USPS 485-660Periodicals postage paid

volUme 60, No. 04206-324-3330 July / August 2013

CommunicatorThe

The Ana b’Koachpg 5

Pike’s Seattle Visitpg 6

Good of the Orderpg 12

The Official Publication of the Valley of SeattleAncient & Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry

Brother Albert Pike’s Visit to Seattle in 1876

Scottish Rite Communicator

valley of Seattle

The Communicator (USPS 485-660) is published by the Seattle Valley of Scottish Rite, 1207 N 152nd St., Seattle, WA 98133-6213, for the benefit of its members, bi-monthly and is mailed as a non-profit publication to all members of the Seattle Valley and to specified other interested parties. $2.00 per member is assessed for the publication of The Communica-tor. Periodicals postage paid at Seattle, Washington and at additional mailing offices. The material contained within this publication is intended for the education and enjoyment of the members of the Masonic Fraternity and all material published becomes the property of Seattle Valley of Scottish Rite. Permission to reproduce material from this publication for Masonic publications is hereby granted. Postmaster: Send address changes to — The Communicator at 1207 N 152nd St., Seattle, WA 98133-6213.

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www.seattle-scottishrite.org

SCoTTISH RITe oFFICeRS

Ronald A. Seale, 33°Sovereign Grand Commander

Alvin W. Jorgensen, 33°Deputy, Orient of Washington

Sat Tashiro, 33°Personal Rep. of S:.G:.I:.G:.

stashiro@comcast.net

Greg Goodrich, 32° K:.C:.C:.H:. General Secretary & Communicator Editor

secretary@seattle-scottishrite.org

Norman miller, 33°Treasurer

George lofthus, 32° K:.C:.C:.H:. Almoner

PReSIDING oFFICeRS

Harold Federow, 32°Venerable Master, Lodge of Perfection

Bryan Bechler, 32° Wise Master, Chapter of Rose Croix

Grover Partee, 32° K:.C:.C:.H:.Commander, of Kadosh

Steve Dazey, 32°Master, Seattle Consistory

Jeff Harden, 32° K:.C:.C:.H:.Chief, Knights of St. Andrew

Scottish Rite masonic Center1207 N 152nd St

Seattle, WA 98133-6213206 324-3330 voice206 324-3332 fax

Brian lortonBuilding Manager

brian@seattle-scottishrite.org

lorna SchackAdministrative Assistant

lorna@seattle-scottishrite.org

Fundraising Brunch

October 13, 2013 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

At the Seattle Scottish Rite Masonic Center

RiteCare of Washington has been serving children in the greater Seattle area for 29 years. A sponsorship with us supports speech therapy for children, ages two through seven, with a significant speech or language delay. The need is great. Ten percent of all children have a speech or language problem. RiteCare provides intensive therapy combined with parent education at no charge to client families. Our services are entirely supported by the generosity of donors including sponsors to our luncheon. We expect about 160 people to attend this event. Since RiteCare of Washington opened for business in 1984 we have served well over 3,000 children and their families. With the support of people and businesses that care we can serve many more.

Can we count on you?

Our kids thank you!

News from thePersonal Representative

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We have been asked to participate in the annual outdoor degree at Granite Falls on Saturday August 3rd, start-ing officially at 10:00 am and the lodge being closed by 4:00 pm, with a cast consisting of Scottish Rite

members from Valleys throughout the Orient. Those who are participating must arrive no later than 8:30 am to permit time to rehearse. A few opening exist so we are asking those who wish to join us to contact our office at 206-324-3330 for further information. The lodge will be hosted and opened by Edmonds Lodge, the conferral and the drama portions by the Orient of Washington. The Grand Lodge of Washington will close the Lodge.

June was an extremely busy month; many of us attended the Grand Lodge Annual Communications in Spokane which is being followed by other annual sessions of concordant bodies scheduling activities in the coming

weeks.

In the coming months we have the annual Rose Croix retreat in September. The cost will be $200 for three daus of breakfast, lunch and dinner including housing. Please call the office for further information and reservations.

Our Rite Care clinic’s annual Beyond Words brunch is scheduled for early October with special guest, Bonnie Dunbar, astronaut from the Apollo program.

Please schedule both of these events into your calendar. We hope to see many of you coming to our events scheduled in the coming months.

