A big shout out to my old mate, Florida based Freemason George Brooks, who took this on as a nice little project, downloading maps and tracing the history of the legendary Goose and Gridiron. The Goose and Gridiron is famous to Freemasons all over the world for being the location of the first meeting of the first ever Grand Lodge on the 24th June 1717, when the four London lodges came together. The building has long since gone, though it still existed during the Victorian period, and there is a rare photograph of the pub from around 1890. The building was nestled in a ‘court yard’ and was known as 8 London House Yard, the ‘court yard’ being to ‘the north side, at the west end’ of St. Paul’s Cathedral. The area around St. Paul’s was bombed during World War II, so the surrounding area has changed dramatically during the last century.
A pub can be traced there before the Great Fire of London in 1666, which was called the Mitre, and it was associated with musicians, with concerts taking place and parties. After the fire, a new pub was built, but, as the story goes, instead of using the arms of the company of musicians, which was the Swan and Lyre, the new owners decided to mock the image by using the Goose and Gridiron.
Today, the site is occupied by Juxton House, and for those keen to see the exact spot, the former opening of London House Yard would have been approximately halfway between the steps of the west front of St. Paul’s and the statue of Queen Anne.
¡Como conocedora de su trabajo, me da mucho gusto que el Dr. David Harrison pueda ser leído ahora en español! Como bien describe el traductor Darren Lorente-Bull en su introducción, David nos pinta y transporta a un mundo pasado forjado por la Masonería. Con diez libros escritos sobre el tema, David es reconocido como experto en Masonería Inglesa y su trabajo de décadas sobre el tema es evidente en los artículos con temas y personajes ingleses que han marcado su trayectoria profesional. Pero en esta colección David también explora con su singular disciplina académica las Revoluciones en Francia, Estados Unidos y América Latina y grupos de gran controversia como el Hell-Fire club. Su interés por la arqueología es evidente en artículos como el de Los túneles de Williamson.
El libro cubre artistas, pensadores y escritores que fueron fuertemente influenciados por la Masonería u otras sociedades secretas como William Blake, Thomas Paine y George Gordon Byron. David no es tímido en poner al descubierto los escándalos de sus sujetos. Temas coloridos incluyen Logias que se reúnen en cuevas y canteras, la Logia de los Autores, la primera mujer Francmasona, el misterio de los ataúdes móviles, sexo seducción y sociedades secretas y ceremonias públicas de colocación de piedras angulares o clave. Temas más sobrios incluyen la opresiva Ley de la Sociedad Ilegal de 1799 y las disputas entre Las Grandes Logias de los Masones Modernos y Antiguos.
The Master informed me that the Saadi Tekke was founded before the Ottoman invasion of the Balkans, and he produced a ‘sword’ that he said belonged to the founder, who came from Persia.
It has also been commented on how the architecture of the Bektashi Shrine conveys a common Islamic architectural language, with the shrine, the courtyard, the archway, the portal and tomb. Indeed, the Halveti Tekke, Saadi Tekke and Bektashi Tekke I had visited, all had a similar architectural structure, with the inner courtyard which provide a sense of sacred isolated peace from the outside world; once you walked through the gateway, it was as if you had traversed into a world of peace where one could meditate and reflect. All had a room that housed the resting place of the Order’s past Masters, and from talking to the Masters of the respective Tekke’s, the architecture represented a sacred space, a space that was separate from the outside world.3
Goetian magic is a form of magic that allows you to have an element of control over demons and to make them do your bidding – though perhaps at a price. The idea can be seen in a controversial text called The Testament of Solomon, the text, stating how God sent the Archangel Michael to give Solomon the gift of a ring that allowed him to control demons, aiding him to build the Temple. The ring, according to differing sources, is described as a pentagram or as the Seal of Solomon. The use of the term Goetian in English originates from the 17th century grimoire Lesser Key of Solomon, which features an Ars Goetia as its first section. It contains a descriptions of the evocation of 72 demons, and was translated from Latin into English by Freemason S.L. MacGregor Mathers and was published by Aleister Crowley in 1904 as The Book of the Goetia of Solomon the King. Goetic Theurgy is another form of this magic, which is described in the Lesser Key of Solomon, though it is used to invoke aerial spirits.
I’ve written about Prizren in Kosovo before after a brief visit in the summer, but I managed to visit for a longer time recently and have a look at some of the archaeology and old churches that dominate the ancient town. One such religious centre I visited was the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, which was built in 1870 by Dario Bucciarelli, the Archbishop of Skopje. The fresco above the altar in the Cathedral displays four angels underneath an all-seeing eye set within a triangle, which represents geometry and is a common symbol within Freemasonry. Angels are obviously a common feature in Christian art, but with the all-seeing eye above them, I couldn’t help being reminded of the four angels that are featured for example in the Elus Coen rituals and the lesser banishing ritual. 
Of all the prophetic visions that occur in the Old Testament, Ezekiel’s vision is perhaps the one that attracts the most interesting and exotic interpretations, a vision that is described in Ezekiel 1:1-3:27. For Freemasons however, we can find much in the vision that we can recognise in our rituals; from the cherubs with their four faces (of man, lion, ox and eagle), to the overall study of symbolism in a section of the Old Testament that deals with the destruction of the Temple and the hope of rebuilding it.
Prizren in southern Kosovo is, it can be argued, the spiritual centre of Balkan, and in the medieval streets can be found churches, mosques, the Helveti Teqe and, on the outskirts of the town, a medieval monastery. The skyline of Prizren is dominated by the Sinan Pasha Mosque, the building of which was begun around 1600 or 1608 on the orders of Sofi Sinan Pasha, and it has been considered that some of the masonry used to build the mosque were taken from the nearby fourteenth century Saint Archangels Monastery. The mosque was completed in 1615.
This is Belton’s first book with Lewis Masonic, but he has had books published previously, most notably with his work on the Union of English Freemasonry in 1813, which was published by Arima in 2013 (an article concerning the union is included in this work). This new work however is a compendium, a compilation of Belton’s best papers and articles on his Masonic research from over the past twenty years, originally brought together for his Masonic tour of Australia and New Zealand with the ANZMRC (Australia and New Zealand Masonic Research Council).