Senior Deacons Folding 

Square and Compasses

This folding set of Square and Compasses (above) was hand-made and engraved by a Jeweler.  A folding set like this is carried by the Senior Deacon when conducting the candidate(s) through the degrees so he can "pierce their naked left breast" or "apply the square to the same."  This sterling silver pair is 5 inches long and made for Ancient Landmark Lodge No. 234 F. & A.M.

The Square is one of the most important and significant symbols in Freemasonry.  As such, it is proper that its true form should be preserved.  French Freemasons have almost universally given it with one leg longer than the other (like the one pictured above) thus making it a carpenter's square.   American Freemasons, following the incorrect delineations of Brother Jeremy L. Cross, have, while generally preserving the equality of length in the legs, unnecessarily marked its surface with inches; thus making it an instrument for measuring length and breadth, which it is not.  It is simply the trying square of a stone-mason, and has a plain surface; the sides or legs embracing an angle of ninety degrees, and is intended only to test the accuracy of the sides of a stone, and to see that its edges subtend the same angle.  In Freemasonry, the square is a symbol of morality.   This is its general signification, and applied in various ways:  1.  It presents itself to the neophyte as one of the Three Great Lights.  2.  To the Fellow Craft as one of his Working-tools.  3.  To the Master Mason as the official emblem of the Master of the Lodge.  Everywhere, however, it inculcates the same lesson of morality, of truthfulness, of honesty.  So universally accepted is this symbolism, that it has gone outside of the Order, and has been found in colloquial language communicating the same idea.    The Square, says Halliwell, Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, means honest, equitable, as in "square dealing."  To play upon the square is proverbial for to play honestly.  In this sense the word is found in the old writers.  As a Masonic symbol, it is of very ancient date, and was familiar to the Operative Masons.   In the year 1830, the architect, in rebuilding a very ancient bridge called Baal Bridge, near Limerick, in Ireland, found under the foundation-stone an old brass square, much eaten away, containing on its two side surfaces the following inscription, the U being read as V:  I. WILL STRIUE. TO. LIUE.--WITH. LOUE. & CARE.--UPON. THE LEUL.--BY. THE. SQUARE., and the date 1517.  The modern Speculative Freemason will recognize the idea of living on the level and by the square.  This discovery proves, if proof were necessary, that the familiar idea was borrowed from our Operative Brethren of former days.  The square, as a symbol in Speculative Freemasonry, has therefore presented itself from the very beginning of the revival period.  In the very earliest catechism of the eighteenth century, of the date of 1725, we find the answer to the question, "How many make a Lodge?" is "God and the Square, with five or seven right or perfect Masons."  God and the Square, religion and morality, must be present in every Lodge as governing principles.  Signs at the early period were to be made by squares, and the Furniture of the Lodge was declared to be the Bible, Compasses, and Square.  In all rites and in all languages where Freemasonry has penetrated, the square has preserved its primitive signification as a symbol of morality.

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