History Of Freemasonry
History Of Freemasonry
| QUICK FACTS | |||||||||
| Many of our nation's early patriots were Freemasons, as well as thirteen signers of the Constitution | |||||||||
| and fourteen Presidents of the United States, beginning with George Washington. | |||||||||
| Today, there are more than six million Freemasons around the world that come from virtually every occupation | |||||||||
| and profession. Within the Fraternity however, they all meet as equals. They come from diverse political | |||||||||
| ideologies, but they meet as friends. They come from virtually every religious belief, but they all believe in one God. | |||||||||
| One of the most fascinating aspects of Freemasonry has been how so many men, from so many different | |||||||||
| walks of life, can meet together in peace, never have political or religious debates, always conduct | |||||||||
| their affairs in harmony and friendship, and call each other "Brother!" | |||||||||
| Freemasons are respectable citizens who are taught to conform to the moral laws of society and abide | |||||||||
| by the laws of the government under which they live. They are men of charity and | |||||||||
| good works. They remain unchallenged as "the world's greatest philanthropy!" | |||||||||
| The Freemasons of America contribute almost two million dollars every day to charitable causes, | |||||||||
| which they alone have established. These services to mankind represent an unparalleled | |||||||||
| example of the humanitarian commitment and concern of a unique and honorable Fraternity. | |||||||||
| HISTORY OF FREEMASONRY | |||||||||
| A Mason (or Freemason) is a member of a fraternity known as Masonry (or Freemasonry). A fraternity is | |||||||||
| a group of men who join together because there are things they want to do in the world, there are things | |||||||||
| they want to do "inside" their own minds and they enjoy being together with men they like and respect. | |||||||||
| Masonry (or Freemasonry) is the oldest fraternity in the world. No one knows just how old it is | |||||||||
| because the actual origins have been lost in time. It arose from the guilds of stonemasons who | |||||||||
| built the castles and cathedrals of the Middle Ages. Possibly, they were influenced by the Knights Templar, | |||||||||
| a group of Christian warrior monks formed in 1118 to help protect pilgrims making trips to the Holy Land. | |||||||||
| In 1717, Masonry created a formal organization in England when the first Grand Lodge was formed. | |||||||||
| A Grand Lodge is the administrative body in charge of Masonry in some geographical area. | |||||||||
| In the United States, there is a Grand Lodge in each state. In Canada, there is a Grand Lodge in each province. | |||||||||
| Local organizations of Masons are called lodges. There are lodges in most towns; the large cities | |||||||||
| usually have several. There are about 13,200 lodges in the United States. | |||||||||
| The word "lodge" means both a group of Masons meeting in some place and the room or building | |||||||||
| in which they meet. Masonic buildings are also sometimes called "temples" because much of the symbolism | |||||||||
| Masonry uses to teach its lessons comes from the building of King Solomon's Temple in the Holy Land. | |||||||||
| The term "lodge" comes from the structures which the stonemasons built against the sides of the cathedrals | |||||||||
| during construction. In winter, when building had to stop, they lived in these lodges and worked at carving stone. | |||||||||
| Masonry has a reputation of being “secretive.” Masons certainly don't make a secret of the fact that | |||||||||
| they are members of the fraternity. We wear rings, lapel pins and tie tacks with Masonic emblems like | |||||||||
| the Square and Compasses, the best known of Masonic signs which, logically, recalls the fraternity's | |||||||||
| roots in stonemasonry. Masonic buildings are clearly marked, and are usually listed in the phone book. | |||||||||
| Lodge activities are not secret picnics and other events are even listed in the newspapers, especially | |||||||||
| in smaller towns. Many lodges have answering machines which give the upcoming lodge activities. But there | |||||||||
| are some Masonic secrets, and they fall into two categories. The first are the ways in which a man can identify | |||||||||
| himself as a Mason; grips and passwords. We keep those private for obvious reasons. It is not at all unknown | |||||||||
| for unscrupulous people to try to pass themselves off as Masons in order to get assistance under false | |||||||||
| pretenses. The second group is harder to describe, but they are the ones Masons usually mean if we talk | |||||||||
| about "Masonic secrets." They are secrets because they literally can't be talked about, can't be put | |||||||||
