How does Freemasonry interpret the concept of the 'spiritual edifice'?

The physical lodge building serves as a symbol for the individual human personality, which constitutes the true lodge and holy ground upon which a Mason builds his spiritual life 1. Within this framework, an initiate's own body and soul form the foundation upon which he is charged to raise a superstructure, using Wisdom, Strength, and Beauty as supporting pillars 1.

Writers on Craft symbolism interpret this spiritual edifice both individually and collectively. Individually, Albert Mackey compares the spiritual temple to the philosopher's stone of the Alchemists, viewing it as the moral refinement of a man who does justly, loves mercy, and walks humbly 3. Walter Leslie Wilmshurst expands this into an esoteric doctrine, holding that the original temple of the human soul has fallen and broken into separated parts 1. In Wilmshurst's reading, each Mason who shapes his soul into a true square through work upon himself becomes a living stone built into a restored, eternal spiritual temple in the heavens 1. He interprets the traditional figures of King Solomon, Hiram King of Tyre, and Hiram Abiff as personifications of divine life-essence, durable physical form, and the active intellectual principle required to build the soul 1. Arthur Edward Waite similarly records the tradition of the soul being fashioned as a living stone into the spiritual temple, citing nineteenth-century views that envisioned raising these holy houses across the earth until a universal temple encompassed all lands 2.