16. Is Freemasonry occult or esoteric?
  
Freemasonry is certainly not “occult” in the recent popular meaning of that term referring to fortune telling, diabolism, the supernatural, and the like. But the original meaning of the word was “hidden” or “secret,” just as the literal meaning of “esoteric” is “inner” or “for the initiated.” As already said, Freemasonry has its secrets, which are for those initiated into it.