Cro-Magnons

"What the White whale was to Ahab, has been hinted; what, at dies, he was to me, as yet remains unsaid. Aside from those more obvious considerations touching Moby Dick, which could not but occasionally awaken in any man's soul some alarm, there was another thought, or ether vague, nameless honor concerning  him,  which  at  times  by  its  intensity completely overpowered all the rest; and yet so mystical and well nigh ineffable was it, that I almost despair of putting it in a comprehensible foci. It was the whiteness of the whale that above all things appdled me. But how can I hope to explain...

What is it that in the Albino man so peculiarly repels and often shocks the eye, as that sometimes he is loathed by his own Kim and kin!   It is that whiteness which invests him, a thing expressed by the name he bears, The Albino is as well made as other men - has no substantive deformity - and yet this mere aspect of all-pervading whiteness makes him more strangely hideous than the ugliest abonion. Why should this be so?"

Herman Melville,

"On the Whiteness of the Whale",

Moby Dick

And incidentally, do you know the main reason why Nazi Germany never attempted to attack, invade or incorporate Fascist Spain or Fascist Portugal into the Reich or draw them into involvement in the war on their side?

It's pretty amazing.

The Portuguese were the first European maritime nation to begin establishing a global empire based on exploration, exploitation, conquest, colonialism, chattel slavery and White Supremacy (with a Papal Bull to back it up) in the 1460s, and Lisbon is the closest European capital to the former location of Atlantis.

The Canary Islands, the Basque region and the French Pyrranees are crammed full of the remains of advanced Cromagnon settlements and Nazi archeologists and anthropologists that studied them determined that these were refugee colonies of  Atlanteans and that a variety of European groups, specifically including the Basques and Normans, plus the white Berbers of North Africa were directly descended from Atlantean Cromagnon survivors.

That is, after all what Plato says.

And he got it from Solon, the Lawgiver of Athens.

Just as Moses-Akenhaten was the Lawgiver of the Hebrew-Israelites.

It may therefore be a very worthwhile exercise in historical analysis to reexamine more closely the attitude  and treatment of the Berber population by the Germans under the military occupation by the Afrika Korpa - under Fascist Italy, it had certainly not been good, but then again Mussolini was certainly uncommitted to and likely did not believe in any of this Atlantis stuff - it's an interesting and open question as to whether a Prussian military aristocratic officer class and doctrinaire non-Nazi professional soldier like Erwin Rommel would have even known about these beliefs or engaged with that kind of thinking, or let it influence his thinking or political and military philosophy even if it did.

We know, for example, that the Serphardic Jews across all of North Africa fared remarkably well during these years - in fact, far better than the Jewish population of the Dutch East Indies under Japanese occupation, after German diplomatic insistence that they be all interred by the Japanese, dispatching small squad of SS during the war by U-Boat during 1942 to supervise the operations and ensure that the work was done and the actions carried out.

Why Don't We Call Them Cro-Magnon Anymore?

What Are Cro-Magnons?

Cro-Magnon is the informal word once used by scientists to refer to the people who were living alongside Neanderthals at the end of the last ice age (ca. 35,000-10,000 years ago). They were given the name 'Cro-Magnon' because in 1868, parts of five skeletons were discovered in the rockshelter of that name, located in the famous Dordogne Valley of France.

Scientists compared these skeletons to Neanderthal skeletons which had earlier been found in similarly dated sites such as Paviland, Wales; and a little later at Combe Capelle and Laugerie-Bassein France, and decided they were different enough from the Neanderthals, to give them a different name.

Recent research over the past 20 years or so, however, has led scholars to believe that the physical dimensions of so-called 'Cro-Magnon' are not sufficiently different enough from modern humans to warrant a separate designation. Scientists today use 'Anatomically Modern Human' (AMH) or 'Early Modern Human' (EMH) to designate the Upper Paleolithic human beings who looked a lot like us, but did not have the complete suite of modern human behaviors.

Physical Characteristics of EMH

The physical characteristics of Early Modern Human are quite similar to modern humans, although perhaps a bit more robust, particularly seen in femora--the leg bones. The differences, which are slight, have been attributed to the shift away from long distance hunting strategies to sedentism and agriculture.

A recent study by Trent Holliday comparing early and late Upper Paleolithic skeletal materials provided an average male height of 170 centimeters (early) and 168 centimeters (late), and average female height of 157.6 cm (early) and 158.4 (late). However, Formicola and Giannecchini's data revealed that "EUP [Early Upper Paleolithic] males are much taller (176.2 cm) and LUP [Late Upper Paleolithic] shorter (165.6 cm), with an average difference of 10.6 cm. Similarly EUP females (162.9 cm) largely exceed LUP females (153.5 cm)." I think the jury is still out.

Where Did EMH Come From?

