Remember your 2nd degree? Please make time to come out to support and welcome both these young brothers to the beautiful Fellowcraft degree.
We were shocked and so humbled to find out that the Chico-Leland Stanford Lodge No. 111's website was named the winner of the Grand Lodge of California's Annual Communication. The Lodge Communications Awards recognize lodges that are doing an extraordinary job of connecting with their members and the general public through various traditional and innovative communication tools.
“Your web site was an inspiration to us, and we very much enjoyed reading it. It is exactly the type of public outreach style that Masonry needs, rather than being to ‘insider’ in its approach. We were so impressed with its sophisticated style, that we have decided to copy it for the new lodge website templates Grand Lodge will be providing lodges that require websites using Wordpress. Keep up what you are doing, because it works!”
We only entered to get feedback from Grand Lodge on what we should do to our website to make it better never thinking it was that good. We are humbled. A big Thank You to our designer, Thomas Thackery of Go Gassamer Web Design, Bros. Steve Catterrall PM, Matt Cherrington Master, and Darrel Hunter PM who green lighted this project last December 2015.
In addition Bro. Ryan Hyland, our treasurer, was awarded Special Recognition for Completion of All Lodge Management Certification Program Courses in 2016. He completed all four courses of the Lodge Management Certification Program – Hall Association Management, Lodge Finance, Membership Experience, and Lodge Administration – including successful scores on each final exam. Congratulations Ryan!
Here is Ryan leading the Scottish Rite Masons Tough Mudder Team at the Tough Mudder Challenge 2016-Lake Tahoe this summer. Congratulations Ryan!
Today everyone on the planet will experience 12hrs of daylight and 12hrs of darkness, today we are all equal on the planet.
The September equinox arrived at 7:21 AM in California. This picture was taken a few minutes after that from the 6th floor of Butte Hall, California State University Chico looking towards the Cascades/Sierras. The sun rising due east this morning.
As Masons we seek the light coming from the East. We are now between the two St. Johns: John the Baptist and John the Evangelist in the solar year. We are back to the circumscribed center.
At Chico-Leland Stanford Lodge No. 111 we hope all brethren are able to reflect on Equinox and into the Autumn season about being Masons and keeping it on the level in our dealings with all humans. Equinox the day the whole world is equal in the realm of the solar system that we reside. As we go into the Fall season, the season of St. Michael conquering the dragon, may we all find the strength and the will forces to show our Masonic way to others.
"Brave and True I will be like St. Michael. Each good deed sets me free. Each kind word makes me strong. I will fight for the right. I will conquer the wrong."
AskMen, the world’s top online men’s lifestyle publication, just published an article on today's Freemasonry – and Deputy Grand Master John R. Heisner (soon to be our 2017 Grand Master) gave the California perspective. Give it a read below, only two pages but inspiring!
From Masons of California News. Copyright 2016 Masons of California. All rights reserved. 1111 California Street, San Francisco, CA 94108
All Member, their families and interested visitors most Welcome! Bring a friend who may be interested in Freemasonry.
RSVP: Lodge Secretary @ 893-6171 or111secretary@sbcglobal.net
Nature deity September serenades the garden to prepare for Fall harvest, equinox and the coming of King Winter. (from Christopher's Harvest Time, Elsa Beskow)
Remember September
by Marlys Swinger
Remember September; Before she said goodbye
She told the youngest robins the way they ought to fly.
Around the mountain's shoulder she spread a gypsy shawl,
And sent a breeze among the trees to sing about the fall.
Remember September; Before she went away
She taught the cricket fiddlers the proper tunes to play,
She gave a modest maple a dress of red and gold
And showed a mouse a little house to keep him from the cold.
Remember your 1st degree? Please make time to come out to support and welcome both these new brothers in our lodge.
When: Thursday, October 13th at 6:30pm
At this meeting, we will be discussing the book "Freemasonry" by Brother Mark Stavish. This book's discussion will be open to Master Masons...and should be illuminating! At our last book club meeting at Tres Hombres (what a good time!) this book was chosen in a coin toss win by Worshipful Matt, sorry Steve...
