What exactly are Freemasons?

[Dogs On Acid]

My grandfather was a Mason a long time ago and left a while later. I'm always trying to get him to answer my questions about the brotherhood but he likes to avoid them.

[#FF0000]

it's a club for old white men they wear weird costumes and aprons and give money to the salvation army

[Lenina Rosenweg]

There have been previous threads on this. Basically the Masons are a secret society/fraternal organization. They probably came out of the Knights Templar, a holy order coming out of the Crusades which evolved into a late medieval banking network. They were suppressed by Philip the Great of France. Fragments survived in Portugal and Britain. One faction supposedly reconstituted itself as the Freemasons, with the dominant group being the Scottish Rite Freemasons.

The Masons have played a major if underground role within the "progressive bougoise". Most, but not all of the US "founding fathers" were Masons as was Simon Bolivar, Garibaldi, Mazzini, Robespierre.Freemasons were banned under Franco and most of the "totalitarian" regimes. There's a story that Mussolini wanted to join but wasn't allowed.The Catholic Church has traditionally been intensely hostile to Masonry but "the Craft" has played a big but underground role among liberals in Latin America.


The socialist movement has had a complicated relationship with the Masons. Many joined the early worker's movement. Generally Marxists felt that Masons had too much of a link with the bourgeois. Trotsky had them banned from membership in Comintern parties but elsewhere said that socialists should fight to defend them.

The Masons have been the subject of a lot of right wing paranoia and conspiracy theories. In the US they are mostly small town businessmen and professional people.In the 1840s there was a huge scandel and hysteria after a carpenter in New York state was allegedly killed for betraying Masonic secrets. There was a national uproar in the US resulting in the creation of the Know Nothing Party, a nativist anti-Masonic and anti-Catholic group somewhat similar to today's Tea Party.

[thesadmafioso]

Interestingly enough, Trotsky actually took interest in the same question early on in his youth after being imprisoned for the first time. Here is his description on the subject from his autobiography, "My Life". I think he deals with the topic in quite fluid detail, touching on its evolution with the progression of material conditions throughout the course of the organizations existence.

Why had the merchants, artists, bankers, officials, and lawyers, from the first quarter of the seventeenth century on, begun to call themselves masons and tried to recreate the ritual of the medieval guilds? What was all this strange masquerade about? Gradually the picture grew clearer. The old guild was more than a producing organization; it regulated the ethics and mode of life of its members as well. It completely embraced the life of the urban population,especially the guilds of semi-artisans and semi-artists of the building trades. The break-up of the guild system brought a moral crisis in a society which had barely emerged from medieval. The new morality was taking shape much more slowly than the old was being cut down. Hence, the attempt, so common in history, to preserve a form of moral discipline when its social foundations, which in this instance were those of the industrial guilds, had long since been undermined by the processes of history. Active masonry became theoretical masonry. But the old moral ways of living, which men were trying to keep just for the sake of keeping them, acquired a new meaning. In certain branches of freemasonry, elements of an obvious reactionary feudalism were prominent, as in the Scottish system. In the eighteenth century, freemasonry became expressive of a militant policy of enlightenment, as in the case of the Illuminati, who were the forerunners of revolution; on its left, it culminated in the Carbonari. Freemasons counted among their members both Louis XVI and the Dr. Guillotin who invented the guillotine. In southern Germany, freemasonry assumed an openly revolutionary character, whereas at the court of Catherine the Great it was a masquerade reflecting the aristocratic and bureaucratic hierarchy. A freemason Novikov was exiled to Siberia by a freemason empress.

[Dogs On Acid]

So they are like a petty-bourgeois union?

What is their objective?

[Rusty Shackleford]

Actually, i met a black freemason. he was a cool guy. studied sociology and all that.


honestly, freemasons are nothing to worry about. they dont control things from behind the scenes.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

In the US African-Americans can't "officially" become Masons. There's a separate "Prince Hall Masonry" which has played a role in the black community.

Masonry seems to have played some role in the Cuban Revolution.

