The Lost Key: An Explanation of Masonic Symbols

Chapter XI. 107which it gradually develops to a point where it can again learnlessons on the physical plane.304. It surely should not be necessary to repeat the warning thatthe Masonic student—the real student—is seeking to find outwhat the originators of the symbolism had in mind just as theEgyptologists spent years of labor in deciphering the hieroglyphicson the Egyptian monuments in order to find out what they said.The Masonic student does not bind himself to incorporate into hisbelief everything that the old Mythology taught. One of theprominent featuTes of the Masonic Rituals is the Rite of Circumambulationwhich all scholars are agreed is a remnant of theancient Sun worship. But, when we recognize this fact, and realizethat this Rite has come down to us from the ancient Sunworshipping days, this realization does not involve the necessitythat we, as Masons, must immediately become sun worshippers.305. So the recognition of the obvious fact that many of the Ritesand Symbols of Masonry were devised from the standpoint of abeliever in Rebirth or the evolution of the soul, does not involveany necessity on the part of the Masonic student to believe thesame or to make it a part of his religious dogma any more than theEgyptologist, when he deciphers a prayer to Ra, the Sun god,carved upon some Egyptian tomb thousands of years before thetime of Christ, is thereby compelled to believe in the existence andpower of Ra and begin to worship him with the same prayer.306. Those parts of the Rituals which teach Morality are extremelyvaluable because of the morality they teach which, when examinedin the light of modem knowledge is just as true as the moralitytaught by our own religion. This moral teaching, contained in thethree First Sections, which I have arbitrarily called the “EducationalSymbolism,” is in a class by itself. The balance of thesymbolism, especially the Drama of the Second Section of theThird Degree, can be understood only when we study the beliefs