Masonry teaches that non-Masons are living in spiritual darkness and that only the Lodge leads men into spiritual light. In the first degree, the candidate is told he "has long been in darkness, and now seeks to be brought to light" (58:29). Mackey refers to the candidate in these words: There he stands without [outside] our portals, on the threshold of his new Masonic life, in darkness, helplessness and ignorance. Having been wandering amid the errors and covered over with the pollutions of the