Masons don't really have an "objective". I guess they are supposed to work for the "enlightenment of humanity". They aren't a sinister cabal or network. There isn't an Illumanati Conspiracy of shape shifting reptiloids running things from the scenes.

They have generally represented the progressive bourgeois. They played a huge role in the French Revolution. Today they are pretty much just a bunch of petty bourgeoisie guys with secret handshakes

[#FF0000]

So they are like a petty-bourgeois union?

What is their objective?

Nah that isn't really what they are anymore. Like I said, they're pretty much just a club for old white men. Almost like a fraternity.

[graymouser]

Trotsky in his various Whither France? articles from 1936 was quite rough on Freemasonry - the Radical Party was entrenched in the lodges, and he cites it as really being the location where class collaboration was cemented:

Radicalism is inseparable from Freemasonry. When we say this, we have said everything. During the debate in the Chamber of Deputies on the Fascist leagues, Mr. Xavier Vallat recalled that Trotsky had once “prohibited” French Communists from participating in masonic lodges. Mr. Jammy Schmidt, a high authority in this field, we believe, immediately explained this edict by the incompatibility between despotic Bolshevism and the “free spirit”. We shall not enter into a dispute over this point with the Radical deputy. But we still consider that a labour representative who seeks inspiration or solace in the vapid masonic cult of class collaboration is undeserving of the slightest trust. It was not accidental that the cartel was supplemented by the extensive participation of the Socialists in the mummery of the lodges. Now the time has come for the repentant Communists also to don the aprons! Incidentally, the newly converted pupils will be able to serve the old masters of the cartel more comfortably in aprons.

As detailed by other posters, masonry has been different things in different epochs, but these days it's really an old men's club.

Oh, and for a couple of tidbits, you should check out the page of the Generic Trotskyist League (40% Off), possibly one of the greatest group names ever.

http://www.angelfire.com/ca/gentrotsky/

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

There are different degrees, or ranks, within Freemasonry, so basically we have to talk about two versions of Freemasonry. 1) The public face, which is all the low-ranking Masons & members of the general public are probably aware of. And 2) the secretive aspects of it, into which high-ranking Masons are initiated. It would not really surprise me much if Freemasonry really does have a "Luciferian doctrine," or some other such crazy doctrines taught to the higher ranks. After all, it is a secret society, and there must be a reason that they don't share their beliefs with just anyone.

Personally, I do not think we should be so naïve as to believe that they are just a harmless group of secretive rich old racist white men who enjoy wearing aprons. Such societies obviously provide room for intelligence agencies to operate and recruit in, not to mention their utility as a networking resource for the bourgeoisie waging global class war against us.

[LewisQ]

There's maybe one instance in modern history in which Freemasonry was politically relevant, namely this one. And even that was only a convenient form given to a type of power relation which exists in every country.

Getting worked up about Freemasonry is like getting worked up about golf, simply because rich people tend to share the same social pursuits. I'm sure more anti-social plotting is done on the golf course than in any Masonic lodge.

It never ceases to amaze and dismay me, the persistence of conspiracy theories amongst some on the left when the real conspiracies against the people by capital, the state and the media are played out overtly in front of our eyes.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

Okay, my Dad was a Mason. He went all the way, 33rd degree.I haven't heard anything about conspiracies or any Luciferean Doctrine. Just somewhat stuffy conservative small town businessmen.

Their secrets and rituals have pretty much been publicized.There are supposed to be non-religious, open to all "faiths" and non-political. They are based around Hiram Abif, the legendary architect of Soloman's Temple.

The ruling class does meet in certain venues not accessible to most people, Davos Forum, G8, G12, Bilderberger Group, etc.Its not a conspiracy or conspiracies, its just the exercise of class power,

Freemasons today are archaic and somewhat ridiculous but I have nothing against them. They were a big inspiration behind the US and French Revolutions.

The Catholic Church and Christian fundamentalists and Tea Party types hate the Masons so for me that would be a big strike in their favor.

[bietan jarrai]

All I know about them is that some famous people in Portugal are freemasons, and they had a lot of influence in the Portuguese republican revolution of 1910. My old history teacher knew a lot about them... I don't. But I do understand they're still around.

