Original subtitles

Five million walk among us.

Freemasons.

Their lavish temples are in every major city.

Their members include the power elite.

For centuries, they've inspired conspiracy theories about secret

governments and global control.

In most countries, the people who are in power, mostly they are Freemasons.

Who are they?

What do they do?

And why?

There's nothing wrong with secrets.

Some claim their power goes back to the Bible.

Others say they've committed notorious crimes.

So much of this conspiracy theory sort of depends upon making Masons out to be

sort of superhuman.

Their story involves ancient legends, medieval crusades.

and modern revolutions.

Those conspiracy theories have been out there for a long time.

Now, for the first time, we will witness their secret rights and discover the

power and the purpose of the Freemasons.

January 1989, George Herbert Walker Bush, former ambassador to the UN

and former head of the CIA, takes the presidential oath of office,

a public event.

But unseen by most observers is the Bible he uses to be sworn in.

It's a strange volume.

illustrated with the symbolism of the world's oldest and most influential

fraternity, a secretive society called the Freemasons.

This same Bible was used to swear in America's first president, George

Washington, a Freemason. He would not be the last.

In the United States, 14 of our presidents have been Freemasons.

They include Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

Gerald Ford, and Harry Truman, a Masonic Grand Master, and the

man who established the UN and the CIA.

Some say this is coincidence, but others claim it's evidence of a shadow

government controlled by the Freemasons.

It's a society of secrets.

They're not very open about what they stand for.

certainly for the last 40 years in this country, an absolute dream for

conspiracy theorists.

For at least three centuries, their members have played a dominant role in

business, science, literature, and politics.

From Napoleon Bonaparte to Winston Churchill to King Edward VIII.

Most of the time, When people try to describe what Freemasonry is, they have

a hard time doing it. And so what they end up doing is falling back on telling

you people who have been members.

And then you say, well, you know, Ben Franklin was a Mason, or George

Washington was a Mason.

Even as Mozart composed his Masonic opera, The Magic Flute, a French

physician named Guillotine invented a killing machine that symbolized the

French Revolution, which some claim... the Masons started.

As the Wright Brothers took flight, Masons named Chrysler, Olds, and Ford

established the auto industry.

Colton Gatling modernized war's most terrible weapons.

And Freemasons took control of the movies, led by Louis B. Mayer at MGM,

Jack Warner at Warner Brothers, and Daryl Zanuck at 20th Century Fox.

Masonic superstars include Clark Gable and John Wayne, Harry Houdini and Mel

Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny.

Abbott, but not Costello.

Sports heroes like Ty Cobb and Arnold Palmer, even famous names like Buzz

Aldrin and Wendy's founder, Dave Thomas.

But who are they?

What do they do? And how did they achieve such power?

What they did was they developed another layer, a secret layer

of organization that no other trade had.

And in that sense, they stood out by being different, by being secretive,

if you like.

They traffic in weird icons and secret rituals.

People are naturally suspicious anytime influential people or groups of people

are meeting in relative secrecy. Some assert they're an ancient order

empowered by occult knowledge.

Many fear their bizarre initiations indoctrinate new members into a sinister

cult. And their ritual reenactments of an ancient murder have some suggesting

they are a ruthless conclave willing to kill to protect their secrets and their

plans for a new world order.

In almost every mysterious and controversial event from Jack the Ripper

to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, you can, if you look hard enough, find

Masonic involvement.

What is the secret? See, that's what they don't want to talk about.

There's nothing wrong with secrets.

We know who killed JFK. We know what happened at Area 51.

Don't ask.

Those conspiracy theories have been out there for a long time.

I think part of it is the fact that we've never been out front and open

about what we're doing.

Today, most major cities are home to a Masonic lodge, ornate temples close to

outsiders, and open to suspicion.

I think the feeling and the part of the general public is that there are secrets

that we're keeping from them that are making us superior to them.

Masonic legends suggest a grand saga that stretches far into the past.

Freemasons have, over the years, claimed that their body goes back to Solomon's

Temple or even to the beginning of the world.

that these Masonic rituals, you know, in some cases were created by God.

What is the truth behind these fantastic claims?

What is the fact? And what is the fiction?

Freemasonry was practiced by many of America's founders, but some believe

they are behind many horrifying crimes.

There is the 1982 hanging of an Italian banker with links to the Vatican.

There is the 2004 shooting death of a mason during an initiation rite in New

York.

There are even wild claims that the killing spree of Jack the Ripper was a

Masonic plot.

We will penetrate the marble walls of the Masonic Lodge.

We'll witness rituals never before seen by outsiders.

We'll discover the forbidden password of the third degree.

And we reveal the true purpose of the Masonic Creed.

In most countries, the people who are in power, mostly they are Freemasons.

For some reason, that's how it happened. It happened in the United States, in

England, and all over the world.

How did masonry gain such prominence?

What goes on within these lavish temples in London, New York,

Philadelphia, or Washington, D.C.? Freemasons have no central

authority.

Each lodge is independent, yet they are seen by many as part of a global

organization.

The privacy of Masonic meetings led the people to think that here is a secret

government within our government, that we're really not running our own

affairs, but we're being manipulated by powers behind the throne.

The conspiracy theory you find most attractive says something quite deep

-seated about your underlying worldview.

Are the Freemasons the most powerful men alive?

Or are these just paranoid fantasies?

Does their craft go back to biblical times?

And do they possess ancient secrets?

The questions have been raised.

The answers are not what you'd expect.

And they begin with an event that has thrust popular fears of a Masonic

conspiracy into the international spotlight.

The Trail of Clues begins with a murder.

London's Blackfriars Bridge.

The scene of a crime that would put the Freemasons in the crosshairs of popular

fears.

On June 18th, 1982, a body was found hanging beneath the bridge.

The victim was Roberto Calvi, a 62-year-old Italian banker.

On his body was a fake passport.

and $15,000 cash.

His pockets were stuffed with bricks.

It appeared to be a murder, staged to send a message.

But from whom?

Some believe it was the Mafia.

Others suggest the symbolism was Masonic.

The bricks in the pockets suggested stonemasons.

The bridge where the body was found is close to the Masonic Grand Lodge of

London, and even its name, Blackfriar, was the nickname for a secretive group

to which Roberto Calvi belonged.

An outlawed organization called Propaganda Due, or P2, and P2 had been

a lodge of the Freemasons.

