The Traveling CunningHammer
By: P.M. Francis Stokkel
When I travel, I ask Brother Mickey Cunningham of Ashlar Lodge No. 98 if he has some of his Wonder Toys left in his car that I could bring with me and give them as a present to the Lodges I am planning to visit in different countries during my business trips.
Like always, he comes down with me to his car and gives me some of his self-made Gavels and other wooden wonders he makes in his own shop. This time I had 5 Gavels and some other stuff in my suitcase that was close to almost 40 KG. Flying first class saved me a lot of money. My first stop was Schiphol, Amsterdam. I have actually never been picked out of the mass before but this time it didn’t take long as a customs officer came to me and asked if this suitcase, he pointed on my suitcase, was mine and if I could follow him. “Is there anything you would like to declare??” he asked me. NOPE!!, I said. After opening my suitcase, he was staring at me and asked me what I was planning to do with all that stuff and if I would be aware that the import of items made out of tropical wood (so damn good these gavels look like) is strictly prohibited and followed by high penalties.
After explaining and trying NOT to tell them that I am a Freemason and that these were presents for the Lodges I am going to visit, one of the other officers came closer and asked me with a smile on his face if my profession would be a kind of Judge, or perhaps some chairman or if I was planning to sell these items. He was staring at my Masonic ring and my square and compass on my jacket and said that these items might look like gavels. He was a mason!
I brought items with me for 2 Lodges in Germany, one in Rome, Italy and one visit in Sofia, Bulgaria where I was invited by the Consul General. Unlike the US it is not common in Europe to outed Lodges, names of persons, taking pictures of the Lodge and/or Brethren without explicit permission and we have to accept this. Most of the time you don’t get permission, so I usually never ask. Freemasonry in most countries in Europe is still something you actually don’t speak about. Therefore, you don’t see any masonic stickers on cars or symbols on buildings as we see in the US.
I visited two Lodges in Germany I knew already from back in the time as an active Mason. It is amazing how warm I have been welcomed.
The two Brethren and Worshipful masters of the Lodges “Glückauf Zum Licht” and “Zu den Drei Rosenknospen” in Germany gave me the permission to write something about them and the handover of the gavel (Cunning-hammer) and Ashlar Coin. Take a picture of their displays.
Brethren of both Lodges were very happy to receive the Cunning-Hammer, I had to give it a name, and in both Lodges, the gavel became a special place in their display.
One on top of a very old Masonic Miners Bible.
Here some interesting and historical facts about the two German Lodges.
The Freemason Lodge “Glückauf Zum Licht!” is located in the in the city of Gelsenkirchen and is a traditional German Miner Lodge from the Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr River Area) Nord Rhine-Westphalia, a heavy industrial, steel manufacture and coal area back in the time.
The meaning of the word “Glückauf” is a German miner’s greeting. It can literally be translated with “Luck up” or “Luck open”. The greeting is meaningless in English, so a better translation would perhaps be “Good luck”. The expression and meaning of “zum Licht” mean “to the Light”
The oldest written proof of the word “Glückauf” dates back to 1575 and the most reasonable explanation was “the ore veins shall open for the miner”.
Another explanation is described in the section “Holy Barbara” Patron Saint of the Miners. But the simplest translation for the miner’s family and between simple working people -Vernacular- was; “lucky to see daylight again”
For a German miner back in the day - but still common today -, greeting somebody with this word means that you belong to and care for each other, and that you belong to the same family: the family of all miners and Freemasons in the world.
The Masonic Lodge “Zu den drei Rosenknospen” = "To the Three Rose Buds" located in Bochum, is the oldest lodge in the Ruhr area. It was founded in 1785 and can look back to 235 years of a very rich Masonic history. This Lodge was founded by the German Emperor as a part of the 3WK (Drei Weltkugeln = Three World Globes)
The Lodge is a part of the so-called deputations Loge of the Lodge to the Golden Sword based in the Prussian garrison town of Wesel in the Rhine river area. It was founded at the instigation of the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg Friedrich August.
At that time, the foundation of a lodge was one of the possibilities and opportunities for the Prussian state to shape and influence societal processes in the emerging Ruhr river area. The Lodge house belonged once to a well-known and powerful steel industrial whom, after passing away, dedicated his house to the Lodge. Interesting to mention is that under the basement of the house, owners build a bomb shelter with huge steel and doors in the 1940’s and what is now used as the Lodge temple. One room that was back in the days used for food and water is now the Lodge room of reflection. There are escape ways shafts that guide you to some other buildings that were used by the family in the neighborhood.
