What is the truth about the masonism and what is their purpose? What are the Illuminati seeking?
105602
The purpose? Both the Illuminati and the Masons work to achieve the same goal. A NEW WORLD ORDER meaning CONTROL of EVERYTHING. )Just take a look on the back of a dollar bill and see..) And so far, they have done a good job considering Iraq especially. And how are they doing this? Because we let them by doing absoluetly nothing.
92270
Fact to a degree. They're old elitist groups and there's various of the sort. Whether one meets in the US doesnt matter because we have the Bilderberg meeting which is essencially the same thing, except true.\n\n"... The Illuminati refers specifically to the Bavarian Illuminati, perhaps the least secret of all secret societies in the world, described below. Most use refers to an alleged shadowy conspiratorial organization which controls world affairs behind the scenes, usually a modern incarnation or continuation of the Bavarian Illuminati. Illuminati is sometimes used synonymously with New World Order."
392595
"New World Order" refers to some groups desire for a global community gathered under one governmental body.\n\nThe "Illuminati" is a secret society which some believe are involved in a plot to control world leaders.
552879
1.  Most of the founding fathers were Masons.  At that time, no nation belived in the concept of freedom of religion, or tolerance.  In fact, at that time, the ONLY place such ideals were found were in Masonry.  From that perspective, America was actually founded on Masonic principles, so that families would have a land where they were free to worship as they saw fit, as opposed to the way the King or the Pope dictated.  \n2.  That definition of Diest is one I have never heard before.  The popular definition of "Diest" today is someone who believes that there is One True and Living God, and that everyone who worships is worshiping the same God regardless of what they believe.  Many people believe this is an unspoken philosophical belief in Masonry because we only require that a man believe in God, but put no qualifications on his religion.  We shun only the "stupid athiest, and the irreligious libertine", and allow each man to have whatever religion he believes.   \n3.  Of course the Masonic symbolism on our currency is a result of our nation's founders being Masons.  The unfinished pyramid and the all-seeing-eye are symbolic of our "One Nation Under God" principle.  Within the capstone is the Eye of God.  Without it the building is unfinished. The symbolism is obvious:  Only under the direction and watchful counsel of God can we hope to fulfill our duties, and complete our labors.  Anti-Masons love to make up any number of ridiculous theories as to Masonic symbolism.  But if you understand that a belief in , and a reliance upon God is at the center of the Masonic philosophy, the symbolism is very obvious, and not sinister in the least.
586978
Speculations as to the origins vary as has been discussed earlier. Personally, I am with the small crowd that does not believe it strictly came from the stone masons. Stone masons, however, were one of the very few groups of men who were not tied to the land and could travel in small groups. OK, I like the Templar theory, but it is MY liking. Freemasons are that, free to speculate.\n\nMany rituals harken back to the ancient mystery schools. More than that I cannot say. I would refer you to my Order's website (link below) for more information. I am a Co-Mason (women and men in Lodge together).\n\nFreemasons have not conducted Inquisitions nor burned people for not believing as they do. We encourage people to think and to explore, to extend the hand of friendship to people of all faiths. I know of few RELIGIONS which do that.
365610
Freemasons are members of a Fraternal Organization founded on the principals of The Fatherhood of God (whatever you perceive him to be) the Brotherhood of Man and the Immortality of Man ... we believe in Faith Hope and Charity and are the driving force behind the Shrine and Scottish Rite Childrens Hospitals ... There are a number of appendant bodies (like the Shriners and Scottish Rite and York Rite) that extend from Freemasonry but you must be a Freemason before you may continue in the other bodies.
598292
Rebeka Lodge etc. are NOT CHRISTIAN at all! They are part of the Masonic Faith.  YES! Masons are a definite religion!
