About the Triangle
An international, English-speaking Masonic Triangle in Berlin, in the tradition of the French Rite.
Triangle Astraea is an international, English-speaking Masonic Triangle in Berlin, in the tradition of the French Rite.
It stands in the liberal current of Freemasonry, the one that grew out of the Enlightenment: a Freemasonry where reason, dialogue and symbolism are the tools for seeking truth: by learning from a long tradition and the wisdom it carries, by questioning dogmas and conventions where they no longer serve, and always with the well-being of society in view. No one is asked to believe anything. Believers of different faiths, agnostics and atheists meet as equals, and each person reads the symbols in their own way, as free thinkers should. Women and men stand side by side, with the same rights and the same voice.
Freemasonry, as the Triangle understands it, does not give answers. It offers a method for asking better questions, and a fraternal space in which very different minds can speak freely and listen with respect, so that each person may grow in knowledge of themselves and carry the ideals of freedom, equality and fraternity into the world outside the temple.
It also holds that fraternity is universal and belongs to no one. A Freemason is a Freemason before belonging to any jurisdiction, and the bonds between brothers and sisters of goodwill should not depend on treaties of recognition, territorial claims or the payment of dues to a distant authority. Initiation is a human and spiritual path, not a franchise: wherever free minds meet in good faith around the same symbols, the Masonic chain is already present.
Its name recalls Astraea, the starry maiden of Greek myth who embodied justice. Poets said she left the earth when people turned away from what is right, and that her return would herald a new golden age: a quiet reminder that justice is less a possession than a horizon.
At a glance
- City
- Berlin
- Language
- English
- Tradition
- The French Rite
- Current
- Liberal and adogmatic: no belief is required
- Composition
- Mixed: women and men with the same rights
- Directory
- BlueLodge.eu, entry 4451
What a Triangle is
In the Masonic vocabulary of France and of much of continental Europe, a Triangle is the smallest form a Masonic group can take: a few Master Masons, at least three, who gather in fraternity but are fewer than the seven traditionally needed to form a Lodge.
The word fits the geometry. Three points are the fewest that can enclose a space, and the triangle, with its three equal sides, has long stood in Masonic symbolism for balance and for the light that grows from a shared effort. The Triangle's mark, three stars linked by fine lines, is drawn from that idea and from the night sky that gave Astraea her place.