Third Line Medicine

By W. Kirk MacNulty

This book analyses the symbolic structure of craft Freemasonry from the Renaissance perspective. It presents the symbols as a system which can lead the individual to a knowledge of his psychological... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140191577
• ISBN13: 9780140191578
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Penguin Group
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Way of the Craftsman

This is a book about Freemasonry. It is also about psychology in the strict meaning of the word, real knowledge of the psyche. It provides valuable information on the meaning and significance behind the rituals of Freemasonry, and will be of interest to Masons and non-Masons alike. Freemasonry, as we understand it today, dates from the English Renaissance. The scholars of that period envisioned the universe as a continuum of existence extending from its Divine source through celestial and planetary levels to the physical world at the furthest remove. We are inclined to regard this idea as a naive astronomical model, but the Renaissance texts themselves indicate that their authors were describing a 'dimension of consciousness' and that the terms 'celestial' and 'planetary' are used to describe events which we would term spiritual and psychological phenomena today. This book analyses the symbolic structure of Craft Freemasonry from the Renaissance perspective. It presents the symbols as a system which can lead the individual step by step to a knowledge of his psychological being while at the same time recognising mankind's fundamental dependence on God. Freemasonry's task of personal discovery is the labour of a lifetime. The reward is the possession of one's Self. -- from book's back cover