BG: First of all I would like to say  I have really appreciated  your work because you supply “First quality food for thoughts” not the “Truth”.

My first question regards the concept of  Freedom in Freemasonry.

In a piano sonata the musician follows stricts rules of composition, nevertheless he is free to create an original piece of music.

In freemasonry we have oaths, obligations, rules, but  it is our  peculiarity to be overall  Free Men.

Is there freedom without rules?

JR: I think there are two aspects to Freedom here – the freedom with which we come to the lodge to be initiated, and the freedom we exercise thereafter. As regards the second, freemasonry is without dogma, therefore once we have imbibed the vow, the ritual, the rules set out for our masonic conduct, we are free to interpret, to visualise and to evaluate what we are learning. Once we can hear the song, we are free to sing it, but we have first to find it, and know it to be true. That sounds a little confusing, but when the truth of something hits you, it’s like a blinding light – you simply know it to be absolutely true. Find your interpretation of the allegories and symbols, and then test it out on your fellow Freemasons.

BG: In your book you write: "In a macro sense the lodge is a model of the Universe".

Could we say that in a micro sense is it a model of a man?

JR: I would rather say that both man and the lodge are micro models of the macro universe. On the hermetic principle “As above, so below, to achieve the wonders of the One”, I am the micro equivalent of the Creative Principle – the lodge illustrates my nature by its form and function. I am indeed “enabled to unfold the beauties of true godliness” by my masonic art – it’s up to me to use that enablement.

BG: Could you describe in a few words the process of enlightenment in Freemasonry?

The light is inside us and our task is to take off the veils or is it something different?

JR: It’s something like that, although I prefer to think of it as viewing the allegories (and the words used to name them) from a different perspective, rather like turning the corner as we ascend the winding staircase. At the end of our first degree initiation, we are said to have had light restored to us, but the ceremony itself is frequently perceived as confusing, so true enlightenment may properly occur only afterwards, as we begin to journey. This was in my mind when I wrote, in particular, the first part of Making Light – that a newly-made Brother might begin to make sense out of what has happened to him, and see it as the first stage only on the journey towards light, not the arrival at enlightenment itself. It’s too long to go into in a few words here!

BG: Freemasonry is not a secret society, but a society with secrets and these secrets concern the traditional modes of recognition.

Nevertheless every Freemason knows that there is a secret he is not able to communicate.

What could you tell me about?

JR: You are quite right, and the secrets concerning modes of recognition are (pace United Grand Lodge!) no longer important – they can all be read about in books. What is supremely important is that the secret, the true secret, is individual to each one of us. To reveal it, is to dissipate its strength, its true purpose and value. Umberto Ecco said that to name something is to destroy it – to cover it in a word which does not transmit or communicate its true nature. I believe that at the end of our third degree something so momentous should have happened to us that we cannot speak of it even to a Brother Mason, and this is why we have to make do with substituted secrets, forms with which to indentify ourselves to fellow Master Masons – no more than that. The genuine secret should by now be in our hearts, our centre, that place from which we cannot err, because our heart knows it to be true.

BG: A chapter of your “The Stairway of Freemasonry” is dedicated to the pilgrimage.

Chartres labyrinth is a one-way path towards the center . You cannot err.

You write all Freemasonry is a journey, a journey without end.

Could you explain better what do you mean “without end”?

JR: On one level, if we say that if we are a micro-model of the Great Architect, then we are already perfect. We all know that examples of perfect men and women are few and far between! It is clear that, to achieve enlightenment and spiritual and moral progress, we have constantly to strive to be better human beings, morality being an absolute. This is what we mean when we say that it is the journey, not the destination, that is important. Those who have found out how to journey find it liberating and joyful, not a chore such as being obliged to go to church on a regular basis. Of course many of us go to church because we want to, and that is another pilgrimage undertaken with joy and satisfaction. So the day we stop journeying we stop fulfilling ourselves, and start neglecting our centre.

BG: Could we say that this book is in a wider sense the sequel of your successful “Making Light”?

JR: With Stairway what I wanted to do was to write something which could be used for short talks in the lodge, or to be read and contemplated on in private. In both cases, I hope that the questions will encourage Brethren to test themselves. There is a dire need for real masonic education, not just instruction in the words of the ritual, valuable though that is.

BG: How would you sum up what you are trying to do with Making Light and Stairway?

JR: When I was studying German at London University some years ago, our lecturer asked us, when writing a composition or an essay, to liberate ourselves from the dictionary, to put it away and try to do without. What I would like to see is Freemasons, having learned the words of the ritual, going away and working – I mean really working – at interpreting, freeing themselves from the words and the forms, and getting to grips with the content, the chocolates without the chocolate box, so to speak. The rewards can be astonishing!