Masonic Compass

I recently started looking to cemeteries to help me in my family research.  This has brought me huge success.  The day is here when you don't have to travel around the country looking for the cemetery, and then wander around a cemetery for hours on end with disapointment and frustration that you were not able to locate your ancestor.  

I have found a couple of websites where you can travel to virtual cemeteries.  The premise is an all volunteer system.  You volunteer to go to cemeteries near your home and take photos, and someone else does the same for you. Just this past holiday I received my first request to find a family plot here in Texas near my home.  I was given the GPS coordinates of Longitude and Latitude and I headed out on my quest. 

I found the family plot, and if you know me, you know that I had to talk to someone and ask questions for sure, right? Well the family cemetery plot was on private land, on a huge cattle ranch on the north shore of Lake Travis.  Back in the mid - 1800's the area was known as Travis Peak.  The area is still mostly rolling hills covered in Cedar and Oak trees.  Very beautiful place that will probably in my life time be swallowed up by the growth of the city of Austin.  Well, me having a jeep, I just drove right on in to the ranch.  I met the current resident of the ranch and we talked briefly about the history of the area, and the original family, it was great!  I explained I was there to photograph the family cemetery plot, so he showed be the way, and he went on about his day.

The cemetery was on a bluff over looking a beautiful valley with a creek in the bottom.  It was enclosed within a rusty old white painted iron fence that had since been knocked over by the 150 plus years of cattle.  Directly in the center of the plot and surrounded by a few family headstones was a newer granite monument.  On the top of the monument for this family was the Masonic compass. 

I have seen this compass symbol everywhere in my family research, and have to say that I am very ignorant regarding this organization, which peaks my interest all the more.  My knowledge I guess is limited to the book and movie by the same name, The Da Vinci Code, and I had a friend in college who is a Mason.  

Since many of my ancestors were Masons in Quebec Canada and were from the Golden Rule Lodge in Vermont at Owls Head, which is in Newport.  I decided I need to began my inquiry into this secret society.  I thought I should start small first, and find out why the Masonic Compass appears on the headstones. 

I first discover that like any organization, people branch off.  Besides Masons, I also find there are Freemasons, and The Scottish Rite.  I decided this would be too much work, I do not want to write a PHD thesis here. The one thing I find they all have in common is the Masonic Compass.

One of the most common symbols of The Masonic Temple, Freemasonry, and the Scottish Rite is the symbol of the crossed compass and set-square. The compass and square are architect's tools, and symbolize God as the architect of the universe, among other things.

As measuring instruments, the tools represent judgment and discernment.

The compass, which is used to draw circles, represents the realm of the spiritual- eternity. It is symbolic of the defining and limiting principle, and also of infinite boundaries.

The angle measures the square, the symbol of earth and the realm of the material. The square represents fairness, balance, and firmness, which is reflected in phrases such as "on the square" and "squared away." Something that is squared is something that is stable, a foundation for building upon.

 Together, the compass and square represent the convergence of matter and spirit, and the convergence of earthly and spiritual responsibilities. The two symbols together form a hexagram, forming a union of the earth with the heavens, matter and mind. 

What I take away from this, is the union between life, and death, and the joining of the two through the cycle of life on earth with that in the heavens.  Seems very appropriate now to me.