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

The Square and Compasses are combined to teach Masons to square their actions and keep their desires within due bounds 1. Together, they serve as the universally recognized badge of a Master Mason and of the Fraternity 1. In Craft symbolism, the Square refers to a Mason's duty to the Craft and to moral conduct, while the Compasses refer to his duty to himself 1. Carl H. Claudy writes that the Square speaks a universal tongue to Masons of all faiths, while the Compasses circumscribe their desires wheresoever dispersed 3.

Antiquity shows a long tradition of using these tools as moral emblems. Passages in ancient Chinese texts—including the historical records and the writings of Confucius and Mencius—used the square and compasses to symbolize moral conduct, straight paths of wisdom, and living within the bounds of virtue 14.

Within the degrees of Craft Masonry, the position of the two implements changes on the altar as a candidate proceeds. Walter Leslie Wilmshurst interprets this arrangement mystically, viewing the Compasses as the active Spirit and the Square as the passive Soul 2. In Wilmshurst's reading, the gradual unveiling of the points of the Compasses—from being hidden beneath the Square in the First Degree, to one point revealed in the Second, and both exhibited in the Third—signifies the candidate's inner spiritual awakening and the transmutation of soul inertia into active spiritual energy as he advances through the Craft 2.