A letter of appreciation and a little present for Brother Cunningham is on its way. The Worshipful Master Brother Armin Mühlbauer asked me to give Brother Cunningham a small present from the Lodge and gave me a beautiful traditional Masonic Miner pin in form of an old acetylene safety miners lamp that Masons use to take with them when going down deep in the earth to bring up the “Black Gold” how they use to call it, to the surface. Masons in the area are still wearing this pin, like the Forget Me Not, as recognition to the outside and profane World. As mentioned earlier, there are not too many Mason in Germany that wears Mason symbols and pins open to the public.
After the lecture I gave to the Brethren, I received a book about the history of the Lodge with some beautiful pictures and copies of old letters from back in the time from the Worshipful Master. I also received a glass what the German Freemasons call a “Kugelfusskanone“. (Bullet Foot Cannon) that brings a beautiful story with it.
The Bullet Foot Cannon has played a central role in the traditional Masonic Table Lodge and other Masonic gatherings in the 1720-s and was used for drinking slogans and other toasts in Germany. It was first published in the rituals and constitution in the year 1723, in which the “drinking” habits of the Freemasons were strictly regulated in- and extern the Lodge. Because of the so beloved toasts excesses, the Lodge came back with a smaller glass that could be emptied in only 3 toasts. This way of smaller and "health drink" has been added to the rituals in Germany for the first time in the 17th century and has found his way rapidly throughout Europe.
The Freemasons, in whose ritual the ancient number three played a big role, drink three times and move the glass also in triangular form.
Cannons are, as you can see from the picture, glasses with an extraordinarily strong foot that correspond to a special toasting ritual during the table lodge. After a toast, an almost military-sounding command that comes from the Worshipful Master, commanding that the glass has to be placed back with a loud bang on the blue line in the center of the table. Would we do this with a normal glass, it would probably break.
This toasting commands and ritual goes back to the to the time were the royalties had their toast answered by firecrackers shots and therefore the loud bang on the table simulates the shots.
All in all, it is always a nice experience when visiting other Lodges in different countries and to see that the traveling Cunninghammer found its new home in Freemason Lodges in Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Grand Lodge of Main, Grand Lodge of South Carolina and the Embassy in Sofia. More to come. It is also a very welcoming present because the gavel makes the tone in the Lodge.
Like always, he comes down with me to his car and gives me some of his self-made Gavels and other wooden wonders he makes in his own shop. This time I had 5 Gavels and some other stuff in my suitcase that was close to almost 40 KG. Flying first class saved me a lot of money. My first stop was Schiphol, Amsterdam. I have actually never been picked out of the mass before but this time it didn’t take long as a customs officer came to me and asked if this suitcase, he pointed on my suitcase, was mine and if I could follow him. “Is there anything you would like to declare??” he asked me. NOPE!!, I said. After opening my suitcase, he was staring at me and asked me what I was planning to do with all that stuff and if I would be aware that the import of items made out of tropical wood (so damn good these gavels look like) is strictly prohibited and followed by high penalties.
After explaining and trying NOT to tell them that I am a Freemason and that these were presents for the Lodges I am going to visit, one of the other officers came closer and asked me with a smile on his face if my profession would be a kind of Judge, or perhaps some chairman or if I was planning to sell these items. He was staring at my Masonic ring and my square and compass on my jacket and said that these items might look like gavels. He was a mason!
I brought items with me for 2 Lodges in Germany, one in Rome, Italy and one visit in Sofia, Bulgaria where I was invited by the Consul General. Unlike the US it is not common in Europe to outed Lodges, names of persons, taking pictures of the Lodge and/or Brethren without explicit permission and we have to accept this. Most of the time you don’t get permission, so I usually never ask. Freemasonry in most countries in Europe is still something you actually don’t speak about. Therefore, you don’t see any masonic stickers on cars or symbols on buildings as we see in the US.
I visited two Lodges in Germany I knew already from back in the time as an active Mason. It is amazing how warm I have been welcomed.
The two Brethren and Worshipful masters of the Lodges “Glückauf Zum Licht” and “Zu den Drei Rosenknospen” in Germany gave me the permission to write something about them and the handover of the gavel (Cunning-hammer) and Ashlar Coin. Take a picture of their displays.
Brethren of both Lodges were very happy to receive the Cunning-Hammer, I had to give it a name, and in both Lodges, the gavel became a special place in their display.
One on top of a very old Masonic Miners Bible.
