Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know?
Speaker 1: From House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as
Speaker 1: Charles W. Chuck Bryant and uh, that would make this
Speaker 1: stuff you should know? Yes, the stuff they don't want
Speaker 1: you to know. Addition, yeah, kind of whoa, They're sorry everybody. Um, sorry, Chuck,
Speaker 1: we should apologize for cutting in like this. I know
Speaker 1: we're gonna we have some important information that we usually
Speaker 1: reserve for the end of our show, but we realize
Speaker 1: that some people tune out, so it's at the beginning
Speaker 1: this time. Yes, um, we have well we're going to
Speaker 1: south By Southwest. We're hoping to write. Yeah, we're we're
Speaker 1: up for an interactive panel and um, we need everybody's votes.
Speaker 1: The last chance to vote is today, the day this
Speaker 1: comes out, actually tomorrow, it's Friday Friday. All you have
Speaker 1: to do is go to panel Picker dot s x
Speaker 1: s W dot com, slash ideas, slash views slash six
Speaker 1: eight one seven, I guess it's ours. Yeah, That like
Speaker 1: takes you directly to the page where you can vote
Speaker 1: on us, and when you try to vote, it'll say,
Speaker 1: oh wait, you got a register and it takes like
Speaker 1: forty seconds to register and they will not spam you. Right,
Speaker 1: So basically, please go register force because we'd love to
Speaker 1: have a panel in south By Southwest. It's just cool.
Speaker 1: Want to go and chuck south By Southwest reminds me
Speaker 1: of something else that will conclude our national tour, which
Speaker 1: we're kicking off here in Atlanta on October. Yes, we
Speaker 1: are having like we did in New York, We're having
Speaker 1: an all star trivia event here in Atlanta oct then
Speaker 1: five or six other secret to be named later cities. Right. Yes,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be all over the place. We're gonna be
Speaker 1: touring the country playing people in trivia, having a good time.
Speaker 1: It'll be fun. It'll be during the week kind of
Speaker 1: break up that that week day were not any kind
Speaker 1: of thing, probably Wednesdays or something. I think over the
Speaker 1: next well up until March. Between now and March, so
Speaker 1: keep an eye out, because um, we actually did spread
Speaker 1: it out geographically as much as we could to get
Speaker 1: as many people there as possible. Details will follow and
Speaker 1: it's gonna be a lot of fun. Okay, that's it, right.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, back to our regularly scheduled program. Let's avoid
Speaker 1: the whole conspiracy thing. I don't even think we should
Speaker 1: bring up any conspiracies. Sorry, it's gonna happen. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a little a little difficult to talk about Freemasons, which
Speaker 1: is what we're talking about today, without talking conspiracy, and
Speaker 1: for good reason too. Um. They are one of the
Speaker 1: more secretive orders ever created. What we just talked about,
Speaker 1: Like brick and stone work the whole time. You gotta
Speaker 1: get the proper mixture and you gotta get the trial
Speaker 1: just right. I know how to make a mixed mud
Speaker 1: is what it's called mortar. Yeah, it's I can. I
Speaker 1: can whip up a pretty good batch of bit. Man,
Speaker 1: you built a fire pit, right I did. I've built um, walkways, walls,
Speaker 1: all sorts of stuff. I guess you could call me
Speaker 1: a mason, butt chuck. That would be a rough mason,
Speaker 1: not a Freemason, which is the big distinction that we'll
Speaker 1: get to eventually. Right, But first, let's talk about what's
Speaker 1: going down in Boise, Idaho. Right now, I have no
Speaker 1: idea what's going on there. Well, I can tell you
Speaker 1: there's a guy named Crispin her Tongue, and he was
Speaker 1: summoned to Boise Lodge number two, ancient Free and accepted
Speaker 1: Masons of the Grand Lodge of Idaho, basically to explain
Speaker 1: himself for going ahead and founding another lodge called the
Speaker 1: Practice Lodge, which is considered a modern lodge, and the
Speaker 1: brothers at um the Boise Lodge number two wanted to
Speaker 1: know why he had done this because it basically flies
Speaker 1: in the face of the tenants of Freemasonry, at least
Speaker 1: as far as the York or no Scottish right Mason rigos,
Speaker 1: which I guess is what most American lodges are, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because they were from England. The Scottish right is England
Speaker 1: and the other one is French, right, right, So this
Speaker 1: guy's this. The Practice Lodge is aligned with the Grand
Speaker 1: Orient of France and basically that they don't require that
Speaker 1: there be volume of sacred Law present as part of
Speaker 1: the indispensable part of the furniture of the lodge. On quoting. Uh,
Speaker 1: this Practice Lodge allows discussion of religion in politics. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you're not supposed to do that. No, and um it.
Speaker 1: It doesn't require that members believe in a supreme being,
Speaker 1: so he just he's not a Mason. No, he was,
Speaker 1: and he went and founded a practice lodge, a secular lodge.
Speaker 1: The guy's a secular humanist. And he was excommunicated, expelled
Speaker 1: from the Boise Lodge number two. Did they burn his bowels?
Speaker 1: They didn't because he didn't share any secrets. But this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff actually gives you a glimpse of you know,
Speaker 1: what the Masons are all about, Chuck so it. They
Speaker 1: are a very secret secret order, but they over time,
Speaker 1: like little things have come out. Um in this article
Speaker 1: will reveal the name of God. Um the secret word
Speaker 1: that gets you to like the next level after the
Speaker 1: third degree. There's all sorts of like it's it's the
Speaker 1: least secret secretive order as far as you know, I
Speaker 1: would think they would have changed this stuff if you can,
Speaker 1: like read these secret passwords on our website. Wouldn't have
Speaker 1: changed it by now? Well, but think about it. I mean, like,
Speaker 1: are you going to change God's name? You can't. It's
Speaker 1: just kind of like and yeah, everything you've heard is true.
