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 Olympic Torch, 1936 Olympics, Berlin, Germany Freemasons, not surprisingly, are fascinated by the often hidden-in-plain-sight influence of Freemasonry on everyday culture. Well, I just came across a very intriguing example that will have particular relevance as the world turns its attention to the upcoming 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic games.
In case you missed it, the official Olympic flame was just lit on October 22 to kick off the torch relay that will culminate in Vancouver next year. [Here's a cool interactive map showing where the torch is at any particular moment]. The torch, we’ve always been told, represents the light of the Olympic movement passing peacefully through the various participating countries. While this is a laudable undertaking, the torch relay has an unfortunately sinister origin in the propaganda that surrounded the Nazi-hosted 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. The Nazis invented the torch relay (it had never occurred previously in either the ancient or modern versions of the Olympics) as subtle symbol of the spread of Nazi Fascism throughout Europe. [For more on the story of the Nazi torch relay, check out this interesting article].
 Marathon Tower and Flame Chalice of the 1928 Olympic Games Stadium But where did the Nazis get the idea of the Olympic flame? As it turns out, the Olympic flame was another modern invention, this time originating with the 1928 Summer Olympics stadium in Amsterdam, Holland. The Olympic flame burned in a huge chalice atop a tall tower adjacent to the stadium. The result was an effect not unlike a giant candle overlooking the stadium, a symbol that will be familiar to all Freemasons.
Here’s where the intriguing Masonic connection comes in. The designer of the stadium was the Dutch architect and active Freemason, Brother Jan Wils (1891-1972) who was a member of the l’Union Frédérique Lodge in Rotterdam.
To be sure, it’s fair to say that candle-like tower is just a coincidence. Brother Wils did not become a Freemason until 1929, at least a couple years after he would have completed his design for the stadium.
But according to Professor Bob Barney in the interview for the CTV article on the Nazi torch relay cited above, “Jan Wils, the architect of the Amsterdam stadium, was looking for inspiration . . . And so he turned to his lifelong infatuation with the Masonic order.”
 Brother Jan Wils, Masonic Architect Further, once Wils became a member, he was very involved with the design of Masonic Lodge halls. For starters, he designed the lodge hall for the Silentium Lodge in Delft. Also, he was on the board of directors of the Foundation for Rites and Temple Building, a group dedicated to bringing modern ideas of architecture into the realm of Masonic lodge halls.
This foundation promoted the notion that lodge halls should employ subtle references to Freemasonry in the underlying architecture through the use of spatial geometry — connecting lines that form stars within circles, etc. — rather than overt iconographic decorations. And these subtle Masonic gestures can be found in both public and Masonic buildings designed by the architects associated with this group. [More on Dutch Masonic architecture].
So, is the Olympic Flame a re-tooled Masonic Candle? It’s hard to say for sure. But the connections are, to say the least, quite striking.
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 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 here.
Well, this is sad news (and I apologize for having two downer posts in a row!) but it must be reported. After over a hundred years, the venerable Masonic Home run by the Grand Lodge of New Hampshire is closing for lack of funds and occupancy. This is especially unfortunate because the Grand Lodge had recently chartered a special lodge and lodge room there in the facility so that lodges from around the state could visit and hold meetings there for the resident Brethren without special dispensation from Grand Lodge — and folks were quite enthusiastic about is. Read more about is here.
 New Hampshire Masonic Home, early 1900's
Sigh. Well, here’s one danger of assuming that every Brother is a “true and trusty friend.” Every now and again, a bad apple gets in. As the Northampton Chronicle reports, here is an unfortunate case in which a Freemason– a Lodge Secretary, no less — has allegedly used his position of trust to fleece his Brethren. Read the story here.
A Brother’s War, a new WWII film to be released on May 26, 2009 by MTI Home Video, is getting critical acclaim as well as generating press for Freemasonry. As film critic Dave McCutcheon summarizes it, “two officers, one German and the other British, discover that they share a common bond in Freemasonry, empowering them to work together to prevent the USSR from taking over Eastern Europe.” Read all about it here.
Interestingly, this is by no means the first time a work of art has depicted the way in which the bonds of Freemasonry can transcend even the brutality of war. Check out the “Friend to Friend” Masonic monument at Gettysburg:
Dedicated by the the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania in 1993, the monument depicts a true story that unfolded on the battlefield during the momentous Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War.
