Please bear in mind that this info is taken from a couple of articles I have read and things I've been told. Before any masons reading this get angry, the people who told me were not masons. I don't know who told them. So no throat cutting, heart removing or bowel splilling, OK!
Where to start? Well the masons are a very large group. Their existence is not secret, but the members do not advertise that they are a mason. Though I think it is fair to say that most would admit it if asked directly. They have some funny habits, but the ultimate goal is to protect the holy grail. How that task fell to them is something that probably only some very high up mason might know. If you meet one, why not ask and see what they can tell you.
| Password | |
| First degree mason entered apprentice | boaz |
| Second degree mason fellowcraft | shibboleth |
| Third degree mason master | Tubal Cain or Mah ha bone (what, the builder) |
Handshake
All depends upon where the thumb is placed on your hand. I can't remember for sure, but I believe that the
thumb on the first knuckle is for a first degree mason, second knuckle for a second degree and third knuckle for a
third degree mason.
A mason may occasionally feel threatened, or in difficulty and at such a time could use the Grand Masonic Hailing Sign of Distress also known as the High Sign. Other masons seeing this will immediatelly come to his assistance. The sign itself is something like raising his arms above his head, then lowering them in three steps.
Each of the degrees has their own signs.
| First degree | Move the hand across the neck. The classic, throat-cutting move seen in lots of films. The masonic definition is more exact. Throat cut, tongue pulled out at the roots and the body buried in the shifting sands of the low tide mark, if the mason ever knowingly violates his Entered Apprentice vow. |
| Second degree | Cupping the right hand over the left breast and then drawing it slowly down and across to the other side. This is to symbolise having the left breast torn open, the heart ripped out and given to the wild beasts of the field and fowls of the air. |
| Third degree | Mime of ripping your stomache open and is to remind fellow masons of the threat of having the body cut in two, the bowels removed and burned ashes which are then to be scattered to the four winds of heaven. Again I believe that the threat is for breaking the third degree vow. |
So what else can I say? Well I am definatelly not a mason, but all of the ones I've met are good people. Usually on the old side of middle-age. They strike me as the kind of people that we all know in our lives. Traditional, friendly, sociable and keen to do some money raising for charity. As that is the main aim of their meetings. That and meet up with a similar bunch of men, to have a meal and a drink.