In Africa, early modern humans appeared at least as long ago as 160,000 years BP at sites such as Bouri in Ethiopia, and perhaps as long ago as 195,000 years ago, if the dating of Omo Kibish, also in Ethiopia, is correct. The earliest sites outside of Africa with early modern humans are at Skhul and Qafzeh caves in what is now Israel about 100,000 years ago. There's a large gap in the record for Asia and Europe, between 100,000 and 40,000 years ago, a period in which the Middle East seems to have been occupied by Neanderthals; but around 50,000 years ago, the EMH appear again and flow back into Europe.

This is problematic, because there's very little data for these periods of time. In addition, the relationship between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens is hotly debated in some circles. Behaviorally, in Africa and the Middle East, the Neanderthals and EMH were pretty much the same; they were physically quite different and different scholars debate on our exact relationship with them.

Before the return of EMH to the Middle East and Europe, early technological glimmers of modern behavior are in evidence at several South African sites of the Still Bay/Howiesons Poort tradition, about 75,000-65,000 years ago. But it wasn't until about 50,000 years ago or so, that a difference in tools, in burial methods, in the presence of art and music, and probably some changes in social behaviors as well, became apparent. At the same time, early modern humans left Africa.

[OR, The Flood came and decimated The Earth, Utnaprishtem (the town drunk), his wife and family were rescued and spared from the Extinction Level Event (ELE) by the Annunaki Lord Ennki and his wife Ninhassan, after having their genome augmented with acoustic harmonic waveform technology at sites like the Annunaki colonies of Kmet, Kush and Great Zimbabwe, upgrading them by means of directed mutation from Neanderthal Hominds to the first generation of AFRICAN Early Modern Humans, as distinct from the Cro-Magnons, descendent fromsurvivors of the last generation of ATLANTEAN Early Modern Humans, that eventually became decadent and recessive...]

What were the Tools Like?

Beginning about 50,000 years ago, the tool kit associated with EMH is the Aurignacian, characterized by what archaeologists call a 'blade industry'. In blade technology, the knapper has sufficient skill to purposefully produce a long thin sliver of stone that is triangular in cross-section. Blades were then converted into all kinds of tools, sort of the Swiss army knife of early modern humans.

Other things associated with early modern humans include ritual burials, such as that at Abrigo do Lagar Velho, Portugal, where a child's body was covered with red ochre before being interred 24,000 years ago. The invention of the atlatl was at least as long as 17,500 years ago, the earliest having been recovered from the site of Combe Sauniere. Venus figurines are attributed to early modern humans of about 30,000 years ago; and of course, let's not forget the amazing Lascaux Cave.

So Why Don't We Still Call Them Cro-Magnon?

The more we learn about early modern humans, the less we feel confident about the early classification systems we developed more than 130 years ago. The term Cro-Magnon doesn't refer to a particular taxonomy or even a particular group located in a particular place. The word is not precise enough, and so most paleontologists prefer to use Anatomically Modern or Early Modern Humans.

Early Modern Human Sites

Sites with EMH human remains include: Predmostí and Mladec Cave (Czech Republic), Cro-Magnon, Abri Pataud, Brassempouy (France), Cioclovina (Romania), Qafzeh Cave, Skuhl Cave, and Amud (Israel), Vindija Cave (Croatia), kostenki(Russia), Bouri and Omo Kibish (Ethiopia)

See Page 2 for bibliographic sources for this project.

This glossary entry is a part of the About.com Guide to the Middle Paleolithic, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.

Early Modern Human Bibliography

This bibliography was built for the About.com glossary entry for Cro-Magnons, or what scholars now call Early Modern Humans. See specific site descriptions for additional articles.

Sources for Early Modern Human

This bibliography is a part of the About.com Guide to the Middle Paleolithic, and part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.

Brace, C. L., et al. 2005 The questionable contribution of the Neolithic and the Bronze Age to European craniofacial form

. PNAS Early Edition November 11, 2005. Free download.

Brantingham, Jeffrey, Steven L. Kuhn, and Christopher W. Kerry (editors). 2004. The Early Upper Paleolithic Beyond Western Europe. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Formicola, Vincenzo 2003 More is not always better: Trotter and Gleser's equations and stature estimates of Upper Paleolithic European samples. Journal of Human Evolution 45(3):239-244.

Goudot, Patrick 2002 The mandibular canal of the "Old Man" of Cro-Magnon: anatomical-radiological study. Journal of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery 30:213-218.

Straus, Lawrence G. 1999 Iberia: Bridge or cul-de-sac? Implications of the Iberian record for the debate on the middle to upper paleolithic transition. Human Evolution14(1-2):139-149.

Holliday, Trenton W. 2002 Body size and postcranial robusticity of European Upper Paleolithic hominins. Journal of Human Evolution 43(4):513-528.

Thanks to Dar Habel for an update on Omo Kibish.

The Nazi Channel Islands

"Hostilities will end officially at one minute after midnight tonight, but in the interests of saving lives the 'Cease fire' began yesterday to be sounded all along the front, and our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed today."

- Winston Churchill

"Thank you for your postcard. I very nearly went to Jersey myself, as I have never been there, and hear from so many people that it is quite delightful.

If you are free tomorrow evening between six and seven, do come round for a drink and a chat.

