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Should I Join The Masons?

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22:02 / 09.01.03

So... I was approached to join the Masons. I was given a pamphlet about them. It clearly explains that the Masons are a fraternal order with no occult connotations. They seem like great people, all older men and women, all genuinely nice. They explained that they wanted younger people to join. They explained that it was just the first three degrees and that all I had to do was fill out the application and pay $40 and the guy who invited me would submit my petition. I asked if my friends could join, he said 'no, maybe later.' I took a tour of the temple and it looked pretty occulty.

Part of me really wants to, part of me has read too many books that say I should not.

Would you join the Masons?

22:14 / 09.01.03

He only gave me one application but I'm sure I could Xerox it.

Wow. A company has it made when you refer it's product by the companies name. Like Xerox or Kleenex.

Anyway, yeah, what if they find my ravaged copy of Holy Blood Holy Grail?

22:34 / 09.01.03

Sorry I deleted my post, Mr. Arm. Had details I've decided not to make public. I'm adding this post so that people don't think the stress of The Mason's offer has caused you to create an imaginary friend.

22:38 / 09.01.03

Wow. I know who you are now! :-)

22:44 / 09.01.03

I have an ex whose father and uncles are Masons. Occulty family, government ties and all that, but he says that he will never join because "They made this world that I hate." He's a bit of a chump.

00:10 / 10.01.03

OK, I'm in the UK, and I think things are slightly different here. For a start, you guys have Masons in lots more different flavours.

Whatever, a close member of my family (extra anonymity for reasons of privacy rather than anything sinister) is a Mason and has explained a little of it to me. I've had a tour of their lodge, and yes, it did look a little occulty, though apparently it's just religious symbolism. They're all about brotherly love in the end, and, in this country at least, aren't really that secret. For example, in the UK until 1969, they had to give the local judiciary the names of all their members. What is seen as secrecy is really a matter of privacy. They really aren't weird or powerful. Privilege is technically against their own rules, though obviously there is some networking going on there in the same way as there might be with a golf club or fraternity.

They also told me that anyone is free to ask to join, though this is an unusual way to get in because they do need to be very sure you are right-thinking before they accept you. So, maybe they're not sure about your friends yet. However, they asked you for 40 bucks just to consider your application -- I'd ask a few more questions first.

And I think it's something you really have to want to do. You have to learn a lot of stuff to do with the ceremonies, and none of it is written down in full in one place. And Masonic beliefs would have to parallel your other spiritual beliefs.

I can see myself perhaps considering joining the Masons, but a prerequisite is a belief in God, which I have found impossible to have for some time.

00:12 / 10.01.03

Oh yeah, and sorry, but Holy Blood Holy Grail really is the biggest load of tosh. :-)

Tryphena Absent

00:22 / 10.01.03

Don't join the masons, run with the times, throw your archaic self down a well! They're weird even if the guys in the Princess Louise that time were damn snappy (and matching) dressers. Some of them are quite lame although that may only be true of the two I know in Hertfordshire (they run a very small computer shop and they're scout leaders. Hmmm) and since everyone in Hertfordshire is lame and in fact Hertfordshire is lame, well, you know what I'm really trying to say is don't be a mason in Hertfordshire.

Gosh I hope I didn't offend anyone with my excessive use of the word lame.

00:28 / 10.01.03

Gosh I hope I didn't offend anyone with my excessive use of the word lame.

Probably only Mr Roget :-)

03:49 / 10.01.03

I had a friend when I was a kid who had Masonic relatives. I always thought they were just some rather unimportant men's club. They had a Masonic Picnic every year where my friend said you could go and eat hot dogs and drink soda and play those prize wheels where you put a quarter on a number and if that number comes up on the wheel you win a cake or something. Just like everyone's church picnic. Harmless. Just a bunch of old grandpa types.

Then in college I knew a guy who, though he'd never knowingly met a Mason, claimed they ran organized crime, including drugs, prostitution, etc. I was confused.

Even after repeated readings of Shea and Wilson and endless prowlings of conspiracy theory websites, my first thought when someone says "Masons" is still of hot dogs and soft drinks and people winning cakes.

So I say you join and then give us the REAL story. Of course, that's probably forbidden, but...

The Natural Way

10:42 / 10.01.03

My Dad, after one of his lectures on sacred geometry and Soloman's Temple, was invited to join the Masons. As far as they were concerened he'd just spilled most of their "occulty" secrets. There's nothing that dodge about any of it.

Whatever the Greenland Posse think.

10:44 / 10.01.03

no occult connotations

all older men and women, all genuinely nice.

just the first three degrees

They sound like some pretty whack Masons, it has to be said.

10:47 / 10.01.03

Of course, you could always join in the hope that they're lying and are actually under the command of an evil network of patriarchal master-sorcerer 666th degree Anti-Masonic Adepts or something..

10:47 / 10.01.03

Someone in my family is one of the head goatboys back home, I wouldn't join there's just something funny about them. They can help you get a job though depending on where you live.

I'm just a little worried that more people don't talk about what happens, why hasn't someone written a book telling all the secrets (and link to such a book here!) What makes people stay so quiet?

11:17 / 10.01.03

There are numerous books purporting to spill the beans on the Masons, and most of them are pretty plausible and somewhat un-shocking.. I mean everyone knows the deal with the 33 (rather than 3) degrees and the handshakes and "will no one help the widow's son?" and the weird initiation rituals and all that business, right?

