Freemasonry is the oldest and largest fraternal organization in the world. On this page we answer the most frequently asked questions about the Masonic fraternity, and explain what the regularity of a Grand Lodge means.
Freemasons form an association that unites millions of people around the world, fraternally connected, of all nations, faiths and political convictions, from all social strata. Through their ritual work they seek to attain a spiritual height that would bring them closer to moral perfection. Their main tasks are cultivating love for one’s neighbour, spreading tolerance, and charity.
Masonic rituals and symbols originate from the customs of ancient builders and stonemasons. The rituals consist of verbal and non-verbal addresses to the Brethren in the Lodges, by which the path towards spiritual heights is prepared. We consider our Lodges a free space in which every member — a Brother — can fully realize himself, regardless of the influence of the external environment.
The moral values and convictions that Masons seek to awaken and strengthen among their members are directly turned towards one’s neighbours, and proceed from the belief that society can become more just and humane if its individuals are such, and if they demonstrate it by their personal example and influence.
Their content can be explained most briefly as: faith in the Great Architect of All Worlds — as a perfect moral being — and faith in all the values that stem from it; the conviction in the correctness of the democratic-pluralistic order; and the rejection of everything dogmatic and totalitarian.
The Great Architect of All Worlds is our Grand Master. All our teachings and our way of working are founded on faith in the Supreme Creator, in His perfection; without that faith in His moral laws, they would be entirely ineffective. All our aspirations are directed towards bringing both individuals and society as a whole closer to this ideal.
We are not a religious association, nor do we wish to be. For us it is not important which faith a Brother belongs to. Our path does not lead through dogmas, religious declaration and catechisms, for the administration of the sacraments is a matter for the churches. Our path is turned towards discovering the light of truth, and there is no place for dogmas. Freemasonry is not a substitute for faith or church.
By democratic-pluralistic we mean the commitment to freedom and social justice, to civic courage, to building and preserving the values of a state governed by the rule of law, in which human rights are firmly prescribed by the constitution and laws and are strictly applied, thus preventing any abuse. A democratic and pluralistic order is one in which the existence of differences among people and groups is fully rationalized and accepted as reality. Democracy verifies that reality — the presence of contradictions and conflicts based on those differences. Its role is to reduce those differences, to resolve contradictions and conflicts peacefully, in the most humane way, to bring society into harmony and concord, making it beneficial and efficient for every individual. That is why this term means for us an obligation towards humanity, tolerance and active work to that end.
The idea of the brotherhood of all people, of their mutual understanding and tolerance, stands at the centre of Freemasonry. With us, all people, regardless of profession and origin, are equal. No one gains an advantage owing to his social status or rank, his material means or education. In communication among ourselves we address one another as ‘Brother’. Yet this equality differs from the false equality of totalitarian systems, in which it is based on forcibly imposed dogmas.
Equality in our brotherhood is founded on love for one’s neighbours, on humanity, on tolerance and on the awareness of one and the same common Creator, the Great Architect of All Worlds.
Masonic ideas and aspirations have existed since the beginning of the world, and so we often say that Freemasonry came into being the moment the first man walked the earth. Therefore Freemasonry, in the various forms of its existence, has a very long history.
Some will say that, despite this, the world is ruled by violence, injustice and unfreedom, and that we are far from realizing our own ideals. Yet in the history of Freemasonry there are many examples of the work of our Brethren who, through their efforts, contributed to very great advances of society towards those high human ideals.
Frederick II of Prussia created, in the lands he ruled, the first state governed by the rule of law in modern history. He abolished torture and ordeals as a means of discovering the truth. He introduced freedom of religion and freedom of conscience, thereby substantially contributing to the building of attitudes of tolerance.
The Constitution of the USA — with its connection to human rights and the removal of the use of force — is the work of American, French and German Masons. We shall mention the names of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin and the Marquis de Lafayette merely as their representatives. The overwhelming majority of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence were Masons. These fundamental laws reached, through the French Revolution — whose bearers were also Masons — the constitutions and laws of all free and democratic states. They became foundations without which today’s world cannot even be imagined.
The works of the reformers — enlighteners and encyclopaedists, Masons — including our own Vuk Karadžić, Dositej and Njegoš, still shine by their example today, still influencing the improvement and progress of society.
Fighters for freedom — Simón Bolívar, Lajos Kossuth, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Rigas Feraios, Janko Katić, Petar Ičko, Aleksa Nenadović and many others — were Masons.
The brotherhood also counted among its members the giants of spiritual life — Mozart, Goethe, Pushkin, Tolstoy, Lessing, Fichte, Haydn, Sibelius, Stevan Mokranjac, Ivo Andrić and many others.
Even though much progress has been made in the realization of human rights through constitutions and laws, the struggle against intolerance, against every use of force, against disrespect for human dignity, against religious, national and racial hatred, is not over. It is a struggle that will never cease.
