Short Talk Bulletin Vol 11 No 06

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Short Talk Bulletin

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SHORT TALK BULLETIN - Vol.XI   June, 1933   No.6 

THE LETTER “G” 

by: Unknown 

The Short Talk Bulletin of July, 1927, bears the title “G”.  This  
popular exposition of the meaning and symbolism of the letter so  
precious to Freemasons is long out of print, although preserved in  
many sets of bound volumes and in libraries.  This present paper is  
intended to be supplementary to, and not a recapitulation of, that  
printed as Number 7, of Volume V of these Bulletins. 
“It is merely an accident of the English language that God and  
Geometry begin with the same letter; no matter what the language or  
he ritual, the initial of the Ineffable Name and that of the first  
and noblest of sciences are Masonicaly the same. 
“But that is a secret! cries some newly made brother who has examined  
his printed monitor and finds that the ritual concerning the further  
significance of the letter “G” is represented only by stars.  Aye,  
the “ritual” is secret, but the “fact,” is the most gloriously public  
that Freemasonry may herald to the world.  One can no more keep  
secret the idea that God is the very warp and woof of Freemasonry  
than that he is the essence of all life.  Take God out of  
Freemasonry, and there is, literally, nothing left; it is a pricked  
balloon, an empty vessel, a bubble which has burst.”  (Introduction  
to Freemasonry.) 
That the Letter “G” is not a secret symbol is attested by hundreds of  
Masonic writers, each of whom has written of it from a different  
standpoint.  Mackey has much to say of it - too much to quote at  
length, but space may be found for an extract: 
“G.  The seventh letter of the English, Latin and Romanic alphabets.   
In the Greek and many other alphabets it is in third place; in the  
Russian, Wallachian, and some others, it is in fourth; in the Arabic  
the fifth, and in the Ethiopian the twentieth.  In Hebrew it is  
called Gheemel, is of the numerical value of three, and its  
significance is “camel.”  It is associated with the third sacred name  
of God, in Hebrew, Ghadol, or in Latin, Magnus, the Mighty.  In  
Freemasonry it is given as the initial of the word God.” 
Hutchinson, in his Spirit of Masonry” (1776), says of the sacred  
letter: 
“It is now incumbent on me to demonstrate to you the great  
significance of the letter “G”, wherewith Lodges and the medals of  
Masons are ornamented.  To apply its significance to the name of God  
only is depriving it of part of its Masonic import; although I have  
already shown that the symbols used in the Lodges are expressive of  
the Divinity’s being the great object of Masonry, as Architect of the  
World.  This significant letter denotes Geometry, which, to  
artificers, is the science by which all their labours are calculated  
and formed; and to Masons, contains the determination, definition and  
proof of the order, beauty and wonderful wisdom of the power of God  
in His Creation.” 
Dr. Frederick Dalcho wrote (1801) as follows: 
“The Letter “G,” which ornaments the Mason’s Lodge, is not only  
expressive of the name of the Grand Architect of the Universe, but  
also denotes the science of Geometry, so necessary to artists.  But  
the adoption of it by Masons implies no more than their respect for  
those inventions which demonstrate to the world the power, the wisdom  
and the beneficence of the Almighty Builder in the works of  
creation.” 
Various attempts have been made to place the date when the Letter “G”  
first came into the ritual of Speculative Freemasonry.  Pichard’s  
expose, originally published in 1730, does not contain any reference  
to it.  Later editions do include a curious doggerel which is worth  
repeating here.  It is in the usual Question and Answer, or Examiner  
and Response, form so popular in all ritualistic work in the early  
days.: 
Resp.	In the midst of Solomon’s Temple there stands a “G,” A letter  
for all to read and see; but few there be that understand what means  
the Letter “G.” 
Exam.	My Friend, if you  pretend to be of this Fraternity, you can  
forthwith and rightly tell, what means that Letter “G.” 
Resp.	By sciences are brought to light, bodies of various kinds.   
Which do appear to perfect sight; but none but males shall know my  
mind. 
Exam.	The Right shall. 

Resp.	If Worshipful. 

