Through my old mate Scott Wolter of American Unearthed fame, I was introduced to genealogist Diana Muir, who has been busy assembling my family tree over the last month. I had traced my paternal side to the 1590s and my maternal side to the 1700s, when I researched my family history around twenty years ago, and it was great for Diana to not only double check everything, but to extend the family line way back to 1066 through the Domville and the Warburton lines, and in doing so has unearthed a few Masonic connections and a possible Templar link. All of these findings will be published soon in a book by Diana, so as soon as I get some news on that, I’ll do a blog post.
Diana has written a number of works on the The Lost Chronicles of the Templars, all of which are available on amazon here. The first book also has a foreword written by Scott Wolter and Terry Tilton. Other books by Diana present her genealogical work and for enquiries for her family history work, drop me a message on here and I’ll pass on the request.
I’ll be reviewing Scott Wolter’s book on the Templars soon, and the episode of American Unearthed in which I appeared can be seen below:
I have a collection of papers that have been published in various journals over the years that I have made available to download for free via my academia profile. These papers span from the early years of my PhD research to the current time, and cover a wide range of Masonic history, though similar themes can be detected throughout, such as how certain Freemasons contributed to their locality, and how Freemasonry became a force for positive social change, through education in particular.
The papers cover the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, which saw Freemasonry transform as a society, the Craft attracting such luminaries as Dr Jean Theophilus Desaguliers and Dr Francis Drake, writers and thinkers who not only shaped Freemasonry, but would help us look at Freemasonry in different ways. I was also attracted to the Romantic poets, whose work also assisted to transform the world around them, and it was no surprise that some of them such as Lord Byron and Thomas De Quincey, were attracted to secret societies and the secret science of symbolism, despite not being Freemasons themselves. Some of the papers also examine work that I have discussed in my books such as The Genesis of Freemasonry, The Liverpool Masonic Rebellion, TheYork Grand Lodge and more recently, The Lost Rites and Rituals of Freemasonry.
The papers themselves have appeared in such journals as AQC, The Philalethes Journal, Acta Macionica and the Journal for the Historical Society of Lancashire and Cheshire, and I have presented the papers at various conferences, such as the International Byron Conference in Venice in 2007 and the ICHF Conference at Edinburgh in 2009. I have continued to present the papers to many lodges over the years, in the UK, the US, Greece and Belgium, and more recently I presented a number of the papers for the Grand Lodge of Georgia lecture series. To download the papers please click on the titles in blue, which will take you directly to the pdf on my academia profile.
For a slim volume, this book packs a big punch, and is part 1 of a lecture series that celebrated Masonic author Dr Robert Lomas has been giving to lodges, mainly in the north of England, for a few years now. It is the first of five volumes that will reveal Robert’s lectures on the Apprentice, Fellowcraft, Master Mason’s degree, the Royal Arch and the Mark, and aims to fit all these aspects of Freemasonry together, presenting them in an easy-to-understand format to provide a learning program to new members.
Indeed, Lomas puts forward constantly how Freemasonry is all about education:
‘Daily use of your chisel cannot be over emphasised. Stones are not shaped by emotion or good intentions. Without the sharp cutting edge of a highly honed education you cannot hope to cut the stone cleanly and beautifully. If you think the cost of instruction and education is expensive, then think for a moment of the immense cost and consequence of ignorance.’
It is indeed the central philosophy to Freemasonry that we can continue to educate ourselves in a way that we can symbolically transform into better men and women, and to help our society become better at the same time. To turn the rough ashlar into a smooth, finished and perfect stone to build a better world. Freemasonry is of course a personal experience, and Lomas emphasises how we need to study Truth, a skill that is needed more than ever in our world of fake news and spin.
Lomas also reminds us that ‘Freemasonry is dying‘, something that may hard for some Freemasons to swallow, but he presents a reason for this in the lack of understanding that new members have of Freemasonry. Some of us may have experienced retention problems in our lodges, with new members leaving after a few years, and Lomas tackles this issue head on, suggesting that the problem lies with a lack of education in lodges that may be stuck in the past somewhat.
Overall, this first volume is a much needed book, and when lodges start to meet again after the lockdown, perhaps a serious look at the future will be part of a new plan to adapt Freemasonry in the wake of the pandemic, and this book – and the following volumes – will be part of a fresh look at the educational practices in the lodge.
