What are the key symbols used in the Royal Arch degree?

The triple tau—consisting of three tau crosses conjoined at their feet—serves as the primary badge and emblem 1. English ritual traditionally designates it as the emblem of all emblems, and its intersecting lines were historically moralized in lectures through geometric combinations linked to the five Platonic bodies 1. Mackey interprets the emblem as a mark designating and separating those who know and worship the true divine name 1.

Scarlet or red is the characteristic color of the degree, representing fervency and zeal, though blue, purple, and white also carry symbolic meanings in the ritual 1. Regalia prescribed in the degree includes an apron featuring a triple tau within a triangle and circle, as well as a scarlet scarf inscribed with "Holiness to the Lord" 1.

On historical tracing boards, key symbols displayed include the arch and keystone, a falling rope, a sun darting rays obliquely, a pot of incense beneath a rainbow, two interlaced triangles enclosing a sun within a circle, the seven-branched candlestick, and the table of shewbread 1.

The dramatic personages and officers are themselves treated symbolically. Wilmshurst interprets the three Principals—Zerubbabel, Haggai, and Joshua—as personifications of the spiritual attributes of Holiness, Royal Supremacy, and Functional Power, while viewing the scribes Ezra and Nehemiah as symbols of distinct stages in spiritual self-reconstruction and reorganization 2.