863835
Okay, you can't just join up and find out.  That's not even how it works.  You have to be sponsored and voted in by the elder members.\n\nSome of our Nation's most respected President's were Freemasons.  They believe first in God, Country and Family and then their beliefs.  I am a girl so I don't know a whole lot, except that they have some pretty strong beliefs that are pretty secretive. \n\nPeople are nosy and make up things about everyone who has secrets, and say that they are automatically a cult or something.  This is absolutely not the case.   You could learn alot by reading a book sold at the book store, called Freemasons for dummies. \n\nThey are grouped with the shriners and do many many fine works for the public and for the children in our communities.  They have hospitals and burn units all over the country, always non-profit, and usually at no cost to the patients.  \n\nFrom what I understand, they are all (Masons, Shriners etc.) an offspring of the Knights Templers.  They, in ancient times were the Knights who were put in power by the Pope to protect Jerusalem at all costs.  Later they recieved special permission from the Pope to take charge of Banking.  They had the Great International Bank of the middle ages.  They were executed by the King of France (Phillip IV), who luckily was unable to kill them all before all the KING's HELPERS kidnapped the Pope.\n\nI think they have a fascinating and outstanding history.  Many freemasons were involved in the signing of our Declaration of Independence.  That was not a joke made for Hollywood. There were actually several who signed it.
719070
As a three time Past Master of my Masonic Lodge and a Christian Pastor I can tell you that there are many myths about masonry.\nIt is strictly a fraternal organization that teaches brotherly love, relief and truth.\nIt does not promote any one religion but does admonish you to read the BIBLE and make it the rule and guide of your life.
990109
Freemasonry is the term used to refer to the secret fraternal order officially known as the Free and Accepted Masons, or Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.\n\nThere are approximately 5 million members worldwide, mostly in the United States and other English-speaking countries. With adherents in almost every nation where Freemasonry is not officially banned, it forms the largest secret society in the world. There is no central Masonic authority; jurisdiction is divided among autonomous national authorities, called grand lodges, and many concordant organizations of higher-degree Masons. In the United States and Canada the highest authority rests with state and provincial grand lodges. Custom is the supreme authority of the order, and there are elaborate symbolic rites and ceremonies, most of which utilize the instruments of the stonemason–the plumb, the square, the level, and compasses–and apocryphal events concerning the building of King Solomon's Temple for allegorical purposes.\n\nThe principles of Freemasonry have traditionally been liberal and democratic. Anderson's Constitutions (1723), the bylaws of the Grand Lodge of England, which is Freemasonry's oldest extant lodge, cites religious toleration, loyalty to local government, and political compromise as basic to the Masonic ideal. Masons are expected to believe in a Supreme Being, use a holy book appropriate to the religion of the lodge's members, and maintain a vow of secrecy concerning the order's ceremonies.\n\nThe basic unit of Freemasonry is the local Blue lodge, generally housed in a Masonic temple. The lodge consists of three Craft, Symbolic, or Blue Degrees: Entered Apprentice (First Degree), Fellow Craft (Second Degree), and Master Mason (Third Degree). These gradations are meant to correspond to the three levels–apprentice, journeyman, and master–of the medieval stonemasons' guilds. The average Mason does not rise above Master Mason.\n\nIf he does, however, he has the choice of advancing through about 100 different rites, encompassing some 1,000 higher degrees, throughout the world. In the United States, the two most popular rites are the Scottish and the York. The Scottish Rite awards 30 higher degrees, from Secret Master (Fourth Degree) to Sovereign Grand Inspector General (Thirty-third Degree). The York Rite awards ten degrees, from Mark Master to Order of Knights Templar, the latter being similar to a Thirty-third Degree Scottish Rite Mason.\n\nOther important Masonic groups are the Prince Hall Grand Lodge, to which many African-American Masons belong; the Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm (the "fraternal fun order for Blue Lodge Masons" ); and the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (Thirty-second degree Masons who, as the Shriners, are noted for their colorful parades and support of children's hospitals). There are also many subsidiary Masonic groups, including the Order of the Eastern Star, limited to Master Masons and their female relatives; De Molay, an organization for boys; and Job's Daughters and Rainbow, two organizations for girls. Many of the orders maintain homes for aged members.
