Today we have a guest blog post from the Office of the U.S.G.L. Historian.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Hi everyone! I am currently gathering the (largely anachronous) materials listed below. I hope you can help.

1. Local Body Study Guides

Before the availability of official degree study guides, several local bodies developed their own study guides to be given to new initiates. These varied from a basic study program, typically based on Liber MCLI (more details below), to elaborate and ambitious book-length stacks of documents, speculations, and recommendations.

Please do not send copies of Liber MCLI itself, but rather study guides and programs written specifically for local or regional use- even if they are simply re-worded and locally branded derivatives of MCLI.

1. Local Body Supplementary Study Guides

When official study guides were issued throughout the 1990s, local body study guides became less common. Instead, some LBs would supplement the official guides with additional materials in the form of symbolism papers, excerpts from books or encyclopedias, further study recommendations, and other materials.

What I am specifically looking for are supplementals that were given out by a local body to every initiate as a part of the degree study materials as opposed to general papers or presentations on degree symbolism.

1. Official O.T.O. Study Guides (1992) and USGL O.T.O. Study Guides (1998)

The above dates are when these guides were issued, internally they may include earlier dates of composition. I do not need study guide revisions from 2002 forward. I have seen a few examples of LBs altering these guides – removing some pages and adding others in, if this is the case please include the local body name, location, and reason for the alteration (if known).

1. Tests and Exams

Written in the late 70s, Liber MCLI became the standard study program and examination criteria for the Order under Caliph Grady McMurtry. Some local bodies used MCLI as a basis to develop local and regional examination forms and tests. (And other LBs took it much further, greatly embellishing on that program – resulting in high standards that looked hardcore on paper but were rarely enforced.) By 1986, MCLI was no longer required, but still encouraged. It continued to be widely used until the mid to late 1990s.

I am looking for any LB or regional degree test and examination forms either based on or inspired by MCLI or developed locally.  

Please do not send any documents with personal information on them. Ideally, I am looking for clean pages without additional notes when possible.  I am looking for materials used within the U.S. before and after the formation of the U.S. Grand Lodge. Currently, my focus is on MOE materials, but I will happily accept materials up to the degree of KRE.

For 1,2 & 4 please include as much of the following as possible: Local Body name, date written or assembled, years of use, author or compiler, and any other information available.

Please send digital copies to historian@oto-usa.org

I am also happy to receive physical copies, contact me at the above address for mailing instructions. Please let me know if you have any questions. When in doubt – send it in!

Love is the law, love under will.

Thank you!

Terry

USGL Historian