Thursday, December 23, 2010

Architectural Symbols on the Salt Lake Temple

How does a building or temple with stone symbols send a message or communicate anything when it does not speak? Famous architects say that great buildings influence how you feel. How is that possible? Color, windows, light, large or small spaces, organization, and the architectural design of a building impact how you think and feel. Think about your experience and impressions in and around different buildings.

The Salt Lake Temple was commissioned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and under the direction of the Prophet Brigham Young, it was designed by architect Truman O. Angell. Truman was very skilled and humble. His dedication and the details of his masterful designs and drawings were cited as an inspiration to every craftsman. The architectural design of the Salt Lake Temple is a unique composite of Romanesque modified by castellated style. Construction commenced in 1853 with the manual labor of cutting and carving granite stones and stone symbols. The exterior architecture of the Salt Lake Temple movingly uses the ethos, pathos, logos, repetition, contrast, and balance of stone symbols like the earth, moon, sun, and stars to invite all people to ponder the awesome universe and believe in God.

Webster defines “symbol” as an object used to represent something abstract with the example, “the dove is a symbol of peace.” In other words, symbols are something physical that represent something intellectual and intangible, or an idea. Regarding temple, “The Latin templum was the equivalent of the Hebrew beth Elohim and signified the abode of Deity; hence it meant literally the house of the Lord.” We know of several ancient temples including the Tabernacle of Israel, Solomon’s Temple, Zerubbabel’s Temple, Herod’s Temple, and temples in ancient America.

The Salt Lake Temple’s design includes 34 earth-stones with spheres 3 feet in diameter, 28” above the ground. These are the largest blocks at 5’6” x 4’6” x 1’8” tall and weigh about 3.5 tons each. It is very difficult to imagine hand carving a granite stone of this size, let alone transporting it by wagon pulled by oxen. This kind of manual labor and level of dedication, faith, and passion represents strong pathos, especially when we find out it took 40 backbreaking years to finish the Temple!

The Temple uses ethos, contrast, and repetition with 50 moon-stones, each representing a different lunar phase. How do you feel when you periodically recognize the moon in the night sky, the moon in the daytime sky and its changing shape from day to day or week to week? Its brightness at night is inspiring. Its contrast of lunar phases both at night and during the day is captivating.

There are 50 sun-stones, each with a perimeter edge of 52 points representing the sun’s hot ethos rays! The sun is the center of our solar system. Without the light of the sun, the earth and all people, plants, and animals would cease to exist. This idea had never come to mind before writing this essay. This is a good example of the teaching power of symbols because they can always bring new meaning and understanding to those who seek truth.

Five-point star-stones are numerous. There is one constellation of star stones, Ursa Major or Great Bear, commonly known as the Big Dipper - which actually points to the true North Star in heaven. Who says a constellation is not an excellent example of ethos? Nobody! Think about how the Big Dipper has helped men, from the beginning of time, navigate across the oceans of the earth. What happens to the pathos in our hearts when we see a clear night sky filled with billions and billions of stars? Even casual viewers love the moon and the stars. Some stars are like our sun, which is incredible. In addition, some suns are a part of solar systems something like ours. These ideas magnify our understanding of the idea of stars that look like a tiny speck of light in the night sky. The universe with galaxies and solar systems is wonderful and astonishing.

There are light rays piercing through cloud-stones, two record-stones, inscription-stones, one clasped-hands stone, and other symbols. If the idea of clouds is not spectacular enough with ethos-light¬ piercing rays, consider the contrast of ideas between clouds, which usually represent a cover or light inhibitor and the rays of light piercing trough the clouds.

We see repetition by the large number of stone symbols. Contrast and balance is evident with the different types of symbols and lunar variations. At the same time, the number and types of stone symbols may seem immense and overwhelming, yet that is not what people feel when looking at the temple. The stone symbols on the building are apparent but subtle and balanced. If you do not already know what to look for, or were not paying attention, you would not recognize all the different types of stone symbols. They do not intrusively jump out at you or shout, “Look at me.” Their appearance is like a calm voice, or a whisper. All these stone symbols on the Temple represent a masterful balance in Truman’s overall architectural design of the building.

