Rudyard Kipling and the Masonic ideal : a fraternity in the making

In 1886, Rudyard Kipling was initiated into Hope and Perseverance Lodge 782 in Lahore, under the authority of the United Grand Lodge of England. Although he did not participate much, this brief period left a lasting impression on him.Although Kipling never theorised about Freemasonry, he honoured its spirit through his actions. Temperance, duty and self-control are all Masonic virtues that permeate his work. The poem 'If' sums up his ethics. The Mother Lodge poem celebrates the fraternity experienced across denominations and Banks. Kipling was a discreet but deeply marked writer who rarely spoke of the lodge. But he often wrote from its point of view. And he always did so in his own way, for it.

Kipling in a Lodge: Initiation in British India

Rudyard Kipling was only twenty years old when he was initiated into Hope and Perseverance Lodge No. 782 in Lahore, British India, on the fifth of April, 1886. This cosmopolitan lodge, under the authority of the United Grand Lodge of England, comprised members of various faiths, castes, and origins. Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, and Christians mixed on an equal footing, in accordance with the practices of colonial masonry, which retained a sense of universality.

The Ancient Masonic Hall of Lahore

Born in Bombay, Kipling grew up at the crossroads of two worlds. On the one hand, there was the British Empire, with its codes, hierarchies and certainties. On the other was a vibrant, multilingual and colourful India, whose richness and complexity he recognised from an early age. His father, John Lockwood Kipling, was a British artist and teacher who had been sent to India to oversee important cultural institutions. The child was thus immersed in a dual atmosphere : Victorian rigour and Oriental effervescence.

In this context, the lodge became a special place for him. Neither entirely sacred nor entirely profane. It was a place where people could talk, listen, and experience true brotherhood. He met men there that he would never have encountered elsewhere, participating in rituals conducted in old English and imbued with subtle solemnity. Though brief — Kipling left the lodge two years later for London — this experience would remain vivid in his memory and imagination.

He never returned, but he never spoke about it distantly. For him, the lodge was a short-lived homeland, but a foundational one.

The Masonic ideal in Kipling's work

Kipling did not leave behind a treatise on Freemasonry. He did not comment on the rituals or explain the symbols. He never wrote about the lodge. However, he did draw inspiration from it — and sometimes wrote about it.

The Masonic influence in his work is not a matter of signs, but of attitude. It is expressed less through allegory and more through attitude. It is expressed less through symbols than through an inner bearing. Words in Kipling's work trace the contours of a virile ethic : loyalty, self-control, courage without ostentation and keeping one's word. These are all qualities dear to the British Masonic tradition, but they are never set down as dogma. They emerge at the turn of a verse, a dialogue or a silence.

This discretion is a strength. Kipling never imposes an ideology on his stories. Even in harsh contexts such as the military, colonialism and initiation, he allows a moral demand to emerge without moralism. He is determined to stand his ground, to act without making a fuss and to move on without imposing.

Some of his stories, such as The Man Who Would Be King, Kim and The Jungle Book, should be reread with this in mind. We see the figure of a man building something bigger than himself everywhere. Through duty, apprenticeship, or friendship. It is an implicit Freemasonry, without aprons or passwords, but whose heart beats beneath the text.

Kipling does not depict the initiation ; he prolongs its effect. This is perhaps his most faithful tribute.

'If' and 'The Mother Lodge': two Masonic poems by Kipling

Some poems contain more Masonry than many discourses. 'If' and 'The Mother Lodge' bear witness to this. One condenses an inner ethic. The other celebrates a lived fraternity. Together, they form the two pillars of the same invisible temple.

'If', written in 1895, is often presented as a Stoic catechism. However, it is structured like a Masonic path, affirming human dignity and calling for temperance, active patience, and quiet strength. Each verse sets out a challenge, an elevation and a form of mastery. It is the poem of a man speaking to a son or young brother, equipping him to face chaos without pride or cynicism.

If you can keep your head when all about you

Are losing theirs and blaming it on you…

[…]

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

And treat those two impostors just the same…

[…]

Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,

And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son !

You can hear the discreet echo of the Lodge. Nothing is demonstrated. Everything is transmitted.

Rudyard Kipling

The tone of the poem 'The Mother Lodge', published in 1894, is different. More intimate in nature, it portrays the Lahore Lodge as a fraternal haven where unity was achieved despite differences in beliefs, languages, and origins. Hindus, Muslims and Christians were all equal in the light of the compass. The poem does not idealise anything. It simply recounts nostalgia for a place where, for the duration of a ritual, differences were set aside and laughter echoed as we left.

