Ask us about Freemasonry - Who keeps the Bitcoin system down? We do!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask us about Freemasonry - Who keeps the Bitcoin system down? We do!

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

stubblyhead posted:

Do the Wardens wear a hat in some jurisdictions? I was under the impression it was only the WM who wore a hat in lodge (and I suppose other brothers whose faith requires it).

In Danish Swedish Rite lodges all Master Masons wear top hats. And tailcoats, obviously. Sadly, we seem to be the only jurisdiction where people still dress properly. Even the rest of Scandinavia has mostly switched to dark suits by now.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 12:28 on Dec 22, 2012

# ¿ Dec 22, 2012 12:23

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 20:15

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Kurtofan posted:

Edit:Another question, is there a rivalry between Traditional Masonic orders and Continental Masonic orders or is it just "we pretend these guys don't exist" on both sides?

I would just like to state for the record that so-called "Continental Freemasonry" is not at all representative of Masonry on the European continent, regardless of how they choose to style themselves. There are a handful of countries in Europe where "continental" lodges are the majority, but everywhere else is overwhelmingly regular. I wish they would call themselves something else, as this often seems to cause confusion (it would be even better if they didn't call themselves "Freemasons" at all, of course, but you can't have everything).

Colonial Air Force posted:

Is that an Australia thing? Here it is definitely not.

It's like that in the UK as well. I'm not sure about other countries.

# ¿ Dec 25, 2012 16:26

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Ari posted:

My father is 32� Scottish Rite, as is my uncle, and as were my grandfather and his two brothers. I'm not, but it's something I'd like to look into, maybe in this coming year.

My grandfather and his brothers were raised in Harmonia Lodge in West Palm Beach, and my father and his brother in Palm Lodge (now Palmwood Lodge) in Lake Worth, and I was raised in Boca-Delray Lodge. All in Palm Beach County, Florida.

(We're Jewish, in case you missed that.)

Oh, I know the US SR doesn't have any religious requirements. I was just wondering how many other countries do, as it seems to be pretty widespread.

Edit: I'm only talking about the Scottish Rite, not Masonry in general. It seems that a lot of countries require you to be Christian to join it.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Dec 26, 2012

# ¿ Dec 25, 2012 22:26

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

jsavino posted:

If I may ask, what is your religious persuasion that you feel will keep you out? The recent memo is not specifically "Christian only"; it actually explicitly excludes a few groups (Pagans, Wiccans, Odinists, Agnostics, and Gnostics).

The problem is that "Pagans" is pretty ambigious, since Christianity considers all non-Christian religions to be "pagan". I'm pretty sure it's supposed to refer to Neo-Pagan polytheist religions exclusively, but it's not entirely clear.

# ¿ Dec 27, 2012 22:22

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

http://freemasonsfordummies.blogspot.dk/2007/06/grand-and-glorious-order-knights-of.html

More snake information from five years ago. This has been going on for a while, apparently.

# ¿ Dec 29, 2012 08:07

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

QPZIL posted:

I always chuckle when I see aprons that have a thick-color trim like that.

It makes me wonder if the founders of Gmail were Masons, putting in a little inside joke...

# ¿ Jan 1, 2013 13:37

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

QPZIL posted:

It's the same thing that happens every time - someone comes in here with an opinion under the guise of "just wanting to understand the other side," while making no effort to actually understand the other side. Nobody's mind is changed, and everyone just leaves in a huff.

Look, Carbolic, it comes down to this: we all, as Master Masons, took a very solemn obligation, under penalty of very gruesome (symbolic) corporal punishment. If we are to break that obligation, it literally defines us at that point as non-Masons. Part of that obligation states that we will not be at the raising (i.e. the coferring of the Master Mason degree) of a woman, among other things such as atheists. It can't be put any simpler than that. We take the same obligation that our brethren took in 1717 when the United Grand Lodge of England was founded, and not only is our history something we take very seriously, but our obligation is something that we take VERY seriously.

