From: JBrandt@AAA.UOregon.EDU (Jay Brandt, MM 32)
Subject: Re: Masons/Knights Templar
Organization: University of Oregon, Architecture
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 21:55:05 GMT

Warning: This is a rather LONG posting, but I hope it's informative. JBB

In article <mXsgqB1w165w@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca>,
idfraser@ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Ian Fraser) writes:
> 
> -
> -y unlikely that you could become one as in masonry homosexuals are
> - not openly admitted.
> -
> - Eshin-Fun
> -
> 
> 
> 
>  Really? That should come as quite a surprise to the openly homosexual members
> of my Lodge!
> 
> For the record, Masonry has the following requirements for membership(or did,
> when I joined 5 years ago):
> 
> 1) You must be a deist. (You must believe in _some_ form_ of Divine.)
> 2) You must be male.
> 3) You must be freeborn. (True, it's hardly applicable now, but it _is_ still a
> requirement)
> 4) You must be well recommended. (Someone you have known for at least 2 years
> must put your name forth)
> 
> That's it. Period. There are _no_other_ requirements!!
> 
> ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' ' '
>  
> Bright Blessings to you and yours!  
>  
> Hawk
>  
> Circle of Ashtoreth, 
> Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
> 


My, what a fascinating thread this has been. I've been away from this
particular newsgroup for a while, so today was the first I had read of the
various posts on the Masons, Templars, et. al..

I happen to be a Past Master Councilor of the Order of DeMolay, a third
generation Master Mason, second generation 32 Mason (Scottish Rite), and a
second generation member of the Ancient and Accepted Order of the Nobles of
the Mystic Shrine (a Shriner, in other words). I also am a practicing
neo-pagan (Wicca) who was raised in a variety of Methodist, Lutheran and
Presbyterian Christian churches. Frankly, I'm not very active with the
Masonic organizations for a number of reasons, some of which are listed
below. However, I can shed a bit more light on this thread. It's a bit
long, but it's the "straight skinny" from someone on the inside.

As to the Mason's membership requirements, all must swear that they will
not "  make a woman a Mason, nor an old man in dotage, a young man in
non-age, an atheist, a madman, a libertine or a fool." That charge is part
of the initiation which all Masons must agree to prior to becoming a member
of the lodge. Not that I think all that is well and good mind you, but
that's the charge. Being freeborn and well-recommended is in there too.

Masons are deists, although many today would not realize that it is the
correct term for them. The only reason I have heard given for excluding
Atheists is that they must be able to swear by a higher authority that they
will abide by their oaths. 

"  an old man in dotage, a young man in non-age, a madman,  or a fool
": The prospective member must be of legal age and mentally competent.
That's all this part means. No sense in belonging if they can't do the
ritual work.

" a libertine ": If there is any ban on homosexuality, it is interpreted
from this phrase. When he was coaching me for my initiatory degree work, I
asked my father to clarify that point. He hemmed and hawed a bit and said
almost in a whisper, "that's a  uh  a homo " and looked severely
embarrassed. He was probably scared to death that I was "in the closet"
myself. Fortunately for his sense of decency, I just said "Oh" and left it
at that. He didn't need to know that at 21 I had already experienced life
on both sides of that fence, especially since I had found I preferred
straight partners. That part of the charge is left as pretty much of a gray
area, and if many lodges don't choose to interpret it as my father did, so
much the better. I chose to consider it more in political than sexual
terms.

The disallowal of women as masons is a sticking point that may well cause
their demise. (The Masons  not women. :-)  ) It is held in many areas,
including France, that there was an older practice of co-masonry, in which
women could join along with the men. It would be well for the Lodge if they
would reconsider the ban on women. Today's couples want to do things
together, and the Victorian standard of "going out with the boys" at a
gentlemens club and leaving wife or girlfriend at home is an anachronism
in today's society. Yes, they have Masonic groups for women, such as the
Eastern Star, Daughters of the Nile, and Order of Amaranth. Some of these
allow men as well. But the core groups are still men-only, and there is no
GOOD reason for that. It is one reason I don't attend much, as I would
rather spend time in the company of my wife.

Most "Official" Masonic bodies in the USA are in effect white-only. This is
NOT an official policy, but stems from the voting practices in the lodge,
(see below) where one person can stop any vote. It also stems from the
"social club" aspects of many of the groups. When I was in DeMolay back in
the early 70's, another DeMolay chapter in my town voted to admit a black
youth to their chapter. Everyone in the area (in their own chapter and many
others, my own included) liked him, and thought he would be a great member.
He was a model of civility and good manners, who happened to have dark
skin. Unfortunately, none of the girl's groups (Bethel / Job's Daughters
and Rainbow Girls) were equally progressive at the time. He came to a few
dances, where he was the only non-white in the room. He tried politely to
ask a few of the girls to dance, and at least half of them just stood there
in shock! They were too insulated in their white-only social melieu, and
didn't know how to take him. After a few disastrous evenings out, he gave
up and quit the group. Similar problems have no doubt occurred when a
progressive Lodge of Masons tries to admit a black adult. Yes, there are
all-black Masonic lodges, Eastern Star chapters, etc. . Most got started
when a black person with Masonic friends failed to gain admission and
wanted to be a Mason anyway. All of the ritual books, etc. are in the
Library of congress, so a parallel structure eventually evolved for
non-whites. The USA Grand Lodge is a stickler on their authority to create
recognized Lodges, however. They refuse to this day to recognize our black
Brethren, because they don't have a charter from the Grand Lodge. Believe
it or not, I have recently seen letters in Masonic publications encouraging
the Masonic bodies to welcome the Black Lodge as our own brethren, as a
means of ending this outdated practice and boosting sadly declining
membership rates. However, I fear that the inertia of the matter will make
this too little - too late.

