The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

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Chapter 4 - Signs & Symbols
The function of the anteroom derives from historical initiation ceremonies
where the neophytes were separated from their families to be confronted with
death and rupture, since
[i]solation in a hut or cave begins a ritual during which a symbolic
metamorphosis is experienced; like a chrysalis hatching out of its
cocoon the initiate comes out of the darkness a new person. [...]
The Chamber of Reflection is a modern, updated form of the ancient
cave of initiation. 364
photo of Chamber of Reflection with skull, Bible, candle, and hourglass
(Masonic exhibition in the Preußen-Museum in Wesel; 2000)
In Mackey's Encyclopædia of Freemasonry and its Kindred Sciences, the
appropriateness of the chamber of reflection is confirmed by a quote from
Gädicke, the German author of the Freemasons' Lexicon, published in 1818, that
"[i]t is only in solitude that we can deeply reflect upon our present or future
undertakings, and blackness, darkness, or solitariness, is ever a symbol of
death" 365 . According to Gädicke (ibid.), "a man who has undertaken a thing after
mature reflection seldom turns back."
The murals painted on the wall design a cockerel and a scythe. The cockerel,
which announces daylight, is associated with Mercury or Hermes. This
364 Béresniak, p. 22.
365 EOF, p. 141.