I saw from a recent post that FM has their own Bible. Even if it is a KJV, then why do they need to put their symbol on it? Sounds like they are making a claim of some type of religious affiliation.
Well, if such action is to be deemed some confirmation of an 'religious affiliation' such affiliation would be Christian - which seems to the subject of some derision.
Ok, you got me on this one. I have no idea what's going on now. From the things I heard before one of the hidden agendas "was" the creation of the United States.
That's one I haven't heard before. I wonder who made that up.
On a slightly different subject. Why is there so much secrecy? It's not like they are the CIA or KGB. The secrecy just adds to the rumors that there are things to hide.
Good question.
I posted this some time ago but it appears applicable here.
United Grand Lodge of England is know as the premier GL as it started from a meeting of four otherwise independent Lodges in the Goose and Gridiron pub in London in 1717. However, to understand what FM is about, what's it's aim and objectives may be, it is necessary to backtrack from 1717 - back into the Middle Ages.
Back in those times there were only two classes of people - the aristocracy and the peasants (serfs). The aristocracy owned the land and did no work, while the peasants did not own any land and had to do all the work - life was tough for a serf. Serfs developed many expert skills, silversmiths, tylers, millers and the like - all the necessary expertise to keep a community ecomically afloat. These men, and they were men, had to belong to associated guilds which controlled their labour - and one of the more restrictive was the ability to move about the country in search of work. Masons, who worked in stone, were alleviated of this restriction - they were deemed 'free' to move about with respect to work. This aspect was necessary as masons were responsible for the massive buildings, particularly the many catherdrals which still exist today, and such buildings were not built in close proximity to each other. Travel was therefore a requirment for masons many of whom travelled to the Continent to continue their work.
The building of these catherdrals and castles was a lengthy process - 20 years and more - and the men lived in a lodge build near their workplace. The lodge became the place where masons not only lived and eat but carried out their own administration of the lodge - particularly the acceptance of apprentice mason and their eventual elevation as fellows of the craft, ie, masons. It is not unexpected that there grew up around this aspect of communal living and working together a formalised ritual within the lodge and it is the form of ritual which underpins much of present-day FM.
A significant aspect of that formalised ritual took on a religious significance. Denied the priviledges of the aristocracy- which also meant access to the printed word as in the Bible - these operative masons made work a virtue - a reflection of God. Much of this history is lost in the midst of time but there are documents known as the 'Old Charges' which supports this view. Thus, while the masons built a catherdral to the Glory of God they also built themselves along the morals and ethics outlined in Christian scripture as the Regius Poem (AD1390) entreats ...
The twelfth article is of high honesty
To every mason wheresoever he be,
He shall not his fellows' work deprave,
If that he will his honesty save;
With honest words he it commend,
By the wit God did thee send;
But it amend by all that thou may,
Between you both without nay. (doubt)
Masons had secrets. Those secrets had to do with who they were - men with skills that transcended their lack of literacy - namely geometry. The theories of Euclid were essential to building and these edifaces that masons built during this time and those magnificant buildings that one sees today are testimeny to that skill. Those skills were protected by certain secret words and tokens which served to identify just who were and who were not qualified masons - what we might now call a curriculum vitae.
Operative masonry all but died out when the great catherdral building era passed. But there were many who were draw to the ethics and morals of the Masons and attended Lodge meetings through invitation. As a result ,over time these guests became members of the lodge and were known as 'speculative' masons - as opposed to 'operative' masons. As time passed it was the speculative masons who became the majority of members and eventually inherited the traditions of the old operative masons which became formalised in the meeting conducted in the Goose and Gridiron in 1717.
So the secrets of a FM have to do with particular signs, tokens and grips - which serve to identify just who is or who is not a Mason - that's all. These signs, token and grips are still valued amongst FM today as part of the tradition. There are no other secrets. In fact if you do a search of the web these so-called secrets will readily be discovered - so even these are really not secrets any longer.
