Search This Blog

Saturday 7 March 2015

Freemasonry

The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England), was founded in London, on June 24, 1717.

The first Masonic Grand Lodge in the future United States was constituted in Massachusetts in 1733.

Georgia's founder, James Oglethorpe (see below) established the first Masonic Lodge within Georgia on February 21, 1734. Now known as Solomon's Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M, it is the oldest continuously operating English Masonic Lodge in the Western Hemisphere.


Wolfgang Mozart was an enthusiastic Freemason. ( He was in the same Masonic Lodge as his fellow composer Joseph Haydn). The music written for masonic use by Mozart is among the best-known of its kind. It includes the Maurerische Trauermusik (Masonic Funeral Music) and a number of songs and cantatas.

Mozart's last opera, The Magic Flute, was full of masonic symbolism. For example: the number three is an important number in masonry and there are lot of things in the opera that happen in threes: there are three long chords at the beginning of overture, and the three chords appear again in the scene in the temple. Even the key is E flat major which has a key signature of three flats. There are three ladies, three young boys and three trials. (The trials are similar to the rituals in Masonic ceremonies.)

Freemasonry in the United States faced political pressure following the 1826 kidnapping of William Morgan by Freemasons and his subsequent disappearance. Reports of the "Morgan Affair", together with opposition to president candidate Andrew Jackson who was a prominent Mason helped fuel an Anti-Masonic movement.

American opposition to freemasonry, culminating in the formation of a short lived Anti-Masonic Party dedicated to driving Freemasons out of public life. The first 'third party' in the USA, it fielded candidates for the Presidential elections of 1828 and 1832,

Pope Leo XIII published the encyclical Humanum genus on April 20, 1884, in which he denounced Freemasonry as well as a number of beliefs and practices purportedly associated with it such as popular sovereignty and the separation of church and state. He said: "As Our predecessors have many times repeated, let no man think that he may for any reason whatsoever join the Masonic sect, if he values his Catholic name and his eternal salvation as he ought to value them."

Leo XIII 

Between 80,000 and 200,000 Freemasons were killed under the Nazi regime. Masonic concentration camp inmates were classified as political prisoners and wore an inverted red triangle. Hitler believed Freemasons were supporting Jews conspiring against Germany.

Freemasons are responsible for English football team Manchester City playing in blue. In 1894 the club was in a financial crisis and was bailed out by Masons, who asked that in return the team wear the Masonic color of blue.

The largest Masonic Temple in the world, the Detroit Masonic Temple, was saved from foreclosure in 2013 by Jack White of the White Stripes. White paid off $142,000 owed in back taxes by the Temple due to the fact that it had given his mother a job as an usher when she was in need.


No comments:

Post a Comment