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?

That's certainly how it was for my father and other members of his family.

And his cousin's wife was a lady mason.

I never thought it drew comparisons with the WI but I can see why there may be something in it. At the lodge I frequented as a child, the giant, elaborate cakes were made by professional bakers who lived locally, I expect. They may have been freemasonic business via the guild system but I never spent too much time probing into it as I was young and there was fine cake to be consumed!

I'm a Mason from the Grand Orient of Estonia lodge.

DAMA

I have no idea whether you are serious or not, and what the D stands for : Do, Don't or something else!

Beyond what I have shared that has been rubbished - an elitist organisation that protects its own but gives a lot to charity - does that make it okay?

On a level wasn’t that how Jimmy Saville operated, and how come he wasn’t challenged in his lifetime - because of the money?

The tithes paid are absolutely horrendous but it always seems to shake the magic money tree. Nobody ever goes hungry because they are giving away 30% of their income but out in the real world, they would do. I don't know how that works..

My uncle is not one of life's great successes but he is a devout and committed freemason and seems to be paying more and more for increased recognition and elevation. The more he pays, the more he is admitted into exclusive discussion groups and study groups (which I would expect have their ritual initiations). Since he committed himself to the cause, he became a better husband to my long suffering aunt and she seems pretty pleased to be involved.

Your uncle is very much on the outer circle and will never make it into the inner circle.

I know - it does not stop him from being really sanctimonious😀.

I hardly think that a retired firefighter who has taken up a part time job is involved in any dastardly conspiracies.

Someone could buy this place and have a squint through all those document and report back

www.rightmove.co.uk/properties/127462361#/?channel=RES_BUY

It's scary that people think Masonry is just a boys club doing good for charity. There are reasons why certain jobs prohibit membership of Masonry - and obviously being a secret organisation, that is difficult to enforce.

My grandpa was a mason. He worked in local government and was invited to join in the 60s. He went along a bit by all accounts but my granny (a force of nature) didn't approve for a number of reasons. She disliked the ritual aspect, the jobs for the boys and also being out of the house a few times a week with three teenage boys at home.

When she died he was horribly lonely and his bil was a mason so he started going again. It gave his week structure, he had company and a number of his friends went. His bil was a painter/decorator but a high end one and I have no doubt at all that's how he got some of his bigger jobs but mostly it seemed to be a bunch of lower middle class retired men playing and chatting and giving money to charity.

My dad and my uncle were both fairly disapproving but it undoubtedly made his later years more bearable. His funeral reception was in the lodge and I remember my brother and I taking the piss quite a lot but it had a beautiful ceiling,

It is an international organization that has been going for ages - Mozart was a prominent freemason.

My late FIL was in it - I once had to attend a women's dinner in order not to create a storm in the family - I have never felt so patronised in my life. I was seething throughout. And did not stand for the "worshipful master" (for goodness' sake) - that did not go down well.

My FIL was a deeply unpleasant person in many ways so that does not endear the organisation to me. He became the worshipful master in the end - we used to call him the worshipful shitbag (not to his face of course!).

When he died I discovered that the funeral director was a fellow mason and he said I needed to print lots of orders of service as all the lodge and surrounding ones would be there - they weren't and none came to the wake - in fact hardly anyone did. Lots of wasted paper and food. But I sold his masonic ring and made a bit for the family coffers.

If they were just a charity fund-raising and social organisation then fine - it is all the secrecy, the ritual and mutual back-slapping and jobs for the boys that are unacceptable, especially in government and civil service circles. Membership should be declarable in order to enter parliament or the civil service.

My exH was a Mason for ages. He liked going to the Lodge meetings but most of the other masons were either retired or worked locally, so the meetings tended to start quite early and he found it difficult to get back from London in time. He paid his dues but they weren't extortionate- not sure which Lodges are asking for more and more money to move up the degrees. I quite enjoyed the Ladies Nights, except for the singing.

I like the fiction of Masons running the world - all the ones I know struggle to run a piss up at the Golf Club.

Ah yes, the singing 😂 😂

Interesting, I thought it was full of dodgy types who helped each other get away with criminal offences 🤔

I like the fiction of Masons running the world - all the ones I know struggle to run a piss up at the Golf Club. 😁Very much my thoughts as well! As I said before, if there’s any dodgy business deals, job promotions or cutting to the front of the line going on, it’s never come our way! Perhaps it depends on the Lodge, and no doubt in the past there was more dodgy stuff going on as there was with many institutions, but I’m really not seeing it in our lives at all. The older Masons do seem a bit old-fashioned to me but the younger ones that DH hangs out with are much more diverse and interesting, from all different walks of life. It’s not my cup of tea but I really don’t have a problem with him being a member.

When the Duke of Edinburgh died, the Surrey Advertiser ran an unguarded tribute from the Surrey freemasons, hailing him as one of their own. Now, isn't that a bit odd - that in the reams and reams of column inches, nay pages about the man - and you'll remember how it was, it was if the Queen herself had died - none of the obituaries mentioned this at all, even in passing.
I'm not sure you can find any reference to the story online now, which may tell you something!
I wondered how Prince Philip could be a mason given the Church is strongly opposed to them, and his wife was the head of the Church of England, but I did a bit of research and it turns out it's the Catholic Church that can't abide them - the CoE made its peace with them at some point.
As I said, the new King of England was seen sporting a mason's hankie in his jacket pocket in the 24 hrs after his mother's death, as he did the rounds. You could argue that the newly minted DoE, a foreigner in a strange land with few connections, newly wed, would appreciate a welcome into the Masons but whether it went much further, nobody knows. The State thrives on secrecy, it's almost a kind of imperialistic-style pep talk to make one feel a cut above the herd.

A young carer at Barchester's Reigate Beaumont told us she was leaving for a nursing home in Croydon run by the Freemasons, it had a very good reputation - for what THAT'S worth in the industry; the CQC is bent - and paid more but of course you had to be a freemason or have one as a relative to be a resident. I made a passing joke about how they wanted her youthful blood as a sacrifice - this was back in 2014 when you could make jokes like this on account of being younger and everyone more chilled - I'm a bloke by the way to give the context - and also before I found out how sinister care homes really are in Surrey (Liverpool Care Pathway stuff and so on) - and she laughed heartily. Different times.

They're a bunch of rich men who like to hold power and influence. They support their own with an occasional act of charity thrown in to throw people off the scent.

They're certainly not the illuminati.

My late DF was a Mason. My main recollection was wrapping hundreds of bloody Capodimonte ornaments which were gifts for the ladies on Ladies Night....

Lots of learning of lines. Lots and lots of lines.

They were very supportive to my DM when he died and she still receives a cheque every Christmas from two Lodges, 35 years on.

Reading this, it looks as though 'what they do' varies amongst lodges...

Well not one of them speaks out.
It's the daughters of them who are posting lol.

Probably because this is mumsnet not masonsnet

www.ugle.org.uk/discover-freemasonry/famous-freemasons/prince-philip-hrh-duke-edinburgh