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There is a common claim that Walt Disney was a Freemason.

For example:

Walt Disney, he was a 33 Degree Freemason of the Scottish Rite and his whole life he has spun threads from the Mystery Schools into the children's minds with the purpose of getting them used to the occult for days to come

Also, this article provides some speculation into a possible connection between Walt and Free Masonry in relation to Club 33.

Was there evidence for this?

EDIT

As noted in one of the answers, Walt was in fact a member of DeMolay International (a.k.a. the Order of DeMolay). According to this site for the San Jacinto Masons on DeMolay it was:

Founded by Frank S. Land, a Freemason, DeMolay is modeled after Freemasonry.

We can concur that DeMolay is basically Freemasonry for youths. Is it probable that Walt moved on to become a Freemason? I wonder if anyone has dug deep enough to find any proof.

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    I think we need to restrict this question to whether Walt Disney was a member of the Freemasons, and not whether (a) he believed in any particular faith, (b) whether he acheved the Scottish Rite, (c) whether Freemasonry involves occult practices (separate question?) or (d) whether he used this to "spin threads" into the minds of children.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Jul 7, 2015 at 3:12
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    being a 33rd degree free mason of the Scottish rite is not that rare or difficult and certainly not as nefarious as the quote would have someone believe.
    – Chad
    Jul 8, 2015 at 14:32

1 Answer 1

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I can find no evidence that Walt Disney joining a Masonic Lodge or having registered records as a Freemason.

For example, Walt Disney is not present in Wikipedia's list of notable Freemasons.

However, Wikipedia explains:

Throughout history some members of the Freemason fraternity have made no secret of their involvement, while others have not made their membership public. In some cases, membership can only be proven by searching through the fraternity's records. Such records are most often kept at the individual lodge level, and may be lost due to fire, flood, deterioration, or simple carelessness. Grand Lodge governance may have shifted or reorganized, resulting in further loss of records on the member or the name, number, location or even existence of the lodge in question. In areas of the world where Masonry has been suppressed by governments, records of entire grand lodges have been destroyed. Because of this, masonic membership can sometimes be difficult to verify.

DeMolay is a Masonic club for young men between the ages of 12 and 21. Walt Disney was a member of the original Mother Chapter in Kansas City, Missouri. Source

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    PLease provide a reference that there is no proof of him joining a Masonic Lodge. Would we expect there to be evidence of this? What relationship does the Order of DeMolay have to the question?
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Jul 7, 2015 at 6:34
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    @Oddthinking it's impossible to prove a negative. In absence of proof of him joining a lodge it's best to assume he didn't as not being a member of a masonic lodge is the default state of human beings
    – jwenting
    Jul 7, 2015 at 7:31
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    @jwenting: I believe we have been over this before.
    – Oddthinking ♦
    Jul 7, 2015 at 7:52
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    @Oddthinking - Demolay is the youth branch of the Masonic Temple. Typically when one turns 18 or 21 they join a temple. That is not required though. Though he was in his 30's when he was inducted into the hall of fame, I find it unlikely that he never joined a lodge given the way he gushes about demolay and how important he says it was to his life. demolay.org/walt-disney
    – Chad
    Jul 8, 2015 at 14:30
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    @jwenting : This website isn't simply about original research. It's quite possible that other people looked into the background of Walt Disney. If the didn't find evidence, that's valuable information.
    – Christian
    May 25, 2016 at 9:23

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