THE ARCANE SCHOOLS - Fort Myers Beach Masonic Lodge No. 362

human learning.
LIGHT. It denotes truth and knowledge, and is so explained in all the
ancient systems; in initiation, it is not material but intellectual
light
that is sought.
It is predominant as a symbol in all the ancient initiations.
There it was revered because it was an emanation trom the sun, the
common
object of worship; but the theory advanced by some writers, that the
veneration of light originally proceeded from its physical qualities,
is
not correct.
Pythagoras called it the good principle in nature; and the Cabalists
taught that eternal light filled all space before the creation, and
that
after creation it retired to a central spot, and became the instrument
of
the Divine Mind in creating matter.
It is the symbol of the autopsy, or the full perfection and fruition of
initiation.
It is therefore a fundamental symbol in Freemasonry, and contains
within
itself the very essence of the speculative science.
LINGAM. The phallus was so called by the Indian nations of the East.
See
_Phallus_.
LODGE. The place where Freemasons meet, and also the congregation of
masons so met. The word is derived from the _lodges_ occupied by the
travelling Freemasons of the middle ages.
It is a symbol of the world, or universe.
Its form, an oblong square, is symbolic of the supposed oblong form of
the
world as known to the ancients.
LOST WORD. There is a masonic myth that there was a certain word which
was
lost and afterwards recovered.
It is not material what the word was, nor how lost, nor when recovered:
the symbolism refers only to the abstract idea of a loss and a
recovery.
It is a symbol of divine truth.
The search for it was also made by the philosophers and priests in the
Mysteries of the Spurious Freemasonry.