Reports differ on a couple of issues. Some reports, such as that of Perez Hilton, state that Mr. Brea used a "Freemason ceremonial sword" to kill his mother, and that as he pursued her, he shouted out the names of religious figures, such as the "architect of the universe." Of course, Freemasons ceremonially refer to the Supreme Being as "the Grand Architect of the Universe."
Other reports, such as that of the New York Daily News, state that police found Mr. Brea wielding a samurai sword. The Daily News report quoted neighbors saying that Brea shouted "Repent, repent, sinner, sinner," and "You never accepted Jesus."
The New York Post reports that a samurai sword was used in the attack, and quoted a neighbor stating that Mr. Brea shouted about the "architect of the universe." The Post also reported that Mr. Brea's twin brother Marcel, a martial arts instructor, also lived with Ms. Brea.
I would point out a couple of things that might not be common knowledge among people who are not Freemasons:
- To the best of my knowledge, neither Michael Brea nor Marcel Brea has ever been a Freemason. However, there are many, many Freemasons in New York City, and I certainly do not know more than a fraction of them. If I obtain information to the contrary, I shall post it here.
- It is very common for martial arts instructors in certain disciplines to possess swords of various types. My belief is that Michael Brea appropriated a samurai-style sword belonging to his twin brother, Marcel Brea, who is reportedly a martial arts instructor. Samurai swords (lightly curved and square-ended) are easily distinguished from either the European-style swords (straight and triangular-ended) used in most Masonic ceremonies, or the scimitars (heavily curved and pointy-ended) used in some Shriner activities.
- Yes, swords are commonly used in Freemasonry. They play a minor role in regular, or Blue Lodge, Freemasonry, where every lodge has an officer, the Tyler, who guards the door of a lodge in session, with a sword. Swords are used by every participant in Knights Templar commanderies. Other branches of Freemasonry make occasional use of ceremonial swords in their ceremonial dramas, called degree work. However, these swords are used only for ceremonial purposes--processions, dramatic enactments, and the like. Swords are never used within Freemasonry as actual instruments of aggression.
- Masonic swords are easy to obtain from fraternal supply houses and dealers in martial arts regalia. Such suppliers do not require Masonic membership to obtain such a sword. Thus, even if the sword used in the attack was a "Masonic" sword, that does not mean that a Mason ever owned it.
- The phrase "Great Architect of the Universe" is easy to find in many books about Freemasonry, including many well-selling books available in large chain bookstores such as Barnes and Noble and Borders Books and Music. These books include Brother Christopher Hodapp's Freemasons for Dummies and Brother Brent Morris's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Freemasonry, each of which sells very well. It is my belief that Michael Brea learned the phrase from some popular press book such as these.
- The psychology staff at Kings County Hospital, when I knew them as a prospective intern in the 1990s, were top notch. They shall give Mr. Brea a thorough examination, and I will not second-guess them here. Certainly a psychotic or drug-related incident is at least plausible. The age of 31 is a bit old for a first psychotic break, but not so old as to be all that unlikely. It is also certainly the case that psychotic individuals often have prominent religious delusions and fixations.
let's be clear about something. Marcel is Michael's twin brother. Marcel is NOT a martial arts person. There is a Marcel Brea who is a martial arts sensai, but he is NOT the brother of Michael. Get your facts straight, before you defend your religion and place blame on someone else.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous: Three things to mention here.
ReplyDelete(1) As it happens, Freemasonry is not a religion, and it certainly is not my religion; you have some fact-checking to do on your own.
(2) As far as Marcel Brea being a martial arts instructor is concerned, I was simply repeating what the New York Post had to say about Marcel. You can take your correction up with them.
(3) I certainly am not blaming anyone for anything here. If in fact Marcel Brea were to own a samurai sword, there would be nothing illegal or immoral in that fact.
Somewhere in here it would be useful for you to ask yourself where all the attitude is coming from.
I don't recall the sword murder portion of any degree work. Great blog and nice work slamming down the hatred. I'm a Christian (Anglican) and a Master Mason. I go to church to be a better Christian, and I go to Lodge to be a better man.
