03/28/2024
A new Mason is taught to regard his normal, natural personality as but a foundation-stone upon which he is recommended to erect a superstructure, perfect in all its parts and honorable to the builder. To many this instruction means nothing more than a general pious council to become merely a man of strong moral character and virtue. But the recommendation implies a very different meaning from that, as a little reflection will show. It is not a recommendation merely to improve the condition of the already existing foundation-stone (the personality), but to erect upon that foundation something which previously did not exist, something which will transcend and outrange it, although built upon it. The superstructure to be erected is the organization of an ethereal or spiritual body in which the skilled Mason can function in independence of his physical body and natural personality. The theory of Masonry presupposes that man is a fallen creature; that his natural personality is a transient and unreal expression of his true self as conceived in the Divine Mind; and that, under appropriate tuition and self-discipline, he may become rebuilt and reorganized into the original condition from which he has fallen. Building a superstructure upon one's present self involves much more than merely improving one's moral character. It is not a novice's task, although the advice to perform it is rightly given in the Apprentice-stage. It is a work of occult science, only to be undertaken by those educated and skilled in that science. It is the science to which the Christian Master referred in the words: "Which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first and counteth the cost, whether he has sufficient to finish it? Lest, after he hath laid the foundation and is not able to finish it, all that behold begin to mock, saying, This man began to build but was not able to finish!"
Accordingly the Mason desirous of building a tower or superstructure should "sit down first and count the cost" by acquiring a thorough understanding of what is involved; and before he is able even to begin the er****on of such a building, he will find a good deal of rough laborer's work has first to be done upon himself in clearing the ground for the intended structure. ~ W.L. Wilmshurst The Masonic Initiation