Behind the Symbol

The Apron
One of the first and most noticeable symbols the new
mason comes into contact with is the Apron. He is
told that it is the badge of a Mason, that it is made of
lamb skin, and that the lamb in all ages has been Southern Queensland Education
regarded as an emblem of innocence. He is not told
however, that because it was viewed as innocent, a lamb was also a common
sacrifice.

HISTORY
History records sacrifices of animals amongst the Semitic peoples for thousands of years. The lamb
was much used by the Jews, particularly during Passover. In earlier times, food was not so plentiful,
and people were not so wealthy, that they could afford to waste food indiscriminately. Buying a lamb
for a temple sacrifice was not something one did often. It was expensive so it was done perhaps once a
year at Passover, and even then only if one could afford it.
The lamb was offered as a sacrifice at the altar by having its throat cut across and being drained of
blood. The blood was then used in the ritual. The lamb was then prepared to be a burnt offering by
being skinned and gutted. Finally it was put to the flames and when it was sufficiently sacrificed, it
was put aside as food for the priests and the poor. At each of these steps there were professionals to do
the work for you, especially the dirty bits, provided you paid them. 1
Notice that in the above the skin of the lamb was not used in the process of the sacrifice, but you can
be sure it was not thrown away or wasted.
The use of the Apron as a piece of ceremonial clothing is widespread. It has been used by;
Jewish priests - as recorded in the Old Testament
Egyptian priests - shown in statues and paintings wearing triangular aprons with the point up
Egyptian mummies - Tut-Ankh-Amun was found to be wearing an apron when unwrapped
Candidates of ancient Mysteries - Egyptian, Persian, Jewish, Indian.
Aprons were not just ceremonial though. Artisans, craftsmen and tradesmen have been shown wearing
aprons since at least the 12th century in Europe. Trade and guild members in 14th century Britain are
recorded as being required to wear their guild livery 2 which was often referred to as a Badge and
served to identify the wearers craft or trade. It was common for all crafts and trades to wear aprons.
Sir Walter Besant, in his London in the Eighteenth Century says that in the 1700s;
The carpenter wore a white apron looped up at the side, the shoe maker wore a short leather apron, the
blacksmith a long leather apron, the barber a white apron with pockets, the butcher a blue coat and apron, the
baker was all in white including his cap, the tapster (Bartender) had sleeves rolled up and a white apron with

The story of the money changers at the temple during the Passover from the New Testament shows that some thought it
wrong to make profits from helping others perform their sacrifices. The point was that they should do it themselves.
Paying someone else to perform a ritual and watching from the sidelines, or being told about it, may be a great starting
point to begin learning about it, but for any ritual to have real impact it must be experienced first hand. Having someone
else do it for you by paying them leaves you with no direct experience of it, and therefore no real learning from it.
2

The word Livery comes from the old French word livre meaning deliver the masters were required to deliver the
clothing to their servants.

the corner tucked up into the waistband, the shopmen, except the draper, all wore aprons. The apron was
indeed the symbol of the servant and craftsman, it belonged in varied form to every trade.

As a general rule, the employer, or master, was required to provide the livery for his workmen. In
1355, York Minster records that it provided aprons, gloves and clogs to its Masons.
The indenture of Symon Bond in 1685 as an apprentice to John Cooke of Harbury, a stone mason, says
that he will allow his apprentice;
sufficient wholsome and competent meate drinke lodging and aprons all the rest of hi apparrell being to be
pvided by his said parents

Between 1456 and 1510, nine trades were incorporated in Edinburgh and were granted a charter, or
Seal of Cause. Receiving a charter gave the guilds certain rights for which they agreed to control their
members, regulate wages, working practices, apprenticeships, and welfare. The Masons charter was
granted in 1475 and the engraving below shows the craftsmen wearing their particular aprons.

