Comments on: Ritual America: Secret Brotherhoods and Their Influence on American Society - exclusive excerpt

By: GertaLives

GertaLives — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 15:41:00 +0000

No, I’m aware the modern “Knights Templar” are a Freemason (re-)invention, but he wasn’t actually part of this subset of Freemasonry, nor is he actually sporting its garb. As much as the modern spin-off is phony, I don’t see how this counts as “Templar costume,” and I really think the post ought to be clear on this point.

By: history

history — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 00:29:00 +0000

Maybe you missed the paragraph referring to the Knights Templar “subset” of Freemasonry, not the mediaeval religious order that has been (well officially anyway) defunct for 700 years.

By: Ben Marsen

Ben Marsen — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:06:00 +0000

Well, have they sworn that? Christopher Hodapp answers this question quite clearly in his introduction to Freemasonry For Dummies:

http://books.google.com/books?id=O7m29W5zShQC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

By: Rich Lord

Rich Lord — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:23:00 +0000

the booze at the lodge is cheaper, you get to drink for free or half price if you bar-tend. Getting out of the house and drinking that’s the secret.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:50:00 +0000

I’m glad to know I’m not the only BoingBoing Mason around here.

By: GertaLives

GertaLives — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:33:00 +0000

Well, right, and that was my point. This isn’t anymore a Knights Templar costume than my jeans and button down shirt are a Batman costume, but I presume most readers wouldn’t go along with a caption branding my outfit a “Batman costume.” If it’s a confused/inauthentic/bastshit crazy version of Templar garb (and/or if all modern Templar costumes fall in this category), shouldn’t there be some mention?

By: Evan McGee

Evan McGee — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 16:26:00 +0000

As a mason, and past master, and a Shriner, and a 32degre Scottish Rite, and a Senior Demolay, I would ask all masons to stop badgering this man. He wrote a book from his perspective, he makes no SCHOLARLY claims, he cites no EXPLICIT interviews. By defneding the craft, you per-suppose there is something to defend. This book is a book, nothing more, nothing less. If you don’t want to read it don’t, but lets please stop the thumb sucking over a piece of work that was clearly meant to be entertainment, not a Scholarly thesis.

By: Art

Art — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:43:00 +0000

The young men are starting to come into lodge now. We raised 15 men under 30 the past two years.

By: Art

Art — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 13:32:00 +0000

Hello, Adam, The vast contents of the Livingston Masonic Library in NYC bear testament to authors who write about masonry who are not members of the craft themselves. The history and philosophy is public knowledge.

By: Christopher MacArthur

Christopher MacArthur — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:06:00 +0000

He can’t be a Knight Templar anyways. To be accepted, you have to have four quarterings – each of your grandparents must be of noble origin.

By: David L Rattigan

David L Rattigan — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 10:19:00 +0000

My Mom was a Job’s Daughter, too. She had a doll dressed up in all the regalia, and a silver cake slice engraved with “Queen Jacquie.” As a kid, recently emigrated from Canada to the UK, I was under the mistaken impression (which I shared enthusiastically with all my school chums) that my mother was once Queen of Canada.

By: Incipient Madness

Incipient Madness — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 04:17:00 +0000

The only Mason I know is in his early thirties, from the West Bank, and manages a convenience store I walk to through a hole in a fence and a dirt trail across an abandoned hot tub showroom and pool supply place.

Funny thing is, this guy has only lived in the US for eight years, and is a leader in his lodge mostly because he is only one of five people under sixty. He’s also Druze, and thus had the opportunity to go to special schools in Israel. That’s where he learned English and formal Hebrew.

But everyone knows the Masons, The Elks, and The Sons of Hermann are on the wane. Sure, they still have the burn clinics and orthopedic hospitals, but look at their parade. See any young people?

No, in these times, the Moonies, The Family at the C Street House, and the fundie infiltration of the military are much more powerful.

Don’t believe me about the Moonies:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kScJB63PBOI

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 04:02:00 +0000

You might be confused because there was an actual group called the Knights Templar, way back in the Middle Ages, who–like the Masons–were a somewhat secretive group who both incorporated ancient symbols and rituals into their order and were in turn responsible for propagating those symbols throughout Western civilization, thus giving rise to any number of conspiracy theories. (For example, Robert Anton Wilson, much celebrated on this blog, made them a cornerstone of the Illuminatus trilogy.) Lots of subsequent groups therefore borrowed their name, if not their authentic style, in an attempt to steal a little of that gravitas for themselves; in reality, Breivik is as much a Templar as I am Batman.

By: Anne Speck

Anne Speck — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:26:00 +0000

As a former Job’s Daughter I found the larger context of fraternal orders fascinating and I am now intrigued by the book.

