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
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