Masons

[_Mary]

There's been some pretty good threads over on the mad boards to do with masonry.

Mormon Mason gave a good rendering, but underplayed imho the similarities between masonry and the Mormon temple ceremony.

From what I learned there, I formed a tentative opinion that Joseph Smith was well acquainted with masonry before he ever joined, probably through
his family and his brother Hyrum. He married the woman who was the wife of an 'anti-mason', (the one who disappeared in mysterious circumstances).

By the time he was ordained master mason (after only a few days apparantly) he was already well acquainted with the craft from what I could gather.
The Masons wouldn't give the Nauvoo lodge its mandate (or it withdrew it?) because I guess they didn't like what Joseph seemed to be doing with the craft.

Weren't the mob that killed him composed of a few masons? That would explain why he gave the masonic call when he was close to death.

Mary

[_Mercury]

There's been some pretty good threads over on the mad boards to do with masonry.

Mormon Mason gave a good rendering, but underplayed imho the similarities between masonry and the Mormon temple ceremony.

From what I learned there, I formed a tentative opinion that Joseph Smith was well acquainted with masonry before he ever joined, probably through
his family and his brother Hyrum. He married the woman who was the wife of an 'anti-mason', (the one who disappeared in mysterious circumstances).

By the time he was ordained master mason (after only a few days apparantly) he was already well acquainted with the craft from what I could gather.
The Masons wouldn't give the Nauvoo lodge its mandate (or it withdrew it?) because I guess they didn't like what Joseph seemed to be doing with the craft.

Weren't the mob that killed him composed of a few masons? That would explain why he gave the masonic call when he was close to death.

Mary

A few days? The norm, as you go further back in history is that it takes longer to go from EA to MM the further back one goes. My take is that Joe was exposed to the anti-masonic lectures popular during his teenage years. Since he was into esoteric matters the masons appealed to him.

I find it interesting that his last appeal was not to god but to the masons. He died like the dog he was.

[_Blixa]

I never had you pegged for a brother Mason, Merc. They're a fun bunch. Do you know Alan Moore's Jack the Ripper tour-de-force, From Hell? The film was but a shadow of the book---the footnotes are better than the main narrative!

[_Mercury]

I never had you pegged for a brother Mason, Merc. They're a fun bunch. Do you know Alan Moore's Jack the Ripper tour-de-force, From Hell? The film was but a shadow of the book---the footnotes are better than the main narrative!

Alan Moore is literary crack. Pure genius.

[_Blixa]

I never had you pegged for a brother Mason, Merc. They're a fun bunch. Do you know Alan Moore's Jack the Ripper tour-de-force, From Hell? The film was but a shadow of the book---the footnotes are better than the main narrative!

Alan Moore is literary crack. Pure genius.

He is good...I often don't like the illustrators he gets paired with though. I actually enjoy Eddie Campbell in other contexts, but I wasn't taken with his From Hell performance. That said, I can not recommend the notes from that tome enough---such riches!

[_Dr. Shades]

Mercury, don't you find the Masonic rituals to be overwhelmingly creepy?

I took a tour of the Salt Lake Masonic Temple and was wierded out to the core. I had a nightmare about Masonry that very night.

Also, how did you feel about the temple ceremony? And isn't the Masonic stuff 10x worse?

[_Bond...James Bond]

I never had you pegged for a brother Mason, Merc. They're a fun bunch. Do you know Alan Moore's Jack the Ripper tour-de-force, From Hell? The film was but a shadow of the book---the footnotes are better than the main narrative!

Excellent graphic novel...very good movie. Johnny Depp!

(I'm thinking of becoming a Mason. Quite a few of my family members are masons/shriners)

[_moksha]

The Masons

James Mason... Marsha Mason...

[_Mary]

Moksha!! That's funny! Your posts crack me up everytime!!

Mercury, I wouldn't have put you down as a mason either. My bil is one. Very dedicated to community, also dedicated to the philosophy of 'you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours'. A mason even did his father's funeral, (someone he knew through the craft) so they are quite good at keeping business with their brethren..

I've read a few of the pseudo history stuff concerning masons. Hiram Key and all that. I actually think there is some pretty good 'evidence' that masons can trace their practices back to the Scottish and the Knights Templar. I don't know though...has anyone ever sat down and analysed just where they get all their stuff from....Kabbalah? Egyptian Mystery Religions?

What do you think Merc?

Have you ever heard of the Hellfire Group, that operated over here out of West Wycombe. Dashwood and his ilk. They are a fascinating bunch.
The caves are really creepy though....

Mary

[_Blixa]

I never had you pegged for a brother Mason, Merc. They're a fun bunch. Do you know Alan Moore's Jack the Ripper tour-de-force, From Hell? The film was but a shadow of the book---the footnotes are better than the main narrative!

Excellent graphic novel...very good movie. Johnny Depp!

(I'm thinking of becoming a Mason. Quite a few of my family members are masons/shriners)

I actually enjoyed the film, too, Bond, though it was slim compared to the jam-packed nature of the novel--I still like to mine the notes for interesting books to look at and other tidbits (such as the fact that a layer of ash from Boudicca's destruction of Londinium is still geologically visible). The discussion of Hawkmoore's architecture is especially fascinating to me---references to his church's crop up all over the place and I've long been contemplating an article on certain forms of religious architecture...