Quick Answer
Freemasonry is the world's oldest fraternal organization, using the tools of stone masonry as allegories for moral and spiritual development. Founded formally in 1717 with the establishment of the Grand Lodge of England, it traces its roots to medieval Scottish stonemason guilds of the 1590s. It teaches through three degrees (Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, Master Mason), requires belief in a Supreme Being, and has approximately 2 million members worldwide today.
Key Takeaways
- Not a religion: Freemasonry requires belief in a Supreme Being but has no theology, no sacraments, and no path to salvation. It prohibits religious discussion in lodge meetings. Members include Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and others.
- Three degrees: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. Each introduces specific working tools with moral interpretations and builds toward the central narrative: the legend of Hiram Abiff and the building of Solomon's Temple.
- From operative to speculative: Medieval stonemasons used tools, graded skills, and trade secrets. When scholars and gentlemen joined their lodges for intellectual purposes, the working tools became moral allegories. The transition was gradual, not sudden.
- Two additional rite systems: The Scottish Rite (degrees 4-33) and York Rite (Royal Arch, Select Masters, Knights Templar) offer further Masonic education to Master Masons who want to go deeper.
- Real controversy, real history: The anti-Masonic movement of the 1820s-30s, fueled by the disappearance of William Morgan, produced America's first third political party. Suspicion of Masonry has been a recurring theme in Western culture for three centuries.
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What Is Freemasonry?
Freemasonry is a fraternal organization that uses the tools and practices of operative stone masonry as a symbolic language for teaching moral philosophy and self-improvement. Its members (called Masons or Freemasons) meet in local units called lodges, where they participate in ritualized ceremonies that dramatize moral and philosophical teachings through allegory and symbol.
The organization is structured around three progressive degrees of initiation: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. Each degree introduces specific symbols, working tools, and dramatic narratives with moral interpretations. The central allegory of Freemasonry is the building of King Solomon's Temple, understood not as a literal construction project but as a metaphor for the building of a well-ordered inner life.
At its peak in the mid-20th century, Freemasonry counted approximately 6 million members worldwide, with the majority in the United States and the United Kingdom. Today the number is roughly 2 million, reflecting decades of declining membership in most jurisdictions. Despite this decline, Freemasonry remains the world's largest and oldest fraternal organization, with lodges operating in virtually every country. For a detailed treatment of Masonic visual language, see our Masonic Symbols Guide.
Origins: From Operative to Speculative
The origins of Freemasonry lie in the medieval and early modern stonemason guilds of Scotland and England. These guilds organized the skilled craftsmen who built the cathedrals, castles, and churches of medieval Europe. They tested competence through graded stages of skill (apprentice, journeyman, master), communicated through signs and symbols that identified members of the craft, and maintained trade secrets about construction techniques.
The transition from "operative" (working) masonry to "speculative" (philosophical) masonry was gradual. The earliest verifiable evidence comes from Scotland. Records from the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary's Chapel), dated January 9, 1599, show a lodge already organized with formal rituals and membership rolls. By the early 1600s, Scottish lodges were accepting non-operative members: gentlemen, scholars, and clergy who joined for the intellectual and social content rather than the building skills.
The 1717 Founding
The date most often cited as the founding of modern Freemasonry is June 24, 1717 (St. John the Baptist's Day), when four London lodges gathered at the Goose and Gridiron Ale House and formed the Grand Lodge of England. This was not the invention of Freemasonry but its formalization: the creation of a governing body that standardized rituals, established rules of conduct, and provided a framework for the creation of new lodges. In 1723, James Anderson, a Scottish Presbyterian minister, published The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (the Anderson Constitutions), which set the pattern for Masonic governance worldwide. The historian David Stevenson has demonstrated that the real origins of modern Freemasonry lie in Scotland around 1600, a full century before the London Grand Lodge. The 1717 date marks the institutionalization of an already existing tradition, not its creation.
