Mason's and "Free Masons". Conspiracy theories and the Occult!

[DawnMarie]

It's the shriners that where the red hats - part of the masons but just a subset if you will. If your FIL was a mason before 1988 it is not likely his lodge was integrated.

We have a number of things we do for the widows and families of lodge members who have died. Many of them live in retirement communities here in Indiana that are free (or VERY cheap) for the widows of masons.

Thanks. I'll pass this on to her.

 

[Cantw8]

yes, Shriners are a subset of the Masons as are the Tall Cedars of Lebanon The Cedars do alot of charity work for muscular dystrophy They are actually behind the Labor Day telethon, not Jerry Lewis..who btw is the rudest most arrogant man I have ever met

 

[Galahad]

Our pastor also belonged.

At the time I became a mason in the 70's, the majority of Methodist and Presbyterian pastors in our state were masons.

 

[Galahad]

yes, Shriners are a subset of the Masons as are the Tall Cedars of Lebanon

Yep. The basic masonic lodge (called a blue lodge because it's blue inside - go figure) has three degrees (the origin of the term "third degree"). Once you are a member of a blue lodge you may also join:

Scottish Rite
York Rite
Shriners (Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine)
Various Shrine clubs called "grottos"
The Tall Cedars

For women, Easter Star and Order of the Amaranth.

For Boys, DeMolay and for Girls, Rainbow Girls.

FWIW, The boy scouts was started by a Mormon Freemason and was designed to mimic some of the principles of masonry (with ranks (degrees)and awards and such).

 

[yasmina]

I once dated a man who claimed to be a Mason. Said that my uncle was a Mason - could tell because of the handshake. That there was some secret to the masonic handshake that of course he couldn't share.

He also said that the reason the Masons didn't admit blacks was because they had once been held in slavery. I promptly replied that at different times in different places all groups of people had been held in slavery. He had no reponse.

He is no longer in my life.

 

[Buckalew11]

My grandfathers were both Masons (one was a shriner), my grandmothers were both in Eastern Star and my one grandmom was the *grand pooba* (I can't think of what they call her, LOL). My mom was in Eastern Star and DH's dad and his grandfather were Masons.

I asked a lot of questions about it because I figured it was something that obviously meant an awful lot to many in my family maybe I should look into trying to join. Of course no one would give me answers because it was all "secret" and it used to upset my dad's mom when I'd ask.

Growing up, most of the older men that I knew were Masons. My experiences were that some of the finest people were Masons. Back then, it was something they took very seriously. I don't know what it is like today. I only know 3 guys around my age who are Masons.

When DH went to MN in August for elbow surgery I went with him. His expensives were all paid for but mine were not. My plane ticket was 890.! Anyway, we had a very sweet surprise--Masons in Oak Ridge gave us 200.00 to put towards this trip! We did not know any of them. It was one of the most touching things ever for me. I will remember their generosity when the Shrine papaers sales come around. They wanted to have a pancake breafast fundraiser but DH denied them of that saying someone else needed the help more than us. So, they took up the money and gave it to us.

Stoires like that are heartwarming and also inspire you to "pay it forward."

 

[Galahad]

He also said that the reason the Masons didn't admit blacks was because they had once been held in slavery. I promptly replied that at different times in different places all groups

This is, of course, BS.

The only thing about masonry that is really a secret are the same things that are secrets in any fraternity - hand shakes, passwords, etc.

The other thing that is refereed to by "secrets" is this: The basics of freemasonry is to teach lessons to its members through acted out allegory. It is believe that the lessons are more effective if you don't "know what's coming" in the little morality plays that are used for these rituals. Therefore the rituals are not communicated to new members ahead of time - so they can experience them fresh. It that sense they are secret. But truth be told, as someone else mentioned, you can get it all in a public library or the web. The web, of course, is full of distortions about lots of things and freemasonry is no exception. I've seen a lot of BS on the web about masonry.

 

[yearbook50]

My grandfather was a Shriner. I remember going to their balls when I was 10 or so since my grandfather didn't have a date. Boy those were fun.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

So, at the last 'take-over-the-world' meeting we were undecided about how to control the economy and we decided to put on our fezzes and ride our scooters instead.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

I once dated a man who claimed to be a Mason. Said that my uncle was a Mason - could tell because of the handshake. That there was some secret to the masonic handshake that of course he couldn't share.

I'm not a Mason, although I do have some in my family history. I think I know what you mean about the secret handshake. Unless I'm mistaken, there have been times in life where guys have checked me out with a small variation on the "normal" handshake, perhaps to see if I was a Mason without them asking. Hard to describe, but it's been the same thing each time. It's either the Masons or the Democrats... not sure which.

