who are the Freemasons, what do they believe/do?
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My grandfather was a mason and became master of his lodge. Our whole family attended their annual dinner etc. It was good food and everyone seemed polite/courteous.
When my grandfather died, the remainder of his RAF crew attended his funeral but not a single member of the lodge. And I think that says a lot about them, from my anecdotal evidence…
An MBA like network/group surviving through the history?
[Mason here]
Here’s my standard ‘elevator pitch’, which I trot out when people ask what we’re about (its rather North American oriented – Masonry varies from place to place):
We’re a centuries old fraternal order, who exist to improve our own characters (‘we make good men better’ is one of our slogans), and through that improve our communities. Along the way, we do a lot of charity (forex: Shriner’s free hospitals for children), and have a lot of cool and private ceremonies using the construction of King Solomon’s Temple as an allegorical base for teaching Enlightenment and Stoic ideals. (yes, we really do have secret handshakes). Many find it a source of fellowship and life-long friendships.
We have several million Brothers world wide, but no central organization. Men from every walk of life are or have been members, including over a dozen US presidents. Regular Masonry is open to adult men of good character who are not atheists[1] – we require a belief in some form of ‘higher power’, but aren’t fussy about what. As a rule, we don’t recruit; we want a potential member to make the first approach of his own free will.
If you’re curious, drop by our main hangout on reddit, /r/freemasonry. You’ll find a lot of friendly folk there. If you prefer a book, for North Americans I recommend (seriously, I’m not trolling) “Freemasons for Dummies” by Christopher Hodapp.
[1] The “no women or atheists” rules have deep roots, and would be very difficult to change, regardless of how anachronistic they now seem. There are breakaway Masonic groups which have dropped those rules, but they are very thin on the ground in the Anglosphere, and not recognized by the mainstream.
My dad joined the local pub chapter, he got a clay pipe signed by all the other members which they then ceremoniously broke. He ended up quitting because he thought the “secret knock” to get into the lounge area where they had their meetings was absurd. I still have all the little books they gave him, they make for interesting reading.
They are a fraternal organization.
They get together in formal attire on a quarterly/monthly basis and on certain special occasions to have dinner, and also some stuff with weird aprons and stuff, loosely based on the story of King Solomon having a temple built in Jerusalem.
You know how a lot of elite lawyers have being a member of an expensive golf club and hanging out with the rich guys there as a major part of how they bring in business? A similar principle has applied to Freemasonry: you get to know the other guys involved. If you’re trying to decide between a guy who shares a weird hobby with you and a guy who you don’t know at all in order to do business with, you’re probably going to go with the guy who you know if everything else is the same. That has been the source of most of the influence that they have had over the past 300 years or so.
High level freemasonry is Qabalah. There are 33 degrees for 33 vertebrae in your spinal cord. This relates to the Tree of Life in Jewish Mystical Kabbalah, which has 32 paths, 31 of which correspond to the 31 nerves emanating from the brain to the spinal cord. The 32nd is completion. It’s somewhat similar to kundalini and other esoteric spirituality. They also do a lot of good wholesome stuff but the esoteric stuff is little known which is quite humorous to me.
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