Monday, December 31, 2018

The Parting Glass

Of all the money that e'er I had 
I spent it in good company 
And all the harm I've ever done 
Alas it was to none but me 
And all I've done for want of wit 
To mem'ry now I can't recall 
So fill to me the parting glass 
Good night and joy be to you all

So fill to me the parting glass 
And drink a health whate’er befall, 
And gently rise and softly call 
Good night and joy be to you all

Of all the comrades that e'er I had 
They're sorry for my going away 
And all the sweethearts that e'er I had 
They'd wish me one more day to stay

But since it fell unto my lot 
That I should rise and you should not 
I gently rise and softly call 
Good night and joy be to you all

A man may drink and not be drunk 
A man may fight and not be slain 
A man may court a pretty girl 
And perhaps be welcomed back again 
But since it has so ought to be 
By a time to rise and a time to fall 
Come fill to me the parting glass 
Good night and joy be with you all 
Good night and joy be with you all

Goodbye 2018

Well, what can I say...2018 was a bad year for me and my family. I entered this year with my father's cancer diagnosis and with uncertain prospects. Yes, there were some great moments, but I am ready to leave this year behind. I can only hope that 2019 is better than 2018, but that won't take much for the New Year to be an improvement.

In January I was advanced to the VII° in the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis (SRICF). In February I attended Masonic Week in Crystal City (just outside DC). In April I was elected and installed as the Most Excellent Grand High Priest of Royal Arch Masons of Idaho. 

In mid-August, I attended the inaugural Rocky Mountain SRICF Conference and then the 67th Triennial of the Grand Encampment of Knights Templar of the USA. I left early from the Grand Encampment to be with my father who passed away at the end of August. I was glad to be home with him in his final days, but it tore at my soul to watch him degrade day by day. While I will miss him to the end of my days, I am glad he is no longer in pain.

In September, I attended the 151st Annual Communication of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge AF&AM of Idaho where I represented the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of Idaho and was happy to see that the Grand Lodge officially recognized the SRICF.

In October, I was at the founding of Star Garnet Council No.560 of the Allied Masonic Degrees, and the Northwest York Rite Conference. At the end of the month, I attended the Lewiston Chapter of Royal Arch Masons who had not conferred the Capitular degrees in several years. In November I attended the High Council of the SRICF and the Idaho Rose Circle of the SRICF was formed; I was designated as the Celebrant.

At the beginning of December, I was appointed Prelate of St. Michael's Conclave of the Red Cross of Constantine. I spent the rest of the month attending officer installations and Christmas Observances around the state of Idaho. On the winter solstice, I attended a convocation of the Utah College of the SRICF. It was nice to be with family for Christmas, but it was still strange to have Dad not there in person in his role handing out the presents to everyone. Now, I'm getting ready to attend a New Year's Eve Party.

God bless you all and have a prosperous New Year.

Thursday, December 27, 2018

What is a Johannite?

Several years ago I was researching Martinism when I came across the Apostolic Johannite Church (AJC). I started to research the AJC and found them to be aligned with my spiritual beliefs. As today is the Feast Day for St. John the Beloved, I thought I'd talk about the AJC and what being a Johannite is about. 

There is a lot of confusion as to what a Johannite is and a lot of misinformation. Per Father Anthony Silvia, the word "Johannite" refers to a "spiritual tradition carried in part through the initiatory tradition of John the Baptist, exemplified in the relationship between Christ and the Apostle John, brought to fruition in the community addressed by the Gospel of John, the Gospel embraced by early Gnostics, and which, some belief, produced the Book of Revelation and the Apocryphon of John." Many mistakenly believe that an emphasis is placed on St. John the Baptist as a power play against Jesus Christ, his cousin. Johannite's still believe Jesus Christ to be the God Made Flesh, the Logos Incarnate. While some churches condemn goddess worship as pagan while at the same time venerating figures such as Mary Theotokos (Mother of God), being a Johannite, I fully acknowledge and study, what is today known as, the Sacred/Divine Feminine. Being a Johannite Christian also means that one is a Gnostic and Gnosticism isn't a spectator sport as Father Tony Silvia puts in his book "Sanctuary of the Sacred Flame."