Speaker 1: This is this is God's names. You're glad you made
Speaker 1: it to the fourth degree. Now, so let's talk about
Speaker 1: the history of the Mason's right. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: competing theories of where the Masons came from. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: they range from once we won't talk about as much,
Speaker 1: like ancient druids or the isis Osiris cult in ancient
Speaker 1: Egypt to um, my favorite story, and this one I
Speaker 1: think holds a little bit of credence for sure because
Speaker 1: they still part of their rituals involved the story. So
Speaker 1: it seems like it might be the way or else
Speaker 1: they just selected the story and they're sticking with it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Maybe so. Uh, way back in the day, King Solomon's
Speaker 1: Temple in nine seven b c. Was built in Jerusalem,
Speaker 1: and uh, there was a master builder, a master mason
Speaker 1: name here, I'm a beef who claimed to know the
Speaker 1: secret to the temple, because you've gotta have a secret
Speaker 1: if you're gonna build a temple or temple. And uh,
Speaker 1: three men kidnapped him one day, threaten to kill him
Speaker 1: if he didn't reveal the secret. He apparently said, no way,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna do that, so he was promptly killed.
Speaker 1: And then King Solomon heard about this and ordered some
Speaker 1: masons and these were Stonemasons at the time. You know,
Speaker 1: it's regular Stonemasons was before the whole Freemason thing, right,
Speaker 1: I don't know. Well, that's where I'm going with and uh,
Speaker 1: he said bring his body back here and bring back
Speaker 1: the secret of the temple. Did not work. So he says, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna establish a new secret. And
Speaker 1: here it is, and here it is. It is Maha bone.
Speaker 1: That's the secret. The secret is a word, and the
Speaker 1: word mahabone means the grand Lodge door opened. The secret
Speaker 1: um is the password that they used to enter the
Speaker 1: third degree of masonry. So if you were thinking, I'd
Speaker 1: like to become a Mason, but I want to start
Speaker 1: out at the third level. I don't want to become
Speaker 1: an apprentice, right, just go ahead and go into a
Speaker 1: Masonic lodge and say maha bone and they'll be like
Speaker 1: I would say mahabon a and they would like, uh, yeah,
Speaker 1: you mispronounced it, or you just leave the h out.
Speaker 1: It would be like, so, um, that is the that's
Speaker 1: the that's the party line of the Mason's um of
Speaker 1: where they came from. Uh. Probably the more likely explanation
Speaker 1: is the um boring. Right. I think it's kind of
Speaker 1: interesting though. I like it because most of the teas
Speaker 1: are crossed and the eyes are dotted. But um, in
Speaker 1: the Middle Ages, masons were a well, there were two kinds,
Speaker 1: like we said, there were rough masons like me just
Speaker 1: jerk soon you how to mix mud together and could
Speaker 1: you know, work with stone that was pretty tough to
Speaker 1: screw up because they were so big. Or there were
Speaker 1: free craft mason's stonemasons or freemasons, um, that worked with
Speaker 1: intricate carvings and soft stone. Free stone is like the
Speaker 1: soft stone that that you can actually carved designs into.
Speaker 1: And it took some serious skill, right, So to protect
Speaker 1: their wages, to make sure that they were differentiated in
Speaker 1: the minds of employers like the church or right, um,
Speaker 1: they they initiated trade guilds, right exactly. Um. These trade
Speaker 1: guilds founded lodges where they stored their tools, their secret tools,
Speaker 1: and there they ate and basically hung out together. And
Speaker 1: then after a while they just went the extra mile
Speaker 1: and said, you know what, Um, I want to make
Speaker 1: sure that there's no rough masons at our at our lodge,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna come up with secret handshakes, passwords, that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. Yeah, and there the Masons were born. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that that one makes sense too. Uh, And then
Speaker 1: we can't talk about any of us without talking about
Speaker 1: the Knights Templar for a second, because we've gotten railed
Speaker 1: about the Knights Templar with the Friday thirteenth show. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we have, so, for goodness sakes, the Knights Templar is
Speaker 1: another theory, and um, the deal there was the Knights Templar.
Speaker 1: There were monks that basically guarded a passage from Jaffa
Speaker 1: to Jerusalem to protect Christians on their way, and they
Speaker 1: were pretty rough apparently, and they at one point discovered
Speaker 1: King Solomon's uh witches in the temple. They're like, there's
Speaker 1: the real secret. Yeah, and it was apparently the biggest,
Speaker 1: you know, stock of cash. It was probably just dollar bills,
Speaker 1: is my guests, and they took it all and King Philip,
Speaker 1: what is that the fourth of France said, arrest all
Speaker 1: those dudes so I can get their money that they
Speaker 1: just stole. And they were imprisoned and then it's a
Speaker 1: bit of a mystery of what happens. But one theory
Speaker 1: is that after they were released from prison, they went
Speaker 1: into hiding and emerged as freemasons later on. Right, That's
Speaker 1: one theory that's just yet another theory. And um, King
Speaker 1: Philip the fourth may or may not have had them
Speaker 1: arrested on a Friday. Oh was that the deal? So chuck. Um,
Speaker 1: there's a couple of theories and probably the likeliest theory
Speaker 1: of where Freemasons came about. Um, we know that modern Freemasons,
Speaker 1: we can trace their history pretty pretty well. Yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: Over time, you know, we've got these miss Onic lodges
Speaker 1: and they're just kind of hanging out and it's really
Speaker 1: like a trade guild. Um, and only what are called
Speaker 1: operative Masons could join. Yeah, that's literally people who were Stonemasons, right. Um.
Speaker 1: The thing was these these um free stone Masons or
Speaker 1: Freemasons kind of fancy themselves. Like I think they cultivated
Speaker 1: their intellectualism as if way to further separate themselves from
Speaker 1: rough Masons. And so they started like having discourse at
Speaker 1: these lodges and talking and they developed they're so smart,
Speaker 1: they developed a philosophy, right. Um. And one of the
Speaker 1: one of the big I guess tenets of Freemasonry is
Speaker 1: religious tolerance. Right. Yeah. While being they were very liberal
Speaker 1: religiously speaking, they didn't like the hardcore Catholic rules and
Speaker 1: later on I think, well, a couple of things happened.
