What are the requirements for joining Freemasonry?

A candidate for initiation must meet moral, physical, intellectual, financial, and personal requirements set down in the fraternity's ancient constitutions and local Grand Lodge regulations 13.

Moral and religious qualifications require a petitioner in Craft Masonry to be a man of good character—traditionally described as being "under the tongue of good report"—and to hold a belief in a Supreme Being 13. Atheism strictly disqualifies an applicant 31. In modern practice, candidates must possess a belief in God, a sense of honor, and a commitment to civic duty and charity, as the Grand Lodge of India outlines, while membership is open to any man over eighteen regardless of race or religion, as the United Grand Lodge of England sets out.

Intellectually and politically, a candidate must possess his sound faculties, being neither in his nonage nor dotage, and be a free agent in the full enjoyment of civil liberty 31. Historically, the ancient charges specified that a petitioner be "free-born," though this later shifted to mean freedom from bondage or mental reservation 31.

Physically, traditional operative rules demanded that a candidate be hale, sound, and without maim or defect 2. While nineteenth-century commentators like George Oliver argued that physical loss should not bar an otherwise capable man from Masonic study, Grand Lodges long varied in their strictness 1. By 1875, the Board of General Purposes of the Grand Lodge of England established that a candidate is eligible if sufficiently whole in body to undergo the degree ceremonies 1.

Financially, an applicant must have a visible trade, occupation, or means of support sufficient to pay initiation fees and lodge dues without hardship to himself or his family 12. Finally, he must be proposed by a member in open lodge, undergo a private investigation into his character, and prove personally acceptable to the brethren through a unanimous or favorable ballot 12.