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Freemasons
From the historical beginnings of the brotherhood and a look at its symbols and rituals to the impact Freemasons have had on science, art, and history, this beautiful volume offers a comprehensive celebration of Freemasonry”for Masons themselves and to anyone else who is interested in the rich history of this ancient organization.
144 pages, Hardcover
First published August 18, 2005
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
May 13, 2023
If you are looking for a book that defenda Freemasonry as an organization AND focuses on the history of Freemasonry this book is for you. HOWEVER, I have a list of qualms about the book:
#1 ) Brushes over strong criticisms of Freemasonry as an organization— the biggest one is racism. A quick google search brings up a wealth of information on the connection between racism and freemasonry which the book fails to address.
#2) Fails to fully explore the concept of WHAT freemasonry is, it’s different forms, and WHY it exists. The book tries to draw a fragile link between the lodges of the 1700’s + with today’s lodges which I am not entirely convinced of. Is it really the same organization and in what ways? What exactly is freemasonry if its not a political or religious organization. I would also be interested to know its legal status as an organization in the US etc.
Overall, this was a quick read and the book did include some fun illustrations (eg: George Washington in Masonic regalia!)
#1 ) Brushes over strong criticisms of Freemasonry as an organization— the biggest one is racism. A quick google search brings up a wealth of information on the connection between racism and freemasonry which the book fails to address.
#2) Fails to fully explore the concept of WHAT freemasonry is, it’s different forms, and WHY it exists. The book tries to draw a fragile link between the lodges of the 1700’s + with today’s lodges which I am not entirely convinced of. Is it really the same organization and in what ways? What exactly is freemasonry if its not a political or religious organization. I would also be interested to know its legal status as an organization in the US etc.
Overall, this was a quick read and the book did include some fun illustrations (eg: George Washington in Masonic regalia!)
August 2, 2025
Everyone loves a secret society. You think you are missing out on something when you’re not in it. So I’ve always been fascinated by secret societies....like the “Five finder-outers” from Enid Blyton through to the Rosicrucian’s. I even wrote off to the Rosicrucian’s when I was about 13 to learn their “hidden wisdom handed down through generations”. But rapidly lost interest when the response came and it was pretty clear to me (gullible as I was) that you had to pay for the wisdom....and it only came in small packages and to gain the higher levels you had to pay more.......sounded pretty much like the system of indulgences that triggered off the reformation....or the Japanese system of buying a very good Buddhist name from the local monk for your “dear-departed”. So I was interested to find out a bit more about the Masons. My dad was an “Intermittent” Mason and I believe he saw it as a kind of “life-insurance” policy for the family. And I did see this in action at University where a student that I vaguely knew had failed first year. In most cases, that meant you lost any scholarship and had to leave. But he had lost his father (a Mason) and the Masons were funding him and they paid for him to repeat. As he put it...”They try and do what is best for the individual”. I must say, that impressed me.
There have been a stack of books over the last 50 years or so that have “spilt the beans” on the Masonic rites....I think I might have even skimmed one or two. But this book seemed to offer a broad overview. They say that modern Freemasonry, often called 'The Craft' by modern Freemasons, can be said to have been founded in 1717 when the members of four or more old lodges met at the Apple Tree Tavern in London and agreed to constitute themselves as a Grand Lodge. to enjoy a feast and to choose a Grand Master from among their number.
Since then, lodges have been founded in almost every country in the world and some of the most famous names in history have been proud to have been initiated into membership. The list is as long as it is diverse...... Most of them have been ordinary men who have attempted to live their lives by the practical lessons of morality, duty and service which they have learned in their lodges......And what could be a more fitting tribute to Freemasonry than that?
However, there are a few wrinkles to the story of modern Freemasonry. Though it was established in London in 1717 it claims that its origins date back thousands of years to pre-biblical times. According to legend, in the beginning ...There was a man called Lamech who had two sons by one wife, and a third son and a daughter by his second wife. These four children grew to adulthood and became the founders of all the crafts of the world. Jabal founded geometry. Jubal was music's progenitor. Tubal Cain was the first to take to the smithy. The four were warned in dreams that man's sins had displeased God to such an extent that he was intent on wreaking his vengeance on them either by flame or flood.
