Freemasonry

Last time I was back home in Ireland I was given a tour of the local lodge and am pretty sure I could have joined there and then if I wanted to. Since then I have been considering whether to do so. Anyone else here a member or know more about it than I do? Would you advise against it?

For starters, you have to be "sponsored" by a member of a lodge before your membership is approved and it's something which is actually more spiritual than anything else. It's not like joining a club...

It's a lot like joining a club. Just with more mumbo-jumbo thrown into the mix.

Since a mainstay of freemasonry is keeping the interna and meetings secret I highly doubt that you will get much valid information from anyone in the inner circle. And those not in the inner circle probably don't know much about the organization. Kafkaesque, that's what I call it.

Anytime you can get free brickwork,... I'd say go for it!

Surely someone with the name 'King Billy' would just ride his trusty white charger into the place and demand membership

Seems the charger wasn't quite so trusty.

King Billy

Not sure I'd say it was kafkaesque as such. Certainly not always popular people - the Nazis gassed a good 100,000 Masons (maybe even double that amount).

I know

Maybe it was a different type of lodge

Maybe a Terry's Chocolate Lodge?

So I assume your a member Jules? I am very suspicious of the whole thing. Wouldn't like to be found out as a mason, may cast aspersions on anything that you achieve ..."oh he only got that job cos he is mason etc.". Also think the society with society with secrets is just mumbo jumbo-maybe a way for middle aged men to spice up otherwise boring lives??

Yes traditionally, you had to be sponsored, and on that point I am covered as my father was a member, but died when I was young. However, due to falling membership numbers the person who gave me a tour also said that they would invite applications from interested parties.

The main question is, if you found outsome was a member woulfd it change your opinion of them?

Sweetheart, it's the situation that's kafkaesque. It's like the Fight Club: Rule no. 1 You don't talk about the Fight Club. Freemasonry is there, everyone knows it's there but no one knows about it except the people who belong and they don't talk about it. So how can you decide if you want to join or not. Listen to Groucho Marx, the great philosopher:

I know of a few Toytowners who are Freemasons. They're orders of magnitude friendlier, smarter and more interesting that the average TTer*.

* EDIT: which I suppose doesn't say very much. They're orders of magnitude friendlier, smarter and more interesting than the average person you'd meet on the street.
* EDIT EDIT: no, I am not one.

On the square..

My old school has some dodgy masonic lodge linked to it, I was once introduced to loads of them in the headmasters office. I was wearing full Roman General armour at the time, it was totally surreal dudes.

As far as I know, you will have to wear an apron with bells on it at meetings. Very uncool.

I'm told by a guy whose dad was/is a member that its a lot like the rotary club doing a lot of work for charity, although you don't have much choice about it. When your chief wizard/brickie or whatever tells you you're donating some money, you donate.

There's also the question of favours done by one member for another without question. Not something I'd want to get into.

EDIT: So, actually its a bit like TT.

You mean there's a special handshake on TT as well?

Wouldn't want to get caught wearing some ridiculous clothing.

In which case Mat can you lend me your car. And your missus. For a month or two. Thanks.

No way! I need the car!

Says it all!!!

The Stone Cutters

This one?

Freemasonry is only for West Brit Prods innit?

The whole thing is a huge and sinister secret known only to those in the know, as this website proves:

http://www.ugle.org.uk/

Doh!

I am not a mason but I have no problem with like minded people forming a club or society so long as they dont break the law, If they wish to keep their rules secret whats wrong with that.

Why do people pick on Freemasons to the exclusion of other organisations.

Leave them alone to live their lives as they wish and get on with your own.

how do ya know if someone is breaking the law if their rules are secret?

Actually, I read on a website somewhere that the Masons, along with the BBC, were behind the 911 conspiracy:


The Telly is beaming messages into my head.

Here is a good article on the Free Masons; it appears that Oscar Wilde, The Marlboro Man and Sergeant Pepper were all brickies.

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Free_Masons

@ftc

Brave post dude. This is the stuff that they don't want us to know

Freema who? Isn't she the new girl in Doctor Who?

who controls the british crown? who keeps the metric system down?

Wow...you people are really overrating the Masons in terms of their power. My grandfather is one, all they do is meet up for club type events and do some good deeds/charity work.

