”Not only did Nimrod kill and eat the fair-skinned descendants of Shem, in his fury and hatred he often burned them alive. The type of human sacrifice involving the eating of the slaughtered human victims derived its name from the combined names of his uncle, Canaan, and the demon god Baal, the two names being combined to form the word "cannibal." Nimrod was also known in ancient history by the names of Marduk, Bel, and Merodach. Because of his importance in its history, Babylon was known as the Land of Nimrod. Nimrod is also cited in the most ancient Masonic constitutions as the founder of Freemasonry.”
"Nimrod's downfall reputedly came about when he began to build the Tower of Babel, a ziggurat, or temple tower, which was planned to rise up into the heavens. Because of this offense against God, Shem, the eldest son of Noah, pronounced judgment against Nimrod, and executed him. Josephus says that "Ham's black grandson, Nimrod, was beheaded by Shem."
Other accounts add that Shem then cut Nimrod's body into pieces and sent the pieces to the pagan temples of Babylon, as a warning to the priests that their sex orgies and child sacrifices would result in a similar judgment of execution. Instead of abandoning their hideous ceremonies because of this warning, the priests literally went underground.
No longer did "their altars smoke with human blood," as Kitto, the great Palestinian authority, described them. The priests took the pieces of Nimrod as relics to their secret meeting places, which were hidden in "groves" and "shrines. This was the origin of the secret Mystery cults, whose orgies could no longer be performed in public temples.
Because of the power of Shem, the priests from that time on conducted their forbidden orgies out of the light of day, in their secret hiding places. Their meetings were bounded with secret rites, which no one outside of their order was permitted to know, on pain of death. This was the origin of the Gnostics, the Knowing Ones, who knew the secrets. It may be for this reason that Nimrod became known as the founder of Freemasonry, because its fundamental rites were established and invoked after he was killed, in order to carry on his work of evil."
http://johnkaminski.info/pages/the_next_chapter/pdf/mullins_curse_of_canaan.pdf