The Masonic Lobby provides access to each of the palatial departments and is refurbished to display a single exhibit from each section; sign, symbol, ornament, construction, poetics, play, order, craft and practice. These form the tiny peepholes into each section. Together this provides a comprehensive insight into the intentions of the initiator, Richard Niessen. Its palatial floor plan did not emerge by change, but instead connects the departments and places together into an initiation ritual. Step by step you acquire the knowledge, skills and wisdom that the profession of typographic masonry entails.
Yet of course, initiation will not obliviate all ambiguity. Any chance you read the citation from ‘Rosarium Philosophorum,’ a 16th century alchemical treatise, at the entrance? “Wheresoever we have spoken plainly, there we have spoken nothing, but where we have used riddles and figures, there we have hidden the truth.” This saying coincides remarkably well with the intentions of the founder of this building. Therefore it is best to remember that clarity may hinder in recognising underlying meaning; let alone understanding it.
