My Lodge Has Beautiful Ornaments, But What Do They Mean?

My Lodge Has Beautiful Ornaments! But What Do They Mean?

Posted on February 28, 2013 by jtasher

  Greetings everyone and welcome as we study now pages 14-18 of Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma. Here Pike is describing more of the interior of the lodge room and explaining the meanings of what is symbolized by what is called the ORNAMENTS of the lodge room.  We will proceed a little differently tonight. I will post a paragraph or two at a time as we begin rather than posting all of the pages first then reposting and opining again. Let me know if you like this structure better.

 Here we go!

        The ORNAMENTS of a Lodge are said to be “the Mosaic Pavement, the Indented Tessel, and the Blazing Star.” The Mosaic Pavement, chequered in squares or lozenges, is said to represent the ground-floor of King Solomon’s Temple; and the Indented Tessel “that beautiful tesselated border which surrounded it.” The Blazing Star in the centre is said to be “an emblem of Divine Providence, and commemorative of the star which appeared to guide the wise men of the East to the place of our Saviour’s nativity.” But “there was no stone seen” within the Temple. The walls were covered with planks of cedar, and the floor was covered with planks of fir. There is no evidence that there was such a pavement or floor in the Temple, or such a bordering. In England, anciently, the Tracing-Board was surrounded with an indented border; and it is only in America that such a border is put around the Mosaic pavement. The tesseræ, indeed, are the squares or lozenges of the pavement. In England, also, “the indented or denticulated border” is called “tesselated,” because it has four “tassels,” said to represent Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, and Justice. It was termed the Indented Trassel; but this is a misuse of words. It is a tesserated pavement, with an indented border round it.

  So right away Pike is using the word ORNAMENTS of a lodge and he calls them by name: the mosaic pavement, the indented tessel, and the blazing star.  Remember that a Lodge is a representation in many ways of King Solomon’s Temple, at least allegorically. So, one will see in many lodges either the middle section of the floor in black and white checkered tiles, OR the entire floor in black and white checkered tiles. We will explore further meaning about the tiles in a moment. 

Pike also names The Blazing Star as an ORNAMENT of a lodge. I find it quite interesting how Pike is mixing the Old Testament story of King Solomon, with the New Testament story of the star that guided the wise men to the manger where Jesus was born. 

 

 This is interesting, because in any given lodge, there will be a great mixture of faiths. Some people guided more in their spiritual paths by the Old Testament, some guided more by the New Testament, others maybe by different spiritual books such as the Gnostic Gospels, etc. So, a lodge in it’s own nature seems to reflect the beliefs of its members. And it’s members reflect the symbolisms of the lodge. 

We will acknowledge Pike’s further description of King Solomon’s temple, but we will now examine the next ORNAMENT the Indented tessel. Pike is relating the tessel and the tracing board, but I think the most important symbolism here to consider are the four tassels related to a tracing board. Pike says these tassels represent TEMPERANCE, FORTITUDE, PRUDENCE AND JUSTICE.

 In case you don’t understand what a tracing board is, briefly I will explain a tracing board is a picture or painting of several symbols upon it which is displayed in a lodge representing the degree the lodge is operating in at that moment. I invite you to find further explanation of the tracing board and find your own understanding of them.

 Now instead of just seeing tassels, we find there are deeper meanings! There seemingly is nothing in a lodge that has no meaning. 

  Let’s go on to the next paragraph or two:

   

 The pavement, alternately black and white, symbolizes, whether so intended or not, the Good and Evil Principles of the Egyptian and Persian creed. It is the warfare of Michael and Satan, of the Gods and Titans, of Balder and Lok; between light and shadow, which is darkness; Day and Night; Freedom and Despotism; Religious Liberty and the Arbitrary Dogmas of a Church that thinks for its votaries, and whose Pontiff claims to be infallible, and the decretals of its Councils to constitute a gospel.

The edges of this pavement, if in lozenges, will necessarily be indented or denticulated, toothed like a saw; and to complete and finish it a bordering is necessary. It is completed by tassels as ornaments at the corners. If these and the bordering have any symbolic meaning, it is fanciful and arbitrary.

