Lonelygirl15

thatismynoodle wrote:

ford0067 wrote:

Keevy06 wrote:
I found out that my dad was asked to join and he turned it down 3 times... I was pretty pissed

Keevy06,

As a freemason in Pennsylvania I can tell you this is probably not true. If it is someone violated a very basic principal of the Fraternity. In order to become a Mason you must ask a Mason. Here is the a link the the official text from the Grand Lodge of PA http://www.pagrandlodge.org/2be1ask1.html

That is true.

He could have been asked to goto a dinner or an information night.

The Grand Lodge of California is same, but they have sorta lifted that policy. We are allowed to ask "Have you ever considered joining freemasonry." We can't straight out ask someone but we can now hint at it more.

A further note: Each lodge of Freemasonry is under a Grand Lodge of Masonry. So while he is under the PA Grand Lodge I'm under the CA Grand Lodge. So while we may differ on some rule (little stuff like how we wear our aprons and such.) There are some concepts that we stray very far from and asking someone to join is one of the universal ones.

My parents live in a VERY small town in northern Canada. there are probably less then 15 people in their lodge.. I'm thinking more like 10. And My dad is friends with all of them because of the kind of job he has (he is a senior supervisor at the largest mine there that like everyone works at)... so I'm pretty sure they were trying to convince him to join because he's friends with all of them anyways. It's really no secret who's a member of the lodge. And my dad isn't the type of guy to lie or gloat about this. he only told me once because I was going on and on about masonry and never mentioned it again.

It is not a secret who is in a lodge or who is a mason. But they do not openly "solicit" membership.

Yes, Friday the 13th gets its bad rep from when the King of France took down the Templars; so far as I know there's no real occult significance of Friday the 13th.

The Templars themselves were neither a "cult" nor were they "occult"--two different words, two different meanings. They were victims of their own power and wealth, and the King of France, desiring their wealth and lands for himself (the French monarchy was in the process of growing from irrelevance to actual power) had them arrested on charges of witchcraft and Satanism. There were many confessions of such activity extracted from Templars--but under severe torture--such confessions are suspect, at best.

Everything I've read about the Templars/Masons connection indicates that the connection is totally spurious.

Check this out:

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:dHx ... =clnk&cd=9

lots of info on Friday the 13th

I especially like the theory about Christianity:

"At the "Final Supper" or "Last Supper" (however you chose to term it) there were 13 guests. Some believe Jesus to be the 13th at feast, occurring just before he was Crucified" ... "How does one know where to start counting? Many chose to go by the painting "The Last Supper" " ... " where to start counting (when assuming the picture is accurate)? If one started with Judas, Jesus became the 13th guest. Conversely, if the count began at Jesus, it was indeed Judas who was 13. Both options would contribute to the mystique surrounding 13: Jesus, for he was killed soon after the feast, Judas for he was the betrayer of Jesus." ... "On an additional, though little proven, note, some have claimed to be a 13th tribe of Israel. The bible proclaims only 12, and a very high percentage of Christians and Jews deny that a 13th tribe even exist. However, a few recognize that a group had, falsely, identified themselves as a 13th tribe. The members of the "13th tribe" were labeled as "witches" and "sorcerers," an evil group who determine to destroy followers of God. Plainly, this does not lend any favor to 13, and adds more propaganda against Witchcraft. The fact that so many haven’t even heard of this 13th Tribe makes the probability of the labeling of "Witches" being accurate extremely low. (Furthermore, the low probability simply further illustrates the false propaganda Christian organizations are willing to put forth in order to label Witchcraft as evil.)" ... "Friday the 13th comes into play when it is observed that Jesus was Crucified on a Friday" ... "It is said, also, that it was a Friday when Adam and Eve ate the fruit" ... "Also, any month with a Friday the 13th must begin with a Sunday the 1st. Curiosity leads one to ask if a significance lies in the observation that only months that begin with the day God decided to rest (Sunday), after "creating the world," yield a day of such supposed demonic evil and misfortune."