Fraternally,

Ill. Sat Tashiro, 33°Personal Representative of the Deputy

With this message I hope you and your families are enjoying a well-deserved sum-mer, with the usual picnics, BBQ, and vacations. Since our last Communicator, we

had a marvelous speaker, Author Margaret Starbird at the May meeting, who addressed a large mixed audience of Scottish Rite members, wives, and guests. We were honored to have our Deputy, Ill. Al Jorgensen, and SGIG Emeritus, William R. Miller along with a special guest from Romania.

We also conferred the 18th degree upon 15 brethren, in late May, with a cast headed by Bro. George Lofthus, in an extremely professional manner. We are looking

forward to an equally excellent rendition of the 30th Degree on September 7th.

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Brethren, as summer is upon us I hope you are able to spend some quality time with your friends and family. We are taking this time during the slower summer months to catch

up on some maintenance with our facility as well as a few improvements in and around the Temple.

We have had several great speakers this year with the Vice President of the Theosophi-cal Society and renowned Author Margaret Starbird (both with record number of at-

tendees) and we hope to have a few more before we close the year out. If you have someone in mind that you think would make an ideal speaker, please shoot me an email and we can discuss a few options and dates.

Lastly, on the next page is a kabbalistic prayer that I thought many of you would find worthy of a look. As the kabbalah (or Qabalah in the Hermetic traditions) plays a very

important part in Scottish Rite Freemasonry, I thought it would be prudent to provide more information on the kabbalah in each issue. Keep an eye out for more bits and bobs in future issues.

Fraternally,

Greg Goodrich, 32° K:.C:.C:.H:.General Secretary

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Kabbalists believe that one of the most powerful prayers is the Ana b’Koach or 42-Letter Name of God. This name is a vehicle we can use to tap into the energy of Creation—the source of joy and fulfillment—and help make a connection to life-improving energies.

The Ana b’Koach is built around a sequence of 42 letters that are encoded within the first 42 let-ters of the book of Genesis. The kabbalists explain that this seven sequence combination of letters takes us to the time of Creation. Each time we meditate on a particular sequence, we return to the original uncorrupted energy that built the world. The seven lines of the Ana b’Koach correspond to the seven days of the week and seven specific angels. Each sentence also corresponds to a particular heavenly body. By performing the Ana b’Koach mediation, we enrich our lives with unadulterated spiritual Light and positive energy.

The prayer of the Kabbalist:

the ana b’koach

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Albert Pike’s visit to seAttle in August 1876

On August 18, 1876, we had a very special visitor to the Emerald City. Ill. Brother Albert Pike, 33°, Soverign Grand Commander of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, USA.

Although we do not know much about what Grand Commander Pike did while visiting our fair city, we do have the meeting minutes of when our Lodge of Perfection hosted this Illustrious Sir. I also know that he

had visited several other Lodges while in the Washington Territory. For those who are not up to date on the State-hood of Washington, we were created a state in 1889. The Orient of Seattle (Notice it was not yet the Orient of Washington) received our first charter in 1872 when we were still just a Territory of the United States of America.

According to the history of the Supreme Council, Albert Pike traveled on his first trip to the Pacific Coast where it is said he spent a week in San Francisco, California. After his visit in California he traveled north

to Oregon and arrived in Portland on August 9, 1876. Ill. Bro. Pike visited Oregon Lodge of Perfection on the 15th before heading up to Seattle where he visited us on the 18th. After his visit to the Washington Territory, it is recorded that he spoke at Ainsworth Chapter of Rose Croix in Oregon on the 22nd, no doubt on his way back to California. It is also noted that he traveled with his daughter. According to the records, Albert Pike’s trip to the Pacific Coast from June 30, 1876 to October 23, 1876 cost $875 in gold and $325 in currency for a total of $1,200.00.

I have included a fascimile of original meeting minutes on the next page. It is hard to read the hand writing so I retyped the hand written notes (including the lack of puncutation). I hope you enjoy this historic piece of our

Scottish Rite cultural heritage.

Greg Goodrich, General Secretary

Hand written notes of Pike’s visit on August 18, 1876

Lodge opened and Illustrious Brother Pike received as Sov:. Gr:. Com-mander under the Arch of Steel and Blazen Stars after a few remarks to the lodge in reference to the Lodge work the Lodge, was duly closed and Mas-ter Masons were admitted and the Ill:. Bro:. Pike spoke to them after which B B:. adjourned to Occidental Hotel where a celebration was prepared for the B B:.

S.P. Andrews, 32° Sec

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Albert Pike found Freemasonry in a log cabin and left it in a Temple. He was the master genius of Masonry in America, both as scholar and artist. No other mind of equal power ever toiled so long in the service of the

Craft in the New World. No other has left a nobler fame in our annals.

