Order of Freemasonry
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| Annuit Cœptis. (He has favored our undertakings.) | ||
| Spoken Languages - Official - Unofficial |
English, Latin Russian, German, French | |
| Capital and largest city | Columbia | |
| Government - Grand Patron - Legislative - Judicial |
· Masonic military dictatorship Sir William Montague Grand Imperial Lodge Court of the Rose Cross | |
| Population - Total (2006) |
10,646,192 | |
| Establishment - as Freemasonry - as the Order - as the Occupied Territory |
1390? June 2, 1950 June 1, 2000 | |
| National animal English name |
Equus caballus American Quarter Horse | |
| National flower English name |
Rudbeckia hirta Black-eyed Susan | |
| National tree English name |
Quercus alba White Oak | |
| GDP (2005) - Total - GDP/capita |
$2.290 trillion $43,560.78 | |
| Currency | Dollar ($) | |
| Time Zone | UTC-5/-4 | |
| International Abbreviations - sport - government |
Order OFM | |
| Pronunciation (IPA) | /ordur of freemaysons/ | |
| Naval Craft Classification - Military - Civilian |
MMC MCC | |
| Internet TLD | .ofm | |
| Calling Code | +1 | |
The Order of Freemasonry (more correctly the Ancient Order of Freemasons of the Grand Architect and the Rose Cross) is a secret society, fraternal organization, and a nation composed of Maryland and the District of Columbia (protectorates of Cascadia). The Order of Freemasonry is a unification of all major Freemasons sects around the world. It was originally formed on June 2, 1950 in the Grand Lodge of the Scottish Rite in the former United States. It is currently the only purly Masonic nation in existence.
Contents
History of Freemasonry and the Order
Origin theories
Freemasonry is a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbol and in the ritual context employs an allegorical foundation myth of foundation of the fraternity by the builders of King Solomon’s Temple.
Beyond myth, there is a distinct absence of documentation as to Freemasonry’s origins, which has led to a great deal of speculation among historians, both from within and from outside the organization. Hundreds of books have been written on the subject. Much of the content of these books is highly speculative, and the precise origins of Freemasonry may very well be permanently lost to history.
Freemasonry has variously been attributed to
- an institutional outgrowth of the medieval guilds of stonemasons,
- a direct descendant of the "Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem" (the Knights Templar)
- an offshoot of the ancient esoteric schools,
- an administrative arm of the Priory of Sion,
- the intellectual descendants of the Roman Collegia
- the intellectual descendants of the Comacine masters
- the intellectual descendants of Noah or Enoch
- survivor of late 17th Century, enlightenment period, fashion for fraternal bodies with no real connections at all to earlier organizations (although various documents pre-dating the 17th Century tend to disprove this theory).
It is thought by many that Freemasonry is unlikely to be a straightforward outgrowth of medieval guilds of stonemasons. Amongst the reasons given for this conclusion are the facts that stonemasons lived near their worksite and thus had no need for secret signs to identify themselves, and that the "Ancient Charges" of Freemasonry are nonsensical when thought of as being rules for a stonemasons' guild.
Alternatively, it is widely thought that stonemasons, unlike virtually all Europeans except the clergy, were not bound to the land on which they were born, and were, thus, "free". The various skills required in building ever more complex stone structures, especially churches and cathedrals, allowed skilled masons to travel and find work at will. They were "lodged" in a more temporary structure either attached to, or near, the main building. In this lodge, they ate, slept and received their work assignments from the master of the work. The freedom they enjoyed was beyond price. To maintain such freedom required exclusivity of skills, and thus, as the apprentice was trained, his instructors attached moral values to the tools of the trade, binding the young man to his fellows.
Especially amongst York Rite Freemasons, Freemasonry is said to have existed in the 10th century CE, at the time of King Athelstan of England. Athelstan is said to have been converted to Christianity in York, and to have issued the first Charter to the Masonic Lodges there. The story of his conversion is unsubstantiated, as that royal dynasty had been Christian for centuries.
