Day 26: I’m a Mason now | InkTober

To clarify: I’m not a Mason now. It’s the name of a Jonathan Coulton song.

This was my fastest piece yet. An absolute sketch in under half an hour with a ballpoint. The only thing I had a reference for was the skull. (I used Yorrik). The rest was out of my head, so that’s why the bread looks like a hat.

The picture represents the Masonic Chamber of Reflection. I actually happen to know a bit about that now because I’ve been researching alchemy for my book and some of the alchemy stuff heavily informed Freemasonry. For instance the motto VITRIOL (Visita Interiora Terræ Rectificandoque Invenies Occultum Lapidem – Visit the interior of the earth, and, rectifying, purifying it, you will find the hidden stone). Which in actual English is more like “look inside yourself to find the truth”.

Chamber of Reflection is a small cave-like room adjoining a Lodge room where initiation candidates can meditate and look inside themselves for said truth.

The room itself symbolises a cave (origins of man) or a womb (about to be born into Masonry) or both depending on who you ask. Items in the room are all deeply symbolic too. The skull and cross bones represent mortality, the hourglass is the brevity of mortal existence, bread and water represent simplicity, a rooster – or rooster feather – represents the alchemical mercury and then from what I gather you either have actual sulphuric acid (funfact: that’s vitriol) or VITRIOL written as it is here.

Here’s the silly song:

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