British journalist Rupert Cornwell was in Rome back then, working for the

Financial Times.

I am Rupert Cornwell, and I am not a Freemason.

When Calvi was discovered, the reaction was just amazement. The circumstances of

the death were just, just people could not believe it.

Roberto Calvi had risen through the ranks of Italy's banking industry to

become chairman of Banco Ambrosiano.

one of Italy's largest private banks, with ties to the Vatican that earned

Calvi the nickname God's Banker.

But weeks before his death, Calvi had appeared in court about the

disappearance of $1.4 billion from his bank.

My name is Conrad Guerrier, and I am not a Freemason.

Basically, what was going on was vast amounts of money were being laundered

through Banco Ambrosiano, shipped overseas to Latin America and other

offshore banking points, and then disappearing.

Within days of the discovery of Calvi's body, British police ruled the death a

suicide, a finding many thought to be a cover-up.

The circumstances, of course, were quite bizarre. Would a person commit suicide

by hanging themselves when he had to walk down quite a complicated set of

steps and then climb out onto the scaffolding to do this?

Later inquiries showed the injuries to his neck were inconsistent with hanging

and that he hadn't touched the bricks in his pockets.

And at the time of death, the point on the bridge where the rope was tied...

could be reached by someone standing in a boat.

Rupert Cornwell personally met with Calvey two months before his death.

He looked like a man who was under extreme pressure.

This was a man who was frightened, who was hunted, and who was, I think, aware

that the end probably wasn't that far off.

Calvey was reputedly a member of the P2 Lodge.

I'm John Hamill, and I'm a Freemason.

P2 was a lodge under the Grand Orient of Italy.

It was taken over by a man called Niccio Gelli, who suddenly began to run the

proper lodge, which was regularly registered as it had to be under Italian

law. But he was also behind it, running a clandestine lodge.

P2 was established in 1877, and it was a very traditional Italian Freemason

lodge. However, in the 1960s, it was taken over by Gelli, and when Gelli

infiltrated the organization, it became a Freemason lodge with an agenda.

Roberto Calvi was Catholic, and the church has long denounced Freemasonry.

So why would he become a member of the P2 lodge?

I suspect that Calvi was attracted to P2 because it offered him business

opportunities, because it satisfied his interest in the idea of hidden power.

His son, Carlo, was 28 at the time of his father's death.

My father did not entirely participate in these things because of his own free

choice.

What happens is that the bank had grown.

In order to do that, they had to keep contacts with the politicians.

The P2 lodge was sort of an intermediary of these politicians. So it was more of

a constraint than an act of free will.

There's evidence, I think, that Banco Ambrosiano was loaning money to P2 and

serving as a paymaster for some of the people connected with Gelli.

An investigation blew the scandal wide open.

It was claimed that Geli wanted Calvi out of the way for embezzling money.

But some believe the plot didn't end with embezzlement.

The theatrical nature of Calvi's death, the symbolism, authorities calling it a

suicide, and the fact that the scheme was conducted within the P2 Lodge made

some wonder if there was something more sinister going on.

Licio Gelli compiled a list of several hundred people that he targeted. There's

evidence that he was involved in blackmailing, using pilfered files from

the Italian secret services.

And he had a plan to basically remake the Italian government along more

authoritarian lines.

This is the secret world Roberto Calvi had entered.

He was actually joining not just a secret society, but a secret society

with a very real agenda, and a very real conspiratorial agenda to actually seize

control of the Italian state.

But some claim this was a Masonic scheme.

I'm Jim Mars, journalist, author, and I'm not a Mason.

Basically, this was an attempt by a Masonic lodge to take over a modern

country and create a right-wing dictatorship.

This theory says the plan didn't end with Italy.

In the subsequent court cases, you had mysterious deaths, you had accusations

of the involvement of George Herbert Walker Bush and Henry Kissinger and the

CIA and the Vatican Bank.

It was just a whole little ball of wax.

So don't think that everyone who questions what's going on within

Freemasonry is just a conspiracy theorist. This was a conspiracy that was

very well documented.

Was Calvey's death merely the tip of an iceberg?

A glimpse into a world of conspirators,

Freemasons, plotting to overthrow a free government and control an entire

country.

Why would they do this?

Who are they?

And why do they invoke such fear and suspicion?

As it turns out, charges like these have been leveled against the Freemasons for

centuries.

Freemasonry began with the stonemason guilds of medieval England, Scotland,

and France.

Their trade secrets made them valued artisans in the construction of castles

and cathedrals.

Secret handshakes and other signals were used to identify men as members of the

craft.

Skilled stoneworkers known as operative freemasons.

By 1700, they had evolved into a progressive gentleman's club and were

called speculative freemasons.

Their order grew and spread from England to Europe.

to America.

Masonic lodges established rights of initiation and they kept their

activities secret.

But what are these secrets?

What is their ultimate purpose?

Would people kill to protect them?

For the first time, Cameras have been allowed inside a Masonic temple to

record rituals that have been hidden for centuries.

Rights based upon a story that links Freemasons to nothing less than the

builders of Solomon's temple.

And to another brutal murder that took place 3,000 years ago.

There are five million Freemasons in the world today.

But who are they?

They're known for their charity work, their elaborate temples,

and their arcane symbols.

But what they may be best known for is secrecy.

Much of it centered on initiation rites into the three degrees of Freemasonry.

Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason.

These rites go back 300 years, steeped in symbolic meaning.

They've also been associated with dark agendas and, some claim, ritual murder.

A shadowy cult established to protect ancient secrets is the premise of Dan

Brown's bestseller, The Da Vinci Code, which features a hidden truth guarded

for centuries by a fictional cult called the Priory of Scion.

But in his next book, The Solomon Key, Brown brings in an organization that is

real.

The Freemasons.

A group that conspiracy theorists say has amassed great power and is willing

to destroy anyone who would challenge them.

They assert that the Calvi death is one example of how far they'll go to protect

their members and their schemes.

Another so-called example is the 2004 shooting death of William James in Long

Island, New York.

Reports claimed it was a Masonic rite.

Before he was shot in the head, James was blindfolded, seated in a chair, and

surrounded by tin cans.

James had gone through most of the initiation process, and he had come to

the point where there's a mock shooting, in which a member of the club was going

to pull out a gun, shoot blanks.

and then some cans next to the initiate were to be knocked over by someone next

to the cans.