Sievewright

Slater

Glazier

Cooper

Mason

Wright (Carpenter)

Bowmaker

Painter

Plumber

Upholsterer

Members of the Incorporations of Trades, Marys Chapel Edinburgh

Represented as engaged in their several crafts in front of the Royal Palace of Holyrood
(From: The Master Masons to the Crown of Scotland and their Works, Robert Milne, 1893)

The records show that the Operative Stone Masons apron during the 14th and 15th centuries, was a full
sheep skin and reached down well below the knees. In an English record from 1423 we read of two
skins given to the masons to make naprons 3 of, and in 1428, two naprons of leather being
provided.
The operative Masons apron was a heavy leather skin worn to protect the clothing from being soiled
and the body of the workman from injury. It was secured to the waist by a leather strap passed around
the waist and tied in the front and had a bib, or flap, that was held up by another leather strap around
the neck. When at rest or refreshment, the bib was allowed to fall down in front and became referred
to as the fall. In the early days of speculative Masonry, the fall had a button hole that could be
buttoned to the jacket to keep it up. An example of this can be seen in the portrait of Anthony Sayer,
the first Grand Master (which I cant locate at the moment for some reason).
3

Napron is an old French word meaning cloth. It is believed that over time, a napron became an apron

Gentlemen Freemasons began to line their aprons with silk to

prevent their clothes being soiled by the tanned leather. The first
record of a lined apron is from 1731.
From early 18th Century images of speculative Freemasons we
can see that the apron was still quite long (see picture at right)
and still resembled a working apron. As time passed, the aprons
grew smaller as they became more symbolical rather than
protective and by the 1790s seems to have been purely symbolic,
with even operative Masons wearing a speculative apron rather than a working one. One preserved
apron from an antients lodge from around 1790 is highly decorated with symbols from several
degrees.
An Irish apron from around 1790 is of the current rectangular shape and has 3 ribbons around the edge.
The outer ribbon is blue (Craft), the middle red (Royal Arch) and the inner ribbon is black (Knight
Templar)
The ribbon, used to hold the apron on, was passed under the fall, all the way around the waist, and tied
in front, again under the fall. Once tied the ends of the ribbon used to hang down the front of the apron
as can be seen in portraits from the period.
The addition of the tassels seems to have come about in the 1830s when the ribbons used to tie the
apron on were replaced with a belt and hook in the form of a snake. Tassels were added as permanent
decorations to replace the hanging ribbons.
By May 1814, there was a huge proliferation of apron sizes, types, materials and colours, which
prompted the United Grand Lodge to insist on a standard. Even so, it was 20 or 30 years before
standard aprons were commonplace.
Rule 269 of the Constitutions said that the Entered Apprentice Apron was to be of A plain white
lambskin fourteen inches wide, and fourteen inches deep, no ornament, white strings and a flap and
this was to be the basis for all aprons henceforth, with various ribbons and decorations added to
indicate Masonic advancement or particular order (Mark, Royal Arch, etc).
The Fellowcraft Apron was The same, with two sky-blue rosettes added.
The Master Masons was The same, with sky-blue lining, and edging of not more than two inches
wide; An additional rosette on the flap, silver tassels on sky-blue strings.
Although aprons exist from before 1800 with Taus (or levels) on them, the earliest written record of
them is from an Order of the United Grand Lodge from 1814 describing how they were to be placed.
They were to be of half-inch ribbon laid out in perpendicular lines upon horizontal lines, thereby
forming three several sets of two right angles. They were to be two and one half inches wide by one
inch high. Similar dimensions are still in use today, but the ribbon has been replaced with metal
Before the addition of rosettes, aprons were worn differently to show Masonic progression. The
apprentice wore the apron with the flap up, the journeyman or fellow wore his with the flap down and
the left corner tucked up, and the master Mason with the flap and corners down. This tradition is
continued in many Masonic jurisdictions in Europe and America.
In England, and jurisdictions which descended from the UGLE after the 1813 unification, rosettes are
more common methods of displaying Masonic advancement.
3

SYMBOLISM
The investiture of the Apron is performed by the Senior Warden, the representative of the Soul. In his
book The Meaning of Masonry Walter Leslie Wilmshurst says of the Apron;
The physical form with which we have all been invested by the Creator upon our entrance to this world, and of
which we shall all divest ourselves when we leave the Lodge of this life, is represented among us by our
Masonic Apron. This our body of mortality, our veil of flesh and blood clothing our inner soul, this is our real
badge of innocence, the common bond of friendship with which the Great Architect has been pleased to
invest us all. The human body is the badge which is older and nobler than that of any other Order in
existence, and though it be but a body of humiliation compared to that body of incorruption which is the
promised inheritance of him who endures to the end, let us never forget that if we never do anything to the
badge of the flesh, that badge will never disgrace us.

