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

Chapter 4 - Signs & Symbols 139
and old age. The five steps then following bear the inscription "hearing,"
"seeing," "feeling," "smelling," and "tasting," and equally "Tuscan," "Doric,"
"Ionic," "Corinthian," and "Composite." The seven steps leading then upward are
named "grammar," "rhetoric," "logic," "arithmetic," "geometry," "music," and
"astronomy." Hence, the five human senses, the five orders of construction of
ancient columns, and the seven "noble arts and sciences" that the candidates have
learned in their degree lectures re-appear in the symbolism of the steps leading to
the letter "G" at the top of the stairs in the Middle Chamber. One can conclude
from this that all these virtues and arts lead to "perfect man" and "perfect divine."
Duncan's ritual mentions only seven steps, to which it attributes the following
meaning:
The seven Sabbatical years, seven years of famine, seven years of war,
seven years in building the Temple, seven golden candlesticks, seven
wonders of the world, seven planets; but, more especially, the seven
liberal arts and sciences, which are grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic,
geometry, music, and astronomy. For these and many other reasons the
number seven has ever been held in high estimation among Masons. 386
Sickels in The General Ahiman Rezon further explains the symbolism of the
Winding Stairs when he equates the Entered Apprentice with the child in
Freemasonry, and the Fellow Craft with the youth. Thus, there is a constant
advancement, and "[i]n his second pause, in the ascent of the Winding Stairs, the
aspirant is [...] reminded of the necessity of cultivating practical knowledge." 387
Sickels concludes his theory with the remark that " [t]he Fellow Craft
[r]epresents a man laboring in the pursuit of truth; and the Winding Stairs are the
devious pathways of that pursuit." 388
The steps of this Winding Staircase commenced [...] at the porch of the
Temple, that is to say, at its very entrance. But nothing is more
undoubted in the science of Masonic symbolism than that the Temple
was the representative of the world purified by the Shekinah, or the
Divine Presence. The world of the profane is without the Temple; the
world of the initiated is within its sacred walls. Hence to enter the
Temple, to pass within the porch, to be made a Mason, and to be born
into the world of Masonic light, are all synonymous and convertible
terms. Here, then, the symbolism of the Winding Stairs begins. [...]
The Winding Stairs begin after the candidate has passed within the
Porch, and between the Pillars of Strength and Establishment, as a
significant symbol to teach him that as soon as he had passed beyond
the years of irrational childhood, and commenced his entrance upon
manly life, the laborious task of self-improvement is the first duty that is
386 Duncan, p. 84.
387 Sickels, p. 166.
388 Sickels, p. 168. Italics left out.