“To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.”

Socrates

The secret that the Masons protect has been passed down from generation to generation for centuries. Those who were aware of the secret encoded a sign for anyone with eyes to see. The sign of a certain knowledge has been placed in the artwork of masters like Leonard Da Vinci and Nicolas Poussin. The sign is the Square and Compass.

Leonardo Da Vinci encoded the sign in his painting, “Virgin of the Rocks”. As shown in Figure 1, the pointing fingers of the winged Angel form the Square and Compass.

Figure 1 – The Square and Compass on the “Virgin of The Rocks”

What makes this symbol seem intentional is the unnatural shape of the hand with the pointing index finger. Da Vinci took great pains to understand the human anatomy and how to accurately draw the human form as natural as possible. When someone points at something with an extended index finger, the natural tendency is to tuck the thumb in against the other fingers. Int he painting the thumb is awkwardly extended and is not the natural position of a pointing finger.

When this same awkward gesture is found in other paintings at different angles, the sign is there, but not as visible as it is in Da Vinci’s “Virgin of the Rocks”. One example of the Square and Compass hidden in a painting using the pointed fingers drawn in a different orientation is Nicolas Poussin’s painting “Et in Arcadia Ego”. See Figure 2. It should be noted that the title of this painting is the subtitle used for the Maranatha puzzle book.

Figure 2 – The Pointing Fingers hide the Square and Compass in Poussin’s “Et in Arcadia Ego”