If someone wants to break the obligation and let women into the ritual, that's fine, but they are at that moment by definition no longer Masons.

Actually, the English Emulation ritual does not contain any oath not to allow woman/atheists/etc. to be Freemasons. I'm pretty sure that's mostly an American thing.

# ¿ Apr 9, 2013 16:55

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

WAFFLEHOUND posted:

I have no idea what this is.

Emulation is the most popular craft ritual in England, and is based on the ritual originally approved by the United Grand Lodge of England at its formation in 1813. It's probably the closest we have to Original English Freemasonry, which unfortunately wasn't written down at the time.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 17:48 on Apr 9, 2013

# ¿ Apr 9, 2013 17:21

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Coming up next: Samwise Gamgee investigates mysterious masonic murders in "The Freemason".

I really have no idea what to think of this. It would help if their Photos section contained more than a single drawing of "A mysterious new symbol."

# ¿ Apr 18, 2013 19:54

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

http://www.dr.dk/Tema/frimurer/Rundt%20i%20frimurerlogen/rundtilogen.htm

Since we are speaking of grand lodges, the Grand Lodge of Denmark made this nice interactive tour a few years ago. You can click on the front door to enter, drag the pictures to look around, and navigate with the arrows or the map in the corner. It only shows a tiny fraction of the building, but you do get to see the I and II degree halls, the armiger hall with the crests, and the big assembly hall.

The panorama effect on the tour kinda makes the rooms feel smaller, though. Here is a picture of the II degree hall that gives a better feel for the size. The images on the roof display scenes from Greek mythology, and were painted by the Danish artist Oscar Matthiesen.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 12:09 on Apr 5, 2014

# ¿ Apr 5, 2014 11:50

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

http://www.thefreemasonmovie.com/

So, the Freemason Movie with Sean Astin is now available on DVD. I think I'll wait until I can get it digitally, but if someone buys it, I would love to hear some impressions.

# ¿ Jun 30, 2014 12:00

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Paramemetic posted:

It was discussed but since the vast majority of us in this thread not only do not but can not recognize co-masons as masons, nor discuss masonry with them, it was more or less decided that it's better to keep this thread about regular lodges and appendant bodies.

http://www.masonicdictionary.com/communication.html posted:

The term communication with respect to Freemasonry is often misunderstood. Communication in this sense means a lodge meeting. Therefore the injunction that a Mason is not to hold Masonic Communication with a clandestine mason simply means you are prohibited from sitting in the same lodge room. (See following definitions for support)

There is no rule against discussing freemasonry with clandestine masons, as long as it doesn't happen in open lodge. Masonry can be discussed with clandestine masons to the same extent that it can be discussed with other non-masons.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2014 09:45

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

http://freemasonsunited.online/

I'm not sure who is organizing this, but it seems like an interesting idea.

# ¿ Jul 8, 2016 17:31

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

http://www.msana.com/msastats.asp

North American membership statistics for 2015 are out. Unfortunately, the decline in membership does not seem to be reversing, except in a couple of individual states.

# ¿ Aug 17, 2016 21:05

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

He is a member of the Grand Lodge de France, which practices regular Freemasonry, but is not recognized by the UGLE, since they allow intervisitation with "continental" jurisdictions, such as the irregular Grand Orient de France. The GLNF is merely sending condolences to the GLDF.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2018 12:20

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2p1osv0jj8

Anyone planning to watch this?

# ¿ Jul 25, 2018 19:59

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_Due

The classic example of a criminal lodge is, of course, the Italian P2 lodge, but that was a clandestinely lodge not recognized by anyone.

I am not aware of any organized criminal activity in regular lodges.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2018 07:48

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

http://www.msana.com/msastats.asp

The new membership stats from the Masonic Service Association of North America are out, so I couldn't resist the temptation to make a graph:

Masonic membership in North America has declined 46.8% over the last 20 years, from 2,021,909 in 1997 to 1,076,626 in 2017. The rate of decline seemed to be slowly levelling off during most of the 2000's, but around 2012 it settles into a linear trend.

