Tag Archives: building element

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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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.

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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Steps

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

Crossed Pillars

Probably the oldest ‘high degree’ was that of “Scottish Master” (or “Scots Master”) which might have been worked in England as early as the 1730’ies. There is a text from Berlin, dated 1747, in the Kloss collection with the content of the degree. The story is that of master builders from Scotland who were not content with the replacement of the master’s word in the third degree. They went to the Holy Land to find clues to what the original master’s word might have been. They search the rubble of King Solomon’s Temple (hence the destroyed temple) and find “4 column-pieces lying on the ground in the shape of a saltire” (an X), which is convenient, because Scottish Master lodges are dedicated to Saint Andrew. Crossed pillars mostly appear on old Scottish Master tracing boards, but are not always obviously pillars. The plaque in the middle (with the original word on it?) is a typical element.

The image above is from the 1747 Berlin text. It can also be found in Feddersen (SD/4), but he found it in a Danish archive.

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Well

Feddersen (F/43 no year) has a tracing board which he says is a French board for the 5th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Besides the well, the board also features the Vessel with Rams.


The short French ritual “Les Antipodiens” (see gun) has an explanation for the well:

The well means that when the brethern finished their labors, they were sanctified.

The fifth degree in the Francken Manuscript actually describes the well:

Mahabon on company with the 15 masters that wree chosen to attend him in this search, first went to the Temple, where seeing that blood had been spilt in many places of it, he at last traced it to the well, in the north part of the Temple, when he immediately concluded that H.A. had been killed there, & perhaps flung in the well. thus prompted and further encouraged by the appearance of a Luminous light or meteor standing over the well, he determined to have it drawn dry; this being done, he went down in it, bur found not the body, as he expected but was lucky to find the masters Jewel […]

Quite a different explanation from sanctification or purification!

A 29th degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite tracing board speaks of: “a well for purification”.

On a French tracing board in Les Francs Maçons Écrasés (1747) a tracing board is described as containing two “lavoirs”, ‘washing places’. See wheelbarrow (the two dark spots left and right of the mosaic pavements are the “lavoirs”).

I can imagine the fountain having a similar symbolism.

Top: Dąbrowski P. 212. Year and designer unknown.
Bottom: Feddersen (Die Arbeitstafel in der Freimaurerei Band I (1982) F/43, P. 313) gives as source Maurerisches Handbuch, 1829 (first edition 1821, this is a translation of Manuel Maconnique Ou Tuileur De Tous Les Rites De Maconnerie Pratiques En France by C. Vuillaume, 1820)

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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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).