A photo of Jason Dors-Lake, taken from his Facebook page
I’ve been meaning to post this for some months now, but lockdown has had a way of distracting me with work that came from nowhere, so as life gradually gets back to normal, I can now catch up on my blog posts. When I heard of the passing of Jason Dors-Lake I was genuinely saddened. I only actually met Jason a couple of times in the mid-1990s (or thereabouts) in Ibiza in a nightclub, and brushed shoulders with him London. We were both in the same circles back then; we were both in bands, both into the dance scene, though my musical background was firmly in the Independent/Britpop music scene by then. I remember then thinking that he was going to famous, and his parties were becoming legendary, all manner of band-types and dance DJs were hanging out with him. Life has a way of taking you down other pathways, so this brief connection ended and became lost in the past, our lives taking different directions.
Fast forward twenty years, and I was talking to a guy I know on social media about book ideas, and he mentioned that he knew a guy in London who had some amazing stories and there were some strange esoteric and Masonic-like things that had gone on in his life. He was talking about Jason Dors-Lake. I messaged Jason, and we began to exchange emails. Jason was the son of the actress Diana Dors and actor Alan Lake, he was born in the same year as I was, and lived a rather privileged lifestyle in Orchard Manor, situated in Sunningdale, Berks. Jason told me that his mother’s grandfather had been a Freemason and there were esoteric symbols in Orchard Manor, some can be seen in a photo of the indoor swimming pool, which Dors had decorated with Egyptian imagery. The famous celebrity parties that were held at Orchard Manor in the 1970 exposed Jason to much life in his early years, and his stories of secret two-way mirrors that would film the sexual activities of the guests have been previously written about in various books and newspaper articles.
The indoor swimming pool at Orchard Manor. Credits to follow.
Diana Dors died in 1984 of cancer, and her husband, Jason’s father, committed suicide six months later. This tragedy changed his life in an instant, and after spending a few years with his half-brother in the US, he returned back to London in the late 1980s with little money. The idea of a book developed around the more mysterious esoteric elements of Diana Dors and Alan Lake; his mother had left a coded cipher that was supposedly the instructions for a secret bank account, the cipher was pigpen, but had no key. So, there was quite a lot to look into, and our conversations took us back to the 1990s of course, especially our time in bands and the music scene.
However, my other writing projects began to take over and in that year (2016) I began working on my Lost Rites and Rituals of Freemasonry book, along with a few other writing projects. I lost touch with Jason, and a planned meeting in London didn’t take place. I know he had straightened himself out at the time we were chatting; he had struggled with alcohol but had said he had put it behind him. I heard after his death, that he had started drinking again after witnessing the Grenfell Tower fire in the summer of 2017, and this time he hadn’t managed to get back on track. He died in September 2019 after his 50th birthday.
Jason was always very approachable, extremely polite and full of fantastically entertaining stories, not only from his days at Orchard Manor but from his life during the 1990s in London in the music scene. His light has gone out far too early, and I hope he is finally at peace and is with his Mum and Dad once more.
Freemasonry for the Heart and Mind: Sketches from an Esoteric Notebook
By Julian Rees
Published by Arima
This is the latest book from Julian Rees, and it is a book that explores the essence and spirituality of Freemasonry in a collection of beautiful, almost poetical essays. These essays express Freemasonry as a journey to find God, presenting extracts of poetry from Shakespeare and Wordsworth and esoteric illustrations by the talented Tanya Robinson to provide a narrative that the Masonic journey is truly universal and is something that can be found all around us in Nature.
Rees combines a lifetime of Masonic experience with a knowledge of poetry, literature and art, to portray a masterpiece of spirituality and philosophy. Rees puts forwards his direct belief system of Freemasonry as a brotherhood (and indeed sisterhood) that can build a better world of love and light:
‘…by working with one’s brethren towards a better world we can reach for the stars. We can create, through our precepts and the richness that is real Freemasonry, true goodness and harmony and light.’
Indeed, Rees emphasises this rich spiritual theme throughout his book:
‘When we speak of building I think we also mean building such harmony and brotherhood in a spirit of community…’
Rees also explores Masonic symbolism and Masonic allegory in his essays, putting forward the deeper meaning behind the Craft, and presenting what he terms ‘the beauty of Divine Humanity’. To Rees, Freemasonry is not only a brotherhood, but a college, where life-lessons can be taught on the way to shape the perfect ashlar. An example of this comes in the form of a personal story of Rees’s:
‘Some years ago, there was a Brother in a lodge who was very disputatious. He had, I think, not completely found his way to the centre. We could say that self-worth, self-esteem were lacking. In the course of his masonic career, he caused a few upsets, and caused pain to a number of his Brethren. A mutual friend said to me one day; ‘You realise, don’t you, that he has been sent to us so that we can test our tolerance. It’s part of shaping the perfect ashlar.’
