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

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Chapter 4 - Signs & Symbols
Generally, Masonic manuals depict a ladder of three steps, denoting the three
theological virtues, namely faith, hope, and charity. 586 Sometimes, Masonic
manuals illustrate a 7-step ladder by adding the four cardinal virtues of
temperance, fortitude, prudence, and justice (cf. Sickels' illustration on the left).
The ladder is also a symbol in the Kadosh Degree of the Scottish Rite, where
its seven steps represent justice, equity, kindness, good faith, labor, patience, and
intelligence. The original French degrees of Kadosh, as well as certain other
French degrees, employed a ladder in order to test the persistence of the
candidate. In the ceremonies, he was confronted with several dangers. In the
Kadosh degree, these consisted in a ladder suddenly collapsing, so that the
candidate fell to the floor. However, as Coil states, "[t]his roughness has been
eliminated from the American practice." 587
4.6.3 The Point within a Circle
In Section 4.1.1 on the lodge room, a quote from The 'Standard' Ritual of
Scottish Freemasonry stated that the two parallel lines represent Moses and King
Solomon. However, a contradictory interpretation exists which claims that these
lines denote the two Saints John:
Lodges were anciently dedicated to King Solomon, as he was our first
Most Excellent Grand Master; but Masons professing Christianity,
dedicate theirs to St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist, who
were two eminent patrons of Masonry; and since their time, there is
represented in every regular and well-governed Lodge a certain Point
within a Circle - the point representing an individual brother; the circle,
the boundary-line of his conduct to God and man, beyond which he is
never to suffer his passions, prejudices, or interests to betray him, on
any occasion. This circle is embordered by two perpendicular parallel
lines, representing those Saints, who were perfect parallels in
Christianity, as well as in Masonry; and upon the vertex rests the Holy
Scriptures, which point out the whole duty of man. 588
According to Sickels' The General Ahiman Rezon of 1885, a Mason cannot
evade this symbol, which is for his own moral good: "In going around this circle,
we necessarily touch upon these two lines, as well as upon the Holy Scriptures;
and while a Mason keeps himself thus circumscribed, it is impossible that he
should materially err." 589 In this statement, the Christian attitude is quite obvious.
This is a fact criticized in Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia, since Freemasonry has
586 Cf. illustration on the previous page, taken from the Virginia Text Book, p. 93.
587 CME, p. 336.
588 Sickels, p. 86/87.
589 Ibid, p. 87.