Tag: masonic imagery/the masons/freemasons

More Mapping: Google Maps Addiction

I continue to add place to my Roadside Attractions, Museums, Etc. google map. As I cruised the net amassing more weird and unique places to visit, my wife looked over my shoulder and said something to the effect, “This used to overwhelm me, I thought we were going to have to visit every one of these places last summer.” While in a dream-world, cruising the U.S. (before tackling the rest of the world) would be a wonderful way to spend time, I like being married more.

Back to my latest find. Margaret’s Grocery and Market is an almost perfect intersection of my interest in folk art and masonic tourism.



This fantastic place was built by Reverend H.D. Dennis and named for his wife.

From Lucky Mojo’s entry on Margaret’s Grocery and Market

“…what will be apparent to any Freemason viewing this illustration, is that the Double Headed Eagle atop the signage is not just any eagle: it is that of the 32nd degree of the Scottish Rite. Furthermore, the two pillars flanking the door of the store are marked with the golden letters B and J, initials familiar to all Masons.”

This place look fantastic, and so worth a visit. Must drive more!

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Roadside Art Online: Margaret’s Grocery environment
Flickr: Search for “Margaret’s Grocery”

Quinta da Regaleira: A Place From "Pan's Labrinth"?

I was searching Flickr for masonic imagery when the Quinta da Regaleira turned up.


(Photo from WaveCult)

This spiral well looks much like a place in the center of the maze in Pan’s Labyrinth. The Quinta da Regaleira is a UNESCO Heritage site in Sintra, Portugal. Its nearby proximity to Spain would make it not unlikely that film maker Guillermo del Toro would be aware of this place.

And now it’s one of the places added to the many I want to visit. A brief reading of some sites has the place linked to masonic and Rosicrucian ceremony.


Photo from sylphoria


Photos from saolin

Holiday Fun in Philadelphia: The Masons and The Mutter Museum

Before getting back to Atlanta for the New Year, we spent a few days in Phily for a work-related event. While my sweetie was working on bringing home the bacon, I had a fun play day out in the city of brotherly lurve.

First on my list of things to do was get a much needed haircut. A search on Google found me Harry’s Barber Shop. It was nearby, sounded like a solid place to get my hair’s trimmed, and unlike “Cut” which had me thinking a salon with fewer words = higher price. So, off I walked in search of my barber. 1324 Locust St. should have been easy to find, but all I saw was The Arts Condominium, a swank new condo complex being made in a sweet art deco building. There were tenants, but the foyer was still getting carpeted. I almost left when I looked down at a sidewalk level window.

I got buzzed in and walked down into the basement level warren of hallways and doors below the foyer. Harry’s was a complete time warp, and one that hadn’t aged well. In a perfect world Harry’s would have had all the vintage accouterments in perfect order. Here though, the couch was ripped up, the tile walls were cracking and the Formica counters were showing their age. But the barber chair’s were vintage and so were the barbers. The younger may have been in his 50’s and Harry looked like he was in his 70’s. He was nice, social, and a little hard of hearing. His dad started cutting hair across the street in 1922 and Harry had been in his location since 1974, when the building was the Hotel Sylvania. I got just the cut I thought I would get, a straight razor cleanup and even my eybrows trimmed.

Next on my list, the Mason’s! How could I not, with our hotel right next to The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania. I was hoping they allowed photography and they did. The tour was great, the building beautiful, and the pictures turned out nicely.

* Grand Lodge Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania – a photoset on Flickr

After that it was a trip the Mutter Museum. The items on display include:

* The plaster cast of the torso of world-famous Siamese Twins, Chang & Eng, and their conjoined livers
* Joseph Hyrtl’s collection of skulls
* Preserved body of the “Soap Lady”
* Collection of 2,000 objects extracted from people’s throats
* Cancerous growth removed from President Grover Cleveland
* Tallest skeleton on display in North America

Unfortunately, no pictures allowed. The place is both intriguing and nauseating, and makes one just happy to live in time of advanced medicine.

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Other pictures taken while on the road.

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Post-Christmas Trip: Philadelphia

I’m in the cradle of American democracy tonight, accompanying my wife on a business trip. When our trips revolve around her work, we have concluded that for me the attractions usually breakdown to ‘Things Made to Look like Big Things” and “Anything Masonic”.

The “big thing” in the trip was supposed to be the recreation of Noah’s Ark on the I-68 in Maryland. But all that we saw was a bare framework of metal I-beams. I had thought about documenting the place for fans for such things, but at such an incomplete state it wasn’t worth getting off the highway. Pastor Richard Greene had a vision in 1974 of the Rebuilding Of Noah’s Ark. He hasn’t much to show for it Fortunately, someone else took the picture for me.


Someone With WAY Too Much Time On Their Hands
Originally uploaded by jocieposse.