If the current trend continues, North American freemasonry will cease to exist in 2040.

Sorry not to have better news. I was planning to fit the points to a curve, and predict when freemasonry would start growing again, but the data doesn't really support it.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 18:24 on Sep 27, 2018

# ¿ Sep 27, 2018 17:51

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

"Svenska Frimurare Orden" (The Swedish Masonic Order) is a legit masonic grand lodge recognized by the United Grand Lodge of England. "Sirius Orden" appears to be a Swedish fraternal order with no connections to freemasonry. It's normal in small-town Scandinavia for several fraternal orders to share the same building, since they need more or less the same kind of facilities (a big hall and a bar).

# ¿ Dec 10, 2018 09:31

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

The Danish Order of Freemasons just shut down all masonic activity in the country until further notice, due to coronavirus concerns. Not just lodge meetings but also administrative meetings, picnics, seminars, etc. I believe the other Scandinavian jurisdictions are following suit.

Are similar things happening in other areas, or are you just using hand sanitizer and taking basic precautions?

# ¿ Mar 9, 2020 14:28

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Chubby Henparty posted:

Am I wrong, or was there also an EGL statement that those who transitioned to women, could also stay? No issue with that, but puzzled me as it seems contrary to fully accepting the transition?

https://www.ugle.org.uk/gender-reassignment-policy

UGLE policy here. Basically, the rule is that you must be a man to be initiated. Nowhere in masonic law does it say that members must remain men after joining, so individual Grand Lodges are free to decide how to handle such cases themselves.

# ¿ Feb 24, 2021 14:42

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Tias posted:

That is French nazis favorite loving hangup, even more than jews these days. It goes way back with the catholic church or so I understand.

E: On topic, I actually came to ask about the York Rite. Without giving away what you can't, can you say something about what they do? There are only two orders in my country, one is creepy as gently caress and requires all members to be baptized christians to which I'm noping out, and the other is affiliated with CLIPSAS which sounds good on the accepting women and non-christians part, but not so good on the permitting religious discussion in their lodges*

* Though this may be pretty polite and harmless for all I know.

You are from Denmark, right? Denmark does have regular lodges practicing the English ritual, which does not require people to be christians (DDFL.dk). DDFL is nowadays considered an autonomous sub-body of the Christian DDFO, with the same recognition. DDFL has also recently been permitted to start Royal Arch chapters in Denmark, which would be considered part of the "York Rite" in the US (The US York Rite is basically three different smaller rites stacked on top of each other).

I haven't taken the Royal Arch myself, though, so I can't answer many questions about. All I know is that it supposedly completes the story told in the three degrees of Craft Masonry.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 10:54 on May 13, 2021

# ¿ May 13, 2021 10:50

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

https://www.herts-chapter.org.uk/hertfordshires-royal-arch-in-denmark/

More information about the Royal Arch in Denmark, in English, including an overview of Danish Craft Masonry in general.

# ¿ May 14, 2021 09:15

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Tias posted:

I believe DDFL is the CLIPSAS alternative I mentioned, yes.

No, they are not. DDFL is affiliated with the regular order of freemasons (DDFO) and has no connections with CLIPSAS.

https://www.ddfl.dk/generel-information/hvad-er-frimureri/ posted:

Andre frimurersamfund
Frimureri praktiseres i de fleste lande og stater i den frie verden og er i hvert enkelt tilf�lde underlagt en suver�n og uafh�ngig storloge, hvis form�l og standard er p� linje med DDFLs.

Storlogers regularitet er afh�ngig af gensidige anerkendelser, der i de enkelte tilf�lde kun opn�s og tilbydes, s�fremt en storloge efterlever og respekterer de gamle, overleverede frimureriske principper, s�dan som disse er defineret af Den Forenede Storloge af England.

I Danmark tilfalder denne anerkendelse i henhold til traditionen DEN DANSKE FRIMURERORDEN (DDFO), der praktiserer frimureri efter et skandinavisk forbillede, som ben�vnes Det Svenske System, der kr�ver at den, som s�ger optagelse, skal bekende sig til den kristne tro.

