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What's A Mason? "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." So What is 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:
(We'll look at
some of these things later.)
Who Are Freemasons? Freemasons (or simply Masons) come from all
walks of life. He could be a Doctor, A Lawyer, A Carpenter, A
Bus Driver -- he could be the man next door.
What is 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 and the District of Columbia. 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 budding 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 budding 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. Like many artisans today, stonemasons
centuries ago wore leather aprons to carry their tools-and to
protect themselves from flying chips of stone. This custom was
adopted by the men who became Freemasons. Thus, modem Masons wear a
lambskin or cloth apron, sometimes elaborately decorated or
embroidered, to show their pride in being members of a fraternity
with so long and great a history. 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: The Lodge is the center of these
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 as individuals. They
feel they are not as honest or as charitable or as compassionate or
as loving or as trusting or as well informed as they ought to be.
Masonry reminds its members over and over again of the importance of
these qualities and education. It lets men associate with other men
of honor and integrity who believe that things like honesty,
compassion, love, trust, and knowledge 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 clasps with Masonic emblems like the Square and
Compasses, the best known of Masonic signs which, logically, recall
the fraternity's early symbolic roots in stone-masonry. .Masonic
buildings are dearly 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
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."
Freemasonry got ranked with them. But if Masonry is a secret
society, it's the worst-kept secret in the world. Is Masonry a religion? The answer to that question is simple. No .
We do use ritual in 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 to 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's 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. For example, the gavel teaches the importance
of self control and self-discipline. The hour-glass 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. AR 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 with 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 and Grand
Chaplain, Grand Lodge of Iowa, 1911-1913. 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 fellowman.
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 with
out 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 with out 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 fellowman, 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 information is produced in a booklet
by The Masonic Information Center (MIC). The partially completed C,
containing the Masonic Square and Compasses, stands for "Center."
The C is incomplete because communication, the Center's mission, is
ongoing so long as humankind needs Freemasonry's universal message
of Brotherhood, Relief, and Truth. Those who helped prepare this booklet
deserve special thanks. They are: Jim Tresner, Director of Work,
Guthrie, Oklahoma; Richard E. Fletcher, Executive Secretary, Masonic
Information Center/Masonic Service Association; John W. Boettjer,
Managing Editor, and Jason A. Naughton, desktop publisher, Scottish Rite Journal. 5th Printing To obtain additional copies @ $0.25 each
(PPD); 40% discount in lots of 50 or more copies, plus shipping/
handling, contact: (Note: Prices subject to change)
Masonic Information Center The Masonic Information Center is a
division of The Masonic Service Association. The Center was founded
in 1993 by a grant from John J. Robinson, well-known author,
speaker, and Mason. Its purpose is to provide information on
Freemasonry to Masons and non-Masons alike and to respond to critics
of Freemasonry. The Center is directed by a Steering Committee of
distinguished Masons geographically representative of the Craft
throughout the United States and Canada. |
