There seems to be a lot of misinformation on this board as to what Freemasonry is and entails so I thought I would create a Q&A thread to answer some questions, as well as provide a brief overview.
Perhaps the most widely used definition of Freemasonry by the fraternity is that, "Freemasonry is a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols". Well this definition is entirely correct it leaves the outsider dumbfounded without much gained from the discourse.
Instead consider the following: masonry started in the stone guilt of Scotland, but whereas our ancient brethren worked upon physical Stone, we are speculative Mason to work on ourselves as living stones, there to fit ourselves for the builders use", before I go any further, that builder being God. Continuing.."we work upon ourselves as living stones, breaking off the rough edges thereof by the use of our working tools, as to shape ourselves into better men. Men who are more moral and ethical then we were the day before. Masonry is a system of moral self improvement, and to that end while I cannot expect another man to have the same morality as I do expect them to have a sense of morality.
What we give men, is a Rite of passage wherein they go through and initiate which is in its essence a morality play based on biblical narratives. In fact we use the King James Bible in our lodges and all of our ritual of our craft is derived there from, with the exception of certain elements that come from our ancient profession however many of those working tools are also mentioned in the Bible. Through this initiation a man becomes a brother and his taken by the hand by a group of men, often more well seasoned and More travel than he, who then proceed to take him under their wing and help him become a better man through mentorship and Masonic education. This should not be confused with the society of favors and boons and we are expressly prohibited from using the membership of another brother of giving us a better deal for their labors or otherwise expecting preferable treatment.
This initiation also impresses upon the candidate certain values in life lessons which if done properly should stay with them for the rest of their life and influence their actions and resolve accordingly. Are modern society is lost a sense of initiary right of passage for young men and we see the consequences of this each and every day as youth and fortunately, often thinking they don't have any other options, go down pass which are often a downward spiral, and often, quite sadly leading to a point of no return.
I must also be clear that we are not the world savior nor do we claim to be nor would we want that burden. -and yet yet Masons tend to be men who have seen much darkness in the world and having some capacity dedicated themselves to bringing just little more light into it, even if it would be a losing battle. Is that is who we are and it is better to fail with ones integrity and values intact than to be jaded and lose your soul.
Do not misunderstand me. We offer no path to salvation nor are we by any means a religion, yeah it is sad that every Masonic Lodge is a temple of religion, as the word religion means bound to/in relationship coming from the Latin religare, and each brother's relationship with their God and they're opening themselves to be guided there by is the light of Masonry.
We do more towards community service and for charity then most organizations that are actually listed as charities, not for the glory of having done a good deed nor for a belief of being saved by works which we are often accused of, but rather simply because we believe it is the right thing to do. We are not listed as a charity we are listed as a fraternity but charity is one of the three principle rungs of Masonry and while it does not save in and of itself, it can bring one to witness of the light.
Q. Can anyone be a mason?
A. No, we are an initiatory mystery tradition and therefore being thus, one must be initiated into Masonry. This does not mean that they cannot read books on masonry and apply that philosophy to their life but until they are initiated into a regular and well governed Lodge, which being sexual have a proper charter in lineage, they are not a brother of the fraternity.
In order to be eligible for initiation, one must be a man, freeborn, off lawful age, of recommendable reputation and reporte , any most professor believe in a supreme Creator deity as no atheist can be made of Mason.
In explaining why no atheist can be made a Mason I will point out and use as an example Alcoholics Anonymous, which was started by a mason. That brother saw that what we do in Lodge worked, helping men become better men, and he applied that format where appropriate to help people with their substance abuse addictions. Just as alcoholics anonymous uses your belief in a higher power to help you through substance abuse, so does masonry use your belief in a supreme Creator deity to help mold and shape you into a better man. It is how our system works, the fuel that runs the engine of Masonry.
Q: Do Masons Gatekeep Knowledge?