A great American and a great Mason, the life of Pike is a part of the romance of his country. Outside the Craft he was known as a poet, journalist, soldier, jurist, orator, and his ability in so many fields fills one with amazement. Apart from the chief work of his life in Masonry, he merits honor as a philosopher and a scholar. Indeed, he was one of the richest minds of his age, resembling the sages of the ancient world in his appearance and in the quality of his mind. Those who do not know Masonry often think of him as a man whom history passed by and forgot.

Pike was born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 29, 1809, of a family in which are several famous names, such as Nicholas Pike, author of the first arithmetic in America, and the friend of Washington; and Zebulon Pike, the explorer, who gave his name to Pike’s Peak. His father, he tells us, was a shoemaker who worked hard to give his children the benefit of an education; his Mother a woman of great beauty, but somewhat stern in her ideas of rearing a boy. As a child he saw the festivities at the close of the War with Great Britain, in 1815. When Albert Pike was four his father moved to Newburyport, and there the boy grew up, attending the schools of the town, and also the academy at Framingham. At fourteen he was ready for the freshman class at Harvard, but was unable to pay the tuition fees for two years in advance, as was required at that time, and proceeded to educate himself. Had he been admitted to Harvard he would have been in the class of Oliver Wendell Holmes.

As a lad, Albert Pike was sensitive, high-strung, conscious of power, very shy and easily depressed; but, ambi-tious and determined to make his place in the world. Always a poet, while teaching school at Fairhaven he wrote a series of poems called “Hymns to the Gods,” which he afterward revised and sent to Christofer North, editor of “Blackwood’s Magazine,” at Edinburg, receiving in reply a letter hailing him as a truly great poet. Had Pike given himself altogether to poetry he would have been one of the greatest of American Poets; but, he seemed not to care for such fame but only for the joy, and sometimes the pain, of writing. Indeed, the real story of his inner life may be traced in his poems, a volume of which was published as early as 1813, in honor of which event his friends gave him a reception.

In a poem called “Fatasma” he pictures himself at that time as a pale-faced boy, wasted by much study, reciting his poems to a crowded room. As his lips move his eyes are fastened on the lovely face and starry eyes of a girl to whom he dared not tell his love, because she was rich and he was poor. No doubt this hopeless love had much to do with his leaving New England to seek his fortune in the West. Anyway, it made him so sore of heart that the word God does not appear in his poetry for several years. Another reason for going away was the rather stern environment of New England, in which he felt that he could never do and be his best. So, he sings: Weary of fruit-less toil he leaves his home, To seek in other climes a fairer fate.

Pike left New England in March, 1831, going first to Niagara, and thence, walking nearly all the way, to St. Louis. In August he joined a party of forty traders with ten covered wagons following the old Santa Fe Trail.

He was a powerful man, six feet and two inches tall, finely formed, with dark eyes and fair skin, fleet of foot and sure of shot, able to endure hardship, and greatly admired by the Indians. He spent a year at Santa Fe, the unhap-piest months of his life. Friendless, homesick, haunted by many memories, he poured out his soul in sad-hearted poems in which we see not only the desperate melancholy of the man but the vivid colors of the scenery and life round about him. Shelly was his ideal, Coleridge his inspiration but his own genius was more akin to Bryant than any other of our singers. What made him most forlorn is told in such lines as these:

Albert Pike, 33°The Man and Mason

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Friends washed off by life’s ebbing tide, Like sands upon the shifting coasts, The soul’s first love another’s bride; And other melancholy though.

Happily, new scenes, new friends, and new adventures healed his heart, and a new note of joy is added to his rare power of describing the picturesque country in which he was a pilgrim. In 1832, with a trapping party, he went down the Pecos river into the Staked Plains, and then to the headwaters of the Brazos and Red Rivers. It was a perilous journey and he almost died of hunger and thirst, as he has told us in his poem, “Death in the Desert.” After walking five hundred miles he arrived at Fort Smith, Arkansas, friendless, without a dollar, and well-nigh naked. He was soon teaching school in a tiny log cabin near Van Buren, and, tired of wandering, his life began to take root and grow.

Again his pen was busy, writing verses for the “Little Rock Advocate,” as well as political articles under the pen name “Casca,” which attracted so much notice that Horace Greely reprinted them in the New York Tribune. Soon the whole state was eager to know the genius who signed himself “Casca.” Robert Crittenden and Judge Turner rode through the wilderness and found the tall, handsome young man teaching in a log schoolhouse on Little Piney River. Charmed with his modesty and power, they invited him to go to Little Rock as assistant editor of the Advocate. Here ended the winter of his wanderings, and his brilliant summer began among friends who love him and inspired him to do his best.

