Freemasonry

Freemasonry consists of fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local fraternities of stonemasons, which from the end of the fourteenth century regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities and clients. The degrees of freemasonry retain the three grades of medieval craft guilds, those of Apprentice, Journeyman or fellow (now called Fellowcraft), and Master Mason. These are the degrees offered by Craft (or Blue Lodge) Freemasonry. Members of these organisations are known as Freemasons or Masons. There are additional degrees, which vary with locality and jurisdiction, and are usually administered by different bodies than the craft degrees.

The basic, local organisational unit of Freemasonry is the Lodge. The Lodges are usually supervised and governed at the regional level (usually coterminous with either a state, province, or national border) by a Grand Lodge or Grand Orient. There is no international, world-wide Grand Lodge that supervises all of Freemasonry; each Grand Lodge is independent, and they do not necessarily recognise each other as being legitimate.

Martinist Orders

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Martinist Orders The Martinist Orders L’Ordre Martiniste of Papus (Dr Gérard Encausse), created in 1888. Papus was its sole Grand Master from 1888 till…

FREEMASONRY AND THE CATHEDRAL BUILDERS

Lincoln Cathederal

There has been a great deal of difference of opinion among the historians of architecture as to where and when Gothic began. English writers, who have a very natural desire to claim for their own land the glory of the discovery of the art, date it at 1100 A.D. or earlier, and find its first manifestations at Durham; whereas French writers almost unanimously hold that Gothic began first of all in the region round about Paris, in what was once called the Ile de France, and say that the Abbey Church of St. Denis, begun in 1140, is to be regarded as the first known Gothic monument. It appears that a majority of the more modern writers incline to agree with the French theory. Porter dates the new style as beginning in Paris about 1163, and says that it reached its culmination in the year 1220, with the nave of Amiens.

Origins of Masonic Ritual

Tradition

The origins of masonic ceremonies are fully discussed by Knoop and Jones in Chapter X of The Genesis of Freemasonry. The authors deduce the origins of eighteenth-century Masonic ceremonies from two main sources. Firstly, the Invocation; the legend or “history” of the Craft; and the Masons’ regulations, as commonly contained in the Ms. Constitutions of Masonry, these being the respective prototypes of the Opening Prayer, the Traditional History, and the Charges of later Masonic ritual

THE INITIATIC SYMBOLISM OF FREEMASONRY

Kheops Pyramid

Freemasonry continues an initiatic tradition whose beginnings are lost in antiquity. This statement cannot be proven historically.Yet the more you study Masonic rites and its symbols, the more you become convinced that you are dealing with something ancient, maybe even primordial. It becomes clear that this tradition is much older than Masonrys institutional beginnings in 1717, older than the cathedral builders and medieval guilds, older even than King Solomons Temple or the Egyptian Pyramids.

WICL and RAM Assembly

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Worshipful Commander Mel Broadhurst The Annual Installation Meeting of the Worcestershire Installed Commanders Lodge took place at Rainbow Hill, Worcester…


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