Origins and Lineage
Why this matters
Every Mason gets asked how old Masonry is, sooner or later. The honest published answer is that it depends on what you mean by Masonry. Speculative Masonry traces to a clear date in 1717. The operative tradition the speculative Craft borrows its language from is medieval, with parts that go further back than that. The Lodges of New Mexico, which is where most of the brothers reading this site actually meet, are barely a century and a half old.
Most brothers can recite 1717 but stumble on what came before and what came after. This chapter gives you the timeline in plain terms: the Old Charges, the Premier Grand Lodge, Anderson's Constitutions, the Antient and Modern split, the 1813 Union, the Baltimore Convention, the Grand Lodge of New Mexico at Santa Fe in 1877. Eight published waypoints. Once you have them, the rest of the historical chapters fill in the detail.
What this chapter is
From medieval stone-mason guilds to the Premier Grand Lodge of 1717, and onward to the Grand Lodge of New Mexico.
How to practise it
A lesson walks the same seven steps every time. Read the intro, study the material, then drill it through Quick Fire, Matchup, Sequence, Flashcards, and the Mix capstone. Each step opens to the next; no choices to make in the middle of the work.
What if · take it further ▸
Sit with this
- Of the dates this chapter mentions, which one is in your own jurisdiction's founding lineage? Find your Grand Lodge's published history and look up its constitution date.
- Where does your own Lodge sit in that timeline? Most Lodges have a charter date worth knowing by heart.
Connect to
- Anderson's Constitutions and the Old Charges
Anderson's Constitutions (1723). The foundational published law speculative Masonry has been amending ever since.
- The Grand Lodge of New Mexico
The Grand Lodge of New Mexico. Constituted at Santa Fe in 1877.
- Three Centuries of the Craft
Three Centuries of the Craft. The same timeline as a sequence puzzle.