Why do we hide our System of Morality behind a Veil of Allegory?
The action of veiling the teachings of Freemasonry behind a veil of Allegory has various reasons. Very powerful ones.Why is morality, as described in the teachings of our Order, veiled in allegory? If we think of the great teachers that have made a difference in history, many of them expressed themselves through the effective teaching tool of allegory. One of the most efficient ways in which people can acquire knowledge is by learning new things while comparing them to already known ones.
When we learn to speak, we learn a few first words and continue increasing our vocabulary by adding more words and learning how those words relate to the ones previously learned. Similarly, when learning the science of arithmetic, we begin with basic concepts and rules, which increase in complexity, but always retain some similarities to those initial concepts we first learned. Therefore, when we think of the great lessons taught by the great teachers of history and the way in which they were able to express complex concepts by comparing and contrasting them with already familiar ones, we can observe how this technique cements new ideas permanently into our mind.This veil of allegory is not merely put into place to conceal information from others outside our Order, but more importantly to aid in the recollection of these lessons, because they are intrinsically connected to other lessons and life experiences we already posses. We all know how marvelous the human brain is in its efficiency and complexity, but very few people really know that one of the qualities which make it so efficient is its capacity to link information together. The more connections we build between the information we hold in our brain, the easier it is to access it and the more likely we are to learn new concepts.If morality is good, then why does it have to be hidden behind a Veil?