From Amazon.com:
As one of the world's most famous mysterious societies, Freemasons remain the largest fraternal organization in the world. Some of the most heroic and creative thinkers in history belonged to the order, including George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Goethe, and Mozart. What links the philosophy of these great minds with the estimated four million Freemasons who actively maintain this ancient brotherhood today?
From sacred geometry to legendary Masonic rites, author and Freemason Mark Stavish divulges the philosophy of Masonry and the moral code that all Masons share. Learn how Masonry's higher degrees, particularly Scottish Rite, were influenced by occult beliefs and practices, and how Masonry is linked to King Solomon, Gothic architecture, magic practice, alchemy, and Qabala.
With exercises and suggested readings, this fascinating exploration is an essential learning tool that will answer questions and shed light on other Masonic mysteries, including initiation and the Lost Word.
About the Author
Mark Stavish is an active Freemason under the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania (our countries oldest), Scottish Rite, York Rite and Eastern Star. He has been a long-time student of esotericism and is a frequent lecturer on ancient occult knowledge. Founder of the Institute for Hermetic Studies (1998), he is the author of numerous articles on Western esotericism. In 2001 he established the Louis Claude de St. Martin Fund, a non-profit dedicated to advancing the study and practice of Western Esotericism. He has also served as a consultant to print and broadcast media and several documentaries. He holds undergraduate degrees in Theology and Communications and a Master's in Counseling.
WHERE TO GET THE BOOK
You can obtain the book on Amazon.com in both paper and electronic format at a very reasonable price for used copies, some as low as $4.99. Also check our www.abebooks.com for great used deals as well.
Prior to the meeting, we will be emailing the author to provide us guiding questions to encourage thought and foster discussion. This is a convivial as well as an educational gathering so please feel free to imbibe in a favorite beverage, as it is Octoberfest, if you like. Even if you choose to not read the book come join the discussion and brotherly support.
Please RSVP by sending an email to Bro. Steve Catterral, oldegold@hotmail.com or Bro. Dean Fairbanks, dhfairbanks@csuchico.edu
We hope to see you there!
Come and join us for an informative evening when we will discuss Masonry in Iran and the history of the Grand Lodge of Iran- in exile, the social and political environment of Masonry in Iran and how it compares the Masonry in the United States
5:00 pm
Social @ Natoma Lodge #64, 1000 Duchow Way, Folsom
6:00 pm
Catered Persian Dinner
7:00 pm
Introductions by MW John Cooper, III, Past Grand Master of Masons of California
$20 per person, Please RSVP, Casual Business Attire
David Lagala, PM, Junior Warden GCRL
1980 Driftwood Circle, El Dorado Hills, CA 95762
Tel: 916-834-1290
lagalad@flc.losrios.edu
The Grand Lodge of Iran, established in 1969 in Tehran, existed in the country prior to the Islamic Revolution of 1979, hosted membership from various political figures, including former prime minister Jafar Sharif-Emami (who served as the lodge's grand master at one point), and branched to 43 Lodges and at least 1,035 members.
Since the Iranian Revolution, Freemasonry has been banned in Iran; a "Grand Lodge of Iran in Exile" is currently established in Los Angeles, although it holds meetings in Massachusetts, where the local Grand Lodge approved its practice in 1985.
Persian Freemasons received in March 1985 the approval of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts to conduct Masonic activities in Boston. In the present they have Masonic Lodges in Washington D.C., France and in California all under the Persian Grand Lodge (in Exile).
Here is an interesting article on Freemasonry and Sufism which is the esoteric form of Islam and still very important in Iran. http://freemasoninformation.com/2009/09/freemasonry-and-sufism-two-roads-and-one-destination/
As seen in the Chico ER on August 3rd.
Heidi Johnson, Chico-Paradise Rainbow Girls (Chico ER photo credit).