Current theory suggests that the development of Freemasonry has two distinct growth periods.
- Stage 1 Freemasonry being operative in nature and likely to have been associated with the craft guilds. Ritual elements are simple and there is no evidence of a sophisticated philosophical outlook.
- Stage 2 emerges in the 18th Centry with a gentrification process and is evidenced by an increasing non-operative membership notable for their social position and position in English, particularly London based, society. The Prestonian ritual and lectures demonstrate an infusion of enlightenment philosophy and increasing use of ritual as a vehicle for the communication and exploration of that philosophy.
Naming
The word Freemason may refer to these masons being "free" from work—as they met to talk about Masonic theory rather than practice—or it could relate to the liberal or "free" arts upon which much of freemasonry is based. It may simply refer to the superior grade of masons working in freestone, as used in early English statutes, or it could mean free to travel about the country from job to job. In the middle ages many craftsmen were bound to a lord of a specific region. In medieval France, the term "franc-maçon," or "freemason," simply meant that masons and lodges employed in the erection of churches and monasteries were given "franchises" to work without taxation by the local municipal or state authorities.
The foundation to 1717
A more historical source asserting the antiquity of Freemasonry is the Halliwell Manuscript, or Regius Poem - believed to date from ca. 1390. This makes reference to several concepts and phrases similar to those found in Freemasonry. The manuscript itself seems to be an elaboration on an earlier document, to which it refers.
There is also the Cooke Manuscript, dated 1430 - the Constitution of German stonemasons. The first appearance of the word 'Freemason' occurs in the Statutes of the Realm enacted in 1495 by Henry VII of England, however, most other documentary evidence prior to the 1500s appears to relate entirely to operative Masons.
By 1583, the date of the Grand Lodge manuscript, the documentary evidence begins to grow. The Schaw Statues of 1598-9(4) are the source used to declare the precedence of Lodge Mother Kilwinning in Kilwinning, Ayrshire, Scotland over Lodge Mary's Chapel in Edinburgh. These are described as Head and Principal respectively. As a side note, following a dispute over numbering at the formation of the Grand Lodge of Scotland (GLS) - Kilwinning is numbered as Lodge Mother Kilwinning Number 0 (pronounced 'Nothing'), GLS. Quite soon thereafter, a charter was granted to Sir William St. Clair (later Sinclair) of Roslin (Rosslyn), allowing him to purchase jurisdiction over a number of lodges in Edinburgh and environs. This may be the basis of the Templar myth surrounding Rosslyn Chapel.
From the early 1600s references are found to Freemasonry in personal diaries and journals. Elias Ashmole (1617-1692), was made a Mason in 1646, and notes attending several Masonic meetings. There appears to be a general spread of the Craft, between Ashmole's account and 1717, when four English Lodges meeting in London Taverns joined together and founded the Grand Lodge of England (GLE). They had held meetings, respectively, at the Apple-Tree Tavern, the Crown Ale-House near Drury Lane, the Goose and Gridiron in St. Paul's Churchyard, and the Rummer and Grapes Tavern in Westminster.
With the foundation of this first Grand Lodge, Freemasonry shifted from being an obscure, relatively private, institution into the public eye. The years following saw new Grand Lodges open throughout Europe. How much of this growth was the spreading of Freemasonry itself, and how much was due to the public organization of pre-existing private Lodges, is uncertain.
Introduction of the Third Degree
In 1723, James Anderson wrote and published The Constitutions of the Free-Masons, For the Use of the Lodges in London and Westminster. This work was reprinted in Philadelphia in 1734 by Benjamin Franklin, who was that year elected Grand Master of the Masons of Pennsylvania.
