CHAMBER OF REFLECTION
"Let your heart for that reason be best with the
Lord our God, to stroll in his statutes and
to hold His commandments..."
a single Kings eight:61
According to Jewish literature and traditions, excellent care was taken of the private situation of just about every Israelite who entered the Temple for Divine worship. The Talmud dictated the just after needs: "No man shall go into the Temple with his employees or with his footwear on his feet, or with his outer garment, or with revenue tied up in his purse." Masonry has adopted portions of this ancient Jewish custom with regards to the preparation of the candidate for entry into a lodge.
While not Jewish in its origin, the Chamber of Reflection, which has been incorporated into a candidate's preparation in some American lodges, is an updated version of the ancient cave of initiation. Nonetheless, it similarly serves to prepare the candidate for entry into holy ground. Frequently, the chamber is a compact area lit only by a candle that casts feeble light on a quantity of ornaments, like a human skull, human bones, a lump of bread, a flask of water, an hourglass, a saucer containing salt and a further containing sulphur. The candidate is seated within by himself to silently contemplate the holy importance of his intended Masonic journey.
Seated at a table, the candidate will have to create a philosophical will that will later be read aloud in lodge. In order to compose that will, the candidate need to search his soul for his correct feelings around life, death and the transformation of the self from its material nature to its spiritual destiny. It will have to come as no surprise that the symbols situated inside the chamber derive mostly from alchemy - the science and philosophy of metamorphosis.
Alchemists believed that salt which is extracted from sea water by the method of evaporation constitutes the element of fire delivered by water. Sulphur is to the human physique what the Sun is to the earth. The coupling of salt and sulphur symbolizes life and death, or light and darkness nourishing one yet another. As a result, Even though the common candidate for Masonic degrees is not completely skilled approximately either alchemy, or the symbols it employs, it is intended that he meditate upon such esoteric matters as the evolution and continuity of all life, as effectively as the reality that the transformation from material life to spiritual existence is a matter of private expertise. Just about every and each and every human getting will live, die and live once again, however no one can completely love how that will feel till it basically takes place.
For Masons, the time passed in the Chamber of Reflection symbolizes the trials of life. The initially lesson to be discovered is that practically nothing is intrinsically wonderful or terrible. People today are accountable for generating matters improved or worse based upon how they conduct themselves. As a result, the initially lesson relates to the significance of accepting duty for one's personal actions.
The hourglass asks the candidate to reflect upon the irreversibility of the passage of time. Material life is on a continuing progression toward decay and there is valuable compact time offered to participate in the improvement of the spirit. The bread denotes the transformation from the raw to the completely cooked - from raw wheat to the bread which is match for human consumption. A Mason is not precious to the globe in which he lives just due to the fact he has been initiated into the Order. Fairly, he should prepare himself by read and the application of the information that he acquires, if he is ever to advantage society and mankind. The flask of water represents fertility, or regeneration, of which lustration, or baptism is too a symbol. The regeneration explained in this symbolism is not that of the resurrection of the spirit and soul, yet of the resurrection to moral and virtuous living of the material physique. Regeneration of the spirit and soul rewards the private, Although renewal of the resolve to live will rewards other folks. Most religions teach that unless a man renews his material life to the undertaking of wonderful performs, he will not completely prepare himself for eternal life.
It is critical for the candidate to have an understanding of that Masonry does not teach that fantastic performs achieves salvation of the spirit and soul. Pretty, religions variously teach that lesson. Freemasonry instructs upon how a life must be lived - how the "functions" of one human life basically reflect upon the "faith" that one holds. Thus, the journey for which the Chamber of Reflection prepares the candidate is the journey toward improved living, not salvation which can only come by the grace of God - in no way by man's personal functions and deeds.
The human skull that is placed in the chamber is intended to remind the candidate that death is the ideal leveler. No man may possibly escape its grasp and no man can basically know how it feels to be dead till he himself has knowledgeable death. The skull is as well intended to teach the candidate that death is too a supply of life. As vegetable and animal life dies to be consumed by human life, the fact that death contributes to life is profoundly illustrated. As a fantastic man dies, his deeds stay and contribute to the welfare of these who continue to live. The converse is accurate of a terrible man. Despite the fact that his undesirable deeds die with him, the effect of these deeds may perhaps live extended just after he has passed away. The lessons acquired in Masonry allow the member to build it extra probably that his personal dying will be a supply of life to other folks - not a supply of grief and torment.
The symbols arranged in the Chamber of Reflection are as well intended to inculcate in the mind of the novitiate the significance of distinguishing involving that which is real and that which is fantasy. Although man attaches to that which is real, he frees himself from the phantoms that so immediately set light and darkness into opposition. Far more normally than not, evil conduct is the consequence of a confused imagination. In Hitler's twisted fantasy, the Jew was accountable for the ills of his society. A serial murderer Usually fantasizes that taking life viciously and violently brings pleasure.