As for “Anything Masonic”, our huge corner hotel room on Penn Square overlooks The Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania. Not even a half-block away. And there are public tour! Yes.

Plus, there is the Mutter Museum in Philly.

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When we drove through Lexington, KY in the afternoon, we passed the lovely sign for the Parkette Drive-In. By day it looks promising, and at night its a true thing of beauty. Gotta love the carhop on top. We also saw another great sign, that will keep until next post.


The Lexington, Kentucky Parkette Drive In
Originally uploaded by kthread.


Parkette Drive-In, Lexington KY
Originally uploaded by baikinange.

The Masons & The Atlanta Museum of Design's New Show

Two completely unrelated things in one place!

Prince Hall Masonic Temple on Auburn and Hillard St., Atlanta, GA (Google Map). A few blocks away from the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site

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The Museum of Design opened its latest show, “Design Made in Africa.” The gallery shown above is the second floor gallery. It’s a good looking show and admission is free.

285 Peachtree Center Ave, Atlanta, – Google Maps

Post-Work Post & Miscellaneous Idiocy

My work schedule is ending tonight after a long week and even longer two days at the Ferst Center:

Saturday 8am – 2:30am (14.5 hours worked) Bocca Tango

Sunday 9am-10pm (11 hours worked) Aquila Theatre Company’s Hamlet

It is good to see well-done dance and theater to be reminded that they actually merit the attention they often get. The Booca Tango group was Argentinian tango. Beautiful dancing, live backing band. As a person who never felt dancing expressed anything in me more then a severe-whitness problem, I never search out dance for entertainment. But this was great.

Being that I was never an actor, nor incline to be dramatic, I never went to drama on stage. So, seeing Hamlet performed was a bit of a revelation. But being on the side of the stage instead of in front makes a difference, so I didn’t get the full impact. But hearing and seeing the language live gave me better insight as to why I should care about William S.

Now that I am on a brief work hiatus, I’m looking forward to some chill time.

And know for something completely different…

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When misspellings in Google searches result in strange results.

Stock Photo of Two women hodling mirror ball

They really look like they are hodling the mirror ball.

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Jellio Design: Retro-tacky furniture and decorating items like this model-car parts piece…

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“Unemployable choreographer and amateur harpist (M, 62) seeks recovering alcoholic with feeble mind. Own tap shoes an advantage.”

“Beneath this hostile museum curator’s exterior, lurks a hostile museum curator’s interior . . . ”

And you thought the Craigslist personals were strange.

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Normally on display at the Smithsonian, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly was not open to the public on our Washington DC trip. Disappointed, but Masonic Robotic George Washington was pretty craptastic.

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Large Book-Sculpture

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Unplanned continuity in this post, shiny objects in pictures.

Searching for Deeper Meaning: Art and A Conspiritorial Family Tree

“Whenever we have spoken openly we have [actually] said nothing. But where we have written something in code and in pictures we have concealed the truth.” Rosarium philosophorum 1550 (Weinheim edition, 1990)

Between experience and language, some believe that something is lost. That using words, spoken or written, is inadiquite to convey the real experience, the true meaning of what was realized. The closest thing that tells the tale is imagery: drawings, paintings. Filled with symbolism, artists often try to convey a deeper truth, something otherwise unseen. This is the start of Gnostic belief and much art was created to document these ideals.

Secret societies often have symbols that have meaning beyond their actual purpose. Often at their start, these often were just non-church related groups coming together. The cryptic nature of the teachings of these groups often lead to suspicion about their agendas. But with the French Revolution, such influence of the Masons was easy to see. Note the All-Seeing-Eye at the top of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, approved by the National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789

The Masons also visually use tools of stonecraft to illustrate how Freemasonry helps a member change their unformed shape and use the tools to refine themselves into something new.

Clarence Larkin (1850–1924) used imagery as a teaching aid, to document where we are within the timeline of the god’s design, the shape of heaven, hell and earth; and what needs to happen before the end times.

He even gave a guide on how to color-code and notate the bible. “Use markers, which make a transparent line, to draw over the lines of a verse of scripture. Use scarlet for the “promises”, green for “condemnation”, brown for death and resurrection”, etc. Draw a red ellipse around the word BLOOD all through. the Bible and fill it with red.”

Visionary artist often talk of having a direct pipeline to god or a spiritual realm. They see the unseen hand, the hidden mechinisms at work that others can’t see. Artist like Paul Lauffely use diagramic thinking to illustate higher states of being, hidden meanings and the way the world truly works. His pieces bring back text, to explain and add to his visual imagery.

All of this comes to the artist who got me thinking about all these things. My love of art and conspiracy therories merged when hearing yesterday about artist Mark Lombardi.

NPR did a story on him, The ‘Conspiracy’ Art of Mark Lombardi, which talks of his his need to document the scandals and conspiracies he saw.

