The Stones in Freemasonry

Freemasonry, which is based on the symbolism of the Builders, could not ignore the Stone, which is, along with wood, the fundamental material for the construction of the Temple, according to tradition. In Craft Freemasonry, i.e. the Freemasonry of the three degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason, the Stone is a major symbol, which refers to the profound nature of the human being and its potential improvement through Masonic work. Freemasonry has therefore chosen the material reality that seems the most inert and the most resistant to changing, to evoke personal development, the blossoming of the riches and beauty hidden within us. It's quite a programme !

The Rough Stone of the Entered Apprentice

From the moment of his reception, the Entered Apprentice is introduced to the Stone, in the form of the Rough Stone. He is taught that he himself is this Rough Stone, on which he will have to learn to work, to remove its roughness, give it shape and make it suitable for the great project of building the Temple.

The Rough Stone is full of potentialities, which are still concealed by the opacity and heaviness of concrete reality. It is only the hard work of the EnteredApprentice that will give shape to this Stone, and give it the place it is intended to have in the edifice. Not all stones are the same, and not all are suitable for cutting. It is therefore important to understand the nature of the Stone before starting to work on it.

This is why, in the Rites that place the alchemical formula V.I.T.R.I.O.L. in the Cabinet of Reflection, it can be said that the work on the Stone already begins at this point. "Visita Interiorem Terrae Rectificandoque Invenies Occultum Lapidem, Visit the Interior of the Earth, and by rectifying you will find the Hidden Stone". At first glance, we are talking here about the Philosopher's Stone, but this symbolism, which is perhaps too specifically alchemical, undoubtedly conceals a simpler reality, closer to the initiatory process of Freemasonry : before learning to carve out the Rough Stone, to cut and polish it until it becomes a Perfect Ashlar, shouldn't we first find the Stone ? Working on the Rough Stone therefore begins by becoming aware of who you are, what you can do and what you want to become.

It's exactly like the little fable of the "Horse in the Stone", recounted by Marie Christine Barrault in her book of the same name : An artist had been commissioned to create a sculpture for a large ensemble. One morning, an enormous block of stone was delivered in front of the astonished children. The sculptor set to work while the kids were away on holiday. When the school holidays came round again, the children discovered the magnificent equestrian statue. The sculptor was close to his work. A little boy said to him: "Sir, your statue is beautiful, but tell me, how did you know that the horse was inside the stone?"

V.I.T.R.I.O.L. is about learning to "listen" what kind of Stone we are.

The Perfect Ashlar of the Fellowcraft 

Having understood the nature of his Stone, the Fellowcraft, armed with new tools and enriched with the Knowledge of Geometry, can carry on with the task. According to the rituals, the aim is to create a Perfect Ashlar that will blend harmoniously with the other stones in the building.

From a symbolic construction point of view, this makes perfect sense. But the limitation of this symbolism is the feeling of uniformity it may produce. Is the aim of Freemasonry to create strictly identical human beings, who are interchangeable in the same way as the stones used to construct a building ? Certainly not. The perfection of the cube is a symbolic abstraction that should not be taken too literally. This geometrical perfection is rather the symbol of the compatibility of all those who have learned to know and improve themselves, and of their ability to join forces and work together harmoniously.

If the Fellowcraft has truly discovered his own Stone, cutting it to a perfectly cubic shape will never make it identical to any other ; yet this work is necessary for the common construction to be possible, because Freemasonry is not a mysticism, but a collective work. You can't be a freemason on your own.

What about the Pointed Ashlar ?

Many rituals specify a detail about the shape of the Perfect Ashlar : it is said to be pointed. This is how it is often represented on Lodge Tracing Boards. Question : What is it really? Does this Pointed Ashlar have any architectural or symbolic relevance ?

From an architectural point of view, it is hard to see how a Pointed Ashlar could be used to build walls. At the very most, it could be used to create external facing with a boss, i.e. a wall in which the outer face of the stones protrudes, in this case in a shape known as "diamond-pointed". But technically, the protruding part of the boss corresponded to the part of the stone laid on the ground during cutting, which was left rough and only finished once the wall had been erected. Nobody has ever cut an Ashlar with a point per se.

So where does this Pointed Ashlar come from ? First of all, it should be noted that it is totally absent from ancient English Masonic documents and that it does not belong to the symbolism of Anglo-Saxon Masonic rites. This kind of Ashlar is only mentioned in French-language rituals, and only from the 1740s onwards (manuscript of Bern, circa 1740-1744; "Luquet" manuscript circa 1745; "Le Sceau Rompu" disclosure, 1745). According to these rituals, it was used by the Fellowcrafts to sharpen their tools.

This contrivance - for it is one - is based on three errors or misunderstandings. Firstly, a probable misinterpretation of the design of the Perfect Ashlar featured on 18th-century French Tracing Boards : a three-dimensional cubic stone can indeed give the impression of having a point.

Secondly, an attempt to interpret this particularity on the basis of a mistranslation or misunderstanding of a known element of English Freemasonry, as attested by the "Wilkinson" Manuscript of 1727. In this document, we read that a particular Ashlar ("Dented Asler") is used by the Fellowcraft to try his "Jewels" ("Iewells"), and the "Movable Jewels" described by the "Wilkinson" manuscript are the Square, the Level and the Plumb Line. But what precisely is a "Dented Ashlar"? While in contemporary English "to dent" means "to mark a surface with a contending object", in Early Modern English (i.e. the English language spoken from the 15th to the 18th century) it meant "to mark the edge of an object with a notch". The Dented Ashlar was therefore a graduated Ashlar used as a standard to check the straightness of tools such as the square, the level and the perpendicular, and which probably also determined the length of the ruler.

Certain tools were therefore applied to this Dented Ashlar, but only to be checked, not sharpened. So where does this fanciful idea of sharpening come from ? A third misunderstanding : Masonic Tracing Boards often depicted the Perfect Ashlar topped by an axe-shaped tool, with the cutting edge close to the "point". The French Freemasons, not having the keys to understand, deduced that the Ashlar was used to sharpen the tool. But this tool is simply a quarrier’s pick or a cutting hammer and is merely an operative reminiscence of the time when stones were actually cut with such tools, and not with the mallet and chisel, which are the tools of the sculptor.

The Pointed Ashlar therefore has no operative justification and shows that the Freemasonry that was developing in France in the 18th century no longer had much to do with the tradition of the ancient builders. But this very special Ashlar is not devoid of symbolic significance.

A Pointed Ashlar is nothing less than a cube to which a pyramid has been added. The cube, based on the number Four, is a three-dimensional symbol of the material world. The pyramid starts from the square of matter and rises to reach the point of unity. And this single point implies the circle. The Pointed Ashlar could therefore mean "passing from the Square to the Compass" and would belong in the third Masonic degree rather than the second. This would allow us to have a Stone for each of the three Craft Degrees, which is currently not the case.

The Pointed Ashlar can also be understood as a symbol of the Light that informs Matter. The shape of this stone is reminiscent of the Egyptian pyramids and obelisks, and it is very likely that the ancient Egyptians used this shape to represent the rays of the Sun. Thus interpreted, the Pointed Ashlar would be appropriate for both the second and third degree. At the Fellowcraft degree, this descending Light could be linked to the Blazing Star, as the Creator and Ordering Principle of the world. And in the Master Mason degree, this Light could be understood as the Regenerating Principle that overcomes death.

That the Pointed Ashlar was the result of a misinterpretation in no way detracts from its rich symbolic significance. It offers new opportunities for reflection to nourish the seeker on the Path of Initiation.