The Freemasons avidly defend their club as focused on equity and inclusion for all people, no matter your life status, yet they bar (more than) half of the population from entering their meetings. That’s right, it’s not possible for women to become part of any Masonic lodge—at least, not originally—out of fears that the so-called fair relations would be distracting blabbermouths. Ever seen The Little Rascals? Yeah, think of that kind of brotherhood (minus the go-karts).
Many refer to this group as a gentlemen’s club, which is true in most cases. However, women like Elizabeth Aldworth wormed their way into the leagues of Freemasons by circumventing the traditional induction process. Aldworth was allowed to join an early 1700s English lodge after she was caught eavesdropping on a meeting, which shows that it’s possible for women to join as long as they traverse the rough terrain of prejudice ahead.
Aside from being born male, the most basic requirements for becoming a Freemason include drawing up a petition for yourself and getting two existing members of the local Masonic lodge to sponsor your request. If anything, the Masonic brotherhood is avid about keeping secrets, so there's no “just popping in” to a meeting.
Such a clandestine operation requires a unique vetting process before any sort of initiation can take place. For instance, the required petition is basically a get-to-know-you questionnaire that grills you for most of your personal information, including that of your spouse and father. None of the questions can be left blank in order for the petition to be accepted, so if there’s anything a novice Freemason feels uncomfortable answering… Well, tough!
One of the questions included on Masonic petitions is this: “Do you sincerely declare, upon your honor, that you are prompted to solicit the privileges of Masonry by a favorable opinion conceived of the institution, a desire or knowledge, and a sincere desire to be of greater service to your fellow man?” Essentially, the Masons want any potential members to know that they have free will and must decide for themselves if Freemasonry is for them.
The rule to be “free-born” is a little more problematic. It’s a leftover requirement from the days of slavery and servitude and means that anyone who wants to be a Freemason must be his own master. I think we all know what that actually means, hence why scholars Alvin J. Schmidt and Nicholas Babchuk referred to early fraternal orders like the Freemasons as “The Unbrotherly Brotherhood.”
If you're an atheist, too bad! Freemasonry requires all of its members to confess belief in some Supreme Being higher than themselves. The lodge, supposedly, did not discriminate based on religion as long as the god was monotheistic. Thus, Abrahamic religions like Christianity, Judaism, and Islam were viewed in higher regard than the likes of polytheistic branches.
For instance, one petition question for the Texas lodge is worded as follows: “Do you seriously declare, upon your honor, that you firmly believe in the existence of God, the immortality of the soul, and the Divine authenticity of the Holy Scripture?” Thus, any singular God was acceptable to believe in as long as you abided by the religion’s holy texts and believed in an eternal soul.
Believe it or not, the last five rules — including this one — make up the basic requirements to become eligible in the first place! It’s only after the petition is accepted, two Freemasons sponsor you, you attest free will and belief in a Supreme Being that you have the chance to be inducted to the local lodge. All members must be voted into the society through a secret ballot.
This blackballing ballot process, according to the Masonic Library, is for deciding “whether in fact and truth a given petitioner possesses” the basic qualifications that he claimed to have. Each voter receives a white ball (a vote for support) and a black ball (a vote for opposition) to cast. The lodge must unanimously agree on accepting a new member, making them a jury of sorts, but there is no appeal process that rivals their final decision.
The Freemasons wouldn’t be a proper brotherhood without some sort of initiation ritual. Fraternities are notorious for extreme hazing and suffering other horrors to become “part of the group,” but the Freemasons aren’t ones for partying or overindulgence. This initiation is truly a ceremony that symbolizes rebirth into a new way of life.Imagine a group of dudes putting on a play with the inductee in the star role.
Because Freemasons were originally actual masons AKA stoneworkers, their lore reaches back to the construction of King Solomon’s Temple and the master builder Hiram Abiff, who was murdered for knowing “the secret of the Temple.” The initiation ceremony recounts the construction of the temple and has the new member pretend to die and be resurrected into Masonry.
