Claude Levi-Strauss, the Father of Modern Anthropology, has passed on today

The latest flood of news and emails in from France, have alerted me to the fact that Claude Levi-Strauss, the acclaimed father of modern anthropology, has died at age 100. Of Jewish extract, born on Nov. 28, 1908, in Brussels, Belgium, Levi-Strauss was the son of French speaking parents. He brought attention to the commonalities existing between tribal and industrial societies while reshaping the entire field of anthropology. While documenting and mapping out the concept of structuralism with patterns of behavior and thought forms, Levi-Strauss started the intellectual trend of examining the underlying cause and archetype that lay behind every human and group action within the context of a system.

Over six decades, Levi-Strauss authored literary and anthropological classics while working closely with the staff at the Academie Francaise. Levi-Strauss was acknowledged by academia with numerous honorary doctorates from universities including Harvard, Yale and Oxford, as well as universities in Sweden, Mexico and Canada. He was much quoted by Masonic academics and historians, attempting frame Masonic ritual in a societal and cultural context of relevance, in a struggle to understand the phenomena of Western initiatory societies.

Masonic dialogue in Murray Hill, Manhattan, NYC

Consecration of the Sacred Space

As the Senior Deacon in a craft lodge in the State of New Jersey, moves about the floor, his movement is mirrored by the Junior Deacon. This is strikingly similar to the Deacon & Sub Deacon's work in the Tridentine Mass of the Roman Catholic Church. I thought about the movements and proving (with the use of the password) and purging. It is much like a clearing or banishing in the consecrating of a sacred space. The Holy Bible on the altar of the Masonic Lodge, speaks clearly of the rite of lighting a lamp. The Senior Deacon in the Masonic Lodge lights the the lights.

In the Eastern church tradition of the Orthodox Christians, the bishop and the architect mark the outline of the future building. The bishop (having himself been initiated via apostolic ordination and consecration) places the cornerstone and lights an oil lamp. St. Symeon, archbishop of Thessalonica (of the 1400's AD) described how "The bishop takes stones with his hands, descends to the foundation and places them in the form of a cross, blessing them as a symbol of placing an unshakable stone - Christ - in the foundation of the church. Then he takes an oil lamp, fills it with oil, lights it and places with blessing in the space between the stones, which means heavenly enlightenment from the true Light and the sole true light - the one of Christ" (St. Symeon of Thessalonica, A conversation on the sacred rites and church sacraments, ch.69). The Grand Master, in some respects a Primate or Patriarch of the craft, consecrates the cornerstone being laid for the foundation, with corn, wine and oil. In Christian forms of Masonry, such as the Scottish Rectified Rite in Switzerland, the Great Prior is blatantly titled as the Most Reverend, unapologetically placing an episcopal importance upon his chair.

The bishop responsible for the ritual consecrating of the new church, approaches the altar table with a special blend of incense. A chorus is sung: "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity! It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments; as the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore." The Entered Apprentice Freemason will no doubt observe, that this very same chorus was delivered during his circumambulation and birth into the lodge, where he was given a new name, just as the Baptizand was given a new name.

The Codex Sinaiticus Project

The Codex Sinaiticus Project is an academic collaboration of institutions, orders, societies and private persons who hold interest in the preservation and insight offered by a 1600 year old translation of the Christian Holy Bible in Greek. This is an exercise in both Project Management and Anthropology, which is of no small interest to the many circles of better informed Freemasons. This is no small undertaking, and all digital anthropologists should take note of the milestones involved in bringing together the fragments from around the world.

Rest In Peace, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima

A favorite Professor of mine at Rutgers University was Van Sertima. He passed on peacefully in his home in Highland Park, New Jersey on Memorial Day. We have lost one of the greatest minds, I have ever had the pleasure of interacting with. Thankfully, he left his mark behind in the form of countless lecture tapes, books and scholarly articles. He was an outstanding anthropologist, and a brilliant lecturer. His funeral is tomorrow morning at Riverside Church in Manhattan.

The Enigma of Rosslyn Chapel

Last Saturday at Alpha Lodge No. 116, Dr. Tim Wallace-Murphy presented to a captivated & arrested audience...a look into the Masonic, Templar and Esoteric connections to this mysterious chapel in Scotland. The Magpie Masonic Reporter was on hand, and has delivered a full recap. Tim Wallace-Murphy is a Freemason and international best selling author known throughout the world for his deep knowledge of Rosslyn, the Knights Templar, Sacred Geometry and Rex Deus & sacred continuation of esoteric and gnostic knowledge. His best selling books include The Mark of the Beast, Rosslyn: Guardians of the Secret of the Holy Grail, Rex Deus: The True Mystery of Rennes-Le-Chateau, Cracking the Symbol Code and many more. He is a doctor of medicine and psychology and has spent decades researching the ancient traces of the wisdom tradition around the World. He flew across from Nice, France to deliver his findings and important insight on the Rosslyn Chapel as well as various motifs, symbols and connections that exist in architecture, culture, society and are preserved by various Orders, many of them Masonic.


The program itself has been opened to the public in effort to extend Alpha Lodge as a harbor of learning and a lighthouse in the community of Essex County, New Jersey. Alpha is a lodge founded by academics, linguists, educators, juris-doctors, artisans and men who devoted themselves to a lifetime of learning. At Alpha Lodge there is evident, an encouragement of the development of character and the shaping individual members into better contributors to the World at large. Lectures, art shows, conferences, symposiums and even events aimed to entertain and foster learning in our children are commonplace at the historic Alpha Lodge No. 116 in New Jersey.

Masonic Week 2009

The Mark Center Hilton in Alexandria, VA was full of Masonic historians, educators, leaders and ritualists conferring with one another until the late hours on research, restoration, preservation and initiation. Here, a member of the Grand Lodge of Spain confers with Ill. Art de Hoyos, Grand Archivist of the Universe.