Ever sincerely, Boothby."

Private note sent by Lord Boothby to Ronnie Kray,

June 6, 1963

The Control of Diana Mary Fluck

Jason Lake: Our house was a hotbed of drugs and orgies

IF JASON DORS-LAKE'S life story has a moral, it must be that love is not all you need. No child could have been more adored than the son of the legendary Diana Dors, Britain’s own Marilyn Monroe, and her third husband actor Alan Lake. 

Jason Dors-Lake reveals truth about childhood in new book Connecting Dors: The Legacy Of Diana Dors

Jason ’s bedroom was filled with toys, he was denied almost nothing and was constantly fussed over by his parents’ famous friends – from Hollywood star Gregory Peck to associates of the Kray twins.

After two disastrous marriages to controlling men who were only too willing to live off her fame and considerable income, Diana met the love of her life in her late 30s.

Alan Lake, nine years her junior, was different. He had a flourishing career and she could depend on him to earn enough to support the family. For much of Jason’s childhood his parents managed to make sure one of them was at home with their much-loved son.

The problem was that although Jason had been born in 1969 at the very end of the swinging Sixties, neither of his parents were inclined to curb their party lifestyle. Alan, when left alone with Jason, would often push his pram to the pub and, when the toddler got restless, slip a little champagne into his bottle.

A s for his mother, her fame was built on the full figure and smouldering sexuality that she had been exploiting since she was herself a spoiled only child in Swindon, entering beauty contests with the encouragement of her adoring mother.

Many of the rooms at the Berkshire family home Orchard Manor were fitted with spy cameras and two-way mirrors. Starlets who came to Diana’s legendary parties were encouraged to seduce famous guests and it was said Diana enjoyed reviewing the filmed highlights.

Bob Monkhouse, one of her most enthusiastic regular guests, later commented: “The problem with going to an orgy is that one is never quite sure who to thank.”

Jason can recall waking late one night and finding his father hosting a drugs party with friends, one of whom was Andrew Ray, a close pal of the infamous Krays. “I want a funny candy too,” Jason said as he saw something that looked like a giant white jelly bean being handed round and everyone who put their nose to it laughing like a drain.

“Let the lad have some fun,” shouted Ray. “Here, take a sniff of this,” he said, breaking open the jelly bean to release a white smoke. Jason recalls laughing until his tummy ached. He still isn’t sure what it was but is certain it shouldn’t have been given to a five-year-old.

His parents seemed oblivious to the dangers to which they were exposing their son. On a visit to America to stay with his two teenage half-brothers in the Los Angeles house his mother had rented , he found his father smoking cannabis from a water pipe with Mark, then 19, and Gary, 17, the children from Diana’s marriage to Hogan’s Heroes actor Richard Dawson. Jason had learned from an early age that if he pestered long enough, his parents would eventually give him what he wanted. He demanded to join in and persisted until his father agreed. He was nine.

Diana knew what was going on but was reluctant to rock the boat. Her ex-husband had won custody of the two older boys when she divorced him to be with Alan and since for once she had all her boys together, she wanted no friction.

The cannabis sessions continued whenever Jason was home from boarding school and he became an expert spliff-roller for his father and for Gary who was then living at Orchard Manor . When Diana did voice concerns Alan simply said: “Better he does it among friends rather than strangers.”

In Connecting Dors, the book of Diana’s life and Jason’s childhood, he tells of a celebrity upbringing in which he never doubted he was loved but in which he also came to imagine that hosting a drug-fuelled orgy several times a month was what all parents did. ‘‘I thought it was all fairly normal. I thought everyone behaved like that at parties.”

Quite how things would have worked out had his parents lived to old age, Jason will never know because life at Orchard Manor came to a sudden and tragic halt.

The family’s happiness had already been blighted by Alan’s alcoholism but then his mother became ill. Diana died from ovarian cancer in 1984 at the age of 53. Five months later his grief-stricken father, unable to cope without her, shot himself while Jason was at school.

The only adult relatives Jason had left were his half-brothers now back in America. Within days of burying his father, closely watched by the world’s press and refusing to shed a tear for the cameras, he went to live with Gary, then only 22, and embarked on an aimless journey into adulthood.

He became a father when he was 22 but abandoned the mother and child shortly after . He was overtaken by addiction and alcoholism and even made a drug-fuelled suicide attempt by jumping off a girlfriend’s third-floor balcony.

Now 43 he lives a quiet life on the Kent coast surrounded by a small group of friends. He attends regular Alcoholic Anonymous meetings and is trying to turn his life around.

Diana Dors built her career on smouldering sexuality and privately her parties were equally racy

 I thought it was all fairly normal. I thought everyone behaved like that at parties 

Jason Dors-Lake

He has built a relationship with his daughter and sees her regularly. He has acquired the rights to his mother’s estate and created a small business selling Diana Dors merchandise to her many loyal fans . He is also trying to revive the musical talent his mother once hoped would provide him with a future.

