Summer Conference held in the Grand Temple at
Freemasons’ Hall, London on
Saturday 7 June 2003

Once again both afficionados and new boys descended on the Grand Temple in Great Queen Street for a new look at their masonic convictions and practices, for a refresher course in how to build the spirit, for a moral and spiritual MOT inspection and for another visit to the fountain of masonic nourishment and refreshment that has come to be the most important summer fixture in the masonic calendar.

This year the proceedings were led off to a gentle start by José Anes, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Portugal, who conducted us, virtually, symbolically and spiritually, with the aid of coloured slides and a persuasive delivery, round one of the most intriguing complexes in Portugal, Quinta da Regaleira, a chapel, a palace, gardens with grottos and subterranean areas, the whole scene vibrant with mystery and expectancy. We learned of initiatic paths, symbolic ones, and physical ones dotted with Templar crosses, and José drew on masonic tradition from right across Europe to elucidate them.

Kirk MacNulty, author of several works on masonic subjects, invited us to consider the Renaissance as more than just an explosion of art, more than just a revival of interest in the Classical world and its thought, and to mark the emergence of hermeticism and the Kabbalah. He invited us to regard earthly experiences as reflections of celestial events – "as above, so below", to turn within and seek to experience the presence of an indwelling Deity, and how the masonic symbolism, as represented on the tracing boards, reflects these principles.

Neville Barker-Cryer, known worldwide for his constant probing into 18thC English Freemasonry, and indeed before, regaled us then with his inimitably enthusiastic style and urgency. His subject was no less than the activities of an English Grand Lodge in existence a dozen years before 1717! Such a fascinating piece of hitherto unknown history could only have been unearthed and presented by Neville.After lunch, spent in comfortable chats and renewing acquaintances around Freemasons’ Hall, we were feeling a little too comfortable.

Brother Lightfoote, that redoubtable eighteenth-century Gentleman of the Craft known to Readers of Freemasonry Today was about to address us, all the way from June 7th 1783 and apparently after a few flagons of ale, about the nonsense that is currently written about masonic degrees, and to pour scorn, in his own irreverent way, on the so-called historians. But there was to be a sting in the tale. Lightfoote was about to exhort us to put our degrees to good use in the service of mankind, and to do so had invented one of his inimitable little ditties :-

Be cross, be crass, be cussed,
But be not satisfied.
We have the power to change the world
It’s time it was applied!

Following Lighfoote, the participants were then invited to make their own input in terms of the by now famous question-and-answer session. Cornerstone participants are never slow to engage in debate, and this year it was as lively as ever.The day’s events were admirably rounded off with the delivery of a section of the first degree ritual as practised in New York, to the accompaniment of music and a narrative highlighting the inner meaning of the passages worked. As we are a little nervous about posting passages of ritual on the website, we have decided to email copies of this Ritual Workshop to interested brethren, who apply giving their lodge numbers, by sending an email requesting it to workingtools@aol.com