At this point we shall let Ranulf Higden, a fourteenth-century monk who lived in Chester and is credited with being the author of Polychronicon, a history of the world, take up the story. Brother Ranulf learned the tale from a source quoting the words of the Greek historian Berosus, who was writing around 300BC. He had, in turn, copied from a Sumerian source of some 1,200 years earlier:......... “At the making of the Tower of Babylon [Babel), the craft of Masonry was first founded and made much of and the king of Babylon who was called Hembroth or Nembroth was a mason and loved well the Craft”. [ Sounds to me that Ranulf was pretty much letting his imagination run wild...and his sources sound pretty suspect....especially so when according to Genesis the Tower of Babel was made of mud bricks not cut stone.].
Higden goes on to describe how the king of Babylon passed on the knowledge contained in the Pillars to the sixty masons he sent to the city of Nineveh. From there it passed into Egypt where, centuries later, it was learned by Euclid, the Greek mathematician who lived in Alexandria. In response to a plea by the pharaoh, Euclid offered to teach the science of geometry 'in practice to work masonry and all manner of worthy works that belonged to the building of castles etc. He also instructed that they should live well together and be true to one another, that they should call one another 'fellow and not servant or knave nor other foul names' and that they should 'truly serve for their payment the lord they served'........... these words are echoed 1,500 years after Euclid's time in the Regius manuscript (AD1390), which evokes the organization of masons.
The good monk of Chester also records the building of the Temple in Jerusalem....... Solomon looked abroad for assistance to help him finish the Temple. Among the countries Solomon asked for help was neighbouring Tyre, whose ruler agreed to send his best architects, who had learned the mason's craft from the heirs of the children of Lamech, to help in the construction of the Temple.
According to some accounts, Hiram sent his son, Aynon, who was skilled in the science of geometry, to Jerusalem, where Solomon made him master of all the other masons. But it is more commonly believed that it was a brass-worker's son, Hiram-Abiff, whom Hiram sent......But a group conspired to kill Hiram.... The tools of the crime and the parts of the body they hit have great symbolism for Freemasons. The ruler stands for precision, the square for rectitude and the mallet for will. And the three assassins are symbolic of the three banes of life - untruth, ignorance and ambition or Inner Darkness. Hiram-Abiff himself stands for the Light.
Fact or fiction? The truth is that we shall never know. But what we can safely say is that the roots of Freemasonry are as old as organized building itself........ Is there, one direct ancestor of today's Freemasonry? The brief A-Z of some of them that follows serves simply to give an idea of how many and varied they are, for if truth be told, we will never know.
Some believe Pythagoras may have a link with the origins of Freemasonry and its rituals. He was born at Samos in the sixth century BC.........The novice period completed, the disciple was allowed to enter the Inner Court where he was initiated into the 'Sacred Word', the Pythagorean science of numbers, which many regard as giving a direct link with Freemasonry and its signs and symbols.
Another theory is that it has roots with tribes that flourished in megalithic times from around 7,000BC to 2,500BC. Having discovered science and astronomy, men of that age built astronomical observatories, which include England's Stonehenge on the edge of Salisbury Plain
The ancients of Greece and Egypt, and the Persians who worshipped Mithras, the god of light in the Persian pantheon, used symbolism to teach morality.
During the early seventeenth century, many trades operated what became known as 'box clubs'....Members of [Box Clubs] clubs would set aside a small portion of their earnings to be used by the group when hard times fell, or by individual members who found themselves in distressing poverty. [This seems to be the system that my father was following].
The (Roman) Collegia is one of the bodies of architects or builders that could have handed down the moral teachings and symbolism that came into the possession of medieval masons and eventually flourished into The Craft. It combined religious, social and craft aspects.
Taking their name from Lake Como in northern Italy, where they had their original headquarters, the Comacine Masters were a body of Lombard builders who were influential in the development and spread of Romanesque architecture.
Craft guilds appeared in France before they were first noted in England and Germany. An organization of masons was in existence in France as early as 1365, and a code governing their practices dating from 1407 can be found in the archives of the city of Amiens.
