The cover of the Observer Magazine of 18 June 1967 featured the ‘secret word known to one million men in Britain’ – Boaz. Though quite how something that about one in 20 men knew was a secret is more of a mystery.
But then this was an investigation into Freemasonry, so there was bound to be a lot of silliness. There was a double page of mugshots, including dukes, churchmen and judges. ‘These men have one common bond – they are members of Britain’s most powerful secret society.’ Well, that and all being white, middle-aged men.
‘That masons may appear to get faster promotion than non-masons is not necessarily evidence of corruption,’ argued Colin Cross. ‘It may be that only the best young men are elected.’
Prospective recruits may be told that ‘a man who, after many years, attains high rank in Freemasonry, will find that he has made a vast number of friends’. This was the ‘leading attraction’, and one that the American Freemasons had proclaimed more commercially: ‘Our product is brotherhood.’
And so to the ‘seemingly ridiculous’ but ‘intimidating’ initiation, which included being ‘divested of articles of metal’ occasioning the provision by some lodges of ‘pyjama trousers for him to put on’. He must also ‘remove his jacket and open his shirt to expose his left breast’. He is taught the sign, the handshake and the steps. There was also ‘a fixed rule against discussing religion in the lodge’.
Apart from acting as a ‘mutual benefit society’, what did the Freemasons actually do, asked Cross? ‘In terms of lodge meetings, the answer seems to be practically nothing beyond keeping the rituals going.’ He suggested it may be no more sinister than a golf club, but ‘instead of making friends by knocking a small ball, the Freemasons make friends through strange ceremonies and the study of morality’.
