Freemason General

I'm pretty surprised there isn't many Freemason threads on Sup Forums seeing how Masonry is spread over most of the world.

How long have you been a Mason?

What made you interested in joining?

Do you ever travel to other Lodges?

...

Do you ever sacrifice babies?

Joined because I wanted to be part of a community organization, my grandfather is a mason and when my grandmother was alive he was very involved in OES.
Travel off and on, mostly to lodges within a hour of my home town.
Going to march in a parade on Saturday with a bunch of masons

Freemasons is nothing political.

Yep, and in US masonry the discussion of politics is considered taboo, or at least impolite.

I've been offered to join by a relative, but it's nothing but a collection of numbnuts wanting to feel important about themselves. I'd rather not affiliate myself with a bunch of delusional old people.

Close relative is one and I'm only waiting to finish school and get a real job before I join.

I'm finding that since I've joined all of my friend's granddads were Masons and they've given me all of the Masons stuff they found.

It's interesting the type of people you meet.
It sucks for how my schedule has been. The only time I get to travel is during the summer time when all the Lodges are closed.

>tfw going to Iceland tomorrow and no Lodge to visit.

Yeah here as well. We're not suppose to talk about Religion or politics in the Lodge.

I haven't travelled to any lodges outside my home jurisdiction, but I at least know that I could if I wanted.
My home lodge had a visitor from Sweden a couple years ago. He was in the area because his son was an exchange student a couple towns over and he came out to see him go through his graduation ceremony. Pretty cool to have a random drop-in like that.

I heard that going to Cuba as a Mason is really cool.

Contact your Grand Lodge if you're ever going to go and they'll write a letter for you and contact the Grand Lodge in Cuba. From there they'll have someone pick you up and take you to a meeting. One thing you should try to do is bring them some extra aprons though since they usually can't afford any so they just use random things to look like one.

I've found there's a big variation between countries, states, and even individual lodges.
My home lodge is very relaxed, doesn't have a strict dress code, and we focus on doing community work and having fun. Other lodges in our same jurisdiction vary. It depends on the crowd. Don't know how it is globally, though.

That sounds cool. I've also seen that there are active lodges in Iran, and I always wondered what it would be like to visit one.

The Iran Lodge was exiled and if they're running in Iran it'll be underground.

I had a Brother go to Boston though and he met with the exiled Iranian Lodge Master. Apparently they're in Boston until they can open up in Iran again.

Oh, ok. I just saw them listed as a grand lodge and didn't realize they were operating in exile from Iran.
Does each province have its own GL like each US state does?

Yeah they do. Although I do believe Ontario has the coolest Grand Lodge.

It was donated to them by some Tobacco Barons that use to own all the Tobacco farms around Hamilton.
It's right downtown Hamilton and is this massive building. A lot of people have their weddings there as well and they also film a lot of movies there so they really make it look nice for everyone.

I got a chance to visit the George Washington Masonic Memorial when I was visiting DC and it is pretty cool.

That is really cool. Have you ever been to the Philadelphia Lodge?

I in the summer time a few years ago. Sadly I wasn't a Mason at the time (Although I had the letter saying I was accepted and would be joining the month after)

Never been there. I know all the east coast lodges are a lot different than what I'm used to. Things are pretty casual out west and in general our buildings are much more utilitarian and newer. There's something cool about an old lodge building that's been well used over the generations.

Hopefully I'll get to see more Lodges when I start working again.

I'm joining the Navy and apparently will be traveling around a lot for it.

Same here, about traveling more when I get a job.
Right now, I'm pretty limited because of finances, but once I can afford it, I need to visit some friends/family in other parts of the country and can visit lodges while I'm there.

I've been lucky I worked so much after highschool. I took a full year off and traveled just to Lodges here in Ontario.

I didn't ask before but does your Lodges close down in the summer?

They do here and I always grow extremely bored without having it once a month.

A lot of lodges around here go dark during the summer, especially in smaller towns like mine where summer was the time for farm work. Its depends on the bylaws of each lodge. Ours only specifies that we have the option, so each year it is voted on, and the past few years we haven't voted to go dark, and instead keep meeing because there's summer festivals, Grand Lodge, and other events to organize.