Once the Craft degrees have been conferred upon a Mason, he is qualified to join various "Concordant bodies" which offer additional degrees. These organisations are usually administered separately from the Grand Lodges who administer the Craft degrees.
National organized Freemasonry began in 1717 with the founding of the Grand Lodge—an association of Masonic lodges—in England. However, Freemason societies have existed for much longer. The most popular theory is that Freemasonry emerged out of the stonemasonry guilds of the Middle Ages.
The meaning of MASON is a skilled worker who builds by laying units of substantial material (such as stone or brick).
The three degrees of Freemasonry are Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft, and Master Mason. They are loosely based upon the journeyman system, which was used to educate Medieval Craftsmen. Symbolically, the degrees represent the three stages of human development: youth, manhood and age.
MASON definition: a person whose trade is building with units of various natural or artificial mineral products, as stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or tiles, usually with the use of mortar or cement as a bonding agent. See examples of mason used in a sentence.
A mason is a person who is skilled at making things or building things with stone. In American English, masons are people who work with stone or bricks.
A person who constructs masonry is called a mason or bricklayer, or in some places colloquially a "brickie". These are both classified as construction trades.
Construction of poured concrete, reinforced or unreinforced, is often also considered masonry. The art of masonry originated when early man sought to supplement his valuable but rare natural caves with artificial caves made from piles of stone.