My Response: I'll focus strictly upon the Masonic side
and not the Freemasonic side of this question. When interpreting
Ritual Masonically, I always default to how Allegory and Symbol support
the Transformational Work that the Degrees point Brothers toward.
The first Degree Work
is Development and Cultivation of the Heart -- Bringing Order to the
Chaos of the heart is its whole purpose. This clearly is alluded to by
Holy St. John the Baptist; he was a man of great passion. Research his
life to get a feel for how this applies.
Likewise, the second Degree Work
is Development and Cultivation of the Mind (Intellect) -- Bringing
Order to the Chaos of the mind is its whole purpose. This clearly is
alluded to by Holy St. John the Evangelist; he was a man of great
intellect. Research his life to get a feel for how this applies.
Sure,
they collectively allude to 1) the Left and Right side of Masonry
(Heart and Mind), 2) the before and after (Alpha and Omega) and 3) the
Solstices (Great Illumination-most obvious versus Lesser
Illumination-less obvious), but the allusion to the Transformational
Work has ALWAYS taken priority for me -- how else can the claim that "Masonry makes good men better" be justified and supported?
If
we don't keep the Transformative Work as our focus, then it's all just
mental pleasuring. Not that this isn't fun, but nothing of any
significance occurs for any man without Work.
-- Coach John S Nagy ;-)
PS - You can find more about "The Flanked Circle" in , Building Boaz - Volume 2 pages 55 through 68. You can find it here: http://www.coach.net/BuildingBoaz.htm
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