In these papers, apart from a few introductory remarks, I shall not deal with the history and development of the Tracing Boards (or Trestle, or Tressel Boards - T.B. for short), which are prominently displayed in most lodges in the English-speaking world. Those interested in the historical aspects of the T.B. should refer to the articles by Brother E. H. Dring  [1] and Brother T. O. Haunch [2].  Additional information is given by Brother Mark S. Dwor, focusing on Canadian practices. [3]

          The reason for the use of Tracing Boards appears to be the fact that speculative masons met at first in public places, where they had no special furniture or tools to illustrate their symbols. One of the more experienced brothers, often the Tyler, would draw rough designs on the floor, using chalk and charcoal, showing symbols appropriate to the ceremony that was to be performed. The drawings were necessarily sketchy, although metal or wooden templates were sometimes used to assist him in his work.

          This practice is being kept alive even today, for example, in the Dutch lodges La Paix and De Geldersche Broederschap.

          After the ritual part had ended, the same brother would erase the drawing, using mop and bucket. An amusing etching by Hogarth called “Night” shows the Tyler holding his mop, accompanying the Master of the Lodge, who apparently had raised more toasts than his brain could tolerate, and now needed the support of another brother to steady his steps. The chamber pot of whatever liquid being spilled over him by a disgruntled housewife is perhaps a subtle commentary that since the Master had behaved immorally, as a cowan or intruder, it was right he should be put under a drainpipe, as prescribed in some old Masonic documents. No drainpipe being available, the chamber pot came into use.

          Since not all Tylers are good at drawing, even with the help of templates, a better solution was soon found: have the designs drawn on a piece of cloth that would be spread on the floor, to be rolled back after the ceremony. French Masonic engravings of the 18th century clearly show the use of the Floor Cloth while performing the ceremonies. 

          The next obvious step was to make the drawings, or rather paintings, on a board. This was originally placed on the floor, like the cloth carpet, and this is probably the source for the custom of “squaring the lodge” common in many rituals, to avoid stepping on the drawing and damaging it. 

          Eventually, a better place was found for the board: on a trestle.

          There is an endless variety of designs for the T.B. Perhaps the most commonly used today are those painted in 1845 by Brother John Harris, for the Emulation Lodge of Improvement in London.

          Before examining the Harris designs, let us mention a different version of the First Degree T.B., painted with oils on canvas, around 1829-25. Some of the symbols appearing on this painting are also seen in the Harris design, while others are omitted, such as the beehive, hourglass, mirror, and the three candlesticks.

 

The Harris Tracing Board 

          The Harris T.B. of the Entered Apprentice degree represents the lodge itself, that is, the room where Masons meet. In many writings, the T.B. is in fact called “the Lodge”, and when we find the expression “drawing the Lodge” the reference is to drawing the T.B. 

          Inside the T.B., representing the Lodge, we find - among the other symbols – a small drawing of the T.B. itself, usually a sketch intended to represent the floor plan of King Solomon’s Temple.

          The shape of the lodge is rectangular (in some old rituals it is called “an oblong square”). Its symbolic dimensions are: length, East to West; width: North to South, and Height: from the zenith to the center of the earth - some sources extend it to the nadir. These vast dimensions, in fact limitless, stress the universality of Masonry, and the boundless fraternity that must exist among the brethren.

          The axis of the lodge is oriented west to east. The traditional explanation is that sacred buildings are oriented in that way, beginning with the Tabernacle built by Moses in the desert, following with King Solomon’s Temple and continuing with synagogues and churches.

          However, this begs the question, because then we must ask, why should these buildings be oriented in such way? The probable explanation is that the East, the place where the sun rises every day, was regarded from ancient times as especially holy. Prehistoric stone monuments, like Stonehenge, are oriented that way. [4] The word “oriented” itself means facing the Orient, the East. Whoever is dis-oriented has lost his bearings. For thousands of years, before the invention of the magnetic compass, the most important, the most significant direction was the East. Many old maps represented the earth with the East at the top, that is, as if the observer were facing the East. This convention survived even as late as 1623, in a map of Terra Sancta by the great cartographer Gerardus Mercator (author of the famous projection to transfer shapes on a sphere to a flat plane). [5]

          In Hebrew, a very old language, the word kedem means both “Orient” and “Forward”, giving rise to words such as kidmah - progress. The same root word expressed extreme antiquity, such as the expression Adam Kadmon (the primitive or ancient man), a term employed in Kabalistic literature. In Hebrew, again, the word yamin means both “right side” and “south”. This confirms the fact that the East was regarded as the natural or normal direction in front of the spectator.