A: the only knowledge we have gatekeep is the experience of our rituals and how said rituals are put together. Our rituals are based on the King James Bible and a Renaissance education and there is nothing within them that is unknown to the rest of humanity, though they might be very esoteric points of interest today and that's not known by many. We I have no knowledge of the world that you cannot find at your local library, well that you can't find at a University library, and have no knowledge of any scandal that would give cars to the history books to be rewritten. If you look at the back of a Coca-Cola bottle you will see a list of ingredients which are made public so that you can make an informed choice upon your health. Within this list of ingredients there is absolutely nothing you are unable to look up in a Merc index or Google. That is to say, with all of those ingredients are known to man at large know the names and chemical structures of those chemicals may not ring a bell to the layman's everyday understanding. The only thing secret about that bottle of Coca-Cola is the exact ratios of those ingredients in the process by which they are put together to create the product that is the experience of that Coca-Cola bottle. Masonry is no different as while we are not a brand trying to sell a product, nobody wants to join your mystery tradition or go see your movie when they already know what's going to happen. So, yes, we gate keep that experience for that reason and also so we don't have the wrong sorts of people coming into masonry which would compromise the whole operation. Gatekeeping is not a bad word and it is absolutely vital to maintaining an ongoing living tradition. It used to be that we called it vetting or vouching and this was understood to be necessary.
Q. Can women be made masons.
Not within any legitimate large or Grand Lodge jurisdiction, No. It is actually against our landmarks and core principles to do so and no grandmaster can undermine this ancient landmark. The reason for this is that Masonry is centered around a ceremonial drama that gets it the nature of what it is to be a man, what is expected of you as a man in society and how to earn your wages. It was written in a light of a man's experience and to promote bonding among brethren and it is so in crucially important for men to have male only spaces to facilitate that sort of brotherhood. It is psychologically healthy for us and should come under no fire that the Red Hat Society for Woman or the various and numerous women support groups groups do not.
We do have sisters, most of which who are members of the Order of The Eastern Star which is from a women's perspective being based on the five heroines of the Bible. There is also Amaranth, White Shrine, Daughters of the Nile, Daughters of the Moakanna, and S.O.O.B. among others.
We also have youth groups: Order of demolay for boys and young men and Rainbows, Jobs Daughters and Triangle girls for girls and young women.
Q. Does Freemasonry recruit?
A. We have an ethic of not recruiting and yes it has hurt our membership and an era where most people don't actually interact as a community anymore aside from the community chatter page on Facebook. It is a real challenge and we're exploring how to be seen in our communities while also sticking to our time honored values and traditions, but no we don't recruit. In fact a truth be told we don't feel very comfortable doing it because again it goes against our very ethic and culture. So unless it's your own father asking you when you're finally going to do the thing because it runs in the family, and mind you we don't have legacies you are not a shoe in just because your father or grandfather was a mason, you aren't going to be asked to be a mason. You have to approach a Mason about seeking initiation. That's how it works.
Q. Do Masons practice Magic?
A. Freemasonry is a mystery tradition not a magical tradition so the answer there is a blatant no. You will not be taught in masonry how to do magic. Most Brothers don't even have any idea what an egregore is. I suppose when making a mason, if you were conscious of the egregore Freemasonry were actively trying to impress that upon the psyche of the candidate you might argue that that is nearing if not a magical formula. However being a mystery tradition what you actually do in the ritual is create the right conditions for the Edgar Gordon symbolism of Freemasonry to be impressed upon the candidate in a more natural setting and means with a degree of passivity upon your part as to not influence him so much as to ingrain your own interpretation of the unfolding mysteries. You are being brought into something and you were receiving it, but you were left to explore and come to terms of what you find as per your own journey.
That having been said if you are a magician, especially a ceremonial magician, learning the skills to be a competent ritualist in Masonry will greatly aid you in your ceremonial Magic. That just stands to reason.
