To become a Freemason, you must find a lodge in your area, submit a petition or application, pass a background investigation and ballot vote by existing members, and then be initiated through three progressive degree ceremonies. The process typically takes several months from first contact to becoming a full Master Mason.
- Core eligibility: Most regular grand lodges require that candidates be adult males who believe in a Supreme Being, have good moral character, and petition entirely of their own free will.
- How to find a lodge: Each US state and many countries have a Grand Lodge website that lists local lodges and contact information; that is the most reliable starting point.
- The petition process: You submit a written petition, members investigate your background, and the lodge votes by secret ballot before you are invited to join.
- Three degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason each involve a distinct ceremonial initiation conveying specific moral and symbolic instruction.
- Ongoing membership: Lodge life involves regular meetings, charitable work, annual dues, and access to appendant bodies such as the Scottish Rite and the Shrine once you are a Master Mason.
Estimated reading time: 10 minutes
Who Can Become a Freemason?
The eligibility requirements for Freemasonry have remained broadly consistent across the centuries, though they vary somewhat by jurisdiction. Understanding them before you approach a lodge saves time and sets accurate expectations.
The most fundamental requirement in most regular grand lodges is belief in a Supreme Being. Freemasonry does not specify what that Being must be and makes no requirement that a candidate belong to any particular religion. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and members of many other faith traditions have historically been active Freemasons. What is excluded, in most mainstream grand lodges, is committed atheism: a candidate who sincerely believes in no higher power does not meet this requirement.
Beyond the religious requirement, most grand lodges require that candidates:
- Be adult males (typically 18 or 21, depending on the jurisdiction)
- Be of good moral character, with no significant criminal record
- Come forward entirely of their own free will, without having been pressured or solicited
- Be able to support themselves and their dependents without relying on lodge charity
The requirement that a man come forward freely is taken seriously. Historically, Freemasonry operated under the principle that a man must ask to join; the fraternity would not recruit. This tradition, sometimes called "Ask One, Be One," has shifted in some jurisdictions over recent decades, with lodges becoming more willing to answer questions from interested non-members, but the underlying principle that the candidate's desire must be genuine and self-initiated remains.
The requirement that candidates be male applies to lodges under regular grand lodges, which includes the overwhelming majority of Masonic lodges in the United States and those recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England. However, two other streams of the Masonic tradition accept women.
Co-Masonry (sometimes called mixed or androgynous Masonry) admits both men and women and confers the same three craft degrees plus higher degrees. The most prominent Co-Masonic body in the English-speaking world traces its lineage through the French Grand Lodge Le Droit Humain. The Order of Women Freemasons, based primarily in the United Kingdom, is an all-women body that has operated since 1908 and works the same traditional ritual as male lodges.
These bodies are not recognized as regular by mainstream grand lodges, which means their members cannot attend regular lodge meetings as visitors. They are, however, legitimate organizations with long histories, working the same symbolic system, and they are the correct path for women who wish to pursue Freemasonry's initiatory tradition.
How to Find a Masonic Lodge
Freemasonry is organized through a Grand Lodge system. In the United States, each state has its own Grand Lodge that charters and oversees individual lodges within that state. The United Kingdom has separate Grand Lodges for England, Scotland, and Ireland, each with global reach through lodges chartered under their authority. Most countries with an active Masonic presence have a recognized Grand Lodge at the national or regional level.
The most reliable starting point for finding a lodge is the Grand Lodge website for your state or country. Most Grand Lodge websites include a lodge locator that shows lodges by city or ZIP code, along with contact information and sometimes meeting schedules. A quick search for "[your state] Grand Lodge" or "[your country] United Grand Lodge" will get you there.
Once you have found one or two lodges in your area, the practical next steps are straightforward:
- Attend a public event. Many lodges host open houses, Masonic education nights, or charity events that non-members can attend. These are the lowest-pressure way to meet members and get a feel for the lodge's culture before committing to a petition.
- Contact the lodge secretary. Lodge websites or Grand Lodge locators usually list a secretary's email or phone number. A short, direct message expressing your interest and asking how to learn more is entirely appropriate. Secretaries handle inquiries regularly.
- Ask a Mason you know. If you know someone who is a Freemason, asking them about the process is still the most common path in. Many lodges are more responsive to a petition that comes with a sponsor who knows the candidate personally.
- Be patient with response times. Lodges are run by volunteers who meet periodically, not daily. A response within a week or two is normal. If you hear nothing after two weeks, a polite follow-up is reasonable.
When you make contact, it helps to be direct about your interest. You do not need to explain your spiritual background or justify your curiosity. Something like "I am interested in learning more about joining the lodge" is sufficient to open the conversation.
The Petition Process
Once you have made contact with a lodge and expressed your interest, the formal process begins with a petition. This is a written application, sometimes called a petition for the degrees, that you complete and sign. It typically asks for your full name, address, occupation, date of birth, and the names of any Masons you know who can vouch for you. Some lodges have their own petition forms; others use a standard form provided by the Grand Lodge.
