Are Freemasons from another planet?

The 13th Annual UFO Symposium was held this weekend at the Aztec, New Mexico Masonic Lodge, today's Durango Herald reported.

What a great setting for a UFO conference. The mingling of Masonry and aliens should convince our critics we really are involved in global conspiracies, magick and interstellar hijinks.

Featured guest speakers at the two-day conference included Stan Friedman, Kenn Thomas, and Lyn Buchanan.

Friedman is a long-time UFO investigator, author, and former nuclear physicist who has written books on the Roswell, NM alien crash in 1947.

Kenn Thomas is the long-time publisher of Steamshovel magazine. The mag's tagline is "All Conspiracy. No Theory."

Buchanan is a former military operative who came to fame in the 1980s for his involvement in the government's Stargate project. The character Lyn Cassady, played by George Clooney in the 2009 film The Men Who Stare at Goats, is based on Buchanan. Goats, of course, are widely associated with Freemasonry.

I'm sure it was an interesting weekend.

Image: Men examining Roswell crash debris, 1947

Masons | Aliens | UFOs | Freemasonry | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Bro. Theron Dunn suffers renal failure, in grave condition

The Burning Taper joins with other Masons throughout the blogosphere and The Real World in sending our best wishes and hopes for a speedy recovery to our brother Theron Dunn.

He suffered kidney failure on Friday night, and is as of this writing reported to be in grave condition, with some slight improvement overnight. Details can be found on Bro. Chris Hodapp's blog Freemasons for Dummies, and I hope he and others will keep us up-to-date on Bro. Theron's condition.

Bro. Dunn is the publisher of both an online magazine and a blog dedicated to Freemasonry, and is a moderator on several Masonic forums. He is a past master of his California blue lodge.

We also wish Bro. Chris a speedy recovery from his recent surgery.

Masons | Theron Dunn | Masonic Blogger | Freemasonry | Grand Lodge of California | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Friday the 13th, Jacques de Molay and alien lizard kings

We're only a month away from the 700th anniversary of the Pope's roundup of the Knights Templar, the event that supposedly gave us the belief that Friday the 13th is unlucky.

Looks like we just missed the Scottish Rite's presentation of The Trial of Jacques De Molay, which was performed back on Sept. 6 in Des Moines, Iowa, according to an article last week on the Freemasonry Resources blog.

According to the article, the play "is a presentation of the final confrontation between the leader of the Knights Templar and Philip, the King of France.

"The story, set in 1314, details how the Knights Templar, a group of warrior monks sworn to protect the Christian Holy Land, were captured and tortured at the end of the Crusades. The round-up of the Knights Templar on Friday, Oct 13, 1307 is believed to be the origin of the superstition of 'Friday the 13th.' 2007 marks the 700 year anniversary of the events.

"Jacques de Molay was the last Grand Master or leader of the Knights Templar. The events leading to his execution form the basis for the play. The story of Jaques de Molay and the Knights Templar has been featured in movies such as [The] DaVinci Code and National Treasure."

Another blog has presented more of the story of the Knights Templar, taking its information from such diverse sources as Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, Lincoln, Bagient and Leigh's Holy Blood, Holy Grail, various history books, and Jim Marrs' anti-Masonic book Rule By Secrecy. Marrs has written extensively on Alien Lizard Kings, UFO's, Egyptian pyramids and the Trilateral Commission, so take your salt shaker with you when you read this one.

Masons | Jacques de Molay | Conspiracy Theory | Freemasonry | Alien Lizard Kings | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Lodge burglar back to jail after taking naked nap on women's porch

Last week two women in Waterville, Maine looked out their front door to find a "highly intoxicated" 19-year-old naked man lying on their front porch.

They called police.

"They looked out and saw this man on their enclosed porch," Deputy Police Chief Charles Rumsey said at the time. "When they saw him they could clearly see his private parts and were absolutely offended and terrified with what they were confronted with."

The man had a history of doing bizarre things. He was on probation for the 2006 burglary and vandalism of the Waterville Masonic lodge. He and fellow high school students broke into and vandalized the lodge on several occasions.

According to a news article in the Kennebec Journal,

Police said the destruction began with stealing and destroying items from a storage trailer on the Masonic Lodge grounds. There were at least two subsequent attacks on the building, according to police reports.

Among the items taken was a picture album that featured about 200 photos of prominent Masonic Lodge members dating to the late 1800s. The teens allegedly used a gun to shoot the photo album.

All of the photos in the album were damaged. Police said they believe they recovered everything stolen from the lodge. The perpetrators also damaged windows and clocks, and discharged a fire extinguisher inside the building. The youths also plugged drains to flood the kitchen with water and later stole swords and paperwork from the building.

Masons | Crime | Vandalism | Freemasonry | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

'They're just weather balloons'

What if there was a town called Bugsport, Maine? And what if most of the inhabitants were little grey aliens that the government had moved there after their flying saucer crashed in 1947 in Roswell, New Mexico? And what if the aliens were Freemasons?

And what if... Bugsport was a comic strip drawn by Bro. Ted Bastien?

My thanks to Bro. Isaiah of Kingdom of Conscience and Bro. Dean of Freemason's Corner for first sending the greys to transport me to Bugsport.

Image: Page 76 of "Bugsport." Used by kind permission of Bro. Ted. Bastien

Masons | Bugsport | Small Town Alien Freemasonry | Freemasonry | Grand Lodge of Bugsport | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com