Samtidig omfatter anerkendelsen ogs� DDFL, som i kraft af en overenskomst er tilsluttet DDFO. Der findes imidlertid storloger og andre tilsyneladende frimureriske organisationer som f.eks. ikke kr�ver en tro p� et h�jeste v�sen eller som tillader eller endda tilskynder sine medlemmer til at deltage i politiske aff�rer. Disse storloger eller organisationer anses ikke for at v�re regul�re og anerkendes derfor ikke, og frimurerisk kontakt med dem er af den grund ikke tilladt.

DDFL members are fully recognized by DDFO, as well any international lodge which recognizes DDFO. They require belief in a higher power and do not permit discussion of politics and religion in the lodge.

I believe the CLIPSAS body (http://storlogen-af-danmark.dk/) was founded by former DDFL members who disagreed with the decision to enter into a compact with DDFO.

The English language link I posted earlier also describes things in more detail: https://www.herts-chapter.org.uk/hertfordshires-royal-arch-in-denmark/

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 15:13 on May 17, 2021

# ¿ May 17, 2021 15:10

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Bargearse posted:

That�s pretty cool. Makes me wonder what kinds of Masonic things Buzz Aldrin brought with him.

http://tl2k.org/history/

Tranquility Lodge posted:

On July 20, 1969, two American Astronauts landed on the moon of the planet Earth, in an area known as Mare Tranquilitatis , or �Sea of Tranquility�. One of those brave men was Brother Edwin Eugene (Buzz) Aldrin, Jr., a member of Clear Lake Lodge No. 1417, AF&AM, Seabrook, Texas. Brother Aldrin carried with him SPECIAL DEPUTATION of then Grand Master J. Guy Smith, constituting and appointing Brother Aldrin as Special Deputy of the Grand Master, granting unto him full power in the premises to represent the Grand Master as such and authorize him to claim Masonic Territorial Jurisdiction for The Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Texas, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, on The Moon, and directed that he make due return of his acts. Brother Aldrin certified that the SPECIAL DEPUTATION was carried by him to the Moon on July 20, 1969.

# ¿ Sep 18, 2021 08:16

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

Solvent posted:

Wait a minute, does this mean that Texas has a real claim on jurisdiction over the moon?

Masonic jurisdiction, sure. Like, if you want to start a masonic lodge on the moon, you need to talk to the Grand Lodge of Texas, but that's about it.

The state of Texas makes no claim to the moon.

# ¿ Sep 26, 2021 13:07

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

https://twitter.com/blackhawkadvent/status/1530272730867720192

# ¿ May 28, 2022 08:20

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

The mysterious Mr Larsen: MI5 spy, terrorist or Walter Mitty fantasist?

If you are wondering what any of this has to do with Freemasonry, just keep reading. That's my lodge they mention!

Unfortunately, this particular aspect of the story has only been covered by the Danish press, but I am adding a link to a Danish newspaper article for people who either read the language or can be bothered to read Google translated text.

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 18:28 on May 1, 2023

# ¿ May 1, 2023 18:24

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 20:15

SimonChris: Apr 24, 2008; The Baron's daughter is missing, and you are the man to find her. No problem. With your inexhaustible arsenal of hard-boiled similes, there is nothing you can't handle.; Grimey Drawer

https://msana.com/services/u-s-membership-statistics/

The North American 2023 masonic membership numbers are out! Membership currently stands at 874,548 masons, down from 881,219 in 2022 and 919,129 in 2021.

It may seem like the decline has levelled off, but that is apparently more due a lot of individual jurisdictions not reporting updated numbers since 2022. I don't know if the MSANA are planning to update those as they come in, or if this is all we get this year (Edit: MSANA confirmed they're still getting 2023 numbers and will update later).

SimonChris fucked around with this message at 16:16 on Jan 22, 2024

# ¿ Jan 21, 2024 08:02

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask us about Freemasonry - Who keeps the Bitcoin system down? We do!