Category Archives: Craft

Pentagram

The pentagram is a very common symbol in Freemasonry and appears in different degrees and rites. It is mostly common in the 2nd “craft” degree where is has the rough meaning of “man” with his five faculties. It can also be a blazing star, but in this example, it obviously is the sun. Sometime stars are drawn as five pointed stars. You also see them inverted. The meaning depends on the context.

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Hiram

On some tracing boards, you see Hiram laying in his grave. The above is a Strikte Observanz tracing board from around 1770. It seems that SO derived systems, such as the Rectified Scottish Rite also use this tracing board.

Hiram as a character plays a big role in “craft” degrees, the “Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite” and other Masonic systems.

Note the animals in the corners. A lion, a monkey, a fox and a dove.

Feddersen (Die Arbeitstafel in der Freimaurerei Band I (1982) D/10, P. 344) Strikte Observanz tracing board from 1770.

Swastika

Even though the pointed stone is more common in France, this one with a swastica on it, is from early 1700 Germany. Needless to say that this is (nowadays) an uncommon symbol in Freemasonry.

MacKenzie (Royal Masonic Cyclopedia, 1877) calls this a: “Hermetic Cross, used by members of the Governing body of the Order of Ishmael, Esau, Reconciliation, and Expiation.”

cut-out from unknown German tracing board from the early 1700’s.

Alchemy

Clearly alchemical symbols are not common in Freemasonry. An exception is the ‘room of contemplation’, also ‘room of preparation’ or ‘dark room’. This is a fairly common practice for European initiations. After French usage the room is often adorned with alchemical symbolism and symbols of mortality. Bread, salt, the symbol of sulphur, the anagram VITRIOL, etc.

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Temple on Side

A French tracing board from the early 1700’s has a temple on its side and also the Master’s chair is flipped over. Feddersen (F/19a and F/24) describes it as a third degree tracing board. The pillars at the entrance are also broken, so this is not your typical third degree as these elements may refer to a destroyed temple.

It took some effort, but Feddersen is right. The image comes from the book Les Francs Maçons Écrasé (‘the crushed Freemasons’) of Abbé Larudan. It was first published in 1747, but there are also editions of 1774 and 1778. I found the text describing the third degree tracing board:

The Lodge of Masters represents the entire Temple of Solomon with its three walls, as in the image of the Apprentice Lodge but it is painted as falling into ruin, as demolished, as entirely turned upside down. Its doors have been forced open, the walls have been breached to its walls, its staircases ruptured its columns knocked down, its pavilions torn. Its Sun, Moon & Star, suffer an eclipse; its windows are cracked; the Tabernacle & Altar overturned, extreme confusion, and in a deplorable state. However, we must exclude Mount Sinai, on which a branch still preserves its greenery, which remains greenery, which remains firm despite the upheaval of the whole Temple.

So indeed, King Solomon’s Temple has been destroyed in the third degree. There is one more degree in this book: “Des Architectes ou Écossois”, ‘Architects or Scots’, see “Lion“.

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Crowbar

Usually a second “craft” degree tool.

Taken from Feddersen (Die Arbeitstafel in der Freimaurerei Band I (1982) F/16, P. 284), “after: Les Franc Macons Ecrase’s, 1717”

Scythe

Obviously a symbol of mortality. The symbol appears fairly frequently and appears in some American 3rd “craft” degree. Sometimes it is an element in the ‘preparation room’.

The Scythe
Is an emblem of Time, which cuts the brittle thread of life, and launches us into eternity. Behold ! what havoc the scythe of Time makes among the human race ! If by chance we should escape the numerous evils incident to childhood and youth, and with health and vigor arrive to the years of manhood ; yet, withal, we must soon be cut down by the all-devouring scythe

Ahiman Rezon. Rituals of Freemasonry by Daniel Sickels (1870)

cut-out from unknown Symbol Chart

Five Pillars

Dąbrowski has an unidentified “Masonic Symbols”, see below. The image itself says: “Templar Chart” so I suppose these are symbols from Templar degrees.

Five pillars can be seen every now and then. In the USA they are (sometimes) part of the 2nd “craft” degree. It also appears in the 12th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite sometimes. I suppose they refer to the orders of architecture.

In the image above, the pillars have the letters T, L, P and F. In this case it appears to be one of the temples portrayed on this chart (of a reference to the other two). In this case the Temple of Honor and Temperance.

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Octothorpe

Dąbrowski has an unidentified “Masonic Symbols”, see below. I don’t know in which degree this image is featured and if there are other systems or degrees with this symbol, but I did encounter it on Mark Master tracing boards, sometimes with nine dots. Perhaps it is just a (Mason’s) mark?

The # (hashtag) can often be found together with a X on Master Mason drawing boards. Thus combined (#X) it can either refer to the pigpen cipher or a way to construct cubic stones.

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Windows

On this “Continental Masonic Tableau” (Dąbrowski) you can see three windows. The often appear on “craft” / “symbolic” / “blue” degree tracing boards. They refer to the three phases of the sun. Rise in the East, high point in the South, dawn in the West.

Dąbrowski P. 162. Year and designer unknown (and edited).

Ear

Dąbrowski has an unidentified “Symbols of American Freemasonry”, see below. I don’t know in which degree this image is featured and if there are other systems or degrees with this symbol. Interesting in this regard is this, a suggestion that the ear to to be connected to the Level and thus to the Senior Warden.

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Tears

No these drops aren’t rain, or blood, they are tears. Of course a reference to mortality. They appear in quite a few degrees with a ‘mortality theme’, such as the Master Mason “craft” degree and the early Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite degrees.

The Book Of The Ancient And Accepted Scottish Rite (1884) Charles McClenachan (detail)

Master’s Tracing Board

There is another thing called “tracing board“. On ‘that other tracing board’ there is usually a… tracing board. That latter is the board on which the Master Mason draws his sketches and it is thus a third degree symbol. When you look at tracing boards (‘tableaus’) you will see that this ‘master’s board’ does not always have the same symbols on them. In the example above you see a plan of the temple of King Solomon and a 47th problem of Euclid. More often you will see just two symbols #X which can either be a a reference to Masonic cipher or tools to make a drawing (if you know how to use these two symbols). The most interesting examples come from Sweden:

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Menorah

Dąbrowski has an unidentified “Symbols of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite”, see below. Judging the text in the triangle, it is from France. The Menorah is an attribute in a few degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.

Les Plus Secret Mysteres (1820) says:

The seven-branded candlestick represents the seven Sacraments.

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24 Inch Gauge

One of the tools of the Junior (Second) Warden and thus of the Entered Apprentice. Sometimes the Biblical explanation of dividing the day in 8 hours of work, 8 hours of study and 8 hours of sleep is given. Sometimes the division is four times six, including a part of the day to help people.

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Point Within Circle

Mostly seen in Anglo-Saxon Freemasonry. This symbol has different meanings. It can sometimes be seen on first degree tracing boards, but he point within the circle is a third degree element in many rituals. With the two lines included, the symbol can refer to the year (circle) and the two solstices (where the circle and the lines touch), hence referring to the two patron saints of Freemasonry, Saint John the Evangelist and Saint John the Baptist.

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