The book could also be viewed as a guide to the Masonic journey, its 120 pages offering elements of Rees’s own personal pathway, presenting interpretations of the mysteries and symbolism and how they can also be found in the world around us. This is a beautiful book to read, and is highly recommended.
The Half Moon Tavern on Cheapside was mentioned in Elias Ashmole’s diary, where he ‘dyned’ with a number of Freemasons after a lodge meeting at Masons Hall in London, held at 5pm on the 11th of March 1682. Ashmole mentioned that he ‘was the senior Fellow among them (it being 35 years since I was admitted)’. This of course refers to his being made a Freemason in Warrington in October, 1646. Indeed, the entry of this meeting in 1682 is only the second time he referred to attending a Masonic meeting in his diary.
Few hints of the nature of this meeting are given; we know that a large number of the brethren mentioned by Ashmole were employed by Christopher Wren, and Ashmole mentions how a ‘Noble Dinner’ was ‘prepared at the charge of the New-accepted Masons’. Cheapside is not too far away from St. Paul’s Cathedral, which, at the time of Ashmole’s meeting, was still under construction. Ashmole by this stage in his life, was a renowned gentleman of knowledge; he was a Fellow of the Royal Society, and as a ‘senior Fellow’ of the Freemasons, to have him at the lodge meeting would have been an honour. Thus the Half Moon Tavern would have been a reputable tavern to dine in, and certainly met the requirements to give a ‘Noble Dinner’.
After the Great Fire of London, and in spite of the quality of the rebuilding that was undertaken afterwards, later seventeenth century London was riddled with alleyways, filled with dwellings and taverns such as the Half Moon. Sometimes these alleyways followed old boundaries and became well known for the taverns that were situated in them. The Half Moon Tavern was in Half Moon Alley, heading from Cheapside, and between Foster and Gutter Lanes. It could also be entered from Priest’s Court, Foster Lane (now No. 5), and there was an entrance through the tavern to Gutter Lane. Its exact site is given and marked in Maitland’s History of London. The tavern was never engraved, and the best authorities declare that it was never depicted. The area was bombed heavily during World War II, and all that remains of Half Moon Alley one can see from the head of the kitchen stairs in Sadler’s Hall (see the maps below). The Half Moon Tavern in Aldersgate Street is an entirely different building.
We also have a mention of the tavern and its environs in John Strype’s Survey of London in 1720, which refers to how that area was affected by the Great Fire of London:
‘This Church of St. Fosters, since its burning down in the great Fire of London, is now rebuilt very decently; and beautified within, by the Parishioners of this Parish, and of St. Michaels Quern, which is united unto it. Near unto this Lane, but in Cheapside, is Sadlers Hall, a pretty good Building, seated at the upper end of a handsome Alley; near to which is Half Moon Alley, which is but small. At the upper end of which is a Tavern, which gives a passage into Foster lane, and another into Gutter lane. Gutter lane, but narrow, and none of the best; here dwell several Joiners, that make Chimney Pieces, for which it is of some Note. Here the Company of Embroiderers have their Hall.’
Many thanks to George Brooks who has researched and collected some informative map images that give the location of Half Moon Alley:
The location of Half Moon Alley todayThe Half Moon Alley and passage that links onto Gutter Lane
References:
Leigh Hunt, The Town, (London: Oxford University Press, 1907).
William Maitland, The History of London from its Foundation by the Romans to the present time. . . . With the several accounts of Westminster, Middlesex, Southwark, and other parts within the Bill of Mortality. The whole illustrated with a variety of fine cuts, (London, 1739). Various editions of Maitland’s ‘History of London’ can be found online.
One of the many questions I get asked is how does one write a Masonic book and get it published. Over the years, I’ve met so many Freemasons that want to write a book. Perhaps they are inspired by the Craft and want to talk or write about their experiences, others want to search deeper into the essence of Freemasonry and want to share their thoughts and their journey. And others of course see it as a way to gain influence and get promotions within the Craft.