But then of course, there's always the possibility that that's just the tip of the iceberg / deliberate disinformation (delete as applicable)...

13:17 / 10.01.03

my girlfriend's family has some masons in it. she was actually in the Daughters of Job, which is their youth program for girls. From the descriptions she's given, it's sounded like they were preparing the girls to participate in certain fairly mundane rituals. She did add that only the most attractive teenage girls were graduated into the next level of the group.

as to the masons itself, it's apparently a lot of memorization and studying. Hearing it described, it seemed like catechism, only without the stuff about God...

14:36 / 10.01.03

she did add that only the most attractive teenage girls were graduated into the next level of the group.

..pretty suspicious?..

16:21 / 10.01.03

I don't know about their sekret occult beliefs, but superficially they seem to be bible worshipers. Something about the word of god being holy in whatever form it takes. Kind of like a big emphasis on law and the importance of dogma, but left open so as to attract those of different faiths. They're also REALLY into Soloman and jewish symbology to the degree that the party line of being open to all faiths is a load of wash. That's why they have a Jewish/Christian bible enshrined in all their temples. They're quite pretty, by they way. I got to leaf through one once to where I could likely pass the first couple of degrees if I cared to go that route. So, beyond that, I don't know about any occult conspiracies involving templars, telluic currents, and the sekret location of the arc of the covanent.

What is evident is that they are a fraternal society whose purpose is to help others of their society into positions of power through neoptism and back room dealings. If you're a mason, you're likely to get hired by another mason. That's the most of it. And if you get into a position of power, you'll be expected to help out your brothers to do the same. Doesn't sound like much, but they've been doing it long enough to be bloody everywhere evil old men smoke cigars in dark rooms to the sound of paper shredders. So, its a fine move if you're planning to go into business and can make use of contacts of other helpful brothers in every walk of life wherever you go. Its a giant support network. To some people, its a way to go to fun picnics. To others, maybe a way to rule the world. Depends where you are in the game.

To bad the old Yale Skull and Bones society has largely taken over all the good chiefs already.

Wrecks City-Zen

21:01 / 10.01.03

Would you join the Masons?

Um...

22:08 / 10.01.03

Mason's Marks.

22:09 / 10.01.03

Shoot.

Wrecks City-Zen

22:33 / 10.01.03

Chromeo,oh Chromeo

Whereforeartthou...Chromeo?

22:41 / 10.01.03

Rex, my love, take some of my poison -

[Hands over Gin bottle]

- and let's endure a night of debauchery.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

09:23 / 11.01.03

I tend to think that the Mason's are like the Mafia, their best times are behind them and now they're all sad and middle aged and in therapy about how no-one quakes at the sign of a Masonic handshake any more.

And what exactly is it that differentiates a Masonic handshake from a normal one?

Regrettable Juvenilia

10:07 / 11.01.03

Well, personally I'd be put off by the whole "crazy racists who run the Met" thing, but hey, whatever wiggles yr noodle...

10:54 / 11.01.03

Can I ask you WHY you are considering joining? What is the motivation behind your considering it?

pointless and uncalled for

11:17 / 11.01.03

The phrase "fraternal order" should be your first and only consideration.

Why would anyone want to join a club that consists solely of men who are simply too afraid of women to allow them any voice. I'll concede that the sartorial options are certainly persuasive but other than that they sound like a bunch of limp-wristed milquetoasts with far too great an interest in not being involved in the real world. If you desperately want to get involved in a Boys-With-Toys club you should seriously consider a club with better toys than aprons and Uncle Woderwik's Skull.

STOATIE LIEKS CHOCOLATE MILK

18:14 / 11.01.03

Fuck 'em. Join the Raelians. You get cloning AND UFOs.

(Just make sure you have a get-out clause, cos once MY cult's up'n'running, I want every fucker there is swallowing MY bullshit.)

19:56 / 11.01.03

My father once mentioned that his grandfather attempted to recruit him for the Masons. He refused on the grounds that people of color were not allowed membership. This was a few decades ago, and things might have changed. However, if that sort of thing bothers you, I recommend that you ask them about it.

The Return Of Rothkoid

01:07 / 12.01.03

Fuck the masons. Join the Shriners.

Then you get fezzes and little cars. Beats trowels and aprons any day.

pointless and uncalled for

12:16 / 12.01.03

Fuck the Shriners, join the Quakers. Bigger hats and lots of silence. Got to respect a sect that appreciates some quality silence.

14:50 / 12.01.03

Why would anyone want to join a club that consists solely of men who are simply too afraid of women to allow them any voice.

Well in the various information in this thread's anything to go by, not only are some of them a "friendly bunch of men and women", but they even run "youth programs for girls"..

um, not that I'm defending Masons or anything, he he..

The Return Of Rothkoid

21:12 / 12.01.03

And barn-raising. Don't forget barn-raising.

Wrecks City-Zen

16:47 / 14.01.03

..dude, didya ever notice that like SAMSON contains the word MASONS?...whoa

17:18 / 14.01.03

The Masons have an amazing temple here in Philly. Simply gigantic. There's like 23 official rooms (and by room, I mean massive chambers), each decorated in some historical and geographic style. There's an ancient Egyptian room, an Ancient Greek room, a renaissance room, etc.

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