Masons,, give me information?

Question

Hii Every one ,, i was sitting with some friends and they opened a subject about Free Mason and there believes and power, I was extremely attracted to the subject, I wanted people who know more about this subject to tell me more about them, I didn't understand allot because some said that Masons are peaceful people that have nothing to do with politics ... and other said they are extremely powerful people controlling the worlds biggest military political and economical powers.Can you please tell me about about their believes and history and power and if they have any thing to do with war and names of well known people who are masons and please tell me how can a person join and can Muslims and Christians join or only Jews, plus is it true that they have many secrets and treasures that no 1 know about..
Thank you .. Please give me web sites to know more ,, im really intrested :):)

Answer 1

Freemasonry teachings and practices of the secret fraternal order officially known as the Free and Accepted Masons, or Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

Organizational Structure

There are approximately 5 million members worldwide, mostly in the United States and other English-speaking countries. With adherents in almost every nation where Freemasonry is not officially banned, it forms the largest secret society in the world. There is no central Masonic authority; jurisdiction is divided among autonomous national authorities, called grand lodges, and many concordant organizations of higher-degree Masons. In the United States and Canada the highest authority rests with state and provincial grand lodges. Custom is the supreme authority of the order, and there are elaborate symbolic rites and ceremonies, most of which utilize the instruments of the stonemason–the plumb, the square, the level, and compasses–and apocryphal events concerning the building of King Solomon's Temple for allegorical purposes.

The principles of Freemasonry have traditionally been liberal and democratic. Anderson's Constitutions (1723), the bylaws of the Grand Lodge of England, which is Freemasonry's oldest extant lodge, cites religious toleration, loyalty to local government, and political compromise as basic to the Masonic ideal. Masons are expected to believe in a Supreme Being, use a holy book appropriate to the religion of the lodge's members, and maintain a vow of secrecy concerning the order's ceremonies.

The basic unit of Freemasonry is the local Blue lodge, generally housed in a Masonic temple. The lodge consists of three Craft, Symbolic, or Blue Degrees: Entered Apprentice (First Degree), Fellow Craft (Second Degree), and Master Mason (Third Degree). These gradations are meant to correspond to the three levels–apprentice, journeyman, and master–of the medieval stonemasons' guilds. The average Mason does not rise above Master Mason.

If he does, however, he has the choice of advancing through about 100 different rites, encompassing some 1,000 higher degrees, throughout the world. In the United States, the two most popular rites are the Scottish and the York. The Scottish Rite awards 30 higher degrees, from Secret Master (Fourth Degree) to Sovereign Grand Inspector General (Thirty-third Degree). The York Rite awards ten degrees, from Mark Master to Order of Knights Templar, the latter being similar to a Thirty-third Degree Scottish Rite Mason.

Other important Masonic groups are the Prince Hall Grand Lodge, to which many African-American Masons belong; the Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm (the "fraternal fun order for Blue Lodge Masons" ); and the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (Thirty-second degree Masons who, as the Shriners, are noted for their colorful parades and support of children's hospitals). There are also many subsidiary Masonic groups, including the Order of the Eastern Star, limited to Master Masons and their female relatives; De Molay, an organization for boys; and Job's Daughters and Rainbow, two organizations for girls. Many of the orders maintain homes for aged members.

Development of the Order

The order is thought to have arisen from the English and Scottish fraternities of practicing stonemasons and cathedral builders in the early Middle Ages; traces of the society have been found as early as the 14th cent. Because, however, some documents of the order trace the sciences of masonry and geometry from Egypt, Babylon, and Palestine to England and France, some historians of Masonry claim that the order has roots in antiquity.

The formation of the English Grand Lodge in London (1717) was the beginning of the widespread dissemination of speculative Freemasonry, the present-day fraternal order, whose membership is not limited to working stonemasons. The six lodges in England in 1700 grew to about 30 by 1723. There was a parallel development in Scotland and Ireland, although some lodges remained unaffiliated and open only to practicing masons. By the end of the 18th cent. there were Masonic lodges in all European countries and in many other parts of the world as well.

The first lodge in the United States was founded in Philadelphia (1730); Benjamin Franklin was a member. Many of the leaders of the American Revolution, including John Hancock and Paul Revere, were members of St. Andrew's Lodge in Boston. George Washington became a Mason in 1752. At the time of the Revolution most of the American lodges broke away from their English and Scottish antecedents. Freemasonry has continued to be important in politics; 13 Presidents have been Masons, and at any given time quite a large number of the members of Congress have belonged to Masonic lodges. Notable European Masons included Voltaire, Giuseppe Mazzini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Franz Joseph Haydn, Johann von Goethe, Johann von Schiller, and many leaders of Russia's Decembrist revolt (1825).

