find this book a challenge and would rather it never had been written. I’m not out to convert anyone. Those who’d rather dismiss it out of hand are free to do so. But I know there are readers who really want to know this history. Those are the readers I hope to reach.”



Karen Kidd, Haunted Chambers: the Lives of Early Women Freemasons (Cornerstone 2009, $24.95 US). Website: http://www.hauntedchambers.com

scandal for speculative lodges making a break from their operative origins.

Haunted Chambers also contains a catalogue of women alleged to have breached regular Masonry’s gender barrier. The number, it should be noted, is little more than a handful and several strain credulity. Only three are generally accepted to have been initiated - Elizabeth St. Leger Aldworth (1712), Henriette Heinken (1795), and Helene, Countess Hadik Barkoczy (1875) – having drawn particular notice and either recognition or censure from their local Masonic communities. The others constitute an array of eavesdroppers who, like Elizabeth Aldworth, may or may not have been regularly initiated, two early “adoptive” masons, a transvestite (who, being a man, really oughtn’t count), and one or two more whose Masonic pedigrees persist more in the realm of legend rather than historical fact. It is also clear that none, other than perhaps Elizabeth Aldworth, was ever permitted to enter a regular lodge again.

Karen Kidd is a member of a co-Masonic lodge and Haunted Chambers, a little too frequently, reads more like a polemic against gender exclusivity in regular Masonry than a straightforward history. There is no reason to question her or any woman’s commitment to Masonic ideals and principles. They are, after all, universal. But speculative Masonry, regardless of operative masonry’s actual traditions, was established as an all-male organization. And there need not be anything sinister or controversial in this fact. During an age of clubs, men liked to organize socially as men. And we still do. Let those who wish pursue co-Masonry, adoptive Masonry, or female lodges do so. They do not need our permission, nor is there any reason for regular Masonry to recognize them. It is enough that we have our traditions and they have theirs.

Haunted Chambers contains some very interesting and useful material. It is a shame that Kidd did not discuss the advent of either co-Masonry or female Masonry. Women being barred from regular Masonry, it would have been interesting to learn more about the development of these bodies and their early female champions. Perhaps Kidd is leaving that to another book. I must also point out that there are two factual errors which caught my eye and which, I confess, irritated me (as they do in any non-fiction work). On p. 64, Kidd refers to “Ancient Mason Laurence Dermott,” author of Ahiman Rezon, as “Grand Master of Ireland.” Dermot was a Past Master of an Irish lodge and Grand Secretary of the Ancient Grand Lodge of England from 1752 to 1771. He was never Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland or any jurisdiction. Also problematic is Kidd’s assertion on p. 42 concerning whether or not Elizabeth Alworth received the 3rd degree in Masonry:

These Masonic historians seem not to know, forget, or ignore the fact that what was known as “the Master’s Part” was not yet separated into its own degree from the Second Degree. The Third Degree did not yet exist this early in the 18th Century.

Kidd is apparently unaware that the Trinity College, Dublin MS, dated 1711 (a year BEFORE she suggests Aldworth was initiated) demonstrates that in Ireland, at least, all three separate degrees were already being worked. Given that Aldworth accidentally overheard the Fellowcraft Degree, there is no reason to assume that she ever received any more “light” in Masonry than what she had already improperly obtained, let alone be granted the Master Mason degree or be allowed to sit in the East. On the contrary, common sense dictates she would only have been obligated as far as necessary to maintain secrecy. But all of this, like so much concerning these early women Freemasons, is conjecture owing to the scant historical record.

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According to her web site, She was initiated into Freemasonry in August 2006, into a Seattle, WA-based Lodge that works under the Honorable Order of American Co-Masonry, American Federation of Human Rights. The Honorable Order is based in Larkspur, CO, and was founded in the US in the early 20th Century. She is also a member of the Honorable Order’s Lodge of Research, for which she written several architectures/research papers and more are in the works. In March 2008, She was honored by many of Malecraft Brethren during a ceremony in Machester, England. Karen essay, “I am Regular”, won the World Award in Internet Lodge No 9659’s Short Paper’s competition. Internet Lodge is a Lodge in Manchester England that works under the United Grand Lodge of England. It’s biannual short papers competition attracts entrants the world over. She was the first Co-Mason and the first woman Freemason to win such an award in a contest sponsored by a Lodge under the UGLE. During the ceremony, She was addressed as “Brother” and She received the award from the then Pro Grand Master of the UGLE, the Most Hon the Marquess of Northampton.

Source: http://www.hauntedchambers.com/About__Biography_.html

www.bonisteelml.org

“If I have any hopes for “Haunted Chambers”, it’s that the book gets to the readers who most want it. There are quite a few folks who will find this book a challenge and would rather it never had been written. I’m not out to convert anyone. Those who’d rather dismiss it out of hand are free to do so. But I know there are readers who really want to know this history. Those are the readers I hope to reach.”


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