Rosicrucianism was not a structured organization, so any possible influence on these

symbolicnumbers would have come from individuals rather than the whole
movement.However, as the numbers are already present in a 17
th
century ritual from Scotland, whereLodges had been created at the very end of the 16
th
century by stonemasons, probably driven by the issuance of the
Schaw Statutes
27
, this may rather imply an operative origin. From itsScottish origins it would have then
traveled to rituals in England and Ireland. For England, weknow that James Anderson
was a Scot and may have been initiated in the Aberdeen Lodge
28

and that John Theophilus Desaguliers had visited the Mary’s Chapel Lodge
29
in Edinburgh in1721. Both men, who had been influential in the beginnings of the Grand
Lodge of Englandand with its
Constitutions
30
had therefore Masonic ties with Scotland, so this is at least acredible theory, but
unfortunately,
we don’t have today the available documents allowing us
to confirm how this transition would have happened. If this theory is correct, then
ourhistorical understanding of these symbolic numbers must come back to their
medievalinterpretation. NUMBER SYMBOLISM IN MASONIC LITERATUREThe
view of Masonic authors and Masons in general on number symbolism in
Freemasonryhas vastly varied depending on the individual and the period they lived in.
Albert Mackey inhis
Encyclopedia of Freemasonry

stated that “the most predominant of all symbolism inFreemasonry is that of numbers”
31
, but Mackey was nonetheless very critical of assigning
‘magical’ properties to numbers, writing that “the respect paid by Freemason
s to certainnumbers [
…
]
is founded not on the belief of any magical virtue”
32
.From the beginnings of Grand Lodge Masonry, most Masonic symbolists explained the
presence of numbers with references to their use in antiquity. In
A Defence of Masonry
33
(1730
) the author notes that “THE Number Three is frequently mentioned in the Dissection,
and I fend that the Ancients, both Greeks and Latins, professed a great Veneration for the
same Number” and that “THE Dissector frequendy taking notice
- of the Number Seven, I
instantly recurred to the old Egyptians t, who held the Number of Seven to be Sacred: …
The
Greeks and Latins pro-fessed the same Regard for that Number, which might be proved
by
many Examples”. Mackey followed suit, also using references such as Egyp
t or Greece toexplain the numbers, while his contemporary George Oliver, in 1855, used
the traditionalChristian meanings in his analysis
34
.

IN CONCLUSIONAs Freemasonry as a whole evolved from its beginnings to what it is

today, the views ofMasons on symbolic numbers expanded from its probable Christian
base, bringing newmeanings and references with a purpose to broaden the symbolic
perception of the rituals.Whatever our views on number symbolism are, we must realize
that this was already a featureof the earliest Masonic rituals. It is no surprise then that
speculative Freemasons of all periodshave tried to find origins and meanings for these
numbers. Notes:
1
:
The Early Masonic Catechisms
, Douglas Knoop, G.P. Jones and Douglas Hamer, (second edition,Quatuor Coronati
Lodge no. 2076), London, 1975, p32.
2
:
Symbolism in Craft Freemasonry
, Colin Dyer, Ian Allan, 1983, p53. Similarly, Michel Pastoureau in
Une Histoire Symbolique du Moyen-Âge Occidental
(Editions du Seuil, 2004) writes that, during the
Middle Ages, “Three, Four or Seven, for instance, are primordial symbolic numbers who
alwayssignify more than their only quantities of three, four or seven” (
p27, translation by the author).
3
: translated by the author from the Rite Français of the ACGL Lodge
Rhenania
1054. This is verysimilar to the wording of the 1745
L’Ordre des Francs
-Macons Trahi
, where three
‘
create
’
, five
‘
form
’
, and seven
‘
make it perfect
’
.
4
:
The Mystery of Numbers
, Annemarie Schimmel, Oxford University Press, 1994, p23.
5
:
1, 2, 3, 6: Early Gothic Architecture and Perfect Numbers
, Elizabeth den Hartog, in
Architectural Histories, 2(1): 17
, pp. 1
-17, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.5334/ah.bu, 2014), p2.
6
: Saint Augustine of Hippo, born in the 4
th
century A.D., not to be confused with Saint Augustine ofCanterbury, born in the 6
th
century A.D. and who was given by James Anderson as the first GrandMaster of the
Masons in his 1738
Constitutions
.
7
:
The Life and Conversion of Augustine of Hippo
, Joe Aaron II Gafford, in
Tenor of Our Times: Vol.4, Article 4, Spring 2015
, available at: https://scholarworks.harding.edu/tenor/vol4/iss1/4), p12.

