Nake nula wauŋ welo! Flying Tiger Comics - comics, graphic novels and books for the new Aeon
Today's ballot changes nothing Today's Labor caucus ballot was an opportunity for a new start for the country. Instead nothing will change. Labor's deep divisions remain. Almost a third of Julia Gillard's caucus colleagues showed their lack of support for the Prime Minister and how she has been leading her government. As Tony Abbott pointed out today, nothing will change because: We will still have the carbon tax Families will still be faced with rising cost of living pressures We will still have a Prime Minister more focused on saving her job than protecting the jobs of Australian workers We will still have border protection chaos Only the Coalition can give Australia the stable and competent government that it needs. Only the Coalition can give the hope, reward and opportunity that Australians are yearning for. Only the Coalition has real plans to give us a stronger economy for a stronger country. Click here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBmYUpXS6hA] to see a video of Tony Abbott's opening statement at his press conference today: Actions you can take: Make a donation [https://www.liberal.org.au/Donate.aspx] to help us fight Labor Forward this http://liberalpartyofaustralia.forwardtomyfriend.com/r/alrlktukt/CDAB299F/dylunk/l/x to your friends so they can watch the video 'Like' http://liberalpartyofaustralia.cmail4.com/t/r/fb/dylunk/alrlktukt/m/ this on Facebook 'Tweet' http://liberalpartyofaustralia.cmail4.com/t/r/tw/dylunk/alrlktukt/z/ this LIBERAL PARTY OF AUSTRALIA Authorised by Brian Loughnane for the Liberal Party of Australia Cnr Blackall & Macquarie Streets, Barton ACT 2600
When the faceless men decide on Monday morning who the next Labor leader will be, one thing is clear: A change of Labor leader will change nothing. Irrespective of whom the faceless men select as Labor leader: • Australian families will still be hit by the carbon tax • The cost of living will still keep rising • Labor will keep wasting and hitting Australians with more new taxes • The boats will still keep coming Click here [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cj6w83yueM] for an exclusive first preview of our new advertisement. Real change will only come with a real election. Tony Abbott and the Coalition team are united and experienced with the plans and policies to restore strong and stable government and to ease cost of living pressures on Australian families. Only the Coalition can restore hope, reward and opportunity for all Australians. Click here [http://www.liberal.org.au/Pages/LaborFacelessMen] to download your free copy of our new poster. Regards, Brian Loughnane Federal Director
The Australian Government Solicitor says the legal bill for the investigation into federal Labor MP Craig Thomson has cost taxpayers $912,562.
Mr Thomson denies he misused a work credit card to pay for prostitutes when he was employed as a Health Services Union official.
Fair Work Australia (FWA) is conducting an inquiry into the union's finances and the Government Solicitor says it is providing ongoing legal services.
The Federal Opposition specifically asked for the Solicitor's staff working on the case to attend today's Senate Estimates.
But the Solicitor's chief executive, Ian Govey, has told the estimates committee that FWA has instructed his office not to comment on details of the investigation.
"It would have been open to them to tell us that we could disclose further information, but I reiterate again that to do so would be inconsistent with normal practice," he said.
"Other questions about the services ADS has provided should be directed to FWA."
Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne used Question Time today to quiz Prime Minister Julia Gillard about the cost of the inquiry.
Senator SINODINOS (New South Wales) (13:00):
I rise on a matter of public interest to do with my colleague Senator Rhiannon and ASIO. In March 2010, in two speeches to the New South Wales Legislative Council, the then Lee Rhiannon sought to discredit ASIO’s surveillance of and files on her, claiming that they were riddled with errors. Shortly afterwards, the questionable claims in her speeches were reported as fact in a breathless newspaper article entitled ‘ASIO spooks spied on little girls’. Thus Lee Rhiannon, who at the time was vying for the Senate, was attempting to inoculate against objective coverage of her 800-page ASIO file which had just been released by the National Archives. In a blog on 3 September 2010 entitled ‘Responding to attacks on my family and political background’, the now Senator Rhiannon revisited the same theme while giving rose tinted accounts of her early activism.