          The earthly paradise, Eden, was also in the East, and all esoteric traditions insist that wisdom has its origin in the East.

          In the Lodge stand two great pillars, representing the two pillars that stood at the entrance to the Temple: Boaz and Yachin. I shall deal with them when describing the Second Degree T.B.

          The lodge rests on three columns, called Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, represented in the Lodge by the Master and the two Wardens. Each one has a small column at hand, reminding his duties. Wisdom directs our actions, strength sustains us in times of danger or stress, and beauty adorns our life and our soul. Some authors identify Beauty with Harmony. The three columns are built in the three styles of Greek architecture: Doric (Strength), Ionic (Wisdom) and Corinthian (Beauty).

          The columns also represent the three principal actors in Masonic legends: King Solomon, King Hiram of Tyre and Hiram Abiff, respectively. In more general terms, the three columns represent all ternary symbols. The number three, as we know, has special significance for the Entered Apprentice. About the number three, a whole book could be written. Suffice to say at this point that for the Pythagorean, three was the perfect number, composed of the male principle - one - and the female - two. They also regarded one as a symbol of the deity, the perfect unity of the cosmos, while two represented the multiple polarities of the physical world: good and evil, light and darkness, etc. In fact, three was regarded as the first real number, because it is the first one that has a beginning, middle and end.

          The three columns have also a Kabalistic explanation, because they may stand for the three columns in the Tree of Life, the graphic representation of the ten Sephirot.

          There, the column on the right is called ‘Column of Mercy’, the one on the left is the ‘Column of Severity’, and the one in the middle is called the ‘Column of Consciousness’ which keeps the other two in balance. The three columns reach the apex of Divinity, Keter at the top of the central column, also known as ayin, nothingness.

          MacNulty also mentions that the Renaissance philosophers believed that the universe consisted of four worlds. In Kabbalah we find the same division: the elemental or physical world, the celestial world of the psyche or soul, the ‘super-celestial’ world of spirit, and the Divine world.

          The checkered pavement represents the physical world, the central part of the Board, including the columns and most of the symbols, represents the psychological world, the Heavens on top of the Board represent the spiritual world and the Glory represents Divinity. [6]

          The ceiling of the lodge is adorned with stars, generally seven. This is also a favorite number of numerologists, its symbolism is almost as varied as that of the triad. To meet in lodge and perform Masonic work, at least seven Masons must be present.

 

Jacob’s ladder

          Reaching the starry sky is the ladder known as Jacob’s Ladder. Let me recount briefly the origin of the story of Jacob’s dream. On his way to Paddam Aram, to see his uncle Laban, Jacob is tired and spends the night on the road. He takes a stone as his pillow. While dreaming, he sees a stairway reaching the heaven and angels walking up and down. God speaks to Jacob, promises to give him and his descendants the land around him, and to make his descendants numerous like the dust of the earth. When he wakes up, Jacob is seized with fear. This is a holy place, he thinks, and the door to heaven. He erects the stone he had used as a pillow and makes it an altar, and then names the place Bethel, that is, the House of God. This episode of the Bible has fired the imagination of numerous artists, who have depicted Jacob’s dream is a variety of ways.

          In our Board, the stairway is symbolized by a ladder, resting on the altar, which as we now know, in fact represents the stone. The Hebrew word in the Biblical story, Soolam, can be interpreted both as stairway and as ladder, and artists have used both meanings in their works.  

          The rungs of the ladder symbolize the various virtues. Three are of particular importance, known and the Theological Virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity, and they are represented by three female figures on the ladder. Faith is holding a cross, or a cup (the Holy Grail), or a heart. Hope is holding an anchor, and Charity is surrounded by children. Sometimes the three virtues are represented simply by the letters F, H and C.

          The Masonic use of this symbolism of Jacob’s Ladder is much more recent than the other symbols shown in the T.B. It dates from not before the end of the 18th or the beginning of the 19th century. The symbol also appears in non-Masonic contexts, For example, an old Spanish etching depicts Jacob’s ladder with the three virtues, with their traditional implements: heart and the Tablets of the Law for Faith, the anchor for Hope, and the children for Charity.

          The ladder, or scale, as a symbol, is extremely old, always indicating the connection between the earth and the heavens, the ascent of man striving for perfection. It is symbolically connected with the mountain. Temples were often built on top of a mountain, and in some cultures the temple itself represents a mountain. Some artists, such as Blake, have painted Jacob’s ladder as a flight of steps on the slope of a mountain. The ladder is also connected with the archetype of the tree, the axis mundi, and the great chain of being.

