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What is a Mason? He is a man who in his heart has been duly and truly prepared, has been found worthy and well qualified, has been admitted to the fraternity of builders and travel in foreign lands in search of that which was lost. A Word.

 

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." (John 1:1) Here then is the eternal paradox. The Word is lost, yet it is forever with us. The light that illuminates the distant horizon shines in our hearts. "Thou would'st not seek me hadst thou not found me." "That which we seek lives in our souls." We travel afar only to find that which we hunger for at home.

 

Freemasonry, is not a religion, but it is essentially religious. Most of its legends are of a sacred nature; much of it is woven into the structure of Christianity. A religion is a divinely inspired code of morals. A religious person is one inspired to living by this code. He is identified by the code, which is his source of illumination. Each religion that seek to unfold and preserve that invisible spark in man named SPIRIT, are said to be spiritual.

 

That which gives man a knowledge of himself can be inspired only by the Self and God is the Self in all things. In truth, He is the inspiration and the thing inspired. It has been stated in scripture that God was the Word and that the Word was made flesh. Man's task now is to make flesh reflect the glory of that Word, which is within the soul of himself. It is this task which has created the need of religion, not one faith alone but many creeds, each searching in its own way, each meeting the needs of individual people, each emphasizing one point above all the others.

 

Most of the religions of the world are like processions: some lead and many follow. Man follows in his search for truth and illumination. The Christian follows the gentle Nazarene up the winding slopes of Calvary. The Buddhist follows his great emancipator through his wanderings in the wilderness. The Muslim makes his pilgrimage across the desert sands to the black tent at Mecca. Many travel in confusion to enter their own sanctuary to find Truth and light.

 

Man is climbing an endless flight of steps, with his eyes fixed upon the goal at the top. Many cannot see the goal, and only one or two steps are visible before them. He has learned, however, one great lesson, namely, that as he builds his own character he is given strength to climb the steps. Hence a Mason is a builder of the temple of character. He realizes that he best serves God when he joins with the Great Architect in building more noble structures in the universe below. All who are attempting to attain mastery through constructive efforts are Masons at heart, regardless of religious sect or belief. The Masonic brother pledges himself to assist all other temple-builders in whatever endeavors he may choose.  Freemasonry is a philosophy, which is essentially creedless. It is the truer for it. Its brothers bow to truth regardless of the bearer; they serve light, instead of wrangling over the one who brings it. In this way they prove that they are seeking to know better the will and the dictates of the Invincible One.

 

The Legendary Period

 

According to the legends contained in the rituals of Freemasonry, the origins of the Masonic fraternity date from the construction of the Temple of King Solomon, as described in the Bible The undertaking was so vast that a new form of organization was required to ensure that the Temple was completed in a timely and correct fashion, and this led to the development of organization of the stonemasons and architects into various grades and classes with responsibilities as described in the rituals.

 

Many of the characters mentioned in the books of Kings and Chronicles in the Hebrew Scriptures are encountered in the context of various degrees of Masonry; they include King Solomon himself, Hiram (King of Tyre, who supplied many of the materials, especially cedar wood, used to construct the temple), Hiram Abiff, and others.

 

Some of the degrees of the Scottish Rite and other now-defunct degrees date to even earlier periods and other cultures, such as the times of the Israelites' wanderings in the wilderness (Book of Numbers) and the mythologies of the Ancient Egyptians, as well as the immediate postdiluvian period of the sons of Noah.

 

Although some Masonic brothers may take the ritual to be historical truth, there are no true Masonic authorities who give any credence to an actual organization of Masons in ancient times.

 

What is known is that there were fraternal organizations of the ancient world, both among the pagans and among the Hebrews. In the former case, the organizations were generally connected with the so called mysteries, of which the Eleusinian  Mysteries were among the best known. The most prominent example of the latter is the group known as the Pharisees.

