Friday, June 29, 2007

Freemason Museum


Here is a bit of a Masonic Museum located in the 9th arrondissement (16 rue Cadet). It is also the home of "Le Grand Orient de France", one of the main Lodges in European freemasonry and also the most liberal and progressive one. In this museum you can see all of the ritual symbols that masons use during their meetings. The building is quite ugly (very 70ish) but the museum is interesting, at least for those who want to learn more about this organisation.

14 comments:

  1. LOL! All we can read of the sign is "rien." What does the rest of it say?

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  2. wow i think this is an interesting place to visit... been fascinated with masons since da vinci book came out :)

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  3. A subliminal message here perhaps, Eric.
    "Rien"
    C'est très drôle, n'est-ce pas?

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  4. Bonjour !

    Je visite votre site depuis plusieurs minutes et j'aime beaucoup votre façon si particulière de prendre des photos.
    Je suis Parisienne, je connais bien la ville mais au final, vos clichés ouvrent d'autres façon de perçevoir Paris.
    C'est tour à tour, original, beau, et avec un brin de malice.
    Je suis fan :-)

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  5. The building may not be much but I love the angle of the picture!

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  6. M.Benaut I thought the same thing, a subliminal message. When I think of masonary I always imagine big secrets and mysteries and ancient societies... I thought the word rien could be a code for something deeper. I know I know, too much magination!

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  7. The symbols and secrets of such groups is fascinating. Most religions have rituals, symbols, and traditions, all of which seem curious to outsiders. Oil or ashes on the forehead, tapping forehead to floor, leather strap on the arm, etc. etc.

    This photo is fun, sort of reverse vertigo feeling. Is that ogitrev?

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  8. A comment, not only with the RIEN, but if you look quickly the pattern of water runs on the facade looks like the word EVIL.

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  9. oooh i do like your skyward shots. Did you come away with an interesting handshake?... do tell....;)

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  10. The Masonic Lodges in the US are dwindling. There doesn't seem to be much of an interest among the younger generation to join. Some of my relatives were Masons, but I never really had much interest in it other than the fascination with the rituals and symbols. Many of our country's founding fathers were Masons and it is reflected in the graphics on our currency. Hadn't known about the Masonic Museum in Paris...wasn't on our list of things to do, but it might be fun to check out. Are you back in Paris yet? Cheers!

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  11. my grampa was a mason, he had a tatoo too, but I don't know if that was related to his being a mason. anyway, this was interesting. Thanks! And thanks for you know, starting it all...is it too late to say something like that? cause I just began my dpb...So I guess I will. Thanks, Eric!

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  12. Darned my lack of knowledge of other languages. I don't like having to rely on Babel to translate things, but when I did look up rien I was amused.

    The building does look rather unappealing. I'm gonna have to look it up to see the full building, though. I've been interested in the Masons for far longer than The Da Vinci Code has been out, as a friend's father was a Mason. I agree that the mysteries surrounding rituals and such are always very fascinating.

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  13. I had a good laugh reading through your comments. I actually did not notice the only visible part of Orient was "rien" (that is "nothing" in French; you're right Soosha not everybody knows what it means).

    As for the Evil part Expat, well that's funny too. Of course it's way too far fetched but definitly amusing.

    Lynn I did not shake anybody's hand...

    As for the photo in general, I swear I was just trying to turn this terrible building into something interesting and believe me that was not easy (please do pay it a visit if you happen to be in the neighbourhood some day).
    If you want my opinion, Masons may have been great builders in the past but somehow, they kind of lost their talent with time, LOL.

    Of course that's only my opinion... (oops, I expressed my opinion!!)

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