What's Freemansonry (AKA Freemason)?

Answer 1

Hi Jake, I will not give you a cut and paste from Wikipedia; although, those are usually pretty good answers. I thought you deserved something a little more personal.

Freemasonry to me is a way of taking already good-hearted people and helping them make themselves better. In my Order, American Co-Masonry, we are Freemasons who admit women and men, of all races, who believe in a Supreme Being (we are not a religion but expect that the person entering does believe in God, whatever they choose to call that Deity), who are tolerant of all races and religions. We take in folks who are of legal age (usually 21 or older) and are of good moral character.

We hold Lodge (meeting) once a month in our Order. Many of us travel quite a distance to get there. I belong to two regular Blue Lodges so I drive 800 miles a month to attend them. That is not the norm but I feel like that is what I need to do right now.

We do rituals, nothing spooky or weird, but every part is aimed at awakening us to become better human beings here on earth. We practice Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth -- not just to each other but to all of humankind. Many of the founders of America were Masons.

If I can answer more of your questions, please feel free to write me directly or to click on the link below.

Best of luck in your search,
A Master Mason

Hiram Lodge (Santa Cruz, CA)
Amon Ra Lodge (Los Angeles, CA)
Sapientia Lodge of Research (Larkspur, CO)
Adamant Mark Lodge (Santa Cruz, CA)

Answer 2

Freemasonry is a fraternity of men who have a common belief in God. The purpose is to take a good man and by giving him responsibilities of leadership and money management make him a better man.

There is no connection between Freemasons and the Elks, the AMORC or the Illuminati. Some members of the masonic fraternity formed the Elks, Odd Fellows, Moose, Eagles and other community groups and have aped the organization of Freemason.

The best way to learn about Freemasonry is to talk to one of the members, like me. You can do that in person by going to a lodge in your community or by looking them up in the telephone book or the Internet. So much for a secret society, eh.

Answer 3

Check out the Rosicrucian Order ( the founders and finders organization of the Rosetta Stone. Free Masons are Stone Masons by definition. Also check out AMORC online www.amorc.com They can give you their whole history in length. It was a secret organization dating back before Solomon they were the stone cutters,engravers and stone masons, that made the pyramids. As you know many of the Architects that built and made the pyramids with the stone placements of secret passages were either killed or their tongues were cut out. They progressed into an organization of power everywhere. And to this date they have over 600 locations of loyal service throughout the world. The Shriners is another name for them, they wear a red felt hat with a tassel, view pics, online of the Shriner Circus. The Elks are an association of the Masons. At one time they had a split in their organization, in Germany during WW11 they were called the Great White Brotherhood, the others were the Opposite. The great white brotherhood are many but are a part of the organization known as the Illuminties. They also have many members in the Fraternity of Yale called the Skulls. They are like the Shadow government everywhere. A covert policy that will adapt to any situation. Cia members, KGB members. They are all over the world.

Answer 4

As I stood on earth I gazed into the Heavens and than I understood.

It's a way of life. However you ask five and you get five different answers back. If you look at some masonic minded books to see the subjects being talked about this will give you a better idea than some cut and dry answer about frat and chairty.

Answer 5

Freemasonry is a fraternal organization whose membership is held together by shared moral and metaphysical ideals and—in most of its branches—by a constitutional declaration of belief in a Supreme Being.[1]

The fraternity of Freemasonry uses the allegorical metaphors of operative stonemasons' tools and implements against the backdrop of the building of the Temple of King Solomon, to convey what is most generally defined as: A peculiar (some say particular or beautiful) system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.[2] This is illustrated in the 1991 English Emulation Ritual.[3]

See below for more.

Answer 6

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What's Freemasonry?



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. According to Masonic historians, it’s earliest beginnings in recorded history date back to 1376 (Mackey’s Masonic Encyclopedia) the reference is to the Masons as stone masons or skilled workers. They worked with rough stones for erecting structures and special edifices. Those that worked on free stone or structures that stood alone, would later be referred to as freemasons. Their craft was so specialized that they developed trade guilds with secret passwords and handshakes to prove membership and skill. This membership allowed them to receive higher wages as they traveled around the world plying their trade.

It would seem most probable that Freemasonry arose from these guilds of stonemasons who built the castles and cathedrals of the Middle Ages. These trade guilds were sought after in every country. There are many documented reports of the freemasons and their contracts for building churches throughout Europe and great and important structures. Some are still standing today, and Masonic symbols are found etched in their construction. 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.

Operative masonry was the use of knowledge and tool to create a structure or edifice. Speculative masonry is when we took those same tools used for the construction and used them as symbols to remind us of the moral lessons and obligations we have to ourselves, one another, and to our creator.

Somewhere along the line, a transition was made from operative to speculative masonry. Still a guild, but it allowed those not skilled in the craft into their membership. It became necessary to carry on the old traditions and knowledge of the guilds. It was not until 1717 that the organization as we know it was formed. There are no lodge records between 1700 and 1717 but we do know that four lodges in 1717 formed the Grand Lodge of England with universal signs and passwords. The evolution process had brought us to what we have today.

Thus, 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.

Let us not forget that Freemasonry was alive and well, in the forming of this great nation. Many of the signers of the "Declaration of Independence" were Masons. The constitution had many Masons in its conception. There are so many Masons important to what America is today that it would take hours to cover who they were and what they did. Here, we will touch upon this topic briefly. 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."