My career as a Masonic historian happened completely by accident and I had no ambition at all to get my thesis published as a book. I started doing my PhD in the history of Freemasonry, but the original end game for me was to get more lecturing work at the University and maybe get some academic papers published. My PhD advisor suggested later on in my research that I should get the thesis published by a Masonic publisher, though at first I was sceptical. However, my advisor kept suggesting it, and after I submitted my thesis in the December 2007, I started to enquire about getting it published as a book. I had nothing to lose.
I successfully defended the thesis in March 2008, and around that time was given a contact email for Lewis Masonic, and I sent them a message. They quickly responded asking for a synopsis. I sent them one, and within a month, the work had been accepted. That became my first book The Genesis of Freemasonry, and it was published in April 2009. It became a best seller and today it is on its fourth imprint. That book changed my life. I became a Masonic author, and I had not only discovered a talent for writing about Freemasonry, but had acquired an audience for my books. And that is what it’s all about; publishing your work is a two way thing, it has to be great work that is well read. If your book doesn’t sell, then it’s going to take up storage space in countless boxes and you probably won’t get published again.
In Masonic book terms, Freemasonry is a Micro-niche – a ready-made market for good books on Freemasonry. Many Freemasons want Masonic education, and a good, meaningful Masonic book could sell in the thousands. The publisher, for example Lewis Masonic, is after all, a business, and sales are important.
My second book The Transformation of Freemasonry was published in 2010, first in hardback, and is still in print as a paperback. This particular book was again drawn from my PhD work and comprised of the bits I had cut out of my PhD, mainly the research that had taken the Masonic story into the 19th century. This book was also a big seller, acting as a sequel to The Genesis of Freemasonry. And from my first two books I expanded my research into other areas; the Liverpool Masonic Rebellion and the York Grand Lodge, which also explored elements of English social history, which was a particular interest of mine. Indeed, one of my main interests in Freemasonry is how certain Freemasons have changed the world around them in a positive way, either through charity, science, medicine and engineering. I feel all my books have examined this theme in some way.
Being an academic and a historian, my books concern historical aspects of Freemasonry, backed up by references and research, but there have been some excellent books that examine the philosophical aspects of Freemasonry, or books that concentrate on ritual or indeed, personal journeys.
Masonic works are always needed, because of the nature of the deeply personal experience of initiation, and for this reason I always like to encourage new work and promote it when I can. Every Masonic journey is different and expresses a new aspect for us to understand, and I would always encourage Freemasons to write about the Craft.
If you want to write a book, then write it. There are many options available now to publish, and the old stigma of print on demand and self-publishing is slowly being lifted. You don’t need to be a PhD, an academic or a member of a research lodge to write on Freemasonry, you just need to have a passion and an idea; the passion will drive the idea to new dimensions and your muse will help you.
At the moment I am having a number of my works translated into various languages; A Journey Through Freemasonry was translated into Spanish by Darren Lorente-Bull, A Quick Guide to Freemasonry is being translated into Albanian by Mevi Rafuna, and my first book Genesis of Freemasonry is being translated into French by Thierry R Bachmann. Here is an example of Thierry’s translation work on my recent paper on Thomas Garnett, which was originally published in the Philalethes – The Journal of Masonic Research & Letters.
Thomas Garnett, la Lodge of Lights, et les Lumières radicales
concernant un astronome maçonnique du 18ème siècle
Dr David HARRISON F.P.S.
Publié dans
“Philalethes – The Journal of Masonic Research & Letters
Volume 72 N°4 Hiver 2019
pages 147-151″
Traduction de l’article par Thierry R. BACHMANN
Il y a un certain nombre de références à l’astronomie dans le Rituel maçonnique anglais; les corps célestes tels que le soleil et la lune sont présentés, l’étoile brillante du matin est mentionnée, les globes terrestres sont situés sur les deux piliers et bien sûr, la Terre tournant sur son axe autour du Soleil est mentionnée pour nous rappeler les éléments de la philosophie naturelle au sein du rituel. Les sept arts et sciences libéraux ont l’astronomie comme septième art, qui présente au franc-maçon un sujet pour une étude ultérieure possible durant sa carrière maçonnique. C’est peut-être dans cet esprit qu’une conférence a été donnée à la Lodge of Lights, une loge située à Warrington, Lancashire, au nord de L’Angleterre, sur le sujet de l’astronomie, en décembre 1800 par le Vénérable Maître John Evans, la conférence étant enregistrée dans le plus ancien livre des comptes rendus de la loge ayant survécu [1].
