Network Weave

Research network WEAVE (Western Esotericism in modern Art and Visual Culture) is a thematic network of ESSWE (European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism). WEAVE aims to be a a research network connecting scholars studying the interplay of heterodox spiritualties with Modern western art and visual culture. Scholars of all disciplines, interests, backgrounds and convictions are welcome. The phrase “heterodox spirituality” includes Western esotericism, occultism, occulture, mysticism, alternative Modern spirituality, and contemporary spiritualities. See the new website (which includes a conference agenda) for more information: networkweave.com.

Enchanted Modernities

'Enchanted Modernities: Theosophy, Modernism and the Arts, c. 1875-1960' is a new interdisciplinary academic project. Bringing together scholars who are experts on the visual arts, music, sound and literature from all over the world, the Network's events will explore what the visual, material and performing arts can tell us about the relationships between Theosophy, modernity and mysticism c. 1875-1960. The research carried out by the Network’s partners will examine where and how artists, writers and performers came into contact with Theosophy and other mystical practices, and how Theosophical ideas, especially those of key figures in the Society in this period, such as Helena Blavatsky and Annie Besant, were given material, visual and audible form and shape. Read more here.

A new 'academic' initiative

The latest issue of Ken U Zelven, the magazine of the Grand East of the Netherlands, mentions the following news:

The Grand Masters of the Regular Grand Lodge of Belgium and the Grand East of the Netherlands have signed a Convenant on 1st June 2010, stating their intent to establish an academic bureau in order stimulate the study of masonic sources in the Dutch language area and to do so within one year. The bureau will support the Chair for the history of freemasonry at the Leiden University.

The author of this article justly remarks that it is curious, that the Statutes will include the formal condition that the academic bureau will be dissolved, if one of the participating Grand Lodges would lose its status as 'regular' masonic body. (Which means: is no longer recognized as regular by the Grand Lodge of England; a recognition which since the 18th century is based on, amongst others, the restriction of membership to men only).

There are several existing international networks and cooperation agreements between academic research centres, heritage institutes and scholars in the field of study, which include irregular masonic bodies (with both male and female members) and their museums. It is customary in academic circles not to state a preference for research into, or in cooperation with, regular or irregular masonic bodies. All of freemasonry, in it's many shapes and forms, is interesting within an historical perspective, and academic research should not be restricted by prejudice or preference, if it's results are to be impartial.
Any new initiative should be applauded, but the preference for 'regularity' stated here, could be interpreted to contradict the intended ' academic' character of this new initiative.

[Source: Ken U Zelven, nr. 7-2010, article by Louis van Koert of loge Concordia ad Libertatem]

Network Esoteric Collections in the Netherlands

In 2008 an OVN-conference was organized in the National Library of the Netherlands on the theme of 'Geheime kennis. De bijzondere archieven en bibliotheken van maçonnieke en esoterische organisaties in Nederland' (Secret Knowledge. The archives and libraries of masonic and esoteric organisations in the Netherlands). As a result, the OVN Foundation, Chair for the History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents and the National Library discussed a plan to found a platform, which would unite professionals working with Dutch esoteric collections in both the public an private sector. They saw a growing need for interdisciplinairy exchange of knowledge and cooperation between the professional heritage sector, the academic sector and esoteric organisations concerning the care for the cultural heritage of esoteric currents.
Because other projects were prioritised, this plan remained on the shelf for some time. Meanwhile, so many new network opportunities have been created online, that there is no longer a need for the formal structure (and meeting schedule) of an association. This is why the OVN Foundation took the initiative in March 2010 to launch the online Network Esoteric Collections in the Netherlands. Free membership is open to curators of public and private esoteric collections, academics at university chairs and centres, and other professional researchers in the field of study.

Activities CRFF suspended!

Dr. Andreas Onnerfors, director of the Centre for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism at the University of Sheffield, send us the following announcement:
'With the publication of the first issue of the Journal for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism in January 2010 the activities of the Centre for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism at the University of Sheffield, established in 2000, have come to a preliminary end. On March 8, faculty administration put following message on the Centers website:

The Faculty of Arts and Humanities regrets that, with effect from 1 January 2010, the activities of the Centre for Research for Freemasonry and Fraternalism are suspended for the time being.[ ]

The CRF(F) has over the past ten years contributed considerably to the vitalization of academic research into freemasonry and related fraternal organizations both in Britain and abroad. We are in this respect deeply indebted to the efforts of founding director, prof Andrew Prescott. It is intended to publish a chronological overview over Ten Years of Research into Freemasonry at the University of Sheffield later this spring.

The Academic Society for Research into Freemasonry and Fraternalism (ASRFF) will immediately take over some core functions from the CRFF, such as the publication of a newsletter or the edition of the academic journal JRFF.
The Society is under formation and experienced already a serious blow with the tragic death of its intermediary president, prof Malcolm Davies, who passed away unexpectedly in February 2010. With the Leiden chair empty and the CRFF in hibernation, academic research at the moment and for the foreseeable future will be carried out by single academics based at single universities across the world.
This increases the need for cooperation of various initiatives such as the organization of conferences, e.g. the next International Conference on the History of Freemasonry that will take place in Alexandria, VA in late May 2011 and to which we currently are recruiting the Academic Committee. The ASRFF has created a temporary website that will be continually updated.'

Of course the OVN supports the ASRFF and calls upon it's members and colleagues to do the same. Students and scholars can join the society and subscribe to the journal, which will allow this initiative to grow. The OVN also feels that it is necessary to establish academic organisations for the study of freemasonry, such as the OVN in each country, for which the ASRFF could act as an international umbrella-organisation. This will provide valuable support to students and scholars and can make funding available for research - independent of the internal politics of Orders and universities.

New research centre in Canada

The newsletter of the Centre for Research into Freemasonry at the University of Sheffield and Fraternalism announces plans for a new research centre in the field of study in Canada.
The Grand Lodge A.F. & A.M. of Canada aims to raise funds through the Grand Master’s Project (2009-2011) for a Centre for Masonic Studies, to be established in collaboration with the Province of Ontario and Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario. The project will be dedicated to the name of R.W. Bro. Charles A. Sankey (1905-2009), principal of the university from 1969-1974 and prominent freemason. His collection of rare masonic publications is part of the James Gibson Library in Brock. The kickoff for the project will be given in a series of lectures in the spring of 2010. Donations to The Masonic Foundation of Ontario, project number 2937, are welcome.

The CRFF has also been approached by the Grand Lodge of Manitoba, which is researching the possibility of establishing a university chair.
And from Brazil there’s news that the University of São Paulo is in contact with the local Grand Lodge to explore the possibilities of collaboration.

Fortunately, the few Dutch researchers who once took the initiative for the establishment of the OVN are no longer alone. Perhaps now we will also see the same amount of research funds and grants being established worldwide...?

Free Gardeners

Cascade, a Dutch Society for the Study of Garden History, has taken the initiative to form a study group: The Free Gardeners (Vrije Tuinlieden). This study group focuses on 'the relationship between freemasonry and garden design in Dutch cultural history'. Meetings are held three times per year, two accompagnied by lectures and one combined with a visit to a relevant garden. Hopefully this initiative will shed a new light on this relatively unknown category of gardens in the Netherlands.