After his symbolic, clothing in the West, the Candidate is placed in the S.E. corner of the Lodge, as previously he was placed in the N.E. Note that S. is the left or heart side of the Lodge, so that once again the appeal is to his heart or spiritual intuition, rather than to his head and reason. (As before, the Tracing Board of the Degree should be exposed on the floor and the Candidate's feet angulated to its S. E. corner).
Immense progress is signified by the change from the N.E. to the S. E. In the language of the Bible and the Mysteries the North is associated with mental darkness, the south with illumination. In many places no one ever sits in the North of the Lodge, save the Candidate after his initiation. Being placed in the S.E., the sun at the center of the Candidate's personal system is deemed now to have risen above his mental horizon; in the words of Scripture lie has been given "a south land", his captivity has been turned as ''the rivers in the South". In some Masonic districts "I will meet you in the South" is a happy greeting implying "I will meet you in the place of genial light and refreshment".
The Candidate is now charged so to conduct his future life as not only to prevent his newly won illumination from evaporating, but to tend to enlarge it. He is urged to persist in practizing all that was enjoined upon him in the former Degree, but also now to devote himself to the study and practice of `such of the liberal arts and sciences as are within the compass of his attainment". The classical arts and sciences, seven in number, were called "liberal", because their exercise keeps the body fit and supple, whilst it has a liberating effect upon the mind, disentagling it from material and sensuous interests, and rendering it flexible and free for functioning on abstract levels. A sound mind in a sound body was and still is ever desirable for the Candidate for perfection as ensuring for him that perfect harmony of all the parts of his sevenfold nature to which the seven arts and sciences applied. Masonic "harmony" has no relation to song-singing. It means the harmonisation of the too often discordant elements of one's being. Its old name was Eirene, Iris, the Rainbow; the "bow set in the cloud" of man's earthly organism. Look at a natural rainbow; it is not a confused jumble of color, but an ordered series of seven hues, each issuing out of the former, the heat rays culminating in light rays. So in ourselves; the white light of the divine principle has been "set in the cloud" of our material bodies but remains obscured until our "fervency and zeal" makes it possible for its rays to shine out from us in order and harmony, as our "coat of many colors."
It is not essential, though by no means inadvisable, for us of today to pursue the arts and sciences of the ancients, for times have altered and have forced upon us intellectual and social conditions which provide other means of reaching the same result. None the less it remains true that a corresponding discipline of some kind must still be practiced to purify body and mind and make them efficient receptacles of light. Any form of mental exercise that promotes abstract thought and intellectual flexibility and power is therefore useful; equally so is any exercise at controlling thought and banishing it at will; for the mind grows as much by passivity and recollectedness as it does by energising actively. The active acquisition of knowledge by reading and working upon abstract problems needs balancing by reflection, meditation, and the prayer of recollection and quietude. Paradoxical as it may sound, moments of profoundest mental passivity are found by those experienced in these things to be moments of intensest illumination. The unruffled "still waters" of the contemplative mind involve the highest mode of mental activity, for then those waters serve as an unrefracting mirror to the Light from above, and sun and mirror become as one light. Summa scienta nihil scire; supreme knowledge comes when we still and empty the mind and are content to know nothing.
It may be urged that multitudes of highly
intellectual people exist today whose minds work habitually upon
abstract levels and in pursuit of non-material truth, yet who
never become Initiates in the Masonic or religious sense. True,
and their labors will eventually prove of the highest benefit
to them, for they are unconsciously building new faculty for themselves
and so advancing their evolutionary progress. But the answer is,
what are their dedications? One only finds what one seeks. There
are ignorant seekers of truth as well as enlightened ones. The
Masonic truthseeker has the advantage of knowing in advance what
he is looking for and, according to the energy of his quest, so
he will find. The other type is but casually and benightedly exploring
for anything that may turn up, and, should he make a discovery,
he is not equipped for interpreting its value!
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