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Reasons for becoming a Freemason

What induced you to become a Freemason?

  • Fascinated by the rich history.

    Votes: 22 21.2%
  • The Ritual work

    Votes: 4 3.8%
  • Wanted to be part of a social club

    Votes: 3 2.9%
  • I wanted to be part of a charitable organization

    Votes: 3 2.9%
  • A family member(s) was one

    Votes: 40 38.5%
  • Mysteries surrounding the Craft

    Votes: 32 30.8%

  • Total voters
    104

Heffernan

Registered User
Masonry runs all around my mom's side of the family, and my dad became a Mason when I was still a kid, and I couldn't wait to become a DeMolay and I lived and breathed DeMolay throughout my teen years. For me, I suppose it was a natural progression. Almost all the men I admired in my life are/were Masons. In the twenty-one years that I've been a Master Mason, that rule has held true throughout.

--
Patrick Heffernan, P.M.
Anson Jones #1416, AF & AM
Friendswood, Texas
 

C. Banks Barbee

Registered User
Really it was several of the reasons in the poll.

My grandfather was my first introduction to how important Masonry was. As a child, I would thumb through his "Lightfoot's Monitor" and look at the pictures and read what I could understand. I was fascinated by the facsimile of King Solomon's Temple and at that tender age wondering "How did they build that!

When I came of age, I knew I wanted to become a Mason. Knowing that my grandfather's days were numbered (although he's still kickin', thanks be to God) I knew that if I was going to go through with it I needed to do it while I could still sit in Lodge with him. Probably my fondest memory, more precious than my first car... among other firsts, is my grandfather "raising me from the great beyond."

Masonry has so much more to pass along besides memory work.
 

WarriorProphet

Registered User
I put "family members" because it is the primary reason, my father and several uncles are Freemasons, I don't believe either grandfather was but both exemplify the way a mason should live in their charity to others.

But, the real reason was more of an epiphany moment, like many brothers have expressed. I had watched my father as he went through the degrees, then hardship made him leave the lodge for a time, then a brother secretary called and said if its about the money, I'd rather pay your dues than see you slip away. This was a moment for my dad where the brotherhood over rode all the rest. Because a brother would rather have him along for the fellowship than the work. Still, it was not the time or place for me. Then my best friends sister (whom after 12+ years I claim as a "spare" sister) began dating a man 15+ years older than her. I was told this, plus that he was a marine, and finally that he was a mason. I was understandably upset about the former two pieces of info, but the mason part left a hard question. How bad could this guy be if he was a mason? And if he had those tenets and teachings at heart, how does that effect the oddness of the pairing? I called my dad and discussed it, and was encouraged to just see how he treated her. So their family had a vacation, my friend did not get to do due to military training, but his sister and her new beau went. So I went, primarily for the half week I'd get to spend with him. Immediately upon arriving I could see his attitude was well, he brought a levity to things that had become doldrum or contention, and was constantly calling all around him who would listen to better enjoy each other, better work together, and even challenging the younger men to improve their lives. As I listened I began to quickly grow close, and found he'd been most quietly challenging me. So I had a great new friend, whom I spend much time with to this day, and we continue to encourage each other, now despite a decade or more separating us we are true friends and brothers.

But it was one discussion with him that I began to realize, as good as this man was, and as well as his life prepared him, in the last few years masonry had sewn up, straightened up, and given definition to those things, making him able to combine all the good things he'd learned, forget or surpass all the bad, and truly made a good man better. Then as we spoke I also admitted I'd seen similar in my father, and was proud of the changes and progress the craft had done in him.

A couple weeks after the vacation I visited my friends lodge, found the men there more agreeable to my personality than the older gentlemen my father's lodge had been and petitioned to join. In coming around for my degrees my father met my friend, and the brothers there, and also joined there.

This is what it should be about, not to discount the awesome mysteries, nor the grand history of the fraternity, nor even a longstanding family legacy. But, to be lead to the door by a friend, knock, have it opened, and find new brothers and friends already waiting inside is to me the best experience one can have, made even better for those of us who find fathers and grandfathers of our own already there.

And now I'm here, able to see all as my brothers, and now I want to spend more time at his lodge, other lodges in the area, shriner game nights, combined service projects, and the like. Because I see friends and brothers wherever I go.
 

leshassell

Registered User
The best men I've ever known were Masons and there are many, many reasons I could come up with but the main reason I wanted to become a Mason was, quite simply, so I could wear my Grandfather's ring.
 

ddreader

Premium Member
Premium Member
long family history of masons. i was being taught masonic morals and vules my whole life and did not even know it till i joined. how i love it so.
 