[Astarte]

I haven't heard anything about conspiracies or any Luciferean Doctrine.

Well, lets be frank here, you have heard about conspiracies in that you even mention the masons were quite influential, even if underground, during the French Revolution.

As far as "Luciferian Doctrine", if you read the Masonic tome "Morals and Dogma" by Albert Pike, you can clearly see why Catholics and other fairly orthodox sects of Christianity would term Freemasonry as having a "Luciferean" connection, i.e. this excerpt from "Morals and Dogma" that is flung around a lot:

The Apocalypse is, to those who receive the nineteenth Degree, the Apotheosis of that Sublime Faith which aspires to God alone, and despises all the pomps and works of Lucifer. Lucifer, the Light-bearer! Strange and mysterious name to give to the Spirit of Darkness! Lucifer, the Son of the Morning! Is it he who bears the Light, and with its splendors intolerable blinds feeble, sensual, or selfish Souls? Doubt it not! for traditions are full of Divine Revelations and Inspirations: and Inspiration is not of one Age nor of one Creed!

Thus, Lucifer is seen in a fairly dialectical way - in the same occultist, or mystical perspective employed by the ancient Gnostics and Hermeticists even. Lucifer is the Light bearer, but because this Light blinds humans it causes them darkness...

Masonry is also "Luciferean" in the way it embraces all world-religions, astrology, and ancient paganisms as illegitimate and equal and tries to find the common ground between spiritual systems - one only needs to believe in God or a "Higher Power" to be a Mason. Freemasonry is Luciferean, Satanic, or Heretical to orthodox Christians, Muslims and Jews because it challenges the sole hegemony of "Yahweh", "Allah" or "Jesus" over the spiritual world of Man and demands a more ... global Deity.

[Iron Felix]

There's no conspiracy, it's just a club. Bakunin, Churchill, Mark Twain, MacArthur, Mozart...do you think these Masons were all part of the same conspiracy to whatever it is the conspiracy-theorists say the Freemasons are conspiring. I've read a lot about Masonry in Russia, here it was mostly a German influence, supporter mostly by the foreigners in Leningrad and Moscow. Some interesting people were members, like I said Bakunin, but also Pushkin and the leaders of the Decembrist revolt, Suvorov.

[Lenina Rosenweg]

I don't disagree with this.Freemasons do draw on a universal spirituality, which is why there has been at times intense hostility against them by more "totalistic" Christian and rightist groups. They draw on ancient occultic ritual and imagery.There are theories that Masonry originated in ancient Egypt or medivil spiritual craft guilds.

I don't know if most Masons in the US take the spiritual side all that seriously. They are not Aleister Crowley OTO types but conventional small town businessmen.

At times the Masons represented the progressive or "enlightened" bourgeois in countries like France, Spain and Portugal.Some of the French Revolution and the 19th/early 1900s revolutions in Portugal and Spain may have been inspired or even planned in Masonic lodges. Supposedly the Boston Tea Party was actually launched in a Masonic meeting.

The period of bourgeois revolutions has passed (not that their goals have been met). Masonry doesn't play the role it did in the 18th,m 19th or early 20th centuries.Its just small town businessmen.There isn't a global conspiracy of Masonic adepts running the world. The ruling class has Davos for that. There is no progressive bourgeois anymore anyway.

Interestingly in Utah a Mormon cannot be a Mason. Supposedly the Mormons borrowed very heavily from Masonic ritual and are considered an illegitimate or "clandestine" Masonic lodge.

[Lacrimi de Chiciură]

Okay, my Dad was a Mason. He went all the way, 33rd degree.I haven't heard anything about conspiracies or any Luciferean Doctrine. Just somewhat stuffy conservative small town businessmen.

Well okay, but that's your dad. My grandfather was involved in it, and I have heard many things from my family about sketchy activities he was part of... stuff that you would probably think I'm a crazy conspiracy theorist if I laid it all out here. It's easy to dismiss something as "crazy." All I'm saying is, we shouldn't be so quick to dismiss something (such as the idea that the Freemason organization [not every individual member] might have a hidden agenda) just because it might seem crazy, or because everyone says it is crazy. Just think how many people dismiss communism as a hopeless and crazy idea.

