Tom - thanks for this post, interesting stuff.

I'm guessing I'm not alone in that I'm a person who has heard the name Freemasons over the years but have no idea what it means.

Would you mind posting a very brief explainer?

strangely, i found this site during a quick google:
http://www.freemasonrytoday.co.uk/

as for more info on what Freemasonry is "all about", try
http://www.freedomdomain.com/freemason.html

i did, in the past, come across a story involving "old boy"-style corruption between fellow freemasons, but i'd expect that from any kind of even slightly exclusive organisation, to be honest.

Simply put, Freemasonry is a fraternity. It is made up of men who wish to sit together as friends and work to better their community. We share many beliefs, but the core is that no matter what your religion, you can work to better your community.

That's why religion is a forbidden topic during monthly lodge meetings. Many times religious differences cause strife and anger. Since most religions share the belief in family, community, and country, we want to be able to gather together and work to the goals that are common to all of us, despite of religion.

The core of Freemasonry is the "Blue Lodge" or "Craft". There are three degrees and are based on stories from the building of the Temple of Solomon.

Once you are a third degree, or master mason, you are a full mason and brother. There is no rank higher than Master Mason.

There are other addition bodies of Masonry that Masons can join to do other works and meet other people.

If you are American you may be familiar with the Shriners. They wear those funny red caps and sometimes dress as clowns or drive those funny cars. Shriners operate about 8 or so hospitals for burned children. The hospital has no billing department, as all care is 100% free.

The Scottish Rite is sometimes more well known, as you might have seen someone referred to as a 32nd degree.

They operate hospitals for blindness, again free of charge.

Many of our founding fathers were Freemasons. Geroge Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Paine, and Paul Revere are among them.

Many other well known people were also Freemasons. Winston Churchill, Colonel Sanders, Dave Thomas, and the guy who played Kramer on Seinfeld.

If you have any questions, please e-mail me.

i did, in the past, come across a story involving "old boy"-style corruption between fellow freemasons, but i'd expect that from any kind of even slightly exclusive organisation, to be honest.

this is cool. i know almost nothing about the freemasons execept for the list of famous members and that somehow shriners are related to masons.

also, i used to work with a guy who kept trying to convince me that the masons were a satanic cult.

thanks Tom, very interesting. My grandfather was a Mason, though he died soon afer I was born so I didn't hear anything about it from him

it is a very good organization, and like most things, you get out of it what you put into it.

If you are interested in joining, all you have to do is ask one.

Go to this link to see a grand lodge in your state. There is no USA grand lodge. Each state has its own Grand Lodge.

hey, i've played in a band at the local lodge. Or possibly grand lodge, or something. The main Nottingham one anyway.

is michael jackson a freemason? what and who are the enemies of freemasons, and why? by the way whats with the one eye and the pyramid ... i dont quite understand it!

My dad, uncle, grandfathers, greats, etc, etc. were all Masons (don't know what degree), the women all in Eastern Star. I was very surprised, therefore, to find a few years ago that Masons had a sinister rep w/so many people. Why is that? Do they actually learn anything about real masonry - i.e. stoneworking - or is that just a figure of speech. Why the rumors of political or even satanic nastiness? That figured heavily in Johnny Depp's movie about Jack the Ripper, too, as I remember. I always thought they were just a fundraising charitable group who liked to wear the little fringed aprons. Does the group really go back all the way to medieval times, or is that just an apocryphal connection made by the 18th century founders/revivers? What's with the anti-semitic angle, something about the murder of the Solomon's Temple architect, Hiram Abiff (?)by 3 guys w/silly matching names like Niddy, Noddy & Fred?

I always wondered what the big deal was..guys riding in parades wearing really stupid hats in midget cars, giving money to hospitals for sick children etc, so why the secrets, what have they got to hide, I think my first clue is that Nancy's dad is one, hmmmm

LOL - Phil, you may be on to something there, I'll be the first to admit.

There aren't really secrets. You can really find what we consider 'secrets' on the web. But it is a tradition to keep secret the things that are supposed to be secret.

Also, what goes on is no different than any meeting of any board of any organization with limited membership. What goes on is private for members only.

Tom first you say there really aren't any secrets and then you say that the tradition is to keep secrets ...So what is it bubba??? Oh i got it; thats the secret.

"Normal" presidential election margins are quite a bit larger, actually. This was an unusually close election & miniscule "win", as was the 2000 election, hence the grousing & bitterness on the part of anti-Bush (not necessarily Democrats) voters.