ReplyDelete@2nd Anonymous: Thank you for commenting. So many people outside the Fraternity think that Freemasonry is a religion, or that Masons do human sacrifices or agonizing tortures. With all the information from reliable sources available, those who really want to know can find out the truth pretty easily. Unfortunately, it is at least as easy to come upon lies. But that's one of the reasons I write this blog, of course.
ReplyDeleteThank you for putting it the way you did: "I go to church to be a better Christian, and I go to Lodge to be a better man." Good fortune to you on your path, my brother.
A british paper has published a purported photo of the murder weapon. It is neither a samurai sword nor a masonic sword.
ReplyDeleteIt has a wavy blade, two-handed grip made of stacked leather washers, and a blunt tip. It actually looks home-made, or like some cheap D&D fantasy sword bought off the net and then sharpened in an amateur fashion.
My feeling is if it was stolen from some group as the police say, it is some solar-temple/santeria type group rather than an established lodge
How convient for the Masonic order your theories are.
ReplyDeleteThis writer is bias... must be a mason! my guess...
ReplyDeleteWhen I saw the story it gave me the chills. The poor bastard didn't survive the awakening. Lilith is just giving away barrels full of apples. I have no idea why she chooses people. I almost didn't survive. I've read the details...this poor bastard is the genuine article.
ReplyDeleteThere are you poor bastards who try to build a pyramid. And then there are those that fall victim to a forbidden fruit. And wake up from a dream into a nightmare. See the world in terms of heaven and hell. Know and understand things that should not be. And once you've bore witness to the divine... Your only option is to suffer in silence... not tell a soul. People would have no choice but to call you insane. For fear that these creatures might come back to damn you. I still suffer the scares that Lilith gave me. I still remember the faces of angels. The eyes of demons. And the disgusting knowledge that i was drafted into to something... i have yet to learn my purpose. It was my faith that enabled me to survive. I didn't give in to the temptation. I didn't spill the secrets...for the consequences would be akin to this bastards sentence. Instead i persisted... I mocked those smug bastard who initiated me...the depths of there power blows my mind. It was the compass that guided me though the ordeal.I honestly wonder if he is genuinely guilty of the crime he 'committed'. I know from first hand experience...I was incarcerated for a little over a week. I was interrogated more times then i can remember. I was tortured. I was toyed with. Then for some reason they let me go... with a spiffy insurance plan. They tried countless times to try and make me confess. They had a wicked sense of humor... all the crap they pulled...There ability to mess with a persons mind borders on supernatural. 'i know there a bunch of cook- cutter masons that will get offended with this post.' But the genuine bastards who hide in a congregation are goofy, spread this around church and look for the bastard who is genuinely disgusted by this post and at the same time amused...
Its nice to have some vindication. I honestly still had question if everything i bore witness to was real. At the same time while i write these final words the tears drip down my face. Why was I Judged innocent...when this bastard is being sentenced. What makes me worthy?
Delete this post after 48 hours.
Yours Truly,
The Fatherless Bastard Who refuses to go to go to church.
The one who was branded Expletus Animus
In Haitian creole the phrase "Great Architect of the Universe" (as was pronounced)has many connotations, and most esoteric in regards to the nature of this event...Btw-freemasonry is connected with this family lineage...
ReplyDeleteTo the Anonymous who posted two back, November 27, 2010, 1:21 a.m. (the Lilith guy):
ReplyDeleteCome now. Surely you don't expect anyone to believe what you have written. At the risk of mentioning the obvious, neither Lilith nor pyramids have anything to do with Freemasonry, nor does mind control, as any investigation of the many authoritative sources concerning Freemasonry would reveal--sources one can obtain in most any chain bookstore.
I suppose it is remotely possible that you were involved in some kind of mind control cult at some point, but do not mix that up with Freemasonry.
I strongly suggest that you obtain professional psychological and psychiatric help at the earliest opportunity.
- - -
To the most recent Anonymous (2:00 a.m., Haitian creole): I have no information supporting the idea that Mr. Abrea's family has any connection with Freemasonry. Abrea is certainly a common enough name; there are probably many Abreas who are Masons.
