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Freemasonry teaches the universal principal of unselfish friendship and promotes those moral precepts which are in keeping with all great faiths. In pursuing this doctrine, the following, though not exclusive, is considered to be basic:

Mankind was created by one God.

This one God is the author of all life.

God’s existence is revealed to man through faith and the Book of the Holy Scriptures.

The Book of Holy Scriptures is the Ultimate Authority or Great Light of Freemasonry.

The soul of man is immortal.

Man’s commitment to Divine Providence determines his destiny.

Man’s reverence for God is best exemplified by his actions toward his fellow man.

Considering the universality of Freemasonry, its teachings cannot be defined in any single statement or established profile. The following is considered to be representative of its fundamental precepts and constitutes basic:

Man’s first duty is to love and revere God, implore His aid in all laudable undertakings, and seek His guidance through prayer, embrace and practice the tenants of religion, extend charity and sympathy to all mankind, shield and support the widow and orphan, defend virtue, respect the aged, honor the bonds of friendship, protect the helpless, lift up the oppressed, comfort the downcast, restore dignity to the rejected, respect the laws of government, promote morality, and add to the common stock of knowledge and understanding.

E. Dean Osborn, PGM Grand Lodge of Kansas A.F. & A.M.

Freemasonry is a worldwide fraternal organisation. Its members are reportedly joined together by shared ideals of both a moral and metaphysical nature, and, in most of its branches, by a common belief in a Supreme Being. Freemasonry is a secret or esoteric society, in that certain aspects of its internal work are not generally disclosed to the public. Masons give numerous reasons for this, one of which is that Freemasonry uses an initiatory system of degrees to explore ethical and philosophical issues, and that the system is less effective if the observer knows beforehand what will happen. It often calls itself "a beautiful system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols." 

Organisational Structure

There are many different jurisdictions of governance of Freemasonry, each sovereign and independent of the others, and usually defined according to a geographic territory. Thus there is no central Masonic authority, although each jurisdiction maintains a list of other jurisdictions that it formally recognizes. If the other jurisdiction reciprocates the recognition, the two jurisdictions are said to be in amity, which permits the members of the one jurisdiction to attend closed meetings of the other jurisdiction's Lodges, and vice-versa. Generally speaking, to be recognized by another jurisdiction, one must (at least) meet that jurisdiction's requirements for regularity. This generally means that one must have in place, at least, the ancient landmarks of Freemasonry—the essential characteristics considered to be universal to Freemasonry in any culture. In keeping with the decentralized and non-dogmatic nature of Freemasonry, however, there is no universally accepted list of landmarks, and even jurisdictions in amity with each other often have completely different ideas as to what those landmarks are. Many jurisdictions take no official position at all as to what the landmarks are.

Freemasonry is often said to consist of two different branches: the Anglo and the Continental traditions. In reality, there is no tidy way to split jurisdictions into distinct camps like this. For instance, jurisdiction A might recognize B, which recognizes C, which does not recognize A. In addition, the geographical territory of one jurisdiction may overlap with another's, which may affect their relations, for purely territorial reasons. In other cases, one jurisdiction may overlook irregularities in another due simply to a desire to maintain friendly relations. Also, a jurisdiction may be formally affiliated with one tradition, while maintaining informal ties with the other. For all these reasons, labels like "Anglo" and "Continental" must be taken only as rough indicators, not as any kind of clear designation.

The ruling authority of a Masonic jurisdiction is usually called a Grand Lodge, or sometimes a Grand Orient. These normally correspond to a single country, although their territory can be broader or narrower than that. (In North America, each state and province has its own Grand Lodge.) The oldest jurisdiction in the Anglo branch of Freemasonry is the Grand Lodge of England (GLE) (the Moderns), founded in 1717. This later became the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) when it joined with another English Grand Lodge (the Antients) in 1813. It is today the largest jurisdiction in England, and generally considered to be the oldest in the world. Its headquarters are at Freemasons Hall, Great Queen Street, London. The oldest in the Continental branch, and the largest jurisdiction in France, is the Grand Orient de France (GOdF), founded in 1728. At one time, the Anglo and Continental branches recognized each other, but most jurisdictions cut off formal relations with the GOdF around the time it started unreservedly admitting atheists, in 1877. In most Latin countries, and in Belgium, the French style of Freemasonry predominates. The rest of the world, accounting for the bulk of Freemasonry, tends to follow the English lead.

Lodges

Contrary to popular belief, Freemasons meet as a lodge and not in a lodge.

According to Masonic legend (see below), the operative lodges (the Medieval lodges of actual stonemasons) constructed a lodge building adjacent to their work site where the masons could meet for instruction and social contact. Normally this was on the southern side of the site (in Europe, the side with the sun warming the stones during the day). The social part of the building was on the southern side, hence the social gathering of the lodge is still called the South.

