masons/ free masonary - who are they?

Question

is it a cult? if no..why r they closed?

Answer 1

Freemasons are a fraternity "men only" There is also a female version called the Eastern Star. They have three appendent bodies the York Rite, Scottish Rite, and Shriners. Masons raise money for charity providing millions of dollars a day to various charities and it costs about 8 million a day to run a Shriners hospital where a child is treated at no charge. A society of secrets rather than a secret society all our rituals are plastered all over the Internet. But our grips,keys, and tokens are kept as secret as possible in the information age.

Answer 2

I am a Master Mason. I am suprised that anyone would think that we are closed, because men join everday. The thought that Masons could be a cult is an udderly ridiculous bend on the very definition of the word. Masons do not require any man to be religious, and there are no religious ceremonies that are practiced. Once you take the word "religion" out of the definition, then it is no longer the definition of a cult.

I know there are people here who have given you huge sources of evidence on the history of Free Masonry, but none have actually used that evidence to make a compelling argument with it. The only thing that has happened is that people are speaking about things that they do not know, are are trying to impose their impressions without any connective thought pattern that would demonstrate their point.

Masonry is the oldest and largest fraternity in the world who take good men and make them better men for the purpose of truth, relief, and brotherly love. Masons practice charity to the extent of millions of dollars a day to children and families. One of such charities is the Shriner's Children Hospital that provides free medical care to children. And this is all done because Masons are good men who desire to help.

It seems at times that people cannot see the trees for the forest. The only reason that this happens with Masonry is because people get hung up on thinking that the "secrets" are so evil that some huge conspiracy is going on. Yeah, there is a conspiracy...I conspire with other Masons to provide charity to children and families. And we do so without asking for anything in return. I doubt any cult would be that generous.

Now, I could go further with an analogy to show how silly people sound when defaming the Masons...I believe it is a conspiracy that a cult of fact-naysayers are defaming our good will. I know it sounds silly, but it is just an illustration that should help you see things from another perspective.

We take good men and make them better men. We do not tell these men what religious beliefs they are going to follow. A member can belong to any religion he so desires.

Answer 3

Who are the Masons? They are the most distinguished members of your community. They are your doctors, lawyers, judges, policemen, firemen, teachers, truck drivers and all the ones you see every day manning the polls on election day, marching in parades on holidays, answering the fire alarm and helping to keep our country as the founders expected.

Masons are not a cult. Do not worship demons. Many pastors are and have been Free Masons. Masons are the men of charity who operate the Shriner's Hospitals and build retirement homes for their aged. Masons operate the schools for Dyslexic Children and never take a nickle is exchange for their services.

Masons never ask anyone to join them. The world lined up at their not so secret doors since 1717. They advertise in the Yellow Pages and on the Internet. Their signs are found at the entrance to most communities and you they have well marked buildings. Most members have lapel pins and badges on their cars.

If you want to be one just ask one.

Answer 4

"Masonry -vs.- FreeMasonry"; both terms are the same thing
"Cult"; any religious group that practicing non-mainstream beliefs.
By this definition the 'Masons' are not a cult, see below.

They draw their lineage from an supposedly unbroken line of membership that comes directly from a person named 'Hiram Abiff' that was a designer of the Pyramids of Egypt.

In reality there are basically three 'points in time' where they can somewhat prove they existed. Hiram Abiff cannot be 'proven'.
1310- Scotland "Masons" first appear and establish 'Temples'
1600's- small Lodges begin forming all across Europe
1717- England; where the first Grand Lodges form

This may or may not be connected to the disappearance of the Knights Templars in 1307. Records no longer exists showing any history back past 1717 for any Freemason group. The only group that claims anything further back in time draws from records which are not considered 'real' themselves.