But it is another French organization that has excited the attention of those who seek Freemasonry's true ancestor: the Compagnonnage......In 1841 a French historian, Agricol Perdiguer, published the Livre du Compagnonnage, which gives a detailed account of a mysterious organization of masons which, according to the book, was composed of the Sons of Solomon, the Sons of Soubise. [all of these stories seem to have one thing in common: they dredge up every bit of supportive evidence for a case and ignore any negatives].
The one obvious fact is that as the centuries unfolded, in cities all over Europe, generations of men toiled to design and build magnificent cathedrals and lesser, but equally ornate, churches. It took decades, centuries even, to transform architects' plans into finished buildings...... But the architects' plans had to be turned to stone buildings. Someone had to build the walls, the pillars, the steeples and dreaming spires. That 'some-one was the mason. These men had to have somewhere to arrange and store their tools; a place where master builders could give orders to more junior craftsmen and apprentices, They needed somewhere to shelter when bad weather made work impossible, and a place where, if work was suspended for any length of time, the mason's skills could be taught to apprentices.
Known as a Hutte, lutza, cassina or loge, depending on location, they are known to us as lodges, and almost every cathedral building site in medieval Europe had one. As construction could take several life spans, the lodges lasted for generations. Customs and rules differed from one lodge to the other, and it was not until 1459 that an attempt was made to unify the various codes and statutes of the masons' lodges of Europe's cathedral builders.
In 1459 stonemasons from all over Europe gathered in the city of Ratisbon (modern Regensburg) in western Germany under the presidency of Jost Dotzinger, master of works of Strasbourg Cathedral. The result was the Statutes of Ratisbon, which describe in great detail the organization and daily life of the lodge...... Under the terms of the statutes, it was forbidden for a master to live openly with a woman who was not his wife......It was the master's responsibility to ensure that each member of his lodge must drop one pfennine into a chest in which fines and any other donations were saved to be handed over to the main lodge once a year.....And members had to receive holy communion at least once a year.
[I understand that some of these rules and secrecy were to provide for ”Free” Masons to be able to move on to another building site or cathedral and be able to demonstrate that they knew their craft...before they were entrusted with building a main arch or whatever].
Members were barred from charging for teaching their skills to others in the corporation, but were encouraged to pass on their skills to their fellows for no payment as long as they were members. Later, the Grand Lodge of Stonecutters of Strasbourg issued decrees and articles that covered the behaviour and treatment of travelling companions or journeymen, who were guaranteed that if they moved on to another building site, but only after having completed their work satisfactorily on another, they should receive the same pay........ modern Freemasonry borrows the symbols and vocabulary of the medieval masons and stonecutters, although they themselves do not practise their craft. The real inheritors of the cathedral builder's lodges are the French cayennes of the Companions of the Tour of France, whose true function is transmitting the techniques and knowledge to others within a professional brotherhood.
We cannot estimate how many masons were at work during the age when the great cathedrals of Europe were under construction. In France alone in the early Middle Ages, from 1050 to 1350, more stone was quarried for eighty cathedrals than was used in Egypt during the millennia when the pyramids were built. And it was not just on cathedral sites that masons were employed. By the end of the Middle Ages it has been estimated that there was church for every two hundred inhabitants.
The events of 1717 were recorded by James Anderson, often regarded as 'the Father of Masonic History'. In the first “Book of Constitutions”, Anderson wrote that the newly elected Grand Master was the latest in a long line of men who had held the post. He claimed that, having led the Israelites from Egypt, Moses often marshalled his people into a regular and general lodge while in the wilderness. He claimed that Nebuchadrezzar had been the Grand Master....... Few people would deny that much of what Anderson wrote can fairly be described as complete nonsense, but there is no doubt that the members of the four lodges who met at the Goose and Gridiron early in 1717 were the heirs of a long and honourable tradition...... The Goose and Gridiron Lodge was itself founded in 1691, in the same year that Sir Christopher Wren is thought to have been adopted as a 'brother' at a Masonic convention held in St Paul's Church.