Speaker 1: Catholics were for forbidden to join Freemasons at one point
Speaker 1: by one of the popes, right, and then I think
Speaker 1: that went away. And then at one point they were
Speaker 1: accused of not allowing Catholics and as a Freemason, but
Speaker 1: they said that's not true either, right um. And again
Speaker 1: we saw that in that thing that's going down in
Speaker 1: Boise right now that you um that to be like
Speaker 1: as a typical Masonic lodge, you have to have a
Speaker 1: sacred volume. But in keeping with that religious tolerance idea um.
Speaker 1: There it can be any thing like the Koran. It
Speaker 1: can be the the Jewish Old Testament, the Talmud right um,
Speaker 1: or the New Testament, the Bible um. But you have
Speaker 1: to believe in a supreme being. That's that's another major
Speaker 1: tenant of freemasonry. Um. The thing is is it wasn't
Speaker 1: necessarily like the Christian God, and the idea of religious
Speaker 1: tolerance of believing in what's called the Grand architect um
Speaker 1: that definitely jibes with Enlightenment thoughts. So these Masonic lodges
Speaker 1: where like you had to be a Mason who could
Speaker 1: carve into stone, started attracting people who were basically tourists, yeah,
Speaker 1: like artists and aristocrats. All of a sudden there was
Speaker 1: this cool club and they says, well, I want to
Speaker 1: be a Mason because you guys get together and you're
Speaker 1: all smart, and you talk about stuff that's neat and secret.
Speaker 1: And so they started letting in uh, speculative instead of
Speaker 1: operative Freemasons. They started letting in speculative Freemasons, and and
Speaker 1: speculative with as a word as a word yes, And
Speaker 1: it became basically like the fraternity gentleman's type of club
Speaker 1: that it is today. Right, that was like the beginnings
Speaker 1: of that gentleman's club is a well, gentleman is the
Speaker 1: operative word, because, um, the Freemasons have never allowed women
Speaker 1: in except in some very very unique circumstances. Um. There
Speaker 1: was one, famously, a woman named Elizabeth Aldworth who was
Speaker 1: called eavesdropping on a Masonic um, I guess discussion or whatever,
Speaker 1: and um, they found her and said, okay, you can join,
Speaker 1: so they inducted her. I think it was one of
Speaker 1: those deals where like, well, gosh, she knows the deal now, right,
Speaker 1: but the the I guess the I don't know if
Speaker 1: funny is the right word, but The reason that they
Speaker 1: gave for not um admitting women was they were afraid
Speaker 1: that women were going to distract the guys from their intellectualism.
Speaker 1: Sure's clearly a division of the higher self and the
Speaker 1: lower self, and they associated the lower self with women.
Speaker 1: And then secondly, um that women were too gossipy and
Speaker 1: would reveal their secrets. Right, and apparently Elizabeth would like
Speaker 1: go around town after that wearing her her Masonic clothes,
Speaker 1: her apron, her apron. Really, that's what I heard. I
Speaker 1: just told me, like word on the street. Um, chuck,
Speaker 1: go ahead, Well, I was just I should mention officially.
Speaker 1: In seventy three, their constitution was written by a Scott
Speaker 1: Scott his freemason named James Anderson almost at Alexander and
Speaker 1: he uh. This was basically the first official set of
Speaker 1: like laws and rituals and stuff. So that's in place
Speaker 1: in right, and five years prior to that, four Masonic
Speaker 1: lodges in London combined to form the first Grand Lodge,
Speaker 1: and that tradition has been followed in the States. There's
Speaker 1: typically one Grand Lodge in a state, and you gotta
Speaker 1: answer to that lodge, right, especially if you start a
Speaker 1: secular lodge, right, we should mention quickly to though, since
Speaker 1: you mentioned the female member, there are a couple of
Speaker 1: sort of spinoffs that are all females called one's called
Speaker 1: the Order of the Amaranth and one's called the Order
Speaker 1: of the Eastern Star, and those are for the ladies.
Speaker 1: Do you want to get all of Masonic right? So, Chuck,
Speaker 1: let's talk about American Freemasonry. Yeah, why not? So like
Speaker 1: we said that the whole Enlightenment movement really became fond
Speaker 1: of the um ideas of Freemasonry. And you know, there's
Speaker 1: there's a lot of um uh conspiracy theory about whether
Speaker 1: or not you know, America was founded by Mason's and yes,
Speaker 1: it indeed was, to which a large degree for sure.
Speaker 1: George Washington, you could make a case that he helped
Speaker 1: found America. He was a Mason, Benjamin Franklin Mason UM
Speaker 1: and several other guys who signed the Constitution and the
Speaker 1: Declaration of Independence, and ten of them signed the articles officially.
Speaker 1: So it's some people say it's one of the miss
Speaker 1: that like everybody that was signed the Constitution was a Mason.
Speaker 1: Not true, no, but enough where that you can't say
Speaker 1: they had a real hand in in shaping the United
Speaker 1: States and actually, um, like the dollar bill, the pyramid
Speaker 1: with the eye above it is about as Masonic as
Speaker 1: it gets. The Mason's love their symbology. UM. And I
Speaker 1: read an explanation in um U S News and World Report,
Speaker 1: which means it's true by a guy who has written
Speaker 1: about UM well mysticism in America UH named Mitch Horowitz, right,
Speaker 1: and he basically explained that what this, what the unfinished
Speaker 1: pyramid with the eye floating over it means is you know,
Speaker 1: we are as humans are capable of great acts of
Speaker 1: of engineering and technology, and probably you could extend that
Speaker 1: to you know, kindness and generosity, UM. But we couldn't
Speaker 1: finish anything unless um it's blessed by Providence, which is
Speaker 1: represented by this ie. So it's a hopeful symbol in
Speaker 1: that just pyramid will eventually be finished, We will eventually
Speaker 1: be successful because Providence winks upon us. That's one explanation.
