November 3, 2025 • 38 mins
WB Cedric Jacobson is our guest, as we unravel the profound symbolism behind "The Letter G." Bro. Cedric, draws on his extensive research into the historical context and ancient symbols of Masonry, illuminating new perspectives on "The Letter G" and its significance within the Craft.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Commons. Opinions and views shared during this program are
of those individual Freemasons and do not reflect the official
position of a Grand Launch, Concordant Body, a Pendant Body,
a Masonic authority, or Craftsman Online dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, welcome back to the Craftsman Online Podcast, the only
Masonic podcast en George by the Grand Lodge in New York.
I'm your host, right Worship Brother Michael Arsa, and you're
strapped in for an episode. Ooh, we're going to get
controversial of the letter G before we get rolling. A
reminder you can save the date. Our third annual Black
Friday holiday shopping episode, sponsored by Bricksmasons dot Com, returns
(00:49):
on Monday, November twenty fourth. Can you believe it? It is
holiday shopping season already. I'll admit I've actually started buying
for some of my family members. But the tradition of
having Brother Matthew Brockbank on our virtual studio will continue.
And here's what I love about Matt. Matt knows how
to find some of the most interesting gifts. These are complete,
out of the box gift ideas for those hard to
(01:12):
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at Bricksmasons dot com and you will see well here
the episode on Monday November twenty fourth or Monday November seventeenth.
If you're a Patreon subscriber, which by the way, that's
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(01:34):
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That's all happening on Patreon with Craftsmen Online. You can
start your free seven day trial and help us get
to twenty new subscribers this fall. All in the notes
for this episode. That's where you're going to find that
important link. Our guest this week is going to be
drawing on his extensive research into the historical context and
(01:55):
ancient symbols of Freemasonry that all illuminate around that controversy
letter g It's his first time on the Craftsman Online podcast.
As we say, welcome to worshipful Brothers, Cedric.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Jacobson, good evening, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
What I love about your title as past master is
the lodge that you're a past master of is the
Masonic Lodge of Research number four hundred and one and
New Haven, Connecticut. For those of us that have never
even stepped foot into a lodge of research, tell us
what it's like going through before we get into the
letter g we are going to talk about that. What
is it like becoming a member of a lodge of
(02:30):
research and then getting into the officer line and eventually
sitting in the east.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
So it is an affiliation based lodge, like we don't
confer degrees, and the role of the leadership of the
lodge is largely based around gathering research based presentations on
papers and presentations and then publishing a compilation of those
each year every few years, depending on frequency. So it's
(02:57):
a chance for brothers who are interested in sort of
scratching that research based itch to do so and practice
like compiling research in an organized fashion and then presenting
it to a friendly audience and kind of like workshopping ideas,
getting feedback. And then some of our presentations have been
(03:19):
shared with local lodges, So if you need an education
speaker for the evening, you know, we have kind of
a list of brothers who can get out there and
talk to other lodges about kind of deeper meanings or
historical references.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's kind of fair to say. If you had a motto,
it would be thinkers wanted apply within.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
As we get ready to talk about one of the
most controversial letters in freemasonry, which is the letter G,
it was interesting you were telling me the beginning of
this whole research project for you started with a little
black notebook and somebody asked you a question about the
letter G.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
There was a Brother Mother Lodge, which is Higher Lodge
number one in New Haven, Connecticut. Our right Worshipful Brother
Sal Frigno a past master that lodge and a district
deputy and Sal at a night of instruction, you know,
we were talking about a line from the ritual and
he said, well, what does that even mean?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Like, what are they talking about there?
Speaker 4 (04:23):
And it is a line that isn't in every ritual
that I've seen, but it is in many and it's
in the second half of the Master Mason degree. And
during that time, craftsmen are like seeking something out and
they find an object that has a faint resemblance to
the letter G. And he's like, the letter G, what
(04:46):
does that even mean? And it's sort of you know,
made me think about the connection with the letter G.
In the middle Chamber, and I spent you know, I
knew like it's the only other place we see the
letter G reference, like using that phrasing and ritual, and
so it really made me seek out kind of the
connection and the through line between the Tellcraft degree and
(05:09):
the Master Mason degree.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
We're kind of on the same page because you refer
to it as the middle Chamber lecture as well. I've
also heard it as the winding staircase lecture. So it's
always good to have someone we're using the same lingo.
But what's also interesting is that the letter G, without
a doubt, when you put the square encompasses with it together,
is the iconic logo of freemasonry, at least in North America.
(05:34):
Around the world, certain countries, they in jurisdictions they take
out that letter G. When you join a masonicoluge, you're
trying to figure out kind of a part of you,
like what is this, But then through the degree process
you learn so much other stuff that by the time
that the letter G has explained to you, I'm going
to guess it's the same. In Connecticut, it's towards the
(05:54):
end of that second degree there's this wonderful lecture and
then you know, the brother speaking draws attention to it
and you're like, oh, yeah, all this other stuff. I
was kind of wondering what that meant. So do you
remember when quote unquote the light was turned on in
your eyes that, oh, there's that letter G and how
it was explained to you.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, and I think of a really clear memory of
that portion of the degree that that sort of lights
on aha moment. But I'll be honest, I don't know
that I made the connection between that letter G that's
displayed in the lodge and that that is so common
in American.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Compass and square logo.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
I think it didn't dawn on me for several weeks
that like, oh, that that is the same G.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And again, Freemasonry steeped has a lot of Biblical references,
is not a religion. But I'm going to make this
fair comparison because I believe it's much like when people
quote scripture, there's what the Bible has actually written, and
then there's the esoteric interpretations or the spiritual interpretations or
the historical relevance of it. The same kind of works
(07:03):
with like Masonic ritual. So when it was explained to
you in your second degree, like, hey, this is what
the letter G is, this is what it means. What
were your thoughts did you go, oh, yeah, I get that,
or did you start going h but could there be more?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I think that that was obviously early in my Masonic journey,
and at that point I was doing everything I could
to absorb the lessons as presented, you know, and that
that particular section of ritual is laid in with information
that I wanted to work to internalize. But now looking back,
(07:41):
you know, the letter G is explained to us as
having like two meanings, referencing the mathematical practice of geometry
and alluding to a deity or a supreme marketect of
the universe. Right, and then it's kind of like period
and we move on. We don't really talk more about geometry.
(08:04):
This would be more architect of the universe. Does make
some reappearance in terms of influences later, and I think
for that reason it kind of ends up being like
a surface level illusion and not like a living, breathing
lesson for our practice.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Says Mason.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
This is going to kind of lead up to another
question I have here because I like where you left that,
so do you feel that this explanation, let's for lack
of a better term, do you feel that that leads
to like common misconceptions or maybe oversimplifications that Masons now
have about the lettergy.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Not necessarily misconception. Maybe I guess it's overlap between misconception
and oversimplification. Like I hear the word geometry, and what
I think of is, you know, my sophomore high school
math class, you know, drawing triangles and using the law
signs and the.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
One am I ever going to need any of this
stuff in life?
