Crazy People Work From Home…

Freemasonry teachings and practices of the secret fraternal order officially known as the Free and Accepted Masons, or Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Many people have heard of or are familiar with the order of Mason. Their formal name is the Free and Accepted Mason or Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Although the names differ slightly the concept on which they are based remains rigid as it has for numerous years.

The oldest Lodge in existence is the Grand Lodge of England. They have their own set of bylaws instituted as far back as 1723. These laws are based on loyalty to the Government, and acceptance of various religious beliefs. Although this sounds basic of what most types of organizations or club would stand on, it goes beyond that. To begin with, they are the most secretive organization in the world. This high standard of secrecy as led some countries to ban the formation of the Freemasonry, or opening of a lodge.

Interestingly enough there is not one main leader. Each Grand Lodge has its only Grand Master. One would think without one person being in control that each Lodge would be a stand-alone unit forming their own concepts and way of doing things. On the contrary, these Lodges are very much like a franchise. Where each and every one has a code of rules and ethics to follow and apparently they do.

Although highly secretive about details regarding their organization they are known to conduct ritual, which includes the symbolic tools of the historic masons who built many of the old buildings such as castles and cathedrals dating as far back and the 1700.s. Part of these rituals, include the historical concepts of the building of King Solomon?s Temple.

All Mason members must believe in a supreme being. The Lodges have their own religious book albeit no reference to it being the Holy Bible, as we know it. It would seem the holy book they refer to is based on the religious beliefs of that particular Lodge?s members. This raises an interesting question. Does this mean that one Lodge may be comprised of all Catholics, while another is composed of the Jewish religion?

As we have mentioned that, this fraternity is a very organized body. There are degrees within the Freemasonry. To begin with, the lower level or basic unit is called the Blue lodge. This is found within the Masonic Temple. There are three degrees based on the mason?s level of training literally. They are the blue degrees and are as follows?

Level 1: First Degree -Entered apprentice

Level 2: Second Degree-Fellow Craft

Level three: Third Degree - Master Mason

You can see how these marry up with the three levels of the historic Masons being the apprentice, journeyman and the master. It?s very seldom that a regular Mason would advance beyond a Master Mason. That doesn?t mean he still cannot advance however.

The Master Mason if he so chooses to do so can participate in over 100 rites all-different in nature that can lead to in excess of a 1,000 higher degrees. Now the various rites can get somewhat complex as they differ according to Country. The following is a condensed summary of some of the more prominent orders.

Scottish Rite: 30 higher degrees are available to The Master. Starting at the fourth degree, which is Secret Master up to the Sovereign Grand Inspector General, which is the 33rd degree.

York Rite: 10 higher degrees available. Starting at Mark Master up to Knight?s Templar. This would be equal to the Sovereign Grand Inspector Master.

Prince Hall Grand Lodge The majority of members in this group are the African-Americans.

Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm. Known to be the fun group of the fraternity for the Blue Lodge Mason.

Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine They were formed in’72 to be a social order. They main purpose is to support the children?s Hospitals.

Order of the The Eastern Star Membership only open to Master Masons and their respective female relatives.

De Molay For boys only

Jobs Daughter or Rainbow Both for girls only

Over the years many Historic figures have been linked to the order of Masons such as Benjamin Franklin - Philadelphia order John Hancock & Paul revere - St Andrew?s Lodge Noston George Washington.

In all there have been about- Presidents publicly known to have been Masons, as well as numerous members of congress. The Mason Lodges are not welcome in all countries though or approved by all religions. The Roman Catholics are against their followers becoming members. The Lodges that were once found in Italy, Austria and German were considered to be offshoots of fascism and Nazism and were eradicated. No Lodges are in to be found in China.

Get access to the world’s rarest collection of freemasonry and the masonic templar order secrets. This 120 book collection is the rare compendium of freemason ancient secrets. It contains over 25,000 pages of illustrations

If an individual has had an interest in learning just what the Masons are all about no doubt they are as confused after reading the material as they were before it. Although there are huge discrepancies as to what the Freemasons stand for and believe, you will find that the majority of Masons will tell you that their purpose is for the betterment of themselves. Now the theory is that you must be a man of good standing to enter into the Masons to begin with. It is then purported that you good characteristics must continue to be nurtured and grow it would seem to the level of perfection. So is this what it means when a man is truly a mason? Has he reached perfection in the societies eyes?