You could compare it to the military. IMO, the military is an "evil organization." (Although I might not use that term.) But that doesn't mean every person who joins the military themselves is an "evil" individual. But if you look at the organizations' overall goals, activities and agenda, I just think it would be naive to dismiss them as a bunch of harmless frat-boys.

Their secrets and rituals have pretty much been publicized.There are supposed to be non-religious, open to all "faiths" and non-political. They are based around Hiram Abif, the legendary architect of Soloman's Temple.

The ruling class does meet in certain venues not accessible to most people, Davos Forum, G8, G12, Bilderberger Group, etc.Its not a conspiracy or conspiracies, its just the exercise of class power,

Freemasons today are archaic and somewhat ridiculous but I have nothing against them. They were a big inspiration behind the US and French Revolutions.

Well from what I understand of Freemasonry in the French Revolution, it played a largely counterrevolutionary role. Originally the revolution had produced the Cult of Reason which was meant to replace the old religion and it venerated a female representation of Reason. But Robespierre was offended by it, calling it too atheistic and feminist, and replaced it with the Cult of the Supreme Being. I think Masons refer to god as the "Supreme Architect" or something like that so clearly it had masonic undertones. It was after the Cult of the Supreme Being took over that the Revolution basically went off course in a fanatical pursuit of the "revolutionary sublime" and the Reign of Terror, ultimately discrediting the revolution and paving the way for the return of the monarchy. It did away with the cult who was truly revolutionary (female-oriented, reason based), and attempted to replace Catholicism with yet another male-oriented, mysticism based cult.

A good source on the revolution's cults is Mourning Glory: The Will of the French Revolution by Marie-Hélène Huet.

The Catholic Church and Christian fundamentalists and Tea Party types hate the Masons so for me that would be a big strike in their favor.

Considering Michelle Bachmann recently 'joked' that Hurricane Irene was a message from God at a Shriners' temple (sub-sect of the Masons), I would venture to say Tea Party types don't have much of a problem with it...

[Astarte]

You could compare it to the military. IMO, the military is an "evil organization." (Although I might not use that term.) But that doesn't mean every person who joins the military themselves is an "evil" individual. But if you look at the organizations' overall goals, activities and agenda, I just think it would be naive to dismiss them as a bunch of harmless frat-boys.

Many, many moons ago I was expelled from a Trot group for proposing that the Freemasons were currently a sort of "vanguard of the bourgeoisie". And really, if you think about it historically the lodges were the places where bourgeois revolutionists would meet and associate and form connections secretly and plot against the Monarchy and Catholic Church.

I think this "connections" aspect still exists in modern day Freemasonry, but these days I would hardly consider local Freemasonic lodges to provide too many avenues to real power, and if they do, the powerful member just so happens to be a plutocrat and also a mason, not a plutocrat *because* he is a mason.

Well from what I understand of Freemasonry in the French Revolution, it played a largely counterrevolutionary role. Originally the revolution had produced the Cult of Reason which was meant to replace the old religion and it venerated a female representation of Reason. But Robespierre was offended by it, calling it too atheistic and feminist, and replaced it with the Cult of the Supreme Being. I think Masons refer to god as the "Supreme Architect" or something like that so clearly it had masonic undertones. It was after the Cult of the Supreme Being took over that the Revolution basically went off course in a fanatical pursuit of the "revolutionary sublime" and the Reign of Terror, ultimately discrediting the revolution and paving the way for the return of the monarchy. It did away with the cult who was truly revolutionary (female-oriented, reason based), and attempted to replace Catholicism with yet another male-oriented, mysticism based cult.

The Cult of the Supreme Being was still way out in Left field compared to the Catholic Church. Over-all, I think it is a bit hard to call the role of Freemasonry in the French Revolution "counter-revolutionary".

