# How do you join the Freemasons? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 1999, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447 "1999-12-15T14:22:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wolfduke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b19c9b/32.png) [@wolfduke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfduke)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/1 "1999-12-15T14:22:00Z")
So I’ve done some reading lately on Freemasons and I could ask dozens of questions, but how do you become a Brother? Are there any UnencumberedMasons amongst the Teeming Millions who actually know?? ---
**Author:** ![Flypsyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Flypsyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flypsyde)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/2 "1999-12-15T14:31:00Z")
I’m pretty sure you have to ask one of them. For some reason, I seem to remember that they can’t go out and recruit people. After you find one, you ask them about joining, and then they send some people over from the local lodge. You go through an interview process, where they check to see if you’re Mason material. After that, initiation. I think the same applies for the Order of the Eastern Star, which is the female auxilliary of the Masons, if I remember things right. * * * Nothing like a bad decision Says who you are. -Gin Blossoms, _“Perfectly Still”_ ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/3 "1999-12-15T14:38:00Z")
I would assume that Flypsyde is correct. I remember seeing bumper stickers with symbols of Freemasonry and the text “2B1ASK1”. * * * The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/4 "1999-12-15T16:48:00Z")
I went to a Masons thing next door where new girls get inducted. A Mason girl invited me to it.The new girls HAVE to do the pace & pattern exactly right, if they don’t the guys may not want them so they often have to make that part up on the music party floor. try [www.ask.com](http://www.ask.com) search for ‘how do you become a mason?’ ---
**Author:** ![Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/6de8d8/32.png) [@Kilgore\_Trout\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilgore_Trout_1)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/5 "1999-12-15T16:52:00Z")
Are you telling me that Jeeves is a mason? ---
**Author:** ![melanietarrant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@melanietarrant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/melanietarrant)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/6 "1999-12-15T19:52:00Z")
my husband once asked a mason how to become a mason he handed my husband a penny and said something cryptic about needing it someday but that is as much as i know * * * Smile, Jesus loves you ---
**Author:** ![mr\_john](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@mr\_john](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_john)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/7 "1999-12-15T20:03:00Z")
Well, I got some good dope and went out to this run down looking place in the desert and… wait a minute that was Manson. You can go knock on the door of the local temple and ask, or stop one of those clowns with a fez and a little car next time one drives by. * * * “Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/8 "1999-12-15T20:11:00Z")
Sorry **mr. john** , the fez-and-little-car guys are Shriners, not masons. * * * TT “Believe those who seek the truth. Doubt those who find it.” --Andre Gide ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/9 "1999-12-15T21:15:00Z")
Mrs. Rastahomie’s grandfather is a mason, and let me just tell you he was none too pleased when he heard me express interest in the Loyal Order of the Moose (remember my "Semisilly Men’s Organizations thread from a few months ago?). Anyhoo, you have to be invited. I can make a phone call and you’ll be in like Flynn. Of course, you’ll have to drive to Salem, MO for the meetings. ---
**Author:** ![mr\_john](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8baadc/32.png) [@mr\_john](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mr_john)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/10 "1999-12-15T21:27:00Z")
“Sorry mr john,the fez and little car guys are Shriners,not masons.” Should I tell him or will somebody else? Thufferin,you been taken in by there plot. Shriners ARE masons. * * * “Pardon me while I have a strange interlude.”-Marx ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/11 "1999-12-15T21:43:00Z")
My dad has tried to get me to join the masons. He seemed to imply that you have to be invited to join by another mason. Anyways, he gave me an membership application that I would have to turn in to the lodge I wanted to join. I do not have the application any more, but it did ask if I believed in a higher being, if I had ever been convicted of a felony and some other personal questions. Once you’re accepted in, you have to complete different degrees. The thing that cheesed me off about it is that you have to memorize several pages of questions and answers, and they aren’t even written down! It is against Lodge rules for the degree stuff to be written down, so instead another mason has to coach you on it. Needless to say, that (among other things having to do with masonry) turned me off on the whole experience, and I never did join. You can go to [http://www.ephesians5-11.org](http://www.ephesians5-11.org) to get the questions/answers to the degrees in .pdf form. There are some even some threatening letters from mason on their letters page. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/12 "1999-12-15T22:26:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Thufferin,you been taken in by there plot. Shriners ARE masons They are? Well I’ll be dipped; another blotch of ignorance stamped out every day. At this rate, I’ll be a friggin’ genius in no time. Thanx **mr. john**. 🙂 * * * TT “Believe those who seek the truth. Doubt those who find it.” --Andre Gide ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 1999, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/13 "1999-12-15T23:58:00Z")
After a little research I discovered [How to Become a Mason](http://www.indianamasons.org/join.htm), as well as Shriners and nine other Mason related ogranizations. * * * TT “Believe those who seek the truth. Doubt those who find it.” --Andre Gide ---
**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 1999, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/14 "1999-12-16T00:23:00Z")
Yeah, like this gem: “An applicant, whose petition has been accepted by the lodge, is advised of the date his Entered Apprentice Degree has been scheduled. On that date, following a brief Ritualistic opening, the petitioner is properly prepared and introduced to the lodge. The solemn process is an enlightening experience and the candidate need never worry that embarrassing or compromising situations will arise during this (or any other degree).” Just what does that last sentence mean? ---
**Author:** ![Stephen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/96bed5/32.png) [@Stephen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephen)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 1999, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/15 "1999-12-16T00:28:00Z")
I guess they’re trying to reassure the newbies, that they won’t be stripped to their underwear and paddled. * * * Stephen [Stephen’s Website](http://stephen.fathom.org) Satellite Hunting 1.1.0 visible satellite pass prediction shareware available for download at [Satellite Hunting](http://stephen.fathom.org/sathunt.html) ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 1999, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/16 "1999-12-16T01:11:00Z")
And the “G” in their crest does not refer to a goat in any way. [python]Wouldn’t let ME join, would you? You black-balling bastards! I wouldn’t become a Mason if you got down on your lousy stinking knees and BEGGED me![/python] ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_Bowe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df788c/32.png) [@Doug\_Bowe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_Bowe)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 1999, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/17 "1999-12-16T05:56:00Z")
They’d probably welcome you with open arms. Masons seem to be getting very old in the last few decades. Look at the Shriners. Lottsa grey hair there. ---
**Author:** ![Snappylicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Snappylicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snappylicious)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 1999, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/18 "1999-12-16T06:16:00Z")
My mom’s an Eastern Star type person now. You _can_ be invited, but it’s tough to get in that way. You know you can get in if you’re related to a Freemason or EStar. My mom’s adopted dad was a Freemason I think? I don’t know. I can be inducted once I’m old enough, but it’s too…religiousy to me. * * * **S** n_a **p** p_y ---
**Author:** ![kylen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@kylen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kylen)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 1999, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/19 "1999-12-17T00:05:00Z")
Then how do Job’s Daughters fit in… My girlfriend says she was a member when she was younger, but only got in because her friend’s dad “vouched” for her. ---
**Author:** ![Doctordec](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cdc98d/32.png) [@Doctordec](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctordec)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 1999, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447/20 "1999-12-17T02:05:00Z")
## There’s and organization called Demolay that prepares young men in the mumbo-jumbo and gris-gris of the masonic world. I think their numbers are shrinking… [www.demolay.org](http://www.demolay.org) “Hope is not a method” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-join-the-freemasons/5447.md?page=2)