Reading, its nearest moon, Wokingham and the surrounding planets now have their own Freemasonry base to bring together their common interests of Science Fiction and fantasy in a feast of geekery. Last weekend was the long-awaited maiden voyage of the Adastra Lodge. With a nod to journeying to the ‘Final Frontier’ (and a few Captains Log jokes) we assembled at Sindlesham’s (for one-night-only) Space Port in Mole Road.
Over 130 gathered (this reporter wasn’t brave enough to dress up in anything too outlandish) to see the first-ever meeting of this new Special Interest Freemasons Lodge which is to meet at the Sindlesham HQ for Berkshire Freemasonry. With an organist who seemed to have learned most of the famous theme tunes from movies, the meeting began.
This new Lodge was of such great interest that people had journeyed from far and wide (One had even travelled from Las Vegas!). The Lodge was joined by the usually less relaxed-looking leaders of Freemasonry from Berkshire and Buckinghamshire as the chief guests. Once the Lodge was opened, props and small tributes were paid to the movies and hobbies galore.
Adastra is a repurposed Lodge, which had previously been known as St Edmund Lodge and was formed in 1947. The remaining members and science fiction & fantasy enthusiasts came together with a common purpose and planned the launch of this new and fun venture as a reinvented science fiction-themed Freemasons Lodge. Much like rest of the world, Freemasonry is adaptive and aligns to the needs of the present-day and hopefully future members. If the numbers of those who’ve joined already and enquired about membership of Adastra are a clue, this will be a very successful Lodge indeed. The Lodge even managed to include bringing in a new member to Freemasonry, and their increasing numbers, on the same night as they launched. Johnathan Goldsmith works in the media world and is a self-proclaimed and shameless Sci-Fi nerd. and was kicking off a weekend of attending Sci-Fi conventions within the UK.
The wonderful setting of Sindlesham Court was then transformed into a unique dining environment that this reporter thought was not unlike a starship’s cargo bay. When coupled with the special effect lighting, newly installed into the impressive Berkshire Room, a bumper feast that must have taken hours in the food replicators to produce was served, and friendships were made. For a first outing of this new Lodge with their expressed aim of “To geek out over a mutual love of sci-fi and fantasy. To boldly go where no Berkshire Lodge has gone before!”
If you’d like to know more about Adastra Lodge or just see more photos and a short reel of pictures from the evening, please visit https://adastralodge.co.uk
