Note: This essay was adjudged the Best essay in the Grand Lodge of India Essay Competition – 2004 and was awarded M.W.the Grandmaster’s Rolling Trophy.

The state of mind of a new initiate into Freemasonry was described by  Maj. Sanderson as “chaotic” ¹. Many,  if not most brethren from their own experience would readily attest and vouch to this fact and that it is indeed very easy for the neophyte freemason to be lost in the masonic forest of symbols and symbolism, which he enters, as a fait accompli to initiation.   Masonic symbology which uses abstract symbols of illumosinary impact, portraying profound and cardinal truths could be denoted the most interpretative and esoteric facet of Freemasonry. As Buck stated “it is in the ancient symbols of Freemasonry that its real secrets lie concealed and these are as densely veiled to the mason as to any other, unless he has studied the science of symbolism in general and masonic symbols in particular” ² .

The understanding of these symbolic connotations calls for quiet and ruminant contemplation, deductive intuition or a scientific type of inductive spiritual research. Even to the ‘thinking mason’, masonic symbols open a Pandora’s box of thoughts to moralise and speculate upon, what then to speak of the novitiate. However the fact remains even today as Steinmetz states ³ : “ the average Mason is lamentably ignorant of the real meaning of masonic symbology and knows as little of its esoteric teaching”. Masonic symbolism and symbols are a cognitive experience that one has to constantly search for in the threshold of one’s own “lodge”. Mackey ⁴ exhorts every mason:  “to study the symbolism of masonry is the only way to investigate its philosophy. This is the true portal of its temple through which alone we can gain access to the sacellum where its aporrheta are concealed”. To the myriad of doubts, often as exuberant as the pomegranate seeds, that linger in the minds, of such a mason, who seeks enlightenment, and for the nucleation of his thoughts, this essay is directed. For convenience it will be considered in two parts - its dialectics and didactics.

  The classical definition of Freemasonry is “A peculiar system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated with symbols” ⁵. A good starting point in understanding the alloying elements contained in masonic ritual is to distinguish and discriminate between “allegory” and “symbolism”. The definition of allegory is “a figurative representation in which something else is intended to what is actually exhibited”. This is typified by our masonic ceremonies, as they have two distinct and different meanings; an “exoteric” or the immediately obvious, and an “esoteric” or the mystical meaning. As apparent in the definition itself the veil that covers the allegory has to be parted by the masonic student and the hidden meaning of the allegory discovered for himself. A parallel can be readily drawn to lifting the veil of “Maya”, that  envelopes, the Atman, as per the Hindu scriptures.                      

 Symbol on the other hand is defined as “something that stands for, represents or recalls something else not by exact resemblance but by suggestions or associations in thought, especially an object that represents  something abstract as an idea, quality or condition” ⁴. Far from its origins, symbolism and symbols has a wide and differentiated usage and application in diverse fields ranging from mathematics, geometry, linguistics, philosophy, anthropology, to art, literary criticism, theatre, religion and most importantly in daily life. As Freemasons we ever recognize the profuse, effective and pervasive usage of symbols in our rituals and literature.

 Flumini ⁶, has described a symbol as “any element that refers to another independently of the methods by which the other is represented”. The pre-requisite of a symbol is that “it must render the presence of the represented in an immediately effective manner”, and must not be “conventional”. The distinguishing character of a symbol is that it must instantly “communicate” or immediately strike a chord in the “mind and heart” of the reader, beholder or the perceiver,  that the “representative himself takes part in the represented reality” thus endowing it with an exceptional sensitivity. No where but in our Masonic ritual  is such symbolical and allegorical application seen in action with such grace, fluidity and felicity.

Masonic symbolism as contained in our rituals, induces in the candidate an instant rapport and develops a magical bond between the reality of our daily life and experience from the represented symbol. Coleridge has described this as the “bond between the representative and the represented”. Goethe ⁶ has beautifully captured its essence thus: “….the mission of the allegory and of the symbol is to connect the peculiar to the universal….. a vivid and instantaneous revelation of the inscrutable…” The distinction between  allegory and symbolism is  subtle, but indeed different; allegory through the concept searches for something outside itself; symbol instead finds it immediately demonstrating nothing more than itself. It is just through its self evident reason of existence that it carries within itself the essence of the universal” . Even Masonic scholars confess that allegory and symbolism are like Siamese twins – so intertwined and dependent that a interventional vivisection is hazardous if nor potentially fatal.