Benton

Premium Member
I petitioned for a couple of the listed reasons in the poll. My maternal grandfather was a Mason, and while I didn't know him long (he died while I was young) I always knew him to be a very kind, good person.

My high school band director was a Mason (noticed his ring my senior year), and he was very influential on me musically and developmentally. I'm a music education major in college, soon to be a music teacher, and a large part of that was his influence, so it certainly impacted me!

I also, while in college, have had a grand time in my college fraternities (two of them) both of which were heavily influenced by Masonry, and I wanted to both continue my fraternal pursuits post college, as well as experience the grand daddy of all fraternities itself. :)

And I'm not going to lie, the mystique of Masonry pulled me in a lot too. Seeing men with their rings, usually very put together and successful, good people interested me. It was only after I joined Masonry that I discovered the beautiful virtues and morals it taught, and how it could affect me as a virtuous man. And I think that's what interests me about Masonry the most now that I'm in it; using it to mold myself into a better man.
 

Willys

Premium Member
I used to like working backstage in my school theatre, it was where the other kids were friendly. The treat of the year being the musical. I couldn't carry a tune and was jealous watching those who could. Years later, I commented to a Manager at work that I would like to have been in the longest running musical in Broadway history. To which the Manager replied, 'Get yourself in a Lodge.' He did sign my petition.

I realize today it was all discipline, ritual, design and commitment I was seeking and have no further interest in Broadway.

Okay, really. My dad and most uncles were Masons. I always had a good opinion of Masonry. At family gatherings they would all huddle out back, smoking, laughing, sharing a bond. So, I finally became accepted but unfortunately, the family has now mostly passed on.

Masonry has helped me to learn that family lineage, continuity. Dads and uncles have done this for a couple of centuries.
 
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trey_odom

Registered User
this wasnt an option . but when i was growing up . my dad didnt stick around .. so i wanted to b around good godly men , and men with good hearts to help out even the youngest masons.
 
J

JEbeling

Guest
Barbee.. ! it was nice to see your Grandfather get his 50 year pin the other nite.. ! have known him for a lot of years.. ! nice to see him getting around and still doing his job.. !
 

jwhoff

Premium Member
family history going back seven generations to (at least) Germany.
history and philosophy of the order
deep yearning for "something more" than the work-a-day world
my mason father died when I was 14 and, because of the masons around me, I never suffered from male nurturing and leadership


now, it's the triangle: my relationship with God and my fellow man

of course, being able to get myself around Washington, DC without a street map is a real bonus!
 

jwhoff

Premium Member
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.

Sorry Rhitland, lots of folks are scared off by politics in the lodge. Even though we're warned against such nonsense everywhere in the craft. Your statement has struck a cord with me. As a brotherhood we should spend more time building up the important aspects of masonry than trying to persuade one another of our various political views. Thanks for hanging around long enough to catch the bug. Remember what you've learned personally and pass it on brother.
 

jwhoff

Premium Member
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"?

Take care of yourself brother. Your words are food for thought. Wisdom abounds in those few words you share.
 

Wesbarr

Registered User
My father, grandfather, and four of my uncles are MM. I never gave it any thought growning up but after getting older I gained intrest and went through the degrees. It's a very wonderful experience to have so much family with you
 

Timothy Fleischer

Registered User
I asked about the Lodge because I kept coming across the names of men who were Masons doing good things in the community. I own a small town newspaper and these men kept coming up through the newspaper for volunteering here and doing good things there. When the WM came in to the newspaper to announce an Open House at the Lodge, I knew him through other ways and asked him about Masonry. He lit up like a Christmas tree!

That was 15 years ago. Best question I have asked in a lifetime of asking questions as a newspaperman.

From there, I learned of the rich history of our Fraternity both in the founding of our nation and in the founding of Texas and in the founding of the small town I call home.

I learned of the beauty of our rituals and the symbolic lessons taught through them.

I asked, I sought, I knocked and the door was opened unto me.

Tim Fleischer
PM Salado Masonic Lodge #296
 

sspencer@chireno.com

Registered User
I felt that masonry had to be a good organization because every mason I had met were good and upstanding men. Also there is the shriners hospital. After some research about the craft I asked my best friend about becoming a mason. My proudest moment (Next to my children being born) was when I turned in my MM work!
 
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