The Temple and the Handshake

On Sunday past, Ms T and I attended the open house day of the Mason's Grand Lodge in New York City. Every year they throw their doors open and try to convince the dubious public that they have no secrets (apart from their handshake of course).

Well, the Grand Lodge in NYC is very, very grand. Essentially, the Mason's wealth and power comes from the fact that it one big boys club, which makes it a wonderful networking association. You need someone to renovate your business? Well, if you are a Mason, you are likely to give the contract to a fellow Mason right? With 3 million Masons worldwide, 2/3rds of which are in America, you can see why Masons crop up everywhere in US history.

What Tamara and I found humorous was the fact that when they had to renovate the Lodge fifty odd years ago, instead of spending the money they generate for charities (which is the primary function of the Mason's today), they received donations from other charities for that function instead. Most bizarre.

Another interesting fact is that two subjects are vetoed in the meeting rooms (and bringing them up can get you forcibly removed from the room). These are politics and religion. This seems surprising since I always thought the Masons had a religious theme however, membership only requires that you believe in a higher being (the great architect perhaps?) rather than any particular god.

The Lodge is comprises of two buildings, the second building is rented out as commercial space which generates income for the Temple. In the temple are 14 floors of meeting rooms, each one laid out to a fairly standard pattern (with pipe organ, seating along the walls and several symbolic fixtures) but decorated to a specific style. The tour started in the Egyptian Room and ended in the Grand Hall.

The Mason's that conducted the tour were a humorous bunch of old chaps and full of interesting stories. One fellow (who I suspect may have been a closet Civil War Re-enactor) had a fabulous twirled moustache and cropped beard. An indication of the gentlemanly reserve of these fellows is illustrated by an incident in the Renaissance room (one of the rooms pictured). He entered the room with two men and a young boy. He was giving his introduction; ..." and this is the Renaissance Room..." At that point, the ignorant pleb there with the young boy piped up in his grating accent "Oh? Why is that then?" (and I should point out that this man has just been through about eight themed rooms by this point). As any gentleman would, the Mason calmly continued his ramble and completely ignored the plebian, thus saving an unwarranted embarrassment for all.