The Grand Orient of the United States of America : A Modern Masonic Experiment ?
in charge and they were the only friend we had . Once they were gone , that was it .’ According to Peace , by 2012 the vibrant energy that had driven the early days of the project had evaporated , and this was seen when no one turned up for the Grand Master ’ s installation that year :
‘ No one turned up , no one could be bothered , so we all just let it go .’
Indeed , there was no formal closing , no announcement , GOUSA just stopped posting to their blogs , and their websites gradually disappeared . News about the events held at the Halcyon building started to dry up around 2013 , and the members started to concentrate on other parts of their lives , their careers and their families . There seems to be a lot of bitterness and overall disillusionment about the whole project , with Lane Startin summing it up when he said ‘ they were sitting on a very good thing and utterly pissed it away …’ Euclid and Spinoza Lodge still meet , the lodges acting as remnants of the GOUSA dream . Euclid , according to Brandt Smith , are still going strong and have been initiating young members . Spinoza Lodge , according to Ehrlich , have a solid twelve members , the group of friends meeting occasionally as a lodge and having fun experimenting with various Craft rituals as they are not ‘ beholden to a Grand Lodge .’ They have recently been considering joining other irregular bodies .
Postscript : Stephen Quest and the Foundation of Universal Freemasonry
Stephen Quest had been associated with the aforementioned Liberty Lodge under GOUSA , but had jumped ship as he became disillusioned with the organisation . Quest had originally been initiated into a Texas lodge in 1981 , and had joined GOUSA in 2008 , though he appears to have left a few years later , and according to an ‘ articles of incorporation document ’, his Foundation of Universal Freemasonry was designed in February 2011 . 28 Despite the date on the document , it was not until 2017 that the organisation began to appear on social media , the concept carrying forward certain influences from GOUSA . An example of this was the support given to Quest by Richard Ehrlich , who offered Quest to do the degree work in Spinoza Lodge . Another ex-GOUSA member that gave online support was ex Praxis leader Krispen Hartung . The logo for Quest ’ s organisation that appeared on social media , on documents and on commemorative medallions held a certain resemblance to the old GOUSA logo . However , despite the confident social media launch , the posts soon dried up and the website soon disappeared .
Conclusion
The turbulent existence of GOU- SA can be viewed in a number of ways ; it was a vibrant attempt at
28 Articles of Incorporation – nonstock corporation , State of Wisconsin , Department of Financial Institutions , Sec . 181.0202 , 14 th February , 2011 . This document registers the name of the Foundation of Universal Freemasonry and is stamped by the department on the said date .
53