Originally posted by BoonePanic
well I have looked into it and I know you have to have 3 masons vouch for you on the application...but I don't know any and its not like they have signs on their back...oh well...anyone wanna vouch...haha

When I petitioned, I did not know any masons either. What I did was call and ask for a day in which I could come to the lodge and spend some time with the brothers and meet them and ask questions. They invited me to a stated dinner, and I just showed up and started conversing with them.

At the end of the evening, I asked for a petition and asked the secretary what I should do about the sponsors. He said to fill out the rest of the petition and that he would find two brothers to sponsor me. So that was it! The rest is history....

Some brothers later told me that they really respected me for having the fortitude to show up and introduce myself to a group of men I did not know. They said it showed them I was truly dedicated to joining the fraternity. I suggest you do the same

I thank you for the help my man... I will def do that...were you in a fraternity before you did it? I am still in college and don't know where I want to try to commit at...does it matter if it is in your home town or wherever?

Originally posted by BoonePanic
I thank you for the help my man... I will def do that...were you in a fraternity before you did it? I am still in college and don't know where I want to try to commit at...does it matter if it is in your home town or wherever?

No I was not in any kind of other fraternity or society when I became a Freemason. It doesn't matter that you are still in college, but keep in mind that your chances of being accepted by a lodge are slim if they are under the impression that you are still in college partying and doing beer bongs and all that crap. Lodges only want to accept responsible, honorable and upstanding men. They also want to know that you will have the time to commit to lodge activities. If this would be a problem for you, I would suggest waiting a few years.

As for where to look for a lodge, find one close to where you live, or where you WILL live once youre out of college. Keep in mind that you may someday want to get very involved in your lodge's activities, in which case you want to be sure to live as close to that lodge as possible to avoid transportation problems.

I live 10 blocks away from my lodge, I love it.

Thanks for the advice,,,I am probably going to do it when I get out of college then...sounds like a lot of commitment...

can you just stop after the third masonic degree and not do the Scottish rites at all...?

Originally posted by BoonePanic
can you just stop after the third masonic degree and not do the Scottish rites at all...?

Yes, I've not progressed past the 3rd degree. It's not that I won't or don't want to, but right now I don't feel I have the time to devote to appendent bodies.

Edit: Sorry Seb, didn't mean to jump in on your discussion.

[edit on 2-7-2005 by Golfie]

Once you get your 3rd degree, you are a FULL member of the fraternity, and will have all the priviledges and benefits that a 33rd degree mason would have. The 3rd degree is the highest level of Freemasonry, anything else is appendant, and will only expand on the lessons taught in the first 3 degrees.

You do not have to do anything else that you don't want. I didn't join the Scottish Rite until almost a year after I got my 3rd degree. Some people wait YEARS, if they ever join at all. I personally enjoy Craft (Blue Lodge) masonry more, but the Scottish Rite does have some pretty amazing degrees as well, though nothing beats the 3rd degree, in my opinion.

Golfie, don't worry about cutting in! You know that we all answer questions regarding Freemasonry together!

Sounds good to me, like I said I felt that my fraternity's initation was awesome...but I know that most of it came from Masonry so I am really excited to see how that would turn out...

I'd like to have some more discussion on fraternities and ties to other societies...just wondering if anyone was still interested?

Originally posted by Bondi


There are hundreds of sources of information which has been copied and cloned from one original theory, over time the copy, of a copy, of copy, has deteriorated and what started as a probable genuine concern has escalated into utter madness, with conspiracies being seen everywhere.

Sounds Like the Bible

Originally posted by BoonePanic
I'd like to have some more discussion on fraternities and ties to other societies...just wondering if anyone was still interested?

I am interested, very much so...

-- Boat

Alphonso Taft (1832), U.S. Attorney General (1876–1877); Secretary of War (1876); Ambassador to Austria-Hungary (1882) and Russia (1884–1885); father of William Howard Taft.

Daniel Coit Gilman (1852), president of the University of California, Johns Hopkins University, and the Carnegie Institution.

William Howard Taft (1878), 27th President of the United States; Chief Justice of the United States; Secretary of War; son of Alphonso Taft.

Henry L. Stimson (1888), Secretary of State under President Hoover, Secretary of War under Presidents Taft, F. Roosevelt and Truman; Governor-General of the Philippines; member of five presidential administrations, urged Truman to nuke Japan.

Pierre Jay (1892), first chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Harry Payne Whitney (1894), husband of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney; investment banker.

Percy Rockefeller (1900), director of Brown Brothers Harriman, Standard Oil, and Remington Arms.

Harold Stanley (1908), founder of investment house Morgan Stanley.

George L. Harrison (1910), banker; President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, former Chairman of the board of New York Life Insurance Co., and special consultant to fellow Bonesman, Henry L. Stimson.