It was my belief that any nefarious/occult inferences WRT to Friday the 13th stemmed from the initial Fri 13 where the Templars had such a bad time. After that, all manner of conjecture as to why it's a bad day sprang up as well. Of course, I could be wrong.

there used to be one of those weird lodges where i used to live, one halloween while we were out trick or treating they were having a meeting so we knocked on the door and get some free stuff out of them but they didnt answer...
i never knew what the lodge was for, someone told me it was an old mans club

cas_nz86 wrote:there used to be one of those weird lodges where i used to live, one halloween while we were out trick or treating they were having a meeting so we knocked on the door and get some free stuff out of them but they didnt answer...
i never knew what the lodge was for, someone told me it was an old mans club

I went to college in Washington, DC, and the French Embassy gave out champagne in little plastic cups to trick-or-treaters over the age of 18.

For some reason, we kept going back...

Keevy06 wrote:
I found out that my dad was asked to join and he turned it down 3 times... I was pretty pissed

my uncle is a mason. hes in some really high position. like Grand Master or something, i dunno what its called. anyways, but the weird thing is...he said there were a lot of things about what he does that hes not allowed to tell anyone, even his family.

PyroFan wrote:

Keevy06 wrote:
I found out that my dad was asked to join and he turned it down 3 times... I was pretty pissed

my uncle is a mason. hes in some really high position. like Grand Master or something, i dunno what its called. anyways, but the weird thing is...he said there were a lot of things about what he does that hes not allowed to tell anyone, even his family.

I was in a college fraternity, and I couldn't tell anyone about the rituals, and still can't to this day. I assure you, nothing really bizarre happened in those rituals.

Unless you count the goat....

HAHAHA wow. you made me laugh out load, literally. I stilll think its weird. and its creepy that you frat boys cant tell anything! lol. im in college and im a big dork. im not in any clubs hahaha.

I, too am a Mason - an officer in my Lodge. I can also verify that it is pretty well contrary to Masonry to solicit membership - there are minor deviations in the ritual from state to state, but the basic concepts are the same. One of them is that you ask to be a Mason, not the other way around.

And it isn't so weird that he wouldn't be able to tell anyone certain things. You take a solumn oath to keep it a secret. Not because the secret is weird or damaging - it is basically a test of trustworthiness. If you can't keep the details of a simple ritual a secret, how can your brothers in the fraternity be expected to trust you with even more important things that directly effect your life? As to the position he held - a Worshipful Master is the head of his Lodge, a Grand Master is the head of the lodge that presides over all of the other lodges in a state.

As to Crowley's religion and Freemasonry, there are some very DISTANT connections, mostly theories that the Knights Templar somehow converted to a variation of the Cult of Isis, Pretty far-fetched, yes. But certainly nothing to do with ACTUAL Freemasonry... It is more akin to the mythical Priory of Scion... I never SAW the DaVinci Code, but in the book they talk about one of the sex rituals they go through that come from the Cult of Isis - that is kind of what I expected this ceremony to be all this time. Though it is strange that she wouldn't know that part of it ahead of time...

deadpool809 wrote:
And it isn't so weird that he wouldn't be able to tell anyone certain things. You take a solumn oath to keep it a secret. Not because the secret is weird or damaging - it is basically a test of trustworthiness. If you can't keep the details of a simple ritual a secret, how can your brothers in the fraternity be expected to trust you with even more important things that directly effect your life? As to the position he held - a Worshipful Master is the head of his Lodge, a Grand Master is the head of the lodge that presides over all of the other lodges in a state.

yeah my great uncle is grand master.

turkeyfeather wrote:It is not a secret who is in a lodge or who is a mason. But they do not openly "solicit" membership.

That Freemason commercial on TV is kind of stretching the no solicitation role.

I haven't seen a Freemason commercial - where is it airing?

The rule is hard to violate. You can talk to people about Masonry, you are just not allowed to ask someone to join. I am sure all the commercial does is invite people to the building, or invite them to get more information.

As long as it doesn't ask them to APPLY, it is kosher...