Templar Edification

Reflections from the 2026 Minnesota Grand York Rite Session Some weekends are measured by motions passed, officers elected, and gavels sounded. Others are measured by handshakes renewed, laughter shared in hotel hallways, conversations that seem to pick up exactly where they left off a year ago, and quiet reminders of why we first knocked at the West Gate. The 2026 Minnesota Grand York Rite Session was decidedly the latter. My journey began Wednesday evening as I arrived in St. Cloud. The hotel had not yet awakened to the energy that would soon fill its halls. After checking into my room, I called home to say goodnight to my family. As has become our tradition whenever I'm away, they insisted on a video tour of my hotel room before bedtime. Afterward I ventured around the corner for dinner, returned to my room, and settled in for the night, looking forward to what the coming days would bring. Thursday morning began simply enough with a few cups of coffee from the in room Keurig, br...

Two Knights on One Horse; A secret hidden in plain sight. By SK Ray Hayward REPGC, KCT. If you’ve read any books on the Knights Templar, you probably come across the image of two knights riding on the same horse. To the casual observer, it’s odd that two fully armored knights would ride the same horse, unless it was in an extreme case. According to legend,  Hugues de Payens  (the first Grand-Master of the Templars) and Godfrey were so poor that between the two of them they had only one horse, and this gave rise to the famous image on  the seal of the Templars , of two men riding a single horse.  In Templar history, we find that that image is the seal of the 6 th Grandmaster of the Knights Templar, Bertrand de Blanquefort. The grandmasters and officers all had seals to affix to documents in addition to their signature. The seals were tied with ribbon to the bottom of a document, probably vellum, and then a ball of hot wax was poured on the ribbon, and the seal would ...

Betsy Arakawa and Gene Hackman at the Academy Awards in 1989. Credit...Ralph Dominguez/MediaPunch/IPX, via AP Please, each Sir Knight & Companion, be cognizant of our keepers, our bonds with others, our care takers, our care givers, we all have them to what extent we need them. Please raise awareness where you notice gaps or a vacuum perhaps due to a recent change in status or situation that may be challenging to communicate. Be aware of the lifelines in your families lives or an unplanned lack thereof. Renew the spirit of being neighborly, remain aware, vigilant and communicative, and flexible. ----------------------------------------------------------- There is a memorable portraiture of Mr. Gene Hackman’s ancient Science, Rhetoric, that parallels how we live as Mason’s. Nurturing a small town group of basketball players in “Hoosiers”, we see the emotional influence upon youth being subjected to big city venues, akin to realizing ourselves, all can relate to the feeling of being ...