Nancy, It is bad enough when your post are senseless ranting name calling, they would make more sense if they were posted in the right category

You're right: wrong blog. Sorry.

hi tom,ive been following along with what people have been writing and it sounds quite interesting. and i got some questions too. earlier someone asked if michael jackson was a freemason, is he? i'm sure you'd know, just curious. actually i heard alot of famous people are like madonna, is this true? what do you do as a freemason? what's it all about? is it a culture or a religion because i'm told different things all the time. sorry about all the questions it's just that it's all new to me. theres one thing i really want to know, i've heard, from many people, that freemasonary is a satanic occult is this true? PLEASE give some answers to my questions, on this website. thanks.+ i'm not a book person so is there any films on this subject.

I want to throw in here about whether MJ is a Mason and also about our "secrets". First to qualify myself-I am a Master Mason-a 32 degree Scottish Rite Mason and a Shriner. You MUST be a Master Mason to be either Scottish Rite or a Shriner. What is secret for us is some words we have as passwords and some grips we use as handshakes. There are also some theatrical type programs we use to get points across about morality and other life lessons to help us improve ourselves as men to our walk with our creator, our families and our country. We are NOT a religious organization, but you must believe in God to be a Mason. A friend once told me that Masonry is not church-but it is the next best thing. I kinda agree with that. I am a born again follower of Christ-and that is directly related to Masonry. I always believed in God but never worshiped and gave myself over to Christ until I became a Mason and met some truely special men of God.
What do we do? Well we meet and eat every thursday where I am from. Talk about the business of the lodge and plan our fund raising events to help our community. We practice our memory work because nothing secret is written down-rather it is passed from mouth to ear since it's begining. As a Scottish Rite Mason I am about to turn over vouvhers to 3 schools for about 100 pairs of shoes for less fortunate children because we believe all kids need a good pair of shoes. We also provide dyslexia testing and teacher training for free to kids so affected. As a shriner we operate the worlds best pediatric burn and orthopedic hospitals in the world. Shriner research teams developed synthetic skin-considered the greatest development in the treatment of burns to date. The Shrine also provides neurological care for children with certain spinal and neural disoders. The York Rite Masons have eye foundations and hospitals to treat a wide variety of eye disoders in children. In addition we also provide child ID's at various times in the year. All of this is at no cost whatever to those benefitting from these services.
We also have alot of fun! Yes we as Shriners wear funny hats and ride little cars in parades. We also have wonderful Shriner parks were families can get together and swim in well kept lakes or nice pools-camp out with full hookups for campers. We have wonderful events during the year where we get together for dinners or sporting events-superbowl party here in Alabama is unreal. We have raffles where wegive away trucks and moter cycles and make a big day of it. We go to competitions to see who has the best drill teams and so on.
No woman has ever been made a Mason in my state. But there is a wonderful organization for our ladies called the Eastern Star. Madonna is a Kaballist-but not in the true sense of it. Micheal Jackson would never be a Mason for any reason or for any amount of money.
This country was basically formed by Masons. IF you want to know more about that email me at or any other questions I will do my best to answer them. I will answer all that I can about Masonry-the Scottish Rite and the Shriners. Also if you know of a child who needs any of the services I spoke of I will try to assist you with that as well. Thanks for listening-it was my pleasure to post here.
Lowell

Thank You Lowell for answering my questions. You seem to know a lot about this ... it is clear to me now and makes a lot of sense. I was just wondering how you found out about who is or who is not a freemason? If you dont mind, since you seem like the most reliable and knowledgable in this subject, i would like to know if Tony Blair is a freemason too? Would you happen to know where to get information about celebrity freemasons and non - freemasons, like you found out about Michael Jackson and Madonna and how did you find out about them? Sorry for all the questions and thank you once again for answering the others.

Not a problem. You can tell a mason in a few diffrent ways. First there is a particular way to shake hands, there is some questions one can ask and then there is the good ol' reliable dues card.

Tony Blair is not a mason that I am aware of - although I think he would be a fine one. Madonna is not because that would be in the news if she joined masonry of any kind. Women are not allowed to be masons except for a form of it known as comasonry. Comasonry is not excepted by the "regular" Grand Lodges of F. and A. M. (free and accepted masons) nor in the Prince Hall side (mainly african american men but masons in their own right).

For a list of famous masons visit this site and you will see a lot of people you know. A couple that might peek your interest - remember Kramer from Seinfeld? 32 dgree mason. Brad Paisley the country singer -Shriner. Mozart and Henry Ford were also masons. One of the most brilliant men in American history - Benjamin Franklin was a Mason as was the first president of our country George Washington. 15 of 26 signers of the Declaration of Independence and 28 of 40 signers of the constitution where masons. Freemasons are an important part of American history.
If you have any other questions please by all means ask them.