353514
Actually the days of secret handshakes and special passwords  maybe over because they need new members. Chris Newmarker of AP wrote:\nTRENTON, N.J. - The secret's out: New Jersey Masons need more members. No special handshakes or passwords required to join.\n\nThe fraternal society, which traces its roots to guilds of stonemasons and cathedral builders in the Middle Ages, is hoping to shake some of its secretive aura and attract new members with diverse backgrounds.\n\nThere are two main requirements: You have to be a man over 21, and you must believe that all people are equal underneath a supreme being, according to Daniel M. Wilson, the grand master for New Jersey Masons.\n\n"We're not a secret society," Wilson said. "We're just an organization with some secrets."\n\nOn March 19, the organization is staging five, one-day boot camps across the state, hoping to attract more than 1,600 potential members. Participants will learn about rituals that previously took a year to absorb.\n\nNormally more passive in seeking new members, the Masons are using movie theater and newspaper advertisements to promote the boot camps.\n\nThe group emphasizes public service, freedom of thought and equality, according to Wilson. While the use of secret rituals, passwords and hand signals has added to the organization's mystique, Wilson said he hopes the Masons' lodge buildings and charitable works are more obvious.\n\nMasons also are known as freemasons. The organization includes the Shrine Masons, or Shriners, who are known for operating hospitals that care for burned and orthopaedically injured children.\n\nLast year, New Jersey Masons raised millions for charity, Wilson said. Charitable works include the videotaping of thousands of children for the Child ID program and the operation of a nursing home and retirement community in Burlington Township.\n\nMembership, though, has dwindled. Since the 1950s, membership in the New Jersey Masons has fallen from more than 100,000 to about 32,000, Wilson said. The Masons have 142 lodges across the state.\n\nFraternal organizations in general fell out of favor with the more educated generation of Americans that emerged during the 1950s and '60s, according to Theda Skocpol, a professor of government and sociology at Harvard University.\nClick Here!\n\n"I think that the Masons, of course, are a very prominent fraternal order in this country, but I think in recent times, groups like that have been more ignored and misunderstood," Skocpol said.\n\nWilson agreed that the Masons' secretive nature has hindered membership growth, as has its tradition of forbidding members from directly asking someone to join.\n\n"So many people who wanted to join the Masons never did because they never knew they had to ask for a petition to join," Wilson said.\n\nThe one-day courses will be held in Burlington Township, Haddon Township, Lincoln Park, Livingston and Trenton. The program will condense lists of questions and answers that Masons must memorize as they move up through the levels of apprentice, fellow of the craft, and master mason. The lists, called catechisms, will be replaced with educational material on the Masons' history and ideals.\n\nApplicants will still be vetted through visits to their homes and votes at the lodges they intend to join, Wilson said.\n\n"In the past, Masons did what they did for years and never took credit for it," Wilson said. "We need to let people know what we do."\n\nJim Stinnett, 70, of Palmyra, says he had an uncle in the Masons who decades ago wouldn't tell him what the organization did, so he never joined. But with encouragement from his son-in-law who is a Mason, Stinnett is going to a one-day course in Burlington Township.\n\nOpening up is a smart strategy for the Masons, Stinnett said.\n\n"They're holding these classes, which is good," he said.\n\nLarry West, 43 of North Plainf
552864
Despite the "New World Order" conspiracy theorists (and who is to say that there is NOT a cabal of plutocrats running this world?), despite the Fundamentalist Christian, Muslim, and Catholics who admit no one but themselves under their banner, the Freemasons are a rather open society of free men (and free women). Yes, there are Orders that take women as Freemasons.\n\nWe do insist, at least in most Orders of Freemasonry, that you believe in a Higher Power. You may call that God or whatever term you wish. We also teach that we should treat each other (and the rest of the world) in accordance with the Golden Rule. No, not "who ever has the most gold rules," but "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Pretty simple, right?\n\nOur secrets? Some of them are pretty obvious: we have certain signs, grips, and tokens used to identify ourselves to our Brothers. Those we keep to ourselves. \n\nThe not so obvious secret is one that no one CAN communicate to you, the change that happens inside you as you do your best to live up to the way of life exemplified by the symbolic teachings. \n\nMasonry says that it takes good men (and in our case, men and women) and makes them better. I have seen it happen. I see it happening in me. \n\nIt is not just a social organization; at least OUR Order is not. I travel about 800 miles each month to attend my two Lodges. I spend very little time socializing. Beyond that I would say that we are most like the old mystery schools. \n\nIf you wish more information about American Co-Masonry, please visit the link below.
