The Paradox of Masonic East

Masonry reveres the East as the highest station in the Lodge. In the second degree, we are led into the Lodge between two brazen pillars which are symbolic of those set up at the entrance of King Solomon's Temple. However, as everyone who has studied the Temple or Moses's Tabernacle clearly knows, the East was where the entrance to the Temple was situated, and the West is where the Holy of Holies was located. As Masons, especially those Brethren who have Judeo-Christian religious affiliations, how do we reconcile or explain this apparent reversal of the Biblical order? What does it mean? What do others outside the Fraternity think of it?