What is Freemasonry?

The questions remain: What are Masons? What do they do and what benefits do Masons obtain through their fellowship in this Order? What draws men to membership in a "secret" society? What are the origins of Masonry?

Let me start by explaining what first drew me to the order. I began my journey on the Path of Enlightenment over 25 years ago. About the same time I got involved in an outstanding youth group that happened to be sponsored by Freemasonry: the Order of DeMolay. There weren't any Masons in my family, nor were any of our family friends overtly involved in the order. (Even after I was raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason, and started asking around, only one family friend ended-up being a Mason.) My long association with the Order of DeMolay (seven years) gave me a splendid view of Masons and their good works. Their non-denominational approach to religion allowed me to explore alternative (read: non-Christian) faiths and never be false to myself or my vows. After college (and much experimentation with drugs and falling in with the wrong crowd) I decided that maybe being a Mason would be a good way to get business contacts. The good gentlemen who answered my questions about the Order were serious and very earnest in their desire to make themselves better men. I feel this was a very fortunate step for me. The initiations were quite profound and I quickly learned that Masonry is not a glorified forum for networking. My life was substantially changed for the better and the changes have never stopped. I have been a Mason for 20 years, and all along no one has ever presumed to tell me how to believe in God. My path has taken me deep into Wicca, Taoism, Druidism, Shamanism, Zen, Gnosticism, and Sufism. Recently I have returned to a primarily Christian approach, which has been vividly colored by all of the other places and states of mind that I have visited. I know who I am, and my Path before me is clear, though still quite difficult and uphill all the way. (That never seems to change!) I am a happy man, happily married with a wonderful family, and Masonry has played an integral role in helping me retain my focus and momentum. Enough about me. It is my purpose here to talk about Masonry.

