What iscompass

Strictly speaking, an instrument for finding direction is a compass and is not a Masonic symbol; the builder's tool for drawing circles is termed the compasses 1. Combined with the square, the compasses serve to teach Masons to keep their actions and desires within due bounds 1. Together with the Sacred Volume and the square, they constitute the Furniture of the Lodge—also classed among the Great Lights—and form the peculiar badge of a Master Mason 1.

In the traditional English lectures recorded by George Oliver, the compasses are dedicated specifically to the Grand Master as the chief head and ruler of the Craft, owing to their role as the primary implement used in drafting architectural plans 1.

Interpretations of the symbol's deeper meaning vary among Masonic scholars:

Walter Leslie Wilmshurst gives the emblem a mystical reading, taking the compasses to symbolize the active spirit or energizing fire of the human soul 2. Represented geometrically as an upward-pointing Fire Triangle, the compasses signify the active spiritual energy that gradually overcomes the passive negativity of the soul as a candidate advances through the three degrees 2.

Joseph Fort Newton notes that using the implement as a moral emblem long predates modern Freemasonry, pointing to ancient Chinese philosophical texts where the compasses were applied symbolically to keep conduct within the bounds of honor and virtue 3.