of Masonry, has been omitted since the meeting of Grand Lecturers at Baltimore, in 1842.
A Lodge has three symbolic lights; one of these is in the East, one in the West, and one in the South. There is no light in the north, because King Solomon's Temple, of which every Lodge is a representation, was placed so far north of the ecliptic, that the sun and moon, at their meridian height, could dart no rays into the northern part thereof. The north we therefore masonically call a place of darkness.
The three lights, like the three principal officers and the three principal supports, refer undoubtedly to the three stations of the sun—its rising in the east, its meridian in the south, and its setting in the west—and thus the symbolism of the Lodge, as typical of the world, continues to be preserved.
The use of lights in all religious ceremonies is an ancient custom. There was a seven-branched candlestick in the tabernacle, and in the Temple "were the golden candlesticks, five on the right and and five on the left." They were always typical of moral, spiritual, or intellectual light.