| into words. They are the changes that happen to a man when he really accepts responsibility for his | |||||||||
| own life and, at the same time, truly decides that his real happiness is in helping others. | |||||||||
| “Secret societies" became very popular in America in the late 1800s and early 1900s. There were literally | |||||||||
| hundreds of them, and most people belonged to two or three. Many of them were modeled on | |||||||||
| Masonry, and made a great point of having many "secrets." And Masonry got ranked with them. | |||||||||
| But if Masonry is a secret society, it's the worst-kept secret in town. | |||||||||
| FAMOUS MASONS | |||||||||
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| Pictured above are some famous Masons: (left to right) President & Brother George Washington, | |||||||||
| Brother Benjamin Franklin, Brother Jose Navarro, Brother William B. Travis, Brother Sam Houston, | |||||||||
| Brother Lorenzo de Zavala, Brother Stephen Austin, President & Brother Theodore Roosevelt, | |||||||||
| Brother Charles Lindbergh, President & Brother Franklin D. Roosevelt, Brother Will Rogers, | |||||||||
| President & Brother Harry S. Truman, U.S. General & Brother Douglas S. MacArthur, Brother Norman Vincent Peale, | |||||||||
| Brother John Wayne and U.S. Lunar Astronaut & Brother Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin. | |||||||||
| MASONIC HUMOR | |||||||||
| Q: How many Masons does it take to unscrew a light bulb? | |||||||||
| A: It's a secret! | |||||||||
| Q: How many Masons does it take to screw in a light bulb? | |||||||||
| A: Three. One to screw it in, one to read the minutes of the previous light bulb replacement, | |||||||||
| and one to sit on the sidelines and complain that this wasn't the way they used to screw in light bulbs. | |||||||||
| Q: How many Masons does it take to change a light bulb? | |||||||||
| A: After much research this tricky question can now be answered. It takes 20, as follows: | |||||||||
| 2 to complain that the light doesn't work. | |||||||||
| 1 to pass the problem to either another committee, the Temple Board or the Master of the Lodge. | |||||||||
| 3 to do a study on light in the Lodge. | |||||||||
| 2 to check out the types of lights the Knights of Columbus use. | |||||||||
| 3 to argue about it. | |||||||||
| 5 to plan a fund-raising dinner to raise money for the bulb. | |||||||||
| 2 to complain that "that's not the way we did it before." | |||||||||
| 1 to borrow a ladder, donate the bulb and install it. | |||||||||
| 1 to order the brass memorial plate and have it inscribed. | |||||||||
| In the days of the old west, a young fellow held up a bank, and in so doing shot and killed the teller. | |||||||||
| Several people in the bank and outside saw him well enough to identify him as he rode out of town. | |||||||||
| A posse was formed and in short order had captured him and returned him to jail. He was duly tried | |||||||||
| and sentenced to hang for his crime. On the appointed day a scaffold had been erected outside the jail. | |||||||||
| The fellow was lead up the steps to the scaffold, the Judge read his sentence, and asked the fellow if he had | |||||||||
| anything to say. "I sure do, Judge. If it wasn't for the damn Masons I wouldn't be here." | |||||||||
| The Judge inquired to what he referred. "Well, the Sheriff who pursued me is a Mason, as were most | |||||||||
| of the posse. The jury was mostly Masons, and you, Judge, are a Mason. If it wasn't for the damn Masons | |||||||||
| I wouldn't be here." That being all he had to say, the Judge ordered the hangman to proceed. | |||||||||
| The hangman put a HOOD over his head, a ROPE around his neck, took him by the right arm and | |||||||||
| said, "Take one regular step forward with your left foot." | |||||||||
| A postman, on his route, picked up a letter from a mailbox that was addressed to God. The postman | |||||||||
| seeing that the letter was not sealed, and there being no postage on it, opened and read it. | |||||||||
| It was from a man who was down on his luck and was asking God for help. The letter asked for $50 | |||||||||
| to get his family through the next week. The postman, being a Mason, took the letter to Lodge that evening, | |||||||||
| read it, and asked for donations for the unfortunate fellow. The Masons, wanting to help, took up a collection, | |||||||||
| and received twenty five dollars from the brethren. The Secretary placed the cash in a Lodge envelope, and gave | |||||||||
| it to the postman to deliver the following day, which he did. Another day passed, and the postman again | |||||||||
| found an unsealed letter in the mailbox addressed to God. Again he opened and read the letter, which thanked | |||||||||
| God for the money, but instructed him to send it through the Knights of Columbus next time as the Masons kept half. | |||||||||
