On display

Without giving away too much. Something I notice at about all lodges I visit on their walls, windows, doors, carved stones, gates etc is something that distinctly makes me think of FC. I do not see this same thing a lot in any other form. Does it just "look" graphically better to the outside world like this or is there another reason why it's is almost always like this?


Sent From My Freemasonry Pro App

If you mean the S&C I nearly always see it with both points of the compasses above the square, not just in the American jurisdictions I have traveled through but in photographs around the world. That's the most common public symbol of Masonry that I know of. It is often small enough or blurred enough that details are difficult to tell. As details vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction I don't know if this answers your question, suggests a way your jurisdiction differs or suggests a way the lodge decor in your area differs from the most common.

I have also noticed this. I have never discerned a suitable explanation either.

At one point in the beginning, the Fellow-craft degree was once the degree of full membership in the fraternity; and the MM/ RAM were all one degree given in sections. This was changed in America, but is still the way it is done in United Grand Lodge of England.


[When the "Antients" and "Moderns" merged in 1813 to form the United Grand Lodge of England, this was possible only after reaching a compromise on the role and purpose of Royal Arch Masonry. After the union, the "Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch" would be fully recognised by the United Grand Lodge, but become a separate order with all Craft Lodges permitted to work the ceremony. In its Book of Constitutions, the United Grand Lodge of England declared that "...pure Antient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more, viz. those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch."[SUP][9][/SUP][SUP][10][/SUP] In 1823, the United Grand Lodge of England allowed Master Masons to join Holy Royal Arch Chapters without having previously passed through the chair of a Craft lodge.[SUP][11][/SUP] In Scotland, a candidate for the Royal Arch must also be a Mark Master Mason, a degree which can be conferred within a Royal Arch Chapter if required.]



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Arch_Masonry


This is simply one explanation that may account for the positions of the S&C.


I have included pics of various aprons, 2 from England (2d pic is my UGLE MM apron) that have 3 rosettes which indicate MM, and my own Texas regulation apron with S&C only.

I've been looking into the Antients and Moderns of late.

As always, thanks for the additional Light Brother Walters.

God bless ... jim

Brother Raymond's explaination sounds reasonable.