 The black and white checkers living side by side have this dynamic meaning of good and evil and their battles against one another and these battles play out right there in the lodge room. I relate well to Pikes feelings of religious freedom fighting against religious dogma, and his skepticism of anyone calling themselves “infallible”.  Personally, when I enter lodge and ponder the mosaic, I find myself thinking of the battle of ignorance and enlightenment playing out there within the squares. 

WAIT! 

 Did I just write moments ago that EVERYTHING in a lodge has a meaning? Pike says I’m WRONG! 

  The borders design is an arbitrary one. Just looks nice! 

    Let’s continue on:

[paragraph 

To find in the BLAZING STAR of five points an allusion to the

p. 15

[paragraph continues]Divine Providence, is also fanciful; and to make it commemorative of the Star that is said to have guided the Magi, is to give it a meaning comparatively modern. Originally it represented SIRIUS, or the Dog-star, the forerunner of the inundation of the Nile; the God ANUBIS, companion of Isis in her search for the body of OSIRIS, her brother and husband. Then it became the image of HORUS, the son of OSIRIS, himself symbolized also by the Sun, the author of the Seasons, and the God of Time; Son of Isis, who was the universal nature, himself the primitive matter, inexhaustible source of Life, spark of uncreated fire, universal seed of all beings. It was HERMES, also, the Master of Learning, whose name in Greek is that of the God Mercury. It became the sacred and potent sign or character of the Magi, the PENTALPHA, and is the significant emblem of Liberty and Freedom, blazing with a steady radiance amid the weltering elements of good and evil of Revolutions, and promising serene skies and fertile seasons to the nations, after the storms of change and tumult.

Please pardon the non readable portion of text here. So previously, Pike spoke about how the blazing star represents the star that guided the wise men to the manger, and here he speaks of the same, but with a “gotcha” moment. 

 Pike now explains how the blazing star originally represented the Dog Star SIRIUS, and many other pagan or Egyptian and Greek gods. No matter your spiritual path, the lodge represents you! But I love how Pike ends this paragraph speaking of the PENTALPHA and its symbolisms of liberty and freedom amid the good and evil of revolutions, and its promise of serene skies and fertile seasons to the nationS after storms of change and tumult!

The ever present need of humankind to be HOPEFUL even in dire times is represented in the lodge. No wonder I leave the lodge room feeling so GOOD!

 Continuing:

In the East of the Lodge, over the Master, inclosed in a triangle, is the Hebrew letter YO_D [‏ו ?Y‎ or ]. In the English and American Lodges the Letter G∴ is substituted for this, as the initial of the word GOD, with as little reason as if the letter D., initial of DIEU, were used in French Lodges instead of the proper letter. YO_D is, in the Kabalah, the symbol of Unity, of the Supreme Deity, the first letter of the Holy Name; and also a symbol of the Great Kabalistic Triads. To understand its mystic meanings, you must open the pages of the Sohar and Siphra de Zeniutha, and other kabalistic books, and ponder deeply on their meaning. It must suffice to say, that it is the Creative Energy of the Deity, is represented as a point, and that point in the centre of the Circle of immensity. It is to us in this Degree, the symbol of that unmanifested Deity, the Absolute, who has no name.

Our French Brethren place this letter YO_D in the centre of the Blazing Star. And in the old Lectures, our ancient English Brethren said, “The Blazing Star or Glory in the centre refers us to that grand luminary, the Sun, which enlightens the earth, and by its genial influence dispenses blessings to mankind.” They called it also in the same lectures, an emblem of PRUDENCE. The word Prudentia means, in its original and fullest signification, Foresight; and, accordingly, the Blazing Star has been regarded as an emblem of Omniscience, or the All-seeing Eye, which to the

p. 16

Egyptian Initiates was the emblem of Osiris, the Creator. With the YO_D in the centre, it has the kabalistic meaning of the Divine Energy, manifested as Light, creating the Universe.

Keeping in mind that a lodge is symbolic, when we speak of “the east” we do not really have to be speaking of a point on a magnetic compass or a GPS device. “The east” is always where the master of a lodge and their dignitaries are seated. 

“The east” we learn here is where we also see the symbolism so deity. A sacred triangle above the heads of the master and dignitaries. We also learn here that there is no single “correct” way to design the lodge. Any visitor to any given lodge room will find both similarities and differences in every jurisdiction or even in a lodge that has several rooms, each room will most likely have its own theme. And for the Mason, they will find every lodge performing rituals differently. 