I have looked at Lee Brown, aka Gorman, aka Rhiannon’s ASIO files and I must say I am impressed with their thoroughness and the obvious skill involved in their compilation. While ASIO’s intelligence was not perfect, as is to be expected, it was much, much better than Senator Rhiannon has made out. Senator Rhiannon claims that ASIO’s ‘biggest howler’ was ‘the assertion that I studied motor mechanics at UNSW’. This is disingenuous. In fact, the ASIO report on the Young Socialist League’s Marxist coaching seminar states that, ‘Lee Brown made the general remark that she is studying motor mechanics at the University of New South Wales, where she is currently employed as a lecturer’. ASIO were not making that assertion; it was ASIO reporting Lee Brown’s own words, a significant distinction I would have thought, since elsewhere ASIO accurately record her university studies.
Recently it was disclosed that on 19 January 1970, as an 18-year-old embarking on a voyage to the UK on the Russian vessel Shota Rustaveli, Lee Brown was appointed to meet one Vladimir Alekseev from the Soviet Embassy in cabin 190 on J-deck, where he would wait for her. An ASIO intelligence file reveals that, when arranging this meeting, Alekseev said that he was calling on behalf of one Ivan Stenin. An ASIO telephone intercept reveals that the previous month Stenin had contacted Rhiannon’s father who was intending to travel abroad before his daughter by air to England, Switzerland and Russia. We now know of ASIO’s conclusion that Stenin was a senior intelligence officer, and that many believe that Vladimir Alekseev was the KGB station chief or ‘rezident’ at the Soviet Embassy in Canberra.
It is therefore timely to examine Senator Rhiannon’s ASIO file and to test some of her other claims. In her 2010 blog she claimed that there was no expectation she would follow in her parents’ political footsteps. But in truth Senator Rhiannon was an in-vitro communist. According to Mark Aarons, he and Lee Brown were ‘red-diaper babies’, a term by which the Communist Party of Australia members affectionately referred to the children of communists destined to inherit their parents’ political genes. Rhiannon has perpetuated the line that ASIO began spying on her when she was seven, because an ASIO precis-history of her activity has a one-line record of her at a Tribune picnic in 1958. I think we can assume that ASIO at the time was more interested in Rhiannon’s parents and other communists than they were in Lee, precocious though she may have been.
In fact, the first item in Senator Rhiannon’s ASIO file is a clipping from an April 1955 edition of the CPA’s Tribune headlined ‘Kiddies’ big part in May Day’, showing three-year-old ‘little Lee Brown’ dabbling at a sign saying, ‘For me—Ban that H-bomb’ in preparation for the upcoming May Day march. I am sure that ‘little Lee’ was oblivious to the Soviet Union’s possession of the H-bomb which they had successfully tested two years earlier. Rhiannon also claims ASIO inaccurately noted that she was a founding member of the Eureka Students Organisation, in one stroke glossing over her involvement with this organisation which was the CPA’s youth wing, described by her father as being like the Pioneers. In its heyday, the Pioneers was an international organisation for children, operated by the Communist Party, which promoted sports and outdoor skills while teaching communist principles. In actuality, Rhiannon’s ASIO files record the application to attend the Junior Eureka League’s 1964 summer camp at age 13, her election as treasurer of the Junior Eureka League’s South Sydney branch in 1965, her graduation from JEL and her role as a Pioneer of the Souths branch.
By age 14, Lee was demonstrating against the Vietnam War. At 15, ASIO’s files show she took part in a rowdy Eureka CPA protest against Prime Minister Holt, participated in other protests, marches and communist social functions, and attended a CPA Sydney district meeting. By age 16, the ASIO files indicate that Lee did clerical work at CPA headquarters during her school holidays. They also show that she was involved in pamphleteering high schools, involved in Secondary Students for International Tolerance and Equality and organising an anti-Vietnam War peace ride to Canberra.