 

[The_Horned_King]

Since the post seem to be getting off topic, let me answer WHY all the Conspiracy/secret society theories attached to the masons.

1st...The mason's have been around for a long time! Form as early as 1717...though there are some claims that the freemasons date back to the middle ages...Some even to King Solomon's Temple in 850b.c.

2nd...Many famous people are known to have been part of the masons. George Washington, Ben Franklin, 4 outhers that signed the declaration of independance....Andrew Jackson,(heck some theories say Jack the ripper was a mason)...just to name a few.

3rd...Powerful people have hated them and claimed them as evil!
The Roman Catholic church was officially opposed to the group ever since 1738, when Pope Clement XII condemned Freemasonry and banned it from his faith. Catholics were forbidden from joining, under pain of excommunication. In 1825, Leo XII reiterated the ban and declared it to be permanent and everlasting. In 1884, Leo XIII called on each member of the clergy to get the word out and help defeat this insidious foe:

We pray and beseech you, venerable brethren, to join your efforts with Ours, and earnestly to strive for the extirpation of this foul plague, which is creeping through the veins of the body politic. [...] We wish it to be your rule first of all to tear away the mask from Freemasonry, and to let it be seen as it really is; and by sermons and pastoral letters to instruct the people as to the artifices used by societies of this kind in seducing men and enticing them into their ranks, and as to the depravity of their opinions and the wickedness of their acts.

This opposition to Freemasonry persisted into the 20th century. Pope Pius XII hated them

Freemasons suffered harshly in Nazi Germany. Adolf Hitler firmly believed that they had been completely subverted by the Jews, as described in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. As he explained in his bestselling autobiography Mein Kampf, the Masons had been subverted to provide a mask of legitimacy for the diabolical Jew:


n Freemasonry, which has succumbed to him completely, he has an excellent instrument with which to fight for his aims and put them across. The governing circles and the higher strata of the political and economic bourgeoisie are brought into his nets by the strings of Freemasonry, and never need to suspect what is happening.

Some of The greatest dictators of recent decades have jumped on the Anti-Masonic bandwagon: Stalin, Mussolini, Franco, Pinochet (Chile), Salazar (Portugal)

4) their attachment to the Templars.
-Self explanitory if you know your hostry of the Knights.

5)The Freemasons secretly rule the world.
Or, more precisely, the usual claim is that the Freemasons are the visible arm of the Illuminati, who actually rule the world. The founder of the Bavarian Illuminati, Adam Weishaupt, was also a Mason. This fact prompted wide speculation that the two groups had been (or still are) working in tandem for a broader objective -- the establishment of a "New World Order." This notion is still widely believed, especially among the militia types.

6)The Freemasons are Satanic, or at least anti-Christian
Jack Chick promotes this idea. Many fundamentalist Christians believe that Masons are required to pledge themselves to Freemasonry above and beyond their religious faiths. This would be a strict no-no for the Jesus freaks, if it were true. Which it isn't.

Jehovah's Witnesses refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Better safe than sorry, especially when you're talking about eternal torment for you and your extended progeny.

Some even believe that Freemasonry is itself a religion, whose deity is the pagan god Baphomet.

The problem is, as any devout Christian in the organization will tell you, there is nothing Satanic about the group's ideology, rituals, or symbols. But the nutballs have an answer for this. The Masons don't believe that their group is anti-Christian because only the innermost, core members know the truth. Meaning: inside the secret club is another, even more secret, club.

7)One prominent 19th century Mason was Albert Pike. He was an officer in the Confederate army during the Civil War, who later went on to become a big deal in Freemasonry. He wrote seminal books which are still read today by the Freemasons.

He was also evidently a big fat racist, writing editorials in his newspaper inveighing against the Negroes and so forth. It is widely-believed but poorly documented that Pike might have been one of the original founders of the Ku Klux Klan. The Masons vehemently deny this, of course

 

[The_Horned_King]

Here is a list of famous masons...Got this from...
http://www.rotten.com/library/conspiracy/freemasonry/

