First, it's an altar, not an alter. Just a little nit picking.
The lost word is allegory. What we lost was not a word, and what we are searching for as Masons is not a word. What was lost was lost long before the building of The Temple. Even what is "found" in the York and Scottish Rite degrees is further allegory (evidenced by the fact that the words recovered are different from each other.)
I'm going to "copy and paste" an article I wrote a couple of years ago for the Grand Lodge newspaper:
Oftentimes, I’ll hear (or read) the assertion that a Mason’s masonic journey is not complete until he takes the Holy Royal Arch degree, and therein finds “the lost word.” After all, ever since we became Master Masons, we have been told that we are traveling in search of “that which was lost.” We are told that this word is what was lost, and that once we recover it, our masonic journey is complete. After all, are we not then eligible to receive a Master’s Wages? Surely, that means we have mastered Masonry!
I’m certain that you’ve all heard the statement that Freemasonry is “a peculiar system of morality, veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols.” Yet, often, we see Masons seemingly forgetting that our lessons are allegory. They treat the symbol as being what is important, rather than what is symbolized.
Allegory is a story that is told to teach a concealed lesson. In other words, the real meaning is not in the story that is being told, but is beneath the surface, requiring some thought to understand. The story of our masonic quest is just such an allegory. If you think about it, there are contradictions in the basic story that should alert you that something else is going on. I have to be very careful here to not talk about things that should not be revealed outside of a tyled lodge, so I’ll have to use references that allude to things we should all know about the ritual. So, consider the idea that something is always revealed in the presence of three people. One of those people is suddenly no longer with us, resulting in that something being lost, despite the fact that the other two people, who clearly knew the same thing, are still around.
This clearly makes little sense. In fact, in some European systems, the word is not “lost,” but was substituted for out of fear that the true word had become compromised. So, we must consider that the entire story is allegory, a metaphor for something that actually was lost, and for which a true Freemason should be spending his life trying to recover. What is it that the allegory is really trying to tell us?
As a Mason moves into the “high degrees” in quest of completing the story, he finds among the additional moral lessons a revealing of “the lost word.” In the Royal Arch of the York Rite, a word is revealed that is said to be the goal of the Masonic quest. However, this word, like the original story of the loss, is allegorical; symbolic of something concealed. It really is just another clue to that which was lost, that which we are in search of in Masonry. The search has not ended; we have merely arrived at another signpost with a sort of symbolic arrow pointing the way for our continued travels.
When I took the Scottish Rite degrees, I was confused by discovering that there was not just one word revealed to me as I went through the degrees, but several! Rather than clarifying anything for me, this left me more befuddled than I had been upon entering the Rite. I had been given “the lost word” in the 13th Degree (Royal Arch of Solomon.) Then, as I continued, I was presented with the “true word” in the 18th Degree (Knight Rose Croix.) I was immediately troubled by this, yet couldn’t seem to find a source to clarify this for me. Before I could even begin processing this, along came the 32nd Degree (Master of the Royal Secret,) in which I received the “sacred word.” Woe was me. Further complicating my situation was that I became aware that the “lost word” recovered in the York Rite was different than the one recovered in the Scottish Rite. How was I to ever complete my journey if I couldn’t understand what it was I was looking for? We were seeking a “lost word,” not “lost words.” Which of these was the treasure?
Well, brethren, I have since learned what had been alluded to on numerous prior occasions, that the masonic journey is one of discovery; of study, analysis, synthesis, and thought about what I had been given. Subsequent years of reading Masonic literature put bits and pieces of the story in place for me. Stones in my personal Masonic structure, if you will. I now understand that these “words” are just further symbols to help me understand what it is that was lost, and that we are supposed to be in search of. The York Rite word is apparently a compound word, made up of syllables from important words in several ancient faith traditions. Pike, in his revisions of the Scottish Rite degrees, took it a step further, giving several clues by separate words that are themselves clearly from three different major faith traditions.
I now understand that what we are seeking is that which was the original loss, the loss incurred in the fall from Eden. The “words” are all reminders of what we are seeking; they are not themselves the goal. They point us to what we should be trying to learn and to recover by the lessons in the degrees. When I was given these words, I had not completed the journey at all. I had just been given yet another starting point for the life-long journey toward recovering “that which was lost.”
Coming to understand this also gave me the answer to questions that I often see online about why men who are atheists cannot become Masons. It is more than the usual answer, that the obligation would not be binding on someone who doesn’t have a belief. Much more than that, the journey, the quest of Masonry is to recover something that an atheist would not believe ever existed, much less was ever lost.
I hope that, in my attempt to not talk about aspects of Masonic ritual and teachings that should not be revealed outside of a tyled lodge, I have been clear enough to reveal my thoughts to you. This is my interpretation of the lessons, allegory, and symbolism involved in our search. I’ve thought long and hard about how to write about this without offending others who might think my conclusions are full of hot air. As Illustrious Brother Albert Pike said at the beginning of Morals and Dogma, “Everyone is entirely free to reject and dissent from whatsoever herein may seem to him to be untrue or unsound.”