Q. Is there any Qabbalah in Masonry?
The short answer is no. Freemasonry is not a Qabalistic tradition though as it emerged out of a Christian culture and Christianity has both Roman and Jewish roots, we do share certain imagery found in Qabbalah by virtue of that imagery being pertinent to the Old Testament. The ott's gym or tree of life for example is nowhere found in Masonry as an official teaching or curriculum. We also have to understand that at the time, when Freemasonry was coming into its own, we had a revival of Hermeticism and other philosophies, and because at the time, most people could not read or write, they used common pictorial symbolism to represent certain concepts and talking points within their field for profession. Think of it this way, in comparison to a modern PowerPoint slideshow though I might have just dated myself. And the slideshow you have bullet points which briefly list talking points that the speaker will then use as a guide reminding him what to pontificate upon next. Hermeticism, Alchemy, Freemasonry and even the Qabbalah of the time, all you used the same common images such as the sun and the moon and so forth to be emblematic of certain teaching they had although they taught different things in regards to these symbols and employ them in a different way within the context of their institutions and traditions. In short people used symbols instead of words to communicate.
The more complicated answer is that Albert Pike was quite enamored with Qabbalah and his writings, including his rituals, may or may not include material he got from that tradition. It is very hard to say for sure because on the one hand while it is probable given his interest, none of the examples are mutually exclusive to Qabbalah and could have just as easily come from other sources contemporary to his time and access. Therefore we are dealing not with absolutes but with probabilities and regardless Freemasonry does not teach a Qabalistic theology, cosmology or framework. In fact it has nothing to say in regards to theology or cosmology save for it sold Dogma being a belief in a supreme Creator God.
Q. Is Freemasonry Hermetic?
A. See the previous question regarding shared imagery sets. The short answer again is No Freemasonry is not a Hermetic institution. However there were branches and movements within Freemasonry yet one point in time that believed one of the Central and key figures of our mythos was one in the same with Hermes. There are some interesting things that beg the question but it cannot be proven one way or the other and the Freemasonry doesn't tend to dwell on it. Freemason repair is very well with her medicine but in and of itself it does not have any teaching regarding the Divine Nous, any nous or any core teaching of Hermeticism. It is actually far more related to Rosicucianism and if you see any kind of alchemical imagery, which you won't see anything it is traditionally exclusive to Alchemy unless you're going through the Scottish Rite, it will be because of rosicrucian influence not Hermetic influence - with the caveat of the influence of individual brothers who may have been Hermeticists.
Q. Who is the god of Masonry?
A. There is no God of Masonry and you are never asked to believe in a specific God, you are only required to believe in a god who is supreme and some kind of architect of creation. The details and specifics of this and your cosmology are left to you and the god that you believe in will likely be the god of your own religious or faith background or to whatever sense of spirituality you have come to later in life. See masonry has this radical position that it is not our place to come between any man and God and we will not do so. Your relationship to God is between you and God. In fact it is very unlikely that you will even be questioned as to the specific details of minutia of your belief. You will likely be simply asked if you believe in God and that answer will be taken upon the honor system. This is a sacred trust within Freemasonry, well putting our trust in God that it is said that he does work in mysterious ways. It is also been an issue for us because there have been individuals who have joined the fraternity under false pretenses or in the twisting of interpretation of their views in order to get in. What I can say is that is on their honor and character and not ours and we do our best to rectify these situations.
Q. I heard that once you get to x degree you find out your worshiping Lucifer.
A. Lucifer is not relevant to Masonry. That entity does not exist in any of our rituals or ceremonies. People often quote a passage from page 321 of Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike out of context. In this passage they snippet Lucifer the light bearer. What the passage actually says is, "the apocalypse is to those of the 19th degree, the apotheosis of that sublime faith, which strives to God alone and despises all the pomps and works of Lucifer. Lucifer, the light bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the spirit of darkness! Lucifer, Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the light, and with its splendors and intolerable, blinds feeble, sensual and selfish souls? Doubt it not".
