CHAPTER XXIII.

CEREMONIES— INITIATION-BLUE LODGE— TRANSMIGRATION-MYSTERY
LANGUAGE.
TfRE:
'REE MASONRY has stepped across the threshold of another century, I I bringing with it those sublime and beautiful Truths that have ever been the adrniration of the best men of every epoch of the world's history. Truths that were taught, practiced and thoroughly understood, long before the Vedic hymns were first chanted under the shadows of the Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountains, the home and birth-place of our great ancestors the Aryan Race. From which source it has found its way to every corner of the earth, and to-day the sun never sets upon our most Illustrious Fraternity. These great and glorious Truths which have been handed down to us were studied in the hoary ages of the past, under the dawning Light of a New Age and a New Race, by peoples whose visions were illu- minated from the dying embers of the Atlantcans and Le^niirians^ races that have passed or are passing away, but who have left behind them the very essence and aroma of their ancient knowledge and civilization. The traditions connected with those older peoples have helped us on to the Light, Knowledge and Truth now taught behind the closed doors of our Lodges, Chapters Councils and Consistories of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite.
Every intelligent Masonic student who is unprejudiced will realize the fact that Free Masonry has ramified from the Great Lodge of the Perfect Masters and Adepts of India. It has shaped the course of Empires, has controlled the destiny of all peoples upon the face of the earth, and is to-day a powerful factor used for the express purpose of helping humanity on to higher planes of intellectual development throughout the whole world, verifying the statements of our rituals in respect to its universality. Those sublime Truths and Ethics were in existence thousands of years before Egypt was populated by colonization from the " Land of the Vedas." Those colonists dominated the valley of
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the Nile by subjugating the primitive inhabitants, and decorating the banks of that mighty river Nile with most magnificent tombs, temples, splendid monuments and sculptures. Far back in the hoary ages of antiqiiity, in the dim dawn of approaching civilization, at which period fact and fiction were intimately blended to suit the capacity of the people, they strived to arouse the latent potential spiritual forces lying dormant like a precious jewel deep down iu the heart of every living human being, helping them on to a knowledge of Light and Truth.
Mau}^ of those glorious Truths are to be found to-day pictured upon nearl}^ all the tombs and temples of both India and Egypt. The}' are indelibly inscribed in hieroglyphic characters throughout the whole of the " Land of the Pharaohs,'" the land of mighty monuments and most stu- pendous specimens of cyclopean architecture. Many of these have been very difficult to understand, and for what purpose they were erected, and to-day upon their stou}' sides people look with bowed heads in awe and admiration. Their onl}' history in many instances is carved upon those ston}' sides or the interior chambers. But in those stupendous pyramids that adorn the plains of Gizeh, and the Labyrinth at the Fayum, we can only diml}' sense the intents and purposes for which they were erected, I do not dare to be more explicit regarding these most extraordinary monuments, but of one thing let me assure 3'ou, the great Pyramid was never intended for a '' corn-bin," as some authorities have asserted. Both these most extraordinary monuments have stood for ages, silent and impressive, like the couchant Sphinx whose stony lips are sealed, and we are left in doubt as to the unsolved riddle. This monolithic monster represents a King and symbolizes the union of intellect and Power.
]\Iurray informs us that " old Arab writers speak of it as a talisman to keep the sand awa}' from the cultivated ground ; and tradition at one time sa3's that it was mutilated by a fanatical sheik in the fourteenth cen- tury, and that since then the sand had made great encroachments. ' Cer- tainlj- in Abd el-Latif's time it appears not to have been disfigured as he speaks of the face as ' very beautiful,' and of the mouth as ' graceful and lovely, and as it were, smiling graciousl}-,' and adds that the red color was quite bright and fresh. B3' the Arabs of the present day it is known as Abu U-hol (the Father of Terror)."
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It still lies nearly smothered beneath the drifting sands of the desert, looking to the East, watching the glorious constellations and signs of the Zodiac come and go, and the twinkling stars, whose radiant eyes peep out of the azure vault above from before the misty veil that guards the portals of eternal day. Yet still it lies crouching there, mute, dumb, but eloquent in its silent majesty, ever watching the endless centuries roll along the stream of time. It catches the dawning light of the glorious Sun-god J?a, and reflects it back in farewell benedictions to humanity, who stand watch- ing and waiting from afar off the coming dawn of intellectual advancement, and true spiritual unfoldment, looking for the time when they will be enabled to lift their hands to its glorious light.
These stupendous tombs and temples of ancient Egypt, whose ruins are to be found throughout the length and breadth of this most wonderful valley of the river Nile, were most certainly never used for public wor- ship, nor were the masses of the people ever admitted to observe the sacred rites and ceremonies that were performed by the King, or priests, during their initiative services. All that took place within the walls of these majestic temples was most assuredly well guarded from the prying eyes of the profane. It was only upon certain occasions, such as Initia- tion into the Greater Mysteries, or on certain days, that were set apart for the honoring of the local gods of the Nome or city, that they observed these local ceremonies. At such times the King clothed in most gorgeous vestments, followed by priests and ofiicials of the temple carrying the divine images and flaunting banners, burning incense and chanting hymns, marched in a grand procession through the pillared halls and corridors. Very often they circled around the immense roof of the temple, and passed on through the sacred groves within the massive walls that inclosed them, then down to the sacred lake where certain ceremonies were performed, returning to the sanctuaries within the depths of the temple.
