THE WARDENS' COLUMNS
One of the most frequently corrected errors
in lodge procedure is the failure of a Warden
to raise or lower his column appropriately.
Let an absent-minded Junior Warden forget to
lower his column when the lodge is called
from refreshment to labor, and many a frantic
gesture from the side lines will remind him
of his dereliction!
Almost every Brother sitting in the lodge
room knows the proper position of the
Wardens' columns during labor or at
refreshment, and will hasten to signal a
Warden if the emblem of his office is awry.
"Up in the West during labor; down in the
West at refreshment. Down in the South during
labor; up in the South at refreshment." Every
Brother knows that simple rule for
positioning the Wardens' columns.
It is generally believed, as stated in
Mackey's Encyclopedia, that the Senior
Warden's column represents the pillar Jachin,
while the Junior Warden's column represents
the pillar Boaz, those having been impressive
adornments on the Porch of King Solomon's
Temple. Their names signify Establishment and
Strength.
If asked for a symbolic explanation of these
pieces of furniture, the average Craftsman
will reply that the Junior Warden's column
represents the pillar of beauty, the Senior
Warden's, the pillar of strength. But what
has become of the Worshipful Master's column?
He represents the pillar of wisdom, "because
it is necessary that there should be wisdom
to contrive, strength to support, and beauty
to adorn all great and important
undertakings."
Some Brethren will explain further that the
Wardens' columns are miniature
representations of the pillars usually
stationed in the West, where at one time both
Wardens sat, one in the shade of Boaz, the
other in the shade of Jachin. Such an
arrangement of the Wardens' positions may
still be found in some European lodges whose
rituals have come from Continental sources.
There is no simple explanation of the origin
of the Wardens' columns nor of what they
represent. Like much in Masonic ritual, they
are the result of some interesting changes;
yet all welt-informed Brethren will agree
that today they are emblematical of the
offices of the two Wardens, and represent
their authority, of the Senior during labor,
and of the Junior while the lodge is at
refreshment.
As a matter of fact, the raising and lowering
of the Wardens' columns made their first
appearance in Masonic ritual as late as 1760,
well into the period known as Speculative
Masonry. The Three Distinct Knocks, a well-
known expose of Masonic ritual published in
London that year, contains the first
description of the Wardens' use of their
columns. An almost identical description of
the Wardens' raising and lowering their
columns appears in another expose, Jachin and Boaz, published in 1762.
Unfortunately, there has been comparatively
little written about the Wardens' columns and
their uses to show when they were allocated
to those officers, or how and when the
raising and lowering of these miniature
pillars became a part of the proper procedure
in Masonic lodges. It is only from such
exposes as those noted above that one can
assign an approximate date to the beginning
of the practice.
Curiously, William Preston in various
editions of his Illustrations of Freemasonry
(1792 - 1804), in the section dealing with
Installation, assigns the columns to the
Deacons. Since the columns had belonged to
the Wardens for at least thirty years
earlier, and since many of the Craft lodges
in England did not appoint Deacons at all,
Preston must have been in error, or was
introducing an innovation, which the passage
of time has shown to have failed. Preston
also taught that the Senior Deacon's column
was to be raised during labor, and the Junior
Deacon's at refreshment.
To those who like Masonic traditions neat and
historically logical, it may be disconcerting
to learn that in some lodges the Wardens did
not have columns on their pedestals. They had
truncheons, whose modern function is to serve
as billy clubs for policemen. An Irish lodge
in the 18th century had a by-law reading:
"there is to be silence at the first chap of
the Master's hamer, and likewise at the first
stroke of each Trenchen struck by the Senr
and Junr Wardens." The Rev. George Oliver
(1782-1867), a prolific writer about
Freemasonry, quotes an inventory of a lodge
at Chester, England, in 1761, which includes
"two truncheons for the Wardens." There are
still lodges today which denominate the
Wardens' emblems of authority as truncheons,
not columns.
There can be no doubt that the Wardens'
columns are the result of Freemasonry's
interest in the art of building, of
architecture and its allied skills and
sciences. The operative masons devoted much
time and thought to the design, construction,
and ornamentation of columns and pillars. The
orders of architecture were an important body
of knowledge with which they were
continuously concerned.
The mediaeval cathedral builders, however,
attached greater significance to the ancient
pillars erected by the children of Lamech
than to those on the porch of King Solomon's
Temple. On these ancient pillars were
engraved all the then known sciences to
preserve them from destruction by fire or
inundation. As such, they symbolized the
esoteric importance of the knowledge of the
builder's art to be guarded and preserved by
faithful craftsmen.
In many of the earliest documents of the
Craft, the so-called "Old Charges" or
"manuscript constitutions", some of which
antedate the period. of Speculative
Freemasonry by at least 300 years, those
primitive pillars of the sons of Lamech are a
part of the "history" of the operative Craft.
