The Lost Key: An Explanation of Masonic Symbols

82The Lost Key246. The meaning of the Winding Stair is perfectly plain to anyman who is honestly looking for the meaning. Even though theWinding Stair is mentioned in the Old Testament as a feature ofthe Temple we must realize that it was probably symbolic and wasborrowed from the surrounding nations just as the two Pillars onthe Porch were borrowed. The Pillars on the Porch were a featurein Egyptian temples and in the temvles of the so-called “Pagan”nations long before Solomon borrowed the idea of so ornamentinghis Temple.247. The ancients had, firmly embedded in their beliefs, theteaching of Rebirth, the continued coming back of the spirit intoincarnation in repeated physical lives, each of which showed aslight advance on the status of preceding lives just as the child is,each day in school, slightly in advance of the preceding days.There was the further teaching that the spirit, during the interimbetween physical embodiments, progressed through the two higherworlds and then came back into the physical again as a babe. Withthe philosophical aspect of the truth or falsity of this idea we havenothing to do but we do insist that, if the student really wants toknow what the symbols mean—that is, what the originators of thesymbols meant them to convey—he must try to find out whatthose originators really thought. We do know that the belief inRebirth was widespread in the early days and is becoming more andmore so at the present day. With its truth or falsity we havenaught to do but the fact of its existence we must admit if we arereally in search of truth—truth in this instance being the ideas inthe minds of the originators of the Symbolism.248. We want to find out what the originators of the symbolismintended the symbols to show. We are not interested in whetherthe ideas and beliefs thus shown are true or false. So far as thesymbolism relates to thought control and aligns itself with theteachings of the Christ we believe that it has a deep and far