Hi everyone and welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】. Hi, 安澜.

Hi, Lulu. Hi, everyone.

So far we have been focusing on the basics, mostly the fun on the good side. But let's talk about the mystic. Is it actually a secret society?

I was doing a bit of research before this episode and I found this really good quote from one of the lead in masons and I think it's really true. We are not a secret society or a society with secrets, but we are a private society.

就是我们没有什么不可告人的秘密, 但是我们是一个private society, 我们是一个那种私人会所的感觉.

Exactly.

You have to be the selected for you to join.

Yeah. Some of the rituals their secret is to non-masons, but masons don't really hide their membership, and the actual main hall in London Freemasons Hall is open to the public. They have their own museum.

Oh, Yes, I think I have read somewhere. It’s in the center of London. 有一个Freemasons Hall就是共济会的一个博物馆, 大家感兴趣在伦敦的话可以去看一下.

Yeah. And it's a really nice museum. They got a really nice library and it's all completely free. My dad actually used to work there as a guide and working in the library. He always used to say you used to get these people that walking from the street and they were like really nervous or embarrassed. They would actually ask, are we allowed to come in? Of course. I'll give you a guide tour.

Because they thought this is like all behind closed doors this kind of deal.

Exactly. Yeah.

Because when you think of a secret society, you do think a lot about the seediness. You know the things that all the seedy secrets that they cannot share. You said there are secret rituals. And I've heard about like a secret handshake, like you mentioned before. Is it a dumb question to ask what is that secret handshake?

It is a dumb question.

Is it truly that secret that nobody knows?

I have kind of had someone use a secret handshake on me, and to be honesty you can't really tell but I don't really know what it is myself.

But this is the part I don't really understand, if masons don't hide their membership. Couldn't they have just asked are you a mason as well? Why would they have to use the secret handshake?

Well, a lot of them don't so much anymore.

Again, it's all about tradition, it's about ritual. And this is one thing that we love in Britain is tradition. We love rituals even when they don't really make much sense anymore.

Yeah, just look at all these royal rituals.

Exactly. You mentioned about conspiracy theories and some of them might absolutely love them, they’re brilliant, So the first one is Freemasons secretly control the world.

Oh yeah, this is a very very famous well-known conspiracy theory. 一个很主流的阴谋论就是说，像Freemasons or I don't know like there are other similar organizations. They are the ones behind. They are the puppet masters.

Exactly. And I guess I can somewhat understand where this comes from because in the past, in the 19th century, in particular, many influential people were masons such as judges, politicians.

Now people join lodges based on their physical location and also because of their interest. So, if you're gonna get a bunch of politicians meeting...

People start to talk.

People start to talk. If you get a bunch of judges and lawyers and barristers all gathering together every week, people start to talk.

I do have a question though, now again, this has to do with the whole class thing. Do you think when people hear freemasonry, they think of a certain... it is attaching to a certain class, for example, middle class or working class or…

Oh, Yeah. It's kind of upper class, middle class, but nowadays freemasonry is open to everyone. There is that idea that it's only kind of the elites that are Freemasons. But nowadays that's not the case.

I see, I see. Things have probably changed a lot.

Well, changed a lot, a lot. So, another one is Freemasons worship their own god or the devil.

Oh, they thought of it, it’s more of a satanism kind of thing, do devil worshiping.

Yep, which I don't think my dad worships his own god or the devil. He's not mentioned it.

It's basically no longer much of a religious gathering.

No, not really.

It sounds more like a drinking thing.

Well, pretty much. My dad really, really likes Freemasonry. He enjoys it, but every time he meets up with his, they call themselves brethren, they call each other brother. Every time he meets up with them, he normally has a few pints.

I see, it's like just regular guys meet up in a pub.

Kind of, pretty much.

Interesting.

And my ultimate favorite conspiracy theory is Freemasons at NASA hide the fact that the earth is flat.

I kind of have the imagery of what kind of people would come up with this conspiracy theory.

Oh, yeah, I do like that one.

Yeah. I mean, when it comes to secret societies or private societies, I think the more private you are, the more exclusive you are obviously people would form a lot of conspiracy theories around it.

Oh, exactly. But then again, they've been these type of societies throughout history in every culture. They want to be exclusive. They want to be different. And you do that by having your own traditions, your own philosophy, your own ideas.

Is this the sense of belonging?

It’s a sense of belonging. Exactly.

It is sense of brotherhood. So, as we're coming to the end of our discussion today, I would like to ask since this is more of fraternity, it's more a brotherhood thing. So, it kind of sounds like they're just hiding away from their wives so that they can have a few drinks and have a chat. So, can women actually go to any of the meetings or any of the events.

They can go to the events every year. The masons would hold events for their families. And these are called festive balls.

Balls means like就是舞会.

Yeah. And it's only a very long and big dinner. There's lots of toasting, there's lots of drinking, there's dancing. They're actually quite fun. I've been to one or two with my family.

So, you cannot just take your wife, but you can take your family.

Yep, absolutely.

I see. So now I can see... I kind of understand that idea a bit more.

Think of it as basic club with a few quite interesting rituals and traditions.

Yeah. But that's also sound a bit patriarchal.

It is, it is. Right.

All right. And on that note, we're gonna wrap up here before we reveal any more secrets about these not so secret society. If you have any comments to make, please feel free to leave us a comment in the comment section. We'll see you next time.

Bye.

Bye.