Why is masonry secret

It is based on the legend Hiram Abiff, the builder of the Biblical temple of Solomon, who is attacked by thugs wanting to know the secrets of building. Hiram refuses to tell them and is murdered. This scene is enacted by masons during the initiation. The blindfolded new member has to pledge never to give away the secrets despite being given the "third degree" by his attackers. By the latter part of the 18th Century, Freemasonry had spread like wildfire across Scotland and England. In the farming heartlands of Ayrshire, it caught the attention of a lowborn farmer, ambitious for greater things.

Robert Burns, Scotland's national poet, joined the Tarbolton Lodge in , when he was Prof Gerry Carruthers, from the University of Glasgow, said Burns could have gone to the lodge and been treated as an equal in a country where he and many other men did not have the vote. A criticism often made of the freemasons is that they do favours for one another - and for Burns that is exactly what happened.

When it looked as if hard times would force him to leave Scotland for Jamaica, it was the brotherhood that rallied round to save him. Prof Carruthers says there were copies printed of the Kilmarnock edition of Burns' first poetry book in and two-thirds of the subscriptions were taken up by freemasons.

It was freemasons further afield that propelled him to national and international fame. Another famous Scot who joined the freemasons slightly before Burns was engineer James Watt.

He met influential people who could help with his development of the steam engine - an invention which changed the world. The number of masons in high-profile public positions was a controversial subject, with many viewing the secret society as a means of bestowing favours. Ramsay McGhee was a senior police officer in the north of Scotland and remains a prominent freemason. The basic unit of organisation is the lodge, of which there are about 6, in England and Wales.

Some have exotic names. Lodges are organised in towns and cities, at universities or around schools, recruited from trades or professions, or are based upon military units. They have also been organised around other interests, such as football or rugby fans. The Mike Hailwood lodge recruits motor racing fans. The Lux In Tenebris lodge — light in darkness — was established toward the end of the first world war for blind masons.

There are a number of lodges for women, governed by their own grand lodges, but those governed by UGLE are entirely male affairs. Despite efforts to recruit younger men, particularly undergraduates, masons are also predominantly middle-aged or elderly. Candidates were traditionally recruited by word of mouth, but in the digital age men can apply online. Some of the rumours about the ancient initiation ceremony are true. The candidate must roll up one trouser leg to show that he is healthy and unshackled, a free man.

He must expose his left breast to show that he is not a woman. A rope noose known as a cable tow is placed around his neck. This represents either an umbilical cord or ties to fellow masons. It is open to interpretation. He is then led blindfolded into the lodge meeting room, where he is introduced to the secret signs of recognition — a word, a handshake, a symbol — and expected to deliver oaths of loyalty and secrecy.

The blindfold is removed and he is shown the light. At this point, he is an entered apprentice. Further initiation ceremonies are required before he can be accepted as a fellow craft mason and then a master mason.

In the 19th century, the Vatican even called the Masons "the Synagogue of Satan. The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.

In the realm of politics, the first third party in the United States, the Anti-Masonic Party , formed in in response to fears that the group was growing too secretive and powerful. His Disappearance Led to Their Downfall. Traditionally, Freemason membership has only been open to men. Presidents Franklin D. Were Jewish or Black people? Externally, the Masonic brand was borrowed and bastardized.

If you had a secret, then organizing yourself like the Freemasons seemed a good way to keep it. Groups as varied as the Ku Klux Klan to conceal the identity of white supremacist terrorists , the Sicilian mafia crime , and the Mormon Church bigamy all incorporated the furtive strands of the Masonic DNA. The Pope excommunicated them very early on, seeing them as covert heretics; any Catholic who joins the Masons is still putting his soul in peril, according to the Vatican.

Conspiracy thinking drove Mussolini, Hitler and Franco to crush the Craft. Today, Freemasonry is banned in China, and everywhere in the Muslim world except Lebanon and Morocco. The men who built the well know how deep it is. The rest of us can only peer down and wonder what might lurk below, while the dark surface mirrors back our fears. Ask the Freemasons today about secrecy, and you will receive a pat response. But, of course, even moderately skeptical non-Masons will still wonder.

What secrets? What are they hiding?