There is a great deal of symbolism behind the apron, and there are many schools of thought about it.
Here we will mention just some of the more well known. We will begin with the most basic and most
ancient symbolism of the geometric shapes and numbers that make up the apron.
Four
The apron of the early 1800s was 14 inches square and although it is now mostly a
rectangle of 14 by 16 inches it obviously retains four right angles. Squares or Rectangles
represent the physical world and are associated with the four elements of antiquity; earth,
air, fire, and water, and the four limbs; two legs and two arms. Therefore, squares
represent the material world and the body. The Square and the number 4 have been a
symbol of the physical world, of matter, of the Body for millennia, and to the ancients, it also
symbolised the four winds, or the four points of the compass. Four also symbolises the fourfold
human organism, consisting of Physical (Uninitiated), Emotional (1st Degree), Intellectual (2nd
Degree), and Spiritual (3rd Degree).
In the Western Metaphysical
system, and Western Philosophy
until at least the 19th century, the
universe (macrocosm) and the
individual (microcosm) consisted of
four worlds; the Physical world
or Body, the Psyche/Soul, the Spirit,
Neo-Platonic device, originating in Alexandria, uses a mathematical or
and the Divine. According to Kirk The
geometrical idiom to describe the four stage process in which Deity brings the
McNulty, these four worlds are Universe into existence. The device demonstrates the regular progression of
from a point, to a line, from a line to a superficies (plane, surface),from a
represented in the design of Gothic science
superficies to a solid (Quoted from 2nd Degree Emulation Ritual)
Cathedrals in the form of the Nave,
the Choir, the Sanctuary, and the Tabernacle, which makes the Cathedral a representation of both the
Universe and of Man. He also says that it represents the four stages process of bringing the Universe
into existence.
The four right angles remind us of the four corners of the first tracing board which contain the tassels
representing the four cardinal virtues, and remind us to practice Temperance, Prudence, Fortitude, and
Justice. The four sides remind us that Purity, Truth, Sincerity and Honesty are the foundations of
morality. Between the four right angles there are two horizontal lines (levels), at the top and bottom,
and two parallel perpendiculars (vertical plumb lines) at the sides. The lower level represents the
Earth and the upper level represents the Heavens, again matter and spirit.
The Plumbs or sides, symbolise uprightness and rectitude. Rectitude of Conduct. Rectitude of Morals.
Rectitude of Life. The upper level being a spiritual level, promises that those who walk uprightly
before God and Man (symbolised by the two plumb lines) will walk eternally in the level of the spirit,
or Heaven.
4

Three
The flap, or fall, in most jurisdictions, is a triangle. In geometry, one cannot make a
geometric figure using a single straight line, nor indeed with two straight lines. Three lines,
however, can make a triangle, the first perfect geometric figure created of straight lines. If
you wish to symbolise the number three, there is no more obvious, or more simple way of doing so
than to use a triangle.
The three sides are suggestive of the triune nature of the Divine, being Will, Wisdom, and Intelligence.
From the earliest of times, the number three has been associated with the Divine.
To the Sumerians, it suggested the deities Tammuz (Sun, fire), Enki (God of water & male fertility)
and Inanna (Ishtar, Goddess of fertility and sexual love)
To the Babylonians Marduk (Water, Son of Ea), Ea (father, Sumerian Enki), Enlil (Air)
To the Egyptians 3 was the number of perfection, and represented Osiris, Isis and Horus.
To the Hindus it represented creation, preservation and renewal, or Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
To the Chinese it represented heaven, earth and water.
To Buddhists it speaks of the Buddha, Dharma (Law, Truth) and Sangha (community with a common
goal practicing the good way, the upright way, the knowledgeable way).
To Persians it was Ormuzd (Ahura Mazda), Mithra and Apam Napat or Anahita (Water God).
To the Jews the triangle represented the three periods of existence, the past, present and future.
To the Greeks it was the Sacred Delta, the equilateral triangle became their letter Delta and in their
Mythology referred to Zeus, Athens and Apollo.
To Christians it represents Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

is used as a symbol for the Masculine, the Spirit and

Fire, while the triangle with the point down is symbol for the Feminine, the Soul, and Air.
In Alchemy, the triangle with the point up

The Trinities, or Father, Mother and Child images of ancient Gods like those of the Babylonians,
Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks and Romans, and even the various versions of a Trinity that
have, over time, been associated with different groups of Christians are all representations of this
number three.
This very early symbolism of Deity by the triangle has continued throughout the ages and Trinitarian
schemes have been prevalent in all religions. The frequent recurrence of the number three in rituals of
all types and from all sources is striking evidence of this.
The triangle has been seen as a symbol of the Divine and the Spirit since time immemorial.

