Leigh McConnel Grand Lecturer glect@grandlodgens.org 2005-12-30

The Ancient Square Many learned writers on Freemasonry have denominated the square as the most important, most typical and common symbol of the Ancient Craft. It is impossible definitely to say that the square is the oldest symbol in freemasonry. Who may determine when the circle, triangle or square first impressed men’s minds? But the square seems older than history. Newton speaks of the oldest building known to man, “ a prehistoric tomb found in the sands at Hieranconpolis, is already right-angled.” Masonically the word “square” has the same three meanings given the symbol by the world (1) the conception of right-angledness – our ritual tells us that the square is an angle of 90 degrees or the forth part of a circle (2) the builders tool, one of our working tools, the masters immovable jewel. (3) that quality of character which is made “a square man” synonymous not only with a member of our fraternity, but with uprightedness, honesty and dependability. The ancient Greek name of the square was Gnomon from whence comes our word “knowledge”. The Greek letter gamma- formed like a square standing on one leg, the other pointing to the right – in all probability, derived from the square and gnomon, in turn derived from the letter which was derived from the square which the philosophers knew was at the root of their mathematics. Authorities have differed and much discussion has been had on the “true form” of the Masonic square; whether a simple square should be made with legs of equal length and marked with divisions into feet and inches, or with one leg longer than the other and marked as our carpenters square today. Old operative squares were either made wholly of wood, or of wood and metal as indeed small tri squares are made today. Having one leg shorter would materially reduce the chance of accident destroying the right angle which was the tools essential quality so that authorities who believe our equal legged squares not necessarily “true Masonic squares” have some practical reasons for their convictions. The symbolism of the square, as we know it, is very old; just how ancient as impossible to say as the age of the tool or the first conception of mathematical “squareness”. In the Great Learning, an ancient Chinese book, admitted to date from between three hundred to four hundred years BC, we read that “a man should abstain from doing unto others what he would not they should do unto him.” “This”, adds the writer, “is called the principle of acting on the square”. Independently of the Chinese, all people in all ages have thought of this fundamental angle, on which depends the solidity and lasting quality of buildings, as expressive of the virtues of honesty, uprightness and morality. Confucius, Plato, and the Man of Galilee, stating the golden rule in positive form, all make the square an emblem of virtue. In this very antiquity of the Craft’s greatest symbol is a deep lesson. The nature of a square is as unchanging as truth itself. It was always so, is now, and will always be so. So, also, are those principles of mind and character symbolized by the square; the tenets of the builder’s guild expressed by a square. They have always been so, are so, and they will always be so. From their very nature they must ring as true on the farthest star as here. So will Freemasonry always read it, that its gentle message perish not from the earth. (This article taken [and revised] from a Masonic Digest issued by the Masonic Service Association in 1947.)