A card from yesterday...

More to the Freemasons than just the handshake

Secret handshakes, initiations, mysterious gestures, rolled-up trouser legs, white gloves and aprons – these are many of the connotations of Freemasonry in the minds of non-members across the world.

Mr Thompson feels that myths and misunderstandings unfairly surround the organisation but admits they have not done enough to dispel them over the years.

So as I pull up a seat in the Sands café at the Sands Centre – just hours before 600 members of the Cumbria and Westmorland Freemasons descend on the venue for an annual meeting – he sets about trying to put this right.

“People think it is a huge secret and it isn’t. If someone wants to ask me about it, I will tell them.”

Freemasonry can be traced back to 1646. Stonemasons used signs and words to indicate their levels of skill to other masons – apprentice, fellowcraft or master mason. These words are still used today to recognise the status of a Freemason.

Mr Thompson explained: “During World War Two Freemasons were persecuted by the Nazis so members started to keep things confidential in order to protect themselves.

“Over the years preconceptions have built up in the minds of people and we haven’t helped ourselves by keeping quiet.

“Yes there is a hand shake and yes there is an initiation. There are three stages which lead to a member becoming a master mason.”

Mr Thompson doesn’t offer to teach me the handshake but does explain its origins.

“In the early days of freemasonry, in the Middle Ages, most people were illiterate. After someone had served their time as a master craftsman they would move on to try to seek employment. The person offering the job would ask them to prove their status and this is where the signs and tokens came into it.

“These days the handshake is used purely and simply as a greeting, shared between members. It should not be used for any other reason.”

Mr Thompson, 63, became leader of all Freemasons across the county after taking up the post of Provincial Grand Master in 2008. He is clearly regarded as a important figure, but it is difficult to interpret this status without having a foot in the door. To observe the way the other Freemasons buzz around him, however, shows the high regard in which he is held.

A friendly man with a sweep of white hair, he talks with pride about the organisation that has played a huge part in his life. For the retired deputy governor of Haverigg Prison, the way into Freemasonry wasn’t paved with family connections.

Norman Thompson was persuaded to join up by his mother.

“I remember the day she said to me that I should look into it. Her reference was that she had known a few members who she regarded as upstanding chaps.

“In 1970 I decided to find out more and made some inquiries. But I waited six years before I joined in Millom, aged 29.”

It was through his love of ballroom dancing that information officer Peter Clark,from Maryport, joined up.

Mr Clark, a teacher, added: “I used to take dance classes at the Masonic hall in Aspatria. I got to know a few people and they suggested I join. Three years later, in 1991, I did and I have enjoyed every minute of it.

It is a community, a family. People go out of their way to speak to you and understand you. Freemasonry is something that is a constant in my life, something that I can rely on. And we have a fantastic time together.”

Mr Thompson added: “Freemasonry is an opportunity for people to make themselves better individuals and demonstrate to others that they are considerate, kind and charitable by word and deed to those less fortunate than themselves irrespective of whether or not they are Freemasons.”

There are 3,000 Masons throughout Cumbria and Westmorland and 82 halls across the county – including one in every town.

(more)

http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/focus/more-to-the-freemasons-than-just-the-handshake-1.771980?referrerPath=sport/football

A card from yesterday...

A tribute to W. Bro. James W. Dowd

"The problem with the average man is that he is below average."  - Jim Dowd

Freemason conspiracy no excuse for dodging taxes

A former dentist who says her trial on income tax evasion was fixed by a shadowy conspiracy of Freemasons and Jews has lost her latest bid to get out of paying a quarter-million dollar fine.

 By: Bethany Lindsay,

Vancouver Dr. Eva Notburga Marita Sydel was convicted of tax evasion four years ago for failing to report a whopping $750,000 in income. She was fined $244,447 and sentenced to jail for 18 months.

Although she served out her jail sentence, Sydel has yet to pay any of the fines.
She filed an appeal of her conviction in 2007, but abandoned it the next year.

In her latest in a long series of appearances in B.C. courtrooms, Sydel petitioned to renew her appeal, claiming that she has found new evidence that provincial court Judge Paul Meyers, a Jew, had discriminated against because she is German by descent.

Acting as her own lawyer, she also argued that Meyers was part of a conspiracy of Freemasons -- an international fraternal organization dating back to the 1600s. Conspiracy theorists often claim that the "invisible empire" of Freemasons has quietly controlled governments and economies worldwide for centuries -- if not millennia.

Sydel claimed that Meyers and the chief investigator for the Canada Revenue Agency used secret Freemason sign language during her trial to communicate with each other and ensure she was convicted.

She also pointed out that Vancouver telephone numbers for the federal government all contain the digits 666 -- the so-called Satanic "sign of the beast," and a number said to be associated with Freemasonry.

(more)

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20101022/bc_tax_evader_101022/20101022?hub=BritishColumbiaHome

A card from yesterday...

'Secret society' smoothes rough edges

 

By JIM DIMMITT

For most of my life, I have wondered about the Freemasons.

I read and studied everything I could get my hands on regarding the topic. I was fascinated with the mysteries surrounding this ancient institution.

My grandfather, uncles and at least one cousin, that I know of, had been Masons. My own mother, when she was a teenager, was a member of the Rainbow girls, which is one of the youth orders of Freemasonry. What was it that they were a part of?