Cependant, cette conférence peut avoir été inspirée par une conférence antérieure ; la première référence à une conférence en loge sur l’astronomie a été mentionnée en octobre 1796 et a été donnée par un non-membre de la loge, le procès-verbal indiquant que:
En conséquence d’une demande faite au frère Thomas Garnett professeur de physique et de philosophie de L’Université de Glasgow, qu’il donne aux membres de la Loge de Warrington une conférence sur l’astronomie, qu’il honorera…[2]
Le Dr Garnett a effectivement donné la conférence et est dûment énuméré dans le procès-verbal, mais ce qu’il a abordé exactement n’est malheureusement pas enregistré. Nous pouvons cependant rassembler certaines de ses idées sur le sujet à partir de ses diverses conférences qui ont été publiées, en particulier dans ses conférences posthumes Popular Lectures on Zoonomia et Lecture on the Preservation of Health, qui a été dédié à son compagnon franc-maçon et philosophe naturel Erasmus Darwin. En effet, comme nous le verrons, le Dr Garnett était un fervent exposant de la Philosophie Naturelle Expérimentale Newtonienne et un promoteur de l’éducation à travers ses conférences publiées. Garnett est devenu le premier professeur de Philosophie Naturelle au nouveau Anderson’s Institute à Glasgow en novembre 1796 et, à ce titre, est un contributeur remarqué aux Lumières écossaises [3]. L’Institut était l’invention de John Anderson, qui avait lui-même été professeur de Philosophie Naturelle à l’Université de Glasgow, et comme indiqué dans son Testament, des fonds ont été donnés pour établir une deuxième Université à Glasgow pour ” l’”apprentissage utile” et l ” amélioration de la science.” Les conférences de Garnett sont devenues populaires auprès des femmes, Anderson ayant reconnu que les cours académiques sur la philosophie naturelle devraient également être ouverts aux femmes [4].
En effet, le travail de conférence de Garnett et sa réputation peuvent certainement être vus par le vif intérêt qu’ont montré les membres de la loge de Warrington, qui sont venus l’entendre sur l’astronomie.
Cet intérêt pour la tenue de conférences, au sein de la loge, se reflète par la manière dont certains anciens membres, tels que Johann Reihnold Forster et Jacob Bright avaient été tuteurs à la Dissenting Academy (Académie dissidente) locale, un centre progressiste indépendant pour la pensée radicale et l’éducation, qui avait fermé dix ans avant la conférence de Garnett auprès de la loge en 1786 [5]. L’un des fondateurs de la Lodge of Lights, le maître d’école local, Benjamin Yoxhall, avait également été l’un des fondateurs de la Warrington Circulating Library (Librairie itinérante de Warrington) en 1760, qui aidait également la culture de l’éducation dans la ville [6]. Certes, l’esprit de l’éducation au sein de la franc-maçonnerie peut clairement être vu par des conférences en Philosophie Naturelle qui ont eu lieu dans certaines loges telles que les conférences susmentionnées sur l’astronomie tenues à Lodge Of Lights à Warrington et à Old King’s Arms Lodge à Londres, qui a tenu des conférences allant de la Philosophie Naturelle à l’architecture, y compris une conférence sur les travaux de Palladio et une conférence assistée par l’utilisation du microscope. Un autre exemple de conférences qui se déroule dans le contexte de la franc-maçonnerie peut être vu avec la Royal Lodge of Faith and Friendship basée à Berkeley, Gloucestershire, où le philosophe naturel Edward Jenner a organisé une” Loge de Science ” qui demandait aux membres de la loge de produire un article sur un sujet scientifique particulier [7].
Thomas Garnett est né à Casterton dans le Westmorland, une ville près de Kirkby Lonsdale, en 1766, et à l’âge de quinze ans, il a été apprenti auprès du célèbre chirurgien John Dawson qui résidait à Sedbergh dans le Yorkshire. En plus d’être un chirurgien de premier plan, Dawson était aussi un mathématicien notable qui a touché à l’astronomie, étudiant l’orbite de la Lune, corrigeant les erreurs de calcul de la distance entre la terre et le soleil, et la dynamique des objets dans les champs de force centraux. Se faisant une réputation de correcteur d’erreurs, Dawson argumentant contre The Doctrine of Philosophical Necessity de Joseph Priestley et confirmant une erreur dans les calculs de précision de Newton, Dawson eut l’honneur d’être élu membre correspondant à la Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society, fondée par un ancien étudiant de la Warrington Academy, le chirurgien Thomas Percival.
