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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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!  Freemason and President of Gabon, Ali Bongo Those of us in the Anglo-American tradition of Freemasonry are quite proud of our Brethren who have become heads of state, whether by birth or election. American Freemasons have George Washington and the other Masonic presidents and the British, King Edward VII, to claim as one of their own. But in Africa, at least according to this article, the Masonic affiliation of a head of state for any particular country may be less benign. Now, I don’t vouch for the accuracy of the claims of this article — I just find it interesting that Masonic cronyism reaching the upper levels of government has been raised as a substantial political issue in a couple African countries. And by raised as an issue, I don’t mean idle speculation of the conspiracy set. So with that caveat, it is a least something to think about. I’d welcome comments from our African Brethren, or anyone else, for some illumination on the topic.  English Judges May Stay Mum On Masonic Affiliation The UK Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, has announced that judges in the UK will no longer be required to make known publicly their Masonic affiliations. This overturns a judicial policy, in place since 1998, that sought to allay alleged public concern over Masonic cronyism having improper influence in court cases in which a Freemason appeared before a Freemason judge. Not surprisingly, this policy reversal has been met with skepticism amongst the anti-masonry crowd, with some claiming that it is proof of a wider Masonic conspiracy that includes Jack Straw himself. The reason for the change, however, has less to do with conspiracies and more to do with a European Court of Human Rights (ECHT) ruling earlier this year. The court ruled in favor of the Grand Orient of Italy in its lawsuit challenging an Italian law that required governmental appointees to declare their Masonic affiliation. In its decision the court cited Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights, a provision that guarantees freedom of association and was originally intended, in part, to ensure the ability to organize labor unions. Nice summary of the European Court of Human Rights decision. Read the UK Guardian story on the change of English judicial policy here.  International Masonic Brotherhood I’m delighted to announce that Masonic Regalia is now available in fifty languages thanks to some amazing translation software available from Wordpress, the blogging platform I use here. While I’ve known for some time that this page enjoys a wide international audience, I’ve recently discovered that many of my visitors are relying on Google to translate the pages they wish to see. It occurred to me that if my pages were already translated when indexed by Google, the site might get an even larger international Masonic readership because the translated version would appear in the non-English search results rather than in English to be translated by the reader before browsing. What is so cool about the software I chose to translate the Masonic material here is that once it has been translated, the software creates a whole new page with the translation as part of the site’s permanent sitemap. Thus Google can index and cache all of the translated material as well as the native English version. Aside from my nerdy enjoyment of great traffic to this site, I’m especially delighted with this development as I think it promotes one of the great aims of Freemasonry: reconciling true friendship from those who must have remained at perpetual distance.  Anti-Masonry Book On Display At The National Heritage Museum Sometimes you have to laugh. While the anti-Masonic folks have told outrageous lies about the Craft over the years, they’ve at least provided much entertaining kookery while doing so. Thus the terrific National Heritage Museum, an museum of American history located in Lexington, Massachusetts and operated by the Northern District of the Scottish Rite, presents “Freemasonry Unmasked!”, a collection of wonderfully nutty looking anti-Masonic material from the Van Gorden-Williams Library and Archives. The exhibit opens October 3rd. For more information, check out the Museum’s website. The exhibit is already getting great press. As a side note, I’ve been meaning to do a series of posts exposing anti-Masonry stuff, and this has inspired me to get on it!
With 142,468 views, Howie Damron’s “Masonic Ring” is a bonafide youtube hit. Strong work, Brother Damron!
Black Scale is a hip clothing brand focusing primarily on urban t-apparel. As fashion writer Charlene Haze Alcantara notes, its growing popularity stems from its intriguing design aesthetic, an aesthetic inspired in no small part, from the iconography of Freemasonry. Read her article here. |
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The great press for Freemasonry, inspired to some extent by the excitment surrounding Dan Brown’s new novel, continues to roll in. What’s been great about the recent spate of articles in the popular press has been the theme of separating the myths from the facts about Freemasonry. 
George Washington is something akin to a patron saint of Freemasonry in America, and so it’s only fitting that the university named in his honor should have a Masonic lodge. Fortunately, several George Washington University alumni and administrators agree. Read about their proposal to bring Freemasonry to campus as a fraternity for students and faculty alike 
A favorite theme here at the Masonic Regalia Lodge is how Freemasonry, or at least the Hollywood idea of Freemasonry and its symbolism, has lately become — dare we say it — cool, even chic, in some circles. A good example of this phenomenon is the success of the Black Scale clothing line.