Any good documentaries about freemasonry out there that aren't /x/-tier...

You remember fraternities from college?
Its like that, for 50 year olds.
And not as fun.

I'm more interested in the female secret societies. Also stuff like that Hungarian illuminati.

So im curious; why are the ceremonies and rituals so secretive? What purpose does that serve?

not him, but secret ceremonies isn't something only freemasons do. it's a pretty common thing for fraternities. the secretiveness creates the entire allure of what is otherwise mundane. secret ceremonies help foster the since of belonging since being initiated separates you from the outside world, which doesn't know what you and your brothers know

How do we know you're not lying?

how do you know that I am not God?

"Duncans Ritural" on the web is close to the ritual work, but each lodge has its own personality. Meaning, some are more by the book and others being more forgiving. But all lodges follow the same guidlines.

You tell me, Svetaketu.

And to answer that question. Today's rituals is for the meaning, and historical tradition. If you remember from history. The freemasons derived from part of the Templar order. When the pope declared them heretics, many went into hidding for fear of being killed(Fri.13) So contunuation was held in secret and away from prying eyes.

Since I assume you're an actual mason, can you tell me whether the standard Mason cliches, like
>Jahbulon
>three Jews
>who will help the widow's son
etc. are true?

Manly P. Hall - Secret Societies In The Modern World
youtube.com/watch?v=AP0uOaEK9qs

Jahbulon is a term from Royal Arch Masonry, a specified continuation of deeper Masonic teachings, Masonry that most people are familiar with is blue lodge Masonry which are the first 3 degrees.
Three Jews? Do you mean three Jewels? Never heard of "three jews" mentioned in lodge
"who will help the poor widows son" is a phrase from Hiram Abif a very important figure in Masonry.
Go and talk to members at your local lodge, they are very kind and intelligent men. While I am no advocating you joining the lodge, it has done a lot for me personally and I greatly enjoy being a part of it.

>Jahbulon
Paranoiacs take things like passwords and construct elaborate conspiracy theories around them to justify their preconceived notions.

>three Jews
The Hiramic legend is hardly even a secret these days to be honest and there's nothing nefarious about it anyway.

>who will help the widow's son
I would die of laughter if someone were to try pulling that in court or something in 2016.

there aren't any local lodges, the communists purged them all.
By the Three jews( or juwes) I meant the three guys that tortured Abiff to tell them the secrets of Solomon's temple, but he refused so they killed him

I just assumed he was talking about the three ruffians. Ju, Ju, and Ju etc.

Read this.

I can recommend you books, but i dont know any documentaries

Yeah a lot of anti masonry conspiracy theorists try to find a "deeper satanic meaning" in things that they have no understanding of in the first place

the three jews have always been referred to as their first names, because all the builders of Solomon's temple were Jews, according to Masonry. And yes I see the poor widows son as more of a call for relief to be used ceremoniously, you don't have to say that specifically to ask for relief from your brothers.

I figured as much but wanted to make sure

Great grandfather was a mason. They came to his funeral and did all sorts of weird shit. Too bad I was too young to realize what was going on.

A masonic funeral is one of the most beautful rituals in my opinion. Its one we can also share with cowans without fear. It allows the deceased family to experience a part of his(deceased) life that he could not in good faith share with them entirely. And for the masons present, it is extremely solemn and inspiring. I was raised before my 19th birthday and unfortunately went to my first Masonic funeral later that month. I will never forget how amazing being a part of that was

modern free masonry came from scotland senpai

OP, first and foremost you need to know that there is dispute within Freemasonry itself where it started. Some say it was normal masons that started the order, some say it's templars, some say it stretches back as far as King Solomon. So take everything with a grain of salt, preferably take the least conspiracy ridden view - it started from normal masons.

As for MPH, since he was mentioned in this thread, he is a very good source to the beliefs of certain ancient cults and historic societies, however, a lot of his work was before he became a Freemason or reached the high ranks of Freemasonry - although he did do a lot of research prior to writing his books.

Lewismasonic.com has Masonic sources if you're interested.