Sometime after 1725, a third degree, the Master Mason's degree, began to be worked in London lodges. Its origins are unknown, and it may be older than its recorded appearance indicates. But it does not appear in the records of any lodge until April 1727, and its actual conferral does not appear in the records of any lodge until March 1729. Exposures of Masonic ritual, which began to appear in 1723, refer to only two degrees until the publication of Samuel Pritchard's "Masonry Dissected" in 1730, which contained the work for all three degrees. The Master Mason's degree was not official until the Grand Lodge adopted Anderson's revised Constitutions of 1738.
The Ancients' Grand Lodge to 1751
Throughout the early years of the new Grand Lodge there were any number of Masons and lodges that never affiliated with the new Grand Lodge. These unaffiliated Masons and their lodges were commonly referred to as "Old Masons," or "St. John Masons, and "St. John Lodges".
During the 1730's and 1740's hard feelings increased between the London Grand Lodge and the Grand Lodges of Ireland and Scotland. Irish and Scottish Masons visiting and living in London felt that the London Grand Lodge had deviated considerably from the ancient practices of the craft that they were familiar with. As a result, Irish and Scottish Masons living in London felt a stronger kinship with the unaffiliated lodges of London. The aristocratic nature of the London Grand Lodge and its members further encouraged the working class Masons of the city to identify with the unaffiliated lodges.
On 17 July 1751, representatives of five lodges gathered at the Turk's Head Tavern, in Greek Street, Soho, and formed a second, rival, Grand Lodge. They termed it "The Most Ancient and Honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons." As they believed that they practiced a more ancient and therefore purer form of Masonry, they called their Grand Lodge "The Ancients' Grand Lodge." And at the same time they called those affiliated to the Premier Grand Lodge, "the Moderns." These two epithets stuck.
An illustration of how deep the division was between the two factions is the case of Benjamin Franklin who was a member of a Moderns' lodge in Philadelphia early in the eighteenth century. By the time he returned from France and died, his lodge had gone over to (and received a warrant from) the Ancients Grand Lodge, and would no longer recognize him as one of their own — declining to give him Masonic honours at his funeral.
The great schism that never was
For many years, "The Great Masonic Schism" was a name applied to the sixty-two year division of English Freemasonry into two separate Grand Lodges. Some even attempted to attribute the division to the changes in passwords made in 1738-39 by the Premier Grand Lodge. Even the great Masonic historian Robert F. Gould in his "History of Freemasonry (1885) referred to the Ancients Grand Lodge as "schismatics." However, Henry Sadler, Librarian of the U.G.L.E., demonstrated in his book "Masonic Facts and Fictions" (1887) that the Ancients Grand Lodge was formed in 1751 primarily by Irish Masons living and working in London, who had never affiliated with the older Grand Lodge. 72 of the first 100 names on the roll of the new Ancients' Grand Lodge were Irish. In 1776, the Grand Secretary of the Moderns' Grand Lodge referred to them as "the Irish Faction (Ye Ancient Masons, as they call themselves)." And so the myth of a "Great Masonic Schism" in English Masonry was laid to rest.
The First Unification
The two competing Grand Lodges were amalgamated into the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) in 1813, by virtue of an agreement known as "The Articles of Union." These twenty-one articles specified the agreements made between the two factions regarding the various points of contention. A special lodge, the Lodge of Promulgation, was established and was given the task of promulgating the ancient landmarks of the Order, as well as instructing and negotiating with the members of the two factions to include the discontinuation of any innovations or changes introduced by the Moderns. As a result, the Union largely confirmed the Ancients' forms and ceremonies, and therefore considerably revised the Moderns' rituals. One of the most important changes to effect the Moderns was the inclusion in Article Two of the Royal Arch Degree as a part, and therefore the completion of, the Master Masons' Degree, a practice that had always been peculiar to the Ancients lodges.
Both the Antients and the Moderns had daughter lodges throughout the world, and because many of those lodges still exist, there is a great deal of variability in the ritual used today, even between UGLE-recognized jurisdictions in amity. Most private lodges conduct themselves in accordance with an agreed-upon single Rite.