The records of Edinburgh Mary's Chapel lodge - assumed to be the oldest records in the world - date back almost a century before that, to 1599. And the word 'Freemason' itself first appeared in statute, and in an act passed during Henry VII's reign (1485-1509). Whatever the reason, by 1717, Freemasonry had become sufficiently popular among men of a certain standing, for the members of London's four 'Old Lodges' to meet together and found the Premier Grand Lodge at the Goose and Gridiron ale house, in London.....After electing Anthony Sayer, the oldest Master Mason, as their Grand Master, the members agreed to meet together once a year thereafter to hold a 'Grand Feast'. Sayer appointed Grand Wardens and 'commanded the Master and Wardens of Lodges to meet the Grand Officers' four times a year 'in Communication'.
As early as 1778, an attempt was made to establish a Grand Lodge for the entire United States, with George Washington as Grand Master, but this came to nothing and subsequent talk of such a Grand Lodge has met a similar fate. And so, today, there is a Grand Lodge for each state of the Union, fifty in all, plus another that governs the lodges that exist in the capital, Washington DC.
Major among the rites followed is the Scottish Rite, more usually called the Ancient and Accepted (Scottish) Rite, a 33 degree system that evolved out of the eighteenth-century French Rite of Perfection.....After attaining Master Mason rank, those who wish to attain the 33rd degree, must achieve the 4th degree..Perfect Master....and 29 other degrees....[Seems like a lot of work to me....especially when you are a “Perfect Master” at level 4].
Another major American Rite is the York Rite, which claims descent from the legendary Assembly of Masons summoned by Prince Edwin at York in AD 926.......Rites and rituals vary from order to order, from degree to degree, but when a prospective Mason is entered, an Entered Apprentice passed in the Fellow Craft degree and the Fellow Craft raised to Master Mason, the ceremonies of all have much in common. And the roles of the officers of the Lodge are common to most orders....However, the steadfast refusal to allow rituals to be printed, in an effort to protect the secrecy of the proceedings, meant that there was a wide variety in the way in which rituals proceeded within the lodges........ The rituals involve taking a symbolic pilgrimage.....During this journey the candidate has to undergo symbolic trials and dangers that test his commitment and courage, his integrity and trustworthiness.....It is usual for part of the journey to take place in the dark, which may be either actual or figurative, and for it to finish in a startling restoration of the light.
A candidate who has applied to be initiated in the First or Entered Apprentice's Degree has, figuratively speaking, asked to be admitted to the ground floor of King Solomon's Temple. He has to sign a declaration that he wishes to be a Mason. When this has been presented to the Lodge and approved, usually by ballot of the brethren.
All Freemasons vow during their initiation never to 'reveal any part or parts, point or points, of the secrets and mysteries......The penalty for anyone breaking this vow is the sort of thing of which nightmares are made:'... to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the root, and my body buried in the sand of the sea at low water....... The oath administered, the ceremony proceeds, the various signs and secrets of the Entered Apprentice (the handgrip and the password 'Boaz!') are revealed and the prescribed tools - the 24-inch gauge, the gavel and the chisel - presented. The Master explains the practical worth of each.
The book suggests that from the moment he takes his first step in The Craft, the Freemason is taught to live his life, both in and out of the lodge, by a set of principles, ideals and virtues ...Strength and Beauty can be seen not just in the strength of character of many Freemasons, famous and unknown alike, but physically, too, in the buildings that are associated with The Craft: either via the men who built them or via the purpose for which they were built. London's St Paul's Cathedral, for instance, was designed by Christopher Wren, a Freemason.
I guess it’s hard to argue with the principles of morality, duty and service....but I wonder whether all the secrecy and blindfolds and gavels etc ., plus the threat of having your throat cut if you share any of this secret stuff.....is really necessary. And, it’s all very well harking back to set-squares and calipers as mason’s tools and claiming they are symbols of correctness etc.. But virtually none of the modern masons would ever have cut a “true” face to a block. So is it really useful? I doubt it. (I actually have done this as part of a stone carving course that I did...and it’s quite a satisfying feeling to have achieved this as a starting point).
What’s my overall take on the book? Actually, I think it’s a reasonable picture and combines the known facts of modern masonry with the myths and legends that are wrapped up in their rites. I find it remarkable that the organisation has been able to survive for 300 years in its modern form....which seems to say more about people wanting to be part of exclusive clubs than the lofty ambitions of the various rites. It rather reminds me of the Monty Python crew’s formal meeting of their “Royal Society for putting things on top of other things”. .... Still five stars from me. It delivered what it promised.
