A book on the Saints John

I realize it has become traditional to raise the subject of the two Saints John on their feast days, but as much as I love tradition, I also enjoy flaunting it. That may make me a bad mason in some people's eyes, but if it also makes me an interesting one, I'll be content. Regardless, I recently came across this fascinating title and wanted to share a few words about it.

I know it may be trying to push a boulder uphill, but even though they may not be in English, I hope that by exposing an Anglophone Masonic audience to at least a notice about publications in other languages, a taste for exploration may be encouraged.

In any case, here goes.

The Initiatory Festivals of the Two Saint Johns: The ritual doors of the Masonic year

By Jean-Patrick Dubrun

The Masonic tradition has fortunately preserved the commemoration of the festivals of the two Saint Johns. Celebrated during the winter and summer solstices, they punctuate the year and the ritual work of the lodges. The reference to two Christian saints, the Baptist and the Evangelist, should not make us forget what these two festivals owe to the older initiatory traditions, marked by the transmission of the Light and the formulation of the Word. To understand why and how these two special moments of the year that are the two solstices must be ritualized, it is necessary to go back to the thread of the initiatory tradition, which leads in particular to the Roman god Janus, the astrological signs of Cancer and Capricorn, and the principle of the sacralization of time by the rite. The  possession of these traditional keys sheds light on the symbolic figure of the two Johns and makes it clear why their feast consecrates the opening of the ritual doors of the Masonic year.