The Three Degrees
The core of Freemasonry's educational system is the three "Blue Lodge" degrees, so called because of the blue color traditionally associated with Masonic lodges. The system was standardized before 1730 and has remained substantially the same since.
First Degree: Entered Apprentice
The Entered Apprentice degree represents the beginning of the Masonic path: youth, learning, and the first steps of moral development. The candidate is introduced to the lodge, takes an obligation (oath) of secrecy and fidelity, and receives the working tools of the degree: the 24-inch gauge (representing the proper use of time) and the common gavel (representing the effort required to remove the rough edges of character). The candidate learns the grip, signs, and passwords that identify an Entered Apprentice to other Masons.
Second Degree: Fellowcraft
The Fellowcraft degree represents intellectual development and the search for knowledge. The candidate is introduced to the liberal arts and sciences (grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy), with particular emphasis on geometry as the foundation of the builder's art and, by extension, of all knowledge. The working tools are the plumb (uprightness), the level (equality), and the square (morality). The Fellowcraft is encouraged to study and to broaden understanding of both the material and spiritual worlds.
Third Degree: Master Mason
The Master Mason degree is the culmination of the Blue Lodge system and contains the central dramatic narrative of Freemasonry: the legend of Hiram Abiff. The working tool is the trowel, representing the love and unity that binds Masons together. The degree is the most elaborate of the three, involving a full dramatic enactment in which the candidate participates physically in the narrative. Upon completion, the candidate is a full member of the fraternity and entitled to all the rights and privileges of Masonic membership.
The Legend of Hiram Abiff
The legend of Hiram Abiff is the central allegory of the Master Mason degree. It is based loosely on the biblical account of the building of Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 5-7, 2 Chronicles 2-4), which mentions a skilled craftsman named Hiram sent from Tyre to assist in the Temple's construction. Freemasonry elaborates this biblical account into a dramatic narrative.
In the Masonic version, Hiram Abiff is the chief architect of the Temple and the only person who possesses the Master's Word: a secret known only to the three Grand Masters (Solomon, Hiram King of Tyre, and Hiram Abiff himself). Three Fellowcraft masons, impatient to receive the Master's Word before they have earned it, confront Hiram at the three gates of the Temple and demand the secret. Hiram refuses each time. The three ruffians murder him.
The legend was first documented in print in Samuel Prichard's Masonry Dissected (London, 1730), an unauthorized exposure of Masonic ritual. Whether the legend existed in some form before this date is debated.
The Deeper Meaning
The moral lesson of the Hiram Abiff legend is straightforward: fidelity to truth and integrity cannot be compromised by force, threat, or self-interest. But the legend has deeper readings that connect Freemasonry to the broader Western esoteric tradition. The death and raising of Hiram Abiff parallels the death-and-resurrection motif found in the Egyptian rites of Osiris, the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries, and the Christian passion narrative. Manly P. Hall argued that the Temple of Solomon represents the human body, the three Grand Masters represent body, soul, and spirit, and the murder of Hiram Abiff represents the suppression of spiritual consciousness by the material personality. The raising of Hiram in the degree ceremony represents the resurrection of that consciousness through the initiatory process. This reading places Freemasonry squarely within the tradition of the ancient Mystery schools, a connection Hall developed at length in both The Lost Keys of Freemasonry and The Secret Teachings of All Ages.
Is Freemasonry a Religion?
This question has been debated for three centuries, and the answer depends on how broadly one defines "religion." What is clear:
Freemasonry is not a religion in the sense that Christianity, Islam, or Buddhism is a religion. It has no theology (no doctrine about the nature of God), no soteriology (no path to salvation), no sacraments, no priesthood, and no scripture. It does not claim to provide the answers that religions provide.
