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Intender

Elexir

Registered User
For me - that's a really good guide here.. Does it work in other places ? If it is written, it is not "a secret" ? In our published ritual, the "secrets" are blanked.. but most of the ritual is not...

Depends on how the structure is and how the ritual is published and who are allowed to see it.
 

David612

Registered User
as the obligation here specifies that you will not write, carve, finger on a foggy shower screen, sky write and so on it follows that any publication from a the GL cannot be considered masonicly secret.
Who may or may not see it is irrelevant- the act of writing it is a breach.
 

Scoops

Registered User
Depends on how the structure is and how the ritual is published and who are allowed to see it.
In England anyone can log onto the Lewis Masonic website and order an Emulation ritual book. As my antipodean brethren have already said, anything considered a "masonic secret" is blanked out.

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Winter

Premium Member
as the obligation here specifies that you will not write, carve, finger on a foggy shower screen, sky write and so on it follows that any publication from a the GL cannot be considered masonicly secret.
Who may or may not see it is irrelevant- the act of writing it is a breach.
Does your jurisdiction specify what is considered secret? Here it is pretty much only the modes of recognition though the majority of the ritual book is ciphered and considered secret. So, no practicing with the spouse. My EC Lodge that works in the Emulation Rite, that ritual book , which comes directly from the UGLE, is pretty much completely unciphered with only a handful of words considered secret.

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jermy Bell

Registered User
I practice with my father in law who is a 32° mason, and my wife who was a rainbow girl + mother advisor. She helped her dad who was also a 32° mason, and her stepdad. She knows the rituals better than I do.
 

David612

Registered User
The recognition signs are there to protect the secrets, but it seems that the recognition signs are the only secrets taught in Masonry.

Do the recognition signs then exist only to protect themselves?
No I’d say not but the true secrets aren’t communicated in plain format being discussed in my opinion.
 

Winter

Premium Member
Organizations evolve and what was once considereda closely held secret is now easily accessible to anyone with an internet connection. I would posit that the reason the modes of recognition are themselves still considered a secret to be guarded is because of what they can unlock. Not a mystical treasure but charity. Consider a disreputable fellow masqurading as a Brother who was able to convince a real Mason they were in distress using certain signs. How much harm could they do if they were crafty enough.

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CLewey44

Registered User
Does your jurisdiction specify what is considered secret? Here it is pretty much only the modes of recognition though the majority of the ritual book is ciphered and considered secret. So, no practicing with the spouse. My EC Lodge that works in the Emulation Rite, that ritual book , which comes directly from the UGLE, is pretty much completely unciphered with only a handful of words considered secret.

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Bro Winter, good point on the cipher. We hear a lot on here that only the modes of recognition are "secret" (which implies 99.99% of the content as not secret), then why is most of the ritual ciphered in most red/blue books? Good point.

If I quote (or half assed quote/paraphrase) the GL ritual book on this site or otherwise, I try to use a cipher of sorts myself.
 

David612

Registered User
Bro Winter, good point on the cipher. We hear a lot on here that only the modes of recognition are "secret" (which implies 99.99% of the content as not secret), then why is most of the ritual ciphered in most red/blue books? Good point.

If I quote (or half assed quote/paraphrase) the GL ritual book on this site or otherwise, I try to use a cipher of sorts myself.
My ritual books are written at length, so it would seem I can talk about it but you lot can’t :)
 

Elexir

Registered User
There was a norwegain mason who wrote a book where he compared the rituals of the vikings with masonic ritual.
He was expelled for it.
How something is written dont matter but rather what is allowed to be posted or disscus publicly that matters.
 

Chicago Glenn

Registered User
Hello Brother.

This is a tricky one - and it depends on the specifics your obligation and the local Masonic culture.

I know many Brethren who practice with a wife or daughter. They openly admit this and would not be brought up on a Masonic Charge here. However, the wife or daughter will not know the "Secrets" of Freemasonry as we (those in my Constitution) define them. These are the ways we recognize each other a Freemasons. For us, to reveal those other than an approved candidate or Freemason is to break our obligation. However, I could give a charge (like the working tools) in public and not be breaking my obligation - because it contains no "secrets". I used to leave my ritual beside the bed and my ex said she read it, I had no problem with that, because all the secrets were left as blanks.

Freemasonry is symbolic in many ways (indeed many rituals might say that very thing), and it confused the hell of our me we promised not to write the secrets yet had a ritual book. We can do that, as I later discovered, because the ritual books has blanks where the "secrets".

As an EA (I assume you are one) always err on the side of caution and follow your rules as you see them and your conciseness. For me, I only practice ritual with other Freemasons, but also have developed a much stronger understanding of Freemasonry over time and understand things which, at first view, confused the hell out me...

Thank you for the reply. I appreciate it.
 

Chicago Glenn

Registered User
There was a norwegain mason who wrote a book where he compared the rituals of the vikings with masonic ritual.
He was expelled for it.
How something is written dont matter but rather what is allowed to be posted or disscus publicly that matters.

Thank you for the reply.
 
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