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Your current browser may not support copying via this button. Modern History. Tons of his generals and top people in his regime were installed at the head of grand lodges in countries that were then incorporated into the French empire.
So Freemasonry was a mechanism to control political culture; it was an instrument of the regime. Many Freemasons were dedicated to trying to live by those ideals — enlightened principles of universal brotherhood and reason, as well as inclusiveness irrespective of race, creed, colour and background.
But that universalism was paradoxical from the beginning. It preached equal values for all, except if you were a woman. While it may have been formed with high ideals, it was ultimately victim to the same societal forces as everything else. Geography is a key qualification in any discussion about Freemasonry.
Because very soon after it was created, the organisation was presented with a huge problem of brand control. People were inventing different forms all over the place to suit their own interests. That said, in many contexts, it has had a lot of problems dealing with race. America has always had two Freemasonrys — one black and one white.
Imperialism is another huge blind spot in the way that Masons talk about themselves and their own past. In many ways, Masonry oiled the wheels of empire. As an imperial bureaucrat sent across the globe, you could walk into a lodge in Cape Town or Calcutta and instantly tap into a social life and support network. It also provided a handy cover story for imperialism, by cloaking it in the ideals of brotherhood and universal cooperation.
But what happened when the locals wanted to join? In some cases, like in 18th-century India, some were welcomed into lodges very early on because imperialists wanted to co-opt local rulers. But towards the end of the 19th century, when Indians wanted to be integrated into power structures, attitudes towards their membership became more complicated.
The Freemasons have inspired a lot of fear over the years. They were already worrying conservative Europe in the 18th century, when the French Revolution came along.
A French priest in exile in London called Augustine Barruel wrote a book blaming it all on the Freemasons. That really fired the starting gun on the conspiracy theories. From that point onwards, anti-Masonry became a feature of almost all rightwing thinking. The idea of a Masonic conspiracy — an infiltrating power hidden in the lodges, some weird Magus or homunculus pulling all the strings — became the template for a new incarnation of anti-Semitism based on the idea of an obscure financial elite controlling everything.
As the two began to merge, the idea of the Judeo-Masonic conspiracy emerged, which Adolf Hitler talks about in Mein Kampf. Hitler was prepared to turn his anti-Masonry on and off as suited his political purposes, and his political purposes were fundamentally anti-Semitic. Some Grand Lodge seals and banners use the pentagram and the five-pointed star is on the collar of some Masonic officer jewelry, but its absence from the ritual and lessons of Freemasonry point out that its value to us is simply ornamental.
Second, as you now know, the pentagram has had many meanings to many people, and there is no evidence that any of these groups played a role in the design of Washington, D. And finally, keep in mind that the pentagram does not have any particular Masonic significance. Indeed, Freemasonry promotes rationalism and places no power in symbols themselves. It simply is not a part of Freemasonry to view the drawing of symbols, no matter how large, as an act of consolidating or controlling power.
This is simply not true. This hoax got its start in with the publication of a paper by Joseph Ritner, Governor of Pennsylvania. Although easily debunked, it was reprinted in , shortly after Prof. OK, but to get back to symbols, you do have symbols that are important to Freemasonry, right? Yes, we do use symbols to teach moral principles. Indeed, a number our symbols and their moral meaning have entered into common, everyday speech.
We speak about giving someone a square deal, of being square with someone. No, the all-seeing eye on the dollar bill is not a Masonic symbol. The misinterpretation of the seal as a Masonic emblem may have been first introduced a century ago in But the fact is that the combining of the eye of providence overlooking an unfinished pyramid is a uniquely American, not Masonic, icon. So it appears that the Masonic use of the all-seeing eye is more likely adopted from the seal rather than the other way around.
And I read that the A. The date has no connection to Lucifer or the devil. But you do have secrets from the rest of society. First, you can tell your wife and family most everything about Freemasonry, and they can find many books that will tell them virtually anything they will want to know about the Fraternity.
However, it is true that we do not share the modes of recognition or parts of our Degree ceremony, but even these can be discovered if someone is that interested. The tradition of not sharing the modes of recognition goes back to the medieval guilds where in the absence of written diplomas and electronic records, that was the way to determine if a craftsman had the required training.
In my searches I found a great deal of quotations from Albert Pike. Some of the quotes I read were very alarming to me. General Albert Pike was a prominent Mason.
