Category Archives: historical degrees

Tunnel (vault)

I’m not sure what the construction at the bottom of this tracing board is supposed to be. It looks like a tunnel. This is the tracing board of the “Vray Maitre et Ecossais” (‘true master and Scot’) degree which is supposedly from 1745.

The degree also appears to be called “Écossais de la Voûte Sacrée” or ‘Schot of the sacred vault’, so it just might be a somewhat uncommon version of the Royal Arch, or at least, the vault in which Royal Arch masons find the Word.

Also see: cold man

Bibliotheque Nationale de France – Fonds Maçonnique – FM4 (232)

Cold Man

On this tracing board of the degree of “Vray Maître et Ecossais”, which is dated 1745, we see a human being who appears to be cold. The tracing board contains some more unusual symbols.

Also see: tunnel/vault

Bibliotheque Nationale de France – Fonds Maçonnique – FM4 (232)

Man in the Sky

Ravignat included a tracing board from Maçonnerie des Hommes because the ritual of the “65th degree: Knight of the Black Eagle Rose-Croix – Second Grade” has a passage which fits the description of the image:

In the center, is a large circle, which represents the Zodiac with Twelve Celestial Figures surrounding a corpse and which represents the dead Hiram and the Great Work which much be revived.

Maçonnerie des Hommes (1766) Kloss collection Kl.MS:XXXIV

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Vesica Piscis

A complex geometrical patron, sometimes known as “Vesica Piscis”. In its simplest form, the Vesica Piscis is the overlap of two circles. Here many more circles have been drawn and words have been placed in the sections. The text is not easy to read, but they appear to be vices, both good and bad. The image comes from the “Grand Architecte” degree, the 24th in the French 1780’ies collection of degrees that were compressed to the French Rite.

Bibliotheque Nationale de France – Fonds Maçonnique – FM4 1045 S

Snake

There are several snakes and serpents on this website, but usually in combination with something else. Around an egg, around a globe, in a pelicans beak, around a cross, in a tree, with three pots. Or two around a cross. Also a brazen serpent. Then we have have a three headed snake and a coiled snake. All on its own, we find a snake on the tracing board of the historical, French degree of “Les Antipodiens”, the 60th degree in the collection of 81 degrees that were compressed to the French Rite. The text of the ritual says about the snake (in Microsoft translation):

The serpent signifies vice punished and trampled underfoot


Bibliotheque Nationale de France – Fonds Maçonnique – FM4 (1047 J)

Gun

The 1780’ies French collection of 81 degrees that were condensed to the French Rite, contains a short text (degree) called “Les Antipodiens”. An “Antipodian” is someone from New Zealand or Australia (walking upside down from the European point of view). The degree comes with an image that includes a bow and arrows and a gun.

An arrow, a bow, a gun, to defend them [the master and two surveyors] during their work.

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Dress

When I first saw this image, my thought was: laundry. A shirt above a tub. The image below comes with the short ritual of “Les Antipodiens”, the 60th degree in the French 1780 collection of 81 degrees which were condensed to the French Rite. An “Antipodian” is someone who comes from New Zealand or Australia. The French text actually explains the image (Microsoft translation):

The dress hanging in a basin signifies purity and innocence.

Left of the dress it says: “probitas” (‘virtue’).

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J.J.J.

Even though they are somewhat hidden on this old, French tracing board, the triple J are mentioned in the name of the degree: “Ecossais Parisien où Ecossais Trinaire, dit les trois J.J.J. où Maitre Ecossais”, or ‘Parisian Scot or Scots Trinary, known as the three J.J.J. or Scots Master’.

According to Mackey the triple J. are not only mentioned in the 32rd degree of the French collection of 81 degrees that were compressed to the Rite Moderne, but also in the 19th degree of Memphis Misraim. The characters refer to “the mutials of Jourdain, Jaho, Jachin”.

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