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's like five million other explanations that include
Speaker 1: everything from like the Nazis to um caligula. But that's
Speaker 1: that's what I understand. That means in Nazistic khaliyah. That's
Speaker 1: pretty wide range. The point is, though, is that there
Speaker 1: there is a Masonic symbol on our dollar bill. Yeah,
Speaker 1: which makes me wonder if the Knights Templar found the
Speaker 1: dollar bills at this Temple of Solomon. Maybe maybe they
Speaker 1: got that. That's so that all the singles, they're like,
Speaker 1: let's make it rain all it makes sense. Uh. There's
Speaker 1: also a theory that they were, um, some Masons were
Speaker 1: had actually organized the Boston Tea Party and the French Revolution. Yeah,
Speaker 1: at the St. Andrew's Lodge in Boston. And there's a
Speaker 1: couple of reasons they point to. One is that they
Speaker 1: did not meet the night of the Boston Tea Party,
Speaker 1: and then there was some letter t on one of
Speaker 1: their scrolls, and that's sort of been called out as
Speaker 1: maybe there were some there, maybe there weren't. But amazingly,
Speaker 1: the Boston Tea Party has still remained a secret to
Speaker 1: this day, like all those dudes wore secrecy and with
Speaker 1: a dent verification cannot happen at this time. It sounds
Speaker 1: pretty Masonic. Yeah, true. So Um, after the American Revolution,
Speaker 1: the successful Masonic overthrow of the British rule, Um, basically
Speaker 1: the American Mason said, hey, you know we were under
Speaker 1: your the purview of the provincial lodge. We gotta go there,
Speaker 1: we can't. We gotta make a clean break with everything here,
Speaker 1: including masonry. So they formed their own official lodges in
Speaker 1: in the United States and it kind of took off. Um.
Speaker 1: In America. You've got the York right and the Scottish right,
Speaker 1: and the York like you said, is French, and the
Speaker 1: Scottish Rite follows the English traditions. Um. And apparently the
Speaker 1: French tradition is the one that's secular. Uh, Scottish tradition.
Speaker 1: You have to have that sacred volume and in a
Speaker 1: belief in a supreme being. Um. And you can't talk
Speaker 1: about religion or politics under the Scottish Rite, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and we had Scottish Rite hospital here too. I never
Speaker 1: really thought about that until I read this. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: think in the Shriners as well. That's an other example
Speaker 1: of UM of their Mason's. Yeah, that was kind of
Speaker 1: an offshoot of Mason's that Shriners with their fun little
Speaker 1: cars that they drive around in. Um. So, Chuck, let's
Speaker 1: talk about religion, right, Okay. A lot of people think
Speaker 1: that it is a that that freemasonry is religion in
Speaker 1: and of itself. Probably not true. Yeah, I mean they
Speaker 1: say this is what I don't get. They say that
Speaker 1: you have to believe in God under the Scottish Rite. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's the first question they ask you when you get in,
Speaker 1: you know, in your little ceremony there. But if you're
Speaker 1: if you're following a Scottish rite exactly. But then they also,
Speaker 1: on the other hand say, but we're not even allowed
Speaker 1: to talk about religion in our meetings, right, So what's
Speaker 1: going on there? Um? I don't know. I think it's
Speaker 1: probably like one of those things where they just figured
Speaker 1: out pretty early on after having held meetings for centuries
Speaker 1: that they're like, wow, you just can't bring up religion
Speaker 1: and politics. That ticks everybody off. Believe me, don't go
Speaker 1: their friend right. They also, um, don't follow the traditional
Speaker 1: um Judeo Christian view of God as a supreme being
Speaker 1: necessarily because they call God the great architect of the universe,
Speaker 1: which actually sounds pretty day is to me a right
Speaker 1: good um. But again, you have to believe in God.
Speaker 1: You can't talk about it, but you have to swear
Speaker 1: an oath upon a sacred sacred volume right or book
Speaker 1: of the sacred Law, which could be a Koran at
Speaker 1: the Townward or the New Testament. Yeah, they're kind of
Speaker 1: open minded to an extent, as long as you believe
Speaker 1: in God, as long as you tell any secrets, because
Speaker 1: we'll burn your bowels. Right. So, if you want to
Speaker 1: become a Mason, right, and you you have picked up that,
Speaker 1: you've said that your bowels maybe burned if you give
Speaker 1: away secrets. You've come to terms with that. You want
Speaker 1: to enter the brotherhood, what do you do? Well, you
Speaker 1: have to be sponsored. You have to fill out your application.
Speaker 1: Basically you gotta get two sponsors from the same lodge
Speaker 1: to say, you know, to vouch for you. I guess.
Speaker 1: Then you're voted on, voted in by a secret ballot.
Speaker 1: Um you're asked whether or not you believe in God,
Speaker 1: and you have to answer yes. Imagine if you say no,
Speaker 1: then they'll just say it's probably isn't the place for you.
Speaker 1: Then they'll point you to the French Orient. And you
Speaker 1: have to have a little bit of money. I mean,
Speaker 1: you don't have to be rich, but you have to
Speaker 1: pay the dues and keep your dues up like any club.
Speaker 1: And you're expected to be um philanthropic too. And if
Speaker 1: you don't take part in that stuff is probably frowned upon.
Speaker 1: So you gotta have a little bit of money, right,
Speaker 1: and um, once you are accepted, you start out as
Speaker 1: an inner apprentice and you're initiated, right, Yeah, this is
Speaker 1: this is pretty fun. And they do they they have
Speaker 1: to you have to tell the story of the King
Speaker 1: Solomon's temple and um, Hiram abiff and and basically you
Speaker 1: acted out, you act out this tradition in blindfold, and
Speaker 1: then you are you are Hiram a brief or abe
Speaker 1: and you were murdered and you pretend like you're dead
Speaker 1: and you're reborn and you're a mason. Now, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: really curious about this, you know, the artistically way they
Speaker 1: give you there. Yeah. And and also I can't I
Speaker 1: can't get the image of slacks out of my head.