8
:
Medieval Number Symbolism
, Vincent Foster Hopper, 1938 (reprinted by Dover Publications in2019), p78.
9
:
The Spirit of Augustine's Early Theology
, Chad Tyler Gerber, Routledge, 2016, p158.
10
: Hopper, op. cit., p105.
11
:
On Christian doctrine
, II, 16, 25; Dods trans., IX, Augustine of Hippo, in Hopper, op. cit., p79.
12
:
Gematria
is the Jewish practice of attributing numbers to letters and then to words based on
theirletters, allowing them to be discussed depending on their respective numbers.
13
: Hopper, op. cit., p63.
14
: for instance, Eucherius of Lyons in his early 5
th

century’s
Formulae
gave a biblical explanation oftwenty-four numbers between one and a hundred, including
three, five and seven.
15
: Hopper, op. cit., p69.

16
: The
Dumfries no. 4

refer to three as “father, son and holy spirit” and “trinity” so this thinking was
still present in early Freemasonry.
17
: Hopper, op. cit., p41.
18
: Hopper, op. cit., p86. An early introduction of the five senses (with a nod to the number
three) inthe Masonic ritual is present in
Jachin and Boaz

(1762): “Q: What Use are those Five Senses to you in

Masonry? A: Three are of great Use to me, viz. Hearing, Seeing, and Feeling· Q: What
Use are they,Brother? A: Hearing, is to hear the Word; Seeing, is to see the Sign; Feeling,
is to feel the Grip, that I
may know a Brother, as well in the Dark as in the Light”.

19
: King James’ Bible, this includes seventy and sevenfold quotes
.
20
:
De civitate Dei
, XX, 5, Augustine of Hippo, in Hopper, op. cit., p84.
21
: Hopper, op. cit., p79.
22
: most
Charges
(starting with the
Regius
in 1390) mention that apprenticeship should be normallyseven years, but with no
explanation of the duration, so the symbolism, if any, is unclear.
“
In England,seven years was set as the legal minimum in 1563; shorter terms of three to
five years seem to have been more common elsewhere in Europe
”
(Apprenticeship and Training in Premodern England,Patrick Wallis, Department of
Economic History, London School of Economics, November 2007, p5-6). The three, five
and seven mention is intriguing, but goes beyond the scope of this paper.
23
: Mackey traces it back to Plato, the Gnostics and then
“probably to the Rosicrucians, to the
Hermetic philosophers and to the Freemasons
”.

24
: Routledge, 1986.
25
: who claimed in his autobiography that he was the author on of the Rosicrucian
manifestos, the
Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz
(1616).
26
:
Solomon’s Secret Arts
, Paul Kléber Monod, Yale University Press, 2013, p162.
27
: as shown by David Stevenson in
The First Freemasons
, Aberdeen university Press, 1988.
28
: and of which his father had been the Master (
The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland
, DavidStevenson, in
 Handbook of Freemasonry
, Brill, 2014, p59).
29
:
Life of John Theophilus Desaguliers
, John Stokes, in Ars Quatuor Coronatorium vol. XXXVIII,1925, p293.
30
: although no number symbolism appears in the
Constitutions
from Anderson.
31
:
An Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry
, Albert Mackey, L.H. Everts & Co, 1884, p537.
32
: Mackey, op. cit., p538.
33
: Knoop, op. cit., p210-
224. This a text replying to Pritchard’s
Masonry Dissected
(1730), and the
words ‘Dissection’ and ‘Dissector’ refers respectively to the text and to Pritchard.
34
:
A Dictionary of Symbolical Masonry
, George Oliver, JNO. W. Leonard & OO., 1855. Oliverexplained the number three by
referring to the Holy Trinity (p273) and the number five with the fivesenses (p108).

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