Mere Freemasonry

This is a reasonably current list of all of the Grand Lodges in the United States.  A Grand Lodge is the governing body that oversees all the individual Lodges in their jurisdiction. In the United States, every state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico all have Grand Lodges, and their jurisdictions are their states.  No effort has been made to verify recognition between the Grand Lodges.

By visiting these sites you can find out more about the requirements for membership, more about Freemasonry in that particular jurisdiction, and even the location of Lodges near you. Read more »

In October of 1789 the United States had only emerged from the Revolutionary War by a scant few years. We had newly elected our first President, George Washington (raised to the Sublime Degree of Master Mason in the Lodge at Fredericksburg on August 4th, 1753), and the Congress was busy delivering the fresh-off-the-presses Bill of Rights that had been adopted as the first ten amendments to the new Constitution to the state capitols of the new United States. The Judiciary act of 1789 formed the entire federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court.

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In October of 2011, the Wall Street Journal published an article by Barry Newman about Freemasonry.  It read, in part:

ST. PAUL, Minn.—No self-respecting secret society can get by without a Facebook fan page anymore.

That’s transparently true of the Freemasons, renowned for their medieval blood oaths, their often-alleged plot to create a New World Order, their locked-door conclaves of U.S. presidents and power brokers and their boring pancake breakfasts.

A menagerie of 19th-century civic and social brotherhoods, and their attendant sisterhoods, lives on around the globe: the Elks, the Moose, the Lions, the Odd Fellows. Freemasonry is the oldest of all, still the biggest, and—in the public mind—about as penetrable as the mythic crypt beneath the ninth vault of Solomon’s Temple.

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In August of 2005, U.S. News & World Report published an article by Jay Tolson about Freemasonry.  It read, in part:

The 1820s looked as though they would be the best of times for the special relationship between the fraternal order of Freemasonry and the young American nation. It wasn’t just because so many prominent members of the founding generation–George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and indeed 13 of the 39 signers of the Constitution–had been members. It was also because the rapidly growing republic and the fraternal society still held so many ideals in common. American republican values looked like Masonic values writ large: honorable civic-mindedness, a high regard for learning and progress, and what might be called a broad and tolerant religiosity. Indeed, says Steven Bullock, a historian at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a leading scholar of the Masonic fraternity in America, Freemasons “helped to give the new nation a symbolic core.”

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Masonic Geocaching

Geocaching is a real-world outdoor treasure hunting game. Players try to locate hidden containers, called “geocaches,” using GPS-enabled devices and then share their experiences online. (from www.geocaching.com)

Dr. S. Brent Morris has stated that Masons were, arguably, the world’s first Geocachers. When Enoch and Methuselah buried the triangular golden plate etched with the eneffable name of God upon it deep below the foundation of the Temple, they created the first geocache. There’s even a Masonic Geocaching Society that participates on Facebook and through the Scottish Rite.

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