All Freemasons are familiar with the two pillars at the porch way or entrance of King Solomon’s Temple. In the 2^nd degree tracing board the statement is heard that ‘...they were formed hollow, the better to serve as archives....’.

Pillars such as these were set up in, or adjacent to, many medieval buildings. A famous example is the 15^th century pair of pillars in Wurzburg cathedral. According to the Old Charges from the Cooke Manuscript (circa.1425) onwards, our ancestors were interested in the two pillars said to have been erected by the antediluvian world to carry the knowledge of the ancient world through an impending catastrophe, which was expected to be in the form of fire or flood. Two pillars were therefore erected, one of brick - which would be undamaged by fire and one of marble, which would be unaffected by flood. The knowledge desired to be transmitted was carved on these. Curiously in certain rituals these were reversed, brick being said to be proof against flood and marble against fire.

The complier of this old traditional history took the legend from Higden’s Polychronicon, written at Chester in the 14^th century. Higden acknowledged Josephus* as his source and Josephus in turn had taken the story from Berosus** who is believed to have taken it from an earlier Sumerian History of about 1500 BC.

The transfer of Masonic interest from one set of pillars to the other cannot be completely explained. Representations of the two pillars are found in many lodges throughout the world, usually in the West of the room. In some cases they frame the room, while in others they stand as a portal to the square pavement and reports and salutes are given from between them. The question of which pillar should stand on the left or the right may be solved by a diligent reading of the VSL in the Book of Kings.

* Flavius Josephus, b. AD 37, d. after 93, a Jewish historian whose works are invaluable sources for the history of the Jews under Roman domination was a Pharisee, originally named Joseph ben Matthias, he reluctantly joined the revolt against Rome in AD 66 and served as commander in Galilee until captured by the Romans in 67. Through the patronage of Vespasian, he later became a Roman citizen. Josephus's The Jewish War (75-79), a description of the tragic events of the revolt, is based to a large extent on his first hand knowledge. His Jewish Antiquities (93), covering the history of the Jews from the Creation on, gives a particularly full account of the Maccabees and the dynasty of Herod. Though criticized for his subservience to the Romans, he was a passionate defender of Jewish religion and culture, as shown in his apologia entitled Against Apion and in his historical works.

** Berosus, (Akkadian: Bel-user) Chaldean priest of Bel in Babylon (about 290 BC) who wrote a work of three books in Greek on the history and culture of Babylonia. Though his work only survives in fragments he is remembered for his passing on of his knowledge of the history of Sumeria and Babylonia to the ancient Greeks.

These relics are still owned and treasured by the Lodge of Antiquity. The mallet is in fact a maul, now known as the 'Wren Maul' and it figured prominently in the great ceremony held at the Albert Hall in 1967 which marked the 250th anniversary of the founding of Grand Lodge. The Masters of the three Lodges surviving from those that formed the Grand Lodge in 1717 entered Grand Lodge bearing the three Great Lights and the Wren Maul, which was presented to the Pro Grand Master. The present Grand Master, his Royal Highness the Duke of Kent, then entered Grand Lodge and was Installed for the first time as the Most Worshipful, the Grand Master with the Wren Maul upon the pedestal.

The more recent understanding by many of our finest university history departments of the important part that Freemasonry played in the development of our democratic freedoms and the willingness of Grand Lodge to now allow non-Masonic researchers into our archives may yet reveal more interesting facts about Freemasonry prior to the formation of Grand Lodge in 1717. 

Today the buttons symbolically survive as the rosettes on the FC and MM aprons. Originally the EAF’s apron would have had one button on it to hold the upper half of the apron erect. Today the EAF’s apron has no rosette or button, but it has magically appeared on the MM’s apron and so 2 rosettes = 2^ndâ and 3 rosettes = 3^rdâ. On the transition to a Worshipful Brother the rosettes appropriately become levels. These are not ‘tau’ as some brethren of the Royal Arch mistakenly assume.

4. Aprons were to be standard for the ranks indicated and no variations allowed.

5. The basic material was to be the skin of a lamb. Other fancy materials were excluded.

6. Each degree would have is own form of apron and no symbols were permitted not fitted for the grade of Freemasonry in which the brethren were assembled.

Like the compasses used in drafting the plans of the building, the architect’s square is an instrument of considerable symbolic importance. It can be found in many 16^th and 17^th century illustrations and drawings and as an attribute of the apostle Thomas (the patron Saint of builders).

It is significant in Freemasonry in the context of ‘right’: the right angle stands for that which is right, for justice, the true law. The Master of the lodge wears a square as his collar jewel as a symbol of the powers and duties of his office.

Today the square is often portrayed as a simple right angle, with arms of equal length. In the past it would have had arms of different lengths in the ratio of 3:4. This unequal ratio refers to the Pythagorean theorem, since it makes it possible to draw a triangle whose sides are in the ratio 3:4:5. According to J. Baurnjöpel (1793), the square represents the love of God and neighbour, with which the Master must be richly adorned; this jewel - which embraces all laws - also urges every brother, from his first entry into the temple onward, to practice every virtue of which a person is capable.

The adoption of the working tool of the square as a powerful symbol may be an indication of our ancestor’s wish to find their way in an apparently chaotic world by being able to fabricate true squares. A true four sided square introduces and permits direction and co-ordinates. Inherent in the square is an ordering principle that seems innately present in all human beings. Thus the Romans planned Imperial Rome in a series of equal quadrants, believing that this form would make for a more ordered and civilised society. Religious mystics and Christian thinkers also favoured the square in their imaginary cities such as the "Heavenly Jerusalem" of the Book of Revelation or J. V. Andreae’s 17^th century "Christianopolis"

Many ancient temples of the classical world are square in design and so are others in the far east, such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia, The Temple of the Heavens in Beijing and the Borobudur in Java. In the brutish and uneducated past, a master builder’s seemingly magical ability to precisely plan square sacred places would have earned great respect for his skills. In China the square appears in the hands of the mythical scholar Fu-hsi (or Fuxi) who is said to have invented the I Ching. His square is said to symbolise edification and the sanctifying power of truth.

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With thanks to Pick and Knight & G Belson