What the headline ‘ASIO spooks spied on little girls’ overlooks is that the communists of the day did indoctrinate and attempt to use young people and others to further Soviet ambition, a fact ASIO was well aware of. The truth is that by the time Senator Rhiannon was 18, embarking the Shota Rustaveli for the UK and who knows where else, she was a hardened communist. It is easy to forget—and people born since may not even appreciate—that during the Cold War the CPA was part of the Comintern or Communist International which owed its loyalty to Moscow and was dedicated to the revolutionary overthrow of our democratic system. The CPA received funding and took direction from the Soviet Union, senior members regularly travelled to and trained in Russia, its members infiltrated other organisations and agencies while a few were involved in espionage against their own country, Australia. In this connection I note Laurie Aarons’s accusation contained in Mark Aarons’s book The Family File that Senator Rhiannon’s father, Bill Brown, procured spies for Ivan Skripov, the Soviet diplomat who was later declared persona non grata and deported for spying in 1963. I quote:
… he (Skripov) got onto Bill Brown who started to try and get some people, and in fact, he got one or two people. I don’t know what happened. It’s wrong in principle and also stupid to get involved in that.
After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, which the CPA had criticised, the Soviets began courting Dick Dickson, Claude Jones and Bill Brown to overthrow those in the CPA who had deviated from the Moscow line. Dixon and Jones apparently refused. Jones knocked back the usual bribery, saying, ‘I was offered any amount of money that I would like to name from the CPSU’—the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. As Mark Aarons put it:
As good punters, the embassy hedged its bets… and had already put money on Bill Brown, who had previously demonstrated his loyalty by assisting the KGB officer, Ivan Skripov.
This was Bill Brown’s hour. ASIO documents show that the Soviets—Stenin in particular—had established a clandestine link with Bill Brown outside of CPA channels and that communications increased dramatically after the invasion of Czechoslovakia. Given all the above, but in particular given Bill and Lee Brown’s involvement with the KGB agents Stenin and Alekseev at exactly this time, is it any wonder ASIO’s director-general asked British intelligence to be apprised if Lee Brown came to notice in the UK.
Let us now examine Senator Rhiannon’s initial response to the Australian’s story about her rendezvous with the KGB agent Vladimir Alekseev. Firstly, she claimed it was based on ‘inaccurate ASIO records’. Contrary to her previous claims, the ASIO records are generally very accurate. Moreover, ASIO’s report of the telephone intercept of Vladimir Alekseev’s call to her mother, Freda Brown, is quite detailed. Secondly, she claimed the attempt to associate her departure on a Russian cruise ship to potential spy activities was ridiculous. That claim was not made. Thirdly, she said, ‘I’ve never been a spy and no-one ever attempted to recruit me.’ Again, no-one made that allegation. The suggestion was that the KGB wanted to cultivate her as a long-term agent of influence. Fourthly, she said, ‘Spy reports of me being involved in clandestine meetings on board the ship are wrong.’ Did you meet Alekseev or not? Fifthly, Senator Rhiannon played the ingenue, just a young student, who was involved in some anti-Vietnam war protests, embarking on a working holiday. I think we have established she had a much longer rap sheet than that.
Senator Rhiannon may get away with this sort of fudging with her Eastern bloc comrades in the New South Wales Greens; she cannot get away from it here. As the Australian noted, Senator Rhiannon dismissed the report of her rendezvous with Vladimir Alekseev as Cold War delusions but did not deny the claim.
Finally, yesterday Senator Rhiannon, in a letter to the editor in the Australian, asserted that to the best of her knowledge she had never met a Russian spy and never attended a meeting on the ship—not a totally unqualified denial. There are therefore a number of very serious questions which Senator Rhiannon must answer. What was her involvement with KGB agents Ivan Stenin and Vladimir Alekseev? Did she visit any Eastern bloc countries in 1970-71? If so, which ones, why and precisely when did she return to Australia? Did she attend the Lenin School during any of her trips abroad?
