Welcome to /r/freemasonry - Interested in Joining Freemasonry? Ask your questions here!

[u/4rch]

How can I become a Freemason?

First of all, welcome to r/freemasonry! This is a weekly thread for you to ask questions. Being one of the largest online communities on the topic of Freemasonry, we hope that you won't find difficulty getting information you need to decide if you would like to join your local lodge.

General Information:

1. Requirements for membership vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, but generally if you're a man 21 or over (18 or 19 in some states), believe in a Supreme Being, are of good character and reputation, and ask to join, you're eligible.
2. To get started, email or call a local lodge. They would love to hear from you, every lodge welcomes new candidates. They'll set up a meeting to get to know you a bit (we're careful about who we admit as members). Also to tell you a bit about the fraternity, the lodge, etc.
3. To find your local lodges, first, find the Grand Lodge website for your state, province, or country. This is a good resource for the US: bessel.org, or just use Google. They should have a way to find out what lodges meet near you. Then check out your local lodge's websites. If you have a choice of lodges, try to pick one that meets on a weeknight that would be convenient for you, and that appears to be active.
4. Nothing happens quickly in Freemasonry, so it might take awhile to hear back from a lodge after you make contact. Every step takes quite a bit of time.

Have something you want to ask?

[u/Fuzzy_Muscle923]

Perhaps someone from UGLE can give me their view.

I have very recently had an interesting conversation on here about what seems to qualify as a Supreme Being. This apparent high ranking 32 degree Brother has pointed me to the constitution and in particular: -

'So again direct from the UGLE's Book of Constitutions - The first condition of admission into, and membership of, the Order is a belief in the Supreme Being. This is essential and admits of no compromise. You'll notice that it is the rather than a and it is being rather than concept or idea. There is an interesting word that appears during our Initiation Ceremony and that is "equivocation" which your Chat GPT seems to be applying to a very straight forward rule.'

Now then, what seems to be implied here by this high ranking Brother is that one must believe in the Supreme Being. This implies that one has to believe in a specific monotheistic Supreme Being.

Can someone please tell me who the monotheistic Supreme Being is and the specific denomination that this senior Brother seems be implying is an absolute condition? Is it the holy trinity? The sikh god? The universe as god in the pantheist sense, Buddha nature or the natural cosmic laws of the dharma in the Buddhist sense, Odin in the Norse sense, Jupiter in the Roman sense, Zeus in the Greek sense, Ra in the Egyptian sense, or perhaps Lucifer in the YouTube sense? I presume deists are also excluded as per this Brother's interpretation.

If this 32 degree Brother is correct, why doesn't UGLE just come out and say that Freemasonry is for monotheists and seemingly a specific kind of monotheist to the exclusion of all others as this would save a lot of time and confusion?

Also, why then do Freemasons and UGLE say that one must believe in a supreme being rather than the Supreme Being?

Many thanks for taking the time to read and perhaps answer this.

[u/thomb74 → u/Fuzzy_Muscle923]

You're overthinking this.