How do Masonic rituals incorporate Kabbalistic symbolism?

Symbolic interpretations of the two temple pillars draw directly on Kabbalistic texts such as The Garden of Pomegranates and The Gates of Light, which expound upon the strength attributed to the left-hand pillar and the establishment of the right 1. In the Craft, the central motif of a lost Sacred Word and its substitution mirrors the Kabbalistic tradition regarding the lost pronunciation of the Tetragrammaton during the Greater Exile, when Adonai was substituted for the divine name 1.

In the Scottish Rite, specifically within old rituals of the Fourth Degree (Secret Master), explicit references are made to taking seventy-two divine names to the Kabbalistic Tree of the ten Sephiroth and to the "Angels' Alphabet," an arrangement of characters derived from the stars 2. Traces of these Kabbalistic and theosophic influences likewise remain preserved in the Apocalyptic Degrees of the Scottish Rite 2. Additionally, many significant ritual words utilize the Hebrew alphabet, incorporating the traditional numerical values assigned to those letters 2.

A broad array of emblems—including the double triangle, the point within a circle, the winding staircase, the two pillars, and the numbers three, five, seven, and nine—are common to both Masonic ritual and Kabbalistic symbolism 3. Authorities in the library interpret this historical overlap from opposing perspectives: Joseph Fort Newton contends that early Kabbalists borrowed Masonic building emblems to give form to their mystical theories 3, whereas Arthur Edward Waite attributes the development of the Craft's Third Degree legend and spiritualized temple symbolism to sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Christian Kabbalists 1.