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You are here: Home / Featured / Great Architect of the Universe – Symbols and Symbolism

Great Architect of the Universe – Symbols and Symbolism

September 12, 2016 by Greg Stewart 6 Comments

In this installment of Symbols and Symbolism, we look at Albert Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry definition of the Great Architect of the Universe, more aptly know as the deity or God. While an obvious connection to the cosmic power at hand in in the mysterious workings of the cosmos, his definition is an interesting skirting of an obvious connection to a Christian appellation and connection to the Christianization of Freemasonry as he opines “… it cannot be denied that since the advent of Christianity a Christian element has been almost imperceptibly infused into the Masonic system, at least among Christian Masons” So then, how does Mackey define the aspect of deity at work in the doings of Freemasonry – as a Great Architect of the Universe.

You can read more installments of Mackey’s Encyclopedia under Symbols & Symbolism here on this site and video of these segments on YouTube.

From Mackey’s Encyclopedia of Freemasonry:

The title applied in the technical language of Freemasonry to the Deity.

It is appropriate that a society founded on the principles of architecture, which symbolizes the terms of that science to moral purposes, and whose members profess to be the architects of a spiritual temple should view the Divine Being, under whose holy law they are constructing that edifice, as their Master Builder or Great Architect. Sometimes, but less correctly, the title “Grand Architect of the Universe” is found.

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Related

  • The Christianization of Freemasonry
  • April 13, 2015
  • In "Sojourners"
  • Albert Gallatin Mackey
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Filed Under: Featured, Symbolism, Video Tagged With: Albert Galatin Mackey, God, Symbolism

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About Greg Stewart

A devoted student of the Western Mystery Traditions, Greg is a firm believer in the Masonic connections to the Hermetic traditions of antiquity, its evolution through the ages and into its present configuration as the antecedent to all contemporary esoteric and occult traditions. He is a self-called searcher for that which was lost, a Hermetic Hermit and a believer in “that which is above is so too below.” Read more about Greg Stewart.

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Comments

  1. Chau NGUYEN NGOC
    Yakiri Jone says

    September 12, 2016 at 8:53 am

    I did a work in French on the Great Architect of the Universe. Can you do a translation into English?

  2. GreginLosAngeles – Naturalist, gardener, explorer. I have a passion for growing native plants and restoring disrupted wild spaces.
    Greg Stewart says

    September 12, 2016 at 5:35 pm

    I’d be happy to publish it if you brought it into English. Perhaps Google Translate would be a good place to start then we can tweak it into a more fluid reading?

  3. siegfried hermann says

    October 7, 2016 at 7:22 am

    GREG I AM A MASON FORM AUSTRIA, VIENNA
    L.Concordia –
    is it possible to see all the masonic aprons, which were used from you in all the degrees You have. I would like to publish it. Get in contact

  4. Mark David Vinzens says

    May 15, 2021 at 9:02 pm

    Praise be to the One Infinite Creator,
    the Great Architect of the Universe.
    All is One.

Trackbacks

  1. The Empty Chair Degree in Freemasonry | Freemason Information says:
    October 20, 2021 at 9:46 pm

    […] Gracious God, Great Architect of the Universe, Author of all good, and Giver of all mercy, pour down, we implore Thee, thy blessings upon us, and […]

  2. Theosophy and Freemasonry | Freemason Information says:
    January 5, 2022 at 2:26 am

    […] originated, was that they left out that universal landmark of Masonry, the recognition of the Great Architect of the Universe. But when some of us here, Theosophists, became Masons, taking our Initiations, as we had to, from […]

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