Puzzle Description:

The 'Square and Compass' is a symbol of the Freemasons, whose motto is 'Ordo ab Chao'. I think the inscribed letter 'G' stands for 'God'.

#1: Jan Wolter (jan) on May 30, 2005

This is a very hard puzzle. I know it is possible to solve by one-line-at-a-time reasoning alone, because my solver program, which only does that kind of logic, was able to solve it (I had to give it a bit of help, but that was simple line-at-a-time reasoning too). However, I had to resort to some edge logic to get it.

Fairly early on, the "5 2 2 2 2 5" row does something vital and asymmetrical.

I had to use boundary logic too.

Very good puzzle.
Had to use two-rows-at-a-time. ;-)
It was necessary to find out where the 3 in upper row horizontal could NOT be placed.
Luv when a puzzle is a challenge.
More of these puzzles please. :-)

I did it with all line logic. Took a while though! The Masons always make me think of the Edgar Allan Poe story where the guy tells his friend he's a Mason, but he really means that he's going to brick him alive into the walls of his wine cellar-- "The Cask of Amontillado."

ohh i love that story..

What a challenge, I had to go and find good quality smaller puzzles that were a challenge, and voila! I found lots of your puzzles Jan, so I'm happy now :)

Very nice puzzle! (solved by line logic alone)
I believe "G" stands for Geometry and God as the grand Architect. Thanks Jan!

That's a great example of a cult.

I had to use edge logic to solve it. I could not find any way to solve it by line logic alone. I sat and looked forever, but eventually had to move on to other techniques.

Second time around, still just as fun. Ditto #2.

After typically starting with line logic, I used edge logic on the top three rows and the rest solved quite quickly.

Nicely rendered and clearly recognizable very early on.

The two black cells I get on row 20 not too far into the puzzle help speed things up a lot. Very nice line logic puzzle.

Great puzzle, the G is only used in the US, Canada and Mexico and actually stands for Geometry, but some lodges do refer to it as God. There has been a lot of research on this subject and most people think it stands for God (I did). As one article I found said, "The real meaning is Geometry as a reference to the Great Architect of The Universe (which could be God,..."

I was able to solve this with a bit of guessing in the assymmetrical places because I recognized the compass and knew the G was there from my father's lapel pin. He was a Mason, and I was very briefly introduced to Rainbow, which was the counterpart for young girls. (Boys were in Demolay, adult women in the Order of the Eastern Star.) I didn't stick around because the meetings (in the early 60's this was, mind you "fashion" was very different from today!) required dresses and white gloves, not fun for this dreamer and lover of all things paint, ink or clay! Years later I did recognize the cultish danger of such organizations. From my father's involvement and some more recent reading, I'd say the Masons and related fraternal organizations are pretty idealistic, adhering to and teaching important values and doing a lot of charitable work. But of course Hitler thought that's what he was doing too. There's potential for abuse in any organization.

All but vertical columns 11-15 can use symmetry logic. With this method, it is quickly & easily solvable.

There is no "symmetry logic". That is guessing.

If the entire puzzle is symmetrical, and there is only one solution, then you could use symmetry as a solving technique, but unique solutions are not a guarantee on this site.

And, more importantly, this entire puzzle is not symmetrical.

And regardless, line logic is all that is needed to solve this one. The helper only has problems with the cells in column 25 that have to be dots.

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