There has been a lot of mention lately of the Freemasons. In the two Dan Brown thrillers, The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, Freemasonry and secret societies play a big role. In the blockbuster motion picture National Treasure Freemasons are front and center in the plot.
With all this media attention lately about Freemasons, in books and movies, I thought it would be interesting to highlight several interesting books that may shed some light on Freemasonry, Masons, and their beliefs.
An interesting read is Born in Blood, by John J. Robinson. Though somewhat tedious at times this is one of the books to go to if you really want to know about the history of the Knights Templar and of Freemasonry. If you really want to know the history, this is your book. Mr. Robinson goes in depth into the story of religious persecution, the Crusades, and their effect on bringing out the medieval secret society that would later publicly emerge as The Freemasons in 1717.
Benjamin Franklin, An American Life by Walter Isaacson is an enjoyable read about the founding father that "winks back at you". Though the book doesn't really do a whole lot of historical analysis of Freemasonry, it explain the beliefs of Benjamin Franklin and most of the founders of the United States regarding religious tolerance, freedom of speech, and being a good community member. The book makes the connection to those previously mentioned beliefs and their shared tenets of Freemasonry.
Finally, A Pilgrim's Path: Freemasonry and the Religious Right, by John J. Robinson is a fast paced and enjoyable read about Christian religious fundamentalism and Freemasonry. It shows a lot of the tactics used by Antis (anti-masons), and delves into the truth behind the lies that many anti-Masons (most notably Rev. Pat Robinson) mention such as “Lucifer as God”, worship of Baphomet, and the strange belief that Freemasonry is a religion. I suggest this for all Masons and for people who might have heard negative things about Freemasonry but still are not sure.
All are very good reads, and are available, of course, through Amazon.
For more reading, please visit The Nap Room
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Eric Berlin
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?
2 - jadester
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.
3 - Tom
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.
4 - Tom
Many organizations are exclusive or "secret". I like the word "private". Part of being in a free society is being able to have some privacy if you so wish.
Look at it this way. If a church decides to fire their minister, and you as a non-member are curious, you may be told that since you are not a member of that church you don't need to know.
It's our right as members of a free socity to freely associate and be private.
5 - Mark Saleski
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.
6 - Eric Olsen
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
7 - Tom
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.
8 - jadester
hey, i've played in a band at the local lodge. Or possibly grand lodge, or something. The main Nottingham one anyway.
9 - bush
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!
10 - Nancy
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?
11 - phil
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
12 - Nancy
LOL - Phil, you may be on to something there, I'll be the first to admit.
13 - Tom
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.
14 - phil
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.
15 - Nancy
"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.
16 - phil
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
17 - Nancy
You're right: wrong blog. Sorry.
18 - zach
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.
19 - Lowell
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
20 - Zach
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.
21 - Lowell
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.
22 - zach
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.
23 - Lowell
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?
24 - Zach
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.
25 - Eric Olsen
the lur of "hidden knowledge" goes back at least to Adam and Eve