Ingrid Colon Christian Godreau Nashka Carrion. Ariana Borges. José Pacheco Definition History Masons Symbols Anti- Masonery Emblem - Compass and square forming the triangle of God, with the letter "G" in the center, or the "eye" of God... or on top of an open Bible. - They are the 3 indispensable jewels of a Lodge, representing "equality, liberty, and fraternity". - The "compass" is the male element, represents solidarity, by making a circle; the "square", the female element, represents righteousness. Masonery: art or trade of building in stone; universally practiced since ancient times. For example the English Cathedrals, such as the Orvieto Duomo Umbria, Italy. Even though Masons (Freemasons) are members of the largest and oldest fraternity in the world, and even though almost everyone has a father or grandfather or uncle who was a Mason, many people aren't quite certain just who Masons are. A Mason (or Freemason) is a member of a fraternity known as Masonry (or Freemasonry). A fraternity is a group of men who join together because. There are things they want to do in the world. There are things they want to do "inside their own minds. They enjoy being together with men they like and respect. The word "lodge" means both a group of Masons meeting in some place and the room or building in which they meet. Masonic buildings are also sometimes called "temples" because much of the symbolism Masonry uses to teach its lessons comes from the building of King Solomon's Temple in the Holy Land. The term "lodge" itself comes from the structures which the stonemasons built against the sides of the cathedrals during construction. In winter, when building had to stop, they lived in these lodges and worked at carving stone. Every lodge has an altar holding a "Volume of the Sacred Law." In the United States and Canada, that is almost always a Bible. No, Freemasonry is not a religion. Masons who treat it as such are mistaken. Freemasonry strongly encourages its members to belong to an established religion, although that is a requirement for membership (only that a candidate profess a belief in a Supreme Being). Masonry is a fraternal organization that encourages morality and charity and studies philosophy. It has no clergy, no sacraments, and does not promise salvation to its members. It is difficult to learn the name of the deity of Masonry, since it is a closely guarded secret! To outsiders, the god of the Lodge is usually referred to as "The Great Architect of the Universe" (or T.G.A.O.T.U.). That sounds alright, if a bit vague. This is, sadly, exactly how it is intended to sound. The blandness of the titles of the Masonry's god diminishes as the degrees climb. As in most secret societies, the revealed material gets more bizarre as you get further into the club. As an example, in the first prayer the candidate hears, deity is addressed as "Almighty Father of the Universe." Throughout the lower degrees, the deity is addressed either as "God" (as when the candidate swears his oath by saying, "so help me God…", or as T...G...A...O...T...U... The masons originated in originated in the 14th century as a guild of craftsmen; restricted to stonecutters. It is considered as the largest and most widely established fraternal order in the world. Until the completion of the building of the cathedrals in the 17th century, and especially in England during the Reformation, they admitted as members, men of wealth or social status. The guilds then became societies devoted to general ideals, such as fraternity, equality, and peace, and their meetings became social rather than business occasions. As a result of the patronage of the order by members of the nobility, the rising British mercantile class looked upon Freemasonry as an adjunct to social success, and the order became popular. The Masonic ideals of religious toleration and the basic equality of all people were in keeping with the growing spirit of liberalism during the 18th century. One of the basic tenets of the Masonic orders throughout the English-speaking world has been that religion is the concern solely of the individual. Opposition on the part of the Roman Catholic Church has been chiefly on the grounds that Freemasonry, with its binding principles and religious nature, has usurped the prerogatives of the church. As a result, the Freemasons have never been permitted in some strictly Roman Catholic countries, such as Spain. In France, however, following the atheistic and Protestant trend of the French Revolution, the order flourished. FREEMASONS (1881) KNIGHTS TEMPLARS Masonry teaches that each person has a responsibility to make things better in the world. Most individuals won't be the ones to find a cure for cancer, or eliminate poverty, or help create world peace, but every man and woman and child can do something to help others and to make things a little better. Masonry is deeply involved with helping people -- it spends more than $1.4 million dollars every day in the United States, just to make life a little easier. And the great majority of that help goes to people who are not Masons. Some of these charities are vast projects, like the Crippled Children's Hospitals and Burns Institutes built by the Shriners. Also, Scottish Rite Masons maintain a nationwide network of over 100 Childhood Language Disorders Clinics, Centers, and Programs. Each helps children afflicted by such conditions as aphasia, dyslexia, stuttering, and related learning or speech disorders. Some services are less noticeable, like helping a widow pay her electric bill or buying coats and shoes for disadvantaged children. And there's just about anything you can think of in-between. But with projects large or small, the Masons of a lodge try to help make the world a better place. The lodge gives them a way to combine with others to do even more good. Many colonial Masons were involved in the American Revolution. George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere, John Hancock, John Paul Jones - even Benedict Arnold – were all Masons. In addition, a free black man named Prince Hall was made a Mason, along with 14 of his friends, on March 6, 1775. The period of the