Friday, October 10, 2008

Rose Circle Reviews

For some more reviews of last weekend's Conference of the Rose Circle Research Foundation, please visit Brother Jay Hochberg's blog "The Magpie Mason" and Brother David Lindez's "The Anthropological Mason". There's some great photos there as well.

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

Rose Circle Fall 2008 Conference

I spent last Saturday at the Rose Circle Research Foundation's Fall Conference in New York City. This was a great afternoon of esoteric indulgence as we began with an art & jewel exhibit.

At 2 PM, the lectures began with Piers A. Vaughn's topic on Alchemy and Freemasonry. Brother Vaughn is always very interesting to listen to & he didn't disappoint - I have to start some research on the 7 Liberal Arts & Sciences and their Alchemical correspondences.

Piers was followed by Brother David Lindez, who entertained us with a talk about the history of the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitatibus Foederatis. This was an extremely fascinating look at the Masonic Rosicrucian Society here in the United States. He cut his talk short so we could have more time with the last speaker of the afternoon, but I look forward to his forthcoming books on the SRICF and the Rectified Scottish Rite.

Our final speaker was Brother R.A. Gilbert who went "beyond the image" of Rosicrucian symbolism with his educational lecture. Known as an academic in Masonic circles, Brother Gilbert prove to be an entertaining speaker for what could have been a very dry subject. His sense of humor showed through as well as his esoteric side.

The day was a great success and it was great for me to see that there were Brother Masons (and non-Masons) that seemed to be quite "normal" despite their esoteric leanings - not to worry though, there were still a few eccentrics & other such beings there as well. All gathered together in relatively peaceful harmony.

I also got the chance to meet and speak face to face with Brother Jay Hochberg, who along with Brother David Lindez are members of The Masonic Society. It was great to converse with those that we normally on know over the "net". The Masonic Society, by the way, will be meeting at Masonic Week in February 2009, just outside of Washington, DC.