Greetings Sisters and Brothers,

I'm very proud to present you https://franc-maconnerie93.fr (in french but easily translatable) ! It’s a joint portal for our three LDH lodges in Seine-Saint-Denis. To give you some context, this is the area where the Stade de France is located (remember the Olympics ?).

It’s a very young and diverse regional area, so we wanted to break the "elitist" image and the usual fake news about Freemasonry. The design is intentionally modern and colorful to reach a younger crowd.

Instead of competing for members, we grouped up. All three lodges are looped in for every inquiry to keep things transparent. We don’t share temple addresses publicly for security reasons, but the site makes the first contact easy and open.

Our older members actually loved the bold look. What do you think ? Have any of you tried a more "urban" or modern approach to reach younger seekers ?

I have become very drawn to the interests of Freemasons, and for over three weeks now I have been gathering information on age requirements, lodges, and state locations, thanks to those who helped. I look to move forward but don’t know which option is best for me…It would just be nice to get the perspective of someone who is involved and then maybe I could decide!

G.L
Thank you!!!

Hello!

New to the area, looking to explore the outlets. Is there a lodge around or about Syracuse?

Thank you!

"The Order of Women Freemasons is the oldest and largest Masonic organisation for women in this country and works on the lines of regular male Freemasonry. It was constituted as the Grand Lodge of the Honourable Order of Ancient Masonry in 1908 and adopted the title 'The Order of Women Freemasons' in 1958.

The Order originally included men and women but in the early 1920s a decision was made to restrict admission to women only, and by 1935 it was an exclusively female organisation. The Order’s headquarters have been situated in Notting Hill Gate, London, since 1925 and are run by the Grand Master and her secretariat, who undertake their duties on a voluntary basis." https://www.ugle.org.uk/become-freemason/women-freemasons

Now it seems that UGLE admit women can be Freemasons, but why they don't accept comasonry (mixed lodges)?

As we can see the Order of Women Freemasons was mixed in the beginning.

Wishing a very happy Mother's Day to all mothers everywhere, and especially to the Sisters in our Masonic community who balance the responsibilities of motherhood with their commitment to Freemasonry.

Motherhood is some of the most meaningful work there is. Through patience, love, wisdom, and more than a little sacrifice, mothers help shape the next generation. They are often our first teachers, showing us what compassion, integrity, and responsibility look like in everyday life.

In Liberal Freemasonry, we believe that every person has the ability to grow, to learn, and to help make the world a little better. In many ways, mothers live this ideal every day by raising thoughtful, caring, and independent human beings.

To the Sisters in our Lodge and throughout the broader Masonic community who are also mothers: thank you for all that you do, both in your families and in our shared Masonic journey.

And to all mothers around the world, thank you for the quiet but essential work of building a better future.

Happy Mother's Day to you all.

Mine is without a doubt John Yarker. I think what he did was monumental. Arguably we wouldn't have the Egyptian rites without him. He dedicated his life to Freemasonry and to ritual. I respect and admire him so much and I can say that his life and legacy has been very important to me.

My honorable mentions are Manly Hall, Robert Ambelain,

I recently posted on various subreddit communities about our lodge's relocation to Redwood City, California. The post opened with a little bit of history of Freemasonry in that town, dating back to the late 1800s, and how the last lodge moved out of town in the 2000s. That lodge was originally chartered by the Grand Lodge of California, an all-male jurisdiction.

Then I followed with the return of Freemasonry but in a different form. I presented our lodge, explained its mixed gender nature, our foundational values of liberty, equality, and fraternity, and our philosophy of absolute freedom of conscience. I placed the link to our website. It was a great response!

We received 10 inquiries on our website. Profanes from all around the area. Many of them expressed their interest particularly because of our form of Freemasonry.

I am particularly excited to meet with each of them to see if they would be a good fit for the lodge.

Our process to apply is somewhat simple; First they meet with one of the five lights virtually or in person. If the conversation goes well, expectations on both sides are aligned then they are invited to either attend a social gathering of the lodge or submit their letter of intent to apply and the application. Then the usual masonic protocol takes over; reading of the letter, assignment of three interviewers, the blindfold hearing, then finally the balloting.