Symbolism  is the very stone on which the edifice of Freemasonry has been built - a superstructure, perfect in its parts and the whole. We, can only marvel at the wisdom, strength and beauty of the  symbolical working tools so aptly chosen by our founding fathers to inculcate, the great as well  as sundry moral truths through the medium of symbols and aphorisms. Symbolism then, is what endows Freemasonry its great depth and profundity of meaning that ranges from the surface of the earth to its centre or even as high as the heavens as the mind can sink or soar. Its interpretation like charity should have no bounds save those of prudence.

Symbols have a great virtue, and accounts for their such wide spread and varied usage in Masonry. Symbols are virtually inexhaustible in import and interpretation,  in as much as every new recipient finds in it, the meaning most accessible in the horizon of his knowledge, and the compass of his cultural attainment. To the recipient it is never too much or too little, whether he be rich or poor, scholar or laggard, as the radius of the circle of interpretation can be varied to suit the person and the persona. Symbolism always conceals just that much,  to maintain the inexplicable mystery it carries. As the centre point of a circle is ever equidistant from its circumference, symbolism transcends the finite in space and time, and elevates those symbolically derived thoughts to a sublime level, endowing them with an ethereal quality and evanescence, so vitally needed in self realization of that divine spark within – “Aham Bhramasmi”!

Masonry traces its history to antiquity. There is a fundamental question that baffles the casual and scholarly student alike – are we to believe that the craftsmen of the medieval guilds  most of whom were illiterate, conceived the entire masonic philosophy, crafted its symbols and built the edifice of Freemasonry on it , with such consummate cunning ? Or is it that the humble and mundane tool of the mason, was chosen  just as a symbol ? Why not other symbols? What was the grand object of such extensive symbolism ?  Why not a  more direct approach to instruction be adopted as in  the religious texts ?  Such questions are legion, and no one answer can satisfy one and all, if there be one at all. Much like the meaning of the symbols, the answers to these perplexing questions has to be found not from without but from within, by quiet contemplation. It only suffices to say, such my brother is the nature of masonic symbology; it conceals that teaching from those who do  not seek it out, as to reveal it to him, who of his own free will and accord earnestly attempts to pierce that veil of Masonic mystery ⁶ . Let us supplicate the G.G.O.U that the rays of heaven may shed their influence to enlighten us in the study of masonic symbolism as we now move to its didactics.

The Didactics of Masonic Symbolism:

Masonry symbolically speaks of three greater and three lesser lights and thereby it  acknowledges the existence of a hierarchy and  relevance in the moral truths it contains. No doubt, they all lead to the grand and the only truth, as the Brihadaranyako Upanishad declares:  “Ekam Sath, Viprah Bahuda Vadanti” – the truth is only one, but it is spoken of differently and so it is with masonic symbols. It is my speculative thesis that the whole pantheon of masonic symbols can be reduced for an analytical masonic study into  three classes of greater symbolisms and three lesser symbolisms. The three greater are the symbolism of death and immortality exemplified by the Hiramic legend, the acceptance of Omnific Supreme being,  and the profound injunction – Know Thy Self. The lesser lights are three and contained in the symbolism of the lodge - in its form, its ornaments,  furniture and jewels etc, the symbolism of the rituals – such as in the knocks, the perambulation and the like, the symbolism of the nobility of labour and refreshment, in constructing our spiritual temple - thus  our destiny and that of humanity. These, the lesser lights are easy of comprehension,  lie open in the lodge for the brethren to moralise upon, and many excellent treatises are readily available and will not be dealt with in this essay.

Of all the symbols used in masonry, the use of the Hiramic legend as a symbol to teach, conquer and prepare the Masonic mind on the awful subject of death remains supreme. Death it is said, is  the only true concomitant of birth. In this great and unsurpassed lesson that the ritual of raising teaches, its import and impact even goes beyond religion, in the lasting physical and spiritual experience it affords, and the transformation it effects in every reflective mind. No contemporary religion  provides for such an all encompassing experience.

Mackey ⁴ has vividly and cogently described the travails and frailities of human existence thus: “…Man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward….temptations allure his youth, misfortunes darken the pathway of his manhood, and his old age is encumbered with infirmity and disease”. The sublime symbolism of a resurrection from the grave and a new birth into a future life, is beautifully symbolized in the Hiramic legend of the masters body being transferred from the polluted grave into which it was cast by the murderers (read our mortal existence on this earth), its discovery (read spiritual emancipation) and its  sepulchral internment in the precincts of the S.S, (read – soul liberation or moksha) are so figuratively symbolic of the great truth of life, death and the immortality of the soul. It also portrays the universal truth that mystical death must precede mystical rebirth – “know ye not that ye must be born again”.