| A Doctor and Plumber are in the same Lodge. On Sunday Morning the Doctor wakes up to find | |||||||||
| his toilet blocked. So he rings the Plumber. "But I don't work Sundays! Can't it wait until tomorrow?" | |||||||||
| The Doctor said "I don't like working Sundays either but if you were in trouble, and felt unwell, Brother, I would | |||||||||
| come round to see you." "OK" says the Plumber and goes round to the Doctor. He goes upstairs and looks | |||||||||
| at the toilet, takes two aspirins from his pocket and throws them down the bowl. "There" he says | |||||||||
| If it's no better tomorrow give me a ring and I will call round. | |||||||||
| Have you heard of the Lodge that was holding it's meetings in the ballroom of the local hotel while it's | |||||||||
| building was undergoing renovations? One night a traveling salesman asked the desk clerk who all those | |||||||||
| men going into the room were. The desk clerk replied "Oh, those are the Masons." The salesman said | |||||||||
| Oh, I've always wanted to join that lodge. Do you think they would let me in?" "Oh no," said the clerk, | |||||||||
| they're awful exclusive. Why, you see that poor guy standing outside the door with a sword? | |||||||||
| He's been knocking for six months and they still won't let him in!" | |||||||||
| A man is walking through the recreation ground of his local park when he notices a huge fight | |||||||||
| in full fury on the football field he is passing. "What's going on?" he asks a spectator watching from | |||||||||
| the sidelines. The other replies "It's a match between the Masons and the Knights of Columbus." | |||||||||
| What's the score? asks the first man. "I don't know, it's a secret." | |||||||||
| While visiting a newly initiated brother at home one day, his wife took me to one side and said her husband | |||||||||
| had started behaving very strange since joining. I enquired "In what way?" He locks himself in the bathroom | |||||||||
| for hours on end mumbling to himself with his little blue book. As the evening proceeded I turned the talk | |||||||||
| to lodge, and asked him how he was getting on. "Oh fine" was his reply. I asked him about his behavior and | |||||||||
| if there was anything wrong. "No" was his reply. So why read the book there? | |||||||||
| Well, he said "Its the only TYLED room in the house." | |||||||||
| It seems a Jewish family had rented an apartment that sat directly under the Masonic Temple, and at least | |||||||||
| once a month they would always hear this stomping from above. One day Izzy told his wife he was going | |||||||||
| to drill a hole in the ceiling and see what those Masons were up to. After doing so, one evening, he heard some | |||||||||
| stomping coming from above, so he got his ladder, climbed up and decided to take a peek. After a few | |||||||||
| moments, he flew down the ladder and ran in and told his wife to pack all their belongings. "Let's get | |||||||||
| out of here and fast!!!" When she asked why, Izzy told her that he was just peeking in on the Masons above | |||||||||
| and saw them kill a man and said they were going to blame it on the "JEW-BELOW". | |||||||||
| A little before Lodge is about to open an old man totters up to the Tyler and says, | |||||||||
| "I'm here to receive my 2nd degree." Well, they all look at this guy, who really is older than dirt, and | |||||||||
| they ask him to explain. "I was entered on July 4, 1922. Now I'm ready for my 2nd degree." So they go | |||||||||
| scurrying for the records, and sure enough, there was his name, entered on July 4, 1922. | |||||||||
| "Where have you been all these years? What took you so long to be ready for your 2nd?" they ask. | |||||||||
| He replied "I was learning to subdue my passions!" | |||||||||
| A Candidate for initiation was to be picked up and driven to the Lodge, but before this could happen | |||||||||
| the car broke down. The Candidate said as no great distance was involved, he would go on his bicycle. | |||||||||
| Just when he reached the top of the hill his chain broke. As the Lodge was at the bottom of the other side and | |||||||||
| all he needed was a backpedal brake, so he repaired the chain with a cord he had in his pocket and free-wheeled | |||||||||
| downhill to the Lodge. Later that evening in reply to a toast in his honor, he said how proud he was | |||||||||
| to be a Freemason but could not understand, as he had told no one, how the Worshipful Master knew | |||||||||
| that he had come on his own free wheel and a cord. | |||||||||
| There's a man, walking down the street at 1am in the morning and he's very drunk. A policeman stops him | |||||||||
| and asks "Where are you going in that condition?" The man says "II'mm on mmyy waayyy to a lectttuurre | |||||||||
