Below you'll find some of the most commonly asked questions about the Masonic craft. We hope you'll find this information broadens your awareness about Masonry, as well as placing to rest many popular misconceptions.
If not, why do Masons use rituals?
What
is a Mason?
This is probably the most popular 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.
A
Mason (or Freemason) is a member of a fraternity known as Masonry (or
Freemasonry). A fraternity is a group of men who join together because: There are things they want to do in the
world; There are things they want to do inside there hearts; They enjoy being
around a group of men whom they respect and share the same ideals.
This represents the most practical answer to this question. Top
What
are houses of Masonry?
Once you have become a Master Mason, you have established the foundation of all
of your future Masonic education. Among the ways to increase your passion
for knowledge in the Masonic craft is by becoming a member of another
house. These houses take a Master Mason through various degrees and
ceremonies to help reinforce and compliment their Masonic endeavors. There
are also auxiliary houses of which young boys and young women can join in their
teen years prior to being age eligible for becoming a Master Mason or
joining the Order of the Eastern Star. Below
is a list of the various houses within Masonry. Click on any name to get a
brief history on how that house relates to Masonry.
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Scottish
Rite
York Rite
Shrine
Demolay
Jobs Daughters
Order of Rainbow Girls
Order of the Eastern Star
What
is a lodge?
The word lodge refers to a place or building where Masons meet.
The term "lodge" comes from the structures which the
stonemasons built against the sides of the cathedrals during construction. In
winter, when building had to stop, they lived in these lodges and worked at
carving stone. There is some variation in detail from state to state and
country to country. Top
What
do Masons do there?
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. 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.
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What
is 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: 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. There are also additional degrees in other houses of masonry that can be sought once one becomes a Master Mason and is in good standing in his lodge. (See Above question "What are houses of Masonry")
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 or reprisal.
Why
are Masons 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 stonemasonry.
Masonic buildings are clearly 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 accepts responsibility for his own life and, at the same time, truly decides that his real happiness is in helping others.
"Secret
societies" became very popular in
Why
do Masons use symbols?
Everyone
uses symbols every day, just as we do ritual. We use them because they
communicate quickly. When you the flashing red lights at a railroad crossing , you know what it means, even if
you can't read the word "stop." The crossed closed gates 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.
The short and the long answer to this perplexing question is inherently the same; No, No, and No. Did I mention No? The Masonic Order never has and never will be a religion. 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.
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. "Masonry is a fraternity, not a religion". Top
If
not, why do Masons use rituals?
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. Top
How
do I become one?
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.
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.
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