Does Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol Tell Us Too Much About Freemasonry?

The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown's newest novel, is another fast-paced adventure starring Professor Langdon (the main character from The Da Vinci Code). If you enjoy suspenseful stories with lots of action and also a thinking element, then you will enjoy this book.

Dan Brown obviously put a lot of effort into researching Washington D.C. and Freemasonry for this book. Facts are thrown around left, right, and center about the history of Washington D.C., artwork stored there, and Masonic practices. Sometimes, in fact, I felt as though we were being told too much.

Freemasonry is a fraternal society, but it is one that believes in protecting some of its beliefs and practices. This is not a matter of secrecy so much as of respect and understanding. You have to be prepared to properly receive certain instructions, much like in my education I had to take years of science classes before I was ready for organic chemistry at university. Yet in The Lost Symbol, non-Masons must unravel a series of clues left by Masons. Also, in the novel a Masonic lodge has been infiltrated by the "bad guy". The result is that we read about a lot of Masonic activities that non-members would not normally be privy to.

I, for one, felt a little bit uncomfortable as I read it. The actual material didn't really bother me, I just felt like I shouldn't know it. It seemed disrespectful of me to be reading about it in this way because I knew that these beliefs and rituals are so important to so many people. For example, initiation ceremonies are described in detail. These ceremonies are only meant to be experienced by those with the proper respect and preparation necessary to understand them.

The book describes secretly taken videos of the initiation ceremonies to different levels within Masonry, and gives rather vivid details. It is, of course, rather sensationalized and taken out of context. Non-Masons reading the book have not been taught all of the symbolism and ritual surrounding these events, and so meanings that are obvious to Masons are lost on us. Yet here we are, reading about initiation ceremonies.

I asked several Masons how they felt about the book, and I was pleasantly surprised by how pleasant and non-fussed they all were by it. Their main sentiment seemed to be that although they don't discuss certain things, they have been available to outsiders for a long time. Ex-Masons have described their rites and ceremonies, and published their opinions and experiences both in print and on-line. Ultimately, though, they emphasized that The Lost Symbol is a novel, not a text about Masonry.

My conclusion is that if you are interested in it, go ahead and read the book. Read it respectfully, though. Realize that masons are not just fictional characters, but a very real society that is valued by a lot of people. If you have questions about anything you read, don't just take Dan Brown's word for it. Ask a Mason. If you don't know one, look up a Grand Lodge on the internet.