In 2010 Senator Rhiannon promised that a full report on her ASIO file would shortly be placed on her website. She never did this. I encourage her to do so. It would be helpful to her and to the Senate. Perhaps she could detail the extent of her involvement in plans to raise money for North Vietnam, revealed in ASIO’s telephone intercept of 18 May 1972. Senator Rhiannon may also care to confirm ASIO’s belief that she authored a caustic letter to the Sydney Morning Herald on 26 February 1974—a fortnight after that giant of letters and human rights of the 20th century Alexander Solzhenitsyn was deported from the USSR and stripped of his Soviet citizenship after the KGB found his manuscript for the first part of The Gulag Archipelago. In the letter, one Lee Brown took issue with the suggestion of Dick Klugman—a former Labor MP and distinguished member of the lower house—that the Canberra street in which the Soviet Embassy is situated be renamed Solzhenitsyn Avenue. She suggested that streets around the US Embassy be renamed Watergate Boulevard, Rosenberg Road and My Lai Memorial Avenue. The Rosenbergs, of course, were executed for giving the Soviet Union atomic bomb secrets.
Lastly, in 2010 Senator Rhiannon said she did not support the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. I quote:
… My recollection is that we marched up New South Head Road to the Soviet Consulate where there were speakers long into the night ... Personally I did not support the invasion and to conclude that when I was first getting involved in politics as a teenager and in my early twenties I backed oppressive violent actions against people in Czechoslovakia and Poland is ridiculous.
Curiously, ASIO’s extensive surveillance files of protests disclose no record of Senator Rhiannon protesting the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. They do, however, disclose the existence of a 1975 document for the Young Socialist League detailing planning by one Lee Brown for a forthcoming Czechoslovakian delegation tour to Australia. No doubt she made a personal protest.
I conclude with this question. Senator Rhiannon, if you were not a neo-Stalinist, what were you? Are the Greens just another front for you and your Eastern bloc claque? You owe the Senate and the people of New South Wales and Australia a full and frank explanation of all these matters. I say to the Greens as a whole that in recent times there have been disclosures in a magazine, the Monthly, about a so-called rift within the Greens between the original Greens, who came to the movement out of a conviction that more needed to be done on the environment, and other groups which started to join later on. One of those groups came out of New South Wales. The real issue for the Greens now is the fight that is going on for the heart and soul of the Greens. The Greens are split. The Australian people should know that and they should know that there are people in New South Wales within the green movement who are seeking to subvert the green movement as a whole. Finally, it has come to my attention over time that there have been attempts by people on the Left to ridicule and trivialise the work of ASIO during the Cold War. ASIO did what they needed to do. I am sure they made mistakes along the way, but we should not underestimate the threats that we faced. In an open society we do need bodies like ASIO to help protect us against our enemies.
***
"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. The traitor is the plague."
Cicero
Daily contact with sheep might explain a lot about "mystical encounters".
I am advised by a practicing physician that the trances experienced by Muhammad and described in the a'hadith (narrations about the life of the Prophet) correspond to a classic case of "tonic-clonic epilepsy with a temporal start."
Ovine tuberculosis is a problem even today and raged unchecked in earlier times. This type of tuberculosis can be transmitted to humans and when a human is infected the disease travels directly to the brain where it forms a calcified cavity. This calcified mass causes a great deal of irritation and brings on epilepsy.
Now the Prophet, we are told, heard ringing in his ears, his heart beat rapidly, his face turned red and his breathing laboured. Falling to the ground, he would shake with his eyes wide open and his lips trembling. He would drool or sweat profusely and would sometimes make a sound like a snoring camel. And, of course, he saw and heard things no one else saw or heard.
As a victim of such convulsions there is little doubt that Muhammad himself was convinced God (or Gabriel) was speaking to him.
Centuries later the same "mystical experience" was shared by that pastoral maid of Orleans Joan of Arc – who also was raised in close contact with sheep.
"Fables should be taught as fables, myths as myths, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truths is a most terrible thing. The child-mind accepts and believes them, and only through great pain and perhaps tragedy can he be in after-years relieved of them. In fact, men will fight for a superstition quite as quickly as for a living truth - often more so, since a superstition is so intangible you can not get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, and so is changeable."
