Why was he eager to inform future generations that he was both a Rosicrucian and a Freemason? Is our present generation those “eyes not yet created” that Shakespeare predicted (in Sonnet 81) would make the “Fair Youth” immortal? Was the Earl of Southampton Shakespeare’s patron, or was he the “Fair Youth” - the natural son the poet could not acknowledge? Shakespeare’s poems and plays show that he was a Freemason and a Rosicrucian. It is called the “Tower Portrait” for its setting in the Tower Prison, from which Southampton had just emerged after serving a sentence for supporting the Essex Rebellion. We can find many Freemason and Rosicrucian clues in the 1603 portrait of Henry Wriothesley, Third Earl of Southampton, to whom Shakespeare dedicated “Venus and Adonis” in 1593. They are like a time capsule intended to be discovered at a later time. Now, in the 21st century, we can decipher the clues left for us in paintings, suspicious death reports, poetry, plays, and 20th century analyses of 16th century documents. We explore the fascinating intersection of Dr John Theophilus Desaguliers and Sir Isaac Newton at the centre of this intriguing period, and contend these men played a part in not only the modification (or re-creation) of the Master Mason degree, but also in the resurrection of those geometric symbols from the operative age that define present freemasonry. We find a suggestion the third degree came into common usage in the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, and an implication the resurrection and/or esoteric modification of masonic geometry occurred during this era. By tracing the history of the Master Mason, or third degree, we gain a deeper understanding of this transition. Consequently, the study reveals an extraordinary path from the operative to the speculative age. This paper illustrates the transmission and sometimes startling application of those principles while examining the masonic symbolism of the 47th Proposition of Euclid, the Golden Ratio and the Point within a Circle. Operative masons passed their geometry and their philosophy from generation to generation via initiation. This article investigates geometry’s importance within freemasonry and discovers the de facto guardianship provided geometry by operative masons through the Middle Ages. Murphy, and Shawn Eyer, this collection critically re-examines key aspects of early Masonic life and thought, revealing the philosophical and social underpinnings of an organization that remains an intriguing cultural phenomenon.
Featuring contributions by Ric Berman, David Harrison, Jedediah French, Nathan A. What did Masons of the early Grand Lodge era actually do in their lodges? How did these brethren think of themselves and their Craft? What were their motivations and ideals? What was their experience of Freemasonry? By posing such questions, our contributors have been able to study not just an institutional beginning, but the cultural realities of Masonic life in the first decades of the Grand Lodge’s history.
This volume of intriguing essays by eminent and emerging Masonic scholars explores the history and culture of Freemasonry during that period of expansion.
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