Which Masonic Grand Lodges ae Legit?

A simple web serch resently provided the sites of no less than 4 different grand lodges in the state in which I live. All of them claimed to be legit and infered that the others where not. Many of these GL's had impressive names and rather extensive histories. My question is simple, how can I know if a Grand Lodge is legit? Are break away groups legit? Does a singular accrediting authority exist that charters Grand Lodges?

There are two places I can think of straight away.

bessel.org...

www.ugle.org.uk...

Whether a lodge is regular or not is a complex question. You can't go by what the Grand Lodge themselves say, as they will ALL say they are legit and it is someone else who is not.

In the US each state typically has two GLs that are regular, the Grand Lodge of [STATE] and the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of [STATE].

You can read about the basic principles of regularity here, go to the section called "Aims and Relationships of the Craft" and "Basic Principles for Grand Lodge Recognition".

In the United States there are 51 mutually recognized Grand Lodges, one for each state and the District of Columbia. These will all be either Free and Accepted Masons (F&AM) or Ancient Free and Accepted Masons (AF&AM). Many of these recognize the respective Prince Hall Grand Lodge in their state-mine does-while I believe none of them recognize Grand Lodges such as International and Grand Orient lodges for example.

Originally posted by AugustusMasonicus


In the United States there are 51 mutually recognized Grand Lodges, one for each state and the District of Columbia. These will all be either Free and Accepted Masons (F&AM) or Ancient Free and Accepted Masons (AF&AM).

Sorry AugustusMasonicus...but not quite "all"

The Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia is F.A.A.M. and the Grand Lodge of South Carolina is A.F.M.

Fraternally,
JP

Who are the "international" Masons based out of Chicago? Also there are some groups of Prince Hall Masons who call themselves "York" masons, where the heck do either one of these two groups fit into the whole sceme of things?

Originally posted by bigred1000
Who are the "international" Masons based out of Chicago? Also there are some groups of Prince Hall Masons who call themselves "York" masons, where the heck do either one of these two groups fit into the whole sceme of things?

Anyone can call themselves freemasons and set up a lodge or grand lodge. The terms themselves are not copyrighted. But to enter the world of regular freemasonry one will need to find a grand lodge that subscribes to the principles I linked to earlier.

International Masons are a spin-off group, from Prince Hall I think. Every now and again someone comes along who doesn't like some particular thing about freemasonry and sets up their own organization. They come, they go.

reply to post by Appak


Thank you Appak, I stand corrected. Proves that you can always receive more 'light'........

reply to post by bigred1000


The International Masons are irregular spin-offs of Prince Hall, as are many of the so-called "York Grand Lodges". They are not recognized by the North American Conference of Prince Hall Grand Masters, and even less by mainstream Grand Lodges. I've been told that some Prince Hall Grand Lodges will allow affiliation from International Masons through a special "healing" process, i.e., by reobligating them in a chartered PH Lodge.