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Every Yeah, it is helpful to as we're investigating like
deeper meaning, think about the context in which this ritual
is kind of like codified and set down, and.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
You know, it's not just words on a page. These
were words that were delivered.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
To an educated audience, and educated that an educated audience
that had a lot more context and sort of like
historical connections that modern day Americans don't necessarily have. And
so as we're looking for that meaning, I think that
if we don't consider that those contextual clues, we miss
(09:42):
out on kind of like richer meanings in the room.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Okay, interesting, I feel like the letter G kind of
points men to go back to this book that we're
told that within the pages of this book are all
the answers that we're looking for. So that's going to
lead to kind of some of the historical origins of
where this letter G would have come into the fellow
Craft degree or the second degree in American Masonic ritual.
(10:09):
What do you feel has been the evolution of the
letter G from when it first entered into our ritual
into today twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, so I have a couple thoughts about that.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
First, is it it's important to remember that at the
initial formation of the Grand Lodge of England, there were
only two degrees in Freemason, right, There wasn't the Master
Mason degree as we know it today, and the Master
Mason degree wasn't really created until the next decade between
like ten and seventeen s late seventeen years later, depending
(10:43):
on who you ask, and when that was sort of
like set down and codified. It was primarily done so
by Brothers Preston and Webb sort of in parallel. And
I know you had a previous episode featuring worshipil Brother
Nathan Saint Pierre. That sort of historical context here is
(11:04):
really helpful when we think about kind of the evolution
of ritual, and it continued to evolve as it spread.
For example, my mother Lodge was chartered in seventeen fifty
and actually has a dispensation to use the original working ritual,
(11:25):
which has some similarities with Web, but in.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Some ways as different and so.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
And then if we kind of look at the spread
of Freemasonry out west with manifest Destiny and the spread
of the population in this landscape, there were little changes
in sort of little foibles, and you can almost draw
Masonic like family tree, and then through the ritual broadly.
(11:57):
I think that you know, Web was based out of
where I live here in Boston. His work here in
the US was largely responsible for consistency of the Middle
Chamber lecture. You mentioned my little notebook that I scribbled
down ideas to myself, and I went and looked at
it again this afternoon, and I had written down a
(12:18):
question like, well, what did like I know G didn't
exist around the construction of King Solomon's temple.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
I wonder what that sound like? How it was.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Represented the letter G itself, not what it stands for.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
I was curious about it from the angle of the
master macey indegre. And so if we look at our
modern G, it stems from kind of the Roman square script,
which was circa like one CE, and from that point on,
the letter G as we see it and think of
it has remained basically constant. Its immediate predecessor is called
(12:57):
like the old Italic script, which is around four hundred BCE.
If you just sort of picture in your head a
backwards letter C, it's interesting that C is the parent
of both the hard C and G sound.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
But here's why.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
So if you make a CU sound and pay attention
to the location of your the tongue, that's kind of
the back roof of your mouth versus GU. The tongue
placement is the same. And if you look at linguistics,
it's very common for things to be voiced versus on voiced.
And so if you put your fingertips on your voice
(13:37):
box and make a sound, it doesn't vibrate, but the
GO sound you can feel the vibration in there. So
that just like kind of confirms the original heritage. We
can continue to trace back. We get to archaic Greek,
which is around seven hundred BCE. It looks the thing
that makes the G sound, and the sound looks sort
(14:00):
of like a number seven with straight lines at a
near right angle. And if we go one more step back,
so we're looking around the time of the construction of
the temple, we land at two separate scripts or two
separate alphabets, if you want to call them. That the
Phoenician and product Gaanonite, which is around as I mentioned,
one thousand BCE. It looks basically the same as the Archaic,
(14:24):
So that's sort of seven shape at almost Friday.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You really did your homework on this, that's impressive. We
got a little history on linguistics and also just the alphabet.
That's fascinating. So the question that this brother asked you,
are you allowed to share it in open company or
is it a secret question?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I think that there are elements of it that are
deeply tied to experiences in the ritual, and I wouldn't
want to spoil like personal experiences of the ritual. But
I do think that there's a clear connection that can
be made between the letter G representing both geometry and
(15:08):
an allusion to the supreme architect of the universe. And
I think that it comes to that that symbol of
the sort of proto canaanite seven ish shape with straight
lines and an almost right angle. And so the line
that the brother asked me about was the faint, the
(15:35):
faint resemblance of the letter G in our ritual, my
mother Lodge's ritual. It was the faint impression of the
letter G. And so that that shape of the letter
G has the shape of a square essentially.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
And so if you picture a seven straight lines almost
a ninety degree angle, it has the approximate shape of
a where. And so what that means is that G
referencing the name of deity, but also geometry, the idea
of like right angles and squares essential in geometric thought
and process. If we're considering other connections to like other
(16:20):
elements of ritual, I think that's where it gets really interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
This is fascinating because we went from talking about the
letter to it now representing something large in itself and
like a simple So now I'm sitting here in my
head going, yeah, the way that you're talking about this,
if you take the everyone should be able to picture
it in their mind right now. That we talked about earlier,
that Masonic logo, that iconic, that square encompasses with the
lettergy in the center. And as you know, a brother
(17:11):
that has gone through, whether it's your first degree or
all the way through to all three, you understand a
bit of that concept of who the grand architect of
the universe is. And now, Cedric, you're doing a great
job and like mentally like illustrating how this is all
connecting to that that bigger piece that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Well, buckle up because it goes.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
There's areas.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
More so, I think often.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
About, you know, what we're charged to do and bettering
ourselves and continuing our own education as Mason's you know,
we are. A question that I think about often is
you know, how frequently do we actually pick up and
use our working You know, we're not working with stone.
(18:02):
But if we purport to value geometry, and that's literally
half of the explained textual meaning of the letter G.
We ought to we ought to value it, and we
ought to value it enough to practice it. And if
you look at geometry traditionally, like going back to the
old times, it can basically all be explored with two
(18:25):
implements straight edge think ruler or the twenty four inch
gauge and a compass.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
And that's it.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Like, from those two tools, you can do much much
more than you think. Like I picture compass, I'm like,
oh look a circle.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Check.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
But with those two things together you can do much
more than you think. You can make all the platonic solids, right,
so a perfect triangle, square, pentagon in all the way up.
