Skulls, Bones, Masons, and Meth

Occult crime is one of those things that in real life is pretty underwhelming. Once the Satanic Ritual Abuse scare was debunked in the early 1990's by the FBI, law enforcement officials were forced to admit that very few crimes involved occultism of any sort. But this story from New Zealand at least touches on a few elements that might very well have freaked out American investigators thirty years ago. Today it's mostly just funny.

A Nelson man who stole a human skull and bones from a Masonic lodge said he would return the stolen goods in exchange for meth. Cayden John Minto, 27, pleaded guilty to a charge of burglary and another of blackmail when he appeared in the Nelson District Court on Thursday.

A police summary facts said overnight on December 1, Minto broke into the Southern Star Lodge on Collingwood St. He forced a fire door open, found a key on top of a locked cupboard and used it to access a ceremonial area of the building known as the temple. Once inside, he took a human skull, assorted human bones, cutlery and books, as well as ceremonial knives, robes and marbles. he value of the items was estimated to be between $1000 and $1500.

Almost two weeks later, Minto made contact with a member of a fellow Freemasons Lodge in Nelson via Facebook. He sent messages over several days, claiming he was acting on behalf of someone who had the stolen goods, but was willing to negotiate their safe return. "Tell them be as fast as possible as the person with it will destroy it and dispose of it if he doesn't get 7 gram," one message read.

The demand was passed on to a member of the Southern Star Lodge. It was believed the person was requesting $7000 for the safe return of the items. Police later located the stolen items at Minto's former partner's house in Stoke and they were returned to the lodge. He said that "7 gram" was a reference to seven grams of methamphetamine.

I have to admit, these leaves me wondering if Minto might be a graduate of the "Become a Living God" program run by the online occult scene's resident meth-head slash carpet installer. But that probably isn't even a connection to this crime. My guess is that the security at the Masonic lodge wasn't that good - Masonic buildings tend to be old, after all - and Minto just broke in, stole what he could, and then got in touch with somebody at the lodge from whom he could (incompetently) demand drugs.

Let me tell you, if the Masons really did run the world this sort of thing would never fly. Minto would have been subjected to a dark and secret ritual that would have dragged his soul down to the depths of hell - you know, instead of just being reported to the police like any old thief and arrested.

A Secret Masonic Ritual?

There's a lot of talk on the Internet about Masons and supposed "secret rituals" carried out by "high degree members" that the rank and file don't learn about until they progress far into the depths of the organization. As one of those rank and file Blue Lodge masons, it's possible that stuff like this might be going on behind closed doors without my knowledge - but I have to say, I highly doubt it has anything to do with Masonic ritual.

The story sounds like something out of a bad movie, one of those "comedy of errors" films that asks how embarrassing things can possibly get. A former Australian mason apparently set out to distribute cheeseburgers to the homeless, but wound up naked inside a giant pipe organ with a toy gun and a remote controlled police car. Naturally, alcohol was involved.

A former freemason found drunk and naked inside a huge pipe organ has appeared in court accused of damaging the historic instrument - insured for more than $1 million. Glenn Langford was arrested on Wednesday after allegedly flooding the Brisbane Masonic Memorial Centre and setting off the fire alarms.

The 51-year-old faced charges at the Brisbane Arrest Court on Thursday and was granted bail. But he said his intentions were initially well-meaning and the night had got out of hand after downing a bottle of Johnny Walker whisky, 7 News reports.

The court was told he had been meaning to hand out cheeseburgers to the homeless. Food was left scattered on the floor of the grand hall of the heritage-listed temple in Brisbane's CBD, which features one of the biggest organs in Queensland.

It is feared the organ, installed in the 1930s, may be too damaged to be repaired despite it being insured for $1 million. Mr Langford is charged with allegedly damaging a number of organ pipes and destroying part of a decorative wall.

He was also discovered naked along with clothes, a remote controlled police car and toy gun. The magistrate heard from Mr Langford's lawyer who explained he had last week lost his job and was getting over the breakdown of a 16-year relationship. He was granted bail on the condition that he stayed more than 100 metres away from the centre in Ann Street.

'Things just got a little loose, I was out of it,' Mr Langford told 7 News. He apologised to 'all the righteous Freemasons everywhere'. 'I did have a lot of cheeseburgers to give to the homeless. I'm going to see a shrink and don't drink,' he added.