After you submit your petition, the lodge appoints a committee of members, usually two or three, to conduct a background investigation. This is not a formal legal background check in most cases, but rather a personal inquiry: committee members visit you at your home or meet with you in another setting, ask you questions about your motivations, your background, and your life, and report their findings back to the lodge. The purpose is to confirm that you are who you say you are, that your character is sound, and that your interest is genuine.
The lodge then votes on your petition by secret ballot. The specific rules vary by jurisdiction, but many grand lodges require either a unanimous vote or a strong supermajority for a candidate to be accepted. A single negative ballot (sometimes called a "black ball") can reject the petition in some jurisdictions, which is why personal character and the investigation process are taken seriously. You will not typically be told the count, only whether you have been accepted or not.
If accepted, you will be contacted to schedule your first degree. The time between submitting your petition and receiving your first degree can range from a few weeks to several months, depending on how frequently the lodge meets, whether they have a backlog of candidates, and how quickly your investigation proceeds. In active lodges in major cities, the process may move quickly. In smaller rural lodges that meet less frequently, it may take longer.
The Three Degrees of Freemasonry
The core of Masonic membership consists of three progressive degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. These correspond to the three grades of the medieval stonemasons' guilds from which Freemasonry takes its operative metaphor: the apprentice learning the craft, the journeyman developing his skill, and the master fully competent in his work. In speculative (philosophical) Freemasonry, these grades became the framework for a system of moral and symbolic instruction rather than trade training.
Each degree is conferred in a ceremony conducted within the lodge room. The candidate plays the central role in each ceremony, moving through a structured sequence of symbolic actions, obligations, and instruction. The specific content of these ceremonies is kept private by Masons and will not be outlined here, but the general character of each degree is well understood and can be described accurately.
The First Degree: Entered Apprentice. The Entered Apprentice degree is the candidate's formal entry into Freemasonry. Its symbolic themes center on birth, beginning, and the initial recognition of light. The candidate approaches the lodge in a state of ignorance and is progressively introduced to the lodge's symbolic world. The moral lessons of this degree concern the foundational virtues required for any further development: integrity, the willingness to learn, and the recognition of one's own limitations.
The Second Degree: Fellow Craft. The Fellow Craft degree moves from beginning to development. Its symbolic content draws heavily on architecture, geometry, and the liberal arts. The candidate is directed toward the study of the natural world and human knowledge as instruments of moral and intellectual improvement. This degree has the most explicitly intellectual character of the three.
The Third Degree: Master Mason. The Master Mason degree is the culmination of the craft degrees and the most dramatically charged of the three. Its symbolic themes involve mortality, loss, and resurrection: the idea that genuine wisdom requires confronting death and passing through it. Completing this degree makes a man a full Master Mason and opens access to all Masonic appendant bodies.
The time required between degrees varies by lodge and jurisdiction. Some grand lodges set minimum waiting periods (commonly twenty-eight days between degrees); others leave the timing to individual lodges. In practice, a candidate might receive all three degrees within a few months if the lodge is active, or it might take a year or more in a smaller lodge with fewer degree nights per year.
What to Expect as a New Member
Becoming a Master Mason is the beginning of lodge membership, not the end of a process. What that membership looks like in practice varies considerably from lodge to lodge, but some common features apply across most jurisdictions.
Most lodges meet monthly, though some meet twice a month or on a different schedule. A typical meeting has a business portion and, when degrees are being conferred, a ritual portion. The business portion covers the routine administration of the lodge: reading minutes, reviewing finances, voting on charitable donations, and scheduling future events. On nights without a degree ceremony, meetings are shorter and may include a lecture, a presentation, or simply a meal and conversation among members.
Annual dues are required to maintain membership in good standing. Amounts vary widely, from under a hundred dollars per year in some lodges to several hundred in others, particularly in urban areas or lodges with significant property and operating costs. There may also be initiation fees associated with the three degrees and smaller costs for items like a Masonic apron, which members own and bring to meetings.
Charitable work is central to Masonic culture. Many lodges support local causes, and the appendant bodies are major charitable organizations: the Shriners International operates a network of pediatric hospitals, and the Scottish Rite has a foundation focused on childhood language disorders. As a Master Mason, you become eligible to join these appendant bodies if you choose.
Appendant bodies available to Master Masons include the Scottish Rite (degrees 4 through 32, covering additional philosophical and allegorical content), the York Rite (Royal Arch, Cryptic Council, and Knights Templar), and the Shrine. Each is a separate organization with its own dues and meetings. None of them is required: many Masons remain active exclusively in their blue lodge without pursuing any appendant body.
The Esoteric Dimension of Freemasonry
For readers drawn to this topic through an interest in Western esotericism, the practical account above is only part of the picture. Freemasonry has, from its earliest documented history in the early 18th century, carried a dual character: it is both a fraternal organization with a clear social and charitable function, and a system of initiatory instruction that has attracted serious esoteric thinkers for three centuries.