“bill clinton, lippo group and china ocean shipping co. aka COSCO
little rock-jakarta-hong kong c.1990s (5th version), 1999″

His works, based on years of research, chart lines of influence in business and politics, link individuals with corperations and groups, and show relationships to various centers of power. It his documentation of a broad world-view that relates his pieces to the people mentioned above.

His works are part of the traveling show global networks., which will not be anywhere near Atlanta. But I may be getting the show catalog.

And adding fuel to the conspiratorial fire, Mark was found hung in 2000, which was ruled a suicide.

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Ask E.T.: Mark Lombardi influenced by Envisioning Information
(Mark Lombardi) arts / w b u r g
The Structure of Consciousness – Liminocentricity,
Enantiodromia, and Personality

Holiday Wrap-Up Part 2: Washington D.C.

After returning from the Land of Big Cars (Florida), we left a day later to Washington D.C. It was all business for my wife and all pleasure for myself.

Day 1

The first full day started slow, with a late begining. First thing, catch the subway to get to the International Spy Museum. I love Metrorail’s stations with their cast-concrete retro-futurism.

Compared to NYC or London some might think them charmless but I love the flowing lines of the walkways and the modular caverns that the trains roll into.

Get to the museum to find that day’s tickets were sold out. Bought one for the next day and got directions to Chinatown for much needed cheap eats. Wandered around and followed a pack of students into one of the numerous chinese restaurants. The food was fine and not too expensive. Took metrorail back towards the hotel, exited one station early and walked the rest up Connecticut.

Day 2

Trips to London, Minneapolis and Dublin had all resulted in finding little treasures, be it The Sir John Soane’s Museum, The Museum of Questionable Medical Devices which is now located at The Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Grand Masonic Lodge in Dublin. I worried that D.C. wouldn’t have something like those other cities, but a visit to this website got me pointed in the right direction.

The George Washington Masonic National Memorial is dedicated to reminding people that our founding father wore an apron. I was worried that I wouldn’t know where to go once I got off the train, but at the station it was pretty clear what direction to go.

While large from the outside, the building has even more rooms inside then I expected. The grand hall has a huge bronze George greeting all, with murals on each side of him. Further wandering around finds exhibits about George Washington, the building of the memorial, the Shriners, etc.

One of the highlights, the Animatronic George Washington. He stands, he gestures, he talks. But he doesn’t seem to look like G.W.

I wish I had stayed for the guided tour, but my timed-ticket for the Spy Museum had me leave before I could join the tour. Had the spy museum been less packed I could have judged it on its merits, but the crush of people made it all but impossible to enjoy. Their website warned of fast ticket sales and the post-christmas crowds filled the place. The museum has no grand hall, mainly a collection of collected rooms with no flow or reason. The architecture is in the style of “Alias” mostly modern materials and flashy lighting. There were loads of cool spy artifacts, but the crowd killed my desire to linger.

I think all future travel have to include a bit of Masonic tourism. They do their places up right.

Day 3

Return flight to Atlanta. Seen in Dulles International Airport

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More Washington D.C. Pictures – Flickr

George Washington Masonic National Memorial – Google Map

Good food:

Petits Plats – French, slightly pricey, great chocolate mousse.

Furin’s of Georgetown – fresh made soups, salads. Super tastey, good price.

Sunday Sloth: Slacking on the Sabbath

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Wilde on Dublin, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

My wife and I have a date for tonight, but for now she is grading up a storm. The G.Tech kids want their grades back. Me, I’m slacking. Doing laundry and posting pix up on Flickr. New shots of Piedmont park and old pictures of our trip to Dublin, Ireland. Great place to vist, one quarter of the country’s population lives there and city feels young because 37% of the general population is under 25 and a bigger percentage lives in the city. In the picture above Mr Wilde lounges in a park nearby his birthhome, lording over the kids and wondering why they aren’t misbehaving more.

After he died, painter Francis Bacon’s studio and all its contents were relocated to the Hugh Lane Gallery, Archeologist survyed the studio, mapping its clutter so it could be reproduced once it was shipped from its original location in London.

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Francis Bacon’s Studio, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

The sweet wife was attending a conferance in Dublin which left me with time to explore the city. I stumbled upon the Grand Lodge of Ireland. I somehow convinced my wife to join me in a tour of the building. Which while the building was ornate and gorgeous, the tour did not provide me with the secrets of how their global takeover was progressing. But my pictures of the lodge turned out nicely. I would highly recommend a visit to the lodge in Dublin.

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Dublin Freemason’s Lodge – Grand Lodge Room 3, originally uploaded by Mr. Kimberly.

We’ve been to London, Paris, and Dublin. Checking all these old pictures has me wishing for another trip abroad. Any suggestions for new cities, and places to visit in the already-visited cities?