THANK YOU lowell, you are of great help. you mentioned hand-shakes. what kind of hand-shakes? where can i see these hand-shakes? also i've seen the symbol of an eye on a pyramid, what does this symbolise? i've seen it in many places including the american dollar. also someone had told me that madonna had an eye on her fore-head in one of her songs though i have not seen this myself, is this a connection to freemasonary or just an effect in her vidio? thank you once again you are of great help.

Unless you are yourself a mason you may not see the handshakes,that is one of the ways I mentioned that we as Masons can know for certain that we are both what we claim to be. Anciently the handshakes were used to ensure you were what you said you were when applying for work as a stone mason. As far as Madonna having an eye on her forhead-well I don't think she was at that time "into" Kaballa so I would suspect it is for visual purposes only-or helped to convey something in the video she was trying to say. Now as for the all-seeing eye on the dollar-well there are claims that it is the eye of Osiris from an ancient egyptian cult. Others saw it is connected to the 3rd reich or nazism and still others claim it is the all seeing eye from Masonry. I am inclined to leave that to your own interpetation. We do have an all seeing eye in Masonry. I call it the eye of God to remind me that Jesus is ever watching me in my good and bad times. The great thing about being a Mason is that it is a constant search for knowledge, and there is not one in Masonry who tells another how to think or see himself or his faith.
Ok I have dilegently tried to answer your questions so now I have one of my own. What is your interest in Masony to prompt your curiosity?

Thank you once again and Good question Lowell. I dont actually know myself why I am so eager to know such things and interested in finding things out. I think it was after a philosiphical conversation my friends and I had one day and in that conversation one of my friends mentioned masonry and after that coneversation I heard it from lots of other friends too and I thought I would do a bit of research because it was the first time I ever heard about it. Then after, I reached this website and thought it is probably the best to get information from. I hope I have answered your question.

the lur of "hidden knowledge" goes back at least to Adam and Eve

I remember hearing once from one of my classmates, that his father is a 3 degree Mason. He's African-American and I assume that he must be a Prince Hall Mason. Can African-American men only be Prince Hall masons?

Hi Markus, this a very informative site.
First, 3 degree means he is a Master Mason, the other degrees are entered apprentice and fellowcraft just like the old stonemasons. The Prince Hall Lodges are only for people of African background but - I'll call it regular Masonry - is open to any male over 21 years. Sure racism is alive and well in many places but the norm is that regardless of colour or creed it is how you are judged as a man for acceptance. There have been many, many, black men (regardless of fame) who have been welcomed to the craft. The only other qualification is that you must believe in a supreme being to be elligible for acceptance. I.E. Christians, Jews, Muslims and people of many other faiths are welcome. Athiests are not welcome.
One other thing. Freemasonry is a fraternity not a benevolence society, yet it goes without saying that freemasons probably create more wealth for charities than any other organization.

I've read all the interesting post about masonry, I myself am a mason, in fact i'm the first african american to be raised in an all white lodge, in washington DC.. The same lodge that holds the gavel of my masonic brother and first president..So if anyone tells you that if you are african american and the only lodge you can join is prince hall, tell them they are full of it..Thank you

My father was of the Blue Lodge. He always was proud to be Mason.Heck ,I was proud of him being a Mason. I have never gone into the Eastern Star(don't know why). My son is now going through his degrees to become a Master Mason and I am so proud of him, my only wish was for my father to still be here to see his only surviving grandson become a Mason.

Sharon L. Baxter... you don't know anything about freemasonry, it's disgusting, satanic, evil, the freemasons must be destroyed, they WILL be destroyed, they should shiver in fear right now, they know things will happen in these few years ahead, they will be destroyed along with all the other evil forces; the illuminati, skull & bones, bohemian grove, the trilateral commission, the bilderberg group etc. get your son out of that before it's too late, by becoming a free mason satan will have authority to do whatever he wants to in your and your son's life. Those rituals they do to become a mason is accepting satan in your lives. it's pure evil, satan

Poor Michael. You are sadly uninformed. Post #3 January 17, 2005 @ 14:16PM -- by Tom is the Freemasonary I have known and experienced over the past 31 years.

hello
i just want to no bwt free masonry ?
its a satanic cult rite ?
bcoz iv herd they believe in the supreme being ( the all seeing eye ) also known as anti-christ?

I thought I would throw my two shekels in on this. My father, may he rest in peace, was a Freemason and it saved his life at least once that I know of.

Tom, who has posted above a couple of years ago, was not exactly forthcoming. There are three basic levels of masonry, known as degrees. The vast majority of masons go to the third degree and stop. But Freemasonry has 33 or 34 degrees.

Much of Freemasonry revolves around ideas taken from the building of King Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, but Freemasonry is not a Jewish organization at all.

If a group of masons has become corrupted and are attacking someone, harrasing to destroy that person for no reason at all only for ignorancy what will you do to handle the situation.

If a group of masons become corrupted attacking certain people what would you do about it.

