Some 1613 facts

Crossposted from the Chequered Pavement: I would like to thank Bro. Steve Foley for encouraging factual information regarding all Masonic orders and communities to be out there for public consumption. He has been a close friend and true Brother who stands as a pinnacle of Masonic behavior. Thanks Brother. Anyway, I thought that some of this may be useful to some of you so in that spirit I hope you enjoy. Cheers, BC Well basically the 1613 Nation is a community of independent lodges (self originating, not holding or requiring charter ) who work together out of a sense of cooperation and mutual Brotherhood. We are not a Grand Orient or Grand Lodge in any way and we do not claim to be. So, what does this mean? In a nutshell we are all friends who share a common passion for Freemasonry and the betterment of Mankind through a set of common principles. The specifics are outlined on the 1613 Manifesto, although that in no way is ever intended to be a source of "set in stone" dogma. Think of the 21st century in relation to different movements. Commonalities between the 1613 and the open source software movement or the Do It Yourself ethic are numerous. In a nutshell we are those movements within our mutual love, Freemasonry. It all started from one lodge, that was itself started by an idea fueled by a desire to practice a ritual that we had a mutual fondness for. That lodge, Lodge Napoleon Bonaparte was founded expressly to work the original Rite of Misraim, a Rite that had previously been unavailable to work. Those four founders of LNB, of who I am one originally had the idea to receive a charter for the lodge from a Grand Lodge in Europe who offered the Rite of Misraim. After a lot of contact and discussion we always found something that for us was not what we desired. Whether that be the $400.00 annual "tribute" to the Grand Lodge, or having to comply 100% with their rules for visitation, voting protocol in French or what have you we decided that was not the road to go down for us. So, we decided to be independents and do our own thing. We wanted to be a worldwide lodge that would gather annually for ritual. While this worked we where running into Brethren who still wanted an in person lodge every month so we decided to explore that option. So, what we decided to do was to set up a community where we would be able to share information. We would also dedicated ourselves to helping others within the community with traveling to do degrees, redacting ritual, creating new ritual on and on. The first step was the establishment of a Post-Modern Freemasonry group on FB. This allowed us to connect with interested people from all over the world. It has been a wonderful success today with almost 500 members in harmony. This lead to the Establishment of individual lodges in Georgia and South Africa. An established lodge in Mexico working Memphis Misraim and a lodge in Germany working misraim also caught on to what we where doing so we found ourselves growing. The way that our lodges come about is two ways. A currently establish lodges expresses sincere interest in joining the community. They resonate with the manifesto and the ten point program found within it. We establish them within the community, provide full web support etc. The second method is that those who are Masons currently and who resonate with the 1613 inquire about forming a new lodge. Then we do the same thing by plugging them into the community etc. The final way is an individual seeker inquires about the community. We get them introduced. We get to know each other and whatever the best solution to get the candidate initiated when identified is put into action. Practicality is the key of the day. Our Rites are what is currently available and desire to be worked and then what can be created new and added to the current of Masonic Rites. We feature long established rituals like Memphis, Misraim, AASR (REAA) French Modern Rite, Schroeder, National Mexican Rite. As well s the newly formed Hellenic Rite. We also encourage the modification of current rites based upon the will of the lodge. The 1613 Nation is an open and free community. That means that we encourage those who are members to share the current with whoever they can. We encourage the exchange of ideas and the implementation of new best practices. We are not a dues paying organization. No lodge pays to be a member of the 1613. That means that this is strictly a volunteer effort. All of our support (including web design and hosting, intra-net, blogs, redacted rituals etc.) come at zero monetary costs to it's members. But all members are expected to be active in the community and to offer assistance to other members/lodges when required. For an example our lodges in the UK- Sanctum Sanctorum and John Yarker work together on a regular basis. Both of our Lauderdale lodges are closely linked. Our NY, NY and DC lodges work together for mutual benefit etc. The desire to be a true community is our ultimate goal.