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General requirements

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Generally, to be accepted for initiation as a regular Freemason (in a lodge following Anglo-American style), a candidate must:

  • Be a man who comes of his own free will by his own initiative or by invitation in some jurisdictions.[1]
  • Believe in some kind of Supreme Being.[1]
  • Be of good morals, and of good reputation.[1]
  • Be able to support himself and his family.[1]
  • Be of minimum age (from 18 to 25 depending on the jurisdiction).[1] In some jurisdictions the son of a Mason, known as a "Lewis," may join at an earlier age than others.[citation needed]
  • Be able to pass interviews and pass the Investigation Committee's inquiries about his past with people who have known him, which can take up to 2 years.[1]
  • Be of sound mind and body.[2] Although this is not a universal requirement. [1]
  • Be free-born (or "born free", i.e., not born a slave or bondsman).[3] As with the previous, this is entirely an historical holdover, and can be interpreted in the same manner as it is in the context of being entitled to write a will. Some jurisdictions have removed this requirement.
  • Pass the vote of the Lodge to allow your membership.[1]

Some Grand Lodges in the United States have an additional residence requirement, candidates being expected to have lived within the jurisdiction for a certain period of time, typically six months.[4]

Having been elected and initiated, a member may subsequently demit (resign) from membership of his lodge[5] if he so desires and only if he is in good standing and his dues paid. He continues to be regarded as a mason and may rejoin through a new application, but he and his family have no rights, privileges or claims on Freemasonry.[6] Leaving the lodge does not exempt him from his obligations nor the wholesome control of the Order over his moral conduct.[5]

Additionally, the fraternity may either suspend or expel a member for immoral conduct. Expulsion from all of Freemasonry can only occur from a Grand Lodge while lesser chapters can expel members from their specific lodges.[5]




  • 49 - [1] agnostic atheist is weak atheist
  • 48 - God Delusion [2]
  • 47 - God Delusion [3]
  • 46 - Modern Agnosticism differs from its ancient prototype. Its genesis is not due to a reactionary spirit of protest, and a collection of sceptical arguments, against "dogmatic systems" of philosophy in vogue, so much as to an adverse criticism of man's knowing-powers in answer to the fundamental question: What can we know? Kant, who was the first to raise this question, in his memorable reply to Hume, answered it by a distinction between "knowable phenomena" and "unknowable things-in-themselves". Hamilton soon followed with his doctrine that "we know only the relations of things". Modern Agnosticism is thus closely associated with Kant's distinction and Hamilton's principle of relativity. It asserts our inability to know the reality corresponding to our ultimate scientific, philosophic, or religious ideas. [4]
  • 35 - Not Huxley. person who believes that the existence of God is not provable. [6]


  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "How To Become A Freemason". Masonic Lodge of Education. Retrieved 2013 November 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  2. ^ "Would you like to become part of history". Freemason Network. Retrieved 2013 November 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
  3. ^ Robinson, John J. (1989). Born in Blood: The Lost Secrets of Freemasonry. New York: Evans. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-87131-602-8. OCLC 20419501. ... by the late fifteenth century virtually every man in England was free. Robinson also states that the presence of the requirement meant that Freemasonry was organisationally much older than the 1717 founding of the Premier Grand Lodge of England.
  4. ^ "Become a Mason: Requirements". Grand Lodge of Illinois, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons. Archived from the original on 6 August 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-08.
  5. ^ a b c "Demit". Masonic Dictionary. Retrieved 2013 November 10. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help) Cite error: The named reference "MasonicDictionary" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Demits". NC Secretary Corner. Retrieved 2013 November 10. {{cite web}}: |chapter= ignored (help); Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)