Five
With the flap raised, the outline of the Apron now has five points. In the jurisdictions
where the Entered Apprentice wears the Apron with the flap up, it is considered a five
cornered badge, indicating the five senses, by which means we enter into relations with
the material world (our five points of fellowship with the material world).4
Five also brings to mind the five Noble Orders of Architecture.

Wilmshurst: The Meaning of Masonry

Seven
The flap of the apron when raised forms a triangle standing on a square. This was
considered by the Egyptians as a most perfect figure, and is recorded as being an
important symbol in the ceremonies of the Egyptian Mysteries. It is the symbol of
Matter being under the Spirit, or of Matter presently being separate from the Spirit. It is
the combination of the three of the Spirit and the four of the Body, making the perfect
seven. This symbol, and its three dimensional equivalent of the pyramid on the cube, are both still
seen in European Freemasonry, and in other initiatory organisations.
The number seven has been important to many civilisations. English Law (and its descendants) never
attributed Moral or Legal responsibility to a child under seven years old, recognised the important
physiological changes connected with puberty which was seen as occurring at age fourteen, and until
recently denied civic responsibility until the age of twenty-one years. As they used to say Three
times seven makes a man
Early Masonic rituals, notably the surviving fragments from the Antients rituals, required the
Entered Apprentice to wear his apron with the flap pointing upwards, indicating that Divine Wisdom
has not yet truly penetrated the gross matter of the body. In other words, the initiate has yet to
combine the Spirit and the Body, and the Soul is still nowhere to be seen.
This method of wearing the Entered Apprentice apron is still used in parts of France, Germany,
Scandinavia, America, and other places that descended from English Masonry before 1813.
Infinite, Eternal
A geometric figure cannot be made from one straight line, but allow that line to curve
and you can create the eternal, never ending, never beginning circle. To the ancients,
the circle suggested Divine consciousness, eternity and the eternal cycle, the idea that
everything eventually returns to its source, to a point which precedes a new
manifestation. It also represented the cycle of the human soul; the death and rebirth, or reincarnation.
(the wheel of the Buddhists suggests a similar thought)
The strings or belt of the apron are thought of as forming a circle when the Apron is worn. When the
belt is fitted with a snake hook it thus becomes a representation of a very special circle, an Ouroboros,
or a snake eating its own tail.
The earliest known depiction of an Ouroboros was found in the Egyptian Book of the
Dead, 5 where the self-begetting sun god, the Aten, is said to have ascended from the
waters of chaos with the appearance of a snake, renewing himself every morning. It is
believed to have been inspired by the Milky Way and indeed some ancient texts refer
to an eternal serpent of light circling the heavens.
The Ouroboros represents the cyclical nature of existence, the seasons, the returning movements of the
night sky, constant renewal, re-creation, eternal return, life out of death, reincarnation, and other cycles
that are perceived to begin anew as soon as they end, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes of its own
destruction. Sometimes it is shown as half black and half white, reminding us of several things,
including the Taoist Yin-Yang symbol, which symbolises the duality of all things, and shows that the
opposites blend together and work together and therefore, despite appearances, are not in conflict.

The Book of the Dead is the common name for the ancient Egyptian funerary texts more correctly known as The Book of Coming Forth By Day

It was, and is, an important mythological and religious symbol, and was used frequently in
alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus
(work). It is often associated with Alchemy, Gnosticism and Hermeticism. It is a symbol of
the eternal principles that are found in the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, or Thoth.
As Above, So Below, to create the One: we are born from nature, we mirror it because we
are a part of it, and eventually we return to it.
It is believed that this is also the origin of the mathematical symbol we use for infinity.
The Ouroboros symbol has also been found in 14th and 15th century Albigensian (i.e. people from Albi, 85 Km
NE of Toulouse) printing as watermarks. Because the Albigensians were seen by the Roman church as being
closely associated with the Humanist movement, Gnosticism, and Arianism, they were therefore Heretics, and
their heresy sparked an inquisition. Indeed, the Albigensian Crusade, or Cathar Crusade, was the only Crusade
ever declared on fellow Christians by the Roman church (Pope Innocent III) who saw them as descendants of
the Arian Gnostic Heresy that they had worked hard for centuries to extinguish, in fact ever since the AD325
Council of Nicaea.
The Crusade lasted 20 years from 1209 to 1229 and was instrumental in the formation of the Dominican Order
of Preaching Friars, or OP (Ordo Praedicatorum), named after Dominic de Guzman, (San Domenico Guzman)
who learned from the Cathars the effectiveness of wandering preachers. The Crusade also led to the creation of
the Medieval Holy Roman Inquisition in Toulouse in 1229, but was obviously unable to rid the world of the
Cathar / Albigensian / Bogomil Gnostic Heresy which still exists even today.
Albigensian Gnostic beliefs had their roots in the Pauline Bogomils of Bulgaria
and the Pauline Christianity found in Armenia where Zoroastrianism and
Mithras worship were also common. It is believed that the Ouroboros
symbol entered their iconography via the Zoroastrian Faravahar symbol
(see image at right), which in some versions features an Ouroboros around the waist.

