Templar Edification

As far as unsung holidays go, few seem to me more deserving of a modern revival than the Nativity of St John the Baptist, known to Shakespeare as Midsummer’s Day. John’s is one of only three birthdays commemorated on the Christian liturgical calendar—quite a coup, considering that the other two are Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary. John the Baptist is a wonderfully wily, irascible figure, offering a truly unforgettable introduction to the New Testament. He’s famous for preaching brimstone in the badlands, baptizing various and sundry questionable characters, wearing coarse camelhair clothing, and sustaining himself on locusts and wild honey. What’s most important about John, however, is that he serves as Forerunner to the Christ, the prophesied voice crying out in the wilderness, “Make straight the way of the Lord!” In other words, everything that Jesus does, John does first. John has a miraculous birth; he proclaims the coming Kingdom of God; he gathers a cadre of disciples; h...

As 2 February marks the Candlemas, so 3 February brings us to the commemoration of St Blaise, a figure of some import in the Middle Ages who has fallen into relative obscurity today. Indeed, I wouldn’t bring him up in these pages save for the fact that some parishes (such as ours) continue a wonderfully quirky tradition in his honor: the annual blessing of the throats. Blaise was famous, among other things, for saving someone from choking on a fishbone. It became de rigueur to take a pair of tapers blessed at Candlemas the night before, to cross them under a person’s throat, and to pray that they would be delivered “from every ailment of the throat and from every other disease.” I confess that I continue this tradition in part to “keep Church weird,” an operative dictum of mine. Yet even I don’t light the tapers, as had been the elder custom, lest I touch off someone’s hairspray. This is but one example of blessings held throughout the Church year—bread blessing at Lammas, beer blessin...

  A Royal Christian Shield E. John Erfourth, (from) 04 AUG 2019 Figure 1  Observation 1 – 18 th Century   Art taken from “Ovason’s Secret  Architecture”, late 18 th Century.  Citing Edward Kohout,  “Mundane Astrology”, 2002:  “The progression of the signs is  from left to right with the sign of  Cancer upon the keystone.  A reason that the signs appear to  be going in the wrong direction is  that we are looking into the  “temple” from the outside.  A heraldic shield that depicts an  ox , an eagle , a lion and a man are  direct references to the fixed signs  of the zodiac, namely Taurus,  Scorpio, Leo and Aquarius.”  What else might these mean? Anything else? Like what? 1   Figure 2  Observation 2 – Present Day   Citing the Grand Lodge of   Washington State online:  “Royal Arch Masonry tradition teaches us that the symbols on the shield are representative of the ...

 Gothic Bible Fragment from “Parallel Pronouncing Bible”, John Williams & Co., N. Y., 1890 “Father our thou in heaven, blessed name, thy come kingdom, thine become, will thy as in heaven so on earth. Loaf our this daily, give us this day, and forgive us, that sinful are just as also we forgive those sinful to us. And not bring us into temptation, but lead us from this evil, for thine is kingdom and might and glory into eternity. Amen.” A 19th Century Gothic Bible facsimile of the Lord’s Prayer found within the Minneapolis Scottish Rite Center is reminiscent of versus, signs, tokens & ideals observed in York Rite Masonry. Kudos to Dawson College for translating select passages into English a few decades ago, that is greatly appreciated and perhaps even more so for those of us who regularly recite the Lord’s Prayer when an Asylum or Conclave of Knights Templar is opened in due form. It is rare to happen upon art or written word that predates its 6th Century origins, which is ...