Masonic tracing boards and the key to Dan Brown
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  For seven years we have worked alongside Robert Lomas, the world's most popular Masonic author to create a set of book covers that illustrate Robert's 'Turning' trilogy. Each cover is symbolically structured to resonate with the readers experience of each book. At any time that Robert has needed to illuminate aspects of his writing he has always turned to us, the Bros Jackson to create symbolic tracing boards for this purpose.

Doctor Lomas has been closely linked to the character Robert Langdon, the principle character of 'The Da Vinci Code', 'Angels & Demons' and now 'The Lost Symbol'.
Turning The Solomon Key
George Washington, the five pointed star and the secrets of masonic astrology
ROBERT LOMAS
The Lost Symbol
DAN BROWN
 
 

"The Tracing Boards are stunning! It is a real privilege for me to think that something I wrote might have contributed, even a little bit, to such a wonderful work. Many thanks again for these lovely Tracing Boards."
W. Kirk MacNulty
Author of 'Tracing Boards and the Western Metaphysical Tradition', 'Freemasonry - A Journey through Ritual and Symbol','The Way of the Craftsman: A Search for the Spiritual Essence of Craft Freemasonry'.
 1st Degree Tracing Board

The First Degree Tracing Board
by Robert Lomas "The Secret Science of Masonic Initiation"

To help an Apprentice understand the sacred law which runs the cosmos, Freemasonry offers the First Degree Tracing Board. This set of symbols is to focus your thoughts and guide your meditation. At first sight it seems to be a casual collection of emblems found in every masonic lodge. But, as your masonic insight develops, order and purpose emerge from it. You begin to see that it is a diagram of the material, mental and spiritual elements in us all. These are shown as the earth, the Intermediate Fermament and the Heavens.

"The symbolic staircase he could ascend enabling him to participate in the mysteries of human science...through the staircase of the spine, energy ascends and descends, circulating, connecting the heavenly mind with the physical body."  - Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol.
 2nd Degree Tracing Board

The Second Degree Tracing Board
by Robert Lomas "The Secret Science of Masonic Initiation"


‘The purpose of this board is personal. If you want to work the Second Degree you must allow it speak to your intellect. This degree is about the higher, mental reaches of your nature.
The First Degree taught you to lay the foundation of a new life in the sacred law. You were told to erect a temple, purged of the flesh upon the ground floor of your natural personality. Now with your animal instinct beautified with virtue and adorned by grace of character, you are bidden to move upwards, to gain instruction and experience a higher level of being.’

"The winding staircase, as it was known, appeared on the 2nd degree tracing board. It represented man's intellectual climb toward the divine truth." - Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol.
 3rd Degree Tracing Board

The Third Degree Tracing Board
by Robert Lomas "The Secret Science of Masonic Initiation"

‘The Third Degree Tracing Board is a diagram that contains many truths. Like every effective symbol, it is capable of several meanings, each one true upon its own level.It’s first and simplest meaning is the quasi-historical one you acted out in the ritual. It shows the grave of the murdered Hiram Abiff and the tools that killed him.Secondly, it has a cosmic and philosophical meaning. At his level it is a visual metaphor for the spiritual mystery of the origin of evil and death.Thirdly, it has a personal application. It is a symbol of ourselves and shows the traditional way of being raised from darkness to light.’

"A coffin shaped tracing board on the floor, the 3rd degree, this was the death ritual, the most rigorous of the three degrees." - Dan Brown, The Lost Symbol.


Turning the Hiram Key


Turning the Solomon Key


Turning the Templar Key

"Robert Lomas reveals how the rites and symbolism of Freemasonry are intended to awake, perhaps gently and over time, sometimes suddenly and decisively, any spiritual curiosity, any curiosity about esoteric mysteries that lies inside the individual, however deep, however dormant. New dimensions may open up to him."

Mark Booth author of The Secret History of the World.

“I would like to thank 2 people for inspiring me to write this book. The first is Brother Martin Jackson, a master craftsman in the art of Tracing Boards, who spent many hours probing my emotional response to Freemasonry. Martin forced me to articulate ideas that i felt but never tried to put into words. The second is Mark Booth, one of the best editors it has been my good fortune to work with.

The Bros Jackson highly recommend The Secret History of the World: as laid down by the Secret Societies by Jonathan Black (Mark Booth)”


 
Tracing Board of the Centre

TRACING BOARD OF THE CENTRE

 “It has been part of our path for the past 7 years to create Masonic Tracing Boards. This is our latest work, The Tracing Board of the Centre based upon an understanding by Walter Wilmshurst.

Bro. Wilmhurst died in 1939 and left behind a huge legacy of works reflecting his 50 years as a mason, the most well known being “The Meaning of Masonry”. A beautiful journey through his expression of The Craft. He is one of the few brethren to have created a Masonic ritual to be worked within a Lodge. This is “The Book of the Perfect Lodge” which is still worked each year at Wilmshursts Lodge of Living Stones in Leeds, England.

I would encourage any sincere mason to visit this Lodge and experience this ritual. And that word “experience” is the most important word in The Craft. The Wilmshurst ritual leaves you knowing, without doubt, that you have experienced strong changes in your emotions towards ,and understanding of,  our Craft. It is the subconscious emotions which are triggered and fired and it is the symbolism of our Craft which fires our work.”

“The personality of a Mason is made up of four basic metaphysical elements called by the ancients, fire, water, air and earth. In the Tracing Board this is represented by a circle made up of four equal parts. The four parts of this circle are a reminder that the human organism is compounded of those four elements in balanced proportion. Water represents the psychic nature; Air, the mentality; Fire, the will and nervous force; whilst Earth is the material condensation in which the other three become stabilised and encased.”

The Secret Science of Masonic Initiation. Robert Lomas.

The Mark Tracing Board
MARK MASTER MASONS
The 'Mark' portion of the title of the degree takes its name from the practice of the stonemason appending his unique mark on his work to identify it
The Kirkwall
Scroll
KIRKWALL SCROLL
On the west wall of the temple of Lodge Kirkwall Kilwinning No. 38(2) in Orkney hangs one of the oldest and most important Masonic artefacts in the world.
 The Royal Arch Board
THE ROYAL ARCH BOARD
"I must say how moving I found the three boards. The way in which the symbols are depicited and laid out indicates a grasp of their deeper meanings. I intend
to frame them and hang them in my study, to remind me
of the key symbols of each degree"
Dr. Robert Lomas
Author of 'The Hiram Key','Second Messiah','Uriels Machine','The Book of Hiram','The Invisible College'

 
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