The Fellowcraft Apron

Again from Wilmshurst:
The inward development which the second degree symbolises is typified by the lowering of the triangular flap
of the apron upon the rectangular portion below. It denotes the progress we have made in the science or in
other words it indicates that the higher nature of man, symbolised by the trinity of spirit, has descended into,
and is now permeating, his lower nature. Hitherto, the spiritual part of his nature has, but hovered above him;
he has been unconscious of its presence, but now having realised its existence, the nobler part of him descends
into his lower nature, illuminating and enriching it.

The Fellowcraft wears his Apron with the flap pointing down to indicate that wisdom has begun to
enter and control the physical desires of the body, and that the Soul and body are now beginning to
work together.
The addition of two rosettes to the Apron suggests a birds-eye-view of the two pillars, the duality, the
balancing of exuberance and restraint, as used in the two grand parallel lines beside the
Circumpunct. The display of only two rosettes also points out that the Fellowcraft is yet one
material point in the dark respecting Freemasonry and requires the third rosette to form a triangle of
the Spirit.
Some say that the rosettes indicate the progress being made in the science of regeneration and that the
by the time he is a Fellowcraft, the Masons spirituality is beginning to bud forth, blossoming as a
rose, in his regenerated nature.

The Master Mason's Apron.

The Master Masons Apron indicates the wearer has passed through the three degrees of purifying and
self-perfecting, that he is able to govern the lodge within himself, he has squared, levelled, and
harmonised his triple nature of Body, Soul, and Spirit.
In the first two degrees, the Apron contained no metal. The neophyte has, after all, been learning to
divest himself of the base metals and transmute them into spiritual riches. By reaching the sublime
degree, he now has an exuberance of metallic riches in the form of the tassels and the serpent clasp.
The addition of the third rosette now forms an upward pointing triangle, which
penetrates the downward pointing triangle of the flap. The Pagan Masculine
penetrating Feminine, the Alchemical Fire combining with Water, the Spirit and Soul
coming together in the Master Mason.

The triangle of the flap and triangle of the rosettes form another square (or lozenge ) where they
overlap. This square represents matter, or the body. Thus we have the union of Body (square), the
Soul (upper triangle) and the Spirit (lower triangle), or the Material, the Intellectual, and the Spiritual,
or Earth, Water, and Fire. (Air being suggested by the Sky-blue of the ribbon around the edges of the
square and the triangle.)
The Tassels.
The Master Masons apron also has pendant strings and tassels.
When the Apron was fastened by strings, they were passed around
the waist and tied in the front under the flap, with the ends
hanging down.
As shown in the photo of a lambskin Entered Apprentice Apron at
right, it became the custom to decorate those ends with tassels.
The introduction of the more convenient belt removed the strings
and their tassels, so the pendants were added, and are commonly referred to as strings, and the ends are
referred to as tassels. The modern tassels are made using metal chains and seven balls.
Of the tassels Wilmshurst says:
On either side of the Apron are seen two columns of light descending from above, streaming into the depths of
his whole being, terminating in the seven-fold tassels which typify the seven-fold prismatic spectrum of the
supernal (from the sky) Light.

The seven balls, seven being the number of the Apron itself (4 + 3), refer us to:
The 7 liberal Arts and Sciences
The 7 or more to make a lodge perfect
The combined number of Matter (4) and Spirit (3)
The sum of the Pythagoreans first two perfect figures (triangle + square)
The 7 steps to approach the east in the third degree
Jacobs ladder of seven rungs
The 7 caverns of the Persian Mysteries
The 7 branched candlestick of the Jews: which itself represents the central Sun and the six
visible planets.