Pike made an able editor, studying law at night, never sleeping more than five hours a day - which enabled him to do as much work as two men usually do. By 1835 he owned the Advocate, which contained some of his

best writing. He delved deep into law, mastering its history, its philosophy; and, once admitted to the bar, his path

to success was an open road. About this time we read a tender poem, “To Mary,” showing that other thoughts were busy in his mind. That same year he married Miss Mary Hamilton, a beautiful girl whom he met on a June day at the home of a friend. A few months later appeared this “Prose Sketches and Poems,” followed by a longer poem; bold, spirited, and scholarly entitled “Ariel.” His poems were printed, for the most part, by his friends as he seemed deaf to the whispers of literary ambition.

In the War with Mexico Pike won fame for his valor in the field of Buena Vista, and he has enshrined that scene in a thrilling poem. After the war he took up the cause of the Indians, whose life and languages fascinated him

and who, he felt, were being robbed of their rights. He carried their case to the Supreme Court. to whose Bar he was admitted in 1849, along with Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin. His speech in the case of the Senate Award to the Choctaws is famous, Webster passing high eulogy upon it. Judged by any test, Pike was a great ora-tor, uniting learning with practical acumen, grace with power, and the imperious magnetism which only genius can command.

Pike was made a Master Mason in Western Star Lodge No. 1, Little Rock, Arkansas, July, 1850; and the symbol-ism of the Craft fascinated him from the first, both as a poet and scholar. Everywhere he saw suggestions, dim intimations, half-revealed and half-concealed ideas which could not have had their origin among the common craft Masons of old. He set himself to study the Order, his enthusiasm keeping pace with his curiosity, in search of the real origin and meaning of its symbols. At last he found that Freemasonry is the Ancient Great Mysteries in disguise, it’s simple emblems the repository of the highest wisdom of the Ancient World, to rescue and expound which became more and more his desire and passion. Here his words: “It began to shape itself to my intellectual vision into something imposing and majestic, solemnly mysterious and grand. It seemed to me like the Pyramids in the grandeur and loneliness, in whose yet undiscovered chambers may be hidden, for the en-lightenment of the coming generations, the sacred books of the Egyptians, so long lost to the World; like the Sphinx, half- buried in the sands. In essence, Freemasonry is more ancient than any of the world’s living religions. So I came at last to see that its symbolism is its soul.”

Thus a great poet saw Freemasonry and sought to renew the luster of its symbols of high and gentle wisdom, mak-ing it a great humanizing, educational and spiritual force among men. He saw in it a faith deeper than all creeds,

“Albert Pike found Freemasonry in a log cabin and left it in a Temple”

Page 10larger than all sects, which, if rediscovered, he believed, would enlighten the world. It was a worthy ambition for any man, and one which Pike, by the very quality of his genius, as well as his tastes, temper and habits of mind, seemed born to fulfill. All this beauty, be it noted, Pike found in the old Blue Lodge - he had not yet advanced to the higher degrees - and to the end of his life the Blue Lodge remained to him a wonder and a joy. There he found universal Masonry, all the higher grades being so many variations on its theme. He did not want Masonry to be a mere social club, but a power for the shaping of character and society.

So far Pike had not even heard of the Scottish Rite, to which he was to give so many years of service. He seems not to have heard of it until 1852, and then, as he tells us, with much the same feeling with which a Puritan

might hear of a Buddhist ceremony performed in a Calvinistic church. He imagined that it was not Masonry at all, or else a kind of Masonic atheism. His misunderstanding was due, perhaps, to the bitter rivalry of rites which then prevailed, and which he did so much to heal. At length he saw that Masonry was one, though its rites are many, and he studied the Scottish Rite, its origin, history, and such ritual as it had at the time, which was rather crude and chaotic, but sufficient to reveal its worth and promise.

The Scottish appeared in America in 1801, at Charleston, South Carolina, derived from a Supreme Council con-stituted in Berlin in 1786. For its authority it had, in manuscript, a Grand Constitution, framed by the Prussian body - a document which Pike afterwards defended so ably, though toward the end of his life he was led by facts brought out by Gould and others, to modify his earlier position. The Council so established had no subordinate bodies at first, and never very many, in fact, until 1855, a very natural result in a country which, besides hav-ing Masonry of its own, regarded the Rite as heresy. None the less Pike entered the Scottish Rite, at Charleston, March 20, 1853, receiving its degrees from the fourth to the thirty-second, and the thirty-third degree in New Orleans, in 1857.