170365
A Freemason is simply a man who has chosen to strengthen his life by living it according to his own personal Volume of Sacred Law (Holy Bible, Holy Quran, or Torah, et cetera) as your personal beliefs dictate.  It changed my life by giving me constant reminders of the importance of following my moral code as I set it based on my personal beliefs.  It affects each man differently.\n\nTo become a Freemason, find a Local lodge and ask someone there.  You can start with the liost of Grand Lodges below, and search in the proper one for your locality.
362210
The Order of the Fraternity of the Illuminati, also known as the Brotherhood of the Light which also yet possess another name as the Occult Society of the Luminaries, was an occultic secret society founded in the 17th-century Europe.  Contradictory to what the media's stereo-typings, this society has absolutely nothing to do with political powers in either the Old or the New Worlds.\n\nThe Illuminati were highly occultic and secretive centuries ago; thus, if, and only IF, they still exist into this modern-age, the secrecy will not be any less.  The society was based upon the occultism which was very popular during the 17th-18th centuries.  The core of the Illuminati's occultism would be based around Qabbalistc Christianity which was the most popular occultic mysticism in Europe of that era.\n\nNow, there ARE over a dozen of societies out there who claim to be the Illuminati or descented from the Illuminati; in my own personal opinion, none of those claims are true, no-matter how secretive their societies pretends to be.  The Illuminati were a spiritual occultic society, not some political power-hungary shadow government.\n\nThere are hints in the European history which can lead one to some informations on the Illuminati but, those are to be researched and studied from the occultism and mysticism.  Any attempt to find the fact from the media's stereo-typings and those political power-hungary societies will take the reseacher further away from the truth.  In general, to answer your question:\n\n"Yes, they DID once exist, BUT are they still in existence is of another question"...and there WILL be people jump-out and claim they are the Illuminati...my suggestion?  Best NOT to take them seriously.
192946
1. Who are the Illuminati?\nAn undocumented and undefined group with the unconfirmed goal of world domination. Much fiction has been written on the topic. Although the subject of much speculation, there is no documentation of any active and effective group currently using the name.\nConspiracy theorists who use the term have defined the Illuminati's goals, beliefs and structure; identified individuals whose actions may be interpreted as supporting these goals and beliefs; and used these goals and beliefs as defining links between otherwise unrelated events and individuals. What these theorists have not done is demonstrate or prove the existence of any such organization.\nIt is unfortunate that hucksters and paranoid cranks have so debased the term conspiracy that the real conspiracies, a real danger to a free and open society, so often go unreported or unremarked.
417660
The Illuminati is the name of many groups, modern and historical, real and fictitious, verified and alleged. Most commonly, however, The Illuminati refers specifically to the Bavarian Illuminati, perhaps the least secret of all secret societies in the world, described below. Most use refers to an alleged shadowy conspiratorial organization which controls world affairs behind the scenes, usually a modern incarnation or continuation of the Bavarian Illuminati. Illuminati is sometimes used synonymously with New World Order.
706454
I am a 5th generation Freemason, and I have found it be a rewarding experience.  Please feel free to email me with any questions you have.  There is very little that is actually secret, and I will be glad to share as much information with you as possible.