Gentlemen--

As I understand it, in Masonic initiation rituals and in the taking of oaths there are penalties levied against initiates for revealing Masonic secrets to the uninitiated.

I understand that most Masons with modern sensibilities do not take such oaths seriously, rather they see them as color and texture to backstop the rituals.

What are the penalties for revealing (for instance) the discrete handshake by which brother Masons might recognize one another?

First rule of Fight Club?

If that is the case, and revealing such information would violate your vow, I will respect your silence and withdraw the question.

I actually take the notion of vows quite seriously, and beleive that they have spiritual gravitas.

On background--I am an (imperfectly)  practicing Catholic, and Freemasonry is proscribed for Catholics.

When an old friend encouraged me to join his lodge I told that I could not, in good conscience.

Anyone with a place in the hierarchy of the Church OUGHT to understand that vows and oaths taken in earnest have genuine spiritual weight--although many do not embrace that notion.

I'm here asking because I am exploring what might be a spiritual mystery with cause and effect in Masonic vows/oaths/curses and/or penalties.

I will give more background if anyone is interested, and if any of you want me to shut up and go away, I will.

While much can be found on line you will not know whether what you learn on line is accurate unless you are a member.😀

I understand the secular aspects of Freemasonry, the high-minded social aspects, and applaud them.  Making Good Men Better is a fine goal--one could argue that a society which promotes peer relationships with mentorship and introspection and accountability is invaluable, especially today, when so many are raised in fatherless homes and recieve their fundamental socialization from the television set.  Bravo.

The purpose of the query involves the ritual aspect of Freemasonry.  Here is why I ask.  The old friend who had encouraged me to explore Freemasonry showed up on my doorstep one night a little distraught (and quite frankly a little drunk) and needing to talk.  He wanted to talk to me about how people outside of Freemasonry percieved it, specifically why they rejected it and were suspicious of it.  He didn't come out and say so, but I intuited that he had suffered some sort of painful social rejection of some sort.  His work with the LaValle (?) DeMolay society was very important to him, I think--sorry, I'm not sure of the name, it is some sort of pre-Masonic affilaition (?) which encourages young teenage males to be responsible and build their character with mentor relationships and prepare them to be adult Freemasons.  Anyway, I had averred from joining so I think he was trying to pick my brain a bit, to understand how outsiders saw the Masons--and in a slightly self-defensive placating/dismissive way, he spoke to me abut the symbology and ritual of the Freemasons (...the "secret" handshake is no big deal, it just represents yadda-da-yadda/etc).  Basically he was breaking his vow of secrecy.  As he spoke to me at that moment I felt what a Christian would call a "check" in my spirit.  It is sort of an internal post-it note flagging that something of consequence had just happened, pay attention and remember this.  It was a little puzzling, but OK, whatever.

Awhile after that I abruptly had to put my shit in storage and move back east, to take care of my dad, who was dying of cancer. I was gone from the town for a year, maybe a year and a half, and after my dad passed I went back west to collect up my stuff from storage.  He and I met and had breakfast together, and during breakfast he told me in passing that he had nearly been killed twice in the last year.  In the first accident he fell into a winter river while fishing for salmon--he almost drowned AND froze to death.  In the second accident, a little while after, he was driving  at night on a moonless highway in Northern Idaho and a herd of elk came out of nowhere, exploding from the woodline at the roadside, I think one of the elk almost went through the windshield, and his car was totalled.  Hearing that, I felt another check in my spirit, and immediately recollected the conversation that we had the year earlier--but I didn't say anything to him.  I kept my thoughts to myself.  I guess I didn't want to sound stupid.  OK--fast forward ten years.  I get an email from him.  He has lung cancer, but it is treatable with medication, and he is doing alright.  Then a couple days ago, I hear from him that the cancer has metasticized and is now in his brain, too close to the optic nerve to treat with radiation.  Again I feel the check in my spirit.

My understanding (no idea if it is true or not) is that the lawful curses an individual assents to for breaking the vow of secrecy is piercing of the chest (sword or knife?), suffocation/asphyxiation (via noose), and being struck by blindness.  It seems to me that these misfortunes are all manifesting themselves in his life.

So my personal faith/world vision revolves around Christian spirituality--what is seen and unseen.  Angels and demons--curses and blessings.  It is said that an unjust curse fails to alight.  But what about a perfectly just curse which one has formally agreed to and been bound with?

Do I believe that the individual human beings involved in Masonry can levy these curses, manifesting them as punishment in the physical realm?  No.  Nor do I think they would ever want to.  The people involved in Freemasonry are human beings with human limitations.  My interpretation/perceptions of these events is this:  by an individual AGREEING to ACCEPT these curses, he has created a spiritual liability for himself, and a dark spiritual entity can USE the lawful power of that curse to afflict the individual.

I understand that this all probably sounds silly to many of you--possibly all of you--but anyone who believes in the Bible ought to be aware that oaths, vows, and curses have geniune legal weight in the scriptural world view.

I am going to try to point my friend toward a Christian deliverance ministry for prayer, and encourage him to renounce any vows that he has taken, just on the off chance that his medical conditions might perhaps be a physical manifestation of a spiritual oppression.

May all who read this be blessed--and may all who earnestly seek to do good succeed.

Peace.

While I took an oath that prevents me from telling you what the penalties are, I believe I can tell you that the afflictions suffered by your friend are not the stated penalties

Thank you for the input.  I appreciate it.  

I think the source of that was something I read somewhere.  My recollection is vague.

All the best.

Thank you as well.  This helps clarify/recalibrate my perceptions.

All the best.

One vow involves not speaking poorly and unfairly about other masons.

If that vow had any weight in a spiritual and physical sense then half of the fraternity would be in peril.

A lot of charismatic type Protestant groups put a lot of weight on these vows and call them generational curses and such but there’s nothing to that biblically even or secularly if that makes sense.