– Hypatia
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There are 13
leaves on the left olive branch with 13
berries. 13 stripes on the middle shield. 13
arrows on the right. 13 stars above the
eagles head. 13 letters in the "E
Pluribus Unum" on the ribbon. 13 letters
in Annuit Coeptis. There are 13
blocks top to bottom on the pyramid. Fritz Springmeir in his The
13 Bloodlines says these 13 blocks represent the 13 Satanic
family's.
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In the circles at the end of the hexagram points it even spells
the word Mason.
The Roman Numerals at the bottom of
the Pyramid: MDCCLXXVI
We do not have to add them
together to get the MARK OF THE BEAST OR THE NUMBER OF HIS NAME. John does
not tell us to ADD THEM TOGETHER. It is not that we cannot add them
together, but the point is John does not TELL US TO ADD THEM TOGETHER. We
then will take a different tact to solve the riddle. We will use EXACTLY
WHAT THE BIBLE TELLS US: 600, 60 and 6. We will start with the REVERSE
GREAT SEAL, the SEAL THAT DANIEL GAVE TO US. Embedded at the base of the
PYRAMID ARE THE ROMAN NUMERICAL LETTERS: "MDCCLXXVI".
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Now you
would normally read that as 1776, which is correct. THAT IS THE
"OBVIOUS" MEANING OF THOSE LETTERS. But what is the HIDDEN
NUMERICAL VALUE OF THOSE LETTERS? And what if we took all of the Roman
Numerals together and added them up? The Romans used the following letters
for their number system: DCLXVI with D=500, C=100, L=50, X=10, V=5, nd I -
1. The M letter was not used until much later. Now if we take these
letters and add them all up, we come to 666. If we take them as Scripture
gives the number, we come up with this in descending order: http://www.truinsight.com/666%20USA%20GREAT%20SEAL.htm
External Link
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There
are 13 stars in the Masons square on the treasury seal on the right.
The Department=13 of the treasury=13.
E.W. Bullinger writes:
"As to the
significance of thirteen, all are aware that it has come down to us as a
number of ill-omen. Many superstitions cluster around it, and various
explanations are current concerning them.
"Unfortunately,
those who go backwards to find a reason seldom go back far enough. The
popular explanations do not, so far as we are aware, go further back than
the Apostles. But we must go back to the first occurrence of the number
thirteen in order to discover the key to its significance. It occurs first
in Gen. xiv. 4, where we read 'Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and
the thirteenth
year they REBELLED.'
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The communicator is a pyramid. By the way Star Trek was created to get us
ready for a fake alien invasion to usher in the New World Order. See: The Fake Alien Invasion
You know the old expression, " Life imitates art", more truth to
that then you realize. Watch and listen to the movies you watch. They always
slip the numbers 13 or 33 in there somewhere. Remember the movie On Any
Given Sunday. The quarter back was number 13 and the receiver was number
33. Who could miss the the all seeing eye through-out the movie.
This message was obvious to me. What they were saying is this. There are 33 titles in the Old Testament for the
antichrist, while there are 13 in the New
Testament. Satan (13) is the quarterback. 33rd degree Masons are the receivers.
