The Grand Orient of the United States of America : A Modern Masonic Experiment ?
Among the GOUSA documents , there is also a version of the ‘ Rit Primordial de France ’ from 1785 that was translated by S . T . Nik from the Grand Loge Féminine de Belgique , and edited by Stevan Nikolic , a GOUSA member from New York in 2008 . In this ritual , there is still a Chamber of Reflection , but the Terrible Brother has now gone , and the Venerable Master is now the Worshipful Master , and in place of the dramatics , there is a more toned-down lodge setting . Similar Tracing Boards to the examples displayed in the other GOUSA Craft rituals were also used here . Peace mentioned that towards the end of GOUSA , this particular ritual reflected a more slimmed down approach as some lodges under the organization had less members and therefore struggled to fill the roles that the earlier rituals demanded . The Preston-Webb ritual was also used in certain GOUSA lodges according to Peace .
Indeed , the ideas for an older ritual and the overall philosophy for GOU- SA was inspired by Enlightenment age Freemasonry , or what they believed that kind of Freemasonry to be like . According to Peace , the members of GOUSA swapped numerous books on philosophy , science and political thought , such as John Ralston Saul ’ s Voltaire ’ s Bastards , Steven Smith ’ s Spinoza ’ s Book of Life , Leonard Mlodinow ’ s Euclid ’ s Window and Brian Greene ’ s The Elegant Universe . This philosophical interest was certainly shared by the likes of Krispen Hartung from Praxis Lodge , who stated that one of the attractions of GOUSA was the prospect that the organization held the Enlightenment age Freemasonry that he had been searching for . Peace certainly lays out his ideas of the current state of Freemasonry in his essay A Peculiar System of Morality , which appears to have been used as a Masonic educational module of sorts for GOUSA members , in which he outlines how Freemasonry had lost its way , with Peace discussing how the Freemasonry of the Enlightenment period , with its references to natural philosophy and Newtonian lectures in lodges , had been lost during the nineteenth century when it had merged with Occult schools . 33 Peace has also mentioned how his vision of Modern Freemasonry was a ‘ synthesis of Marcus Aurelius and Spinoza with science and logic as guiding elements ’, seeing Freemasonry as ‘ Stoic , pantheistic and Deist …’, being ‘ the best and most logical interpretation of the Cosmos and man ’ s place within it ’.
33 I was supplied with two versions of Jeff Peace ’ s essay A Peculiar System of Morality , ( 2005 ); a copy by Aaron Peavy and an updated copy by Jeff Peace .
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