There have been a stack of books over the last 50 years or so that have “spilt the beans” on the Masonic rites....I think I might have even skimmed one or two. But this book seemed to offer a broad overview. They say that modern Freemasonry, often called 'The Craft' by modern Freemasons, can be said to have been founded in 1717 when the members of four or more old lodges met at the Apple Tree Tavern in London and agreed to constitute themselves as a Grand Lodge. to enjoy a feast and to choose a Grand Master from among their number.
Since then, lodges have been founded in almost every country in the world and some of the most famous names in history have been proud to have been initiated into membership. The list is as long as it is diverse...... Most of them have been ordinary men who have attempted to live their lives by the practical lessons of morality, duty and service which they have learned in their lodges......And what could be a more fitting tribute to Freemasonry than that?
However, there are a few wrinkles to the story of modern Freemasonry. Though it was established in London in 1717 it claims that its origins date back thousands of years to pre-biblical times. According to legend, in the beginning ...There was a man called Lamech who had two sons by one wife, and a third son and a daughter by his second wife. These four children grew to adulthood and became the founders of all the crafts of the world. Jabal founded geometry. Jubal was music's progenitor. Tubal Cain was the first to take to the smithy. The four were warned in dreams that man's sins had displeased God to such an extent that he was intent on wreaking his vengeance on them either by flame or flood.
At this point we shall let Ranulf Higden, a fourteenth-century monk who lived in Chester and is credited with being the author of Polychronicon, a history of the world, take up the story. Brother Ranulf learned the tale from a source quoting the words of the Greek historian Berosus, who was writing around 300BC. He had, in turn, copied from a Sumerian source of some 1,200 years earlier:......... “At the making of the Tower of Babylon [Babel), the craft of Masonry was first founded and made much of and the king of Babylon who was called Hembroth or Nembroth was a mason and loved well the Craft”. [ Sounds to me that Ranulf was pretty much letting his imagination run wild...and his sources sound pretty suspect....especially so when according to Genesis the Tower of Babel was made of mud bricks not cut stone.].
Higden goes on to describe how the king of Babylon passed on the knowledge contained in the Pillars to the sixty masons he sent to the city of Nineveh. From there it passed into Egypt where, centuries later, it was learned by Euclid, the Greek mathematician who lived in Alexandria. In response to a plea by the pharaoh, Euclid offered to teach the science of geometry 'in practice to work masonry and all manner of worthy works that belonged to the building of castles etc. He also instructed that they should live well together and be true to one another, that they should call one another 'fellow and not servant or knave nor other foul names' and that they should 'truly serve for their payment the lord they served'........... these words are echoed 1,500 years after Euclid's time in the Regius manuscript (AD1390), which evokes the organization of masons.
The good monk of Chester also records the building of the Temple in Jerusalem....... Solomon looked abroad for assistance to help him finish the Temple. Among the countries Solomon asked for help was neighbouring Tyre, whose ruler agreed to send his best architects, who had learned the mason's craft from the heirs of the children of Lamech, to help in the construction of the Temple.
According to some accounts, Hiram sent his son, Aynon, who was skilled in the science of geometry, to Jerusalem, where Solomon made him master of all the other masons. But it is more commonly believed that it was a brass-worker's son, Hiram-Abiff, whom Hiram sent......But a group conspired to kill Hiram.... The tools of the crime and the parts of the body they hit have great symbolism for Freemasons. The ruler stands for precision, the square for rectitude and the mallet for will. And the three assassins are symbolic of the three banes of life - untruth, ignorance and ambition or Inner Darkness. Hiram-Abiff himself stands for the Light.
Fact or fiction? The truth is that we shall never know. But what we can safely say is that the roots of Freemasonry are as old as organized building itself........ Is there, one direct ancestor of today's Freemasonry? The brief A-Z of some of them that follows serves simply to give an idea of how many and varied they are, for if truth be told, we will never know.
