Can you tell me ....

[Nightingale]

Can you tell me, without checking in books or anything like that, what you know about the Freemasons?

[morbid_lady]

it is a men's organization that is open to people of all faiths. it promotes good citizenship, values and botherhood. it is also associated with the shriners and works in partnership with the northern star (a women's organization).

in its beginnings it was a group of actual masons (builders of stone), this being how they got the symbol with the compas and square.

this is what my dad has taught me about it over the years, i dont know if it varies from country to country.

[Kidthorazine]

there are two different priary groups of masons if i remember correctly the scottish rite and the york rigtthe york rite is predominantly protistant while te scottich rite is predominantly roman catholic theese groups were used to be highly influential and many of the founding fathers of the united states where members wow that reads like a textbook but thats all i can remember for sure off the top of my head

[CPRB]

originated form the Night Templars

[hewhoisagod]

To be one, ask one. If you ask a Freemason 3 times about the Freemasons, they'll invite you to join them.

[Tequila Zaire]

They have really cool buildings...I wanna join just to see the inside of them. Their is a former freemason building near where I live that is now a theatre...it's massive. Has a creepy look to it since it seems the top floors are falling apart (or at least looks that way)...they've since moved to a very inauspicious building that looks like some sort of bunker.

Makes me think they're expecting something the rest of us don't know about.

[SindelChaos]

I've heard the high members of the group worship the Baphomet which is the Christian equivalent to Satan. How true this is, I do not know. Their symbol is two lines short of a unicursal hexagram. They have massive libraries. My boyfriend knows someone who was fortunate to study the occult in one of them. Some say the rule they world.

[Mr Karl]

origianaly the masons were keepers of all sorts of secret mystical knowledge
they were stone masons and builders because they were the only ones smart enough to build something that would stand up for a long period of time
they put all lot of answers to spiritual questions into the things they built , take a tapemeasure and whatever reference material you want to some place like say the parthenon and see what you find
after a while they let other people join their clique because they were getting old and didn't want the stuff that was contained in thier brains to be forgotten
now it's another club that proves that it's who you know not who you blow that gets you ahead

[ForrestBlack]

There is a very cool zine that I enjoy a lot called Dagobert's Revenge. It has all sorts of amazing information about secret societies and such. I totally recommend it if you are interested in this sort of thing.

[Nightingale]

An interesting selection of opinions on what the Freemasons are, thanks very much! I asked mainly because I wanted to see what others think the Freemasons represent, as opposed to reading the for and against books from people who have studied the group(s) or talking to people here in the various Lodges. My interest arises having been invited to attend a guest evening at one very prominent Lodge and, two days ago, being invited to become a founding member of a new Lodge.