Regalia [01:12:50]. Alchemical columns [01:11:40] . Blackwood's grave [00:36:58]. Secret Order. [01:00:29] Pentagram [00:45;45]. Pyramid [01:01:19] . Ring [01:01:13]. Banners [01:11:40]. Sherlock Holmes (2009) Although Freemasonry is never mentioned, the casual viewer with a minimal awareness of esoteric, alchemical, and hermetic symbols will mistakenly identify the fictional secret society, the Temple of the Four Orders, with Freemasonry. If this is the director's intent, then perhaps he has left a clue when he has Holmes say: "I, using musical theory, have created order out of chaos," [00:20:20] But of the ever-present hermetic and esoteric symbols, none are specifically masonic. Of the carved pillars with snakes on Lord Blackwood's shattered tomb [00:36:58], the sacred ox on Chief Justice Sir Thomas Rotheram's ring [01:01:13], the pyramid with pillars on Rotheram's desk [01:01:19], and the pentagram found in the red haired midget's studio [00:45;45]—only the pentagram is made use of by Freemasonry. But certainly not in the context presented in this film. From the various descriptions given, it should be clear that this is not Freemasonry. Rotheram explains: "Be as sceptical as you like, but our secret systems have steered the world towards a greater good for centuries. The danger is that they can also be used for more nefarious purposes." Lord Coward, the Home Secretary adds: "What some call the dark arts." [01:01:55] Watson later describes the red haired midget's work as: "...combining some sort of sorcery with scientific formulae.[00:45;45] On the other hand, this is what the more paranoid of conspiracy theorists believe of Freemasonry. And certainly, pyramids, pillars and serpents turn up in masonic illustration. But in the final analysis this film must be catagorized as a Fictional Fraternity Reference, or at most a Mistaken Masonic Reference, but not a Masonic Reference. Sherlock Holmes (2009) Directed by Guy Ritchie, written by Michael Robert Johnson, Anthony Peckham. Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law, Rachel McAdams, Mark Strong, Eddie Marsan, Robert Maillet, Geraldine James, Kelly Reilly, William Houston, Hans Matheson, James Fox, William Hope, Clive Russell, Oran Gurel, David Garrick. USA| Germany| UK, English| French, 128 min. Dolby, Colour. MISTAKEN MASONIC REFERENCES | FICTIONAL FRATERNITIES

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