It's meditative to play around with these implements and see
how the the circles and the lines can interact, and
you can try to make new things, and that sort
(19:04):
of like act of trying this out is beneficial because
it's sort of like, lets you disconnect from the world
and all the things going on around us and our
heads and on our phones and just pen or pencil
to paper and explore. And I think that that's like, yeah,
the perfect time to consider the letter G.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I agree, you've actually cast the letter G in a
whole new light because I think most of us just
see it at lodge. We see it on rings or
you know, other symbolic things that brothers or people are
wearing around and maybe there's that time during the green
where like, oh, yeah, it's from reminded me, thanks, It's
all about the angles and my relationship with deity, And Okay, good,
(19:47):
great to I never thought of the letter G as
a working tool, because I think of the working tools
as the actual tools that they built this temple with
which math was a theory. It was it was a science.
And that is not your traditional hands on tool. That's
using the big muscle in your head to figure all
(20:07):
that out. So I love that you say we need
to start your day or include that in your life,
Like am I living to the value of the letter G?
My question is and this is happening before. I love.
My favorite role in any Masonic lodge was when I
was the Lodge education officer, and that was working with
the new brothers through all their degree work, and they
would ask great questions and we were going through the
(20:29):
Catechism and loved it. I often found that this, as
I called them, their white rabbit Chase, became my white
rabbit of truth chase, where we would try to find
this out together because they asked questions I never knew.
So has your interest in the Letter G continued on
your own or are you still trying to track down
(20:50):
the original answer to the original question that was posed
to you?
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Yes, yes, to be okay, I think it prompted at
the time when I still lived in New Haven, the
location of my mother lodge, we had a program. We
had meetings twice a month, two Thursdays a month. One
was typically a degree and the other was education. And
(21:18):
then in the off Thursdays we had various programs and
one programming that we implemented when I was in lodge leadership,
there was a book club. So every month we would
read a book. We would come back around the time
when we were exploring this letter g you know, it
was just the same sort of core group of guys
interested in pulling at the thread and seeing where it
(21:39):
led us. We decided to read a relatively short book
on sacred geometry and sort of it included like geometric constructions,
and at that night for the book club discussion, you know,
we all brought out our little compasses and we played around,
and through that work we actually uncovered something that upon
(22:04):
further research, was kind of an old trick and old
understanding that they used in operative masonry, and that is
that with a compass and a straight edge, you can
make a square, okay, And so if you picture the
act of making a circle with a compass, you have
(22:27):
the point in the middle and the compass around it,
which we know is its own separate Masonic symbol that
I love to talk about. But picture that in your head.
We draw a line straight through the center point. We
call that a diameter. From the end of that line.
If you add another line to any point anywhere on
(22:47):
the circle inside the circle, another line, and then draw
a third line from the end of the line you
just threw back to the start, you end up with
a triangle. It doesn't matter, you know, whether you do
a really big angle or really small, No matter what,
that angle that touches the circle is ninety degree. So
(23:08):
if we look back in operative masonry, you know, many
of the tools hammer, chisel, plum, things kind of like
work on their own with minimal maintenance. Something like a
square where you know, it's often made of wood or metal,
things that are a little bit more susceptible to weathering
(23:28):
and warping. It was really important that builders try their square,
you know, check and calibrate their square. And that was
the easiest way to do it. Draw big, certain and
try your square.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
I love this is like a little Masonic science lab.
And I can see why this totally captured your attention
because you have a pretty deep professional and personal background
in science. So with your personal work and your professional
work in this like, were you starting to like just
you'd be at work in the lab or wherever that
might be, at your desk and be like, oh my gosh,
(24:04):
I'm unlocking all the secrets of the mystery. I understand time.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
Yeah, you know, I think that it is a fortunate
side effect of my training as a scientist that I
feel like everything is figure outable and that there's everything
is kind of interconnected, and you know, you I scratch
at one symbol, this this letter g and it takes
(24:30):
me back to the point within a circle, which was
you know, that was like the first research paper that
I ever did was about the circumart.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
And it's you know, the more.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I research, the more I realize how connected each of
these seemingly disparate bits of knowledge are. And so the
Masonic ritual and use of symbols is really self reinforcement.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
M If you could, if I could entertain you with
this story for a second, because this is what I
left about Masonry. I am not a scientist, and I
am the furthest from a mathematition. Ever, I purposely chose
a career path where I could stay away from the
math because I hated it. Good with the words, not
the numbers. So recently we had to order a new
(25:18):
refrigerator for our house because the ice maker broke down.
So I order the refrigerator before I place my order
still in the cart, and I'm like, you know what,
I should probably just triple check that it's going to
fit in the cabinet that has been built for said
refrigerator to go into. Well, now I got to find
where's my tape measure I can't f I know I
have three of them and there's somewhere in this house,
(25:40):
but my wife they just disappear. So I'm like, well,
I could try to use my phone, but i'd have
to get the lights on in the kitchen at the
right angle to be able to get so I'm like,
you know what I could I could just measure the
existing refrigerator and then I would know, hey, if it's
at least not into so I all I could find
was my wife's little so a tape measurer that goes
(26:02):
or so. So I'm trying to do that market and
then you know, get it and I'm like, this isn't
gonna work at all. Finally, I'm like, I wonder if
refrigerators are like cars and I could just open it
up and it'll say boom it is. It's just like
the inside of your car door. There, I know it's
seventy inches tall. I needed to make sure that I
had clearance for seventy point five inches. So I now
(26:23):
took the tape measure and just measured the space the gap,
and I was like, it will fit. So was I
using all of my When I think of the seven
Liberal Arts and sciences during the Winding staircase or the
Middle Chamber lecture, your ears must have perked up where
I was like, no, there better not be a quiz
on you of this. But it is interesting to show
(26:44):
that having conversations and brothers and friends like you in
my life, it does make me sit here and think, well,
how could I solve this problem? Even though there was
probably a much simpler way to do it. Through trial
and error, I eventually got there with that story in context,
do you have any tips or suggestions on how you
(27:05):
can have conversations about the sciences with people who are
less informed or less engaged without losing them in the audience?
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Yeah, I think like you you did science. You know,
science is not it's not a body of knowledge. Science
is really just a way of thinking, a sort of
systematic you know, what options do I have available? How
can I go about solving this problem? Here's what I
think might be the answer. That's all that science is,
and like human beings are natural science. I have a
(27:40):
two year old and he is like you can see it.
He's just constantly looking and noticing and seekingnaction. And I think,
you know, we as adults in this world. You know,
adult life can be kind of oppressive. But I think
that seeing how hids look at the world really makes
(28:01):
me want to, you know, shed some of those shackles
and that feeling like downcast and just look with new
eyes because there is a ton to see and take
in and wonder about. And I think that that capacity
to stop and wonder rather than nowadays, I feel it
in myself even like you know, you knee jerk reaction,
(28:23):
pull out your phone and you get an answer from
the World Wide Web in you know, thirty seconds.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
But that that sort.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Of wondering and thinking and problem solving that you did
with your fridge, that my my toddler does every time
he's trying to, you know, get his water up on
the couch, like.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
I'm sure he'd figure it out faster. They're like raptors.