          Since it is closely linked with the idea of redemption or seeking perfection, it is also connected with Initiation. In The Golden Ass, for example, the initiate must ascend a stairway. This would explain its connection with the First Degree of Initiation. Further explanations about the symbolism of the ladder can be found in my paper published in Ars Quatuor Coronatorum. [7]

          The top of the ladder reaches the heavens, veiled to profane eyes by the clouds of ignorance. In Durer’s famous engraving, Melancholia, a ladder is depicted leaning on the building, with the top unseen, possibly extending up to the heavens.

          This has been explained as Durer’s allusion to Jacob’s ladder, with all its symbolism. Other artists, like Joan Miró and Anselm Kiefer, have included the ladder in their paintings as symbol of ascent or exaltation of the spirit. Miró used the ladder often, calling it “ladder of escape”.

          The ladder also appears in one of the most important degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite: the 30th, or Kadosh degree. There, again, it represents spiritual ascent and the connection of the human with the divine.

          The stone used by Jacob, which became an altar, is - according to Hebrew traditions - the Even Hashtiyah, the foundation stone of the world, resting at the very center of the earth. This was also the stone where Adam’s altar stood, and where Noah offered his sacrifice after the flood, and also, the same stone-altar where Abraham was going to sacrifice his son Isaac. The stone lay in the Kodesh Hakodashim - the Holy of Holies of Jerusalem’s Temple, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. It can be seen under the Dome of the Rock, in present-day Jerusalem.

 

The lights

          Three great and three small lights are found in the lodge, as well as mobile and immobile jewels, and tools. All these are represented in the T.B.

          The three great lights of Freemasonry are the Volume of the Sacred Law, the Square and the Compasses. The first is traditionally the Bible, but the desire to make Freemasonry as universal an organization as possible, linking men of all faiths, has led to the introduction of other holy books on the altar, particularly for the purpose of allowing a man to seal his obligations on the volume of holy writings that he most respects. In Israel, for example, Grand Lodge officers include three Grand Chaplains with equal rank, one Jewish, one Christian and the third Muslim. On the altar are placed the Tanakh, or Old Testament, the New Testament, and the Koran. In some lodges in India up to seven books can be found on the Altar.

          The three small lights, or reflections of the first three, are the Sun, the Moon, and the Worshipful Master. The two luminaries of day and night (Genesis 1:16) are represented in the lodge by the two Wardens, while usually behind the Master hangs the luminous Delta, with the all-seeing eye in the center, or else the Hebrew letter yod that stands for the Tetragammaton (yod-heh-vav-heh), the unpronounceable name of God. The three main officers are also known as the “Lights” of the lodge.

          The sun and the moon traditionally represent the masculine and feminine aspects of nature, depicting again the idea of duality, the connection of opposites.

          The Wardens’ sun and moon remind us that Masons must work day and night, which also explains the symbolic hours of work of the Lodge: in some rituals, from noon to midnight .

          There is a strong connection between Masonic traditions and Light. The crucial moment of Masonic Initiation is when the candidate has his eyes exposed to light. Masons are also known as “Sons of the Light”. This is interesting, because the members of the Essene sect living in Qumran, where the famous Dead Sea Scrolls were found, also called themselves “Sons of the Light”, and that was two thousand years ago!  Some Masonic practices are similar to those of the Essenes living in Qumran.

          In Hebrew mysticism, the Kabbalah, we find the idea that God and His emanations are one. What are these emanations? The lights (Orot) of the Sephirot, which like souls, animate the “vessels” (Kelim) of the Sephirot. These are not merely connected to God; they are actually one with Him. In other words, Light and God are one.

 

The jewels

          The lodge has three “movable jewels” and three “immovable jewels”. The movable ones are the Rough Ashlar, the Perfect Ashlar or Cubic Stone, and the Tracing Board, called "movable" because they can be placed in any part of the lodge. The "immovable" jewels are the Square, Level and Perpendicular or Plumb, which hang from the neck of the three principal officers of the lodge, who sit in their fixed stations.

          In other countries, the designations are reversed; the jewels worn by the officers are called "movable", because the Lodge officers carry them while moving about n the course of the ceremonies, while the two stones and the T.B. are called "immovable" because after being set down they remain in their place.

 

The tools

          The tools of the Entered Apprentice are mallet, chisel and 24-inch ruler or gauge. Their full explanation appears in the Initiation Ritual, so I will be excused from repeating it. Mallet and chisel are self-explanatory: the will of the Mason (mallet) must be directed accurately (chisel) to perform the work, while the 24 inches of the ruler obviously refer to the 24 hours of the day.

