Thank you for your interest in our Lodge. On this page you can find information about,

• The history of our lodge and our mission (this section, below)
• Meeting Information, if you are interested in attending a lodge meeting
• Contact Information, if you'd like to know more about the lodge
• Procedure for Visiting, if you'd like to attend one of our meetings
• The story behind the name of our lodge
• Some background on the muses

The lodge meets regularly on the third Wednesday of the month except for the months of July and August when no regular meetings are held. Unless otherwise indicated by the Lodge Summons on the main page, the Lodge of the Nine Muses No. 1776 meets at the Scottish Rite Temple, 2800 16th Street, NW, in the District of Columbia. The Temple is located near the intersection of 16th and Columbia Road. Parking is accessible by taking Fuller Street off 16th Street, then right onto Mozart Place, then a right into the Scottish Rite parking lot. If you take Metro the closest stop is the Columbia Heights station on the Green Line.

George Seghers, Secretary
703-878-2839
gseghers@gwmemorial.org

Lodge of the Nine Muses welcomes visiting Masons, but asks that all brethren adhere to the following procedure:

Please e-mail or telephone the Secretary (George Seghers) or the Master of the Lodge (Brian Patten) prior to your visit. Please provide details concerning your current degree/grade, the Lodges you belong to, and the jurisdiction under which they are chartered or warranted. The evening of your visit the Secretary and an officer of the Lodge will inspect your dues card(s)/clearance certificate/traveling patent, as well as examine you before you gain entrance into the Lodge. You must provide documentation that shows you are a member in good standing in a Regular Masonic lodge.

If you are not a Mason but you are interested in visiting the Lodge of the Nine Muses, please e-mail the Master of the Lodge (Brian Patten). Once or twice a year we do have programs that are open to prospective candidates.

The Lodge of the Nine Muses meets every 3rd Wednesday at 6:30pm of every month except for July and August.

The Lodge of the Nine Muses does not solicit new members. Any individual (Mason and non-Mason) interested in membership must take the first step and express interest. Non-Masons interested in becoming a Freemason may ask any lodge member how to proceed. To Be one, ask one.

During the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin became a member of the French Masonic lodge La Loge Les Neuf Soeurs (The Lodge of The Nine Sisters). La Loge Les Neuf Soeurs, established in Paris in 1776, was a prominent French Masonic Lodge of the Grand Orient de France that was influential in organising French support for the American Revolution.

Franklin was already a Freemason when he was sent by the Continental Congress to France to drum up financial and material support for the American Revolution in 1776. Once there he sought the social circles that would help him fulfill his mission. One of the most interesting was La Loge des Neuf Soeurs. Its name referred to the nine Muses, the daughters of Mnemosyne (Memory), patrons of the arts and sciences since antiquity, and long significant in French cultural circles. This lodge boasted an elite and international membership, including such important thinkers, artists, scientists, and statesmen as Americans Benjamin Franklin and John Paul Jones, writer-philosopher Voltaire, astronomer Joseph-Jerome de Lalande (the Lodge's founder), and sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon. New members pledged to always be ready to fly to the aid of humanity, a fact that both reflected Masonic ideals and spoke to Franklin's mission of building support for Americans' efforts to achieve independence.

Franklin was not just a member of this Lodge, but also became its leader, serving as its Venerable Master from 1779 to 1781.

Our Lodge takes its name from this historic lodge.

The nine Muses in the Lodge's name refer to the nine Muses of the arts and sciences from Greek mythology. They represented anthropomorphic personifications of basic concepts within the human intellect (that is, assigning human form and personality to what are nominally abstract concepts). The Olympian myths set Apollo as their leader, Apollon Mousagetes. Not only are the Muses explicitly used in modern English to refer to artistic inspiration, such as when one cites one's own personal artistic muse for a creation, but they also are implicitly present in English words and phrases such as "amuse", "museum" (Latinised from mouseion - a place where the muses were worshipped), "music", and "musing upon".

The Nine Muses and the creations they inspire are (from left to right in the image below),

• Clio, History (symbol, Scrolls)
• Thalia, Comedy (symbol, Comic mask)
• Erato, Lyric poetry (symbol, Cithara - an ancient Greek musical instrument in the lyre family)
• Euterpe, Music (symbol, Aulos - an ancient Greek musical instrument)
• Polyhymnia, Choral poetry (symbol, Veil)
• Calliope, Epic poetry (symbol, Writing tablet)
• Terpsichore, Dance (symbol, Lyre)
• Urania, Astrology (symbol, Globe and compass)
• Melpomene, Tragedy (symbol, Tragic mask)

Clicking on the sketch will reveal a large image of the actual sarcophage
Louvre Museum, Paris

Information and text for this and the previous section about our Lodge were taken from and article published by the National Heritage Museum and the Wikipedia entries for La Loge Les Neuf Soeurs and the Muses