TV cameras are for the first time allowed to film the initiation rite of a postulant at the lodge of the Grand Orient of France. The "recipient" between the blindfolded in the temple before the assembled assembly in ceremonial dress. He advances to the hotel where the venerable master sits, dressed in an apron, white gloves and a wide ribbon that reads the oath of membership in the lodge. "I pledge to keep the Masonic secret inviolably." Before him are displayed symbols: the square, the compass, the book of the constitution and a skull. The apprentice promises to put into practice "the great law of human solidarity which is the doctrine of Freemasonry" and to "practice assistance to the weak, justice to all, devotion to his family and his homeland, and to humanity".
Gilbert ABERGEL, Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France talks about the history of his obedience and shows us the Masonic lodge of Paris. The Grand Orient of France embodies the republican and secular trend of Freemasonry. Among the symbols exhibited in the temple, the Republican Marianne throne. We also find the equilateral triangle with the eye of knowledge, the compass and the square to evoke the measure and the rectitude and the chain of union, utopian metaphor of the communion and the brotherhood of all men.
Two Freemason apprentices talk about their motivation to join the Grand Orient lodge in France. What seduced Jean Paul LEGRAND, university professor: "it is the idea of fraternity". For Kaddour SHAKER, judicial mediator and anti-racist activist: "It is the continuity of my reflection, my work". They then describe the initiatory journey. A white ball and a black ball are distributed to participants who must vote to accept or reject the candidates. To be inducted, they must receive less than a quarter of black balls, otherwise they are "blackballed".
Two Freemasons of Mulhouse describe the reflection work of the workshops of their lodge. In his office, Jean Pierre WALTER takes out a pile of files: these are works in progress that he leads to fuel debates and reflections within his masonic lodge. They can be societal or philosophical. It can be about time, tolerance or the place of women in the company for example. These written presentations require several months of work. The subjects of these "boards" are defined inside each workshop. On the other hand the "questions in the lodges" emanate from the national authorities of the Grand Orient and are studied everywhere in France. Jean SERE explains that the national lodge of the Grand Orient of France expects in return the result of the reflections of each lodge. He cites as an example of questions to be studied: what should be the place of secularism in European citizenship? Where do social gains end and privileges begin?
The Grand Orient of France has about 250 buildings spread over the territory. Master Edouard BOEGLIN presents some of the 80 members of the Mulhouse lodge. The 6 freemasons shows a rather representative panel of the lodge’s members: a journalist, a former miner, a doctor, a railway worker, a computer scientist, a communications director of a large company. This diversity, according to Denis LAEDLIN, doctor, is one of the attractions of Freemasonry: "finally find other people than those you are used to dating, with whom you are used to talking, with whom you are used to thinking". Political trends may be diverse but are not taken into account in discussions within the lodge. Edouard BOEGLIN then explains that they are not there to play partisan politics, their objective is to "try to develop a society that is more satisfactory than the one that exists at present".
Excluded by men from the origins, women did not access Freemasonry until creating their own mixed lodge "human right" in 1921. There are several mixed secular lodges, but the most important is La Grande Loge Féminine de France, which is exclusively female. Only those who claim to belong to a revolutionary or far-right party are excluded. Marie France COQUARD, great mistress of the Grand Lodge of France, explains that issues related to bioethics, women’s empowerment problems are on the agenda of the sessions. Jacqueline NEBOUT specifies that Freemasonry includes "people of all trades, all genders, all ages, all social classes". Discussions are done freely and with serenity. Yvette ROUDY condemns judicial cases involving Freemason men. She specifies that the gluttony, the arrivism and the "appetite for power" exist little among the freemasons.
Betty SIMON, member of the Grande loge féminine de France, speaks in front of the camera. She explains what Freemasonry can bring to women in their personal and professional lives: to become a better wife, a better mother and to act better in society. Freemasons are involved in women’s rights and related societal issues, such as family planning actions and the right to therapeutic abortion. The goal of an initiatory society is to transmit a spiritual influence that helps the applicant to transform, to flourish. It’s not a secret but "it’s something you have to have experienced to know it exists".
Daniel LIGOU, co-author of a "history of freemasons in France" dates the first French lodges to the year 1725. Their creations correspond to the intellectual concerns of the time and especially the attraction for England. The specialist demystifies the term of secrecy that has always surrounded Freemasonry, "Masonry exists only when lived". To illustrate his point, he recounts some historical anecdotes. In the 18th century, the lodges attracted people from all walks of life: nobles, soldiers, bourgeois, merchants and clergymen.
André COMBES, director of the Institute of Masonic Studies and Research, summarizes very briefly on stage the history of Freemasonry from its origins in the Middle Ages with the brotherhoods of stonemasons and masons until the 20th century. Freemasonry, whose term dates back to the 14th century, appeared in its modern form only in the 18th century, in the continuity of the spirit of the Enlightenment that perfectly embodies Voltaire. Many personalities like Winston Churchill, Pierre Mendès France, Salvador Dali and Jules Ferry joined the masonic lodges. The anti-maçonnism was first done by the Catholic Church to be today the prerogative of the extreme right.