They know how to test the fence, like kads Man.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
That's truly, that's how I feel about science and the
in terms of the seven Liberal arts and sciences, like
that's what it is. It's not a body of knowledge, really,
it is just a way of contextualizing and thinking and
wondering about the bigness and interconnectedness of the world.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
And to that point, we had started the conversation before
I hit the record button, and I said, we're going
to have a great time talking about this because the
letter G is the most controversial letter in all of freemasonry.
Because you have brothers that God love them. They study
their ritual book, they've been to that second degree of
bajillion times, and they are waiting to hear that the
(29:28):
letter G stands for God. And that's all they want
to tell you is that that's what that means. Then
you have the other brothers that say, well wait a second,
they said another word before they said God. They said geometry.
It stands for geometry. Then you have other guys to say, well,
it also stands for the great architect of the universe,
And you're like, whoa, We've got a three G conversation
(29:49):
going on in this room here, be impressive. We could
get to five g's, but I've ran out of examples.
What are some of the through your research in the
and I can tell you're the guy that when you
got into this rabbit hole there was your nightstand. It
must have just filled up with books and your YouTube
history search must be amazing. What were some of the
(30:11):
more esoteric or lesser known ideas about the letter G
that you uncovered during your research that you can share
with us that are that are kind of cool?
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Yeah, so I think, really the the square in coomass
is like that that logo that you draw us back to,
that is really the letter G in triplicate, right, Like
we talk about G representing both geometry and the name
of deity, the square aspect, we talked about how that
(30:42):
really is an ancestor to the letter G itself, and
the the compasses are the way in which societies and
professionals back in the day created that right angle and
letter G. But if you're thinking, if your question is
really about like interesting things that I came across. One
(31:04):
of my favorites is that idea of the compasses representing deity.
If you look at Renaissance art, especially late Renaissance art.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Pictures of.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
God the Creator or of Christ, many many pictures, you
see that representation of Deity using a compass to sort
of circumscribe the world. Whether it's a ball that they're
holding in their hand, or there's a really famous painting
(31:44):
that or not called a front a front piece of
art in a book by Blake, William Blake, something about creation.
Its original name is in French, but it's a picture
of like a bearded god looking guy bending down with
a compass circumscribing the world. So the compasses sort of
(32:07):
representing divinity in historical Renaissance thought and pre Renaissance as well.
And then that's sort of like the when I mentioned
historical context or what ritual is talking about, Like people
in Elizabeth in England, as you know, ritual was being codified,
they had some of that cultural memory that has been
(32:31):
shed over the last two hundred and fifty years.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I got an idea to float by you because you're
a research guy. I never thought about the compasses representing deity.
But then I started thinking about what the compass is produced,
as you said, which is a circle. So you start
thinking of all of the things that the circle represents.
Which the circle represents beauty, the circle represents softness, It
represents strength. At the same time, it represents a beginning
(33:26):
without an end or an end with no beginning, depending
on how you want to look at it. It represents perfection,
it represents security, it represents life, it represents law. It
has so many things that it represents. It really is
one of the most powerful symbols that's out there that
we completely take for granted. And I don't know anyone
(33:47):
that can draw a perfect circle freehanded. It really takes
a master to be able to put the compasses down
to say this is how big I'm going to make
this circle we could have and we are going to
have and next season you're going to come back. This
is a let you know, and we'll have another discussion
on the point within a circle, which is my Masonic
(34:08):
white rabbit, but I never really thought of using. It's
interesting how the pursuit of finding the explanation of the
letter g led to that idea which I am going
to carry that with me for many days and can't
wait to just randomly email you some morning Cedric and say, hey, dude,
after I got back from my rum this morning, I
(34:29):
have this crazy idea about this. What do you think?
And then you got to write that down in your
black book and go find it out. Absolutely, the circle
will continue there it is. Well, you kind of talked
about this earlier, and it was a question that I
wanted to have. Is I want to be respectful of
your time and get you back out of here to
be with the family. How to incorporate this letter G.
(34:53):
We just I just talked about the symbolism of the circle.
That's a great way to think about deity. What's the
key takeaway for you that you hope that our listener
is sitting here saying, hey, how can I internalize this
powerful symbol and kind of make it one of my
working tools in my daily life.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
I think that it depends on how philosophical you want
to get with an answer to a question like that.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Goes deep as you can go or as I Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
I think that if we consider the classic Masonic logo
the square encompasses with the letter G, it really shows
us that some meanings in life are very obvious and
out there and in your face, like the letter G
has two meanings, is explained in ritual period, but there
(35:41):
are sort of hidden connections and undercurrents and manifestations of
both geometry and deity all around, right, And my hope
is that through this conversation you can see a clear
connection from both the compasses and the square to the
letter G itself and all that that implies and connects
(36:06):
with throughout the rest of masonry and the rest of
our lives.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
As upstanding, then.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
For our listener who might be in the UK and
is under that jurisdiction where the G doesn't exist, does
the square and compass and that logo that we have
if you take out the letter G does, can you
still find the same meaning?
Speaker 4 (36:26):
I certainly think so, especially given the historical context that
we discussed in art via the sort of act of
creation often being represented with compasses. The fact that a
square is, you know, a representation of like the earthly
manifestation of deity. You make the compas or sorry, you
(36:49):
make the square from the compasses, and you know, a
sort of another connection as we think about the position
of the square and the compasses as you progress through
the three degrees of Masonry. Initially sort of our earthliness
really supersedes and covers up divinity. Right Our presence here
(37:12):
on earth clouds our vision, and it's easy to forget
the connection out there in the world, and then in
the fellow craft, where it's offset. We're kind of like
stepping one foot into a divine realm and starting to
see connections, Whereas the hope is, you know, by the
(37:33):
end of the Master Mason degree you sort of overcome
that earthliness and make a connection with deity and see
broader connections and experiences through life.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Thanks again to my guest this week, worshipel Brother Cedric Jacobson,
past Master of the Masonic Lodge of Research number four
oh one of New Haven, Connecticut. Hey, if you've enjoyed
this episode, would you like to get the next one
ad free a week early and access to all our
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(38:07):
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us in advance. I'm right worship for brother Michael Lars.
I always look forward to our next time together, until then,
with peace and harmony prevail
The Commons. Opinions and views shared during this program are
of those individual Freemasons and do not reflect the official
position of a Grand Launch, Concordant Body, a Pendant Body,
a Masonic authority, or Craftsman Online dot Com.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Hey, welcome back to the Craftsman Online Podcast, the only
Masonic podcast en George by the Grand Lodge in New York.