If you look at the comments that have been made as to the desire of the average mason it would almost seem so.

-They must possess faith hope and courage, yet realize they are insignificant in the scope of the entire universe.

-he must believe that every man is as good as he is yet alone. He must aspire to love his fellowman.

- He must have compassion for the wrongdoings of others by way of forgiveness.

-the Mason must aspire to make and retain friends. He must like himself and feel the joys of the world.

-he must arise above the wiles of the world.

-he must always be willing to lend a hand to those in need.

-The Freemason must be able to look beyond the sin that is in every man.

-He must be willing to stand for good and not be afraid to lay his life on this concept meaning no fear of death.

If one were to look over all of these aspirations then one would have to realistically realize that these are the desires of all moral human beings that want the best in life. It would seem that it would not take a secret Society to hone these types of attributes. Based on these beliefs would it not seem logical that the Freemasons would want to reach out to those in the world that are non-Masons to encourage these types of morals. Yet it is well known that the Freemasons do not recruit. Perhaps they believe that if a man willingly comes to them then he has set his heart upon the right goals. Again another aspect of the Freemasons that leaves one open to conjecture and speculation.

This seems to be the normal trend when it comes to discerning and understanding the Masons. Most likely in many cases those non-Masons who are truly interested in understanding them give up because of the mass confusion. It would seem though that the Freemasons are masters on playing on words. This is perhaps based on their conception of keeping the history of the Freemasons alive. Just as they use their symbols in a symbolic way, it is evident that their speech when describing themselves is symbolic as well. This makes it most difficult to determine what is mean literally and what is simply a metaphor.

There are many that believe that Masonry is some secretive type of religion where as the Freemasons vigorously refute this. They will tell you that yes they have a alter which supports the volume of the Sacred Law. Just what this is is not quite clear. They stipulate they open their meeting in prayer, but it is unclear as to whom they are praying to. Some temples will tell you that you just have to believe in a supreme being, while others say it is God. Then there is the concept because they use the name of temple for their meeting places then it must be religious. They state that they simply encourage their members to be active in a religion and church of their own choice.

It would seem that a new member would often receive a Masonic Bible as a gift. The claim is made that this is most often the Holy Bible being the King James Version. It has an added front page to name the recipient of the gift and the purpose for receiving it. Some of them may have a special index to show what the rituals are referring to in regards to scripture verses.

This can become quite confusing based on other information they have supplied. They say they don?t force a member into believing in God, yet they hand out King James Bibles. They say they don?t preach religion yet they depict scripture in their rituals.

In reference to rituals, they offer the fact that anything that is done repeatedly is a form of ritual. Such as starting a school program everyday with the same opening, or ongoing business meetings. The purpose of their rituals is simply a teaching aid, a way of getting their point across.

When it comes to reference of their use of symbols they simply indicate that any type of communication is a form of symbol and will quite often used the ordinary stop sign as being a symbol to indicate a purpose or meaning. The most common symbols used by the masons are?

The square and compass is the trademark of the Freemasons The square is meant to depict the earth and its responsibility to honor and truthfulness as well as integrity. The compass is a symbol of the spirit and self-control The G stands both for geometry in accordance with the beliefs of historical science in its relationship with God, and it stands for God as well. The gavel is to depict self-control and self-discipline as being key components of man. The hourglass is a reminder that time stands still for no man and there is no room for procrastination.

The meanings of most of the other Masonic symbols are obvious. The gavel teaches the importance of self-control and self-discipline. The hourglass teaches us that time is running up and procrastination is not an option.

The Masons have certain specific that they indicate that they teach. According to some they state that they teach, that God is the creator therefore all humans are children of God therefore they are all brothers and sisters. It would seem that this is the very concept that Christianity teaches yet the Masons feel they are not a religious organization. Their whole goal is to promote their members to be constantly bettering themselves spiritually and morally. This too is a goal of Christianity. When one looks closely at what the Masons purport as their teachings they on the surface look no different to what many of the standard religions teach.