The following year he delivered a lecture in New Orleans, by special request, before the Grand Lodge of Louisi-ana; his theme being “The Evil Consequences od Schisms and Disputes for Power in Masonry, and of Jealousy and Dissensions Between Masonic Rites” - one of the greatest single Masonic lectures ever delivered, in which may be found the basis of all his Masonic thought and teaching. Masonry, as Pike saw it, is morality founded in faith and taught by symbols. It is not a religion, but a worship in which all good men can unite, its purpose be-ing to benefit mankind physically, socially, and spiritually; by helping men to cultivate freedom, friendship and character. To that end, beyond the facts of faith - the reality of God, the moral law, and the hope of immortality - it does not go.

One is not surprised to learn that Pike was made Sovereign Grand Commander of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, in 1859. He at once began to recast the Rite, rewriting its rituals, reshaping its degrees, some of

which existed only in skeleton, and clothing them in robes of beauty. To this task he brought all his learning as a scholar, his insight as a poet, and his enthusiasm as a Mason. He lived in Little Rock, in a stately home over-looking the city, where he kept his vast library and did his work. In the same year, 1859, he was reported dead by mistake, and had the opportunity of reading many eulogies written in his memory. When the mistake was known, his friends celebrated his “return from Hades,” as it was called, by a festival.

Alas, then came the measureless woe of Civil War, and Pike cast his lot with the South, and was placed in com-mand of the Indian Territory. Against his protest the Indian regiments were ordered from the Territory and took part in the Battle of Elkhorn. The battle was a disaster, and some atrocities by Indian Troops, whom he was unable to restrain, cause criticism. Later, when the Union Army attacked Little Rock the Commanding General, Thomas H. Benton, Grand Master of Masons in Iowa, posted a guard to protect the home of Pike and his Masonic Library. After the War Pike practiced Law for a time in Memphis. In 1868 he moved to Alexandria, Virginia, and in 1870 to Washington.

Again he took up his labors in behalf of Masonry, revising its rituals, and writing those nobel lectures into which he gathered the wisdom of the ages - as though his mind were a great dome which caught the echoes of a thousand thinkers. By 1871 the Scottish Rite was influential and widely diffused, due, in part, to the energy and genius of its Commander. In the same year he published “Morals and Dogma,” a huge manual for the instruction of the Rite, as much a compilation as a composition, able but ill-arranged, which remains to this day a monument of learning. It ought to be revised, rearranged, and reedited, since it is too valuable to be left in so cumbersome a form, contain-ing as it does much of the best Masonic thinking and writing in our literature. It is studded with flashing insights and memorable sayings, as for example:

Man is accountable for the uprightness of his doctrine, But not for the rightness of it. The free country where intellect and genius rule, will endure. Where they serve, and other influences govern, its life is short. When

Page 11the state begins to feed part of the people, it prepares all to be slaves. Deeds are greater than words. They have a life, mute but undeniable, and they grow. They people the emptiness of Time. Nothing is really small. Every bird that flies carries a thread of the infinite in its claws. Sorrow is the dog of that unknown Shephard who guides the flock of men. Life has its ills, but it is not all evil. If life is worthless, so is immortality. Our business is not to be better than others, but to be better than ourselves.

For all his strength and learning, Pike was ever a sensitive, beauty-loving soul, touched by the brevity and sadness of life, which breathe in his poems. His best known poem, but by no means his greatest, was written in 1872 en-titled, “Every Year,” in which this note of melancholy is heard: Life is a count of losses, Every year; For the weak are heavier crosses, Every year; Lost springs with sobs replying, Unto weary Autumn’s sighing, While those we love are dying, Every year. To the past go more dead faces, Every year; As the loved leave vacant places, Every year; Everywhere the sad eyes meet us, In the evening’s dusk they greet us, And to come to them entreat us, Every year. But the truer life draws nigher, Every year; And the morning star climbs higher, Every year; Earth’s hold on us grows slighter, And the heavy burden lighter, And the Dawn Immortal brighter, Every year. Death often pressed the cup of sorrow to his lips.