Recognizable Masons
Benedict Arnold, Revolutionary War traitor.
Napoleon Bonaparte, French tyrant.
Henry Ford, auto manufacturor, racist.
Barry Goldwater, Senator.
Jesse Helms, Senator, homophobe.
J. Edgar Hoover, FBI director-for-life, homosexual.
Houdini, magician.
Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church.
Brigham Young, another Mormon.
Oscar Wilde, noted author and homosexual.
Mark Twain, American author.
John Glenn, astronaut.
Samuel Hahnemann, started the Homeopathy fraud.
Charles Lindbergh, aviator, racist.
All seven of the Ringling Brothers.
Colonel Sanders, fat fried chicken tycoon.
Dave Thomas, fat Wendy's tycoon.
Telly Savalas, player.
Peter Sellers, pink panther.
Strom Thurmond, racist US Senator.
William Walker, advocate of Manifest Destiny.
Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Britain.
Aleister Crowley, the most evil man that ever was, 33rd degree.
U.S. Chief Justice Earl Warren, head of the Warren Commission.
Roberto Calvi, Vatican banker.
Abraham Zapruder, filmed John F. Kennedy assassination

Masons had an impressive (and to some, alarming) role in the founding the United States, including most of the critical Founding Fathers:
George Washington
John Hancock.
Patrick Henry, Give me Liberty or give me Death. Some claim that he was never a Mason.
Benjamin Franklin, inventor, printer, diplomat, patriot, womanizer. Arguably the most accomplished American that has ever lived.
Paul Revere
Ethan Allen
Thomas Jefferson, likely a Mason.
Additional Presidents who were Masons
Gerald Ford
William McKinley, assassinated by an anarchist.
James Garfield, assassinated President.
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Harry S Truman
Warren G. Harding
William Howard Taft, the fattest President.
Andrew Johnson, the first impeached President.
James Monroe
Andrew Jackson
James Knox Polk
James Buchanan, the only bachelor US President.
Lyndon B. Johnson was a first degree Mason.
Ronald Reagan was an honorary Scottish Rite Mason, but not a Freemason.

 

[Galahad]

Mozart and Salieri were, rather than enemies, lodge brothers and close friends. Mozart's Opera, The Magic Flute is about masonry.
Haydn was also a mason and Beethoven was likely a mason though that one's kind of sketchy. Mahler and Mendelssohn were also masons. So was Goethe.

 

[nskjerven]

My Dad was a Mason, a Grand Master. He passed away in 2006. I went to a few installation events(as a young teen). But never really understood what it was or what he did. I do know that he was proud of his affiliation and that he loved being invovled in the group and that he had lifetime friends from it. My nephews (in their early 20s) are in awe of their grandfather and want to join, but we understand that you can't just join but you must be asked to join from a fellow mason. My son who is only 7, may also want to investigate what his Grandpa did, as he is named after my dad and also has a great deal of love and respect for him. Perhaps I will be inspired to study and learn more....thanks for sparking my interest with this thread.

 

[piglet too]

I was a Rainbow Girl, and I think part of the mis-trust is the whole secrecy thing. When I first joined (asked by a friend who was in Rainbow and whose parents were Masons and Eastern Star) my parents were not allowed to go to anything except "open meetings" sine they were not Masonic affiliated. That has since changed, and now all parents of Rainbow Girls are welcome at all meetings.

For those who are former Rainbow Girls, the current Supreme Worthy Advisor is from my state. I love this woman dearly as she played a huge role in my years of Rainbow.

 

[FoundMyPrince]

This is very interesting to me. My father is a Mason and a Shriner. All I know of the Shriners is they have parades, drive funky go-karts, and raise money for their Children's Hospitals. He never talks about their meetings - all kind of hush-hush. So, what is the point of the Mason's? Is it just a club? I know I can find stuff on the internet about it - but like someone said, there is BS and there is the truth. It's all secret -- so how do I know the difference!??

 

[bfeller]

My father, 2 of my brothers, some cousins and all uncles were Masons of various degrees. I was a Job's Daughter when a teenager and did join Eastern Star. As far as I know there is no consiracy at all.

 

[DISUNC]

Perhaps its all buildup to the new Disney movie 'National Treasure: Book of Secrets'. The Masons play a big part in that movie!

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Here is a list of famous masons...Got this from...
http://www.rotten.com/library/conspiracy/freemasonry/

Recognizable Masons
...redacted for space..
.

Interesting list, whoever wrote it seem to have a problem with peoples weight, and their sexual proclivity.(?) Don't really see how that is important. Plus several entries note that they are racist. Again, even if that is true, which it may very well be, what is the point?

 

["Got Disney"]

Eastern Star here ...also DOAR (Daughers of American Revolution) roots go back to the Mayflower and the Fortune. Not sure if started in England or in the colonys for my family. I don't go to any meetings ,no time. I just pay yearly dues, This will entitle me to attend there nursing homes if need be. I'm only 50 so hope to live a long time and pay many dues

There nursing homes are really nice. My mom and grandmother and so on were not racist at the least and neither am I. Sure some are and I have also herd and read about this and many wrong doings of the Masons but personally have not ran into it myself. Sure there rotten people in every group.