Toronto Society for Masonic Research (TSMR): Home Page

The TSMR is an Autonomous Association of Individuals, committed to the Freedoms of Conscience, Association, Communication, and Enquiry, who wish to nurture Learning, Knowledge, and Understanding of Freemasonry through Research.

Masonic research in the past has often been antiquarian, anecdotal, and decorative, for the edification of Freemasons. The TSMR today seeks a critical, unbiased understanding of the past and present, to inform the future, for the benefit of all humanity.

Our current Theme is Governance.
Please read Current Work In Progress

Veracity Issues?

One official Grand Lodge web page exaggerates the number of lodge members by 20%. Two sentences later it talks about honesty.

Another official Grand Lodge web page states that Freemasonry is:
"the world's oldest (3,000 years old) and largest (6 million members worldwide) fraternity."
[Actually it's about 300 years old and has about 2 million members.] [?]

The next sentence on that page contains the words "Supreme Being", "core principles", and "good men". The predominant brand of Freemasonry asserts three core principles: Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth. The first paragraph of the essential part of "the most influential work on Masonry ever printed", states that Masons are required to be "good men and true, or men of honour and honesty". [?]

Does truth matter? Is it a fact that an essential part of the Constitution has been corrupted? Is it a fact that many Masons are being obliged to swear oaths that contain a falsehood? Does it matter that this has been corrected at the source long ago, but continues today, in parts of Canada? [?] Is it wrong to ask such questions? Is it right to suppress such information? [?]

Genuine Masonic research is only interested in insight and understanding. It does not try to win friends or influence people. It asks essential questions and questions official answers. It examines sources critically. It discovers facts. It makes them known: Audi Vide Dice.

Are the core principles of Freemasonry, such as truth, relevant to the governance of the institutions that control Freemasonry? [Read more ...]

There are two online Collaborative Dialogue Forums:
TSMR Research, for Masonic Researchers
Masonic Governance, for Practitioners and Researchers

Act on the Square Boys,
Act on the Square.
Upright and Fair Boys,
Upright and Fair.
Speak Truth to Empower.
Come down from your Ivory Tower.
Upright and Fair Boys,
Act on the Square.

1. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
2. Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. ... -- Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted world-wide, without dissent, 1948.

"The danger in an organization such as ours is that, while it begins with ideals and principles, the organization may become the greatest enemy to those ideals and principles. Some person has imagined a conversation between the devil and some angels. The angels proudly told the devil that a way had been found to defeat him. When he asked how it would be done, they told him that God was going to give men lofty ideals and challenging principles to be proclaimed to the world. The devil just laughed, and told them that he could not be defeated that way, for all he would have to do would be to institutionalize the ideals and the principles, and it would only be a matter of time until men would forget the ideals and principles as they tried to keep the institution alive. As I once heard a friend of mine explain, "first the idea creates the organization, then the organization chokes the idea." We can become so concerned about keeping an organization alive that we forget the ideas and ideals that give it birth. We begin by having a great ideal force our thinking and acting into new channels, and we end by serving an organization. Freemasonry must be a force to be used, and not a form to be served."
-- M.W. Bro. Rev. Dr. Thomas Sherrard Roy, PGM (1951-3) GLMA: Dare We Be Masons? 1966

"The ability to keep observation and evaluation separate is the highest form of human intelligence." -- Jiddhu Krishnamurti

"I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them." -- Baruch Spinoza