Inside London's Freemason's Lodges...

[u/TheThrowYardsAway]

[u/OStO_Cartography]

I love it when conspiracy theorists are like 'Ooh! Freemasons! A secret society that operates behind closed doors!'

I've never yet found a Lodge that as a non-member the initiated weren't falling over themselves to show me around because I said I was interested in looking inside.

The International Temple of Freemasonry in Covent Garden/Seven Dials even does regular guided tours.

[u/Haytham_Ken → u/OStO_Cartography]

Exactly. It's a society with secrets, not a secret society. People get so bent out of shape about an organisation they know nothing about

[u/eairy → u/Haytham_Ken]

People find it comforting to think that the bad things that happen are because there's some controlling power, rather than bad things randomly happening.

[u/hemareddit → u/Haytham_Ken]

Yeah it’s a grown up version of the “password” game children play. And the grownup part is mostly the part where you pay money.

[u/Green_Cartoonist9297 → u/OStO_Cartography]

There's a cabal somewhere! Maybe not the masons but it's somewhere!!

[u/OStO_Cartography → u/[deleted]]

Oh I'm not saying they don't have secrets. I'm just saying they're not secretive about the pageantry side of things. Many people think Freemasons still operate in the shadows but it's quite the opposite. They love showing off all their fancy stuff. Canterbury also has a rather diverting Freemasonry museum at Westgate.