The Universal Language of Freemasonry (PDF)

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: Cum Laude, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (FTSK Germersheim, FB 06 Translations-, Sprach- und Kulturwissenschaft), language: English, abstract: Freemasons employ a special way of communication, for example, sign language, metaphors, symbols, neologisms, technical terminology, ritualistic travels. The problem under investigation is the Masonic claim to possess a 'universal language'. The organizing construct of this dissertation is a comparison of the whole range of Freemasonry - male, female, youth orders, orders for the Blacks, and quasi-Masonic fun orders - with imitative fraternities, such as early American benefit societies, and their inherent diction. The experimental method used by the author included the research of Masonic and other fraternal sources of the last three centuries, visits to Masonic institutions and interviews with Freemasons. These activities led to the findings that, while the symbols are generally applicable, the written Masonic language is not totally uniform internationally. Thus, the ethical teaching which is to be drawn out of the symbolic Masonic communication has reached an international level, and it is a fact that it is still alive since the official founding of Freemasonry in 1717, but the ritualistic phraseology of comparable early trade unions and mutual benefit societies of the United States either has ceased to be employed or merely forms a pompous but hollow shell around a worldly issue, such as insurance.