Speaker 1: Like there's some guys wearing the clothes that he's wearing
Speaker 1: at work, which is doctor's high Yes, slacks, right and
Speaker 1: and like a short sleeve button down, acting out that
Speaker 1: he's just died and is reborn. I'm hoping that there's
Speaker 1: like a robe involved or something. Just kind of sure
Speaker 1: dead in any any fashion choices. So that's kind of
Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting ritualistic for sure. Uh. Then then
Speaker 1: you begin you're your you know, your rise to the top.
Speaker 1: Although they say that most Freemasons don't get above like
Speaker 1: what like three degrees right out of the thirty there's
Speaker 1: thirty three wells in the French tradition. Um, but the
Speaker 1: I guess the Scottish right is thirty three degrees of freemasonry.
Speaker 1: And as you graduate, you get more secrets told and
Speaker 1: more threats against telling those secrets. Well, go ahead and
Speaker 1: tell them the threats. I know you're chumping at the
Speaker 1: bit for that. And the Masons, we should say, by
Speaker 1: the way, deny this. They this is this is speculation.
Speaker 1: But this has come out supposedly from other Masons, that
Speaker 1: this is the punishment for revealing secrets. Yes, so apparently
Speaker 1: if you're an apprentice, which is the first level, and
Speaker 1: you tell secrets, your tongue is torn out, uh free
Speaker 1: craft which uh what numbers that? That's is the second degree?
Speaker 1: Really wow? Uh they will actually tear your heart out,
Speaker 1: which would probably end it for you. And then the
Speaker 1: master Mason is the famous bowel burning that I've been
Speaker 1: speaking up for fifteen minutes now, and one one has
Speaker 1: to imagine that they're burning your vowels a lot. It's
Speaker 1: not like they suffcate you with the pillow and then
Speaker 1: burn your vowel like you're probably alive while your bowels
Speaker 1: will be are being burned. Yeah. And the first time
Speaker 1: I read this, I thought, I said, your bowels are turned,
Speaker 1: and I thought that was some ancient like like being
Speaker 1: drawn and quartered. I was like, oh my gosh, your
Speaker 1: bowels are turned them. That must be awful. But then
Speaker 1: I thought it was burned, which is even worse. They
Speaker 1: just go Joan Collins and you're like, oh, my bowels
Speaker 1: are turned. Uh. And then if you're a royal Arc,
Speaker 1: then you have the top of your skull sliced off,
Speaker 1: which is no fun for anyone. No, again, presumably you're alive,
Speaker 1: and we should say the Masons still say this is
Speaker 1: not true. Um. But when you get to that third degree,
Speaker 1: the end of the third degree, the Master Mason degree,
Speaker 1: and you have kept the secrets, your bowels are intact,
Speaker 1: and your heart's fine and your tongue is fine. Um,
Speaker 1: you finally get the name of the Arc, great architect
Speaker 1: of the universe as part of your initiation to the
Speaker 1: um hot Holy Royal arch which is like the fourth degree. Right, So, Chuck,
Speaker 1: what is the name of the great architect of the universe?
Speaker 1: Are we going to reveal this? It's in the article. Uh.
Speaker 1: It is yab Yabulan, That's what it is. And apparently
Speaker 1: that stands the j a H stands for Yahweh, which
Speaker 1: is the Hebrew god um or God for Hebrew in Hebrew. Right,
Speaker 1: and Yahweh meant I am in Hebrew? Oh? Really? Uh?
Speaker 1: And the b u L is for is for ball
Speaker 1: b a a l, which is the ancient Canaanite fertility god.
Speaker 1: And then honest now you don't want to mess with him, right,
Speaker 1: and honest for Osiris, Yeah, the Egyptian god of the underworld. Right.
Speaker 1: So basically what you've got is like this, three different
Speaker 1: aspects you have like life, death, sex, existence, you know,
Speaker 1: embodied by these different gods and then all combined together,
Speaker 1: which is convenient. Yeah. So which degree is your favorite?
Speaker 1: Did you look these over? Yeah? My favorite is King
Speaker 1: of the Brazen Serpent. Yah. My second favorite was the
Speaker 1: Intimate Secretary. There's also the eighth degree is the Night
Speaker 1: of the Pelican an Eagle and Sovereign Prince Rose craw
Speaker 1: of herod Um. Yeah, that's pretty good too. Yeah, there's
Speaker 1: so many Masons that are like, you guys are making
Speaker 1: fun of us jerks, We're not. I'm not Timothy Hutton's
Speaker 1: out there angry? Is Hutton? Amazon? Turk one two is
Speaker 1: a livid right now? He's Amazon? Wow, I gotta list.
Speaker 1: We'll go over that later, okay. And I'm sure that
Speaker 1: you have movie references too, I expect. No, not really crazy. So,
Speaker 1: Chuck flint Stones, what was that the Royal Order of
Speaker 1: Buffalo that was the littally forgot about? Yeah, they were
Speaker 1: the big guh Yeah, buffalo hat. They had faces right
Speaker 1: with like horns coming out of him. Was it the
Speaker 1: water buffalo? It seems like water buffalo. Maybe it was
Speaker 1: water buffalo. Wow. Yeah, he just blew my mind. Man,
Speaker 1: I forgot all about that. I had too until just now. So, Chuck,
Speaker 1: you've entered a lodge. Let's say you're up to the
Speaker 1: third or fourth degree. You're not running around Idaho forming
Speaker 1: quote irregular lodges um and you are vying for office.
Speaker 1: Let's say, what are some of the um positions available
Speaker 1: to you at a typical lodge. Well, it starts up
Speaker 1: top as the with a senior warden well I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: There's a master. That's the top, that's the guy who's
Speaker 1: running the show of the lodge making sure everything is
Speaker 1: abided by abode by. So you got the senior warden
Speaker 1: after that. In a junior warden, you've got a treasurer.