What happened tragically was that the person with the gun reached in his

pocket, pulled out a loaded gun rather than the actual gun with the blanks in

it.

He shot and killed William James.

The trigger man was Albert Eide, a fellow Freemason.

The New York Masonic Lodge was quick to say that the event was not part of any

Masonic ritual.

But there were Freemasons involved, and this was enough to create an

international sensation.

I'd pled guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was given probation.

He was also expelled from the lodge.

If you break the law and you're convicted, then you will either have

your membership suspended or more often than not thrown out completely and not

be able to get back in because of what we believe Freemasonry stands for.

But if that's the case, then why are Freemasons associated with violent

deaths?

One reason may be that their initiation rites involve a Masonic legend that goes

back 3,000 years.

And at the center of the tale is a murder.

The story is based on a biblical account found in the Book of Kings.

King Solomon built the Temple to God in Jerusalem.

His top architect was Hiram Abiff, seen here in the costume beard.

Legend says he was an ancient Freemason.

Hiram Abiff knew the secret password of the Master Mason, but as the temple

neared completion, he was confronted by three lesser stoneworkers who wanted to

learn the secret password,

a word that would grant them wisdom and power.

Give me the secret word of a Master Mason.

I cannot.

Each one threatened Hiram Abiff with death unless he gave up the secret, but

Hiram refused.

Wait until the temple is completed.

Then die.

For that, he was killed with the tools of the Freemasons' trade.

A death toll sounds.

And Hiram's body is removed from the stage.

When you act out the role of Hiram Abiff, it's the most dramatic way of

learning what your deepest fears are.

The three assassins plant an acacia tree over the grave.

Then they try to board a ship to flee the realm, but they have no permission

to leave.

Meanwhile, Solomon learns that Hiram is missing, and he orders his men to search

for the architect.

Some time later, the killers are found and are brought to the King of Tyre.

All three admit their guilt, and the king orders their execution.

Later, Hiram's death is confirmed when his pendant is discovered.

And when his body is found, it is carried off to a proper burial.

King Solomon then establishes a new word, one that no Freemason will ever

speak in public.

This word is the Paschi to the third degree, one of the Masons' most tightly

held secrets.

That secret word is only, however, a substitute for the true pronunciation

and understanding of the Tetragrammaton, or Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, or Y-H-V-H. Only a

substitute. And that word is Mahabon, which I believe is a

corruption of the Hebrew Mahaboné.

which can be translated, what, is this the builder?

And Hiram, of course, was a builder.

My name is Stephen Tsoukalos, and I'm not a mason.

The ritual of the third degree is not about protecting a word.

It's about being entrusted with a secret.

It's an attempt to make every candidate completely reassess his life.

That's why it's dramatic.

I mean, it's supposed to be life-changing.

But some see this ritual murder as a method of indoctrination into a sinister

cult.

According to Masonic ritual, if you break your oaths, you will be murdered.

That is the basic of the oath. And as you go up in degrees, the punishments

become more bizarre, from having your throat slit to having your...

Your chest open perpendicular in the higher degrees, the top of your head

will be taken off and your brain will be exposed to the heat of the noonday sun.

Naturally, the Masons regard all this as absurd.

What we have today, unfortunately, is a situation where people now, especially

non-Masons, look at what Freemasons do in these dramas, in these plays.

and believe them to be literally true.

And of course, they are not.

But if this is the case, then why all the mystery?

And why do some believe the Masons maintain their secrets with the threat

of murder?

The key lies in how Hiram Abiff ties the Masons to another secretive society.

The Templar Knights.

and to a 500-year conspiracy that some claim has shaped the course of history

and created the modern world.

War.

Depression.

Revolutions.

Religious movements.

On the surface, they seem to be random events.

Independent forces all vying for money and influence.

But is there a hidden order beneath it all?

Are these events in fact orchestrated by a conspiracy of power brokers directing

the business of the world through elite organizations?

in secret societies.

When the Bilderberg meets, you know, and they were set up by leading masons, the

Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Most of the key people that get invited to them are masons.

And if you do come to that realization it's just them, then you can either

accept it and let them run the world, or you can say, well, no, I don't.

But can any one organization be so powerful, ruthless, and invisible that

it charts the course of history and controls the lives of millions?

And are they willing to kill to preserve their silent grip on the levers of

power? Freemasonry serves a very important role in conspiracy theories.

It is undoubtedly the largest single organization, which is secret,

which people know about.

It's international.

It's found in every country.

So it's a perfect vehicle to enable an international conspiracy to take effect.

The story of Hiram Abiff suggests that the Masons go far back in history to the

designers of the Temple of Jerusalem.

Some push it back even further to the very founders of civilization.

But how do these claims link the Freemasons of ancient times to the

corridors of power today?

Freemasonry has attracted the rich and the powerful and the influential, and

certainly as it evolved out of its medieval guild roots, it evolved into an

organization which did attract opinion formers, and is undoubtedly historically

a recruitment tool.

that you will be joining this group with esoteric secrets going back to Solomon.

Solomon's Temple is the Key Centuries ago, the ruins of the ancient

structure served as headquarters for a band of noblemen who relinquished all

their possessions to become armed escorts for visitors to the Holy Land

during the Crusades.

The Temple Knights the Knights Templar.

It was called a new knighthood, meaning these would be warrior monks, not

merely monks who prayed all day, but not also only those who fought on the

battlefield. So they began as a type of spiritual special forces for Christ, one

might say.

The Templars were secretive, and they became rich and powerful.

But how?

Solomon's Temple had been the holiest of shrines. It was the storage place for

the Ten Commandments.

But legend says that in the depths of the stone monument was another treasure

of immeasurable value.

What is the treasure? Well, some authors claim it's the Holy Grail, some say it's

the Ark of the Covenant, some say it's the embalmed head of Jesus Christ, some

say it's the lost writings of Jesus Christ.

And of course the other one that is the hottest is that it's in fact none of

these physical things, but it in fact is the secret of the bloodline of Jesus

Christ.

But another theory says what the Templars discovered were two sculpted

columns copied in Masonic temples today.

The pillars of knowledge.

What was this secret knowledge that so empowered the Templars?

There's no end to the speculation.

And the Knights Templars were gaining this information under the Temple of

Solomon in Jerusalem, which had been collected and gathered there from the

ancient mystery schools of Egypt and Greece.

And these were the ancient secrets that had been passed down since the beginning

of time.

