Symbols of Freemasonry - a case for Robert Langdon

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation with obscure origins dating back to the late 16th to early 17th century.

It now exists in various forms all over the world with a membership estimated at around 5 million. The fraternity is organised into Grand Lodges, each of which governs its own jurisdiction, consisting of subordinate (or constituent) Lodges.

Owing to their secretive rituals the masons are a source of theory and curious speculation.

The Library and Museum of Freemasonry houses one of the finest collections of Masonic material in the world.

The Museum contains an extensive collection of objects with Masonic decoration including pottery and porcelain,  jewels and regalia including items belonging to famous and Royal Freemasons including Winston Churchill and Edward VII.

Other collections within the Bridgeman archive provide access to images of the werid and wonderful masonic rituals, symbols and rumoured famous Freemasons.

Ritual, symbolism, and morality

Freemasonry uses the metaphors of operative stonemasons' tools and implements, against the allegorical backdrop of the building of King Solomon's Temple, to convey a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.

Two of the principal symbolic tools always found in a Lodge are the square and compasses.

Freemasonry and masonic symbols