The Banners of Royal Arch Masonry

[KSigMason]

Here is my latest article on my blog:

While I was writing the article "Symbols of Royal Arch Masonry - Part 2", I started to wonder about the sigils (the symbol or seal) which adorned each of the four banners used in Royal Arch Masonry. I wondered as to why we used the Tribes we did on our Banners, but the answer to that was easy enough to find. I wasn't done though, I wondered as to what the significance of these four symbols was and what, if any, connection they had with ancient cultures and mythologies.

First off, I must note a considerable difference between American Royal Arch Masonry and English Royal Arch Masonry. In the American system we use just four banners while the English use twelve banners to represent the 12 Tribes of Israel. Why only use four banners instead of all twelve? A likely answer comes to us from the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, wherein it states:

But our American Royal Arch Masons, as we have seen, use only four banners, being those attributed by the Talmudists to the four principal Tribes Judah, Ephraim, Reuben, and Dan. The devices on these banners are respectively a lion, an ox, a man, and an eagle.

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[Brent Heilman]

I am not a member of the York Rite, yet, but I have enjoyed reading your blog. Keep up the good work. Also, great article!

 

[BroBill]

My goal is to one day buy and donate the four banners to my chapter. I finally saw pictures of them and thought they WILL look amazing in our chapter one day. Unfortunately, I then saw the price... sigh... one day though, they will be ours!