At such times, possibly from the distance, the populace might be enabled to catch a glimpse of the gorgeous pageantry, as the procession passed around the roof of the temple, but that was all. They never knew what took place within those walls ; to them it was all a profound mys- tery. They were most certainly never allowed to participate in any of those most mysterious rites and ceremonies, in fact none were permitted
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to enter into the ranks of the procession, and assist in those sacred rites, but those of royal birth, priest, officials, and the Initiates of the Greater Mysteries. Here in these temples, upon the banks of the river Nile, were performed those profound, sublime, and awe-inspiring cere- monies, that have been spoken of and referred to, by the most eminent men of every age of the world's history.
These ancient Egyptian temples were used for the express purpose of preparation and initiation of candidates into the sublime and profound ceremonies of the Egyptian Mysteries. They were never used, as I have stated above, for public worship ; of that we are positively certain. The interior of these most magnificent fabrics was fit bers, etc., wherein was stored the gorgeous robes, and paraphernalia used in the solemn initiatory services of those Rites for which Egypt was so noted. Some of these chambers were used for sacerdotal privacy, others for the preparation of the aspiring candidate into those most pro- found, supremely beautiful and awe-inspiring ceremonies.
There were a large number of othor rooms and chambers used for different purposes, as well as large halls for processional services, and for actual .initiation. Within these vast inclosures were sacred groves and lakes, that I have referred to above, each and every part of which were most assuredly used for some special purpose during the cere- monies of Initiation. When the Neophyte passed from the Lesser, into the Greater Mysteries, and received the Ineffable degrees, he began to realize that there was something more in it than a mere word, grip, token, and whispering meaningless phrases into a dead ear. In passing through the passages of the Pyramid we have to assume a croixching position and sioop low^ very low. Many things are learned in examining these Pyra- mids and temples, not only of the Symbolic degrees, but of the Royal Arch as well. The things that are taught in the York Rites, we shall find, have a far deeper significance than is generally understood, by even those who perform and assist in the ceremonies of these degrees.'
The true meaning of the various S3'mbols are not fully explained to the candidate, and I am sorry to say that a great deal of the work that is done by those conferring the degrees, in our Symbolic Lodges, is seldom or ever properly understood. Even the principal officers who superintend the conferring of the degrees upon the aspiring candidate do not fully
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comprehend their import for the simple reason, they do not, as I have said thoroughly understand the true meaning themselves. They have the ritualistic work all right, and parrot-like, they are enabled to roll it off in eloquent phraseology, bitf Rittialism is 7iot Masonry.
The deeper meaning, and profound knowledge that is contained in our most sublime, and glorious symbols, they do not, nor cannot under- stand, until, by deep earnest stud}', and profound meditation, they are enabled to comprehend them. They will most assuredly learn that the key note to the esoteric meaning of the Symbolic degrees is a thorough understanding of the first, or E. A.
Let me once again explain to you, my dear Brothers, that no man can ever acquire even a knowledge of mathematics without a thorough comprehension of Addition, Substraction, Multiplication, and Division, so it is with our glorious symbology of the first three degrees. Learn them, and understand them, and you will have the key that will lead you on to the discovery and solution of the most profound esoteric Truths that lie concealed in the glorious symbols of our Illustrous Fraternitj'. It will teach 3'ou the true meaning of " to travel in foreign countries and receive Master's wages," you will discover the " Lost word." It will reveal to you the true significance of the discovery of the stone that was rejected, and lost in the nibbish of the temple. It will explain to 3'ou the meaning of a square man, the temple of Solomon and the rebuilding of the temple. In fact all things will be made plain to you, and you will come to an understanding of your Higher Self, which knowledge will bring you in closer communion with your God, when you will positively understand and know that you and your Father are One.
The Secret Doctrine informs us that the King's Chamber in the Greater Pyramid, in the plains of Gizeh, was the H0I3' of Holies. " On the days of the mysteries of Initiation, the Candidate, representing the Solar God, had to descend into the Sarcophagus, and represent the ener- gizing ray, entering into the fecund womb of nature. Emerging from it on the following morning, he typified the resurrection of Life after the change called Death. In the Great Mysteries his figurative " death " lasted two days, when with the Sun he arose on the third morning, after a last night of cruel trials. While the Postulant represented the Sun — the all-vivifying orb that 'resurrects' every morning but to impart life to all —
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the Sarcophagus was symbolic of the female principle in Egypt. Its form and shape changed with every country, provided it remained a vessel, a symbolic ' nevis,' or boat-shaped vehicle, and a 'container' symbolically, of germs or the germ life. In India it is the ' Golden ' Cow through which the Candidate for Brahmanism has to pass if he desires to be a Brahman, and to become Dvi-ja born a second time."
It is positively asserted by certain writers that the various temples throughout the valley of the Nile were used for the express purpose of Initiation into the Ancient Egyptian IMysteries, and every thoughtful student will recognize this fact, if he will carefully examine them, as I have done.
Baedeker in his Upper Egypt, beginning at page 59, gives a very careful description of the temple of Seti I [T/ic Memnoiiiuiii of Abydos)^ which will be of Sfreat interest to the Masonic Student. He ooes into details in reference to the Rites and Ceremonies that w^ere performed therein, as well as in honor of the Divine Deceased (Osiris), whose name even the Great Herodotus shrank from breathing. The ancient Indian Mysteries, from which source all the others originated, were originally conferred upon the initiates in those cave temples for which that country is so celebrated, such as Elephanta, Ellora, Karli and man}- others which have been cut out of verj- hard porphyry rock, so far as the first three are concerned.
