The East (o Oriente)

The builders of the cathedrals and churches systemically orientated the core of their buildings toward the East, in a way to direct them to Christ place of birth. It is also a way to orientate them towards the sun that rises in the horizon and to build a nave that follows the trajectory of the star. The Masonic Temples possess just a symbolic orientation. The East of the temple doesn' t fit always at the East. There, where the Worshipful Master (the Venerable) stand is the East. Everything is organized around this position (or direction), the noon time, the setentrion (the North) and the West. The East is reached by doing three steps to a platform where the Worshipful Master seats together with the Secretary and the Orator, aside him. Sometimes a small balustrade divides the East from the rest of the temple. In the vocabulary of the ritual, the East represents also all that sits there. When the word circulates, nobody may intervene after the East. The Worshipful Master and the Orator have the last word. In a third sense the East represents - for the Freemasons - the figurative location of the Lodge. For instance if they work in Lisbon, they will say that they will "MEET at the east of Lisbon". The sense is basically symbolical and less geographical. There is a lodge of research called ARGO that proclaim to be located "at the east of Internet". At last, the ultimate meaning of the word  means the death of a member of the Craft. It is mentioned in that case that "Brother X passed to the Eternal East", meaning that he find the lasting rest. Freemasons believe that Human Beings have a life after death and that their souls will elevate themselves to the place where the Grand Architect, or the Grand Geometer, or Iod, or God will be.