Ironically enough, religion is completely forbidden as a discussion topic during meetings. Gabbing away outside of meetings is totally okay, but all members are required to be close-lipped about their religious beliefs while a meeting is in session. Seems like an odd rule for men who had to confess their belief in a Supreme Being, yes?
On top of religion, politics is off-limits. This rule makes more sense given the prioritization of brotherhood and harmony, yet the group’s history speaks for itself. Most of the American sects were highly political despite this rule and it’s said that men with aspirations for taking political office needed to be part of Freemasonry for increased opportunities for funding. It sounds shady, but Masons prioritized civic projects and aiding their communities.
Last but not least, the Freemasons wouldn’t qualify as a very good club without regular meetings. From construction workers to Presidents, anyone can be a Mason, but meetings couldn’t happen so frequently that people couldn’t attend. Thus, the once-a-month expectation was put in place.
Most Masonic Lodges are required by the leading lodges to conduct one business meeting every month, usually on the second Tuesday as stated in the organization's by-laws. There are plenty of opportunities for supplementary meetings to discuss degree-specific matters or for emergency purposes, like a funeral, but those vary from place to place.
One perk of joining Freemasonry is that absolutely anyone is allowed to petition for themselves despite their status in the outside world. Well, unless you’re a slave. Or a woman. Or don’t believe in God. Whatever! The whole point of this rule was to maintain respect among members of the order.
For instance, many known U.S. Presidents were part of the Masonic order, including George Washington, so it would’ve been easy to get lost in the outside world's protocol. Thus, the Freemasons established their own system of mutual respect. Every person who is inducted starts out at the same rank as everyone else, including the most powerful men in the nation.
Speaking of rank, Freemasons were encouraged to participate in constant self-improvement, which included advancing through the ranks of Masonry by earning “degrees.” It’s estimated that over 33 degrees exist among all the lodges, although most members only advance to the third and highest rank, Master Mason.
Freemasons must advance to the rank of Master Mason in order to unlock the order’s biggest secret: God’s real name. Revealing this secret to anyone of a lower rank, especially those outside of the brotherhood, was punishable by expulsion and rumored physical torture. However, most Freemason secrets have been revealed throughout the years, including God’s “real” name, Jahbulon.
There are only a few rules that are streamlined among all Freemason sects, like the initiation rites and qualifications, but most of them have their own handshakes and passwords that grant them entrance to the meeting place and clue them in on members outside of the physical organization.
Nearly every lodge uses the passcode Mahabone (“the Grand Lodge door opened") to access the third degree of Masonry. It’s rumored that this passcode was King Solomon’s “secret” he established after Hiram Abiff’s murder at the Jerusalem temple. Perhaps we should’ve put a “spoiler alert” at the beginning of this…
Once a petitioner becomes an official Freemason, he must follow basic rules of conduct that are linked to a 6th-century Roman emperor called Justinian. He established a set of laws for the Romans that have since been adopted as the “Justinian Code” that the Masons loosely follow.
The basic idea is this: “live honestly, injure nobody, and render to everyone his just due.” Biblical teachings and general ethics were combined to create this, as you can see how they took inspiration from the Golden Rule and the Hippocratic Oath. Seems like a pretty simple rule to follow, but the Masons made sure to outline the nitty-gritty details for their members with their own adaptation of the code into “Masonic Law.”
First, and most importantly, the Freemasons stress secrecy above all else. What’s the point of having a super, top-secret gentlemen’s club if everyone knows the secrets? The in-depth induction, sponsoring, petition, and voting process was put in place solely to ensure that all members were deemed loyal and capable enough to keep mum.
If a member happened to let something slip to a non-member or any unauthorized member, they had to endure the harshest punishment known to Masons. It’s not verified if physical punishment actually occurred, but many sects have confirmed that expulsion from all Masonic lodges is typically reserved as the top punishment.