Some believe Pythagoras may have a link with the origins of Freemasonry and its rituals. He was born at Samos in the sixth century BC.........The novice period completed, the disciple was allowed to enter the Inner Court where he was initiated into the 'Sacred Word', the Pythagorean science of numbers, which many regard as giving a direct link with Freemasonry and its signs and symbols.
Another theory is that it has roots with tribes that flourished in megalithic times from around 7,000BC to 2,500BC. Having discovered science and astronomy, men of that age built astronomical observatories, which include England's Stonehenge on the edge of Salisbury Plain
The ancients of Greece and Egypt, and the Persians who worshipped Mithras, the god of light in the Persian pantheon, used symbolism to teach morality.
During the early seventeenth century, many trades operated what became known as 'box clubs'....Members of [Box Clubs] clubs would set aside a small portion of their earnings to be used by the group when hard times fell, or by individual members who found themselves in distressing poverty. [This seems to be the system that my father was following].
The (Roman) Collegia is one of the bodies of architects or builders that could have handed down the moral teachings and symbolism that came into the possession of medieval masons and eventually flourished into The Craft. It combined religious, social and craft aspects.
Taking their name from Lake Como in northern Italy, where they had their original headquarters, the Comacine Masters were a body of Lombard builders who were influential in the development and spread of Romanesque architecture.
Craft guilds appeared in France before they were first noted in England and Germany. An organization of masons was in existence in France as early as 1365, and a code governing their practices dating from 1407 can be found in the archives of the city of Amiens.
But it is another French organization that has excited the attention of those who seek Freemasonry's true ancestor: the Compagnonnage......In 1841 a French historian, Agricol Perdiguer, published the Livre du Compagnonnage, which gives a detailed account of a mysterious organization of masons which, according to the book, was composed of the Sons of Solomon, the Sons of Soubise. [all of these stories seem to have one thing in common: they dredge up every bit of supportive evidence for a case and ignore any negatives].
The one obvious fact is that as the centuries unfolded, in cities all over Europe, generations of men toiled to design and build magnificent cathedrals and lesser, but equally ornate, churches. It took decades, centuries even, to transform architects' plans into finished buildings...... But the architects' plans had to be turned to stone buildings. Someone had to build the walls, the pillars, the steeples and dreaming spires. That 'some-one was the mason. These men had to have somewhere to arrange and store their tools; a place where master builders could give orders to more junior craftsmen and apprentices, They needed somewhere to shelter when bad weather made work impossible, and a place where, if work was suspended for any length of time, the mason's skills could be taught to apprentices.
Known as a Hutte, lutza, cassina or loge, depending on location, they are known to us as lodges, and almost every cathedral building site in medieval Europe had one. As construction could take several life spans, the lodges lasted for generations. Customs and rules differed from one lodge to the other, and it was not until 1459 that an attempt was made to unify the various codes and statutes of the masons' lodges of Europe's cathedral builders.
In 1459 stonemasons from all over Europe gathered in the city of Ratisbon (modern Regensburg) in western Germany under the presidency of Jost Dotzinger, master of works of Strasbourg Cathedral. The result was the Statutes of Ratisbon, which describe in great detail the organization and daily life of the lodge...... Under the terms of the statutes, it was forbidden for a master to live openly with a woman who was not his wife......It was the master's responsibility to ensure that each member of his lodge must drop one pfennine into a chest in which fines and any other donations were saved to be handed over to the main lodge once a year.....And members had to receive holy communion at least once a year.
[I understand that some of these rules and secrecy were to provide for ”Free” Masons to be able to move on to another building site or cathedral and be able to demonstrate that they knew their craft...before they were entrusted with building a main arch or whatever].
Members were barred from charging for teaching their skills to others in the corporation, but were encouraged to pass on their skills to their fellows for no payment as long as they were members. Later, the Grand Lodge of Stonecutters of Strasbourg issued decrees and articles that covered the behaviour and treatment of travelling companions or journeymen, who were guaranteed that if they moved on to another building site, but only after having completed their work satisfactorily on another, they should receive the same pay........ modern Freemasonry borrows the symbols and vocabulary of the medieval masons and stonecutters, although they themselves do not practise their craft. The real inheritors of the cathedral builder's lodges are the French cayennes of the Companions of the Tour of France, whose true function is transmitting the techniques and knowledge to others within a professional brotherhood.
