Polygons and star polygons in Freemasonry
Triangle, pentagram, hexagram and the blazing star are fixed elements of Masonic symbolism. Were they only signs, or was there knowledge behind them?
Freemasons see their brotherhood as a community in which each member works on himself to become a better person. Their basic ideals are liberty, equality, fraternity, tolerance and humanity. In Germany the umbrella organisation is the United Grand Lodges of Germany.
Why is Freemasonry in the section on mysticism? Because it concerns itself with number symbolism and mysticism. Its roots lie not only in the cathedral builders’ lodges (see The signatures of the cathedral builders) but also in Kabbalistic and Rosicrucian thought. This Western esotericism was a return to the Gnostic roots of Christianity and a protest against the dogmas of the time. Some lodges are even named after Pythagoras.
The figures
Freemasonry works with symbols in which numbers and geometric figures play a large part. In publications, ritual objects and lodge rooms polygons and star polygons appear again and again. Their meanings are not strictly fixed:
- The triangle can mean the “Great Architect of the Universe”, but also the degree of Entered Apprentice.
- The pentagram can mean the human being, but also the degree of Fellow Craft.
- The hexagram can mean the union of God and world, or polarity as such, but also the degree of Master Mason.
The four start figures of the tetractys in particular, triangle, hexagram, pentagram and double pentagram (which might be read as the “blazing star”), are among the most important symbols. They also appear on the jewels, the insignia lodge members wear during ritual work. Besides these four there are many other figures in Masonic symbolism, but almost always symmetries around a centre.
The four start figures of the tetractys: triangle, hexagram, pentagram and double pentagram, the 'blazing star'.
Square and compasses
The emblem of Freemasonry is the square and compasses, interlocked, sometimes with the letter G in the middle. Both tools can be linked with many pairs of concepts, in the broadest sense like yin and yang. Could it not be that the spiritual forerunners of Freemasonry, such as Pythagoras, and later “initiates of geometry” discovered the secrets of creation with precisely these tools? With compasses and square one draws circles, polygons and star polygons, the very figures explained number-theoretically under The key to the tetractys. Here are connections where one need no longer be content with mystical interpretation. They could give Masonic symbolism something like a scientific foundation.
Why were these figures so important to the founding fathers? Were they only symbols? Discretion is a virtue of the brotherhood, and perhaps the old knowledge was buried with the last initiates. One example is an old Masonic gravestone in a churchyard in Castleton, Derbyshire, bearing Masonic symbols.
The four elements in Emil Stejnar
For anyone interested in the esotericism of Freemasonry, the books of the mystic and Freemason Emil Stejnar are recommended: Exerzitien für Freimaurer (Exercises for Freemasons, 1984) and Die vier Elemente. Der geheime Schlüssel zur geistigen Macht (The four elements: the secret key to spiritual power). Stejnar’s main theme is the doctrine of the four elements and its correspondence with the four-letter name of God, YHWH. He takes as his model a four-pole magnet whose poles depend on each other:
| Element | Effect | Quality | Power of the soul |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire | energy | active | willing |
| Water | resonance | passive | feeling |
| Air | information | light | thinking |
| Earth | storage | heavy | awareness |
One of Stejnar’s drawings shows four pairs of interlocking hands with the name of God at the centre: the four elements are inseparable. The same motif appears in the Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians.
Alfried Lehner
Another Freemason and author who has studied the Pythagorean brotherhood and the lambdoma is Alfried Lehner. Worth reading are his book Die Esoterik der Freimaurer (The esotericism of the Freemasons) and a second, hard-to-find work, Das wunderbare Wissen vom Wesen der Welt (The wondrous knowledge of the nature of the world), a ritual guide for Master Masons that deals among other things with the philosophical aspects of the lambdoma.
On Freemasonry see also Herder’s Metacritique and The throne of God and the number 24.
Circle, triangle and square around one centre: the geometric framework from which the builders' lodges derived their marks.