 

The ornaments or furniture

          The lodge also has three ornaments: the Indented or Tessellated Border, the Blazing Star, and the Mosaic or Checkered Pavement. Prichard, in his Masonry Dissected (1730), calls them the Furniture of the Lodge. This must not be understood as a reference to chairs and tables, but rather to implements or parts of the lodge.

          The Indented Border is linked to the knotted rope encircling the room, close to the ceiling. It symbolizes the great chain of Fraternity embracing the earth. A row of triangles in alternating red and blue color replace the rope in many Tracing Boards. Some artists, ignoring the link between them, paint both the knotted rope and the tessellated border.

          In many T.B. the rope is free, without encircling the Board; it ends in tassels and has a number of open knots along the way. 

          In the Koran we find this passage (Surah I-‘Imam 3:103): ‘And hold fast by the Rope (i.e. the covenant) of Allah, all together and be not disunited.’

          From the four corners of the Tessellated Border hang tassels representing the four Cardinal Virtues: Fortitude, Temperance, Prudence and Justice. Justice is the result of Fortitude Tempered by Prudence.

          The four Cardinal plus the three Theological, are the Seven Virtues. About the number seven, much can be written, but I shall mention only the seven days of the week (in Hebrew, the word for week, shavua, is derived from the name for seven: sheva), the seven planets known in antiquity, seven metals, seven capital sins, and the seven Liberal Arts and Sciences of the Trivium and the Quadrivium: Grammar, Rhetoric, and Logic (the Trivium), Arithmetic, Geometry, Music and Astronomy (the Quadrivium). These composed the curriculum of university studies in the Middle Ages and until the Renaissance. Seven are also the Principal Officers of the Lodge. This is obviously symbolic, the importance of the number seven is so great that some important officers were excluded (Secretary and Treasurer, for instance) in order to conform to the symbolic number.

          The Checkered Pavement, made of alternating white and black squares, reminds us of all antinomies, the dualities of both the physical and the spiritual world: light and darkness, good and evil, past and future, matter and spirit.

          The Blazing Star is hanging in the geometrical center of the Lodge and from there it irradiates its influence. These three Ornaments also make reference to the three dimensions of space: the line (knotted rope), surface (floor) and volume (the blazing star).

          Kirk MacNulty offers another interpretation of the three Ornaments of the Lodge. [8] He claims that they are all intended to refer to the Deity. “The Blazing Star or Glory is a well-know heraldic representation of the Deity. It represents the Deity in all Its Glory, as it projects itself into existence. The Checkered Pavement represents the Deity as it is perceived to be at the opposite pole of consciousness, here on earth in ordinary life. The light and dark squares represent paired opposites, a mixture of mercy and justice, reward and punishment, vengeance and loving kindness. They also represent the human experience of life, light and dark, good and evil, easy and difficult. But that is only how it is perceived. The squares are not the symbol; the Pavement is the symbol. The light and dark squares fit together nicely to form the Pavement, a single thing, a unity. The whole is surrounded by the Tessellated Border which binds it into a single symbol. In this representation on the Tracing Board the Border binds not simply the squares, but the entire picture, into a unity.”

 

The point within a circle

          On the Altar is inscribed a circle with a point in its center. This, according to Masonic rituals, represents the bounded space where a Mason cannot go astray. North and south of this circle are two parallel lines, representing the two great Saints John, the Baptist and the Evangelist, who are themselves connected to the two solstices: that in the summer (June 24) with the Baptist, that in winter (December 27) with the Evangelist. In many jurisdictions, including England, attempting to avoid giving a Christian meaning to Masonic symbols, they are explained differently, as representing the prophet Moses and King Solomon. The upper edge of the circle is tangent to the Volume of the Sacred Law. Therefore, when a Mason goes around this circle, he must necessarily touch the two parallels and the greatest luminary of Freemasonry.

          I have already mentioned the relation between circle and infinity, and the two parallel lines, that extend without end and never touch, are symbolic of infinity likewise.

          As for the point, Brother Steve A. Freite remarks that one of the six Hindu Darshanas, Nyaya, which is Logic, contains four fundamental values associated with the Point:  [9]

          1.       Pradhvamsabhava, annihilation or convergence to the point.

          2.       Atyantabhava, emptiness or nothingness (akin to Hebrew                             Ayin).

          3.       Anyonyabhava, infinite dynamism (infinity within the point).

          4.       Pragabhava, creation or expansion from the point.

          Freite continues: “There is also the doctrine of nadi-bindu-prana which is used in a description of the subtle, bio-energetic body. Bindu, in this case, is the “point” or “drop”. Nadi is a conduit of bio-energy and prana is the life-force itself. By controlling these three, one can control consciousness.

