Beauty: Symbols, Ritual, and Rhetoric

Aesthetics played a central role in the rhetoric and imagery of freemasonry. Visual symbols and color conveyed attractive values and qualities of Masonry as well as the various rites, degrees, and offices. Through metaphors of geometry, architecture, and stonemasonry, Masons aspired to meet in lodge as equals (“on the level”) to improve themselves (“working the stone”) through moral instruction (“light”) and good moral conduct (“within the compasses”). 

The square (or right angle) and compasses, configured in an overlapping pattern, is the universal symbol of freemasonry. The square signifies moral integrity while the compasses refer to proportion and moderation. Yet, such standard interpretations of these forms and metaphors were frequently elaborated on with additional readings depending on the theme under discussion or the individual Mason’s experiences. Certain architectural styles were always in favor with Masons, such as Greco-Roman antiquity, Renaissance and Palladian Revival, but the Rococo, Gothic, and Egyptian were also appropriated for certain associations they conjured. Ironically, freemasons enlisted beauty to justify excluding women from lodges.