Unfortunately, few of these "problem policies" are likely to change.
Masonic Law allows any prospective member to be excluded on a single member
"blackballing" him. Same thing goes for any votes to change policies. All
it takes is one bigoted, chauvinistic, or homophobic old goat, and you
stagnate and can't change. They will have to change the voting policies, or
insist on a change at the highest levels, if they are to reverse some of
the more anachronistic and socially regressive policies.

There is nothing forbidding membership in the Catholic church, although
more strict Catholic groups may look down on membership in any "secret
society" or order where you can't tell what you did in confession. The
solution to that is simple. If you need to confess about something that
happened in a lodge meeting (which is actually unlikely), confess to a
priest who is also a Mason! They do exist, I assure you. (Incidentally, I
have heard that Missouri Synod Methodists are even harder on Masonic
membership than the Catholics)!

As to connections with a pagan past, most of that is just stage dressing.
Yes, there are pagan elements in many of the Masonic rituals. It could be
argued that a knowledgeable pagan in times gone by "hid" many pagan
practices under the "respectable" cover of Masonic rituals, where few would
see them and recognize them for what they were. Certainly there are many
Masonic forbearers who also happened to be pagan, and who borrowed freely
from Masonic ritual. (The members of the Order of the Golden Dawn comes to
mind as one example). was it the other way as well? Perhaps, but we may
never know for sure. One thing I can say for sure. Most Masons do -NOT-
realize the pagan symbolism of their ritual work. They may walk a circle
three times and salute the quarters in some fashion, but no power is raised
at such meetings. The members arent trying to do so. (I've "gone Astral"
at several meetings, and never seen anything the least bit unusual). In the
case of some of the more recent Masonic bodies, such as the Shriners, their
"ancient and honorable" past was clearly made up from whole cloth,
borrowing freely from everywhere. That was the kind of club that attracted
well-to-do members back then.

Masonic connections with various crusading bodies such as the Templars?
Well, there is an Order of Knights Templar in the Masonic Bodies, but I am
not a member of that order. I can't say much on their actual beliefs or
practices. The few activities of theirs that I have seen looked no more
like the historic crusading body than does the Rotary Club. Being a
DeMolay, I am somewhat familiar with the history of the end of the Templars
as a crusading body. The current "Order of DeMolay" was founded by an
American, Frank S. Land, as a means of giving young men a constructive
group to join, with strong examples of loyalty and honor. He chose the
martyrdom of the last head of the Knights Templar as an object lesson. Yes,
the Templars went to "the holy lands" and probably put a lot of innocent
people to the sword. I will not try to defend the indefensible on that
count. They were one of MANY crusading orders that the church sponsored at
the time, no better or worse than the others for what I can tell. However,
they were no friend of the Inquisition! The Templars had amassed a large
amount of money and political clout. They were becoming a potential threat
to the Crown. Under Philip the Fair of France, the Templars, headed by
Jaques DeMolay, were brought before the Inquisition on trumped up charges
of heresy, so their lands and properties could be confiscated. DeMolay and
his chief officers allowed themselves to be tortured to death by the
Inquisition, rather than betray their friends. The initiation of the
DeMolay members uses a playlet that illustrates this encounter with the
Inquisition. It's quite effective as a vehicle for a morality play, and
leaves the new member with no love for the practices of the Inquisition,
believe me!

The Masons end their meetings with an admonition not to let their ritual
and ceremonies be just empty forms, but rather to carry on the lessons of
the order into daily life. Unfortunately, "mere empty forms" are just what
the rituals have become for many Masons. What was once an active group of
the world's "Movers and Shakers", including many of the USA's first
Presidents, has degenerated into a mostly blue-collar social club that
refrains from discussing Politics at meetings. Hey folks, the US
Constitution was largely hammered out by Masons at Lodge! The Masons were
the moving force behind the effort to establish a system of Public Schools!
What was once a strong force for change has become a stagnant social club.
I am very proud to be a Mason, for I am proud of what they have done in
this country and around the world. But I am saddened by the sorry state
they have fallen to. I have given up on hoping to alter their course, and
don't attend much any more. Also, in my state there aren't too many other
young (I'm 35), college educated Masons. I don't have much in common with
65-year-old millworkers and cab drivers. (Not that they arent worthy of
respect, I just can't hold much of a conversation with them on topics that
interest me).

The Masons are a "secret society" in many countries because they have often
been the victims of persecution. In many non-democratic nations the lodge
and its affiliated organizations is banned by law. Members are (or were)
often the kind of political rabble rousers that a repressive government
wants to eliminate of suppress. Thus secret handshakes and tokens of
recognition are taught to all Masons. To attend a meeting, you must either
be known to a member and vouched for, or must pass a test of your knowledge
of their "secret works" as proof that you belong. They are also one of a
very few groups that forbids soliciting others for membership. To become a
mason, you MUST ask a mason for a petition for membership. Their bylaws
forbids them from asking you if you would like to join. (But does not
forbid informing others that if they want to join, they must be the ones to
ask).

Yeah, I know I'm a pretty long-winded guy. But I wanted to lay out the
facts that I hadn't heard yet for and from those following this thread.

Jay Brandt, MM, 32, AAONMS, and a lot of other alphabet soup

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