Published by Secretary on 23 Jan 2009 at 08:41 pm
The Layout of the Lodge
The Layout of the Lodge - by Richard W.
I have entitled these remarks « The layout of the Lodge », but what I have in
mind is rather its astronomical connection.
Most people, I suppose, when they go into a church realise that the altar is placed in the East ; similarly, in a mosque that the prayer niche faces Mekka. And no doubt too a synagogue faces Jerusalem. But other directions are scarcely considered.
How different it is in a masonic temple where we find considerable emphasis placed on compass directions !
For example, before the lodge can be properly opened, all the senior players must be in their correct geographical place.
So the opening ritual runs –
“Junior Warden, what is your place in the Lodge? In the South”.
“Senior Warden, your place? In the West”
“The Master’s place? In the East”
And each has an astronomical reason for being there –
The Junior Warden to mark the sun at its meridian.
The Senior Warden to mark the setting sun
The WM as the sun rises in the E etc etc
There are many other references to compass directions to be found in the explanation of the Tracing Board or in the First Degree Lectures. To mention just a few –
(a) in the explanation of the Tracing Board as well as in the fourth section of the First Degree Lectures we are told that Lodges are, or should be, sited due East –West.
I shall refer to this point again later.
(b) in the first section of the Lectures comes the sequence –
“As a Mason, whence come you? Answer : “the W”.
“Whither directing your course? Answer: the E..
(c) even the weather gets a mention, for in the seventh section of the same Lectures, the question is asked -
“How blows the wind in Freemasonry?” Answer: “favourably, due E or W.”
But, if the cardinal points were not enough, Freemasonry goes even further in attaching importance to two intermediate points —
North-East and South-East.
As a possible explanation for these intermediate points I should like to mention the two pillars at our doorway. We call them pillars, but this be may be a mis-nomer since they are free-standing. They do not support anything.
Perhaps their real function is that they are a faint echo of the marker stones which are known to have been used at a number of ancient sites. What they notionally mark is the extreme positions of the sun at the solstices – the right-hand pillar in front of the entrance marking the shadow of the sun at the summer solstice, the left-hand pillar the sun at the winter solstice. This becomes clearer when we consider that, the pillars were, so it is thought, originally sited in the East where the entrance to the lodge used to be.
The Entered Apprentice is placed after his initiation in the NE corner. The reason given is that is where the first or foundation stone of a stately building is customarily laid. An astronomical reason would be that he is placed between the darkness of the North on his right and the light of the East on his left where the day with the longest daylight starts; after all, an initiate is here to receive enlightenment.
It is also of interest to note that both Deacons sit on the NE/SW line.
A remark in connection with the Deacons is that they carry a so-called wand. The theory again is that these wands are a faint reminder of shadow-sticks. On primitive building sites the Deacons would have an important part to play as surveyors. Using their shadow-sticks they would, in particular, be responsible for determining the exact East-West line so that a temple could face due East. They would achieve this by measuring the shadows of the rising and setting sun at the equinox when both shadows would form one straight line. Examples of such rods can be seen in several Egyptian temple decorations.
One source I read said that in much earlier times, especially in Scotland, Deacons were called in when a new church was to be built. They would measure the angle of the rising sun on the day that construction was due to start and that would determine the siting of the eastern wall. The same source even speculated that it might be possible to guess the name of an old church by knowing which saint was attributed to the day that the East wall directly faced the rising sun.
As a sideline, Masonic Temples for this reason were once described as being under the protection of the two St Johns —- St John the Baptist as associated with mid-summer when the sun reaches the extreme SE, and St John the Evangelist as associated with mid-winter when the sun reaches the extreme NE.
To sum up — why should there be this insistence on geographical points in the layout of the Lodge?
The background to this question may be because our Lodges are said to be modelled on the temple of King S to whom all Masonic Lodges are dedicated.
This temple was sited due E and W to conform with a tent or tabernacle that Moses had been commanded to set up in this way.
What is made clear, however, is that King S. lacked the expertise to build a prestigious building and needed to call in know-how from abroad. He therefore appealed for help to King Hiram of Tyre. Archaeological surveys have shown that the Canaanites/Philistines/Phoenicians in their various settlements like Tyre, Sidon and Byblos already had temples for their solar worship, so it is not surprising that their techniques and traditions should have been incorporated in the temple they helped build for King S.
A number of masonic writers have commented that the ritual in Masonry is essentially solar-based. This is evidenced by several facts —-
- that the principal officers represent the sun’s path during the day,
- that a candidate’s perambulation similarly moves clockwise following the sun’s course,
- that one of the ornaments of the Lodge is the Blazing Star i.e. the sun ,
- that in the first section of the Lectures the question is asked “when were you made a mason? Answer: “when the sun was at its meridian”.
Even ante-dating any solar influences from the Phoenicians, however, there may be other elements that have come down through the ages and left an echo. I have already mentioned the two pillars which are known to have stood outside Egyptian temples. And there is the principal point in Freemasonry, the point within a circle which is mentioned in the sixth section of the Lectures and which we see incorporated in the First Degree Tracing Board. This is a hieroglyphic sign that stood for the Sun God Ra, or simply the sun. We should not be surprised to detect Egyptian traces, for the explanation of the First Degree Tracing Board starts off by saying “the usages and customs among Freemasons have ever borne a near affinity to those of the ancient Egyptians”.
All these factors — the geographical alignment and solar aspects which all determine the layout of the lodge and thereby the basic symbolism of the masonic system — are a clear indication that the foundations of Masonry are rooted far in the past.