Mount Zion Lodge meets on the first and third Thursday at 7 PM each month at 985 Batesville Blvd, Batesville, AR 72501. Visitors from recognized jurisdictions are always welcome.

We occasionally hold open houses and community events where visitors can tour the building and meet members. If you are interested in visiting the lodge outside of events or open houses, please use the contact us page to. Check our website or Facebook page for announcements.

Visit the Grand Lodge of Arkansas website or speak with any member of Mount Zion Lodge #10—we’ll be glad to answer your questions.

Freemasonry is a brotherhood of men committed to lives of honor, integrity, and character. The men of Freemasonry are on a journey of self discovery. For hundreds of years, Freemasons, with deep brotherly support, have worked to become the best version of themselves while working to better their communities and our world.

Becoming a Freemason can help you achieve great personal reward by guiding you to build your moral character and connection to your community. Freemasonry is built upon the core tenets of Brotherly love and affection, relief, and truth. Through a commitment to these values, all Freemasons share the common goal of making good men better. In addition to self improvement, a Freemason is a man eager to be part of something bigger than himself, with a reverence for history, compassion in his heart, and a desire to create a better future.

Freemasonry welcomes men of every country, religion, race, age, income, education, and opinion. However, to join Freemasonry, one must meet the following qualifications:

• Be a male at least 18 years of age

• Believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, although Freemasonry is not concerned with theological distinctions or particular religious beliefs

• Be of good moral character

• Be motivated to join for reasons unrelated to personal gain or profit

• Your decision to apply is based on your own “free will and accord”

• Be prompted by a favorable opinion of Freemasonry

• Be desirous of earning knowledge and willing to conform to the ancient usages and customs of the fraternity

In Freemasonry, the lodge means two things. It refers to a group of Masons coming together in fellowship, and, at the same time, refers to the room or building in which they meet.

There are thousands of Masonic lodges in the U.S. and many more worldwide. The lodge itself typically consists of a lodge room where official business and Masonic rituals are conducted, as well as several additional areas for Brothers to share meals, spend time together, host public and private events, and more.

There are three degrees of Freemasonry: Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft, and Master Mason. These degrees are the three ceremonial stages that a man must complete to become a full member of the Masonic fraternity. Collectively, these degrees are known as the symbolic lodge (often called blue lodge).

The Masonic degrees are loosely based upon the journeyman system, which was used to educate Medieval craftsmen. At each educational stage, a craftsman was required to achieve proficiency before moving to the next stage. Symbolically, the degrees represent the three stages of human development: youth, manhood, and age. By advancing through the degrees, a Freemason learns the moral and ethical lessons of the Masonic rite.

The highest rank in Freemasonry is the third degree, that of the Master Mason. While some Masonic organizations offer additional degrees that explore the teachings of Freemasonry in further depth, those degrees are not considered to be higher than the symbolic lodge degrees.

To become a Master Mason, you must complete the three degrees of the symbolic lodge. Once you have completed the third degree, you become a full member of Freemasonry, enjoying both the rights and responsibilities of membership.

Freemasonry is not a religion or a substitute for religion. Freemasonry does not intrude on the religious beliefs of its members, although it does require that all members profess a belief in a Supreme Being. Men of all faiths are represented in Freemasonry. Religion is not discussed at lodge meetings.

Freemasonry is a system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols. Symbols allow people to communicate quickly, and to transcend language barriers. When you see a green light or a circle with a line through it, for example, you know what it means. Likewise, Masons use metaphors from geometry and the architecture of stonemasonry to inform their continuing pursuit of knowledge, ethics, and leadership skills.

To reflect their heritage, Masons wear aprons while in lodge, at certain public events, and at funerals to demonstrate their pride in the fraternity, and their lineage from stonemasons, who historically carried their tools in leather aprons. The square and compasses are the most widely known symbol of Masonry: When you see the symbol on a building, you know that Masons meet there.

The exact origins of Freemasonry remain lost in time. The order is thought to have arisen from the English and Scottish guilds of practicing stonemasons and cathedral builders in the Middle Ages. Certain Masonic documents actually trace the sciences of geometry and masonry to the time of ancient Egypt and the building of King Solomon's Temple.

