The concept of initiation
Before 1717: humanity and the rite of passage
Initiation is one of humanity’s oldest practices. Long before there were words to describe it, people had already developed rites of passage, ceremonies of transformation, solemn moments in which an individual ceased to be what they had been and became something more.
To initiate is to bring someone to the threshold of an understanding that cannot be conveyed in ordinary words: it has to be lived, experienced, worked through from within. This is why every initiatory tradition — from the Egyptian mysteries to Greek rites, from the medieval guilds to modern Freemasonry — has made use of symbols, rituals and degrees of access.
Freemasonry did not invent initiation. It inherited a centuries-old tradition, gave it an institutional form and adapted it to the values of the Enlightenment and of modernity. To understand where it comes from is to understand what it is.
Glossary of key concepts
Initiation
From the Latin initium — beginning, threshold
A rite of passage that introduces the individual to a new condition, a new body of knowledge or a community. The initiate does not merely receive information: they cross a threshold that transforms their relationship with knowledge and with themselves.
Initiate
From the Latin initiatus — one who has passed through the beginning
One who has undergone a formal rite of passage. In the ancient traditions, the initiate gained access to knowledge that could not simply be passed on in words: it had to be lived. Initiatory secrecy is not concealment: it is the recognition that certain kinds of understanding are acquired through experience.
Lodge
From the Germanic Laube — arbour, shelter
In medieval building, the lodge was the site hut where builders met, shared their meals and discussed their work. It became the place of guild meetings. In modern Freemasonry it denotes the local community of Freemasons and the place of their ritual meetings.
Symbol
From the Greek symbolon — token of recognition
An object, figure or word that carries a meaning broader than its literal one. Freemasonry uses the symbol not as ornament but as a tool for reflection: the square, the compasses and the level are metaphors for straightening one’s conduct and turning towards virtue.
Operative Freemasonry
From the English operative masonry — practical building craft
The tradition of the actual builders: master masons, stonecutters and architects of the medieval cathedrals, organised in guilds with degrees of apprenticeship, trade secrets and rites of admission. From this tradition comes the symbolic vocabulary of modern Freemasonry.
Speculative Freemasonry
From the Latin speculari — to observe, to reflect
The Freemasonry that, from the 17th–18th century onwards, builds not with stone but with thought. The builder’s tools become metaphors of moral improvement. The lodge becomes a place of intellectual formation and of the practice of the values of brotherhood, freedom of conscience and the search for truth.
Deep roots
Initiation in the ancient civilisations
From Egypt to Greece, from India to the Mediterranean world, every great civilisation developed forms of graded knowledge and rites of passage. These traditions have no direct genealogical link with modern Freemasonry, but they share its underlying structure: knowledge that is earned through a journey rather than received passively.
Egyptian Mysteries
From the 3rd millennium BC
The priests of Amun, Isis and Osiris were the guardians of knowledge passed on through progressive degrees of access. The cult of Osiris — with its cycle of death, dismemberment and resurrection — is one of the symbolic prototypes of initiation: the initiate dies to their former condition and is reborn transformed. The rites of access to the temple of Philae, those of Abydos and the night-time processions reserved for initiates alone bear witness to a centuries-old tradition of graded knowledge.
Note on historical accuracy
There is no evidence of institutional continuity between the Egyptian priesthoods and modern Masonic lodges. References to Egypt in the Masonic tradition are symbolic and allegorical, not genealogical.
Eleusinian Mysteries
6th century BC – 4th century AD
The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiatory rites celebrated at Eleusis, in Attica, in honour of Demeter and Persephone. Documented from at least the 6th century BC and celebrated for almost a thousand years, they were open to men and women of every station: Plato, Cicero and Marcus Aurelius were among the initiates. The core of the rite remained secret: none of the participants ever revealed it. The Mysteries celebrated the cycle of life, death and rebirth — the grain that dies in the soil and rises again — and promised the initiate a new vision of existence.
Note on historical accuracy
The exact content of the Mysteries is unknown. We can describe their outward structure and the testimony of participants, but not the ritual core, which remained faithful to its secrecy.
Pythagoreanism
6th – 5th century BC
Pythagoras of Samos founded a philosophical community of an initiatory character in Croton: it had degrees of access to knowledge, rules of silence, and the study of mathematics as a way of understanding the cosmic order. The “mathematikoi” — the fully initiated — had access to doctrines closed to the beginners, the “akousmatikoi”. Pythagoreanism introduced into Western history the idea that geometry and numbers are a form of sacred knowledge. We will find this idea again in the medieval cathedrals and in Masonic symbolism.
