The Lost Key: An Explanation of Masonic Symbols

84The Lost Keythe symbology to suit ourselves jf we choose to do so but themodern ideas which have been advanced to explain the symbologyof the Winding Stairs are very weak and futile and are reallyexplanations which do not explain.253. The Wages, the corn, wine and oil, are symbolic of the resultsin spiritunl or mental qualities of work done by the spirit in thelower natures. Let us see how this works out. Corn is the result ofwork performed on the ground, seeding, cultivating, harvesting,etc. The ground, as has already been pointed out, symbolizes thelower natures, the personality, and so corn symbolizes the result indeveloped qualities of work doue in the lower natures. Note thatcorn grows above the ground and so we would expect the qualitiesrepresented by corn to be higher than the ground. In other words,they are mental qualities. Wine is a symbol of wisdom, usuallyspiritual wisdom, and is so used in the ancient symbolic writings. Itis used in this sense in the Bible and also in such writings as theRubaiyat. It symbolizes the wisdom which the soul (candidate) willdevelop as a result of his labors in the direction of a scientificmorality, controlling and dominating and bringing under subjectionhis lower or animalistic nature. Oil was used as a symbol oflove. This was the common symbolic meaning of oil in thesymbolic writings despite the often quoted passage which speaks ofthe “oil of joy.” This really means “the oil which brings joy.”254. The student will note that it is compulsory that the Wages bepaid at the top of the Stairs for the results of labor are notobservable until after the labor is done, wages are not paid untilthe work is finished. The work in this instance is symbolized by thedevelopment gained by the spirit in its laborious ascent of thethree, five and seven steps of the Winding Stairs which representthe work in the lower natures.