"I think my grandfather was one, but I'm not sure
what it means."
"Yeah, my dad and uncle both used to go to Masonic meetings I
remember Uncle Fred coming by to pick him up. But I don't know
where they went or what they did."
"I think they wear those funny hats."
"I remember when I went away to college, my father showed me his
ring and told me, if I ever needed help, I should look for a man
with a ring like that and tell him I was the daughter of a
Mason, but he never told me much about it."
What's a Mason?
That's not a surprising question. Even though Masons
(Freemasons) are members of the largest and oldest fraternity in
the world, and even though almost everyone has a father or
grandfather or uncle who was a Mason, many people aren't quite
certain just who Masons are.
The answer is simple. A Mason (or Freemason) is a member of a
fraternity known as Masonry (or Freemasonry). A fraternity is a
group of men (just as a sorority is a group of women) who join
together because:
* There are things they want to do in the world.
* There are things they want to do "inside their own minds."
* They enjoy being together with men they like and respect.
(We'll look at some of these things later.)
What's Masonry?
Masonry (or Freemasonry) is the oldest fraternity in the world.
No one knows just how old it is because the actual origins have
been lost in time. Probably, it arose from the guilds of
stonemasons who built the castles and cathedrals of the Middle
Ages. Possibly, they were influenced by the Knights Templar, a
group of Christian warrior monks formed in 1118 to help protect
pilgrims making trips to the Holy Land.
In 1717, Masonry created a formal organization in England when
the first Grand Lodge was formed. A Grand Lodge is the
administrative body in charge of Masonry in some geographical
area. In the United States, there is a Grand Lodge in each
state. In Canada, there is a Grand Lodge in each province. Local
organizations of Masons are called lodges. There are lodges in
most towns, and large cities usually have several. There are
about 13,200 lodges in the United States.
If Masonry started in Great Britain, how did it
get to America?
In a time when travel was by horseback and sailing ship, Masonry
spread with amazing speed. By 1731, when Benjamin Franklin
joined the fraternity, there were already several lodges in the
Colonies, and Masonry spread rapidly as America expanded west.
In addition to Franklin, many of the Founding Fathers -- men
such as George Washington, Paul Revere, Joseph Warren, and John
Hancock -- were Masons. Masons and Masonry played an important
part in the Revolutionary War and an even more important part in
the Constitutional Convention and the debates surrounding the
ratification of the Bill of Rights. Many of those debates were
held in Masonic lodges.
What's a lodge?
The word "lodge" means both a group of Masons meeting in some
place and the room or building in which they meet. Masonic
buildings are also sometimes called "temples" because much of
the symbolism Masonry uses to teach its lessons comes from the
building of King Solomon's Temple in the Holy Land. The term
"lodge" itself comes from the structures which the stonemasons
built against the sides of the cathedrals during construction.
In winter, when building had to stop, they lived in these lodges
and worked at carving stone.
If you've ever watched C-SPAN's coverage of the House of Commons
in London, you'll notice that the layout is about the same.
Since Masonry came to America from England, we still use the
English floor plan and English titles for the officers. The
Worshipful Master of the Lodge sits in the East ("Worshipful" is
an English term of respect which means the same thing as
"Honorable.") He is called the Master of the lodge for the same
reason that the leader of an orchestra is called the "Concert
Master." It's simply an older term for "Leader." In other
organizations, he would be called "President." The Senior and
Junior Wardens are the First and Second Vice-Presidents. The
Deacons are messengers and the Stewards have charge of
refreshments.
Every lodge has an altar holding a "Volume of the Sacred Law."
In the United States and Canada, that is almost always a Bible.
What goes on in a lodge?
This is a good place to repeat what we said earlier about why
men become Masons:
* There are things they want to do in the world.
* There are things they want to do "inside their own minds."
* They enjoy being together with men they like and respect.
The Lodge is the center of those activities.
Masonry Does Things in the World.