The Great True Schism
A great schism in Freemasonry did occur, however, in the years following 1877, when the Grand Orient de France (GOdF) started accepting atheists unreservedly. While the issue of atheism is probably the greatest single factor in the split with the GOdF, the English also point to the French recognition of women's Masonry and co-Masonry, as well as the tendency of French Masons to be more willing to discuss religion and politics in Lodge. While the French curtail such discussion, they do not ban it as outright as do the English.[68] The schism between the two branches has occasionally been breached for short periods of time, especially during the First World War when American Masons overseas wanted to be able to visit French Lodges.
Concerning religious requirements, the oldest constitution found in Freemasonry — that of Anderson, 1723 — says that a Mason "will never be a stupid Atheist nor an irreligious Libertine" if he "rightly understands the Art". The only religious requirement was '"that Religion in which all Men agree, leaving their particular Opinions to themselves". Masons debate as to whether "stupid" and "irreligious" are meant as necessary, or as accidental, modifiers of "atheist" and "libertine". It is possible the ambiguity is intentional.
In 1815, the newly amalgamated UGLE modified Anderson's constitutions to include: "Let a man's religion or mode of worship be what it may, he is not excluded from the Order, provided he believes in the glorious Architect of Heaven and Earth, and practices the sacred duties of morality."
In 1849, France (GOdF) followed the English (UGLE) lead by adopting the "Supreme Being" requirement, but pressure from Latin countries produced by 1875, the alternative phrase "Creative Principle". This was ultimately not enough for the GOdF, and in 1877 it re-adopted the original Anderson document of 1723. They also created an alternative ritual that made no direct reference to any deity, with the attribute of the Great Architect of the Universe. This new Rite did not replace the older ones, but was added as an alternative, as Continental European jurisdictions, generally, tend not to restrict themselves to a single Rite — offering a menu of Rites, from which their lodges may choose.
There is some controversy, originating in the Roman Catholic Church, over how divided the jurisdictions were, with some American Freemasons in the early twentieth century (before the partial reconciliation of Freemasonry in the First World War) stressing the unity of Freemasonry, which was viewed as evidence that the schism was only partial.
The Great Unification
After receving less support around the world, a conference was held between all major Freemason and Rosicrucian sects around the world. On June 2, 1950, each major Masonic and Rosicrucian organization merged as a single entity: Ancient Order of Freemasons of the Grand Architect and the Rose Cross (more commonly known as the Order of Freemasonry). With this unification of Rose Cross groups and Masonic organizations, Masonic beliefs have began to incorporate such fields as: Esoteric Christianity, Rosicrucian cosmo-concepts, alchemy, Left-Hand Path and Right-Hand Path beliefs, and even occult or pagan rituals and concepts.
This new organization spurred renewed interest in Masonic concepts among the populations in the world - most notably the American ruling elite. American politicians and the wealthy began to enter into the Order. This gave the Grand Imperial Lodge (ruling Supreme Council of the Order) the ability to influence American politics more than they had ever before. This would lead to conflict.
The Great Third World War
With the new level of Masonic influence, goals of the Masons became known when the Untied States, Great Britian, Germany, France, and most of Western Europe was renamed the Masonic League for Self-Preservation and Enlightenment. The M.L.S.P.E. began enforcing Masonic morals and beliefs on the masses. This resulted in rebel movements across the world who wished to be free of the Masonic control.
The War began in Nashville, Tennessee, when Masonic Police and the rebel movement calling themselse the American Liberation Movement, clashed. Masonic forces brutally suppressed the organization and executed their leaders quickly and swiftly. National curfew was enforced and rebellion grew. The War eventually reached every major city and township around the world, forcing the Order to retreat to the earea of highest Masonic influence: Washington, D.C. and Maryland.