There was Rundle, Station Master,

An’ Beazeley of the Rail,

An’ ‘Ackman, Commissariat,

An’ Donkin’ o’ the Jail;

An’ Blake, Conductor-Sergeant,

Our Master twice was ’e,

With ’im that kept the Europe-shop,

Old Framjee Eduljee.

Outside — “Sergeant ! Siri ! Salute ! Salaam !”

Inside — “Brother,” an’ it doesn’t do no ’arm.

We met upon the Level an’ we parted on the Square,

An’ I was Junior Deacon in my Mother-Lodge out there ! […]

This is neither a colonial myth nor a Masonic fable. It's a thank you. And perhaps also a farewell.

Kipling and the initiatory drift : an analysis of 'The Man Who Would Be King'

There is a story by Kipling in which Freemasonry is addressed directly. Not as an allusion or a watermark, but as a central theme. But as a point of departure — and a point of downfall. Published in 1888, The Man Who Would Be King is a brutal, almost biblical tale of pride and the betrayal of ideals.

Two British adventurers, Daniel Dravot and Peachey Carnehan, decide to found their own kingdom in Kafiristan, on the border of Afghanistan. Both Freemasons, they use their signs and passwords to win the trust of the local tribes, viewing them as a universal language capable of uniting peoples. However, this brotherhood becomes a tool of domination. Dravot, intoxicated by power, crowns himself king. The union becomes a cult. The Craft becomes a reign.

The reversal is cruel. Dravot was betrayed and killed. Carnehan returned alone to civilisation, mutilated and broken, bearing a crowned skull and a chilling tale. What they had attempted was not Masonic work, but a parody of it. They violated the rules by using its symbols.

In recounting their downfall, Kipling is not condemning Freemasonry. He is reminding us of its limitations. Or rather, its requirements. Freemasonry cannot be an instrument. It only has meaning in humility, moderation, and service.

Without a doubt, it is one of the rare works of fiction in which Freemasonry is so prevalent and put to the test.

Kim, The Jungle Book, and Kipling's initiation tales

At first glance, it might seem that Kipling's stories for young people are far removed from the Masonic world. At first glance, they seem completely different : talking animals, orphans searching for their destiny, tales of initiation mixed with adventure. And yet it is here that his fraternal heritage runs deepest.

In The Jungle Book (1894), Mowgli is not just a child raised by wolves ; he is a developing individual, transitioning between worlds, learning to obey to understand, to fight without hatred and to communicate in multiple languages without abandoning his own. Behind Baloo, Bagheera and Kaa, there is a college of stern, benevolent and discreet instructors. It is a kind of animal lodge with rituals and initiations, governed by the law of the jungle — not the law of the strongest, but a law of respect and fairness.

First edition of The Jungle Book, 1894

Kim (1901) is probably his most mature novel and follows the same theme. The young hero, who is half-British and half-Indian, is a secret agent and a disciple of a Tibetan lama. He learns to find his place in a world full of masks. The lama's teachings, his quest for the river of life and the companionship of men of duty weave a tapestry in which learning takes place through silence, observation and measured action. Once again, the lodge is never named. However, it is present throughout, in the geometry of human relationships.

Even the seemingly playful Just So Stories (1902) bear this signature. Each one is a parable, a tale of cause and effect, form and transformation. They reveal a craftsman's understanding of the world — a way of storytelling designed to awaken rather than entertain. It is as if, under the guise of fantasy, Kipling were training young apprentices to read reality.

With him, freemasonry is never just decoration. It is method. And sometimes, a vocation.

Kipling : the brother without a lodge

Kipling did not have a career in a lodge. He was received and raised, and then he left. However, he took something with, and this informed his work.

After returning from India, he briefly settled in London before travelling to the United States, where he married an American and settled in Sussex. He never returned to the lodge. Yet he went on to become one of the most famous writers of his time, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1907. He was a paradoxical champion of an empire that he saw as both a mission and a burden. He died in London in 1936 and is buried in Westminster Abbey, alongside the poets.

Behind the honours, controversies and ideological interpretations, however, there remains a singular voice : that of a man driven by an ideal of integrity, focus and mastery. He never speaks of Freemasonry as one would of an institution. However, he pays homage to it on every page through his moral conduct, restraint of judgement and fraternity without discourse.

He is not a mason of pomp and circumstance. He is a mason of conduct. Perhaps the highest degree is revealed in the silence of the word and the accuracy of the gesture.