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July 31, 2025 7 mins
From the July/August 2025 edition of The Scottish Rite Journal.  Any accompanying photographs or citations for this article can be found in the corresponding print edition.


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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Scottish Rite Journal podcast and audio presentation
of the Scottish Right Journal, brought to you by the
Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite Southern Jurisdiction Mother Supreme
Council of the World. This week's article is from the
pages of Amicus Illuminismy Finding That which was Lost Raynerd
the Fox at the House of the Temple Library by

(00:23):
Brother Mark Dreysenstock thirty third degree, and comes from the
July August twenty twenty five issue of the Scottish Right Journal.
One of the oldest Masonic works in the House of
the Temple Library is certainly the generously illustrated Beast Fable,
the most delectable history of Raynerd the Fox, stemming from

(00:44):
seventeen oh one, twenty five years ago. In July nineteen
ninety nine, Friends of the Library, as Amicus Illuminism was
once known, published an appreciation of this book. We then
suggested in the summer Autumn twenty twenty two Amicus that
this this book was no longer in the collection. Happily
to adopt Masonic parlance, that which was once lost has

(01:07):
now been found. This brief article revisits the nineteen ninety
nine article by Fred Geddings thirty second degree entitled the
Story of Raynerd the Fox. We will then offer a
brief glimpse at another version of Raynerd the Fox in
the House of the Temple Library collection, and this one
was written by a famous Mason, brother Johann Wolfgang von Gerta.

(01:31):
The story, stemming from a version in the language of
low German, is as brother Geddings writes, of the immoral
and wiley fox Raynard, who was condemned in Abstentia by
a council of animals for his a council of animals
for his crimes. The crimes of which Raynard is accused
are as he recognizes himself, infinite and heinous. They include

(01:53):
the murder of hens, the torture of a bear, the
blinding of a cat, and the beheading of a hare.
Besides being a troublemaker, he is also a con artist.
As the Lion King says to Bruin the Bear, Raynard
is full of policies and knoweth how to dissemble, flatter,
and betray. Yet the scamp Reynard is a smooth talker,

(02:14):
and he manages to extract himself from the difficult situations
and crimes, both minor and major, for which he is responsible.
Brother Geddings, the author of the Engaging Friends of the
Library article from a quarter century ago, argues that this
beast fable, while a witty children's story on the surface,
has deeper, more refined meanings to contemplate for those interested

(02:37):
in the esoteric. The Epistle to the Reader in this
seventeen oh one edition in the Library admits that the
text is esoteric, for it beareth in much excellent morality
and hidden wisdom. Masons will be interested to learn that
the lion King's high throne was made of fair square stone,

(02:58):
from which he commanded a general silence among all his subjects.
The Getting's Essay, to which a full half of the
Friends of the Library issue is devoted, also notes that
Raynard of the Fox delves into psychology before the discipline
was known. The animals who meet together to complain vociferously
of the activities of Raynerd are aspects of themselves, for

(03:21):
they represent the various personalities that make up all human beings.
Brother Gettings continues his contemplative interpretation. Thus, the lion king
who oversees the meeting of the animals illustrates the two
extremes in humanity, for he holds the scepter with its
triple floration, a symbol of the Trinity. The rod, which

(03:42):
echoes his triple crown, is the higher part of his being.
The lower urges are evident in the lower parts of
his body. Whence the ornate tail emerges to sprout four
curling ends. Noting that the four part tail could be
symbolic of the classical four elements of earth, air, fire,
and water, Brother Gedding speculates that Raynerd's task is to

(04:04):
turn this fourfold weight into a spiritual triad and find
within himself the Godhead. In preparing this appreciation of one
of the most interesting articles to appear in the Friends
of the Library Incarnation of Amicus, we discovered another version
of the Raynerd tale in the House of the Temple Library,
and this one in the library's notable Gerta collection. Brother

(04:28):
Johann Volfgang von Gerte, writer of Faust and other masterpieces
of German literature, also wrote a version of the Reynerd
Beast fable. This extensive poem Rhinicky Fuchs, written in seventeen
ninety two seventeen ninety three in witty hexameters, also narrates
the adventures of the clever Fox and the attempts of

(04:49):
the other anthropomorphic animals to restrain his law breaking ways.
Rhinicky for Raynerd is known by an approximation of his
low German name in this version, finds himself in a
precarious predicament. In the fourth song or section of the poem,
a trial has been set for Rhinikee, and the Fox's
many enemies in the animal kingdom now seek to bring

(05:11):
him to justice by means of the death penalty. Rhinikey
is obliged to mount a defense, as the House of
the Temple's copy of Rhinicke Folchs is in a complete
set of Gerta's works in the original German. We quote
here from an English translation of Gerta's Rhinicky the Fox.
And when he Rhinicky spoke truth seemed to tip his tongue,

(05:34):
indignant as each charge aside he flung, they heard him
with wonder and diversion, blent almost disposed to make him innocent. Nay,
some there were who more than half believed he was
himself the part most aggrieved through his usual cunning tongue
as we witness here, and an occasional good turn, and

(05:55):
due to the shenanigans of some of the other animals,
who are themselves not blameless, Rhinicky has his life spared
by King Noble the Lion, who was king over all
the animals. In conversations with Eckermann, Gerta noted the epic
of world literature is at hand, for he believed that
readers of from one century can have a heightened appreciation

(06:18):
of the literature of another. The German and Low German
works narrating the adventures and misdeeds of Reinard Renicki the
Fox are a case in point that literature can overcome
language and national barriers as readers explore the depths of
what it means to be human. Like and share this
article and don't forget to subscribe to the channel. If

(06:41):
you wish to comment, please leave one and as a reminder,
hit the Notifications bill. Any accompanying photographs or citations for
this article can be found in the corresponding print edition.
The Scottish Right Journal is published by the Supreme Council
of the Scottish Rite Southern jurisdiction Mother, Supreme Council of
the World. Mark Dreisenstock, thirty third degree, Managing Editor. I'm

(07:04):
your host, Matt Bauers
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