By: billstewart

billstewart — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 01:50:00 +0000

Other sources tell us that fezzes are cool.

By: Roy Edward Truax

Roy Edward Truax — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 01:13:00 +0000

Haven’t a few dozen of these little paranoid (non) exposé been made already?

By: peaceloveunderstanding

peaceloveunderstanding — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:31:00 +0000

Yes, he was a self described knights Templar member and racist – you missed the part where they described knights Templar garb.

By: Teller

Teller — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:29:00 +0000

pgt, my only read on the subject has been The Hiram Key. Asking if you’re familiar with the book and if you would plus-or-minus its accuracy.

By: Mark_Frauenfelder

Mark_Frauenfelder — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 00:12:00 +0000

I think the ephemera shown here is fascinating but perhaps it should be burned so as not to offend sensitive people.

By: Humpasaur Jones

Humpasaur Jones — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 23:21:00 +0000

See, now you get it. Nothing at all — that’s the kind of unbiased, expert coverage they want.

By: Petzl

Petzl — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:48:00 +0000

Looks fascinating. I just hope it doesn’t loop back and blame 9-11 on the Masons.

By: jerwin

jerwin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:20:00 +0000

Breivik believed it to be the uniform of a Justiciar Knight Commander of the Reformed Knights Templar.

By: Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 22:07:00 +0000

In Hoc Signo Vinces.

What is an actual Masonic Knights Templar? Some authorities would argue that Masonic association with the Knights Templar is spurious at best. What charter to operate does the Lodge of the MKT hold?

But, you are correct, nowhere can I find that Breivik was ever removed from a Templar organization..and he was only removed from his Lodge after the attacks.

By: Adam Parfrey

Adam Parfrey — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:59:00 +0000

Does one have to be a President to write about Presidents? BTW, how can one properly write about Freemasonry after being sworn to an oath not to reveal an of its secrets?

By: Adam Parfrey

Adam Parfrey — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:56:00 +0000

Hi Art, . I realize that Ritual Amerca was not sent to Scottish Rite headquarters for approval. Your premise is that if one does not physically experience being a Mason, then if you publish any material that concerns Masonry, it’s “wildly inaccurate.” Please provide any wild inaccuracies to me, and I’ll do my best to correct them, that is, if they actually exist. We can be emailed @ info@feralhouse.com…. BTW, for the sake of knowing what it’s like to join a fraternal order, I was indoctrinated into Odd Fellows of Waxahachie TX. Ritual America does not profess to be academic, but a vastly illustrated layman’s guide to ignored aspects of American history.

By: jerwin

jerwin — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 21:19:00 +0000

Correct Uniform? Why would Breivik pretend to be a member of an American Masonic lodge? Find me a picture of Norwegian Knights Templar “in correct uniform” and then we can talk.

By: pgt

pgt — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:41:00 +0000

I’m not going to go through the whole post, much less the whole book – it doesn’t merit that level of attention. However, two points, demonstrating your level of fact-checking.

1. You’ve misspelled Breivik’s name throughout. Is this error also in your book?

2. He wasn’t removed from a ‘Templar Group in Norway”. He was kicked out of the Norwegian Freemasons, where he was an inactive member, apparently attending only one meeting in the four years after taking his degrees in 2007. It’s not unusual for men to join the Masons, discover it wasn’t what they thought, and stop attending.

He and a handful of his fascist buddies apparently did create their own group of “Knights Templar” in 2002, in London, without any connection of to freemasonry. That is apparently where the photo in the fanciful uniform comes from.

Here’s some actual Masonic Knights Templar, with the correct uniform.

http://www.greeleygazette.com/press/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/knights-templar-formation-NAVAL-CROPPED.png

Not quite the same. I don’t think I’m the one who needs to do a ‘simple Google search’. The above data is mostly from Wikipedia.

pgt

By: Art

Art — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:35:00 +0000

As a 23 year Mason and twice past master, I always get a kick out of authors who pen wildly inaccurate tomes about Masonry and it’s history without having any personal lodge affiliation or experience.

My verdict about the book? Amusing and with some great, old-timey graphics!
But because of it’s out of context and half clarified descriptions, it would not be used for any serious, scholarly reference work.

By: Jim Saul

Jim Saul — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:26:00 +0000

I don’t know much about the group, but here in the Cincinnati area they sponsor a well-respected medical center specializing in treatment of severely burned children.

It would be hard to come up with a more worthy effort than that. And besides, any guys who take themselves so unseriously that their primary public persona are elderly larks driving miniature cars wearing fezzes are like something RAW would adore.

By: Jim Saul

Jim Saul — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 20:21:00 +0000

Since you’re on the subject, just what is Bohemian Grove all about?