The Knights Templar disappeared in 1307 with an estimated 2500 cubic meters of gold from Paris France alone. That gold has never been seen again and COULD have been used to begin founding the Mason 'Temples' in Scotland, England and Ireland. Until this time no records of 'Masons' show their existence, and prior to this time all Knight Templar holdings were known simply as 'Temples'. The Knight Templar themselves are formed in 1118 in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Earl of Louth in 1341 led a group of what were said to be Templar Knights into the Battle of Bannockburn. Although the Earl did lead knights into this Battle and it did turn the tide of the battle, the fact that they were Masons was probably added in the 1700's.

"Grand Lodges" are the National movements
'Grand Lodge of England' formed in 1717 in London
'Grand Lodge of Ireland' formed in 1725
'Grand Orient de France' formed in 1728
'Grand Lodge of Scotland' formed in 1736
'Grand Lodge of America' considered & rejected in 1777

A schism happened during the Revolutionary War over the right of the Colonies to declare independence. After that 'break-up' two groups coalesced; the 'Ancients' and the 'Moderns'. The Ancients backed the Crown of England and the Moderns backed the right of the American Colonies. During this War, there was a series of conflicts where Masonry in England was actually forbidden as the Crown could not tell one side from the other. Much of the accumulated books in the Lodges were burned or lost. The FreeMasonry movement continued and re-created the documents over the course of the next 50 years from memory.

Answer 5

I am so glad you asked. The're a secret society. There is an exorteric lodge, most of whom are the local masons that have not much of a clue of anything. They also have and esoteric or secret inner lodge, of men who worship Lucifer. The masonic lodge is the thread that connects all secret societies and are carrying out Lucifer's plan for a new world order. The good news is they are about as close to the NWO as they are ever going to be and they will never accomplish this though they may appear to be close. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the reason they will not succeed. At the end where we are now it looks like the witness of Christianity is dead, however there is a remnant, albeit a small one that still exist and fear the Lord. Satan is conspiritorial by nature and he has an army of men who conspire with him for worldy gain. If you want to hear the true gospel preached by a former witch and an expert on the occult, check the link.

Answer 6

I am a Freemason of the esoteric Order, American Co-Masonry. We do our best to keep alive the ancient mystery schools.

Some believe Freemasons come from stone masons. Some will tell you we come from Knights Templar. No one knows for sure.

What I can tell you is that our Order takes men and women (yes, we have women in Co-Masonry degrees, not in Eastern Star) of 21 years or older, who believe in a Supreme Being, of all races, who are tolerant of all religions and races, who wish to improve the world by improving themselves.

We are not a social club. We are not a place of fundraising (although we do give liberally to good causes) and dining. We are about morality and change.

We take for our lessons the symbols of the ancient stone masons because changing the behavior of an adult is as hard as molding stone. We do not have dogma, we have speculation. We are free, freemasons.

We are not a religion. We allow Christians, Jews, Moslems, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, Taoists, etc. into our Lodges. We leave religious & political differences aside. We work for the betterment of humanity in this world.

Our leaders are elected for one year terms. We do not demand a member give up family, job or church. In fact, we rather expect them to become better at all of those. Hardly cult-like behavior.

Why are we closed? We are closed to atheists, to intolerant folks, to felons, slaves to drugs or other things. Sorry, but that is how we are. We in American Co-Masonry want to take good people and make them better. If you wish to apply, or to learn more, please click on the link below. If I can be of service, feel free to write me.

A Master Mason
American Co-Masonry

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

Answer 7

stretches back to the stone workers (masons) guild of medievel europe. then was a rich mans club 'gentlemans club' many politicians and high powered people were in it, long story short, political rivals rightly or wrongly accused them of collussion and collaboration with some agenda. In an election in early 20th century all masons were voted out by the fearful masses, who think the rich and powerful were conspiring against them. after this most masons left the club to regain trust and respect. Some may have remained underground. some individuals today reinvent the old flag. i'm unsure of thier current purpose but it seems more of a cult or gang today than the old style elitist gentlemens club that it was and it started as just a workers union 500 yrs ago and has gone through many changes.

Answer 8

When some men get to a certain level in life they find themselves at the foot steps of Freemasonry. To explain this in short would not be a complete or just answer. Enlightenment to a certain degree ;)