Co-Masonry in talkshows
I usually don’t watch podcasts and the like, but I happened to stumble upon an episode of Phoenix Masonry Live that had an interview with the most recent Past Grand Master of Le Droit Humain USA. This is quite an informative interview and it was done by a woman named Elena Llamas who proves to be a member of that very society and who on her turn had been interviewed on the Masonic Roundtable which is also quite informative. Earlier Masonic Roundtable had an interview with two prominent members of The Honorable Order Of American co-Masonry. I will embed the three podcasts below, but first I will note some of the notes that I took while listening.
In the interview with Randy Czerenda the rituals of LDH are spoken of. According to Czerenda the American federation has three rituals that the lodges can choose one from to work with. They are Lauderdale, Georges Martin and the North American Ritual.
In 1903 the first American lodge of LDH was founded in Pennsylvania. It used the Georges Martin ritual which Czerenda describes as “continental”, but also as “not secular at all”. It is not secular, because it does not tell its members what the symbols mean. There is a Grand Architect of the Universe.
The Lauderdale Czerenda compares to Emulation, but slightly reworked. He describes it as “baroque”. It also has a Grand Architect, but contrary to the other two rituals, there is also reference to “God with a capital G”.
The third ritual, the North American Ritual, is (more or less) a combination of the other two and it is the most used in the USA.
You can find this part from around 50:00 in the video below, but the whole video is interesting if you want to learn about LDH and how it differs from “mainstream” Freemasonry.
To continue with Elena Llamas. In her interview at the Masonic Roundtable (episode 135) she proves less informed than Czerenda, but still this interview is very interesting. The rites in the USA are shortly spoken about from 24:30 on. She says that there are 22 lodges in the USA and the form of the “triangle” appears to be not just a lodge in the making in the American federation.
Llamas is asked about the differences between LDH USA and the Honorable Order of American co-Masonry. She notes a few. In American co-Masonry all members are “Brothers” as they use it as a title. Also they only work with the “Annie Besant Ritual” and this Theosophical leaning also shows in the fact that all lodges have an image of the Count de Saint Germain above an empty seat in the North of the lodge. This count is regarded “The Head Of All True Freemasons”. In LDH the portrait is allowed, but not inside the lodge. Lastly, American co-Masonry requests the belief in a higher power of its members, LDH does not.
What is also an amusing part of the interview is that when Llamas is asked how long it takes to proceed to the 33rd degree, she says “25 years” which is received with amazement and applaus.
The Roundtable always takes some time to get started, but from about 11:00 it starts to get interesting.
The episode about American co-Masonry is number 76 and can also be found below.
(or click here if you prefer to go to YouTube).