The Templars' mix of secrecy and wealth fueled rumors of heresy.

stomping on the cross, homosexual rites,

even worshipping the head of John the Baptist or the image of Baphomet,

the pagan idol.

The Templars were accused of blasphemy by royals like King Philip of France,

who grew jealous of the knights' wealth and influence.

The King of France decided that he was going to acquire their wealth and so on

the 13th of October 1307 the French authorities arrested all the Knights

Templar that they could find in France.

Historians say the Templars were destroyed.

But according to some, the Knights did not disappear.

Rather, they went into hiding in the ornate shrines they built across Europe

and wielded their power in secret.

In one account, the Templars are said to have joined forces with knights from

Malta, warriors who turned to piracy under a symbol we all know today,

the skull and crossbones.

It's a depiction of the Templars' burial custom.

of severing a dead man's legs and arranging them as a cross.

This emblem provides an iconic link between the medieval Templars and

today's power elite.

Most infamous among them is Yale University's Skull and Bones Club.

Since 1832, this ultra-private fraternity for the sons of America's

most powerful families has included Presidents Taft, Roosevelt, the senior

George Bush, George W. Bush, and Senator John Kerry.

Like the Templars, the Skull and Bonesmen keep their rituals and their

agenda secret.

But they proudly fly the pirate banner, a symbolic connection with the Templars

and, so it's claimed, with the mystical origins of Freemasonry.

Freemasonry is the latest incarnation of what is known as the underground stream.

This is a hidden stream of knowledge that has been passed down since the dawn

of human history.

Conspiracy theorists say there's an unbroken chain stemming from the

builders of the pyramids to Hiram Abiff to the Templar

Knights.

to the Masons of the 18th century and today.

If it's true, this knowledge must be more than trade secrets of stonemasons.

It was found, after all, in Solomon's temple, God's own house.

Does this mean the Freemasons are a religion unto themselves?

Their religious trappings have inspired opponents.

From those who accuse them of heresy, to those who claim they are in league with

Satan himself.

kept the faith in this life. If you want to receive your crown,

keep fighting in the name of Jesus.

It may sound like a church, but this in fact is a meeting of a Masonic lodge.

Like a church, all nationalities are welcome, and in recent years, women as

well.

But it raises a question often asked by outsiders.

Are the Freemasons in reality a religion?

The prime qualification for entry into Freemasonry under our Grand Lodge and

the ones we're in amity with around the world is a belief in God, a belief in a

Supreme Being. We don't define who that should be, what your religion should be,

but we believe that Freemasons should have a religion and practice it.

But Masonic lodges adopt some of the trappings of a traditional church.

We're entering the space that is most important in Freemasonry.

Central to the furniture of a lodge is the altar.

On it, you will find in an operating lodge the volume of the sacred law.

What does that mean? It is basically a reference to whatever holy books.

that the members of the Lodge believe in.

I am Akram Elias, a Freemason, the Senior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge

of Free and Accepted Masons of Washington, D.C.

All religions are welcome, yet the teachings of Masonry itself have a

religious ring.

One that we hear quite often is that we attempt to make good men better.

We can't make bad men good.

The other one, the one that I prefer, is a peculiar system of morality.

And peculiar, of course, here means unusual or special.

So a peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols,

of which we have lots and lots and lots.

So you have a situation where a symbol, let's take for example the letter G,

some people believe that it stands for God within Freemasonry. Some believe it

stands for goodness, the goodness of the human spirit.

Others believe it stands for geometry.

And so in that way it can mean many things to many people within the

organisation.

I've got on my lapel pin a square and compasses, and the center of it is the

letter G. And it reminds me to square my actions by the square of virtue, to

circumscribe my passions and desires, and to remember that God is in the

center of my life.

A moral system based on a belief in God. It certainly sounds like a church, yet

the Masons insist they are not.

Freemasonry is not a religion, although...

It incorporates into its rituals many symbols and ideas and motifs

that appear to have some kind of religion or religious or philosophical

overtone.

We're not a religion.

We're not a substitute for religion.

We support religion.

We expect people to have a religion. You can't come in if you're an atheist or an

agnostic. You must have a belief.

but it is not our job to tell people what their religion should be.

It's important to recognize this religious dimension and not to deny it,

and it is a problem for deeply committed Orthodox Christians.

Even more disturbing is Masonic lore that traces its history back to pagan

civilizations.

And Freemasonry seems to have inherited the practices of ancient mystery

religions, which kept their rituals under wraps.

The ancient mystery religions didn't let anyone in that desired.

You underwent a strict test.

In Freemasonry, you do as well. True Mason understands the deep meanings of

the legend of Hiram the Biff, of the common gavel, of the apron, of coming to

newness of life.

Being, as we say, born again, yet Jesus is missing.

And for many outsiders, this is a problem.

Masonry is certainly a religion, and it has every aspect.

It's certainly much more ornate than the most Protestant churches.

It's a religion of secularism, essentially.

As a Christian, I do believe in a one universal creative force.

The Masons call it the great architect of the universe. It's the universal mass

mind, which pretty well qualifies as God.

But is this supreme architect the God of the Bible or someone else?

I maintain that you cannot be an informed Mason.

and a Christian at the same time without being in some kind of rebellion against

God. It's a conflict between Jesus Christ and Satan.

This fanciful claim is supposedly proven by Masonic references to pagan Egypt.

Connections to the alleged heresies of the Templar Knights.

and their use of strange symbols, including the star or pentagram, to sum

a satanic icon.

The Catholics and now the Protestants, the fundamentalist evangelical

Protestant groups, people like Pat Robertson, are fitting the Freemasons,

or at least the leadership of the Freemasons, into a conspiracy to impose

a new world order.

Is history made in secret?

The pyramids?

Solomon's Temple?

The Templar Knights?

Is there a link between these and other historical landmarks forged by the

Freemasons?

Are they more than builders?

Are they the architects of an ancient conspiracy to control the world?

At first glance, they appear innocuous, a social club that encourages

brotherhood, community, and personal improvement.

But is this a facade for something more sinister?

Time and again, shocking murders have been blamed on the Masons, and some say

they are warnings to those who challenge the power.

or betray their secrets.

Some even link a Masonic conspiracy to the most notorious murderer of all time.

I suppose one of the areas where we have and continue from time to time to be

brought into conspiracy theory is the Drac the Ripper saga.