The AJC can be described as an esoteric, Gnostic, and Christian. From their website: "The Apostolic Johannite Church is a global network of Johannite communities that focus on supporting individual and direct experience of the Divine through fellowship, meditation and prayer, service and ritual, lively discussion and study." The church draws from the Old Testament, New Testament, the Corpus Hermeticum, and the Gnostic Gospels. The Statement of Principles defines the beliefs, boundaries. and scope of the AJC: https://www.johannite.org/statement-of-principles/

The modern AJC was established in 2000 by Most Reverend James Foster, but traces its roots to early 1800s France and Dr. Bernard Raymond Fabre-Palaprat who founded his own church "after discovering a document that contained, among other things, an alternate translation of the Gospel of John." It is said that Dr. Fabre-Palaprat kicked off the era of Gnostic Restoration. Many Gnostic orders and churches trace themselves to St. John the Beloved who passed on the authority and knowledge down a succession of Johannite patriarchs until Theoclete who passed the mantle to Hugh de Payens, first Grand Master of the medieval Knights Templar, and which passed the authority to each subsequent Templar Grand Master. After the suppression of the Templars in 1307, the authority passed to Jean-Marc Larmenius and the Templar order went underground. The theory of the Larmenius Charter goes on to say that the Templars fled to Scotland which plays into the story of the Royal Order of Scotland and the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry. The Johannite leadership passed from Larmenius to eventually Dr. Fabre-Palaprat. The Johannite tradition was dismissed as a conspiracy theory until 1945 when the Nag Hammadi texts were discovered which validated and corroborated the legends.

AJC congregants meet in Missions, Narthex, and Parishes. A Parish is "a fully functioning body of the Apostolic Johannite Church with regular clergy and services." A Narthex is "a local study group under the direction of a lay or clerical leader." The word "narthex" is an architectural term and refers to the front part of a church before you enter the sanctuary. In the Church, as a description of a Johannite body, it is the first stage in the development of a local parish. It is most often run by a layperson or a cleric in minor orders in preparation for the priesthood. A Mission is a "group of AJC members that meet irregularly and are ministered to by visiting Johannite clergy."

There are ten Holy Orders in the AJC, five Minor and five Major. The Minor Orders are Cleric, Doorkeeper, Reader, Exorcist, and Acolyte. The Major Orders are Subdeacon, Deacon, Priest, and Bishop, with the additional "Order" of the Patriarch (technically Patriarch is not one of the Orders, but we refer to it as an Order so that there is ten total, for symbolic reasons). To become a Priest, one must go through the Saint Raphael the Archangel Theological Seminary which is an eight (8) semester program used for the AJC only.

The governance of the church is broken down into a Patriarchate, Episcopacy, Priesthood, Diaconate, and religious orders. The head of the church takes on the name Iohannes (Latin for "John") with a Roman numeral to dictate his or her place in the line of succession, and is known by the title "Sovereign Pontiff and Patriarch". The Episcopacy is composed of Archbishops of the church who take on the title Mar with a new name. Mar is Syriac for "my Lord" and is used to address Bishops.

The religious order of the church is known as the Order of the Temple and St. John. It is broken down into two different elements: the public Oblates of the Temple and St. John (ObTSJ) and the private Knights of the Temple and St. John (KTSJ). The Oblates are a bridge between the Lay and Clerical state, and which is led by a Prior, who is a member of the Laity. The word Oblate comes from Oblation, "a thing presented or offered to God." In joining the Oblates, one first serves a year before being received as a Novice. To do that, one must also be recommended and sponsored by a priest and take religious vows. The Knights of the Temple is by-invitation-only whose officers are composed of members of the clergy with the Patriarch of the Church serving as Abbott of the Order. The Order is governed by The Rule which is an active way to live out the Statement of Principles of the Johannite Church and thus has its basis in these same principles.

Being a Freemason and a Christian, the AJC seems like a natural fit since both St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist play an important role in these institutions and both revolve around an initiatic tradition passed down through the ages. I am currently serving in my first year in the Oblates and I have enjoyed the support the church has given me this year.

Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Merry Christmas

Although my dad is no longer on this Earth, I feel his presence with me on this day. Merry Christmas to all



Saturday, December 22, 2018

Tarot Card of the Month: The Devil

The Tarot Card for December is Devil. The Devil card is also referred to as Shadow. The Devil is the Fifteenth of the Major Arcana in Tarot. The Devil is associated with the planet Saturn, the element of Earth, and the zodiacal sign of Capricorn. The sea-goat Capricorn is associated with Pan because according to legend the satyr Pan fled from the beast Typhon, jumped into a river just as he was transforming himself into a fish. The lower half of his body became fishlike, but his upper body above the water remained in the form of a goat.

While the Western world is familiar with the term "devil" as the adversary and fallen angel who rebelled against God and leads the damned, but as with all Tarot, the Devil's imagery is symbolic, not literal. This card represents the temptation and seduction of the material world and physical pleasures and desires.

This card depicts the Devil as a half-man, half-goat creature with large bat wings and horns sprouting from its head. To some it represents Baphomet while others believe it represents Pan; the latter would make sense as Pan is associated with the zodiacal sign of Capricorn. Its right hand is raised while its left hand is lowered and carrying a torch. Above the Devil is an inverted pentagram. The Devil is squatting upon a black rectangular pillar or altar. Chained to the block are two naked humans: one woman and one man. Both humans seem to be sprouting horns and a tail; the woman's tail is a clump of grapes and the man's ends in flame.

The Devil represents a scapegoat, something people use to blame our problems on so that they can escape accountability, or as a psychological mechanism so people can cope with events that happen outside of their control. The humans appear to be held against their will, but upon closer inspection, the chains are loose and could be easily removed meaning that the humans are there are of their own free will and accord. They are enslaved by their earthly pleasures and vices, and the longer they are stuck where they become more and more like the devil. The tails represent their animalistic inclinations: the grapes representing pleasure and the fire lust. Their nudity is a metaphor for pleasure-seeking and shamelessness. The reversed pentagram is said to represent occult knowledge that leads to further enlightenment beyond the physical realm, but, also serving as a symbol for Earth, reminds of the dangers of materialistic, selfish, and licentious habits.

Friday, December 21, 2018

The Return of Light

Today is the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, and it is also the Feast Day for the Archangel Raphael who names translate as "God has healed" or "It is God who heals."

Legend says that Raphael was originally named Labbiel which is said to mean "Knowledge of the Light of the Source of the Whole of Existence". God changed it to Raphael because this Archangel had sided with God in a dispute with the other archangels on the issue of creating man. He is one of the seven angels that attend to the Throne of God. After the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, Raphael was sent to Earth to heal mankind, physically and spiritually.

Raphael is considered the Archangel of Healing, Regent of the Sun, Guardian of the Rising Light, Master of the whirling air and storms, and Guide of travelers. In the Book of Tobit, a book that is a part of the Catholic and Orthodox biblical canons speaks of a story about a man named Tobit, a righteous Jewish man who took upon himself the burial of the dead even when it was forbidden by his Assyrian captors. Tobit becomes blind and God sends Raphael, in disguise, to heal and guide Tobit.

This archangel is associated with the element of Air, the color Yellow, the Tarot suit of Swords, and the cardinal direction of the East which is associated with the Rising Sun and the return of light to the world.

 


Monday, December 17, 2018

Knight Commander of Constantine

The image is a
mock-up I put together
Within the Masonic and Military Order of the Red Cross of Constantine and the Orders of the Holy Sepulcher and St. John the Evangelist are two honors conferred by the United Grand Imperial Council: Knight Grand Cross and Knight Commander of Constantine. The former will be discussed later while the focus will be on the latter.

The Knight Commander of Constantine is an honor conferred by the Most Illustrious Grand Sovereign with the concurrence of Grand Viceroy upon those Knight Companions who have exhibited faithful service to the United Grand Imperial Council. To be eligible for this award one must serve a total of ten (10) years or more as either Intendent General, Grand Treasurer, Grand Recorder, Trustee, or Chairman of a Standing Committee or any combination thereof. Only three (3) can be conferred in a given year provided the maximum number of recipients doesn't exceed fifty (50). Recipients of this award hold the title of "Illustrious".

