The rituals of Craft Freemasonry involve a symbolic journey over three symbolic days; in other words, a pilgrimage, a quest. The work for the initiate is his own quest, one revealed as the search for the Lost Word. It is not fully resolved until the 3rd Degree is completed in the Royal Arch.
    The peak moment of this mysterious journey comes in the Third Degree with the Charge. I would like now to take a closer look at it and try to seek its meaning. What vision is seeking expression in the words?
    We can divide this charge into 3 sections:
    The first speaks of the “mysterious veil which the eye of reason cannot penetrate”; it expresses the relative darkness within which our lives are conducted, a relative darkness which cannot be relieved by means of our use of reason. Something more is needed.
    Now most masons uttering this are not aware that it is a thoroughly revolutionary statement; one which grows out of an argument at least 2500 years old.
    Let me explain. Our philosophical heritage has a strong link with ancient Greece. The earliest philosophers, the so-called Pre-Socratics such as Parmenides, Empedocles and Pythagoras, were all healers, doctors, shamans as well as philosophers. They experienced Divinity.
    They had, as both scholarship and archaeology has proved, very close links with the teachings of ancient Egypt. Early Greek tombs have revealed thin gold plates bearing ascension texts from the Egyptian ‘Book of the Dead’. This is a modern title. To the ancients it was “The Book of coming forth by day” – or, of coming forth into the Light. We can see the connection.
    Plato, however, sliced off the experiential side and developed what we now call philosophy, that is, a search for the heart of reality based upon argument, intellectual display. Great as he was, in this he did us all something of a disservice. He began the process of cutting philosophy off from its mystical roots.
    Plato’s student, Aristotle, completed the emasculation: he had no room for anything beyond that which could be apprehended by means of human reason. Reason, in his opinion, was the only way to truth. It was not until some 800 years later that a Platonist, Plotinus, again brought philosophy back to its mystical roots. And his younger contemporary, Iamblichus, reintroduced both ritual and elements from the Egyptian temples. This approach is now called Neo-Platonism but this word is a modern nonsense. For these two philosophers simply returned philosophy to its experiential pre-Socratic origins.
    Reason is all very well, it is certainly rather useful and it underpins our scientific and technological culture; also, via Descartes and Kant especially, our philosophy. But it deals only with the phenomenal world and our reality is much greater than that. Reason alone cannot comprehend the irrational, the metaphysical, the spiritual. Reason alone cannot penetrate that mysterious veil which shields all of us from ‘the prospect’ that is the vista – “of futurity”, meaning eternity.
    It cannot do so - and here is the point - unless assisted. Assisted by what? By that “Light which is from above”. By the influx of true knowledge that is experienced as a blinding Divine Light. This is pure mysticism. This is the Sun rising in the middle of the night.
    The second section of the charge insists, in no uncertain manner, the importance of ‘knowledge of yourself’. This echoes the preoccupation of the ancient Mysteries: above the door of the entrance to the Greek Eleusinian Mysteries was carved, “Man, Know Thyself”.
    What does this mean? It means not just to know your own likes and dislikes, it means much more than this. It means to know, that is, to experience, what the true self is. Here we are again moving beyond the external world in search of something much deeper, much more profound. It is asking, who are you truly? Why are you here? What is required of you? These implicit questions are then immediately answered in the third section of the Charge.
    The third begins, “Be careful to perform your allotted task while it is yet day”. And how can we be sure to do this task correctly? By listening to the ‘Voice of Nature’. It is asking that we act in harmony with ourselves and our world. To do so we need to seek those still moments when the ‘Voice of Nature’ is not drowned out by the rough and tumble of modern life. We need to seek these moments out, put time aside for them, and to trust them. The intense darkened moments during which this Charge is given in the Third Degree allows the opportunity for such moments. When this Charge is delivered, take it slowly, allow time for these spaces to communicate to the candidate.
    We see, expressed concisely and dramatically, in this Charge, important instructions for building our lives in accordance with our destiny.
    And what is our destiny? As the charge states, using the most ancient symbolism, it is to “lift our eyes to that bright Morning Star, whose rising brings peace and salvation…” This serves to both humble us and inspire us. For there is none too great or too powerful to whom this is not directly addressed.
    The Morning Star - it could be Sirius of the ancient Egyptians or Venus of the ancient Babylonians - is not to be taken literally, although it is a beautiful and refreshing symbol, a symbol of a new light following the darkness.
    This morning star arises within; it is the first vision of the Light from above. The New Testament (II Peter 19) advises,
    “…take heed…until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts.”
    And the experience of this Light brings peace, and brings salvation. By knowing this Light - whenever in life it may come - you have passed through the veil which has previously shielded eternity from your grasp. You have reached the end of your journey; you have discovered the “vital and immortal principle” within. You have discovered the word which was lost. This, in truth, is our destiny.
    It is this secret, open to all but recognised by few, which lies at the heart of Freemasonry. A secret that needs to be experienced, not simply recited. It is this that is the prime concern of the charge to the newly obligated Master Mason. And may it ever remain thus.