Level
A builder's level, which proves a surface horizontal. In Freemasonry it stands for equality: Masons 'meet on the level'.
Meaning
For today's Freemasons the level is a reminder that all men are equal, the Grand Lodge of California explains, and it is where the phrase 'to meet on the level and part on the square' comes from. It is one of the working tools of the Fellow Craft, the second degree, with the plumb and the square. George Thornburgh's 1903 monitor adds a reminder that 'we are traveling upon the Level of Time', and Albert Mackey summed it up in two words: human equality.
Origin and history
The level came late. Harry Carr, of the Quatuor Coronati research lodge, found that the Masonic texts of 1725 did not yet mention it; its first appearance seems to be in A Mason's Confessum of about 1727. By 1730 the square, level and plumb rule were the lodge's 'movable jewels', and also the emblems of the Master and Wardens.
Write in the Freemasons’ cipher
stringmash.comPigpen cipherThe grid cipher once used for lodge records, drawn from any text you type.See also
Plumb rule, Square and compasses, The letter G, All-seeing eye, Double-headed eagle, Boaz and Jachin.
Sources
- 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, Fellow Craft degree
- 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
Last reviewed September 25, 2026 by Rory Hansen. How we research