The formation of the first Grand Lodge in London in 1717 marks the beginning of the Modern (or “Speculative”) era of Freemasonry, when members were no longer limited to actual working stonemasons. These “Accepted” Masons adopted more enlightened philosophies, and turned what was a tradesmen’s organization into a fraternity for moral edification, intellectual recitation, benevolent service, and gentlemanly socialization.

Part of the mystique of Freemasonry can be attributed to speculation about its roots. Over the years, historians have never been able to conclusively determine exactly when, where, how, and why Freemasonry was formed.

Freemasonry is not a secret society but rather a society with secrets. Its members do not hide their membership, and there are many public events and activities that anyone can attend. However, there are certain aspects of the organization, such as its rituals and modes of recognition, that are only revealed to members.

While fellowship is a key part of Freemasonry, it's much more than a social club. Masonic teachings encourage moral improvement, community service, and reflection on life's deeper meaning.

Freemasons are involved in countless charitable efforts, including funding children's hospitals, scholarships, disaster relief, and supporting veterans. Brotherhood is part of the experience, but purpose and service are at the heart of the Craft.

Meetings include education, planning charitable work, and the conferral of degrees. They are orderly, respectful, and often followed by fellowship and refreshments.

The language has been preserved for centuries to connect modern Masons with the traditions and values of those who came before.

Masonic Lodges support local and statewide charities, scholarships, and community service projects. Many also contribute to children’s hospitals, veterans’ causes, and disaster relief.

No. Discussion of partisan politics or sectarian religion is strictly forbidden in Lodge to preserve harmony among all Brothers.

In mainstream Freemasonry, membership is limited to men. However, there are separate Masonic-inspired organizations for women and families, such as the Order of the Eastern Star.

Freemasonry does not control the world or have any political or economic power. Its members come from all walks of life, and their personal beliefs and opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the organization.

Freemasonry is not anti-Christian, nor is it anti any other religion. It recognizes the importance of individual beliefs and encourages its members to be tolerant and respectful of other religions and faiths.

Since at least the Middle Ages, the goat has been symbolic of the devil, and stories were circulated then of witches who called forth Satan, who came riding into town on a goat to take part in their blasphemous orgies. Then, as the Freemasons gained in popularity, detractors accused them of witchcraft, which is probably where the notion of initiates riding a goat came from.

It didn't help that some early ritual books from the fraternity referred to God as "God of All Things" and abbreviated it as G.O.A.T. That was quickly changed, and God is now referred to by Masons by the acronym G.A.O.T.U., for Grand Architect of the Universe.

Old catalogs from fraternal supply companies in the late 1800s actually offered mechanical goats for use in other fraternal organizations and "fun" degrees. As the golden age of fraternalism resulted in literally hundreds of other groups popping up in competition with the Masons, some were obviously less serious than others. Such items only served to perpetuate the myth that Masons and other fraternities required a goat-ride ritual for their initiations. Freemasonry never has.

Rest assured: There is no lodge goat. The degrees of Masonry are serious business to Freemasons, and there is no horseplay (or goatplay).

If you saw the movie National Treasure, you know all about this one. The back of the U.S. $1 bill contains Masonic imagery of the All-Seeing Eye over an Egyptian pyramid. And everybody knows that's a Masonic symbol, right?

Well, not really. The eye and the pyramid are actually part of the Great Seal of the United States, which was put on the back of the $1 bill in 1935. There is indeed an All-Seeing Eye floating over an unfinished pyramid, with the words annuit coeptis (Latin meaning, "He [God] has favored our undertakings").

Beneath it are the words, novus ordo seclorum, which translate as "A new order of the ages." It does not mean "a new world order," as has been alleged, which is just one more reason to lament that high schools don't teach Latin classes anymore. (New world order would be written as novus ordo mundi. So there. Now go conjugate ten irregular verbs.)

A committee of four men, including Benjamin Franklin (the only Freemason in the bunch), designed the Great Seal of the United States in 1776. The image of the eye within a triangle to represent God was suggested by the only artist among them, Pierre du Simitiere — who was not a Freemason. Two other committees tinkered with the design before being approved. The unfinished pyramid was suggested by Francis Hopkinson (another non-Mason), and none of the final designers was a Mason.

