BY DECREE OF THE GRAND ARCHITECT · MATTHEW JARED SMITH · 33° SOVEREIGN GRAND COMMANDER OF THE FINANCIAL TEMPLE
The Visual Grammar of the Craft
Every Lodge is an open book of pictures. To read the pictures is to read the Mason. Here are the great sigils, decoded in full.
Sigil № 01
The instrument of the Worshipful Master. It teaches the Mason to square his actions by the rule of virtue. Every angle must be true; every dealing with his Brother must be measured. To be 'on the square' is to be incapable of dishonesty in private as in public.
Sigil № 02
The instrument of the Grand Master. They teach the Mason to circumscribe his desires and keep his passions within due bounds — neither denied nor indulged, but governed. Where the Square deals with one's relations to others, the Compasses deal with one's relations to oneself.
Sigil № 03
United, they form the most universally recognized emblem of Freemasonry. Square below, Compasses above, with the Letter G between — the union of matter and spirit, of duty to neighbor and duty to God, mediated by Geometry, the noblest of sciences.
Sigil № 04
The emblem of the Grand Architect of the Universe — that Watchful Eye to whom the Sun, Moon, and Stars are obedient, and which beholds the inmost recesses of the human heart. It is not surveillance but witness; not threat but invitation to live as if one is always already seen by Love.
Sigil № 05
It stands at once for God and for Geometry — the two being, in the Masonic conception, one and the same. Geometry is the language in which God wrote the universe; God is the Geometer who drew the first circle of creation. The Letter G is the keystone of every Lodge room.
Sigil № 06
Boaz on the left ('In strength'), Jachin on the right ('He shall establish'). They stood at the porch of King Solomon's Temple. Together their meaning is sealed: 'In strength He shall establish.' Every Lodge enters between them as it enters between the two halves of every choice.
Sigil № 07
The black-and-white checkered floor of the Lodge represents the duality of human existence — joy and sorrow, success and failure, life and death — and the Mason's task to walk upon both with equal step. The border around it is the tessellated tassel of Providence, binding all opposites.
Sigil № 08
Evergreen, fragrant, and sprung from the grave of Hiram Abiff — the acacia is the Masonic emblem of the immortality of the soul. As the leaf does not die in winter, the soul does not die in the body's death.
Sigil № 09
An emblem of industry and recommendation that we be active and diligent, never sitting down contented while our fellow creatures around us are in want, especially when it is in our power to relieve them without inconvenience.
Sigil № 10
An emblem of human life. Behold! How swiftly the sands run, and how rapidly our lives are drawing to a close. We cannot, without astonishment, behold the little particles that pass away — almost imperceptibly, yet certainly.
Sigil № 11
An emblem of time, which cuts the brittle thread of life and launches us into eternity. Behold what havoc the scythe of time makes among the human race. If by chance we should escape the numerous evils incident to childhood and youth, yet within a few short years we must be cut down by the all-devouring scythe of time.
Sigil № 12
An ancient emblem of the human form, head and outstretched limbs, signifying the divinity inscribed in mankind. In the Eastern Star it represents the five Biblical heroines; in older lodges, the five points of fellowship by which Brother is restored to Brother.
Sigil № 13
Two interlaced triangles — fire ascending, water descending; spirit and matter wed. Worn by King Solomon as a seal of dominion over the elements. To Masons it is the perfect union of opposites that makes the Craft possible.
Sigil № 14
The Working Tool of the Master Mason. With it the operative spreads cement that unites the building into one common mass; with it the speculative spreads the cement of brotherly love and affection — that cement which unites us into one sacred band of friends and Brothers.
Sigil № 15
Admonishes us to walk uprightly in our several stations before God and man — squaring our actions by the square of virtue, and ever remembering that we are travelling upon the level of time to that undiscovered country.
Sigil № 16
Demonstrates that we are descended from the same stock, partakers of the same nature, and sharers of the same hope; and although distinctions among men are necessary to preserve subordination, no eminence of station should make us forget that we are Brothers.
Sigil № 17
Used by Operative Masons to break off the corners of rough stones; by Speculative Masons it is employed for the more noble purpose of divesting our minds of all the vices and superfluities of life — leaving the heart pure and the soul fit to become a stone of the celestial Temple.
Sigil № 18
An instrument made use of by Operative Masons to measure their work; the Speculative Mason uses it to apportion the 24 hours of the day — eight for the service of God and a distressed worthy Brother, eight for our usual avocations, and eight for refreshment and sleep.
Sigil № 19
Emblems of a well-grounded hope and a well-spent life. They are emblematical of that divine Ark which safely wafts us over this tempestuous sea of troubles, and that Anchor which shall safely moor us in a peaceful harbor where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest.
Sigil № 20
As the Sun rules the day and the Moon governs the night, so should the Worshipful Master rule and govern his Lodge with equal regularity. Together they signify the harmony of opposites under wise governance.
Sigil № 21
More ancient than the Golden Fleece or Roman Eagle, more honorable than the Star and Garter, the Lambskin Apron is the badge of a Mason — emblem of innocence and the bond of friendship. He who wears it must wear it worthily.
Sigil № 22
The Pythagorean theorem — base 3, perpendicular 4, hypotenuse 5 — emblem of the Past Master. It teaches that every problem on earth has a solution by Geometry, and every Mason should be a lover of the arts and sciences.
Sigil № 23
The point represents the individual Brother; the circle the boundary line of his duty to God and man, beyond which he should never suffer his passions to lead him astray. The two parallel lines represent the holy Saints John, the patrons of the Craft.
Sigil № 24
Worn at one's initiation, it is the symbol of the voluntary bond which the Mason takes upon himself — and the length of which is the limit of one's ability to render service. A Brother is bound only by what he can bear; never beyond.
The Reader's Voice
Press the chalice to begin. The Temple shall speak its own words unto thee.
Awaiting consecration
The voice obeys the tongue thou hast chosen at the gate.