To wonder what the Masons actually do?

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I hear various ideas from “they go for piss ups and fancy dinners” to “ they are a shadowy organisation with bloodthirsty rituals”

but what, do they actually get up to? Anyone know?

They are basically an international bunch of rich men who help each other. 😃

Or not.

Tedious men who like the secrecy and performance and drinking with the boys, and donate far too much of their family's money to the Masons. Fair enough if you're rich but not if the family is skint.

A relative was one. They did help out his wife when he died, which was of course much appreciated, but it was all very hush hush and I suspect a lot is covered up because people 'owe' each other favours. The men I met throughout his life who were masons were, to a man, conservative, small-minded, casually racist and misogynistic.

If people wanted to give to charity, they could do it without dressing up in aprons, pulling up a trouser leg, baring their chest, sticking nooses round their neck, giving funny handshakes, and swearing oaths of allegiance to other masons!
it's a corrupt and dangerous group of people - I suspect some on here have DH's at a very junior level of masonry. At the senior level the masons have corrupted the police, army, local and national government and the legal system. Jobs for the boys etc.

It's a rich boys club or rather a way for professionals to get jobs and access that they wouldn't normally. I lived with one. He got contracts and work through it as a network. Work he would never have been considered for without being a member. It's a way to make sure that all the members have a very wealthy and comfortable life indeed.

In my mind, it's essentially scouts for the over 30's. Instead of getting badges you get promoted.

@mrsmarmalade12 Scouts for the over 30s is the most accurate description IMO! DH is a member and it’s mainly about learning lines for a play and eating dinner as far as I can see. There’s lots of older members who DH kept in contact with during covid but also a fairly diverse cohort of younger members who DH is friends with as well. If there are any shady benefits to it (promotions etc) sadly none of that has come our way!! It just seems to be a social club for men really. The membership is obviously sexist but I can’t seem to get too worked up about it. DH doesn’t make friends all that easily and it’s allowed him to meet new people and gain a bit of confidence so I’m quite happy for him to continue. It’s not my kind of thing at all though!

The naivité on here is shocking. It's not mostly about charity. No matter how true the creepy rituals are (at the very least they're weird and boring) it's a misogynistic secretive organisation that encourages cronyism, jobs for the boys and had a long history of covering up abuse and crimes.

Someone above said "they help each other outside of the lodge" - yes, and not just doctors following up on cancer treatment, but also helping them get top jobs in government, military and police as well as using the justice system to get people off.

It's all well documented I don't know why people are pretending (or believe?) it's just dinners and charity

I worked in the bar of a lodge in greater Manchester years ago. They would lock me in the bar by closing the shutters to start their meetings so I wouldn't hear their secret talk. I passed the time by eating the crisps and making weird liqueur cocktails for myself. Strange times.

I used to do waitressing for the masons. The food was fancy, you had to serve the head first then work outwards from him. So if you were far from the head they will have finished eating before you even get yours 😅 Can’t tell you what the meetings were about as they used to bang hammers and we had to leave the room immediately! Would be annoying if we were just clearing in and had to wait for them to finish to get the last plates.

Yes, to help each other up the career ladder (regardless of what is normally considered valuable to the job).

Don't know about nowadays but I on branch of my partner's family had members in a Mason lodge 100+ years ago.

Their mason lodge/group was a craftsmen's guild that acted as a workers collective. The skilled workers (In the days before universal literacy) would campaign for better working conditions, ages, etc for all workers. The skilled/crafstmen bit is the link to the stonemason craft in Mason history, I guessThere was a support fund for workers (and families) who got injured, ill or died. There was support for apprentices/apprenticeships, for education, etc. involvement in campaigns for women's and universal suffrage. And more. It all led that branch of family into active members of trade Union movement.

So definitely not all always rich/middle-class men creating cliquey networks for themselves, not for all masons/mason lodges anyway.
The Freemasons are their own special branch of masons though, aren't they? One that start as an elitist branch of masonry and mason builds, back in the days of free men and serfs (i.e. 100s of years ago).
I thought a lot of the traditional guilds and mason groups evolved or merged into unions, with just the rituals of the lodges and the active Freemasons left?

Anyone who think the Masons are harmless didn't grow up in Glasgow!

HAHAAAAA

I often stay in a hotel on the south coast when visiting family. I'm pretty certain the owner is a Mason. They host Masonic Dinners and weekends there for several lodges. The hotel is always renovating so it must be good for business.

One time I stayed there I was the only guest who wasn't a Senior Police Officer (and yes they were all old white men, just like the Masons).

My granddad was very high up in the Lodge. I remember him practicing his lines from a little book. He once took me to the room with all the black and white tiles. I couldn't get my head around anything he was talking about, it was like in riddle.
When he died, my nan was scared they would ask her to leave the womens group, but they let her stay and both men and women support her all these years later, even though her direct affiliation with the Masons has gone.
Oh, and they do a banging Christmas party.

@PaulaTrilloe How recent was that? The police were rife with masons in the past but I'd hoped that that was no longer the case.

The Order of the Eastern Star Is open to both women and men.

Its all about jobs for the boys. Dodgy business referrals with over inflated prices and kick backs. "Charity" in theory too but again its selective IME.

Oh and the head of our local lodge calls in "the boys" when his dodgy dealings might look like they're not working and he needs to put on some added pressure to extract money from people.

My husband is a Mason. Their charity paid for our IVF which gave us our son

Sad little men play acting with each other in silly dress up. The grand lodge doesn’t recognise womens lodges so it’s all very well to say that women can join now - that’s not real inclusivity. I’ve got nothing but contempt for the whole lot of them - based on the 5 or so people I know who are definitely members. all sad acts who appear to wish the world is still as it was 100 years ago where men controlled everything

My uncle was one. It’s networking between businessmen, and raising money for charity.

“The London Freemasons first supported London’s Air Ambulance Charity in 2015 with a £2 million donation towards the service’s second helicopter as part of the ‘Your London, Your Helicopter’ campaign, and went on to pledge a further £100,000 in 2017 thanks to additional support from the membership.

Now, the Freemasons are donating £330,000 towards a new fleet of rapid response cars which form a crucial part of London’s Air Ambulance’s infrastructure.”

www.londonsairambulance.org.uk/news-and-stories/charity-news/londons-air-ambulance-charitys-car-fleet-boosted-ps330000-donation

Absolutely fascinating article, about the many many organisations and structures which have acted against the Freemasons.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Masonry

Seemingly differing views of masonry within the CofE

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/feb/08/c-of-e-christian-freemasons-church-england

And a more general concern

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/05/freemasons-masons

They're busy reconfiguring the global economy to suit them.

And more detail about why it's incompatible with Christianity

www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-faqs-is-freemasonry-compatible-with-christianity/