The eye within a triangle to represent God appears throughout the Renaissance, long before speculative Freemasonry arrived on the scene. The triangle being three-sided represents the Christian belief in the Trinity of God — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No records associate Freemasonry with the symbol before 1797, nor is the symbol in any way related to the Bavarian Illuminati.

As for the unfinished pyramid, it represents the strong, new nation of the United States, destined to stand for centuries, just as the famous pyramids have stood in Egypt. There are 13 rows of stones, representing the 13 original colonies, with the image of God watching over them.

Many Masonic lodges, especially in Europe, display the All-Seeing Eye just as it is used on the $1 bill — as a nondenominational representation of God. There is nothing sinister or occult about it, and there are numerous instances of it appearing in Christian art from the 1600s onward.

Masons have been accused of using their own, presumably Satanic, bible in their ceremonies. Many people have seen Masonic bibles for sale on eBay and elsewhere and clearly believe that Bibles used by Masons are somehow different.

This myth is actually a two-part one. Lodges in predominantly Christian communities commonly have the custom of presenting the new Master Mason with a commemorative heirloom Bible. In the United States, the most common one is the 1611 translation of the King James version, published especially for Masonic lodges by Heirloom Bible Publishers of Wichita, Kansas. It contains an area in the front for the Mason to commemorate important dates in his degree work, places for his brethren to sign the record of his degrees, and a 94-page glossary of biblical references relating to Masonic ceremonies, along with essays about Masonry and some common questions and answers. The rest of it is the entire King James version of the Old and New Testament that is available in any bookstore.

The second part of this myth has to do with the use of the Volume of Sacred Law in a Masonic lodge. All regular, well-governed lodges must have a book considered sacred to its members open on the lodge altar during meetings. Depending on what part of the world the lodge is in and the beliefs of the lodge's members, this sacred book could be the Bible, the Hebrew Tanach, the Muslim Koran, the Hindu Veda, the Zoroastrian Zend-Avesta, or the Proverbs of Confucius. It's simply referred to as the Volume of Sacred Law, as a nonsectarian term.

In the lodges that operate within the Grand Orient of France, atheists are allowed to join. The Grand Orient believes that a man's religious beliefs — or lack of them — are his own business and that it's improper for their lodges to require him to believe in anything. Furthermore, instead of filling up their altars with many sacred books to satisfy members of many faiths, their lodges are allowed to substitute a book with blank pages as their Volume of Sacred Law, so as not to force any religious beliefs on any of their members. Remember: The Grand Orient of France is considered irregular and is unrecognized by mainstream Grand Lodges around the world. Even so, a blank book is no Masonic Bible either.

This false claim has persisted for generations, largely fueled by misinformation and fear of the unknown. Freemasonry does not worship Satan or any demonic figure. It promotes belief in God—referred to as the Great Architect of the Universe—and encourages members to live virtuous lives.

Masonic symbols and rituals are deeply symbolic, not satanic. Misinterpretations of ancient imagery have created confusion, but there is nothing in Masonic teaching that remotely resembles devil worship.

Freemasonry is open to men from all walks of life. Members include teachers, truck drivers, mechanics, doctors, veterans, and more. There is no wealth requirement, no social status prerequisite—only a desire to grow morally and spiritually.

The fraternity values character over credentials and integrity over income. In fact, many Lodges pride themselves on being communities where titles and professions are left at the door.

Freemasonry uses symbols and allegory to teach moral lessons. While it may seem mysterious to outsiders, there is no occult practice involved. There are no spells, magic rituals, or summoning of spirits in the Lodge room.

Rituals are designed to encourage self-reflection and personal growth. They include symbolic tools like the square and compasses—not wands and potions.

No. Each Grand Lodge (such as the Grand Lodge of Arkansas) governs its own jurisdiction. There is no worldwide authority or central leadership.

Opposition usually stems from misunderstanding or misinformation. Freemasonry has always encouraged open discussion, moral conduct, and service to one’s community.