Universality of the Craft

Vocabulary · 7

Universality of Masonry

The published claim, repeated in Mackey and the monitorial works, that the Craft knows no nation, no party, no creed. A Mason visiting abroad expects to find a Lodge of brothers in any major city of the regular Masonic world.

Square and compasses on the globe

The published 19th-century emblem of universality: a terrestrial globe with the Three Great Lights or the square and compasses laid over it. The image survives on aprons, monuments, and frontispieces from the 1800s onward.

United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE)

Formed in 1813 by the union of the Antients and Moderns; the published mother Grand Lodge of much of the English-speaking Masonic world. UGLE chartered Lodges across the British Empire, many of which later constituted independent national Grand Lodges.

American pattern

In the United States and its possessions, Craft Masonry is organized on the published American doctrine of exclusive territorial jurisdiction: one regular Grand Lodge per state, plus the District of Columbia and U.S. dependencies. Fifty-one Grand Lodges in all.

Latin America

Regular Craft Masonry is present across Latin America, with published Grand Lodges in every Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas. Recognition patterns vary, but a substantial regular Craft has been in continuous published operation across the region since the nineteenth century.

Africa, Asia, Oceania

Regular Grand Lodges operate in much of sub-Saharan Africa (especially in former Commonwealth countries), in India, the Philippines, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, New Zealand, and across the islands of the Pacific. The published list of recognized Grand Lodges spans every inhabited continent except Antarctica.

Regularity

Universality is not the same as universal acceptance. The published standard of regularity (belief in a Supreme Being, the VSL open on the altar, no woman initiated, no political or religious agenda, regular descent of authority) governs which Grand Lodges American Masons may recognize and visit.

Practice questions · 5

1. What does the published phrase "Universality of Masonry" claim?

   • a. That every man is automatically a Mason
   • b. That the Craft knows no nation, party, or creed; a Mason finds a Lodge in any regular jurisdiction ✓
   • c. That all Grand Lodges are governed by a single Supreme Council
   • d. That Masons are obliged to travel abroad

2. Which 19th-century published emblem became the standard image of universality?

   • a. The blazing star
   • b. Square and compasses laid upon the terrestrial globe ✓
   • c. The pomegranate
   • d. The acacia sprig

3. How are Grand Lodges organized in the United States?

   • a. By region: one per Federal court district
   • b. One regular Grand Lodge per state, plus D.C. and dependencies ✓
   • c. A single national Grand Lodge
   • d. By the Scottish Rite Supreme Council

4. Which is among the published criteria of regularity by which American Grand Lodges recognize a foreign Grand Lodge?

   • a. It must be older than 1813
   • b. It must have the VSL open on the altar and belief in a Supreme Being ✓
   • c. It must use English-language ritual
   • d. It must be located in a Commonwealth country

5. On which inhabited continent is the regular Masonic world essentially absent?

   • a. None; regular Grand Lodges are recognized on every inhabited continent ✓
   • b. Africa
   • c. Asia
   • d. South America