Heidi Johnson, a 2016 graduate of Durham High School, was appointed to serve as grand worthy advisor of the California jurisdiction, International Order of the Rainbow for Girls. The appointment came while she was attending Grand Assembly, the organization’s annual state convention in Fresno.
Johnson, 18, has been an active member of Rainbow for the past five years. As grand worthy advisor, she will travel throughout the state and visit with each assembly. She will also represent California Rainbow at neighboring jurisdictions of Nevada and Washington/Idaho.
Johnson is the daughter of Greg and Lisa Johnson of Durham. She plans to attend St. Mary’s College in Moraga in the fall of 2017.
This summer, she is traveling to Rhode Island to attend the Supreme Assembly, the biennial international convention of Rainbow.
Heidi has researched and chosen a state-wide service project, “A Place Called Home,” a nonprofit organization in Los Angeles with the focus of education for inner-city youth. She will promote this endeavor during her travels. Members of California Rainbow will work to raise funds for A Place Called Home all year. She will also help plan the next California Grand Assembly, where she will preside in April 2017 and where the proceeds will be announced and presented to A Place Called Home.
Rainbow is a service organization open to girls ages 11-20. Members develop many personal skills including public speaking, event planning, self-confidence and community service.
Johnson is a member of Chico-Paradise Assembly which meets at Chico-Leland Stanford Lodge #111. She has participated in Relay for Life, helps with the Paradise Simple Gesture food collection program, and volunteers with various nonprofit groups and organizations.
The following article was posted on Salon.com on July 4, 2016. It describes the first "third party" in the US, the Anti-Masonic Party.
Monday, Jul 4, 2016 09:00 AM PDT
Anti-Masonic Party 1826-1832 became the Whig Party.
(Credit: AP/Jae C. Hong)
The presidential nominating convention, that quadrennial blend of circus and speechfest, was originated not by the two major parties, but by a little-known and short-lived group who called themselves the Anti-Masons. How did this band of zealots come to found a national institution? The story revolves around a mystery.
In 1826, the Erie Canal corridor across New York state was bringing raging prosperity and not a little anxiety to a land that had recently been a frontier. The patriotic New England Yankees who settled the region were ultra-sensitive to intimations that the American Republic was losing its bearings.
In September of that year, Freemasons along the canal abducted a man named William Morgan. A disgruntled Mason himself, Morgan had written a book exposing Masonic secrets. He imagined a bestseller. Alarmed local Masons took the law into their own hands. They imprisoned Morgan in a disused fort on the Niagara River. A few days later, he disappeared. His fate remains unknown to this day.
It took a public outcry to move the authorities to apprehend Morgan’s abductors and probable killers. Most local magistrates, judges and sheriffs were themselves Masons. Masonic witnesses stonewalled the courts. Those convicted received trivial sentences. Outrage along the canal corridor grew.
Speakers at public meetings suddenly saw Freemasonry as an insidious conspiracy to replace government by the people with an aristocracy. The brotherhood was indeed top-heavy with citizens of means, although there were plenty of working-class members like Morgan himself. It was equally true that many prominent politicians, including New York Governor DeWitt Clinton, the canal’s champion, were Masons. But the notion of a Freemason plot was purely a product of the anxiety that rapid change was bringing to the newly opened lands west of the Appalachians.
The movement gained energy from the settlers’ enthusiasm for militant Christianity. An Anti-Masonic minister declared Freemasonry to be the “darkest and deepest plot that ever was formed in this wicked world against the true God, the true religion.”
Women had long resented husbands who devoted their time to lodge meetings, where liberal drinking was the rule. They helped energize a movement that quickly became a political groundswell. “Reason and religion equally demand [Freemasonry’s] overthrow,” one group of ladies proclaimed.
By 1831, the Anti-Masons had formed a political party and were ready to run a candidate for president. The question was how to choose a standard-bearer. The Constitution had made no provision for the selection of candidates, so parties were free to make up their own rules.
Beginning in 1800, the Congressional caucus of each party met to make the choice. This system was already outdated by the 1830s, and anyway the Anti-Masons had no members in Congress to form a caucus. Having built their movement through public meetings and state conventions, they quite naturally turned to the same means for choosing a candidate.