American Revolution also saw the first American Indian to be made a Mason. GEORGE WASHINGTON GEORGE WASHINGTON Masonry dates back to the middle ages or far back. It’s a secret society that originated as a crusader order (the Knights Templars) that bowed to fight for Christianity. Using their military strength and political connections they acquired vast fortunes; at such an extent that they achieved greater material power and wealth than the church and the states of Europe. They became capable of imposing their will on the rulers and church authorities. After two centuries of defending the Christian faith, the Order met its demise when Philip IV (the Fair) sought to destroy the Templar’s. During the tortures they confessed: trampling and spitting on the cross, homosexuality, sodomy and worshipping an idol. In 1312 the Templar’s were officially dissolved by Pope Clement V at the Council of Vienne. Although the Templar’s were not found guilty of the crimes they were charged with, it was felt that the reputation of the Order had fallen to a low state that it was dissolved. They kept organizing underground until they reappeared with another name: the Masons. Blue Lodges are those in which the first 3 degrees are conferred: Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. The 3 Degrees wear "blue" aprons, the official color of Freemasonry, and the only proper form to address the Master of the Lodge is "Worshipful Master". - "Foot to foot": To go to help your brother. - "Knee to knee": Pray for your brother. - "Breast to breast": Keep the secrets. - "Hand to back": Assist your fallen brother, and vindicate his character behind his back, as well as before his face. "Mouth to ear": Whisper good council. The idea of a widespread freemason conspiracy originated in the late 1700's and flourished in the US in the 1800's. Persons who embrace this theory often point to purported Masonic symbols such as the pyramid and the eye on the back of the dollar bill as evidence of the conspiracy. Robison, a professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, argued that the Illuminati evolved out of Freemasony, and called the Illuminati philosophy "Cosmo-politism." According to Robison: "Their first and immediate aim is to get the possession of riches, power, and influence, without industry; and, to accomplish this, they want to abolish Christianity; and then dissolute manners and universal profligacy will procure them the adherents of all the wicked, and enable them to overturn all the civil governments of Europe; after which they will think of farther conquests, and extend their operations to the other quarters of the globe, till they have reduced mankind to the state of one indistinguishable chaotic mass." Sherman Adams Governor of New Hampshire and U.S. Congressman. Louis Armstrong, Jazz musician. Montgomery Lodge No. 18 . Simón Bolívar, Leader of South American independence.Lodge Order and Liberty No. 2, Peru, 1824 Walter Chrysler Founder of Chrysler Corporation.[5] Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Studholme Alliance Lodge No. 1591, Rosemary Lodge No. 2851. Samuel Colt Manufacturer of Colt revolvers Leroy Cooper, U.S. astronaut, member of Carbondale Lodge No. 82, Colorado King Edward VII, King of Great Britain, UGLE King Edward VIII, King of Great Britain; UGLE Gustave Eiffel, Designer and architect of the Eiffel Tower Sir Alexander Fleming, Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. London Scottish Rifles Lodge No. 2310. Gerald Ford, U.S. President. Malta Lodge No. 465, Grand Rapids, MI Benjamin Franklin, February 1731, St. John's Lodge of Philadelphia; John H. Glenn, Jr., Astronaut and US Senator[ Harry Houdini, Escape artist Andrew Jackson, U.S. President. Harmony Lodge No. 1 John S. McCain, Sr. (1884-1945), US admiral, Carrollton Lodge No. 36 John S. McCain, Jr. (1911-1981), US admiral, made "Mason at Sight", Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, 1975, enrolled St. John's Lodge No. 11 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Composer. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, U.S. President. Holland Lodge No. 8, New York Theodore Roosevelt, U.S. President. Matinecock Lodge No. 806, The New World Order is a movement supposedly related to the masons. It’s a vision of a one universal or one world government and a one-unit monetary system, under permanent non-elected hereditary hierarchy who self-select from among their numbers in the form of a feudal system as it was in the Middle Ages. In this entity the population will limited by restrictions on the number of children per family, diseases, wars, famines, until 1 billion people who are useful to the ruling class, in areas which will be strictly and clearly defined, remain as the total world population. It states that there will be no middle class, only rulers and the servants. All laws will be uniform under a legal system of world courts practicing the same unified code of laws, backed up by a One World Government police force and a One World unified military to enforce laws in all former countries where no national boundaries shall exist. The system will be on the basis of a welfare state; those who are obedient and subservient to the One World Government will be rewarded with the means to live; those who are rebellious will simply be starved to death or be declared outlaws, thus a target for anyone who wishes to kill them. Privately owned firearms or weapons of any kind will be prohibited. In conclusion, Masonery, is a "lodge" aimed to seek the truth, and promotes the intellectual and moral development of mankind. Despite their rare and secret meetings and its symbols as secret fraternity, Masons have been identified and confused with Iluminattis, another secret "lodge" whose purpose is to defeat the governments and kingdoms in the world and eradicate all religions and beliefs to rule the nations under a New World Order. It is a fact what comes to mind when we hear the word Masons is: satanic cults, New World Order, Illuminatti and the "all seeying eye". But Masons and Illuminattis are not the same. The Masonic main symbol is a compass and a square not a pyramid.