Find your Symbol of Freemasonry
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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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)
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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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.
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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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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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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The Baylot collection of degrees has a degree “Prince of Jerusalem” which speaks of a “sword and an avenging hand”. The Dutch translators of this collection (Van Eijk, Van Seggelen, Sinninghe Damsté, 2019) publish a tracing board unknown to me with their text (below). The cross in the middle appears to be referred to in the text.
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Design on a 10th degree (“Very Enlightened Brother of St. John’s Lodge”) Swedish Rite apron.
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W on a 9th degree (“Enlightened Brother of St. John’s Cross”) Swedish Rite apron.
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“Crosslet” means that the arms are crossed and “fitchy” means that the cross ends in a spike.
As displayed on a 8th degree (“Most Illustrious Brother, Knight of the West”) apron from the Swedish Rite.
General design
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
In the river Starbuzanai you see skulls with crossed swords. This combination also appears on the aprons for the degree Chevalier de l’Orient (‘Knight of the East). In the Baylot manuscript the image is simply referred to as: “the head of a recently deceased on two crossed swords”.
Kloss, Collection de 84 tableaux (1784) Kl.MS:XXV.1
You would think that these letters simply refer to ‘In Hoc Signo’ (‘in this sign’); ‘Iesus Hominum Salvator’ (‘Jesus savior or men’) or any of the other Christian abbreviations, but in the “Maitre Irlandais” (‘Irish Master’) degree the letters refer to the three masters who found the body of Hiram, in this variety Juda, Hiram and Stolkin, the Francken Manuscript: Ina, Hiram, Stolkin.
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In the degree “Maitre Irlandais” (‘Irish Master’), XC is an abbreviation for a word that means ‘peace of mind’. Interestingly, this word “Xainchen” appears to be a Chinese word, some of which use as prove for very early Chinese influences on the authors of degrees.
In the Francken Manuscript the letters are X and J and they mean “Xinxee” (“the seat or quiet of the soul”) and “Jackinai”.
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These three letters can be found on “Anglais” (‘English’) degree tracing boards. Not always as nicely in a row like here though. The letters refer to three virtues Alliance, Promise and Perfection (this is the same in English in the Francken Manuscript) or in Cayers Maçonniques (“Maitre Anglais par Curiocité”): Alliance, Promise and Perseverance.
Fonds Maçonnique, Recueil complet de tous les grades de la maçonnerie. Tom II – FM4 (76)
This arrangement of “three squares, on top of which are three circles, on top of which are three triangles” can be seen on the tracing boards for the degrees ‘Knight of the East or Sovereign Prince of the Rose Cross’ and ‘Knight of the Eagle or Sovereign Prince of the Rose Cross’, both displayed in volume III of Maçonnerie des Hommes.
In the Mirecourt collection of degrees, the arrangement is described in the 21th degree ‘Knight of the Rose Cross’ as representing calvary hill, Golgotha.
Maçonnerie des Hommes (1766) Kl.MS:XXXIV Vol. III
Besides the famous double headed eagle and the eagle with a crown, Masonic symbolism also features an eagle proper.
The 21th degree (‘Knight of the Rose Cross’) of the Mirecourt collection, describes the eagle as “the symbol of the supreme being”.
Fairly frequent in old ritual texts is a black eagle. There are several rituals of degrees called “Chevalier de l’Aigle Noir” (‘Knight of the black Eagle’) with variations to the name (and degree).
Tracing Board of the Real Night of the Black Eagle or Unknown Master Philosopher Maçonnerie des Hommes (1766) Kl.MS:XXXIV Vol. VI
The 13th degree in the Mirecourt collection is “Chevalier du Soleil” (‘Knight of the Sun’). There is a description of the tracing board that well describes a tracing board for a degree of the same name in the Kloss collection. In Mirecourt the grave is described as belonging to king Zedekia.
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This image can in some varieties sometimes be seen on aprons of the 14th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the second half of the Royal Arch degree.
General apron image