The Lost Keys of Freemasonry - RoseCroix.org.au

Masters has never been concealed from those who have the right to know it nor hasit ever been revealed to those who have not prepared a worthy shrine to contain it.The Master knows, for he is a Temple Builder. Within the setting of his own bodies,the Philosopher's Stone is placed; for in truth it is the heart of the Phoenix, thatstrange bird which rises with renewed youth from the ashes of its burned body.When the Master's heart is as pure and white as the diamond that he wears, he willthen become a living stone-the crown jewel in the diadem of his Craft.The Word is found when the Master himself is ordained by the living hand of God,cleansed by living water, baptized by living fire, a Priest-King after the Order ofMelchizedek, who is above the law.The great work of the Master Mason can be called the art of balance. To him is giventhe work of balancing the triangle that it may blaze forth with the glory of the DivineDegree. The triple energies of thought, desire, and action must be united in aharmonious blending of expression. He holds in his hands the triple keys; he wearsthe triple crown of the ancient Magus, for he is in truth the King of heaven, earth,and hell. Salt, sulphur, and mercury are the elements of his work and with thephilosophical mercury he seeks to blend all powers to the glorifying of one end.Behind the degree of Master Mason, there is another not known to earth. Far abovehim stretch other steps concealed by the blue veil which divides the seen from theunseen. The true Brother knows this, therefore he works with an end in view farabove the concept of mortal mind. He seeks to be worthy to pass behind that veiland join that band who, unhonoured and unsung, carry the responsibilities of humangrowth. His eyes are fixed forever on the Seven Stars which shine down fromsomewhere above the upper rung of the ladder. With hope, faith, and charity heclimbs the steps, and whispering the Master's Word to the Keeper of the Gates,passes on behind the veil. It is then, and then only, that a true Mason is born. Onlybehind this veil does the mystic student come into his own. The things which we seearound us are but forms-promises of a thing unnamed, symbols of a truth unknown.It is in the spiritual temple built without the voice of workmen or the sound ofhammer that the true initiation is given, and there, robed in the simple lambskin of apurified body, the student becomes a Master Mason, chosen out of the world to bean active worker in the name of the Great Architect. It is there alone, unseen bymortal eyes, that the Greater Degrees are given and there the soul radiating thelight of Spirit becomes a living; star in the blue canopy of the Masonic lodge.TRANSMUTATIONMasonry is eternal truth, personified, idealized, and yet made simple. Eternal truthalone can serve it. Virtue is its priest, patience its warden, illumination its master.The world cannot know this, however, save when Masons in their daily life prove thatit is so. Its truth is divine, and is not to be desecrated or defamed by thethoughtlessness of its keepers. Its temple is a holy place, to be entered in reverence.Material thoughts and material dissensions must be left without its gate. They maynot enter. Only the pure of heart, regenerated and transmuted, may pass thesanctity of its veil. The schemer has no place in its ranks, nor the materialist in itsshrine; for Masons walk on hallowed ground, sanctified by the veneration of ages.Let the tongue be stilled, let the heart be stilled, let the mind be stilled. In reverenceand in the silence, stillness shall speak: the voice of stillness is the voice of theCreator. Show your light and your power to men, but before God what have you to