          Sanskrit also has the word akshara, which describes the collapse of fullness to a point and from the point.” Interestingly, this can be related to the contemporary theory of the Big-Bang, which some scientists speculate must end with a Big Crunch.

          The center is also a fundamental idea in alchemy. “According to Michael Maier, the center contains the indivisible point which is simple, indestructible, and eternal. Its physical counterpart is gold, which is therefore a symbol of eternity.” [10]

          C. G. Jung quotes another alchemist, Gerard Dorn, who writes: “Four is he One and yet not the One; it is simple and consists of the number four... it will show the adept the fulfillment of the mysteries. This is the center of the natural wisdom, whose circumference, closed in itself, forms a circle: an immeasurable order reaching to infinity... Here is the number four, within whose bounds the number three, together with the number two combined into One, fulfills all things... In these relations between four, three, two and one is found the culmination of all knowledge and of the mystic art, and the infallible midpoint of the center (infallibile medii centrum).” [11] And Jung adds that the One is the midpoint of the circle, the center of the triad... [it] is fire... the point is most akin to the nature of light, and light is a simulacrum Dei.” [12]

          MacNulty remarks that, taken together, the Ladder and the two parallel lines, three verticals, are also a reference to the three columns of the Cabalistic “Tree of Life”, since the central one (the ladder) reaches the heavens.

 

The Lewis

          In a corner of the T.B. we find an instrument used to lift heavy stones. It is called the Lewis and is composed of three pieces of iron, two wedge-shaped and a straight one in-between, assembled in such a way that when they are inserted into a hole made in the stone, they expand and seize the stone to be lifted.

          The word Lewis means “strength”, and it also applies to the handgrip of a Mason, and the son of a Mason. The origin of the Masonic use of this word appears to be French, because in France louve (she-wolf) and louveton (wolf cub) came into use at about the same time as in England.  In the T.B., the tool is represented as supported by a triangular pyramid of legs. The pyramid symbolizes stability. Its four sides plus the six edges give a total of 10, a highly symbolic number (ten Sephirot in the Kabbalah, ten fingers, ten as the basis of the number system we use). The tetraktys, ten dots arranged in a triangle, with four at the base, then three, two and one at the top, making a total of 10, was considered so holy by the Pythagoreans, that they swore oaths by it. [13]

          Square pyramids, like those in Egypt or in Mexico, have 5 surfaces (4 sides and the base) and eight edges. In old Masonic engravings, the cubic stone is represented as a cube with a square pyramid on top. The pyramid ends in a single point, representing the unity of the universe, or of God. Altogether, this body has 16 edges (4x4) and 9 sides (4+4+1). 16 has root 7, four is the square of 2 and 9 is the square of 3. This body, then, represents all the numbers with symbolic or esoteric meaning: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 9.

 

 

 

[1]             “The Evolution and Development of the Tracing or Lodge Board”, Ars Quatuor               Coronatorum (hereinafter AQC), Volume 29 (1916), pages 243 and following, and 275 and  following.

[2]             “Tracing Boards - Their Development and their Designers”. AQC, Vol. 75 (1962).

[3]             “Some Thoughts on the History of the Tracing Boards”, Presented at the Vancouver Grand               Masonic Day, October 6, 1999.  Can be consulted in the Internet site of the Grand Lodge of               British Columbia and Yukon:  http://www.freemasonry.bc.ca/writings.

[4]             See C. A. Newham, The Astronomical Significance of Stonehenge, Gwent, Wales, 1972.

[5]             Meir Ronnen, “Cartography of Faith”, Jerusalem Post, 9.11.2001, p. B14.

[6]             W. Kirk MacNulty, ‘Masonic Tracing Boards and the Western Metaphysical Tradition”,

              paper published in the Internet:  www. Kabbalansociety.org/papers/km-mason.htm.

[7]             “Jacob’s Ladder in Masonic Iconography”, AQC, Vol. 101 (1988).

[8]             W. Kirk MacNulty, ibid.

[9]             E-mail to the PSOC list, 8.7.2001.

[10]            De circulo physico quadrato, pp. 27ff., quoted by C.G. Jung, Alchemical Studies, Routledge            & Kegal Paul, London,  1983, pp. 148-149.

[11]            Physica Trithemii, p. 39i.

[12]            C.G. Jung, op. cit., p. 151.

[13]            David Wells, The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers, 1986, p. 10.