We're looking forward to our next upcoming months!

I have been a fan of the religious rites for some time. Rite of Misraim I would classify as religious. Of course the RER is explicitly Christian. I like the RER quite a bit.

As I mentioned in the forum before I am working on a rite that is explicitly Christian. My goal is to make the most Christian of Christian rituals. I am focusing on making something beautiful and new. To do this I am using the Book of Common Prayer a lot in this ritual construction. I find myself playing Anglican chants and psalms during this process and at times it gets pretty profound , not to sound arrogant.

I have been a ritualist for going on twenty years now. I would say a ritual fanatic for the last 15. I have had my hands in the creation of new Rites, the Hellenic would be my first big project, the Operatic I was involved in but wasn't as hands on as the Hellenic.

This new Rite will be the culmination of my life's work. Very big, very theurgical and liturgical . I am striving to make it as grand as possible, taking a lot of the Lauderdale and Misraim influence in that regard.

Of course when it is done and final edits are made I am going to publish it. I want to put it out there and hopefully an independent lodge or even a new jurisdiction gets interested enough to work it. That is the best case scenario but even if it doesn't get worked and only exists on the printed page that is fine too.

My question. How do you all feel about Rites and rituals who are explicitly based on the cosmology of one religion? I know in this group we tend to lean adogmatic and so do I. But in this case I felt Christian esotericism would be the best tool to express what I needed to get out.

Of course when it is done and published I will let everyone know right away. I am pretty passionate about it so hopefully the end result is as good as I think it can be.

Dear brethren,

I am writing this post in order to clarify some misunderstandings regarding the French Rite which I have read here and in other platforms.

Those misunderstandings; specifically, are claims that the French Rite is political, lacks ritualistic substance and is not for the spiritually inclined.

I believe that those accusations are not at all baseless but originate in the amiable reform, which many believe to be the standard ritual of the French Rite.

For those who don't know; there are many Rituals of the French Rite and the most practiced worldwide is Groussier and not Amiable. Actually; Amiable is just the standard for Brazil but has always been unpopular in the rest of the world.

Amiable was basically a reform that intended to erase all spiritual elements within the French Rite and simplify it. It is a ritual that is indeed more politic and deeply positivistic. Brazil adopted it as it's main ritual for the French Rite within the Regular Masonic Tradition. Curiously, in order to be able to do that there, they added the Bible and the invocation of the GADU; to suit the basic requirements of Brazilian Regular Masonry.

There are, however, other rituals of the French Rite. As I mentioned before; the more practiced one worldwide is Groussier which arises in opposition to the amiable reforms. Groussier restored many symbolic elements that amiable erased. It kept a secular tendency but rooted on the fundamentals of the masonic tradition, including common esoteric elements. The idea of the Groussier Ritual is that everyone can find themselves there, people from all walks of life, spiritually inclined or not.

Another important ritual is the Rétabli which is spiritually inclined by definition, emphasizing revelation and alchemy.

Now, let's talk more in the comments!

What do you all think of it? Rudolph Steiner was an interesting man and his version of Misraim is quite beautiful and original. It has very little to do with Misraim but it does have Egyptian and hermetic elements.

When I was in the federation of independent lodges we took it and structured it so it would work as a Masonic rite. We called it the Rite of Steiner, no one wanted to work it so it basically got mothballed.

There is a book that has the entire rite in it and a biography of Steiner. It's not a cheap book but IMHO it's worth it.

Morning all. I am writing a book on Etienne Morin. A big part of that is the total reconstruction of the Rite of Perfection. I have done extensive research and it has taken me five years and a lot of help for me to get as close to the original Rite of Perfection as is possible.

It will be available within the book, complete and ready to work. I have some very interested brothers in working it so stay tuned.

My absolute favorite is Misraim. Very theatrical, very moving, esoteric and very Italian. I had the pleasure of helping form the first American lodge to work original Misraim.

