'Morality veiled in allegory, illustrated by symbols'
Ashlar:A rough ashlar (a square block of building stone) is put in front of the junior warden, and a perfect one in front of the senior warden, suspended from a tripod. The craft's duty is to make a "rough ashlar of candidate into a perfect one", just as a crude block of marble may be hewn into an Apollo or Venus.
The Square: It is an important, ubiquitous symbol, an emblemof the principal officer, referred to as 'Worshipful Master'. It is the "second great light in freemasonry".
The Level:The senior warden's emblem, it stands for equanimity, and is a reminder of the Great Leveller who is death. The junior warden's emblem of uprightness.
Plumb Rule:The chaplain's emblem is a book on a triangle to suggest trinity. The treasurer's is a key to signify how it can lock or unlock the tongue. The director of ceremonies, marked by a pair of batons tied together by a ribbon, demonstrates how authority can be maintained by gentleness (the soft ribbon). The tyler's sword stresses how "freemasonry is as much a peril as a happiness". The stewards' cornucopia between the arms of a pair of compasses signifies plenty stemmed in by restraint.
There are phrases heavy with meaning for the masons. 'Light Darkness' stands for the passage from darkness to light. The 'Blazing Star' symbolises how stars draw a man's thoughts upwards. And the number 3 plays a very significant role in the masonic society—three steps, three degrees, three knocks, three 'greater lights'.... And the entire body of symbolism pointing to the fact that masonry is the "centre of union between good men and true and the happy means of conciliating friendship among those who must otherwise have remained at perpetual distance".