Masonic symbols
The emblems of Freemasonry, from the square and compasses to the working tools, and what they teach in the lodge.
Freemasonry teaches through symbols. Its members meet in lodges and pass through three degrees, becoming Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and then Master Mason, in the words of the United Grand Lodge of England. Most of its emblems come from two places: the stonemason's craft, whose tools speculative Masonry took up as symbols of lessons for life in the 17th century, and King Solomon's Temple, as Masonic ritual tells its story. The Grand Lodge of California describes Masons as using the metaphors of geometry and stonemasonry in their pursuit of knowledge, ethics and leadership.
Emblems
- Square and compassesThe best-known emblem of Freemasonry: a builder's square and a pair of compasses joined together, often with the letter G between them.
- The letter GThe letter G set between the square and compasses. Masons read it as standing for geometry, and for God.
- All-seeing eyeAn open eye, often in a triangle with rays around it. In Freemasonry it stands for the watchful eye of God.
- Double-headed eagleAn eagle with two heads looking in opposite directions, the emblem of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.
The lodge
- Boaz and JachinThe two pillars that stood at the porch of King Solomon's Temple, named in the Bible Jachin and Boaz, and represented in every Masonic lodge.
- Checkered pavementA floor of black and white squares. Masons call it the Mosaic Pavement and read it as human life, checkered with good and evil.
- Rough and perfect ashlarsTwo blocks of stone, one rough from the quarry and one smooth and squared. Masons read them as a person before and after the work of self-improvement.
Working tools
- LevelA builder's level, which proves a surface horizontal. In Freemasonry it stands for equality: Masons 'meet on the level'.
- Plumb ruleA plumb rule, used by builders to test that a wall is upright. Masons read it as uprightness of conduct.
- TrowelA mason's trowel, the working tool of the Master Mason. It stands for brotherly love, the cement that binds Masons together.
- GavelThe common gavel, a stone-cutter's hammer. It is a working tool of the first degree, and a Master is handed one at his installation as the sign of his office.
Other emblems
- BeehiveA beehive, the Masonic emblem of industry.
- AcaciaA sprig of acacia, the Masonic evergreen, an emblem of faith in the immortality of the soul.
- 47th problem of EuclidA right triangle with a square on each side, the theorem that is the 47th proposition in the first book of Euclid's Elements. In Freemasonry it appears on the Past Master's jewel.
- ApronThe white apron every Freemason wears in the lodge, known as the badge of a Mason.
- KeystoneA keystone marked with the letters HTWSSTKS, the emblem of the Mark Master Mason degree.
Tools turned into lessons
Each of the first three degrees has its working tools, and each tool is explained twice: for what a working mason used it for, and for the lesson. George Thornburgh's 1903 monitor gives the Entered Apprentice the twenty-four-inch gauge and the common gavel, the Fellow Craft the plumb, the square and the level, and the Master Mason the trowel, all to be used 'for more noble and glorious purposes' than building. Albert Mackey summed up three of them in a sentence: the plumb represents rectitude, the level human equality, and the trowel concord or harmony.
The explanations are younger than the tools. There are no early records of which tools were used in lodge ceremonies, Harry Carr of the Quatuor Coronati research lodge found, and today's explanations came into the ritual around the union of England's grand lodges in 1813.
Beyond the first three degrees
Some emblems belong to later degrees. The double-headed eagle is one of the best-known symbols of the Scottish Rite, and the keystone is the single emblem that sums up the Mark Master Mason degree.
Prince Hall Freemasonry
On 6 March 1775 Prince Hall and 14 men of color were made Masons in a British army lodge in Boston Harbor, the first time Black men were made Masons in America, according to the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts. The Grand Lodge of England chartered their African Lodge No. 459 on 29 September 1784. Some 5,000 lodges and 47 grand lodges now trace their lineage to the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.
Fact and fiction
Films and novels such as National Treasure, The Da Vinci Code and The Lost Symbol have done much to sensationalise Masonic symbols, the Grand Lodge of California notes, often with more fiction than fact. The best-known case, the eye above a pyramid on the dollar bill, is covered on the all-seeing eye page.
Sources
- What is Freemasonry?, United Grand Lodge of England
- Freemasonry Symbols, Masons of California (Grand Lodge of California)
- Masonic Monitor of the Degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellow Craft and Master Mason, George Thornburgh, 1903, approved by the Grand Lodge of Arkansas, Project Gutenberg, Working tools of the three degrees
- The Symbolism of Freemasonry, Albert G. Mackey, 1869, Project Gutenberg, Chapter XI
- Origin of the Working Tools, Harry Carr (ed.), Ars Quatuor Coronatorum, vol. 78 (1965), pp. 278–80, Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon
- The Origins of the Double-Headed Eagle, Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction
- Masons' Marks and Mark Masonry, Lake Harriet Lodge No. 277, Minneapolis
- A Brief History of Prince Hall Freemasonry in Massachusetts, Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Massachusetts
Last reviewed September 25, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research