The Stone

The Stone is the foundation of the Temple. It represents, in freemasonry, the individual that participates in the construction of the Temple of Humanity. Are insofar designated as "rough stone" (pedra bruta) those who were not initiated. When a new Brother integrates the Lodge he began to cut and polish the rough stone, that is "perfecting" himself as a human  being. The tools used to accomplish this task - such as the mallet and the chisel (o malho e o escopro) - help him and the apron protects him from the spalls (lasca) that don't cease to come out during its work. The aim of the freemason is to polish the stone in order he may arrive to the carved stone, the ashlar. At the same time the individual learns that the Human Being is always perfectible and that this work is eternal. At the same time that the cutting of the stone never ends, the number of stones required to build a Temple are endless. Inside the masonic temple we see a rough stone, put in a certain position, close to the pace the Entered Apprentices sit.  A cubic stone is put in another place.  

In Delphi there is a figurative representation of what can be foreseen as the cutting of the rough stone. A wall comprises different stones, already cut, but no one is equal to the others. These stones are assembled, they are adjusted to one another and they sustain a terrace. This edification  represents a society made of diversity where the respect to the Other allows the construction of the common edifice. At Delphi - symbol between the symbols - this wall serves as support for the writing of the names of the slaves that were freed.