Symbols of Freemasonry By Daniel Beresniak, Assouline Publishing, distributed by Thames & Hudson, 44 Clockhouse Road, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7QZ. 128 pages, 60 colour photos, ISBN 2 84323 201 5. £9.95

Symbolism is at the heart of freemasonry, but how many of us recognise much of the furniture in the lodge? Why is it there and what does it symbolise?
    This book seeks to lift the veil of mystery by providing an explanation of freemasonry through the moral, philosophical and religious symbols that lie at the heart of its teaching.
    However, as is made clear in an editor’s note, the work is a translation of a text written by a French mason, and some of the content is peculiar to France. However, the basic principles described and explained "are common to freemasonry wherever it is practised throughout the world" it adds.
    Although the book claims to be for new masons as well as those more experienced, it does require a good understanding of freemasonry to gain its full enjoyment for the reader.
    At the heart of freemasonry are the square and compasses. The author observes that these two implements are the tools of a free man. He adds: "They are the tools of a way of thinking which recognises the possibility of making statements about reality, understanding its laws and modifying it in order to better the human condition.
    "They take the place of amulets and talismans in the wake of the development of a higher consciousness. The square and compasses have no intrinsic power. They are tools invented by human beings to help them exercise the power they know they possess to shape reality.
    "Symbolism makes the meaning of these tools clearer by depicting them as images of the mind that conceived and created them. The square and compasses are symbolic to the extent that they represent in a material form the shape and skill of the human soul."
    That is, to say the least, a picturesque description of the two key symbols in freemasonry that many masons believe are merely two instruments that won’t sit still on an open Volume of the Sacred Law.
    Freemasonry, we are told, is fun. As such, I particularly liked the chapter dealing with Great Banquets. As the author points out, the banquet is one of the oldest and most solid of masonic traditions.
    Indeed, Anderson’s 1723 Constitutions contains numerous descriptions and references to this particular aspect of the masonic world.
    As the author points out: "The tradition of the banquet explains the large number of meetings in restaurants and gave rise to the opinion amongst many people in the eighteenth century that freemasonry was another Bacchic sect, many of which thrived at that time."
    He explains the ritual of the "Order Banquet" held each year under the French and Scottish Rites involving a circular table with the apprentice serving. This ritual dates to pre-revolutionary military lodges in France.
    Daniel Beresniak recalls an anti-masonic song in Paris in 1738 that went:
    "Let’s sing the merit and the glory of freemasons. Freemasons are fine, pretty lads, who meet together just to drink, that’s what their hocus pocus is all about."
    But, Beresniak makes it clear that the banquet had an important part to play in the ideas and customs of freemasonry. People who would otherwise not have met, often of a modest station, "share a meal in a friendly, relaxed atmosphere. Everyone can make their voice heard, and everyone is listened to."
    And that is the essence of freemasonry. In this regard, the book helps to put much of the lodge furniture and the banquet into proper perspective.
    This book is a big learning curve – but only for those who want to take a more deeply philosophical view of freemasonry.
    John Jackson