Not wasting any time, national delegates met more than a year before the election. The first ever presidential nominating convention opened in Baltimore in September 1831. The party selected William Wirt, a respected former attorney general (and a former Mason), to represent them in 1832. They also originated the formal political platform. Their statement of principles included an endorsement of public works spending, support for temperance, and insistence on the suppression of secret societies.
Members of the ailing National Republican party followed suit with their own conclave in December, tapping Henry Clay as their candidate. Although President Andrew Jackson was certain to be selected to run for a second term, the Democrats saw that the other parties had profited from the publicity and morale boost of a national meeting. The Dems held their first convention in March 1832.
William Wirt won only a single state, Vermont. He may have taken some votes from Clay, but it really didn’t matter–Jackson won handily. As more and more Masonic lodges closed their doors, the Anti-Masons suffered from their own success. The hyperbole that had fueled their anger began to ring hollow. Prominent party members, including political heavyweight William Seward, steered them toward other concerns, including the abolition of slavery.
By 1836, the Anti-Masons had become a powerful faction of the Whig Party, whose members joined with anti-slavery Democrats twenty years later to found the new Republican Party. In the contentious nominating convention of 1860, Seward lost out to an Illinois lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. The Anti-Masons disappeared; the convention proved a robust institution.
Original article can be found here: http://www.salon.com/2016/07/04/the_conventions_invention_freemasons_and_the_mysterious_dawn_of_a_political_instituion/
The next meeting of the Masonic Book Club will be:
When: Thursday, August 11th at 6:30pm
Where: Tres Hombres restaurant on the patio in downtown Chico
At this meeting, we will be discussing the book "Solomon's Builders: Freemasons, Founding Fathers and the Secrets of Washington D.C." by Christopher Hodapp.
This book's discussion will be open to brothers of all Masonic degree levels...and should be fun! Time for a great summer read.
From Amazon:
DID THE FREEMASONS CREATE THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
Step back in time to the birth of a revolutionary new republic and discover how the utopian ideals of a visionary secret society laid the foundation for the most powerful nation on earth. Follow George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, John Hancock and other Founding Fathers as they transform the democratic principles of their Masonic lodges into a radical new nation. Solomon's Builders unravels history from myth as it takes you on a Freemason's tour of Washington, D.C. It reveals the evidence of Masonic influence during the construction of America and its new capital, including clues hidden in plain sight:
Solomon's Builders relates the true stories of our visionary Founders, and the fascinating meaning behind the cryptic codes, enigmatic symbols and intriguing architecture that was the basis for the sequel to The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown's novel The Lost Symbol.
Author Christopher Hodapp is a Freemason and a Past Master of two Masonic Lodges. His first book, Freemasons for Dummies, is the most popular modern guide to the ancient and accepted fraternity of Freemasonry.
WHERE TO GET THE BOOK
You can obtain the book on Amazon in both paper and electronic format at a very reasonable price for used copies, some as low as $0.50! Also check our www.abebooks.com for great used deals as well.
Prior to the meeting, we will be sending out a list of questions to all attendees to encourage thought and foster discussion. This is a convivial as well as an educational gathering so please feel free to imbibe in a favorite beverage at Tres Hombres with us, if you like. Even if you choose to not read the book come join the discussion and brotherly support.
Please RSVP so we can set aside chairs and tables on Tres Hombre's patio by sending an email to Bro. Steve Catterral, oldegold@hotmail.com
We hope to see you there!
Our lodge with other community groups participated in the memorial day service at the Chico Cemetery. We presented the compass and square wreath. The DeMolay and advisers placed flags on all the veterans and flowers on all memorials in the Masonic area of the Chico Cemetery.
