FROM WHENCE CAME
THE SQUARE AND COMPASS
By Richard Rowney Connell
Freemasonry makes good men
better. You can ask millions of
freemasons, Where does that
come from? And I doubt that
you will receive a correct answer from any one of them.
Let me explain the conundrum to you, so that you
can become, one in a million; possibly 5 million.
Here is the story. The answer to both questions, is the
ALEMBIC.
An alembic is a laboratory
vessel used to distill and or
purify. A moonshiner’s still
is actually an alembic. The
word comes to us from Islam. Egyptian Arabic adepts are the fathers of alchemy and alchemy is the
grandfather of chemistry,
pharmacology and subsequently, medicine. The
early Masonic concepts came out of Africa; in this
case, Alexandria, Egypt.
Here is the progression from the alembic to the
square and compass. One can rightly claim that
freemasonry’s symbol as represented today is African Moslem and not Anglo-European Christian.
The image is of two monkish type alchemists in the
process of using an alembic for distillation.
The center image is the alchemical symbol for an
alembic. Everything in alchemy is symbolism.
The 3rd image needs no explanation (I hope!).
Everything in freemasonry is also symbolic.
Here in the center is the all seeing eye of the
Great Architect of the Universe, placed on the
two triangles representing the alchemist’s symbols for the following.
17th Century honorary freemasons (speculative) were primarily
interested
in alchemy.
There were two types of
alchemists, e.g. “Puffers” who were interested in synthesizing
base metals into precious metals
and Philosophical alchemists,
who were interested in improving
man’s condition here on earth. The
non-religious Masonic 3rd degree ritual was actually composed by them as an allegory
of an alchemical procedure to achieve The Great
Work, the Elixir of Life, Philosopher’s Stone, Aqua
Vitae. 17th Century honorary freemasons were primarily interested in alchemy.
An alchemists’ alembic was used for the distillation.
The result of which was purification. The alembic
represents the concept of purification, seeking the
essence of nature, knowledge and life. Honorary
masons were striving for purification of soul, mind
and body. They were good men who wished to be
made better men and were looking to achieve a
state of inner alchemy, the process of an inner catharsis, resulting in enlarged consciousness and a
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higher self, without the help of the church.
The original honorary masons were philosophers, architects, military leaders, alchemists, doctors and religious
men. They codified the 3rd degree ritual we practice today.
What they practiced, was considered by the Church, to be
“black magic.” Beyond the church, it was considered “science.” Today, it is considered chemistry, pharmacology
and medicine. The gentle and loving Church was known
to have been persecuting scientists, so they hid their purpose in life.
The Great Work, the Elixir of Life, Aqua Vitae was real to
the medieval and later renaissance mind set. The thought
of extending life, dominated the 16th and 17th Century
minds in the age of discovery.
People believed what they read in the Bible, just as they in
some cases, still do today. They reasoned that if people in
the Bible lived for hundreds and hundreds of years, then it
was still possible and they only had to find the key to unlock the secret way.
Ahhh! The “key” must be in alchemy. After all, there were no people smarter in the known world than the
Moors who brought the concept of cleanliness, sanitation, plumbing and innovations in architecture to
the grubby mud-hut dwellers of Europe, where even royalty lived in relative squalor.
The Arabs practiced alchemy. Perhaps the
answer was in alchemy. “What if we could
do it at home,” thought them instead of importing bottled water from Ponce De Leon’s
Fountain of Youth in Florida? After all, they
couldn’t even find Florida on the map as it
hadn’t even made the printers yet.
During the process of deciphering an 18th
Century print that was a copy of the 14th Century alchemist, Nicholas Flamel’s 14th Century fresco, I noticed in the very last cartoon,
the figure of a possibly dying man, in the act
of griping a winged lion’s paw. This was the
final step in an alchemical process to create
the “Great Work.” To my way of thinking, it
was indicative of the final step in the Masonic 3rd degree.
I wrote about it and published: The Hiramic Legend, An Allegory Of An Allegory, The Golden Grip Of God.
It appeared in The Transactions of The American Lodge of Research and the Journal of the Prince Hall
Phylaxis Society. The honorary masons wrote our present 3rd degree mystery/miracle play.
