What is the significance of the Square and Compasses in Freemasonry?

Combined as two Great Lights or worn as a jewel, the Square and Compasses serve as the primary badge of a Master Mason and an emblem of brotherhood 1. Together, they symbolize a Mason's duty to the Craft and to himself, teaching him to square his actions by the rule of morality and to keep his desires circumscribed within due bounds 13. So universally is this emblem associated with Freemasonry that its use as a commercial trademark was rejected by the United States Patent Office in 1873 to prevent public deception 1.

The symbolic employment of these implements long predates modern speculative Masonry. Historical texts from ancient China, including the writings of Confucius and Mencius, applied the square and compasses figuratively to teach that men must align their lives with virtue and honor 14. In early British Masonry, an 1725 catechism listed "God and the Square" as fundamental principles governing a lodge 1.

Craft writers also offer spiritual interpretations of the emblem. Wilmshurst takes the Square to represent the passive human soul and the Compasses to symbolize the active Spirit 2. He reads the changing arrangement of the two instruments across the three Craft degrees—moving from hidden points to fully disclosed points—as a depiction of the candidate's inner progress, where spiritual energy gradually transmutes and overcomes the passivity of the soul 2.