With the prologue and first chapter of The Lost Symbol out of the bag, it looks like Freemasons are probably going to spend a lot of time correcting the "facts" portrayed in the book. Like the fact that the 33rd degree ritual involves the candidate drinking wine from a human skull. Thanks Dan!
Apparently there was a Supreme Council that did in fact include the wine-from-a-skull act in its version of the 33rd degree, but they were clandestine (not officially recognized by either the Northern or Southern jurisdictions of the Scottish Rite), and it was about 100 years ago. (http://lostsymboltweets.blogspot.com/2009/09/do-you-masons-really-drink-from-skulls.html)
When I really consider it, I guess I'm not as annoyed at Dan Brown as I am at the people who accepted The Da Vinci Code as historical truth and will no doubt do the same with The Lost Symbol. Whether the Masons are good guys or bad guys in the story remains to be seen, but already there are hundreds of people out there who probably think we really drink wine from human skulls.
I'm now also wondering if Blue Lodges are going to be subjected to the Shrine effect, where fans of the novel join just so they can go on to the Scottish Rite and become 32ยบ Masons.
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On November 14, the Valley of Boston AASR NMJ is doing a trimmed-down version of their already-streamlined One Day Class, where candidates will receive the 31st and 32nd Degrees without receiving any of the 4-29th Degrees. I wonder if this is in response to the publication of The Lost Symbol?
This AP article is encouraging insofar as it sounds like we're not the bad guys: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5idBm00Tj271UVzrWqecKau3rL-_gD9ANN1RG0
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