I was intrigued when I learned that many of the founding fathers were Freemasons. Participation in this institution allowed a break from the old nobility and allowed humble men, such as George Washington, to show their worth and rise in status.

I began to understand why nobility and other domineering institutions of the day wouldn't like this organization interfering with their established power structure.

I read numerous books, such as "The Temple and The Lodge," which claimed to know the truth about the hidden mysteries of Freemasonry. It wasn't too difficult to find the flaws in their logic, finding that their "facts" were little more than theory resting on the shoulders of hypothesis.

Perhaps my favorite stories were the ones telling of travelers during the westward expansion in the 1800s running up against various tribes of American Indians. Upon giving various Masonic signs of distress, the travelers were met with similar signs and were often spared and protected on their... (more)

 http://www.chicoer.com/opinion/ci_16394019

A card from yesterday...

Bobby Bumps Starts a lodge (1916)

Young Bobby Bumps plays a trick on his friend who wants to be initiated into his lodge. When his friend outsmarts him and saves his life, they both agree to be initiated into the lodge together. Reference is made to a lodge apron, riding the goat and the third degree. Bray Productions, Inc. Paramount Pictures. Directed by Earl Hurd (d. 1940). Produced by J. R. Bray. piano score composed and performed by Philip Carli. 5:15 min/24 fps. Released September 28, 1916.

A card from yesterday...

Freemasonry Revealed - Trailer

Go behind closed doors with unprecedented access to the Masonic Order! The secret history of the Freemasons is revealed in this detailed account of its symbols, practices and legends.

The Work - circa. 1920

Here is an interesting find. A Masonic handbook containing the ritual work printed in 1920 - notice the special cipher.

To be one or to find out more - ask one!

A card from yesterday...

1932 English Freemasonry

Provincial Grand Master of Kent, Lord Cornwallis, laying the foundation stone of a new church in the Kentish town of Birchington-on-Sea on 31 October 1932.

Masonic ceremonies for the laying of the foundation stones of public buildings were commonplace in Britain up to the Second World War. These included not only churches, but also railway stations, bridges, docks, hospitals, schools and even a Turkish bath.

Take a moment to smile...

Waltham's Freemasons: Where truth meets fiction

WALTHAM — Popular culture in recent years has taken Freemasonry from inside the walls of obscure stone buildings into the limelight of the big screen and bestsellers lists.

Whether in books like Dan Brown’s “The Last Symbol,” movies like “National Treasure,” or even the humorous “Stonecutters” episode of “The Simpsons,” there has been a growing fascination with Masonry – and more specifically, its msyteries.

Brown’s book places Masonry within the walls of every important American institution – including, in a very literal sense, the U.S. Capitol. “National Treasure” has the Freemasons hiding a great treasure during the early days of the nation’s birth. And few TV watchers of a certain age would have trouble remembering at least part of the “Stonecutters” theme – a clear and winking nod to the many theories about Masonic history.

As with most mysteries, the rumors about Masonry are likely a far sight more fantastic and dramatic than the real truths about the organization. And Bill Asadoorian, a past master of the Waltham Triad Masonic Lodge, is here to tell you that a lot of what you’ve seen about the Masons on the TV and movie screen and within the pages of your favorite beach read is just not true.

Then again, he says, some of it most certainly is.

“We’re the world’s oldest and largest fraternity,” he says while standing in the middle of the cavernous great room at the Newton Masonic Hall on Newtonville Road. “We’re philanthropists.”
Still, there’s a reason authors and filmmakers have mined Masonry’s mystery for plot points. There are certain parts of being a Mason that are secret, and many of them have to do with the rituals that take place inside rooms like the Newton lodge’s, all across the world.

“The only big secret we have is our actual ritual,” Asadoorian says. “It’s a traditional thing, you have to join to find out. We take good men and make them better. The ritual is a way for us to get across our different teaching points.”

http://www.wickedlocal.com/waltham/news/x1389362312/Walthams-Freemasons-Where-truth-meets-fiction

Freemasons Hall

A spectacular Art Deco building in the heart of London.

Inside the strange and secret world of the Freemasons

For as long as there have been freemasons, there have been conspiracy theories. They are the secret rulers of the world. They are in league with the devil. They look out for one another when it comes to the best jobs. Douglas Grey has heard them all before and nothing fazes him. The Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Ireland says he even gets a kick out of the conspiracies. "They're so far-fetched," he laughs.

"I read the last Dan Brown book [The Lost Symbol] and there were definitely aspects of it I recognised as a Freemason in terms of symbols, for instance, but a lot of it is a far cry from the freemasonry I know."

Incidentally, Brown's novel is sympathetic to Masons and their traditions.

Grey -- "Dougie", as he is affectionately known -- is a 67-year-old Dubliner who has been a Freemason for 30 years. "We have nothing to hide whatsoever. The only secretive aspects of Freemasonry are the forms of recognition -- passwords and handshakes -- and that dates from the earliest days."

Since the advent of the internet, he says the conspiracy theories have intensified, and the huge popularity of fiction like The Lost Symbol has led to an upsurge in people seeking information about the masons.

http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/inside-the-strange-and-secret-world-of-the-freemasons-2361887.html