What bike is saying here is that the Prince of darkness does not deserve such a beautiful name as Lucifer we'll just prior stating that and no uncertain terms Freemasonry despises Lucifer. He then goes on to say Lucifer's is either the false light or that he distorts otherwise abuses the light to Blind instead of enlighten. When he talks of sensual souls he is talking about those who are overcome and reveling in the world if you denial or blindness of the true spirit, that is to say, the worldly, and in particular the merely worldly.
Now Albert Pike was a Christian who lived in the 1800s and if memory serves he was a Presbyterian. He is clearly talking about the Christian conception of Lucifer not the Roman Lucifer who has been mightily misaligned. He is clearly talking to a Christian audiences even now most Masons are Protestant Christians. It is also very unlikely that he could have known that the use of the word Lucifer in the KJV was due to a poor translation from the Latin Vulgate. You see Lucifer was never supposed to be part of Christian scripture. St. Jerome had Helel ben Shahar changed to Lucifer as a smear campaign against St. Lucifer. Yes, there was a St. Lucifer. If you read the book of Isaiah it will tell you that it is referring to the King of Babylon. Now of course you will not find a king of Babylon named Helel and that was not his name. Helel was the god of Babylon, their view of the planet Venus. As Venus rises in the sky it is overcome by the light of the sun before it can reach the highest point and this has been interpreted as one or more other gods casting Lucifer out of the heavens. It is from this that the Christian story of Lucifer's fall is derived. This change in Scripture was a momentous turning point in Christianity because Satan which was a title just meeting adversary was also associated with this newfound Lucifer and the fall from the grace of God of certain angels was then taken to represent a premeditated rebellion in heaven. This led to the publication of numerous catalogs of the ranks of the infernal army such as the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum. This also led to rampant and widespread fear which was capitalized on for political and financial reasons, waiting to the witch hunts in certain books such as a Discovery of Witchcraft. Even by Pike's time, fear and superstition of witchcraft, well not typically resulting in mobs with pitchforks, we're still very much common place and we see many folk remedies and works to combat the work of the devil.
Q. So can a Luciferian be a Mason?
A. If their conception of Lucifer is the Christian conception of Lucifer the answer is going to be a hard and emphatic No.
-and the truth of the matter is that they are probably going to spook the brethren who are likely Protestant Christian and not get in. Well we are not supposed to let our own personal religious positions dictate our votes for candidacy, this will in this instance happen without the brother even though they are being biased because it is so ingrained into the fiber of their being.
If they are referring to the Roman God of enlightenment, the conversation becomes far more nuanced.
You must Believe in a supreme Creator Deity in order to take your Obligation as a Mason. It cannot be believed by you to have been a created being. Being Supreme it must be the utmost with nothing beyond or higher than it.
Now a belief in Lucifer is not the same as taking your obligation in the name of Lucifer. You could take your obligation in the name of God which you do believe in, and work with Lucifer as a patron in your own personal practice what you do at your own time and by your own mileage and results. So the question we are really looking at is, can Lucifer be seen as a supreme being under which you can then take your obligation.
The short and simple answer is that Lucifer is not depicted as a Supreme being. He emerged as a fusion of Hermes and Apollo, neither of which are transcendent gods, and his mother is given as Aurora, the dawn. And some accounts his father is given as being the four winds. That would put him post creation. However being the god of enlightenment if you believe he came into being when the first being became enlightened of itself you could argue that if not a Supreme being he would be pretty darn close coming into existence when God realized that God was God. Perhaps God being omniscient always knew that God was God but you see the argument.
We can come to the conclusion that no, a belief in Lucifer is not sufficient in and of itself to be made of Mason.
However we must be very careful in this ruling and what it means for our heathen brethren. Odin is not depicted as a Supreme being. He is The offspring of a giantess and a God that is so subject to the laws of this temporal world. He can be harmed and even lost an eye although granted by his own hand. So how do heathen brethren reconcile this with the requirements of Masonry. Well some believe that when Odin made that sacrifice and became enlightened, having received the ruins, that this was no different than receiving the word and becoming one with God.
