Point Within A Circle
The Point within a circle has been misunderstood my many people and especially the anti-Masons who are looking for evidence that we are an evil organization.
One anti-Mason states "The point within a Circle represents the worship of the Phallus."
The common Masonic explanation for the "Point within a Circle" is that the Mason is the point within the circle and should be ever mindful of keeping your daily conduct. Our life should be contained within a circle of divine life, law and love that sustains it.
The point is often said to represent a Mason, and the circle the limits of his duty." (C. Bruce Hunter's Masonic Dictionary. page 70.)
The point within a circle is a remarkable emblem; but let us look first at the circle itself. The circle having neither beginning nor end, is a symbol of the Deity and of eternity.
Ritualistically, this is a symbol of control of conduct; a standard of right living. The symbol has an extreme antiquity. Early Egyptian monuments are carved with the Alpha and the Omega or symbol of God in the center of a circle embordered by two upright parallel perpendicular serpents, representing the power and wisdom of the Creator. The symbol apparently came into Masonry from an operative practice, known to but a few Master workmen on Cathedrals and great buildings.
Any school boy knows it now; put a dot on a circle anywhere; draw a straight line across the circle through its center; connect the dot with the points at which the line through the center cuts the circle; the result is a perfect square.
This was the Operative Master’s great secret -- knowing how to "try the square" It was by this that he tested the working tools of the Fellows of the Craft; did he do so often enough, it was impossible either for their tools or their work "to materially err".
Excerpted from "Handbook for Candidate’s Coaches" By The Committee on Ritual and Donald G. Campbell, Past Grand Lecturer, Grand Lodge F.&A.M. of California.
Today we only have our Speculative meaning; we circumscribe our desires and our passions within the circle and the lines touching on the Holy Scriptures. For Speculative Masons who use squares only in the symbolic sense such an admonition is of far greater use than would be the secret of the square as was known to our ancient brethren. But - how much greater becomes the meaning of the symbol when we see it as a direct descent from an Operative practice! Our ancient brethren used the point within a circle as a test for the rectitude of the tools by which they squared their work and built their temporal buildings. In the Speculative sense, we used it as a test for the rectitude of our intentions and our conduct, by which we square our actions with the square of virtue. They erected Cathedrals - we build the "House Not Made With Hands." Their point within a circle was Operative - our is Speculative! (Author Unknown).