The Lost Key: An Explanation of Masonic Symbols

THE HIDDEN MEANINGOFTHE MASONIC SYMBOLISMBYPRENTISS TUCKER—————————CHAPTER I1. Every Mason wants to know the meaning of the rites andrituals, the symbols and ceremonies of Masonry. Although it mayhave been years since he himself took that mystic journey towardsthe East and though repeated fruitless searchings may have led himto believe that the rumors of a wonderful philosophy whichMasonry contains are pure imagination, yet there still lingers, likethe sweet, faint fragrance which clings to old and faded garlands,the thought that, after all, there may possibly be some meaningunder it.2. And, in this intuitional thought or rather hope, he is right.Although he never knew the reason why certain symbolic actionswere performed nor could his inquiries, addressed to others, elicitany such information, he feIt that there must have been, at sometime; a definite idea upon which the symbolism was based. Thevarious books on Masonic Symbolism confine their attentionstrictly. to a few of the more prominent symbols and do not take upthe ritual itself nor explain why certain things are done and certainactions performed.3. And so there is not a Mason, probably, who has not wondered,perhaps dimly, perhaps hopelessly, whether there ever was a realreason for the symbolic clothing and the shoes and for the various5