The friend who wrote his story for him, Niema Ash, recalls a rare outburst of grief from him over the death of a pet bird he had raised by hand after it fell out of its nest. “Everything dies on me,” Jason told her. “Everything leaves me. My mother died, my father died.”

She believes it was possibly the first time he had ever been able to mourn the loss of his parents. Even at his father’s funeral, the 14-year-old Jason had only been able to mutter “I love you” into the grave, hoping no one would hear.

It took weeks of mourning for his dead chick before he told Niema: “It’s okay. I’ve stopped crying now.” He was almost 40 years old. It had taken him more than a quarter of a century to cry for his lost parents.

Connecting Dors: The Legacy Of Diana Dors by Niema Ash, Purple Inc Press, £14.99. To buy this book directly from the author with autograph and dedication, visit www.niemaash.com

Related articles

• Review: Diana Dors - Hurricane In Mink by David Bret 
• Secret lost babies pain of Diana Dors 
• Diana Dors ex-husband dies at 79

Checkmate

The Mosaic Pavement


The black and white checkered floor has existed in temples
since the times of ancient Egypt. More than simply
decorative, the mosaic pavement bears a profound esoteric
(special) meaning. Today it is one of Freemasonry’s most
recognizable symbols and is the ritualistic floor of all
Masonic lodges. The pavement is the area on which
initiations occur and is “emblematic of human life,
checkered with good and evil.”
“The mosaic pavement in an old symbol of the Order. It is
met with in the earliest rituals of the last century. It is
classed among the ornaments of the lodge along with the
indented tassel and the blazing star. Its party-colored stones
of black and white have been readily and appropriately
interpreted as symbols of the evil and good of human life.”
In the Entered Apprentice Degree, the mosaic pavement
represents the ground floor of King Solomon’s Temple. In
the account of King Solomon’s Temple in the Bible, the
ground floor is said to be made of pine or fir, depending on
the Bible translation (1 Ki 6:15).“The checkerboard floor upon which the modern
Freemasonic lodge stands is the old tracing board of the
Dionysiac (Greek) Architects, and while the modern
organization is no longer limited to workmen’s guilds it
still preserves its symbols.
When thinking of the idea of Duality and the concept of
good and evil, black and white, sacred and profane, an
image that immediately enters my mind is that of the Ying-
Yang.
While this symbol has become a sort of pop culture icon in
recent times, its symbolism is deep and its meaning
applicable to this subject. While it has numerous
interpretations the ying-yang demonstrates the concept of
duality and balance. The synonym balance is an important
term because of the position of the checkered carpet, the
floor, where the foundation of the erect human body may
be found. The mason is taught to avoid irregularity and
intemperance and to divide his time equally by the use of
the twenty four inch gauge. These lessons refer to the
importance of balance in a Mason’s life. Therefore the
symbolism of the mosaic pavement could be interpreted to
mean that balance provides the foundation of our Masonic
growth.Maintaining balance allows us to adhere to many Masonic
teachings. By maintaining balance we may be able to stand
upright in our several stations before God or man. The
entered apprentice is charges to keep balance in his life so
that he may ensure public and private esteem. It is also very
interesting that the concept of Justice is represented by a
scale which is balanced and that justice is described as
being the foundation of civil society in the first degree of
masonry
“The Floor, or groundwork of the Lodge, a chequer-work
of black and white squares, denotes the dual quality of
everything connected with terrestrial life and the physical
groundwork of human nature – the mortal body and its
appetites and affections. “The web of our life is a mingled
yarn, good and ill together”, wrote Shakespeare. Everything
material is characterized by inextricably interblended good
and evil, light and shade, joy and sorrow, positive and
negative. What is good for me may be evil for you;
pleasure is generated from pain and ultimately degenerates
into pain again; what it is right to do at one moment may be
wrong the next; I am intellectually exalted to-day and to-
morrow correspondingly depressed and benighted: The
dualism of these opposites governs us in everything, and
experience of it is prescribed for us until such time as,
having learned and outgrown its lesson, we are ready for
advancement to a condition where we outgrow the sense of
this chequer-work existence and those opposites cease to be
perceived as opposites, but are realized as a unity or
synthesis. To find that unity or synthesis is to know the
peace which passes understanding i.e. which surpasses ourpresent experience, because in it the darkness and the light
are both alike, and our present concepts of good and evil,
joy and pain, are transcended and found sublimated in a
condition combining both. And this lofty condition is
represented by the indented or tesselated border skirting the
black and white chequer-work, even as the Divine Presence
and Providence surrounds and embraces our temporal
organisms in which those opposites are inherent.”
Furthermore, the checkered floor is representative of earth,
the material world and contrasts the ceiling, which is made
to represent the heavens and the spiritual realm.
“The Covering of the Lodge is shown in sharp contrast to
its black and white flooring and is described as “a celestial
canopy of diverse colours, even the heavens.
If the flooring symbolizes man’s earthy sensuous nature,
the ceiling typifies his ethereal nature, his “heavens” and
the properties resident therein. The one is the reverse and
the opposite pole of the other. His material body is visible
and densely composed. His ethereal surround, or “aura”, is
tenuous and invisible. Its existence will be doubted by
those unprepared to accept what is not physically
demonstrable, but the Masonic student, who will be called
upon to accept many such truths provisionally until he
knows them as certainties, should reflect
(i) that he has entered the Craft with the professed object of
receiving light upon the nature of his own being,(2) that the Order engages to assist him to that light in
regard to matters of which he is admittedly ignorant, and
that its teachings and symbols were devised by wise and
competent instructors in such matters, and
(3) that a humble, docile and receptive mental attitude
towards those symbols and their meanings will better
conduce to his advancement than a critical or hostile one.”
The mosaic pavement is a esoterically-charged space on
which stands the ceremonial altar, the center of most
rituals. The ceremony for the Apprentice Degree
symbolically takes place in that location.
“Why is the chequer floor-work given such prominence in
the Lodge-furniture? Every Mason is intended to be the
High Priest of his own personal temple and to make of it a
place where he and Deity may meet. By the mere fact of
being in this dualistic world every living being, whether a
Mason or not, walks upon the square pavement of mingled
good and evil in every action of his life, so that the floor-
cloth is the symbol of an elementary philosophical truth
common to us all. But, for us, the words “walk upon” imply
much more than that. They mean that he who aspires to be
master of his fate and captain of his soul must walk upon
these opposites in the sense of transcending and dominating
them, of trampling upon his lower sensual nature and
keeping it beneath his feet in subjection and control. He
must become able to rise above the motley of good and
evil, to be superior and indifferent to the ups and downs of
fortune, the attractions and fears governing ordinary men
and swaying their thoughts and actions this way or that. Hisobject is the development of his innate spiritual potencies,
and it is impossible that these should develop so long as he
is over-ruled by his material tendencies and the fluctuating
emotions of pleasure and pain that they give birth to. It is
by rising superior to these and attaining serenity and mental
equilibrium under any circumstances in which for the
moment he may be placed, that a Mason truly “walks
upon” the chequered ground work of existence and the
conflicting tendencies of his more material nature.”
There is a vast variety of symbolism presented to the new
initiate in the first degree. It is easy for the symbol of the
mosaic pavement and its several meanings to be lost in the
sea of information provided upon our first admission to
lodge. A deeper look demonstrates that this symbol serves
to demonstrate the ideals which form the foundation of our
individual Masonic growth, the Masonic fraternity, and
even the entire human society.
Living in balance makes us healthy, happy and just. If our
feet are well balanced, both literally and figuratively, we
may be able to serve the purpose of the Fraternity better.
R.W. Bro. John K. Johnston