Opposition to Freemasonry

Because of its identification with 19th-century bourgeois liberalism, there has been much opposition to Freemasonry. The most violent in the United States was that of the Anti-Masonic party. Freemasonry's anticlerical attitude has also led to strong opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, which first expressed its anti-Masonic attitude in a bull of Pope Clement XII (1738). The Catholic Church still discourages its members from joining the order. Totalitarian states have always suppressed Freemasonry; the lodges in Italy, Austria, and Germany were forcibly eradicated under fascism and Nazism, and there are now no lodges in China.


Check out this site for more information: Freemasonry for men and women. www.co-masonry.org

A lot of interest has been started partly in respose to Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code" and the movie "National Treasure" remember both are works of fiction, there may be some truth but how much I can not prove one way or the other.

Answer 2

My husband is a Mason, and he loves it. He bristles when people say it is a secret society--he says it's a society with secrets. They just have some strange rituals. I've been inside the lodge, and been to some of their public ceremonies, such as when he was installed as an officer, and funeral services. I've also heard him practicing rituals when he thought I couldn't hear (he used to instruct new members within the lodge), and there was certainly nothing menacing about it.

It was begun as a gentleman's society in the 1700's, although tradition says it is actually as old as the pyramids, that they built the Temple of Solomon, and that they were part of the labor guilds of the middle ages. Anyone who believes in a higher power can belong--no matter how they percieve that power, or what religion they belong to. They believe in the equality of man, and in fact most of the signers of the Declaration of Independence werew Masons, and its terms mirror their beliefs. George Washington was a Mason, and was sworn in on the Bible of the New York Lodge, Lodge Number 1. It is available to any president who wants to use it, whether or not he is a Mason. The Presidential Oath also incorporates Masonic beliefs. The reason many people say they are trying to run the world is just because they fear what is secret. I can guarantee my husband is not, nor is my uncle. He was the Grand Master for the State of Illinois, and he was high enough up that he would have known if there was any "plot." The emblem of the Masons is the square and compass, and a person who is good is considered to be "on the square." Remember "a square deal"? now you know where it came from.

To be a Mason, just ask one. You will go through an initial interview to make sure you are a good and honest person, and if the committee agrees, you will be given a mentor who will instruct you in Masonic practices and rituals. As you learn more, you will given higher ranks--you will start out as a first degree Mason, and go from there. The highest is the 33rd degree, but that is usually reserved for dignitaries. The tests can be harder as you go up--it's also where the term "giving someone the third degree" came from.

Answer 3

Freemasonry is an oath bound fraternal order of men which derives from the medieval fraternity of Freemasonry. We adhere to many of the Ancient Charges, laws, customs and legends of operative Freemasonry. We are loyal to the civilian government under which we exist. We inculcate moral and social virtues by symbolic application of the operative stonemasons' working tools and by allegories, lectures and charges. Freemasonry obligates its members to obey the principles of brotherly love, equality, mutual aid, secrecy and confidence. We have secret modes of recognition that permit members to recognize each other as brothers. We require a through examination into the mental, moral and physical qualifications of a petitioner and we admit men into the fraternity by secret ceremonies based in part on the legends of the Craft.

Once a person has decided to apply for membership he fills out a petition signed by 2 members of the Lodge he desires to join. He gives the petition to one of the members along with the required initiation fee. The petition is read in Lodge and the Worshipful Master will appoint an investigating committee to interview the petitioner in person. and these men will report back to Lodge at the next stated meeting. After this investigation committee reports the petitioner is voted on at this stated meeting by the brothers in attendance. Once the petitioner is accepted he is then given the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, then Fellow Craft and then the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason. there are certain requirements which the candidate must meet before he can receive the next higher degree.

One must obtain the Sublime Degree of Master Mason before he is allowed to wear any Masonic jewelry.

One must have a Belief in a Supreme Being otherwise he can not become a Mason.

The tenets of the Masonic Fraternity are " Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth. "

The Masonic Fraternity is NOT a Secret Society but rather a Society with Secrets.

Suggest if you are interested in pursuing the requirements to join the Masonic Fraternity if over the age of 18 you contact a man whom you know to be a Mason for a petition and further information. if you are under 18 suggest you inquire about the DeMolay Organization for young men.

If no local Masonic Lodge is available then suggest you contact the Grand Lodge of Masons for the State in which you reside.