In other words the 33's are bringing back the old testament Egypt
Isis/Osiris/Ra/Satan one world religion Zep Tepi. Zep Tepi was
that corrupt "Golden Age" of incarnate demons which the
Egyptian mystery religion represented and continues to represent. It is an
ancient violent and immoral world which developed before the Flood which
New Age spirit guides are seeking to re-establish. They are seeking to reestablish
this age under Globalism to be ruled once again by 13/Satan New testament
Anti-Christ. Even the movie
The Last Boyscout with Bruce Willis and Damon Wayans. Damon had the number
13 on the back of his head. What was he in this movie? A forced
retired quarterback looking for payback!!! How much more obvious can this
message be?REGIONAL LEADERSHIP COUNCILThe United States has been divided into seven different regions geographically. Each region has a 13 member leadership council that coordinates with the local leadership councils (are you getting the idea by now? The Illuminati are set up a lot like "Amway" or any other well-organized business enterprise with a flowchart of accountability for each member). This council will look something like this:Head of council (1), Military (2 seats), Spiritual (2 seats), Scholarship (2 seats), Finances (2 seats), Training (2 seats), Sciences (2 seats).Total: 13 membersThe regional councils will represent the different areas of interest and knowledge that the Illuminati pursue. The membership will change over time as members are promoted or demoted. http://www.centrexnews.com/columnists/svali/2001/02/svali12.htmlIn a similar fashion, JFK, Jr., was killed and committed to the waters of the Atlantic close to the intersection of the N. 41 parallel and W. 71 meridian; summing up, 4 + 1 + 7 + 1 = 13, the most Masonically correct number. This intersection, southwest of Martha's Vineyard, is also close to the small island called No Mans Land. "No Mans" is a Baconian cypher for "Mason", i.e., Mason Land. JFK, Jr., and his public wife, Carolyn Bessette, were married on Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia. This island is close to the intersection of the N. 31 parallel and the W. 81 meridian; again, 3 + 1 + 8 + 1 = 13 Paranoid Pattern Finding & Masonic CuesJust the crap below would be enough to convince me of the occult nature of 13.This is the completion of the sacred geometry of the Priory of Sion. Blessed be the SERPENT who told Eve, "Thou shalt not surely die..."A Sacred Covenant was made between ALMIGHTY GOD and the re-assembled 13th Tribe of Levi on the 27th of September, 1973. We were a genuinely archetypal institution. My abduction was not co-incidental but part of the Grand Design. It represented the birth of a New Earth Nation - GENESIS II. The child I carried was called THOTH, (though at the time I first heard this word it mean't nothing to me. Thoth suggested that we link in all the threads to the old narrative... the Original Intent of the Egyptian Thesis. http://www.reach.net/~star1/seph.htmAnother interesting fact to consider is that of the 37 Presidents of the United States before Jimmy Carter, at least 18 or 21 (depending on which source you believe) were close relatives. That comes to somewhere between 48.6 percent and 56.7 percent-far to much to be coincidence, as any conspiritologist (or mathematician) would tell you. Of the 224 ancestors in the family tree of 21 Presidents, we find 13 Roosevelt's, 16 Coolidge's, and 14 Tyler's. Another source manages to relate 60 percent of the Presidents and link most of them to the super-rich Astor family. This data does not include genealogies of the five most recent President. Psychologist G. William Domhoff claims that a large part of America's Ruling elite, just like that of Europe, are related by marriage. (Everything is Under Control. Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-Ups by Robert Anton Wilson pg 39-40)
The Eye of Horus. Same as Dairy Queen 
note the eye in the pyramid.
Brahms
Does anybody see the 13 in these logos?
Dodge Logo. Dodge Ram Trucks. A rams horns turns downwards. This logo
cleverly makes it a goat head with the horns upward to represent the goat
head.
Proctor
& Gamble vigorously denies the accusations, contending that the horns
are merely curls of hair. And the 13
stars? According to
Proctor & Gamble, they represent the original 13 colonies of the
U.S.A. The man in the moon, a company spokesman claims, also honors the
original colonies.
