why do we walk round the room sunwise during the lodge opening

Moving around the lodge room from east to west by way of the south—following the apparent course of the sun in the Northern Hemisphere—is known as the rite of circumambulation 123. While sun worship forms no part of Masonic doctrine, the practice preserves an allusion to ancient custom where worshippers performed circuits around sacred altars or assemblies 123.

Albert Mackey explains that ancient Roman, Greek, Hindu, and Druid traditions required worshippers to turn to the right, following the sun's path from east to west via the south 3. In Roman sacrificial rites, moving clockwise was so integral to ceremonies of purification that the term for walking around an object became synonymous with lustration 3. Druidic priests likewise made three circuits from east to west around their cairns, a tradition that survived in the Scottish Isles as the Deaseal, or sunwise tour 3.

Carl Claudy observes that this movement in the lodge connects the initiate symbolically with historical traditions where early man sought to honor the Deity by imitating the natural movement of the sun, which brought light, heat, and life 2. Arthur Edward Waite notes that while early Masonic writers often explained circumambulation as representing the progress of humanity from ignorance to enlightenment, the processional movements of candidates and officers also serve practical and allegorical functions within the lodge ceremonies 1.