Symbolic Meaning of the Carpenter’s Tools
From the “Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ” by Levi:
Chapter 20 Verse 11 to 21
11 And then he went forth with his parents on their way to Nazareth: and when they their home he wrought with Joseph as a carpenter.
12 One day, as he was bringing forth the tools for work he said,
13 These tools remind me of the one we handle in the workshop of the mind where things were made of thought and where we build up character.
14 We use the square to measure all our lives, to straighten out the crooked places of the way, and make the corners our conduct square.
15 We use the compass to draw circles round our passions and desires to keep them in the bounds of righteousness.
16 We use the axe to cut away the knotty, useless and ungainly parts and make the character symmetrical.
17 We use the hammer to drive home the truth, and pound it in until it is a part of every part.
18 We use the plane to smooth the rough, uneven surfaces of joint and block, and board that go to build the temple for the truth.
19 The chisel, line, and plummer and the saw all have their uses in the workshop of the mind.
20 And this this ladder with its trinity of steps, faith, hope and love; on it we climb up the dome of purity in life.
21 And on the twelve step ladder we ascend until we reach the pinnacle of that which life is spent to build, the Temple of Perfected Man.
As souls we have many lessons to learn and some say we can not learn them all in one lifetime. The zodiac draws a circle around the passions and desires that are our lessons for this lifetime on the twelve step ladder of the signs.
The square defines the challenges in our charts, the things we need to “straighten out.” Often with the square we fail to see these challenges clearly, see the people or situations we are at odds with as the cause of our problems. We are the cause of our own problems if we fail to deal with them with full cognizance of how we contribute to them.
The stress aspect, the inconjunct, is the axe that cuts away the ungainly parts. With the inconjunct, we see saw back and forth issues without coming to a resolution. Only until we accept that there are no correct answers and accept what is can we conquer this aspect in our charts.
The conjunction, planets sitting on top of each other, is the hammer that pounds the lesson of a particular zodiac sign home.
The plane is the opposition which “smooth the rough, uneven surfaces”. It is a aspect that calls us to balance the polarity of the zodiac signs involved.
The chisel, line, plummer and saw, all straight lines, represent the Ascendent/Descendant, Midheaven/astrological nadir axis in the chart. Planets closest to the angles are more significant in our lives than ones that are not. They can also represent the four elements, fire, earth, air and water that help define the essential nature of the signs.
The three step ladder is modalities, cardinal, fixed, mutable, that also have expression in the signs. The modalities play a crucial role in how we express the energy of the sign with which they are associated.
Life can be overwhelming, especially today when there are so many things, job, spouse, children, friends, television, the internet, to name a few to vie for our attention. Ultimately, how we learn from the life challenges that are defined in our charts are what is going to give us that pass/fail grade when we move on from this life.
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