I'm your host, right Worship Brother Michael Arsa, and you're
strapped in for an episode. Ooh, we're going to get
controversial of the letter G before we get rolling. A
reminder you can save the date. Our third annual Black
Friday holiday shopping episode, sponsored by Bricksmasons dot Com, returns
(00:49):
on Monday, November twenty fourth. Can you believe it? It is
holiday shopping season already. I'll admit I've actually started buying
for some of my family members. But the tradition of
having Brother Matthew Brockbank on our virtual studio will continue.
And here's what I love about Matt. Matt knows how
to find some of the most interesting gifts. These are complete,
out of the box gift ideas for those hard to
(01:12):
shop for Freemasons on your holiday shopping list. It's all
at Bricksmasons dot com and you will see well here
the episode on Monday November twenty fourth or Monday November seventeenth.
If you're a Patreon subscriber, which by the way, that's
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(01:34):
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That's all happening on Patreon with Craftsmen Online. You can
start your free seven day trial and help us get
to twenty new subscribers this fall. All in the notes
for this episode. That's where you're going to find that
important link. Our guest this week is going to be
drawing on his extensive research into the historical context and
(01:55):
ancient symbols of Freemasonry that all illuminate around that controversy
letter g It's his first time on the Craftsman Online podcast.
As we say, welcome to worshipful Brothers, Cedric.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Jacobson, good evening, thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
What I love about your title as past master is
the lodge that you're a past master of is the
Masonic Lodge of Research number four hundred and one and
New Haven, Connecticut. For those of us that have never
even stepped foot into a lodge of research, tell us
what it's like going through before we get into the
letter g we are going to talk about that. What
is it like becoming a member of a lodge of
(02:30):
research and then getting into the officer line and eventually
sitting in the east.
Speaker 4 (02:34):
So it is an affiliation based lodge, like we don't
confer degrees, and the role of the leadership of the
lodge is largely based around gathering research based presentations on
papers and presentations and then publishing a compilation of those
each year every few years, depending on frequency. So it's
(02:57):
a chance for brothers who are interested in sort of
scratching that research based itch to do so and practice
like compiling research in an organized fashion and then presenting
it to a friendly audience and kind of like workshopping ideas,
getting feedback. And then some of our presentations have been
(03:19):
shared with local lodges, So if you need an education
speaker for the evening, you know, we have kind of
a list of brothers who can get out there and
talk to other lodges about kind of deeper meanings or
historical references.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
It's kind of fair to say. If you had a motto,
it would be thinkers wanted apply within.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
As we get ready to talk about one of the
most controversial letters in freemasonry, which is the letter G,
it was interesting you were telling me the beginning of
this whole research project for you started with a little
black notebook and somebody asked you a question about the
letter G.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (03:58):
There was a Brother Mother Lodge, which is Higher Lodge
number one in New Haven, Connecticut. Our right Worshipful Brother
Sal Frigno a past master that lodge and a district
deputy and Sal at a night of instruction, you know,
we were talking about a line from the ritual and
he said, well, what does that even mean?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Like, what are they talking about there?
Speaker 4 (04:23):
And it is a line that isn't in every ritual
that I've seen, but it is in many and it's
in the second half of the Master Mason degree. And
during that time, craftsmen are like seeking something out and
they find an object that has a faint resemblance to
the letter G. And he's like, the letter G, what
(04:46):
does that even mean? And it's sort of you know,
made me think about the connection with the letter G.
In the middle Chamber, and I spent you know, I
knew like it's the only other place we see the
letter G reference, like using that phrasing and ritual, and
so it really made me seek out kind of the
connection and the through line between the Tellcraft degree and
(05:09):
the Master Mason degree.
Speaker 2 (05:10):
We're kind of on the same page because you refer
to it as the middle Chamber lecture as well. I've
also heard it as the winding staircase lecture. So it's
always good to have someone we're using the same lingo.
But what's also interesting is that the letter G, without
a doubt, when you put the square encompasses with it together,
is the iconic logo of freemasonry, at least in North America.
(05:34):
Around the world, certain countries, they in jurisdictions they take
out that letter G. When you join a masonicoluge, you're
trying to figure out kind of a part of you,
like what is this, But then through the degree process
you learn so much other stuff that by the time
that the letter G has explained to you, I'm going
to guess it's the same. In Connecticut, it's towards the
(05:54):
end of that second degree there's this wonderful lecture and
then you know, the brother speaking draws attention to it
and you're like, oh, yeah, all this other stuff. I
was kind of wondering what that meant. So do you
remember when quote unquote the light was turned on in
your eyes that, oh, there's that letter G and how
it was explained to you.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Yeah, and I think of a really clear memory of
that portion of the degree that that sort of lights
on aha moment. But I'll be honest, I don't know
that I made the connection between that letter G that's
displayed in the lodge and that that is so common
in American.
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Compass and square logo.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
I think it didn't dawn on me for several weeks
that like, oh, that that is the same G.
Speaker 2 (06:42):
And again, Freemasonry steeped has a lot of Biblical references,
is not a religion. But I'm going to make this
fair comparison because I believe it's much like when people
quote scripture, there's what the Bible has actually written, and
then there's the esoteric interpretations or the spiritual interpretations or
the historical relevance of it. The same kind of works
(07:03):
with like Masonic ritual. So when it was explained to
you in your second degree, like, hey, this is what
the letter G is, this is what it means. What
were your thoughts did you go, oh, yeah, I get that,
or did you start going h but could there be more?
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I think that that was obviously early in my Masonic journey,
and at that point I was doing everything I could
to absorb the lessons as presented, you know, and that
that particular section of ritual is laid in with information
that I wanted to work to internalize. But now looking back,
(07:41):
you know, the letter G is explained to us as
having like two meanings, referencing the mathematical practice of geometry
and alluding to a deity or a supreme marketect of
the universe. Right, and then it's kind of like period
and we move on. We don't really talk more about geometry.
(08:04):
This would be more architect of the universe. Does make
some reappearance in terms of influences later, and I think
for that reason it kind of ends up being like
a surface level illusion and not like a living, breathing
lesson for our practice.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
Says Mason.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
This is going to kind of lead up to another
question I have here because I like where you left that,
so do you feel that this explanation, let's for lack
of a better term, do you feel that that leads
to like common misconceptions or maybe oversimplifications that Masons now
have about the lettergy.
Speaker 4 (08:38):
Not necessarily misconception. Maybe I guess it's overlap between misconception
and oversimplification. Like I hear the word geometry, and what
I think of is, you know, my sophomore high school
math class, you know, drawing triangles and using the law
signs and the.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
One am I ever going to need any of this
stuff in life?
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Every Yeah, it is helpful to as we're investigating like
deeper meaning, think about the context in which this ritual
is kind of like codified and set down, and.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
You know, it's not just words on a page. These
were words that were delivered.
