“The West once had its own dō—a way of living and working that turned craft into a spiritual discipline. Before the modern age of mass production and disposable goods, there were the guilds: stonemasons, blacksmiths, shipbuilders, carpenters, and artisans whose work literally built the world we inherited. These guilds weren’t just trade schools. They were initiatory systems. They didn’t merely teach skills; they shaped souls. An apprentice entered the guild the way a novice enters a monastery—through ritual, oaths, and a willingness to be remade. There were degrees of progression: apprentice, journeyman, master. There were secret passwords and handshakes, not for vanity, but to mark belonging to a lineage—a chain of transmission that carried not only techniques, but values and cosmology.” - Damien Echols
The Guild System Apprenticeship Masters
Freemasonry