What is the Chamber of Reflection?

The Chamber of Reflection is a small, somber room adjoining a lodge, used in the French and Scottish Rites to enclose a candidate for private meditation immediately prior to initiation 1. Furnished with gloomy emblems and dark surroundings, it is designed to foster deep reflection upon the candidate's impending undertaking 1.

Solitary darkness serves as a traditional symbol of death and contemplation, intended to ensure a candidate reflects thoroughly before committing to the step he is about to take 1. Similar preparation closets or "chapels" hung with black and furnished with a light and emblems of mortality appear in continental European Masonic architecture 1, though the Chamber of Reflection itself belongs to the French and Scottish Rites rather than the standard Craft practices of the English and American traditions 1.