Esotericism in Freemasonry

On October 22nd, I was finally raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason in Damascus Lodge #10 F&AM of Utah. Anyone who has experienced the degrees knows that masonry is an ongoing experience. Just when you think you're comfortably situated with all of the instruction you've received, something comes along (in the same reading or lesson you've already heard) and smacks you in the face with something new. I stay busy with school, but I'm currently reading "Morals and Dogma..." by Albert Pike and I'd like to just share a few thoughts from what I've read.

"To understand literally the symbols and allegories of Oriental books as to ante-historical matters, is willfully to close our eyes against the Light. To translate the symbols into the trivial and commonplace, is the blundering of mediocrity."

This is a hard concept to grasp at first. When people find out I'm a Mason, they almost immediately want to know what the "meaning" of all of the symbols are. This is contradictory to the foundation of Masonry. Symbols are used in teaching to express a meaning deeper than words can portray. Religious and philosophical concepts were originally expressed through plays and allegory, and there was no explicit explanation given of the teachings. The student was always left to ponder and arrive at a conclusion of his own. This idea is summed up excellently in a later paragraph by Albert Pike.

"The Mysteries were a Sacred Drama, exhibiting some legend significant of nature's changes, of the visible Universe in which the Divinity is revealed, and whose import was in many respects as open to the Pagan as to the Christian. Nature is the great Teacher of man; for it is the Revelation of God. It neither dogmatizes nor attempts to tyrannize by compelling to a particular creed or special interpretation. It presents its symbols to us, and adds nothing by way of explanation. It is the text without the commentary; and, as we well know, it is chiefly the commentary and gloss that lead to error and heresy and persecution. The earliest instructors of mankind not only adopted the lessons of Nature, but as far as possible adhered to her method of imparting them. In the Mysteries, beyond the current traditions or sacred and enigmatic recitals of the Temples, few explanations were given to the spectators, who were left, as in the school of nature, to make inferences for themselves. No other method could have suited every degree of cultivation and capacity. To employ nature's universal symbolism instead of the technicalities of language, rewards the humblest inquirer, and discloses its secrets to every one in proportion to his preparatory training and his power to comprehend them. If their philosophical meaning was above the comprehension of some, their moral and political meanings are within the reach of all."

Wow. Just stop and chew on that for a second.

In a discussion I had with a religious friend of mine, she told me that she thought it was preposterous that men communicated at one point in time with grunts and pictures. What's wrong with communicating with pictures? Everyone will agree that art can make them feel something and convey an idea "better than 1,000 words". Maybe pictures and symbols are the language of the gods? Maybe philosophers and sophists are the inventors of words the way we know them today. Who knows?

I love what I've learned in Freemasonry thus far and will continue to explore it's subtle symbols and principles. If anything, it has taught me how to teach myself. Mankind is so reliant on mankind to explain every detail of every principle, that the original principles and truths have been distorted by the imperfections of man. When we learn from the Supreme Teacher - The Great Architect of the Universe - the truth will be revealed in it's rawest, truest form.