Masonry teaches that each person has a responsibility to make
things better in the world. Most individuals won't be the ones
to find a cure for cancer, or eliminate poverty, or help create
world peace, but every man and woman and child can do something
to help others and to make things a little better. Masonry is
deeply involved with helping people -- it spends more than $1.4
million dollars every day in the United States, just to make
life a little easier. And the great majority of that help goes
to people who are not Masons. Some of these charities are vast
projects, like the Crippled Children's Hospitals and Burns
Institutes built by the Shriners. Also, Scottish Rite Masons
maintain a nationwide network of over 100 Childhood Language
Disorders Clinics, Centers, and Programs. Each helps children
afflicted by such conditions as aphasia, dyslexia, stuttering,
and related learning or speech disorders. Some services are less
noticeable, like helping a widow pay her electric bill or buying
coats and shoes for disadvantaged children. And there's just
about anything you can think of in-between. But with projects
large or small, the Masons of a lodge try to help make the world
a better place. The lodge gives them a way to combine with
others to do even more good.
Masonry does things "inside" the individual Mason.
"Grow or die" is a great law of all nature. Most people feel a
need for continued growth and development as individuals. They
feel they are not as honest or as charitable or as compassionate
or as loving or as trusting as they ought to be. Masonry reminds
its members over and over again of the importance of these
qualities. It lets men associate with other men of honor and
integrity who believe that things like honesty and compassion
and love and trust are important. In some ways, Masonry is a
support group for men who are trying to make the right
decisions. It's easier to practice these virtues when you know
that those around you think they are important, too, and won't
laugh at you. That's a major reason that Masons enjoy being
together.
Masons enjoy each other's company.
It's good to spend time with people you can trust completely,
and most Masons find that in their lodge. While much of lodge
activity is spent in works of charity or in lessons in
self-development, much is also spent in fellowship. Lodges have
picnics, camping trips, and many events for the whole family.
Simply put, a lodge is a place to spend time with friends.
For members only, two basic kinds of meetings take place in a
lodge. The most common is a simple business meeting. To open and
close the meeting, there is a ceremony whose purpose is to
remind us of the virtues by which we are supposed to live. Then
there is a reading of the minutes; voting on petitions
(applications of men who want to join the fraternity); planning
for charitable functions, family events, and other lodge
activities; and sharing information about members (called
"Brothers," as in most fraternities) who are ill or have some
sort of need. The other kind of meeting is one in which people
join the fraternity -- one at which the "degrees" are performed.
But every lodge serves more than its own members. Frequently,
there are meetings open to the public. Examples are Ladies'
Nights, "Brother Bring a Friend Nights," public installations of
officers, Cornerstone Laying ceremonies, and other special
meetings supporting community events and dealing with topics of
local interest.
What's a degree?
A degree is a stage or level of membership. It's also the
ceremony by which a man attains that level of membership. There
are three, called Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master
Mason. As you can see, the names are taken from the craft
guilds. In the Middle Ages, when a person wanted to join a
craft, such as the gold smiths or the carpenters or the
stonemasons, he was first apprenticed. As an apprentice, he
learned the tools and skills of the trade. When he had proved
his skills, he became a "Fellow of the Craft" (today we would
say "Journeyman"), and when he had exceptional ability, he was
known as a Master of the Craft.
The degrees are plays in which the candidate participates. Each
degree uses symbols to teach, just as plays did in the Middle
Ages and as many theatrical productions do today. (We'll talk
about symbols a little later.)
The Masonic degrees teach the great lessons of life -- the
importance of honor and integrity, of being a person on whom
others can rely, of being both trusting and trustworthy, of
realizing that you have a spiritual nature as well as a physical
or animal nature, of the importance of self-control, of knowing
how to love and be loved, of knowing how to keep confidential
what others tell you so that they can "open up" without fear.
Why is Masonry so "secretive"?
It really isn't "secretive," although it sometimes has that
reputation. Masons certainly don't make a secret of the fact
that they are members of the fraternity. We wear rings, lapel
pins and tie tacks with Masonic emblems like the Square and
Compasses, the best known of Masonic signs which, logically,
recalls the fraternity's roots in stonemasonry. Masonic
buildings are clearly marked, and are usually listed in the
phone book. Lodge activities are not secret picnics and other
events are even listed in the newspapers, especially in smaller
towns. Many lodges have answering machines which give the
upcoming lodge activities. But there are some Masonic secrets,
and they fall into two categories.
The first are the ways in which a man can identify himself as a
Mason -- grips and passwords. We keep those private for obvious
reasons. It is not at all unknown for unscrupulous people to try
to pass themselves off as Masons in order to get assistance
under false pretenses.