Averell Harriman (1913), U.S. Ambassador and Secretary of Commerce; Governor of New York; Chairman and CEO of the Union Pacific Railroad, Brown Brothers & Harriman, and the Southern Pacific Railroad.

Prescott Bush (1916), U.S. Senator (R-Connecticut 1952–1963), Father of George H.W. Bush, grandfather of George W. Bush. The Union Banking Corporation (UBC) was a banking corporation in the US whose assets were seized by the United States government during World War II. In 1942, under the Trading With the Enemy Act, the U.S. government seized several companies in which he had an interest. Prescott, a co-founder of UBC, at the time was an investment banker with Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH), which had funneled U.S. capital into Germany during the 1920s and '30s. Among the seized companies was the Union Banking Corporation (UBC) of New York, which was controlled by German industrialist Fritz Thyssen.

Artemus Gates (1918), president of New York Trust Company, Union Pacific Railroad, TIME-Life, and Boeing Company.

F. Trubee Davison (1918), Director of Personnel at the CIA.

Robert A. Lovett (1918), US Secretary of Defense.

Henry Luce (1920), co-founder of Time-Life Enterprises.

John Rockefeller Prentice (1928), Grandson of John D. Rockefeller; pioneer of artificial insemination.

H. J. Heinz II (1931), Heir to H. J. Heinz Company; father of H. John Heinz III.

Potter Stewart (1936), U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

McGeorge Bundy (1940), Special Assistant for National Security Affairs; National Security Advisor; Professor of History, brother of William Bundy.

George H. W. Bush (1948), 41st President of the United States; 11th Director of Central Intelligence; son of Prescott Bush; father of George W. Bush.

William H. Donaldson (1953), appointed chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission by George W. Bush; founding dean of Yale School of Management; co-founder of DLJ investment firm.

Winston Lord (1959), Chairman of Council on Foreign Relations; Ambassador to China; Assistant U.S. Secretary of State.

John Kerry (1966), U.S. Senator (D-Massachusetts 1985.present); Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts 1983–1985; 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee.

George W. Bush (1968), 43rd President of the United States; 46th Governor of Texas.

Austan Goolsbee (1991), economic adviser to Barack Obama.

These are just a FEW of the more notable members, membership lists were available in Yale's library from 1832 up until 1971. Very few since then have been exposed as members. Members only spend their senior year at Yale in the society, the focus is presumably on what they do after graduation.
All conspiracy theories aside, this is too dense a concentration of money, power, & influence to discount off hand.

Text Red

Originally posted by skullman
I am a new member to this site, but I have been reading posts here for a while and I have a question. And perhaps this may seem odd to some of you. However, I have noticed that several of these posts assume that the Freemasons as well as College fraternities have some sort of connection to a New World Order. As a member of both a college fraternity as well as a Mason, I find this rather curious. Perhaps someone can explain this to me.

Cool fellow

This guy has hit the jackpot.

Originally posted by skullman
I am a new member to this site, but I have been reading posts here for a while and I have a question. And perhaps this may seem odd to some of you. However, I have noticed that several of these posts assume that the Freemasons as well as College fraternities have some sort of connection to a New World Order. As a member of both a college fraternity as well as a Mason, I find this rather curious. Perhaps someone can explain this to me.

I am also new and I am trying to find out the answer to this question: My relative may have joined satanic cult. How can I find out as he is behaving strange and has cut us off his life.

Originally posted by Alexjns
I am also new and I am trying to find out the answer to this question: My relative may have joined satanic cult. How can I find out as he is behaving strange and has cut us off his life.

Does the group have a name? Is it local only? Or wider-spread? What leads you to believe that it's satanic in nature? More details would be appreciated.

Originally posted by Bondi
It is in my opinion it is a simple case of "Fear of the Unknown".

Due to the fact that people do not know everything about them, their own minds conjure up all sorts of fantasy, which in turn leads to paranoia, which in turn leads to fear, which results in conspiracy.

There are people that do hold genuine concerns, those normally are to do with their own interpretation of their faith, to which there is no argument.

Others, as you will see if you read some of the current posts, the old posts and the really old posts, the conversations are more or less the same.

There are hundreds of sources of information which has been copied and cloned from one original theory, over time the copy, of a copy, of copy, has deteriorated and what started as a probable genuine concern has escalated into utter madness, with conspiracies being seen everywhere.

It is not JUST a fear of the unknown. There are tons of whistleblowers and ex-Freemasons and ex-Illuminati who have revealed it's dark secrets and connections and infiltrations into positions of power.

They've written books too. See "Hope and Tragedy".

Google "Arizona Wilder" and "Cathy O'Brien" too.