Three of his children died in infancy. His first son was drowned; his second, an officer, was killed in battle. His eldest daughter died in 1869, and the death of his wife was the theme of a melting poem, “The Widowed Heart.” His tributes to his friends in the Fraternity, as one by one they passed away, were memorable for their tenderness and simple faith. Nothing could shake his childlike trust in the veiled kindness of the Father of Men; and despite many clouds, “Hope still with purple flushed his sky.”

In his lonely later years, Pike betook himself more and more to his studies, building a city of the mind for inward consolation and shelter. He mastered many languages - Sanskrit, Hebrew, old Samarian, Persian - seeking what

each had to tell of beauty and of truth. He left in the library of the House of the Temple fifteen large manuscript volumes, translations of the sacred books of the East, all written with an old- fashioned quill, in a tiny flowing hand, without blot or erasure. There he held court and received his friends amid the birds and flowers he loved so well. He was companionable, abounding in friendship, brilliant in conversation, his long white hair lending him an air of majesty, his face blushing like a child’s at merited praise, simple. kindly, lovable. So death found him in April, 1891, fulfilling his own lines written as a boy:

So I, who sing, shall die, Worn thin and pale, by care and sorrow; And, fainting. with a soft unconscious sigh, Bid unto this poor body that I borrow, A long good-by - tomorrow To enjoy, I hope, eternal spring in high Beyond the sky.

So passed Pike. No purer, nobler man has stood at the Altar of Freemasonry or left his story in our traditions. He was the most eminent Mason in the world, alike for his high rank, his rich culture, and his enduring service.

Nor will our craft ever permit to grow dim the memory of that stately, wise, and gracious teacher - a Mason to whom the world was a Temple, a poet to whom the world was a song.

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FOR THE GOOD OF THE ORDER

After listening so intently to this remarkable Report, no one wishes to hear a long speech from anybody. But, in as much as the Report referred so kindly to me, perhaps I may be allowed a personal word, if only to tell

in what mood I take up the work, and the spirit in which I hope to do it.

First, let me tell a story. During the American Civil War a young Captain in the army of the South was taken pris-oner and brought up the Mississippi to Rock Island. The northern climate was severe on the southern men, proof of which can be found in the files of the War Department. The young Captain fell ill, desperately ill. He made him-self known as a Mason to an officer of the prison. The officer took him out of the prison to his home, and nursed him back to life. When the War ended he put money in his pocket and gave him a little pistol to protect himself on his way back to his southern home. That young Captain was my father!

So, as far back as I can remember, I have had a great admiration for a Fraternity whose spirit could soften the horrors of battle and mitigate the lot of a prisoner of war. By the same token, I hope I have done a little for Free-masonry in return, trying feebly to repay a measureless obligation. For the same reason I should like to do more in its behalf before the day ends.

Since those far off years all of us have lived through a Great War, and no man can pass through such an ordeal and be the same man he was before. Something died in me and was buried with the boys I buried in Flanders - five hundred and twenty-seven of them in one day. All bitterness, bigotry and all ill-will if I ever had any toward any race or creed, lie dead and buried with the War. Never have I had a deeper pity for my race, a greater love for my country, or a firmer faith that Freemasonry can do something for the re-building of the broken brotherhood of the world that nothing else can do.

It was in the old gray city of London, at that time an arsenal and a hospital, that I first heard of the organization of the Masonic Service Association of the United States. It was one of the best bits of news that came in the days

when good news was rare. When I learned of the basis on which the Association was organized, and the program it meant to carry through, it was like a dream come true. Now, at last, I felt that American Masonry had begin to realize both its opportunity and its obligations; and I had a great longing to have a part, however small, in such a work.

The purpose of the association. as I understood it, sought to fulfill three basic principles of Freemasonry. Broth-erly Love, Relief and truth - the doing of good and the spreading of light in the spirit of good will. Living under the shadow of a vast tragedy - trying to think and pray in the rhythm of its guns - it seemed to me that what the world needed was more Light, more Love, More Understanding; and that is what it needs today.

Our program is two-fold, first to bring American Freemasonry together in cooperative fellowship and service in a time of need and calamity; and second, to educate Masons in Masonry that the gentle, kindly light which

shines on our Altar may find its way through our lives and through our lodges into the world of partisan strife and sectarian feud where it is needed. What we want is a service that educates and an education that serves.