  The Vedas and Upanishads state that the nectarine, or ambrosic knowledge of the Paramatman,  is sought not only by humans but even by celestials; such is the divinity of human existence. There is a striking analogy of the masonic raising to the principle of “Jeevanmuktha” propounded by Srisankara as the bedrock of Advaitha philosophy.  It states that one who has attained liberation, freedom and immortality while in this human body is verily a true Jeevanmuktha. Many from the West have doubted if this is indeed possible, and contend that only death can liberate the soul.   Kathopanishad declares (II-6-4):

                      “Cedasad boddhum  prah Sarirasya Visrasah

                        Tatah Sargesu lokeshu  Sariratvaya kalpate”

“If one is able to comprehend Him before the death of the body , he will be liberated from the bondage of the world”. Immortality,  is the grand object and the final fulfillment of the struggle of evolution, and man is the only being that can hasten his spiritual evolution, and thus attain “Kaivalya mukthi”.

It is my speculative thesis, that Masonry affords us a working tool to attain this objective and its symbolism should be understood in this light. That this was the purpose of ritual is evident from the writings of the great Masonic scholar, Mackey who wrote: “… the whole design of Freemasonry, namely that, when man shall have passed the gates of life and have yielded to the inexorable fiat of death he shall then be raised at the omnific word of the G.M.O.U from time to eternity; from the tomb of corruption to the chambers of hope; from the darkness of death to the celestial beans of life and that his disembodied spirit shall be conveyed as near to the holy of holies  of the divine presence as humanity can never approach the deity”. The only caveat of this great Masonic symbol, is that it has to be understood fully by the mason and sadly this is exactly what  is lacking today.

The second greater light of symbolism in Freemasonry is based on its most important landmark, namely the acceptance of one Supreme being – the omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent G.., the concept of immortality of the soul, and the triune nature of man. There is a constant reminder in our rituals of our symbolic relation with G, ever recognising the relationship of the creature to his Creator. The compasses has one of its arms fixed firmly on this symbolism along with the Masonic landmark of “belief in the Supreme being and of the immortality of the souls”. Bible in Genesis ( 1:26-27 ) states “and G.. said: Let us make man in our own image after our own likeness”. The triune nature of G.. is well known, especially to us in India, as the Trimurthis – Brahma, Vishnu, Maheswara - symbolising the creative, preservative and destructive aspects alias shrishti, stithi and samhara. The triune nature of man formed in the mirror image of G..,  is therefore not difficult to understand, though diverse symbols and interpretations have been ascribed to it. One such and the most accepted is that triune nature represented by the body, soul ad spirit, which finds extensive and symbolic usage in Masonic rituals; three degrees, three knocks, three greater and three lesser lights, three principal officers, three ruffians, three perambulations, three rosettes in the apron, the triangle with three sides and the like  symbolic examples of which are ad libitum.

 The ancients postulated the triune man to be the complete man and symbolically represented it is a right angled triangle, with the horizontal representing the physical or material, the perpendicular representing the psychic or mental and the hypotenuse the spiritual. Freemasonry transforms the good man into a better man or into a perfect man and symbolically represented it by the equilateral triangle which is equal in its parts and angles, thus perfect in its parts and thus the whole.  It believes that by stepwise and logical progression man can move up the spiritual Jacobs ladder, to attain G.. head which is stated in the Hindu doctrine as “kramamukthi”.

The symbolic progress of the triune man according to Ward ⁷ , is depicted in the knocks of the respective degrees, with the separate knocks of the first, symbolizing the variance of the body, soul and spirit with each other in the uninitiated man. In the second as the knock suggests – 1/ 2, the soul and the body are in unison with the spirit still in variance. In the third degree – 2 / 1, indicates that the spirit dominates the soul and is in union with it, the body having fallen away into insignificance, much as we cast away this mortal coil.

 As many roads lead to Rome,  there exist many pathways in this endeavor of self realization. Swami Vivekananda our saintly mason, has indicated that there are four such paths; i.e.; Karma Yoga, Bhakthi Yoga, Raja Yoga and Gnana Yoga, that masons and commoners may take alike with the firm but humble hope of reaching the destination of “Mukthi” or liberation. The surrender of the Soul to the Spirit and the merger of the two in Hindu theosophy is termed “ Mumukshathvam” and the masonic analogy is all too obvious.