That is fair, but this is not what their ancestors believe to know it and so if it is more important with their personal belief in a relationship with Odin is then how Odin is typically depicted in the religion then we must look at how a brother personally sees Lucifer in their own personal theology and not to how he is depicted in a culture or depiction that the brother may not even agree with. But we should not try to redefine traditions that are not ours it is perfectly fine to have a different interpretation of our spiritual experiences in our ancestors would have had. There really isn't anything else to say on the matter.
Q. Can a Satanist be made a Mason?
Satanism is an atheistic movement conceived of, and coined by Anton LaVey. As no atheist can be made a mason Satanism in and of itself will not give you the qualifications to be made a Mason. Now that having been said even though Satanism is an atheistic movement and their own website says that you must be an atheist to be a Satanist, what LaVey actually said was that if you were going to believe in a God believe in that God which has utility to you and helps you grow or otherwise attain your aims as a person. That's what they took a very utilitarian approach to God and I don't know that I can say that it was worshiping and therefore what he's talking about would qualify. It's certainly makes one's got a god of convenience. That said levay did not forbid belief in God and did not dictate that you should agree with his views on selecting a god to believe in.
So while satanism is absolutely atheist, going by Levay's ridings you could be atheist and also a Satanist, you just cannot profess that Satanism is theistic.
Therefore again we have to look at the personal beliefs and worldview of the candidate in question. Satanism will not not satisfy the requirement but some theistic belief held simultaneously, might.
I want to stress that I have never known a brother who is let into Masonry after professing Satanism but I, in the name of integrity, am playing devil's advocate. However, I would be remiss if I did not point out that the tenants of satanism, which are actually pretty solid and how they treat other people, or otherwise considered incompatible with the teachings of Freemasonry. This being because Satanism revels in the human animal and embraces the carnal nature of man, being of course a cathartic counterculture to the Christian purity culture of the 50s and 60s and prior. Freemasonry is very much an organization rooted and giving yourself to the light of God and being in service to your creator which then leads you to Civic service within his creation. They just have two completely different frames and I would say that your Freemasonry is going to hinder your Satanism in your Satanism is going to hinder your Freemasonry such that well I don't see it wrong to experience both in your lifetime I would not recommend trying to do both at the same time. I think that is a fair take.
Q. Can a Wiccan be made of Mason?
A. Possibly! If you believe in a god and goddess that are co-equal neither one of them is supreme and that would rule you out if you would not be able to meet the qualification. However if you believed in the dry and you absolutely could provided you meet the other requirements.
Q: can a Buddhist be made a Mason?
A. Again, possibly, depending on whether that Buddhist religious and spiritual views allow him to meet the requirements. We do not discriminate based on religion but your religious background will either allow you to meet the requirements of masonry where it will not. Buddha never taught for or against an Atman and therefore never gave a definitive answer for or against the existence of the Brahman. In fact there is a famous story where a man, believing in God, could hardly function because he was worried of God always looking over his shoulder, came to Siddhartha for insight. Siddhartha said to this man that no God does not exist. Another man who believed God did not exist and that there were no consequences for his actions asked to Darth the same question regarding the existence of God and Siddartha said to him that God did exist. That man, in turn, became concerned in regards to his actions and shaped up. What was the Buddha playing at? His teachings focused more on the needs of this life and how to avoid suffering in this life. The man who had believed in God could barely function and was in suffering because of his attachment to his conception of God. Likewise the man who did not believe in God was also suffering because of the attachments to his habits and thus God was offered as a locus, I'll be at arguably and external one.
