Some Signs and Secrets of the Blue Lodge from Justin Dewayne Parker

In Freemasonry, members of a lodge will use a series of secret signs and signals to communicate with and identify themselves to other lodge members. In this post, we will cover some of the more common signs used among blue lodge masons (members of the first degree to third degree).

The first gesture is the secret handshake, known by masons as a "grip," and the most common grip consists of a mostly ordinary handshake, except the mason places his thumb onto the first, the second, or the third knuckle of the right hand of the person they're shaking with. The number of the knuckle used depends upon the degree of initiation of the person shaking, with an Entered Apprentice placing his thumb on the first knuckle of the person's right hand, a Fellow Craft placing his thumb on the second knuckle of the person's right hand, and a Master Mason placing his thumb on the third knuckle of the person's right hand. There are several other grips used among blue lodge masons, including the "Lion's Paw," the pass grip of a Mark Master Mason, and the grip of the Most Excellent Master, among others. See attached photo for an illustration of these.

Be on the lookout for these grips in public spaces, as you will regularly observe their usage among many politicians, celebrities, police officers, judges and attorneys, and even clergymen. You might be surprised.

The next signal is another one that is common in public places; namely, the way a member stands, known as a "step" in Freemasonry, where a member will stand with his feet placed in a particular position as a means of identifying himself to other members in a crowd. The step of an Entered Apprentice is where the feet form a lowercase 't' with the heel touching the cup of the other foot, while the Step of a Fellow Craft is an inverse of the aforementioned, and finally, the step of a Master Mason involves standing with the heels touching, forming a perfect 90° angle with the feet.

The most common gestures used by masons, however, at least when in the company of other masons, are the hand signals, and there are a lot of these.

The due guard signal of the Entered Apprentice, for example, involves the initiate taking his left hand, palm upwards, and placing it near his waist, then taking his right hand, palm downward, and placing it just above his left hand, forming a sort of "Q."

The next signal is known as the penal sign of the Entered Apprentice (depicted in the illustration as "Sign of Entered Apprentice"), which involves taking the right‐hand and drawing it in a slashing motion across the neck, referring to the oath of secrecy taken by an Entered Apprentice, where he agrees to have his throat slit from ear to ear should he ever violate his oath.

For Fellow Crafts, the signal is to hold the right arm extended outward, with the elbow at a right‐angle and the hand facing up, palm forward; while the penal sign of the Fellow Craft is to draw the right hand across the chest, from left to right in a claw‐like motion, referring to the penalty of the second degree, which is to have your breast torn open and your heart and bowels taken out, to be "given to the fowls of the air and beasts of the field."

The sign of the Master Mason consists of taking both hands, palms down, and extending them outward at the waist, with the penal sign being to draw the hand across the waist, from left to right, referring to the oath of the third degree, where the Master Mason agrees to have his body torn in twain, and the parts thereof carried north and south.

Sometimes the signs used among blue lodge members are verbal, and one of the more common cues is to use the name "Hiram Abiff" to address a fellow member. Members might look to one another and say "Hello, Hiram", or "Hello, Mr. Abiff," for example. Hiram Abiff, for those who aren’t familiar, was the chief architect of Solomon's Temple according to Scripture, but according to Masonic tradition, Hiram is the subject of an elaborate tale and the symbol of a secret allegory. In a way, Hiram can be looked upon as a patron saint of Freemasonry. In Masonic tradition, after completing the temple, Hiram was murdered by a group of three ruffians, who symbolize ignorance, superstition, and fear, which masons refer to as "the destroyers of all good things."

Another verbal cue that is less common is the "traveling man," which refers to a Master Mason who is a visitor to a lodge, but this cue is often used beyond this context as a means of identifying oneself to another lodge member, regardless of degree. The member will ask a man is he is a traveling man, and the meaning is "one traveling from west to east," east being the point in the lodge where the worshipful master is seated, symbolising the point in the morning sky where the sun rises, and further signifying the source of knowledge or illumination.

Several blue lodge rituals are based around this allegory, and entail members circumnavigating the lodge, or, walking around in a circle, from all the points of the Lodge, going from the Worshipful Master in the east, to the Junior Ward in the south, to the Senior Ward in the west, and then back again to the Worshipful Master in the east. The initiate is, in effect, traveling, or making his journey, just as the earth makes it's journey around the sun.

There is another common lodge ritual called the Five Points of Fellowship, where the mason stands next to another mason, foot‐to‐foot, knee‐to‐knee, hand‐to-back, mouth‐to‐ear, and then, in a very low tone of voice, carefully whispers the secret word, a word closely guarded among members of the lodge. The word is in question is "Marhaba," an Arabic term that is commonly understood to mean "welcome."

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