The Catenarian Arch. The dotted line indicates the curve of a catenarian arch described by the swinging chain.
The Freemasons Book of the Royal Arch by Bernard E. Jones (1957)
Find your Symbol of Freemasonry
The Catenarian Arch. The dotted line indicates the curve of a catenarian arch described by the swinging chain.
The Freemasons Book of the Royal Arch by Bernard E. Jones (1957)
The three letters, which are on the Bridge, signify that all obstacles are destroyed, & liberty of passage (“liberté de passer”)
On the bridge are the twelve apostles. The bridge goes over the River of Sorrow.
Les Plus Secret Mysteres (1820)
Continue readingThis image comes from the French book Liber Mutus Latomorum which seems to contain historical degrees. This tower has no ladder and neither appears to be the tower of Babel.
Les Plus Secret Mysteres (1820) speaks of: “The Tower where the murderers of Hiram are locked up”. Judging the three guys above, this might well be the explanation of the image above as well.
More about the book here.
Mutus Liber Latomorum (1765)
Apparently this is the jewel of on of the “allied degree” (of the York Rite?). Would it be a temple or something?
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, see crossed pillars), which is convenient, because Scottish Master lodges are dedicated to Saint Andrew.
The image shows a “Scots Master” tracing board. It appears to be one of three drawings of the Swede Carl Friedrich Eckleff (1723-1786) Eckleff: “allegedly […] received [St Andrew’s or Ecossais degrees] from Strasbourg in 1756, and Chapter or Templar degrees […] from Geneva in 1759.” Out of which he created the nine-degree Swedish Rite. Similar images can be found in Germany in the same period.
Belton and Dachez make a point that in the very similar French “Maitre Parfait” degree, there are crossed pillars, but no clear references to a destroyed temple. This destroyed temple, therefor, appears to be a part of the London/Berlin (and later Scandinavian) “Scots Master” degree.
Broken columns still appear on some AASR tracing boards, such as on the 14th degree French boards.
The three drawings of Eckleff can be found on Freimaurer-wiki.de (accessed 26/7/2024). I can’t retrace where I found my image.
The journal Ritual, Secrecy, and Civil Society Vol. 5, No. 2 / Vol. 6, No. 1 • Fall 2017 / Spring 2018 (can be found online) has a text translated from the Kloss collection Scottish Master and Knight of St. Andrew of the Scottish Lodge l’Union in Berlin 7th of October 1747 (note the year). The original was written in France. This may well be the oldest ritual text of a ‘higher degree’ and the text seems to be similar to rituals that were worked in the London area in the 1730’s. Above you can see a tracing board from the text. It has several images that later appear in other ‘high degrees’. One that I had not seen before is the “la temple en square” with a very specific form (bottom right).
Feddersen reproduces the same tracing board, but then from Denmark. He calls it a tracing board of the first Danish Scottish lodge “Dahl” from 1747.
Also see sanctuary.
1844 collection of Georg Kloss 1787-1854) can be found online at collecties.vrijmetselarijmuseum.nl (Der Schottische Meister und Andreasritter der Schottischen Loge l’Union zu Berlin am 7 October 1746, nebst einem Patent für Br. Dahle. 2 October 1746 Kl.MS:V.A.5)
The journal Ritual, Secrecy, and Civil Society Vol. 5, No. 2 / Vol. 6, No. 1 • Fall 2017 / Spring 2018 (can be found online) has a text translated from the Kloss collection Scottish Master and Knight of St. Andrew of the Scottish Lodge l’Union in Berlin 7th of October 1747 (note the year). The original was written in France. This may well be the oldest ritual text of a ‘higher degree’ and the text seems to be similar to rituals that were worked in the London area in the 1730’s. Above you can see a tracing board from the text. It has several images that later appear in other ‘high degrees’. One that I had not seen before is the “sanctuaire” with a very specific form.
Feddersen reproduces the same tracing board, but from Denmark. He calls it the tracing board of the first Scottish lodge in Denmark “Dahl”, from 1747.
