FAQ's about Masonry
"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.
While there is some variation in detail from state to state and country to country, lodge
rooms today are set up similar to the diagram on the following page.
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.
And 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 can'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.
This is the text of a booklet by the same name produced by The Masonic
Information Center, a division of the Masonic Service association.
|