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Is this a normal Masonic Initiation?

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040309/ap_on_re_us/fatal_ceremony_7


PATCHOGUE, N.Y. - A man was shot in the face and killed during a Masonic initiation ceremony by a fellow member who mistakenly pulled out a real pistol instead of a blank gun, police said Tuesday.

...

The initiation rite was aimed at scaring the new member.
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Now I know those freeky Masons have some secret rituals and all. My grandfather was a mason, my parents were DeMolay sweethearts, so the Masonic order is big in my family's history.

Can anyone shed light on this? (My grandpa's dead). Are they always this wierd and ... juvenile? This sounds like a fraternity prank gone wrong, not something that grown-ups would take part in.
 
Guns don't kill people, Freemasons kill people.

I've never heard of this specific ritual, but I've heard of all sort of glorified hazing which goes on during their initiation proccess.

Tubalcain.
 
Incorrectly answering "Is this thing loaded?" is not conducive to ruling the world.

It must be disinformation.


That said, this sounds like no Masonic ritual I know of.
 
Absolutely no hazing of any sort happened at mine; and there sure as hell weren't any guns!!! :eek:
 
To answer the OP more specifically than I did before, I don't believe it is at all common for stupid things like that to happen.

The worst I've seen in terms of "scaring a new member" is playing on the fact that the new guy has no idea what's coming. Assuming he hasn't read books about it, in which case, he has the wrong idea.
 
I thought that sort of thing was reserved for the people being initiated into the higher orders. Maybe someone got their rituals mixed up? It's easy to do, as anyone on the square could tell you.
 
Joshua Korosi said:
Absolutely no hazing of any sort happened at mine; and there sure as hell weren't any guns!!! :eek:
Click to expand...

I thought Freemasons were not at any circumstance allowed to reveal that they indeed are Freemasons to non-Freemasons? Or is it just a stereotype?
What about the Freemason "special" handshake, like in Monty Python, does it exist?
 
Tanja said:


I thought Freemasons were not at any circumstance allowed to reveal that they indeed are Freemasons to non-Freemasons? Or is it just a stereotype?
What about the Freemason "special" handshake, like in Monty Python, does it exist?
Click to expand...

Last time I told someone that, I had my lights thrown over my shoulder, and my tongue cut out and buried on the shore line where the tide ebbs and flows no less than two times a day. Hurt like hell.
 
Tanja said:


I thought Freemasons were not at any circumstance allowed to reveal that they indeed are Freemasons to non-Freemasons? Or is it just a stereotype?
What about the Freemason "special" handshake, like in Monty Python, does it exist?
Click to expand...
Funny I was just going to post that when I attended a concert at the Masonic Temple in Detroit, a mason accidentally gave me the secret handshake.
You can find it on the internet.
 
subgenius said:

Funny I was just going to post that when I attended a concert at the Masonic Temple in Detroit, a mason accidentally gave me the secret handshake.
You can find it on the internet.
Click to expand...

Bwah hah ha! It isn't this one, though!
 
Mr Manifesto said:


Bwah hah ha! It isn't this one, though!
Click to expand...

it's very close though. I had an employee who was a freemason and I found the subject fascinating. I told him I bet I could find the secret handshake on the internet and he defied me to do so. (what Freemason would ever give up that secret!?). He felt sillly 5 minutes later after I googled and found it. After a few months on the job he opened up and let me on a lot more of the boring details of being a Freemason.
 
Don't know about this specific one, but according to this article this sort of thing is common.
Suffolk County police called the shooting an accident, the consequence of one man's confusion during a decades-old ritual.
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Decades old? Makes you wonder how they survived for decades.
 
Tanja said:


I thought Freemasons were not at any circumstance allowed to reveal that they indeed are Freemasons to non-Freemasons? Or is it just a stereotype?
Click to expand...

Yes, it's just a stereotype. Masons sometimes wear lapel pins and specialty t-shirts, and have Masonic license plates and bumper stickers on their cars. Plus, the ring would sort of make it obvious anyway... :)

Another stereotype is that you have to be invited to become a Mason. All you really have to do is find a Mason and ask him.

Tanja said:
What about the Freemason "special" handshake, like in Monty Python, does it exist?
Click to expand...

Yes, there's a "secret" handshake; no, I won't tell you what it is; but yes, you can probably find it on the internet anyway.
 
Joshua Korosi said:

Another stereotype is that you have to be invited to become a Mason. All you really have to do is find a Mason and ask him.
Click to expand...

What is actually the benefit of being a Mason? Especially if anyone can become a member? I suppose you have to observe some rules and have some special respect/observance (I am not sure how to say it) towards other members if you meet in real life, but what is the point if you have nothing in common apart from the very fact that you are a member of the same organisation?
 
Tanja said:


What is actually the benefit of being a Mason? Especially if anyone can become a member? I suppose you have to observe some rules and have some special respect/observance (I am not sure how to say it) towards other members if you meet in real life, but what is the point if you have nothing in common apart from the very fact that you are a member of the same organisation?
Click to expand...

Who else is strongly reminded of the Architect's Sketch from Monty Python?
 
Tanja said:


What is actually the benefit of being a Mason? Especially if anyone can become a member? I suppose you have to observe some rules and have some special respect/observance (I am not sure how to say it) towards other members if you meet in real life, but what is the point if you have nothing in common apart from the very fact that you are a member of the same organisation?
Click to expand...

Most of the United States Presidents, except for Kennedy, Lincoln, and John Quincy Adams have been members of the freemasons.

Most highly sought after political figures, and activists are part of the freemasons.


In other words, join the freemasons, and you might have a better political standing.


Oh, the only toher advantage is you get to tease friends about the fact that you are part of a Giant Conspiracy. :rolleyes:
 
Absolutely. Getting shot in the face is standard initiation in most group situations...
 
This happened in the next town over from us, so there is all sorts of local media coverage. Real sad story, a regular family guy who worked for the town.

When I was young and a Illuminati paranoid I found out a carpenter buddy of my bosses was in that lodge. Innocently pressing him for clues about the worldwide conspiracy that he was involved in I found out that it was mostly old guys playing poker and doing civil works things (Ala KoC,Rotarians). Not exactly the Bildburgs or the group who wanted to find the map that went under the pendulum.

The strange thing is that they were not even doing the standard Freemason shtick, this lodge had kind of wandered off into it's own traditions and rituals over the years (?Branch Freemasonry?) and this gun thing was something that had either been kept from the old days or just done there in Patchogue. The spokesmen for the other Masonic groups interviewed said they did not perform that ritual.
 
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