Note on historical accuracy
The sources on original Pythagoreanism are late and fragmentary. Many attributions to Pythagoras are of uncertain historical authenticity.
Hermetic Traditions
2nd – 3rd century AD, rediscovered in the 15th century
Hermeticism takes its name from Hermes Trismegistus — a mythical figure combining the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. The Hermetic texts, compiled mainly between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, convey a philosophy of inner knowledge: the divine dwells within man, and initiation is the process of discovering this spark. Rediscovered in the Renaissance thanks to the translation of the Corpus Hermeticum commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici in 1460, Hermeticism had a profound influence on philosophy, alchemy and the cultural circles in which speculative Freemasonry developed.
Note on historical accuracy
The Corpus Hermeticum was long believed to be of very ancient Egyptian origin. In 1614 the scholar Isaac Casaubon demonstrated that the texts date from the first centuries of the Christian era.
The Middle Ages
The guilds of medieval builders
Between the 12th and 15th centuries, Europe’s great Gothic cathedrals were built by guilds of master masons, stonecutters and architects organised in lodges — the site huts that became places of assembly, training and guild governance. These guilds developed their own trade rules, professional secrets and rites of admission for new members.
The degrees of apprenticeship — apprentice, fellow of the craft, master — shaped the builder’s path. Each degree corresponded to a level of knowledge and responsibility. Passwords and signs of recognition made it possible to verify membership and degree.
The oldest written document of this tradition is the Regius Poem (c. 1390), a rhyming manuscript that codifies the moral and professional rules of English builders — the so-called Old Charges of Freemasonry.
Operative Freemasonry
“Operative” Freemasonry is that of the actual builders. Its tools are concrete — square, compasses, plumb line, level — and its knowledge is that of architecture, geometry and the working of stone.
- Three degrees: apprentice, fellow, master
- Trade secrets as professional protection
- Guild solidarity among members
- Ethical rules codified in the Old Charges
- Lodges as places of governance and training
The symbolism of stone
In Masonic symbolism the builder does not only work the rough stone of the world: he works on himself. The rough ashlar represents the man not yet formed; the perfect ashlar represents the man who has straightened his character. The Freemason’s symbolic work is an inner work.
17th century
The transition to speculative Freemasonry
Between the 16th and 17th centuries something important happened in the English lodges: members who were not builders began to be admitted. Gentlemen, philosophers and scholars interested in geometry and the Hermetic tradition joined the lodges of stonemasons and gradually transformed their character.
The earliest documented case in England is that of Elias Ashmole (1617–1692) — antiquarian, alchemist and founder of the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford — who in 1646 noted in his diary that he had been initiated in a lodge in Warrington without being a builder. He was an “accepted Mason”: accepted as a member of a guild to which he did not belong by trade.
This transformation was not abrupt but a gradual evolution: the operative lodges became increasingly speculative until, in 1717, four London lodges — by then made up almost entirely of “accepted Masons” — met to found the first Grand Lodge.
Key milestones
12th–15th century
The medieval building guilds
The great Gothic cathedrals are built by guilds of master masons organised in lodges. The English “Old Charges” — the oldest of which is the Regius Poem (c. 1390) — codify trade rules, degrees of apprenticeship and professional secrets.
17th century
The “accepted Masons”
The operative lodges begin to admit members who are not builders: philosophers, gentlemen, scholars. The case of Elias Ashmole (1646) is the first certain English record of an “accepted Mason” who was not a stonemason. The lodge becomes a place of reflection more than of practical work.
1717
The Grand Lodge of London
On 24 June 1717 four London lodges met at the Goose and Gridiron tavern to found the first Grand Lodge of London. In 1723 James Anderson published the Constitutions. 1717 is not the birth of the initiatory idea: it is the moment when an existing tradition gave itself a formal organisation.
1805
The Grand Orient of Italy
The Grand Orient of Italy is founded, the leading Italian Masonic obedience. In the following decades Freemasonry becomes intertwined with the Risorgimento, the building of the unified state and the affirmation of secular and liberal values in Italian public life.
From 1717 to today
Modern Freemasonry and its values
The Freemasonry that emerged in the 18th century is a child of the European Enlightenment. It values reason, freedom of conscience and brotherhood among men beyond differences of rank, religion and nation. In a Europe torn by wars of religion and rigid hierarchies, the Masonic lodge offered a meeting place for men united by shared values.
In Italy, the Grand Orient of Italy — founded in 1805 — accompanied the seasons of the Risorgimento, the building of the unified state and the affirmation of secular values in public life. Many central figures of the Italian Risorgimento had ties with the Masonic tradition.
