A group of women are looking forward to founding the first womens Masonic Lodge in Cuba next year, and so put an end to their traditional exclusion from Freemasonry, an esoteric society which is based on the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.

They are being helped in this endeavour by the Womens Grand Lodge of Chile, which will send a delegation to Cuba in mid-2008 to initiate several dozen women in Havana and Pinar del Río, 157 kilometres west of the Cuban capital, the head of the Working Committee on Womens Masonic Lodges in Cuba, Digna Gisela Medina.

According to Medina, women have been interested in Freemasonry for centuries, but it is only recently that womens Lodges have come into being.

"As women achieved their goals and their active participation in society grew, womens Lodges started to be formed in many countries of the world," she said.

This has already happened in France, Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, and other countries. "It seems to be an irreversible process, and we think that sooner rather than later, women Masons will be internationally accepted by the Regular Grand Lodges," she added.

Masonry is self-described as a progressive, philanthropic institution made up of free-thinking persons of good character who seek self-improvement. People of different religious creeds and atheists coexist within it, as do Masons of different political and philosophical persuasions.

But one of the ancient fundamental precepts of the United Grand Lodge of England, which sponsors Regular Lodges all over the world, is to exclude women from the brotherhood. Initiation of women Masons, therefore, would appear to be irregular and problematic.

However, José Manuel Collera, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Cuba from 2000 to 2003, says that "like many other Masons," he thinks this rule is now outmoded and should be revoked. "Personally, I have always defended the inclusion of women in Freemasonry," he told IPS.

In his view, excluding women has caused the order to lose its appeal in the modern world. "Women are the most important element in society; they constitute half of humanity, and they are mothers of the other half. There is no doctrinal, philosophical, esoteric or initiatory reason to prevent a woman from becoming a Mason," he argued.

Collera acknowledged, however, that Cuban women have had to overcome several hurdles in their quest, especially among some of the most conservative male Masons. "But these are only conflicting currents of thought, not an official position of Freemasonry as a whole," he said.

In any event, sponsorship by the Womens Grand Lodge of Chile removes any risk of the male Grand Lodge of Cuba losing its regularity and the recognition of the other Grand Lodges it is in amity with, by transgressing the ancient boundaries and accepting women among its numbers.

Womens Masonry uses the Scottish rite, also practised by the male Cuban Lodges, so the symbols, rituals and initiations will be the same for men and women, said Medina, 46, who is a specialist in maxillofacial surgery at the Calixto García teaching hospital in Havana.

Among the groups of Masonic aspirants, aged 18 to 60, there are professional women and homemakers, Catholics and state employees. "The important qualities are that they should be virtuous, discreet, hardworking, and of course keen to join the Masons," said Medina, whose father and husband are Freemasons.

Political activism or belonging to other social organisations are no bar to becoming a Mason, Collera and Medina said.

The Working Committee led by Medina was formed two years ago in Havana, and is made up of about 30 women. In Pinar del Río there are 32 women aspirants, and interest has spread to Caibarién, a town on the north coast of the province of Villa Clara, 268 kilometres from Havana, where a new group of women is getting under way.

There are plans for another Working Committee to be set up in Santiago de Cuba, the countrys second-largest city, which is 847 kilometres southeast of Havana. "We are not interested so much in quantity as in quality," Medina said.

Statistics from 2004 indicate that there are 29,000 Masons in Cuba, organised in over 300 Lodges. The governing body of the order is the Grand Lodge of Cuba, and both the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, as well as the York Rite, are practised.

According to experts, throughout the history of Cuban Masonry women have always been associated with its activities, lending external support, but until now the felt need of women to enter the inner sanctum of its mysteries has gone unrecognised.

(IPS)