Maybe he's not drinking now, but if he really was a non-drinker and downed an entire bottle of whiskey - well, I suppose it actually makes sense that he took off all his clothes and climbed inside a giant pipe organ. Can you imagine waking up from that blackout? "Hey, where the hell am I, and what's going on? What am I supposed to do with this remote controlled police car? And where are my cheeseburgers?"

I suppose we'll just have to chalk it up as a cautionary tale of how Masonic charity can go bad. Maybe this is why American masons don't drink at lodge events.

Anti-Trump Freemason 440 Hz DNA is a Thing

Well no, not really. But it makes a great headline.

I love - and by love, I mean find so utterly ridiculous that it needs to be mocked on Angoeides - how conspiracy theorists are completely ignorant of basic things like physics and biology. I mean, they're also completely ignorant of things like Freemasonry, but that's just par for the course ever since Leo Taxil and that "Palladism" nonsense. And, of course, despite all evidence they continue to believe that Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminati books are works of history rather than fiction.

Recently a conspiracy theorist that I hadn't previously heard of, a guy named Mark Taylor, spun this whopper about Freemasons, the Illuminati, sonic weapons, and Donald Trump. It really is a thing of beauty.

Last week, “firefighter prophet” and right-wing conspiracy theorist Mark Taylor appeared on Sheila Zilinsky’s radio program, where he warned that the Freemasons and the Illuminati are using a Satanic frequency to change people’s DNA in order to make them oppose President Trump.

“I believe what happened on November 8 is the enemy has literally sent out a frequency,” Taylor said, “and it agitated and took control, basically, of those who have their DNA turned over to the enemy. That’s what’s happening. The Illuminati, the Freemasons, all these people, their main goal is to change the DNA of man and they’re doing it through these frequencies.”

Taylor claimed that he is getting “bombarded with emails” from Christians who are being isolated by their friends and families because of their support for Trump and that is “because their DNA is being controlled by the enemy.”

Taylor said that the media is broadcasting its audio at 440 Hz, which has been found to “damage your body organs” and “also changes your DNA, which is the goal of the Freemasons, the Illuminati; they want you part of that Illuminati bloodline.”

So Mark Taylor is truly a master of out-there bullshit. It's not quite child slaves on Mars territory, but it sure is getting there. Apparently Taylor doesn't understand how anyone could hate Donald Trump without being exposed to bizarre science fiction technology, and so he feels the need to manufacture a scenario out of whole cloth that can explain the president's current unpopularity. When really, it's just because many of us think he's doing such a terrible job.

Now let me address every incorrect assertion here, in order:

Masons Made Me Do It

This might be a case for the Masonic Police. Too bad they're probably in jail by now. Britton Clayton Traylor, the author of a conspiracy-theory book about "the coming New World Order" was arrested after trying to rob a movie theater in Hoover, Alabama. Traylor was subdued by the theater manager and a helpful patron, who detained him until police arrived to make the arrest.

Later, when asked why he committed the crime, Traylor explained that Freemasons had made him do it as part of a "higher degree" initiation. I'm left wondering if Traylor is so delusional that he thought people would believe him, or if somebody out there is seriously messing with him. "Yeah, we're Masons... umm... rob that theater over there and we'll initiate you..."

In either case, it's clear that Traylor truly has a dizzying intellect.

"We're not really buying that as we've never heard of Masons instructing members to commit criminal acts,'' said Hoover police spokesman Capt. Gregg Rector. "It's really one of the most ridiculous excuses that we've heard lately. He may have achieved a higher level of stupidity, but that's about it."

On Monday, lawmen responded to an armed robbery at the Carmike Lee Branch Theaters on Doug Baker Boulevard. Rector said Hoover officers and Shelby County sheriff's deputies arrived at the theater to find the manager and another man on top of Traylor, holding him on the ground in front of the theater.

The assistant manager told police the man entered the theater wearing a life-like mask and brandishing a handgun. He demanded cash, escorted the employee to the office and ordered him to open the safe. He took a large sum of money, put it into a backpack and left through the building's front door, Rector said.

