CONSPIRACY CLAIM #21

Mr. Ramos says he was once a Freemason. His claims are false, and some of them are genuinely upsetting. Since 2008 his video has been shared again and again to run down the fraternity, often in church circles online, and the hostility in it keeps getting repeated by people who have never checked a word of it.

Why should you doubt him?

Mr. Ramos says he was a Master Mason. There is no record that he ever was, and the lodge ID and certificate he displays are fakes.

Why would anyone spread stories like these? It usually comes down to a handful of reasons, and they sit behind most of the hostility aimed at the fraternity:
1/ Simply not knowing the facts.
2/ A vivid imagination, filling the gaps where facts should be.
3/ Hostility to the fraternity, handed down from others who never checked either.
4/ A wish to mislead people and run down the fraternity, in order to win more followers for a particular church or congregation.
5/ Plain extremism.

Along with the claims (all listed below), the video shows several images. If you’re not a Freemason, they could easily fool you. Every one of them is fake.

We’d rather not send it more viewers, but so you can judge for yourself, here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T07HVtGu850

A word of warning: Freemasons will find this video very upsetting, because of how much in it is untrue. It’s still worth knowing about, so that new Freemasons understand the kind of claims they may meet and can answer them calmly.

Below, we go through every claim Mr. Victor M Ramos makes, one by one.

The images

Mr. Ramos presents the documents on the left as his official certificates, proof that he was raised to the third degree.

They are completely made up. Someone typed them in a word processor, added a border and a Square and Compasses logo at the top, then filled them in by hand. No official seals, no official artwork. Nothing.

In short: the documents on the left are fake.

Claims like this are easy for Freemasons to check, from the certificate itself, from what the person says, and from the records. Every Grand Lodge keeps a register of its members, and a lodge can confirm whether someone was ever initiated, and to which degree. (England’s historic registers, 1751 to 1921, can even be searched online.)

Freemasons have a word for someone in Mr. Ramos’s position: a ‘Cowan’.

In Freemasonry, “Cowan” has a specific meaning. According to Albert Mackey, a prominent 19th-century Masonic author and historian, a “Cowan” is a non-Mason.

More precisely, a Cowan is an outsider, someone never initiated, who pries into Masonic matters or secrets. The word has traditionally carried a slightly disapproving edge: it describes someone without the proper qualifications or understanding who still tries to get inside the ceremonies and practices of Freemasonry.

Now compare the certificate at the top left with the one on the right. Some differences jump out at you. Others are more subtle, and we won’t list them here, but they matter when telling a real certificate from a fake. Real Freemasons will know them, because they hold a genuine certificate and have learned how to spot a forgery.

The certificate on the right is an old design that is no longer issued, but it is genuine. That’s why it’s shown here, purely to make the comparison.

One more thing: we’ve deliberately not shown a current certificate, so nobody can copy it and photoshop their own name onto it.

The claims, one by one

One thing to know before you start: the word ‘illuminati’ comes up a lot below. In context, it refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, a secret society that was not Masonic. Adam Weishaupt founded it in 1776, it was dissolved in 1785, and it never came back.

1/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “to be a mason you can be a devil worshipper and you can be an athiest, they don’t care”
The facts: Not true.
A candidate who says he worships the Devil or Satan will never be admitted to the fraternity. Full stop.

2/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “Rothchilds are Freemasons and that they are the ‘Satanic Children of Satan’.”
The facts: Only a handful of individual Rothschilds are documented as Freemasons. The best-attested is Nathan Mayer Rothschild, initiated on 24 October 1802 in London’s Emulation Lodge under the Premier Grand Lodge of England (the lodge is shown as No. 12 or No. 21 in different sources, because of later renumbering). Some lists also name his younger brother James Mayer de Rothschild on the same date, but James was born in 1792 and would have been ten years old, so that entry is doubtful. All of this was decades before the better-known Lionel de Rothschild (1808–1879), the first Jewish MP to take his seat in the Commons, for whom no reliable lodge record exists. So the blanket claim that “the Rothschilds” (as a family) are Freemasons is false; documented membership is specific and limited. (For completeness: a later relative, Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898), was a Mason and helped found a lodge in 1892, long after 1802. Even that shows individual choices, not a family-wide membership.) As for “children of Satan”: that’s conspiracy rhetoric, not a family tree. “Satan” (Hebrew śāṭān) literally means “adversary/accuser,” originally a role or function in biblical texts, not anybody’s ancestor.

3/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that ‘dues’ are paid by giving land or whatever to persons high up in the fraternity”
The facts: Not true.
Dues are paid in cash, or by card or bank transfer, like any club membership. Nobody accepts land. (Your lodge treasurer would have no idea what to do with a paddock.)