Power is the fruit of contradictory forces which resist each and every other. It either becomes optimistic Power, or terrible Power based upon regardless of whether or not the dark side of life becomes as well excessive. Light does not often shine in a man's soul any extra than it generally illuminates the earth. For around twelve out of each twenty-4 hours in each and every day, darkness prevails. In man's life he does not often love great overall health - for at least a handful of days, his physique is ill. It is not a query of how to take away darkness, for that is contrary to the laws of Nature. Pretty, it is a matter of what to do even though surrounded by the dark that dictates no matter if or not constructive Power will sooner or later prevail.
In preparation for the Masonic journey, regardless of whether or not that journey commences with a period of personal contemplation in the Chamber of Reflection, a candidate will have to be led to reflect upon exactly where he is in his personal life, exactly where he wishes to be while his life on earth ends and how he need to ideal achieve the journey among these two points. Several lodges in America have stopped teaching this precious lesson at the outset of a candidate's Masonic profession. Candidates are most typically just "ready" by the manner of their attire, which is sooner or later explained soon after the journey has begun. Tiny if something is stated around what it implies to pursue Masonry, or why that pursuit is meaningful to man and society till just after one or far more degrees are conferred upon the candidate.
Is it probable that by re-instituting the useful symbolism of the Chamber of Reflection into the workings of every single Masonic lodge that some who leave the Craft soon after a very quick journey would continue their pursuit? Is it beneficial to teach a candidate what is anticipated of him ahead of he receives Masonic degrees? Symbolism is a way of displaying how words write photos and how these photos become components of myths, imaginary tales which have the ring of reality since they run along winding paths that lead from desires to tips to actions. Simply because Masonry communicates its sensible and significant truths by the symbols that were chosen all through time, it is pretty most likely very valuable that a candidate for degrees love the meditation necessary of him ahead of he ever embarks upon his Masonic journey.
For A lot of Masons, the pursuit of know-how and wisdom is a continuing approach of read, application, critique of what has previously been studied and additional application of new lessons discovered. This procedure is constant with the exhortation Generally uttered in Masonic lodges - "collect what has been scattered and reconcile what seems to be contradictory." Every single of us has knowledge the must each conform and to be distinctive. We have as well seasoned believing and disbelief; certainty and doubt; and order and chaos. These of us who are able to read this writing have however to encounter the distinction involving what we know as life and death, and no matter whether or not there is any distinction at all.
If in your Masonic profession you had been not permitted the chance to contemplate inside a Chamber of Reflection just before you received your degrees, you may well do so now by bowing your head and providing a prayer to the Fantastic Architect for information approximately exactly where you are in your life, how you got there and how you shall journey to the end of your life. As in all Masonic matters, the selection is yours to generate. As is too accurate in all Masonic matters, no man ought to ever enter upon any perfect or beneficial carrying out without having 1st invoking the blessing of God.
John Heisner writes books roughly the philosophy and Secrets of the Freemasons [http://masonicbooks.heisner.info/category/books-approximately-freemasons/secrets-of-the-freemasons-book/]. He has been a Master Mason simply because 1968; served as Chaplain, Senior Deacon, Junior Warden, Senior Warden and Worshipful Master of Amity Lodge No. 442 in San Diego, California, and serves at the moment as an Inspector for Division IX of the Grand Lodge of California. He has written two Masonic Symbolism Books [http://masonicbooks.heisner.info/category/books-roughly-freemasons/masonic-symbolism-book/].; is a member of Scottish Rite Freemasonry in San Diego, exactly where he at the moment serves as an officer in the Lodge of Perfection and has thrice been awarded the Albert Pike trophy for excellence in the functionality of Scottish Rite ritual; a member of Al Bahr Shrine because 1976; a member of the York Rite Bodies, Knights Templar, Allied Masonic Degrees, York Rite College and the Knights of the Red Cross of Constantine. Mr. Heisner is too a member of the Societas Rosicruciana in Civitibus Foederatis.
Mr. Heisner has too been a practicing lawyer in the State of California simply because 1973 and is presently a companion and trial experienced in a San Diego law firm exactly where he emphasizes complicated business litigation, trade secret litigation, real estate and probate litigation. He formerly served as an Assistant District Lawyer, Deputy District Lawyer and Special Assistant United States Lawyer. As a criminal prosecutor, Mr. Heisner investigated and prosecuted organized crime, public official corruption and important fraud matters.
In his experienced capacity, Mr. Heisner has as well chaired A lot of committees for the San Diego County Bar Association and been a member of various criminal justice committees.
Inside his neighborhood, Mr. Heisner has served as president and director of his homeowner's association, participated in the immigrant nationalization course of action as a member of Kiwanis. He is married, father to 4 adult kids and grandfather of 5 young youngsters.
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