You have to give credit to Dan Brown. The best-selling author has developed a winning formula. The off-the-charts worldwide sales of “The Da Vinci Code” proved that everyone loves a puzzle, and many really love a conspiracy.

It wasn’t new to suggest that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and their children created a bloodline that continued through the Knights Templar of the 14th century and maybe beyond. Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh did that in “Holy Blood, Holy Grail” back in 1982. But Brown’s book did prove a veritable page-turner, and even for folks who knew the twist, the movie version carried excitement and mystery up to the last reel, with Tom Hanks believable as the reluctant hero, Professor Robert Langdon, and Audrey Tautou simply gorgeous as Sophie-with-a-secret.

Brown spawned a whole new subcategory in publishing: “Da Vinci Code” coat-tail hangars. Look in any of the chain bookstores and you’ll find row upon row of slick publications supposedly unlocking the code and dissecting it every-which-way, with many writers pooh-poohing it. Earlier this year, I was even suckered into reading an entire book that predicted what Brown’s next book, “The Solomon Key” was going to be about. (Ha, ha! I borrowed it through interlibrary loan, and didn’t pay a cent for it.)

Afilm beling released in May, based on Brown’s novel, “Angels and Demons,” offers another opportunity to shine light on the Grand Masonic Conspiracy. You know the one, where those pesky Freemasons with their aprons and funny handshakes, are forever conspiring to take over the world. Imagine: Mozart, Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin didn’t just write operas, spout philosophy and fly kites. They also joined in a centuries-old effort to establish a New World Order to undermine nationalism and subvert justice, causing mischief and mayhem along the way.

If you believe that, I must inform you that such worthies as George Washington, Harry Houdini and Red Skelton were in on it too. Even today on the North Coast, Ronald Collman of Warrenton, Eldon Wright of Seaside and Sky Olsen of Astoria, are unindicted co-conspirators. Imagine that?

Well, I admit I am going to plonk down my seven dollars and see “Angels and Demons” in May, in part to see what the fuss is about and whether the Masons get skewered.

Before seeing the movie, I have been researching the background by dipping into “Perfectibilists,” the definitive book about the Illuminati, those shadowy 18th-century Bavarian fellas. Look closely and you will discover the year of their founding appears on every American dollar bill (yoiks!), along with the unfinished pyramid and the all-seeing eye, both symbols with Freemason connections. Proof indeed?

The book is written by Canadian resident Terry Melanson, who runs the Internet Illuminati conspiracy archive, and is published by Kris Millegan of Walterville, a tiny Oregon town in Lane County. Millegan told me he began publishing conspiracy theory books after his father, a disillusioned CIA operative in the 1950s, revealed some interesting fireside tales.

The book traces the criss-crossing paths of the Illuminati and prominent European Freemasons, but certainly doesn’t convince me that we need to shut down all the Masonic lodges.

Odd how seemingly unconnected things flash into your head. Reading Melanson’s Illuminati book, which clearly is the product of months, if not years, of research, I admired the effort if not the outcome. Then I suddenly thought of Tom Lehrer, a musical wordsmith I greatly admire, who describes himself as “well known in academic circles for his masterly translation into Latin of ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ which remains even today the standard Latin version of that work.”

– P.W.

Patrick Webb is managing editor of The Daily Astorian. He became interested in Freemasonry after watching the Monty Python architect sketch.

The following article by Patrick Webb appeared in The Daily Astorian June 8, 2004, accompanying a story about the 150th anniversary of Seaport Lodge No. 7 Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of Oregon in Astoria. It has been updated.

By PATRICK WEBB

The Daily Astorian

So who or what are Freemasons?

Masons are members of a worldwide club with millions of members, including 15,000 belonging to lodges in Oregon.

Disputes about their origins are shrouded in mystery, and secrecy about the organization has spawned many critics. Fears range from Masons improperly favoring lodge brothers with business contracts to extreme worries about oaths and devil-worshipping. There was even an American Anti-Masonic political party in the 19th century, following a notorious murder/disappearance case in upstate New York called “The Morgan Affair.”

They retain secret passwords and recognition handshakes, though scores of “exposés” have been published since the early 1700s. A Google search for “freemason” pulls up 1.3 million Internet references, many from detractors and conspiracy theorists.

Masons base their rituals, in part, on the medieval stonemasons’ guilds who built the giant gothic cathedrals of Europe, although evidence that they are directly descended from them is hard to authenticate. At the core is a variation on the biblical story of the building of King Solomon’s Temple, which Masons view as a metaphor for leading a moral and upright life. Brotherly love and charitable work is stressed in three degrees, which use architectural allusions throughout.

In 1717, four British lodges united to form a Grand Lodge, which chartered hundreds of others around the world. In the United States, there is no central Masonic authority; each state has a grand lodge, so rituals, which retain ancient-sounding wordings, vary slightly.

Fourteen U.S. presidents have been Masons, including both Roosevelts, Truman and Ford. George Washington reportedly was master of his lodge in Virginia while serving as president. Many signers of the Declaration of Independence were Masons and the Boston Tea Party was conceived in a Massachusetts lodge hall.

Prominent members have included W.C. Fields, Will Rogers, Audie Murphy, Norman Vincent Peale, John Wayne and Red Skelton. The British royal family has a tradition of involvement and the Duke of Kent, Queen Elizabeth’s cousin, has served as British Grand Master. The Church of England is torn; several bishops and other clergy are active lodge members, while others preach against Masonry.

Mozart’s dissolute life was hardly a prime example of good Masonic character and for decades it was rumored that Austrian brothers poisoned him for “revealing” their secrets in “The Magic Flute.” Today, scholars view his final comic opera as an homage to the fraternity.

Qualifications? Masons must be men, although there are least two affiliated women’s groups in the United States, Eastern Star and the Order of Amaranth. They must believe in a supreme being, though not necessarily a Christian God. Related organizations include Scottish Rite and York Rite Masons, and the Shriners, whose members fund 22 U.S. hospitals offering free treatment for disabled children and burn victims.

How does someone become a Mason? Ask. Lodges are forbidden from “recruiting,” but base their admittance policy on the expression, “Knock, and a door shall be opened.”