4/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that Freemasons are also the same as illuminati and that you have to be a Freemason to be an illuminati member”
The facts: Not true.
First, the Illuminati haven’t existed for more than two centuries. Second, Freemasons are not Illuminati, and no Freemason is an Illuminati member. You’ll find the full debunk, and a history of the Illuminati, here.

5/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “Claims that Jesuits are masons and that even the pope is a Freemason”
The facts: Not true.
The Catholic Church has forbidden Catholics, lay people and clergy alike (Jesuits included), to join Masonic associations since 1738 (Pope Clement XII’s bull In eminenti). It has restated that position many times, most recently through the Vatican’s doctrinal office: “the Church’s negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enrol in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.” (CDF, Declaration on Masonic Associations, 26 Nov 1983; reiterated Nov 2023). No Pope has ever been recognised by the Holy See as a Freemason. The 1738 bull itself is here for the exact details.
A note on penalties: Historically, the 1917 Code of Canon Law attached automatic excommunication to Masonic membership. The current law (1983) no longer names Freemasonry explicitly, so the CDF stated in 1983 that membership remains forbidden and is a grave sin (which bars a person from Holy Communion). Clergy, Jesuits included, are bound by the same rule.

6/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “Everything (the world) is controlled by the ‘white and black pope’, whilst suggesting that the white and black squares in the lodge reference the white and black pope – eg controlled by the Jesuits.”
The facts: Not true.
Freemasons don’t control the world, and the black squares on a lodge floor don’t hint that they do.
The black and white chequered floor in a lodge is called the mosaic pavement, and it stands for some simple philosophical ideas. It’s usually read as a picture of the two sides of life: good and evil, light and darkness, and the other opposites we all deal with. It reminds Masons that life is full of contrasts, and encourages them to find their way through them wisely. Its roots are historical and allegorical, part of the rich symbolism Freemasonry uses in its teachings and rituals.
For the full debunk of the “Freemasons rule the world” theory, see here.

7/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that Freemasons use certain ‘hand signs’ including Pyramid”
The facts: Not as he describes it.
Freemasons do have traditional signs, grips and passwords, old-fashioned ways of recognising one another. But there is no ‘triangle’ or ‘pyramid’ hand sign in Freemasonry, and none of these signs has anything to do with what he claims.

8/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “The devils horns are illuminati and the Shriners”
The facts: Not true.
There are no devil’s horns in Freemasonry, and no Illuminati either. And no devil’s horns in the Shriners. (Just the occasional very small car.)

9/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “Moloch is worshiped by Freemasons and the people that go to bohemian grove”
The facts: Not true.
There is no worship of any kind in a Masonic lodge, whether during the meeting or at the dinner afterwards (the “South”).
The Bohemian Club and its Grove are not Masonic at all. For more about them, see here.

10/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “the masons will control the single government of the world (one world government) and that the Freemasons are the foot soldiers of the illuminati”
The facts: Not true.
Freemasons don’t control the world, and they aren’t anybody’s ‘foot soldiers’, least of all the Illuminati’s.
The Illuminati were dissolved in 1785, more than 240 years ago. That’s a long time to wait for orders.

11/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that the ‘All seeing eye is lucifer”
The facts: Not true.
The All-Seeing Eye, especially when it sits above a pyramid as on the Great Seal of the United States, is a symbol with a long history and many layers of meaning. Also called the Eye of Providence, it has been read in several ways:

1. Divine Providence: The most common reading, especially in Western Christian art, is the eye of God watching over humanity. It stands for divine providence, the idea that God sees and knows all.
2. Enlightenment and illumination: An eye inside a triangle can also stand for enlightenment. Placed in the capstone of a pyramid, set apart from the rest of the structure, it suggests knowledge and insight that come from above.
3. The Great Seal of the United States: On the Great Seal, the unfinished pyramid stands for strength and duration, and the eye above it, with the motto “Annuit Coeptis” (meaning “He approves [or has approved] our undertakings”), suggests that the nation’s success (the pyramid) has divine approval.
4. Masonic symbolism: In Freemasonry, the All-Seeing Eye is a reminder of watchfulness and of a higher moral and spiritual authority. Worth knowing, though: the Eye was adopted for the Great Seal in 1782, and it only became a standard Masonic symbol around 1797, so the Seal didn’t borrow it from the Masons.
5. Esoteric and occult readings: Various esoteric traditions give the eye other meanings, usually to do with knowledge, awakening and spiritual insight.

The meaning of a symbol depends heavily on its cultural, religious and historical setting. The All-Seeing Eye has roots in many traditions, and its meanings run from God’s watchful care to human enlightenment. Lucifer isn’t one of them.