Exam.	Both Right and Worshipful I am, to hail you I have command,  
that you forthwith let me know, as I you may understand. 
Resp.	By letters four and science five, this “G” aright doth stand,  
in due Art and Proportion; you have your answer friend.” 
While authorities differ as to just when the letter “G” came into the  
ritual, all are agreed that the date is not later than 1768; very  
probably it was earlier. 
Authorities are, however, by no means at one on the origin of the  
symbol then adopted into Speculative Masonry.  The choice is wide and  
the fancy free; if we are willing to admit presumptive testimony,  
even if it will not satisfy a legal mind as evidence, then the  
introduction of the symbol into our system is as old as Speculative  
Masonry - however old that may be! 
The Letter “G” as we know it, the Roman “G”, is not a geometrical  
figure.  It is part circle, part oval, part horizontal and vertical  
lines.  It bears internal evidence of being a conventionalizing of a  
much more severe design. 
In the Greek, Gamma, or “G”, the third letter, is a square standing  
on end with the horizontal arm extending to the right, like a plain  
block letter “T,” with the left extension of the cross piece omitted.   
In Hebrew the “G” is a square with the right side omitted; two right  
angles joined, the horizontal arms extending to the right. 
Refer to the doggerel again; 
“By letter four and science five, this “G” aright doth stand.” 
“Letters four” properly refers to J H V H, the tetragrammaton or  
four-letter word, the Hebrew designation of deity, which we call  
Jehovah, for want of a more likely rendition of the vowels (omitted  
in early Hebrew writing). 
“Science Five,” of course, is Geometry. 
The Pythagoreans reverenced numbers as sacred; geometry was to them  
the sacred science.  It initial letter, Gamma, a square, was  
especially revered.  The Gamma looks like a square used by builders;  
it was the symbol of the actual, four-sided, or geometrical square,  
the first whole number square, and therefore, the representative of  
deity, the four-letter word, the tetragrammaton. 
Symbols are easily converted the one into the other and back again.   
If the Gamma, which appeared like a workman’s square, was a symbol of  
the geometrical square, which in turn was a symbol of Deity, then, by  
a simple reconversion looked like Gamma, which in one position looked  
like the square of the workman, soon came to symbolize the  
tetragrammaton or four-letter word. 
The Greek Gamma was rounded into the Latin “C.”  For a while it stood  
for both the sounds of “g” and “k.”  Later (third century B.C.), a  
slight change was made in the Latin “c” which stood for the soft, or  
“j” sound - and behold, our modern Roman “G.”  Hence, by a path  
straight to any but  mind demanding documentary proof, we place the  
origin of our “G,” as representing both God and Geometry, as far back  
as the Pyrhogoreans (sixth century, B.C.).  
Another interesting hypothesis - it is hardly more - calls attention  
to the fact that three geometrical forms appear in the Greek  
alphabet, as we have seen; Gamma (G) is a square standing on end, the  
horizontal arm extended to the right.  Omicron (O) is a circle, Delta  
(D) is a triangle. 
Writing one letter on top of another to form a monogram is very old.   
The three Greek letters, Gamma, Omicron and Delta may be combined in  
a monogram to form a very fair conventionalizing of our letter “G”  
inside a triangle which looks not unlike our modern square and  
compasses! 
Here is further testimony that the letter “G” and the ancient square,  
the Greek Gamma, or the Greek monogram of Gamma, Omicron, and Delta,  
which make a conventional Roman “G” inside a triangle, were connected  
in ancient Masonic minds.  This is credited in the “Bulletin” of the  
Grand Lodge of Iowa (September, 1932) to Brother John A. Cockburn,  
noted Masonic writer. 
“If further proof of the former identity of the letter “G” and the  
square were needed, it is to be found in the text of a ritual no  
longer in use among us.  Therein it is recorded that in an attack on  
our Master a second blow was struck with a square across his breast,  
“and that on an exhumation a faint resemblance to the letter “G”  
marked on his left breast was discovered.” (Italics ours - Ed.) 
The combination of square and circle, or cross and circle (a cross  
forms two right angles, or squares) appears in a hundred guises in as  
many religious rites.  The interested may recall the “hot cross bun”  
and the association of the egg, marked with crosses, with Easter; in  
Yorkshire, the brides cake at weddings was formerly cut into small  
squares and passed through a wedding ring, as a form of prayer for  
fertility; circle and square are combined in the wearing of a wedding  
ring on the fourth finger; the very number “4” itself was originally  
a circle, being changed to the present conventionalized square and  
upright after the fifteenth century; children still play the ancient  
game of noughts and crosses, or “tit-tat-toe,” a combination of  
circles and squares. 
That Freemasonry has in her letter “G” and its connotations a  
relationship with this ancient association of “letters four and  
science five -“ that is, of Deity and science or knowledge - is not  
remarkable - rather it would extraordinary if she had not.  In all  
ages and all religions, man has interwoven together his thought of  
spirit and matter, his ideas of relative and absolute.  Freemasonry’s  
“G” is but another of these conceptions, expressed in a symbol.  If  
the symbol now used - a Roman “G” - is less fitting for an art  
concerned especially with squares than was the original Gamma, it at  
least should receive the reverence due a respectable age.  Even those  
whose ideas of the fitness of things would be better satisfied if our  
“G” were Gamma, would hardly subscribe to an effort to change now. 
Mackey, the great Masonic authority, regretted that the Roman “g”  
ever found its way into our symbolism, and read the “G” as a  
substitute for the Hebrew Yod, which in turn is a symbol of the  
tetragrammaton, or four-letter word.  Unquestionably the “Lost Word,”  
the very heart of the Masonic system, is represented by the Yod, but  
it is a far cry to include also Geometry in that representation.  The  
Greek Gamma, (of which our roman “G” is a substitute) however, did  
represent both the ineffable Name and the greatest of the sciences.   
Three Greek letters which spell our name for Deity can be monogrammed  
to make a modern Roman “G” inside a square and compasses.  However  
corrupt the geometrical form of the Roman “G”, and however much more  
illuminating it might have been had we continued to use the Greek  
Gamma of Pythagoras, what we have adopted and made so integral a part  
of our Masonry that it is in every English speaking Lodge in the  
world, is far to sacred and familiar ever to change.  
Of course Mackey is not lightly to be set aside, yet modern  
scholarship so differs with the great authority on this point that  
even those who revere him most, agree that here his genius led him  
astray. 
Sufficient has been said to indicate that the Letter “G” is far more  
than a mere letter.  A symbol of Deity and His Own science, Geometry,  
it carries us back to the childhood of knowledge; it combines and  
associates other symbols from which it sprang and the ideas for which  
they stand.  As a symbol “G” is particularly Freemasonry’s own.  To  
the inquiring mind it calls insistently, if always softly, for better  
understanding and appreciation from Craftsmen.