Masonic Dates

Masonic dates are calendar designations used on some Masonic documents, books, certificates and foundation stones. They generally express a conventional or commemorative era alongside, or in place of, the ordinary civil year. Different bodies have used different systems; the abbreviation and the issuing organisation are therefore part of the evidence needed to interpret a date.

Anno Lucis

Anno Lucis means “in the year of light” and is commonly abbreviated A.L. The usual modern calculation adds 4,000 to the civil year: 2023 AD = 6023 AL, and 2026 AD = 6026 AL. To reverse that calculation, subtract 4,000 from the AL date. The additional years belong to the dating convention; they do not establish that a lodge or document is thousands of years old.

Historical terminology

Early usage was less uniform than this rule suggests. Mendoza's study found the initials A.L. in John Pine's lodge list of 1725, but cautioned against assuming that they always meant Anno Lucis. Other expressions included Anno Laotomiae and the English “Year of Masonry”. James Anderson used the latter phrase in the 1723 and 1738 Constitutions.

Mendoza identified an English certificate using the full phrase Anno Lucis, dated 15 February 5777, corresponding to 1777. He also discussed earlier Continental evidence, including an inscription at Marseilles reported by William Preston. His dates describe the evidence he had located, rather than proving when the expression was invented. Some eighteenth-century calculations added 4,004 instead of 4,000, following a different convention derived from biblical chronology.

Other designations

The following are conventions documented in the National Library of Scotland's cataloguing guidance. They should be checked against the particular document, especially when the month or beginning of the year differs.

Designation	Meaning and use	Common calculation
Anno Ordinis (A.O.)	“Year of the Order”, used by Masonic Knights Templar	Civil year minus 1118
Anno Inventionis (A.I.)	“Year of the Discovery”, found on Royal Arch documents	Civil year plus 530
Anno Depositionis (A.Dep.)	“Year of the Deposit”, used by Royal and Select Masters	Civil year plus 1000

Anno Mundi (A.M.), “year of the world”, and Anno Hebraico (A.H.), “in the Hebrew year”, occur in Scottish Rite dating. The library's guidance gives an offset of 3,760, increasing by one around the autumn new year. For dates following the Hebrew calendar itself, the year changes at Rosh Hashanah, whose civil date varies between September and October; a fixed September cutoff is only an approximation.

Ceremonial use and symbolism

Light and creation

The Oklahoma York Rite's guide to Masonic dates connects Anno Lucis with the creation of light in Genesis, expressed in the words “Let there be Light”. Light also has a moral meaning in Craft ritual. In its public account of an initiation at Sarum Lodge, the United Grand Lodge of England explains it as enlightenment and the movement from ignorance towards knowledge. This is a related symbolic use of light; it does not establish that the calendar expression itself forms part of every initiation.

Anno Mundi also refers to creation, but follows a different chronology. Its use in Scottish Rite dating therefore expresses a different reckoning of the same broad biblical theme, rather than the age of the Rite.

A public cornerstone ceremony

The United States Capitol provides a documented example of a Masonic date being read during a public ceremony. At the cornerstone laying on 18 September 1793, attended by George Washington and Masonic lodges, an inscribed silver plate was presented and its wording read aloud. The inscription reproduced by the Architect of the Capitol includes “in the year of Masonry 5793”. This is the civil year plus 4,000. The evidence is the reported inscription; the original plate has not been recovered.

Royal Arch: discovery and historical lectures

In York Rite usage, Anno Inventionis associates the Royal Arch date with the rebuilding of the Second Temple under Zerubbabel. The additional 530 years belong to that conventional Temple chronology. The name “Year of the Discovery” identifies the symbolic setting of the date; it should not be read as the foundation date of a particular chapter.

Royal Arch sources also show why the dating systems cannot be assigned exclusively to separate bodies. Mendoza found Lucis in manuscripts probably dating from the later eighteenth century, in material that became the Historical Lecture. He reported Anno Lucis in printed Royal Arch rituals from about 1845 and on English Supreme Grand Chapter certificates from the 1840s. These are examples of an era appearing in ritual literature and certificates as well as in general Masonic chronology.

Royal and Select Masters: preservation

Anno Depositionis associates the Royal and Select Masters' calendar with the completion of Solomon's Temple, using the conventional addition of 1,000 years. The word “Deposit” also corresponds to the theme of preservation in the Select Master degree. A public educational essay published by the General Grand Council of Cryptic Masons discusses that degree in terms of fidelity, preservation and work whose value may become apparent in the future.

Knights Templar: commemorating the Order

Anno Ordinis uses the conventional starting year 1118 to commemorate the establishment of the medieval Knights Templar. The modern Masonic Order draws on medieval Templar history and symbolism in its ceremonies; the use of that era does not establish institutional continuity with the medieval Order.

A modern documentary example is the Grand Commandery of Kentucky's proceedings for its 177th Annual Conclave at Lexington. The title page dates the meeting 18 September 2023, A.O. 905. The following page explains the subtraction of 1118. Here the era appears in the formal record of a Masonic gathering.

Reading a historical date

Transcriptions should preserve the original era designation and give the civil equivalent separately. A.L. 5813, under the usual calculation, becomes 1813 AD. A.D. (Anno Domini) and CE (Common Era) use the same year numbering. The choice of a Masonic era is distinct from the question of whether a historical civil date follows the Julian or Gregorian calendar. The issuing body, full wording and any parallel civil date should be recorded before converting an unfamiliar abbreviation.

See also

• Masonic museums and libraries
• Masonic architecture
• James Anderson