The two figures are Freemason and Confederate Brigadier General Lewis Armistead and his Brother Mason, Union Captain Henry Bingham, an aide to Union Major General Winfield Hancock. Prior to the Civil War, generals Armistead and Hancock had been friends, but ended up on opposing sides when war broke out. When Armistead was mortally wounded during the battle, Captain Bingham came to his aide. In his desparate state, Armistead entrusted his Brother Mason to carry his final regards to his former friend General Hancock and personal effects back to his family. Armistead died shortly thereafter knowing that his final wishes were in the hands of a true brother, the harsh realities of war notwithstanding.
As if we needed more proof that Freemasonry has suddenly become cool, the latest Second Life craze, according to Wired magazine, is the proud wearing of Masonic regalia fezzes by the avatars of female Second Lifers!
Check out the article here.
The Square and Compasses of Freemasonry
When Freemasons see the square and compasses, the traditional emblem of Freemasonry, they usually think of what these architectural drafting tools represent: A person acting on the square (as in “that was a square deal”) and circumscribing their actions within the circle of proper conduct. The square and compasses symbol, however, may not always be what it seems.
In the mid nineteenth century a “fraternal” organization, the Order of United American Mechanics (the OUAM), formed in response to the wave of immigration that the United States was experiencing. This society was strongly anti-immigration and, one could say, downright bigoted. Remember reading about those “Irish need not apply” signs? That was these guys.
The Emblem of the Order of United American Mechanics
The OUAO took the familiar Masonic square and compasses and added the also familiar arm and hammer mark to form their emblem. As this group’s goals were in such profound opposition to Freemasonry’s teachings of universal brotherhood, Freemasons were, not surprisingly, incensed. In fact, lawsuits were inititated to stop the OUAM from stealing the emblem, but were not succesful.
Why would an obscure, and defunct, group of nineteenth century bigots be relevant to contemporary Freemasonry? As a collector of old Masonic regalia, I come across a surprising amount of OUAM items on Ebay under the search term “Masonic”. When I do, I feel obliged to email the usually oblivious seller to inform them that the item is certainly *not* Masonic. So when you are looking for great old Masonic regalia on Ebay, be sure to examine the pictures closely. If there is an arm and hammer in the emblem, keep on scrolling.
It is widely known that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a Freemason, having been initiated into the “Zur Wohltätigkeit” (“Beneficence”) Lodge of Vienna in 1784. What is not as well known is that Brother Mozart wrote music specifically for Masonic ceremonies. These pieces are seldom heard, even in a non-masonic context.
But to hear one performed as part of the actual Masonic ceremony for which it was intended is, for the general public, almost unheard of. This is why it is so exciting to announce that the highly regarded, fifty voice SATB Chorus, Portsmouth Pro Musica, will perform Mozart’s Officer Installation Anthem during the officer installation ceremony of St. John’s Lodge, #1, of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in December.
This is a very rare (almost unprecedented) opportunity to hear the piece as Mozart intended, that is, as part of the ceremony to install Masonic officers, in their full Masonic regalia, into their respective chairs of office. The pageantry and music will be truly fascinating to Masons and non-masons alike.
The details:
The Installation of St. John’s Lodge, #1, Masonic Officers, December, 6th, at 2:00 pm EST, Masonic Temple, 351 Middle Street, Portsmouth, New Hampshire. This free event is semi-public, meaning that reservations will be required. Please contact alan_ammann@hotmail.com for reservations.
In the fall of 1632, two great minds of Western civilization, Jan Vermeer, the painter, and Antoine Van Leeuwenhoek, the father of microbiology, were born in the Dutch city of Delft. Because the men, as exact contemporaries and prominent local intellectuals, almost certainly knew one another (Van Leeuwenhoek was in fact the executor of Vermeer’s estate when he died) there has been speculation for years that Van Leeuwenhoek was the model for two of Vermeer’s paintings, The Geographer
and The Astronomer.
Unfortunately, there is no written documentation for this claim; until now the idea has rested on the fact that the men probably knew one another, Van Leeuwenhoek was a man of science, and the model bears a strong resemblance to the older, slightly more jowely, Van Leeuwenhoek depicted in a known portrait of him by another painter, Jan Verkolje.
Van Leeuwenhoek
The idea of Van Leeuwenhoek as the model for these paintings, however, raises some interesting questions. First, what were these paintings for? They are not, in the strict sense, portraits because they are not about the sitter (note how the faces are either mostly or entirely in profile), but rather, somewhat abstractly, about the idea of science as embodied by the disciplines of astronomy and geography. As such the paintings are essentially genre pieces.