The second group is harder to describe, but they are the ones
Masons usually mean if we talk about "Masonic secrets." They are
secrets because they literally can't be talked about, can't be
put into words. They are the changes that happen to a man when
he really accepts responsibility for his own life and, at the
same time, truly decides that his real happiness is in helping
others.
It's a wonderful feeling, but it's something you simply can't
explain to another person. That's why we sometimes say that
Masonic secrets cannot ( rather than "may not") be told. Try
telling someone exactly what you feel when you see a beautiful
sunset, or when you hear music, like the national anthem, which
suddenly stirs old memories, and you'll understand what we mean.
"Secret societies" became very popular in America in the late
1800s and early 1900s. There were literally hundreds of them,
and most people belonged to two or three. Many of them were
modeled on Masonry, and made a great point of having many
"secrets." And Masonry got ranked with them. But if Masonry is a
secret society, it's the worst-kept secret in town.
Is Masonry a religion?
The answer to that question is simple. No.
We do use ritual in the meetings, and because there is always an
altar or table with the Volume of the Sacred Law open if a lodge
is meeting, some people have confused Masonry with a religion,
but it is not. That does not mean that religion plays no part in
Masonry -- it plays a very important part. A person who wants to
become a Mason must have a belief in God. No atheist can ever
become a Mason. Meetings open with prayer, and a Mason is
taught, as one of the first lessons of Masonry, that one should
pray for divine counsel and guidance before starting an
important undertaking. But that does not make Masonry a
"religion."
Sometimes people confuse Masonry with a religion because we call
some Masonic buildings "temples." But we use the word in the
same sense that Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes called the Supreme
Court a "Temple of Justice" and because a Masonic lodge is a
symbol of the Temple of Solomon. Neither Masonry nor the Supreme
Court is a religion just because its members meet in a "temple."
In some ways, the relationship between Masonry and religion is
like the relationship between the Parent-Teacher Association
(the P.T.A.) and education. Members of the P.T.A. believe in the
importance of education. They support it. They assert that no
man or woman can be a complete and whole individual or live up
to his or her full potential without education. They encourage
students to stay in school and parents to be involved with the
education of their children. They may give scholarships. They
encourage their members to get involved with and support their
individual schools.
But there are some things P.T.A.s do not do. They don't teach.
They don't tell people which school to attend. They don't try to
tell people what they should study or what their major should
be.
In much the same way, Masons believe in the importance of
religion. Masonry encourages every Mason to be active in the
religion and church of his own choice. Masonry teaches that,
without religion, a man is alone and lost, and that without
religion, he can never reach his full potential.
But Freemasonry does not tell a person which religion he should
practice or how he should practice it. That is between the
individual and God. That is the function of his house of
worship, not his fraternity, and Masonry is a fraternity, not a
religion.
What is a Masonic Bible?
Bibles are popular gifts among Masons, frequently given to a man
when he joins the lodge or at other special events. A Masonic
Bible is the same book anyone thinks of as a Bible (it's usually
the King James translation) with a special page in the front on
which to write the name of the person who is receiving it and
the occasion on which it is given. Sometimes there is a special
index or information section which shows the person where in the
Bible to find the passages which are quoted in the Masonic
ritual.
If Masonry isn't a religion, why does it use
ritual?
Many of us may think of religion when we think of ritual, but
ritual is used in every aspect of life. It's so much a part of
us that we just don't notice it. Ritual simply means that some
things are done more or less the same way each time.
Almost all school assemblies, for example, start with the
principal or some other official calling for the attention of
the group. Then the group is led in the Pledge of Allegiance. A
school choir or the entire group may sing the school song.
That's a ritual.
Almost all business meetings of every sort call the group to
order, have a reading of the minutes of the last meeting, deal
with old business, then with new business. That's a ritual. Most
groups use Robert's Rules of Order to conduct a meeting. That's
probably the best-known book of ritual in the world.
There are social rituals which tell us how to meet people (we
shake hands), how to join a conversation (we wait for a pause,
and then speak), how to buy tickets to a concert (we wait in
line and don't push in ahead of those who were there first).
There are literally hundreds of examples, and they are all
rituals.
