Masons seek to dispel image of a secret society

So when the news surfaced that thriller novelist Dan Brown would follow up the success of “The Da Vinci Code’’ with a book about freemasonry, local members said, they started waiting to see how he would treat their often misunderstood fraternity.

Brown’s new book, “The Lost Symbol,’’ which hit the shelves in mid-September, introduces readers to a fictitious world in which freemasons drink wine from skulls during sacred rituals and tie deep symbolic meanings to pyramids.

“The pyramid does not have any significance,’’ said Dick Curtis, a 33d-degree Mason and former editor of the regional organization’s Lexington-based magazine, The Northern Light. “That is the fiction of Dan Brown. . . That is a very common misconception.’’ Also, he said, there’s no drinking from skulls.

Lexington is a special place for Masons. The Supreme Council for the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite is headquartered there, as is the organization’s National Heritage Museum, which focuses on American history. The complex is a five-minute drive from Lexington’s Battle Green, a fitting location for an organization that included a number of the nation’s founders among its members.

While local members say that Brown’s novel, which weaves George Washington’s status as a Mason into its storyline, includes some inaccurate depictions of their organization, it also has generated new interest in Masonic lodges across the country.

“What we’re finding is a younger age group is becoming fascinated with the mystique,’’ said Curtis.

Curtis is an honorary member of the Supreme Council in Lexington, which governs Scottish Rite Masons in 15 states, extending from New England to Wisconsin and Delaware.

In Brown’s book, Harvard professor Robert Langdon, who was also the protagonist in “The Da Vinci Code,’’ must decipher a set of symbols to uncover a Masonic secret and save the life of his kidnapped mentor.

Before the book was released, many Masons were concerned about how Brown would depict freemasonry, said Robert Huke, a spokesman for the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, which is based in Boston.

His previous book drew protests for its depiction of a conservative Roman Catholic organization, Opus Dei, and its fictional narrative involving a conspiracy to hide revelations about Jesus and Mary Magdalene that Langdon gleaned from various historical artifacts.

Jeff Croteau, manager of the library and archives at the National Heritage Museum, said he believes there was some hesitation about Masons playing a central role in Brown’s novel.

“I think the question was: ‘Is freemasonry going to come across as Opus Dei; how is he going to portray it?’ ’’ Croteau said.

For hundreds of years, anti-Masonic publications have promulgated misconceptions about freemasons and their rituals, Croteau said. The fraternity has been targeted by various religious groups and was even persecuted in Nazi Germany, based on a belief that Jews were either using freemasonry as a front or collaborating with the organization in an effort to achieve world domination, Croteau said.

Conspiracy theories and anti-Masonic movements have been so prevalent that the museum opened an exhibition about anti-Masonic publications in September. Croteau said museum officials did not know the date that Brown’s book would be released when it opened the display.

Curtis read “The Lost Symbol’’ just after it was published, and he does not think Brown meant it to be anti-Masonic.

Curtis and other freemasons say that the “secrets’’ Brown depicts in the novel are inaccurate, but they also say that it properly underscores the importance that freemasons place in morality, ethics, and striving to become a better person.

After all the uncertainties, Curtis said, “I’m very pleased that he used freemasonry as a subject for the book.’’

Huke also played down Brown’s depictions of masons drinking wine from skulls or using pyramids as symbols of deeper meaning. Overall, he said, the novel is “generally favorable of the fraternity.’’

As soon as the book was released, Huke said, the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts began seeing an increase in traffic to the fraternity’s website.

Masons have been the subject of programs aired on the Discovery Channel, History Channel, and NBC’s “Dateline’’ in recent weeks, Huke said. The attention generates questions about freemasons and who is eligible to join, he said.

Freemason membership in Massachusetts is about 37,000, with 235 lodges across the state, Huke said. Nationwide, there are about 1.4 million Masons, a figure dramatically lower than the estimated 4 million members in the 1960s, according to the Masonic Service Association.

Masons are working to dispel many of the misconceptions about the fraternity that have existed over the years.

Last month, Masonic lodges in Massachusetts held open houses allowing anyone interested in their facilities to take a tour, an annual practice that started in 2005, and he has heard reports of high turnouts, Huke said.

“We really wanted to help people start to get that understanding,’’ he said.

Curtis said freemasons will not reveal their secret handshakes and greetings, and he pointed to an analogy Brown used in “The Lost Symbol’’ that likened freemasons to the makers of Coca-Cola.

In the novel, Langdon says that no one could knock on the door of Coca-Cola’s headquarters and expect to be told the formula; to obtain the secret, a person would need to work for the company, climb the ranks, and prove trustworthy. The same hierarchy and seriousness taken in keeping secrets could be found in freemasonry, Brown wrote.

But secret handshakes and greetings are not the fundamental tenets of freemasonry, Curtis said.

“It’s not a secret society, as it is always referred to,’’ Curtis said. “It’s a fraternal organization that believes in core moral values and trust among the members.

“You have trust that [members] are going to help one another and help people who need help.’’