Speaker 4 (09:20):
To an educated audience, and educated that an educated audience
that had a lot more context and sort of like
historical connections that modern day Americans don't necessarily have. And
so as we're looking for that meaning, I think that
if we don't consider that those contextual clues, we miss
(09:42):
out on kind of like richer meanings in the room.
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Okay, interesting, I feel like the letter G kind of
points men to go back to this book that we're
told that within the pages of this book are all
the answers that we're looking for. So that's going to
lead to kind of some of the historical origins of
where this letter G would have come into the fellow
Craft degree or the second degree in American Masonic ritual.
(10:09):
What do you feel has been the evolution of the
letter G from when it first entered into our ritual
into today twenty twenty five.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, so I have a couple thoughts about that.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
First, is it it's important to remember that at the
initial formation of the Grand Lodge of England, there were
only two degrees in Freemason, right, There wasn't the Master
Mason degree as we know it today, and the Master
Mason degree wasn't really created until the next decade between
like ten and seventeen s late seventeen years later, depending
(10:43):
on who you ask, and when that was sort of
like set down and codified. It was primarily done so
by Brothers Preston and Webb sort of in parallel. And
I know you had a previous episode featuring worshipil Brother
Nathan Saint Pierre. That sort of historical context here is
(11:04):
really helpful when we think about kind of the evolution
of ritual, and it continued to evolve as it spread.
For example, my mother Lodge was chartered in seventeen fifty
and actually has a dispensation to use the original working ritual,
(11:25):
which has some similarities with Web, but in.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
Some ways as different and so.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
And then if we kind of look at the spread
of Freemasonry out west with manifest Destiny and the spread
of the population in this landscape, there were little changes
in sort of little foibles, and you can almost draw
Masonic like family tree, and then through the ritual broadly.
(11:57):
I think that you know, Web was based out of
where I live here in Boston. His work here in
the US was largely responsible for consistency of the Middle
Chamber lecture. You mentioned my little notebook that I scribbled
down ideas to myself, and I went and looked at
it again this afternoon, and I had written down a
(12:18):
question like, well, what did like I know G didn't
exist around the construction of King Solomon's temple.
Speaker 3 (12:25):
I wonder what that sound like? How it was.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Represented the letter G itself, not what it stands for.
Speaker 4 (12:31):
I was curious about it from the angle of the
master macey indegre. And so if we look at our
modern G, it stems from kind of the Roman square script,
which was circa like one CE, and from that point on,
the letter G as we see it and think of
it has remained basically constant. Its immediate predecessor is called
(12:57):
like the old Italic script, which is around four hundred BCE.
If you just sort of picture in your head a
backwards letter C, it's interesting that C is the parent
of both the hard C and G sound.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
But here's why.
Speaker 4 (13:15):
So if you make a CU sound and pay attention
to the location of your the tongue, that's kind of
the back roof of your mouth versus GU. The tongue
placement is the same. And if you look at linguistics,
it's very common for things to be voiced versus on voiced.
And so if you put your fingertips on your voice
(13:37):
box and make a sound, it doesn't vibrate, but the
GO sound you can feel the vibration in there. So
that just like kind of confirms the original heritage. We
can continue to trace back. We get to archaic Greek,
which is around seven hundred BCE. It looks the thing
that makes the G sound, and the sound looks sort
(14:00):
of like a number seven with straight lines at a
near right angle. And if we go one more step back,
so we're looking around the time of the construction of
the temple, we land at two separate scripts or two
separate alphabets, if you want to call them. That the
Phoenician and product Gaanonite, which is around as I mentioned,
one thousand BCE. It looks basically the same as the Archaic,
(14:24):
So that's sort of seven shape at almost Friday.
Speaker 2 (14:28):
You really did your homework on this, that's impressive. We
got a little history on linguistics and also just the alphabet.
That's fascinating. So the question that this brother asked you,
are you allowed to share it in open company or
is it a secret question?
Speaker 4 (14:46):
I think that there are elements of it that are
deeply tied to experiences in the ritual, and I wouldn't
want to spoil like personal experiences of the ritual. But
I do think that there's a clear connection that can
be made between the letter G representing both geometry and
(15:08):
an allusion to the supreme architect of the universe. And
I think that it comes to that that symbol of
the sort of proto canaanite seven ish shape with straight
lines and an almost right angle. And so the line
that the brother asked me about was the faint, the
(15:35):
faint resemblance of the letter G in our ritual, my
mother Lodge's ritual. It was the faint impression of the
letter G. And so that that shape of the letter
G has the shape of a square essentially.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Right.
Speaker 4 (15:55):
And so if you picture a seven straight lines almost
a ninety degree angle, it has the approximate shape of
a where. And so what that means is that G
referencing the name of deity, but also geometry, the idea
of like right angles and squares essential in geometric thought
and process. If we're considering other connections to like other
(16:20):
elements of ritual, I think that's where it gets really interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
This is fascinating because we went from talking about the
letter to it now representing something large in itself and
like a simple So now I'm sitting here in my
head going, yeah, the way that you're talking about this,
if you take the everyone should be able to picture
it in their mind right now. That we talked about earlier,
that Masonic logo, that iconic, that square encompasses with the
lettergy in the center. And as you know, a brother
(17:11):
that has gone through, whether it's your first degree or
all the way through to all three, you understand a
bit of that concept of who the grand architect of
the universe is. And now, Cedric, you're doing a great
job and like mentally like illustrating how this is all
connecting to that that bigger piece that's amazing.
Speaker 3 (17:30):
Well, buckle up because it goes.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
There's areas.
Speaker 3 (17:35):
More so, I think often.
Speaker 4 (17:38):
About, you know, what we're charged to do and bettering
ourselves and continuing our own education as Mason's you know,
we are. A question that I think about often is
you know, how frequently do we actually pick up and
use our working You know, we're not working with stone.
(18:02):
But if we purport to value geometry, and that's literally
half of the explained textual meaning of the letter G.
We ought to we ought to value it, and we
ought to value it enough to practice it. And if
you look at geometry traditionally, like going back to the
old times, it can basically all be explored with two
(18:25):
implements straight edge think ruler or the twenty four inch
gauge and a compass.
Speaker 3 (18:32):
And that's it.
Speaker 4 (18:33):
Like, from those two tools, you can do much much
more than you think. Like I picture compass, I'm like,
oh look a circle.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Check.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
But with those two things together you can do much
more than you think. You can make all the platonic solids, right,
so a perfect triangle, square, pentagon in all the way up.