One could even argue that Buddhism is not a religion because it is not based in a relationship to a God. However, while we in the west typically like to distinctly categorize things and specific boxes nothing exists in a vacuum and in the East Buddhism is well admixed with Hinduism, traditional Chinese medicine, and is even found its way to Japan where it becomes add mixed with practices like Shinto. In fact we should not forget that Buddhism comes out of a Vedic and therefore Hindu culture. Not only did the Buddha not say that the Brahmin did not exist or did exist, he said that was a question for the religious priest of the community. Freemasonry a similar view as well it does not take a utilitarian approach to God and that one's belief must be sincere and well founded, it does likewise leave religious matters up to religions and does not attempt to speak for, usurp or undermine any religion. Freemasonry is not a substitute for religion, it works in concert with your religious faith.
Q. Are you the Illuminati?
A. No, the Illuminati was shut down and 1784 and when it did exist, we did not get along with them. They store imagery and reputation and even operated out of a building that used to be in the Sonic Lodge and this is why a number of people even still today are under the belief that they infiltrated us even though they never did infiltrate any Masonic government. The founder did attain to the degree of fellow craft and certain individuals who had either already been kicked out of Masonry or otherwise thought the allure of the Illuminati, joined it instead.
Q. What is the highest degree?
A. The highest degree of Freemasonry is that of the third degree bearing the title Master Mason. For the most part which one has attained this degree they are told everything that has been conveyed to us through tradition about the story of our origins end of going through the stone guilds. They also have voting rights and complete transparency within the craft Lodge system. Now I save for the most part because there are certain elements that due to space and the evolution of the degrees, what's taken out and put into the Mark Master. There is also a degree called the past master degree which is an officer's degree pertaining to lessons on how to govern a lodge. These things encapsulate the full craft Lodge system and the Royal Arch degree, the original 4th degree, provides a sequel which offers a resolution to certain cliffhanger narratives.
Today the mark master and Royal arts degrees are conferred by independent body called the York right chapter. Degrees of independent bodies are considered on the level or parallel to the third degree and cannot, buy Masonic law, convert any more authority then a Grand Lodge which again is based in the Craft Lodge system. So for example while the mark master degree is now under the jurisdiction of the Royal Arch chapter and within said chapter it is the entry degree where in the Royal arts degree is the highest conferring full voting rights within that body, neither are higher than the third degree of The Craft Lodge because no independent body can rise higher in authority then the craft Lodge and they shall only be considered masonry and so far as they are built upon the foundation of and recognized by a craft Lodge system that is properly chartered in lineage.
The degrees of the independent bodies of the York and Scottish Rite, then get into the events of history coming after the biblical narrative of the first temple, notably the building of the second temple and the Chivalric era of Christian knighthood. The Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, even has degrees pertaining to events and U.S. all expressing various lessons that be can be learned from set events.
Q. Do you come from the knights Templar?
A. Even as Masons we cannot prove that. Our Lord says that the Templars found certain accounts of the original builders of King Solomon's Temple in the ruins thereof and when the Catholic Church betrayed them they had found refuge in our Stone guilds where they conveyed that story unto us. Does it was said that this was a catalyst which propelled us from your operative masonry to the speculative philosophical masonry of today. However, other accounts credit the rosicrucians for being this catalyst. While the rosicrucians, had a remarkable impact upon Freemasonry, Freemasonry had already shown signs of becoming speculative some 200 years or more prior to Rosicrucianism being heard of.
The biggest issue with the claim that the Templars conveyed to us our current law and story is that our ritual was not always based on the legend that it is now. Prior to this it was based in the story of Noah and there is even a degree called the Noah kite degree still preserved within the Allied Masonic Degrees that is based in this system.
What I can tell you is this: the Templars were betrayed in seeking refuge in the early the Templars were betrayed and seeking refuge in the early 1300s. Our earliest reference to a speculative Freemasonry was in 1390. That is a mere 100 years. There was also a former Templar stronghold close by to where Freemasonry was started in Scotland. Now I do not know whether a member of those first guilds ever shook the hand of a Templar or talked to them about their discoveries. However The lure of the local area would have been full of Templar stories at the time and this no doubt would have influenced a fledgling and establishing mystery tradition who would have drawn from their roots and local law to establish their identity. So yes I believe there is a connection but it may not be the connection that most are hoping for.