[Lenina Rosenweg]

I'd have to agree w/Astarte. The Freemasons were historically the "vanguard of the bourgeois". They represented the "progressive bourgeois" back when their still could be a prog borgy.
Washington, the Adams brothers, Franklin, Jefferson, Patrick Henry, John Hancock and others were Masons. The Boston Tea Party was launched from a Masonic lodge.On the other hand many of the British officers during the Revolutionary War were also Masons. There is a theory that they "lost on purpose", they followed orders, but just barely as a part of some sort of Masonic networking.. It is amazing how the Brits lost that war.

Robespierre, St. Just and most of the Committee of Public Safety were Masons.Garibaldi, Mazzini and other leaders of the Resorgiamento were Masons. Bolivar and St. Martin were Masons...etc.

The Masons have dwindled after WWII. I don't see them as being the vanguard of the bourgeois in any way today.

I don't know a lot about the "Cult of the Supreme Being". It seemed to be an attempt to revive Catholic-like ritual in a culture which was used to it. Robespierre did become pretty loopy towards the end. I think this was more do to with changes in the relation of class forces in the Revolution than the influence of any secret society. Peter Taafe wrote an excellent Marxist analysis of this.

Marx had an alliance with a French "clandestine" Masonic group, the Philadelphians against the Prodhounists in the First International. There are theories that Marx himself was a Mason.

Due to its secretive nature Freemasonry has long been a target of conspiracy theories in which it is either bent on world domination or already secretly in control of world politics.
Historically, complaints have been made that the Masons have secretly plotted to create a society based on the revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, fraternity, separation of church and state and (in Nazi Germany) a Jewish plot for religious tolerance.[25] Similarly, some anti-Masons have claimed that Freemasonry is a Jewish front for world domination, or is at least controlled by Jews for this goal. An example of this is the notorious literary forgery The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Hitler outlawed Freemasonry partially for this reason.[26] The covenant of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas claims that Freemasonry is a "secret society" founded as part of a Zionist plot to control the world.[27]
The earliest document accusing Freemasonry of being involved in a conspiracy was Enthüllungen des Systems der Weltbürger-Politik (“Disclosure of the System of Cosmopolitan Politics”), published in 1786.[28] The book claimed that there was a conspiracy of Freemasons, Illuminati and Jesuits who were plotting world revolution.[29] During the 19th Century, this theory was repeated by many Christian counter-revolutionaries,[30][31] who saw Freemasons as being behind every attack on the existing social system.[30][31]
There are also many other religious and political conspiracy theories, most regarding the United States government, from claiming all the Presidents as Masons[32] (actually only 14 out of 44 Presidents were Freemasons)[33] or that Masons were involved in the JFK assassination.[34] Many of these theories allude to Masonic symbolism in the architecture of federal buildings or in the street plan of Washington, D.C.

Main article: Christianity and Freemasonry
One of the first highly vocal Christian critics of freemasonry was Charles Finney. In his book The Character, Claims, and Practical Workings of Freemasonry, Finney not only ridicules the masons but also explains why he viewed leaving the association as an essential act 3 years after his conversion to Christianity and entering seminary.
A number of Protestant and Eastern Orthodox denominations discourage their congregants from joining Masonic lodges, although this differs in intensity according to the denomination. Some simply express mild concern as to whether Freemasonry is compatible with Christianity while, at the other extreme, some accuse the fraternity of outright devil worship.
The Roman Catholic Church has, since the 18th century, been especially critical of Freemasonry, citing both political and religious reasons. Until 1983 the penalty for Catholics who joined the fraternity was excommunication.[35] Since that time the punishment has been an interdict (a penalty barring an offender from the Sacraments).[36]

[electro_fan]

my grandad was a freemason. he was working class and a miner. he lived in what's now namibia and was then south west africa, and when the war ended many of the white miners (this was when namibia was ruled by the south african gov't) joined the freemasons for something to do, because there was very little in the way of social life left. he had fought for the british during the war and many people joined the freemasons afterwards in his town as a kind of social club.

i think in some parts of the uk it's the same, but i think the freemasons are essentially harmless

what i don't like about them is the fact that sometimes they are rumoured to have used their connections to (for example) get people jobs or find people innocent in court who are actually guilty, or vice versa (if a freemason made a false accusation against someone). however i don't know how much this actually happens.