There is a huge jumble of sense and nonsense in this thread on the masons. One of the jumbles is between the actual history of the masons, which has little or nothing to do with mysticism, ancient egypt, alexander the great and a great deal to do with guild economics in a very vulgar sense in Scotland. It was only later that the masons themselves, as their purpose and function changed radically, began to incorporate all that nonsense. Now on this thread (as far as I can tell from browsing in it) people seem to be confusing the actual history of the masons with lace trimmings added in the 18th c. And all the political implications as well as the secret-society hysteria connected to the Masons have their source in those added trimmngs. The masons became Masons by inventing out of whole cloth an ancient lineage. (I haven't tried to look up and recheck my sources on this, but I'm pretty sure of the rough outline I give.) Carrol
