Image printed in the chapter about the 29th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
A. & A. R. The intermediate Degrees 19º – 29º A.C.F. Jackson (1982)
Find your Symbol of Freemasonry
Image printed in the chapter about the 29th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
A. & A. R. The intermediate Degrees 19º – 29º A.C.F. Jackson (1982)
On a 26th degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite “floor cloth”.
Continue readingOn a 23º AASR tracing board.
Continue readingMore frequent than just a down-pointing arrow is the downwards-pointing arrow in a triangle. I am not sure if the two symbols refer to the same. The arrow in a triangle is an ancient Masonic symbol. You can find a beautiful one in the Mutus Liber Latamorum (1765):
Continue readingRavignat displays the image below in his translation of the “61th degree: Chevalier d’Orient – Knight of the East – Tschoudy and Bédarride”. Other images he uses, can also be found in the Fonds Gaborria, but there in the text of the 47th degree (also “Chevalier d’Orient”). The front with the lamb is in Gaborria, the backside is not. Ravignat appears to connect the scales with crossed swords with the 61th degree of Memphis Misraim.
Continue readingRavignat has this image in the “61th Degree: Chevalier d’Orient – Knight of the East – Tschoudy and Bédarride”. I found the same image in the Fonds Gaborria, but there it is listed as the “47e degré”, but also called “Chevalier d’Orient”. In Ravignat’s translation, this is the tracing board of the degree: “in the middle a man holding in his right hand seven stars and in his mouth a two-edged sword.”
In the Kloss collection there is a document (“Chevalier d’Occident et d’Orient. Avec tableau” “17e gr. REAA. (Kl.MS:XXV.82)”, the document itself says 18º) with a very similar tableau, so the image also appears to (have) feature(d) in (proto) AASR degrees.
Bibliothèque Numérique Patrimoniale, Fonds Gaborria Ms.-351
A serpent with an apple in its mouth and an arrow. This is the so-called “Seal of the Founder” (being Cagliostro), the emblem of the Venerable Master in the 44th degree (“Egyptian Apprentice”) in Cagliostro’s Egyptian Rite.
Source not yet known.
The 1780’ies French collection of 81 degrees that were condensed to the French Rite, contains a short text (degree) called “Les Antipodiens”. An “Antipodian” is someone from New Zealand or Australia (walking upside down from the European point of view). The degree comes with an image that includes a bow and arrows and a gun.
Continue readingAn arrow, a bow, a gun, to defend them [the master and two surveyors] during their work.
Detail of a sixth degree (Chevaliere de la Lune) Adoption tracing board.
Continue readingWhen Sanabal Hierusalem distrest,
With sharp assaultes, in Nehemias tyme,
To warre, and worke, the Jews them selves addrest
And did repaire theire walls, with stone, and lime:
One hand the swode, against the foe did shake,
The other hand, the trowel, up did take.
The image and text are from Choices of Emblemes (1586) of Geffrey Whitney (1548?-1601?). Belton and Dachez make quite something of this “Sanabal theme”. In his famous oration, Chevalier Ramsay referred to knights who rebuilt King Solomon’s Temple with a sword in one hand and a trowel in the other. That theme would later appear in early French ‘high degrees’, most notably the “Chevalier d’Orient”, or “Knight of the East” that is still part of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. The text also seems to be used in the Royal Arch.
Choices of Emblemes (1586) of Geffrey Whitney (1548?-1601?)
Emblem of the 9th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in a Dutch AASR book.
In (some versions of) Memphis Misraim “Master Elect of Nine” with a similar image is also the ninth degree.
Emblem of the 6th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in a Dutch AASR book.
In (some versions of) Memphis Misraim the sixth degree is also “Intimate Secretary” with the same image as above.
In 2012 antiquarian Hondtong republished the collection of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite as they were presented to Prince Frederik in 1817.
Emblem of the 22nd degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the 1893 Vermont publication.
Also (some versions of) Memphis Misraim has a 22nd “Knight of the Royal Axe” degree with a plainer axe as emblem as the one above.
A symbol from the first degree of the International Order of Odd Fellows, not Freemasonry, but a similar organisation.
A bow and arrows can also be found on the Dutch emblem of the 17th degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Continue readingA veiled sword is the emblem of Adah in the Order of the Eastern Star. More about OES here.
Voss, The Universal Language of Freemasonry (2004). The emblems of the Order of the Eastern Star were most likely designed around the inception of the order in the 1870’ies, maybe by the inceptor of the organisation Rob Morris (1818-1888)
Emblem of the Grand Pursuivant in Macoy’s Masonic Manual (1867).
Also see trumpet.
Masonic Manual (1867) by Robert Macoy
The emblem of the Grand Marshall as displayed in Macoy’s Masonic Manual (1867).
Also see rolled up scroll and crossed swords and scroll.
Masonic Manual (1867) by Robert Macoy
A somewhat odd French 9th degree “tableau” for the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. I suppose we’re looking at nine knights, but are they fighting while sitting on a chair?
18th century painting from Mons, Belgium. They are reproduced online and in print on several places. Facsimiles of the entire collection appear in Dix-Sept Tableaux Symboliques du XVIIIe Siecle (1992) by Maurice-Aurélien Arnould (1914-2001)
Similar to the hand with a dagger, you also frequently find a hand with a sword. This particular one is from the French book Mutus Liber Latomorum and has the peculiarity that it appears to be sticking the king’s head in the nose.
Mutus Liber Latomorum (1765)
In the fascinating, French publication, supposedly originally from 1765, called Mutus Liber Latomorum we find about 30 beautiful colour plates with often uncommon Masonic symbols. There is a suggestion that they refer to historical (proto Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite?) degrees. The image above comes from a page with what seem to be (officers) jewels, see below.
Continue reading