The whole principle of Freemasonry is that “Brotherhood of Man begins with the Manhood of the Brother.” It seeks to build men, and then to make them Brothers and Builders. Any other kind of brotherhood is weak, if not futile, either a flabby sentimentalism or a calculating selfishness. Masonry is made up of strong men, picked men - they cannot be picked too carefully - sworn and trained to make righteousness and good will prevail. By that very fact a great responsibility rests upon us, which we cannot escape even if we desired to do so. Whatever needs to be done in any community the Masons ought to be the leaders in doing it, because they are Builders. Every Masonic lodge ought to be a social and civic center, where designs are drawn upon the Trestleboard for the common good, regardless of sect or party.

At first glance, our program may seem to be rather academic and high-brow, but it can be modified and adapted to our real needs and problems. No man, no set of men, can make such a program outright; it is by doing

things that we learn what needs to be done and how best to do it. If we work together wisely, keeping the human

Page 13touch and the spiritual vision, our experiments will ripen into a fruitful experience of how the spirit and principles of freemasonry can be practically applied to the life and service of our generation; as Washington and Franklin wrought its genius into the organic law of our new Republic.

Frankly, my first thought is not of the men who are already Masonic students. We need them, of course, and I believe they will rally to out help, as they did when we founded the Research Society. No, we are thinking of

the throngs of young men - shock-headed boys, God Bless them! - who are crowding into our Temples all over the land. We welcome their youth, their energy, their enthusiasm; but we want them to be Masons, not merely mem-bers. We want them to know something about Masonry, not only its ritual, but what the ritual means, and what Masonry can do and ought to do in the World. Otherwise, as is so often the case, they will drift away and become “Bread and Butter Masons;” attending “The Big Meets and the Big Eats,” using the Masonic Apron for a napkin. Such men ought to have a special Apron of their own, adorned with a knife and fork as emblems!

Perhaps it is not altogether their fault - the lodge that simply makes Masons, and does not teach Masonry, does only half its work, or does its work only half way. If we do not know Masonry ourselves, if we do not know how to teach it to our young initiates, if our lodges become simply mills grinding out degrees; our freemasonry will sink to the level of a club - useful as such but in no way unique - losing its original purpose and power, and its great opportunity in our own day.

Always the first principle of education is to excite curiosity, to awaken interest; hence the plan of this Associa-tion, a few items of which I wish to mention without going far into detail. The moving-picture program seeks

to make use of one of the greatest arts of our time to enlist interest in Freemasonry, by showing what it means when actually worked out in modern life. In the same way, the M.S.A. National Masonic Library will bring the best thought of the Craft within the reach of lodges and members; and our proposed journal, “The Master Mason,” will be a medium for the exchange of ideas, plans, methods and good-fellowship; and a means of learning the present state of Freemasonry in all lands, its aspirations and its difficulties.

Besides, we hope to enter the strangely neglected field of fiction, using another great art in the service of the Craft. Hitherto, except for the stories of Brother Kipling, we have had few Masonic stories. The men of the Craft, like all other Americans, read stories, and it will be good news to know that one of the greatest of American novelists has promised to write, as only he can write, the story of Freemasonry in the American Revolution. When our young men read that story their blood will tingle and their hearts will beat faster as they see and realize what a part Ma-sonry had in the creation of our Republic. Also, there wail be short stories dramatizing the meaning of Masonry and its creative influence in the practical life as we know and live it.

Masonic research. as I understand it, means to search again for something we may have forgotten or over-looked. There are treasures of truth in our Freemasonry, and sources of power we have not yet dreamed of

much less used. We need to know the past of Masonry in order to keep us true to its spirit, its purpose and its meth-ods; and I think I have shown a not unworthy interest in the history and archaeology of the Craft. But we must also make research into the present meaning, power, and application of Freemasonry, the better to know what our great order of Builders ought to do and can do for the making of a greater and better America. The philanthropies of the Craft are munificent and its opportunities are magnificent!

Brethren, I believe in America as I believe in God, and I know that as Freemasonry did a great work in the past of America, so can it do a still greater work in the future of our country. With the utmost respect and regard for other lands and peoples, our care is for America - our America, God’s America - to keep it true to its high, heroic tradition. Three Ruffians threaten the safety and sanctity of America- racial rancor, religious bigotry and a disin-tegrating spirit of lawlessness!

Here is our challenge and our opportunity, lest our Temple of Liberty and Fraternity be injured or destroyed be-fore it is completed and dedicated - for it is not yet complete. Racial rancor is a thing slithered with blood and the mother of feuds and wars. Religious bigotry is one of the most horrible things in history. Its story is a tragedy too terrible to tell. As for lawlessness, it strikes at the Altar of liberty, undermines all our institutions, and opens the floodgates of anarchy. These Ruffians, if they have they way, will wreck Freemasonry, as they came near doing long ago, and they will ruin America.

