Double-headed eagle
An eagle with two heads looking in opposite directions, the emblem of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.
Meaning
The Scottish Rite has taken the double-headed eagle as its emblem since the Rite was established, its Northern Masonic Jurisdiction explains, and with the square and compasses it is one of the Rite's most recognisable symbols. Members wear it on rings, jewellery, clothing and caps. In the Northern Jurisdiction the version with its wings pointing up is reserved for 33rd-degree Active Members, about fifty of them, and Active Emeritus Members of the Supreme Council; every other member wears the eagle with its wings pointing down.
Origin and history
The emblem is far older than the Rite. The Northern Jurisdiction points to a double-headed eagle carved on the city gate at Alaca Höyük in Turkey (1450–1180 BCE), to its use on imperial flags under the Roman and Byzantine empires, and to its use in higher degrees in France in the 18th century, as the emblem of the Kadosh degree. Albert Mackey took the two heads to stand for a double empire, East and West. For Russia's eagle a later writer, David Williamson, gave a plainer history: Ivan III took it as his device in 1469, on his marriage to Zoe Palaeologa, daughter of a claimant to the throne of Byzantium.
Write in the Freemasons’ cipher
stringmash.comPigpen cipherThe grid cipher once used for lodge records, drawn from any text you type.Read next
- Next in Masonic symbolsBoaz 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.
- In HeraldryDouble-headed eagleAn eagle with two heads turned opposite ways, drawn with its wings spread. It was the arms of the Holy Roman Empire and of the tsars of Russia, and is on the arms of Serbia and the emblem of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry.
See also
Square and compasses, The letter G, All-seeing eye, Checkered pavement, Rough and perfect ashlars, Level.
Sources
- The Origins of the Double-Headed Eagle, Scottish Rite, Northern Masonic Jurisdiction
- Eagle, Double-headed, Albert G. Mackey, Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, with a note by David E. W. Williamson, Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed September 26, 2026. How we research
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