The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

Chapter 7 - Rituals 391
other fraternities and sororities? Two distinctions can be made regarding the
brother- and sisterhoods analyzed in this book - on the one hand, there are the
issue-oriented ones (like insurance companies, or the Shriners and Rebekahs who
are dedicated to charity), and on the other hand there are the ritual-oriented ones
(like Freemasonry). Sometimes, it is hard to demarcate these two groups, for
example with regard to Odd Fellowship which began as a benevolent institution
and ended up in mystification. Clubs and private societies of the issue-oriented
category may possess a few ceremonies, such as opening and closing, initiation,
and investing their members with jewels. But generally, it can be assumed that
their secret initiation ceremonies were attributed to shield their members from
blacklisting, while fraternal life insurance companies employed rituals to remind
their members to pay premiums. The issue-oriented fraternities have only a pro
forma interest in ritualism. Therefore, their rituals are mostly brief and
underdeveloped, and in many points copied from the older institution,
Freemasonry. They were also created in order to lure candidates with their
secrecy, spectacle, and sensation. Contrarily, the ritual-oriented group lays more
stress on its ceremonies and ethical teachings, whereas charity and benefit are
comfortable, but not so important by-products. The differentiation into ritual-
and issue-oriented fraternities further gives way to a near definition of what
Freemasonry really is - a question often raised:
It is always an occasion of suspicion when a man travels under different
names at different times and places. An old law-breaker is known in
part by his aliases. One has a feeling of the same sort when taking up
the study of Freemasonry, the model and mother of MODERN
SECRET SOCIETIES. One man declares it to be an insurance
company. Another affirms that it is a social organization. A third says
that it is a religion and is good enough for him. While a fourth insists
that it is a benevolent organization. In this Babel of voices, let us turn to
the institution itself [...], and seek to determine for ourselves what it
actually is. 1254
As to the resemblance of these institutions, they all have their own argot, and
the more ritual-oriented, the more arcane and esoteric is their technical
terminology. These societies employ royal and pompous titles, symbols, and
metaphors that distinguish these inter-groups from the "profane" world, the
outer-group. A certain tolerance exercised in these in-groups makes them
facilitators of multi-culturalism, whereas their secrecy and elitism gives them a
divisive character trait. This ambiguity becomes extremely evident with regard to
Prince Hall Masonry for the blacks, as has been illustrated in Section 3.3.
The following sections are going to deal mainly with voluntary associations
as they prevail in the U.S.A., a country that has been a great inventor and
exporter of secret societies. The United States are also characteristic for exerting
a great influence on secret societies imported from elsewhere, adding to or
1254 Blanchard, p. 73.