Secret or not a secret?

The general perception of Freemasonry is that it is a secret organization. Freemasons know that this is not true. The public believes that Freemasons are secretive. Freemasons know that this is true. They have secrets, just like any other society. These are corporate and service secrets. For example, joint-stock companies also have business secrets.

There is very little information about Freemasonry that cannot be found online. Of course, there is Members Only information, i.e., information protected by a password. For example, educational short films or video recordings of rituals, etc. However, this is a negligible minority of the total amount of information. The answer to the question, what Freemasonry is, is no secret, as the relevant answer can be found on the internet:

“Today’s Freemasonry” is an order originating from architecture, passing on its ancient symbolism through initiation ceremonies, whose fundamental laws are laid down in Anderson’s constitution, published in 1723.

From the very beginning, the purpose of the order has been to “become the center of unity and a means of forming true friendship between people who would otherwise remain forever estranged.”

According to the definition of the European Masonic Conference (1992), Freemasonry as an institution is humanistic in spirit:

“The ‘royal art’, as Freemasonry was once called, is a philosophical organization founded for the study and dissemination of science and the arts. Differs from other institutions with similar goals in that it does not proclaim its teachings in pre-formulated statements but instead encourages its members to find their own truth through the path of initiation.”

After finding the above information on the internet, I asked myself the question again: Is it a secret or not? I found the correct answer to this question on the website scottishrite.org:

The site asked: “Is Freemasonry or the Scottish Rite a secret society?”

The answer is clear: “Not at all, Freemasonry and thus the Scottish Rite operate in many places, and countless events are public. However, there are certain topics in Freemasonry, such as passwords or various signs, such as handshakes, which Freemasons do not reveal to others.”

And I would add: The secret of this is kept by the Freemasons.

However, we can add a comment to this. This secret is slowly becoming public knowledge, as YouTube videos “reveal” the symbols of Freemasonry, including the secret of its handshakes.

Let’s ask: “What is the meaning of Masonic secrets?”

And here is an excerpt from the Freemasons’ answer:

“We treat membership as confidential, and only ‘initiated’ members who are familiar with the rituals may participate in our regular meetings.

Although the text of the rituals is available in various books, such as Tolstoy’s War and Peace, the secret remains a secret… remains a secret.”

So, the secret remains a secret! Of course, the secret does not remain a secret! At least not to Freemasons. They learn about it when they are initiated, the initiated can learn about it, and we must even learn about the Freemason “secrets.”