I’ve heard all kinds of rumors about them, like they worship Baphomet or that you only really learn about what’s really going on after you’ve been accepted at the highest levels.
What are the Freemasons for? Do they do anything? I can’t really tell.
Cecil Adams on What’s the story on Freemasonry?
Some earlier GQ threads:
Depends upon which Rite, in which era.
I don’t think they worship Baphomet. They worship God as The Grand Architect of The Universe, and use as their volume of Holy Law whatever holy book is locally most popular. Religion seems to be a non-issue with them, even though there is a lot of Judeo-Christian symbolism used in their rituals.
Any organization which has a tradition of secrecy is going to run afoul of whatever organized religion is most powerful. For a long time they were banned by the Catholic Church, and Baphomet worship was a stock accusation, also used against the Templars.
The possible connection between the Templars and Masons can be fodder for another thread, one perhaps involving references to tinfoil beanies.
Otherwise, I don’t know much more. If you’re lucky, a friend of The Widow’s Son will happen along to answer you more completely.
Martin
I appreciate your great clankin’ brass balls in calling yourself “Scientologist” around here.
“Bummer of a birthmark, Hal.”
Martin
I don’t even know where to begin. You could start by visiting The Freemason.com. Basically, any story you hear will be untrue. It’s just a fraternal organization. They worship nobody, although you’re supposed to believe in some sort of higher power to be a member, IIRC. I’m sure that requirement varies by temple & nation.
They have 33 degrees. A degree is an initiation ceremony. With the third degree you become a full member. Then you may take more degrees and become a member of a sub-group. The Shriners, for example, have taken (I don’t recall how many) degrees above the three of full membership. The Shriners do Very Good Things, such as maintian children’s burn hospitals which, IIRC, are free to the patients.
Being a member involves regular meetings. There they’ll go through an opening ceremony, conduct business, then a closing ceremony. There may be more ceremonies depending on the occasion. I’m not a mason so I can’t tell you how many ceremonies occur during each meeting. I was a DeMolay, which is basically masonry for boys. A fraternity is basically the same thing as masonry. The masons will then do projects for the community, they’ll have meetings just to socialize, and so on and so forth.
It’s a pretty vanilla sort of thing. All the conspiracy theories are just plain crap. Find out what any fraternal organization does, and that basically is what the masons do, only they have more members and have been at it longer.
I hope that helps. BTW, if you’re ever in Detroit, you can see the only existing statue of George Washington in his masonic regalia.
The Shriners are Masons and they run “burn centers” all around the country. The Masons do a lot of good, but people are suspicious of any secret organization. Thus the rumors.
js: From what I understand, that requirement doesn’t vary at all, no matter where you go. To be a Freemason, as I understand it, one must declare a belief in a higher power.
The Hiram Key by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas.
I believe the Hiram Key is more of a “magician selling tricks” than any actual real arguement. It is pretty far fetched.
To understand masonry you must know its Templar connections, to do this you have two good books in my opinion.
The Temple and the Lodge by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh
Born in Blood by John Robinson.
The first book is by two christian authors who did manage to uncover strong archaelogical evidence of the connection.
The second book is by a Medieval Historican who has a very good argument
A suppliment book is “Dugneon Fire and Sword” by John Robinson, a good history of the Templars.