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 Well so much for the great Masonic Conspiracy. We can scarcely preserve our old lodge halls.
A judge in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania has ordered that the owner of the old Masonic Lodge hall in Carbondale must present a plan to either fix or demolish the historic building ten days to present to the court a plan to either fix or demolish the structure or face contempt of court and possible jail time.
It is unclear whether the building in question is still owned by the lodge or whether, like so many of our stately old lodge halls, it was sold off.
As with the problem of fire destroying many of the old halls, the loss of Masonic halls due to simple neglect or the inability on the part of lodges to keep them threatens a wonderful part of our Masonic heritage. Maybe there should be a dialogue about how best to insure that these grand old building stay in the Fraternity. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised that, even as you read this, several threatened old lodge halls come to mind.
Here’s the original Times-Tribune story.
 Termites: The true silent destroyers I came across a particularly unfair Masonic slur today in the comments section of a news story that I thought deserved special mention because it seems to have gained some traction in the Google search engine: Silent Destroyers.
The news article wasn’t too exciting — another small town UK paper reporting on the (shocking!) fact that there are Freemasons on the town council (fifteen percent of the members!).
I’ve seen a number of these stories of late, a likely consequence of the Dan Brown excitement. Folks, it seems, are quite curious to know whether there is a secret ruling cabal right under their noses in their home towns. What the articles usually end up reporting are the (accurate and un-sexy) facts that 1) of course Freemasons are involved in local politics because they are often hardworking and successful pillars of the community, 2) the influence of Freemasonry, such as there ever was, has declined in recent years due to its aging and contracting demographic, 3) the biggest impact of Freemasonry isn’t secret nepotism but quiet charity.
What really caught my attention, though, was the comment section. As any reader of Masonic web material can attest, the comment sections are usually where our, well, less enlightened friends tend to spout off. One commentator suggested that everyone do a Google search for the term “Silent Destroyers”. I of course did and came up with quite interesting results. Out of 27,400,000 (!) pages indexed by Google containing the words “silent destroyers” the first two text links on the first page were virulent anti-Masonic sites that use the phrase to describe the old anti-masonic chestnuts of Satanism and undue influence.
Further, when I did a Google image search for the term, the first images where Masonic lodge rooms and buildings.
Now, what surprised me with this search is that whenever I’d previously heard the phrase “silent destroyers” it’s *always* been in connection with termites. And in fact, stuff about termites immediately followed the anti-masonic links. This is curious because insect pest control is a big industry — one would think that the phrase “silent destroyers,” as clearly associated as it is with termites, would have called up the surely more reputable pest control websites first and foremost.
The fact that it didn’t speaks to the popularity in Google’s eyes of these anti-Masonic sites. And how does Google determine which pages rank higher? The method for ranking at Google is a closely guarded secret, but it is known that one of the primary factors is how many other sites link to the site in question. Clearly a lot of people are linking to these anti-Masonic sites.
 Solomon's Temple. Freemasonry has always been about building! Normally anti-Masonic stuff rolls off my back. In this case, though, it irked me because Freemasonry has always been about building up, not tearing down. I simply couldn’t let the irony of linking us on Google to termites stand.
So, what can you do about it? I say fight fire with fire. I would love to see this rebuttal to the Secret Destroyer slur rise to the top of Google for the search term and displace the hateful sites. How can we achieve this? Easy. If you don’t have a website on which you can link to this article, use the share button below the article to share this article on your favorite social media — whether it be Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit or whatever. Google loves those sites and will boost the ranking of any site receiving links from them. It only takes a second, so please share this article with the button below.
If you have a website, link to this article at the above URL using “secret destroyers” as the anchor text for the link. This will also have the happy side effect of bumping the termites photo above ahead of the anti-Masonic stuff in the Google image search.
Let’s give termites their due place as the real secret destroyers! (And I’ll follow up with further postings to see where we are on Google!)
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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
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.
The sprig of acacia appears prominently on much Masonic art, Masonic regalia and Masonic jewelry. Traditionally it represents a hope in the afterlife. But why acacia and not some other plant? While the exact origins of this symbol are probably lost in antiquity, there are several intriguing observations that one can make about the plant.
First, the acacia is prominent in the mythology of the ancient Middle East.
In ancient Egypt, for example, acacia was associated with the death and resurrection of the Egyptian god Osiris.
According to the myth, Set, the evil brother of Osiris, created a beautiful wooden box and offered it as a gift to whomever best fit inside. Thus enticed, Osiris climbed into the box and Set quickly nailed him in. Set then threw the box into a river. The box later washed ashore at the foot of an acacia tree that in time grew around the box, completely encasing it. Eventually the tree was harvested and used as a support column for a palace, where Isis, wife of Osiris, discovered it. She cut open the acacia, released the body of Osiris and, using magic, brought him back to life.
Acacia was also significant to the ancient Israelites. Many scholars believe that the burning bush that Moses encountered was an acacia plant. Further, the the Ark of the Covenant was made from acacia wood. Finally, and most interestingly for Freemasons, the ancient Israelites often used an acacia bush to mark graves.
The fact that acacia was prominent in the ancient Middle East, however, fails to answer the question of why it is significant to Freemasonry; it merely pushes the question back a step. That is, why was acacia associated with magic and gods in ancient times?
This question brings us to the second intriguing observation about acacia: Several species of acacia contain a powerful hallucinogenic compound called DMT. This very same hallucinogen has been used in shamanistic rituals world wide to achieve a trance like state in which communication with the gods was thought possible. Perhaps this is just a coincidence, but it is thought provoking, nonetheless.
Check out this Masonic shirt sporting Master Mason symbols, including acacia, here.
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