It had benign if not noble beginnings, it's purpose was to teach and preserve the knowledge of how nature operated. This knowledge was viewed to be very powerful, so it was only taught to the initiated.

Nowadays only the evil people seem to have and hide (occult) this knowledge.

If you're interested in some info about the first degree tracing board, or the story of Hyram Abiff in the temple of Solomon ect.. it really is interesting knowledge, maybe even powerful.