When you delve into the world of conspiracy theories sooner or later, usually sooner, you run into the concept that Freemasons are a secret society that either run the world or are trying to do so. I find the theory fairly convincing, however it is still a theory as far as I know. So I’m going to go back to the basics and just look as some basic facts about Freemasons from an outsiders perspective, and without going too conspiratorial in the matter.
Freemasons do exist, and they are a secret society. There are Freemason lodges and temples in pretty much every developed country around the world. There are countless lodges in Europe and the Americas, but Africa and Asia have their fair share of them as well. The least amount Freemasonry can be found in the Islamic Middle-East. The Communist party of China has interestingly outlawed Masonry, and I doubt there are lodges in North Korea either.
Wikipedia has a list of Masonic Grand Lodges from around the world. There appear to a be a few hundred of them. Note that these are only the Grand Lodges. Many other smaller lodges exist in each country. The list mentions two Grand Lodges here in Finland. A Finnish website, kaikki.info, lists supposedly all the Masonic lodges in Finland, which is 162. There appear to be 9 lodges in the city I live in, Turku. The thing is, I don’t know the location of any of them.
To contrast the 162 lodges, there are around 80 Islamic Mosques in Finland and two Jewish Synagogues. Finland has around 830 Christian churches. Why this is relevant is that Freemasonry is a religion according to some, although Masons usually deny it, but at least it is a spiritual philosophy. Joining them allegedly requires belief in a god.
Basically, Freemasonry is the second most powerful spiritual doctrine in Finland if we go by the amount of “places of worship” they have. Yet the regular person does not know anything about them. When I click on the lodges on the list on Finnish Masonic lodges, it gives a list of the people involved in said lodge. There are architects, engineers, lawyers and fire chiefs there. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to know if the people in high positions in my community are members of a secretive religious order.
This is just the case here in Finland, but I expect a similar situation in most other Western countries at least.
Not only are Masons in positions of power, but Freemasonry itself appears to be powerful. I can say it simply based on the fact that there are countless Masonic lodges around the world, and renting or buying a place to conduct one’s rituals is not cheap. When you go to pretty much every country in the world you can see companies like McDonalds, Coca-Cola and Starbucks having a presence there. You can see that the companies have money, i.e. power, by their presence all around the world. The difference between Freemasonry and capitalist companies, is that Masons prefer to hide themselves, whereas companies thrive on visibility. Of course there are claims that Masons are behind such multinational corporations, but that is a discussion for another time.
Here are a few pictures of Masonic lodges.
I guess I should remind you that several of US presidents and other influential and important people, such as certain astronauts, have been Freemasons. I’ve written previously on how at least the French revolution and the independence of the United States have been influenced by Masonic ideals. Simon Bolivar of Venezuela was a Freemason. They have been quite influential in the formation of history in recent centuries, and they seem to at least have lots of money still today.
I wonder if Freemasons are suffering the same social ills as the rest of contemporary society, i.e. are feminists demanding that Freemasons accept more transgender people, or are Black Lives Matter activists saying that Freemasons are racist and need more diversity? Governments, especially the US government along with the NSA, is constantly spying on the average citizen. I wonder whether Freemasons are exempt from the spying? If I was in the government, I’d start with finding out what are the Masons really up to, instead of treating regular citizens like criminals.
Links:
List of Masonic Grand Lodges: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Masonic_Grand_Lodges#Asia
List of lodges in Finland: http://kaikki.info/suomi/vapaamuurarit/index.html
Suomessa on jo 80 moskeijaa: http://yle.fi/uutiset/suomessa_on_jo_80_moskeijaa_viisi_niista_avasi_meille_ovensa_tervetuloa_mukaan_vierailulle/8408601
Suomen Juutalaiset: https://fi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suomen_juutalaiset
Montako kirkkoa Suomessa on?: http://www.kysy.fi/kysymys/montako-kirkkoa-suomessa
Are Freemasons running the world?: https://concordiaabchao.wordpress.com/2015/05/25/are-freemasons-running-the-world/
People lean more toward being convinced of the Illuminati and new world order these days also. It’s a hard concept to swallow, already feeling like a pawn in a chess game and powerless to change anything in society.
Believing in Freemasons, Illuminati and New World Order are not mutually exclusive. One theory I’ve heard is that Illuminati refers to the higher levels of Freemasonry. But nowadays I dislike using the term Illuminati, because it’s too generic. There may or may not exist a secret society that uses that name, but different people refer to different things when they say Illuminati.