Garnett étudie ensuite à l’Université d’Édimbourg en 1785, obtient son diplôme en 1788, puis se rend à Londres pour compléter sa formation médicale. Il est peut-être devenu franc-maçon en Écosse, car il n’y a aucune référence de lui en tant que membre de la Grande Loge Unie d’Angleterre et comme il a été appelé “frère” dans les comptes rendus de Lodge of Lights et a présenté sa conférence en loge ouverte, son appartenance était connue et acceptée comme régulière. Garnett a ensuite déménagé à Bradford où il a pratiqué pendant un certain temps, puis il s’est installé à Harrogate pendant un certain temps, publiant la première analyse scientifique des eaux là-bas et ayant une maison construite pour lui par Lord Rosslyn [8].
Malgré cette phase apparemment réussie de sa carrière, Garnett n’était pas satisfait et partit pour Liverpool avec sa nouvelle femme épousée en 1795, avec l’idée de partir pour l’Amérique. Ce fut alors à Liverpool que Garnett a eu l’occasion de donner des conférences sur la philosophie naturelle, le conduisant à Manchester et Warrington, où il a donné la conférence sur l’astronomie pour Lodge of Lights en octobre 1796.
Dans le travail de Garnett A Tour Through the Highlands of Scotland, il indique que l’astronomie a été incluse dans ses conférences à l’Anderson’s Institution, déclarant que “la dernière partie du cours se compose d’astronomie physique, qui est composé de dix ou douze conférences seulement….” [9] et dans sa biographie présentée au début de ses Popular Lectures on Zoonomia, nous apprenons qu’“après cette période [début 1796], le Dr Garnett répéta presque la même suite de conférences à Warrington et à Lancaster; deux lieux où il fut suivi avec le même succès.” [10] Nous sommes également informés qu’« il a commencé ses conférences à Glasgow en novembre 1796. » [11] Ainsi, sa conférence à la Lodge of Lights en octobre (alors appelée Lodge de Warrington) était peut-être l’un de ses derniers engagements avant de voyager vers le nord à Glasgow pour commencer la prochaine partie importante de sa carrière. En effet, ses cours ont couvert une grande variété de sujets tels que la chimie, la minéralogie, l’analyse des eaux minérales, l’agriculture et les principes de l’électricité et du magnétisme. [12]
Certaines parties de ses conférences publiées, tel que sa Lecture on the Preservation of Health affichent les idées fondamentales de la philosophie naturelle expérimentale newtonienne, et peuvent être appliquées à la base même de la physique, ainsi un langage similaire pourrait être exprimé pour décrire l’astronomie; des mots tels que « excitabilité », « gravité », les lois d’« attraction magnétique », et une mention de Newton lui-même indiquent que Garnett avait une compréhension ferme de la pensée scientifique moderne, appliquant les principes de la philosophie naturelle newtonienne à tous les aspects de la pensée rationnelle. En effet, la réputation de Garnett a été dûment reconnue, lorsqu’il devint membre de la Royal Medical, Physical, and Natural History Societies of Edinburgh; la Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester; La Medical Society of London; la Royal Irish Academy; et professeur de philosophie naturelle et de chimie à la Royal Institution of Great Britain.
Un exemple de la présentation de Garnett des idées sur la philosophie naturelle, dont une partie aurait pu facilement être appliquée à sa conférence sur l’astronomie, peut être vu depuis cette petite section de sa Lecture on the Preservation of Health:
Bien que nous ne sachions pas exactement en quoi consiste cette propriété ni de quelle manière elle est exercée, nous voyons cependant que lorsque les corps en sont possédés, ils deviennent capables d’être exercés par des puissances extérieures, et ainsi les fonctions vivantes sont produites; nous appellerons donc cette propriété excitabilité, et en utilisant ce terme il est nécessaire de mentionner, que je veux seulement exprimer un fait, sans la moindre intention de souligner la nature de cette propriété qui distingue le vivant de la matière morte, et en cela nous avons l’exemple du grand Newton, qui a appelé la propriété qui amène les corps dans certaines situations à s’approcher les un des autres, gravité, sans pour autant faire allusion à sa nature; pourtant, bien qu’il ne savait pas ce qu’était la gravité, il a étudié les lois par lesquelles les corps ont été activés par elle, de la même manière, bien que nous ignorions l’excitabilité, ou la nature de cette propriété qui distingue le vivant de la matière morte, nous pouvons étudier les lois par lesquelles la matière morte agit sur les corps vivants par ce moyen. Nous ne savons pas ce qu’est l’attraction magnétique, et pourtant nous pouvons étudier ses lois; il en va de même en ce qui concerne l’électricité; si jamais nous devions atteindre une connaissance de la nature de cette propriété, elle ne modifierait pas les lois que nous avions découvertes auparavant. [13]
Les connaissances de Garnett s’étendent profondément dans les œuvres de Benjamin Franklin et Joseph Priestley, et s’inspirent certainement des travaux d’Erasmus Darwin.
