Meeting Calendar 2004/2005

       Aug                 Sep                Oct              Nov               Dec           Jan                Feb

 14 - WM #   2 - OES #8    7 - OES #8   4 - OES #8   2 - OES #8  6 - OES #8   3 - OES #8

                    11 - WM #3     9 - WM #3   13 - WM #3  11 - WM #3    8 - WM #3  12 - WM #3

White Mountain Lodge #3 - 50 years ago

August 1954

General discussion was entered into concerning the disastrous flood that hit the business establishments on North Broad Street July 29, 1954.

Doric Lodge #26 - 50 years ago

August 1954

Brother James Hostetler announced that our annual Masonic Picnic would be held Sunday August 29^th at 1 o’clock at the Craig Ranch, Top of the World.

The "Forget Me Not" Pin and Freemasonry
The following is taken from a presentation card issued by the American Canadian Grand Lodge, AF&AM within the United Grand Lodges of Germany.
Submitted By
Wade A. Huffman (Light of the Three Stars Lodge #936 AF&AM, Ansbach, Germany and Lancaster Lodge #57 F&AM, Lancaster, Ohio).
The Forget-Me-Not (Das Vergissmeinnicht)
The Story Behind This Beloved Emblem Of The Craft in Germany.

In early 1934, soon after Hitler's rise to power, it became evident that Freemasonry was in danger. In that same year, the "Grand Lodge of the Sun" (one of the pre-war German Grand Lodges, located in Bayreuth) realizing the grave dangers involved, adopted the little blue Forget-Me-Not flower as a substitute for the traditional square and compasses. It was felt the flower would provide brethren with an outward means of identification while lessening the risk of possible recognition in public by the Nazis, who were engaged in wholesale confiscation of all Masonic Lodge properties. Freemasonry went undercover, and this delicate flower assumed its role as a symbol of Masonry surviving throughout the reign of darkness.

During the ensuing decade of Nazi power a little blue Forget-Me-Not flower worn in a Brother's lapel served as one method whereby brethren could identify each other in public, and in cities and concentration camps throughout Europe. The Forget-Me-Not distinguished the lapels of countless brethren who staunchly refused to allow the symbolic Light of Masonry to be completely extinguished.

When the 'Grand Lodge of the Sun' was reopened in Bayreuth in 1947, by Past Grand Master Beyer, a little pin in the shape of a Forget-Me-Not was officially adopted as the emblem of that first annual convention of the brethren who had survived the bitter years of semi-darkness to rekindle the Masonic Light.

At the first Annual Convent of the new United Grand Lodge of Germany AF&AM (VGLvD), in 1948, the pin was adopted as an official Masonic emblem in honor of the thousands of valiant Brethren who carried on their masonic work under adverse conditions. The following year, each delegate to the Conference of Grand Masters in Washington, D.C.,  received one from Dr. Theodore Vogel, Grand Master of the VGLvD.

Thus did a simple flower blossom forth into a symbol of the fraternity, and become perhaps the most widely worn emblem among Freemasons in Germany; a pin presented ceremoniously to newly-made Masons in most of the Lodges of the American-Canadian Grand Lodge, AF&AM within the United Grand Lodges of Germany. In the years since adoption, its significance world-wide has been attested to by the tens of thousands of brethren who now display it with meaningful pride.

What follows is another view - written by a Brother Mason, not by me. The origin of the information is an article in TAU 2/95 p.95f (the German Quatuor Coronati periodical), a "letter to the Editor" which appeared in TAU 1/96 in reply to that article, and additional research and conversations with old German Masons over the last few years.

In the years between WW1 and WW2 the blue forget-me-not was a standard symbol used by most charitable organizations in Germany, with a very clear meaning: "Do not forget the poor and the destitute". It was first introduced in German Masonry in 1926, well before the Nazi era, at the annual Communication of the Grand Lodge "Zur Sonne", in Bremen, where it was distributed to all the participants. That was a terrible time in
Germany, economically speaking, further aggravated in 1929 following that year's "Great Depression". That economic situation, by the way, contributed a lot to Hitler's accession to power. Very many people depended on charity, some of which was Masonic. Distributing the forget-me-not at the Grand Lodge Communication was meant to remind German Brethren of the charitable activities of the Grand Lodge.

In 1936 (Hitler was already in control since 1933) the "Winterhilfswerk" (a non- Masonic winter charity drive) held a collection and used and distributed the same symbol, again with its obvious charitable connotation. Some of the Masons who remembered the 1926 Communication --and the forget-me-not-- possibly also wore it later as a sign of recognition. We have no evidence of that and its general signification still was charity, but not specifically Masonic charity. Moreover it rapidly became quite impossible to risk wearing anything but Nazi pins. So there were probably only a very few Brethren wearing the forget-me-not, and probably only for a brief time, until wearing any non-Nazi pins became suspect. There is absolutely no record of the pin, or the flower, ever having been worn during the war (that is after 1939), even less in concentration camps, as the legend also goes.

