Masonry and Modern Culture

Cultural references

There are many books, plays, movies, Television shows, etc. that include references to Freemasonry. Those listed below are those where Freemasonry figures prominently. There are many books and websites dedicated to giving a more complete list of cultural references to Freemasonry.

• Marquis de Sade, (1740-1814), Juliette, or Vice Amply Rewarded  In which Clairwil’s brother gives an account of a conspiracy in Sweden: "Sade shows himself attracted by the ’secret society' theory of history. The Swedish plotters belong to an anti-Catholic, anti-royalist Lodge supposed to have been founded by the fugitive Templars when their Order was suppressed in the fourteenth century. The Masons are linked with it as its agents and dupes." [Cited in Geoffrey Ashe, The Hell-Fire Clubs. Phoenix Mill : Sutton Publishing, 2000. p. 218-19.] New York : Stewart Gordon Publications, [c. 1967]. 320 p. 18 cm. First published 1797.

• Freemason J. Rudyard Kipling used Masonic symbols and characters in his works, most notably The Man Who Would Be King, in which two adventurers are taken to be Masonic representatives of Alexander the Great. This story was adapted and filmed by John Huston, in 1975.

© 1975 Allied Artists Pictures

• Leo Tolstoy's novel War and Peace contains many references to Freemasonry. When Pierre Bezhukov, one of the main characters, becomes a Freemason his initiation (which follows a European form) is described.

• The plot of Mozart's opera Die Zauberflöte ("The Magic Flute") contains several references to Masonic ideals and ceremonies. Mozart and his librettist Emanuel Schikaneder were both members of Lodge of the Nine Muses, a Masonic Lodge. 

• Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco deals with Masonic themes.

• Samuel Langhorne Clemens, under the pen name of Mark Twain, is considered to rank amongst the finest American writers.  Clemens was not a particularly active Freemason. In what may be his only public Masonic allusion, he mentions "the grip and the word that lift a man up and make him glad to be alive" in a dinner speech to the New York City Lotus Club on November 10, 1900.

• Freemasons feature heavily in Robert Shea's and Robert Anton Wilson's satire, The Illuminatus! Trilogy.

• Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms. 

"The Pope wants the Austrians to win the war," the major said. "He loves Franz Joseph. That’s where the money comes from. I am an atheist."

"All thinking men are atheists," the major said. " I do not believe in the Free Masons however."

"I believe in the Free Masons," the lieutenant said. "It is a noble organization."

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) was the author of fifty-six short stories and three novels with Sherlock Holmes and John H. Watson M.D., as the principal characters.  Here are some examples:

The Adventure of the Norwood Builder (1903)
"You mentioned your name as if I should recognize it, but beyond the obvious facts that you are a bachelor, a solicitor, a Freemason, and an asthmatic, I know nothing whatever about you."

The Adventure of the Red-headed League (1891)
"Beyond the obvious facts that he has at some time done manual labour, that he takes snuff, that he is a Freemason. that he has been in China, and that he has done a considerable amount of writing lately, I can deduce nothing else."
"Well, the snuff, then, and the Freemasonry?"
"I won't insult your intelligence by telling you how I read that, especially as, rather against the strict rules of your order, you use an arc-and-compass breastpin."

A Scandal in Bohemia (1891)
"There is a wonderful sympathy and freemasonry among the horsey men. Be one of them, and you will know all that there is to know."

A Study in Scarlet (1886)
"Gold ring, with Masonic device."
 

• Sons of the Desert (1933). When Stan and Ollie trick their wives into thinking that they are taking a medicinal cruise while they're actually going to the convention, the wives find out the truth the hard way.

© 1933 Hal Roach Studios

• John Cleese, and other cast members, satirize Freemasons in the "How to recognise a Freemason" and "Architect's Sketch" sketches of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

• Bugs Bunny makes reference to a "square deal" in Ballot Box Bunny.  He tries to outvote Yosemite Sam by saying "Vote for a square deal."

©1950 Warner Brothers

• True Grit (1969), Starring John Wayne.  Kim Darby's character, Matty, on viewing her recently deceased father in a coffin in a funeral parlor, tells the farm hand, "When you get home, you put him in a better coffin and you bury him in a mason's apron."

• The Freemasons are satirized in an episode of The Simpsons, titled "Homer the Great", as The Ancient Society of Stonecutters, a secret organization that controls everything from the British Crown to the Academy Awards.

• Like Water for Chocolate (Como Agua para Chocolate) (1992)  A Masonic funeral is briefly seen through a window. Later, the young doctor shows the main character a drawing incorporating the square and compasses and an all-seeing eye.

 

© 1989 Laura Esquivel (novel) and ©1992 Laura Esquivel & Arau Films Internacional (movie)

• The plot of the 2004  movie National Treasure and the 2007 sequel National Treasure II revolves heavily around the Freemasons and is somewhat unusual in that it depicts them in a benign light.

• In The Baron in the Trees Italian writer Italo Calvino includes Masonic Lodges branching out into the lands of Ombrosa with the protagonist of the novel, Cosimo di Rondo, mysteriously and supposedly involved with them.

• Katherine Kurtz and Deborah Turner Harris use Freemasonry in their series The Adept, most notably in The Adept Book Two: The Lodge of the Lynx, and in Kurtz's American Revolution historical novel Two Crowns for America, which links Freemasonry and Jacobitism.

• Brad Meltzer discusses Freemasonry in his 2006 novel, The Book of Fate.

• In the song Secret Handshakes on The Ataris' 2007 album Welcome The Night, Kris Roe talks of his father's involvement with the Freemasons.

• The August 1999 edition of Superman, "Superman Adventures 34." Fighting Fate,  includes a panel where someone offers Superman protection from the "Great Architect of the Universe".  © 1999 DC Comics, NY, NY

•  The graphic novels and movie of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.  Several of the characters are  adorned with numerous square and compasses insignias and wear Masonic style aprons with an
  eye in a triangle marking.

• Get Fuzzy is a daily newspaper comic strip, From April 14 to 19 , 2003 Bucky explained that he belonged
  to a Masonic lodge, announcing that he would kill anyone who tried to stop him from attending, and noting that a lot of cats belonged to his lodge: "They're orange." Drawn and copyright by Darby Conley, Distributed by United Features Syndicate, Inc., USA.

  © 2003 Darby Conley

   

• In the television show M*A*S*H, Mail Call Three broadcast February 6, 1978. Radar (Gary Burghoff) tells Hawkeye (Alan Alda) that his mother's new boyfriend "is a third degree mason" who takes her to the Masonic
  lodge for bingo on Fridays".

• Help! (1965)  Ringo Starr asks an Indian restaurant doorman, "You know what this ring means?" He replies , "Freemason?"

• Big Fish (2003) Ed Bloom, played by Ewan McGregor, is given the key to the city and a parade when he leaves his small hometown. The parade consists entirely of Ed, his traveling companion, Karl, and six Shriners in minicars.

  © 2003, directed by Tim Burton

• In the movie, Laura Croft: Tomb Raider the Square/Compass and the All Seeing Eye is visible in a building's decoration.

© 2001, Paramount Studios, Core Designs

• In the movie The Mummy Returns the question is asked by a protector of man and a servant of God, "If I were to tell you that I was a stranger traveling from the East, what would you say?" Brendan Fraser's character replies , "I would tell you that I was a traveler coming from the west to meet you."

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