Let me quote 3'ou from "Morals and Dogmas," page 361: "The Indian Mysteries were celebrated in subterranean caverns and grottos hewn in the solid rock ; and the Initiates adored the Deity, symbolized by the Solar Fire. The candidate, long wandering in darkness, truh^ wanted Light, and the worship taught him was the worship of God, the Source of Light. The vast Temple of Elephanta, perhaps the oldest in the world, hewn out of the solid rock, whose very large halls were used for Initiations ; as were the still vaster caverns of Salsette with their three hundred apartments.
" The periods of initiation were regulated by the increase and decrease of the moon. The mysteries were divided into four steps or degrees. The Candidate might receive the first at eight years of age, when he was invested with the zennar (cable tow-). Each degree dispensed something of perfection, 'Let the wretched man,' says the Hitopadesa, 'practice
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virtue, whenever he enjoys one of the three or four religious degrees ; let him be even minded with all created things, and that disposition will be the source of virtue.'
" After various ceremonies, chiefl}' relating to the Unity, and Trinity of the Godhead, the Candidate was clothed in a linen garment without a seam, remained under the care of a Brahmin until he was twenty years of age, constantl}' studying and practicing the most rigid virtue. Then he underwent the severest probation for the second degree, in which he was sanctified by the sign of the cross, which, pointing to the four quar- ters of the compass, was honored as a striking symbol of the universe bv many nations of antiquity, and was imitated by the Indians in the shape of their temples.
" Then he was admitted to the Hoi}"- Cavern, blazing with light, where in costly robes, sat, in the East, West and South, the three chief Hierophants, representing the Indian triune Deit}-. The ceremonies there commenced with an anthem to the Great God of Nature, and then followed this apostrophe : O mighty being greater than Brahma ! we bow down before Thee as the primal Creator ! Eternal God of Gods ! The World's Mansion ! Thou art the Incorruptible Being, distinct from all things transient ! Thou art before all Gods, the x\ncient Absolute Exist- ence, and the Supreme Supporter of the Universe ! Thou art the Supreme Mansion; and by Thee, O Infinite Form the Universe was spread abroad.
" The Candidate thus taught the first great primitive truth, was called upon to make a formal declaration, that he would be tractable and obedient to his superiors ; that he would keep his bod}^ pure ; govern his tongue, and observe a passive obedience in receiving the doctrines and traditions of the Fraternity; and the firmest secrecy in maintaining invi- olable its hidden and abstruse mysteries. Then he was sprinkled with water {whence our baptism) ; certain words, now unknown were whispered in his ear ; and he was divested of his shoes and made to go three times around the cavern. Hence our three circuits ; hence we were neither barefoot nor shod : and the words were the Passwords of that Indian degree."
In these Ancient Mysteries of India the principal officers represented the Tri-miirti — Brahma, Vishnu and Siva — the Hindu Trinity which furnished the Hebrew Triad of Sephira, Chockma and Binah. Brahma
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in the Indian mysteries represents the rising sun, the Creator and Con- tainer of the other two, rising into life and definition ; Vishnu the Pre- server and Conserver of all ; and Siva the Destroyer and Transformer, thus forming a triangle of Creation, Preservation and Transformation. Brahma the Master, rising into Life, represents the Sun in the east; Vishnu in the south, the Junior Warden, the Preserver and Giver ; Siva the Senior Warden, the Destroyer and Transformer; who transforms Light into Darkness, or day into night. During the ceremonies the candidate was baptized, and allegorically reborn, when he was taught to lead a true and purer life not only in thought, but in act.
The ceremonies of initiation were generally performed at midnight, in immense caverns amid darkness and gloom. Manj' of them were awful and appalling, for the candidate, in his journey through those terrible subterranean vaults and passages, was compelled to battle for his verj' life against the powers of Darkness, from which, if he succeeded, he came forth into Light, Life and Joy, when he was exalted and glorified. The Persians, like the Druids, built no temples, but worshipped in large circular enclosures the Sun God ]\Iithras. The places wherein they adored the -Sun were formed of immense blocks of unhewn stone, very much like those Druidical remains at Stonehenge, of Salisbury plains, England.
The Persians abominated images of any kind, and they considered that Fire was the only fit emblem of the Deity. From these people the Hebrews borrowed the idea and represented God as a flame of fire, which appeared to both Abraham and Moses, at Horeb and Mount Sinai. Both the Persian and Hebrew Lawgivers claim to have conversed with God, maintaining that the Deity instructed them in a system of pure worship, which was to be promulgated and taught to all those who were worthy to receive such exalted Truths, and who would devote themselves to the stud};- of this higher and purer Philosophy. Zoroaster, or Zarathustra, soon became famous and his philosophical teachings brought to him, from all parts of the civilized world, the most eminent men who lived in that age, men who were anxious to improve themselves, by studj'ing under a man whose name and fame had spread among the learned men throughout the four corners of the earth. I am referring to the ancient Persians, and to the time when first Zarathustra Spitama came forward as
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a reformer and leader of his people, long before the flight of the Israelites out of the " Land of Egypt." It is very difficult to find the exact date of his birth, or when he lived, but according to the best modern authorities we might place it anywhere between 2000 to 1000 b. c.
According to the most ancient Gat has (Psalms) Zarathustra pro- claimed himself " the reciter of the hymns, the messenger of Ahura- Mazda, the listener to the sacred words revealed by God." The name Zarathustra is a rather peculiar one, and in the language of those ancient people, it refers to some peculiar kind of a " camel," but of what species we are unable to determine. The Greeks transformed it into Zoroaster. William Jackson, Professor of Indo-Iranian Languages, Columbia Uni- versity, places the date of his birth in the seventh centur}^ b. c, while Pro- fessor James T. Bixby, Ph. D., states that " the best modern authorities say from 2000 to 1200 B. c." But leaving the date of his birth out of the question, we know that he clothed himself in white priestly vestments, and assembled the people around the sacred Fire, and delivered an inaug- ural address, calling upon them to listen to the Words of Ahnra Mazda, the ever living God, who speaks to them through him, by and with the holy flame of the sacred fire. In the early days of their history they worshipped and performed their initiatory ceremonies, into the Mazdean Mysteries, in immense caves fitted up expressly for that purpose. The grand final to these Mysteries was the triumph of Ormuzd, the Sun God, over the powers of Darkness.
