ping...
Posted on 03/09/2008 5:32:47 AM PDT by personalaccts
Freemasons open a lodge at Buckingham Palace... but the Queen isn't amused By SARAH OLIVER - More by this author »
Last updated at 23:59pm on 8th March 2008
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A Royal Mason: The Duke of Kent is the organisation's Grand Master A branch of the Freemasons secret society is being formed by members of the Royal Household and police who protect the Royal Family.
And their decision to call it The Royal Household Lodge has put them on a collision course with Buckingham Palace – as has their plan to co-opt the royal cipher – EIIR – for their regalia, to underline their connection to the Queen.
Although the Queen's cousin, the Duke of Kent, is head of the secretive organisation – he is Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England – the new branch has not gone down well with the Royal Family.
The Palace has no power to halt the formation of the lodge, but it is determined to stop it adopting its chosen name and block it from hijacking the Queen's EIIR.
Use of the Royal Household title and any related symbols requires official permission.
Angry officials clearly feel the new lodge's proposed name is the last thing the Palace needs at a time when it is trying to be seen as more modern and open.
Last night, a spokesman for the Queen said: “Buckingham Palace has not, and would not, endorse this sort of arrangement. No permission has been given by the Palace for a Buckingham Palace lodge or anything similar.
“If permission is sought, it will be declined.”
The founding of the lodge has also alarmed some Royal staff who do not wish to be associated with the fraternity famed for bizarre initiation rites, mystical regalia and mysterious codes of conduct.
It is also likely to cause consternation among career women in the Palace, as it is a men-only organisation.
Non-members in Royal service are said to be fearful they will be overlooked for prestigious promotions and left unsupported in any below-stairs clashes.
Masons are widely believed to further the business and professional interests of brother Masons, although they would deny this and claim it is a harmless social and charitable organisation.
The lodge, which will not meet at the Palace but will be based in a Masonic Hall elsewhere, will be open to all members of the Royal Household, from armed police protection officers to below-stairs staff such as pages and footmen.
It will also recruit staff in other Royal residences including Windsor Castle, Clarence House and St James's Palace.
A Palace insider said: “There's a lot of consternation and rightly so. People fear a lot of business will now be conducted behind closed doors so that those who don't sign up to Freemasonry can't have any effect on it.
“They are concerned that Masons will be preferred and those who aren't Masons will be written out of the script.
“Backstairs life is already complicated enough – there are all sorts of allegiances and cliques and cabals. People fall in and out of favour and there's a lot of whispering in ears.
“The last thing the household needs is a secret society, especially one with the reputation of Freemasonry.”
The United Grand Lodge of England issued the Royal Household Lodge with a warrant in June last year although it will not formally exist until the consecration ceremony on May 19 at the Freemasons' Hall in London.
That will be followed by a celebration dinner for up to 300 Masons and their guests at the historic Lincoln's Inn.
The insider said the idea had been generated by serving and past members of the Royalty Protection Squad, SO14. With new recruits, the total number involved is approximately 70.
Author and broadcaster Martin Short, whose book Inside The Brotherhood exposed Masonic practices in the UK, said: “It's a catastrophic time to start such a lodge, given all the problems facing the Royal Family at present.
“The Royal Family is desperately trying to prove it is modernising – in PR terms, this is bad news for them.”
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Absolutely untrue.
to be 1 “ask” 1
Apparently this story was not written by a member of the fraternity.
Secret society my Aunt Fanny. You can’t turn on the History channel without seeing some show about masons and with all the millions in the world who are members, nothing is a secret anymore. It’s just a boys’ night out that doesn’t involve a hoochie mama.
ping...
And if this were true, then this story, written as the hit piece that it is, would never have seen the light of day.
There is just an inescapable fact of life:
...that fact being that there are stinking idiots with dumb ass agendas on every journalistic endeavor known to man.
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My oldest son & two of his friends visited the grand lodge in England last summer. Unfortunately, he and his friends (also Masons) weren’t able to see a meeting because it was summer, but they did get a personal tour. They enjoyed it immensely!
My son is a Junior Deacon in his lodge now - I’m so proud of him!! Can’t wait to see him become the Master. Son #2 joined last year as well, but since his wife just had a baby, he hasn’t had as much time to devote to the Masons :-)
Here’s a thought. In honor of Queen Elizabeth’s great-great-grandmother and predecessor Victoria (as well as that great English poet and Freemason Rudyard Kipling) why not call it “The Lodge of the Widow”?
Lord - I never cease to be amazed at all of the people who know Masons to be all of these things without knowing anything.
Thanks, UB.
Now more than ever.
What an odd article.
I understand HRH Queen Elizabeth II is the Grand Patroness of Freemasonry in England — I wonder if anybody associated with the article spoke to her about this?
> It is also likely to cause consternation among career women in the Palace, as it is a men-only organisation.
Ahem yes — that probably reaches to the heart of the issue: The Craft is a men’s-only institution, and forever may it remain so. Possibly the “insider” informant in the article is actually a disaffected radical feminist?
> “The last thing the household needs is a secret society, especially one with the reputation of Freemasonry.”
The Royal Family has always done rather well by its association with Freemasonry and, in the past, has made no secret of its support for this, one of Great Britain’s finest and most reputable institutions.
Thanks for the ping. Don’t know about the Queen, but we are amused.
Truman use to visit the lodge in DC and wouldn’t allow the secret service to go in with him. He told the secret service he was safer in the lodge then with them.
Thanks for the post! Very interesting.
Our old country lodge is growing; there is a definite resurgence on the way.
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