Freemuling.pl, The Observer 19 November 2025
Below is the beginning (and mention to the whole) of the article “The Freemasons are on a PR drive. It’s a sign of panic” published in The Observer (19 November 2025).
The article presents the activities of United Grand Lodge of England and related large Lie as a violent PR action: open days, exhibitions, social media promotion – everything “in panic” in consequence to the decline of members. Author of the article in The Observer points to a dramatic decline – the average age of the brothers ~60 years, around 2.5% less members per year, up to 30% of fresh members resign within 3 years.
However, there are serious shortcomings in the analysis from a free-molar perspective. First, the article uses a language that suggests that openness is only an expression of panic, not of improvement and adaptation – ignores the fact that an organisation can consciously respond to fresh challenges, change communication and structure. Second: the author returns to the old motifs of “mystery”, nepotism, “orders” – although the order itself declares the exclusion of nepotism and publishes lists of management. It's a narrative. The Observer strengthens stereotypes and can be harmful to a fraternity. Thirdly: suggesting that without mystery the masonry will die, it is intellectual simplification – it may be the excess of hermetism over decades that has contributed to isolation and deficiency of social understanding.
The article has value as an impulse to reflect – it shows that the situation is not idyllic. But from the point of view of a associate or a sympathism of freemulation, he lacks a deeper knowing of the doctrine of the fraternity, the process of adaptation, or the context of the changing function of the brotherhood in the modern world. The consequence is simply a clickbyte header ("panic") alternatively of constructive criticism and a real debate about the future.
editor
The Masons are moving a PR campaign. It's a sign of panic.
Martha Gill, The Observer 19 November 2025
Mysterious brother organization opens its lodges and advertises at festivals. It takes more than fresh air to dispel suspicions of dishonesty.
It was not until 1987 that the "cut-off of the head and tear-out of the tongue" were officially removed from the books of the British Masons as punishment for revealing their secrets. "Some people with greater sensitivity were afraid about this," it was said to justify this change. "The obligations will remain, but the penalties will not be."
Currently, this modern PR run goes even further. For centuries, the lodges were tightly closed to outsiders, but abruptly they began beginning their doors. Over the last 2 years, lodges throughout Wales, London and Liverpool have opened for the first time, and 600 visits to the halls of the large Lodge of Scotland are planned next February on a public guided tour basis. The lodges now have PR companies and X accounts and let documentary movie makers – as well as advertise at galas, festivals, fairs and agricultural shows. In 2023, their secret insignia was first shown publicly.
Meanwhile, Scottish Masons stated that at the end of this period they would aim to “create more inclusive, engaging and culturally resonating events that reflect the values and aspirations of our contemporary members around the world” during the yearly feast of Saint Andrew. Far from secret handshakes and curled pants.
Is that a sign of panic? There are inactive around 175,000 masons in the UK, but their number has decreased dramatically since the 1950s, and a 2.5% decrease in the number of members has been recorded in the last decade of each year. This is partially due to the inability to attract younger people – the average age is estimated at 60 years and members die – but the large Lodge of England (UGLE) notes that a crucial part of the decline is besides due to resignation. About 17% of fresh members leave within 3 years; for some, this percent is 30%.
The Masons derive their roots from medieval cathedral builders in the 14th century, but...
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