Speaker 1: Of course, there's always a treasurer. There's a secretary that
Speaker 1: writes down everything that's going on. You've got a senior
Speaker 1: and a junior deacon. Now I've met a senior or
Speaker 1: junior deacon. I don't know which. I really got which
Speaker 1: one he was, but you mean, and I toured the
Speaker 1: George Washington Memorial Masonic Lodge and Alexandria, Virginia. It is awesome. Cool,
Speaker 1: I'll put that on my list. Yes, you should my
Speaker 1: bucket list. We we actually signed up Ben Bolan from
Speaker 1: um stuff. They don't want you to know to their email.
Speaker 1: That's awesome. Yeah, we'll talk about that in a second.
Speaker 1: To uh. And then it depends on where the lodge
Speaker 1: is and what's how their structure. But you can also
Speaker 1: have an inner guard. It's like it's sort of like
Speaker 1: a bouncer um, a chat, a chaplain, director of ceremonies,
Speaker 1: and an organist. Yeah, just just just for flair. Then
Speaker 1: then then then then then then that you know, you know,
Speaker 1: I equate organists with slacks, do you all I think
Speaker 1: about his baseball. I used to think of church, Now
Speaker 1: I think of baseball. Let's let's talk quickly about the symbology.
Speaker 1: There's so much to it, but the very standard. If
Speaker 1: you look at the Mason symbol, it's a it's a
Speaker 1: right angle ruler, a compass, and a G. Right, take
Speaker 1: it away, Chuck. Well, the g's stands for either God
Speaker 1: or geometry, which was obviously a pretty sacred thing to
Speaker 1: a Mason, a Stonemason. And they, you know, to either
Speaker 1: God or geometry. My money's on geometry. I would say
Speaker 1: geometry too. And uh, the square actually is means something
Speaker 1: and encourages you to be a a square dealer, essentially
Speaker 1: like sling blade says. And then you have the compass,
Speaker 1: which stands for creating boundaries in life. Right, and there
Speaker 1: you have it. There you have that. That's their symbol
Speaker 1: and what it means. All right, I guess it is
Speaker 1: time for um conspiracy theory. Maybe, yeah, we gotta throw
Speaker 1: this in there. If you ever suspected the Masons of
Speaker 1: having in their past um uh, an allegiance or a
Speaker 1: confederacy with a group called the Illuminati, who has spent
Speaker 1: on throwing over the Church and government in a stab
Speaker 1: wishing a new world order. You're actually right, let's hear it. Uh.
Speaker 1: There was a guy named Professor Adam Wis shouted, why
Speaker 1: shopped by shopped We'll go with that one who in
Speaker 1: the eighteenth century founded this group called the Illuminati. And
Speaker 1: the Illuminati basically said, we think that government's corrupt, we
Speaker 1: think that the church is corrupt, and we need to
Speaker 1: get rid of them. But this is not something that
Speaker 1: you can do in the open. So we're gonna form
Speaker 1: a secret society. And speaking of secret societies, we like
Speaker 1: you Mason's in Bavaria, So let's hook up. Let's do
Speaker 1: this together. You're really doing it, right. So the Mason's
Speaker 1: in Bavaria and the Illuminati hung out for a while, uh,
Speaker 1: joined forces. And then the Mason's realized that these guys
Speaker 1: were going to get them all killed, and they they
Speaker 1: broke off their um engagement with the Illuminati, and their
Speaker 1: date with destiny was postponed. Right, So, what I thought
Speaker 1: was nice was the government, but various said no, no, no, Illuminati,
Speaker 1: you need to disband, which they supposedly did and scene.
Speaker 1: But we since we're talking about conspiracies, we need to
Speaker 1: say some people still think that they're involved together and
Speaker 1: that they're trying to control. That was implied by my
Speaker 1: pregnant pause at the end. They think they're trying to
Speaker 1: like control the banks of the world and the governments
Speaker 1: of the world, all secretly together. Right. One view of
Speaker 1: the Mason's is that the Masons that you see every
Speaker 1: day with like the stickers and the magnets on their
Speaker 1: cars or the Shriners and their little cars, um, are
Speaker 1: basically just distractions, and that they're these you know people
Speaker 1: at like the higher levels, the thirty third degrees, they're
Speaker 1: actually running the show. Um. It's all a big front, right,
Speaker 1: and these are the people who like actually run Goldman Sacks,
Speaker 1: you know, decide that the euro is going to happen,
Speaker 1: or whether or not Greece is allowed to exist as
Speaker 1: an economy, that kind of stuff. Uh. And I think
Speaker 1: now is when we should bring up our cohorts and
Speaker 1: stuff they don't want you to know, which if for
Speaker 1: those of you not in the now, it's our one
Speaker 1: of our video podcasts that a couple of our you know,
Speaker 1: video dudes do a great job and it's very Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's cool and it's you know, they have a lot
Speaker 1: of fun with it and they're not like they don't
Speaker 1: believe all this stuff necessarily, but it's fun to dig
Speaker 1: it up and do fun little videos about it. Fun.
Speaker 1: And they did one on Mason's And one of the
Speaker 1: theories is that the layout of Washington d C was
Speaker 1: designed in such a way by freemasons to align with
Speaker 1: lay lines. And lay lines are these supposed energy forces
Speaker 1: like electum electro magnetic lines what it is supposedly, And
Speaker 1: they did a couple of cool shots of like aerial
Speaker 1: shots from Google Maps where they line up these pentagrams
Speaker 1: the streets and d C. You've been there, It's like,
Speaker 1: it's crazy. I've seen that. We saw that episode together,
Speaker 1: remember the beaut it for us? Yeah, it's good. I
Speaker 1: just watch it again today. And if you if you
Speaker 1: line these streets up, supposedly they match up with ley
Speaker 1: lines in accordance with the Washington They call it the
Speaker 1: Washington Obelisk, not the Washington Monument. And um those connect
Speaker 1: to like other power points in the in the on Earth,
Speaker 1: like Stonehenge or Mr. Convenient Truth, or exactly, and they
Speaker 1: concentrate energy and they say that they can use this
Speaker 1: energy in d C to do everything from cause natural
Speaker 1: disasters to hallucinations. And these are ley line theorious. And
Speaker 1: yet they can't come up with a decent left handed
Speaker 1: can opener. Crazy, So we we don't. I don't believe
Speaker 1: that stuff. It's all a bunch of bunk. If you
Speaker 1: ask me, it is. But I mean, you know, thinking
Speaker 1: about Freemasonry in the United States is kind of a
Speaker 1: national pastime among the sixteen to say thirty four year
Speaker 1: old set, right um. And it hasn't always been this way.