He was, however, a whipping boy for anti-Masons for two reasons. First, because he was such a prolific writer, who wrote about ancient historical and philosophical matters and was easy for them to take passages out of context and imply interpretations that do not hold up when viewed in context with the rest of the writings. Taxil and that was not his real name — but his pen name was born in Marseille, France in , and schooled by the Jesuits. He tried his hand at financial fraud, and when he was discovered he fled from France to Geneva.
Expelled from Switzerland for fraud, he returned, under amnesty, to France in Not a real upstanding character. He wrote anti-Catholic satires poking fun at church leaders. His true character quickly surfaced, and he was expelled from the Lodge before going beyond the First Degree. Over the succeeding years, his anti-Catholic writing brought him very little income but earned him a great deal of criticism and condemnation from the clergy.
So he needed another target for his literary talents. He chose Freemasonry. He then began writing a series condemning the Freemasons. Taxis claimed that Pike was a Satanist and that the Fraternity followed Satanic practices.
On April 19, , Taxil used his celebrity status to attract a large audience to a meeting in Paris. Journalists came, along with members of the Catholic hierarchy.
There Taxil announced that every word written about Masonic devil worship was the product of his own fertile imagination. A Paris newspaper published the thirty-three page text of his speech the following week. But I understand that Pike was considered an authority on the interpretation of Masonic symbols and teachings and that his word is the final word on interpretation of your teachings and beliefs?
Thus, while he was held in high regard by many North American Freemasons, his writings on the history or symbolism of Freemasonry are not considered authoritative. Yes, getting back to your initial question—the other reason that Pike was maligned as a Freemason resulted from writings of Susan Davis and Walter Fleming who claimed him as a leader of the Ku Klux Klan.
No, this claim by Davis and Fleming was without documentation or proof and their published accusations have no supporting evidence that can be validated. Fleming wrote four monographs, one dissertation, and two articles on the Ku Klux Klan. The first and perhaps most important point to make is that Freemasonry has no bar to membership based on race, religion or creed. Petitions for membership do not ask the race of the petitioner, and it would be considered completely wrong to do so.
Indeed, it is un-Masonic conduct for a Freemason to vote to reject an applicant for one of these reasons — it simply is inconsistent with Masonic principles. This is not the case today, as hundreds of thousands of Black, Native American. Hispanic and Oriental Freemasons can testify. But there are no blacks that belong to the Grand Lodge of Alabama, as an example, how do you explain that?
This schism is similar to the division of the United Methodist Church from the A. In each of these three examples the organizations are working to repair the damages of centuries of separation. In the case of Freemasonry, the separation between Prince Hall and non-Prince Hall Lodges is disappearing as the two organizations are extending formal recognition to each other and the Brethren from each organization are visiting each other in their respective Lodges.
This process has proceeded at a steady pace for nearly ten years. But Freemasonry only has males in its membership. The treasure, and the Templar tradition, were eventually passed down to the founders of Freemasonry, the story goes. In fact, there was Templar treasure, Nicholson said, but it ended up in other hands long ago. The King of France was bankrupt, and the Templars had lots of ready cash. It's long been suggested that powerful Freemasons embedded Masonic symbols in the Washington, D.
The Lost Symbol is expected to prominently feature "Masonic mapping," detecting pentagrams and other symbols by connecting the dots among landmarks. But there's no Masonic message in the city's street plan, Tabbert said. For starters, Pierre L'Enfant wasn't a Mason. And, Tabbert asked, why would Masons go to the trouble of laying out a street grid to match their symbols? But there isn't one.
Maybe it's the impressive list of prominent Freemasons—from Napoleon to F. But Kinney, the Masonic historian, paints a picture of a largely decentralized group that might have trouble running anything with much efficiency. Kinney noted that the U. Each of these largely independent organizations oversees its many local blue or beginner lodges and has little real coordination with other grand lodges. Internationally, Masonic lodges not only don't speak with a single voice but sometimes refuse to even recognize each other's existence.
Also, many Masons are independent minded and tend to resist edicts from above, Kinney said. There is no such entity. But Masons stress that their organization is not a religion, that is it has no unique theology and does not represent a path for believers to salvation or other divine rewards. Even so, to be accepted into Freemasonry, initiates must believe in a god—any god. Christians may be in the majority, but Jews, Muslims, and others are well represented in Masonic circles.
At lodge meetings religious discussion is traditionally taboo, Kinney and Tabbert said. But some religious leaders believe that Masonic rituals and beliefs—with its temples, altars, and oaths—do constitute an opposing faith.
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