The jewel of the Knight Commander of Constantine is a Sovereign’s jewel superimposed upon an embellished floriated (decorated with floral designs) half wreath of gold laurel leaves encompassing the lower half of the jewel and is hung from a collar ribbon of crimson silk. If the recipient is a Past Intendent General then the ribbon shall be half crimson and half gold.

Monday, December 10, 2018

Nag Hammadi Library

For the past several months I have been researching and exploring the Apostolic Johannite Church which offers a free school where new members can learn more about the thought, practice, community, and history of the Apostolic Johannite Church. One of the topics of discussion led me to the subject of the Nag Hammadi Library and I thought I'd share this on my website.

The Nag Hammadi Library is a collection of 13 books containing over 50 texts including a number of the Gnostic Gospels, the Corpus Hermeticum, and a partial translation of Plato's Republic. The most famous Nag Hammadi codex is the only known complete copy of the gospel of Thomas. These texts are dated between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD and were thought to have been destroyed during the early years of the Roman Catholic Church and their attempts to establish their orthodoxy. Some theorize that some early Christians tried to destroy these Gnostic writings because they contained secret teachings about Jesus and Christianity. Many Christians today decry the Nag Hammadi Library as heretical and forgeries "that espouse false doctrines about Jesus Christ, salvation, God, and every other crucial Christian truth."

This collection was discovered in December of 1945, but the translation wasn't completed until the 70s. They were found by a farmer named Muhammed al-Samman and his brother who found the documents in sealed jars that had been buried in the Jabal al-Ṭārif caves near the town of Hamrah Dom in Upper Egypt.

Some scholars believe that this collection had belonged to a nearby Pachomian monastery and was buried after Saint Athanasius condemned the use of non-canonical books in his Festal Letter of 367 A.D. The Nag Hammadi Library was originally written in the Coptic language and is currently housed in the Coptic Museum in Cairo, Egypt. They take their name from the nearest major city (12-km SW of Hamrah Dom).

When al-Samman took these manuscripts home, his mother burned some of them out of fear of their "dangerous effects." Their significance went unacknowledged for some time. It wasn't until 1948 when a Coptologist, Jean Doresse, at the Coptic Museum published a reference to them. The remaining documents found their way to the Egyptian Department of Antiquities which came from a Coptic Priest who had received them from the brothers. After the 1952 revolution, the Nag Hammadi Library was given over to the Coptic Museum in Cairo. One of the documents was sold out of Egypt and made its way into the hands of Carl Gustav Jung. After his death in 1961, there was a quarrel over ownership, but by 1975 it had made its way to the Coptic Museum and finally reuniting the codices.

Here is a list of the documents of the Nag Hammadi Library:
  • Codex I (also known as The Jung Codex):
The Prayer of the Apostle Paul
The Apocryphon of James (also known as the Secret Book of James) 
The Gospel of Truth 
The Treatise on the Resurrection 
The Tripartite Tractate 
  • Codex II: 
The Apocryphon of John
The Gospel of Thomas
The Gospel of Philip
The Hypostasis of the Archons
On the Origin of the World
The Exegesis on the Soul
The Book of Thomas the Contender
  • Codex III: 
The Apocryphon of John
Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit (The Gospel of the Egyptians)
Eugnostos the Blessed
The Sophia of Jesus Christ
The Dialogue of the Savior
  • Codex IV: 
The Apocryphon of John
Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit (The Gospel of the Egyptians)
  • Codex V: 
Eugnostos the Blessed
The Apocalypse of Paul
The First Apocalypse of James
The Second Apocalypse of James
The Apocalypse of Adam
  • Codex VI: 
The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles
The Thunder, Perfect Mind
Authoritative Teaching
The Concept of Our Great Power
Republic by Plato (an alternate gnostic translation)
The Discourse on the Eighth and Ninth (a Hermetic treatise)
The Prayer of Thanksgiving (a Hermetic prayer)
Asclepius 21-29 - another Hermetic treatise
  • Codex VII: 
The Paraphrase of Shem
The Second Treatise of the Great Seth
Gnostic Apocalypse of Peter
The Teachings of Silvanus
The Three Steles of Seth
  • Codex VIII: 
Zostrianos
The Letter of Peter to Philip
  • Codex IX: 
Melchizedek
The Thought of Norea
The Testimony of truth
  • Codex X: 
Marsanes
  • Codex XI: 
The Interpretation of Knowledge
A Valentinian Exposition, On the Anointing, On Baptism and On the Eucharist
Allogenes
Hypsiphrone
  • Codex XII:
The Sentences of Sextus
The Gospel of TruthFragments
  • Codex XIII: 
Trimorphic Protennoia
On the Origin of the World
References