I shall quote freely from our revered Brother Albert Pike throughout this chapter, because his ideas and mine are identical, in relation to the Ancient Mysteries. '' Everywhere in the old Mysteries, and in all the symbolisms and ceremonial of the Hierophant was found the same mythical personages, who like Hermes, or Zoroaster, unites Human Attri- butes with divine, and is himself the God whose worship Tie introduced, teaching rude men the commencement of civilization, through the influ- ence of song, and connecting with the symbol of his death emblematic of that Nature, the most essential consolation of religion.
" The Mysteries embraced the three great doctrines of Ancient T/ieosophy. They treated of God, Man and Nature. Dionusos, whose Mysteries Orpheus is said to have founded, was the God of Nature, or of the moisture which is the life of Nature, who prepares in darkness the
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return of life and vegetation, or who is himself the Light and Change evolving their varieties. He was Theologically one with Hermes, Pro- metheus and Poseidon.
" In the ^gean Islands he is Butes, Dardanus, Himeros, or Imbros. In Crete he appears as lesius or Zeus, whose worship remaining unveiled by the usual forms of myster}^, betrayed to profane curiosity the symbols which, if irreverently contemplated, were sure to be misunderstood. In Asia he is the long-stoled Bassareus coalescing with the Sabazius of the Phrygian Corybantes: the same with the mystic lacchus, nursling or son of Ceres, and with the dismembered Zagreus, son of Persephone. In symbolical forms the m3'steries exhibited the THE ONB, of which the Manifold is an infinite illustration, containing a moral lesson calculated to guide the soul through life, and to cheer it in death.
" The story of Dionusos was profoundly significant. He was not only creator of the world, but guardian, liberator, and Saviour of the soul. God of the many-colored mantle, he was the resulting manifesta- tion personified, the all in the many, the varied year life passing into innumerable forms.
'■ The- spiritual regeneration of Man was typified in the Mysteries by the second birth of Dionusos as offspring of the highest ; and the agents and s}'mbols of that regeneration were the elements that effected Nature's periodical purification — the air, indicated by the mystic fan or winnow ; the fire, signified by the torch ; and the baptismal water, for water is not only cleanser of all things, but the genesis or source of all.
" Socrates says in the Phsedo : ' It well appears that those who established the mj'steries, or secret assemblies of the Initiated, were no contemptible personages, but men of great genius, who in the early ages strove to teach us, under enigmas, that he who shall go into the invisible regions without being purified, will be precipitated into the abj^ss ; while he who arrives there, purged of the stains of this world, and accomplished in virtue, will be admitted to the dwelling place of the Deity.' ' Initiation was a school in which were taught the truths of primitive revelation, the existence and attributes of One God, the Immortality of the Soul, rewards and punishments not onl}' in this but in a future life, the phenomena of Nature, the Arts, the Sciences, Morality, Legislature, Philosophy, Philanthropy, Ps3^chology, Metaphysics, Animal Magnetism,
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Telepathy and all Occult Sciences. Public odium was cast on those who were refused Initiation, and they were considered unworthy of public employment or private confidence, and were known as the profane, and were held in abhorrence and believed to be doomed to everlasting punish- ment. Bastards and slaves were excluded from initiation ; and so were the Materialists or Epicurians, who denied the existence of the Supreme Architect of the Universe, and consequenth^ the utility of Initiation.
" Eventually it came to be considered that the gates of Elysium would open onl}^ for the Initiates whose souls had been purified and regenerated in the sanctuaries or Holy of Holies. It was thoroughly understood that salvation or redemption was not to be obtained through Initiation alone, for Plato informs us that 'it was also necessar)'' for the Soul to be purified from every sin ; and the purification necessary was such as gave virtue, truth, wisdom, strength, justice and temperance.'
" The object of the ancient initiations being to ameliorate mankind and to perfect the intellectual part of man, the nature of the human soul, its origin, its destination, its relations to the body and to universal nature, all formed part of the mystic science ; and to them in part the lessons given to the initiate were directed. For it was believed that initiation tended to his perfection, and to preventing the divine part within him, overloaded with matter gross and earthy, from being plunged into gloom, and impeded in its return to the Deity.
" The Soul with them was not a mere conception or abstraction ; but a reality including in itself life and thought ; or, rather, of whose essence it was to live and think. It was material ; but not brute, inert, inactive, lifeless, motionless, formless, lightless matter. It was held to be active, reasoning, thinking, its natural home in the highest regions of the universe, whence it descended to illuminate, give form and movement to vivify, animate, and carry with itself the baser matter; and whither it unceasingly tends to reascend, when, and as soon as it can free itself from its connection with the matter. From that substance, divine, infinitely delicate and active, essentially luminous, the Souls of men were formed, and by it alone, uniting with and organizing their bodies, men lived.''''