Freemasonry requires theistic belief. In Anglo-American Freemasonry, the candidate must profess belief in a Supreme Being, referred to in Masonic ritual as the Great Architect of the Universe. No further specification is required: the Supreme Being of a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu, or a Jewish Mason are all accepted. Religious discussion is prohibited within lodge meetings to prevent sectarian conflict.
Continental Freemasonry differs. The Grand Orient of France, and some other European jurisdictions, removed the requirement of belief in a Supreme Being in 1877, emphasizing instead "absolute liberty of conscience." This caused a break with Anglo-American Freemasonry that persists to the present day. The two systems do not recognize each other's members.
The Catholic Church and Freemasonry
The Roman Catholic Church has condemned Freemasonry in numerous papal encyclicals since Clement XII's In Eminenti (1738). The current position, restated by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1983, is that Catholic membership in Masonic associations "remain[s] forbidden" and that "the faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin." The reasons cited include the perceived incompatibility of Masonic naturalism with Catholic theology and the secrecy of Masonic rituals. Other Christian denominations vary: some Protestant churches prohibit Masonic membership, others accept it, and many take no official position. The Church of England has historically maintained a positive relationship with Freemasonry.
The Scottish Rite and York Rite
The three Blue Lodge degrees constitute the core of Freemasonry. Everything else is supplementary. However, two major systems of additional degrees are available to Master Masons who wish to continue their education.
The Scottish Rite
The Scottish Rite confers degrees numbered 4 through 32, with a 33rd degree awarded by invitation of the Supreme Council for outstanding service to Freemasonry or humanity. Despite its name, the Scottish Rite did not originate in Scotland. It developed in France in the 18th century and was formalized in the United States in the early 19th century. Most Scottish Rite valleys (local bodies) confer only 7-10 "terminal" degrees, with candidates receiving the content of the remaining degrees through observation rather than participation.
The York Rite
The York Rite consists of three bodies: the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, the Council of Royal and Select Masters, and the Commandery of Knights Templar. Unlike the Scottish Rite, the York Rite confers all its degrees. The Royal Arch degree is considered by many Masonic traditions (particularly the English) to be the completion of the Master Mason degree, revealing the "lost word" that was lost with the death of Hiram Abiff. The Knights Templar commandery is the only body in Freemasonry that requires its members to be Christian.
Famous Freemasons
Freemasonry's membership has included a remarkable number of historically significant figures, particularly during the 18th and 19th centuries.
George Washington was initiated at Fredericksburg Lodge, Virginia in 1752. He presided as acting Grand Master at the laying of the Capitol cornerstone in 1793.
Benjamin Franklin served as Grand Master of Pennsylvania and as Venerable Master of the Loge des Neuf Soeurs (Lodge of the Nine Sisters) in Paris, one of the most intellectually distinguished lodges of the Enlightenment.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was initiated at the Viennese lodge Zur Wohltätigkeit (Beneficence) in 1784. His opera The Magic Flute (1791) is interwoven with Masonic symbolism: the trials of Tamino and Pamina dramatize the initiatory process.
Other notable Masons include Paul Revere, Voltaire, Simon Bolivar, Mark Twain, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and Duke Ellington. The concentration of Masons among the American founding generation is particularly notable: 13 of the 39 signers of the Constitution were Freemasons.
Controversy and the Anti-Masonic Movement
Freemasonry has attracted suspicion and opposition since its earliest years. The secrecy of its rituals, the prominence of its members, and its requirement of mutual aid among Masons have made it a target for accusations of elitism, conspiracy, and undue influence.
The most dramatic episode in the history of anti-Masonry occurred in the United States in 1826, when William Morgan, a bricklayer in Batavia, New York, announced his intention to publish a book revealing Masonic secrets. Morgan disappeared after being seized by a group of men, some of them Masons. He was never found. The widespread belief that Masons had murdered him provoked a public backlash that devastated the fraternity: roughly two-thirds of American Masons left their lodges. The Anti-Masonic Party, formed in 1827, became America's first significant third party, held a national convention in 1831, and nominated a presidential candidate before fading by 1840.
