The Deeper Symbolism of Freemasonry from The Meaning of Masonry by Walter Leslie Wilmshurst.

“Hence in the E.A. degree, we ask, ‘As a Mason, whence come you?’ and the answer, coming from an apprentice (i.e., from the natural man of undeveloped knowledge) is ‘From the West,’ since he supposes that his life has originated in this world.” [via]