Lawrence of Freemasonry : The Seven Pillars of Wisdom

The seven liberal arts were taught in two groups: the trivium and the quadrivium :

Trivium:

Grammar

Dialectic (logic)

Rhetoric

Quadrivium:

Arithmetic

Geometry

Astronomy

Music

During the Middle Ages, the liberal arts were central to university education. The quadrivium followed the preparatory work of the trivium.

The area and range of the liberal arts evolved in time. Originally, most of the teaching, and all of the text-books, would have been in Latin, the language the students would have learnt at school before they came to college. In the beginning the courses were aimed at educating the elite in the classical works. Eventually, the meaning of "liberal arts" got extended to include both humanities and science. But even today, practical activities as agriculture, business, engineering, pedagogy or pharmacy are excluded from the liberal arts. The liberal professions include only professions which require education at university, mainly law and medicine.

MasonicWorld.com

A Stroll Through The Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences

By Richard D. Marcus

George Washington Lodge # 337 F&AM, Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin

Throughout our lives, we have heard of the liberal arts and sciences. But until we were presented with them in The Winding Stair lecture, most of us had only a vague notion of what they consisted. The Fellowcraft Degree commends Freemasons to study the Liberal Arts and Sciences, which are grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. When we study the historical background for this list, we will uncover layers of Masonic meanings for us in each of the seven areas of knowledge. 

Parts of the original list date back to ancient Greece. By medieval times, the completed list had become central to educators and scholastics. The following remarkable woodblock print symbolically captures the relationship of knowledge to crafts.

This print is German from about AD 1500. It shows a goddess holding a book and a rod. She is called Wisdom or Sophia. The love of wisdom or the "philio of Sophia" is the meaning of the word Philosophy. We see Wisdom’s lifeblood pouring into all of the arts and crafts drawn as young men. All knowledge is united in this illustration. Painters, architects, musicians, and soldiers receive Wisdom. 

Proverbs 9:1 says, "Wisdom hath built herself a house, she hath hewn her out seven pillars." Religious scholars have long speculated upon the seven pillars of Wisdom. Wisdom is poured out to seven vocations or callings. Wisdom also is seen presiding over branches of knowledge.

This leads us to a second woodblock print, which also is German from about the same time. This one includes clear words representing the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. Once again a book and rod, symbols of a teacher, are held by a three-headed winged Wisdom. She oversees seven maidens.

