Update, October 8, 2009: Dan Brown's new novel The Lost Symbol takes readers on a spine-tingling tour of some of Washington, D.C.'s most famous buildings. With Masonic symbolism as its theme, the book ...

Cloaked in intrigue, Freemasonry is best known perhaps for its secret handshakes and initiation rituals. The fraternal organisation traces its origins to medieval stonemason guilds, so it's no ...

Instead of commonplace designs like flowers or snowflakes, seamstress Celestia A. Milliken decorated her colorful quilt in 1908 with the square and compass and 70 other secret symbols of Freemasonry.

Ancient symbols, secret rites, conspiracies, politicians and the oldest fraternity in the world - the Freemasons have the history and image of a blockbuster thriller. That may be why Dan Brown, author ...

There were predictions that The Lost Symbol would antagonise the Freemasons in the same way that the Catholic Church was stung by The Da Vinci Code. But far from attacking the Masons, his new work ...