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ask people to know conspiracy theories that they've heard of and inevitably you'll hear the
name freemasons brought up our conceptions of them are influenced by arcane symbols on the american
greenback and older government buildings vague conjectures of their involvement in revolutions
wacky fringe radio hosts rambling about conspiracy theories and popular culture freemasonry is
featured in high school standards of literature like edgar allen poe's cask of amontillado to
throw away airport novels like dan brown's law symbol well put the tinfoil hat on and your
best ceremonial robes because today we're going to break down some myths about the freemasons
who this group are and what they actually do to begin with freemasons are simply a fraternity
organized into lodges around the world they focus their efforts on the moral cultivation of
members of the club this goal is achieved through initiations and rituals with the individual over
time moving up ranks called degrees these degrees can vary between lodges but the freemasons started
with three degrees luckily for us ritual origins and meanings are discussed in detail in freemason
literature available for public consumption in fact what might surprise you is that for
a so-called secret society many of their rituals doctrines and day-to-day ongoings are not actually
secret at all masonry publications go back to the 18th century and continue openly to this
day periodicals magazines books websites and so much more open media are put out by freemasons for
other freemasons and the general public of course our obvious overlords could
make up anything so even if you do not want to take their word for it we have primary sources
and ritual objects recovered from anti-masonry purges by various regimes to attempt to verify the
public stories combined all these publications and the surviving post-cold war references are great
sources for academic freemasonry studies so what do we know for sure while conspiracy theories and
the freemason's own founding myths place them at a much earlier point in history the first
lodge was probably founded in the 1710s we don't know when exactly but internal masonry sources
blame the grand lodge of london and westminster was the original the first freemasons gathered
in pubs cafes and other public establishments and even later named their lodges after these
locations as to what they got up to the first freemasons discussed the evolving philosophies
and scientific discoveries ushered in during the enlightenment among many other similar things
the grand lodge of london and westminster was the superior lodge during the early era by the
mid-18th century freemasonry was widespread all over europe in lockstep of this spread was this
so-called secret society's not-so-secret practice of widespread free mason publications including
such well-publicized works meant to elucidate rules and rituals for freemasons like their
constitution in 1723 and explanations of rituals in 1730. both publications helped many prospective
members understand freemasonry before trying to join up though even in the early days these
publications were used by its opponents to attack them while this late dating might surprise many
the freemasons drew on older masonry guilds and fraternities in various ways most personally in
medieval times these guilds took care of skilled workers who cut designs into stone rather than
laying stones in the renaissance with the flourishing hellenic philosophy and architecture
the guilds evolved to incorporate classical and philosophical elements as their craft evolved the
renaissance also saw a flourishing of esotericism in europe a form of spirituality that includes
striving for spiritual knowledge on an individual level jewish kabbalah which included mystical
readings of the hebrew bible became christianized in renaissance circles other esoteric currents
important in the founding of freemasonry included the hermetic tradition stemming from gnosticism
and rosicurian fraternities based on a stream of esoteric christianity these fraternities
and circles allowed layman access to a form of christian mysticism that would be hard to
obtain outside of monastic orders eventually non-operative members meaning non-masons would
join the masonry guild to discuss hellenic and esoteric currents until we had the fraternal
organization the freemasons would grow out of in the early 18th century all this said freemasons
allege a much earlier history for themselves with ties to biblical events influenced by
christian kabbalah they see their origins in the building of solomon's temple the temple
architect hiram was commissioned by solomon to design and build this temple freemason's
alleged he was murdered by some of the workers because he wouldn't give them god's true name
these workers buried him outside of said temple solomon sent hiram's freemason associates to find
him which they did after some time and reburied him in the holy of holies or the sanctum sanctorum
the area of the temple where only priests could enter and see god the heramic origin
plays an important part in freemason rituals the initiate who takes the role of hiram is
symbolically murdered buried and rediscovered by his freemason peers and then symbolically interred
in the holy of holies another mythic origin ties the freemasons to the knights templar accused of
heresy by the catholic church as secret satanists for freemasons they helped bring the legend of
hiram to europe and merge with the scottish mason fraternities when they returned home
this supposed connection was later one of many contributing factors to the persecution by church
authorities with the freemasons being accused of worshiping the same demon as the templars
the goat-headed bamformette on top of this the orthodox catholic and protestant churches had many
complaints against the freemasons such as their ritual of swearing oaths to superiors outside the
church for many governments this semi-secretive nature was also a sticking point since every year
more people in power profess to be freemasons government regulation or outright bans began
in the late 18th and early 19th centuries as did papal condemnation of the organization the most
famous reaction against masonry in the united states was the morgan affair in 1826 william
morgan an anti-mason publisher disappeared with freemasonry being blamed for his death the affair
sparked the founding of the anti-masonic party one of america's first significant
third parties with membership by the likes of john quincy adams another extreme reaction to
freemasonry was an outright ban in russia in 1822. furthermore the french revolution is often blamed
on the freemasons in conspiracy circles which is ironic because freemasonry was also accused
by french revolutionaries for being a haven for the bourgeoisie of course no discussion
