Esoteric traditions do not speak in abstract terms but they do speak in layers. To Freemasons, the rough ashlar symbolizes man; to alchemists, gold represents spiritual perfection; to Pythagoreans, harmony carries deeper meaning where sinking would be detuning. Plato, influenced by Pythagorean thought, wrote of Atlantis in a tradition where the initiated and uninitiated could interpret the same words very differently.