what is freemasonry?

Freemasonry is structured as a three-class system designed to cultivate virtue, advance knowledge, and preserve ancient landmarks, thereby fostering friendship, industry, and moral duty 1. The system operates through allegorical ceremonies and symbolic forms to convey a practical philosophy of moral and spiritual development 2.

In Wilmshurst's reading of the Craft degrees, the ceremonial progression serves as a dramatized process of human regeneration, guiding the candidate through bodily purification in the first degree, intellectual and moral development in the second, and self-sacrifice in the third 2. It does not constitute a distinct religion, but acts as a concordat uniting men of diverse creeds under common fundamental principles 2.

Within the Scottish Rite, Pike holds that the system's reliance on allegory, secret initiation, and symbols historically arose to preserve truth and escape persecution during ages of despotism 3. The symbols act as finite accommodations to help human intelligence approach divine concepts that elude full comprehension 3.

Sheppard similarly views the fraternity as a successor to the ancient Rites, established to curb intemperate passions, promote peace, and teach moral obligations while requiring belief in a Supreme Being 4. To preserve the value and efficacy of these lessons, its internal forms and peculiar methods of instruction are restricted from public disclosure 1.