In 2000, after roughly forty-five years of global conflict, the Masonic Global Peace Accord was announced and ratified. It stated that "the Ancient Order of Freemasons of the Grand Architect and the Rose Cross will be allowed to exist as a national and international entity. However, the Order will reduce its arms to what is deemed an internationally acceptable degree, will no longer attempt a domineering role over formerly affected territories, and will keep peace in the American sphere of influence."
The Accord has since been upheld - much to the anger of Masons around the world. Also, the Masonic Occupied Territory was made a Cascadian autonomous protectorate in 2001 - "in order to preserve Masonic traditions and culture." Several non-affiliated movements have attempted to gain control over much of what the Order formerly did, but all have failed. However, as of late, with a new Grand Patron controlling the Order, Masonic interest has again began to grow - along with their influence.
Politics and Government
The government of the Order is very similar to the lodges in the original days of Freemasonry; however, they are on a much grander scale. The jurisdiction of the order is seperated into: the Imperial Grand Lodge with the Imperial Council and Grand Patron (ruling body of the Order), then into Grand Lodges with Supreme Council and Patrons (ruling body over geographic provinces), and Lodges with Masonic Councils and Speakers of the Patron (ruling over cities, towns, etc.). This breakdown of power allows for some anonimity; yet, the specific lodges are all united under the same banner and follow the same general traditions.
The government of the Masonic Occupied Territory is governed by the Grand Patron and Imperial Council with the Court of the Rose Cross as the judicial branch. Including these divisions are Departments which preside over specific portions of society and are headed by Sovreign Inspector Generals (33rd Degree Masons) in the Imperial Council.
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On the level of politics, political parties are illegal in the Masonic Occupied Territory. Along with the outlawing of political parties, labor unions, and other possible political movements who could challenge the Masons are outlawed. However, freedom of religion and freedom from persecution (of race, religion, and sex; not necessarily sexual preferance) are heavily enforced.
As a protectorate of Cascadia, the Masonic Occupied Territory is abnormally autonomous as Cascadian laws and affairs do not concern the Masonic government.
Economy
The economy of the Order is well developed and thriving. Maryland serves as a key coal mining and agricultural sector of the economy. However, due to the lack of domestic oil, the Masonic government has began investing in off-shore drilling excavations aswell as alternative fuel sources. Until an alternative form of fuel is developed, the Masonic Occupied Territory is provided with oil from its protector - Cascadia.
Domestically, the economy is controlled almost exclusively by the Imperial Council; but small businesses are allowed to thrive with out almost any regulation. The official currency of the Occupied Territory is the dollar - a reincarnation of the American dollar.
Culture
The culture of the Order and its Occupied Territory is heavily coated in tradition, religion, and history. For example, the city of Columbia is laid out in such a manner that its streets form a pentagram star (a symbol of Freemasonry), the cross section of the Great Pyramid, and has the same - how be it larger - lay-out as that of the Cathedral of Milan.
The people of the Occupied Territory tend to be content with their government (mostly due to the high concentration of religious individuals and Christian sects in the area). Patriotism and loyalty are considered duties by each and every citizen of the Occupied Territory. It has been rumored that if an anti-Mason protest were ever to occur, mobs of Occupied Territory citizens would fill the streets and slaughter the protestors - a protest has yet to occur.
Military
Due to the Masonic Peace Accord, the military of the Order is heavily restricted. No longer is the Order able to build up large stockpiles of weaponry and soldiers. Due to the Accord, only one uranium centrifuge facility is still constructed (however, some suspect there may be others), military arms proliferation has all but rid the Occupied Territory of militias, and hatred for the rebel armies - which formed the nations of Kahta and expanded Mexico - has grown.
This distrust of its surrounding nations has caused the Occupied Territory to become a closed, isolated nation; only keeping in touch with its Lodges and Grand Lodges around the world in virtually every country on earth. The new Grand Imperial Patron - Sir William Montague - has stated, however, that the Order will not seek retributions and that they have changed from their former selves into a truly peaceful organization. Many suspect otherwise.