Is that really from the great Groucho Marx? I always attributed it to Woody Allen ("Annie Hall" i think.)

So ... who said it (first) ?

Groucho, he's older.

Yeah the Masons power is over rated, it is just the element of mysteriousness that intrigues people. Wonder if the same could be said for the Skull and Bones Society??

People who are excluded from anything will always be negative about it...

I have some friends that are freemasons, they actually got the club going here in Munich, for them is a place to drink beers and make business contacts. I never saw it as anything negative, but that is because I know the guys personally, and cannot seem them involved in something so cult like (but then again a few of them are hashers too - but not here in Munich).
Back home its no real secret, the best place to hold weddings and catered parties is the FreeMason Hall.

Satanist the lot! Satanist!

@kaiserf

Really? You think you can pull a few strings ya know? For me at least?

I think the big glaring problem is that it is a place to make business contacts from which women are explicitly excluded. Which is probably why they're bleeding memberships in this day and age. It's just a little too retro for most people.

Has anyone else noticed how many buildings in Munich have masonic symbols on the front of them? MAybe it was rebuilding or before the war or whatever, but they have obviously played a huge part in Munichs history at some point...a lot of the more ridiculous graves in the old sudfriedhof are covered in masonic symbols too...

Nadia freemasonry actually has female lodges,I think the decline is because not enough younger people are getting involved nowadays.The freemasons raise huge amounts of money for charity and have donated significant sums of money to recent disaster appeals.A lot of the lodges hold ladies evenings were members can bring there partners and these are usually pretty good shindigs.I think freemasonry has had bad publicity in the past because of its secrecy but it is a lot more open nowadays than it used to be

Ooh, golly, I'll ask my husband to join! Then I can talk about shopping with all the other wives.

Masons are evil.

My friend went to a Masonic school for children. He had no reason to lie about the things that went on there. You don't have to believe me, but I could tell by the look on his face it was painful to talk about. He told me that the children were brought in to special meetings where members of the order conviened. Afterwards the members could "pick" a child. I would rather not go into details, as my freind did not either. They molested him. But not just him. He told me all masonic organizations for children are like this. A buffet for paedophiles. Also, somewhat heresay, I've heard masons have a long history of being busted for child porn.

Masons hold the knowledge of geomancy. Some of you may or may not believe in "magic". This is just semantics. If you can admit that we as humans don't know everything, that there may be "sciences" that have been lost through the ages, you can grasp this concept. Native Americans knew about leylines and there holy sites were located on these. When the forefathers of the U$ of A came to that country (many being masons) they built masonic lodges on top of these sites. Geomancy is not what its portrayed to be in the main stream. It is not a system of magic used for "divination" as some state. Ancient Dionyssus-Bacchus cults, mostly women, used to used geomancy for several different reasons. An oblelisk, used for focusing earth's energy on top of leylines were built, with the crops growing around it radially. If there was a weed in the fields causing harm they would take a specimen burn it and put it in the obelisk. Everything has a "natural frequency", or a frequency that when reached, an object will resonate at(physics not magic). So evrything that vibrates at the same frequency of that weed would resonate the frequency of the dead plant. Supposedly, this influenced the other weeds to likewise suffer and eventually die. Then the men took over the cult and with it the knowledge of geomancy. The masons now have that knowledge and are using it on humans.

I'd drop the dj from your name.

Fucking hell, time to break our the silver foil...

the same thing can be said about the catholic church

what the fook have you been on?To think masons have that much power is mad. So all theses middle aged masons hold the secrets of the world thru geometry, but instead of using it for anything or selling it on and making money , they just molest kids.

I give djcrazy an 8/10 for his wind up skills.

My dad was offered membership by the freemasons, but at the time he declined because it didn't fit with his political beliefs (he was a lawyer and a strong trade-unionist and was an author on the subject.)

Any Catholic becoming a member of the Freemasons is automatically excommunicated.

I have heard a lot of weird stuff being said about masons but never such complete and utter bullshit. 10 points for creativity...

The gist of freemasonry is "chiseling the stone", i.e. making oneself better through intellectual improvement and charity work. I am one and I don't remember any mention of a "pedophile smorgasbord" in any of the meetings.