NOTE FROM THE EDITOR
Dear readers, during my research for unusual and controversial subjects, I found this great, historical article published by Spoonfed, about the Freemasons, so, sit down comfortably and get ready to learn about this intriguing organization that has existed for several centuries, and which has included among its members monarchs, presidents, good and evil leaders in the history of the world. – Marvin Ramírez
by the Spoonfed Truth
Who are the Freemasons? They belong to the oldest and largest fraternal organization of the world. Fraternities, or brotherhoods go as far back as Ancient Rome and Greece
The development of fraternities in the modern day can be trace from trade unions or guilds that emerged in England. Among guilds that became prosperous are the Freemasons, Odd Fellows and Foresters. Most people have never heard of the other two. It is interesting to note that many former U.S Presidents are Freemasons.
Freemasonry arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and Grand Lodge of Ireland, over a quarter of a million under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England and just under two million in the United States. While Freemasonry has often been called a “secret society,
Freemasons themselves argue that it is more correct to say that it is an esoteric society, in that certain aspects are private.
Membership is voted upon by the members, thus it is not open to the public. They are obligated and swear to abide by the rules of the fraternity and to keep the “secrets of Freemasonry”. This secret is closely guarded. The pyramid hierarchy is very prominent to the Freemasons who ascend to levels they call degrees, which basically represent how much they are allowed to know
With the general population of freemasons below a certain degree, most people believe 33rd is the highest degree. Publicly the Freemasons seem just like another other club. As a front, those at the bottom of the Freemason social pyramid often do charitable work, and work on giving the Freemasons an ordinary outward appearance.
hroughout history some members of the fraternity have made no secret of their involvement, while others have not made their membership public. In some cases, membership can only be proven by searching through the fraternity’s records. Such records are most often kept at the individual Lodge level, and may be lost due to fire, flood, deterioration, or simple carelessness. Grand Lodge governance may have shifted or reorganized, resulting in further loss of records on the member or the name, number, location or even existence of the Lodge in question. In areas of the world where Masonry has been suppressed by governments, records of entire Grand Lodges have been destroyed. Because of this, masonic membership can sometimes be difficult to verify.
Some of the known notable Freemasons include U.S Presidents: George Washington, Andrew Jackson, James Monroe, Andrew Johnson, William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Warren G. Harding, Franklin D Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, James Muchanan, James Polk, Lyndon B. Johnson and Gerald R. Ford. Then of course political leaders world wide such as Winston Churchhill, Cecil Rhodes, Benjamin Franklin, Bob Dole, Prince Philip, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Kissinger, to name a few. Not to mention prime ministers, governors, presidents, politicians from many different countries, writers, senators, actors, astronauts, adventurers such as Lewis and Clarke and Charles A. Lindbergh, philosophers, lawyers, judges, religious leaders, and heads of all kinds of organizations.”
The Scottish Rite Third-Degree Master Mason oath is as follows – “I do promise and swear upon the Holy Bible never to reveal where I have received this degree…. and in failure of this I consent to have my body opened perpendicularly and to be exposed for eight hours in the open air, so that the venomous flies may eat my entrails, my head to be cut off and put on the highest pinnacle of the world, and I will always be ready to inflict the same punishment on those who shall disclose this degree and break this obligation.”
In Humanum Genus” Pope Leo XIII does an excellent job explaining how the Freemasons work:
“In consequence, the sect of Freemasons grew with rapidity beyond conception in the course of a century and a half, until it came to be able, by means of fraud or of audacity, to gain such entrance into every rank of the State as to seem to be almost its ruling power
There are several organized bodies which, though differing in name, in ceremonial, in form and origin, are nevertheless so bound together by community of purpose and by the similarity of their main opinions, as to make in fact one thing with the sect of the Freemasons, which is a kind of centre whence they all go forth, and whither they all return. Now, these no longer show a desire to remain concealed; for they hold their meetings in the daylight and before the public eye, and publish their own newspaper organs; and yet, when thoroughly understood, they are found still to retain the nature and the habits of secret societies.
There are many things like mysteries which it is the fixed rule to hide with extreme care, not only from strangers, but from very many members, also; such as their secret and final designs, the names of the chief leaders, and certain secret and inner meetings, as well as their decisions, and the ways and means of carrying them out. This is, no doubt, the object of the manifold difference among the members as to right, office, and privilege, of the received distinction of orders and grades, and of that severe discipline which is maintained.
Candidates are generally commanded to promise – nay, with a special oath, to swear – that they will never, to any person, at any time or in any way, make known the members, the passes, or the subjects discussed.
Thus, with a fraudulent external appearance, and with a style of simulation which is always the same, the Freemasons, like the Manichees of old, strive, as far as possible, to conceal themselves, and to admit no witnesses but their own members. As a convenient manner of concealment, they assume the character of literary men and scholars associated for purposes of learning. They speak of their zeal for a more cultured refinement and of their love for the poor; and they declare their one wish to be the amelioration of the condition of the masses, and to share with the largest possible number all the benefits of civil life.
Were these purposes aimed at in real truth, they are by no means the whole of their object. Moreover, to be enrolled, it is necessary that the candidates promise and undertake to be thenceforward strictly obedient to their leaders and masters with the utmost submission and fidelity, and to be in readiness to do their bidding upon the slightest expression of their will; or, if disobedient, to submit to the direst penalties and death itself. As a fact, if any are judged to have betrayed the doings of the sect, or to have resisted commands given, punishment is inflicted on them not infrequently, and with so much audacity and dexterity that the assassin very often escapes the detection and penalty of his crime
