What Happens at a Masonic Interview? (And How to Prepare)

I have sat on more investigation committees than I can now count, and I can tell you the thing candidates never believe until afterwards: we are not trying to catch you out. We are trying to answer one question, and it is not the one you are worried about.

The question is simply this. Will this man still be here in three years, and will the lodge be better for him? Everything asked across the kitchen table serves that. Understanding it changes how you prepare, and it removes most of the fear.

§Who actually comes

Usually two or three members appointed by the Worshipful Master. Often a Past Master, often someone close to your age or trade, occasionally the secretary. They will have read your petition. They will know who recommended you. They are volunteers giving up an evening, and most of them are quietly hoping you turn out well.

§Where it happens, and why your home

In most jurisdictions the committee visits you at home, and asks that your wife or partner be present. This unsettles candidates more than anything else on the list, and the reason is benign. A man's family carries the cost of his membership in evenings and weekends. If they are opposed, the lodge would rather know now than lose you in eighteen months.

§The questions you will almost certainly be asked

1. Why do you want to become a Freemason?
2. How did you first come across the fraternity, and who do you know in it?
3. Do you believe in a Supreme Being?
4. What does your family think about this?
5. What are your work and travel commitments?
6. Can you meet the financial obligation without difficulty?
7. Have you ever been convicted of a criminal offence?
8. Have you petitioned or been rejected by another lodge?
9. What do you expect to get from membership, and what can you give?

Note the shape of that list. Only one question is about knowledge. The rest are about circumstance, character and honesty. You cannot revise for them and you are not meant to.

§What they are really assessing

Beneath the questions sit four judgements, and they are made largely from how you answer rather than what you answer.

• Honesty: does he volunteer the awkward thing, or does it have to be pulled out of him
• Stability: is his life in a shape that can carry a long commitment
• Temperament: does he listen, or does he wait for his turn to speak
• Motive: does he want brotherhood, or does he want an advantage

A fuller account of the qualities lodges weigh is in What Are Freemasons Looking For in New Members?. Read it before the visit rather than after.

§How to prepare properly

Preparation is not rehearsal. A rehearsed man sounds rehearsed and it costs him. What you want is to have already thought about the difficult answers, so that on the night you are recalling a conclusion rather than inventing one.

1. Write your reason for joining in one sentence and read it aloud twice
2. Decide in advance how you will disclose anything awkward, in plain words
3. Know the joining fee, the annual dues and the dining cost before they raise it
4. Agree with your partner beforehand what your realistic monthly commitment is
5. Prepare three questions of your own. Silence reads as indifference
6. Tidy the room, offer tea, put the dog somewhere else

§The awkward subjects, handled

A criminal record

Disclose it. Say what happened, when, what came of it and what changed. Old, minor and honestly declared is very often survivable. Hidden and later discovered almost never is.

Money trouble

Say so plainly. A good lodge would rather adjust its expectations than lose a good man, and several have quiet mechanisms for exactly this. What they cannot do is help with a difficulty they were never told about.

Belief

Answer the question that is actually asked, which is about a Supreme Being, not about denomination, attendance or doctrine. If you find that question genuinely hard, work it through with Can You Join the Freemasons If You're Not Religious? rather than improvising in the moment.

In thirty years I have never seen a committee turn a man down for an honest difficulty. I have seen several turn a man down for a tidy answer that did not hold.

§What happens afterwards

The committee reports back to the lodge, usually at the next stated meeting, and the members ballot in secret. If the ballot is clear you will be given a date for your Initiation. The whole sequence, from first contact to that evening, is laid out in How to Join a Masonic Lodge, and what happens on the night itself is described in What Happens During the First Degree.

Expect a wait of a few weeks. Silence during it is administrative, not ominous. Secretaries are volunteers, and the practical load of that office is well described at MasonicLodgeSecretary.com.

If you want the committee questions, model answers, the disclosure scripts and the follow up email all in one place, that is what The First Step Roadmap is built to give you.

Not sure you are at the interview stage yet? Start with How Do You Know If You're Ready?.