YOUR PREPARATION IN THE ANTE-CHAMBER OF THE LODGE Part 3: The Secret Meaning of You Being Stripped of All Money and Metallic Subtances by: Bro:. Majesty Montanez

By reflecting upon the catechism (official ritualistic test questions and answers) of  the first degree, you will eventually realize that one of the reasons why you were stripped or divested of all money and metallic substances was so that you could keep in mind the fact that the work of a Free-Mason is "Symbolic Masonry" (not literal masonry), and that this "Symbolic Masonry" that we work in as Free-Masons is a very ancient form of spirituality that's taught in the Holy Bible through the story of the building of King Solomon's Temple, which is a biblical symbol of yourself as the holy dwelling place or house of God. What this means is that the biblical story of the building of King Solomon's Temple has nothing to do with the building of a literal temple, and this is why you were taught that the Bible says that "not even the slightest sound of a hammer, a chisel or any metal tool was heard while King Solomon's Temple was being built, so that the temple was built in silence" (I Kings 6:7), which means the mental Silence of deep meditation.

In the spiritual language of Masonry, "metallic substances" means the so-called material things that are loved, valued and worshiped by materialists in the same way that they love, value and worship real metallic substances such as silver, platinum and gold. And so to be divested of all metallic substances means to give up your love and worship of, and attachment to, all material things so that you can become spiritualized and find God, which is what a Mason's quest for Light is all about. This lets you know that divesting yourself of all money and metallic substances is a thing of the heart, and that the heart is truly what the ante-chamber of the Lodge symbolizes, since the heart is the seat of love and emotional attachment. This means that part of your spiritual work as an Entered Apprentice Mason is to remove the love and worship that you have for money and material objects from your heart, which is a lesson that the Holy Bible upon the altar of the Lodge teaches us just as symbolically as Masonry does in the following story about the mythical Master, Jesus Christ:

Someone came and asked him (Jesus), "Good Master, what good things should I do so that I can have eternal life?" So he said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God. So, if you really want to become alive, obey God's commandments." And so he asked him, "Which ones?" And Jesus said, "'You should not murder', 'you should not commit adultery', 'you should not steal', 'you should not bear witness falsely', 'you should honor your father and your mother', and 'you should love your fellow human beings like you love yourself''". Then the young man said to him, "I've been following all of those things since I was a child. What do I still lack?" So Jesus answered him, "If you want to be complete, go and give away everything that you have to the poor, and you will have a treasure in Heaven; and come, follow me." But when the young man heard this saying, he walked away in sadness, because he was a rich man. Then Jesus said to his disciples, "Truly, I say to you, that it's hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And I say to you that it's easier for a rope to fit through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God."     (Matthew 19:16-24)

With this, a young Mason must remember that in the mythology of the Holy Bible, the mythical Master, Jesus, always speaks in the symbolic language of parables and metaphors to all those who have not been initiated into the secret teachings of the Ancient Mysteries.

In the first degree catechism you were also taught that "you were stripped of all metallic substances so that you couldn't bring any weapons into the Lodge", which is another symbolic statement. This particular statement of the catechism is a symbolic way of teaching you that a Mason is one who doesn't use his mind and his words as weapons to attack others in order to force them to conform to his way of thinking, since a Mason is a seeker of truth and knows that a person can only truly know something through his own mind, and not through the minds and beliefs of others. But more importantly, this lesson is meant to teach you that when a man comes into Masonry in search of spiritual enlightenment, he must come symbolically unarmed, which means that he must come with a neutral mind, meaning a balanced, meditative mind that knows that it does not yet truly know divine truth, and that it cannot therefore fight against nor defend anything that claims to be divine truth, because this would automatically block the unenlightened mind from its opportunity to eventually acquire true knowledge.

Another reason why you were stripped of all money and metallic substances was to indirectly teach you that it's the inner or spiritual worth of a person, and not the amount of money in his or her bank account or the titles and positions he or she holds in the world of material affairs, that makes a person worthy of being a Free-Mason, which means that it's spiritual wisdom and humanity, and not egoism and money-making, that Free-Masonry holds in high esteem.

(It's also very important for a Mason to know that when Masonry uses the term metallic substances in her teachings, she's giving us a hint that one of the main foundations of masonic philosophy is Hermetic Philosophy. Remember that metal is one of the main symbols of Alchemy, which is an ancient hermetic school of spirituality, and that Alchemy symbolically defines itself as being the art of transforming unprecious metals into gold.)

To be continued...