Many reports say that he was in fact a Prince Hall Mason and that he was at a Masonic Lodge meeting Monday night and that is what started the whole thing. I do not know whether you are a Freemason or not (though you may be since you do seem to speak with rather intelligence on the subject). I will say this, as much as Freemasons deny it, they are in fact a cult and do not worship the true and living God. The Grand Architect is a way to appease the religious men in their order so that people do not get upset over them being atheist (or even worse, people find out they worship the Devil). If you do not believe me that Masonry is a cult, check the facts for yourself. Read the once well guarded (and very hard to find) Morals and Dogma by one of the Lodge's most esteemed members Albert Pike. Or read of how Aliester Crowley was a Mason and contributed heavily to Masonry. Or even read of how Masonry has its own Bible (not the Word of God). Now you can say Masonry is not a religion all you want to, but according to Webster's dictionary a religion is (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance, this more than describe Freemasonry.
ReplyDeleteBut believe what you want, I am sure you will try to defend Masonry... for those who have not woken up to the truth yet check out my blog www.justifytheory.blogspot.com
for everyone else
Open Your Eyes,
Th3rd
To avoid conspiracy theorizing and enjoy actual history, I suggest your reading Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery, an excellent account, in entertaining novelistic form, of historical facts concerning freemasonry, Jews, the Illuminati, Rose Croix (Rosicrucians), the Catholic Church, and the secret services and governments of Italy, France, and Russia in the mid- to late-1800s. Enjoy! (And do catch on to the ironies and try not to take everything literally.)
Delete@Th3rd: There is so much here to respond to, I may actually have to respond in entire blog posts. But, for the moment:
ReplyDelete--Yes, I am a Freemason. You may read about my Masonic affiliations in detail at the introductory post to this blog.
--I am checking into the story that Mr. Brea was a Prince Hall Mason who became unstable after a Lodge meeting.
--In the meantime, let me point out that, in Manhattan's Masonic Hall alone, there are two or three Masonic meetings (Blue Lodge, Royal Arch Chapter, Cryptic Council, Templar Commandery, Scottish Rite Valley) held every night, Monday through Friday, from September through June, a practice that's been going on for about a century. (Masonic Hall celebrates its centenary this Sunday at 2 p.m.; come on down.) That's at least fifty meetings a month, ten months a year, for a hundred years: 50,000 Masonic meetings, in Manhattan alone (not even counting Prince Hall). As far as I can tell, Mr. Brea is the only person who is said to have gone berserk after one. I think that this is about Mr. Brea, not Freemasonry.
--I have "checked the facts" concerning the accusation that 'Masonry is a cult' by attending lodge meetings for several years, and by reading thousands of pages of both reliable Masonic scholarship and all stripes of anti-Masonic writing.
--Webster's dictionary does not define reality. As I demonstrate in an earlier blog post (look around June 2009), Freemasonry is not a religion of any sort, including a cultish one. Masonry offers no plan of salvation, no special revelation of its own, no Savior of any sort, no prophets. What it says about God is deliberately general, to allow men of many religious persuasions to come together without religious disputation.
--You have a very inflated opinion of the position held in Freemasonry by Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma. It is available in many public and university libraries, and has never been held as some kind of Masonic secret or restricted literature. It also was only intended as educational material within the Scottish Rite, an appendant body of Freemasonry to which only a minority of Masons belong; within the Scottish Rite, it was only distributed within the Southern Jurisdiction, the 35 US states south of the Mason-Dixon line and west of the Mississippi. Go look it up on Google Books; they scanned a copy from a library.
--Masonry certainly does not have its own Bible. So-called "Masonic Bibles" are merely the King James Version of the Bible, with a nifty cover. A copy of this must be open on the altar at every lodge open for Masonic work in the United States. If this is devil worship or atheism, Freemasonry is doing a lousy job at it.
--For that matter, make up your mind. Is Masonry really atheism? Or devil-worship? In fact it is neither, as anyone who has actually attended a legit Masonic lodge could tell you.
--Re. Aleister Crowley, see the article about him on the website of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon (an excellent site for Masonic papers). Crowley was initiated in a clandestine quasi-Masonic lodge. His actual contributions to Freemasonry are precisely nil. He wrote nothing more than a few sentences about Freemasonry here and there in his voluminous writings. He never held any sort of office within a Grand Lodge of Freemasons. What could you possibly mean by saying that he "contributed heavily to Freemasonry"?
