Masonry ain't free

[CountDeMoney]

Their recent media blitz with Ben Franklin commercials give me an annoying "Gather. Your. Armies." vibe.

The Masons open their doors, at least a crack
Subject of movies and conspiracy theories, the secret society seeks new members without revealing all

The Masons of Maryland  will be so busy Saturday they'll probably have to take a break from plotting world domination. Surely they'll already have found somewhere to temporarily hide their collection of human skulls and satanic pentagrams.

That's because the Freemasons, or Masons for short, are preparing to unlock the doors of their lodges on Saturday for a rare, statewide open house — in part to dispel some of the mythology that has risen around the group in novels, movies and conspiracy theories.

"I always joke we have to send those skulls out to be burnished," Stephen J. Ponzillo, head of Maryland's Masons, said as his members spruced up and readied some 80 buildings for the open house. "We'll show you our part of the national treasure."

These days, Masonic leaders such as Ponzillo need a sense of humor and a fairly thick skin. They're regularly fictionalized in movies such as "National Treasure," in which Nicolas Cage seeks a secret stash supposedly hidden for years by Freemasons, and in novels such as "The Lost Symbol," in which Dan Brown gives the organization the full "Da Vinci Code" treatment, beginning with an opening scene in which an initiate drinks wine from a skull.

The Masons also have been subject to the dark mutterings of conspiracy theorists, who believe that the group, along with the likes of the Trilateral Commission and the Council on Foreign Relations, is part of a shadow global government working toward the so-called New World Order.

Saturday's open houses, in which lodges will welcome visitors from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., are part of a recent effort by Masons to take back control of their image, and to attract new and younger members to an organization whose membership has declined over the years as part of the same "Bowling Alone" phenomenon that has seen other social clubs and civic associations shrink. From a high of more than 4 million Masons in North America 50 years ago, there are now about 1.5 million.

But if Masons have experienced the same drop-off in membership as other fraternal organizations, they remain unique in the lore and suspicions that still surround their group. When, after all, was the last time you heard of anyone seeing the Elks or Moose behind a global conspiracy?

Freemasonry, by contrast, carries the whiff of a mass-market Skull and Bones, the secret society at Yale whose members' tendency to rise to positions of power also draws attention from the conspiratorially minded.

Much of the misconception about Masons, of course, stems from the Masons themselves, what with their secret handshake and their mysterious symbols and rituals. The group, which traces its origins to a guild of stonemasons in the Middle Ages, says the secrecy is merely an allusion to that history, when workers traveling from town to town in search of building jobs needed a way to identify who was a member with the proper knowledge and skills.

"It's a mystique that they largely encourage," said Worcester Polytechnic Institute historian Steven C. Bullock, who has written about the role of Masons in the American Revolution. "But it's a double-edged sword."

As Masons rose to power — members have included George Washington, both Roosevelts and 11 other presidents, FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover, auto magnate Henry Ford and showman Cecil B. DeMille — their secrecy raised suspicions that they were a cabal of puppetmasters in control of politics, business and, well, everything else.

Some began seeing Masonic symbols everywhere — in corporate logos, the Great Seal of the United States or even the "all-seeing" eye on the back of a dollar bill — and taking them as evidence of the group's power and influence.

"People started saying, 'What's going on here?'" Bullock said. "People look at the Freemasons, and they're trying to figure out how the world works. ... The Freemasons are powerful, and they're everywhere, but they're also local. So it seems scary."

But even as Masons seek to present a more open face to the rest of the world, they risk losing too much of what distinguishes them from Rotarians, Jaycees and other civic groups.

"People are intrigued by the intrigue," acknowledges W. Scott Hannon, a Baltimore lawyer and a member of the city's last remaining Masonic lodge, No. 184 in Highlandtown.

Hannon, a former Marine intelligence officer, was drawn in himself by the secrets but has stayed for the sense of community he felt with members from different generations. At 46, he is considered "new blood" in a "very geriatric" membership, he said, and is in line to become his lodge's leader in a couple of years.

He became interested in the Masons after his military career took him to such conflict zones as Kuwait and Bosnia. In those places, Hannon says, he saw how organized religion can get drawn into political conflict, which made the Masons' nondenominational bent — it requires members to believe in a supreme being but doesn't specify which — an attractive option.

"I want Masonry to survive," he said. "I find that it's very uplifting."

Masons like to say they make good men better, through the study of Masonic allegories and rituals that members must master to rise through the group's degrees, and the charitable works that lodges support. Among their most famous philanthropic causes are the children's and burn victims' hospitals sponsored by the Shriners, a Masonic group.

Maryland's 100 lodges have about 16,700 members, down from a high of 49,000 in 1961, Ponzillo said.

"We lost a whole generation — the '60s generation wasn't much of a joining generation," said Jim Landerkin, who heads the Highlandtown lodge.

In recent years, Masons have shifted from the old "if you want to be one, ask one" style of recruiting new members to a more active pursuit. They've started advertising on radio and TV — their commercial features an actor playing Benjamin Franklin, a member — and created an online forum, askafreemason.org. The efforts are paying off, Landerkin said. His lodge received about 55 inquiries, some of which have led to applications to join the 220-member lodge.

Masons say the outreach efforts, not to mention the attention recent novels and movies bring to their doorstep, have heightened interest. The open houses will allow the curious to get a glimpse of the lodges, including the Grand Lodge in Cockeysville that is the state's headquarters. But don't expect to see everything.

"It'll allow people to see that maybe we're not quite as mysterious as Dan Brown says we are. And we want to dispel some of the stranger things that are out there about us," Ponzillo said.

"People can ask us questions," he said. 'But we're never going to show anyone the grip."

[Richard Hakluyt]

Looks like a ponzillo scheme to me 

[Josquius]

My grandad was a mason, they still send my nanna a hamper every christmas despite the fact he hardly ever went to the meetings as it was very boring.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Yes.  I tried to introduce some change to our meetings and it was shot down by the old people.  It is very much an institution ruled by the octogenarians.

[katmai]

Wags is poster child showing the masons don't run shit.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Verily.  I joined because I was single and bored and a friend paid my initial membership.  Its good to meet people and network, if you are into that sort of thing.  But more and more it strikes me as a debate club for grumpy old guys.

[Slargos]

Wags is poster child showing the masons don't run shit.

Exactly. 

[CountDeMoney]

Freemasons hate niggers so much, they went and made their own Freeniggermasons.  Good for them.

[Warspite]

But more and more it strikes me as a debate club for grumpy old guys.

And yet you find yourself here.

[Eddie Teach]

But more and more it strikes me as a debate club for grumpy old guys.

And yet you find yourself here.

We are grumpy young guys in our prime. 

[Martinus]

I always wanted to join, just not the deist retarded Scottish rite, but the leftist/atheist French rite.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Scottish Rite is big around here.  But I ain't payin another few hundred a year for the privilege.  Also, their meetings are on Friday nights.  Pretty lame.

[CountDeMoney]

But you get a cool apron.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I've resigned as an officer.

[Admiral Yi]

Notorious: Aren't your offspring going to be cursed for 14 generations now that you've talked about the Masons?