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| Entered Apprentice Apron. |
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| Fellow Craft Apron. |
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| Master Mason's Apron. |
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| Worshipful Master's and Past Master's Apron |
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| Provincial Full Dress Apron. |
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| Provincial Undress Apron. |
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| Provincial Steward''s Apron. |
A collection of English masonic aprons.
A collection of Odd Fellows Robes.
The Oddfellows.
At this time Oddfellowship seems to have consisted off the several degrees, namely The Test Degree, The Obligatory Degree The Royal Arch or Promise Degree and the Five, Seven and Nine Degree. The Royal Arch degree certainly suggests some masonic influence, The Royal Arch being one of the degrees of Freemasonry, particularly popular with the "Ancient" branch of the craft, we will learn more about this at a later date. The 18th Century was a time of political turmoil and Odd Fellowship was viewed with great suspicion by the governments of the day, in response to this the tone of Oddfellowship's ritual was made more politically acceptable by removing promises in favour of obligations.
These changes did not go down well with the American branch of Odd Fellowship who withdrew from any official relationship with the UK branches in 1817 starting their own society which has now evolved into the IOOF. In fact Oddfellowship has often been the subject and schism, the Ancient Order (The original order) split in the early 19th Century with the creation of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows who very quickly became the leading order in England. Oddfellowship has in fact been rife with schism with dozens of "Unities" existing at one point. The Manchester Unity had three degrees namely The Making, The White and The Blue. Over the years following the orders foundation Scarlet and Gold degrees were added, in fact there is some suggestion that degrees of this name had been conducted by Odd fellows orders anyway and just formalised by the Manchester Unity. The IOOF had six degrees, Initiation, White, Covenant, Blue, Remembrance and Scarlett. The Covenant degree has striking similarities the masonic "Order of the Secret Monitor", so much so that one must have influenced the other -Notably the Oddfellow degree is some 50 years older than the first American OSM lodge.
Nearly all versions of Odd Fellowship have some kind of further degrees, the purple degree for example appears in both.
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| An extraordinary example of a "Noble Grand's" Oddfellows Robe. |
Many Odd Fellow groups had extraordinary robes and regalia, this was particularly true of the IOOF but it was not uncommon in Britain as well. There are fantastic reports from some of the smaller "Unities" of costumes of equal splendour. S
The language of the ritual of Odd fellowship is poetic and extraordinary as Fraternal rituals go. There is are a number of beautiful pieces for example this -
"So
when the last, the closing, hour draws nigh,
And earth recedes before thy swimming eye;Whilst trembling on the doubtful verge of fate,
Thou strain’st thy view to either state,
Then may’st thou quit this transitory scene
With decent triumph, and a look serene;
Then may thou fix thine ardent hopes on high,
And, having nobly lived, so nobly die."
Many Odd Fellows groups have hacked their ritual to bits not realising their value perhaps,and no doubt in an attempt to modernise. I would suggest that the changes and the move from grand costume to hardly any regalia at all is a missed trick! Perhaps this is where the future of the order lies as much as the surviving mutual funds and financial products. Even with these changes I consider Oddfellowship to be a noble set of ideals and something worth sharing.
Fraternal societies.
Over the past few years I have become fascinated with the Fraternal, Friendly and Secret societies that reached their zenith in the 19th Century and still bubble under the surface of society today in the 21st Century. There are many critics of course that completely fail to understand the value of these groups, critics that dismiss them as 'boys clubs' or even as deeply sinister parts of a worldwide conspiracy to bring a shadowy 'New World Order'. Both of these have smidgens of truth, first of all there is a great deal of male booze based socialising in some orders and there are equally groups that have become rank obsessed and an social control certainly is in the minds of some. However, all these things are minor when you consider the value of the ideas behind these orders. Mutualism is the first idea of great worth. Based on collective security for its members, a common fund for support in time of need. This is nearly always linked to a shared set of values, defining statements of morality. These are very rarely political or religious, finding common values that all decent people can ascribe too. Ritual is today seen by some as an anachronism with no worth whatsoever, I believe, however that these moral lessons in the form of ritual dramas are powerful links to the past which are more relevant than ever in the 21st Century. In fact the later 20th century tendency to reduce, change or cut out ritual all together because "young people don't get" seems rather self defeating to me when you consider the desperate desire to seek meaning in a bland selfish world. Secrecy is fundamental principle in these societies, but actually a very small part of the movement being confined to the modes of recognition between members. I am a member of two these orders myself, the Oddfellows and the Freemasons, I am proud of both. This blog will examine these groups, their history, their legacy and their future.
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