Masons seek to tell more of their story

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.

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.

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.’’