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What Really Is "Light"?
Freemasonry is advancement towards the Light, on all the lines of progress, moral, intellectual and spiritual… Albert Pike1
We hear and see a term in almost every degree and ritual that very few really know what it is all about or have a good definition of. And that term is Light. We use this word a lot in phrases like “brought to light”, but do we use it correctly? What is Light? We can easily understand that light is the opposite of darkness. Light is our basis for time, but on a symbolic or Masonic side, what is it? We have lights in our lodges and in our Scottish Rite rituals. There are lights around the altar, we track the rising and setting of the sun in the lodge with the officers and their duties, we see the sun on staffs, light can be seen all around us. The blazing star on the lodge floor and the lesser Tetractys are connected to this when made of the “divine sparks”. We detect it in the word enlightenment. One of first questions put to a candidate is what do you desire?
Masonic writers have a lot to say on this subject:
To me, it is much more than vibrations coming off the back of our eyes and is not just what allows us to see – light is how we think of Deity. It maybe a primitive way of expressing all that is good. Early man feared and could not do much in darkness. When the day came, life was anew and things could be accomplished.Light is a symbol of knowledge. George Oliver2
“a extremely complex symbol; it represents knowledge, understanding, enlightenment, intuition, awareness of divinity… strength and power that comes from spiritual awareness and development…” Jim Tesner3
…the ancients compared Deity to that source of light from which light flows… Light is an effect or manifestation. [God = Light] Albert Pike4
The lights alluded to in the work of Masonry are intellectual, moral and spiritual. The oldest worship known to the world is that which has come down to us from our Aryan ancestors in the quaint hymns of the Rig Veda, and they were composed in worship of Indra or the Light. Rollin Blackmer5
Light was the object and its attainment the end of all the ancient mysteries… Freemasons, too, travel in search of light, which can be found only in the east, from whence it springs… the light of Masonry is pure, as emanating form the source of all purity and perfection… Albert Mackey6
Light is an important word in the Masonic system. It conveys a far more recondite meaning than it is believed to process by the generality of readers. It does not simply mean, as might be supposed, truth or wisdom, but it contains within itself a far more abstruse allusion to the very essence of Speculative Masonry, and embraces within its capacious signification all the other symbols of the order.
The connection of material light with this emblematic and mental illumination, was prominently exhibited in all the ancient systems of religion and esoteric mysteries…In fact, in all the ancient systems, this reverence for light, as an emblematic representation of the Eternal principle of Good, is predominate.Albert Mackey7
…to the ancients, it was an out flowing from the Deity. To us, as to them, it is the apt symbol of truth and knowledge… thousands of years ago, men worshipped the Sun…Long before the Chaldean shepherds watched it on their plains, it came up regularly, as it does now, in the morning, like a god, and sank again, like a king retiring, in the west, to return again in due time in the same array of majesty. Albert Pike8
In a larger concept it is hard to understand, but we can grasp what it does and smaller aspects of it. A good example is how light goes through a prism, but divides and shows up as a spectrum of colors and wave lengths when it comes out. As a painter, I know that it is from primary colors we get all the rest we see around us, so is it with the primary themes that come through the prism. We mix these to achieve all we see around us.Light lets us see and understand what is around us. It makes the world less scary and this was probably true for the ancient people whose world went dark when the sun set. This maybe where we get the connotations of light as good, darkness as negative and all that follows that in religion’s dogma. We do need to be reminded when speaking on this subject that though the average man has always sought light symbolism in the daytime, the night sky also gives us a softer and dimmer look into light. It maybe fainter, but the contrast is just as great for us to notice.
Light is a pretty abstract idea. No one can over emphasize enough that light is a very, very old term that started with the first man. Darkness was scary, cold, long; when the morning came and light was upon the land around him, he was safe, warm and happy. We see the first worship being of the sun that gave this light and the Creator who made the sun. Today, we only keep the term light, but consider this basic term as the ultimate in advancement, personal enlightenment and the goal we strive for. When we can better understand all that is wrapped up in the term, we can glimpse the Creator better. And hopefully improve ourselves along the way.
Fraternally, Mike Moore
Senior Deacon
1. Arturo de Hoyos, Scottish Rite Ritual, Monitor and Guide, Supreme Council, 33 Degree, Washington, D.C. 2008, page 27.
2. George Oliver, A Dictionary of Symbolical Masonry, (back section of A Dictionary of Freemasonry by Robert Macoy) Gramercy Books, New York, 1989, page 572.
3. Jim Tesner, Further Light…, Masonic Service Association, Silver Spring, Maryland, 2008, page 8.
4. Albert Pike, Book of Words, Scottish Rite Research Society, Washington, D.C., 1999, page 81.
5. Rollin Blackmer, The Lodge and the Craft, Masonic Publishing and Supply Company, Richmond, Virginia, 1976, pages 89- 90.
6. Albert Mackey, Lexicon of Freemasonry, Barnes and Noble Publishing, New York, no date, page 273.
7. Albert Mackey, An Encyclopedia of Freemasonry, volume one, The Masonic History Company, Chicago, 1921, pages 446-7.
8. Albert Pike, Morals and Dogma, Supreme Council, Washington, D.C. 1960, pages 76-7.
9. Picture from The Book of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, C. T. McClenachan, 1868.
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