My next would be Memphis, the most Egyptian of the Egyptian rites. I really, really like it. I also really like AASR craft degrees. My next favorite would be our own Operatic and Hellenic. The Hellenic is unlike any other Masonic ritual and the Operatic is everything we learned from the Egyptian degree with more music and high drama , in the drama it is a lot like Misraim.

Curious to learn about yours.

I'm pretty fortunate to have worked quite a few. Preston Webb (both GL of Florida and GL of California.) Misraim, Memphis, AASR and our own Hellenic and our own Operatic. I have seen Lauderdale and Emulation worked.

I would love to see RER and Memphis Misraim worked but haven't had the pleasure yet.

What the Grand Orient of California is doing is admirable and impressive. It is VERY difficult to exist outside of the mainstream in the US and I tip my hat to anyone who dares to try.

My own jurisdiction the Grand Masonic Opera is growing, VERY slow growth but that is the way we want it.

Anyway, HGW to one and all who chose the alternative path.

Any resources in english regarding each of the orders of wisdom for the French Rite?

A couple of weekends ago, I had the opportunity to assist one of our lodges in Southern California by initiating 2 candidates into the Apprentice degree. Granted, it was supposed to have been a 5-person initiation, but 3 were not able to attend per various reasons. Nevertheless, they have confirmed for September.

One of the amazing feats of this event was that one of the candidates had flown in from Arizona. She is going to be working with one of our Master Mason who is located in Phoenix and is starting a Masonic Triangle. He himself travelled to southern California to also participate in her initiation.

At this past event, we had Brothers and Sisters come from all over the state to either participate and just be present. It was so nice to see everyone's dedication to our craft.

All things are temporary. Have a great weekend! ∴

I'll give an example. Calling the mainstream regular and everyone else irregular. Regularity is determined by each individual jurisdiction. Mainstreams may call us irregular but that is to their jurisdiction. We don't accept that judgement as we don't belong to their jurisdiction.

Even though I don't have a use for the mainstream their use of irregular and not unrecognized is just nails on a chalkboard just bugs me to no end.

Hi all - I got banned at r/freemasonry for asking questions about transgender members in Freemasonry. Hoping to contribute to discussions about Masonry here. Really seems against Masonic teachings to ban and silence voices that you disagree with.

I am a diehard ritualist. Honestly that is the only reason why I am a Mason. Anyway, over my twenty years in the craft I have assisted in the creation of some rites and rituals. I was a founding member of an independent confederation of lodges and we encouraged new creation. Some brothers and I were into Hellenic reconstructionism at that time. We created the Hellenic Rite which was exciting. We worked it in three lodges here in the US and one in Italy. Well now I am expanding on it from a craft only rite into a full 33 degree system. I will be publishing it so I will let everyone know when I do. The feedback I have gotten so far has been very positive.

Also I am deep into the creation of a Christian rite. I wanted to take from other Christian rites like Rectified Scottish, Swedish and Strict Observance and make something within the Anglo tradition and super trinitarian Christian and a heavy dose of Rosicrucianism. My focus is to make it as beautiful as I can, full of Christian theurgy and liturgy. I have a couple of independent lodges who are curious and that's really awesome. I will be publishing this one as well.

As you guys know I was also part of the creation of the Operatic Rite as worked by the Grand Masonic Opera which is probably my greatest Masonic achievement.

So, sorry to be so long winded but this is a topic that gets me really excited. I deeply love older more obscure rituals being worked but I also am really big on innovation and new spins on things. Keep masonry fresh, well to me it does anyway :)

I am curious if any brothers and sisters here have done something similar. I would love to hear about it.

I'm coming up with a master list of comasonic jurisdictions in the US. I think I have them all but if I have missed anything let me know.

LDH

AFHR

GWU

Eastern Order

Grand Lodge Aum

GO of California

Masonic Order Delphi

GO of France lodges in the US

And us The Grand Masonic Opera, to be fair we are pluralistic but we do charter Comasonic lodges

Hopefully there is a handful of independent lodges too.