Other Events of Interest
On this page are listed events of particular interest to philosophically minded Freemasons, both in California and around the world.
California
The California Masonic Symposium
The Grand Lodge of California and the California Masonic Foundation sponsor the Annual California Masonic Symposium. Each year this event, open to Masons and the public, addresses a topic of historical and philosophical relevance to Masonry in an academic setting. Initiated in 2001, past symposium topics have included Freemasonry in Mexico and Latin America; Freemasonry and Secret Societies; Issues in Contemporary Freemasonry; The Age of Franklin: Freemasonry, the Declaration of Independence, and the American Enlightenment.
The 2009 California Masonic Symposium, "Applying Masonry in Contemporary Society," will be held May 2 at the James West Alumni Center, University of California at Los Angeles. Download the registration form (PDF). This year's presenters will include:
- Henry Wilson Coil Lecturer Dr. Margaret C. Jacob, Masonic scholar and Professor of History at UCLA, whose research of Freemasonry during the Enlightenment links Masonic principles to the founding of democratic society.
- R. Stephen Doan, Past Grand Master of Masons in California, who will discuss contemporary society's major divisions, their causes and effects.
- John L. Cooper III, Past Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of California, who lends insight into which Masonic principles are necessary for a healthy democracy, and how to manage society's divisions while remaining true to Masonry's tenets.
North America, Outside California
The Rose Circle Research Foundation
Rose Circle grew out of a conference held in 2006 in New Jersey. A day of presentations and discussions on Freemasonry and general esoteric subjects was followed by a grand dinner in the style of Péladan's Salons de Rose Croix. The dinner was interspersed with readings, while toasts were proposed to prominent figures. The success of this first conference showed that there was a thirst for this type of education. Out of this The Rose Circle Research Foundation was born, a not-for-profit organization to provide education on Western esotericism and associated subjects. Rose Circle's goal is to create an evolving depository of papers, lectures, artwork and poems that many may find useful as they study the Mysteries.
The next Rose Circle conference will be Freemasonry and the Secret Work of the Rosicrucians, in New York City on October 4th, 2008.
United Kingdom
Canonbury Masonic Research Centre
The Tenth International Conference will be held in London on Saturday & Sunday October 25-26, 2008. The theme is Freemasonry and The Sciences: Natural & Supernatural. http://www.canonbury.ac.uk/conferences/2008.htm
When freemasons pass through the Second Degree they are urged to study the liberal arts and sciences. The medieval Masonic text known as the Cooke manuscript declared that geometry was the first of the liberal sciences. Members of the Royal Society, such as Sir Robert Moray, John Desaguliers and Martin Folkes, played a significant part in the early development of Freemasonry, and the link between Freemasonry and the wider development of science in Europe and America during the Enlightenment is widely recognised, with the Parisian Loge des Neuf Soeurs counting among its members Benjamin Franklin, Voltaire and the astronomer Lalande. Prominent scientists have continued to be active as Freemasons. In the last century, such Nobel prizewinners as Edward Appleton, Alexander Fleming, Albert Michelson and Wilhelm Ostwald were all freemasons.
International Conference on the History of Freemasonry
The International Conference has provided, for the first time, an international forum for all scholars whose work in some way touches on Freemasonry. Masonic history is a developing field of academic research and ICHF is intended to stimulate and focus on new research into all aspects of this most interesting area of human activity. The first conference was held over three days commencing 25th May and ending 27th May 2007. A report of the conference will available on another page in due course. Due to the success of the first conference it has been decided to hold another 29 - 31 May 2009. It is now anticipated that ICHF will henceforth be held biennially.