Guided tour of the Museum of Freemasonry

Freemasonry evokes images of closed doors and whispers in back rooms, but behind the symbols lies a rich heritage of meaning, citizenship, and imagination. In Brussel houses a museum that makes this reality visible: a neoclassical house where permanent and temporary exhibitions connect the history of Freemasonry in Belgium with its universal values. The tour sometimes begins with the question of why someone becomes a Freemason. The answers seem to vary, but share a core: the search for liberty, equality, and fraternity. The museum brings that search to life. The goal is not to win souls, but to demystify: to show that Freemasonry is a method for working on the rough stone of yourself. A surprising highlight of the visit is the complex with neo-Egyptian temples, including a continental giant of 400 square meters. Only there do visitors experience what symbolism does when architecture, ritual, and light tell a story together. Our guide is Ives Verheyleweghen. He is a physician by profession and associated with the Museum of Freemasonry (www.mbfm.be). For Willemsfonds Brussel, he wrote a fine biography of poet and liberal politician Emanuel Hiel under the pseudonym Alistair Dempsig. Recently, Ives Verheyleweghen was a guest on “Vrijmetselaars Podcast”. (Episode 46: at https://vrijmetselaarspodcast.substack.com/ on Spotify). A fascinating introduction. He can speak passionately about the rich history of Freemasonry in Brussels.