It's meditative to play around with these implements and see
how the the circles and the lines can interact, and
you can try to make new things, and that sort
(19:04):
of like act of trying this out is beneficial because
it's sort of like, lets you disconnect from the world
and all the things going on around us and our
heads and on our phones and just pen or pencil
to paper and explore. And I think that that's like, yeah,
the perfect time to consider the letter G.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I agree, you've actually cast the letter G in a
whole new light because I think most of us just
see it at lodge. We see it on rings or
you know, other symbolic things that brothers or people are
wearing around and maybe there's that time during the green
where like, oh, yeah, it's from reminded me, thanks, It's
all about the angles and my relationship with deity, And Okay, good,
(19:47):
great to I never thought of the letter G as
a working tool, because I think of the working tools
as the actual tools that they built this temple with
which math was a theory. It was it was a science.
And that is not your traditional hands on tool. That's
using the big muscle in your head to figure all
(20:07):
that out. So I love that you say we need
to start your day or include that in your life,
Like am I living to the value of the letter G?
My question is and this is happening before. I love.
My favorite role in any Masonic lodge was when I
was the Lodge education officer, and that was working with
the new brothers through all their degree work, and they
would ask great questions and we were going through the
(20:29):
Catechism and loved it. I often found that this, as
I called them, their white rabbit Chase, became my white
rabbit of truth chase, where we would try to find
this out together because they asked questions I never knew.
So has your interest in the Letter G continued on
your own or are you still trying to track down
(20:50):
the original answer to the original question that was posed
to you?
Speaker 4 (20:56):
Yes, yes, to be okay, I think it prompted at
the time when I still lived in New Haven, the
location of my mother lodge, we had a program. We
had meetings twice a month, two Thursdays a month. One
was typically a degree and the other was education. And
(21:18):
then in the off Thursdays we had various programs and
one programming that we implemented when I was in lodge leadership,
there was a book club. So every month we would
read a book. We would come back around the time
when we were exploring this letter g you know, it
was just the same sort of core group of guys
interested in pulling at the thread and seeing where it
(21:39):
led us. We decided to read a relatively short book
on sacred geometry and sort of it included like geometric constructions,
and at that night for the book club discussion, you know,
we all brought out our little compasses and we played around,
and through that work we actually uncovered something that upon
(22:04):
further research, was kind of an old trick and old
understanding that they used in operative masonry, and that is
that with a compass and a straight edge, you can
make a square, okay, And so if you picture the
act of making a circle with a compass, you have
(22:27):
the point in the middle and the compass around it,
which we know is its own separate Masonic symbol that
I love to talk about. But picture that in your head.
We draw a line straight through the center point. We
call that a diameter. From the end of that line.
If you add another line to any point anywhere on
(22:47):
the circle inside the circle, another line, and then draw
a third line from the end of the line you
just threw back to the start, you end up with
a triangle. It doesn't matter, you know, whether you do
a really big angle or really small, No matter what,
that angle that touches the circle is ninety degree. So
(23:08):
if we look back in operative masonry, you know, many
of the tools hammer, chisel, plum, things kind of like
work on their own with minimal maintenance. Something like a
square where you know, it's often made of wood or metal,
things that are a little bit more susceptible to weathering
(23:28):
and warping. It was really important that builders try their square,
you know, check and calibrate their square. And that was
the easiest way to do it. Draw big, certain and
try your square.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
I love this is like a little Masonic science lab.
And I can see why this totally captured your attention
because you have a pretty deep professional and personal background
in science. So with your personal work and your professional
work in this like, were you starting to like just
you'd be at work in the lab or wherever that
might be, at your desk and be like, oh my gosh,
(24:04):
I'm unlocking all the secrets of the mystery. I understand time.
Speaker 4 (24:08):
Yeah, you know, I think that it is a fortunate
side effect of my training as a scientist that I
feel like everything is figure outable and that there's everything
is kind of interconnected, and you know, you I scratch
at one symbol, this this letter g and it takes
(24:30):
me back to the point within a circle, which was
you know, that was like the first research paper that
I ever did was about the circumart.
Speaker 3 (24:40):
And it's you know, the more.
Speaker 4 (24:41):
I research, the more I realize how connected each of
these seemingly disparate bits of knowledge are. And so the
Masonic ritual and use of symbols is really self reinforcement.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
M If you could, if I could entertain you with
this story for a second, because this is what I
left about Masonry. I am not a scientist, and I
am the furthest from a mathematition. Ever, I purposely chose
a career path where I could stay away from the
math because I hated it. Good with the words, not
the numbers. So recently we had to order a new
(25:18):
refrigerator for our house because the ice maker broke down.
So I order the refrigerator before I place my order
still in the cart, and I'm like, you know what,
I should probably just triple check that it's going to
fit in the cabinet that has been built for said
refrigerator to go into. Well, now I got to find
where's my tape measure I can't f I know I
have three of them and there's somewhere in this house,
(25:40):
but my wife they just disappear. So I'm like, well,
I could try to use my phone, but i'd have
to get the lights on in the kitchen at the
right angle to be able to get so I'm like,
you know what I could I could just measure the
existing refrigerator and then I would know, hey, if it's
at least not into so I all I could find
was my wife's little so a tape measurer that goes
(26:02):
or so. So I'm trying to do that market and
then you know, get it and I'm like, this isn't
gonna work at all. Finally, I'm like, I wonder if
refrigerators are like cars and I could just open it
up and it'll say boom it is. It's just like
the inside of your car door. There, I know it's
seventy inches tall. I needed to make sure that I
had clearance for seventy point five inches. So I now
(26:23):
took the tape measure and just measured the space the gap,
and I was like, it will fit. So was I
using all of my When I think of the seven
Liberal Arts and sciences during the Winding staircase or the
Middle Chamber lecture, your ears must have perked up where
I was like, no, there better not be a quiz
on you of this. But it is interesting to show
(26:44):
that having conversations and brothers and friends like you in
my life, it does make me sit here and think, well,
how could I solve this problem? Even though there was
probably a much simpler way to do it. Through trial
and error, I eventually got there with that story in context,
do you have any tips or suggestions on how you
(27:05):
can have conversations about the sciences with people who are
less informed or less engaged without losing them in the audience?
Speaker 4 (27:15):
Yeah, I think like you you did science. You know,
science is not it's not a body of knowledge. Science
is really just a way of thinking, a sort of
systematic you know, what options do I have available? How
can I go about solving this problem? Here's what I
think might be the answer. That's all that science is,
and like human beings are natural science. I have a
(27:40):
two year old and he is like you can see it.
He's just constantly looking and noticing and seekingnaction. And I think,
you know, we as adults in this world. You know,
adult life can be kind of oppressive. But I think
that seeing how hids look at the world really makes
(28:01):
me want to, you know, shed some of those shackles
and that feeling like downcast and just look with new
eyes because there is a ton to see and take
in and wonder about. And I think that that capacity
to stop and wonder rather than nowadays, I feel it
in myself even like you know, you knee jerk reaction,
(28:23):
pull out your phone and you get an answer from
the World Wide Web in you know, thirty seconds.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
But that that sort.