Pendant son temps à l’Anderson’s Institute, à Glasgow, Garnett est devenu une figure de premier plan dans les conférences de philosophie naturelle et en fait, une figure de premier plan des Lumières écossaises. Les Lumières écossaises comprenaient des sommités maçonniques telles que James Boswell, Robert Burns, James Hogg, Sir Walter Scott, Erasmus Darwin et James Watt. Le milieu social intellectuel s’est également concentré sur la Select Society et le Poker Club dans Édimbourg, avec des discussions et la lecture de nouveaux livres, qui ont aidé aux idées révolutionnaires sur la science, la médecine, la philosophie, l’ingénierie, la littérature et, bien sûr, le savoir. John Anderson avait été la principale lumière de l’éducation scientifique en Écosse, inspirant James Watt pour sa conception de la puissance vapeur et était également un ami de Benjamin Franklin. Dans ce mélange culturel, Garnett trouva un foyer pour un certain nombre d’années, ses conférences devenant populaires et influentes.
Cependant, à la suite de la mort de sa femme alors qu’elle donnait naissance à leur fille Catherine Grace en décembre 1798, Garnett quitta Glasgow pour occuper le poste de professeur de philosophie naturelle et de chimie à la nouvelle Royal Institution à Londres. Pendant ce temps, Garnett participa à la fondation d’une Revue philosophique, Annals of Philosophy, qui fut annoncée après qu’il eut démissionné de son poste à la Royal Institution en juin 1801. Le travail a été décrit par Garnett comme « une vue générale et concise des découvertes scientifiques de l’année… et qui, placé dans une bibliothèque, servira d’index. » Avec sa démission, les annales, qui devaient être continuellement publiées chaque année, semblaient faire partie d’un plan entreprenant pour annoncer ses propres conférences tout en reprenant sa pratique médicale à Londres [14], mais il mourut de la fièvre typhoïde alors qu’il travaillait comme physicien au dispensaire de Marylebone en juin 1802.
L’héritage de Garnett était opulent et inspira beaucoup ; l’un de ceux influencés par Garnett était George Birkbeck, qui l’avait remplacé comme professeur de philosophie naturelle à l’Anderson’s Institute, basant ses conférences sur le format de Garnett. Birkbeck a également tenu des conférences publiques, qui a finalement conduit au premier Mechanics Institute à Glasgow. [15]
En tant que premier à être professeur de philosophie naturelle à l’Anderson’s Institute, Garnett a en effet créé un précédent. La fille de Garnett était la poète romantique Catherine Grace Godwin, qui a été élevée près de Kirkby Lonsdale dans Westmorland. Catherine correspond et rencontre William Wordsworth, lui consacrant son œuvre The Wanderer’s Legacy and Other Poems lors de sa publication en 1828. Elle reste respectée en tant qu’écrivaine féminine de l’époque. Ce sont ses conférences dont Garnett se souvient encore; son travail à l’Anderson’s Institute qui était également ouvert aux femmes, sa contribution aux Lumières écossaises, ses publications et, bien entendu, son travail dans le nord de l’Angleterre, la conférence à Lodge Of Lights n’étant qu’un moment de sa brève, mais très importante carrière.
[1] Minute book No 1 de Lodge of Lights No 148, Decembre, 1800. Non répertorié. Warrington Masonic Hall.
[2] Minute book No 1 of the Lodge of Lights No 148, October 1796. Non répertorié. Warrington Masonic Hall.
Le nom de la Lodge of Lights a été donné à la loge en question en 1806, et avant cela, la loge était appelée la Loge de Warrington
[3] Anderson’s Institute devint plus tard L’Université de Strathclyde.
[4] Voir Paul Wood, “Science in the Scottish Enlightenment,” dans Alexander Broadie (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 94–116.
