The Lord’s Prayer in Masonic Sign and Gesture

By P. Todd Decker
The Sermon on the Mount is a series of five discourses in which Jesus Christ recasts Jewish
Law to his followers and a large crowd in the hills of Galilee around 30 AD. The second part of
the discourse, known is the discourse on ostentation, deals directly with the practice of prayer.
It is in this discourse of the sermon that Jesus Christ introduces The Lord’s Prayer.

Before I discuss The Lord’s Prayer directly, I would like to briefly highlight the first part of
the discourse which addresses public prayer. If we were more than a Nation of occasional
Bible readers, perhaps we would know that Christ preached that prayer was a private affair
saying, “But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father
who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” (Matt. 6:6 NRSV) He goes on
to convey The Lord’s Prayer as an example of a proper way to pray.

The Lord’s Prayer is very interesting. It has been analyzed and picked apart by the best
religious scholars and it would be pure hubris for me to attempt to add to the body of analysis.
For a slightly exoteric analysis, I would refer you to “The Inner Meaning of The Lord’s Prayer” by
Philip Harris. The Lord’s Prayer also has an esoteric Qabalistic interpretations.

It is from this school that I correlate and ascribe the Masonic signs and gestures to my recitation
of the prayer As Manly P. Hall says, “The oldest, the most profound, the most universal of all
symbols is the human body.” (Hall, p. LXXIII) I believe that signs and gestures engage the body in
addition to the mind in the thought process. Through signs and gestures, we make our body a
living symbol. These particular sign and gesture correspondences have come to me during the
nights on a recurring basis over several nights in February 2011. It is to clear them that I wrote
the first version of this paper in the early morning hours of February 19 with the moon full one
night prior.

“Our Father who art in heaven, I raise my eyes up to heaven and give the Sign of
Benediction (a benediction being a short invocation for
divine intercession) with my right hand.

hallowed be thy name.
I give the Sign of Harpocrates. Harpocrates is the god of
silence in Greek mythology and is derived from the Egyptian
child-god Horus via a rendering of his name Heru-pa-khered
meaning “Har, the Child.” This sign is used directly in a rite
of one of our concordant bodies.

Thy kingdom come. I point with my left hand to the Earth a representation of the
sephirot of Malkuth or “The Kingdom.”

Thy will be done The Penal Sign of a Fellowcraft opens my body to my Heart
which drives the will.

on earth as it is in heaven. I repeat pointing to the Malkuth with my left and point to
Kether, the “Crown,” with my right forming the frequently
seen “As Above, So Below” gesture. The phrase being
from the famous Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus,

P. Todd Decker
February 2011
The Lord’s Prayer in Masonic Sign and Gesture
By P. Todd Decker
or “Thrice-great Hermes” and the Egyptian Thoth,
symbolising the Hermetic concept that the macrocosmos is
the same as the microcosmos. I would refer you to Issac
Newton’s translation.

Give us this day our daily I cradle my daily sustenance with the Duegard of an
bread, Entered Apprentice. Every day we should gain sustenance
from the teachings of The Great Lights of Masonry.

and forgive us our trespasses, Other versions of the prayer use “sins” and “debts” in place
as we forgive those who of “trespasses.” I simply use the sign of brotherhood that
trespass against us, some Traditional Observance Lodges are beginning to use
before Lodge opens as the Brothers precess.

and lead us not into temptation, I give the Sign of a Fellowcraft. Perhaps a stretch. While it
slightly differs, it resonates with me as the traditional “Halt”
sign with the twist of a wrist.

but deliver us from evil. The Sign of a Master Mason fending off the effluvium of the
stench of the murdered dead is appropriate.

For thine is the kingdom, I make the Qabalistic Sign of the Cross by reaching for
Kether, the “Crown”, then bringing my hand down to
Malkuth, the “Kingdom”

and the power, Touching the right shoulder to the sephiroth of Gaburah,
the “Power.”

and the glory, And, completing the cross over to the left shoulder to the
sephiroth of Gadulah, the “Glory,” the sephiroth of Chesed.

The Kabalistic Sign of the Cross is reversed from the

traditional Catholic Sign of the Cross. One might attribute
this to one’s orientation towards the Tree of Life. When one
envisions it as overlaying the body looking out from the tree,
the Gaburah is on the right and Chesed the left. But, if one
stands as an external observer then these are reversed in
the Catholic form. I personally feel God from within me as
opposed to external from me.

It is interesting to note that the doxology of “For thine is

the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and
ever.” is an innovation that you will not find in either of the
two conveyances in the Bible--those being Matthew 6:9-13
and Luke 11:2-4. It is found in Eastern Orthodox practice
along with the 1662 Anglican Book of Common Prayer.
The Catholic Church never included until the Roman Rite
Mass as revised in 1969. But, a footnote in the Catechism
states, “Very early on, liturgical usage concluded the
Lord's Prayer with a doxology. In the Didache, we find, ‘For

P. Todd Decker
February 2011
The Lord’s Prayer in Masonic Sign and Gesture
By P. Todd Decker
yours are the power and the glory for ever.’ The Apostolic
Constitutions add to the beginning: ‘the kingdom,’ and this
is the formula retained to our day in ecumenical prayer. The
Byzantine tradition adds after ‘the glory’ the words ‘Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.’”

for ever and ever. Arms spread in recognition of the perpetuity of creation and
Christ on the Calvary Cross at Golgatha. Golgatha was
originally the location of a Temple to Aphrodite the Greek
goddess of Love and Beauty equivalent to the goddess
Venus. Venus is associated with the sephiroth of Netzach,
or “victory,” endurance, fortitude and following through
on one’s passions--echoing the Passion of Christ and his
victory at the cross on Calvary and subsequent resurrection
although Christ is more directly tied to the sephiroth of
Tiphereth, or “Mercy.”

Amen” I close with the traditional Sign of Prayer.

P. Todd Decker
February 2011
The Lord’s Prayer in Masonic Sign and Gesture
By P. Todd Decker
References

● The Book of Common Prayer. Episcopal Church. 1928

● The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and
Ceremonies of the Church According to the Use of The Church of England. Cambridge.
1662.
● Catechism of the Catholic Church. Approved and Promulgated by Bishop John Paul.
The Vatican. 1997
● De Hoyos, Arturo (2009). Scottish Rite Ritual Monitor and Guide, 2nd Edition.
Washington, DC: The Supreme Council, 33°, Southern Jurisdiction. ISBN 978-
097087493-1.
● "Discourse on Ostentation." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation,
Inc. 27 January 2011. Web. 19 February 2011
● Fortune, Dion (1935). Mystical Qabalah. San Francisco, CA: Weiser Books. ISBN 978-
157863150-6.
● Gallup, Alec, & Simmons, Wendy W (20 October, 2000). Six in Ten Americans Read
Bible at Least Occasionally. Gallup.
● Hall, Manly P. (1988). The Secret Teachings of All Ages. Los Angeles, CA: The
Philosophical Research Society, Inc. ISBN 987-08314548-4.
● Harris, Philip. The Inner Meaning of the Lord’s Prayer. SelfGrowth.com. Retreived on 19
February, 2011.
● Knight, Gareth (1965). A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism. York Beach, ME:
Samuel Weiser, Inc. ISBN 0-87728397-4.
● “Lord’s Prayer.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 19
February 2011. Web. 19 February 2011.
● McKibben, Bill. (2005, August). The Christian Paradox: How a faithful nation gets Jesus
wrong. Harper’s, 31-37.
● "Sermon on the Mount." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.
18 February 2011. Web. 19 February 2011.

P. Todd Decker
February 2011