Swastic

The swastika—also termed the fylfot or cross cramponnée—has no standing as an official symbol in Craft Masonry 1. Mackey observes that it was never adopted in the lodge, functioning as a "dead symbol" lacking active ritual use, with its only Masonic occurrence occurring outside Craft Masonry in the Scottish Rite's Prince of Mercy Degree 1.

Historically, the figure appears among the mark patterns recorded on ancient and medieval stonework 2. Gould includes the cross cramponnée in his catalog of common masons' marks, noting its occurrence on Roman altars, Runic monuments, and medieval church masonry alongside its traditional use as a Hindu emblem 2. Research papers read before Quatuor Coronati Lodge in 1891 similarly examined its historical distribution and mark forms.

Where Masonic writers have treated its symbolic meaning, they look to its pre-Masonic origins. Newton highlights two primary interpretations: one deriving from its Sanskrit etymology as an indicator of life's beneficence and guidance, and another reading it as an emblem of the fixed Pole Star surrounded by the rotation of the Great Bear 3. Goblet d'Alviela likewise argued that the arms originally represented the swing of Ursa Major around the North Star or designated the cardinal directions 1. In an operative context, Thomas Carr argued before the Lodge of Research that the device served operative Masons as a symbol of the Supreme Architect of the Universe 3.