Masons can be found among statesmen, members of parliament, trade unionists, economists, in artistic and religious spheres, among scholars in the realm of the spirit and of matter. Each of them individually, regardless of his position and status in society, within the limits of his powers, contributes to the changes that lead to the building of a more humane and better world.
By work we mean our gatherings in a space that we symbolically designate as the Temple. These works differ from one another according to their content and level of knowledge, that is, according to degree. These degrees, according to the tradition and customs of the ancient builders and stonemasons, are called the Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master degrees. Through them the Brethren — free men of good repute — are in constant search. In these works Masons each time set out upon and travel the path of self-knowledge and self-understanding.
From the very principle of brotherly love for one’s neighbours arises the basis for charity. In our Lodges contributions are gathered for charitable work, and almost every Lodge is at the same time the patron of some humanitarian society — turned towards the materially threatened and the poor, towards the scholarship and education of the gifted, towards mutual assistance and help for the families of endangered and deceased Brethren. Yet, besides material help, even more important is spiritual help and care for one’s neighbours. Such work requires much patience and love. We have both the time and the love for such purposes.
The Masonic secret is not of a material nature and represents a living virtue. It can only be experienced, sensed, and it can also be practised, but it cannot be learned or transmitted to those who are not ready for it and who do not take part with a full heart in the experience of ritual work. The content of the Masonic secret cannot be fixed, because the knowledge of the human being is always in the flow of the eternally passing river.
In the time of the ancient associations of builders and stone-cutters, in the Middle Ages, the knowledge of signs and passwords was a strictly guarded secret. For these industrious men, most of whom could neither read nor write, their work and wages depended on these signs.
Today this knowledge has only a symbolic meaning. It is the duty of every Mason to keep these symbols and signs as a secret. It now has a pedagogical significance — as an exercise in silence and self-control. The art of silence, lost in our time, encourages contemplation and restores the ability to listen. It is part of self-improvement, and without it there is no trust.
Since the beginning of Freemasonry, millions of Brethren around the world have kept the secret as the most precious treasure and passed it on from one generation to the next. That individual discovery of another, better Self within oneself, the presentation of that better Self to someone who thinks differently but invests the same effort, arises from trust, from the feeling of brotherhood and tolerance, but also leads to their deepening and strengthening. This nevertheless does not mean simply relying on an association of people. The shared experience is what holds us together, what makes us Brothers, and that is our secret.
The relationship of all Masonic Lodges to the state is regulated, even today, by the first English Masonic law of 1723 — the Old Charges. There it is written: a Mason is a peaceable citizen of a state, wherever he may live and work. He will never take part in an uprising or conspiracy against the peace of the nation.
All Grand Lodges in the world, including ours, are registered with the responsible state authorities, and our regulations are submitted to them. It is not customary for lists of members to be submitted to these authorities as well.
Every Mason, as an individual, is at the place assigned to him by life. Many of them are politically active and act on the basis of their convictions and their conscience. The Lodge must not take positions on such activity of its members, and must not interfere in political disputes. It remains silent about it.
No Mason may be authorized to express, in the name of his Lodge or in the name of the Grand Lodge, positions or declarations of this kind. Only a Lodge that is independent of party and other interest groups can be a place for the brotherly gathering of people from all social groups.
And yet — all totalitarian regimes banned the work of Freemasons, persecuted and killed them, fearing the fundamental spiritual message that Freemasonry carries within itself: the freedom of man, humanity, tolerance and charity.
One does not become a Freemason merely by entering a Lodge! Freemasonry is a way of life that can be attained after much invested effort and toil, and even then it must be proved daily. Among people there are those who, by their attitude to life, already are Masons and continue to build themselves further; those who are becoming so and continue to develop; and those who will never be. By admission into a Lodge one becomes a member, and that is only the external condition for becoming a Mason. In the Lodge, Masons — in the search for the light — cannot be satisfied with what they have and what they are. Through their faith and hope they strive further, towards perfecting themselves and the world around them; they build themselves through daily work, and we call this work on the rough ashlar.
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The Lodge offers its members the realization of a spiritually fulfilled life. Through brotherly love, trust and tolerance it connects millions of people around the world and in all parts of the globe. The Lodge offers the possibility of recognizing within it the order of law and the ideal order — a spiritual harmony that, through thoughts and actions, turns into an order of freedom and justice, the harmony of brotherhood, beauty and love.
To give you the opportunity to inform yourself about Freemasonry. We do not call anyone to join. That is not how one becomes a Mason. We believe it is our duty, in a time of disorientation and the disappearance of spiritual values, in a time of deep moral decline, to point to a spiritual attitude in whose correctness we are deeply convinced. Once people had a goal but did not recognize the path. Today numerous paths are offered, but no one any longer knows what the goal is.
We have both: our path is at the same time our goal. Our effort to draw nearer to the perfect — a man with good thoughts, good words and good deeds — we understand as a work already accomplished.
Our Brother Goethe said in Faust: ‘Whoever strives, him we can redeem.’