On Monday night May 16, our local chapter of Rainbow Girls International held a very well attended initiation night for three new young ladies from Chico. If you have never seen a Rainbow ceremony they are very special and the girls did a wonderful job under the tutelage of mother advisor, Lisa Johnson, and direction of the Grand Worthy Advisor our very own Heidi Johnson. The York Rite Room was packed with visitors from Marysville, Chico, Paradise, Durham, and all of the Table Mountain Lodge officers. Thank you Table Mountain for coming out to support the girls. Thank you Chico-Leland Standford Lodge No. 111 WM Matt Cherrington for capturing some images of the event.
The three new initiates are in the front. This brings five new members to date, exceeding their recruitment target for the year.
This years scholarships for local graduating high school seniors were swept by two great female students from Durham High School. We are pleased to announce that Mary Freitas and Heidi Johnson are this years scholarship recipients. They are shown with Worshipful Master Matt Cherrington.
Congratulations Girls from the members of the Chico-Leland Stanford Lodge No. 111. All the best with your future education.
There is still plenty of time to purchase the book, read the 150 pages, contemplate its information and meaning to Masonry, and then come join us on the Grana Patio on June 9th at 6:30!!
The next meeting of the Masonic Book Club will be:
At this meeting, we will be discussing the book The Golden Thread: The Ageless Wisdom of the Western Mystery Traditions by Joscelyn Godwin.
From Amazon:
The Golden Thread traces the interconnectedness of esoteric wisdom in the Western world, from classical antiquity to contemporary Europe and America. Joscelyn Godwin lends personal perspective to an arrangement of text that is historical and wisdom that is timeless, creating a source of inspiration that calls us to action in our everyday spiritual practice. Every chapter, therefore, makes reference to some aspect of contemporary life and issues of immediate concern. Elegantly written and not without irony and humor, readers will appreciate the non-threatening tone of Godwin's writing, which is not meant to preach or convert but rather inform the public on an often baffling field. Educated readers who are curious about the esoteric and mystery traditions and interested in finding surprising, new approaches to subjects that veer away from the trends of current thought will be particularly drawn to this book.
WHERE TO GET THE BOOK
You can obtain the book on Amazon in both paper and electronic format at a reasonable price for used copies, some as low as $8.99. Also check out www.abebooks.com for great used deals as well.
Prior to the meeting, we will be sending out a list of questions to all attendees to encourage thought and foster discussion.
This is a convivial as well as an educational gathering so please feel free to imbibe in a favorite beverage at Grana with us, if you like.
Please RSVP so we can set aside chairs and tables on Grana's patio by sending an email to Bro. Steve Catterral, oldegold@hotmail.com
We hope to see you there!
On Tuesday April 26 our lodge celebrated exemplary teachers in the Chico and Durham School Districts. In attendance were Kelly Staley, Superintendent of Chico Unified School District and Len Foreman, Superintendent of Durham Unified School District. It was a wonderful evening of celebration for exemplary teachers.
Honored teachers of Chico Unified School District: Kathy Jones, Mary Sours, and Mike Bruggeman
Durham Unified School District honorees: Cyndi Haapanen, Deanna Coyne, and Kari Stotler.
Master of Ceremonies Steve Catterall and Worshipful Master Matt Cherrington.
Brother Donald Herbert Gage
Brother Gage was a member of our lodge for 62 years. Please come out to the service if you can to honor him.
All members, their families and interested visitors most welcome. Bring a friend who may be interested in Freemasonry.
Cost: $8.00
RSVP contact: Lodge Secretary @ 893-6171 OR email: 111secretary@sbcglobal.net
From the Magic Masonic Kitchen Menu of Steve and Fritz comes...
Stated Meeting: 7:30pm; Masonic members only
Our first meeting of the Lodge Book Club will discuss The Masonic Myth: Unlocking the Truth About the Symbols, the Secret Rites, and the History of Freemasonry by Bro. Jay Kinney. This book's discussion will be restricted to Master Masons. See Book Club page for details.
If you purchased the book come and discuss with a group of interested readers in all things Masonry.
Chico-Leland Stanford Masonic Lodge No. 111 free & accepted Masons in Chico, California. Freemasonry is dedicated to esoteric & philosophical inquiry for truth.
