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

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Chapter 7 - Rituals
[t]he main object of English Odd-fellowship seems from its own history
to have been conviviality and sensual gratification. Its founder in
America seems to have had a little higher aim, and these convivial
proclivities being excluded, his professed object was to develop the
humane traits of caring for the sick, the widow and the orphan. 1553
However, there has been a further transformation. At first we have witnessed
the change from a convivial club to a beneficial organization, brought about by
Wildey, the American founder of the order. But time brought the American form
of Odd Fellowship even closer to Freemasonry by widening the beneficent
character of this institution by means of moral lessons aiming at the perfection of
the characters of its members. This shift of a social organization towards a moral
one is expressed in a quotation from Grosh's Manual, cited in Revised
Oddfellowship Illustrated from 1888:
Brother Wildey planted the seed and cultivated the tree. It bore fruit
richer and better than he had anticipated. 'He builded better than he
knew.' But as Founder and Architect he dwelt in the temple which he
had reared for more limited objects. His cherished aims and details were
all retained, but directed beyond the merely social and physical to the
moral and spiritual - to lift its members up to their proper position - to
hold man to a strict standard of duty - to impress him with the value of
character among his fellows, and lead him to a true appreciation of his
whole duty, whether to God, himself, or to his brother man. 1554
The metaphorical language employed in the quotation above illustrates the
growth and success of the order by comparing it with planted seeds which grew
into a tree, bearing rich fruit. Besides, it is noticeable that the Masonic terms
"architect," "to build," and "temple" have been borrowed, just like so many
Masonic formulas and expressions that have enriched the vocabulary of Odd
Fellowship, as we shall see in the following analysis of the ritual.
The rules of admission into the International Order of Odd Fellows are quite
similar to those of Freemasonry, and can be found even stricter: excluded are,
according to the ritual exposé from 1888, "all women, all colored men,
Polynesians, negroes, Chinese, Indians and half-breeds - all persons except free
white Caucasian males; and of these it excludes [...] [a]ll afflicted with chronic
diseases [...]; also the deaf, dumb and blind." 1555 Further excluded are men who
on account of poverty are unable to pay the lodge dues. Obligatory is the belief
in a deity.
Hierarchically, the collective bodies of Odd Fellowship are called
Subordinate Lodge (also named "working lodge," since in it, initiations and
moral instructions are exercised, cf. p. 151), Grand Lodge (legislative body),
1553 Revised Oddfellowship Illustrated, p. 30.
1554 Revised Oddfellowship Illustrated, p. 23.
1555 Ibid, p. 32.