Now, having visited the chilling North, experienced the golden twilight of the West and the scintillating warmth of the South, the travellers have finally (ritualistically, at least) arrived at the fourth point, the mysterious East, home of the Greater Light.

Now, despite the fact that the East is the abode of this wondrous light, the Neophytes have to wait a bit because the Symbolic Dawn, symbol of the illumination of Ra, the Egyptian Sun God, has not yet come. When a messenger is sent by the Master, each of the initiates must cross the outer portal, having overcome the fear of the Terror of the Threshold.

The Torchbearer now responds, saying that, having carried the Torch on this long (possibly the whole of twenty minutes) journey from the North to the East, he is now ready to light the sacred flame which properly resides in the Doric stand, symbolizing that the Light is ever present in the temple and the goal is to keep the Light alive in one’s heart.

Needless to say, that one can look at the whole perambulation around the Earth, which corresponds to the Temple, as a spiritual journey through the body, which even in the Gospels, equates the temple with the body. In this perambulation, the Neophyte follows the journey of the Sun, which can be compared to the Eastern doctrine (say, in Taoist Yoga) as the “circulation of the light.” In this exercise, the initiate will focus his concentration on various parts of the body, moving energy from the back of the body at the soles of the feet to the top of the head and then down the back of the body to the soles of the feet. Even a comprehensive exercise like this does not encompass fully the alchemical task of transforming the physical body through the balancing of energies in the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual aspects of human consciousness so as to await the entrance of the fully power of the Spirit, symbolized by the Great Light. Once, achieved, the goal, would be to always keep the sacred fire lit- within oneself.