Category: Masonic Symbolism

The following is a combination of theories as to the design of the Apron used in English Craft Freemasonry, and therefore does not take into account the many variants found in other countries and side orders. It is also important to note that the shapes and symbols are used in many esoteric arenas, and not just confined to Freemasonry, save that their significance are often similar.

In 1814, the Board of Works of the new United Grand Lodge of England, brought in the regulations for the uniformity of Masonic regalia, and particularly in relation to material, design, and decoration of aprons. It is interesting to note that in all three degrees, it is conferred by the Senior Warden and not by the Master. This is because symbolically, the Master represents the spirit of man, and the Senior Warden the soul. It is the soul which registers the spiritual advance of man, and is the link between body and spirit; therefore the outward sign of the spiritual progress made by the Initiate, is conferred by that Officer who represents the soul. Continue reading The Apron – its symbolism and mysticism

The use of allegory and symbolism is a method of teaching that is still applied in Freemasonry today.

The allegory is a figure of speech that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically of a moral nature and symbolism, in the words of Albert Pyke [1] is: “(…) the soul of Masonry. Every symbol of a lodge is a religious teacher, the mute teacher also of morals and philosophy. It is in its ancient symbols and in the knowledge of their true meanings that reposes the pre-eminence of Freemasonry over all other Orders”.

Even our name – Freemason – is symbolical and it literally means “builder in stone”.  Of course,that is not what we do.  We are engaged in building work only in a figurative sense of the word and so we describe ourselves “speculative” Freemasons.  We allegorise the development of human character to the erection of a structure and we equal the virtues which constitute the finished character of man, to the strengths of a stone which contributes to erect the perfect finished structure.

In biblical times the earth was thought to be square. Isaiah (xi, 12) speaks of gathering “the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth” and in the Apocalypse (xx, 9) there is a vision of four angels, “standing on the four corners of the earth”.  Of course the meaning that the cube had in ancient times can never be shared by our modern minds but so grounded was that belief that it made the square a Masonic symbol to represent the Lodge. Continue reading The pointed cubic stone in Freemasonry

Masonic research can be divided into two main groups: the mainstream  one that prefers a strict academic approach that considers 1717 as the official beginning of Freemasonry; and that which is  mystical and prefers a spiritual approach, connecting Freemasonry with the Ancient Mysteries, Egypt, the Templars, Gnosticism, Alchemy and other spiritual and initiatic traditions.

Two examples of the former are the Quatour Coronatorum Lodge of Research, probably the most famous Lodge of Research at present, and the Bristol Masonic Society. Two examples of the latter are the Cornerstone Society and the Dormer Masonic Study Circle. Their esoteric approach is maybe not to everyone’s taste; however it is without doubt that their papers are hugely interesting and thought-provoking to say the least.

Perhaps for fear of being perceived as a religious Organisation – which we absolutely are not – Freemasonry publicly tends to underline the charitable, social and moral sides but never the spiritual one which should really be its fulcrum.

As Bro Darren Lorente states in his paper called “The spiritual dimension of Freemasonry” :  We cannot deny the fact that our ritual is full of spiritual references and compels us to reach out to God and to acquire self-knowledge and self-improvement. These are spiritual quests. Unless we really absorb the meaning of the ritual, we will just be a club like any other with the sole difference of having some particular eccentricities, i.e. wearing aprons and sashes. Will we not be doing ourselves and the candidates that follow us a disservice by ignoring the spiritual dimension of Freemasonry? I somehow think this will be the case”.

There are wealth of documents in existence and coincidences which are far too consistent not to be considered seriously. Although we do not have definitive  proof about how much older than 1717 we really are, research is quite strongly indicating that our history is very ancient indeed and most likely connected to spiritual traditions as far back as the Ancient Mysteries.

The Ancient Mysteries promoted self-improvement and self-knowledge. They required initiation. They had degrees to be obtained progressively. It was a journey of the spirit, a “journey towards light, as the Masonic writer Julian Rees calls it.

Or, as the influential Masonic writer Walter Leslie Wilmshurst described it:

These mysteries were formerly taught (…) in circumstances of the greatest seclusion and secrecy (. . .) All the great teachers of humanity, Socrates, Plato, Pythagoras, Moses, Aristotle, Virgil, the author of the Homeric poems and the great Greek tragedians, along with St John (…) were initiates of the Sacred Mysteries.

The Greek historian Plutarch, a Mystery initiate himself, describes how the candidate was left in complete and utter darkness. At the end of this darkness period, the initiate would receive a heavy blow to the forehead to open up his skull and set the spirit free.

The oldest known Masonic text in existence is The Halliwell Manuscript, or Regius Poem, written between 1390 and 1425.The Regius  Poem ‘s  introduction stated that the ‘craft of masonry, began with Euclid in Egypt, and came to England in the reign of King Athelstan (927-939). Around the year 1450, the second oldest Masonic text – the Cooke Manuscript – traces Masonry back to Jabal, son of Lamech (from Genesis) and tells how this knowledge came to Euclid, from him to the Children of Israel (while they were in Egypt), and so on through an elaborate path to Athelstan. This myth formed the basis for subsequent manuscript constitutions, all tracing Masonry back to biblical times, and fixing its institutional establishment in England during the reign of Athelstan.

In France, the 1737 lecture of Chevalier Ramsay maintained that Crusader Masons had revived the Craft with secrets recovered in the Holy Land, under the patronage of both the Knights Templars and the Knights Hospitaller – also known as Knights of St John.

Much more recently, several authors have linked the Templars to the timeline of Freemasonry through the imagery of the carvings in Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland, where the Templars have sought refuge after the violent dissolution of the order started on the 13 October 1307 and completed by 1314 with the execution of their last Grand Master Jacques De Molay. In the very successful and controversial book The Hiram Key, Robert Lomas and Christopher Knight describe a timeline starting in ancient Egypt and taking in Jesus, the Templars, and Rosslyn before arriving at modern Freemasonry.

Rosslyn Chapel was built by the later William St Clair, who brought Europe’s finest masons to Scotland for the purpose, building the nearby village of Roslyn to house them. Even a quick tour of this amazing chapel is enough to show its strong connections to Freemasonry when in the 1400s, Freemasonry was not supposed to be anywhere to be seen, if we believe the historical “orthodox” version. Rosslyn Chapel is not at all Christian, as it is usually described: the symbolism is profusely Egyptian, Celtic, Jewish, Templar and Masonic. The only Christian symbols are Victorian modifications.

In the eastern side of Rosslyn we can see two splendid pillars called the Mason’s pillar and the Apprentice pillar. The official story tells that a Rosslyn master mason went to Rome in order to gather inspiration for the design of the pillars.

But in the meantime, an apprentice in Rosslyn built one on his own.  When the master came back and found that his pupil’s pillar was much better than anything he could have ever conceived, he killed the apprentice. .. with a mallet hit to his forehead. There is clear evidence that this story is false. William St Clair masterminded and personally supervised any detail of the work. Any carving was to be created in wood first, in order for him to approve it. So it is utterly unthinkable that an apprentice was able to build one of the most important pillars of the chapel out of his own initiative.

Continuing to walk in the chapel, we find the Indian maize arch. There wouldn’t be anything special with this, if it were not that the Indian maize plant was only known in North America and unknown in Europe until the 1600s; but  unbelievably there it is, clearly sculpted in Rosslyn in the year 1440.  This does make sense though, considering there seems to be evidence that the first St Clair Earl of Orkneys had, with Templar money, commissioned a fleet of twelve ships to a voyage to the “new world’ prior to 1400. And a medieval knights image has been found in Westford, Massachusetts; although medieval knights were not around at the time of Christopher Columbus’ discovery, let alone the fact that Christopher Columbus did not even reach the USA. How do we explain that image?

Talking about the American continent, it is impressive what can be found while researching the concept of America: it is actually a very old concept among the Mandaeans.

The Mandaeans are an ethno-religious group of Southern Mesopotamia also known, among Iraqi and Iranian Muslims, as Sabians. The Mandaeans are the last surviving baptising sect; they follow the Gnostic belief called Mandaeism. Their belief regularly mentions the star called “Merika` which they placed west, across the ocean, marking a land. The amazing point here is that Mandaeism said so a good 2000 years ago! These are the same Mandaeans who believed St John the Baptist, a Mystery initiate, to be their great prophet, the last prophet in fact; they called him “Son of Man”.

It is certainly only a coincidence that the Templars, during their time in the Middle- East, met the Mandaeans; and that the Knights Hospitaller were also called Knights of St John.

It is a coincidence that St John the Baptist’s life is celebrated on 24 June, which is when the first Grand Lodge met in 1717, the “official” beginning of Freemasonry. It certainly is another coincidence that Freemasons were known, until a short time ago, as “St John’s Men’; and that the Antients installed their Masters during St John’s Day.

So, let’s see what we have so far;

• The Gnostic Mandaeans worship St John the Baptist, a Mystery initiate, and were known by the Templars.
• The Templars have visited America much earlier than its official discovery, which makes sense if we consider their knowledge of Mandaeism and its “Merika” concept.
• The Templars’ American expedition has been organised by St Clair who created Rosslyn, a safe haven for Templars escaping persecution.
• Rosslyn features a Wealth of Gnostic and Masonic symbolism, to include the Hiram Abif legend.
• St Clair and Rosslyn are historically connected to Freemasonry (the St Clair family has been ‘hereditary Scottish Grand Masters’ for three centuries, having given up this right only in 1736).
• Freemasonry officially, started on 24 June, St John’s Day, 1717; which is the same day of the year the Antients installed their Grand Masters.

Now: it is starting to become quite difficult to believe that a bunch of gentlemen met in a pub on whatever random 1717 date, drank beer and created our Fraternity’s first Grand Lodge just out of few random lodges, adapting whatever ritual from cathedral builders they knew and without any spiritual or esoteric connection.

How comes it is that the mythology, the symbolism, the very name and legend of the Master Builder are borrowed from every imaginable source – Kabbalistic, Gnostic, Neo-Platonic, Buddhist, and Egyptian?

I personally believe (and many others like me) that Freemasonry is part of an esoteric line of thought, a stream of spiritual truth passed in a straight line through time immemorial using symbols which are eternal human archetypes.

Borrowing again W.L. Wilmshurst’s words from his enlightening book Meaning of Masonry: 

Masonry is a modern perpetuation of great systems of initiation that have existed for the spiritual instruction of men in all parts of the world since the beginning of time.  Whether in ancient India, Egypt, Greece, Italy or Mexico, or among the Druids of Europe, temples of initiation have ever existed  (…).  Our rituals and doctrines are an authentic embodiment of a secret doctrine and a secret process that have always existed  (…)

Can we trace this exact line with 100% irrefutable proof? We will probably never be able to. But the evidence we already have is pointing quite clearly to the fact that Freemasonry is very ancient and is a path of the spirit, a way of spiritual and personal betterment. Experiencing our rituals more deeply and progressing in Freemasonry with open hearts and minds, makes us sense the depth of the message, makes us feel it. The Masonic experience becomes so much more alive! It should make us think that retention is a negligible problem for Masonic lodges and organisations oriented towards the spiritual and the esoteric. I think this happens because Freemasonry experienced with such a deeper and all-encompassing approach is far more interesting and fulfilling to the Brethren.

Lord Northampton, former Pro Grand Master and charismatic leader of English Freemasonry for 14 years before his retirement in 2010, said the following at the inauguration of the esoteric study circle called Cornerstone Society:

It is important that at the centre of Freemasonry there is a core of brethren who do understand the spiritual message that our rituals contain. I am sure that like me there are many who joined Freemasonry as earnest seekers after light and wisdom, only to find  that much of the  masonry as practiced today in many parts of the world, has forgotten [its] destiny. Nevertheless, it has survived  for nearly 400 years and possibly more – and as far as I am concerned, carries the torch for what could loosely be described as the hermetic tradition. It is my fervent hope that through this Society and other similar initiatives it will rediscover its spiritual heritage and become an active catalyst for the transformation of Man’s consciousness.

 Published by courtesy of the author  WB Corrado Canonici

The Cable-Tow is purely Masonic in its meaning and use, or so we are told.

(…) In an early pamphlet by Pritard, issued in 1730 the cable-tow is a called a “Cable-Rope” and in another edition : a “Tow-Line.”  However in neither pamphlet is the word ever used in exactly the same form and sense in which it is used today.  (…) The whole Masonic Lodge is a symbol and every object and every act performed within it , is  symbolical. The whole fits together into a system of symbolism by which Masonry veils the truth that it seeks to teach.

As far back as we can go in the history of  any initiation, we find the cable-tow, or something similar , used very much as it is used in a Masonic Lodge today. Whether it is called “Khabel” from the Hebrew or “Cabel” from the Dutch (both meaning a rope) the fact is the same. In India, in Egypt and in most of the ancient world , a cord or cable was being used in the same way and for the same purpose.

So far as we can make out, the cable-tow  seems to represent some kind of pledge, a vow in which a man pledges his life. We even  find the cable-tow being employed outside the initiatory rites. For example, in a striking scene recorded in the Bible (I Kings 20:31,32), the description of which is almost Masonic, “Ben-Hadad” – the King of Syria –   had been defeated in battle by the King of Israel and his servants are making a plea for his life. They approach the King of Israel “with ropes upon their heads,” and speak of his “Brother, Ben-Hadad.”

Why did they wear ropes, or nooses, on their heads?

Possibly to symbolize a pledge of some sort, given in a Lodge or otherwise, between the two Kings, of which they wished to remind the King of Israel. The King of Israel asked: “Is he yet alive? He is my brother.” Then we read that the servants of the Syrian King watched to see if the King of Israel made any sign, and, catching his sign, they brought the captive King of Syria before him. Not only was the life of the King of Syria spared, but a new pledge was made between the two men.

The cable-tow, then, is also the visible symbol of a vow by which a man has pledged his life, or has pledged himself to save another man’s life at the risk of his own. Its length and strength are measured by the ability of that man to fullfil his obligation ; a test of  both  his capacity and  his character.

If a lodge is a symbol of the world and the initiation is our birth into the world (of Masonry) , the cable-tow is not dissimilar from the cord which unites a child to  his/her mother at birth. Just as the physical cord, when cut, is replaced by a tie of love between mother and child, so, in one of the most impressive moments of initiation, the cable-tow is removed, because the Brother, by his oath at the Altar of Obligation, is bound by a tie stronger than any physical cable.

The cable-tow is the sign of the pledge of the life of a man. As in his oath he agrees to forfeit his life if his vow is violated, so he pledges his life to the service of the Craft. He agrees to go to the aid of a Brother, using all his power in his behalf, “if within the length of his cable-tow,” which means, if within the reach of his power.

But, let us remember that a cable-tow has two ends. If it binds a Mason to the Fraternity, by the same token  it binds the Fraternity to each man in it. Happily, in our days we are beginning to see the other side of the obligation – that the Fraternity is under vows to its members to guide, instruct and train them for the effective service of the Craft and of  Humanity.

Control, obedience, guidance – these are the three meanings of the cable-tow.  Of course, by Control we do not mean that Masonry commands us in the same sense that it uses force.  Not at all !  Masonry rules men as beauty rules an artist, as love rules a lover. It controls us, shapes us through its moral teaching and so it wins obedience and gives guidance and direction to our lives.

What is the length of a cable-tow ?

Some say it is seven hundred and twenty feet, or twice the measure of a circle. Others say that the length of the cable-tow is three miles. But such figures are merely symbolical, since to one man it may mean three miles and to another  three thousand miles – or to the end of the earth.

For each Mason the cable-tow reaches as far as his moral principles go and his material conditions will allow. Of that distance each person must be his own judge!

So mote it be.

by Anon

extract from the "short Talk Bulletin" - vol IV March, 1926  N.3

In speculative Freemasonry the Apron represents the badge of innocence and the bond of friendship. But  for our ancestors , the operatives masons,  the  apron was just a garment worn  to protect their clothes while at work. To that purpose the flap of the Apron was positioned upwards particularly in the case of  the Apprentice to whom we may suppose were given the dirtier jobs.

But let’s set aside the question of what caused this tradition from not being regularly followed anymore and  concentrate, briefly , on what the Apron really signifies.

That the Apron is the  badge of innocence  is a clear reference to the story of Hiram Habiff’s death that is so colourfully and scenically illustrated in the 3^rd degree. The bond of friendship, instead, is a reminder of the oath of  brotherly love and truth that the initiate undertakes when entering the Order.

But there are other and more in-depth interpretations of the Apron which span from the mathematical to the intellectual.

The explanation of the Apron that  I am going to bring to your attention is one that is  captivating and which I totally agree with.  It was put forward in a bygone Masonic publication quite  a long time ago and here it is again for your enjoyment and instruction.

Aldo Reno

Continue reading The Freemason’s Apron

 For the ancient Romans a new day would begin at midnight, for the Greeks it would start at sunset and for the Egyptians at dawn.

The hours are an ancient invention and were codified by the Greeks in the 5^th century B.C. by measuring the distance that the sun covers in the sky.

But it took the Romans around two hundred more years to eventually feel the need to count the number of hours present in the day and another century after that,  to finally define them with some precision.

Until the end of 400 B.C. the Romans were still dividing the day in two parts rather than into hours; one part was that period of light that came before midday, the other part was filled with the hours of darkness.

In ancient Rome “Herald” was the title given to an official messenger of the Consuls. The one, who was posted high up on a hill, would monitor the passage of the sun at its meridian point and then instantly notify the population by blowing his trumpet. That signal indicated that labour – which had begun at dawn – could now be stopped.

The Spanish born Roman lawyer and politician Seneca, better known for his philosophical discourses and letters, stated that at the time of the Roman Empire no one knew the exact time. The lack of precision of the mechanical gadgets that were in use – like the Greek sun-dialler and the water clock or “clepsydra” [1]  – made such a thing impossible. But so too did the following idiosyncrasies.

Continue reading The Masonic Lodge : an explanation of the traditional opening hour

The Masonic ritual makes references to both St Johns the Baptist and St John the Evangelist and it also contains the principle that the Bible must be kept open on the Gospel in an open Lodge.

According to Paul Naudon [1], author of the book “Les Loges de Saint-Jean”, the origin of this tradition is in great part influenced by the Knights Templar and more particularly so by the Knights Hospitalier who assimilated the former when they were officially suppressed in March 1312 by King Philip IV of France.

The Knights Templar, whose motto was “obedience, poverty and chastity”, were established as an Order in Jerusalem around the year 1118 for the purpose of safeguarding the Christian civilization in the Orient and protecting the life of the pilgrims who visited the Holy Land.  The Order comprised of the most formidable fighting Crusaders  as well as non fighting members who were skilled in economic and religious matters. The fathers of the Order had received their Chart from Teocleto, Patriarch of Jerusalem, who was also the 67^th successor of St John in that role.

Saint John became the Patron of the Templars and on 24^th June of each year the whole population of masons, carpenters and various other craftsmen clebrated him with the lighting of bonfires by the Grand Master of the Order. This custom was retained even after the dissolution of the Order and St John effectively became the Patron of both the Order and of the masons.

But who where the two Saints John?

Continue reading The two St Johns and Freemasonry

The word Ianus in Latin means “door” . In ancient times Ianus was a “God” associated with the Sun and traditionally better identified as the protector of every “beginning” and every “transition”.

Not surprisingly the first month of our calendar year is called Janu(ary) or Ianu(ariu)s in Latin.
In addition to being depicted with two faces – each looking into the other’s opposite direction – Ianus was also shown holding two keys.
One key was made of gold , the other was made of silver and they respectively symbolised the “great” and the “small” mysteries. The Catholic world adopted the symbol of the two keys – we can see them on the flag of the Vatican – and gave them the meaning of the union between the spiritual power (gold) and the temporal one (silver) both held by the Pontiff.
Continue reading Ianus