And its noted that many templars fled to Scotland during the purge by Pope Clement and King Philip. Scotland was excommunicated at the time so they found refuge there.

interesting

Basically it's a pearls before swine kind of philosophy. Most people are impulsive and self-centered and will condemn truths and individuals over the most biased of gossip. In order to convince someone of a truth you have to draw them to be on the same level, sort of like Plato's dialogues where people have to be taken out of their comfort zone and away from the mob mentality so that they can understand what you're actually trying to say. The ceremonies of Masonry are done after vetting people to make sure they're not assholes and generally believe in a supreme being, because those are prerequisites to giving a shit about what the fraternity has to offer. Once those have been met you know someone's on the same level and then you can actually start an open conversation without all the distractions and silliness of the world getting in the way. Additionally, Freemasonry is all about the individual will and someone pursuing knowledge of their own volition. So to join you have to ask how to join, to learn you have to commit to learning, "ask it it shall be given" sort of a thing. In order to appreciate light you have to know darkness, so driving things into secrecy causes the truth to increase in value and drives home its importance in comparison to common wordviews.

You don't, but if you want to know about masonry then taking a mason's words into account is as valuable as any other source. Determining the truth from multiple sources is the job of any aspiring historian.

Those are all just allegories and symbols. They're not true as in things that literally happened, but they play their part in communicating certain things. Fun fact, before the temple allegories were chosen Masons considered using Noah's arc as the source of ritual symbols.

Technically Freemasons are just spiritual successors, there's no historical evidence linking the fraternity to them. Good source of symbols though.

The papal bull against the Templars wasn't read in Scotland because we were at war with England at the time. Therefore Rosslyn Chapel and all that.

This an excellent post but I will add the caveat on the spiritual successors, york rite does infact hold a "lineage" to the knights templar. But that is neither here nor there. To many freemasons spiritual successors and historic successors have a blurry line between them.

Do Masons do anything besides reading self improvement books and donating to charity? The whole Freemason society sounds like a huge wankfest to me.

>The whole Freemason society sounds like a huge wankfest to me.
kek, you have no idea how many people were disappointed once they realized this

This is true, as someone mentioned above it is lukewarmly debated among masons how old the Fraternity is. As someone interested in history I base my personal beliefs of historical claims on what I can confirm, and so I just take what some brothers say with a shrug and a grain of salt.

Essentially "make good men better". Its about making the world and yourself better. One of the biggest problems I have with contemporary society and its sense of individuality is that any group is seen as a circle jerk but everyone is doing the same thing to be an "individual". To be honest, everyone who doesn't try to be apart of something greater than themselves is apart of a wankfest.

They have meetings twice a month where they talk about housekeeping and give a report on who's doing what. Beyond that if you want to do something it's entirely up to you. The tired cliche is that you will get out of it what you put into it.

So, for example I was interested in learning more about philosophy and esoteric stuff so I got together with a bunch of like-minded guys and we start a group and meet twice a month while assigning readings and whatnot. If you want to commit to charity you can do that, if you want to do masonic studies then there's programs to involve yourself in, so on and so forth.

Are there any in San Francisco?

freemason.org/becomeMember/lodgeLocator.htm

My great grandfather was also a mason. I may become one.

It's a matter of trust and quality assurance. We derive a lot from the operative stone mason guilds, who used secrecy to keep themselves in work, and prevent shitty knockoffs ruining their reputation.

That's an old American one. You can get new ones which are actually in use.

>The freemasons derived from part of the Templar order.
No. That myth started in the 1720s, and the Pope found the Templars innocent of all heresy.

Where..?

That's what the shitty barebones ones do. Frequently not even the former. Good ones study science, and have active debates and such in lodge.

Heh, the key is to see the supreme being as questionable, as a diety.
They wouldnt allow you in if you completely acknowledged God is real, or if you completely didnt believe in God.
They need ppl like this, bcuz the agnostics are easy to manipulate, cuz of their passivity.
One of the rules is to be pc in the lodge.
Lol, what a joke of a fraternity.

Agnostics are technically allowed, but in practice rarely admitted in.
>One of the rules is to be pc in the lodge.
You're adorably naive.

PLZ HELP ME RAID THIS STREAM