I was behind a guy in a minivan when I noticed some bizarre round stickers on the back of his car. Not having ever seen anything like them, I followed this guy(or gal) for a couple miles and tailgated him at every stop to try and see what organization he belonged to. I drew them on MS Paint to the best of my recollection. Does anyone recognize any of these symbols?
In case the image doesn’t work, I’ll describe them
Blue backgroud, with a gold-colored letter “G” in the middle, within what looks like a pyramid shape
Blue background, the number “32” in the middle, surrounded by a small black circle within a larger green circle. 2 red, “I” shapes are in the background of that, one verticle, one horizontal. A white triangle is in the upper right, upper left, lower right, and lower left, within the “I” shapes
Blue background, with the perimeter of a black triangle in the middle. What looks like a gold-colored vase shape with half a tennis racket shape sticking out from the top is in the foreground on top of the triangle shape
Red background. A yellow crescent moon facing down is in the middle of the circle. Resting above the moon is a sword, laid horizontally
Orange-ish background. 2 circles in the middle, with the middle one filled with what looks like a tilted red cross sticking up from what looks to be a crown or a throng of people. There are partial black triangles visible at the top, bottom, left, and right of the largest circle, pointed inwards
Black background with a silver, almost police badge shape in the middle taking up most of the circular sticker. The badge thing is further inscribed with a large and smaller circle, one inside the other
A sticker of some type, this time not on the back of the guy’s car but on his window. Its black and white. The circle in the middle looks kind of like the earth but I couldn’t make out any distinct borders. What looks to be blades are sticking out of the circle from the 12, 6, 11, 1, 5, and 7 'o clock positions. However, the 6, 11, and 1 o’clock blades end in a star instead of a point. And there was a small Trademark ™ on the right side of this sticker but I couldnt make out the words above that
The first one is a masonry logo. I suspect the rest are also related to masonry and their affiliate organizations, i.e. Eastern Stars and Shriners, etc.
Yeah, watch out for their operatives tailing you in silly little toy cars …
Note that as alluded to above, the guy being either a Shriner or a Knight Templar makes “Mason” redundant. Those are both affiliated organizations whose members have to be Masons before before they can join the affiliated order.
Wow, you hit, like, the secret society jackpot or something! Good thing it’s not a drinking game, or you’d be a DUI by now.
[ol]
[li]Freemasons[/li][li]32nd Degree overlaid on a Knights of Columbus[/li][li]Council of Royal and Select Masters[/li][li]Shriner[/li][li]Knights Templar[/li][li]Used by varients of orders to denote a Arch Master or Mark Master Mason[/li][li]Can’t find a reference on this one…[/li][/ol]
That’s from a bit of googling. On the one hand, not too much out there on explaining their symbology - they’re a semi-secret organization after all. On the other hand, plenty of websites sell these things. Thats where you find more info.
Shouldn’t he have been driving a large, dark Mercedes sedan with dark tinted windows? Perhaps you were following a decoy designed to put you off of the scent.
You drew those to the best of your recollection? Nice memory! I can’t add anything here, the first one is obviously the mason stuff, and the fifth one looks suspiciously like a burning cross…but kudos to your recollection. I wouldn’t have been able to complete more than one, and by the second one, I would have just been thinking…a sticker…it was a sticker.
kthulu to you, yog sothoth
Yog Sosoth, as a former 32nd degree Scottish Rite Mason and Shriner, I can fill in some of the gaps. Some of these posters are pulling your leg a bit.
The whole thing starts here. The square and compass are tools of the ancient trade of the stone mason. “G” for geometry. 3 degrees here; entered apprentice, fellowcraft, and master mason. A guy with the square and compass is a master mason, and eligible to join those other orgs.
An associated women’s group is Eastern Star. The boys’ group is DeMolay, and the girls group is Job’s Daughters.
The 4th through 32nd degrees can be either the York Rite or Scottish Rite. Each degree has its own lesson, its own symbol, and its own password. I don’t remember most of them. Some of them have glorious sounding names; the 32nd in Scottish Rite, for example, is Knights of the Royal Secret.
The Knights Templar of masonry are not directly linked to the actual, historical KT. The cross in the crown isn’t burning, it’s just red.
The Shrine is a more recent development. It’s a social club, the fun side of the masons. It’s the only one of these orgs that serves alcohol. Even though it started in the US and has no link to Islam, the Ancient Accepted Order of the Mystic Shrine has a fancy sounding legend to go with it, with pyramids, scimitars, sphinx heads and such.
I’ve probably bored you with more than you wanted to know. The Masons aren’t scary. If you want to know more, ask a mason. If you want to join, you must ask a Mason. They’re not allowed to recruit.
Note that the symbols are highly unlikely to indicate affiliation with the Knights of Columbus as somebody has suggested. The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic fraternal organization which exists partially because Catholics are forbidden to become Freemasons (by the RCC itself - the Masons are quick to point out that they do not have rules against Catholics joining).