Early speculative lodges (which included members who were not actual stonemasons) purportedly met in taverns and other convenient public meeting places, and it is presently said they employed a Tyler to guard the door from both malicious and simply curious people. This could also be a revision of the word tether, used to tie the door closed.

Lodge buildings have for many years been known as temples. In many countries Masonic Centre has now replaced this term.

There are also specialist lodges within many Masonic jurisdictions. The most obvious are the specially constituted Lodges of "Research and Instruction" (R&I). These are associated with a worldwide organization of Masonic research, typically specializing in discovering and interpreting historical records and the meanings of Masonic symbolism left unrecorded, and for preserving and developing Masonic ritual. Membership in these Lodges is typically open to interested members of other, normally constituted Lodges. However, this is by no means a standard practice, given that every Grand Lodge maintains its own jurisdiction as it sees fit.

There are also Lodges formed by groupings of persons with similar interests or background, such as "old boy" Lodges associated with certain schools, universities, military units, or businesses.

Concordant and Appendant Bodies

Freemasonry is associated with several appendant bodies, such as the Scottish Rite, which is a system of Freemasonry developed on the Continent (particularly in France), and the York Rite, which includes three sovereign and distinct rites: the Holy Royal Arch, Royal and Select Masters (aka Cryptic Masonry), and Knights Templar. (While the Templars are limited to Cryptic Masons of the Christian faith, this does not in any way impose this requirement on the entire York Rite system, as is commonly believed.)

Other groups include the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (Shriners), the Mystic Order of Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm (Grotto), the Tall Cedars of Lebanon, and others, all of which tend to expand on the teachings of Craft or Blue Lodge Freemasonry—often with so-called higher degrees—while improving their members and society as a whole. The Shrine and Grotto, which are mostly located in North America, tend to emphasize on fun and philanthropy.

Different jurisdictions vary in how they define their relationship with such bodies, if at all. Some may give them some sort of formal recognition, while others may consider them wholly outside of Freemasonry proper. Not all such bodies will be universally considered as appendant bodies, some being simply considered as more or less separate organizations that happen to require Masonic affiliation for membership. Some of these organizations may have additional religious requirements, beyond "Craft Masonry", since they approach Masonic teachings from a particular perspective.

There are also certain youth organizations (mainly North American) which are associated with Freemasonry, but are not necessarily Masonic in their content, such as the Order of DeMolay (for boys aged 12–21), Job's Daughters International (for girls aged 10-20 with proper Masonic relationship) and the International Order of the Rainbow for Girls (for girls 11–20 who have Masonic sponsorship). The Boy Scouts of America is not a Masonic organization, but was first nationally commissioned by Freemason Daniel Carter Beard. Beard exemplified the Masonic ideals throughout the Scouting program.

Membership Requirements

Freemasonry accepts members from almost any religion, including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and so forth. While atheists and agnostics are unreservedly accepted in Lodges working in the Continental tradition, most Masonic Lodges have required, since the early 19th century, that a candidate must profess a belief in a Supreme Being. But even there, one finds a high degree of non-dogmatism, and the phrase Supreme Being is often given a very broad interpretation, usually allowing Deism and often even allowing naturalistic views of "God/Nature" in the tradition of Spinoza and Goethe (himself a Freemason), or views of The Ultimate or Cosmic Oneness, such as found in some Eastern religions and in Western idealism (or for that matter, in modern cosmology). This leads some to suggest that even Anglo Freemasonry will, in practice, end up accepting certain kinds of atheists—those willing to adopt a certain brand of spiritual language. Such claims are difficult to evaluate, since many Anglo jurisdictions consider any further enquiry into a prospective member's religion, beyond the "Supreme Being" question, to be off limits. However, in some Anglo jurisdictions (mostly English-speaking), Freemasonry is actually less tolerant of naturalism than it was in the 18th century, and specific religious requirements with more theistic and orthodox overtones have been added since the early 19th century, including (mostly in North America) belief in the immortality of the soul. The Freemasonry that predominates in Scandinavia, known as the Swedish Rite, accepts only Christians.

Generally, to be a Freemason, one must:

1. be a man who comes of his own free will
2. believe in a Supreme Being, or, in some jurisdictions, a Creative Principle (unless joining a jurisdiction with no religious requirement, as in the Continental tradition),
3. be at least the minimum age (18–25 years depending on the jurisdiction, but commonly 21),
4. be of sound mind, body and of good morals, and
5. be free (or "born free", i.e. not born a slave or bondsman),
6. have one or two references from current Masons (depending on jurisdiction).

The "free born" requirement i