The Grand Orient of the United States of America : A Modern Masonic Experiment ?
members , the lodge having a close relationship with Lafayette 89 , which also met in DC . With Tamayo being fluent in Spanish and Portuguese , he was able to contact a number of unrecognised Grand Lodges in South America and in Spain , such as the La Federacion Colombiana de Logias Masonicas , in an attempt to form Amity Treaties and widen their sphere . The ritual that was used in the lodge was the ( Modern ) French Rite , but Tamayo worked together with both Krispen Hartung ( of Praxis Lodge ) and Jeff Peace to adapt a new ritual from the Modern , creating ‘ a more unique , secular and philosophy based ritual which included music background for the rituals .’ After the GOdF Charter was pulled , Tamayo brought Benjamin Franklin under the GWU for a short time before retiring from Freemasonry for good .
Praxis Lodge No . 11 was located in Boise , Idaho , and according to Richard Ehrlich , was an extremely active lodge , though it ceased to contribute to its blog in 2010 . An interview with ex-Praxis member Lane Startin revealed that the lodge was in operation from 2009-2011 . The brethren however , quickly fell out with Peace and his associates , Startin citing that ‘ it was abundantly clear that they didn ’ t care about anything other than Halcyon Lodge .’ It advertised itself as a co-gender lodge in a tweet on the lodge ’ s Twitter account in 2009 , and according to Startin , the lodge had around eight to ten regular members led by Krispen Hartung . Hartung , who had been a member of Boise Lodge No . 2 , a regular lodge under the
47
Grand Lodge of Idaho , had found himself at the centre of a well-publicised Masonic trial , Hartung being found in violation of Idaho Masonic law because of his association with Praxis Lodge .
According to Lane Startin , the lodge met at various locations every month , and after its fall-out with GOU- SA , it decided to join with the George Washington Union , founding a parallel lodge under the GWU called Syringa Lodge , so named after the Idaho State flower , so for a brief time , the brethren operated two lodges ; one under GOU- SA and one under GWU . The brethren had decided to be a co-masonic lodge , however , the GOUSA hierarchy were of course , totally against women joining their lodges , so the parallel lodge under GWU had ‘ the express purpose of admitting women into Praxis ’. However , the brethren quickly became disillusioned with the GWU , leading them to voluntarily dissolve themselves in 2011 . Some of the ex-members still stay in touch on social media . David Tamayo ’ s son was a member of Praxis Lodge , and there were plans to form a lodge in Seattle as Praxis Lodge had a number of active members there . There was thus a close relationship between Praxis Lodge and Benjamin Franklin Lodge , and some of the brethren from both lodges are still in contact with each other today .
Lodge Spinoza No . 12 was founded in Fort Lauderdale , Florida by lawyer Richard Ehrlich and his friends , and is a lodge that still meets at the time of writing , and is thus one of two surviving official lodges under GOUSA ( not counting Vulcan Lodge ). Ehrlich was a