Determined not to let him get away, the assistant manager followed Traylor, tackling and disarming him. At that point, Rector said, the victim realized the gun was a BB gun and tossed it aside. He also ripped the mask from Traylor's face.

The Truth About the Winchester House?

Recently this article has been going around the Internet purporting to tell "the truth" about the Winchester Mystery House, the famous sprawling mansion built in San Jose, California by Sarah Winchester, who was heir to the fortune built on the sales of the Winchester repeating rifle. Winchester commenced work on the house in 1884, and construction continued until her death in 1922.

The official story goes that the house was designed using ideas obtained from spirits during seances, which explains its bizarre design and its never-ending construction. Having worked with the sort of earthbound spirits that seances generally attract, I can tell you that this story is quite plausible. Such spirits are usually bored and will do whatever they can to keep you talking, and if you are asking for architectural plans they will keep giving them to you. The article, on the other hand, tells a different story.

The evidence (both historical and archaeological) shows that Sarah Winchester strongly identified with the great genius Francis Bacon, and very likely saw herself as the reincarnation of Bacon, the details of which are specifically demonstrated with Bacon’s symbols and numeric cipher code lavishly displayed throughout Mrs. Winchester’s Grand Ballroom—particularly in the “Shakespearean Windows”.

I would very much like to see this evidence, but the article does not present it. The only piece it presents is a couple of phrases that appear in stained-glass windows in the home's grand ballroom. I also don't know how the author managed to reach the conclusion that Winchester not only admired Bacon, but considered herself his reincarnation. If she wasn't a spiritualist, as the author claims, the reincarnation angle is a bit of a leap.

Moreover, like Bacon, Sarah Winchester was a Rosicrucian and a Freemason (yes, there are women Freemasons). The House she built is overflowing with Rosicrucian and Masonic symbolism. For example, the so-called “Séance Room” (located in the precise center of the House) was actually Mrs. Winchester’s Rosicrucian “Sanctum”, a special place where Rosicrucians typically practice meditation and study at or near the center of their homes.

There's a lot to unpack here. First off, while there are indeed women Masons (my wife is one, as a matter of fact) I would very much like to know which group Winchester was affiliated with and what records show that she was a member. This shouldn't be that difficult, as there have never been very many active Masonic groups that admit women. I would like to know the same with regards to her alleged Rosicrucian connections.

A few authors have claimed that Bacon was a Freemason, but there's actually not much evidence to that effect. It's not even clear that there were Freemasons, or anything that we would recognize as such, during Bacon's lifetime. Back then, "Masonry" referred to guilds of professional stonemasons, whereas today "speculative masonry," which involves esoteric symbols and allegories rather than stone-working, is the norm.

The United Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge, was founded in 1717 and the first recorded admission of a "speculative mason" dates to 1634, eight years after Bacon's death. Bacon was probably an adherent of the Rosicrucian philosophy, as he makes reference to the movement in his well-known New Atlantis. However, whether or not any sort of organized Rosicrucian movement existed during the Elizabethan period has likewise been questioned.

What Were The Masonic Police Up To?

In my comments last week on attempts to revive the "Satanic panic" and other conspiracies, when people go to great lengths to do something their motivations usually make sense. Part of the reason that the Satanism scare of the 1980's and 1990's was so unconvincing is that the allegations would have required everyone involved to be expending a great deal of effort for basically nothing. The practices ascribed to those folks had little to do with real occultism, and a lot to do with made-up nonsense from the Malleus Maleficarum. That is, they were things that competent occultists would never bother with, because there's no evidence that they work or even that they were ever applied by anyone in a coherent manner.

But sometimes the actions of a handful of crazy people can fly in the face of that principle. And as more information comes to light about California's phony "Masonic Police," the more it's starting to look like the people involved might fall into that category. Nothing they did makes any sense - did they really think that they were going to be accepted as a legitimate police agency? And if so, what did they hope to accomplish? They weren't police officers themselves, and it's not even clear what they intended to police. I'd say Masonry based on the group's name, but if that's true why would they bother trying to set themselves up to work with other law enforcement agencies?

