POINT WITHIN A CIRCLE
By P:.M:. Leslie Walker

"Lodges were anciently dedicated to King Solomon, as he is said to have been our first most Excellent Grand Master; but speculative Masons dedicate theirs to the memory of St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist. Since their time, there is represented in every regular and well-governed lodge, a certain POINT WITHIN A CIRCLE, the point representing the individual brother; the circle, the boundary line of his conduct to God and man, beyond which he is never to suffer his passions, prejudices, or interests to betray him on any occasion. This circle is bordered by two perpendicular parallel lines representing these saints, and upon the top rest the Holy Scriptures. In going around this circle we necessarily touch upon these two lines, as well as upon the Holy Scriptures, and while a Mason keeps himself thus circumscribed, it is impossible that he should materially err."

Familiar to every Mason, this ancient symbol is too often considered merely as one of many, instead of what it really is, among the most illuminating of the Entered Apprentice's degree.No man may say when, where, or how the symbol began. From the earliest dawn of history a simple closed figure has been man's symbol for Deity - the circle for some peoples, the triangle for others, and a circle or a triangle with a central point, for still others. The closed figure represents the conception
of Him who has neither beginning or ending; the triangle adds to this the reading of a triune nature. The Lesser Lights form a triangle placed in our lodges in that orientation which expresses Wisdom, Strength and Beauty. In some Jurisdictions a lodge closes with brethren forming a circle about the Altar, which thus becomes the point, or focus, of the Supreme Blessing upon
the brethren.  A symbol may have many meanings, all of them right, so long as they are not self-contradictory. The point within a circle has had many different meanings to many Masons.

We find it connected with sun-Worship, the most ancient of religions; ruins of ancient temples devoted both to sun and to fire worship are circular in form, with a central altar, or "point" which was the Holy of Holies. The symbol is found in India, in which land of mystery and mysticism its antiquity is beyond calculation.

Another ancient meaning of the symbol is that the point represents the sun and the circle the universe. A dot in a small circle is the astronomical symbol for the sun, and the derivation of this astronomical symbol marks its Masonic connection. The Indian interpretation makes the point the male principle, the circle the female; the point became the sun and the circle the solar system which ancient peoples thought was the universe because the sun is the vivifying, the life-giving principle, for all that lives.
The two parallel lines, which modern Masonry states represent the two holy Sts. John, are as ancient as the rest of the symbol, and originally had nothing to do with the "two eminent Christian patrons of Masonry." It is a pretty conception, but without foundation. The holy Sts. John lived and taught many hundreds of years before any Masonry existed which can justly be called
by that name. If this is distasteful to those brethren who believe that King Solomon was Grand Master of a Grand Lodge, devised the system and perhaps wrote the ritual, one must refute them with their own chronology, for both the Holy Sts John lived long after the wise king wrought his "famous fabric." The two lines against the circle with the point date back before Solomon. On early Egyptian monuments may be found the Alpha and Omega, or symbol of God, in the center of circle embroidered by two upright, perpendicular parallel Serpents, representing the Power and the Wisdom of the Creator.
The derivation of the symbol which satisfies the mind as to logic and appropriateness, students find in the operative craft.
To understand just how the point within a circle came into Speculative Masonry by way of Operative craftsmanship, it is necessary to have some mental picture of the times in which the Craftsmen of the early middle ages lived and wrought.

The vast majority had little education. They could neither read nor write unimportant matters to most, because there were no books to read and there was nothing which they needed to write. Skilled craftsmen they were, through long apprenticeship and careful teaching in the art of cutting and setting stone, but except for manual skill and a cunning artifice founded on generations of experience, they were without learning. This was not true of the leaders or, as we would call them, The Masters. The
great cathedrals of Europe were not planned and overseen by ignorance. There, knowledge was power and the architects, the overseers, the practical builders, those who laid out the designs and planned the cutting and the placing of the stones these were learned in all that pertained to their craft. Doubtless many of them had a knowledge of practical mathematics. Certain parts of this knowledge became diffused from the Master Builders through the several grades of superintendents, architects, overseers, foremen in charge of any section of the work. With hundreds if not thousands of men working on a great structure, some organization must have been essential.

Equally essential would be the overseeing of the tools. The tools used by the Cathedral builders were gavel and mallet and setting maul and hammer; they had chisel and trowel and plumb and square and level and twenty-four-inch gauge to "measure and lay out their work." The square, the level and the plumb were made of wood- wood, cord and weight for plumb and level; wood alone for square.  Wood wears when used against stone. Wood warps when exposed to water or damp air. The metal used to fasten the two arms of the square together would rust and perhaps bend or break. Naturally, the squares would not indefinitely stay square. Squares had constantly to be checked up for their right-angledness. Some standard had to be adopted by which a square could be compared, so that, when Operative Masons' squares were tried by it they would not "materially err." The importance of the perfect right angle in the square by which the stones were shaped cannot be over-estimated. Operative Masonry in the Cathedral building days was largely a matter of cut and try, of individual workmen, of careful craftsmanship. Quantity production, micrometer measurement, interchangeable parts were ideas which had not been invented. All the more necessary, then, that the foundation on which all the work was done should be as perfect as the Masters knew how to make it. Cathedral builders erected their temples for all time because they knew how to check and try their squares!

Today any school boy knows the simple "secret of the square" which was then the closely guarded wisdom of the Masters alone; today any school boy can explain the steam engine which was a wonder two hundred years ago, and make
and use a wireless which was a miracle scarce twenty-five years gone by. Let us not wonder that our ancient Operative brethren thought their secret of a square so valuable! 

Lay out a circle any size on a piece of paper. With a straight edge draw a line across through its center. Put a dot on the circle, anywhere. Connect that dot with the line at both points where it crosses the circle. Result, a perfect right angle.Draw the circle of what size you will; place the dot on the circumference where you will, if the lines from the dot meet the horizontal line crossing the circle through its center, they will form a right angle.  This was the Operative Masters great secret- knowing how to "try the square". It was by this means that he tested the working tools of the Fellows of the Craft so it was impossible either for their tools or their work "to materially err." From this, also, comes the ritual used in the lodges of our English brethren, where they "open on the center." Alas, we have dropped the quaint old words they use, and American Lodges know the "center" only as the point within a circle. The original line across the center has been shifted to the side and become the "two perpendicular parallel lines" of Egypt and India and our admonitions are no longer what they must once have been...."while a Mason circumscribes his square within these point~, it is impossible that it should materially err."

Today we only have our Speculative meaning; we circumscribe our desires and our passions within the circle and the lines touching on the Holy Scriptures. For speculative Masons who use squares only in the symbolic sense, such an admonition is of far greater use than would be the secret of the square as known to our ancient brethren. Pass it not lightly. Regard it with the reverence it deserves, for surely it is one of the greatest teachings of Masonry, concealed within a symbol which is plain for any man to read, so be it he has Masonry in his heart.