Les Plus Secret Mysteres (1820) also speaks of a sanctuary:
The Sanctuary represents our hearts holding the mysteries of the Law.
Also see Temple built Foursquare.
image in the collection (1844) of Georg Kloss (1787-1854) can be found online at collecties.vrijmetselarijmuseum.nl (Der Schottische Meister und Andreasritter der Schottischen Loge l’Union zu Berlin am 7 October 1746, nebst einem Patent für Br. Dahle. 2 October 1746 Kl.MS:V.A.5)
Even though it is a persistent myth that Freemasonry stems from the cathedral buildings, an actual cathedral is seldom part of Masonic symbolism. Here we have a tracing board that (according to Feddersen was used by the Grand Lodge of York in Germany between 1947 and 1973. (Feddersen D/62.)
Feddersen (Die Arbeitstafel in der Freimaurerei Band I (1982) D/62, P. 396) Grossloge Royal York, so it is from between 1947 and 1973. Designer unknown.
This fairly well known image is the tracing board of the 32nd degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. What is interesting, is that this image is already in the Francken manuscript from 1783. Henry Andrew Francken (aka Hendrick Andriese Francken (ca1720 – 1795) was a collector of rituals. His manuscript would become the basis for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Francken Manuscript 1783
A French tracing board from the early 1700’s has a temple on its side and also the Master’s chair is flipped over. Feddersen (F/19a and F/24) describes it as a third degree tracing board, but the pillars at the entrance are also broken, so this is not your typical third degree as these elements may refer to a destroyed temple.
Detail from Feddersen (Die Arbeitstafel in der Freimaurerei Band I (1982) F/19a, P. 289) design from 1747.
This image can be found on an Adoption apron. Some rituals refer to Jacob’s Ladder and the Tower of Babel, but this would have to be a combination of the two. Perhaps it is a reference to the ‘tower test’ (walking over a seesaw).
general adoption apron design from around 1750.
Dąbrowski has an unidentified “American Masonic Symbols”, see below. The chart is titled: “Masonic Chart of the Scottish Rite”, so I suppose the symbols refer to degrees in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Continue readingDąbrowski has an unidentified “American Masonic Symbols”, see below. The chart is titled: “Masonic Chart of the Scottish Rite”, so I suppose the symbols refer to degrees in the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. There are quite a few symbols on it that are unfamiliar to me, such as this one. I don’t even know what it is supposed to be, some village, town or city?
Continue readingDąbrowski has an unidentified “American Masonic Symbols”, see below. There are quite a few symbols on it that are unfamiliar to me, such as this one. I don’t know in what rite or degree this combination is of significance.
Continue readingDąbrowski has an unidentified “Masonic Symbols”, see below. The image itself says: “Templar Chart” so I suppose these are symbols from Templar degrees.
This chart has a Temple of Honor and a Temple of Temperance. Both are referred to with the five pillars.
Continue readingDąbrowski has an unidentified “Masonic Symbols”, see below. The image itself says: “Templar Chart” so I suppose these are symbols from Templar degrees.
This chart has a Temple of Honor and a Temple of Temperance. Both are referred to with the five pillars.
Continue readingDąbrowski 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.
Continue readingDąbrowski has an unidentified “Masonic Symbols”, see below. The image itself says: “Templar Chart” so I suppose these are symbols from Templar degrees.
On two place there are quite specific and somewhat similar drawings. Three phases in the building of round (Templar) towers?
Continue readingDąbrowski has an unidentified “Symbols of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite”, see below. Judging the text in the triangle, it is from France. I don’t know in which degree of the AASR this image is featured and if there are other systems or degrees with this symbol.
Continue readingThe Arch can be frequently found in Freemasonry in different forms and contexts. With a keystone you can find it in the Royal Arch, the Royal Arch degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, York and other rites and in the Mark degree. Without a capstone it appears in other degrees.
Several meanings can be given to the arch. A connection, a door, sometimes the significance lays in a detail (such as the capstone).
Duncan’s Masonic Ritual and Monitor (1866) by Malcolm C. Duncan