Mystic Tie Lodge #279
Ancient, Free & Accepted Masons
in the Province of Ontario

The REAL secrets of Masonry are, have always been and always will be - secret.  Secret in the sense that they cannot be shared with a non Mason.  Not because of any promise made, or rule or regulation. They cannot be shared because they are contained within the "process" of  "becoming" a Mason.

Secrets like opening your eyes and seeing, for the first time, your Brothers who accept you as you are, regardless of your religion, regardless of your political beliefs, regardless of your profession, your economic status, your ethnic heritage or your taste in clothes, entertainment or friends.

Secrets like the feeling of being taken by the hand, as a Brother, and made more welcome than you could imagine, by men who may be strangers in the sense that they are unknown to you, but who will soon be close friends, even if they are STILL unknown to you.

Secrets like walking in the front door to the Lodge, and having every man in the room personally welcome you, when you have never been there before, are just passing through, and do not expect to ever return.

Secrets like the knowledge that if any member of your family is ever in any sort of distress, help is a phone call away.

Secrets like knowing that your efforts helped a crippled child walk, a dislexic read, an autistic child experience reality, a blind person see, or someone recover from or cope with cancer.

These secrets cannot be read in a book, or overheard in a conversation, or even tortured out of someone.  They can only be earned, as all Masons have, by believing in a Supreme Being, being of good moral character, filing the application, being elected to membership and "experiencing the Degrees of Masonry".   These secrets cannot be learned or bought.  They must be earned.

Some who seek to learn secrets, any secrets, just for the sake of being privy to something they have not themselves earned, fall into the "trap" of assuming the handshakes and passwords are the secrets of Masonry.  They could not be more wrong.

Ask any Mason, he may tell you "about" these secrets, but you still will never know them.  The only way to know them, really know them, not know "about" them is to become a Mason.