While the lore surrounding Freemasonry is deep and full of conspiracy theories, experts say that there have never been any rumors of a police force existing within it. “I can’t imagine there is anything of the sort,” said Steve Bolluck, a professor of history at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts and the author of Revolutionary Brotherhood, a history of early Free Masons in America. “It’s really bizarre. Badges, ID cards, weapons, uniforms…"

Prior to their arrests, none of the three had had run-ins with the law in Los Angeles, other than a drunk driving conviction for Kiel in 2007. In late January, the trio began sending letters to heads of local law enforcement agencies in southern California, announcing that Henry had been elected as Chief of the MFPD. Soon after, Kiel began follow-up calls to those agencies, identifying himself as “chief deputy director” of the department and requesting meetings to offer information on how the agencies could potentially work together.

So I want to know if I'm missing something, or if there really was some sort of endgame these folks were working towards. I suppose it could have something to do with with generating notoriety, as they probably could have guessed something that weird would get a lot of exposure on the Internet. But is that really all it was? Or were they really too dumb and/or deluded to realize that they would outed as fakes the minute they talked to real police agencies? On the one hand, human stupidity is far more powerful than most smart people realize. But on the other, I still feel like something is missing from the story. Maybe those details will emerge when these folks go to trial. At the very least, it will be interesting to hear what they put forth as a defense, and maybe that will fill in what look like holes in the story to any rational, reasonable person.

I'll be following the story as it continues to unfold, and I'll keep you all posted as I find out more.

Call The Masonic Police!

It sounds like something out of a Monty Python skit. An aide to California's Attorney General was arrested along with two other people on suspicion of impersonating police officers. The three were involved in an organization called the "Masonic Fraternal Police Department," which apparently has nothing to do with legitimate police work or regular Masonry.

For whatever reason, these brainiacs thought that it would be a good idea to meet with regular police organizations, who quickly realized that they were basically fantasists. Or LARPers. Or whatever the hell the term is for people who make up a nonsensical origin story and think that because of it they can run around pretending to be cops. It gives the term "secret police" whole new meaning.

On April 29, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department served arrest warrants to three people “on suspicion of impersonating police officers,” a local CBS affiliate reports. Officers arrested Brandon Kiel, David Henry, and Tonette Hayes, all members of the “Masonic Fraternal Police Department.” Kiel is the deputy director of community affairs at California’s Justice Department and an aide to Harris, according to the LA Times. He held the title of chief deputy director with the Masonic Fraternal Police Department.

Police became aware of the rogue police force after the MFPD sent letters to various police departments throughout the state of California to ask for meetings. In late January, the organization sent letters to police chiefs in Southern California asserting its legal authority and announcing changes in its leadership. Officers who met with the group quickly became suspicious after their members failed to answer basic questions about the Masonic police department.

“Detectives conducted a thorough investigation in collaboration with several law enforcement agencies and determined MFPD was not a legitimate police agency,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s department said. Police obtained badges, identification cards, weapons, uniforms and police-type vehicles after searching the suspects’ homes.

What this sounds like to me is that this is some sort of police-themed fraternal group along the lines of those that were popular over a century ago. I suppose the degrees would be "Officer," "Detective," and "Captain," or something like that. There was no mention of whether or not fake guns or clubs are part of their regalia, but they certainly would fit. And obviously, instead of robes or aprons they wear knockoff police uniforms complete with fake badges.

Which, frankly, is really, really dumb. It also has the distinction of being one of the saddest conspiracies I've ever heard of. It wouldn't necessarily surprise me to find that the "organization" consists of just these three people and a sub-par website with a bunch of password-protected content.

If you happen to be a police-LARPer who might be interested in this group, you're out of luck. There's no information on how to join, though I have hard time seeing why anyone would want to.

The Stupid, It Burns

Literally. According to this story, a West Toledo man who might be the world's dumbest arsonist has failed to burn down a Masonic Temple for what appears to be the second time. Not only that, but this time around he managed to set himself on fire, and security cameras recorded the whole thing. My guess is that the main reason the video hasn't shown up online yet is that it's evidence in an ongoing investigation, so anyone who wants to watch this display of epic incompetence will have to wait until the arsonist is caught.

Surveillance cameras recorded the unidentified suspect drive up to the temple, get out of his vehicle and walk towards the building. Shortly after the suspects walks towards the building, a burst of light is seen coming from the side of the Temple as the suspect is seen scampering away.

