Tag Archives: celestial

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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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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Zodiac Man

Ravignat (see further reading) gives no source for his “88th Degree: Supreme Grand Council General of the 88th, Sovereign Grand Princes of the 88th”, but I think it (partly) comes from Fonds Gaborria Ms.-372: “Rite de Misraïm. Les 3 suprêmes conseils du système d’Arcano, Arcanorum des 88e, 89e et 90e degrés, 17e classe” which contains three “Arcana Arcanorum” degrees.

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Sun on Double Square and Triangle

For his “45th Degree: Chevalier du Soleil – Knight of the Sun”, Ravignat presents the same image as above. He says it is a “Jewel of the Knights of the Sun from the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite”. I found the same image on the website of Brick Masons and they say that it is a 28th degree Memphis-Misraim jewel. “Chevalier du Soleil” is indeed the 28th degree of Memphis-Misraim (Ravignat uses a different counting in his reconstructed Traditional Egyptian Freemasonry).

In Ravignat’s translation of the ritual we find the following passage:

Newly made Knight and Sage, it is my pleasure to invest you with the collar of this degree. It shows a Sun, the Glory of God, within a triangle and forming a double square.

Here is not not as much an officier jewel, but a badge of the degree.

Brick Masons

Sun with Crossed Wands

A sun with behind is some sort of wands crossed. This image appears on the title page of the degree “42e degré, 8e classe. Cahier concernant la réception et les cérémonies du grade de Commandeur de l’Orient” in the Fonds Gaborria.

Bibliothèque Numérique Patrimoniale, Fonds Gaborria Ms.-345

Double Square with Circle, Dot and Moon

As you can see, Ravignat calls this “The Jewel of a Sovereign Prince of the 90th Degree” of Memphis Misraim. Unfortunately he gives no source for the image. In the ritual the image is described as:

a gold four pointed star or double square in the middle of which is a point with a circle. This star is flanked by a crescent Moon.

Also see Moon and Square, Double Square and Dot, Double Square, Circle and Dot.

Ravignat, p. 363

Moon and Square

As you can see, Ravignat calls this “The Jewel of a Sovereign Prince of the 87th” of Memphis Misraim. The counting of his reconstructed Traditional Egyptian Freemasonry differs from the counting in manuscripts he used. He gives no source for the image, but it appears to be from MS.-370 of the Fonds Gaborria, “Rite de Misraïm. Sup… Grand Cons… Gén… des Grands Ins… Intend… Rég… Généraux. 77e degré, 14e classe”, but there it is a signature of the 77th degree” .

In Ravignat’s ritual the image is described as: “a silver Half-Moon with three points surrounding a gold square with a point in the center”.

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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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Virgo Immaculata

Apparently an image of Mother Mary and the baby Jesus, standing on a crescent moon. Thus, the image reminds of Mary as Stella Mater, mother of the stars. Tracing board for the Memphis-Misraim “Chevalier du Soleil” (51th degree) below left.

There is a very similar “Chevalier du Soleil tracing board that can be found in the Bibliotheque Nationale de France (below right). There the virgin looks a bit different and -interestingly- there she is accompanied by the word “anima”.

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Cherubim

Cherubim with extended wings appeared first in the 1764 edition of Ahiman Rezon, the constitutions of the “Antients”. They returned in the seal of the “Antients” and later also in that of the Grand Lodge of Ireland (shown above).

Cherubim also appear in some ‘high degrees’ (Voss mentions the “degree of Royal Master”), where the meaning would be: “under the protection of Divine Power”.

On a 28th degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite tracing board (below) we can see seven Cherubim which: “represent the 7 delights of man – sight, smell, taste, touch, hearing, rest and health.”

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Astronomy

Astronomical (astrological?) signs on a tracing board from the Kloss / von “Löwen collection. The description says: “Apprentif et Compagnon du Soleil” (‘apprentise and fellow of the sun’). It can hardly be a “craft” tracing board with the coffin, the broken columns, etc.

“The Celestial Bodies can also be found on a 28th degree (“Prince of the Sun”) Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite tracing board they: “represent the 7 principal passions of life, useful to man, if he uses them in moderation, dangerous when he abandons himself to them.”

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Hand with Stars

In the Kloss / von Löwen collection there is a tracing board for the degree of “Philosophe Sublime, ou Cheval. de l’Occident”. A common feature of this degree is a right hand holding seven stars.

In the Baylot collection the stars are referred to as “seven characteristics which should lead the Freemason, being. Friendship. Unity. Obedience, Taciturnity. Loyalty. Temperance and Produnce.”

Compare this, also a “Chevalier d’Occident” (‘Knight of the West’) tracing board. In the degree indeed a man holding seven stars is mentioned.

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