In AD 420, Marcianus Capella in Carthage wrote an allegory of the Phoebus-Apollo, God of the Sun, presenting the Seven Liberal Arts as maids to his bride Philology, a lover of words. Thereafter, artists have illustrated the liberal arts and sciences as maids. The maids congregate around Wisdom. Knowledge is drawn within a circle. Above Wisdom are morals and theology. In the bottom corners are Aristotle and possibly Plato. But the central figures are the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences.

The Winding Stair

Youth, manhood, and age are the three stages of our lives. Likewise, the three degrees of Masonry progress from youth to manhood to maturity. The EA degree builds a foundation of brotherly love, relief, and truth. The FC degree leads us toward successful manhood with an attentive ear, an instructive tongue, and a faithful breast. The MM degree teaches us, among other things, that time and patience will accomplish all things.

We advance in life as if we were climbing a winding stair. We cannot see too far ahead. Our progress requires courage to press on as we grow and mature. We first encounter the three steps in Masonry. Next, we master our five senses as we observe our world. And we climb the steps of the seven liberal arts and sciences. Likewise, education is a process of steps up a winding stair. First grade teaches us to read and write simple ideas. We progress up the steps of schooling to abstract concepts and ideas.

There must be many fields of knowledge that could have been listed: history, chemistry, or literature. Yet this list is commended to our consideration. Why "grammar"? Why "rhetoric"? We may well ask, "Why this list and not others?"

A History of the List

The phrase, the liberal arts, comes from the Latin artes liberales. Liber is translated both as Free and Book. Much of the well-educated in antiquity disliked work. If you were indentured as an apprentice, you were not free to study what you wanted. You had to do what was assigned to you. The artes illiberales were vocational studies aimed for an economic purpose, such as a being a stonemason. So it is intriguing that speculative Masonry encourages us to study the liberal arts and sciences.

The history of the seven liberal arts and sciences is intricate, but chiefly Pythagoras, Plato, and St. Augustine play key roles in framing it.

Pythagoras, illustrated above, was not only a great mathematician and philosopher, he was a master Greek theologian. His students in the Academy looked for connections between Geometry and the Divine. His disciples sought relationships in music, arithmetic, and astronomy. Pythagoras is associated with the last four in the list of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. Pythagoras was at his peak around 520 BC.

 About BC 400, Plato wrote of the importance of education for citizens in The Republic. Plato (illustrated in a statue above) emphasized logic, philosophy, and dialectic. For Plato, logic represented our highest cognitive faculty. To see both sides of an argument, the pro and the con, is to understand it. 

St. Augustine of Hippo left behind 5 million words that still exist today. Though he lived in the third century AD, he was the greatest teacher of rhetoric in the known world. He held that if one wished to defend truth, one must be eloquent to refute falsehood through the power of oratory. He filled out the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences with his emphasis on grammar and rhetoric.

An Orderly List

There is wisdom in the order of the items in the list. Teachers and scholastics have found these seven and their general order to be of great utility. Home-schoolers today are returning to this list to start with grammar and rhetoric in their education.

As infants, we are unable to speak. We must learn words to describe everything. Words organize our thoughts. Language is essential for learning. As we progress up the winding stairs, we learn to speak with eloquence and grace, which is rhetoric. We learn to use logic to make our arguments persuasive and true.

We advance up the lessons to higher levels of arithmetic, geometry, and music. These require abstract thinking and greater levels of concentration. As we mature in life, we gain perspective and wisdom as we enjoy the glorious works of creation, the stars and planets, astronomy, and the Divine. The order of these topics was developed over a thousand years. They continue to attract our attention today.

The Trivium

The Trivium comes from the Latin for Three Vias or roads. The first three of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences represent a crossroads or intersection where the public meets. We could call it the public square, where the public meets to discuss the usual topics of the day: the weather and harvest. 

Those who excel at quickly remembering common experience are good at "trivia." Trivia is at the center of everyday knowledge. The Trivium consists of Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic.

1. Grammar

In Genesis, the first job given to Adam is to name all things. Adam is told to name them and to have dominion over creation. Knowing the name of things gives a man authority to speak and to understand.

In elementary school or Grammar School we learn to recite the alphabet, numbers, and colors. Grammar involves words and meanings. The earliest lessons in speaking involve repetition and alliteration. We say tongue twisters and recite phrases to learn to speak. We say, "she sells sea shells by the seashore" as an articulation exercise. Children learn their own language as well as foreign languages. To learn another language, grammar and structure are essential.

Grammar can be divided into technical or exegetical grammar. Technical grammar is what most of us associate with the word grammar ― diagramming sentences with subjects and verbs. Grammar involves learning declensions for verbs and nouns. But exegetical grammar involves learning the meaning of words, their nuances, and how they fit in different settings. 

We learn that deferential language is appropriate to use for speaking to those in authority over us. We are told to keep a tongue of good report in the FC Charge. The FC historical lecture directs us to have an instructive tongue so that we become better men. Grammar teaches us to speak clearly and concisely.

