State of Masontry

The clues that mark the beginning of speculative freemasonry can be drawn from the symbols combined with the zodiac.  

• The Compass: represents the heavens and the span of sunrise to sunset across the earth.  The Libra Constellation.

• The Square: represents the Earth.

• The All Seeing Eye: The Sun

We exist in the space between.

Looking at the zodiac, the Autumn Equinox aligns with the sun and the constellation Libra, which represents balance.  This alignment started 2600 years ago around ~600 BCE.  This time period marks the beginning of most the ancient cultures and and the respective building we study today.  

Investigate what cultures and buildings thrived from 500 BCE to 500 BC.

Also, learn how the sky shifted over the past 2600 years.

A passage from Anderson's Consititution:

"A Mason is oblig’d by his Tenure to obey the moral Law; and if he rightly understands the Art, he will never be a stupid Atheist, nor an irreligious Libertine.

But though in ancient Times Masons were charg’d in every Country to be of the Religion of that Country or Nation, whatever it was, yet ’tis now thought more expedient only to oblige them to that Religion in which all Men agree, leaving their particular Opinions to themselves;

that is, to be good Men and true, or Men of Honour and Honesty, by whatever Denominations or Persuasions they may be distinguish’d;

whereby Masonry becomes the Center of Union, and the Means of conciliating true Friendship among Persons that must have remain’d at a perpetual Distance."

When the confusion of languages scattered humanity into different regions, Masonry was not lost but carried into various nations—especially into Egypt, where it flourished. There Geometry was greatly refined and became the foundation of many notable constructions.