Reasons for becoming a Freemason

The Mysteries are what pulled me in. Not out of curiosity, more like polarity.

 

Really all but "I wanted to be part of a charitable organization". My grandfather was a Mason and spoke of the the other four in a way that really piqued my interest. I was something I wanted to do from a pretty young age.

 

+1.:beer:

 

curiosity is never a good answer during an investigation... i'll tell anyone that says that that they need to learn more about masonry before joining.

that's what brought me in, and was honestly disappointed when it wasn't as "mystic" as i had thought, but luckily found it to be rewarding in many more ways than i could imagine.

but i put "family member" because my great grandfather was one.

 

I personally didn't join for any of the above reasons. I had known a few mason over the years and had found them all to be good men. Good men meaning honorable, respectable, men of character, and outstanding citizens. I wanted to improve myself and hopefully someday be reflected on as being one of "Those" men. In my research I had also found comments about it assisting with a persons spiritual walk.

I selected Mysteries because in away it was the mysteries of how it helped enhance a person.

 

Finding out the "secrets" is what lured me into Masonry. The Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man is what has kept me.

 

My Dad made me basically, I had no real intrest at all but found my nitch for sure.

 

Just so I could wear a fancy ring and have a :sc: decal on my car! Just kidding!

I joined our beautiful craft because of previous reading I had done, and also all Masons I had met were always bright, charming, charismatic, noble individuals. So I asked, I knocked and it opened unto me!

 

I'm calling BULL PIE on that one.

 

Well it was not drag me by the ear making me but the peer/Dad presure was intense and I thought what the heck I like what my Dad likes so I bet this rocks-made me, well it did not to me, the degrees where okay (the work by Brothers was fine I got good degrees) but I was just not into it or better yet I was not ready to get it. Then I saw the politics involved and I ran like a scalled ape for better than a year and then I saw that little book with all those neat cyphers in it which I could read, so I started learning the work from that book thinking I would help my Lodge out with degree work attending floor school at a differnt Lodge once or twice a week as to not get involved in politics just meet, learn and go and the occasional visit to my mentor. Well long story long my mentor happen to not show up one night for an EA degree which he does the lectiures and they were gonna cancel and my Dad said he can do it so I did and wow I had an eye opening experinence, at that moment I was trully initiated and I cared not what came in my way in the future I was gonna do degree work and have been jumping in the biggest chair I can every degree I can get to ever since.

 

i believe him.

 

When I was just a kid in the late 1940's I witnessed a Masonic Grave side service, It seems like there was more to the service then than now. I saw most of the communities leaders, who were masons, all good men. performing this service it stuck in my mind, and left a hunger, to belong to and become a member. later in life, at 21 I petitioned the lodge and was raised 3-26-1965.

 

I became a Mason for one simple reason. Men I respected, were Masons. Plain and simple. Yes, I have a family connection, my father is a Mason. Both of my (deceased) grandfathers were Masons. My Great-uncle was a 33rd degree SR Mason, and big in the Shrine. But I did not join because my relatives were Masons.

Most people do not realize it, but we are our own best advertisement. When you wear your lodge ring in public, you represent Freemasonry. Other men, will look to you, and measure you by the kind of man you are. If you live up to the tenets and practices of Masonry, other men will follow.

One question you should ask yourself often- "If being a Freemason were a crime, would there be enough evidence to convict you"?

 

Well I wish I could say something cool like that but I was intially pulled into the frat by my Dad and Sirius who is my cousin. I sooned realized that Masonry is in my DNA make up.

 

I am a legacy. It is all around me on both sides.

 

Brothers,

I also have a rich family history of Masonry. My dad worked in all three of my degrees, and as the WM in the FC and MM. My father-in-law and my wife's maternal grandfather were in all three as well, as were many men who were dear family friends.

It seems like I was aware of Masonry almost all my life. It's not that my dad was very active in lodge when I was a boy, but that Masonry was obviously an important part of his life. He kept Masonic books on the shelf and he would occasionally speak of living the Craft when other Masons were around. I would ask him about it, and he would almost always respond with something to the effect that maybe one day he could answer all my questions.

The two books that used to captivate me the most were the Texas Monitor with Lightfoot's Commentaries, and Pike's Morals & Dogma. I was just in elementary school when I discovered these two books, and I would sneak them into my room to read in private. While very little of it made sense to me, it nonetheless instilled in me a real love of ancient wisdom and an appreciation for the diversity with which human beings experience and express their spirituality. Beyond all of that, my sense of the mystery and depth of meaning in existence was powerfully stirred.

In my mid-20s I went back to take another shot at college, and started majoring in psychology and minoring in philosophy. One of my philosophy professors really captivated me. I could sense his deep wisdom, his love for life and its mysteries, and his compassion for others. After a couple of courses with him, I found out that he taught one in the spring called "The Ancient Wisdom Traditions," which was a review of the esoteric and mystical currents of the Western world. I signed up in spring 1988, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Needless to say, Freemasonry came up a lot in that course.

We were required to write a term paper on something that captured our interest in the course, and I was stuck on whether I would do mine on Freemasonry or Rosicrucianism. So I went to my professor and told him about my quandary. As I was sitting there in his office, I noticed a copy of Morals & Dogma on his shelf, just like the one on my dad's shelf. My professor asked if I had a family connection with either of those traditions, and I told him I did, and made note of the connection with Morals & Dogma. He immediately said something like, "Well, there's your answer! Take that book and make it the focus for your paper."

So, I did as he suggested, wrote the paper, made an A in the course, soon thereafter asked my dad for a petition, and was raised as a Master Mason before summer's end.

 

... One day I realized all my friends were Mason's. It was sort of an epiphany. I hadn't paid any attention to it before that, didn't take any hints from them, connect any meanings, etc... strange!

 

My initial reason for interest in OUR fraternity wasn't covered in the responses. In my growing up I came to admire several men who all happened to be members of Freemasonry.
What tipped me off was they all wore a ring with S&C, but were upstanding men, well thought of in their families, by the community and churches they belonged to. That was enough for me to come to admire this organization that they belonged to.
When I announced my intention to join this organization, it was then that I found out my family's long connection to Freemasonry.