| 1. | 6 February | 17:08 | NIPR, United States |
| 2. | 6 February | 17:29 | United States (netcarrier.net) |
| 3. | 6 February | 17:35 | NIPR, United States |
| 4. | 6 February | 17:43 | United States (webtv.net) |
| 5. | 6 February | 17:46 | NASA, United States |
| 6. | 6 February | 17:49 | United States (Unknown Domain) |
| 7. | 6 February | 18:04 | United States (splitrock.net) |
| 8. | 6 February | 18:09 | NASA, United States |
| 9. | 6 February | 18:20 | NIPR, United States |
| 10. | 6 February | 18:28 | United States (Unknown Domain) |
=13
The 33rd Degree
'Grand Inspector General'
In England only 75 Freemasons can be 33rd degree at one
time. Headquarters of Supreme Council 33 Degree is at 10 Duke
Street, London. (Known as Grand East by Masons) The building contains
a 'Black Room' a 'Red Room' and a 'Chamber of Death' for ritual
purposes. No Mason can rise above the 18th Degree without the
unanimous agreement of the entire Supreme Council. The most senior 33rd
Degree Mason is known as the 'Most Puissant Sovereign Commander' The
English working of the rite - sometimes known by the code name Rose Croix
from the title of the initiate to the 18th Degree - differs from the
American in one basic respect. In England and Wales only a few of the 33rd
degrees are conferred by special ritual, while in the USA each degree has
its own initiation ceremony. In England the 4th to the 17th Degrees are
conferred at once and in name only during initiation of the selected
Freemason to the 18th Degree. To the few who rise higher than the 18th
Degree, the 19th to 29th are conferred nominally during the ritual of
initiation to the 30th Degree - that of Grand Elected Knight Kadosh or
Knight of the Black and White Eagle. Degrees above the 30th are
conferred singly.
Extracts from Stephen Knight: The Brotherhood: Pages 38-45
The 33rd degree ritual &
oaths in the USA.
In order to receive the 33rd degree it was necessary for me to go to Washington DC. The
initiation and related functions were to last three days....I flew to Washington National
Airport and took a taxi to the ‘House of the Temple’ on Northwest 16th Street.
Upon arriving at the Temple I was met by a receptionist who asked me if I was there to
receive the 33rd degree. I was surprised to find a woman in those sacred Masonic
precincts, but said that I was, and showed her my letter from the Supreme Council. She
then told me that in order to receive the degree I would be expected to make a minimum
donation of a very large sum of money (at least it was a very large amount for me) This
took me completely by surprise for there had not been a word about a ‘minimum
donation’ in the letter sent to me by the Supreme Council. I didn't carry that amount
with me and had left my chequebook at home, but I was able to borrow the money from one of
the other men, and gave it to her. We candidates were all unhappy about this unpleasant
surprise and grumbled to one another about it, but we were not unhappy enough to forsake
the degree over it. We were too close to the top of the mountain to turn back at that
point.Extract from ‘The deadly deception’ by Jim Shaw. *33rd degree.* Knight Commander of the Court of Honour. *Past Worshipful Master, Blue Lodge * Past Master of all Scottish Rite bodies (Note: Masons say that Jim Shaw did not go as high as he claims - I cannot confirm - but his account certainly has the ring of truth)
The Temple itself
The House of the Temple is quite impressive - a bit awesome, really.
Standing large, grey and silent on the east-side of Northwest 16th Street, between
‘R’ and ‘S’ Streets, it looms very wide and tall from the curb.
There is a huge expanse of granite pavement in front of it, including three levels of
narrowing steps as the entrance is approached. See
the 33rd degree magazine cover
Inside is elegance: polished marble floors, exotic wood, gold and statuary. There are offices, a library, dining room, kitchen, Council Room, “Temple Room” and a large meeting room. This room is like a luxurious theatre, rather elegantly furnished and decorated. The ceiling is dark blue, with lights set into it to give the appearance of stars. These lights can even be made to twinkle like stars in the sky. There is a stage, well equipped, and it is all nicely done. But the thing that is most noticeable is the way the walls are decorated with serpents. There are all kinds; some very long and large. Many of the Scottish Rite degrees include the representation of serpents, and I recognised them among those decorating the walls. It was all most impressive and gave me a strange mixture of the sensations of being in a Temple and a tomb - something sacred but threatening. I saw busts of outstanding men of the Rite, including two of Albert Pike, who is buried there in the wall.