The Temple of Solomon is inconspicuously
mentioned, but the two pillars on the porch
of that temple do not appear at all.
It was not until approximately 1700 that King
Solomon's Pillars began to appear in Masonic
writing and ritual documents. The Dumfries,
No. 4 MS, usually dated 1700-1725, mentions
those pillars and gives them a strong
Christian symbolism. It also answers two test
questions about pillars as follows: "How many
pillars is in your Lodge? Three. What are
these? Ye square, the Compas and ye bible."
Because of the secrecy maintained by Masons
about ritualistic matters, it is on the
ritual texts of 18th century exposes that we
depend for knowledge of the part played by
pillars in the development of the Craft's
rituals and ceremonies.
The Grand Mystery of Freemasons Discovered,
1724, mentions the pillars of Solomon's
Temple, but gives them this significance:
they represent the "Strength and Stability of
the Church in all ages."
Samuel Prichard's Masonry Dissected, 1730,
the first expose to reveal a third degree in
Masonic ritual, refers to "Three Pillars"
that "support the Lodge . . . Wisdom,
Strength, and Beauty." This seems to be the
earliest mention of those three virtues
symbolized by pillars, which of course had no
reference to those in the "Old Charges" or to
those on the Porch of Solomon's Temple. They
were purely symbolic; they had not yet become
a part of the lodge furniture.
In those early days of Speculative Masonry,
the Wardens' duties were probably different
from those they have now. Some writers
believe they had duties similar to those of
the Deacons today. They had no pedestals or
pillars, because the latter were usually
drawn on the floor, or "floor cloth", to be
referred to during ritualistic instruction,
but were certainly not then a part of the
Wardens' equipment.
The other interpretation of the Wardens'
columns as representations of Jachin and
Boaz, the two pillars of Solomon's Temple,
was also introduced into Masonic ritual at an
early period of Speculative Masonry. Again,
it is in the exposes of the early rituals
that this development can be traced.
In A Mason's Examination, 1723, appears this
test question: "Where was the first Lodge
kept? In Solomon's Porch; the two Pillars
were called Jachin and Boaz." Nothing,
however, establishes a connection between the
pillars and the Wardens. The Grand Mystery,
etc. mentioned above also names the two
pillars Jachin and Boaz. A number of other
such publications in the 1720's and 1730's
also identify them by those names.
How miniature representations of Jachin and Boaz came to the pedestals of the
Senior and Junior Wardens is still a matter for speculation; obviously it is a
part of the variegated development of Masonic ritual in the 18th century. As
symbols of the pillars on the Porch of King Solomon's Temple, or as
representations of the three principal orders of architecture which the three
principal officers of a lodge symbolize, they are to be found in the earliest
catechisms and lectures of Speculative Freemasonry.
Undoubtedly, as suggested by contemporary
references and illustrations, the pillars
soon became artistically designed pieces of
furniture to stand in the lodge room as
objects for study. There was probably no
uniformity of practice in this development.
Some lodges had large columns, some small,
some drew them on the floor cloth. Some had
no pillars at all.
From the creation of such pillars, and from
their association with the three principal
officers of the lodge undoubtedly came the
columns of the Wardens. They are relics of
those earlier larger pieces of lodge
furniture. From the traditions of operative
craft lodges had lingered the conception of
the Senior Warden as the officer in charge of
the workmen; his column naturally represented
his authority and superintendence. To give
the Junior Warden some similar authority, an
imaginative speculative ritualist probably
hit on the idea of putting him in charge of
the Craft during refreshment. That idea had
been foreshadowed in Anderson's 1723
Constitutions, Regulation XXIII put the Grand
Wardens in charge of the annual Feast.
By 1760, as suggested by the publication of
Three Distinct Knocks, the Wardens of a lodge
had acquired miniature columns representing
the pillars, Jachin and Boaz, which they
carried in processions and raised or lowered
on their pedestals to indicate whether the
lodge was at labor or refreshment. That
procedure was apparently confirmed by the
Lodge of Promulgation which paved the way for
the union in 1813 of the "Modern" and
"Ancient" Grand Lodges in England.
Thus the raising and lowering of the Wardens'
columns became sanctioned by custom and Grand
Lodge approval. It is not a complicated or
mysterious symbolic act; it is a simple means
to indicate silently to entering Brethren the
status of the lodge.
Since the Junior Warden's column is erect
during refreshment, logic suggests that it be
similarly arranged when the lodge is closed,
i.e., not at labor. Generally, however, the
Wardens' columns are left just as they happen
to be placed at the time of closing, except
in those Jurisdictions whose official ritual
has decreed a proper positioning of the
Wardens' columns at closing.
For another interesting speculation on the
origin of the Junior Warden's column, our
readers are referred to the February, 1959,
Short Talk Bulletin, "The Better to Observe
the Time."
back to top | 