In 1888, five women were knifed to death in the streets of London.

Their throats slit, bodies mutilated, internal organs

removed.

And though these deaths took place in London, the assassin was never

identified.

For a few conspiracy theorists, the methods of Jack the Ripper point to the

Masons.

At 1.44 a.m.

On the 30th of September, 1888, the body of Catherine Eddowes was found in a

corner of Mitre Square.

The mutilations to her face and to her body were fairly extreme.

People have since linked on to a possible Masonic connection to this.

Firstly, two inverted Vs were cut onto her cheeks. Some people have claimed if

you put those two Vs together, you would actually get an M denoting a mason.

Secondly, half her apron was removed, and obviously the link to aprons and

masons is obvious.

Thirdly, the name Mitre Square.

People are saying, obviously, the mitre and the square both being Masonic

symbols.

And according to the conspiracy theory, when the police entered the picture...

the Masonic connection only deepened.

At 2.55, just an hour and ten minutes after the murder of Captain Eddowes in

Mitre Square, PC Alfred Long was walking up Galston Street.

He found half a white apron.

Jack had cut it away from the body and used it to wipe his knife clean and wipe

his hands whilst running away from the murder scene.

But it was what was found next to the apron that's since become the stuff of

legend.

There was an inscription apparently left on the wall, and it was something to the

effect that it was the Jewish, J-U-W-E-S, that did it.

In the American Masonic rituals, there is in one part of one of the ceremonies

reference to a group of three people who were titled Jubilo, Jubilar, Jubilum.

These three so-called Jews...

were the men who wanted to force the secrets of a master mason from Hiram

Abiff.

What's more, when the inscription was discovered, it was promptly destroyed on

the orders of a freemason.

The key thing which was supposed to be it, and it's where the one freemason who

was involved, the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

the charge is that police commissioner charles warren himself a mason had the

inscription removed to cover up evidence of a masonic involvement

but why would a

mason go on such a killing spree

There are a number of writers who have claimed that this was a Masonic

conspiracy for a number of different reasons, but generally a conspiracy to

preserve the status quo.

That status quo was the position of Prince Albert Edward, grandson of Queen

Victoria.

Allegedly, he had an affair with a prostitute named Annie Crook, who became

pregnant. Four of her fellow streetwalkers knew of this, so all five

women were murdered to keep the pregnancy secret.

And the man who supposedly did it, Dr.

William Gall, was the Queen's private physician.

He was also a Freemason.

Did a royalty-connected Mason surface into the public spotlight just long

enough to protect a friendly prince?

Is this how they operate and why they've endured for so long?

Freemason legends portray the craft as quietly existing for thousands of years.

But modern speculative Freemasonry came into being at a very particular time and

place.

A critical period in history that saw the fall of kings and

the rise of what some fear is a new world order.

How did the modern fraternity of Freemasons begin?

And why do they keep secrets from the outside world?

I'm Jim Mars, and I am not a Mason.

Although Freemasonry is outwardly a very benign and philanthropic organization,

there are dark sides to it.

My name is Stephen Tsoukalos, and I'm not a Mason.

If it were a secret society, many of us would not know about it.

It's not a secret society in that sense, but it is a society with secrets.

The modern Masonic movement is usually recognized as having started in 18th

century England.

The Grand Lodge of England was founded in 1717 in London.

Near St. Paul's Cathedral, a group of gentlemen convene at a pub called the

Goose and Gridiron and formally pledge their allegiance to a club they call the

Freemasons.

While the original operative Freemasons were the stonecutters of the Middle

Ages, this new Masonic order is made up of merchants and aristocrats who indulge

in secret passwords and costume dramas.

They call themselves speculative Masons who discuss progressive ideas and

speculate on the meaning of life.

What happens in 1717 is still relatively mysterious.

We've only got one broadly contemporary account of the foundation of the Grand

Lodge. There are no reports in contemporary newspapers.

Freemasons have a long tradition of secrecy.

Some of the original secrets of the Freemasons were the operative secrets.

They knew how to cut stone so it would be as strong as possible. If they put it

across a lentil, they knew how to make arches.

Very importantly, they knew how to make squares.

Getting the best jobs meant proving you were a member of the craft.

The stonemason who is traveling from one building site to another, how is he

going to identify himself to someone else that he is a stonemason?

Well, he's got a handshake, and this only shows that they are stonemasons.

The operative tradition of keeping trade secrets carried over to the speculative

masons who established handshakes, passwords, and rituals to

create a sense of membership in their club.

Just a few years after the meeting at the Goose and Gridiron, The Freemasons

had hundreds of members, several branches called lodges, and a written

constitution filled with fantastic symbols, signals, tools, and hand

clasps.

Even their own alphabet.

They eventually devise a hierarchy of novice masons, master masons, and

grandmasters. Three levels called degrees, each one reached through a

secret initiation.

and rewarded with a password that members swear never to reveal under

penalty of death.

New members are never asked to join. They must do the asking, and they are

approved by secret ballot.

A white ball for a yes vote, a single dark stone, means exclusion.

It's the origin of the term black ball.

Tools of the builders' trade become symbols of the order.

Speculative Freemasonry was formally established in 1717, but some claim the

craft goes back well before that meeting at the Goose and Gridiron.

Just seven miles from Edinburgh, Scotland, on the estate of one of the

great Scottish clans, stands Roslyn.

For 500 years, one of the most intriguing churches ever built.

Roslyn is so full of strange symbols, observers have found links between this

church and everything from the Masons to Solomon to the Templar Knights, whom

legend says fled to Scotland once they were disbanded.

These two columns are supposed replicas of pillars the Templars found in

Solomon's temple

Some

claim the symbolism of Rosalind links all these stories and even points the

way to the Holy Grail But it's all speculation in an age of uncertainty

We seek certainty.

Roslyn is not about certainty or putting something in a neat little box that

everyone can say that's for sure what it is. That is not the point.

It is a personal challenge for us to decode this building.

I've studied this certainly 40 years.

I have to say that the place is as big a mystery to me almost as it was when I

first began as to why it was built. It is a total mystery.

William Sinclair was the Masonic Grand Master of Scotland, and a favorite

theory says he was a descendant of the Templar Knights.

According to the legend, after their destruction by Philip of France in 1307,

some of them retreated to Roslyn to preserve their secrets in ritual and in

stone, and to nurture their hatred of the French crown.

Centuries passed.

