Fraternal greetings. Masonic Regalia will keep you in Due Form with online shopping opportunities for Masonic regalia, Masonic rings, gifts, and t-shirts, as well as frequent articles on Masonic topics. Thanks for having a look!
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 Freemasonry and Judaism This month’s Moment, a preeminent magazine on Jewish topics, features an interesting cover story on the relationship between Judaism and Freemasonry, a further demonstration of the media’s recent fascination with all things Masonic. Something I found most interesting about the article is the part about historic Jewish figures being Freemasons. We always hear about Brothers Mozart and Washington, but I was interested to learn about such historic Jewish Freemasons as Haym Salomon, the prime financier of the American Revolution, Hungarian-born illusionist Harry Houdini, American composer Irving Berlin. Check out the rest of the article here. And also from Moment Magazine a related article about the relationship between contemporary science and the Kabbalah, an ancient book of Jewish mysticism, that also makes mention of Jews and Freemasonry.  Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts
First and foremost is the new Masonic message boards area. I’ve wanted a forum type feature for this site for some time, and I’ve been playing with different forum software that will work seemlessly with Wordpress. I settled on Simple Press, a free forum Wordpress plug-in and am quite pleased with the features and appearance. I invite you now to join in the conversation — registration is quick, easy and noninvasive. Some of the topics I’d like to see in the message board area include: Masonic news items from Lodges all over, polite conversations about controversial Masonic issues (Prince Hall recognition, Women in Freemasonry, religious implications of the Fraternity, conspiracy theories, anti-Masonry, Masonry in Pop Culture and the like), requests for Masonic assistance, ideas for the growth and continuing prosperity of the Fraternity, and good old fashioned chewing of the fat. I’ve been impressed over the past year at how, despite being an ancient institution, our Order has taken so enthusiastically to the internet for our fellowship. Facebook, Twitter, and the like have become popular “hang-outs” for Freemasons worldwide, and I’d like to bring some of that energy here. The next major feature that I will be rolling out in the next day or two is a free classifieds area. Yes, I said free. If you have Masonic ring, or other Masonic item you would like to sell — heck, it doesn’t even have to be Masonic — or perhaps a service, please feel free to post it here! I was just forwarded this message from a Brother in my district. A heads up for Brethren in the Ontario, Canada area:
Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts Royal Black Preceptory Apron of the Orangemen Thanks to a comment from a reader, it looks like the mystery “Masonic” apron has been identified. It turns out not to be Masonic after all! According to James McDonald, “[t]his is a Royal Black Preceptory apron. To become a member one must first be an Orangeman.” Cool. While I have heard of Orangemen (is that a proper pluralization?) I really didn’t know anything about them. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:
Apparently the Royal Black Institution is considered a higher, although technically independent, order Orangemen may join — as such it is reminiscent of the Commandery of York Rite in Freemasonry. Interestingly, the Royal Black Institution uses much Masonic imagery, but is not itself a Masonic organization.  Masonic Hip Hop Bling  Check out the bling on this Masonic buckle! I came across these pieces of Masonic bling today, further illustrating the intriguing (and somewhat odd) nexus that has seemed to form between Hip Hop and Freemasonry. It’s sold by an outfit called Hiphopbling.com, which, not surprisingly, specializes in hip hop style jewelry. They have a whole page of this stuff! (Although I didn’t find any Masonic rings — I would have expected some.) My question is — and I don’t mean this condescendingly — who is the target market for this? Are there non-masonic fans of hip hop who think the idea of Freemasonry is cool and wear the Masonic bling, or are there Freemasons so involved in the hip hop scene that they would be the target customers for an item like this? I dunno. I’d enjoy hearing feedback on this. Oh, and I should point out that my site is not affiliated in any way with this site — I’m not getting any kind of commission or anything from this post . . . just thought it was interesting.
The first one was in a report on the issue of Catholic priest sexual abuse from the Independent News and Media Corporation which publishes several newspapers in Ireland. According to the report,
I have to ask: what on earth does the issue of Catholic clergy sexual abuse have to do with Freemasonry? The unpleasant truth is, sexual abuse involving Catholic priests has been a huge issue for the Catholic church for years now. Yet if a newspaper were to start using the term “Catholic priest” as a shorthand for “pedophile” Catholics everywhere would be justifiably outraged. Shouldn’t Freemasons be equally outraged for the use, in this case, of the word “Masonic” to describe the systematic cover up of child sexual abuse?
 Most Worshipful Grandmaster Dr. B. Biswakumar of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of India pictured at the left. [UPDATE: I just received a comment, see below, of a person purporting to be associated with the Grandmaster of India refuting the Times of India story. I've included it here for fairness' sake, but I can't vouch for it's provenance; Masonic protocol traditionally forbids direct communication between individual Freemasons and Grand Lodges under whose jurisdiction they do not reside. Consequently, for me to report (and this would be a great breaking story for me!) that the Most Worshipful's remarks were taken out of context, the comment maker would need to contact my Grand Lodge, the MW Grand Lodge of New Hampshire (USA) to initiate formal communication to this effect. NH Grand Lodge could then submit the clarification to this site.] The new Grandmaster of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of India, Dr B Biswakumar, has been quoted by the Times of India as saying that women will be involved Freemasonry within ten years. And he isn’t talking about Eastern Star either. Rather, the article suggests, there will some form of mutual recognition between regular Freemasonry and Co-Masonry. Is he right? Weigh in on this issue at the Masonic Regalia poll which you can find here. It’s still open, so let your thoughts be known.  Masonic Mystery Apron A Brother has sent me this photo of a mystery masonic apron. Can anyone help me identify it?  Loading ... |
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If I were inclined to believe such things, I’d swear there was a conspiracy afoot. But it has nothing to do with Masonic goings-on behind closed doors. Rather, it’s the media’s use of the words “masonic” and “freemasonry” as a shorthand for nefarious cronyism. I came across a couple noteworthy examples of this phenomenon this week.
Here’s another example. In an op-ed piece in the Daily Mail, Patrick Collins calls out french soccer player Thierry Henry for his now infamous hand-ball during a World Cup finals game between Ireland and France. The failure of the referees to call the hand-ball resulted, many believe, in Ireland being robbed of it’s place at the World Cup in South Africa next summer. In describing the unfairness of the call, and the lack of any outrage or calls for justice on the part of soccer professionals, Collins had this to say about ordinary soccer fans: “They feel themselves the victims of grand larceny and increasingly they distrust the cosy freemasonry of old pros”. Again, I ask: What does a bad soccer ruling have to do with Freemasonry?