What’s the commitment?

  1. There are three steps to becoming a Mason, known as the ‘three degrees’. Each degree requires a little bit of memory work. To pass each of the degrees can take three months or more, depending on how many other people are ahead in the line.
  2. Masons commit themselves to go to lodge at least once or twice a month, normally between 7pm and 9pm. At these meetings we will discuss lodge business and finance, and these will be democratically voted on. Applications for charity will also be assessed. At other meetings we will test new candidates and teach them the moral lessons of that degree.
  3. We are not told to do anything, we are asked. We are there because we want to be, to help others and help ourselves. It is not an obligation. In fact we recognise that the demands of our family and job come before Masonry, and accept it when members cannot come to lodge.
  4. New candidates are required to make an oath on the Holy Scriptures (the Bible, Qu'ran, Talmud or other of your choice - when Rudyard Kipling became a member there were five holy books on the altar). The reason being that if a person swears to keep a promise he knows that if he breaks that promise retribution will come, not from the lodge, but from the one whose name he took in vain. In a similar way, if you borrow money from a bank they will ask for either a guarantor or collateral.
  5. The financial commitment is small, usually about  ￥6,000 a year, depending on the lodge or appendant body.

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