In short, what you have written shows a familiarity with the more deluded and poorly informed wing of anti-Masonic writing, and no real acquaintance with real Freemasonry itself. I would recommend that you read something by a well-informed Masonic author. You might start with my forthcoming book, Freemasonry: An Introduction, which you can pre-order through the link in the sidebar; that book also carries extensive suggestions for further study.
Thank you for the detailed answer. My grandfather is actually a 32nd Degree Mason from his home state of Ohio (he no longer attends meetings and has moved from that state). The reason he no longer attends meetings? Because he realized something after he had gained all those levels in Masonry. That Masonry was, in fact, in direct opposition with the God of the Bible.
ReplyDeleteI was basing the Brae having been at a Prince Hall Masonic meeting from multiple articles I had read on it after doing some searching on the internet (I know the internet is not as reliable, but I figure 5 to 8 sites saying the same thing should be a good start).
You are correct in saying that Masonry at its lowest degrees does not push religion (or devil worship) on 1st degree Masons. Why would they risk losing a potential member? Its slow indoctrination over time that really does it. You of all people should know that even though the name Lucifer is not brought up at a "meeting" that the Grand Architect is certainly not Yahweh God. And even if Masonry claims to not be devil-worshipers or not point to a way of salvation or a Savior, it is the fact that it does not that makes it a religion. A fact that Masonry says that you do for the good of the people and that you worship the Grand Architect, the Grand Architect is not the God of the Bible, which in turn makes Masonry a false religion. Surely you see that? Even if Masonry says they are not a religion, what they do speaks volumes and is louder than anything they could ever say.
My inflated opinion comes from the fact that Morals and Dogma was once only given to Masons and told to be returned upon their deaths. Also my inflated opinion comes from the fact that many Masons quote and celebrate Albert Pike as if he were some sort of god. You may say that he only held a small role in Masonry, but if this is the case than why do some of the most powerful people in the world quote from him?
And the ways that Crowley contributed to Freemasonry are through his publications. Though he may only have few lines where he actually says Masonry, people are aware of what he is talking about.
Yes I am anti-Masonic, but not because I feel like the men are evil or bad, but because I see Masonry as a false religion and leading men astray.
this is a good sermon excerpt from John MacArthur on Masonry: http://tinyurl.com/2eoyy9x
Open Your Eyes,
Th3rd
Okay, I am confused and worried. My husband is a Master Mason as my grandfather invited him in. I have heard many of the same arguments listed above and I don't know what to believe. I grew up Methodist and he grew up Baptist. We are both Christian and my life is completely in God's hands. Everything I do is to glorify God. But I don't know if he is going against our Christian religion or not. I've tried to read the books he brings home, but I don't understand them. Please help me understand. He catches a lot of flack from wearing a Mason ring. Many say they are linked to the KKK, but my husband says those people are ignorant of freemasonry. That those rumors are untrue. I DO know that many wonderful Christian men are Freemasons and they will bend over backwards to help a brother in need. I know that if you travel across the country, have no place to stay and no food or money, you can find a lodge, do a secret handshake or recite something( I don't know which one) they will take you in, provide you with what you need and help you in any way possible. But that's all I know. Oh and that there are masons of every race. I would appreciate you helping me understand. He has not chosen his right of passage btw.
ReplyDeleteYou should first find your calm and peace before attending your problem/situation.
ReplyDeleteAs you are married with him you should talk to him. As far as I know even if he is still inocent, he shall not talk about masonry rituals, secrets and so on. Also you should try talk to a priest. Find one that is open minded. You shall find one if you wish one.
Have a great life.
A priest. You weren't paying attention. They are Baptist and Methodist.
DeleteLet me first tackle Th3rd's most recent comment.
ReplyDeleteSorry to speak ill of your grandfather, Th3rd, but if he thought that Freemasonry is "in direct opposition with the God of the Bible," he did not understand the Fraternity at all. I address these points in great detail in Chapter 7 ("Anti-Masonry") of my new book, Freemasonry: An Introduction (available at a substantial discount through the lozenge-shaped ad in the right-hand margin near the top of this page). There is simply too much material in the book to summarize here.
Th3rd, you say that "Masonry [is], in fact, in direct opposition with the God of the Bible" (emphasis added). What are your facts?