When the fire appears to burn out, the suspect is seen running towards the building, apparently to try again. When he backed away, the man's hand appeared to be on fire.He then jumped in his car and drove off.

Police in West Toledo say that fire officials determined that the suspect had used a patio brick with a burning rag attached to it to break a window at the temple on the north side of the building. The rag, officials say, was found on the lawn. At the end of the day, the failed flaming brick did about $300 in damage. Authorities say someone attempted to set the same temple on fire on May 14.

While this might be the result of some personal grudge, my guess is that the desire to burn down a Masonic lodge has its origins in all the nonsensical conspiracy theories posted online. In 1950's America so many men were Masons that it was hard to succeed in business without being a member, but that's about the closest the fraternity has come to world domination. Those days are now long past; the men who joined during WWII and are still living are now in their late eighties, and the number of deaths have exceeded the number of new initiates for decades.

Here's hoping that with the security camera footage police will be able to identify this suspect quickly. It sounds like if they don't, he's just going to try again.

But Freemasons!

In a bizarre end to the United States government shutdown yesterday, a House stenographer took to the podium and berated members of Congress during the vote on the resolution to re-open the government. Apparently she has a problem with Freemasons, many of whom were involved in the founding of the country. She was eventually escorted out of the room and taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation.

As members cast their votes Wednesday evening on legislation to end the 16-day government shutdown, Reidy was seen calmly ascending the rostrum before unleashing a verbal tirade at members of Congress.

She was heard shouting “the House is divided,” according to one congressional source. After about 30 seconds, Reidy was pulled off the rostrum by two people from the House chamber security staff.

“He will not be mocked,” the woman said, according to an audio recording of the incident posted online by Public Radio International reporter Todd Zwillich. “This is not one nation under God. It never was.”

“The greatest deception here is this is not one nation under god! It never was. Had it been, it would not have been! The Constitution would not have been written by Freemasons!” she added.

You know, the funny thing is that for the most part her statements are precisely correct. The House of Representatives was clearly divided during the vote. "One nation under God" was not even part of the original Pledge of Allegiance and was added in the 1950's, along with "In God We Trust" on US currency. And the main reason that we enjoy religious freedom in the United States is likely the result of the influence of Freemasonry on the Founding Fathers.

In fact, to me the only confusing part of this is that she says it like those are bad things.

Careful Who You Rent To

These days many Masonic lodges are in financial trouble. The golden age of secret societies was over a hundred years ago now, and while back then most men belonged to some sort of fraternity those times are long past. Nowadays it's not uncommon for lodges to rent their buildings to non-members for various events, but as this Michigan lodge found out you need to be careful who you rent to. Because this is not the sort of publicity any lodge wants to see.

'Charlie' a Freemason spokesman, said the man renting the lodge told the Freemasons he would be hosting a dance party. The Freemasons said they checked on the party about 1am on Sunday and found nothing suspicious. However, when officers arrived a little more than an hour later, they found debauchery, police sources told WWMT.

City officials say they are considering fines and charges, both against the party promoters and the Freemasons who own the building. The report from WWMT does not specify whether drugs were found or seized. A summary of a police report printed in the Battle Creek Enquirer newspaper mentions only the naked women dancing on stage. Police said they told the women to dress and to leave the premises.

Now I suppose there are those who will say that this is exactly the sort of recruiting lodges should be doing if they want younger members. I expect that others will see this as proof that the Masons are part of the evil Illuminati who are so secret that they get mentioned in every other music video. But the reality is that this lodge simply failed at due diligence in terms of screening its renters.

Florida Lifts Ban on Pagan Masons

Religious discrimination has no place in Masonry. In fact, it seems to me that the entire Masonic system is set up as an institution that allows people of different faiths to interact spiritually without conflicts based on sectarian differences.

Last year, though, the Grand Master of the state of Florida seems to have forgotten this simple principle. Back in November, he issued an edict stating that "Paganism, Wicca, Odinism, and Gnosticism" were not compatible with membership in the fraternity. Fortunately, the rest of the Florida Grand Lodge recently did the right thing and overturned the edict.

Happy to report that, on May 28th, 2013, the Grand Lodge of Florida overturned Ruling and Decision #3 on the advice of their Jurisprudence Committee, and that all Masons affected by said Ruling are now fully restored to membership.