Interviewed by the Supreme Council
The first day was devoted to registration, briefings and interviews. We were all called
into one of the offices, one at a time, and interviewed by three members of the Supreme
Council. When my turn came I was ushered into the office and seated. The very first
question I was asked was, “Of what religion are you?” Not long before this I
would have answered with something like, “I believe the Ancient Mysteries, the
‘Old Religion,’ and I believe in reincarnation.” However, without thinking
at all about how to answer, I found myself saying, “I m a Christian,”Then, to my surprise, and theirs, I asked of them, “ Are you men born again?” The man in charge quickly stopped me by saying “We’re not here to talk about that - we are here to ask you questions.” After they sent me back out I sat down and thought about it. When the next man came out, I asked him, “Did they ask you if you are a Christian?” He said, “Yes, they did.” “What did you tell them?” I asked, and he replied, “I told them ‘Hell no, and I never intend to be!’” Then he said a strange thing to me, “They said I’m going higher,” and he left through a different door, looking pleased. Becoming a Sovereign Grand Inspector General The second day was the day of the actual initiation, held in the theatre-like meeting room. Those of us who were receiving the degree were seated and the ceremony was “exemplified” (acted out in full costume) before us, in the same way that we had performed the lesser degrees of the Scottish Rite all those years. The parts in the exemplification were played by men of the 33rd Degree. The representative candidate was dressed in black trousers, barefooted, bareheaded and draped in a long, black robe that reminded me of very long, black raincoat. He had a black cabletow around his neck but was not hoodwinked. During the initiation he was led around the stage, conducted by two men with swords, as the degree was performed for us. Instructions and signs were given. Upon the altar were four “holy books” (the Bible, the Koran, the Book of the Law and the Hindu Scriptures). At one point the “candidate” was told to kiss the book “of your religion” and, representing us all, he leaned forward and did so. I remembered the First Degree initiation, when I was told to kiss the Bible, and at that moment something came full cycle. It was the final such kiss to be a part of my life. Wine in a skull When it was time for the final obligation we all stood and repeated the oath with the representative candidate, administered by the Sovereign Grand Inspector General. We then swore true allegiance to the Supreme Council of the 33rd Degree, above all other allegiances, and swore never to recognise any other brother as being a member of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry unless he also recognises the supreme authority of “this Supreme Council.” One of the Conductors then handed the “candidate” a human skull, upside down, with wine in it. With all of us candidates repeating after him, he sealed the oath, “May this wine I now drink become a deadly poison to me, as the Hemlock juice drunk by Socrates, should I ever knowingly or wilfully violate the same” (the oath). He then drank the wine. A skeleton (one of the brothers dressed like one - he looked very convincing) then stepped out of the shadows and threw his arms around the “candidate.” Then he (and we ) continued the sealing of the obligation by saying, “And may these cold arms forever encircle me should I ever knowingly or wilfully violate the same.” The Sovereign Grand Commander closed the meeting of the Supreme Council “with the Mystic Number,” striking with his sword five, three, one and then two times. After the closing prayer, we all said “amen, amen, amen,” and it was over.
Prominent men took part
There were some extremely prominent men there that day, including a Scandinavian King,
two former presidents of the United States, an internationally prominent evangelist, two
other internationally prominent clergymen, and a very high official of the federal
government, the one who actually presented me with the certificate of the 33rd Degree.
Some made only brief appearances; others stayed much longer. However, they didn’t do much mixing or socialising with us, except for those whom they already knew. Even though these celebrities weren’t extremely “brotherly,” it was still quite an experience for me just to be associated with them. It was easily the largest gathering of such prominent and influential men of which I have ever been a part. The third day there was a banquet to celebrate our becoming “Grand Inspectors General, 33rd Degree.” The banquet was a little anticlimactic, at least for me, and I was anxious to get it over with so I could return home. It was good to be a 33rd at last. But it wasn’t as exciting or fulfilling as I had thought it would be during all those years in the Craft. I guess this was because of the profound changes going on down deep within me. return to top Married to Masonry 'The Supreme degree of the Rite incorporates a most impressive ceremony in which the candidate is required to endure a test demanding great courage, this being followed by a lengthy obligation and fitting climax, when he is married to the Order with a golden ring of special significance'. Keith B. Jackson: Beyond the Craft: (quoted on page 166 of The Craft and the Cross by Ian Gordon) | |||||||||||||||||
