Secret societies and subversive movementsWebster, Nesta Helen
History
Secret societies and subversive movements
Webster, Nesta Helen
Secret societies
Now, any British Mason will see at a glance that all this is a false
pretension. No order of Masonry can recommend its members for rights and
privileges to "all the Freemasons of the world," for the simple reason
that, as has been said, there is no such thing as "Universal Masonry,"
so that even Grand Lodge of England--the most important Lodge in the
world--could not, if it would, accord the right of entry for its members
into Continental lodges. As an English Mason recently expressed it:
The impression among non-Masons generally appears to be that a
British or Irish member of the Craft is able to enter a masonic
lodge in any part of the world and take part in its deliberations
and proceedings. To this belief an unqualified denial may at once
be given. Nor may a member of a lodge under any Jurisdiction not
in communion with the Grand Lodges of the United Kingdom be
received as a visitor or as a Joining Member in any subsidiary
lodge of the Grand Lodges of England, Ireland, or Scotland.[708]
But for Co-Masonry to make this claim is even more ridiculous, since at
the time when the above quoted diploma was drawn up Co-Masonry and its
parent, the Maçonnerie Mixte, were not recognized by any other order of
Masonry except the "Droit Humain," and it is not only unrecognized but
utterly repudiated by Grand Lodge of England. The British Mason, in
fact, does not recognize the Co-Mason as a Mason at all, and would
violate his obligations by discussing masonic secrets with him or her,
so that there is no manner in which the Co-Mason could be accorded
masonic rights and privileges by British Masons. In order, further, to
keep up the illusion in the minds of its members that they are genuine
Masons, Co-Masonry, in its quarterly organ, _The Co-Mason_, is careful
to include masonic news relating to British Masonry as if it formed one
and the same order.
With regard to the Grand Orient, an equally tortuous policy was pursued.
As we have already seen, the Grande Loge disgraced the lodge that had
admitted Maria Deraismes and did not officially recognize the Maçonnerie
Mixte. The ritual adopted by the latter Order was, however, not that of
British Masonry, and in most Co-Masonic Lodges the ritual employed
contains variations derived from the Grand Orient[709]; indeed the Grand
Orient character of Co-Masonry has always been generally recognized in
masonic circles. This being so, I pointed out in _World Revolution_ that
Co-Masonry derives from the Grand Orient, but I received the following
protest from a woman Co-Mason:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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