| on FFreemmassonnrrry." The officer asks "Where can you possibly get a lecture on Freemasonry | |||||||||
| at this time of night?" The man responds "Frromm mmyy wifffe, wwhenn I gget homme! | |||||||||
| Pat & Bill had been Lodge Brothers for many years. They had promised each other long ago that the first to | |||||||||
| go to the Grand Lodge above would return to tell the other whether there really were Lodges in Heaven and what | |||||||||
| they were like. By and by, it came to pass that Bill went first. One day shortly after, Pat was working | |||||||||
| in his garden when he heard a whispered voice, "Pssst Pat!" He looked around but saw nothing. | |||||||||
| A few moments later he heard, now quite clearly "Pat! It's me, Bill!" "Bill" Pat exclaimed, "are you in Heaven?" | |||||||||
| "Indeed I am" said Bill. Pat paused for a while to get over the shock and then said "Well, Bill, | |||||||||
| are there Lodges up there in Heaven?" "There certainly are, Pat. There are Lodges all over and | |||||||||
| they are quite magnificent, equal or better to Great Queen Street. The meetings are well attended, | |||||||||
| the ritual is word perfect, the festive board fantastic and the spirit of Masonic Fellowship is all pervasive." | |||||||||
| My goodness, Bill, said Pat, "It certainly sounds very impressive but for all that you seem rather sad. | |||||||||
| Tell me old friend, what is the matter." "Well, Pat, you are right. I have some good news and some bad." | |||||||||
| "OK, What's the good news?" "The good news is that we are doing a 3rd this coming Wednesday." | |||||||||
| "Great" said Pat. " What's the bad news then?" "You're the Senior Deacon!" | |||||||||
| Some few years back, just after the introduction of Random Breath Testing, the police officers of a | |||||||||
| small country town had to show the community that the DUI Task Force was working. They decided to | |||||||||
| stake out the local Masonic Hall. As the night wore on, eventually a mason slowly came down the stairs | |||||||||
| and got into his car. The moment he started the engine the two officers approached him | |||||||||
| and asked him to "blow into the tube". He did, of course, but to the amazement of the officers | |||||||||
| proved negative. Fearing a faulty tube, they tried again, with the same results. Sure of a | |||||||||
| possible conviction they then escorted him to the police station to do a blood test, with it | |||||||||
| also proving negative. Being upset with this they then asked him what had gone on and what he had | |||||||||
| done that evening, to which he answered, "The Grand Master was there, the Grand Secretary was there, | |||||||||
| the Grand Stewards were there and we all had a great time, as to my job...I was the Grand Decoy". | |||||||||
| A mason who had just been installed as Master of his lodge and was duly attending all the functions he could was | |||||||||
| having a hard time with his wife who said, "All those men have to do is click their fingers and you would be there | |||||||||
| wouldn't you? I wish I was master!" After due thought, he said, "So do I, we swap them for a new one every year!" | |||||||||
| A small Lodge had had a string of bad luck. It was preparing to initiate a candidate on a steamy | |||||||||
| evening in June and it's air conditioner had stopped working. After sweating their way through part of | |||||||||
| the work, the Master had asked the candidate what he most desired. The candidate replied "a beer". At this | |||||||||
| juncture the WM, being startled, whispered "light" to the candidate. "OK," the candidate replied, "a lite beer." | |||||||||
| A Mason was having trouble with his ritual, and was telling a fellow mason in a pub one day, and | |||||||||
| his friend said "I know a man down the road who sells parrots who know the ritual and prompt you | |||||||||
| when you have any trouble." So the next day, off he went to the shop, and the man said "yes I have three". | |||||||||
| He pulled a curtain across and there were 3 parrots, one with a mm apron on, one with a masters apron, | |||||||||
| and one with a grand lodge apron on. He asked "How much is the one with the masters apron on?" | |||||||||
| $2,000 and he knows all the ritual including the inner workings, and will always prompt you | |||||||||
| when you get stuck. "No", he said "too expensive." "What about the one with the MM apron on?" | |||||||||
| Well, that one is $1,000 and he knows all the ritual, but not the inner workings, but will always | |||||||||
| prompt you when learning it. "No, still too much...what about the one with the grand lodge apron on?" | |||||||||
| You can have him for $10. "Why so cheap? He must know all the ritual and the inner workings?" | |||||||||
| Oh yes, he knows all the ritual, but when you make a mistake all he does is sit there and goes tut! tut! tut! | |||||||||