When I started this post it was just meant to be quick and easy My grandfather was a Freemason and my mother was recently cleaning up and found some of his stuff we had thought lost in a burglary

Freemasons rule the country.

Everyone loves a good conspiracy theory myself included and if you have been on the internet for anything more than like a week then its pretty damn likely that you have come across the idea that Freemasons are an evil, the devil worshiping, goat riding, secret society that rule the world behind the scene.

Who are the Freemasons.

This post is going to be too small for a full investigation of their history or some fanciful Dan Brownesque story.

We don't have a date for the foundation of the first Masonic fraternity the first record of the masons comes in the Regius Poem written in 1390 ad this poem briefly describes the forming of a group of masons and proceeds to set out some pretty clear rules for those that belong to the good craft of geometry (stone masons). This poem has also been called "The Poem of Moral Duties" and is suggested to be a copy of some earlier text so trying to pinpoint a year the "masons" started is just a little difficult.

Before we go further.

These earliest stone masons like many, many other crafts had trade secrets protecting these secrets as akin to protecting their lively hood and community its not really surprising that in this time frame symbols, teaching, and skill levels become ritualized, and secret signs or passwords created to ensure that the secrets aren't disclosed to outsiders additionally these signs and passwords acted like a diploma in a time of mass illiteracy a stone mason could move cities attend a lodge in search of work and by using the signs could immediately identify his level of skill in the craft to others.

For the record, these are the guys that designed and built the great cathedrals and castles through the middle ages.

Source

Modern Freemasonry.

Between 1930 and the founding of the Grand Lodge on England in 1717 its unclear when this "union" of operative stonemasons and their rituals started their transition into the ritualized no operative Freemasons we know today, however, The Grand Lodge of England sites a letter written by Elias Ashmole in 1649 recording his initiation into Freemasonry.

In 1799 England passed the Unlawful Societies Act ""for the more effectual suppression of societies established for seditious and treasonable purposes" which essentially outlawed any society that required the taking of oaths that had not been authorised by law many in the conspiracy world will point to this act as direct effort to stamp out the Freemasons the truth is the Freemasons where able to get an exemption from this act provided that their member where annually registered with a justice of the peace, the true aim of the legislation where secret groups like the United English men, United Society of the Irish nation and the fear they would team with the French, and The London Corresponding Society. 1

Since its founding Freemasonry has grown its members to some 4 million across the globe and while they used to require that members be of the Christian faith they now only require that you have a faith in a supreme being, just no atheists or agnostics.

Side note this fraternity is philanthropic with its US lodges spending nearly 3/4 of a billion dollars each year on charitable causes.

The Conspiracies

Before I begin, say it slowly with me "secret societies are secret" as in you don't know about them. Don't get tripped up there is actually a difference between a secret society and a society that has secrets, The Freemasons are not a secret society, in fact, they are pretty damn public, many members openly wear their rings, lapel pins, you can walk into almost any lodge and talk to one, you can often access member history.

George Washington the first President of the United States his entourage, members of the Masonic lodges Virginia and Maryland held a completely public procession over 2.4 km in full Masonic regalia to lay the cornerstone of the Whitehouse now correct me if I'm wrong but sounds a long way from secret, in fact, it appears that the connection was clear and transparent.

Source

So why are the Freemasons the subject of so many conspiracies theories.

The Freemasons have a long history and in that history its members have included some incredibly influential and powerful men, just to list a few

Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, 1/4 of the signers of the declaration of independence, Paul Revere, Voltaire, Mozart, Mark Twain, Winston Churchill, Harry Truman, Alexander Fleming, J. Edgar Hoover, Douglas MacArthur, John Glenn, Buzz Aldrin, Steve Wozniak.

Now that is by no means an exhaustive list of powerful or influential Freemasons in history that list of names should impress the hell out of you, if not just take a second and try the sums in your head on just how much sway those men have had on the course of history, just how much their deads have shaped the world we live in today.

Naturally, we look at that kind of list and fear the idea that if a group could leverage all those people for there own will there is no telling what that group may be able to achieve. Now here is the big question did the Freemason fraternity gather wealth and leverage its hidden power in order to place these people in these positions for their own dark agenda or is it perhaps possible that these people strong wills, and drive to succeed were attracted to the ideologies of the Freemasons.

Let's just look at the Presidents and signatories to the Declaration of Independence for a second we have four options.

1. Any group running and gathering members over such a large period of time is going to end up having powerful members through that time.

2. The Teachings found in Freemasonry attract powerful and driven men.

3. The teachings of Freemasonry inspired and brought forward the ideals laid out in the declaration

4. That the Freemasons are some ultra-powerful organization with the skills and power to rule the world as a secret shadow government yet they are somehow so crap at it that everyone appears to know it.

JFKs famous speech.

If you haven't watched this go check out that link in another tab, its a great speech, its an important speech and personally I'm sure that there are groups subversive wealthy groups out there that work together for purely selfish gains with little regard for the rest of the planet.

There is no denying the danger for groups like the Freemasons that by separating their members by ritualized secret ceremonies, teachings and secret handshakes that they become open to becoming co-opted that within a society with secrets bad actors could create false degrees, false hidden teachings and build the basis for an actual secret society.

Just in case your wondering you're nations military is just as susceptible to these problems, hell you could even subvert universities by stacking the professors towards a particular viewpoint.

Obamas speech

Let'sets assume you buy the Freemasons are the shadow government that truly rule the world for some malicious purpose. Check out Obamas speech in a new tab.

Now is the best time in human history more people in the world have access to education, health care, clean water, global homicide rate vs population is down, life expectancy is the highest it has ever been, human rights and equality are the strongest they have ever been.

So the next question becomes do the actual outcomes of the world we live in reflect and evil intent on behalf of the Freemason shadow government? or if they are the shadow government does it reflect benevolence?

Here are some link to support the statements above.

Safe drinking water, Life Expectancy, the worlds actually safer than ever and here is the data to prove it

My Grandfathers stuff.

As I mentioned my grandfather, as well as his brother, were Freemasons, more than that they where both great men my grandfather was, well educated, socially-minded individual spending much of his personal time working with the Samoans and Tongans in the development of their power grid and supply, while my great uncle Don was a world-leading pioneer in optometry whose research lead to the worlds first prism-free soft toric lens that became an industry standard and well as developing both the BE and KBA lenses.

So you can add two more Freemasons that have made a mark on the world to that list above and what I can tell you is that neither of them wanted to secretly rule the world.

Here where the items we had thought lost in a burglary while they did get a lot of his stuff I was really excited to have my mother find these things.

Left Top: The Holy Bible with Grand Lodge of W.A, Right top: Guide for the Ceremony of Installation
Bottom left: Grandfathers Lodge badge, Bottom Right: Square and Compass cufflinks and pins, miscellaneous regalia

Part Two

Kind regards

Peter

My Wife is also a great Steemian worth a follow check out her most recent posts here.
#16 What is it? First to guess right wins!
Ulog #4 - 7 Day Positivity Challenge - Day 4 - Today Today, Empire Records and My Window

One last thing! @asapers a new curation team has started a profit-sharing curation post promotion, follow @asapers to check it and more out!