12/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that freemasons are also linked to the ‘council of 13’ and the council of 30 and the council of foreign relations and that they are also linked to the world’s six biggest companies in the entire world who own all the media, real estate and everything else.”
The facts: Not true, not even slightly.
Freemasonry has no links with a ‘council of 13’, a ‘council of 30’, the Council on Foreign Relations or any similar body. Nor do Freemasons own ‘all the media, real estate and everything else’. It’s a sweeping, simplistic claim with nothing behind it.

13/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “Warren Buffett is a 33rd degree mason and rules the world”
The facts: Not true.
Warren Buffett is not a 33rd-degree Mason. In fact there’s no record of him ever being admitted to Freemasonry, or raised to the third degree, anywhere in the world. Mr. Buffett is famous for his investing and for leading Berkshire Hathaway, and his life and career are very much in the public eye. A lodge membership would hardly have gone unnoticed.

14/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that satanic ritual abuse is performed by Freemasons”
The facts: Not true, and deeply offensive to Freemasons.
There is no sacrifice and no worship of any kind in a Masonic lodge, whether during the meeting or at the dinner afterwards.
Accusations like this are deeply hurtful to Freemasons and their families, and they’re exactly the kind of story that stirs up hostility towards them.

15/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that Freemasons invented one world religion, one world currency and will one day rule the world and to ‘usher in the Anti-Christ’ and ‘Mark of the Beast’.”
The facts: Not true.
Freemasonry is not a religion, and it has never invented one. It didn’t invent a ‘one world currency’ either: Freemasonry has nothing to do with finance. It’s simply a fraternity. And it does not ‘usher in’ the Anti-Christ or the Mark of the Beast. Saying it does is simply a way of making people afraid of their neighbours.

16/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “to have seen ‘all this first hand’ “
The facts: Not true.
There’s no record that Mr. Ramos was ever a Freemason, so he can’t have seen inside a lodge meeting: Cowans aren’t allowed in. A man who presents fake certificates and tells invented stories about the fraternity is not a first-hand witness.

17/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “to have seen ‘rituals and when Freemasons try to kill you’ “
The facts: Not true.
This one is both untrue and very offensive. Freemasons do not try to kill anyone during their rituals.
What Mr. Ramos has done is misrepresent part of the third-degree ceremony, which tells this story:

1. The story of Hiram Abiff: Hiram Abiff is portrayed as the chief architect of King Solomon’s Temple. In the story, three fellow workers (the ruffians) demand the secrets of a Master Mason from him, believing those secrets would bring them important privileges. Hiram refuses, saying they are not yet ready to receive them, and each of the three attacks him in turn. The third and final blow kills him.
2. Integrity and loyalty: Hiram’s refusal to give up the secrets, even facing death, stands for faithfulness and integrity. He is a model of loyalty to one’s values and promises, a reminder that some principles are worth protecting at any cost.
3. An allegory of the human condition: Hiram’s death can be read as an allegory of life itself: its challenges, its moral struggles, and the certainty of death.
4. A lesson about mortality: The story is a strong reminder that life is short. It encourages Masons to think about how they live and what legacy they will leave.
5. Rebirth and enlightenment: The ceremony also carries themes of resurrection or rebirth, standing for a new stage of life with greater moral and spiritual understanding.
6. Moral and ethical lessons: Freemasons take the story as a lesson in loyalty, integrity, and the lifelong pursuit of truth and knowledge.

18/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that when you are doing the 3rd degree they simulate stabbing you and killing you”
The facts: This takes the scene described above, the story of Hiram Abiff, completely out of context.
It’s a play about a man who keeps his word, not an attack on the candidate. Anyone who knew the story would never describe it this way.

19/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “Freemasons mock baptism and that it is really a blood baptism”
The facts: Not true.
Freemasonry does not mock any religion, or baptism, in any way at all.

20/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “water used (which there is none) is symbolic to blood and freemasons must get into a bath tub and bathe in it and this is how freemasons do their rituals”
The facts: Not true.
Freemasons do not climb into a bathtub during their rituals. There is no bathtub, no blood and no bathing of any kind. This story exists only in the video.

21/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “Freemasons are all homosexuals and that they have to be like baphomet”
The facts: Not true.
Freemasonry doesn’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. A man’s private life has nothing to do with Freemasonry or its ritual. And there is no mention of ‘Baphomet’ in any Masonic ritual. This claim is offensive and discriminatory.
For the full debunk of the ‘Baphomet’ story, see here.

22/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “Baphomet is the god of the knights templar”
The facts: Not true.
The Templars’ God was not Baphomet. For more on this conspiracy theory and why it’s wrong, see here.