Masonry uses a ritual because it's an effective way to teach
important ideas -- the values we've talked about earlier. And it
reminds us where we are, just as the ritual of a business
meeting reminds people where they are and what they are supposed
to be doing.
Masonry's ritual is very rich because it is so old. It has
developed over centuries to contain some beautiful language and
ideas expressed in symbols. But there's nothing unusual in using
ritual. All of us do it every day.
Why does Masonry use symbols?
Everyone uses symbols every day, just as we do ritual. We use
them because they communicate quickly. When you see a stop sign
, you know what it means, even if you can't read the word
"stop." The circle and line mean "don't" or "not allowed." In
fact, using symbols is probably the oldest way of communication
and the oldest way of teaching.
Masonry uses symbols for the same reason. Some form of the
"Square and Compasses" is the most widely used and known symbol
of Masonry. In one way, this symbol is a kind of trademark for
the fraternity, as the "golden arches" are for McDonald's. When
you see the Square and Compasses on a building, you know that
Masons meet there.
Like all symbols, they have a meaning.
The Square symbolizes things of the earth, and it also
symbolizes honor, integrity, truthfulness, and the other ways we
should relate to this world and the people in it. The Compasses
symbolize things of the spirit, and the importance of a
well-developed spiritual life, and also the importance of
self-control -- of keeping ourselves within bounds. The G stands
for Geometry, the science which the ancients believed most
revealed the glory of God and His works in the heavens, and it
also stands for God, Who must be at the center of all our
thoughts and of all our efforts.
The meanings of most of the other Masonic symbols are obvious.
The gavel teaches the importance of self-control and
self-discipline. The hourglass teaches us that time is always
passing, and we should not put off important decisions.
So, is Masonry education?
Yes. In a very real sense, education is at the center of
Masonry. We have stressed its importance for a very long time.
Back in the Middle Ages, schools were held in the lodges of
stonemasons. You have to know a lot to build a cathedral --
geometry, and structural engineering, and mathematics, just for
a start. And that education was not very widely available. All
the formal schools and colleges trained people for careers in
the church, or in law or medicine. And you had to be a member of
the social upper classes to go to those schools. Stonemasons did
not come from the aristocracy. And so the lodges had to teach
the necessary skills and information. Freemasonry's dedication
to education started there.
It has continued. Masons started some of the first public
schools in both Europe and America. We supported legislation to
make education universal. In the 1800s Masons as a group lobbied
for the establishment of state supported education and federal
land grant colleges. Today we give millions of dollars in
scholarships each year. We encourage our members to give
volunteer time to their local schools, buy classroom supplies
for teachers, help with literacy programs, and do everything
they can to help assure that each person, adult or child, has
the best educational opportunities possible.
And Masonry supports continuing education and intellectual
growth for its members, insisting that learning more about many
things is important for anyone who wants to keep mentally alert
and young.
What does Masonry teach?
Masonry teaches some important principles. There's nothing very
surprising in the list. Masonry teaches that:
Since God is the Creator, all men and women are the children of
God. Because of that, all men and women are brothers and
sisters, entitled to dignity, respect for their opinions, and
consideration of their feelings.
Each person must take responsibility for his/her own life and
actions. Neither wealth nor poverty, education nor ignorance,
health nor sickness excuses any person from doing the best he or
she can do or being the best person possible under the
circumstances.
No one has the right to tell another person what he or she must
think or believe. Each man and woman has an absolute right to
intellectual, spiritual, economic, and political freedom. This
is a right given by God, not by man. All tyranny, in every form,
is illegitimate.
Each person must learn and practice self-control. Each person
must make sure his spiritual nature triumphs over his animal
nature. Another way to say the same thing is that even when we
are tempted to anger, we must not be violent. Even when we are
tempted to selfishness, we must be charitable. Even when we want
to "write someone off," we must remember that he or she is a
human and entitled to our respect. Even when we want to give up,
we must go on. Even when we are hated, we must return love, or,
at a minimum, we must not hate back. It isn't easy!
Faith must be in the center of our lives. We find that faith in
our houses of worship, not in Freemasonry, but Masonry
constantly teaches that a person's faith, whatever it may be, is
central to a good life.
