On the 28th March 2014 ,which was a Friday I set off to work. Henry was in the car as I was stopping off at the grandparent to drop of Henry to look after them. I wanted to get into the office as I had a lot to do that day and I had a half day booked as I was going to visit a craft lodge in Leeds well Far Headingly to be precise. The lodge is called the Lodge of Living Stones 4957. This is the lodge were the world renowned author Dr Robert Lomas is a member.
The Lodge was founded in 1927 by W.L.Wilmshurst the main premise was to look into the rituals of Freemasonry for their esoteric meaning. Wilmhurst was a Solicitor by trade but is more renowned for his writings on masonry and its meanings.
The Lodge of Living Stones has 4 official meetings the March meeting is a lecture on the Perfect Lodge. An Essay that was written by Wilmhurst and donated it to the lodge. It has become a tradition, well now I am getting ahead of myself.
I took a half day from work on this day, I did it for 2 reasons :
- I dislike being rushed as tardiness is on the second tier of sins after the deadly ones.
- Make sure the dogs where not cross legged for too long and I could vacuum the house be for my brother arrived.
I actually didn’t leave the office till 2:30pm, this gave me enough time to the bare minimum, luckily I had done most the night before (forward planning as you would have it).
The drive over to Leeds took about 50mins and having left my house at 4pm meant I was there in enough time to spare.
The trip up to Headingly where the lodge rooms are, I spotted there was a stone that is covered by a Castle like structure, I noted to myself that I should ask the brethren about it when got to the lodge rooms.
As I drove through the centre of Headingly it looked vaguely familiar as my brother used to live in the area. Not that I could remember a night out there!
Parking in the car park, I sorted my tie out and switched off my work phone. Grabbed my case from the boot and wander into the building. Now from the outside of Masonic hall it looked like a typical 19th century stone building. However when you walk into the reception hall. It was amazing there is a grand stairway leading to the first floor with a balcony that allows the you to view the hall below and access to the lodge rooms.
A group where sat there talking, so I went over and introduced myself to them and spoke to the secretary, turns out Dr L had several guest but I was not in the list, apparently this is normal. So whilst we waited for tea and biscuits I chatted with several groups of people. It turns out most people tend invite themselves as they are interested in this sort understanding and learning.
I was talking to the lodge’s Entered Apprentice, interestingly he is the first initiate in several years. Turns out that the Lodge of Living Stones does not rush their candidates through the degrees in the craft. They give the candidate time to learn the obligation and the questions, encouraging them to “work” the degree through lectures.
Whilst talking to a group from Staffordshire I spotted a bloke walk in who looked familiar. As I had finished my conversations with the gentlemen from Staffordshire as I made my way across. The little grey cells start whirring away as to who this guy was. So, I wandered over and introduced myself to him, turns out he was one of the guys from the BBC that happened to be in Rawtenstall when I went to visit the Lodge of Tranquility where my good Twitter pal Bob was to be installed into the chair of King Solomon by the ritual from Circa 1765.
Anywho, the lobby was filling up with more Brethren coming to visit the lodge. At about 6pm everyone went upstairs to change, from there we went to the lodge room. In the antechamber the queue for signing in book was long. As we stood talking, the DC came into the room and requested all visitors who cannot be vouched for to come with him. This as you will know is to prove they are masons. I however was a guest of Dr Lomas, and when I was asked had I sat in open lodge with him I could answer, “yes I have”.
Shortly after that the Dr whirled past going , “I have some guests I must find them”. The brethren who had been tried and tested had rejoin the room. The queue to sign in was starting to dwindle, I was almost at the book when a Goliath of man barred the lodge door. He introduced himself as the Tyler and he informed us all that, “the Lodge of Living Stones did things differently and you are now about to enter a place of spiritual thought and learning as such a certain amount of decorum was expected once you have passed through the tyled door”.
Once I had signed in and passed the threshold, I said hello to the organist and then took a seat just behind the SW’s chair and the SD’s chair. The seats started to fill up all bar 6, The lodge room was no bigger than a medium sized bedroom, it was very crowded with people sitting shoulder to shoulder.
At that point a old gentleman appear from the door way in the south.