Modern Third-Degree Masonic Tracing Board

Modern Third-Degree Masonic Tracing Board. 2010
Digital illustration
Gregory B. Stewart

This work has had many lives and graced many a web-site and book cover.

The Master Mason
The Master Mason

In its original context, this digital illustration represents the process of becoming a Master Mason. As it was included in the book, The Master Mason, part of the text that accompanies the work reads:

Here, in this tracing board, the focus of the teaching is on the transformation that the seeker undergoes in their quest towards becoming a master and member of the virtuous fraternity. Our journey upon the ladder and steps brings us to the gates of the temple, which ends in our allegorical death—the culmination of which being the faint glimmer of the divine spark as emitted from our creator. It is our choice to acknowledge this and complete our connection to it. And, like a faith tradition, the symbols and allegories are taught to create a common understanding with those who have traveled a similar path. The hope of completing this loop is the return to the Golden Rule, in that great proverb of “do unto others as you would have done to yourself.” The allegory of the ruffians illustrates their own ignorance of this principle.

Also see:
A Sad Object of Death
The Tree of Life
Anima Mundi

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