Mr. Brea's behavior itself sounds pretty psychotic. Having served on the psychology staff of two hospitals (Lutheran Medical Center and Manhattan Psychiatric Center), I can attest that disturbed people do tend to work out their illnesses in terms of their spiritual interests. That does not meant that their spiritual interests caused the psychosis. Th3rd implies that Masonry drove Mr. Brea mad; if that were true, then why don't we have thousands upon thousands of mad, psychotic Masons, just in New York City?
Th3rd says that I "of all people should know ... that the Grand Architect is certainly not Yahweh God." Actually, I know exactly the opposite. In the so-called "higher degrees" of Freemasonry, there are a couple of places where the Grand Architect of the Universe is explicitly identified with the Divine Being whose Hebrew name is given in English as YHVH.
Yes, "what they [that is, Masons] do speaks volumes and is louder than anything they could ever say." What Masons do is: show immense reverence for the Bible and for the Temple built by Solomon to worship YHVH; reach out in brotherhood to all believers in a Divine Being; teach men to live moral lives in private and in public. This is about as far from devil-worship as you can get.
Back to Albert Pike: I discuss Albert Pike in some detail in Chapter 6 ("Masonic Controversies") of my book. Of course the publishers of Morals and Dogma only distributed it to Masons--it was a book for Masons! M&D was specifically written to serve as further education for those who had received the degrees of the Scottish Rite in the Southern Jurisdiction; it is almost unintelligible to those who have not received those degrees.
I have never heard any Mason "quote and celebrate Albert Pike as if he were some sort of god." You are deeply exaggerating, sir.
People quote Pike because he had deep and interesting ideas about Masonic symbolism. These ideas were only his opinions, but they were mightily thought-provoking.
As far as "some of the most powerful people in the world" quoting from him--whom could you be talking about, Th3rd?
About Crowley: You are completely wrong about his supposed contribution to Masonry. By far the vast majority of Freemasons do not even know who he is. Th3rd, you state that "people are aware of what he [Crowley] is talking about," I suppose, when Crowley makes some sort of veiled reference to Freemaons. Oh, really? Okay: Then please quote some references for us, book, chapter, page, and line, please.
The John MacArthur sermon on Masonry is so full of misrepresentations and fervent falsehoods it would take another post just to deal with it. In brief, nothing that he says establishes his fervent point that "Masonry is a religion"--which is not true. He quotes Pike in two sections; in one, all Pike is saying is that Masonry is open to men of all religions. In the other, Pike speaks cogently about beliefs regarding the soul, but about the best MacArthur can do is call this passage "hocus-pocus," thus admitting that MacArthur simply did not understand Pike. I could go on at great length, but my points are simple: MacArthur is wrong about Freemasonry, and does not understand the materials he quotes from.
Now, to respond to Anonymous's most recent comment:
ReplyDeleteNot to be perpetually shilling my book, Freemasonry: An Introduction, but I do address a lot of your concerns there: Freemasonry not being a religion (pp. 10-11); its stance towards religion in general (pp. 122-124) and Christianity in particular (p. 126); rumors regarding the KKK (pp. 106-107); rumors regarding Satanism and the "occult" (pp. 108-111, 124-125, 127-129).
In brief, you have absolutely nothing to worry about in terms of Freemasonry and Christianity. If anything, Freemasonry encourages Masons to be better practitioners of their religions (whatever those religions are). I am thinking of the example of S. Brent Morris, Ph.D., a prominent Masonic scholar who wrote the following in a 1994 letter to an anti-Masonic pastor:
"Masonry is not my religion.
Jesus is infinitely more important to me than the Lodge.
I study the Bible more than Masonic ritual.
In fact, it was through Masonic ritual that I increased my interest in and study of the Bible. This led to a two-year Bible teacher training program with a commitment to teach a two-year Bible course. I have ten weeks left teaching my original course and am making plans for another when this is done. Regular Bible study is essential for Christian growth." (Quoted from pp. 152-153 of: Arturo de Hoyos and S. Brent Morris, Is It True What They Say About Freemasonry?, New York: M. Evans & Co., edition of 2004.)
I hope this helps to clarify things.
I'm a former freemason who left masonry because it's full of b******t. That Brea guy WAS a freemason, he had actually attended a meeting that same evening, the sword was a masonic sword And no non-mason calls God G.A.O.T.U.
