Why do you open a lodge “on the centre”

Wilmshurst takes opening the lodge upon the centre to signify an internal, spiritual process of reaching the divine principle within the individual Mason 1. In his reading, the lodge is symbolic of the human organism itself, with its physical boundaries, rational understanding, and temporal consciousness forming the outer circumference 1.

At the secret core of human life exists a vital and immortal spiritual principle, corresponding to the Divine Will at the centre of the universe 1. To open the lodge upon the centre is to turn inward from the externalized material world in order to uncover this "imprisoned splendour" where truth resides in fullness 1. Reaching this inner centre requires the spiritual preparation, moral purification, and self-knowledge delineated throughout the degrees 1.