Freemasonry

Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternal organization. Its members are joined together by shared ideals of both a moral and metaphysical nature, and, in most of its branches, by a common belief in a Supreme Being. Freemasonry is an esoteric art, in that certain aspects of its internal work are not generally revealed to the public. Masons give numerous reasons for this, one of which is that Freemasonry uses an initiatory system of degrees to explore ethical and philosophical issues, and this system is less effective if the observer knows beforehand what will happen. It often calls itself "a peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols."

Cultural references

• Rudyard Kipling used masonic symbols and characters in some of his writings, most notably The Man Who Would Be King.
• One of the main characters in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace becomes a Freemason.
• The plot of the opera "Die Zauberflöte" ("The Magic Flute") contains several references to Masonic ideals and ceremonies. Mozart and his librettist Emanuel Schikaneder were brothers in the same Masonic lodge--Lodge of the Nine Muses.
• Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion was a Freemason as were the first five presidents of the Church: Smith, Brigham Young, John Taylor, Wilford Woodruff, and Lorenzo Snow. When the Mormons first settled Utah, the entire church hierarchy was composed of Freemasons. Many Mormon symbols and rituals bear a striking similarity to Masonic ceremonies.
• The Golden Dawn was a filial society founded by at least one Mason who also was a member of an affilate society to the Masons, Societas Rosicruciana in Anglia (a research and study group focusing on symbollic alchemy, the mystical kabbalah, tarot, and Christian Symbolism). The Golden Dawn, however, was open to membership from non-masons and women.
• Freemasons, along with the Illuminati, the Mafia, and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, feature heavily in Robert Shea's and Robert Anton Wilson's satire, The Illuminatus! Trilogy, a trilogy that has been compared to an uncharacteristically long Vonnegut novel written in the style of William S Burroughs, with trite comparisons to the works of Pynchon. However, The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles by Robert Anton Wilson, are largely deemed more approachable to the casual reader than the co-authored trilogy aforementioned.
• Some conspiracy theories try to link the Freemasons to the Jack the Ripper murders. The most well known of these claims is that William Withey Gull, the royal household's personal physician, covered up the love child of a Catholic shop girl and Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence, a Mason, by killing all the women who knew about the baby. The theory depends on the assumption that such figures as the Marquess of Salisbury, Sir William Gull and Sir Robert Anderson were Freemasons, but in fact none of these gentlemen were; or at least there is no record of their initiation or association with Freemasonry. The graphic novel From Hell by Alan Moore and the movie based upon it feature this storyline as the basic premise.
• The Freemasons are spoofed in an episode of The Simpsons as The Ancient Society of Stonecutters, a secret organization that controls everything from NASA to the Academy Awards (thereby securing Steve Guttenberg's stardom).
• Dan Brown's bestselling books Angels and Demons and The Da Vinci Code draw heavily on Masonic lore and symbolism.
• Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco also deals with Masonry.
• The Cremaster Cycle films by Matthew Barney use Masonic imagery.
• The plot of the 2004 movie National Treasure revolves heavily around the Freemasons and is somewhat unusual in that it depicts them in a benign light.
• In The Baron in the Trees Italian writer Italo Calvino includes Masonry lodges branching out into the lands of Ombrosa with the protagonist of the novel, Cosimo di Rondo, mysteriously and supposedly involved with them.
• Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris use Freemasonry in The Adept series, most notably in "The Adept Book Two: The Lodge of the Lynx."