Speaker 1: You know. We went from Mason's founding the United States
Speaker 1: to the point where at now, which is you know, hey,
Speaker 1: Mason's how's it going, You guys, just do your own thing,
Speaker 1: thanks for being philanthropic, right um, to somewhere in the
Speaker 1: middle there was a bump where there was a real
Speaker 1: movement that was anti Masonic, that was so strong and
Speaker 1: pronounced it had its own newspapers and a political party
Speaker 1: based on anti Freemasonry, right for good reason. Well that's
Speaker 1: one case at least. Yeah, Well, there's a guy in
Speaker 1: eighty six who is named William Morgan, and he came
Speaker 1: out of the book called Freemasonry Exposed, and it basically
Speaker 1: laid out a lot of the secrets that we now
Speaker 1: know today about freemasonry. Um, and that kind of got
Speaker 1: the public sentiment whipped up, like who are these people?
Speaker 1: Why do they believe this stuff? This is kind of weird, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: And I saw a couple of things that I saw
Speaker 1: one thing that said that he was tried to get
Speaker 1: in and couldn't and that's why I wrote it. And
Speaker 1: then I read a thing that said that he was
Speaker 1: actually a Mason and couldn't. They didn't allow him above
Speaker 1: a certain level. So he got all ticked off and said,
Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna expose all your secrets. Sure, I
Speaker 1: mean there's sour grapes written all over that book, I'm sure,
Speaker 1: but um, And probably I think some people may have
Speaker 1: taken that whole thing with a grain of salt had
Speaker 1: it not been for what happened to William Morrigan, Like
Speaker 1: he disappeared. Yeah, he was abducted and taken to the
Speaker 1: Niagara River. Yeah, and that this is again there's varying
Speaker 1: accounts on what happened because they can't there's very little
Speaker 1: evidence in this case. But The story goes that he
Speaker 1: was arrested formally arrested for a a debt that he
Speaker 1: owed to an innkeeper, which this alleged debt was a
Speaker 1: very kinky thing, and they put him in jail, and
Speaker 1: the jail keeper took the night off and had his
Speaker 1: wife stepped in for him. And these three Masons came
Speaker 1: to the wife and said, hey, can you give us
Speaker 1: this guy? Can we can go into our custody and
Speaker 1: she said sure, And then they stuffed him in a trunk,
Speaker 1: drove him to Canada, and either paid him to stay
Speaker 1: in Canada or drowned him in the river. We don't
Speaker 1: know what happened, depends on how much money they had. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess so, But I took it that they never
Speaker 1: found William Morgan's body. Then if he conceivably lived his
Speaker 1: life out in Canada or he drowned, that would indicate
Speaker 1: that they never found him. But he disappeared right after
Speaker 1: he wrote this book. Yeah, and that whipped up a
Speaker 1: frenzy of anti Masonic sentiment, basically right and so uh
Speaker 1: that in New York State, Uh, the number of lodges
Speaker 1: went from four hundred and eighty in eighteen five to
Speaker 1: seventy five in eighteen thirty five. It's just a decade, right,
Speaker 1: So it went kind of, um, it went south, It
Speaker 1: went parachape for him for a little while. And the
Speaker 1: Civil War was such a national horror that um, everybody
Speaker 1: kind of forgot about how much they hated the Masons,
Speaker 1: and the Masons were allowed to flourish again, and here
Speaker 1: we are today. Yeah, and some you know, there's other
Speaker 1: weird theories about bad things they've done, like they were
Speaker 1: in on the Kennedy plot, Uh, the Kennedy assassination plot,
Speaker 1: or the Jack the Ripper murders. But there's no water
Speaker 1: that can be held with any of that. But if
Speaker 1: you really really want to learn about masonry, freemasonry, right,
Speaker 1: apparently the Freemasonry for Dummies and the Complete Idiots Guide
Speaker 1: to from Masonry are dead on because in the list
Speaker 1: of complaints against him, the a former master of a
Speaker 1: lodge in Boise who was basically calling out this guy
Speaker 1: and telling him he had to come to a Masonic trial,
Speaker 1: UM cited specific page numbers in these two books. So
Speaker 1: if you if you really want to understand masonry, get
Speaker 1: the Complete Idiots Guide or UM The Mason's Guide to
Speaker 1: Dummies or Masonry for dummies, both of those. I have one,
Speaker 1: do you. I got it from Mattford really got are
Speaker 1: so into that. I do have a list, and you know,
Speaker 1: if you go, there's an official list on the internet
Speaker 1: of like hundreds and hundreds of famous men that have
Speaker 1: been Freemasons. But I just earmarked a few that I
Speaker 1: thought were interesting. Um, but Abbott of Abbott and Costello, Mason,
Speaker 1: Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, both Masons. Yeah. I'm sorry
Speaker 1: to interrupt, but we should say that the Masons were um,
Speaker 1: very much down with the abolition movement. There was um
Speaker 1: they had They allowed I guess that African Lodge number
Speaker 1: one to be established in Boston in seventeen seventy five.
Speaker 1: Very fourth thinking in a lot of ways, Yeah for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that became the Prince Hall Freemasonry, which is segregated
Speaker 1: but like a huge part of the abolitionist movement. And
Speaker 1: we're talking a century before um, the real deal. Yeah wow.