Anti-Masonic sentiment has persisted in various forms: in papal condemnations since 1738, in conspiracy theories linking Freemasonry to the Illuminati or to world government, and in the general public's discomfort with secret societies. Freemasonry has responded over the past century by becoming significantly more open about its practices, history, and membership, while maintaining the secrecy of its specific ritual details.
The Craft That Builds
Strip away the conspiracy theories, the papal condemnations, and the cultural baggage, and what remains is this: a three-century-old tradition of men meeting regularly to practice a symbolic system of self-improvement, drawn from the building trades, that teaches them to act morally, treat others as equals, and build something lasting within themselves. The tools are simple. The square teaches you to act rightly. The level teaches you that all people share the same ground. The trowel teaches you that the work is communal, not solitary. Whether Freemasonry is the direct descendant of the ancient Mystery schools, as Manly P. Hall argued, or a more modest product of the Scottish Enlightenment, as David Stevenson's scholarship suggests, is a question of history. What is not in question is that the craft has produced, for three hundred years, people who take seriously the idea that building a better self is a lifelong practice that benefits from shared discipline, mutual accountability, and the guidance of a symbolic tradition older than any living member.
The Lost Keys of Freemasonry: The Legend of Hiram Abiff by Hall, Manly P.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is Freemasonry?
Freemasonry is the world's oldest fraternal organization, using the tools and practices of stone masonry as allegories for moral and spiritual development. It teaches through three degrees (Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, Master Mason), requires belief in a Supreme Being, and has approximately 2 million members worldwide. Its central narrative is the building of Solomon's Temple, understood as an allegory for building a well-ordered inner life.
Is Freemasonry a religion?
No. Freemasonry has no theology, no sacraments, no path to salvation, and no priesthood. It requires belief in a Supreme Being (the Great Architect of the Universe) but does not specify which faith's conception of that being the member must hold. Religious discussion is prohibited in lodge meetings. Members include Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and others.
What are the three degrees of Freemasonry?
Entered Apprentice (beginning, moral foundations), Fellowcraft (intellectual development, liberal arts), and Master Mason (maturity, the legend of Hiram Abiff). Each introduces specific tools with moral meanings. The system was standardized before 1730. For detailed coverage of the symbols associated with each degree, see our Masonic Symbols Guide.
How do you become a Freemason?
You must be a man of at least 18 years, believe in a Supreme Being, be of good moral character, and petition a lodge of your own free will. Freemasonry does not recruit; the traditional principle is "ask a Mason." After petitioning, a committee investigates, the lodge votes, and if accepted, you are initiated through the three degrees. Some jurisdictions (particularly Co-Masonic orders like Le Droit Humain, founded 1892) admit women as full members.
What is the Scottish Rite and York Rite?
Additional degree systems for Master Masons. The Scottish Rite confers degrees 4-32 (33rd by invitation). The York Rite includes the Chapter of Royal Arch Masons, Council of Royal and Select Masters, and Commandery of Knights Templar. Both expand on Blue Lodge themes through additional narratives and symbols. The Knights Templar commandery is the only Masonic body that requires Christian faith.
What is What Is Freemasonry? History, Degrees, and Meaning?
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How long does it take to learn What Is Freemasonry? History, Degrees, and Meaning?
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Is What Is Freemasonry? History, Degrees, and Meaning safe for beginners?
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Sources and Further Reading
- Stevenson, David. The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century, 1590-1710. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
- Jacob, Margaret C. The Origins of Freemasonry: Facts and Fictions. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2005.
- Anderson, James. The Constitutions of the Free-Masons. 1723.
- Mackey, Albert G. The Symbolism of Freemasonry. 1882.
- Hall, Manly P. The Lost Keys of Freemasonry. Philosophical Research Society, 1923.
- Prichard, Samuel. Masonry Dissected. London, 1730.