This was the doctrine of Pythagoras, who learned it when he received the Egyptian Mysteries, and was the doctrine of all who by 35
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means of the ceremonial of Initiation, thought to purify the soul. Virgil makes the spirit of Anchises teach it to ^neas : and all the expiations and lustrations used in the mysteries were but symbols of those intel- lectual ones by which the soul was to be purged of its vice-spots and stains, and freed of the incumbrance of its earthly prison, so that it might rise unimpeded to the source from whence it came. Hence sprang the doctrine of transmigration of souls ; which Pythagoras taught as an allegory, and those who came after him received literally.
Plato, like him, drew his doctrines from the East and the mysteries, and undertook to translate the language of the symbols used there, into Philosophy ; and to prove by argument and philosophical deduction what felt by the consciousness, the mysteries taught by symbols, as an indisputable fact— the Immortality of the Soul. Cicero did the same, and followed the mysteries in teaching that the Gods were but mortal men, who for their great virtues and signal services had deserved that their souls should, after death, be raised to that lofty rank. It being taught in the mysteries, by way of allegory, the meaning of which was not made known except to a select few, or, perhaps only at a later day, as an actual reality, that .the souls of the vicious dead passed into the bodies of those animals to whose nature their vices had most affinity. It was also taught that the Soul could avoid these transmigrations, often successive and numerous, by the practice of virtue, which would acquit it of them, free it from the circle of successive generations and restore it at once to its source. Hence, nothing was so ardently prayed for by the initiator, says Proclus, as this happy fortune, which delivering them from the empire of evil, would restore them to their true life, and conduct them to the place of final rest.
This doctrine probably referred to those figures of animals and monsters which were exhibited to the Initiate, before allowing him to see the sacred light for which he sighed. I have already spoken upon this subject of Transmigration in the XIII Chapter of this work, dnd will only say — that once man has received the Divine light of Reason he could never retrograde, or go back into the lower animal kingdom. The Initiates into the Greater Mysteries were never taught any such idea ; but they may have been told that if a man did not live a pure life on this earth, but pandered to his animal, passional nature, he would be reborn.
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with the attributes of the lower animals, such as the cunning of the fox, or the ferocity of the tiger, and this assertion is borne out by many of the Initiates themselves, for instance :
Hierocles, one of the most enthusiastic and celebrated followers of Pythagoras, emphatically asserts that " he who believes that the soul of man, after his death, will enter the body of a beast for his vices, or become a plant for his stupidity, is deceived ; and is absolutely ignorant of the eternal form of the soul, which can never change ; for, always remaining man, it is said to become God or beast, through virtue or vice ; though it can become neither one nor the other by nature, but solely by resemblance of its inclinations to theirs."
Again Timoeus of Locria, another of the Pythagorean school of Philosoph}^ and an Initiate, tells us that " in order to alarm men, and prevent them from committing crimes, they menaced them with strong humiliations and punishments ; even declaring that their souls would pass into new bodies — that of a coward into the body of a deer ; that of a ravisher into the body of a wolf; that of a murderer into the bodj' of some still more ferocious animal : and that of an impure sensualist into the body of a hog."
The more we force our investigations into the older forms of prehis^ toric civilizations, and the religions and philosophies that pertained to them, the more beautiful, grand and sublime will those teachings that permeated them appear to us. We shall eventually discover that the great majority of those ancient peoples worshipped the ever living God under the symbol of the Sun, recognizing the fact, that thej' possessed a wonderful knowledge of Astronomy. The Arts and Sciences were thor- oughly comprehended by them, and that there was a wonderful resem- blance between the doctrines and worship of these ancient peoples. We are positively certain that the Mysteries of India, Chaldea, Assyria, Phoenicia and other countries were thoroughly known and comprehended by the Hierophants of Ancient Egypt, who instructed their initiates in all the profound Truths that pertained to the Greater Mysteries.
Each and every one who passed into the sanctuaries of these temples for initiation, were bound by the most terrible oaths, before they were even permitted to see, or know, anything at all whatever about the ceremonies they had to pass through. After they had seen the Light,
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they were then considered to be bound by a stronger tie, and were then permitted to perform their lustrations. They were then conducted into the regular iuitiatory ceremonials, where they underwent terrible ordeals and tremendous trials, both physically and mentally, before they were instructed in the sublime and glorious Truths and Wisdom which unfolded to them the proof of the Immortality of the Soul, the Reincarna- tion of the Spirit and the Doctrine of a Future Life, as well as the true meaning of raising horizontals to perpendiculars ipon the five points of felloiuship.
There are a great many Brothers, who firmly believe that the Blue Lodge, or Symbolic degrees, contain the whole of Masonry ; but this assertion most assuredly proves that they have not delved very deep into the symbology of those first three degrees, or they would never make such an assertion. The first three rules of Arithmetic are the foundation of the science of numbers or Mathematics. But these first three rules do not demonstrate the higher branches of Mathematics, such as Proportion, Square root, Conic sections. Algebra, etc. Neither do these first three rules in themselves demonstrate the mutations and collocations that sfo to instruct us in those Higher branches of the " Exact Sciences^
The seven notes of our scale in Music contain the whole of the demonstrated harmony of the Great Masters, but not until the combina- tions and collocations have been made do they produce the thoughts of the Masters in divine Harmony. In the same way the Blue or Symbolic degrees are only the foundation upon which have been erected the Higher Degrees of the York and our own beloved Scottish Rite.