Speaker 1: And you know I also read a thing I should
Speaker 1: mention that they were targeted, uh during the Holocaust as well,
Speaker 1: So you add them to the list of homosexuals and
Speaker 1: Jews and you know, anyone that cross eyes that the
Speaker 1: Nazis were like, let's kill him. You know, cross eye
Speaker 1: is called stravismus. Did you know that we're just throwing
Speaker 1: the knowledge out today. Uh So. Next on my list
Speaker 1: is Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier. Henry Clay.
Speaker 1: How about that he was the Speaker of the House
Speaker 1: and he was hawkish, right, yeah, he was actually the
Speaker 1: grand Master of Kentucky. And our buddies, I guess, and
Speaker 1: the Henry Clay people that was enough for them? Are
Speaker 1: they from Kentucky? From l a weird? Uh Cecil B.
Speaker 1: De Mille, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Elway and Scottie Pippen Freemasons?
Speaker 1: How about that Harry Hudini, Timothy Hutton, as I already said,
Speaker 1: Jesse Jackson, and Peter Seller's Harpo Marx and then of
Speaker 1: course for some reason, Mark Twain and John Wayne Just
Speaker 1: I was like, well, of course they're Freemasons. They just
Speaker 1: kind of fit. And that's just a few. I mean,
Speaker 1: j Edgar Hoover, Clark Gay. Well, there's tons and tons
Speaker 1: of these famous dudes back in the day were Freemason's.
Speaker 1: It was the hip thing back then. Well, it's Freemasonry. UM. Attention,
Speaker 1: all Freemason's. If you're going to send guys to kill
Speaker 1: me and Chuck, please at least let it be Scottie
Speaker 1: Pippen and Timothy Hutton, Okay, to burn my bowels. What
Speaker 1: if Scottie Pippen burns your bowels this weekend or next
Speaker 1: week when this is released, I'd be upset. Would be
Speaker 1: quite a story. So listen. If you want to learn more,
Speaker 1: you want to see that all thirty three degrees of freemasonry.
Speaker 1: You can type in how Freemason's work in the search
Speaker 1: bar how stuff works dot Com and I guess then
Speaker 1: it's time for listener. Mayl It is Josh. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: call this um one of a couple of prison emails
Speaker 1: that we're gonna be reading. I'm gonna stretch these out
Speaker 1: over a few weeks. We got some awesome email from
Speaker 1: former inmates that set us straight in a few ways.
Speaker 1: And also, uh, I'm gonna said we were dead on yeah,
Speaker 1: And I think what we learned, or what I learned
Speaker 1: from the email was it's hard to do a definitive
Speaker 1: prison podcast because they're all a little bit different, Like this.
Speaker 1: One girl wrote in She's like they're not allowed to
Speaker 1: have cigarettes in prison, and I replied, oh, yes, they
Speaker 1: are with a link. And it just depends on what
Speaker 1: state and what prison it is. Each prison has its
Speaker 1: own personality. Uh this is from anonymous. She requested, or
Speaker 1: he requested, thank you for the prison podcast. Guys. I
Speaker 1: grew up in Attica, New York, not in the prison.
Speaker 1: My father was a correctional officer and he until he
Speaker 1: retired just this year. I lived about a mile away
Speaker 1: from the prison, and when I was a kid, they
Speaker 1: used to tell me that it was a castle, uh
Speaker 1: the sort it is a way. Standing in my yard,
Speaker 1: you could hear the guards speaking to the prison prisoners
Speaker 1: in the yard, and we even went to an annual
Speaker 1: picnic for the guards and their families every year on
Speaker 1: the prison grounds. It was always surreal to ride in
Speaker 1: a hay wagon around the prison grounds and see the
Speaker 1: prisoner behind razor wire razor wire, playing basketball and hanging out.
Speaker 1: No one had ever escaped at that, you know, during
Speaker 1: my stay there. But when I was in high school,
Speaker 1: a few prisoners did escape from the minimum security prisons
Speaker 1: behind Attica, and they were caught very soon after when
Speaker 1: their vowels were burned and they were burned by Scottie Pippen.
Speaker 1: It is hard to feel any sympathy for these prisoners
Speaker 1: for me because I grew up in the shadow of
Speaker 1: this institution, and when you know families that are affected
Speaker 1: by the death of the guards during the riot, you
Speaker 1: know it changes your outlook. I think people want to
Speaker 1: root for the underdog and believe that there are so
Speaker 1: many wrongly convicted innocence in prison and the guards are evil,
Speaker 1: but in reality, most of the guys are pretty bad guys,
Speaker 1: and most of the guards are just trying to do
Speaker 1: their job. In fact, no one mentions the stress that
Speaker 1: the guards go through working in a place like that
Speaker 1: every day. My dad used to have nightmares. He wants
Speaker 1: grabbed my mom while he was asleep and told her
Speaker 1: to lock in. So that's sort of like our sleep.
Speaker 1: Then its parasomnia, and he he said, it's almost like
Speaker 1: they have sort of like a post traumatic stress disorder.
Speaker 1: When my dad finally retired this year, it was as
Speaker 1: if a huge burden was lifted. He was less irritated
Speaker 1: and he was less snappy with the people around him.
Speaker 1: So kudos to the men and women who go to
Speaker 1: work at these places day in and day out, working
Speaker 1: midnight shifts on holiday so we can all be safe.
Speaker 1: And that's from Anonymous, and that's a very good point.
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot for the email, Anonymous, appreciate that. Um,
Speaker 1: it's a weird name. It is unique. Yeah, if you
Speaker 1: want to send us an anonymous email, that's perfectly fine.
Speaker 1: Just say anonymous because we'll be able to tell from
Speaker 1: your email address who you are. You can wrap it
Speaker 1: up and send it to us at stuff podcast at
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. For more on this and
Speaker 1: thousands of other topics, is it how stuff works dot com.
Speaker 1: Want more how stuff works, check out our blogs on
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