Still, Masonic secrecy often inspired opposition to the society. 'There used to be another branch of Freemasonry in the United States, or another branch of Scottish Rite Masonry, in competition with us. Morris says that does not happen - anymore. today.īrown's novel The Lost Symbol includes scenes of secret initiation rites in which wine is drunk from a skull. 'And then they can stop talking about religion.' There are an estimated 1.4 million Masons in the U.S. 'They can agree that God compels them to do good in the community,' Morris says.

Morris explains that when the group was organized from a stonemasons' guild in 1717, its members adopted the radical proposition that men of different faiths can agree on God's existence. The rites inside the temple are at some level spiritual, and though they are related to religion, Freemasonry is not a religion. 'And if it doesn't, we'll get whatever's needed.' 'This, we figured, will cover 99.9 percent ,' Morris says.

presidents, was a member of the Freemasons - stands in the George Washington Masonic Memorial in Alexandria, Va. 'When a man becomes a member,' Morris says, 'he is asked to place his hand upon the book that he considers binding on his conscience.' The temple has copies of the Bible, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Old Testament, the Zend-Avesta, the Sutras and the Quran.ĪFP/Getty Images A bronze statue of George Washington - who, along with a dozen other U.S. Brent Morris, a mathematician by trade and editor of the Scottish Rite Journal, tells Robert Siegel that when a Masonic meeting is open, a volume of sacred law is open representing God's revelation to man. In the center of the temple room is a large altar. A couple of sphinxes on huge pedestals flank the steps. The design was inspired by the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, in Turkey. The House of the Temple, the headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry in the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States, is an impressive and dignified edifice on Washington's 16th Street.

A visit to one of the locations in the novel, a prominent Masonic building in Washington, D.C., serves as an introduction to the history of the once feared and even reviled secret society. Best-selling author Dan Brown's latest novel, The Lost Symbol, draws heavily on the lore and mystique of the Freemasons.

The masonic myth by jay kinney