2. Rhetoric

A synonym for rhetoric is persuasion. To study rhetoric is to study speaking and writing to persuade others. Too often we think of rhetoric as unimportant, as in the throwaway line, "well that was just a rhetorical comment." Rhetoric is serious business: it has substance. Rhetoric is essential in the study of law and regulations. Roscoe Pound, Albert Mackey, and Allen Roberts were some of the greatest writers on Masonic jurisprudence. They were marvelously persuasive writers as well.

Influential Romans learned to speak in public with fluency and oratory. Newly initiated Entered Apprentices are invited to speak in Lodge on whatever was on their hearts. Public speaking is terrifying to some: but to Freemasons, we learn both to speak to listen to others.

Rhetoric adds force and elegance to our thoughts. As we improve in rhetoric, we captivate the hearer with both the strength of our arguments and the beauty of our expression. Our mastery of rhetoric teaches us to entreat and exhort our brethren to acts of charity. Skillful rhetoric uses tact to admonish our brothers. Rhetoric weaves praise to applaud excellence in conduct or deportment.

Discussion in lodge gives us practice in listening to train the ear. As we climb the winding stairs, we must gain mastery of our five senses. One of the moral principals taught in the FC Degree is to have an attentive ear. Listening teaches us to hear the poetry of language and word order. We know somehow that Faith, Hope, and Charity sounds better than Charity, Faith, and Hope.

Lodge discussions offer opportunities to explore styles of learning. Our oaths and promises are heard and repeated. We prepare them in our posting. We listen to historic lectures, orations, or talks on speculative Masonry. The various tokens and grips in our ritual are lessons in listening. We are asked, will you be off or from? By listening we hear the word and give the proper reply. As we talk and listen to each other in lodge, we grow in appreciation of debate and exhortation. We are brothers speaking to and listening to one another.

3. Logic

Logic is the third step of the Trivium. Logic directs and guides us after truth. It consists of a regular train of argument where we deduce or infer from the facts. Logic leads us to conclusions based on our knowledge.

We use all of our faculties of conceiving, judging, reasoning, and disposing of questions before us. Logic trains the mind to think clearly. We are charged to be good men and true. Sincerity and plain dealing should distinguish any Mason.

Dialectics is the term used to describe critical thinking. We weigh the pros and cons to find the better choice. We observe the world. As we see patterns and relationships, we begin to make predictions using inductive reasoning. Dialectics guides us to make proofs or syllogisms.

Early on, we find that you can disprove assertions easier than prove them. Reductio ad absurdum means to find a contradiction that proves the opposite. It is easy to disprove, "all elephants can fly," simply by finding one that can’t. A single observation proves that, "not all elephants can fly."

The education of our minds includes proofs and deductive reasoning. We start to see actions that help one person may not help all. We learn to avoid arguments that something is true or false simply by who says it, instead of its inherent truth.

As we advance in logic, we begin to think about proofs for the existence of God. We see the beauty of an autumn leave, so intricate and perfect. The teleological proof of God’s existence is that design in nature proves that there must have been a designer, our G.A.O.T.U.

Grammar, rhetoric, and logic are the trivium, or first three, of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. We are charged to polish and adorn the mind by studying them.

The Quadrivium

The Quadrivium is associated with science and learning the mysteries of the universe. Pythagoras is chiefly responsible for these four branches of science: arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy.

The Quadrivium means the Four Vias or paths. Where four roads converge is the center of the town or city. We leave the village of three roads and progress to the more advanced level of the city. A robust mind progresses as if upon roads or paths to the secrets of wisdom. A wise man strolls along the paths of science.

4. Arithmetic

Arithmetic involves computation or reckoning with numbers. Ignorance of numbers leaves many things unintelligible. To perceive the world accurately, we need facility with counting and measurement. Mathematics is taught step by step. We first learn to count before we learn to add and subtract. As a science, it is progressive by building skill and familiarity through frequent practice.

We develop abstract operations such as addition and multiplication. A number of Masonic writers have handed down a useful moral lesson: For the Freemason, the application of this science is to:

Add to your knowledge

Never subtract from the character of your neighbor

Multiple your benevolence to your fellow creatures

& Divide your means with those in need.

Arithmetic offers a structured system. In has rules, order, and operates in terms of equations. Balance and equality are principles learned in arithmetic that should remind us to act on the level.

There is beauty in arithmetic and mathematics. We discover symmetry and proportion. Numbers fascinates us. Leonardo Fibonacci in AD 1201 discovered that rabbits reproduced in a series of 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, and 13. Ratios of any two successive numbers approach the Golden Mean, which is 1.618. The inverse of 1.618 is .618. The same digits reappear. The Parthenon was built on this same proportion of the length 161.8% of the height.

We feel awe and wonder at the beauty of mathematics. We find fractal patterns in biology, chemistry, and physics that are repeated. The Fibonacci spiral is found in conch shells

Mathematics shows that some propositions are right, and some are wrong. It indirectly teaches us about morality. There is no moral relativity here. 

