How to become a freemason in Belgium
How to become a freemason in Belgium
There are some 25,000 Freemasons in Belgium, of whom one third are women.
Tuesday, 16 July 2024
Among the many museums in Brussels, the Belgian Museum of Freemasonry, located at 73 Rue de Laeken in the city centre, is arguably one of the most fascinating.
Freemasonry is an ancient order of brotherhood, surrounded by myths of secrecy, but here we have a museum that declares, at the entrance, its intention to enhance transparency and to shed some light on the ideology and history of Freemasonry in Belgium.
The museum contains an exhibition in the so-called meditation hall where new candidates applying to become members of the Freemason lodge are received. There is also a “Temple” inside the building where the ceremonies take place. Access to the Temple is allowed for guided groups but the ceremonies are not open to non-members.
Once a secretive organization persecuted by totalitarian Fascist, Nazi and Communist regimes alike, Freemasonry is today a much more open association with “Grand Lodges” in many countries. However, its origin is still shrouded in mystery.
Historical traditions
There are basically two historical traditions: the Biblical one and the mediaeval one. According to the Biblical tradition, which seems to be the dominant one and is reflected in the symbols of most national lodges, Jerusalem, where the Temple of King Solomon was located, is the cradle of Freemasonry. King Solomon is considered to be the first Grand Master of Freemasonry.
The name Jerusalem contains “salem” which in Hebrew means peace and perfection. These are two important concepts in Freemasonry and relate both to the outside world and to the inner self of the individual. A Talmudic saying talks about “builders”: “What are bana´im (Hebrew= builders), asked Rabbi Jochanan: They are scholars who are engaged all their days in the building of the world”.
An archaeological site linked to the Masonic legend can be found in Jerusalem. It is the so-called Zedkiyahu’s cave, located near the Damascus gate of the old city in Jerusalem and named after the last king of the kingdom of Judah.
The Freemasons Hall in Zedekiahu's cave (King Solomon's quarry) in Jerusalem
Stones are supposed to have been quarried there for the first Temple of King Solomon in the mid-tenth century BCE and – after its destruction by the Babylonians in 587 BCE – the second Temple which was later rebuilt by King Herodes and destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE
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