Each Mason in a Lodge who has a role to play in the Ritual has their own symbol or sign. The two main supporting officers have two each, and the Master three.
The Master of the Lodge sits before the Tracing Boards, which contain the plan of work for the Lodge, a position dating back to the time of operative Masons, and the directions the Apprentices and Journeymen would be given from the architectural plans held by the Master Builder.
Euclid, the "Father of Mathematics" taught geometry three hundred years BCE, and for many is also considered one of the Fathers of Freemasonry. He is called such in one of the oldest Masonic manuscripts, the Regius MS, dated about 1390, and also in Anderson's Constitutions.
His work resonates throughout the scientific world to this day, and especially for Masons with the Pythagorean Theorem, or 47th Proposition.
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Talking to newly initiated Turkish brethren in Hamburg recently, they highlighted two factors of their membership which had impressed them.
Trust and Fellowship.
Both had felt immediately welcomed into the Lodge by their older brethren. Both had felt trust throughout the process for those who were guiding them on their first steps in Freemasonry, despite initial trepidation. Both are now filled with curiosity for the future.
The Consecration of a Lodge usually happens just once, when the Lodge is first opened officially by their Grand Master, and the Charter of the Lodge is handed over as recognition that this new Lodge is Just and Regular.
In East Germany, in the early Nineties, many Lodges forced to close by the National Socialists were re-opened and Consecrated once more, allowing them to work after almost fifty years of darkness.
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The term "Just and Regular" is used to refer to Lodges which have been judged so by a higher authority - the Grand Lodge - which has also been judged to be Regular, and which ascertains that all the requirements for a Masonic Lodge are kept, and that a Patent can be issued to certify this.
A Lodge which has its Patent removed for whatever reason, is no longer considered Just and Regular, and is locked out from all the Masonic rights of Regular Freemasonry.
Some forms of Freemasonry, especially in Europe, like to trace their history back to the Knights of Jerusalem and the days when - in the eleventh century - pilgrims to Jerusalem needed to be protected and cared for. As a symbol of this connection they carry a sword.
Whether there is truly a connection is debatable, but the sword has a specific meaning for Masons: we will protect those in need, as much as we would protect ourselves.
North Sea Armed Forces Lodge