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

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Chapter 3 - Overview of Rites
ceremonies of the Eastern Star and the Amaranth are not beautiful and morally
enlightening - the reader can judge that for herself or himself when coming to the
corresponding chapters. Instead of receiving "working tools" to improve their
character, as in male Freemasonry, the "sisters" are fed with images of flowers
and animals. The men of their times must have thought it fit for them to ponder
upon the symbolism of a rose, a dove, and a lily-of-the valley. But at least these
female orders had a peculiar "language," made up by signs, grips, tokens, and a
diction abundant with symbolism and metaphors. And it is this "language" that is
our principal concern. We are not going to get embroiled in feminist discussions
on the topic.
However, in order to do no injustice to the German Masons, we have to
include here some personal experiences of the author, made in 1999 - 2001.
There exists "modern" and "real Freemasonry" for women in Germany today,
although according to Grand Lodge law, such lodges would be called "irregular"
or "clandestine." Everyone can witness their being in action, because the socalled
"guest evenings" of German lodges are open to anybody who is interested
in the topic. 234 These entirely female lodges are relatively young, being founded
in the 1980s and 1990s 235 , according to their proper information published on the
Internet. Thus, when visiting several guest evenings of the female lodge
TUSCULUM in Düsseldorf, we were told with regard to their history that
several women had received a Masonic ritual from a brother, which was an eclat
at that time. So, the women could found their own lodge, and they have made
only minor changes to the ritual. Thus, they possess the "real Freemasonry" and
no substitute, and we think this development should be encouraged. From our
experience we can say that the guest evenings are very well accepted by the local
population; about forty ladies, sisters and guests, assembled at each meeting. The
membership in female lodges also seems to have no problems (maybe because
the novelty has not yet worn off). We talked to the Worshipful Master of a male
lodge of another German city who complained that his lodge only had six
brethren, and that they had to meet in a restaurant because they could not afford
their own lodge building any more. (We are not arguing here that male
Freemasonry is going to die out!) But it is a fact that male lodges complain about
an increase of the percentage of old members. From personal experience, we
would estimate that the average age of female Masons is about five to ten years
lower than that of male Masons. 236 As to the reaction of the brethren towards the
advancement of their female competitors, on a guest evening of male
Freemasons in Düsseldorf, the brethren told us that the "sisters" are not
234 Here, we have to admit that as a woman, the author was welcomed at a guest evening of a male
lodge, but was not allowed to be accompanied by a man when visiting a female lodge - allegedly,
for space reasons.
235 Several dates of foundation, according to http://www.freimaurerinnen.de: Düsseldorf (1982),
Mannheim (1983), Köln (1992), Wiesbaden (1995), Dortmund (2000). There are eleven female
lodges under the Grand Lodge "Zur Humanität" in Germany so far.
236 This personal observation of the author is locally limited and will not be supported with statistics.
Details about lodges can be obtained directly from them or from their Internet homepages.