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

612
Third Degree
Chapter 7 - Rituals
The symbols belonging to the Degree of Truth are the Scales and Sword, the
Bible, the Hour-Glass, and the Coffin. All of these symbols also figure in
Freemasonry, although the scales do not appear in connection with the sword but
are merely used as a non-Masonic symbol, denoting justice, for illustration.
The Scales and Sword in Odd Fellowship constitute a combined emblem of
equity and justice, "which judges with candor and rewards with impartiality" (p.
134). The brethren of an Odd Fellow lodge, like the Freemasons, are considered
as equal, whether they are rich or poor, high or low, learned or unlearned, for
they "unitedly engage in the promotion of benevolence and truth" (cf. p. 135).
The Bible is the "Emblem of Revealed (Spiritual) Truth" (p. 135), and the
ritual states that no lodge can be held without it, for it is "placed among our
emblems, because it is the fountain whence we draw instruction, the storehouse
whence our precepts are derived, and most of our emblems are found in its
pages" (p. 135, in a footnote quoted from Grosh's Manual). Here, we notice a
difference with regard to Masonry, because in a Masonic lodge, also the Koran