Find your Symbol of Freemasonry
The equilateral triangle, sometimes named “delta” after the Greek capital D is a somewhat widely used symbol within Freemasonry. MacKenzie (Royal Masonic Cyclopedia, 1877) says of it:
The Delta is the Emblem of the Chapter in Royal Arch Masonry; Overseer’s mark of approval in Mark Master’s Degree; Emblem of the Trinity.
general image
With three candles you may have to think of the “Greater Lights” of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, but on this 28th degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite tracing board, they have quite another meaning.
Continue readingThe 3 candles symbolize man’s life – youth, manhood, old age – lit by the lights of truth.
From the title page of the degree “Chap. métropolitain de France. Le Chevalier du Grand Lion. 20e grade de la 3e série.” A lion with a tree branch perhaps?
Bibliothèque Numérique Patrimoniale, Fonds Gaborria Ms.-409
Another wide subject. Steps in Freemasonry come in a variety of forms and meanings. When you look online for Freemasonry and steps, you usually get an image with different degrees. Three steps for the “craft”/”symbolic” degrees (Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason) and more steps for other degrees in whatever system is portrayed.
But you also have three steps in many lodges. The Worshipful Master sits three steps higher than floor level (both officers sometimes two steps). At other times steps refer to the Liberal Arts that Freemasons are supposed to study.
Three steps can refer to youth, (wo)manhood and old age (also see three candles). Seven steps can refer to: “the 7 stages of our life on our way to spiritual joy.” (A. & A. R. The intermediate Degrees 19º – 29º A.C.F. Jackson (1982)).
On the image above, a text is written on the steps for entering the Museum of Freemasonry (and the main seat of the Grand Orient of the Netherlands) in Den Haag (The Hague, La Haye) in the Netherlands:
Vrijmetselarij kweekt verdraagzaamheid
betracht rechtvaardigheid, bevordert
naastenliefde, zoekt wat mensen en
volken vereent, tracht weg te nemen
wat de geesten en gemoederen verdeelt
en brengt tot hogere eenheid door het
bewustzijn levend te maken van de
allen verbindende broederschap
Freemasonry breeds tolerance
practices justice, promotes
charity, seeks what unites people and
peoples, seeks to remove
what divides minds and spirits
and brings about higher unity by
consciousness of the
all uniting brotherhood
Entrance of the Museum of Freemasonry, Den Haag, the Netherlands
Because I had no symbol specific to co-Masonry, I asked for suggestions. Somebody suggested the logo of Universal co-Masonry.
This logo has a few typical / recognisable elements. I had thought to add the Le Droit Humain logo (and derivatives). How many elements actually are typical / recognisable? A little bit of digging.
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Four women representing the cardinal virtues Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Justice. Note that Fortitude stands next to a broken column.
rearranged details of unknown symbol chart
Cherubim with extended wings appeared first in the 1764 edition of Ahiman Rezon, the constitutions of the “Antients”. They returned in the seal of the “Antients” and later also in that of the Grand Lodge of Ireland (shown above).
Cherubim also appear in some ‘high degrees’ (Voss mentions the “degree of Royal Master”), where the meaning would be: “under the protection of Divine Power”.
On a 28th degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite tracing board (below) we can see seven Cherubim which: “represent the 7 delights of man – sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, rest and health.”
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Every degree has a grip (and a step and a word). These ‘secret handshakes’ captivate outsiders. On old (and sometimes more recent) Masonic charts you can sometimes see two holding hands. When they are just two hands shaking, it is somewhat likely to be a reference to the Odd Fellows, but with some added detail, such hands can refer to a certain degree.
The Book Of The Ancient And Accepted Scottish Rite (1884) Charles McClenachan (detail)
In many lodges the two pillars have on top each a globe (sometimes a celestial and terrestrial globe) with network, hanging from which smaller globes which represent pomegranates. This element comes from the Bible from which more symbolism of King Solomon’s Temple comes. “And he made the pillars, and two rows round about upon the one network, to cover the chapiters that were upon the top, with pomegranates: and so did he for the other chapiter.” (1 Kings 7:13-22).
general design (non-Masonic) found online.
Astronomical (astrological?) signs on a tracing board from the Kloss / von “Löwen collection. The description says: “Apprentif et Compagnon du Soleil” (‘apprentise and fellow of the sun’). It can hardly be a “craft” tracing board with the coffin, the broken columns, etc.
“The Celestial Bodies can also be found on a 28th degree (“Prince of the Sun”) Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite tracing board they: “represent the 7 principal passions of life, useful to man, if he uses them in moderation, dangerous when he abandons himself to them.”
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Many lodges have celestial and terrestrial globes on their pillars. Heaven and Earth.
cut-out from unknown Symbol Chart
The “Missouri Masonic Family” tree below shows the bewildering number of rites and degrees in America. As a branch to the York Rite there is an order simply called “Allied Masonic Degrees”.
The square is also sometimes replaced by a triangle in French and German Freemasonry. It also happens that there is both a square and compasses and a triangle.
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The Phoenix is not really a Masonic symbol, but it does appear in a Masonic context every now and then. The image above is the emblem of a lodge with the name, there is the famous Phoenixmasonry museum and library and last, but not least, the double headed eagle of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite is sometimes portrayed as rising from the fire. Sometimes it is even bluntly called “Phoenix”. As a symbol, the phoenix refers to renewal, perhaps even immortality or eternity.
public logo of Phoenix lodge www.nhgrandlodge.org/phoenix
The Myosotis is not really a Masonic symbol, but (as Jews) Freemasons put it on their cloths during WWII as a subtle token of their membership. It has been used as such ever since.
general design, found online.
There is a great variety of hammers and mallets. Also within Masonic symbolism you see a variety, but -fortunately- not as big as above. Sometimes these different hammers and mallets have a symbolic significance, oftentimes not. In Mark symbology you often see a carver’s mallet with a chisel. A hammer on one tracing board can also be a pick hammer on another. Perhaps it could be fun to make a list is types of hammers and mallets and their specific symbolic meanings.
A flat hammer (in German “Setzhammer”) is sometimes called “Grandmaster Hammer” (“Großmeisterhammer”), while a pick hammer (“Spitzhammer”) is for entered apprentices. In this way there are more specific meanings for specific types of hammers.
Wikimedia Commons.
A not too common symbol in a Masonic context, but this 1817 Dutch seal has one. Just as outside a Masonic context, the meaning is might or power.
1817 Netherlands
Air, Water, Wind, Earth, form elements of some ceremonies.
This image from the French Mutus Liber Latomorum also appears to depict the wind (blowing on the brazen sea?)
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There is a lot of crudely written Hebrew in Freemasonry. Not only words are garbled, but the copies from copies, often from handwritten copies, by people who don’t know Hebrew, makes that on many places you see letters that hardly resemble Hebrew. What also doesn’t help is that there are variations in ritual texts. The image above is from the “ineffable” degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Some Hebrew are recognisable, others less so. From some texts that use this image, you can know what Hebrew letters are meant. The same emblem in another AASR system has Latin characters that do not correspond to the Hebrew above.
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When you drill a hole in a stone, you can insert a lewis to lift it. The lewis expand somewhat and clamp itself on the inside.
What this has to do with sons is unclear, but a lewis is also the son of a Freemason. In some lodges the son can be ‘adopted’ by the lodge and join before the minimum age. In the latter case, the word “loufton” (‘wolf’ in French) is sometimes used.
Also see Y.
Duncan’s Masonic Ritual and Monitor (1866) by Malcolm C. Duncan