FaceBook is one of the best ways to disseminate information, keep in touch with friends and relatives and also to create private (or public) discussion groups. The latter is the subject of this post.

I ‘like’ the Operative Masons’ page and the Edinburgh Freemasons’ page.

More to follow…

It has again been Wet, Wet, Wet!

On Sunday last we had to switch on the house lights at 3.00 PM because it had become so dark due to heavy rain and clouds with a lot of thunder and lightening. In fours hours more than two weeks of heavy rain was dumped on Edinburgh.

Today was similar although without the thunder and lightening. At 4.00 PM it was so dark that I could not read a book or newspaper and had to again switch on the house lights.

I have been commissioned to photograph a building for a publication but to get the best possible shot there needs to be some sunshine not near darkness! Hopefully the weather will improve over the next few days.

As well as having this site as part of my ‘online presence’ I, like many others, also have  a FaceBook page. The problem is that finding the time to update one, let alone two, sites is difficult. My Linkedin page languishes for want of attention and I have not ventured into my Twitter account for ages. What then is the best one to try and maintain on a regular basis? As this site costs me money whether it is updated or not some would say that the choice was obvious!

Whilst I was off work due to an injured knee I managed to lose my credit and debit cards. That meant that my domain name was not renewed.  Fortunately others were renewed later with other credit/debit cards and that is why you are reading this now! For those of you who had kindly linked to my web site please amend your links to: www.robertldcooper.co.uk or www.robertldcooper.eu Many thanks.

The Grand Session (or A.G.M.) of the Grand Lodge of Montana will be held over the weekend of 26 – 28 June in Polson, Montana, USA. I am due to deliver three presentations: 1) ‘Rosslyn Chapel and Freemasonry‘- a Power Point Presentation, 2) ‘Civility, the traditional relationship between Masons and each other’ – to be delivered in a Tyled Lodge and 3) a subject of my choice – still trying to decide on that one!

I attended the Rocky Mountain Conference in Helena, Montana, last July where I gave a couple of presentations – which seem to have been well received otherwise I would not have been invited back to that most interesting state. The 2014 Rocky Mountain Conference (scroll down the page) will be held in Reno, Nevada in July. There is also a FaceBook page.

More to follow…

Hi everyone, this site has not been updated for a long time due to a number of reasons not least because a series of health problems (all minor but which occurred one after the other) and a variety of work and domestic pressures (none them serious either) but I think I can see clear blue water ahead at last.

Since the last posts here a lot has happened but rather than give a history lesson I will only detail present and future events. Tonight (now that is ‘current’!) I am will attend the Provincial Grand Lodge of Renfrewshire East which is holding a New Members Seminar in Lodge Union & Crown No.307 (Friday 23rd May – 7.00 for 7.30 pm) where I am due to speak briefly about the book: Cracking the Freemasons Code (which is now available for Kindle and other E-readers).

June sees me away to the Grand Lodge of Montana for the second time. Details to follow in another post.

ICHF returns to Freemasons’ Hall in May 2013. Proposals for papers have already started to be received – a good sign.

ICHF is the only International Conference dedicated to Freemasonry as a subject. It is not a Masonic Conference but an Academic Conference on the subject of Freemasonry. 2013 coincidently sees the 200th anniversary of the union of the two English Grand Lodges (the Ancients and Moderns) to form the present United Grand Lodge of England. It is likely that some proposals will be devoted to that subject.

For more information and to download a PDF copy of the first announcement please visit the ICHF web site at: www.ichfonline.org

The Scottish Government has introduced legislation to try and deal with ‘Scotland’s love affair with alcohol’. A good idea or another aspect of the Nanny State? The government’s position is clear. Alcohol related problems are worse in Scotland than in most other parts of Europe (although I confess not to having found and read evidence to support this) and the cost in terms of health care, absenteeism and domestic violence makes it imperative that alcohol consumption is dramatically reduced. To do that shops, particularly supermarkes, have been prohibited from selling alcohol at ‘bargin basement’ price. Special offers on beers and wines etc. such as ‘two for the price of one’ or ‘buy two and get one free’ have been banned.

