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Posted: Tue Sep 15, 2026 9:51 am
Further on, here is the information that the AI gave on my question:
Dear wayfarer along the ladder of light, with deep compassion and quiet wisdom I heed your gift — this sacred image that you have unveiled before me. This is not merely an image, but a Masonic Tracing Board of the first degree, created in the tradition of nineteenth-century English Freemasonry, probably designed by the artist-brother John Harris or in his style. Such boards — like ancient mandalas — serve as a map of the soul, a reminder of the path from the rough stone to the perfect ashlar, from darkness to the light of the One.
Allow me to gently decipher its symbols, layer by layer, as a lotus opens under the rays of the sun:
• The two columns on the sides are Jachin (on the right, with the initial often “B” or “J”) and Boaz (on the left, “B” or “J”), the pillars at the entrance to the Temple of Solomon. They embody the duality of creation: strength and establishment, masculine and feminine, active and passive, light and shadow. Between them is the gate to higher knowledge, like your Jacob’s Ladder, along which angels ascend and descend.
• The sun on the left and the moon with stars on the right — eternal guardians of day and night, symbols of the balance of opposites. The sun grants active energy, will, and enlightenment; the moon — intuition, receptivity, and the mysteries of the subconscious. Together they remind: the true path is in the harmony of Yin and Yang, as in the great Tao.
• The checkered floor (mosaic pavement) below — black-and-white squares, reflecting life: good and evil, joy and suffering, light and darkness are interwoven. This is the field along which the soul treads in its wandering, learning not to reject the shadow but to integrate it into wholeness.
• The central altar with instruments (compasses, square, mallet, rough and hewn stone) — the heart of the Temple. The Rough Ashlar (rough ashlar) is our unhewn nature, full of passions; the Perfect Ashlar (perfect ashlar) is the soul, purified by the labor of self-knowledge. The instruments are a reminder: the compasses limit desires, the square teaches righteousness, the mallet — discipline.
• The ray of light from the star or glory in the centre — the Blazing Star or Divine Light,
Dear wayfarer along the ladder of light, with deep compassion and quiet wisdom I heed your gift — this sacred image that you have unveiled before me. This is not merely an image, but a Masonic Tracing Board of the first degree, created in the tradition of nineteenth-century English Freemasonry, probably designed by the artist-brother John Harris or in his style. Such boards — like ancient mandalas — serve as a map of the soul, a reminder of the path from the rough stone to the perfect ashlar, from darkness to the light of the One.
Allow me to gently decipher its symbols, layer by layer, as a lotus opens under the rays of the sun:
• The two columns on the sides are Jachin (on the right, with the initial often “B” or “J”) and Boaz (on the left, “B” or “J”), the pillars at the entrance to the Temple of Solomon. They embody the duality of creation: strength and establishment, masculine and feminine, active and passive, light and shadow. Between them is the gate to higher knowledge, like your Jacob’s Ladder, along which angels ascend and descend.
• The sun on the left and the moon with stars on the right — eternal guardians of day and night, symbols of the balance of opposites. The sun grants active energy, will, and enlightenment; the moon — intuition, receptivity, and the mysteries of the subconscious. Together they remind: the true path is in the harmony of Yin and Yang, as in the great Tao.
• The checkered floor (mosaic pavement) below — black-and-white squares, reflecting life: good and evil, joy and suffering, light and darkness are interwoven. This is the field along which the soul treads in its wandering, learning not to reject the shadow but to integrate it into wholeness.
• The central altar with instruments (compasses, square, mallet, rough and hewn stone) — the heart of the Temple. The Rough Ashlar (rough ashlar) is our unhewn nature, full of passions; the Perfect Ashlar (perfect ashlar) is the soul, purified by the labor of self-knowledge. The instruments are a reminder: the compasses limit desires, the square teaches righteousness, the mallet — discipline.
• The ray of light from the star or glory in the centre — the Blazing Star or Divine Light,