Rough and perfect ashlars
Two 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.
Meaning
The ashlars are two stone cubes placed near the Master's platform in the lodge, the Grand Lodge of California explains: the rough one as it came from the quarry, the other smooth and ready for building. The rough ashlar represents man in his crude form, the perfect ashlar the man who has become more polished through the teachings of Masonry. 'We never become a perfect ashlar,' the Grand Lodge adds, 'but we work toward it.' George Thornburgh's 1903 monitor calls the perfect ashlar the state of perfection 'at which we hope to arrive by a virtuous education, our own endeavors and the blessing of God'. For Albert Mackey it also stood for a social kind of perfection, the concord and union of men in society.
Origin and history
The ashlar appears in the catechisms of the 1720s, beside the square. French texts of about 1742 to 1750 suggest it may have been a stone on which tools were sharpened, though Harry Carr, of the Quatuor Coronati research lodge, thought it unlikely that it was a tool in itself.
Write in the Freemasons’ cipher
stringmash.comPigpen cipherThe grid cipher once used for lodge records, drawn from any text you type.See also
Square and compasses, The letter G, All-seeing eye, Double-headed eagle, Boaz and Jachin, Checkered pavement.
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, Entered Apprentice degree
- The Symbolism of Freemasonry, Albert G. Mackey, 1869, Project Gutenberg, Chapter X
- 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