It is stated in " Morals and Dogmas," page 819, " The symbols of the wise always become the idols of the ignorant multitude. The Blue Degrees are but the outer court or portico of the Temple. Part of the symbols are displayed there to the Initiate, but he is intentionally misled by false interpretations. It is not intended that he shall understand them ; but it is intended that he shall imagine he understands them. Their true explication is reserved for the Adepts, the Princes of IMasonry. The whole body of the Royal and Sacerdotal Art was hidden so carefully, centuries since, in the High Degrees as that it is even yet impossible to solve many of the enigmas which they contain. It is well enouo-h for the mass of those called Masons to imagine that all is contained in the Blue
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Degrees ; and whoso attempts to undeceive them will labor in vain, and without any true reward violate his obligations as an Adept. Masonry is the veritable Sphinx, buried to the head in the sands heaped around it by the ages."
Our revered Brother Albert Pike has frequently written upon the first three degrees of Masonry, and his comparison of their being like the " broken columns of a roofless Druidic Temple in their rude and mutilated greatness " is perfectly correct, and every earnest student who will care- fully examine the Symbolic degrees will most assuredly recognize their mutilated condition, and he will find that there is nothing complete or perfect in them. Even that which our candidate looks forward to has been lost, and he is given a substitute until future generations shall dis- cover the lost one.
Yes, my dear Brothers, the first three degrees contain the whole of Masonry TO him v^^ho knows. How I wish that I could talk to you and explain this seeming mystery, but as it is I can only hint at these things which I would like you to thoroughly understand. I have previously asserted, and I earnestly desire that you should comprehend that Ritual- ism IS NOT Masonry, for //la/ may be changed at any time b^^ the Grand Lecturers. But Masonry with its sublime and profound philosophies that have descended to us from the Wisdom Religion, through the Ancient Mysteries, is the same to-day and forever.
Her traditions carr}^ us back to the most remote ages of antiquity, back beyond the dim dawn of prehistoric civilization, long before the hieratic inscriptions of Ancient Egypt were carved and painted within the tombs and temples throughout that wondrous Valley of the Nile. These to-day are, in many instances, undecipherable on account of the begrimed condition of the ceilings, walls, etc., and the vandal hands of the bigoted Christians, who mutilated so many of these temples, and to whom I have previously referred. Brother J. D. Buck, 32°, in "Mystic Masonry" (Introduction, VI e^ seq.) states that:
" Masonry deals largely with the Ethics and Symbolism of the Ancient Mysteries. The writer believes that through the well-timed efforts of Masons to-day, the grandest achievements in knowledge ever gained by man, which were originally concealed in the Greater Mysteries of Antiquity and in time became lost to the world, may be again recovered.
550 EGYPT, THE CRADLE OF ANCIENT MASONRY.
In the strictest sense, this knowledge has never really been lost, as there have always existed those who were possessed of the Great Secret. It was originally veiled in order to conceal it from the profane, and written in a universal language of Symbolism, that the wise among all nations and throughout all time might read it, as it were, in their own language. It was also written in parable and allegory so that the unlettered and com- mon people might not be deprived of its wise precepts, and of its force in shaping character, dissipating ignorance, and inspiring hope. This Ancient Wisdom is the. fountain from which Masonry takes its rise. The true Science of Symbolism in time became lost ; the Temples of Initia- tion fell into decay, or were destroyed by priests, and potentates, jealous of their influence. For many weary centuries men have been trying to recover the lost key, and to restore the ancient wisdom from the parables and allegories in which it had been concealed. But progress in the inverse order is not only necessarily slow and uncertain, but all such attempts have, more or less, given rise to fantastic flights of the imagina- tion, and resulted in confusion, rather than in enlightenment. The result has been to bring the whole subject under contempt, and to make the name " Mysticism " mean something vague and uncertain, if not altogether foolish to those ignorant of its true meaning."
The causes that have led up to the re-veiling of the Ancient Wisdom and Masonic Symbols have been many ; some of which I have previously mentioned, such as Christian bigotry, ignorant fanaticism, misinterpreta- tions and alterations, by those v/lio desired to change the hieroglyphical inscriptions and symbols in order to suit their own ends and further their own designs. I have spoken about the destruction of the hiero- glyphic inscriptions and sculptures in many of the temples throughout the " Land of Egypt." '
" The Secret Doctrine " informs us in the Introduction to the " New Edition," page 24, Vol. I, as follows : " However superhuman the efforts of the early Christian Fathers to obliterate the Secret Doctrine from the very memory of man, they all failed. Truth can never be killed ; hence the failure to sweep away entirely from the face of the earth every vestige of that ancient Wisdom, and to shackle and gag every witness who testified to it. Let one only think of the thousands, perhaps millions of MSS. burnt ; of rnonuments with their too indiscreet inscriptions and
EGYPT, THE CRADLE OF ANCIENT MASONRY, 551
pictorial symbols, pulverized to dust ; of the bands of early hermits, and ascetics roaming about among the ruined cities of Upper and Lower Egypt, in desert and mountain, valley and highland, seeking for and eager to destroy every obelisk and pillar, scroll or parchment they could lay their hands on, if only it bore the symbols of the Tau, or any other sign borrowed and appropriated by the new faith — and he will then see plainly how it is that so little has remained of the records of the past. Verily, the fiendish spirit of fanatacism of early mediaeval Christianity and of Islam, has loved from the first to dwell in darkness and ignorance rather than Light and TritthP
I have repeatedly asserted, in this work, that I do most sincerely and firmly believe that the esoteric teachings of our glorious Fraternity origi- nated in the " Land of the \'edas, and that every careful Masonic student will bear me out in this assertion, because they can by thorough investi- gation, trace all knowledge to this one source. I also firmly believe that the Wisdom Religion originated in the Great Lodge of Adepts and Per- fect Masters who created it, and sent it echoing down the drifting cen- turies, where at times it has during the past, and even in our present Era, been hidden, in a measure, from our view, through like causes that I have already explained above. The very essence and aroma of the ancient teachings of the Indian, Mazdean, and Egj^ptian Religions ema- nated from this great primal fount : The Ancient Wisdom Religion.