The craft metaphor at the heart of Freemasonry, the idea of building the inner temple as a stonemason builds an outer one, connects the institution to a lineage of thought running from Pythagorean mathematics through the medieval cathedral builders to the Renaissance Hermeticists who theorized about the philosopher's stone as simultaneously a material and a spiritual goal. Whether those connections are historical or symbolic, they are genuine and coherent.
The three degrees function, for those who approach them with intention, as a genuine initiatory sequence. Initiation, in the technical sense used by scholars of religion, means a structured passage from one state of being to another through symbolic death and rebirth. The Master Mason degree in particular carries this structure explicitly: the candidate enacts a drama of death and restoration that is among the most striking initiatory experiences in the Western tradition.
This places Freemasonry within a broader category that includes the ancient Greek mystery schools, the Eleusinian Mysteries, and other initiatory systems from which Western esoteric tradition draws. Scholars including S. L. MacGregor Mathers, W. L. Wilmshurst, and Manly P. Hall all wrote at length about Freemasonry's inner dimensions, and their work remains the best entry point for readers wanting to understand the degrees as something more than fraternal ceremony.
Manly P. Hall's The Lost Keys of Freemasonry is the single most accessible text for approaching this dimension of the tradition. Hall, writing in 1923, treats the degrees as a system of spiritual self-development structured around the virtues of the builder, and his reading of the Master Mason degree as an initiation into the mystery of death and inner resurrection is among the most lucid accounts available.
The symbols of Freemasonry, the square and compasses, the plumb, the level, the rough and perfect ashlars, the letter G, the pillars of the temple, all carry multiple layers of meaning. At their most literal, they are tools of the building trade. At their moral level, they are reminders of the standards a Mason commits to uphold. At their esoteric level, they participate in a symbolic language shared with alchemy, Kabbalah, and Hermetic philosophy, a language concerned with the refinement of the self and the perception of divine order within the material world.
The connection to ancient mystery schools is a subject of genuine scholarly debate. Formal documented continuity between the Eleusinian Mysteries and 18th-century English Freemasonry does not exist in the historical record. What does exist is a consistent tradition of interpretation, from speculative Masonic writers of the 18th century through 20th-century scholars like Hall, reading the degrees as the inheritors of an initiatory spirit if not a direct ritual lineage. The structure of the degrees, their symbolic vocabulary, and their concern with mortality, light, and inner change give them a clear place within the broader Western initiatory tradition.
For those approaching Freemasonry with esoteric intentions, Hall's Lost Keys of Freemasonry and his treatment of Masonry in The Secret Teachings of All Ages are the most accessible starting points. W. L. Wilmshurst's The Meaning of Masonry (1922) offers a more specifically Christian-mystical reading, and Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma (1871) is the classic esoteric treatment of the Scottish Rite degrees. None of these replace the experience of the degrees, but they provide a conceptual map that makes initiation considerably more legible when it arrives.
Freemasonry is unusual among esoteric traditions in that it requires you to go through an institutional door. You cannot study your way into the lodge or access the degrees through books alone. The initiation must be received in person, within a lodge, at the hands of other Masons, and that requirement is not a bureaucratic obstacle. It is the point. The value of initiation depends partly on the fact that it is conferred by a living community in real time.
If the tradition calls to you, the path is genuinely open. Find a local lodge, make contact, and ask. The process has been welcoming men for over three hundred years, and the door opens to those who knock on it sincerely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do Freemasons have to be Christian?
No. Freemasonry requires belief in a Supreme Being but specifies no particular religion. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and members of many other faith traditions have been active Freemasons for centuries. The candidate must be willing to take obligations on a volume of sacred law that holds meaning for them; the Bible, the Quran, the Torah, and other texts have all served in this role.
Is Freemasonry a secret society?
Freemasonry is often described as a society with secrets rather than a secret society. Lodge locations, membership, and the existence of Masonic ritual are openly acknowledged. What is kept private are specific modes of recognition between members and the internal details of degree ceremonies. The broader history, structure, and purposes of the fraternity are publicly available. Genuine secret societies conceal their existence; Masonic lodges have signs on the building.
How much does it cost to be a Freemason?
Costs vary by jurisdiction and lodge. Initiation fees covering the three degrees typically range from a few hundred dollars in many US lodges. Annual dues vary depending on the lodge's size and operating costs. There may also be smaller costs for a Masonic apron and ritual materials. Ask a specific lodge directly for current figures, as there is no standard national price.
Can women become Freemasons?
Most regular grand lodges admit only men. However, Co-Masonry (mixed-gender) and the Order of Women Freemasons (UK-based, founded 1908) operate separately and confer the same three craft degrees using the same ritual tradition. These bodies are not recognized by mainstream grand lodges, but they are legitimate organizations. Women interested in Masonic initiation should search for Co-Masonic or women's Masonic bodies in their country.
What happens in a Masonic lodge?
A typical meeting has a business portion (minutes, finances, charitable decisions) and, on degree nights, a ritual portion in which the candidate takes the central role. Between degree nights, members gather for meals, lectures, or informal socializing. Culture varies by lodge: some are solemn and traditional; others are relaxed and social. Visitors often describe the atmosphere as less formal than expected.