The earth produces all that ministers to the needs, comfort and luxury of man, while the Heavens produce the light and heat that give the procreative and generative agents to allow the earth to produce.
The square is adapted for plane surfaces, which the ancients believed to be the shape of the earth and is appropriate to that branch of geometry used to measure the earth. The compass has relation to spheres and spherical trigonometry, that branch of mathematics that deals with the orbits of the planetary bodies.
The square is a symbol of the earth and the compass of the Heavens. As a candidate advances and receives more light in Masonry, he sees the change in the configuration of the compass to the square, not merely as bare points, but as an elevation. Since the square represents the earth, it is symbolic of the material, sensual and base portion of humanity. The compass, representing the Heavens, is symbolic of the spiritual, intellectual and moral portion of humanity.
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Compiled by Jack R. Levitt
Past Grand Master of California