Freemasonry: The Naked Truth

More than 11,000 books already have been published on this subject. Everything that could possibly be said or written about Freemasonry, true and false, has already been published. For some people, Freemasons are on a par with the Illuminati, “they slit the throats of virgins during satanic rituals on Friday evenings” or “they govern the world in secret and have a finger in every financial scandal”. For others, all the folklore is only a nostalgic and outmoded manifestation of former times. Rare are those who recognise in the Royal Art (the name used until the 18th century as a synonym for Freemasonry) a method of spiritual awakening and, beyond that, a path that leads to wisdom and temperance.

Certain questions come up again and again:

– Why does Freemasonry attract so many important and famous people?

– How many of them are there really and, more importantly, who are they?

– What secrets are they hiding and what power do they really have?

In this climate of mystery, each applicant prepares his or her candidature as though it were a selection test to Harvard. In short, being admitted to the Freemasonry is a great honour and to be turned down is considered a serious humiliation by certain applicants.

Some wish to join Freemasonry in the belief that their membership will give them superpowers, an awesome address book and especially the privilege of belonging to the cast of the powerful of this world.

Too often, however, their disappointment begins on the very day they are initiated.

There are thousands of Masonic Lodges currently active in Europe alone. How many Brothers or Sisters do you think would state that they have used their Lodge to boost their social or financial career? Very few in fact, for a Lodge is most certainly not the best place to carry on business. You would need to ask golf players, former students of the Harvard Business School or graduates of Oxbridge, in order to realize how little political influence Freemasonry now has, especially when you compare Freemasonry to other networks which are much better at organising social and financial success. Under the Third Republic in France[1], practically every second politician was a Brother. Today, only one Member of Parliament out of ten is a Freemason.[2] This is obvious proof of the slow decline of political and social Masonry. It is, however, certain that Freemasonry, in certain cases, serves as an incubator of ideas, like the Salons of the 18th century, but it is certainly not an influential lobby, as claimed by some outspoken critics. To paraphrase Mark Giget, President of the European Institute of Creative Strategy and Innovation[3], who used the following analogy to explain French conservatism in matter of technology: "The very size of the roots of Freemasonry prevents its wings from developing". In other terms, it is in a transitional stage of its long existence. It needs to reinvent itself in order to respond to the current needs of our troubled and spiritually apathetic times.

The real nature of Freemasonry is largely unknown, because it is still marked by its glorious past as pseudo-lobbyist in public affairs, especially in a country like France.

And it is true that, if we look beyond the political and social influence which was the preserve of Freemasonry during a certain period, there are also cases of scandal, abuse and self-serving behaviour. A later chapter of this book will deal with this problem in more detail. However, such conduct is the very small visible part of the iceberg of honesty, commitment, and fraternity that is generally found in the Lodges (where Masons work together) of each Obedience (the structures that federate the Lodges of each Masonic organisation).

The basic question still remains: “Why join the Freemasonry?"