ReplyDeleteTouché.
If you read the bible and believe Jesus as a savior, we no need anything else to become better human being. the bible is the ultimate guide for our life. The Bible teaches everything about life. if you need gathering to become better Christians, why not attending Christian's fellowship that are attended by fellow Christian/same faith, rather that attending for example Mason lodge - which is attended by people from different belief.
ReplyDeleteI came across this tonight:
ReplyDelete"[T]he fundamental hypothesis and philosophic secret of Masonry is the solemn fact that God and the human soul are in essence a unity, not a duality, and the sole intention of our Initiatory-system is, by instruction and discipline, to bring about in each of us the conscious realisation of that unity."
I found it here: http://www.brad.ac.uk/webofhiram/?section=walter_leslie_wilmshurst&page=Secrets.html
Thank you for your blog, Mark. You have an admirable passion and industriousness for the fraternity. Will you please explain to your readers why the above statement by Bro. Wilmshurst is clearly not religious?
I know a member of his family, his uncle... he told me that the boy and his father had come from a masonic meeting when the argument with his mother started. I'm not blaming freemasonry, I'm just passing on what the boys uncle told me. There had been previous problems between the boy and his mother. Si'w pale kreyol, si'w rete nan flatbush, ou deja konnen laverite. Masonloj pa son bagay dyab, men li gen moun ki flu ladann l
ReplyDeleteThe Freemasons try this stuff alot. The Freemasons are mostly rich old gay white guys. They take some poor naive kid and promise them the life of a star in return for doing sexual favors. The want the kid to be a slave to a mason. They make false offers to give these kids fancy apartments, cars, and roles in hollywood. The whole time the kid is being deluded on drugs to feel superhuman powerful and invulnerable. The Freemasons never come through on their promises. When the kids' all used up or has gotten too old; they set him up for some tragic ending. They'll tell him that he needs to do one more thing before he can be a master mason. They'll tell him that he can be a member by killing a traitor and taking their mason ring. They probably even give him a sigma sword to do it. They do this to high school kids and college kids every year. They actually go to high schools and look for young boys that want to have sex with. I've seen all of this stuff too. It's horrible the police never get involved until after it's too late
ReplyDeleteI have left up the most recent (4/10) Anonymous comment as an example of the sort of confident but utterly hallucinogenic anti-Masonic nonsense you will find on the Internet these days.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, this guy has packed a lot of lies into a few lines. Specifically:
In my experience, most Masons are middle-class or working-class men. Here in New York, quite a lot of Masons are from ethnically diverse groups. (D'uh, including myself.) I don't ask about their sexuality, they don't ask about mine.
Masons do not act out the sick fantasy of "slavery" that Anonymous has described; indeed, any of this--the alleged drugs, sexual favors, promises of future wealth, let alone the assassination scenario--would be grounds for expulsion from the Fraternity if anyone did anything remotely like this. (Not to mention felony arrests!)
Candidates for Masonry are specifically told that they must not try to enter the Fraternity out of any desire for material wealth or social advancement.
Note the technique that Anonymous uses here: he (?) says he's seen this type of activity, but gives no verifiable details at all. This is nothing but cheap innuendo and character assassination. If someone makes a claim like this to you, insist on hearing verifiable details.
Anonymous, I'm calling you out as a liar.
Since I mentioned it in a reply to one of the detractors in the comments above, I'll also add here that I just finished the heady novel, largely based on well-researched historical facts, by Umberto Eco, The Prague Cemetery.
ReplyDeleteThe novel exposes the forgeries and sham charges aimed at freemasonry, Jews, and the Illuminati among others.
Set in Europe in mid- to late-1800s, the novel relishes the entanglements of political and religious opposition and intrigue among Catholics, the secret services of France, Italy and Russia, as well as the Palladians in their efforts to oppose freemasonry, Jews, liberals, leftists, and others.
It's a romp among sects, Popery, and all manner of underworld forgery and fakery.
And worth reading if you are a Mason. I have an uncle who was in the Scottish Rite Order in Texas--and a grandfather who was run out of town by the White Man's Union, a Texas equivalent of the KKK.
So I'm not joining in here to make fun, but to contribute an appreciation of an irony like Eco's that can dispel conspiracy theories.