5. Geometry

Geometry concatenates geo and metric, or earth measurement, within it. Geometry discovers unmeasured areas by comparing them to areas already measured. Geometry is synonymous with self-knowledge, the understanding of the basic substance of our being. Freemasonry places special emphasis on geometry.

The tools of geometry are plumbs, squares, and levels. They are the basic tools of operative Masons. We use them in speculative Masonry to teach lessons of right-behavior, rectitude, and truthfulness. Our conductor in the FC degree leads us much like the apprentice is led by a Master of his trade.

The sense of seeing is developed in Geometry. We grow in perceiving which structures are in order and which ones are not well arranged. We acknowledge that geometric is the foundation of architecture.

6. Music

Music is the sixth of the seven Liberal Arts and Sciences. Pythagoras and his followers were keen on studying music as a science.

Music is part of us. Our heartbeat is the basic pattern, with sounds ranging from the first cry of a newborn baby to our last gasp for breath. The sense of hearing is improved, so that we recognize ditties and rhythms and syncopation. Clapping and singing are part of who were are as humans.

Vibrations cause sounds. Pitch is determined by the frequency of the vibrations. We learn to hear major, minor, and chromatic scales. We attempt to match the pitch of the lead singer. It takes discipline, but we achieve harmony. Many have sought to hear the sounds of the universe in radio frequency. Whole pieces of music have been dedicated to the music of the spheres.

The Senior Warden is sometimes associated with this Science, as the Warden asks for harmony in the Lodge.

7. Astronomy

Astronomy is last in this list of Arts and Sciences as we contemplate the stars and planets, and yes, the G.A.O.T.U.

Time and space seem to dwarf us. We feel tiny as we look at the Milky Way. Often it is said that the Fear of God is the Beginning of Wisdom. Looking at the universe helps to instill both fear and a sense of the glory of the universe.

The globes in the Lodge teach us to understand the rotation of the earth around the sun and the diurnal rotation of the earth. Daylight shrinks in the days before December 22^nd, and then begins to lengthen. We observe this. Times and seasons are understood by contemplating astronomy.

A Charge in the Liberal Arts and Sciences

The Seven Liberal Arts & Sciences are branches of Wisdom or Learning. If we are to become better men, we should work on becoming better able to understand our world. These seven are key to learning other areas of knowledge including history and psychology. These branches are like rooms in a magnificent garden in which we should daily stroll.

There is a charge to us in these seven steps. That charge for us is to continue to be learners. Our education doesn't stop in high school or college. We are to continue to read classic literature, the Bible, biographies, history. We should see ourselves as life-long learners.

We should better comprehend the use of music, plays, and art in our lives. We should use math and geometry. We need to continue even with the Trivium to expand our vocabulary and practice writing. As we persevere in learning throughout our lives, we will become better men in Masonry.

http://www.masonicworld.com/education/files/artjan02/marcus/sevenliberalartsandsciences.htm

Airbus Fly by Wire Technology

"The use of fly-by-wire controls with their optimised side-stick controllers is a primary competitive advantage for Airbus, which has applied this innovation on each jetliner in its product line since the technology’s introduction in the civil air transport sector with its A320.

Fly-by-wire has now become the industry standard, with a large majority of pilots praising the handling qualities of Airbus aircraft and their commonality across the complete range of products, from the company’s smallest aircraft – the A318 – to its double-deck A380 and new-generation A350 XWB.

Years of reliable service around the world have underscored fly-by-wire’s significant benefits through commonality, improved flight safety, reduced pilot workload, a reduction of mechanical parts, and real-time monitoring of all aircraft systems.

GROUNDBREAKING INNOVATION

A key element of Airbus’ continued innovation is the application of digital fly-by-wire technology – which brings improved handling, enhanced safety and operational commonality to its product line of modern jetliners. 

Introduced into civil aviation with Airbus’ single-aisle A320, fly-by-wire technology has allowed the company to develop a true family of aircraft through the highest degree of operational commonality, featuring nearly identical cockpit designs and handling characteristics.

SAFETY AND PERFORMANCE

Overall safety is increased with the use of fly-by-wire, which provides direct input through electrical signals for more precise commands. In addition, the control system monitors pilot commands to ensure the aircraft is kept within a safety margin called the “flight protection envelope.” As a result, pilots always can get the maximum performance out of Airbus aircraft without running the risk of exceeding these limits.

The use of fly-by-wire technology provides a number of operational advantages for Airbus aircraft, including higher precision during flight and lower maintenance costs. 

OPERATIONAL BENEFITS 

Operators benefit greatly from this key innovation, which allows for simplified crew training and conversion. In addition, pilots are able to stay current on more than one aircraft type simultaneously without supplementary takeoff/landing requirements, recurrent training and annual checks. 

The weight savings from the replacement of heavy mechanical control cables provides a significant reduction in fuel consumption. As electrical controls are less complex and easier to maintain than mechanical ones, the use of fly-by-wire also translates to lower maintenance costs for operators.