In the 1700s, they allegedly re-emerged as the Freemasons.

And in 1789, after five centuries in hiding, they retaliated against the King

of France by igniting the French Revolution.

Or so the legend goes.

It was an event unprecedented in history. The overthrow of a sitting

king.

Certain royals, who couldn't accept that the people could stage such a revolt,

decided that the revolution had been a Masonic act of revenge.

This is the origin of all modern conspiracy theories, the terrifying idea

that history is made in secret.

There's something in us that desires to belong to the inner ring, that circle.

that believes in certain secrets of which the outside is not privy to. If

you can build a conspiracy theory about Jews or Freemasons or Catholics or

humanists or any group,

you're starting to make sense of a chaotic world because there's an

invisible, hidden hand that's secretly operating everything.

And that has a certain psychological appeal.

But the conspiracy theories don't end with France.

Even more ambitious is the idea that the Masons established an entirely new

country of their own, the United States.

It is one of America's great ironies that the leadership of a country founded

upon the principles of liberty and open government is deeply entwined with a

cryptic club where modern men masquerade as ancient kings.

It's been this way since the beginning.

It's December 1773.

In a Boston tavern, a group of wealthy businessmen hold a secret meeting.

Among them, Paul Revere and John Hancock.

Both are Freemasons.

The inn is a Masonic hangout.

Tonight's agenda, however, is not ritual, but revolution.

For years, these upper-class colonists have initiated members by acting out

strange costume dramas.

Now, fed up with English taxes, they dress up to initiate a new nation.

They disguise themselves as Mohawk Indians, sneak aboard a British merchant

ship, and dump a cargo of tea into the harbor.

This act of sabotage becomes known as the Boston Tea Party.

Citizens are burned up about unfair taxes.

They're going to take the tea and throw it in the harbor, and of course it's

widely held to be a Masonic event.

Two and a half years later, John Hancock and his brother Masons formally declare

America's separation from Great Britain.

At least nine and perhaps as many as 50 Masons signed their names to the

Declaration of Independence.

Without the Masons, there may never have been an independent America.

I think you could safely say that modern society would have been very different

in its culture, in its aesthetics, in its outlook.

if we hadn't had Freemasonry developing in the way it did in the 18th century.

But conspiracy theory holds that this government is not just dominated by

Masons, but is controlled by them in secret.

They even model their capital city on the cryptic geometry of the Masonic

craft.

Masonic icons appear throughout the bricks and marble facades of Washington.

Even the laying of the cornerstone of the U.S. Capitol was overseen by George

Washington, dressed in full Masonic regalia.

The gavel in American courtrooms comes from Masonic tradition.

And the Washington street grid just north of the White House traces out a

star which appears in Masonic symbolism.

but which some insist is a satanic pentagram.

There is also the shocking symbolism on the reverse of the U.S. dollar bill.

America's founding fathers appointed a committee to design an emblem for the

infant nation.

Ben Franklin, the only Freemason on the panel, suggested a pelican feeding her

young.

But the idea was shot down in favor of an eagle with 13 arrows in its grasp.

And then there is the all-seeing eye atop a pyramid, apparently referring to

Egypt, whose images are

duplicated throughout the U.S. Capitol.

These icons on the dollar are accompanied by three Latin words, Novus

Ordo Seclorum, a reference, so it's claimed, to a new world order run by

anyone from either President Bush,

to Lucifer himself.

Finally, this little trick.

M-A-S-O-N.

Letters that form both the square and compass of Masonry and the Star of

David.

More proof, some contend, of Masonic control of our economy and our

government.

These fears go back to the dawn of the Republic, and they become a political

force after an event that takes place exactly 50 years after the signing of

the Declaration.

In 1826, masonry finds itself implicated in a murder.

William Morgan of New York is a mason who boasts that he's about to publish a

book revealing the Brotherhood's deepest secrets.

He's also a notorious troublemaker, now in jail for petty theft.

After his arrest, three strangers pay his bail.

But they cart him away, and he's never seen again.

His abductors were masons. He was forced into a carriage and driven off,

shouting, murder, murder.

We don't know what happened after that. His body was never found.

Six men were tried.

though none for murder and their light sentences drew outrage when people found

out that the prosecutor and many jurors were masons but whatever happened to

morgan the following cover-up led the people to think that here is a secret

government within our government and so from this unauthorized event

a wave of anti-masonry swept the country

As the hysteria multiplied, New York's 227 Masonic lodges dwindled to 41.

There was a suspicion of the Masons' secret rituals and the politicians who

took part in them.

And you had newspapers established that were anti-Masonic newspapers, and their

purpose was to expose the evil tentacles that Freemasonry had spread out into

society.

An anti-Masonic political party is founded, and a charismatic leader named

William Wirt, a former U.S. Attorney General, makes a dark horse run for the

White House against Freemason Andrew Jackson.

Wirt campaigns as an anti-Mason, but he finishes a distant third to Jackson and

another Freemason, Henry Clay.

Wirt dies in 1834.

and the anti-Masonic frenzy subsides.

American Masonry recovers from the Morgan episode.

Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, it expands, reaching a peak

after the Second World War.

It also flourishes in Britain and Western Europe.

But the eerie rituals and symbols continue to make masonry a target for

dictators and demagogues, popes and prelates, men jealous

of their power and suspicious of their secrets.

In America, Freemasonry no longer excites much interest.

But some still insist that there is a network of godless conspirators bound to

a death pledge who infiltrate the institutions that run the world.

They're basically running a racket, right? They're racketeers, essentially.

They're cutting corners.

They're favoring each other. They basically think they made the country,

it's theirs, and they're above government.

They've basically appointed themselves, and people have to decide for themselves

if... They want that to continue.

Beneath the conspiracies, behind the symbolism and secrecy, we reveal,

at last, the truth of the Freemasons.

Are they an ancient order?

Or a shadow government?

A harmless social club?

Or a satanic cult?

What is the reality behind the Masonic conspiracy theories?

It turns out there is less here than meets the all-seeing eye.

If it were a secret society, many of us would not know about it. I mean, good

heavens, we're in the Yellow Pages. We put bumper stickers on our car.

Despite legends that suggest an ancient past, the Freemasons are a modern

phenomenon.

What began as stonecutter guilds in the Middle Ages evolved into progressive

social clubs by the 18th century, and they employed the tools of the

construction trade as metaphors for building a better society based on

equality and moral conduct.