Here some interesting and historical facts about the two German Lodges.
The Freemason Lodge “Glückauf Zum Licht!” is located in the in the city of Gelsenkirchen and is a traditional German Miner Lodge from the Ruhrgebiet (Ruhr River Area) Nord Rhine-Westphalia, a heavy industrial, steel manufacture and coal area back in the time.
The meaning of the word “Glückauf” is a German miner’s greeting. It can literally be translated with “Luck up” or “Luck open”. The greeting is meaningless in English, so a better translation would perhaps be “Good luck”. The expression and meaning of “zum Licht” mean “to the Light”
The oldest written proof of the word “Glückauf” dates back to 1575 and the most reasonable explanation was “the ore veins shall open for the miner”.
Another explanation is described in the section “Holy Barbara” Patron Saint of the Miners. But the simplest translation for the miner’s family and between simple working people -Vernacular- was; “lucky to see daylight again”
For a German miner back in the day - but still common today -, greeting somebody with this word means that you belong to and care for each other, and that you belong to the same family: the family of all miners and Freemasons in the world.
The Masonic Lodge “Zu den drei Rosenknospen” = "To the Three Rose Buds" located in Bochum, is the oldest lodge in the Ruhr area. It was founded in 1785 and can look back to 235 years of a very rich Masonic history. This Lodge was founded by the German Emperor as a part of the 3WK (Drei Weltkugeln = Three World Globes)
The Lodge is a part of the so-called deputations Loge of the Lodge to the Golden Sword based in the Prussian garrison town of Wesel in the Rhine river area. It was founded at the instigation of the Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg Friedrich August.
At that time, the foundation of a lodge was one of the possibilities and opportunities for the Prussian state to shape and influence societal processes in the emerging Ruhr river area. The Lodge house belonged once to a well-known and powerful steel industrial whom, after passing away, dedicated his house to the Lodge. Interesting to mention is that under the basement of the house, owners build a bomb shelter with huge steel and doors in the 1940’s and what is now used as the Lodge temple. One room that was back in the days used for food and water is now the Lodge room of reflection. There are escape ways shafts that guide you to some other buildings that were used by the family in the neighborhood.
A letter of appreciation and a little present for Brother Cunningham is on its way. The Worshipful Master Brother Armin Mühlbauer asked me to give Brother Cunningham a small present from the Lodge and gave me a beautiful traditional Masonic Miner pin in form of an old acetylene safety miners lamp that Masons use to take with them when going down deep in the earth to bring up the “Black Gold” how they use to call it, to the surface. Masons in the area are still wearing this pin, like the Forget Me Not, as recognition to the outside and profane World. As mentioned earlier, there are not too many Mason in Germany that wears Mason symbols and pins open to the public.
After the lecture I gave to the Brethren, I received a book about the history of the Lodge with some beautiful pictures and copies of old letters from back in the time from the Worshipful Master. I also received a glass what the German Freemasons call a “Kugelfusskanone“. (Bullet Foot Cannon) that brings a beautiful story with it.
The Bullet Foot Cannon has played a central role in the traditional Masonic Table Lodge and other Masonic gatherings in the 1720-s and was used for drinking slogans and other toasts in Germany. It was first published in the rituals and constitution in the year 1723, in which the “drinking” habits of the Freemasons were strictly regulated in- and extern the Lodge. Because of the so beloved toasts excesses, the Lodge came back with a smaller glass that could be emptied in only 3 toasts. This way of smaller and "health drink" has been added to the rituals in Germany for the first time in the 17th century and has found his way rapidly throughout Europe.
The Freemasons, in whose ritual the ancient number three played a big role, drink three times and move the glass also in triangular form.
Cannons are, as you can see from the picture, glasses with an extraordinarily strong foot that correspond to a special toasting ritual during the table lodge. After a toast, an almost military-sounding command that comes from the Worshipful Master, commanding that the glass has to be placed back with a loud bang on the blue line in the center of the table. Would we do this with a normal glass, it would probably break.
This toasting commands and ritual goes back to the to the time were the royalties had their toast answered by firecrackers shots and therefore the loud bang on the table simulates the shots.
All in all, it is always a nice experience when visiting other Lodges in different countries and to see that the traveling Cunninghammer found its new home in Freemason Lodges in Portugal, Italy, Bulgaria, Germany, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Grand Lodge of Main, Grand Lodge of South Carolina and the Embassy in Sofia. More to come. It is also a very welcoming present because the gavel makes the tone in the Lodge.