And this raises another question: Why would the wealthy and prominent Van Leeuwenhoek be willing to serve a model for a pair of genre paintings depicting two sciences, astronomy and geography, for which he was not primarily known? If he were to commision Vermeer to render him in paint and undergo the tedium of sitting for a painting (indeed two paintings!) why wouldn’t he have chosen the traditional portrait as he did for the Verkolje painting? Or for that matter, why didn’t he pose with the scientific instrument that made him famous, the microscope?
If this is Van Leeuwenhoek in the paintings, perhaps the answer is as simple as this: He posed thus because Vermeer was his friend and he found the project interesting. But again, if he was intrigued by genre paintings celebrating science, why not include the visually charismatic microscopes that he himself made by hand? No, the choice of the Geographer and Astronomer, and the accompanying apparatus for each, is quite deliberate and suggests that something else is going on.
May I suggest, quite speculatively, I admit, that these questions, as well as the issue of the model’s identity, may be illuminated by reference to the unmistakable Masonic symbolism in the paintings.
The most significant and obvious of the Masonic symbols imbedded in the paintings are the square and compasses found in the Geographer. The square and compasses (the word compass is always pluralized in Masonic literature) have for centuries formed the basic symbol of Freemasonry:
Vermeer has placed the compasses in the model’s right hand (just as Verkolje did in his Leeuwenhoek portrait, it should be noted). The square Vermeer has placed slyly, but quite deliberately, on the small table in the right foreground. Notice how the points of the compasses point directly at it. In fact, the two implements fall roughly along a primary, and very traditional, compositional line that extends from the windowsill at the middle of the left edge to the lower right corner. This placement is simply not accidental.
The next bit of Masonic symbolism becomes clear when the paintings are viewed together as companion pieces: The paintings contain the globes terrestrial and celestial, which are familiar to all Freemasons as the pommels that adorn the tops of the pillars found in all Masonic lodges.
Masonic Pillars With Celestial and Terrestial Globes
Again, the placement of these objects is quite sly, but unmistakable as the paintings are clearly companion pieces as is evidenced by the fact that scenes depicted take place in the same study, with the same model wearing the same scholarly regalia.
Lastly, it should be noted that the Geographer and Astronomer will be familiar to Freemasons as traditional practitioners of the liberal art of Geometry.
But how, one may ask, could Masonic symbolism possibly find its way into Vermeer paintings when the first Masonic lodges didn’t appear in the Netherlands until some forty years later? And what does Freemasonry have to do with Van Leeuwenhoek? As it turns out, the connection Van Leeuwenhoek and Freemasonry is quite simple and derives from his membership in the British Royal Society.
The British Royal Society was founded in England in 1660 as a forum for scientific inquiry. The society grew out of the “invisible college” movement, which was an informal, international network for the sharing of scientific knowledge. Significantly, the founders of the Royal Society were to a great extent well known Freemasons such Sir Christopher Wren and Sir Robert Moray. It is no exaggeration to say that Royal Society, inasmuch as it was a natural outgrowth of the invisible college, was in essence a quasi-Masonic institution. Of course, this is not to say that the Royal Society was actually a Masonic lodge itself, or anything of the sort. But what it does mean is that Freemasonry and the Royal Society drew from the same intellectual well because they were populated by the very same influential thinkers, had the same philosophical agenda, and discussed the very same ideas using the same imagery such as the square and compasses!
This portrait of Royal Society founder Sir Christopher Wren in fact amply demonstrates the Masonic zeitgeist of the time:
Brother Wren is posing with compasses in his right hand, just as Van Leeuwenhoek did in his formal portrait, which brings us back to Van Leeuwenhoek and the identity of the Astronomer and Geographer.
Van Leeuwenhoek, it turns out, was a prominent member of the Royal Society. He published his first scientific findings with the Royal Society at the age of 41, an age not too far removed from the seeming age of the Astronomer and Geographer, and was made a member of the Society seven years later after a delegation of Royal Society members visited him in Holland to investigate the validity of his work. He was thereafter a prominent, prolific member, contributing hundreds of scientific letters to the Society over the course of the rest of his life.
Given this connection, it is perhaps not too great a stretch, to suggest that the Geographer and the Astronomer are indeed Van Leeuwenhoek, surrounded by the symbols of scientific reasoning as popularized by Freemasonry and the Royal Society, and that these paintings are a celebration of the Society, it’s goals and his membership.
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