One of the hardest questions to answer is what is a Mason, and receive a satisfying answer that is from a reasonable source. There are a lot of books and websites available that give an abundant amount of answers, but not all of them are correct. This makes the quest for a proper answer very frustrating. One can ask a Mason, what it is to be a Mason, but not all Masons feel comfortable explaining Freemasonry while some people pose questions that are too complicated to answer properly. The goal here is to provide some sources to help answer questions. I have relied heavily upon the writer Christopher Hodapp, who wrote Freemasonry for Dummies. 

Probably the best method to answer these questions is to become a Freemason, but the potential candidate needs to know more before asking to become a member. So read the books provided on our Suggested Reading list, read through the FAQ page, talk with people who are Masons, and browse through the links to the related Masonic groups.  This will give you a broader sense of what a Mason is and does in our present day society. 

I have selected the following paragraphs from Freemasonry for Dummies to help answer some of the very basic questions of who and what.

"Masonry is as diverse as its members, and so it can seem like something very different depending on whom you talk to or the lodge you visit or join. 

Some Masons concentrate on the many charities the fraternity participates in. Some are consumed by the history or the philosophy or the symbolism of the fraternity. Others consider it to be primarily a place to go to play cards or cook a monthly breakfast, in order to be with old friends and make new ones. Still others enjoy performing the ritual ceremonies and make a lifelong passion of taking dramatic parts in it.

For men who who become lodge officers or members of committees, Masonry is a personal development course, where they learn leadership skills, public speaking, and more. men from every walk of life have the opportunity to do things in a lodge, often things that their job or their social or economic status would rarely have offered them. And then some men just like high-sounding title, badges, ribbons, tuxedos, and spiffy accoutrements. The point is that there is something in Freemasonry for every man, whatever his interests may be."