Exactly why this Ruling was made in the first place is a bit beyond me… I’m not a Mind-reader. But, my guess is that the Grand Master wrote it in a fit of pique, without consulting his Jurisprudence Committee (which is certainly his Right, but rarely a smart move). As others on the Net have pointed out, his stated reasoning on this was ENTIRELY out-of-line with Masonic History, its Ideals, and its Laws. A simple chat with his Chairman of Jurisprudence would have set him straight.

In some ways the most bizarre part of this whole story is the inclusion of Gnosticism. Perhaps the original intention was to single out classical Gnostics who follow Demiurge theology, but much of the Masonic approach is related to cultivating direct, personal spiritual realization - that is, Gnosis. There are a number of Pagans and Wiccans in the lodge I belong to up here in Minnesota, and they are just as good Masons as those who belong to more mainstream religions. If you take the universalism out of Masonry, what you're left with seems to me rather sad, and I'm glad to see that the Grand Lodge of Florida has now refused to do so.

Kill the Mason!

Spoiler: Nope!

For those who might be tempted to dismiss obsession with Masonic conspiracy theories as harmless nuttery, this story out of New Mexico should make it clear just how dangerous such obsessions can become. A man there has been charged with vandalizing a Masonic lodge and attacking a church choir director that he believed to be a Mason. He claimed that his actions were motivated by Masonic involvement in a far-reaching conspiracy, which almost certainly is related to the "Illuminati" nonsense that has recently been all over the Internet.

Lawrence Capener, 24, told police that he tagged the Sandoval No. 76 Masonic Lodge in Rio Rancho with spray paint on Sunday, authorities said. Police later found red and blue spray paint on signs, outside walls and a door. Investigators said he also left the message, "I hope you guess who I am." Capener is accused of attacking a choir leader at St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church at the end of Sunday Mass services. At least two others were stabbed in the attack when they tried to stop Capener.

According to a criminal complaint, Capener vaulted over pews and lashed out at choir director Adam Alvarez, who had his back toward him. The complaint said church flutist Gerald Madrid saw Alvarez being attacked and attempted to "bear hug" Capener to try and stop him. Madrid was then stabbed five times in his back by Capener, authorities said. Capener later told police that he was "99 percent sure Alvarez was a mason" and that he thought Alvarez was involved in a conspiracy.

The Future of Masonry

As a past master of Braden Lodge #168 here in Minnesota, I'm proud to see our lodge featured prominently in this article from the Wall Street Journal on the future of Freemasonry, and the role that the Internet is playing in attracting new members to the fraternity. I would also like to congratulate our own Brother Matt Gallagher on doing a great job representing Masonry to the general public. While many Masonic bodies are still declining, over the last five years Braden has experienced healthy growth thanks to an influx of younger members.

Secrecy gives Masonry its mystique. Yet the Masons have lately realized that they'd be lost in oblivion if it weren't for the Web.

"I looked for pictures," Matt Gallagher was saying of his Internet search for a Masonic lodge worth joining. "I really wanted to avoid a bunch of 80-year-olds."

It was Thursday evening, almost time for fellowship night at the "very young" lodge he finally did join: Braden No. 168, housed on a shady street in a columned temple the Masons built in 1910.

Mr. Gallagher is 32 years old and between jobs. He was initiated by Braden in 2009, rose to Master Mason and now is lodge education officer.

It's a post that didn't exist for 290 years after Masonry came out of its historical shadows, in 1717, as a London club for enlightened gentlemen. Mr. Gallagher's Masonic tag, if his digital function had one, might be Worshipful Webmaster.

"I started a blog, Facebook, Flickr," he said, descending a narrow stairway to a faded meeting room with its old pool tables and portrait of brother George Washington. "I want video essays on our site," he added. "People need to know what they're getting into."

It's also worth noting that I'm not the only member of Braden who is also involved in the local body of Ordo Templi Orientis, and that there are quite a few additional members who are interested in ritual and esotericism of various sorts rather than simply treating the lodge as a sort of glorified social club. Besides a strong Internet presence and a younger membership, as I see it this serious approach to Masonic ritual and philosophy is part of what makes our lodge special.

The Braden Lodge web site is currently in the process of being revised and updated, but the new version should be available soon. You can find it here.