Speaker 4 (28:31):
Of wondering and thinking and problem solving that you did
with your fridge, that my my toddler does every time
he's trying to, you know, get his water up on
the couch, like.
Speaker 2 (28:43):
I'm sure he'd figure it out faster. They're like raptors.
They know how to test the fence, like kads Man.
Speaker 4 (28:50):
That's truly, that's how I feel about science and the
in terms of the seven Liberal arts and sciences, like
that's what it is. It's not a body of knowledge, really,
it is just a way of contextualizing and thinking and
wondering about the bigness and interconnectedness of the world.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
And to that point, we had started the conversation before
I hit the record button, and I said, we're going
to have a great time talking about this because the
letter G is the most controversial letter in all of freemasonry.
Because you have brothers that God love them. They study
their ritual book, they've been to that second degree of
bajillion times, and they are waiting to hear that the
(29:28):
letter G stands for God. And that's all they want
to tell you is that that's what that means. Then
you have the other brothers that say, well wait a second,
they said another word before they said God. They said geometry.
It stands for geometry. Then you have other guys to say, well,
it also stands for the great architect of the universe,
And you're like, whoa, We've got a three G conversation
(29:49):
going on in this room here, be impressive. We could
get to five g's, but I've ran out of examples.
What are some of the through your research in the
and I can tell you're the guy that when you
got into this rabbit hole there was your nightstand. It
must have just filled up with books and your YouTube
history search must be amazing. What were some of the
(30:11):
more esoteric or lesser known ideas about the letter G
that you uncovered during your research that you can share
with us that are that are kind of cool?
Speaker 4 (30:20):
Yeah, so I think, really the the square in coomass
is like that that logo that you draw us back to,
that is really the letter G in triplicate, right, Like
we talk about G representing both geometry and the name
of deity, the square aspect, we talked about how that
(30:42):
really is an ancestor to the letter G itself, and
the the compasses are the way in which societies and
professionals back in the day created that right angle and
letter G. But if you're thinking, if your question is
really about like interesting things that I came across. One
(31:04):
of my favorites is that idea of the compasses representing deity.
If you look at Renaissance art, especially late Renaissance art.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
Pictures of.
Speaker 4 (31:24):
God the Creator or of Christ, many many pictures, you
see that representation of Deity using a compass to sort
of circumscribe the world. Whether it's a ball that they're
holding in their hand, or there's a really famous painting
(31:44):
that or not called a front a front piece of
art in a book by Blake, William Blake, something about creation.
Its original name is in French, but it's a picture
of like a bearded god looking guy bending down with
a compass circumscribing the world. So the compasses sort of
(32:07):
representing divinity in historical Renaissance thought and pre Renaissance as well.
And then that's sort of like the when I mentioned
historical context or what ritual is talking about, Like people
in Elizabeth in England, as you know, ritual was being codified,
they had some of that cultural memory that has been
(32:31):
shed over the last two hundred and fifty years.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
I got an idea to float by you because you're
a research guy. I never thought about the compasses representing deity.
But then I started thinking about what the compass is produced,
as you said, which is a circle. So you start
thinking of all of the things that the circle represents.
Which the circle represents beauty, the circle represents softness, It
represents strength. At the same time, it represents a beginning
(33:26):
without an end or an end with no beginning, depending
on how you want to look at it. It represents perfection,
it represents security, it represents life, it represents law. It
has so many things that it represents. It really is
one of the most powerful symbols that's out there that
we completely take for granted. And I don't know anyone
(33:47):
that can draw a perfect circle freehanded. It really takes
a master to be able to put the compasses down
to say this is how big I'm going to make
this circle we could have and we are going to
have and next season you're going to come back. This
is a let you know, and we'll have another discussion
on the point within a circle, which is my Masonic
(34:08):
white rabbit, but I never really thought of using. It's
interesting how the pursuit of finding the explanation of the
letter g led to that idea which I am going
to carry that with me for many days and can't
wait to just randomly email you some morning Cedric and say, hey, dude,
after I got back from my rum this morning, I
(34:29):
have this crazy idea about this. What do you think?
And then you got to write that down in your
black book and go find it out. Absolutely, the circle
will continue there it is. Well, you kind of talked
about this earlier, and it was a question that I
wanted to have. Is I want to be respectful of
your time and get you back out of here to
be with the family. How to incorporate this letter G.
(34:53):
We just I just talked about the symbolism of the circle.
That's a great way to think about deity. What's the
key takeaway for you that you hope that our listener
is sitting here saying, hey, how can I internalize this
powerful symbol and kind of make it one of my
working tools in my daily life.
Speaker 4 (35:09):
I think that it depends on how philosophical you want
to get with an answer to a question like that.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Goes deep as you can go or as I Yeah.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
I think that if we consider the classic Masonic logo
the square encompasses with the letter G, it really shows
us that some meanings in life are very obvious and
out there and in your face, like the letter G
has two meanings, is explained in ritual period, but there
(35:41):
are sort of hidden connections and undercurrents and manifestations of
both geometry and deity all around, right, And my hope
is that through this conversation you can see a clear
connection from both the compasses and the square to the
letter G itself and all that that implies and connects
(36:06):
with throughout the rest of masonry and the rest of
our lives.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
As upstanding, then.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
For our listener who might be in the UK and
is under that jurisdiction where the G doesn't exist, does
the square and compass and that logo that we have
if you take out the letter G does, can you
still find the same meaning?
Speaker 4 (36:26):
I certainly think so, especially given the historical context that
we discussed in art via the sort of act of
creation often being represented with compasses. The fact that a
square is, you know, a representation of like the earthly
manifestation of deity. You make the compas or sorry, you
(36:49):
make the square from the compasses, and you know, a
sort of another connection as we think about the position
of the square and the compasses as you progress through
the three degrees of Masonry. Initially sort of our earthliness
really supersedes and covers up divinity. Right Our presence here
(37:12):
on earth clouds our vision, and it's easy to forget
the connection out there in the world, and then in
the fellow craft, where it's offset. We're kind of like
stepping one foot into a divine realm and starting to
see connections, Whereas the hope is, you know, by the
(37:33):
end of the Master Mason degree you sort of overcome
that earthliness and make a connection with deity and see
broader connections and experiences through life.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
Thanks again to my guest this week, worshipel Brother Cedric Jacobson,
past Master of the Masonic Lodge of Research number four
oh one of New Haven, Connecticut. Hey, if you've enjoyed
this episode, would you like to get the next one
ad free a week early and access to all our
subscriber extra episodes. You can open up the show notes
for this episode, click on that free seven day trial
(38:07):
and experience Craftsmen online on Patreon. And we appreciate those
who have decided to pledge that five dollars and support
us in advance. I'm right worship for brother Michael Lars.
I always look forward to our next time together, until then,
with peace and harmony prevail
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