Each person has a responsibly to be a good citizen, obeying the
law. That doesn't mean we can't try to change things, but change
must take place in legal ways.
It is important to work to make this world better for all who
live in it. Masonry teaches the importance of doing good, not
because it assures a person's entrance into heaven -- that's a
question for a religion, not a fraternity -- but because we have
a duty to all other men and women to make their lives as
fulfilling as they can be.
Honor and integrity are essential to life. Life, without honor
and integrity, is without meaning.
What are the requirements for membership?
The person who wants to join Masonry must be a man (it's a
fraternity), sound in body and mind, who believes in God, is at
least the minimum age required by Masonry in his state, and has
a good reputation. (Incidentally, the "sound in body"
requirement -- which comes from the stonemasons of the Middle
Ages -- doesn't mean that a physically challenged man cannot be
a Mason; many are).
Those are the only "formal" requirements. But there are others,
not so formal. He should believe in helping others. He should
believe there is more to life than pleasure and money. He should
be willing to respect the opinions of others. And he should want
to grow and develop as a human being.
How does a man become a Mason?
Some men are surprised that no one has ever asked them to become
a Mason. They may even feel that the Masons in their town don't
think they are "good enough" to join. But it doesn't work that
way. For hundreds of years, Masons have been forbidden to ask
others to join the fraternity. We can talk to friends about
Masonry, we can tell them about what Masonry does. We can tell
them why we enjoy it. But we don't ask, much less pressure
anyone to join.
There's a good reason for that. It isn't that we're trying to be
exclusive. But becoming a Mason is a very serious thing. Joining
Masonry is making a permanent life commitment to live in certain
ways. We've listed most of them above -- to live with honor and
integrity, to be willing to share and care about others, to
trust each other, and to place ultimate trust in God. No one
should be "talked into" making such a decision.
So, when a man decides he wants to be a Mason, he asks a Mason
for a petition or application. He fills it out and gives it to
the Mason, and that Mason takes it to the local lodge. The
Master of the lodge will appoint a committee to visit with the
man and his family, find out a little about him and why he wants
to be a Mason, tell him and his family about Masonry, and answer
their questions. The committee reports to the lodge, and the
lodge votes on the petition. If the vote is affirmative -- and
it usually is -- the lodge will contact the man to set the date
for the Entered Apprentice Degree. When the person has completed
all three degrees, he is a Master Mason and a full member of the
fraternity.
So, what's a Mason?
A Mason is a man who has decided that he likes to feel good
about himself and others. He cares about the future as well as
the past, and does what he can, both alone and with others, to
make the future good for everyone.
Many men over many generations have answered the question, "What
is a Mason?" One of the most eloquent was written by the
Reverend Joseph Fort Newton, an internationally honored minister
of the first half of the 20th Century.
When is a man a Mason?
When he can look out over the rivers, the hills, and the far
horizon with a profound sense of his own littleness in the vast
scheme of things, and yet have faith, hope, and courage which is
the root of every virtue.
When he knows that down in his heart every man is as noble, as
vile, as divine, as diabolic, and as lonely as himself, and
seeks to know, to forgive, and to love his fellow man.
When he knows how to sympathize with men in their sorrows, yea,
even in their sins knowing that each man fights a hard fight
against many odds.
When he has learned how to make friends and to keep them, and
above all how to keep friends with himself. When he loves
flowers, can hunt birds without a gun, and feels the thrill of
an old forgotten joy when he hears the laugh of a little child.
When he can be happy and high-minded amid the meaner drudgeries
of life.
When star-crowned trees and the glint of sunlight on flowing
waters, subdue him like the thought of one much loved and long
dead.
When no voice of distress reaches his ears in vain, and no hand
seeks his aid without response.
When he finds good in every faith that helps any man to lay hold
of divine things and sees majestic meanings in life, whatever
the name of that faith may be.
When he can look into a wayside puddle and see something beyond
mud, and into the face of the most forlorn fellow mortal and see
something beyond sin.
When he knows how to pray, how to love, how to hope.
When he has kept faith with himself with his fellow man, and
with his God; in his hand a sword for evil, in his heart a bit
of a song -- glad to live, but not afraid to die!
Such a man has found the only real secret of Masonry, and the
one which it is trying to give to all the world.