[5] Voir David Harrison, “The Warrington Academy and Freemasonry; Education, Charity and Self-help in Warrington during the Eighteenth Century,” Ars Quatuor Coronatorum 130 (2017): 77–106.
[6]W.B. Stephens, Adult Education and Society in an Industrial Town: Warrington 1800–1900 (Exeter: University of Exeter, 1980), 26.
[7] Voir David Harrison, The Genesis of Freemasonry (Hersham, UK: Lewis Masonic, 2009), 124–25.
[8] Voir Thomas Garnett, A Treatise on the Mineral Waters of Harrogate (London: J. Johnson, 1792).
[9] Thomas Garnett, Observations sur A Tour Through the Highlands and part of the Western Isles of Scotland (London: John Stockdale, 1811), 2:198.
[10]Thomas Garnett, Popular Lectures on Zoonomia or The Laws of Animal Life, in Health and Disease (London: W. Savage, 1804).
[11] Ibid.
[12] Garnett, Observations, 2:198–99.
[13] Thomas Garnett, A Lecture on the Preservation of Health, (London: W. Davies, 1800).
[14] Voir Bernard Lightman, Gordon McOuat et Larry Stewart (eds.), The Circulation of Knowledge Between Britain, India and China: The Early-Modern World to the Twentieth Century (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 142–45.
[15] Gerald Newman (ed.), Britain in the Hanoverian Age, 1714–1837: An Encyclopaedia (London: Routledge, 1997), 17.
As everyone is ware, the Coronavirus pandemic has led to the cancellation of events, flights and lodge meeting for the next few months, which meant the cancellation of my talks to Boynton Lodge in Florida, and my talks to the Silver Jubilee Lodge in Southport and ADLIM lodge in Mossley. However, the event at Boynton Lodge in Florida is now rescheduled to take place on the 27th March, 2021, and everyone who has purchased tickets so far, can use them on this date, so I hope to see you all then. The notification of the event can be accessed here.
I’ll be speaking on the Lost Rites of Freemasonry on Saturday, the 28th March, at Boynton Lodge Esoteric Research Group in Boynton Beach, Florida. It’s a 9.30am start, and after my main talk in the morning, there will be lunch, a question and answer session, book signing and a later talk in the afternoon about becoming a Masonic author. It’ll be a great event with discounted signed books for sale. The event finishes around 3pm.
Through my old mate Scott Wolter of American Unearthed fame, I was introduced to genealogist Diana Muir, who has been busy assembling my family tree over the last month. I had traced my paternal side to the 1590s and my maternal side to the 1700s, when I researched my family history around twenty years ago, and it was great for Diana to not only double check everything, but to extend the family line way back to 1066 through the Domville and the Warburton lines, and in doing so has unearthed a few Masonic connections and a possible Templar link. All of these findings will be published soon in a book by Diana, so as soon as I get some news on that, I’ll do a blog post.
I have a collection of papers that have been published in various journals over the years that I have made available to download for free via my academia profile. These papers span from the early years of my PhD research to the current time, and cover a wide range of Masonic history, though similar themes can be detected throughout, such as how certain Freemasons contributed to their locality, and how Freemasonry became a force for positive social change, through education in particular.
For a slim volume, this book packs a big punch, and is part 1 of a lecture series that celebrated Masonic author Dr Robert Lomas has been giving to lodges, mainly in the north of England, for a few years now. It is the first of five volumes that will reveal Robert’s lectures on the Apprentice, Fellowcraft, Master Mason’s degree, the Royal Arch and the Mark, and aims to fit all these aspects of Freemasonry together, presenting them in an easy-to-understand format to provide a learning program to new members.
Freemasonry for the Heart and Mind: Sketches from an Esoteric Notebook
One of the many questions I get asked is how does one write a Masonic book and get it published. Over the years, I’ve met so many Freemasons that want to write a book. Perhaps they are inspired by the Craft and want to talk or write about their experiences, others want to search deeper into the essence of Freemasonry and want to share their thoughts and their journey. And others of course see it as a way to gain influence and get promotions within the Craft.
As everyone is ware, the Coronavirus pandemic has led to the cancellation of events, flights and lodge meeting for the next few months, which meant the cancellation of my talks to Boynton Lodge in Florida, and my talks to the Silver Jubilee Lodge in Southport and ADLIM lodge in Mossley. However, the event at Boynton Lodge in Florida is now rescheduled to take place on the 27th March, 2021, and everyone who has purchased tickets so far, can use them on this date, so I hope to see you all then.