 

The Mysteries had rites of initiation, division into lesser and greater mysteries, with trials to be passed before receiving knowledge, and secrets to be concealed. The secrets of these Mysteries were kept well enough that later ages can only guess at what some of them were. It is possible that knowledge of the nature of the Mysteries was in the hands of the founders of the Masonic order and gave form to some of the present-day structure of Masonry

 

The Pharisees did not have concealed knowledge, but they did have limitations on membership and addressed one another as "chaver" cha VER), analogous to the usage of Brother or Companion in today's Freemasonry. New members were also required to take an oath to obey the Commandments and the Law in the presence of three members.  The Pharisees are viewed quite different by adherents to Judaism than by Christians; to the latter the term "Pharisee" is given an extremely negative connotation, nearly synonymous with hypocrite.  To the Jew, the Pharisaic structure is essentially that which constitutes Judaism of the past 2000 years; the Pharisees were seen as the group that prevented the religion from becoming extinct with the final destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem. A full exploration of the historical circumstances for this divergence of opinion is beyond the scope of this document.

 

However, some knowledge of Pharisaic practices may have been available to the founders of Masonry; it is also possible that there is only one really effective way to organize a fraternity, and that that way has been persistently and independently discovered repeatedly.

 

 

 

 

 

The Mediaeval Period

 

The generally accepted origin of Freemasonry, until recently, has been in the stonemason's guilds of the Middle Ages. The tern "free" in Freemason indicated that the Mason was not bound to the land as a serf, or otherwise restricted as in villeinage or socage, but was free to travel about the country, as was necessary for one whose trade might require construction in many different locations. This was remarkable in an age when almost no one traveled more than twenty miles from his home during his entire lifetime

 

Masons in the Middle Ages constructed many edifices, but particular attention has always focused on the great cathedrals built during that period. In order to construct such marvels, it was necessary ­to have considerable education in the principles of geometry, arithmetic, and engineering, and the guild of stonemasons, including the architects, became one of the few repositories of learning outside the clergy.

 

As the wave of cathedral building ebbed and the Renaissance began, it is supposed that the Freemasons of the time sought to maintain their organizations by accepting into membership for discussion of the philosophical and other knowledge of the Lodge, certain gentlemen and members of the upper classes who were not actual workers in stone. It is this process of acceptance, along with the original freedom, that the term "Free and Accepted Masons" comes from. These lodges are then supposed to have evolved into the modern, purely philosophical (or "speculative," as the Masonic tern has it) Lodges.

 

However, two other theories of the mediaeval origin of Freemasonry have recently been advanced. One, whose best  known advocate was the late John Robinson (author of Born in Blood), suggests that the Masons were descendants of the Knights Templar. The Templars were a powerful and wealthy order of knights during the Crusades who were suppressed by the King of France and the Pope during the early 14th century. Many Templars were put to death, but some survived. Some of the Masonic degrees and orders deal with these events. It is hypothesized that the former Templars preserved their fraternity by disguising it in the form of Freemasonry.

 

An even more recent theory traces the origin of Masonry not to the stonemason guilds, most of which appear to have simply ceased to exist, rather than converting into speculative lodges, but to persecuted Catholics of the conflict that raged in England during much of the 17th century. Cyril Batham, of the famous Quatuor Coronati Research Lodge in England, suggests that these individuals founded Lodges as a way to preserve their contacts

 

while hiding from the Anglicans during the various Jacobite upheavals. The lengthy hostility of the Catholic Church to Freemasonry would appear to cast

doubt upon this thesis, but Batham's reputation is so prodigious that his work deserves serious consideration.

 

The Modern Period In Europe

 

The modern period of Freemasonry dates from the founding of the first Grand Lodge on St. John's Day, 1717, in London. Four "old lodges" gathered together at the Goose and Gridiron Ale House and organized the first Grand Lodge.

 

The time was ripe for an institution of free-thinkers such as Masonry to spread in the Western world. The Enlightenment was beginning on the Continent, while England itself was still in transition to a more liberal state, having cast off the "divine-right" concept of monarchy with James II only a few years previously; the insurrection of "The 15" was just past, with that of "the 45" yet to come. The organizations of Masonry spread rapidly from England to the Continent, particularly to France, Austria-Hungary, and the Germanic states. Shortly, lodges would be organized in the New World as well.

