The Book of Wisdom: Freemasonry Through the Veil of an Ancient French Manuscript

The Book of Wisdom: Freemasonry Through the Veil of an Ancient French Manuscript

Compiled by Freemason Jean Doszedardski (b. 1770) during the early 1800s, the “Book of Wisdom” contains “statutes and general regulations” for Lodge le Choix des Hommes, located in Jacmel, San Domingo (sic).  (Blogger's note: The correct name was Saint Domingue which became Haiti after the revolution in 1804.) Now translated from the original French, the book provides an entrée into the lodges of the West Indies during the late 1700s and early 1800s.  In addition to details about how the lodge pursued its routine business, the end of the book includes a history of the development of Scottish Rite Freemasonry as it traveled from France to the West Indies and, eventually, to the United States.

The original manuscript is part of a collection of documents compiled by Doszedardski, now in the collection of the Van Gorden-Williams Library and Archives at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library.  Kamel Oussayef, 33°, completed the translation over several years as a volunteer at the Museum & Library.  Director of Collections Aimee E. Newell, Ph.D., provided an introduction and historical notes for the text.

Book of Wisdom: Freemasonry through the Veil of an Ancient French Manuscript is available now for $34.95 plus shipping from the Supreme Council, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction, at

Scottish Rite Northern Jurisdiction Museum Shop

Saint John's Day — Redux, Pt. II

So here is the second part of the video you all waited so patiently for me to post. This is what you've really been waiting for. We get pyrotechnics here.

The ritual itself is actually quite interesting, with traditional religious song, and sigils which Haitians might call vevers, which are in the tradition of the medieval and renaissance ceremonialists. The names written around the base of the pyre are the names of the Angels which are commonly used in Theurgic rituals.

The Masonic ritual viewed in these two videos is a public ritual, one in which the majority of the city of Jacmel attends and in which they participate. This was record several years ago in Jacmel, which is southwest of Port au Prince, the capital. Similar rites are practiced by other lodges across Haiti and are annual events much anticipated by the members of the lodge and the local population alike.

Not at all what modern North American Freemasons are used to, but very much in keeping with what came over from Southern France in the mid 18th Century when Haiti was still Saint Dominque, and the most prosperous colony in the entire New World.

St. Johns Day - Redux

Ok, so it is not midsummer. The unofficial final weekend of Summer in the US has just past, and I'm as inclined to push the clock back a month or two as the rest of you are - unless you have school age children. My son teaches grade school, so it's no longer an issue for me.

However, totally unrelated to all of that, I just came across a great film of a midsummer bonfire recorded by the Brethren of a lodge La Parfaite Sincérité de Couers Reunies No.4 in Jacmel, Haiti.

Freemasonry is historically closely tied to the veneration of Saint John the Baptist. However, as Tobias Churton notes in his book, The Mysteries of John the Baptist: His legacy in Gnosticism, Paganism, and Freemasonry (2012), "There are in the world two prinicple groups of people for whom John the Baptist has significant spiritual meaning, though in the case of Freemasons, I should say a group for whom John ought to have spiritual meaning; Masons have mostly forgotten why they were once "St. John's men.

Well, in Haiti, a land where the spirit has exceptional power, perhaps precisely because there's little opportunity for people to chase that nightmarish chimera we call here "the American dream", it appears that at least some Freemasons have not forgotten.

I apologize if this has been posted elsewhere, and will excuse myself by noting that this material is worth repeating.