Their knowledge of geometry and engineering makes them leading thinkers

at a time of free thought.

and political change.

But their symbols and secrecy make them suspect to kings and churches who don't

like secrets or political change.

Maybe they see this as part of a conspiracy and they're going to look for

villains. And Freemasons make great villains.

But in reality, Their rituals are harmless, and their symbols no more

ominous than a company logo.

Some symbols attributed to the Masons aren't Masonic at all, like the Great

Seal of the United States.

The all-seeing eye above the pyramid is not Masonic, nor were the people who

selected it.

A committee was formed by the Congress just after the Declaration of

Independence was signed. The first three members were John Adams, Thomas

Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.

Only one of those three men was a Freemason, and that was Benjamin

Franklin. Franklin suggested several designs, none of them involving an eye

or a pyramid.

Non-Masons chose that design.

The pyramid is unfinished because it signifies a solid foundation for a

country that's always a work in progress, under the eye of Providence.

It doesn't refer to Egypt because Masons didn't build the pyramids.

That's a myth.

If the Great Seal were a symbol of America's founding Freemasons, it would

have appeared on the dollar long before it did.

In 1935, under President Franklin Roosevelt.

Henry Wallace, Roosevelt's vice president, thought that the Great Seal

was a Masonic emblem.

And he suggested to Roosevelt, who both of them were Freemasons, that it would

be nice to put this on the back of the dollar bill.

The words Novus Ordo Seclorum do not mean New World Order, but rather a New

Order of the Ages, referring to the first modern democracy.

And as for the parlor trick of finding the word Mason on the Great Seal, that's

all it is.

A trick.

Likewise for the satanic pentagrams supposedly formed by the streets of

Washington. There are some conspiracists that believe that the Freemasons made

some kind of satanic symbol just north of the White House with a pentagram. But

the pentagram's not even complete. Rhode Island Avenue doesn't go all the way to

Connecticut. If we're so darn powerful, how come we couldn't make a complete

star?

Nor did the Freemasons build Solomon's Temple.

That's a story invented by the Scottish Rite Lodges.

The temple's designer, Hiram Abiff, is mentioned in the Bible, but only

briefly, and there's no account of his murder.

It's purely Masonic myth, and it's a Masonic myth that we can trace back

quite a long way.

So he's a personification of a belief system.

The Templar Knights were based in the ruins of Solomon's Temple, but they

found no secret knowledge.

They didn't go into hiding when they were disbanded.

And they didn't resurface as the Freemasons.

Nor did they ignite the French Revolution.

It's a claimed heritage.

It's a legendary heritage. But I can't give you any historical evidence to

support it. But it's a lovely story.

The two pillars of knowledge in Rosalind Chapel were never found in Solomon's

Temple.

The Templar Knights never came here.

And while Rosalind's builder was William Sinclair, it wasn't this William

Sinclair, the Masonic Grand Master.

Rosalind was built by his ancestor three centuries earlier, in the 1440s, before

the Freemasons were formally established.

The Catholic Church opposed masonry because churches didn't like secret

organizations, period, and they objected to Masonic support for democracy and

church-state separation.

These ideas did, however, make them popular with America's founders.

The whole American experiment is in part about separation of church and state.

That at one time was a very radical notion.

Among those radicals were those who threw the Boston Tea Party, but was it a

Masonic plot?

The Boston Tea Party was planned in the Green Dragon Tavern.

Indeed, the Freemasons were involved, but so were the non-Masons. Every man

that was in the tavern that evening was pressed into service.

The group responsible was the Sons of Liberty, only some of whom were Masons.

Only nine of the 55 signers of the Declaration of Independence and only one

out of three American presidents are known Masons.

Neither of the Bushes are Masons.

And Yale's Skull and Bones Club has nothing to do with the craft.

Consequently, the senior Bushes' service at the U.N. and the CIA had nothing to

do with the fact that a Freemason, Harry Truman, established those institutions.

As for claims that the Masons are a murderous cult, if there's no age-old

conspiracy, there's no need to kill for it.

William Morgan's disappearance was the work of renegades. It was not an

official act.

The shooting death of William James in New York was an accident, not a Masonic

rite.

As for the idea that Jack the Ripper murdered five prostitutes to protect the

reputation of a Masonic prince... Everything you've read about Freemason

links to Jack the Ripper is the work of fiction.

At the time, no one suggested a Masonic plot.

That theory wasn't concocted until the 1970s, and it was based on an admitted

hoax.

According to a book which came out in 1975, The Ripper File, these three men,

Jubilar, Jubilo, Jubilon, were referred to collectively as the Jues, J-U-W-E-S,

the way the word Jews was misspelled on this wall. That's complete fiction.

In Masonic lore, the three attackers were never called Jews, and they are

never mentioned in the Bible.

As for the wounds on the victims' bodies, they were not in accordance with

Masonic symbolism.

The alleged killer, Dr. Gall, was 72 at the time.

And there's no evidence that Prince Albert Edward was involved with the

prostitute.

Finally, the reason the police commissioner had the words removed from

the wall was to avoid an anti-Semitic hysteria over the deaths.

Even referologists themselves, apart from the lunatic fringe, accept that it

is a conspiracy theory.

There is no historical fact in it.

Then there's Roberto Calvi, the Italian banker with the missing $1.4 billion who

belonged to the P2 Lodge.

This was another case where claims of Masonic involvement came as an

afterthought.

But it was quite some months after the event and when people started to doubt

whether it was suicide, that suddenly, rather like the Ripper case, the Masonic

element suddenly comes in, oh, it's the Masons again.

The reality is that the P2 Lodge had been hijacked by criminals as a front

for doing business in powerful circles.

It was a wonderful gift to the conspiracy theorists.

Freemasonry as a movement didn't benefit at all from any of the financial

improprieties, and Freemasonry really wasn't involved.

The fact that Calvey's hanging took place near London's Grand Lodge means

nothing.

And the bricks found in Calvey's pockets are not emblematic of Freemasons, who

are stonecutters, not bricklayers.

In October 2002, forensic experts ruled out death by suicide.

And in 2006, four men were charged with the crime.

None of them are Freemasons.

So, if the grand conspiracy is fiction, what is the reality?

For the first time, cameras record a Masonic initiation, and you can judge

for yourself.

For hundreds of years, the Masons have been wrongly accused of manipulating

global institutions with occult powers and clandestine plots.