1. McRae, M. (2018, April 15). Scholars Have Found a Rare Copy of Heretical Writings on Jesus And His 'Brother'. Retrieved from Science Alert: https://www.sciencealert.com/greek-first-apocalypse-james-nag-hammadi-library-teaching-tool 

2. The Nag Hammadi Codices and Gnostic Christianity. (2018, October 12). Retrieved from Bible History Daily: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/post-biblical-period/the-nag-hammadi-codices/ 

3. The Nag Hammadi Library. (n.d.). Retrieved from The Gnostic Society Library: http://gnosis.org/naghamm/nhl.html 

4. What is the Nag Hammadi library? (n.d.). Retrieved from Got Questions: https://www.gotquestions.org/Nag-Hammadi.html

5. Nag Hammadi Library. (n.d.) Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nag_Hammadi_library

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Ephraim Kirby Award

Figure 1
Similar to the Order of the Secret Vault, the General Grand Chapter created an award to recognize Companions who have attained the past presiding rank in their Grand York Rite bodies (Grand Lodge, Grand Chapter, Grand Council, and/or Grand Commandery) and who have then gone on to continue their work and commitment to service even beyond the term of their office, or beyond the normal boundaries of dedication. A Custodian, appointed for each constituent Grand Chapter, selects and nominates candidates whom they determine merit this award. The recipients must be Royal Arch Masons in good standing. When this award was formed in 2014, there could be three recipients; in 2015, two recipients; and after that, there can be only one recipient each year from a Grand Chapter's jurisdiction. The jewel of the award (see Figure 1) is suspended from a red ribbon and worn under the collar. This award is named after the Companion who served as the first General Grand High Priest of the General Grand Chapter in addition to several other Masonic and non-Masonic accomplishments.

Figure 2
Ephraim A. Kirby (Figure 2) was born on February 23, 1757, in Woodbury, CT. He attended Yale University, but left before receiving a degree. He served in the Cavalry as a Lieutenant in a Rhode Island Company during the American Revolution taking part in the Battle of Bunker Hill, Battle of Elk River, roughly 17 other battles. At Elk River, he received several saber cuts to his head. He was in a coma for several weeks. He awoke, recovered, and returned to the war.

After the war, he returned to Connecticut where he married Ruth Marvin and began practicing law in Litchfield. In 1787, Yale University gave him an honorary Master of Arts degree. In 1789, he performed the first court reporting when he compiled and published the first volume of law reports in America. From 1791 to 1801, Kirby served in the Connecticut General Assembly before becoming the Director of the Western Reserve in Ohio.

President Jefferson appointed Kirby as Supervisor of Internal Revenue for Connecticut, which he served until September of 1802. On April 6, 1804, Kirby was appointed the first Superior Court Judge of the Mississippi Territory. Before learning that he had been appointed as Governor of the Mississippi Territory, Kirby died of Yellow Fever on October 4, 1804, at Fort Stoddert. His burial spot in Fort Stoddert is unknown.

He was initiated into St. Paul's Lodge No. 11 in Litchfield, CT, in 1781, and served as its Worshipful Master three times. He was at the convention that formed the Grand Lodge of Connecticut and served as Secretary for the convention. He would go on to serve as Grand Senior Warden from 1795 to 1797. Not much is known of his early Capitular career, but it is known that he is a member of the Mark Lodge in New Town, CT. When the Grand Chapter of Connecticut was organized at Hartford, CT, on May 17, 1798, Kirby was elected its first Grand High Priest. On October 24, 1798, he attended the convention that created the General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons of the United States. At this convention, he was elected as the first Most Excellent General Grand High Priest and served from 1798 until his death in 1804. Some hypothesize that Kirby was selected over Thomas Smith-Webb to ensure that Connecticut and Rhode Island would be part of the General Grand Chapter