Artistic depiction of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences c. 1435
(image courtesy of the Warburg Institute image library)

(The idea of the seven liberal arts and sciences being personified in feminine form dates from 5th century CE and the work of Martianus Capella. The image shows a philosopher sitting below scholars being conducted by feminine personifications of each art, with a spiritual connection between the two represented by angels above the heads. There are many similar representations in Medieval and Renaissance iconography)

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Profile:

I am an academic researcher and Freemason (London and Essex, UK) with a Master’s degree in Western esotericism (University of Exeter, UK, 2011). I commenced studying for a part-time PhD at Canterbury Christ Church University (Kent, UK, 2014) but am currently pursuing my studies privately and will in due course be publishing my work. In have a profile page on academia.edu the world’s largest open access library for academic papers and have recently started to publish papers in that environment.

My research areas cover:

• The importance of the seven liberal arts and sciences to the education of a Freemason
• What constitutes Masonic education
• What constitutes spirituality in Freemasonry
• The history, significance. and symbolism of the Past Master’s jewel of English Freemasonry

• The life of Jonathan Sisson (1692-1747) – mathematical-instrument maker and Freemason. Sisson is credited with making the earliest extant copy of a Past Master’s Jewel c. 1725 (Library and Museum of the United Grand Lodge of England), in the style now used in English Freemasonry. He is listed in Anderson’s Constitutions (1723) as warden of Lodge no. VIII. (p. 74).

Masonic activities:

I am a member of two Craft Lodges and two Chapters and the Societas Rosicruciana In Anglia. I am on a number of speaking panels, and I regularly present papers to Lodges, Chapters, the SRIA, and Masonic study circles in and around the Greater London area and the Home Counties. I am a member the Quatuor Coronati Lodge No. 2076 Correspondence Circle, and an international e-mail circle of academics who study all aspects of Freemasonry.

Interests:

Freemasonry; The seven liberal arts and sciences; sacred and mystical number and geometry; architecture; archaeology; the natural world, golf, and yoga.