Alice in Deep

More Than Unity

A close reading of Psalm 133 in the Entered Apprentice initiation — and the self-deception that initiatory riddles are designed to expose.

The almost common, and accepted reading of Psalm 133 is that it is a psalm about unity. But clinging to that idea tends to color everything that follows in its light — and to reduce the psalm to its opening line is to fall into exactly the self-deception that initiatory riddles are designed to expose.

To read it simply as a poem about unity is not wrong. But it is incomplete. It is to stand at the threshold of a very large room and describe only the door. The psalm opens: Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. And at that threshold most readings stop — satisfied with the warmth of the image, the comfort of its obvious meaning.