The response is different from person to person, yet the stone symbols do make us think and feel. The stone symbols seem to say, “Remember.” Do you remember the excitement of seeing a shooting star? Remember how amazingly bright a full moon is at night? Remember a sunset on the beach? Remember a sky full of billions of stars on a clear night in the mountains or desert? Remember the beautiful plants, trees, flowers, rivers, oceans, mountains and valleys you have visited on the earth? Remember the birds, fish, insects, and animals? Remember the sun and the seasons of the year? How does it all function together?

The Salt Lake Temple stone symbols invite people to ponder life, the creation of the earth, our solar system, and the universe. Looking beyond the basic symbolic representation, the stone symbols cause us to ask deeper questions. Is there life after death? Is there a heaven? Why am I here? Where did I come from? Did life begin when I was born? Was I alive before I came to earth? Is God a real person?

There is no dispute about the existence of the physical objects that these stone symbols represent. The basic questions of the existence, credibility, trustworthiness, logic, and function of the earth, sun, moon, and stars is full of logos and is almost undisputable. At the same time, we know that historically people used to think the earth was flat, that the sun rotated around the earth, and that our solar system was the whole universe. Today most people believe that the earth rotates around the sun. Yet we keep discovering and learning more every year. The more we learn, the more we realize that we do not know. From experience, we know that some of today’s facts become tomorrow’s fallacies. Nevertheless, we cannot escape what we know today, or the basic questions about life.

Symbols are understandably open to individual interpretation and I personally do not claim any expertise on the subject, let alone provide a thorough list of possible meanings. Quite the contrary, I have intentionally limited my translation and definition of symbols. Like most words, symbols have multiple definitions and meanings. Their translation and interpretation may seem cryptographic. Their meaning is the context of personal and individual understanding, and can be intelligent and wise no matter if you are a PhD or in the first grade. Robert L. Millet wrote, “We do not see things as they really are; we see things as we really are.” What do the stone symbols mean to you? What do you think about and feel when you see a sunrise or beautiful sunset?

Although I have visited and gazed at the Salt Lake Temple, from my research on this essay, I have learned there are more symbols than I had previously recognized. I have been reminded that buildings do communicate. Buildings make us think and feel. Symbols have more meanings that I perceive, and are well worth pondering more about. For me, I certainly can learn more by pondering about stone symbols.

Finally, I heard that a California college president proposed that there are three questions every student should ask him or herself to be happy in life. One of those questions was something like, “Regardless of what religion you believe, how do you feel about God and what are you going to do about it?”

The Salt Lake Temple’s stone symbols’ claim the earth, moon, sun, and stars are awesome, and God lives. Buildings and temples can speak and send messages. Temples communicate by their architectural design and stone symbols. It is the meaning of what they represent that causes each of us to think and feel more deeply. More importantly, how do these Temple stone symbols make you feel about the awesome universe and God?



Works Cited

* Hamilton, Ph.D. & Cutrubus, C. Nina

“The Salt Lake Temple: A Monument to a People”

University Services Corporation, 1983


* Hansen, Gerald E.,

“Sacred Walls, Learning from Temple Symbols”

Covenant Communications, Inc, 2009


* Madsen, Truman G.,

“The Temple, Where Heaven Meets Earth”

Desert Book Company, 2008, p. 59


*McConkie, Bruce R.,

“Mormon Doctrine”

Bookcraft, 1966, Symbolism


* Packer, Boyd K.,

“The Holy Temple”

Bookcraft, 1980, p. 40


* Talmage, James E.,

“The House of the Lord”

Desert Book Company, 1971

---, ---, “Temples of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”

Ensign, Special Issue, October 2010, p. 53


Copyright © 2010 Michael Rybin All Rights Reserved.