 

Rival English Grand Lodges

 

The first Grand Lodge in England was soon to be challenged by a rival organization. Some authors have termed this a schism, but other recent scholarship claims that the rival Grand Lodge originated from Lodges in other parts of tile British Isles, notably Ireland. Whatever the case, the new organization sought to attract members by claiming greater authenticity through the use of the term "Antient" as part of their name. The Antient (or Ancient) Masons were also known as "Athol" Masons, from the Duke of Athol being one of their early Grand Masters.

 

Lodges in the New World

 

The Ancient and Modern Lodges in England were eventually merged into one organization, the United Grand Lodge of England, in 1813. By this time, however, both groups of Masons had been chartering lodges in the New World. This fact accounts for the great diversity of ritual content among the states in America, although the precise nature of the ritual cannot be determined by examining whether a particular Grand Lodge styles itself as "Ancient Free and Accepted Masons" or merely "Free and Accepted Masons." There is considerable disagreement among scholars as to what the various origins are, in fact, but it appears to this author that the "Ancient" ritual is considerably briefer than the "Modern" version; the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania probably has what is closest to the pure Ancient ritual in use, while a number of states

 

near and along the northern border of the US (e.g., Connecticut, Minnesota, Wisconsin) seen' to have the most lengthy form of ritual A significant

difference among states is whether the ritual is kept unwritten or whether a cipher of the ritual is permitted to be used; the presence of a cipher indicates influence by the Modern organization, although recent changes in the introduction of ciphers in some jurisdictions have undermined this particular distinction. (Note that some parts of the ritual, termed the monitorial or exoteric work, have always been permitted to be printed.)

 

 

 

Lodges in the US

 

The first Lodges in the US were chartered directly by Lodges or Grand Lodges in Britain; after awhile, however, Lodges in the colonies would issue warrants to form new Lodges themselves and eventually organized their own (Provincial, during the colonial period, but independent later on) Grand Lodges. The first truly independent Grand Lodge in America was organized by four Lodges meeting in Virginia.  As each had been chartered by a different Grand Lodge in other states, the resulting ritual was a mixture of that in use in the other states. At the present time (1995), there is a Grand Lodge for each of the 50 states, as well as one for the District of Columbia. That is a fairly recent development; until just a few years ago, the Grand Lodge of California had jurisdiction over the Lodges in Hawaii. The Grand Lodges in the United States observed a custom of exclusive geographic jurisdiction (with some few exceptions In Alaska); no Grand Lodge may charter Lodges in the territory of another Grand Lodge. This custom does not prevail in other parts of the world.

 

 

 

Masonry in Latin America

 

Masonry also reached Latin America during the late 18th and early 19th century, despite opposition from conservative political and religious elements. Their opposition was probably well founded, as a number of the liberators of South America (e.g., Simon Bolivar) were Freemasons.

 

 

 

Later American Masonic History

 

Masonry played a considerable role in early American history. Many of the Founding Fathers were Masons (about 1/3 of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and a like proportion of those attending the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787 were Masons), including Franklin and Washington. The tale that a Lodge meeting was held and adjourned to organize the Boston Tea Party, however, is entirely apocryphaL It is probable that some of those who dressed as Indians and dumped tea overboard into the Boston Harbor were Masons, but the Lodge itself was not used to program the event. There are tales of British troops carefully presening American Masonic property during the Revolutionary War and turning it over to proper Masonic authorities under a flag of truce.

 

Masony in America experienced a considerable setback during the 1820's, when a period of Anti-Masonic sentiment reached such a level as to have a candidate run for President on a platfom of opposition to the Lodge. During that period, many Masonic bodies turned in their charters and ceased to exist. The uproar stemmed from a fraudulent claim that Masons had executed a turncoat brother in New York for exposing the secrets of the Lodge. Like the Know-nothings and anti-Catholic fever of a few years later, the fanaticism passed from the scene, but it was some time before Masonic bodies returned to their former prominence.

 

During the American Civil War, Masons fought on both sides, but there are many tales of battlefield kindness rendered to a Brother found wearing a uniform of the other color, as well as stories of prisoners of war allowed to attend Lodge on parole, or Masonic funerals conducted for a fallen enemy soldier.