Not A Christian Nation

The notion of the United States of America being founded as a "Christian Nation" is quite popular among certain groups of conservative Christians. One of the most recent manifestations of this is the DC40 project, an effort led by a group of Christians who follow the teachings of a philosophy called Christian Reconstructionism. They believe that Christians have a special duty to take control of government and all other social institutions and establish a legal framework based on the Bible - in effect, implementing a sort of Christian version of Islamic Sharia law. According to their rhetoric this sort of society would be remarkably close to the one that the Founding Fathers envisioned. They also believe that the constitution's establishment clause has been misinterpreted to create the idea of a "separation of church and state" that the founders never envisioned and which is antithetical to their original goals.

In fact, though, the use of "God" in America's various founding documents implies nothing of the sort, and before I became a Mason this was not a usage that I fully understood. While it is true that not all of the founding fathers were Masons, many including George Washington were. Others like Thomas Jefferson were not, but nonetheless shared the same Enlightenment view of spirituality that inspires the fraternity to this day. In Masonry, the term "God" is generic, representing whatever deity each individual Mason professes a belief in. This is one of the biggest problems conservative Christianity has with Masonry - the fact that even if you personally happen to be Christian, when you participate in a Masonic prayer you might be praying with Jews, Muslims, Pagans, Hindus, or for that matter Thelemites like myself, all conceptualizing "God" in their own particular ways.

The Anatomy of the Mind

I presented a version of this article last week at my Masonic Lodge, Braden #168 in St. Paul, Minnesota. The version published here has been edited to remove specific references to the Masonic degrees, but most of the material remains intact. Readers of this blog should find my basic thesis relatively familiar, as I have written on this topic several times before - notably here and here.

Presentation: Modern neuroscience has reached some interesting conclusions regarding the workings of the mind, especially over the course of the last decade. One of the most important of these is that the psychoanalytic model, in which an “unconscious mind” directs our thoughts and actions, is probably completely wrong. There are brain functions that can be considered “unconscious,” but those functions lack the sort of coherence that would put them even remotely on par with our normal conscious awareness. Similarly, dreaming is not some “gateway to the unconscious” but rather a consolidation process in which memories are sorted and recombined.

The basic anatomy of the mind can be thought of as three distinct systems that work together. The first of these is the declarative mind, or thinking system. This is the portion of the mind that operates according to the general laws of reason and which processes information in the form of thoughts. When somebody asks you what you are thinking about, your answer is what your thinking system is currently processing. The second of these systems is the emotive or feeling system. This is the portion of the mind that produces emotional states. When someone asks you how you are feeling, what you are describing is the current state of your feeling system, whether you’re happy, sad, bored, frustrated, and so forth. These first two systems can be thought of as the “conscious” mind, in that you are always aware of what you are thinking and how you are feeling.

The third system is the conditioning system, which operates according to the principles of behaviorism. The conditioning system is essentially like a machine – its function is to repeat behaviors that have been positively reinforced. Because the conditioning system has no goals and does not think, the behaviors that it prompts can prove problematic. Often, when you do something and are left thinking “why on earth did I do that?” the usual answer to that question is that the behavior was reinforced at some point in the past. This system operates unconsciously, but to call it an “unconscious mind” is a mistake. It does not think in any declarative sense, and lacks the overall internal coherence that we generally associate with the concept of “mind.”

Taken together these three systems constitute what I sometimes think of as the “golden triangle” of consciousness. What we experience as a coherent mind arises from the interaction between them, and they can work together or they can get in each others’ way. If you ever have been in a situation where you have needed to do something difficult or uncomfortable but which nonetheless needs to be done you know how the feeling system can conflict with the thinking system. On the other hand, when you’re in a situation where what you need to do is also rewarding and fun you know how it feels when they work together.

Fiji Masons Arrested for Sorcery

There are certain parts of the world where it's a lot more difficult to be a Mason than it is in the United States. One of the things you learn when you get involved with Masonry is the extent to which the founding fathers tried to build our nation on Masonic ideals. In the early days of the United States Masonry took on many of the functions that had been performed by state churches in Europe, such as the consecration of buildings and other public works projects. Many other countries don't have this sort of history, however, and in some of those places being a Mason can get you into trouble with both your neighbors and the local authorities.

