Page 106 - Amo Amass A-muse is some of the fruit of a lifetimes love of Freemasonry - the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235

ThE PRiNCiPAl OFFiCERS’ COlumNS

OW DO YOU REPORT your respective Columns? Yes, but how do you
identify them? Each belongs to one of the Noble Orders of Architecture, either
Hthe Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian or Composite. Of these, the Tuscan is only
a Roman adaptation of the Greek Doric and the Composite is but a Roman elaboration
of the Corinthian, which leaves the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian to represent the three
Principal Officers.
In the very early days of Speculative Lodges the Lectures given were mostly about
Classical or Palladian Architecture, handed down from the old Operative days, and there
were no signs then of linking the Orders of Architecture symbolically with the Officers of
the Lodge. In those days it was a ‘must’ for every educated man to know something about
architecture and be able to identify the Orders. Can we do so today?
Below are rough sketches of the Chapiters of the Pillars or Columns of the three
Orders concerned, to the same scale, the diameter of their Columns being the same at the
junction with their Chapiters. Therefore their heights differ as shown.
The Chapiter of the Doric Order is very plain, the Ionic is in the form of a scroll and
the Corinthian is always the most elaborate. The problem is to determine which of these
Orders, in the form of Columns, Candlesticks or Chair decorations, should identify the
Master, and which each Warden?
Let us now work from the other end of the problem. We are taught that the three
Lesser Lights represent the Sun, or the J.W., the Moon, or the S.W., and the Master. We are
also taught in the fourth Section of the First Lecture and in the Explanation of the 1st T.B.
that three Pillars which support the Lodge, are the Master, symbolising Wisdom, the S.W.,
denoting Strength, and the J.W., Beauty, We are also taught that these symbolic qualities are
portrayed by the Ionic, Doric and Corinthian Orders of Architecture, but nowhere does
it say which refers to which.
One might suppose that the Age and therefore the seniority of the Orders in
Architecture were in line with the seniority of our Officers. The Corinthian Order has
always been accepted as the youngest and the Doric has been given first place although
the Ionic is just as old. By this argument, the Master’s Column would be the Doric and
the J.W. the Corinthian. But the Doric Order is structurally the strongest, and it is the