How To Become A Mason

The absolute requirements for becoming a Mason are:

• Be a man, [NOTE: there are other branches of Masonry that accept both men and women, or women only];
• At least 21 years old [NOTE: some lodges and some jurisdictions allow 18- or 19-year-olds, or may make exceptions for those who are sons of Masons, or for university students];
• Have belief in a Supreme Being (of any faith. No particular religion or faith is required or excluded. All are welcome.)

Also:

• you should be someone who does, or wants to learn to, enjoy the company of other men from all different social classes, faiths, backgrounds, races, countries, etc. Masonry is universal in its ideals.
• if you are a family man, Masonry considers that your family obligations come FIRST, so you must be sure that:
• you have the time to participate (usually two or three evenings/month at first for meetings and instruction, and then at least one evening per month for meetings from then on -- often more if you get involved in lodge activities.)
• you can afford the initiation fees and the annual dues without hardship to yourself or your family.
• you should be coming to Masonry "of your own free will and accord", to learn to improve yourself and to enjoy the company of other good people, not because someone keeps pestering you to join or because you think it will help you "get ahead" in business.

To join, all you have to do ask a Mason:

• Preferably someone you know or at least who lives or works nearby:
• You have to be able to meet him in person.
• Contacting someone by e-mail may get you pointed to a lodge in your area, but you CANNOT get a recommendation from someone you have never met.
• If you think that don't know any Masons in your area, you could:
• post to the netnews group alt.freemasonry and ask that anyone who lives in your general area reply to you
• find nearby lodges listed in your phonebook: White-pages listings for lodges may be under "Masons", "Freemasons", "Masonic Apartments", or "Masonic Temple", and the Grand Lodge would probably be under "Grand Lodge of Masons".
• Find your state's Grand Lodge in this list of Grand Lodges. Call them and ask to speak to someone in the office of the Grand Secretary.
• If you live in the Jacksonville, Florida area you can drop me an e-mail and I will assist you.

Once you find a lodge

Once you find a lodge (or two or three) in your area, you can arrange to meet with them. They will want to get to know more about you, and you can use the opportunity to ask them some questions. Some of the things you might want to ask about:

• How often do they meet?
• How often do they get new candidates? How many members does the lodge have, and how many usually attend the meetings? (Is this lodge growing, or faltering, or something in between?)
• Do they confer the degrees themselves or do they usually use a "degree team". (This gives an idea of how proficient and active the lodge officers are.)
• How much is their annual dues and the (one-time) initiation fee?
• What would they expect of you as their candidate? What is the usual amount of time for a candidate to receive the three degrees? What kind of "proficiency" work, and how much of it, will you need to learn between degrees?
• What is the average age of the lodge members? What are their interests? What kind of social activities and public service activities is the lodge involved in? What kinds of things could the lodge put a new member to work on?