ongbok: Ghastly: Theeng: Knowing several masons, I find them ruling the world hard to believe.

They just go to to the lodge, drink beer, and bullshiat for a while.

My step-dad is a mason. We were talking the other day about how they're dying off. Young people just aren't terribly interested in going through a lot of mumbo-jumbo bullshiat in order to sit around with some 70 year old retired carpet salesman and get drunk. They're not going to rule the world and I wouldn't be surprised if in 50 years there are only a few hundred of them left.

Are you a Mason?

What I find about Mason is that their numbers are dwindling because they had become too selective about bringing in new members for a long time, and because of that they have become irrelevant with a whole generation of people who were ignored by the Masons and their kids. For example. years ago, when i was in my early 20's, I asked a Mason that I knew if he would sponsor me. He told me no because he didn't think I was ready for the "responsibility" that came with being a Mason. Then about 8 years later, when his hall's membership started to dwindle because of old Masons dying and people losing interest because they were denying so many people, he was begging me to become one.

Keep in mind that 8 years is a long time. I find it odd that he's "begging" you as you say, since we're not meant to recruit. We sometimes encourage people to go for it. Although our numbers are dwindling at the moment, Freemasonry has historically always had a rush of members that all dwindled at once. A large generation of men in my Lodge were vets of WWII, and they are indeed passing on. Some lodges, sadly, are starting to look at it like a business and would focus on numbers alone.

The main thing for me is the charity work.

Now we're off in a tangent. Onto this article: I can't read a word of that text under that symbol, but I know that that symbol is definitely not owned by the Masons. The all-seeing eye has been a symbol for God waaaaayyyy longer than when Freemasonry came about.