The Masonic Handshake: Reality, History, and Why It Is Guarded

No element of Freemasonry has entered popular imagination quite like the secret handshake. It is the punchline of sitcoms, the subject of countless internet videos, and for some people the only thing they believe they know about the fraternity. A historian's first task is to separate the reality from the legend. Let me attempt it, while keeping the confidences I promised to keep.

Masons do have grips, sometimes called tokens, that form part of each degree. They are taught in the lodge and are used, together with words and signs, as a means of recognition between brethren. What I will not do in this article, and what no honest Mason will do, is describe them. What I can do is explain where they came from, why they are guarded, and why most of what you have read about them is wrong.

§The operative origins

In medieval Britain, stonemasons were skilled men who travelled from one great building project to the next. A cathedral might take generations to finish, and its master mason needed a way to know whether a newcomer claiming to be a qualified craftsman truly was. There were no certificates, no references by telephone, and many workers could not read. The solution, according to the surviving evidence, was a system of private words and gestures, passed on when a man was accepted into the trade.

Scottish records from the seventeenth century refer to the Mason Word, a means of recognition given to members of the craft. Historians such as David Stevenson, in his work on the origins of Freemasonry in Scotland, have traced how these practices were absorbed into the speculative lodges that later formed modern Freemasonry. The grip, in this light, began as a working man's credential.

§From credential to symbol

When gentlemen with no connection to the building trade began joining lodges in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the means of recognition took on a new, symbolic role. They became part of the moral teaching of each degree. Each grip is associated with a lesson, and the act of exchanging it is a reminder of the obligation taken. The three Craft degrees, outlined in The Three Degrees of Freemasonry, each have their own.

§Why the grips are kept private

In a world of membership cards and online databases, a secret handshake is hardly necessary to prove who one is. Lodges today verify visitors through dues cards and Grand Lodge records. So why the continued privacy?

• Tradition: these are among the oldest unbroken practices in the fraternity, linking a modern Mason to centuries of brethren.
• Meaning: the lessons attached to them land with full force only when encountered in the degree itself.
• Fidelity: keeping a small promise faithfully is itself a moral exercise. A man who cannot keep a handshake private may struggle with larger confidences.
• Shared experience: every Mason received them in the same way, and that common experience is part of the bond.

This is the same reasoning behind Masonic privacy more broadly, discussed in Why Is Freemasonry Private?. Freemasonry is not a secret society. Its existence, buildings, members and purposes are public. It is a society with a few secrets.

Curious about what really happens in the degrees? Take the free Readiness Quiz first, and find out whether you are ready to experience them for yourself.

§Published exposures

Readers often point out that descriptions of Masonic grips have been printed for centuries, beginning with Samuel Prichard's Masonry Dissected in 1730. That is true, and a Mason would be foolish to pretend otherwise. But these exposures vary wildly in accuracy, differ from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and in any case miss the point. Reading a description of a wedding ring does not make one married. The significance lies in the obligation, not the mechanics.

§Can you spot a Mason by his handshake?

Almost certainly not. Masons do not use their grips in ordinary greetings. In everyday life they shake hands like anyone else. The idea that a businessman or politician secretly signals his membership with a pressed knuckle across a boardroom table is a staple of conspiracy literature, but not of Masonic practice. A Mason who did so would be using a sacred mode of recognition carelessly, which is precisely what his obligation forbids.

If you want to know whether someone is a Mason, the usual method is far simpler. Ask him. Most will answer happily. Many wear a Masonic ring or lapel pin. And for more on popular misconceptions, Freemason Myths and the Truth Behind Them addresses the most persistent ones.

§What a candidate should expect

If you petition and are initiated, you will be taught the grip of the first degree on the night of your initiation, explained by an experienced brother, and practised in a relaxed way afterwards. Nobody expects you to master it immediately. Your mentor will help you, alongside the other material you will learn. What Happens at Your First Degree describes that evening in general terms, and Do You Have to Memorise Ritual? explains what learning is involved.

§A matter of honour

In the end, the Masonic handshake is less a secret than a test. Not a test of cleverness, but of character. Each Mason is entrusted with something small and asked to keep it. Over three centuries, millions of men have done so faithfully. That quiet fidelity, rather than any mysterious grip, is what holds the fraternity together.

If you join, you will one day stand in a lodge and offer your hand to a new brother as it was once offered to you. That moment, rather than any description in an article, is the real answer to what the handshake means.