Yearly Archives: 2025

Altar of Sacrifice

Old ‘high degrees’ have all kinds of different altars. It can be hard to tell if they are different names for the same thing, or different symbols. The “Maitre Anglais” (‘English Master’) degree of Cayers Maçonniques even has two altars: an “altar of perfume” and an “altar of sacrifice”. The latter represents: “The sacrifices we have to offer to God.”

Cayers Maçonniques (National Library of Australia, Clifford collection, MS 1097/44)

Altar of Perfume

Old degrees have different altars of which I’m not always sure if they are different names for the same thing. Cayers Maçonniques (“Maitre Anglais”, ‘English Master’) has a “altar of perfume” which represents: “The homage we are to pay to the Great Architect of the Universe”. It may be similar to the “votive altar” or even the “pot of incense“.

Cayers Maçonniques (National Library of Australia, Clifford collection, MS 1097/44)

Window amidst clouds

A few of the tracing boards in Cayers Maçonniques have a “window […] amidst clouds” like here on the tracing board of “Maitre Anglais par Curiocité” (‘English Master by curiosity’). Later an explanation follows:

My brother, the window you observe in these clouds represents the vault of the Temple of Solomon.

Cayers Maçonniques (National Library of Australia, MS 1097/44)

Tomb of King Sedecias

Above Mount Lebanon is the figure of an oblong square with a small triangle in the centre : this is the tomb of king Sedecias, the last king of the race of David

Thus says the “Chevalier d’Orient ou de l’Epée” degree (‘Knight of the East or the Sword’) in the Bonseigneur collection. The description of the image does not entirely fit the image that we see on this Chevalier d’Orient tracing board in 84 Tableaux, but the placement (here below Mount Lebanon) suggests what is meant is (something) similar.

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Heap of Cubic Stones

On one side of the arm bearing the sword is a weapon trophy and a heap of cubic stones.

Quote from the “Chevalier d’Orient ou de l’Epée” degree (‘Knight of the East or of the Sword’) in the Bonseigneur collection. It does appear to describe this odd detail on an image in the Kloss collection, just not why these cubic stones appears to be connected by a rope.

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Weapon Trophy

On one side of the arm bearing the sword is a weapon trophy

Quote from the Bonseigneur collection (“Chevalier d’Orient ou de l’Epée”).

Collection (1844) of Georg Kloss (1787-1854) (Collection de 84 tableaux, Kl.MS:XXV.1)

New Temple of Solomon

The degree of “Chevalier d’Orient” (‘Knight of the East’) and its variations, is about the rebuilding of the Temple. It is not too strange that this new table is displayed on some tracing boards. The description of the tracing board in the Bonseigneur collection (“Chevalier d’Orient ou de l’Epée”) has a description that does not entirely, but large fit an image in the Kloss collection:

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Gabaon

The Bonseigneur collection has a degree called “Parisian Ecossais” (‘Parisien Scot’). It contains an “Explication of the lodge” which describes an image from the Löwen/Hahn images in the Kloss collection very well, see above.

1º the trestle cord [with nine knots]
2º the three letters J.J.J.
3º the planet Mercury
4º the Blazing star
5º the Third Chamber or Gabaon
6º the candelabra with seven branches
7º the Ark of Alliance
8º the tomb of Hiram
9º the winding staircase
10º King Solomon
11º Saint John the Baptist
12º the columns J and B
13º the brazen sea
14º the golden lance
15º the seven steps of the Temple

Some things of this description, indeed aren’t there. Further in the text “the Third Chamber of the Holy of Holies where the Ark is rested” is mentioned, but no longer named.
This image could explain why some old tracing boards portray different rooms on top of each other.

Earth, Cross, Adonai

Q. What is the meaning of the globe?
A. The world that we inhabit and of which Freemasons are the adornment.
Q. What is the meaning of Adonai?
A. It is the name God gave Adam to pronounce during his prayers and which our father pronounced in a trembling voice.
Q. What is the meaning of the words lux ex tenebris?
A. That the Freemason enlightened by reason easily penetrates the darkness of ignorance and superstition.
Q. What is the meaning of the river on the globe?
A. Which reflects the utility of the passions that man needs in the course of his life, just as water is of use to the earth to make it fertile.
Q. What is the meaning of the by two snakes encircled cross on the globe?
A. It shows that we should not always respect the flat prejudices and be careful not to let the bottom of our hearts know on the subject of religion and not always agree with the foolish and idiotic pundits of religious mysteries.

Baylot collection of degrees in the degree: “Knight of the Eagle and the Sun or the disentangled Chaos”.

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Man in Gate with Lamb

Q. What is the meaning of the man in the gate with a lamb on his shoulders?
A. It means that we must watch over our needs like a shepherd over his sheep.

Thus says the Baylot collection of degrees in the degree of “Knight of the Eagle and the Sun or the Disentangled Chaos”. Not the most notable element of the image and not equally clear in every variety of the tracing board for the degree of “Chevalier du Soleil” (‘Knight of the Sun’), but mentioned early in the catechism.

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Angel Names

The “Chevalier du Soleil” (‘Knight of the Sun’) tracing board fascinates me. It looks very Alchemical. I know several variations with a few common features, but also differences. So far, I have not found many texts finding texts explaining details of the image and I have several texts for a degree called “Chevalier du Soleil”. Then, finally, the Baylot collection of degrees, contains a degree called: “Knight of the Eagle and the Sun or the disentangled Chaos”. This very long degree appears to look back, summarize, (re)interpret symbols of earlier degrees and then in a catechism a few elements are described.

Q. What is the meaning of the knights whose names are written in the large circle which is called the first heaven?
A. They represent the bodily delights bestowed by God upon man at his creation: sight, hearing, smell, taste, sensation, tranquility, thinking capacity or health.

All “Chevalier du Soleil” tracing boards that I knew, don’t have knights’ names, but (Arch)angel names in that circle! Yet, the Dutch translators of the Baylot collection (Van Eijk, Van Seggelen, Sinnighe Damsté, 2019) found a tracing board that -indeed- does not appear to contain angel names. Since I have not yet found the source of their image and because the descriptions of the “bodily delights” might just as well be put on the angel names, I decided to only reproduce the tracing boards that I do currently know:

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Jojakim’s Grave

Not every grave is the grave of Hiram. On the Chevalier d’Orient (‘Knight of the Sun’) tracing board, there is a “little rectangle with a triangle where in is Jojakim’s grave”. The text comes from the Baylot manuscript, the image from the Kloss collection.

The L stands for Linanon, the mountain where the wood came from in this degree.

Kloss Collection de 84 tableaux (1784) Kl.MS:XXV.1