Loggia Bensalem 1308 in the Orient of Trani belongs to this tradition. Its name — taken from Francis Bacon’s New Atlantis (1627) — evokes the ideal city governed by knowledge, brotherhood and the pursuit of the common good.
Freedom of conscience
Each member brings their own view of the world into the lodge. Freemasonry has no religious or political dogmas: it asks for belief in an ordering principle of the universe, but leaves each person free to interpret it.
Brotherhood
The lodge is a space where men who differ — in profession, culture and background — meet on equal terms. A person’s dignity does not depend on their rank.
Search for truth
Freemasonry offers no revealed truths: it proposes a path of inquiry. The rough stone is worked through study, dialogue and reflection. A Freemason is always, in some sense, an apprentice.
Moral improvement
The work of the lodge is work on oneself. The aim is not perfection — which is not human — but the constant effort to improve one’s conduct and one’s relationship with others.
Continuity and transformation
Freemasonry as a path of inner transformation
Modern Freemasonry is not an invention of 1717. It is the institutionalisation of an older tradition: that of the builder who works not only on stone but also on himself, who sees in the square and compasses not only working tools but metaphors for straightening one’s conduct and turning towards virtue.
The ancient mysteries, Pythagoreanism, Hermeticism, the medieval guilds: they are not the same thing as Freemasonry. But they share with it a deep structure — the idea that the most meaningful knowledge is earned through a journey, that the community of seekers is worth more than the sum of its individuals, and that the symbol is a more powerful instrument of thought than any literal statement.
In this sense, Loggia Bensalem 1308 in the Orient of Trani is part of a long human story: that of those who seek, who build, who strive to become better.
Biographies
Famous Freemasons in history
Only affiliations documented by reliable historical sources are included. Uncertain or disputed attributions are explicitly flagged. Images come from Wikimedia Commons and are in the public domain.
Around the world
George Washington
1732–1799 · American
General, first President of the United States of America
Commander of the Continental forces in the American War of Independence and first President of the United States (1789–1797), Washington is a founding figure of modern democracy and constitutional republicanism.
Masonic affiliation
Initiated on 22 February 1752 in Fredericksburg Lodge No. 4, Virginia. Worshipful Master of Alexandria Lodge No. 22 (1788). Presided in Masonic regalia over the laying of the cornerstone of the Capitol (1793). Affiliation documented by abundant primary sources.
© Gilbert Stuart, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
Benjamin Franklin
1706–1790 · American
Scientist, diplomat, Founding Father of the United States
A versatile inventor and intellectual, Franklin was one of the leading figures of the Atlantic Enlightenment. A diplomat during the years of the American Revolution, he contributed to the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.
Masonic affiliation
Member of St. John’s Lodge in Philadelphia from 1731. Grand Master of Pennsylvania (1734–1735). In Paris he joined the Loge des Neuf Sœurs, attended by Voltaire, d’Alembert and other philosophes. Affiliation documented by abundant primary sources.
© Joseph Siffred Duplessis, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
1756–1791 · Austrian
Composer
Regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, Mozart wrote operas, symphonies, concertos and chamber music of extraordinary quality. He lived and worked in Vienna in the last years of his short life.
Masonic affiliation
Initiated on 14 January 1784 in the lodge Zur Wohltätigkeit (Beneficence) in Vienna, later in Zur wahren Eintracht. He composed cantatas and music for Masonic ceremonies. The Magic Flute (1791), his last opera, is rich in explicit Masonic symbolism. Affiliation documented by historical and musicological sources.
© Barbara Krafft (attr.), 1819, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
Winston Churchill
1874–1965 · British
Statesman, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize in Literature 1953
One of the most influential politicians of the 20th century, Churchill led the United Kingdom through the Second World War with exceptional determination and oratory. A prolific writer, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.
Masonic affiliation
Initiated on 24 November 1901 in Studholme Alliance Lodge No. 1591 in London. Raised to Master Mason on 25 March 1902. He became progressively less active in the following years: sources record his attendance until around the 1910s. The affiliation is documented; the extent of his later involvement is a matter of historiographical debate.
© Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
Simón Bolívar
1783–1830 · Venezuelan
General, liberator of South America
Bolívar freed Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia from Spanish rule. He is regarded as the greatest hero of Latin American independence and one of the fathers of liberalism on the continent.