We cannot estimate how many masons were at work during the age when the great cathedrals of Europe were under construction. In France alone in the early Middle Ages, from 1050 to 1350, more stone was quarried for eighty cathedrals than was used in Egypt during the millennia when the pyramids were built. And it was not just on cathedral sites that masons were employed. By the end of the Middle Ages it has been estimated that there was church for every two hundred inhabitants.
The events of 1717 were recorded by James Anderson, often regarded as 'the Father of Masonic History'. In the first “Book of Constitutions”, Anderson wrote that the newly elected Grand Master was the latest in a long line of men who had held the post. He claimed that, having led the Israelites from Egypt, Moses often marshalled his people into a regular and general lodge while in the wilderness. He claimed that Nebuchadrezzar had been the Grand Master....... Few people would deny that much of what Anderson wrote can fairly be described as complete nonsense, but there is no doubt that the members of the four lodges who met at the Goose and Gridiron early in 1717 were the heirs of a long and honourable tradition...... The Goose and Gridiron Lodge was itself founded in 1691, in the same year that Sir Christopher Wren is thought to have been adopted as a 'brother' at a Masonic convention held in St Paul's Church.
The records of Edinburgh Mary's Chapel lodge - assumed to be the oldest records in the world - date back almost a century before that, to 1599. And the word 'Freemason' itself first appeared in statute, and in an act passed during Henry VII's reign (1485-1509). Whatever the reason, by 1717, Freemasonry had become sufficiently popular among men of a certain standing, for the members of London's four 'Old Lodges' to meet together and found the Premier Grand Lodge at the Goose and Gridiron ale house, in London.....After electing Anthony Sayer, the oldest Master Mason, as their Grand Master, the members agreed to meet together once a year thereafter to hold a 'Grand Feast'. Sayer appointed Grand Wardens and 'commanded the Master and Wardens of Lodges to meet the Grand Officers' four times a year 'in Communication'.
As early as 1778, an attempt was made to establish a Grand Lodge for the entire United States, with George Washington as Grand Master, but this came to nothing and subsequent talk of such a Grand Lodge has met a similar fate. And so, today, there is a Grand Lodge for each state of the Union, fifty in all, plus another that governs the lodges that exist in the capital, Washington DC.
Major among the rites followed is the Scottish Rite, more usually called the Ancient and Accepted (Scottish) Rite, a 33 degree system that evolved out of the eighteenth-century French Rite of Perfection.....After attaining Master Mason rank, those who wish to attain the 33rd degree, must achieve the 4th degree..Perfect Master....and 29 other degrees....[Seems like a lot of work to me....especially when you are a “Perfect Master” at level 4].
Another major American Rite is the York Rite, which claims descent from the legendary Assembly of Masons summoned by Prince Edwin at York in AD 926.......Rites and rituals vary from order to order, from degree to degree, but when a prospective Mason is entered, an Entered Apprentice passed in the Fellow Craft degree and the Fellow Craft raised to Master Mason, the ceremonies of all have much in common. And the roles of the officers of the Lodge are common to most orders....However, the steadfast refusal to allow rituals to be printed, in an effort to protect the secrecy of the proceedings, meant that there was a wide variety in the way in which rituals proceeded within the lodges........ The rituals involve taking a symbolic pilgrimage.....During this journey the candidate has to undergo symbolic trials and dangers that test his commitment and courage, his integrity and trustworthiness.....It is usual for part of the journey to take place in the dark, which may be either actual or figurative, and for it to finish in a startling restoration of the light.
A candidate who has applied to be initiated in the First or Entered Apprentice's Degree has, figuratively speaking, asked to be admitted to the ground floor of King Solomon's Temple. He has to sign a declaration that he wishes to be a Mason. When this has been presented to the Lodge and approved, usually by ballot of the brethren.
All Freemasons vow during their initiation never to 'reveal any part or parts, point or points, of the secrets and mysteries......The penalty for anyone breaking this vow is the sort of thing of which nightmares are made:'... to have my throat cut across, my tongue torn out by the root, and my body buried in the sand of the sea at low water....... The oath administered, the ceremony proceeds, the various signs and secrets of the Entered Apprentice (the handgrip and the password 'Boaz!') are revealed and the prescribed tools - the 24-inch gauge, the gavel and the chisel - presented. The Master explains the practical worth of each.
The book suggests that from the moment he takes his first step in The Craft, the Freemason is taught to live his life, both in and out of the lodge, by a set of principles, ideals and virtues ...Strength and Beauty can be seen not just in the strength of character of many Freemasons, famous and unknown alike, but physically, too, in the buildings that are associated with The Craft: either via the men who built them or via the purpose for which they were built. London's St Paul's Cathedral, for instance, was designed by Christopher Wren, a Freemason.
I guess it’s hard to argue with the principles of morality, duty and service....but I wonder whether all the secrecy and blindfolds and gavels etc ., plus the threat of having your throat cut if you share any of this secret stuff.....is really necessary. And, it’s all very well harking back to set-squares and calipers as mason’s tools and claiming they are symbols of correctness etc.. But virtually none of the modern masons would ever have cut a “true” face to a block. So is it really useful? I doubt it. (I actually have done this as part of a stone carving course that I did...and it’s quite a satisfying feeling to have achieved this as a starting point).
What’s my overall take on the book? Actually, I think it’s a reasonable picture and combines the known facts of modern masonry with the myths and legends that are wrapped up in their rites. I find it remarkable that the organisation has been able to survive for 300 years in its modern form....which seems to say more about people wanting to be part of exclusive clubs than the lofty ambitions of the various rites. It rather reminds me of the Monty Python crew’s formal meeting of their “Royal Society for putting things on top of other things”. .... Still five stars from me. It delivered what it promised.
September 5, 2010
An excellent book!
Interesting and very informative.
Keeps your interest and has may glossy photographs to cement things together.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in freemasonary - especially non-masons.
One thing in common with most good books in freemasonary it describes that it freemasonary is not a religion and allows membership of every religion - prodestant, catholic, muslim, hindu and any other religion provided that the person believes in a greater being, a greater God or architect.
The book is easy to understand although the text is quite small there is a lot of info in each page.
I hope you read this one.
Nikolaus.
Interesting and very informative.
Keeps your interest and has may glossy photographs to cement things together.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in freemasonary - especially non-masons.
One thing in common with most good books in freemasonary it describes that it freemasonary is not a religion and allows membership of every religion - prodestant, catholic, muslim, hindu and any other religion provided that the person believes in a greater being, a greater God or architect.
The book is easy to understand although the text is quite small there is a lot of info in each page.
I hope you read this one.
Nikolaus.
January 11, 2015
What can you say? As a Catholic, I somehow had it embedded in my brain that Mason were anti Catholics. This book is an apologia of Masonry, and the writer tries to hard to keep you engaged. Which is essentially, impossible. It all seems awfully silly- though harmless.
July 30, 2023
Very boring book full of useless facts but no entertainment at all
July 12, 2016
It's a well-written and illustrated book that contains a wealth of information about the origins, philosophical underpinnings, rites and activities of modern freemasonry, and would recommend it to those interested in learning about 'The Craft' as it is usually described by its practitioners. The text makes reference to the conceit of its practitioners and there should be decent ways in the twenty-first century to address the difficulties that can follow on from the us, over here practices.
January 5, 2016
I was hesitant to whether buy this book or not, but to satisfy the last remnants of my middle school fading fascination of The Craft, I did. And...What a waste of my money!
Briefly, it is an illustrated long article from Wikipedia. With a formidable aptitude of exploiting every page with ant-sized letters that gave me a severe headache while reading!
However, I can't say that I didn't learn anything from it, hence the second star.
Briefly, it is an illustrated long article from Wikipedia. With a formidable aptitude of exploiting every page with ant-sized letters that gave me a severe headache while reading!
However, I can't say that I didn't learn anything from it, hence the second star.
September 10, 2013
A brief modern history of this secretive anti-Catholic religious sect. The author sstates the legend that the Knights Templar secretly inflitrated the stone mason guilds f Scotland following their downfall. There is a brief discussion of the degrees of the Masons and their world wide organization.
December 1, 2013
Very informative and great pictures
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August 15, 2015Shed a lot of light on a very mysterious tradition!
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