The Lost Key: An Explanation of Masonic Symbols

Chapter II. 23see, it is not the physical body which you particularly. admire. It isthe character, the various traits and qualities of that invisible nartof him which you admire. It is his intelligence, his kindness, hiscompassion for others, his helpfulness, all these things are thethings which you love in him and they are not the physical body,they are traits of mind and character, not of physique.61. But the physical body is all that you can see. These othertraits which we lump under the term “character,” although theyare the most important part of our friend, are not visible to mortaleyes. We cannot see the character. We may see some of its effectsin certain actions and in certain lines on the face, but thecharacter itself we cannot see. So the Masonic Symbolism, wishingto portray in a symbolic or pictorial or dramatic manner certainactions of, or lessons given to, that great inner and invisible man,accomplishes this end by placing the visible part of the candidate,the physical body, in certain positions. From this it follows that wemust know the basis of that symbolism in order to understand whatthose positions and conditions mean. Let us take up one of themost important symbolisms which is yet but very slightly understood,that of the Clothing.THE CLOTHING62. If the physical body of the candidate symbolizes his invisibleself, the self which learns the lessons, that is, the mind, then wecan easily see how fitly the clothing is used to symbolize anythingwhich surrounds that mind and prevents it from coming intocontact with exterior objects. But what is that which surrounds amind and prevents it from coming into contact with exteriorobjects and, also, what exterior objects can a mind contact? Amind must contact (or touch) something of its own nature, must itnot? Hence the mind contacts thought. What surrounds a mindand prevents that mind from coming into contact with a thought