The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

Chapter 4 - Signs & Symbols 143
1750. 400 After the 18 th century, the interlaced symbols began to be illustrated on
Masonic charts and in Masonic books, generally represented as lying on an open
book, the Volume of the Sacred Law. This was when the three "Great Lights"
began to be depicted together.
The symbolism of the square and the compass as separated tools is very
ancient. As already mentioned in Section 2.2 on Ireland and Scotland, under a
bridge near Limerick there was found a brass square dating from 1517 bearing
the symbolic inscription "I will strive to live with Love and Care, on the level by
the square." There was also an inscription detected over the door of Salisbury
Abbey in England, which is about that old: "As the compass goes round without
deviation from the circumference, so, doubtless, truth and loyalty never deviate.
[...]" 401 One can conclude from these findings that in the old times, the square
already stood for "right" and "honesty," while the compass denoted "undeviating
truth" and "loyalty." Until today, this is another possible explanation of these
Masonic symbols, next to "matter" and "spirit."
The square as a measuring device is the working tool by whose angle the
ashlars are tested. This is exemplified in the Mark ritual, for example. Here, two
members playing workmen from the quarries take their stones to the Junior and
Senior Overseers for inspection, who apply the stones to the square. Having
approved of the quality of the stones, the Overseers strike secret knocks upon
them with a mallet (see Section 8.1.2 on Mark Masonry). In a figurative sense,
the Mason himself, who is a "rough ashlar," is tested by the angle of the square.
He is proved by it on earth as well as in heaven. Thus, the square becomes a
device to judge the Mason's deeds for his contemporaries and for God. This is
exemplified in the following verses:
[...] But better than Level is the Right-angled Square,
For it teaches greater lessons than love,
By its angle men's lives are tested as true,
In this world and the Home that's above.
Man's a man only, when square in his acts,
And is clean on the inside and out;
In the quiet of home, he'll be honored alike,
Or on tempest-tossed sea cast about. [...]
We'll meet on the Level and act by the Square,
As Masons we know its our duty to do;
And the world will be better and brighter and fair,
Because we've lived in it, and journeyed life through. 402
The square is one of the three working tools of the Fellow Craft. On his
entrance into the lodge, the Fellow Craft at his initiation is instructed that the
400 Ibid.
401 Ibid.
402 By George W. Atkinson, Grand Secretary, Past Grand Master, held at the Annual Session of the
Grand Lodge of Connecticut at Fair Haven, January, 1897. Quoted in Myler, p. 28.