When you enter a lodge room anywhere in the United States, there are three items that are present on the alter in the middle of the room. The Holy Bible, Square, and Compasses.
The Holy Bible
Being that Freemasonry is a fraternity built on the idea that men who believe in a higher power, regardless of what they call it, should be able to come together to make themselves and the community better through the study and conferring of degrees, brotherhood, and charity.
A part of any candidate's initiation into Freemasonry is the taking of an obligation on a Volume of Sacred Law (VSL). In most English speaking countries, especially the United States where over 65% of adults are Christians, the volume of Sacred Law is the King James Version of the Holy Bible. The idea here is that swearing to keep the secrets of Masonry in the presence of your deity will bind you to your promise further than simple words could ever do.
The Square
The second thing anyone would notice is that upon the open VSL is the square. This is half of one of the most recognized symbols of the fraternity and carries a profound meaning. Through the three degrees of Blue Lodge Masonry, the Square is regarded as a very important symbol as it teaches Masons to square their actions or to "act upon the square". By doing this, we act with square by acting with honesty.
The Compasses
As in Operative Freemasonry, the compasses are used for the measurement of the architect's plans. In Speculative Freemasonry, this important tool is symbolic of the fact that we must use the compasses to circumscribe our actions when acting upon the square.
The compasses measure a Freemason's life and conduct. To quote Mackey, "As the Bible gives us light on our duties to God, and the square illustrates our duties to our neighborhood and Brother, so the compasses give that additional light which is to instruct us in the duty we owe to ourselves-the great, imperative duty of circumscribing our passions, and keeping our desires within due bounds. "It is ordained," says the philosophic [Edmund] Burke, "in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate passions cannot be free; their passions forge their fetters." Those Brethren who delight to trace our emblems to an astronomical origin, find in the compasses a symbol of the sun, the circular pivot representing the body of the luminary, and the diverging legs his rays."
By understanding the place of these three great lights in the Lodge, so is it to understand the goals of Freemasonry and the gift it gives to society in giving us helps by the Grace of God through the study of the Volume of Sacred Law, the fundamentals of honesty in the Square, and the ability to circumscribe our conduct in the compasses.
Bro. Matt Ross
Battle Creek Lodge No. 12
Grand Lodge of Michigan
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