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What is a masonic reference?
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WHILE anti-masons and over-enthusiastic freemasons will find masonic references where none were intended, references to hermeticism, secret societies, or initiation, or the use of symbols used by freemasons but not exclusive to Freemasonry, do not qualify for inclusion here. What then, is a masonic reference for the purposes of inclusion in this website?
The use of the words "Freemasonry", "freemason", "mason", "masonic", and the like, qualifies, although a reference to "lodge", "initiation" or "brotherhood" does not. The expression "third degree" only qualifies as a masonic obscurity unless in context it is referring to initiation and not interrogation. Such expressions as "black ball", "on the level" or "on the square" are also only masonic obscurities.
The appearance of the masonic square and compasses in a stage set or property qualifies, but just the appearance of one or the other does not. By the same token the use of the many symbols adopted by Freemasonry — the beehive, trowel, all-seeing eye, pentagram, two pillars, checkered flooring, emblems of mortality, and others — does not qualify unless there is a specific masonic context.
Many will find this definition of a masonic reference to be overly restrictive. But unless an author, artist, producer, director, script writer or set designer is on record as stating that a usage is intentionally masonic, it probably isn't.
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