We learn that the blazing star represents many forms of deity. Pike implores the reader in these passages to study the Kabbalah to find deeper meanings into the symbolisms here. 

I agree! No matter your spiritual path, I believe to fully understand Masonic meanings, the mason should be open to studies of ancient beliefs and as the mason studies these beliefs, it’s almost a certainty that we find all of the stories of messiahs and Christs (from the word Christos meaning enlightened one) can be very intertwined. For instance, the Buddha and Jesus both born on December 25, both walked on water in the myths passed down for centuries! 

Next paragraphs:

The Jewels of the Lodge are said to be six in number. Three are called “Movable,” and three “Immovable.” The SQUARE, the LEVEL, and the PLUMB were anciently and properly called the Movable Jewels, because they pass from one Brother to another. It is a modern innovation to call them immovable, because they must always be present in the Lodge. The immovable jewels are the ROUGH ASHLAR, the PERFECT ASHLAR or CUBICAL STONE, or, in some Rituals, the DOUBLE CUBE, and the TRACING-BOARD, or TRESTLE-BOARD.

Of these jewels our Brethren of the York Rite say: “The Square inculcates Morality; theLevel, Equality; and the Plumb, Rectitude of Conduct.” Their explanation of the immovable Jewels may be read in their monitors.

*      *      *      *      *      *

Our Brethren of the York Rite say that “there is represented in every well-governed Lodge, a certain point, within a circle; the point representing an individual Brother; the Circle, the boundary line of his conduct, beyond which he is never to suffer his prejudices or passions to betray him.”

This is not to interpret the symbols of Masonry. It is said by some, with a nearer approach to interpretation, that the point within the circle represents God in the centre of the Universe. It is a common Egyptian sign for the Sun and Osiris, and is still used as the astronomical sign of the great luminary. In the Kabalah the point is YO_D, the Creative Energy of God, irradiating with light the circular space which God, the universal Light, left vacant, wherein to create the worlds, by withdrawing His substance of Light back on all sides from one point.

Our Brethren add that, “this circle is embordered by two perpendicular parallel lines, representing Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist, and upon the top rest the Holy Scriptures” (an open book). “In going round this circle,” they say, “we necessarily touch upon these two lines as well as upon the Holy Scriptures; and while a Mason keeps himself circumscribed within their precepts, it is impossible that he should materially err.”

p. 17

It would be a waste of time to comment upon this. Some writers have imagined that the parallel lines represent the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, which the Sun alternately touches upon at the Summer and Winter solstices. But the tropics are not perpendicular lines, and the idea is merely fanciful. If the parallel lines ever belonged to the ancient symbol, they had some more recondite and more fruitful meaning. They probably had the same meaning as the twin columns Jachin and Boaz. That meaning is not for the Apprentice. The adept may find it in the Kabalah. The JUSTICE and MERCY of God are in equilibrium, and the result is HARMONY, because a Single and Perfect Wisdom presides over both.

The Holy Scriptures are an entirely modern addition to the symbol, like the terrestrial and celestial globes on the columns of the portico. Thus the ancient symbol has been denaturalized by incongruous additions, like that of Isis weeping over the broken column containing the remains of Osiris at Byblos.

We move on from ORNAMENTS and back to JEWELS again and we are reading Pike’s explanations of the point within a circle and a point within two parallel lines. These are symbols one will see often as they study freemasonry. And Pike writes some strong meanings about each here. And he gives several meanings.

This is very indicative in a lodge as well where each member will find And SHOULD FIND their own meanings in the symbolisms of freemasonry. 

When I see the point within a circle, it represents me as the point and MY OWN set of morality as the circle. So long as I am true to my beliefs, and don’t step out of the “circle” I remain true to myself. 

And we must all find what our strengths are and recognize where we are weak. And where we are weak, we should find a way to use the weakness as a strength. 

This paragraph is worth reading again and studying. 

I will post some images of the symbolisms discussed here in the next couple of days. I will stop here for now as the next half of this page is Pike’s own interpretations of  the 10 commandments. Which I believe will be worth posting and studying on its own.

I thank you all again for your time here. I hope you like the new format. Let me know if you have any suggestions to make this better for YOU, and please never hesitate to add your own opinions. Though moderated, I always post any opinion that is constructive and adds to the spirit of this site.