Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
ernal organisation . There are members of Euclid who are Martinists . There are members of Euclid who are Gnostic clergy . But that does not establish a link between Euclid and those groups …’ 16
According to Brandt Smith , the breakup with GOUSA was mutual , Smith saying that he personally ‘ did not want to be part of the Grand Orient of Halcyon ’, referring to how the members of Halcyon had begun to dominate the organization . Smith commentated that the lodge is still meeting at the time of writing , and is doing well as an independent lodge , though he admitted that he ‘ would like to see GOUSA revived without the personal agendas ’. The lodge appears to be a co-masonic lodge .
Lodge Intrepid No . 5 was the lodge run by John Slifko in California , there are no records that Slifko could show me , no minute books , no letters , no summonses ( something that is quite common with GOUSA lodges ), and Slifko mentioned that the lodge never actually met , though he urged that there were seven members scattered across the USA , which included the first Grand Master of UGLA Aaron Peavy . Apart from internet discussions between members through emails and an active Facebook page run by Slifko , the lodge posts ceased around 2013 . How- ever , according to Jeff Peace , the lodge did meet as he knows someone that attended , and Peavy mentioned that he also visited once after he officially left GOUSA , giving the lodge the materials he had originally purchased for Regulus Lodge , as Regulus had by that time , officially left GOUSA . The lodge was used as the central lodge for the short lived co-masonic project The Grand Orient of California , which Slifko and Peavy tried to launch in 2009 after they had left GOUSA . Apparently the symbol of the lodge was the Statue of Liberty . 17
Sirius Lodge No . 7 is mentioned as an early lodge , originally being under the United Grand Lodge of America — the early manifestation of GOUSA — and seems to have continued to meet for a number of years as a collective of GOU- SA Masons in the Atlanta area , according to Peavy , meeting near Roswell in various locations . Peace was a leading member , along with Brian Roper and Evangelos Armiros , and Peace maintained that the lodge met twice a month and actively conducted ceremonies . The lodge was described online as a ‘ modern and progressive Masonic Lodge ’ catering for a ‘ cosmopolitan brotherhood of scientists ’ and ‘ artisans ’ who were concerned about the issues facing the modern world , championing the Age of Enlightenment over superstition . This ideal reflects Peace ’ s business paradigm for GOUSA and the eagerness to promote
17 There is a lodge ‘ dispensation ’ for Intrepid included in the Peavy documents , dated to March 2008 and there are photos passed to the author by Aaron Peavy of the Grand Orient of California lodge meeting in 2009 .
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