Both tassels together total 14 balls suggesting the Trinity of the Egyptian Mysteries. Fourteen was the
number of pieces Osiris (Father) was cut up into and scattered across the land until eventually found
by Isis (Mother) which then allowed her to conceive Horus (the dying and resurrecting Son)
Look down sometime
When looked at from the point of view of the wearer, the pendants (strings + tassels) of the Apron
resemble two pillars rising out of a triangle of the Spirit (point upwards). Each pillar can be seen to
have a capital (separated from the shaft of the pillar by a bar) with a network (chains) and
Pomegranates (7 balls).
The two pillars rising out of the top of a triangle is a very common symbol and has been used for
temples and other ceremonial buildings for millennia. Note the faades of the cathedrals of various
ages below.

Ripon

Chartres

St Pauls

Tours

The Ribbon
The blue ribbon around the apron, not surprisingly, also has a symbolic meaning. In the VSL,
Numbers Chapter 15, Verse 37-39 says:
And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, speak unto the Children of Israel, and bid them that they make them
fringes on the borders of their garments throughout their generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the
borders a ribband of blue. And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that you may look upon it, and remember all
the commandments of the Lord and do them.

The ribbon on the Craft Apron is sky-blue or Cambridge University Blue, 6 the colour used by the
Parliamentarians when fighting King Charles. The darker blue used on Grand Aprons is Oxford Blue,
also known as the modern Garter Blue, which was associated with the Royalists during the Civil War.
The lighter sky-blue is the colour used to identify the Virgin Mary (in paintings and other art), which
was derived from the colour of the Egyptian Goddess Isis, and other ancient Goddesses.
Albert Mackay says the blue border was added as:
the colour of the firmament enveloping the globe; emblematic of universal friendship and benevolence,
instructing us that in the mind of a Freemason these virtues should be as extensive as the vault of Heaven
itself.

This lighter blue is the original Garter Blue. King George II changed the colour of the Order of the Garter to its present
dark colour to distinguish the Garter Knights from the Knights of the exiled Stuarts.

The Tau
When, eventually, a Master Mason becomes Master of his Lodge, the rosettes of his apron are replaced
by three Taus (sometimes referred to as levels). The Tau is an ancient symbol indeed, and is named
after the Greek letter it resembles. It was widely used as a sacred symbol among the ancients.
Being closely tied to the Egyptian Ankh, the symbol of life, the Tau was placed on the Pharaohs lips
as part of the King Making Ceremony. The Hebrews used it as a sign of salvation and it is mentioned
in the Torah and in the Old Testament book of Ezekiel. It was a mark worn by the devotees of
Brahma. The Druids used it to symbolise their God. It is strongly identified with the astrological sign
of Taurus. The Tau symbolised the Sumerian God, Tammuz, (the forerunner to the Roman God
Mithras and the Greek Attis and Adonis), the consort of the Goddess Inanna (forerunner to Ishtar,
Aphrodite, Venus, Dianna). Tammuz was associated with fishing and shepherding and as a solar god,
his death and resurrection were celebrated every Spring Equinox (March).
The use of the Tau in Christianity dates to its very beginnings. Several branches of Christianity have
always considered it to be the true shape of the cross of crucifixion and recent historical research is
showing this to be most likely. Saint Francis of Assisi adopted it as his personal coat of arms after
hearing Pope Innocent III talk about the Tau symbol and Saint Anthony of Padua bore a Tau cross on
his cloak. It is still used a symbol of the Franciscan Order.
Like Christianity, other ancient societies who used the Tau symbol expanded its
symbolism to include life, resurrection, and reincarnation which are sometimes
further symbolised by a circle added to the top of the Tau. The Crux Ansata,
(Cross with a handle) as it is termed, shown here is from a Coptic New
Testament Book of Acts in the Codex Glazier.
This circle is sometimes
represented as a Rose emerging from the centre point of the Tau cross, or the
Latin Cross in the case of the Rosicrucians (Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross).
Members of the Ancient and Accepted Rite will be familiar with the Rose Cross
(Rose Croix) symbol.
The Tau is also displayed in the regular steps which means we are effectively making a Tau cross
with our feet (or trampling on the cross as the Templars were accused of doing)

You are invited to bear in mind that all meanings attributed to symbols are, to some extent, personal
to the one who first defined it or the group to which it had a specific meaning. A particular
explanation or meaning may resonate to some brothers, but perhaps not to others. Over time we all
see and hear different meanings attributed to our symbols, and a Freemason who understands the
true nature of his craft would not allow himself to reject out-of-hand the meaning or explanation
assigned by any group, society or Brother, but look at that meaning to see if there is something in it
for him; perhaps different, perhaps modified, but meaningful for him.

10