The real meaning of the great majority of our Masonic symbols, contains some of the most sublime Truths that were ever taught. To all those who were initiated and passed into the sanctuaries of the Temple these Truths will ever remain. Let me quote you once more the "Secret Doctrine" Introductory, Vol. I, page 27 : "One more import- ant point must be noticed, one that stands foremost in the series of proofs given of the existence of one primeval, universal Wisdom — at any rate for Christians, Kabalists and students. The teachings were, at least, partially known to several of the Fathers of the Church. It is maintained on purely historical grounds, that Origen, Synesius, and even Clemens Alexandrinus, had themselves been initiated into the mysteries before adding to the Neo-Platonism of the Alexandrian school, that of the Gnostics, under the Christian veil. More than this, some of the doc- trines of the sacred schools, though by no means all, were preserved in
552 EGYPT, THE CRADLE OF ANCIENT MASONRY.
the Vatican, and have since become part and parcel of the Mysteries, in the shape of disfigured additions made to the original Christian pro- gram by the Latin Church. Such is now the materialized dogma of the Immaculate Conception. This accounts for great persecutions set on foot by the Roman Catholic Church against Occultism, Masonry and heterodox Mysticism generally.
" The days of Constantine were the last turning point in history, the period of the supreme struggle, that ended in the Western world throttling the old religions in favor of the new one, built on their bodies. From thence the vista into the far distant past, beyond the Deluge and the Garden of Eden, began to be forcibly and relentlessly shut out by every fair and unfair means from the indiscreet gaze of posterity. Every issue was blocked up, every record upon which hands could be laid destroyed. Yet there remains enough, even among such mutilated records to warrant us in saying that there is in them every requisite evidence of a Parent Doctrine. Fragments have survived geological cataclysms, to tell the story ; and every survival shows evidences that the now secret Wisdom was once the fountain head, the ever-flowing perennial source, from which were fed all the streamlets — the later religions of all nations — from the first down to the last. This period, beginning with Buddha and Pythagoras at the one end and finishing with the Neo-Platonists, and Gnostics at the other, is the only focus left in History wherein converge for the last time the bright rays of light streaming from the ^ons of times gone by, unobscured by the hand of bigotry and fanatacism."
What the world has lost through the bigotry, fanatacism and intoler- ance of the early Church Fathers will never be fully realized by the present generation, but there is one very great satisfaction to all, and that is the Key to the solution has never been lost and the Light of the Ancient Wisdom will come forth once again, from the misty veil that enshrouds it, for the benefit of the human race. Masoniy, the lineal descendant of the Ancient Mysteries^ contains that Key in her Synibology, but in order that we may be thoroughly enabled to fully compi-ehend the sublimity and grandeur of these parables and allegories that are illus- trated by symbols, we must work very carefully and zealously, and be guided by rules of analogy and correspondence. Then we shall find that
EGYPT, THE CRADLE OF ANCIENT MASONRY. 553
our researches will lead us on to a knowledge of those sublime and glorious Truths that laid the foundation of the Indian, Mazdean and Eg37ptian Mysteries, afterwards ramified through the Chaldean and Babylonian Empires. It was from the Babylonian Magi that the ancient Hebrews drew their inspiration and Wisdom.
There is one thing I especially desire to call 3^our attention to, and that is, DO NOT T.-\KE THE SYMBOL FOR THE THING SYMBOLIZED. Masomj owes a great deal to the Hebrew people^ who have preserved to us a vast amount of priceless jewels they received from the Magi. These they have ever guarded from the profane and handed dowm to us in signs, symbols and records that will never be lost, but will live forever and be easily understood by each and every Neophyte who is brought to Light in our Lodges of the present day. If any of our most earnest students will only give their time and attention to the careful examination of the Kabala and have their minds thoroughly illuminated by the Zohar, before they attempt to pass an opinion upon the " Mystery Language " of prehis- toric ages, the language that is now called Symbolism, they will not only discover the Truth of the above assertions, but some of the Light, Know- ledge, and Truth that illuminated the minds of the Hierophants of old, and also the great Pythagoras who taught in the sanctuaries over which they presided, the Wisdom that belonged to the Great Lodge of Adepts of India.
The Secret Doctrine informs us in Volume I, page 325 et seq. — " The proofs brought forward in corroboration of the old teachings are scat- tered widely throughout the old scriptures of ancient civilization. The Piiraiias, the Zend Avesta^ and the old classics are full of such facts; but no one has ever taken the trouble of collecting and collating them together. The reason for this is that all such events were recorded symbolically ; and the best scholars, the most acute minds, among our Aryanists and Egyptologists, have been too often darkened by one or anothers preconception, and still oftener, by one sided views of the secret meaning. Yet even a parable is a spoken symbol, a fiction or a fable, as some think ; an allegorical representation, we say, of life realities, events and facts. And just as a moral was ever drawn from a parable, such moral being an actual truth, and fact in human life, so a historical, real event was deduced, by those versed in the hieratic sciences, from emblems
554 EGYPT, THE CRADLE OF ANCIENT MASONRY.
and symbols recorded in the archives of the temple. The religious and esoteric history of every nation was imbedded in symbols • it was never expressed literally in so many words.