The Shriner's are connected with the Masonic Order but we are not connected in any way with the Elks or Rosicrucian's as the other answerer suggested.

Answer 4

Hi there great question but who in the world made you think only Jews? There are Jews of course they were the Hebrew slaves that were the stone masons, but no way are others excluded. Free Masons Ben Franklin, and many of our presidents were and are masons. It was a society created from the time of ancient Egypt they were stone masons, given the secrets of the tombs. They are archeologists, geologists, engineers, doctors, lawyers, politicians, brick layers, get the picture? Any race creed or color. They are sworn to an oath. There is good and bad in everything , upon its creation it was good but there have been a few dark horses in there and some are still in there however. The Shriners are the Masons, and the Elks, try there or go to www.rosicrucian.com or www.amorc.com they are the originators of the society. Based in San Jose, California. St. Judes Hospital is another Shriner organization.

Answer 5

Freemasons” redirects here. For other uses, see Freemasons (disambiguation). The Masonic Square and Compasses.(Found with or without the letter G) The Masonic Square and Compasses. (Found with or without the letter G) Part of a series of articles on Freemasonry Freemason Core Articles Freemasonry · Grand Lodge · Masonic Lodge · Masonic Lodge Officers · Prince Hall Freemasonry · Regular Masonic jurisdictions History History of Freemasonry · Liberté chérie · Masonic manuscripts [show]Masonic Bodies [show]Masonic Masonic bodies · York Rite · Order of Mark Master Masons · Knights Templar · Scottish Rite · Knight Kadosh · The Shrine · Tall Cedars of Lebanon · The Grotto · Societas Rosicruciana · Grand College of Rites · Swedish Rite · Order of St. Thomas of Acon · Royal Order of Scotland [show]Masonic Women's Groups Women and Freemasonry · Order of the Amaranth · Order of the Eastern Star · Co-Freemasonry [show]Masonic Youth Organizations DeMolay · A.J.E.F. · Job's Daughters · International Order of the Rainbow for Girls [show]Views of Masonry Anti-Masonry · Anti-Masonic Party · Anti-Freemason Exhibition · Christianity and Freemasonry · Catholicism and Freemasonry · Freemasonry under authoritarian regimes · Masonic conspiracy theories · Taxil hoax [show]Notable People and Places James Anderson · Albert Mackey · Albert Pike · Prince Hall · John the Evangelist · John the Baptist · William Schaw · Elizabeth Aldworth · List of Freemasons · Lodge Mother Kilwinning · Freemasons' Hall, London · House of the Temple · Solomon's Temple · The Library and Museum of Freemasonry [show]Masonic Miscellany Great Architect of the Universe · Square and Compasses · Pigpen cipher · Eye of Providence · Hiram Abiff · Sprig of Acacia · Masonic Landmarks · Pike's Morals and Dogma· Propaganda Due · Freemasonry and the Latter Day Saint movement · Dermott's Ahiman Rezon This box: view • talk • edit Freemasonry is a fraternal organization that arose from obscure origins (theorised to be anywhere from the time of the building of King Solomon's Temple to the mid-1600s). Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, and has millions of members. The various forms all share moral and metaphysical ideals, which include, in most cases, a constitutional declaration of belief in a Supreme Being.[1] The fraternity is administratively organised into Grand Lodges (or sometimes Orients) that each govern their own jurisdiction, which consists of subordinate (or constituent) Lodges. Grand Lodges recognise each other through a process of landmarks and regularity. There are also appendant bodies, which are organisations related to the main branch of Freemasonry, but with their own independent administration. Freemasonry uses the metaphors of operative stonemasons' tools and implements, against the allegorical backdrop of the building of King Solomon's Temple, to convey what is most generally defined as "a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols."[2]

Answer 6

If you do not know any masons, your local Masonic Temples are listed in your local telephone directory. Any information about Masonry will explain that any free man, with no criminal past, and of good character can become a mason. As masons’, we use our tools and rituals to improve ourselves. We are now speculative masons – meaning we are no longer literal builders.

In my humble opinion, at its’ core, free masonry is a beautiful way of life. And those that join for temporal personal gains often become disappointed. Our only secrets are those secrets of recognition. And even if a man chooses to resign, he is expected to respect his oaths (promises).

In that free masonry practices egalitarianism, it is only logical that the founding fathers of the United States would write about and create a democratic republic. And when creating our government they also inculcated Masonic concepts, because history taught them, not only are Masonic concepts beautiful, but part of that beauty is functionality.

If a lodge, or mason, or group of mason are, have, or ever will plot for world, or national control, their Byzantine plots would have nothing to do with free masonry.