 

Masonry played an important role in the social life of a significant number of Americans throughoot the later 19th and early 2Oth centuries Most prominent members of society were also members of the Lodge, and often, Lodge events were the lion's share of what constituted entertainment in manv small towns. Other fraternal organizations arose to compete with the Masons, such as the Grange, the Elks, the Moose, and the Odd Fellows. Masonic charity nipported many through hard times, long before the invention of the social safety net in the 1930s.

 

Membership in the Masonic fraternity reached a peak in the late 1950s and has been declining since that time. Similar phenomena have affected other fraternal organizations, as well as business clubs, churches, and the like. There are a member of explanations advanced for this decline, such as the rise of mass forms of entertainment available in the home, the greater demands of the work and commuting environment, and so on. No one has a certain answer of how the decline may be reversed, but it seems that the prominent role that the Lodge played in the social structure of many towns and urban areas is not likely to be seen again until the overall social structure of the United States changes back to a more outward orientation. Surveys currently show that many American men are simply unaware of the existence of the Masonic fraternity but might he interested in joining an organization of its description; fifty or more years ago, there was virtually no one unaware of the nature of the Lodge.


 

African-American Freemasonry

 

 

     Prince Hall is recognized as the Father of Black Masonry in the United States. He made it possible for us to be recognized and enjoy all the privileges of free and accepted masonry. Many rumors of the birth of Prince Hall have arisen. Few records and papers have been found of him either in Barbados where it was rumored he was born, but no record of birth, by church, or state has been found there, and none in Boston. One wildly circulated rumor states that "Prince Hall was free born in the British West Indies. His Father, Thomas Prince Hall was an Englishman and his mother a free colored woman of French extraction. In 1765 he worked his passage on a ship to Boston, where he worked as a leather worker, a trade learned from his father. Eight year later he became a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) with a charge in Cambridge, "This account paraphrased from the widely discredit Grimshaw book of 1903, is suspect in many areas.

     Black Freemasonry began when Prince Hall and fourteen other free Black men were initiated into Lodge No.441, Irish Constitution, attached to the 38th Regiment of Foot, British Army Garrisoned at Castle Williams (now Fort Independence) Boston Harbor on March 1775. The Master of the Lodge was Sergeant John Batt. Along with Prince Hall, the other newly made masons were Cyrus Johnson, Bueston Slinger, Prince Rees, John Canton, Peter Freeman, Benjamin Tiler, Duff Ruformm, Thomas Santerson, Prince Rayden, Cato Speain, Boston Smith, Peter Best, Forten Howard and Richard Titley.

     When the British Army left Boston, this Lodge No.441 gianted Prince Hall and his brethren authority to meet as a lodge, to go in procession on St. Johns Day and as a Lodge to bury their dead; but they could not confer degrees nor perlorni any other Masonic "work " nine years these brethren enjoyed their limited privileges as Masons.

     Finally in March 1784 Prince Hall petitioned the Grand Lodge of England, through a Worshipful Master of a subordinate Lodge in London (William Moody of Brotherly Love Lodge No.55) for a warrant or charter. The Warrant to African Lodge No 1 of Boston is the most significant and highly prize document known to the Prince Hall Masonic Fraternity. Through it our legitimacy is traced, and on it our case rests. It was granted on September 29 1784 delivered, Boston on April 29, 1787 By Captain James Scott, brother-in-law of John Hancock.

    


 

     International Free and Accepted Masons and Order of the Eastern Star was first Incorporated as a religious fraternity in 1950 by our founder the Rev. Dr. William V. Banks, and today is the largest international Masonic fraternity known in the country. There are over 1 million members and their families making up our total membership.

    International Masons is a professional fraternal order.  Its first purpose is to guide new members in carrying out an obligation of self-discipline, to become better members of society.  To provide an educational program to impart the latest proceedings and moral practices, and foster such knowledge, understanding, and unity as well as afford you the greatest help and protection while you are carrying out the part of a leader of your society.

     International Masons provide the millions of dollars in capital to construct the 1st Black owned Television and Radio station in the city of Detroit.  International Masons have operated a school to train leadership among our people throughout the country.

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