mindmagic

Having been brought up as Jewish I wouldn't be able to do any of that.

Due to an accident of birth (Jewish parents) I wasn't allowed to join under the old rules. Now that I am, I've had a look (in general terms, not detail) at the content of the 18th degree and it's of no interest to me. I gather the lower and higher degrees might be but there's not much chance of seeing them, not at the moment anyway.

It does go offline from time to time. I imagine there are server issues.

Toasts, OK. Fire, no.

My lodge and chapter have both had open evenings - a short formal meeting, after which ladies and other guests are invited into the room and listen to a talk on the lodge or chapter, or some other talk of interest. This is followed by a white table.

This book has commentaries on the Craft degrees, Exaltation and other useful material. The idea is that you perform a demonstration of the ceremony with pauses for the commentary. From experience, if you're going to use this, give everyone a script to work from, otherwise the officers will get thrown by the interruptions. https://www.amazon.co.uk/What-You-Know-About-Ritual/dp/085318271X

I've never used database software, so I can't help directly, but if you're not keen on Access you could try Base, the free alternative included as part of LibreOffice. https://www.libreoffice.org/discover/base/

You have to believe in a Supreme Being, but there's no requirement (certainly in England, and apparently not in Texas) to believe that the Bible was written by one. Have a look here: https://grandlodgeoftexas.org/what-is-freemasonry/

Hi Sam You are probably going to get some heated answers to this question. You can clearly answer "yes" when you are asked at your interview "Do you believe in a Supreme Being?" No further information is required so don't say any more than that. When you are initiated, and when you take higher degrees, you are required to take an Obligation on the Volume of the Sacred Law. This is usually the Bible although certain other sacred texts are allowed for members of various faiths. Provided that you are happy to take Obligations on the Bible there is no problem. If you aren't, or if you feel uncomfortable with a theistic approach, involving prayers to the Great Architect, then Freemasonry isn't suitable for you.

If, after speaking to some local Masons, you decide you want to join, any reading that you have done will be a "spoiler" - it will literally spoil the experience of going through the ceremonies if you know what is going to happen. The only reading that is "safe" is a book on Masonic history, and you probably won't be interested in that before you join anyway. I'd stick to the public content on the website of the Grand Lodge of Sweden.

Terrible.

If you move to another bank they'll probably introduce charges too if we go into negative interest rates. It's a moving target.

To be eligible to become a Freemason you must accept belief in a Supreme Being and be prepared to take "obligations" on the holy book which governs your faith (not necessarily the Bible). If you're not comfortable with that, Freemasonry isn't for you. To put it another way - it depends on why you're not comfortable with the Bible. If it's because you have another religion, you can probably join. If you're an atheist, you can't (and it wouldn't suit you).

In London, as I understand it, promotion to LGR and SLGR is based on a points system. I imagine you'd lose a fair number of points if you're not in HRA, and several more for not being a PZ.

Also, by the way, avoid any books by American authors. Freemasonry in the US, while based on the same principles, has many differences to the way we do things in England.