Freemasonry, by virtue of its spirit and its teachings, can do for America what no other Fraternity can do. With-out entering into political debates or sectarian disputes, as in the past so in the future, let us build upon the

foundations laid by our fathers, and make America what its poets and prophets have dreamed it should be; and to have even a little part in such a work is honor enough - IT IS HONOR ENOUGH!

(The substance of an address by Bro. Newton, Educational Director; at the Annual Meeting of The Masonic Ser-vice association, Washington, D.C. Oct. 29th, 1923; following the report of the Executive Commission.)

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* * * * * * * SPeCIAl oFFeR * * * * * * *

Scottish Rite Three Ring Portfolio

Purchase a Scottish Rite Portfolio for only $20.00 Remember! You can only puchase your portfoilio from the Valley office.

We will not mail them due to the expense... Questions? call: 206.324.3330

Close up of image

JohAnn WolfgAng von goethe

The mason’s trade Observe them well,Resembles life, And watch them revealingWith all its strife,-- How solemn feelingIs like the stir made And wonderment swellBy man on earth’s face. The hearts of the brave.Though weal and woe The voice of the blest,The future may hide, And of spirits on highUnterrified Seems loudly to cry:We onward go “To do what is best,In ne’er changing race. Unceasing endeavour!A veil of dread “In silence eterneHangs heavier still. Here chaplets are twin’d,Deep slumbers fill That each noble mindThe stars over-head, Its guerdon may earn.--And the foot-trodden grave. Then hope ye for ever!”

A SYMBOL(1827)

Brethren, please remember these, our own, and all the Brethren who have traveled beyond our physical borders to that undiscovered country.

Happy Birthday!Congratulations from all your Scottish Rite brethren

to our members who have reached a very important birthday!

Virtus Junxit Mors Non Separabit

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In memorium

Alfred Anthony, 32°Alfred Butterfield, 32°Robert e. Fluke, 32°

edward Ginnever, 32°Robert P. Hanock, 32°William Jansen, 32°James D Jensen, 32°

Delmer (Bud) Robinson, 33°Steve Sarich Jr., 32°

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Messages

Dave D. Symington 7/2/1918 Thomas W. Constant 8/14/1915 David S. Belvin 8/1/1923Frank E. Smith 7/4/1918 Virgil G. Mudd 8/31/1917 Joseph W. Roundhill 8/1/1923Marvin R. Jackson 7/18/1920 Jack W. Lothrop 8/29/1918Robert E. Freimund 7/1/1921 John G. Christensen 8/1/1919Leonard A. Abelson 7/25/1921 Bill J. Harris 8/27/1919John M. Frodesen 7/30/1921 Harold L. Child, Jr. 8/19/1920James A. Farrington 7/31/1921 Marwin E. Holm 8/30/1920Robert L. Lauer 7/1/1922 Bertil G. Carlson 8/2/1921Robert S. Barker 7/1/1923 Alvin E. Thornton 8/5/1921Daniel D. George Jr. 7/1/1923 Gerald R. Bryson 8/6/1921Russell F. Rogers 7/10/1923 John Grosso 8/19/1921

Brethren, it has come to our attention that several members that wish to attend our stated meet-ings are not able to because of the lack of transportation. If you are one of these members

and would like to attend out stated meetings please call the office and let us know. We are work-ing on a solution, but we need to know how many brethren are actually in the need for transporta-tion. Please call 206.324.3330 for more information.

Scottish Rite of Freemasonry1207 N 152nd StreetSeattle, WA 98133

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Schedule of events

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www.seattlescottishrite.orgJuly 2013 Sunday July 14th, 2:00 pm Funeral Service for Bud Robinson at the Nile Temple.Sunday July 20th, 10:00 am Finance Committee.

August 2013

Saturday August 3rd - 11:00 am Outdoor degree - Masonic Park - Scottish Rite TeamSaturday August 10th - 9:00 am Executive Council

Demler T. “Bud” RobinsonJune 20, 1928 - May 8, 2013

The Valley of Seattle mourns the passing of our beloved Illustrious Brother Bud Robinson, 33°. Bud served our Valley with distinction for many years and was coronated a 33° in 2009. Bud will be sorely missed and his life of dedica-tion and service to his fellow creatures was an inspiration to us all. A Rose Croix funeral ser-vice will be held for Bud at the Nile on Sunday, July 14th at 2:00 pm.