" All the thoughts and emotions, all the learning and knowledge, revealed, and acquired, of the early Races, found their pictorial expres- sion in allegory and parable. Why ? Because, Oie spoken word has a potency not onlv unknown to, but even nnsiLSpeded, and naturally disbelieved in, by the modern sages. Because sound and rythm are closely related to the four Elements of the Ancients ; and because such or another vibration in the air is sure to awaken the corresponding Powers, union with which produces good or bad results, as the case may be. No stu- dent was ever allowed to recite historical, religious, or real events of any kind, in so many unmistakable words, lest the Powers connected with the event should be once more attracted. Such events were narrated only during Initiation, and every student had to record them in corresponding symbols, drawn out of his own mind and examined later by his Master, before they were finally accepted. Thus by degrees was the Chinese Alphabet created, as just before it the hieratic symbols were fixed upon in old Egypt. In the Chinese language, the characters of which may be read in any language, and which, as just said, is only a little less ancient than the Egyptian alphabet of Thoth, every word has its correspending symbol in a pictorial form. This language possesses many thousands of such letters or logograms, each conveying the meaning of a whole word ; for letters proper as we understand it, do not exist in the Chinese language, any more than they did in the Egyptian, till a far later period
" ' Thus a Japanese who does not understand one word of Chinese, meeting with a Chinaman who has never heard the language of the former, will communicate in writing with him, and thej^ will understand each other perfectly — because their writing is symbolical.' . . ., Recent discoveries made by great Mathematicians and Kabalists thus prove, beyond a shadow of doubt, that every theolog}', from the earliest down to the latest, has sprung, not onl}? from a common source of abstract beliefs, but one universal Esoteric or Mystery Language. These scholars hold the key to the universal language of old, and have turned it successfully, though only once, in the hermetically closed door leading to the Hall of
EGYPT, THE CRADLE OF ANCIENT MASONRY. 555
Mj'steries. The great archaic sj'stem known from prehistoric ages as the sacred Wisdom — Science, one that is contained and can be traced in every old as well as in every new religion, had, and still has, its universal language — suspected by the Mason Ragon — the language of the Hiero- phants, which has seven ' dialects,' so to speak, each referring and being specially appropriate, to one of the seven m3^steries of Nature. Bach had its own S3nnbolism. Nature could thus be either read in its fulness, or viewed from one of its special aspects.
" The proof of this lies to this day, in the extreme difficulty which the Orientalist in general, and the Indianists, and Egyptologists in particular, experience in interpreting the Allegorical writings of the Aryans, and the hieratic records of old Egypt. This is because the}' will never remember that all the ancient records were written in a language which was universal, and known to all nations alike in days of old, but which is now intelligible onl}' to the few. Like the Arabic figures AA'hich are understandable to men of ever}' nation, or like the English word and, which becomes r/ for the Frenchman, 7md for the German, and so on, yet which may be expressed for all civilized nations in the simple sign & — so all the words of that Mystery Language signified the same thing to each man, of whatever nationality. There have been several men of note who have tried to re-establish such a universal and philosophical tongue. Delgarme, Wilkins, Leibnitz ; but Demarmeux, in his Pasigraphic^ is the only one who has proven its possibility. The scheme of Valentinius, called the ' Greek Kabalah,' based on the combinations of Greek letters, might serve as a model.
" The many sided facts of the Mystery Language have lent to the adoption of widely varied dogmas, and rites in the exotericism of the church rituals. It is these, again which are at the origin, of most of the dogmas of the Christian Church ; for instance, the Seven Sacraments, the Trinity, the Resurrection, the Seven Capital Sins, and the Seven Vir- tues. The Seven Keys to the Mystery Tongue, however, having always been in the keeping of the highest among the initiated Hierophants of antiquity ; it is only the partial use of a few out of the seven, which passed, through the treason of some early Church Fathers — ex-Initiates of the Temples — into the hands of the new sect of the Nazarenes. Some of the early Popes were Initiates, but the last fragments of their knowl-
556 EGYPT, THE CRADLE OF ANCIENT MASONRY.
edge have now fallen into the power of the Jesuits, who have turned them into a system of Sorcery.
" It is maintained that India — not confined to its present, but includ- ing its ancient boundaries — is the onh- countr}- in the world which still has among her sons Adepts, who have the knowledge of all the seven sub-S3^stems, and the key to the entire system. From the fall of Alem- phis, Egvpt began to lose those ke\-s one b}- one, and Chaldea had preserved onl}' three in the da3's of Berosus. As for the Hebrews, in all their writings the}- show no more than a thorough knowledge of the astronomical, geometrical and numerical sj'stems of S3'mbolizing the human, and especiall}^ the physiological'functions. They never had the higher Ke3's.'"
Now my dear Brothers and Friends, I do not wish j-ou to think I am tr3-ing to introduce something into IMasonry, which does not belong there, for every thing I have written, has been placed before 3-ou for 3-our special investigation, so 3-ou ma3- positivel3^ know that there is far more than Grips and Tokens in the beautiful s3-mbols belonging to our most Illustrious Fraternit}-. It is in these glorious s3-mbols that ^ve shall 'find the Ke3- b3- which we ma3- be enabled to unlock the true meaning of those sublime philosophies which have commanded the most profound attention and admiration of the learned men of ever3- epoch of the world's histor3-, and all these profound Truths are open to all jMasons who will diligentl}- search and think for themselves.
J|j)iIaD antr its I\uins-Nul)ia.
557
Loud is the sound of ballad-stngci^ shouting, ttlbilc, with her wanton grace and paces pretty.
Like some alluring, sly coquette,
H dancer with her eastagnettes Displays herself in subtle pantomime Hnd singers chant an old Hrabian ditty
Of Saladin and of his time.
— Freudenburg.
558
EGYPT, THE CRADLE OF ANCIENT MASONRY, 559