Other rules aren’t so Masonry-specific, meaning that they were put in place mainly to preserve peace, order, and common decency among members. All Freemasons were and are expected to hold each other accountable for the intellectual and spiritual growth, which could not occur if they committed petty crimes against the state.
Thus, top Freemasons outlawed most crimes that violated state law. Despite their status as an apolitical body, they specifically wanted members to avoid overindulgence in drugs and alcohol as well as derision of the government. Philanthropy is also a huge requirement to be a practicing Freemason, so constant engagement in petty crimes and overindulgence prevents members from serving the community.
Arguments break out among any group of people no matter how streamlined their beliefs may be. And because Freemasons prioritized diversity of religion, in a sense, tensions were bound to grow between members who disagreed with one another without a specific set of regulations. Thus, they banned arguments inside the meeting room in order to keep things amicable and on-topic.
There’s no way they could prevent any and all squabbles from happening outside the Masonic lodge, but they had everything in their power to stop the debates from penetrating the threshold of the meeting room. If a member accused another of airing out dirty laundry during a meeting, the claim had to be investigated.
Enough with all the serious stuff… Let’s discuss fashion! No, there’s not a ton of interesting clothing moves going on inside the order that’ll become trends anytime soon, but their meeting garb is a special part of monthly meetings. No fraternity is complete without merch!
For example, “Shriners,” a subgroup of Master Masons, are known for sporting red fezzes during meetings as a way of honoring the club’s Arabic heritage. For the rest of them, all lodges require their members to wear special aprons that are decorated with the organization’s emblems, including the primary square-and-compass symbol surrounding the letter “G.”
What happens when someone accuses a Mason of misconduct? These accusations are not taken lightly, even for the smallest infractions of Masonic Law, so any time one was brought to the lodge’s attention, it was a big deal, to say the least. Freemasons took themselves seriously, and nobody was allowed to treat it like a joke.
Plus, anyone outside of the Freemasons coulda accuse a member, which made it more likely for the lodge to catch members who leaked the fraternity’s secrets. Once the accused is caught, they’re required to represent themselves during trial as the defense and the accuser as the prosecutor. Members present for the trial act as a jury voting guilty or not guilty, then doling out the associated punishment.
We’ve already outlined some of the things that can land a Freemason in hot water with the organization, but what type of punishments does the court actually dole out to its disloyal members? As we mentioned before, the punishment process is still hazy, and it’s not clear how often members actually stood trial given the rigorous induction process.
With the information we know, most lodges assigned specific punishments to each infraction. These punishments applied to everyone, but they increased in severity given the guilty member’s degree. The higher the rank, the harsher the punishment. From removing a person’s tongue to disembowelment and scalping, it gets pretty serious the farther up the ladder you go. Modern Freemasons either deny such harsh punishments exist at all, claiming they are merely symbolic.
As you can see, most of the rules that Freemasons are required to follow are based on mutual respect, secret-keeping, and symbolism. However, other rules exist that further bar certain groups of people from joining the top-secret fraternity. While anyone can join regardless of rank (again, except for women and slaves), many men are incapable of paying the constant fees.
Thus, Freemasonry has been accused of classism and hypocrisy throughout the years. They will vary depending on the individual Lodge, but here are the average fees members have to pay: $100 per year on top of a $350 initiation fee and various miscellaneous fees if members want to participate in lodge activities or depart from the order.
It takes a lot of sweat, tears, and metaphorical blood to be recruited as a Freemason. Thus, it takes even more finagling to extract yourself from the ancient order. Expulsion is one way to get out, but that method is only reactionary and rarely doled out. Plus, some people merely want to leave the order without breaking the code of secrecy or getting banned for life.
That’s when the cancellation fees kick in, and when we say kick, we mean they full-force slam your bank account. No mercy given. In order to leave, members are expected to pay their “subscription” fees to the order in full before their departure. Refusing to do so puts their potential to rejoin the organization in the future at risk.
