Rejected

Last week, I applied to BlogBurst to request Burning Taper be added to their network.

According their website, "Pluck's BlogBurst network is an opt-in aggregation and syndication service that brings high-quality, topical blogs together with high-traffic web sites. With BlogBurst, bloggers gain visibility, audience reach and traffic through placement on major online publishers and media destinations in real time."

In other words, they get your blog tied in with the Big Boys of publishing, such as Reuters, USA Today, Gannett, Fox News and Internet Broadcasting.

The Burning Taper didn't qualify.

Thank you for requesting an invitation to BlogBurst.

At this time your blog is not a good match for the BlogBurst network. A blog can be denied an invitation for many reasons, including quality as compared to other blogs in the network, needs of our current set of publishing partners, and topical focus. We invite you to visit our blog guidelines at http://www.blogburst.com/blogger/guidelines.html for more information on what we look for in blogs.

Our network of publishing customers is quickly growing and we encourage you to check back with us occasionally. We expect for some blogs not invited at this time to be a part of the BlogBurst network in the future.

Thank you for your interest in BlogBurst, and best wishes.

Best Regards,

The BlogBurst Team

With so many articles being written these days in the mainstream press about Freemasonry, I was hoping they'd be interested.

If any readers here who are also bloggers — Masonic or otherwise — apply to BlogBurst, I'd be interested in hearing of your results.

You can apply here.

Masons | Masonic Blogs | BlogBurst.com | Freemasonry | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Rosslyn Chapel gives up another secret: Father and son discover musical masterpiece carved on its walls

In an exclusive report Sunday, the Sunday Mail reported that a father and son codebreaking team have dscovered — and deciphered — music hidden in the carvings of Scotland's Rosslyn Chapel for almost 600 years.

For 27 years, music teacher Thomas Mitchell, 75, worked on deciphering symbols found in the chapel. Joined by his son Stuart in recent years, the pair have finally deciphered the music tucked away on the walls for so long.

Next month, father and son will reveal the secret songs in a concert at Midlothian chapel. Stuart calls the collection of songs The Rosslyn Motet.

"For the choral sections, we've used the words from the hymns to St. John the Baptist taken from Matthew in the Old Testament which is fitting because the chapel itself is dedicated to St. Matthew."

St. John the Baptist is, of course, one of the two patron saints of Freemasonry.

Read the entire fascinating story here. Find out how the two men broke this real life code which was carved into the shapes of angels and cubes on the walls of the chapel.

Read more about how the two men deciphered the music, told in their own words, and listen to an excerpt of the music. You can also buy the album they have produced, or order tickets to the May 18th concert.

Or just go straight to the mp3 recording here.

"We think we've cracked one particularly fascinating code, although we're convinced Rosslyn holds many, many more," Stuart said.

Four singers will join eight musicians playing medieval instruments to perform the Rosslyn Motet at Rosslyn on May 18.

Stuart Mitchell | Rosslyn Chapel | Thomas Mitchell | Freemasonry | Rosslyn Motet | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Filipino Masons challenge edicts calling them 'clandestine'

Last September some of our Filipino brothers — seven separate lodges, each over 100 years old — formed the new Most Worshipful Independent Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippine Islands (IGLPI).

The details and their reasons for forming a new grand lodge can be read on their website or in an article published on the Burning Taper in September.

As you might expect, after seeing similar occurrences in the United States, specifically Georgia, with the formation of the United Grand Lodge of America, many of the Filipino brethren were "excommunicated" through five separate edicts of M.W. Grand Master Yu of their former grand lodge. Of course, the first step the Grand Master took was to proclaim the brothers "clandestine," despite the fact they were all made Masons in regular lodges 100+ years old.

Yesterday, IGLPI posted on their site six reasons why their actions were Masonically proper, and the Grand Master's actions improper.

1. The brethren mentioned in the Edicts are not clandestine Masons.


2. The ground for the issuance of the subject Edicts is erroneous.


3. It is the inherent power of Lodges to form a Grand Lodge.


4. The Grand Master cannot issue an Edict declaring Masons under his jurisdiction as clandestine masons.


5. Edict No. 232 and its sub-Edicts are discriminatory.


6. The Grand Master has no authority to issue orders to appendant bodies.

Masons | Filipino Freemasons | Small Town Freemasonry | Freemasonry | Most Worshipful Independent Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippine Islands | Burning Taper | BurningTaper.com

Filipino Freemasons form U.S. organization

Filipino Freemasons living in the United States are forming the Philippine Masonic Association of America, Inc. (PMAAI). An organizational meeting will be held this weekend in Las Vegas.

Apparently, what happens in Las Vegas won't stay there; the new organization will hold its first annual convention Labor Day weekend in Los Angeles.

Last September, Burning Taper wrote about a new grand lodge, the Independent Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the Philippine Islands (IGLPI), which was then being officially constituted. I have no idea if those brothers are now considered clandestine or regular by other Masonic organizations.

Masons | Masonic Brotherhood | International Freemasonry | Freemasonry | BurningTaper.com | Philippines | Burning Taper