Understanding Masonic Handshakes and Signals
The rituals have been around since at least the 1700s. There are standard grips for each of the three Craft degrees, and they differ between jurisdictions to some degree. The Entered Apprentice grip is the simplest — you press your thumb across the person's wrist bone. For the Fellow Craft degree, the grip moves slightly higher and involves a different thumb placement. The Master Mason grip is where things get more involved, with a specific pressure point against the heart side of the wrist. These aren't decorative. They're how a member identifies another member in private settings where speaking the credentials aloud would be inappropriate. Here is the practical breakdown of how the grips actually work and what most people get wrong when they try to learn them. The core technique involves two elements: the grip itself and the way you position your hand while applying it. You approach from the right side, extend your right hand with the thumb across the palm, and the other person matches. The pressure should be firm enough to be felt clearly but not painful. A common mistake beginners make is squeezing too hard, which turns it into a handshake variation rather than a recognized grip. The grip takes about two seconds. You release smoothly.
For the Master Mason grip specifically, the thumb goes across the wrist just above the pulse point. The other person's thumb presses into the side of your hand near the base of the thumb. There is a slight inward rotation of the wrists — about fifteen degrees — that distinguishes it from the lower degree grips. If you skip that rotation, someone who knows the degrees will notice immediately. I spent roughly six months working through these before I could execute them without thinking about it. The problem wasn't memorizing the steps. It was the muscle memory. My first few attempts were stiff and slow because I was mentally going through the sequence like a checklist. What actually works is practicing against a flat surface first — your thigh, a table edge — to get the hand angle right before trying it on a partner. You can nail the mechanics in about twenty minutes of solo practice once you understand the geometry. The social awkwardness of doing it with a live person takes longer to shake off. There is also the gavel signal, which is separate from the grips. This is a hand motion used during meetings to call for order or signal a vote. It looks like a quick downward chop with the open palm, wrist stiff. It's not commonly discussed outside actual lodge practice, and using it outside of a meeting context will just confuse people.
One thing worth noting is that many of these gestures overlap with older fraternal organizations, particularly the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. The thumb placement patterns share structural similarities that suggest a common folk etymology stretching back to operative masonry. That doesn't mean every similarity is intentional. Some of it is just the natural result of several groups developing hand signals independently for the same functional need. Common pitfalls: People often confuse the grip with the token words or signs. The grip is the physical handshake. The signs are the hand positions held separately, usually at the chest or throat level, used in conjunction with the grips during ceremonial instruction. Mixing those up in conversation with practicing members will mark you as someone who has read about it rather than been taught it. Keep them separate. A limitation: Learning these from written descriptions alone has a real ceiling. You will get the basic mechanics, but the exact pressure and timing are nearly impossible to calibrate without a live instructor. If you're serious about this, joining a lodge as a visitor and asking to be shown the proper grips is the only reliable path. Reading guides online can get you to about sixty percent proficiency. The rest requires hands-on correction.
Get the Full Details
There is no official online manual for this. The Grand Lodge of each jurisdiction maintains its own version of the ritual, and the grips can vary slightly between countries. The United Grand Lodge of England version differs marginally from the American practice, mostly in the degree of thumb pressure and the exact wrist angle. Neither is wrong. They're just regional standards. The historical record shows that written descriptions of Masonic signs and gestures appear in printed manuals going back to the mid-1700s. John Smith's The Book of the Holy Entrenchments from 1760 includes some of the earliest known printed accounts. Most modern practitioners get their training through the lodge ritual itself, not from books. That gap between what is written publicly and what is practiced privately is by design. The fraternity has maintained that boundary for centuries. If you want to study this further, the most reliable sources are official ritual manuals published by recognized Grand Lodges. Avoid anything sold online with dramatic language about hidden knowledge. The real content is straightforward and not mysterious once you understand the basic mechanics. The secrecy is procedural, not substantive.
