Maybe Famous Freemasons: Indiana Jones

Was Indiana Jones a Freemason?

Yes.

Intrepid explorer and Doctor Henry Walton Jones, Jr. was a professor of Archeology at Marshall University in Bedford, CT, and an adjunct lecturer at Barnett College of Archeology in Fairfield, N.Y. He specialized in antiquities, archeological linguistics, proto-Indo-Euro symbology, early Byzantine culture, historical geography, and artifact curation–but his real passions were Chinese Precious Gemstones and dance theater.

Lodge Membership

Jones was a member of Buckingham Lodge #122, founded in 1823, which merged with Great Scott Lodge, which merged with Oxford Lodge, which burned to the ground in a mysterious fire in 1951. All records of Dr. Jones's masonic journey were lost. Jones was a plural member in various lodges worldwide, including the legendary William of Ockham Lodge at Oxford, where his father, Dr. Henry Jones. Sr. was a Past Master. It is rumored Jones belonged to several appendant bodies, including the Tall Cedars of Lebanon, the Shrine, the York Rite, and the Scottish Rite, but records are inconclusive, and there are no pictures. A 1972 scholarly paper corroborated his honorary membership in the Brotherhood of the Cruciform Sword, printing a photographic excerpt from the journal of Ibn “Frankie” Al Sabor, lifelong Gatesman of the Brotherhood. Sabor kept detailed records of who entered and exited meetings. The grainy photocopy of the journal seemed to show that Jones entered on Oct. 11, 1941, but did not exit, leaving his record unresolved—a bookkeeping issue that plagues the Order’s secretaries to this day (they have to bring it up every meeting; it’s exhausting).

Further proof

Even without records, Jones’s membership in the fraternity should be evident to those who know how to look. In the first movie, Masonic symbolism appears in many scenes–including when workers lower Indy into the Well of Souls (also mentioned in Masonic literature), a scene practically based on Mackey’s Illustration of Royal Arch Masonry. But before he’s lowered, workers use a pickaxe, a crowbar, and a spade to open the vault.

The most telling clue, however, is the most obvious: Jones’ whip. In Freemasonry, much is made of one’s tow line or cable. Workers used their cables to raise tools and as a safety line. It represents one’s reach in the world, a factor Jones illustrated in every movie. However, Jones also used the whip for selfless acts of charity as he did in the first feature when he offered the whip first to his companion to get across a deadly chasm. Such commitment to one’s duty to one’s neighbor indeed speaks of a lifelong commitment to the craft.

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Maybe Famous Freemasons is the humor column of the Illinois Freemasonry Magazine blog focusing on the Masonic membership of fictional characters. Although it is stringently researched, the ideas presented are ridiculous and intended only to amuse (rather lightly, and possibly not at all) Freemasons. They should not be construed as factual.