23/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “Freemasons worship Lucifer who is represented as Baphomet”
The facts: Not true.
There is no worship of any kind in a Masonic lodge meeting, and none at the dinner afterwards either.
This claim misleads, and it rests on not knowing the first thing about Freemasonry.

24/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “freemasons eat fecal matter, drink urine but claims he never did that because he wasn’t ‘high enough’ from the 30th degree to the 33rd degree where they expose everything to you and you must do it.”
The facts: Not true, and quite offensive.
Freemasons do not eat faeces and do not drink urine. Full stop.
Notice, too, how convenient the claim is: the worst things supposedly happen in exactly the degrees he says he never reached, so he never has to show anything.

25/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “Freemasons sell themselves to the devil”
The facts: Not true.
Freemasons do not sell themselves to the ‘devil’. This is rhetoric, nothing more.

26/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that if a Freemason approaches a person, that person must run, must stay away from the mason, don’t stay close”
The facts: This one is simply hurtful.
Messages like this are designed to make people afraid. Some of the preachers who spread this video use that fear to put people off joining the fraternity, hoping they’ll think twice, and to steer them towards their own congregations instead. In real life, the Freemason approaching you is most likely asking whether you’d like to buy a raffle ticket.

27/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “If you have money you can buy your way up (as in degrees)”
The facts: Not true.
To move up to the next degree, a Mason has to learn the work of his current degree and show his proficiency in open lodge. Until he has done so, he does not advance. No amount of money changes that. Anyone who had actually been through the degrees would know it.

28/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that Bill Cosby is a Mason”
The facts: Not true.
Bill Cosby, the American actor, is not a Freemason. There is no record of him ever joining Freemasonry, being admitted to it, or visiting a lodge as a Freemason.

29/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that if you expose a person as a Freemason they will go after you and kill you or your family because the government is part of it”
The facts: Not true, and quite offensive.
Nobody gets killed, and nobody’s family gets harmed, because someone has been publicly named as a Freemason. Whether to tell people he’s a Freemason is each member’s own choice, and plenty of members happily wear the ring in public. This is another invented story.

30/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that the Freemasons are in cahoots with the government”
The facts: Not true.
Freemasonry does not control the government. Plenty of Freemasons have been presidents or public servants over the years, but that doesn’t mean Freemasonry runs the government. By the same logic, a government full of Christians would be run by the ‘Christian Church’, and if a member of a Wal-Mart fan club got a government job, the government would be run by Wal-Mart. Having members in a place is not the same as being in charge of it.

31/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that the country is in sectors which is run by Freemasons and that these sectors are controlled by witches and warlocks that are in charge of these sectors who then in turn monitor the satanic members”
The facts: Not true.
Again, Freemasonry does not run the country, and Freemasons are not ‘witches and warlocks’ who ‘monitor the satanic members’.
There’s no evidence for any of it, and he offers none.

32/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that freemasonry is satanic at the core and that the whole country (usa) is not based upon christianity but rather its all satanic”
The facts: Not true.
Freemasonry is not Satanic, and there is no worship of any kind in a lodge meeting or at the dinner afterwards.
Freemasonry isn’t based on Christianity or on any other religion either, because it is a fraternity, not a religion.

33/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that Freemason’s god is money / Lucifer”
The facts: Not true.
Freemasonry has no ‘God’ of its own: each member brings his own faith. And Freemasons do not consider ‘Lucifer’ a god. Lucifer means ‘The Light Bringer’. It is the Latin name for the morning star, the planet Venus, not a deity of Freemasonry. (And money? Ask any lodge treasurer how much of it there is.)

34/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that Freemasons don’t believe in god and that they hate god because their god is Lucifer”
The facts: Not true.
One of the requirements for becoming a Freemason is declaring a belief in a Supreme Being. Freemasonry doesn’t discriminate between religions, so Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Taoists and others can all join, provided each man professes that belief. This claim is discriminatory and offensive, and it rests on not knowing the facts. Freemasons do not worship Lucifer either.

35/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos claims: “that he was involved with freemasonry and was involved with witches”
The facts: Not true.
There is no official record anywhere that Mr. Victor M Ramos was ever admitted into Freemasonry, and the certificates he shows are fakes. There are no ‘witches’ in Freemasonry either.

36/ Mr. Victor M. Ramos notes: “his own phone number as being (US/Canada) +1 330 707 5159 and his email address is
vr13377@gmail.com”
The facts: We don’t know who actually owns this number or this email address. What we do know is that every statement listed above was made on video, in his own words, by the man presenting himself as Victor M. Ramos.

WEB MASTER’S COMMENTARY:

Here is what I’d like to happen now. If you’ve seen this video, or shared it, please take a moment to compare it with the facts on this page. And if you know Mr. Ramos, or anyone passing his video around, please point them here. Everything they need to check his claims for themselves is on this page.