At the core of these fears is their secret rite of initiation, a ritual that

allegedly indoctrinates the power elite into the Masonic world.

What is the reality behind the rumors?

The initiation ceremony is something which has a huge effect on the

individual.

Now, cameras have been allowed in to record the entirety of a ceremony that

has generated centuries of fear and paranoia.

The secret initiation into the first degree.

As the process begins, the new entered apprentice is alone.

He is instructed to knock on the door of the lodge room.

Worshipful Master, there is an alarm at the door.

Attend to the alarm.

He is then led up to the officers of the lodge who begin the proceedings.

My brother.

You have this evening been obligated by the very solemn and weighty ties of a

Master Mason.

Having voluntarily assumed these obligations, you have been taught to

wear your apron as a Master Mason and are so wearing it among us at the

moment. You have a way to travel that is extremely perilous.

You will be beset by dangers of many kinds and may perhaps meet with death,

as did once befall an eminent brother of this degree.

You will therefore suffer yourself again to be hoodwinked.

Repair to the sacred altar of Freemasonry, and there kneel and pray.

The initiate is then guided to the altar.

There are three lesser lights around the altar.

When the candidate is being initiated, it is dark. And when he sees the light,

those three lesser lights help him see what is here.

the volume of the sacred law, and the universal symbol of Freemasonry, the

square and the compasses.

In the first degree, the candidate is blindfolded, symbolizing he is in

darkness and in need of further light.

The initiate then prays to the God of his choosing.

Amen. He's then stood up.

and is guided through a reenactment of the legend of Hiram Abiff, a must for

every new entered apprentice.

You now represent another, no less than our grandmaster, Hiram Abiff, the grand

architect who was the builder of King Solomon's Temple.

The stonemasons of Scotland had two ceremonies.

The entered apprentice degree equated to birth, so you're a new member. You're

born, if you like, as a freemason.

The fellow of craft degree or the second degree is entirely focused on education,

being a good citizen, and so it equates to life.

But the Scottish Rite saw the need for something more.

So what's the third and last part of human beings' existence

that is missing here? Well, it's obviously death.

Grand Master Hiram Abiff, I am glad to have met you thus alone.

This is an opportunity I have long sought.

Behold, the temple is near completed, and I demand the secret word of a Master

Mason. Wait until the temple is completed, and you shall receive the

secret word of a Master Mason.

If not, you cannot.

Cannot? Speak not to me of time nor place. Give me the secret word of a

Master Mason. I cannot.

Then die.

Like Hiram Abiff.

The entered apprentice is confronted by the three lesser stonecutters, Jubila,

Jubilo, and Jubilum, each of whom attacks him.

You now have a complete cycle, if you like.

Birth, life, and death.

Grand Master Hiram Abeth, for the last time I demand of you the secret word of

a master mason, or I will take your life. My life you may have, but my

integrity never.

Then die.

This ritual.

Based on the completely invented story of Hiram Abiff, is not a death threat,

as some have claimed.

And Hiram Abiff represents the ego.

And the ego has to be slain before the spirit can rise free.

Grandmaster Hiram Abiff, I heard you cavilling with Jubala in Jubalo, and

from then you have escaped, but from me never.

My name is Jubalum.

That which I propose is that which I perform.

I hold in my hand an instrument of death.

If you refuse me now, you do so at your peril.

I say, give me the secret word of a master mason. I will not.

Give me the secret word of a master mason. I cannot.

Grandmaster Heimerd Biff, I demanded you for the last time the secret word of the

master mason.

Craftman, wait until the temple is completed.

And I will do my best to serve you.

Then die.

And with that, the initiate is carried out to take his place among his brother

masons.

That's it.

No sacrilege. No sacrifices.

No Satan.

Just fake beards.

Candles.

The symbols of the stonecutter's trade.

And some amateur acting.

This is what all the fuss has been about.

This is the work of the notorious cult that so many accuse of sinister plots

and ancient conspiracies.

Masonic ritual is meant, I think, it uses ritual as an instructional

technique and it tries to stimulate the candidate into thinking about certain

ideas.

Ideas no more controversial than the encouraging of strong character and good

citizenship.

It all seems little more than a well-funded boys club for grown-ups,

complete with secret handshakes, mysterious code words,

spooky symbols, a comfy

clubhouse,

and no girls allowed.

And even this is changing.

Today, membership is expanded to everyone.

As a result, the modern world is reshaping Freemasonry a lot more than

they are shaping the modern world.

For hundreds of years,

Outsiders have believed that the Freemasons are the architects of

anything from a political conspiracy to a religion.

Ironic considering the reality.

The two things we can't discuss at Masonic meetings are the two things

which divide everybody, which is of course politics and religion.

I think the biggest secret about Freemasonry is that there are actually

no secrets.

Our opportunity to record these rites is part of a new effort by the Freemasons

to reach out into the community to explain themselves, while still

maintaining a sense of privacy.

It's a way of asking that we not only question those who keep the Masonic

secrets, but also the credibility of those who claim to expose them.

One of the secrets is the fact that

the earth was colonized by extraterrestrials and that they tweaked

with primitive earth primates dna and created their worker race which is

homo sapiens freemasonry is the system of control set up by satan

to um to oppose the church the freemasons have paid a high

price for their privacy people are always going to believe what they want

to believe

And unfortunately, conspiracy theories have a great immunity from truth.

And the Freemasons make a convenient whipping boy.

It's all rather strange when you consider what the Freemasons themselves

aspire toward.

Masonry has changed my life in different ways. I think I have become much aware

of all the things that surround my life, especially my family, my friends.

Changes that are brought about in you as a human being through the process of

initiation, those can't be undone.

Hi, I'm James Cooper and I'm a Freemason. I am a Prince Hall Freemason.

I am a Freemason. I'm a Freemason. And I am a Freemason. Hello, I'm Janet

Wintermute and I'm a Freemason.

In the end, the Freemasons are just normal folks who seek a sense of

community and camaraderie that transcends religion, race, and

economics.

Truth for me is something which is universal.

And I believe that through my involvement with masonry, I have

discovered the meaning of that truth.

For the millions of Freemasons across the globe, the purpose of the world's

oldest and most successful fraternity is not to remake the world, but to better

themselves. It makes you grow.

Grow in responsibility.

And your faith in your fellow man and helping one another. You take a good man

and make him better. And that's what it's all about.