Freemasons not a dangerous religion? People, you've got no idea of what freemasons really are. Maybe you only get in touch with 1st or 2nd degree masons, who themselves don't know shit about the real thing behind real freemasonry. The thing is that freemasons aren't just some dudes who like to hang out with each other in dark secret underground lodges. The higher you get in freemasonry, the more satanic loonatics you're going to find. The top of Freemasonry is at a degree of 33. Those people are not just freemasons anymore. They're part of a satanic elite called: the Illuminati. At the very top of the pyramide you'll find the all-seeing eye wich you can find on the back of your 1 dollar bill as well. The whole package is being led by 13 bloodlines wich are 13 families who've ruled the entire world through banking and deceiving for ages. These families are often Jewish banksters like Rothschild, Warburg, Oppenheimer, Schiff etc.. European Royal Families are included as well. The whole organisation is being led by a Jewish satanic ideology based on Kabala, ancient Egyptian mythology and satanism. I'm not being Anti-Semitic, it's just the truth. They own every single thing in the world, people included, or should I say Sheeple or Ghoyom. 99% of the world is enslaved by these nutballs. They're insane, I usually don't care, but these people are at the top of our governements.

You need to wake up and search for Freemasonry on the internet, cause that's the only place where Free-minded people can find useful info wich is not falsified or corrupted. Oh... another thing about the Freemasons: when they say God they don't mean God like the average person does, they see Satan as their real god and God God as the big enemy. Freemasons are the key of the problem. You can find the solution, you just need to have the will to search for it (the truth). Much luck, ciao.

You guys are nuts. Freemasonry is a fraternal organization of men who want to be good people that's all. If you want to look more into it, you are looney.

Freemason is evil. Destroying the minss of many.

Come on Tom, cut the bullshit. Come out of your shell and let's talk about what's really going on with freemasonry. Unless you're being used as a sheep like the rest of the sheeple as well. Infact it may even be so that you actually believe the bullshit you wrote above. Ha, what are you anyway? 1st, 2nd or 33rd degree, cause there're some big differences between the first 2 and the last 1.

If you got real cojones you speak the truth. Oh no wait... you can't clap out otherwise you're dead, right? like let's say Kennedy.

How old are you? What time is it? Do you also work at night? These seem to be regular questions, but they're being used among Freemasons as a secret code.

You know what Tom? Tell us more about the spiritual part of Freemasonry, tell us about Atlantis, superhumans and 3rd and 5th dimensions will ya.

(If you're a real mason of course.)

There is a darkened lean-to that exists down the hill from the Great White Lodge - where the current leader of the Illuminati and the matrix of the Priory of Sion hold ritualistic orgies and all - and in this lean-to reside the slavemasons. These poor sops were long ago indentured into servitude.

It happened when Herod was remodeling the Solomonic temple. Three Roman/Jewish knitters decided to start up a bricklaying company. They were Stabicus, Eyesayuh, and Bill. They couldn't get the job done on time and on budget so they talked to some freemason and he and his guys pitched in to do the work. The deal was eternal slavery for the knitters. Bill agreed to it because he was an idiot.

Anyway, the hour is quickly coming when the slavemasons (whose secret handshake is a poke in both eyes, just to spite the one-eyed pyramidical thing) shalt arise from their swiftly constructed abode and tear down the stones of the Lodge and impale the lord of the freemasons and wreak havoc unto his bowels and such. They just need a few more members. If you'd like to join their revolution, you're right out of luck. They have no website (being a "secret" society and all).

Beware. The storm comes upon ye stone worker types!

And here's my favorite quote of the decade:

"You need to wake up and search for Freemasonry on the internet, cause that's the only place where Free-minded people can find useful info wich is not falsified or corrupted."

Yeah, no corruption at all on the Internet! Only truth! Yeah!


And the truth shall set you free - I mean, and the Internet shall set you free.

Super. Hey, thanks, I haven't had this much fun in, like, three days. Cool.

Laugh all you want my friend, but you know the saying: he who laughs last laughs best.

Of course internet is corrupted, but since it's tough to control by Masonic guarddogs some of the info actually is true. There's wrong info and there's right info. The trick is to filter out the wrong from the right. Those who want to figure out more of the truth, use your minds and here's a push in the right direction: search at Google videos for:
" The Ring of Power", "History of Freemasonry" and "The Legend of Atlantis" (5 episodes). Or just try these links:

ring of power prt 1:
history of freemasonry:
the legend of atlantis

A day will come when all Masons will be eliminated, mark my words.

And you know what loser? this is my favorite quote:

"Speaking the truth in universal deceit is a revolutionary act"

George Orwell.

sorry, I mean: to filter out the right from the wrong info... (heheh big mistake)