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In brief: It was illegal to assemble as a group, unless the group was registered with the Crown. In 1645 a
group of gentlemen, interested in the sciences, aligned themselves with the operative Mason’s Guild, for
the express purpose of assembling legally. They were made “Honorary” masons. They paid double the required fees. They could have joined any guild at that time. There wasn’t any particular reason for acquiring
a Masonic affiliation. They and consequently we, had nothing to do with King Solomon’s Temple. Telling
that to a freemason, is like telling a Christian, “The Crucifixion is fiction.”
The hidden truth behind the Square and Compass, is that they have nothing to do with Geometry or the
building of King Solomon’s Temple. Here is a rather concise explanation in an illustration by a person using the name Basil Valentin, a supposed 15th Century monk who was an alchemist. The square and
compass are included in what is described as, “The Chemical Wedding,” the process to achieve the Great
Work. Rebis = alchemical wedding, male-sun, female-moon top to clockwise = Mercury-quicksilver
Moon- silver
Jupiter-tin
Saturn-lead
Venus-copper
Mars-iron
Sun-gold
Also within the “egg,” which is the symbol of life and rebirth (think Easter), we have the puzzle, “Squaring the Circle.” Adepts have been trying to square the circle with the “Sacred Science” of geometry since
Aristotle. Philosophically speaking, squaring the circle was understanding the universe and thus, becoming closer to God. As a comparison, alchemists have been trying to achieve the Elixir of Life since the
middle ages; and honorary freemasons were attempting to create better living through chemistry in the
17th Century.
Now freemasons are improving the lives of others through medical philanthropy.
The circle was adopted as the celestial sphere and placed on the pillar Jachin. Since the square is flat
sided and the planet earth was thought to be flat, it became the fixture atop of Boaz. At least we made a
little scientific progress with the depiction of the earth as a sphere. Advanced thinking. Hooray for the
freemasons!!!
Squaring the circle became synonymous with an impossible task. Think of the expression, fitting a square
peg in a round hole and the alchemists’ experiments for the Great Work, the Elixir of Life, Aqua
Vitae and the Philosopher’s Stone. All came up short. In 1882, a mathematician finally came to the conclusion that the circle could not be squared. That only took three thousand years.
Conclusion: Facts do not always measure up to preconceived notions e.g., the world is not flat, the sun
does not evolve around the earth, the moon is not made of green cheese, the master mason’s word is not
Hebrew, the third degree theatrics do not reflect temple building and the freemason’s logo is not as philosophized for centuries.
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U-
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Richard Rowney Connell was born and raised in New York City,
New York. He attended John Jay College, majoring in Forensic
Science while serving as a Criminal Investigator with the New
York Police Department (NYPD) Detective Bureau. He served over
20 years and relocated to the mountains of upstate New York.
Richard Rowney Connell has traveled York Rite Masonry from the
bottom to the top and was invited to join the Royal Order of Scotland, after having become a Knights Templar and 32 degree AASR.
Since then, he has attained the Distinguished Service Award and
the York Rite Sovereign College of North America’s Gold Honor
Award, on the basis of having written and published major articles that rewrote what we had known as “history.” During that
time, the late Joseph A. Walkes. Jr., President of the Phylaxis Society and Richard Rowney Connell had become good friends. Connell gave The Phylaxis the honor of being the first to publish his
landmark papers. Connell had papers published in The Phylaxis in Vol. No. XVII, No. IV Fourth Quarter,
1991 and Vol. No. XXVIV Fourth Quarter 2000.
In the early days of the world, the Almighty said to the first of
our race, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread” and
since then, if we except the light and the air of heaven, no good
thing has been, or can be enjoyed by us, without having first cost
labour. And inasmuch [as] most good things are produced by
labour, it follows that [all] such things of right belong to those
whose labour has produced them. But it has so happened in all
ages of the world that some have laboured, and others have, without labour, enjoyed a large proportion of the fruits. This is wrong,
and should not continue. To [secure] to each labourer the whole
product of his labour, or as nearly as possible, is a most worthy
object of any good government.
---- Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865),
16th U.S. President 1861-65, assassinated
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