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It has been just a decade since, during our term as Sovereign Prince of the Princes of
Jerusalem, Scottish Rite Valley of Pittsburgh, we prepared our Report on our Inspection Tour
of the Realm of the Princes of Jerusalem, which was preceded by a tour of the Land of the
Pharaohs, including our individual personal meditation reclining in the Pharaohs
Sarcophagus of the Burial Chamber of the Great Pyramid. The report, entitled Our Realm in
Jerusalem, appeared at page five of the April 2001 issue of the award winning Rite News of
the Valley of Pittsburgh, and is reprinted here below for your information.
Then the promising possibility of a peace accord in Our Realm in J erusalem had
been abruptly aborted by Palestinian unrest originating in Jerusalem in the vicinity of the
Western/Wailing Wall and the Dome of the Rock (see page four). Unrest of such extent that
the rest of our party did not continue with us on into Israel.
Now the younger generations of Egyptians, with their Armys wisdom of restraint,
seem to be peaceable advancing the cause of personal liberty, a major step towards universal
brotherhood, reinforcing the relevancy of the hope expressed in our prior Report and makes it
worthy of reviewing once again. Note in our cover picture under the pyramids the soldier is
at the ready, while the civilians are at ease, relaxed and unintimidated.
[NB: Regretfully, it appears that Egypt must pass through an Arab Winter
before reaping the harvest of the Arab Spring 2014]
Barry J. Lipson 33, PM, PSP
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OUR REALM IN JERUSALEM
Your Sovereign Prince has recently returned from an inspection tour of the Realm of the Princes of
Jerusalem, preceded by a tour of the Princes original ancestral land of servitude.
The Pyramids, built with the blood, sweat and tears of the ancestors of the Princes, but without
straw, it has been reported, still stand! Our inspections, which included a long climb through steep narrow
passages to the Burial Chamber of the Great Pyramid, however, shows great deterioration and looting. The
smooth outer surfaces of the Pyramids have been stripped away for use in later constructions. The treasure
chambers have also been stripped bare. Nothing remains to aid the Pharaohs in their afterlife.
Indeed, the land of the Nile is no longer the domain of the Pharaohs, their race is not the ancestors of
the modern Egyptians, and their Gods have been replaced by a religion worshipping One God. While this
religion is not that of the First and Second Temple, it accepts both Moses and Jesus as prophets, second only
to the Prophet Mohammad.
As the ancestors of the Princes traveled from Egypt to Israel, so did your Sovereign Prince. While
these ancestral Princes walked through the parted Red (really Reed) Sea, your Sovereign Prince flew over
this Sea unparted. He then swam in the mineralized Dead Sea (after the ritual sulfur and mud baths), and
lived on to tell this tale, much revitalized. His travels took him to the old Walled City of Jerusalem, the
Second Temple, newer Jerusalem, the ancient Port City of Jaffa, and its recent offspring Tel Aviv.
In troubled times, he traveled under the shadow of the Golan Heights, along the borders of Lebanon
and Jordan and through the West Bank. He visited Jewish antiquities, a re-built Roman Coliseum, immense
vaulted Christian Crusader Halls serving as a basement to a Moslem Turkish prison, and viewed
Synagogues, Churches and Mosques.
Regretfully, it must be reported that all that remains of the Second Temple that Cyrus the Great,
himself, had sent the Princes to re-build, and that Darius, also the Great, had financed through the Princes, is
the Western or Wailing Wall. The rest of the Second Temple was destroyed by the heathen Romans in the
first century of the present era.
Jerusalem is undisputedly the City of the One God, the Grand Architect of the Universe. Each of the
three major monotheistic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, claim it as holy to their faith. Still, there
is much unrest between these kindred peoples, who worship the same God, but in different ways. As the
ancient Palestinians of the time of Cyrus and Darius fought the return of the Princes to reposes the City of
the God of Abraham, so the modern Moslem Palestinians fight the repossession of Jerusalem by the
operative descendants of the Princes.
But there is a difference. There were no symbolic Masons among the ancient Palestinians of the
time of Cyrus and Darius. Today, there are Jews, Christian and Moslems who are symbolic Masons.
Hopefully, this brotherhood between members of these three kindred faiths will help light the way to
universal brotherhood.
Barry J. Lipson
Sovereign Prince
Princes of Jerusalem
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Western/Wailing Wall & the Dome of the Rock
Confluence Of 3 Major World Religions
Note Israeli Stamp In Hebrew, Arabic & English