The use of the compasses in Freemasonry also has a great symbolism in this context. One arm of the compasses invariably rests on the centre no matter how far the other leg travels. It symbolizes that no matter however far we may travel from G.. the Divine spark within us, the Atman can never really be separated from Him or err from the centre. This centre point was designated  a “bindu” – which has neither size nor shape, represents the infinite and the unknown, and is thus symbolic of the Spirit or the Paramatman whence we have all come and whither we shall ultimately return. Thus with the compasses,  the centre point symbolically is the spirit, the compass head with which we grasp the instrument is the soul and the circumference it delineates or scribes  the body. At the centre of the circle as stated in our ritual, there we shall find the lost secret, the ineffable name of  G... 

A close study of the craft and rituals of the higher degrees reveal that it ever exhorts the candidate to foster links with his Creator, living by His divine laws. Subjugation of the senses, morality, truth, charity, temperance, fortitude, prudence and such other finest of human attributes is what Masonic symbolism inculcates. The venerable Albert Pike ⁸  has written: “ Freemasonry is the subjugation of the human that is in man by the divine; the conquest of the appetites and passions by the moral sense and reason; a continual struggle, effort and warfare of the spiritual against the material  and sensual”.  We are confronted daily by the same three  ruffians who accosted our Master H.A, to extort the secrets. They are symbolic of three great tormentors of the human flesh in our existence on this terrestrial globe - earth i.e.; kama, krodha and moha – lust, anger and desire. The Holy Bible ( 1 John, 2:16) names them “ the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life”. Masonry symbolically teaches us that we can conquer them, and be a way of life by imitating the example of that celebrated artist, we represent, remembering his firm and unshaken demeanor in spite of the blows from the three ruffians that made him reel and sink on his knees. Masonry thus has to be a way of life, never swerving from our duty, violate our vows ( read conscience) or betray our trust but ever remaining true and faithful to oneself and his G.

The third great light of  Masonic symbolism in my thesis is the knowledge of the Self, as evidenced by the declaration in the charge after raising ⁵ : “let the emblems of mortality which lie before you, lead you to contemplate your inevitable destiny and guide your reflections to that most interesting of all human studies, the knowledge of yourself ”. “Know thyself and thou shalt know the Universe and G..” was the injunction commonly seen writ over the ancient temples of initiation, for this knowledge of the Self was the key to all secrets and mysteries. Masonry though fundamentally designed to realize this grand object, in practice does not assure the candidate any such illumination after the candidates passage through the craft or higher degrees. As Ward states “ Nevertheless to point out that attainment as possible to us as our destiny, to that path of self perfecting to those who care to dare and follow it, modern speculative masonry was instituted…. And it is upon this inner world and the path to and through it that Masonry promises light…. This is the sole aim and intention of Masonry”. Socrates prayer was “ Oh G.. grant me to be a beautiful inner man, outer things one with those within….”

That we need not search afar, but search for the indweller within us is the great lesson that scriptures teach. Marcus Aurelius ⁹ said “…it is open to you every hour to retire into yourself. And where can man find a calmer, more restful haven than his soul”. He dilates further : “dig within yourself. Therein lies the fount of good - a fount whose waters will for ever well up, if you but forever dig ”.  The search and discovery of the knowledge of the Self is termed in Indian tradition as “paravidya”, all other knowledge being of a lower order or “aparavidya” – for the former gives true enlightenment, and peace of mind while  the latter givesonly “pieces of mind” ! Paravidya is the one that leads the human mind to the state of “sat-chit-ananda” – of immortal bliss and happiness.

It is said that one who knows about the Brahman verily becomes it; “Bhramavit Brahmaiva Bhavati”. This is the grand principle enunciated in the statement “Tat Twam Asi” – That Thou Art. This my brother is that Light which a mason professes to be the predominant wish of the heart on asking for admission into Freemasonry !

  Thus,  the sumum bonum, of the subject matter of Freemasonry is the symbolic realization of the relationship between Spirit and Matter, between Heaven and Earth, between G.. and Man and between the Soul and Body. Acceptance of the fatherhood of G.. implies the brotherhood of man and conversely  he who devotes himself to the service of his fellow creatures proves through his brotherly relationship, his descent from the Father of All. It further teaches us  that even great symbols are shadowed forth in the person of the man himself; that it is in this very Homo-sapien that the true lodge ought to be opened; that it is on this chequered floor that the great truths and hidden mysteries of nature and science are to be discovered, imbibed and applied; that it is in this spiritual temple built invisibly in our hearts, tyled against all malignant passions, that we should labour to discover that vital and immortal principle, whose rising within will bring peace and salvation in this mortal life and immortality thereafter.

                                    And so, through light and darkness,

                                    Raise us, Great Master till we are made,

                                    One with Thee, in the unspeakable

                                    Glory of Thy Presence in the East.

                                                                                    So Mote It Be.