Through the Key Hole - RoseCroix.org.au

59
THE GLOBES—ANOTHER MASONIC
INVENTION ?
By Keith Stockley
116
In most jurisdictions the explanation of the 2º Tracing Board refers to
the two great pillars Boaz and Jachin that were erected on either side
of the porch or entrance to King Solomon’s Temple.
The explanation states that these two pillars were adorned with two
chapiters that “were used as ornaments to the pillars, to denote the
spread and increase of the Order, the universality of which was further
demonstrated by two spherical globes, on which was delineated
maps of the celestial and terrestrial worlds, one on each pillar”.
The Biblical account of the objects which surmounted the pillars is far
from clear. The original Hebrew word is “goolot” (plural) or
“goolah” (singular) and it may mean globes, bowls or vessels. Various
forms of the same word were used to describe anything circular
or spherical.
One of the early illustrated bibles is the Geneva Bible of 1560 and
this contained a picture of the pillars surmounted by an ornamental
sphere, but no maps, celestial or otherwise.
There are several illustrations produced at about the same time and
later, showing the pillars surmounted by hemispheres or bowls that
the Authorised version of the Bible at I Kings vii, speaks of “the two
bowls of the chapiters that were on top of the two pillars…”
It appears likely, therefore, that the two pillars were actually surmounted
by bowls rather than by globes and it is certain that neither
bowls nor spheres contained maps of any kind.
It was probably the Masonic evolution of the two globes over the centuries
that led to the idea and the phrase “Masonry Universal”, but
like much of our traditional material has to be considered in a symbolic
sense as the actual facts of this and other situations simply do
not add up when compared with the written word handed down to us
and taking into account the factual position as we know it today.
Portrait of Sir Christopher Wren
with St. Paul’s Cathedral in the distance