.
2007
Officers
Worshipful Master R. Scott Teichrow (928-425-8293)
Senior Warden
William Garrard, PM (602-866-8204)
Junior Warden
Robert Gillette, PM
Secretary Joe A. Henry
PM (928-425-6686)
Treasurer Oscar T. Lyon
Jr., PGM (602-252-2739)
Senior Deacon Earl
Warner
Junior Deacon Brad
Busler, PM
Chaplain Paul
Dore' Sr, PM
Marshall Ralph
A. Gerhardt. PM
Senior Steward Howard
Billingsley, PM
Junior Steward
Art Salcido Jr.
Tyler Henry
Johnson
Trustees:
Robert Gillette, PM
2011
Henry London, PM,
2010
Paul Dore' Sr. PM,
2009
Howard Billingsley, PM, 2008
R Scott Teichrow,
2007
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Committees
Public
Schools - Bro. Jim Heimer
Widows - W.
Rusty Moore
Kids Voting
- W. Rusty Moore
Education -
W. Howard Billingsley
By-Laws -
MW Oscar Lyon Jr.
Membership
- WB. Doug Skowron
Community Events - W. Paul Dore' Sr.
Meeting Calendar 2007
Mar
April May
June
July
Aug
1- OES #8 5- OES #8
3- OES #8 7- OES #8 5- OES #8
2- OES #8
10 - WM #3 14 - WM #3
12- WM #3 9- WM #3 14- WM #3
11- WM #3
OES
#8 Luncheon
March 10th 12:00pm
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Something to Think About
Coinciding with the rise of Speculative Freemasonry in England came
the birth of the landscape garden. Just as the Vitruvian concept of
architecture all
other studies became a fundamental tenet of Enlightenment Freemasonry,
so too did the notion of garden design as a further expression of
masonic
principles. Many of the foremost garden designers of the day were
Freemasons, so it is not surprising that they utilized a vast vocabulary
of masonic symbols in their creations.
Enthusiasm for the new art of gardening was not confined to England - it
spread to France,
Germany and other parts of
Europe, just as ideas and ideals of
Freemasonry itself were disseminated. In
Europe as in England, the new gardens were deliberately intended
to evoke the ideal of uncorrupted Elysium. Such
gardens, it was felt could play their part in bringing about a new
golden age of increasing social harmony and perfection. This was a prime
masonic
ambition. The idea was to shape the landscape to expound an explicit
moral lesson.
For masonic garden designers, architecture and garden ornament were just
as important as the planning of the garden itself - indeed the two were
inseparable. Again, the links with Freemasonry and Masonic symbolism are
specific. Great "gardens of allusion", as they came to be known were
created at Castle Howard in Yorkshire; Strawberry Hill near London, home
of
Horace Walpole (1717-1797) the 18th century writer and wit and
English Member of Parliament; Stowe House in
Buckinghamshire; and at the philosopher
Jean-Jacques Rousseau's (1712-1778) home in
Ermenonville, France.
Circular rotundas began to feature in garden architecture - these
temple-like buildings had various masonic and allegorical properties
attributed to
them. Sphinxes made an appearance, along with pyramids, obelisks and
other features influenced by the Egyptians. These were also an
expression of masonic traditions, notably the notion of a direct link
between the Craft and the ancient Egyptian Mysteries. One of the famous
'inventors' of the English landscape style was William Kent,
(1685-1748), who for instance, placed a stepped-pyramid over the central
block of the Temple of British Worthies he erected at Stowe, setting a
bust of Mercury within its oval niche. Mercury was an important figure
in masonic legend. His earlier name had been Hermes Trismegistus and he
was linked with Euclid, Pythagoras and the supposed Egyptian foundation
of the Craft.
The German poet
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) was a prominent Freemason
who made the creation of a new garden and its buildings along the
masonic lines a major theme in one of his novels - Die
Wahlverwandtschafte n - (1809). The text has plenty of masonic imagery,
with a reference to "lime mortar" in which the stones are to be
embedded. Lime mortar was important in
Goethe's day because of its binding force. The parallel, as he
pointed out, is the way in which law acts as a social cement within
human society.
Funerary gardens, as they were so called, began to be designed along the
same lines. Probably the grandest and most influential of them all is
the great cemetery of Pere-Lachaise, Paris, created by French Freemason
Alexandre-Theodore Brongniart (1739-1813) and opened in 1804. In the
cemetery, dignified classical tombs lined the avenues, each of which had
its own distinctive planting of limes, chestnuts, poplars and above all,
acacias. The acacia has long been esteemed as a sacred tree and acacias
are extremely important in masonic context. Not only did the plant have
historic Egyptian associations, but in masonic symbolism is a token of
the immortality of the soul. Lilies have also long been associated with
Freemasonry - the capitals of the two pillars of K S T were decorated
with them.
Nigel Gallimore
California, USA
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