In Review

by C.R. Dunning, Jr.

Paperback – November 1, 2016 https://a.co/d/10gggIw

Introduction

Contemplative Masonry by C.R. Dunning, Jr. is a significant contribution to Masonic literature, especially for brethren seeking to deepen their experience of the Craft beyond ritual memorisation and social fellowship. This revised and expanded edition is not merely a theoretical treatise but a practical guidebook for integrating mindfulness, meditation, and imagery into the daily life and work of a Mason.

Authors: John Belton and Roger Dachez. Westphalia Press, 2024. 978-1-63391-948-8 (paperback) 414 pages, US$27.25 - https://amzn.asia/d/1459fkE

Taking advantage of the digital age’s easier access to early Masonic Grand Lodge-era publications and other documents, Exploring the Vault: Masonic Higher Degrees, 1730–1800 aims to reconsider the evolution of Masonic higher degrees during a formative period in European Freemasonry. This volume presents numerous challenges to entrenched narratives about the development of Masonic ritual in the eighteenth century.

One such narrative is the enduring claim, most prominently put forward by Harry Carr in The World of Freemasonry, that the years between 1730 and 1760 represented a period of relative dormancy in English Masonic ritual development. Belton and Dachez consider this view incomplete. They assert that the period in question was, in fact, one of considerable innovation and experimentation, marked by the rise and diffusion of additional Masonic degrees—most notably the Holy Royal Arch, the Templar…