Can any Brother advise which of the Four Cradinal Vitues is represented in which corner of the Lodge Room. For example I have been advised that Temerance is represented in the NE Corner; Fortitude the SE; Prudence the SW and Justice the NW. Could some brother confirm this and also state why or quote an authority.

Devious (A childhood nickname)
Sydney NSW Australia

An interesting question to which, like so many things Masonic, there may not be a definitive answer! In old floor cloths you will sometimes see the initial letters of those four virtues shown in the four corners but I suspect that may simply be because there are four of each! Where they are shown, they can vary from cloth to cloth.

The standard references for things of this nature, The Freemason at Work - Harry Carr and Freemasons' Guide and Compendium - Bernard E Jones, throw no light on their positions, however, they are well worth reading.

Their importance, of course, is not in their display but in their observance, along with the three normally associated with the ladder.

The standard references for things of this nature, The Freemason at Work - Harry Carr and Freemasons' Guide and Compendium - Bernard E Jones, throw no light on their positions, however, they are well worth reading.

Thank you for your reply. I have looked at both these fine books (and others) and agree that they do not shed light. I will continue my search as I have been reliably informed that there is a symbolical significance. My source is a supposed letter to an Australian Lodge from the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of England 20+ years ago. I have not seen the letter but am assured it existed. The positioning of the pennants representing the Virtues were placed in the Lodge Room according to the info in the letter. But!, I am unable to find any other reference.

Devious

Although it is usual in modern speculative freemasonry to name only the three upper staves or rounds of Jacob’s mystical ladder, in fact it has always had seven rungs. Nowadays the ladder is described as having “many staves or rounds, which point out as many moral virtues, but the three principal ones are Faith, Hope and Charity”, usually described as the Theological Virtues. Originally four Social Virtues preceded them, nowadays called the four Cardinal Virtues, which in ascending order were Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence and Justice. The four Cardinal Virtues are usually represented by four tassels pendant to the four corners of the lodge. It seems that the early artists, who prepared the first of the permanent tracing boards used in lodges, had some difficulty in representing all seven virtues in the available space and in consequence reduced them to three. The three Theological Virtues are depicted in various ways, but usually a Latin cross is used to represent Faith, an anchor is used to represent Hope and a hand holding a chalice is used to represent Charity. The three Intellectual Virtues are Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, but they are seldom depicted on Jacob’s Ladder because they have always been referred to as the “three great pillars” that symbolically support a freemason’s lodge.

On some tracing boards a key also is depicted on or near Jacob’s ladder. The key is a very old symbol in speculative freemasonry, which is mentioned in some of the earliest rituals and catechisms of which copies are still in existence, for example the Edinburgh Register House MS of 1696. The old catechisms usually included the question: “What is the key of your lodge?” the reply to which was “A weel hung tongue”. This response was expanded in some rituals, as for example in the Sloane MS of about 1700, which includes the answer:

“It is not made of Wood Stone Iron or Steel or any sort of metal, but the tongue of good report behind a brother’s back as well as before his face.”
This is the first known recorded use of “the tongue of good report”, which is a significant expression that has survived in speculative rituals to the present day. The Reverend Adolphus F.A.Woodford was one of the nine eminent founders of the world’s premier lodge of research, Quatuor Coronati Lodge No 2076, which was warranted in London in 1884. In Kenning’s Masonic Cyclopaedia of 1878, the Reverend Woodford said that:

“Jacob’s Ladder in freemasonry seems to point to the connection between earth and heaven; between man and God; and to represent faith in God, charity towards all men and hope in immortality.”

Many masonic historians believe that a substantial Jacobite influence was brought to bear on speculative craft freemasonry when it was developing rapidly during the eighteenth century. They say that Jacob’s Ladder was introduced into English freemasonry as a symbol from Continental freemasonry, with the object of keeping the Jacobite cause to the forefront, but this suggestion seems unlikely.

source:
THE SQUARE AND COMPASSES
In search of Freemasonry

A Masonic book online
by Rt W Bro DON FALCONER, VII°
Second Grand Master Mason
The Operatives

http://www.freemasons-freemasonry.com/donfr.html


_________________
Sincerely & Fraternally
R.W.Bro. Bruno Gazzo
Editor, PS Review of FM

Now I am embarresed. I have a copy of this book.

Thanks


_________________
Yours Fraternally
Devious

Personally I regard the attachment of Plato's cardinal virtues to the tassels to be a veiling. It is a veiling of the 4 rivers of Eden and that itself is a veiling.

In lodges I know the tassels are on the corners of the mosaic pavement - a very strange place since tassels belong on the sides of carpets

The only other context I have seen tassels attached to the corners of a pavement is in a new age book about Mayan culture

Cheers

Russell