of freemasons is complete without discussing the illuminati yeah the illuminati existed and no they
were not freemasons the illuminati were formed in 1776 in bavaria by adam weishaupt the difference
between the two groups is simple the illuminati were political radicalists while the freemasons
were more or less apolitical the illuminati did use freemason-like rituals and iconography but
they remained very distinct the illuminati's goals were to radically reform central european
society with enlightenment ideals radicalism was the illuminati's downfall as the german-speaking
states recognized them as a threat and suppressed them by 1787 but that did not stop the conspiracy
theories after the french revolution scottish naturalist philosopher john robinson and french
jesuit augustana burrell published similar theories concerning the french revolution
in 1789. both claim the illuminati infiltrated the french freemasons and caused the french revolution
in the end french freemasonry would almost disappear under the revolution until napoleon
bonaparte revived it as an attempted state religion another unfortunate elephant in the
room is the connection between the freemasons and the protocols of the elders of zion originating
from the fiercely anti-masonic cyrus regime in 1903 the protocols are a hoax alleging a jewish
conspiracy to take over the world in the protocols freemasonry is depicted as a tool of the so-called
jewish conspiracy the irony of anti-semitism and anti-masonry is that many lodges did not allow
jewish initiates nevertheless this anti-semitic strain of anti-masonry continues to this day among
conspiracy theorists this brings us around to the political slant although apolitical charges
of aiding colonialism are a common critique against the freemasons whether this charge
holds up completely is a complicated legacy as some anti-colonial resistance movements were
led by colonized masons for example emir abdul qadir algeria's national hero became a freemason
during his exile in syria reformers and resistance leaders associated with egyptian independence like
muhammad abdul jamal al-din afghani and saad zaglul are also freemasons there are lodges
in africa the middle east and india founded during colonial expansion with native members
in the end freemasonry simply allowed people from different ethnicities and religions to congregate
and work together this allowed ideas of national independence to spread amongst like-minded
colonized freemasons and political activities resulted continuing with the quasi-political slant
across the pond in america prince hall freemasonry refers to african-american lodges prince hall was
a black abolitionist who sought to become a freemason and opened his own lodge for fellow
black freemasons but this was rejected by white american lodges he thus went outside of the united
states to charter his lodge with the united grand lodge in london in 1784. on this note tension
between lodges of different ethnicities was known to be an issue in colonial times such as that
english freemasons looked down on irish lodges in america and australia further some lodges only
allow christians to be initiated this brings us to the surviving masonry split between the united
grand lodge of england and wales and the grand orient to france freemasonry has soon splits
before hence the inclusion of the word united in the united grand lodge which formed in 1813. this
particular split happened when the grand orient allowed the inclusion of atheists into freemasonry
in 1877 the united grand lodge allows anyone who professes faith in a grand architect to
join even encouraging the inclusion of hindus muslims and sikhs in india this split is still
maintained today as one has to profess a belief in the grand architect of the universe to join a
lodge under the united grand lodge of england and wales another issue that separates the two is the
inclusion of women for the united grand lodge no affiliation is given to mixed or female exclusive
lodges ever rife for outside critique many noted this stance didn't exactly live up to the
enlightenment ideals of egalitarianism held dear by the freemasons eventually the french freemasons
listened to such complaints and now female lodges are generally accepted by the grand orient female
lodges can range from having slightly different rituals than the male lodges to incorporating new
rituals that tie the female initiate to biblical tales of noah's daughters-in-law helping to build
the ark rather than the purely male association with hiram however to this day the united grand
lodge still does not admit women or recognize female and mixed lodges regardless of english
or french affiliation all lodges operate very similarly the lodges have masters and officers
they keep records of members and initiations and organize the running of the lodge and collect
fees the fees are used to run the lodge and put on events generally centered around helping the
local community and charities with some lodges emphasizing the charitable aspect more than
others they also use this money to put on cultural events for the public such as operas and art shows
lodges even hold concerts including modern genres like rock pop and rap as for their scope grand
lodges oversee a territory that can encompass a country or in the case of larger countries like
the united states a subset region this all brings us around to interlodged relations which contrary
to what you might expect from a supposedly unified globally dominating secret society
are a complicated affair as generally lodge members are encouraged not to visit other lodges
but it does happen beyond this the grand lodge makes and enforces rules about these issues that
are ignored or upheld depending on the individual lodge as you might be gathering from all of this
in all freemasonry is somewhat decentralized irregular and quasi-masonic lodges might be
standalone without a governing body or have a separate governing body outside of the english
and french lodges in the end a supposedly cohesive global secret society that isn't so secret is a
strange contradiction not to mention that contrary to popular perception their internal affairs are
surprisingly decentralized and incohesive in many senses making their supposed world domination and
control even more suspect but regardless despite their best efforts to be transparent and their
history of charitable causes and community supporting events and deeds conspiracy theories
still inform the public discourse about the freemasons reputable resources about freemasonry
are available and the barrier of access is lower than you might think but that's never stopped
conspiracy theorists from ignoring such things and just coming up with whatever ideas in their head
fit their worldview anyway facts smacked grand conspiracies are just more interesting apparently