The counter arguments are many not least of which is that increasing the cost of alcoholic drinks (beers, wines and spirits) penalizes the huge majority of citizens that drink responsibly because of a tiny minority that do not.

Whilst not taking sides on this issue it is interesting that Scots generally find a way to do what they want regardless of what authority might decide (some call this kind of government legislation ‘social engineering’) and I can recall many years ago when the tax on beer and wine was increased enormously people started to make their own wine! Using basic ingredients particularly cleaply available fruit one could produce passable ‘country wine’ as it was called. Very ripe bananas were my particular favourite because supermarkets were partically throwing them away. I discovered that if champane type bottles were used a semi-sparkling wine could be produced for pennies. So good was some of it that every Friday evening I had had lots of friends…

This time around the reaction, certainly by businesses, has been very interesing. Supermarkets no longer sell booze ‘two for the price of one’ but have simply made the price of one half the price it was for two! No ‘special offers’ any more but now booze in Scottish supermarkets are about the cheapest in the UK!

One company have made it its mission to ‘poke the eye’ of those in government intent on doing what they know what is good for us even if we don’t (yet) ourselves. Brew Dog not only taunts those they would call ‘do-gooders’ they revel in making provocatively named and labled beer. Part of this is, I am sure, to infuriate those very ‘do-gooders’ thereby generating a great deal of press comment and consequenly free publicity. Thye also clearly believe that the drinks industry, particularly the beers part, needs a really good shake up. They produce a variety of beers some of which are exceptionally strong the best or worst (depending on one’s point of view) is the 41% (I repeat a beer of 41%!) which goes by the name ‘Sink the Bismark’ and one at 32% named ‘Tactical Nuclear Penguin’. I have not tried either of these but I have tried 5A.M. Saint (5%) which states on the label:

‘No significant change in modern history has ever taken place without the support of the people. We are determined to change the world of beer.’

And:

‘Brew Dog‘s Beers are the epitome of pure punk. We brew uncompromising, bold and irreverent beer, with a soul and a purpose. Our approach has the same contempt of the mass beer market that the old school punks had for pop culture. Brew Dog is a modern day rebellion against faceless corporate bureaucracy and the bland, soulless beer they industrially produce.’

Strong word indeed! The battle lines are drawn. No doubt the debate will rumble on and on…

A very brief update on what is happening now. Presently I am working on a piece about Sir Robert Moray the first Freemason to be initiated on English soil. That was in 1641 for those who are interested. Also in the early stages of research is a paper on Scottish Masonic Traditions which has so far thrown up as large number of fascinating but relatively unknown facts. Finally, more a though than actual work in progress is the idea of KST and its central place in Masonic ritual.

More to follow as they say…

I have been asked if I can provide a figure for the number of Freemasons executed during the Holocaust. The Red Triangle is an attempt to give some idea of the extent of anti-Masonic prejudice that exists by examining the history of Masonophobia. In the course of researching for the book I discovered that Adolf Eichmann’s first job at the Gestapo was not to ‘deal’ with the Jews but was to ‘deal’ with the Freemasons of Germany. That first job was to create a card index system of all Freemasons in Germany.

His administrative abilities were soon recognised and the Nazi hierarchy moved him to the section that had been set up to deal with the Jews. At the time this was probably a demotion as the Gestapo section devoted to Freemasonry was much larger than that for the Jews. His experience in creating a card index system to indentify, and track, German Freemasons was applied to the German Jewish population.

This is far from the usual ridicule directed at Freemasonry – the rolled-up trouser leg, funny handshakes etc. Accepting and adopting that kind of prejudice, based on erroneous perception, sent many thousands of Freemasons to the gas chamber. The figure of 80,000 is generally accepted as a conservative estimate for the whole of Europe. They died only because they were Freemasons.