I pop in here from time to time and read a bit of the goings on within the craft. I would have to chime in here, at the end of things, and offer a bit more to what I think it is that Joshua is seeking. He, like many other newcomers and aspirants to the workings of fraternal ritual settings, desires to “know the truth”, and has viewed the Masonic system of learning as a “hidden truth” that one must uncover. With many modes of recognition, a tyled lodge, obligations to remain private or “secret” about the goings on within the lodge and the operations of the ritual, a person on the outside and in the intellectual “dark” is easily lured to the fanciful trappings of all things mysterious and what levels of power one may possess if they discover that which others can not. Albert Mackey once spoke about the paramount duties of the Worshipful Master being that of instructing and making officers well versed in the Qabbalah. With not too much peeling away of the ritualistic layers of allegorical significance, one may find that from the Entered Apprencice degree on through to the Select Master (cryptic rite) is representative of various perspectives of the Qabbalistic Tree of Life, and was deliberately set up to be so. Therefore, if Joshua has an inkling to discover the “secrets” of Masonry, He may be well met to discover more about Qabbalah and subsequently himself in the process. This is the foundational process by which Masonry opens the aspirant to the development of the self to that of the best man he can be. Cheers.