Apparently, one of those places is the island nation of Fiji, where 14 members of a Masonic Lodge were recently arrested on suspicion of practicing sorcery.

A New Zealand man spent a "wretched" night in a Fiji jail after police raided his Freemasons meeting when frightened residents suspected witchcraft, according to the New Zealand Herald.

The man, who did not wish to be identified, blamed "dopey village people" for the raid on the island of Denerau in which 14 members of the Freemasons Lodge of Lautoka were herded into police cars and jailed for the night.

Police also seized lodge paraphernalia, including wands, compasses and a skull.

The man told the Herald that Tuesday night's meeting was "interrupted by a banging on the door and there were these village people and the police demanding to be let in".

One of the hazards of being involved in a tradition with elements that are kept secret is that people outside the group are left to wonder what you are up to and why you have to keep your activity secret. I once knew someone who got involved in Masonry and after finding out what we actually did went around trying to find out how he could get involved in the "secret higher degree rituals" that he was convinced had to be going on. He eventually wound up quitting the fraternity because it wasn't nearly as exciting as those Jack Chick pamphlets implied. I think that since I and a number of my friends were members of the lodge and also practiced magick, he was of the opinion that there had to be more explicit magical work going on there. That was what the local police were thinking as well.

Police director of operations Waisea Tabakau told Legend FM News in Fiji that the group were being investigated for "allegedly practicing sorcery", the Fiji Village website reported.

The 14 Masons were released the next day by order of the Prime Minister, but nonetheless had to spend the night in in a Fiji jail, which sounds other than fun. It just goes to show that superstition can be a powerful and dangerous motivator, though in this case the Masons escaped criminal charges and further injury. Many people accused of sorcery or witchcraft in that part of the world have not been so lucky.

Naturally, I think the story would be a lot more interesting if it turned out that they actually were practicing sorcery. Many of the elements of the Masonic initiation rituals have practical magical applications and when done properly I find those initiations to be quite magical, though they are more works of illumination than works of sorcery. If somebody really was out there practicing Masonic sorcery, I would be very interested in finding out what exactly they did and how well it worked.

If Only It Were True...

A friend of mine in Ordo Templi Orientis once commented to me that he wished all of the crazy conspiracy theorizing about OTO was true - that we ran the CIA, the FBI, and probably these days the Department of Homeland Security. You would get up to some high enough degree and at your initiation someone would whisper in your ear, "Okay, here's your secret CIA pass code. Call this number if you want anyone rubbed out."

As far as the real OTO goes, I've often repeated the joke that the order has infiltrated every level of society, if every level of society is defined as IT departments and tattoo parlors. And believe me, if you're in the OTO that joke will always prompt at least a knowing smirk. For the most part the order is simply a collection of interesting and eclectic people who share an interest in the works of Aleister Crowley and alternative culture, rather than some kind of all-powerful oligarchy that stands behind the throne of government.

Masonry comes closer to these conspiracy claims in terms of membership, almost twenty thousand in Minnesota alone, but while there are more Masons in politics and government than OTO members the fraternity is much more removed from anything that most people would find occult or sinister. In fact, finding a Masonic lodge that even discusses real esotericism is quite difficult, despite all of Jack Chick's posturing about "The Curse of Baphomet."

Trust me, this is not because there's some inner Masonic order that hides the truth from its members - if such a thing existed, I would have tracked it down by now so that I could figure out whether or not I wanted to join. I mean, as a Thelemite I'm already damned in the eyes of conservative Christians, so I might as well have some fun. Sadly, nothing of the sort exists in either Masonry or OTO, and let's face it - if we really were running the entire show of modern civilization I'd get invited to much better parties.

Reality doesn't stop conspiracy theorists, though. Recently I came across a series of articles that lays out the entire OTO/Masonry/Illuminati conspiracy in a more concise package than I've seen in the past. I suppose I shouldn't be linking to them and giving them more traffic given the sheer volume of misrepresentation, innuendo, and outright nonsense, but here they are nonetheless.

Codex Magica by Texe Marrs - Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six.

That way, those of us involved in magical orders can peruse this bizarre worldview and imagine what might have been. But of course, that's what I would say, isn't it?