Freemasonry reflects the culture in which is it based and this is one reason why Masonic practices vary from place to place, country to country. Freemasonry is therefore not uniform throughout the world. Scotland is a case in point and although Scotland shares the same island land mass as England and Wales, Freemasonry is quite different in the two kingdoms (Wales is a principality and Freemasonry there is governed by the United Grand Lodge of England).

There are so many differences between Freemasonry in Scotland and Freemasonry elsewhere that Scottish Freemasonry stands out as being unique and a lengthy discourse detailing why cannot be provided in a blog such as this. When I was thinking about explaining the unique nature of Scottish Freemasonry without going into great detail I thought that this (see left) was a good example. Most Lodges around the world sent letters to their members informing them of forthcoming meetings and other Masonic activities. Sometimes these take the form of a Newsletter (or Trestle Board in North America) which report considerably more than just details of the next meeting of the Lodge. In England and Wales these Lodge notifications are called Summonses and in Scotland they are known as Billets. In English the term billet or billets means a military order to provide accommodation for a soldier or other military personnel. By extension therefore the term came to mean the actual place where the soldier would live and sleep. In other words his board and lodgings. In the Scots language Billet is a variant of Bilget, Billiet or Billgate which is a document containing a military command [to attend a meeting or to do something]. In Scotland therefore a billet is a written notification to attend a meeting and serves the same purpose as a Summons in England.

Sending billets by mail has largely given way to sending them by email but the principle remains the same. However, we are discussing Scottish Masonic practice and so, as one might expect, things are done differently. Whilst many Lodges do send notices of forthcoming Lodge meetings by mail and/or by email very many Scottish Lodges also ‘advertise’ in the local press. This practice arose because nearly every Scotsman read the local newspaper which always also included details of the activities of the Lodge (meetings, charitable activities, social events and visits to other Lodges) and these reports were usually accompanied by photographs and were always included in the Friday edition of the newspaper. Sadly, most newspapers (whether local or national), have ceased to report the activies of Masonic Lodges. Despite this, Scottish Lodges continue to use the classified ads of their local newspaper to inform the Brethren of forthcoming events. Such ads are always placed in the Friday evening local newpaper and provide details of ‘what is on’, Masonically, in the coming week. It is very rare for a Lodge to advertise something taking place on a date after the next Friday edition of the newspaper. By this means any Freemason can, by purchasing a local Friday evening newspaper, gain some idea of what Masonic activity there will be during the course of the following week. The image here is an example taken from the Edinburgh Evening News of Masonic Meetings. Note that quite a lot of information is packed into just a few lines: the name of the Lodge, what kind of meeting (regular or special), the date of the meeting, the degree to be conferred and lastly whether or not visitors are welcome. The latter is neccessary because the Lodge meeting is for members only where private business is to be discussed.

So much for Freemasonry being a secret society…