In 1948 Bro. Theodor Vogel, Master of the Lodge "Zum weißen Gold am Kornberg", in Selb (then in Western-occupied Germany), remembered the 1926 and 1936 pin, had a few hundred made and started handing it out as a Masonic symbol wherever he went. When Brother Vogel was later elected GM of the Grand Lodge AF&AM of Germany and visited a Grand Masters' conference in Washington, DC, he distributed it there too, and this was the way it first came to the USA.

Its sudden popularity caused many manufacturers, some Masonic, some not, to pounce upon the occasion and sell the pin all over the world, with a variety of rather contrived and imaginative notes of explanation. The pin is nowadays quite well-known, as are the legends written about its origin, purpose and use... Which does not deter after all from the new message it carries today, through its authors' imagination if not through rigorous historical record...

And since we are mentioning the forget-me-not, it is any of about 50-odd species of the genus Myosotis, family Boraginaceae, carrying clusters of blue flowers and native to temperate Europe, Asia and North America.

COPY OF A DOLLAR BILL

Among those who helped design the Great Seal of the United States the following are known to have been Masons: Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, William Churchill Houston, and William Barton.  Whether they drew heavily upon Freemasonry in this work it is impossible to assert but when an informed Mason examines the Great Seal here is what he sees.

On the obverse is an eagle whose dexter wing has thirty-two feathers, the number of ordinary degrees in Scottish Rite Freemasonry.  The sinister wing has thirty-three feathers, the additional feather corresponding to the Thirty-Third Degree of the same Rite conferred for outstanding Masonic service.  The tail feathers number nine, the number of degrees in the Chapter, Council, and Commandery of the York Rite Freemasonry.  Scottish Rite Masonry had its origin in France, the York Rite is sometimes called the American Rite, and the eagle thus clothed represents the union of French and American Masons in the struggle for Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity.  The total number of feathers in the two wings is sixty-five which, by gem atria, is the value of the Hebrew phrase YAM YAWCHOD (together in unity).  This phrase appears in Psalm 133 as follows: “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity,” and is used in the ritual of the first degree of Freemasonry.  The glory above the eagle’s head is divided into twenty-four equal parts and reminds the observer of the Masonic gauge which is also divided into twenty-four equal parts and is emblematic of the service he is obligated to perform.  The five pointed stars remind him of the Masonic Blazing Star and the five points of fellowship.  The arrangements of the stars in the constellation to form overlapping equilateral triangles and the Star of David calls to the Mason’s mind King David’s dream of building a Temple, to his God, the Companions who rebuilt a desecrated Temple, and the finding of the Word that was lost.  The gold, silver and azure colors represent the sun, moon, and Worshipful Master, the first that rules the day, the second, the night, and the third, the lodge.  While silver, connected with the letter Gimel or G and being surrounded on an azure ground by a golden glory, reminds the Mason of the letter G, a most conspicuous furnishing of a proper lodge room.  The shield on the eagle’s breast affirms by its colors, valor (red), purity (white), and justice (blue), and reminds the Mason of the cardinal virtues.  The value of these colors, by gem atria, is 103, the value of the phrase EHBEN HA-ADAM (the stone of Adam) and suggests the perfect ashlar, or squared stone, of Freemasonry.  One hundred and three is also the value of the noun BONAIM, a rabbinical word signifying “builders, Masons.”  Thus the national colors spell our, by gem atria, the name of the fraternity.  The scroll is the eagle’s beak, bearing the words E PLURIBUS UNUM (of many one) reminds him also of the unity, which has made brothers of many.

On the reverse, is the all-Seeing Eye within a triangle surrounded by a golden glory.  Besides the obvious Masonic significance of this design, it has a cabalistic value of seventy plus three plus two hundred, equaling two hundred and seventy-three which is the value of the phrase EHBEN MOSU HABONIM (the stone which the builders refused) familiar to all Royal Arch Masons. It is also the value of the Hebrew proper noun HIRAM ABILL, the architect of Solom9n’s Temple and the principal character of the legend used in the Master Mason degree. The triangle is isosceles, formed by two right triangles having sides of five, twelve and thirteen units in length, illustrating the 47^th Problem of Euclid.  The triangle also represents the capstone of the unfinished pyramid and reminds the Mason of the immortality of the soul and that in eternity he will complete the capstone of his earthly labors according to the designs on the trestle-board of the Supreme Architect of the Universe.  The unfinished pyramid cannot fail to remind him of the unfinished condition of the Temple when tragedy struck down its Master architect.

The blaze of glory found on either side of the Great Seal cannot fail to remind the Mason of the Great Light in Masonry, which is the rule and guide to faith and practice and without which no Masonic Lodge can exist.  It reminds him that only more light can dispel the pall of ignorance in which he stumbles until he enters the Celestial Lodge where all light is given.

THE SOURCE OF PERSONAL POWER:
 
 Fortitude and faith are the words. That is what keeps a man going when he seems defeated. Believe that if you put your trust in God and keep at things with unremitting energy and intelligence you too, can build a solid foundation beneath you upon which you may mount up to victory. Therefore, train your mind never to accept the thought of defeat about anything. That verse from the Bible makes an unbeatable inspiration in any situation: "If God be for us, who can be against us?" Hold it habitually in mind and it will train you to believe in yourself by
 constantly reminding you that you have extra power available.
 
             (Brother & Reverend Norman Vincent Peale)