Masonic affiliation— disputed attribution
Bolívar’s Masonic affiliation is reported by several historical sources: he is said to have been initiated in Cádiz, Spain, around 1805, and was associated with the Lautaro Lodge, a Masonic network used by the leaders of Latin American independence (including San Martín and O’Higgins). Some historians consider the affiliation documented; others point to a degree of uncertainty about the primary source.
© Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
John Wayne
1907–1979 · American
Film actor, icon of the American western
Marion Robert Morrison, known to the world as John Wayne, was one of the most iconic figures of 20th-century American cinema. A symbol of the western and of the American epic, he appeared in more than 170 films and won the Academy Award for Best Actor for True Grit (1969).
Masonic affiliation
Initiated on 26 November 1970 in Marion McDaniel Lodge No. 56 in Tucson, Arizona. He received the 33rd Degree of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction, in the same year. His Masonic affiliation is documented in American Masonic archives.
© Public domain · Public Domain
In Italy
Giuseppe Garibaldi
1807–1882 · Italian
General, national hero, leading figure of the Risorgimento
A central figure of Italian unification, Garibaldi led the legendary Expedition of the Thousand (1860) and fought for freedom in Italy, South America and France. He is regarded as one of the fathers of the Italian nation.
Masonic affiliation
Honorary Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy. An active Freemason, his affiliation is documented by Risorgimento sources and the GOI archives. Freemasonry and the Risorgimento were closely intertwined in his public life.
© Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
Giosuè Carducci
1835–1907 · Italian
Poet, literary critic, Nobel Prize in Literature 1906
The first Italian to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, Carducci was the foremost Italian poet of the second half of the 19th century. A professor at the University of Bologna for over thirty years, he was an intellectual of deep civic commitment, secular and republican.
Masonic affiliation
Affiliated with Masonic lodges in Bologna and Rome, his membership of the Grand Orient of Italy is documented and consistent with his secular and anticlerical positions, also expressed in his poetry and essays.
© Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
Ernesto Nathan
1845–1921 · British-Italian
Politician, publisher, Grand Master of the GOI, Mayor of Rome
Born in London to a Jewish family of Italian origin, Nathan became an Italian citizen and established himself as a central figure of secularism and republicanism. Mayor of Rome from 1907 to 1913, he was one of the most reforming mayors in the city’s municipal history.
Masonic affiliation
Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy (1896–1904). His figure is inseparable from the history of Italian Freemasonry: he led the GOI during one of its periods of greatest political and cultural influence, in close relation with the secular and progressive movements of the time.
© Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
Francesco Crispi
1818–1901 · Italian
Lawyer, Risorgimento revolutionary, Prime Minister of Italy
A Sicilian lawyer, he took part in the uprisings of 1848 and in the Expedition of the Thousand alongside Garibaldi. A deputy and then Prime Minister for two terms (1887–1891 and 1893–1896), he shaped post-unification Italian politics with the authoritarian and colonialist turn of the late 19th century.
Masonic affiliation
Affiliated with the Grand Orient of Italy. The link between Crispi, the Risorgimento and Freemasonry is documented by historical sources and memoirs. His involvement in Masonic circles is consistent with the Risorgimento and secular profile of his generation.
© Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
Aurelio Saffi
1819–1890 · Italian
Jurist, politician, one of the triumvirs of the Roman Republic (1849)
A very close associate of Giuseppe Mazzini, Saffi was one of the three triumvirs of the Roman Republic of 1849. A lawyer and university professor, he remained throughout his life one of the most consistent and respected exponents of Italian democratic republicanism.
Masonic affiliation
Affiliation with the Grand Orient of Italy documented by historiographical sources on republican Risorgimento. The link between the Mazzinian movement and Masonic circles — while the two remained distinct — is widely attested in the Risorgimento period.
© Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · Public Domain
Antonio De Curtis — Totò
1898–1967 · Italian
Actor, playwright, poet; the greatest comic actor of Italian cinema
Antonio Griffo Focas Flavio Angelo Ducas Comneno di Bisanzio de Curtis, known on stage as Totò, was one of the greatest actors in the history of Italian cinema. With his comic persona he embodied the resourceful, dispossessed Neapolitan in more than 100 films, leaving an indelible mark on Italian popular culture.
Masonic affiliation— disputed attribution
Antonio De Curtis’s Masonic affiliation is mentioned in some Italian historical sources, which link him to Neapolitan lodges. The primary documentation is, however, less solid than for other figures in this section. The affiliation should be considered disputed and requires further archival verification.
© Public domain · Public Domain
Discover the territory and the Lodge
Loggia Bensalem 1308 carries this tradition forward in Trani and across the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani.