# What is your favorite Masonic symbol?



## pointwithinacircle2 (May 26, 2015)

What is your favorite Masonic symbol?  Why is it your favorite what does it mean to you?  Sometimes I wonder how much time Masons spend actually considering the symbols of the craft.  As a new Mason there were so many symbols, and they were all new to me, that I didn't take much time to consider each one individually.  In truth there are still a lot of symbols that I haven't spent much time contemplating.  However of the few that I think about regularly, I do have a favorite.  It is the Plumb.

The Plumb was one of the first symbols to catch my attention.  Originally this was because the first piece of ritual I learned was the EA lecture.  The wording in my jurisdiction says that it teaches rectitude of life.  I had to get out a dictionary and look up the word rectitude, the definition given was "uprightness of character".  It really seemed to me that uprightness of character was a good starting point for everything I wanted to do in Masonry.

I still think of this today.  The idea of measuring my actions by the Plumb has become my simple, shorthand tool to remind myself that I am called upon to be better today than I was yesterday


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## hanzosbm (May 26, 2015)

For me, it is the one that you use as your screenname.  It took me some serious time to fully grasp its meaning, but when I did, I realized that it is at the very heart of Freemasonry.


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## dfreybur (May 26, 2015)

Maybe the less we say about a symbol the more I like it?  My favorite symbol changes day to day but I'll go with that as an underlying pattern.

Little is said about the compasses and trestle board (VSL), but what is said is said at the altar not in the lectures.  That speaks greatly to their importance.

Many lodges have a Bible presentation that is not a part of the formal ritual of their jurisdiction.  There are several talks and poems that have been posted on this forum over the years.

The compasses, though.  What is said about them is they make circles that should limit our behavior.  And then no further explanation.  Pythagoras and Archimedes with their interest in mystery schools and secret societies might be pleased that we still value the compasses in this manner.  And they would be puzzled that they are taught to every student in every school as well in their literal geometric uses.


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## Glen Cook (May 26, 2015)

The blazing double triangle


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## dalinkou (May 27, 2015)

dfreybur said:


> The compasses, though.  What is said about them is they make circles that should limit our behavior.  And then no further explanation.  Pythagoras and Archimedes with their interest in mystery schools and secret societies might be pleased that we still value the compasses in this manner.  And they would be puzzled that they are taught to every student in every school as well in their literal geometric uses.



I would have to go with the compasses myself.  I learned early on that 99.9% of my troubles in life are a direct result of something I did or my response to something someone else did.  What Masonry gave me was a name for this basic truth that I had discovered, along with a symbol that is often conveniently attached to other ideas that ought to inform my actions.


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## Keith D. McKeever Jr. (May 27, 2015)

The common gavel  would be my favorite. I love the fact that it's the beginning of my journey to become a better man and Mason. We all have some rough edges that can be knock off to to be better fitted for the builders use.


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## KSigMason (May 29, 2015)

The Square & Compasses because it's symbol and yet there's a lot of meaning behind them.


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## Bro. Kenneth Brown (May 29, 2015)

Mines is the 24 inch gage teaches me to divest my time equally.


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## Glen Cook (May 29, 2015)

Bro. Kenneth Brown said:


> Mines is the 24 inch gage teaches me to divest my time equally.


Well, I suspect it teaches you to divide your time, and to avoid divesting your time


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## frs225 (May 29, 2015)

Hello Brethren - I am a newly raised MM and I am interested in learning more about our fraternity's symbolism. I have been instructed in the working tools of each of the three degrees, but I am not aware of any other symbols that exist. Is there a book or a reference guide that could assist me in learning more about our craft?

thanks in advance,

Frank


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## MBC (May 30, 2015)

I will go for the twenty-four inch gauge as well as my time management needs more improvement.
Also another one in the craft that impressed me as well, the Jacob's ladder, also the same one that appear in the First degree tracing board, the meaning you may know it as F..., H... and C..., so it's also related on one of the great principles in Freemasonry, Relief. 
However as I'm in Mark Masonry, I'm sure the keystone is one of those important symbols for me as the ritual has a very deep impression for me.


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## Glen Cook (May 31, 2015)

frs225 said:


> Hello Brethren - I am a newly raised MM and I am interested in learning more about our fraternity's symbolism. I have been instructed in the working tools of each of the three degrees, but I am not aware of any other symbols that exist. Is there a book or a reference guide that could assist me in learning more about our craft?
> 
> thanks in advance,
> 
> Frank


Were you given long lectures after the degrees?  Anything taught through tracing boards or a series of slides ring a bell?


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## Brandon Smith (May 31, 2015)

I am particularly fond of the point within the circle. 

The symbol I need to spend more time putting to use is the 24" gauge, especially when considering masonic commitments.


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## Roy Vance (May 31, 2015)

Glen Cook said:


> Were you given long lectures after the degrees?  Anything taught through tracing boards or a series of slides ring a bell?


 I have been a MM for a little over four years and I have yet to see any slides or Tracing Boards for the lectures. I have learned the lectures the same as I learned the proficiency, mouth to ear, without any help. Some of us just get lucky, I guess.


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## dfreybur (May 31, 2015)

frs225 said:


> Hello Brethren - I am a newly raised MM and I am interested in learning more about our fraternity's symbolism. I have been instructed in the working tools of each of the three degrees, but I am not aware of any other symbols that exist. Is there a book or a reference guide that could assist me in learning more about our craft?



I notice that you were raised about a month ago so maybe you have not yet attended many degrees other than your own.  The nights that I was Initiated and Raised I remember the brothers who gave the lectures but by that point so much new had happened that very little of the lectures sank in.  The first time I heard them it was like pouring water into a glass already full it just passed over the surface and out over the edges.

Each time I have been to a degree since I get a little bit more from each lecture.  Even after I memorized the California versions of all of them.  There are a lot of symbols mentioned in the lectures.  Some jurisdictions have shorter versions of the lectures with the rest printed in a book called the Monitor.  The third degree lecture in particular has many minutes of symbol after symbol being explained in the long version.

The starting points are the Monitor and the ritual book if your jurisdiction has one.  Also as you visit lodges look on the walls.  Nearly all lodges have plenty of decorations on the walls and nearly all of these decorations have plenty of symbols.  There pictures called "tracing boards" that have symbol after symbol in the order mentioned in the lecture of one of the degrees and I have seen these pictures on the walls in very many lodges I have visited.  So I bet you've seen plenty of symbols and didn't even notice.


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## Levelhead (Jun 5, 2015)

T.B.C.   (Only Master Masons will be able to figure this out)
Because you can put it on your vehicle and ONLY A MASON will recognize it. Unlike the S&C which most people recognize and some people are judgmental.  


Sent from Mossy Oak Swamp Bottom.


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## dfreybur (Jun 5, 2015)

A lot of beer/ale brands have grain sprigs on their labels, some even a sheaf of grain.  There's a bottle in my fridge at home with a picture of grain on the label.  Why just have a craft beer when you can see it as a Fellowcraft beer?  ;^)


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## Warrior1256 (Jun 6, 2015)

KSigMason said:


> The Square & Compasses because it's symbol and yet there's a lot of meaning behind them.


Same here.


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## Psalm 133 (Jun 9, 2015)

It's not strictly a Masonic symbol, but the All-Seeing Eye is probably one of my favorites.


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## frs225 (Jun 11, 2015)

Bro. Glen Cook -
I did receive lectures after each degree ritual, but do not recall the mention of tracing board or sides. Each lecturer in the east seemed to focus on the working tools of the degree. There was mention of the liberal arts and architecture at one point, and never explanation of symbols outside of working tools and lodge items. Where can I look to gain insight into the items you mentioned?

Bro. Dfreybur -

I agree with you completely that watching rituals is a much better way of grasping the content than going through them. So far I have watched the EA and FC degrees. We do not cover the ladder lecture in our lodge either. Is it possible that our jurisdiction does not discuss symbols like other lodges do?


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## hanzosbm (Jun 11, 2015)

frs225, what jurisdiction do you belong to?


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## frs225 (Jun 11, 2015)

PA 8th district


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## hanzosbm (Jun 11, 2015)

Gotcha.  I'm not terribly familiar with how things are done in PA, but if you have a monitor/ritual book, I'd start there.

My experience is that not all lodges actually practice the full ritual set forth by their GL.  It's understandable.  In the KY monitor, I think the EA degree is something like 50 pages long and it is done almost exclusively by the WM.  That's a LOT to memorize.  It wasn't until I took some time to sit down and really read it that I started to understand the depth of what was being taught.


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## dfreybur (Jun 11, 2015)

frs225 said:


> Is it possible that our jurisdiction does not discuss symbols like other lodges do?



Not knowing Pennsylvania ritual I can't comment about what has been deleting from it or added to it.  I know Texas deleted a vast amount of material that are present in California and Illinois and added only a couple of scenes that are not present in California or Illinois.  But that is quotation not discussion.

The only actual discussion I ever see is at Masonic Education presentations and at Table Lodge.  So far more of these that I have seen have been by me than by other brothers.  Thankfully that's a pattern that is slowly but steadily changing as more lodges do more Masonic Education.


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## Dennis Hurts (Jun 11, 2015)

The common gavel


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