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So, after all of that, what exactly is Freemasonry? Masonry is a private men's organization. The requirements for membership include believing in one true God, being old enough to understand commitment and responsibility, being young enough to retain one's mental faculties, and a belief that one's conduct determines one's destiny. Our vows are serious and indissoluably bind us to each other as brothers. We promise to be moral, ethical, and to support our brothers explicitly (murder and treason excepted). We swear to come to the relief of any worthy destitute Brother or his family (without injury to our family or ourselves). I would trust almost any Mason with my checkbook and even the care of my children. We swear to treat everyone as we wish to be treated ourselves. All of our vows are taken before God and our Brothers, and the symbolic penalties for breaking them are a rather gruesome array of horribly painful deaths.
Masonry is not a religion. It is not a substitute for religion. We demand a belief in God in order that we might know our Brother's vows are sincere, by holding them and their actions accountable to a higher power. For this reason atheists cannot be Masons. Masonry is not a cult. We insist on free-thinking and don't dictate ways to believe. We are not a "secret society", rather we are a society with secrets. Around 1720, when the Masons in England declared their existence (among other things), the organization went from secret to merely secretive. Our secrets are simply a few words, signs, and symbols whereby we might identify each other. Many have asked me why we have secrets at all? I like to explain that our teachings are some of the most important and valuable things in our lives. Like anyone who has something valuable (the Hope Diamond, several hundred shares in Microsoft, etc.) we take measures to keep the thing safe and secure. Instead of a bank vault or electronic security system, we lock our valuables away in the repository of our faithful hearts.
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So, what do we do? In our meetings, we reaffirm our vows and commitments through formal ritualized ceremonies. We also conduct business. What business? We organize fundraising activities for the various charities that we sponsor, we vote to accept or reject new candidates for the degrees of Masonry, and work to make ourselves better men and Masons. Additionally, under the sponsorship of Freemasonry, there are a number of social organizations that we have the opportunity to join. Among these are the York Rite bodies, the Scottish Rite, and the Shrine. There are several women's groups as well, the best known of these is the Order of Eastern Star. I have already mentioned the good works of the Order of DeMolay for young men, but there is also the Order of Job's Daughters and the Order of Rainbow for Girls. While the function of the youth groups is to lay strong foundations for good adults, and Eastern Star and the first three degrees of Masonry are focused on doing good and being better, the social organizations exist more for our own pleasure and desires to do good works in the community and the strong fellowship that accompanies these projects. Most of the social orders claim to offer further enlightenment and better opportunities to work for the community, and to a greater of lesser extent they all actually deliver. Each of the social orders have their own "pet" charity that they raise funds for. The Shrine has the Hospitals, the Knights Templar have the Eye Foundation, and the Tall Cedars of Lebanon (who have been giving to MD since long before the Telethon) was the very first organization to present Jerry Lewis with a check.
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There have been many allegations that we are nothing but a glorified "good ole boy" network dedicated to perpetuating our own interests by discluding non-Masons from our business dealings. It's obvious that an amount of networking does take place, though that is far from the purpose of our Order. To illustrate this point I would ask you how many times you have heard this statement "I got it/heard about it/know him from Church." There are even well-publicized assertions that Freemasonry is in reality a conspiracy to undermine our nation and its economy by controlling entire industrial blocs with our nearly unlimited riches. This Illuminati concept is truly ridiculous and I am chuckling at it even as I type these words. For those who go in for that kind of conspiracy theory/X-files/paranoia approach, and believe we are in any way un-American, I would urge them to consider some of our more prominent members: George Washington, Paul Revere, Sam Adams, Ben Franklin, and John Hancock. And later in our country's history: Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman, Douglas MacArthur, and both Bob Dole and Jack Kemp. Even media moguls: Red Skelton, Ernest Borgnine, and John Wayne. (How can anyone say that John Wayne is un-American?) I rest my case...
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This brings me to why men are attracted to this organization and others. Like the Kiwanis, Lions, Elks, Odd Fellows, and hundreds of others, we are groups that gather in fellowship. The much maligned Promise Keepers are a non-denominational answer to the need in men to gather together. Even the Knights of Columbus, whose charity work is almost unparalleled, is a benevolent brotherhood based on the same sense of comradeship. The concept is this: Men of like ideas gathering together to share a sense of unity and fellowship. Comedians (and others who might consider themselves witty) have had great fun by bemoaning something called "male-bonding". Humor aside, all men feel the need to associate amongst themselves. Most professionals in the psychology fields readily agree with this assertion. My point is this: Since we feel the need to gather, why don't we occupy ourselves by working to become better men, and improving the quality of life for our families and others less fortunate? This is the contemporary raison d'etre for Freemasonry. What defies explanation is what was the original purpose of our Order? This purpose is unfortunately veiled in the mysterious origins of Masonry.
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One of the largest bones of contention about our order is the nature of its origins. Masons have tradition- ally traced their roots to the building of King Solomon's Temple. In fact, a large part of our "secret" work revolves around the legendary "Master Architect" of the Temple, a fellow named Hyram (or Huram) Abiff. This person is mentioned in the Bible as the one who forged the bronze sea and the two huge bronze pillars which stood at the entrance to the Temple. Hyram along with King Solomon and King Hyram of Tyre, were the three legendary principals (or Masters of the Work) in the building of the Temple. Hyram was brutally murdered by some of the Temple workers hoping to obtain certain secrets pertaining to being a Master, which would enable them to travel to other kingdoms to earn their fortunes as Master Masons. According to tradition, this story was passed down through the craftsmen and artificers and formalized into a symbolic ritual. During the Middle Ages, the very influential Builders' and Masons' Guilds began to invite royalty and others of society's elite to be Guild members not in an "operative" sense (because the creme de la creme didn't actually know how to build), but in a "speculative" one only. Eventually the Renaissance saw engineering become a formal science and the guild system collapse. The memberships of these secret guilds decided to announce their existence and continue speculatively only for the benefit of society and their fellow humans. The year was 1717.
There is another theory gaining in popularity among the membership of our order. Distinguished Masonic and non- Masonic scholars (like John J. Robinson, the author of "Born in Blood" and "Dungeon, Fire and Sword" and Baigent and Leigh who wrote "The Temple and the Lodge" and "Holy Blood, Holy Grail") [These books are reviewed elsewhere in my pages.] have found evidence indicating the real roots of Masonry lie in the mysterious demise of the wealthy and powerful crusading order of the Knights of the Temple of Jerusalem (the Knights Templar). On Friday October 13th in 1307, greedy Philip the IV of France (ably assisted by the corrupt Pope Clement the V) arrested, and seized the property, of the "entire" Order of the Temple in France, on trumped-up charges of heresy. Philip apparently arrested only a token force (among them the last Grand Master of the Order, Jacques de Molay) and was unable to find the fleet of ships full of money and treasure that was commonly known to be in the Templars' possession. Other countries in Europe didn't comply as quickly or efficiently with the Pope's order of excommunication and arrest, so the lion's share of the membership of the order simply disappeared. Under the capable tutelage of the Spanish Inquisition ("No one expects the....." Sorry.) during the next five years, several heinous confessions were coerced out of the captured Templars (figure the odds). Meanwhile in England, Edward Longshanks had been having a few problems with this insignificant little commoner named William Wallace. Longshanks croaked (to the joy of millions) just a few months before Philip's gambit in France. His son, Edward the II (the first Queen of England), really admired those nice, handsome, young Templars firmly ensconced in his Kingdom. So he rather left them be. Meanwhile, Robert the Bruce, who had been excommunicated as well, was busying himself with wresting the Kingdom of Scotland away from the weak Edward II. A few months before Eddie was soundly trounced by the Scots forces at a little place called Bannockburn (there are rumors of an unidentified, seasoned fighting-force that entered the fray to turn the tide of battle Robert's way), Jacques de Molay had recanted all of his confessions and was burned (martyred) at the stake. So what does Bob and Ed have to do with Jack's gangstas and their troubles with Phil and Clem? The theory is that the Templars escaped to Scotland, bought some land, and settled down as petty lairds who really knew how to fight. These guys maintained their organization to help other knights who had been likewise excommunicated, and over the next 400 years evolved into "modern" Freemasonry. Is this why Masonry is widely hated and shunned by the largest and most dominant denomination of Christianity and certain other fundamentalist religious groups? Because Masonry is derived from an underground support network for excommunicated crusaders? It gives one pause to think. I have recently read the best answer to all of the naysayers and muck-rakers. John J. Robinson (in his last book before becoming a Mason himself) takes great pleasure in picking apart the arguments against Masonry in his fine book "The Pilgrim's Path". I recommend it to everyone as a treatise against propagandizing as well as a vindication of my beloved organization.
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