CHAPTER IV.

THE SECRET DOCTRINE.
"The true Mason is a practical Philosopher who, under religious emblems, in all ages adopted by- wisdom, builds upon plans traced by nature and reason the moral edifice of Knowledge."* "As Grand Master of all Symbolic Lodges, it is your es- pecial duty to aid in restoring Masonry to its primi- tive purity."*
"Among all the ancient nations there was one faith and one idea of Deity for the enlightened, intelligent, and educated, and another for the common people. To this rule the Hebrews were no exception."? "It (Masonry) is philosophical, be- cause it teaches the great Truths concerning the nature and existence of one Supreme Deity, and the existence and immortality of the soul."|| "The
*Morals and Dogma, p. 268. t Ibid.
JIbid. 303. 1 1 Ibid. 221.
n8 Mystic Masonry.
Universe, which is the uttered Word of God, is in- finite in extent. There is no empty space beyond creation on any side. The Universe, which is the Thought of God pronounced, never was not since God never was inert."*
"I, Myself, never was not, nor thou, nor all the Princes of the Earth; nor shall we ever hereafter cease to be."t
"Every thing emanates from a Single Principle and a primitive Love, which is the Moving Power of All, and governs all."
"Masonry teaches and has preserved in its purity the cardinal tenets of the old primitive faith, which underlie and are the foundation of all religions. "Z
There is no fact in history more easily and com- pletely demonstrable than the existence of the Secret Doctrine in all ages among all people, and of Adepts or Masters who were familiar with its teachings, and were more or less capable of expounding its principles.
It is equally demonstrable that this Secret Doc- trine was the real foundation of every great Religion known to man; that only the initiated Priest or
*Morals and dogma, p. 206. tBhagaradgita.
tlbid. 324.
The Secret Doctrine. 119
Hierophant knew the real doctrines in any case, and only these, as a rule, in the earliest history of each religion.
Furthermore, the Sacred Books of all religions, including those of the Jews and the Christians, were and are no more than parables and allegories of the real Secret Doctrine, transcribed for the ignorant and superstitious masses. All commentaries written on these Sacred Books, whether on those of Moses, the Psalms and the Prophets of Judaism, the Gos- pels of the Gnostics and Christians, or those written on the Sacred Books of the East — the Vedas, Pura- nas, and Upanishads — all either make confusion more confounded when written by one ignorant of the Secret Doctrine, or, when written by initiates, but ring the changes on, or further elaborate the parables and allegories.
It is, furthermore, easily demonstrable that the Secret Doctrine came originally from the far East, and is the Primitive Wisdom Religion. Its earlier records are now found in India and Thibet; thence it seems to have traveled to Ethiopia; thence to Egypt and Chaldea. This route, or order of trans- mission, however, is not to be easily ascertained with accuracy, nor is it a matter of any consequence to us at the present time. It is everywhere and at
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all times essentially the same; only the outer gloss, the parables and allegories concealing it differ among different people.
Underlying this Secret Doctrine was a profound philosophy of the creation or evolution of worlds and of man. The present humanity, in many quar- ters of the globe, has evolved on the intellectual plane so far that there now exist a very large num- ber of persons capable of apprehending this old philosophy, and, at the same time, capable of under- standing the responsibility incurred in misusing or misinterpreting it. A large number of persons have reached, on the intellectual plane, the state of man- hood; and are capable of partaking of the "fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil." There is, therefore, no reason why this old philos- ophy should be longer concealed. On the other hand, there are reasons why it should be known. Empirical knowledge has advanced in certain direc- tions into the realm of Psychism, and the arts an- ciently designated by the term Magic, and it is im- perative that the dangers that attend these pursuits should be pointed out and demonstrated, in order that they may be avoided by the beneficent, and that the ignorant or innocent may be afforded protec- tion. How far these modern inroads into Occultism
The Secret Doctrine. 121
or ancient Magic extended very few persons seem to realize. It is therefore high time that the philos- ophy of the East should illumine the science of the West, and thus give the death blow to that intellect- ual diabolism, and spiritual nihilism, known as Materialism, and this only the Secret Doctrine can accomplish. Grave responsibility, however, is in- curred by such a revelation. Those who, like the- professional Hypnotists and the Vivisectionists, have sinned, perhaps ignorantly, and thus have been unconsciously "Black Magicians," will eventually find no avenue of escape. Ignorance can no longer cover their inhuman or cruel practices. The Hyp- notist can not reduce the mind of a trusting but ignorant brother to the condition of imbecility, with- out facing the law that counts such a crime as no less than murder. The new Science, resulting from the union to which I have referred, and which, I believe, Mr. J. M. Rusk proposes to call Psycho- Physics, will be well understood before the close of the 20th century, and many an old score in the intellectual arena will be settled.
They know little of the forces at work, or the principles involved, who imagine that there is suffi- cient force in dissolving creeds, or in the dying throes of materialism, to greatly retard the progress
122 Mystic Masonry.
of these truths by sneers or ridicule, or to prevent their triumph by any opposition they can bring to bear against them. They have waited for millen- niums, and their time has come.
"To recapitulate; the Secret Doctrine was the universally diffused religion of the ancient and pre- historic world. Proof of its diffusion, authentic records of its history, a complete chain of docu- ments, showing its character and presence in every land, together with the teaching of all its great Adepts, exist to this day in the secret crypts of libraries belonging to the Occult Fraternity." As to the danger of revealing these doctrines to the profane :
"The danger was this: Doctrines such as the planetary chain, or the seven races, at once give a clue to the seven-fold nature of man. For each principle is correlated to a plane, a planet, and a race; and the human principles are, on every plane, correlated to sevenfold occult forces* — those of the highest planes being of tremendous power." "No one styling himself a 'scholar,' in whatever department of exact science, will be permitted to
*Experimenter9 with the "Roentgen Ray" may profitably take notice.
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regard these teachings seriously. They will be derided and rejected, a priori, in this century; but only in this one. For in the 20th century of our era scholars will begin to recognize that the Secret Doctrine has neither been invented nor exaggerated, but, on the contrary, simply outlined; and finally, that its teachings antedate the Vedas." And in a footnote it .is said: "This is no pretension to prophesy, but simply a statement based on the knowledge of facts."
In speaking of the source from which the present version of the Secret Doctrine is derived, our au- thor says, regarding an "old book" : "So very old that our modern antiquarians might ponder over its pages an indefinite time, and still not quite agree as to the nature of the fabric upon which it is writ- ten. . . . The most ancient Hebrew document of occult learning, the Siphrah Dzeniouta, was com- piled from it, and that at a time when the former was already considered in the light of a literary relic."
"The days of Constantine were the last turning point in history. The period of the Supreme strug- gle that ended in the Western world throttling the old religions in favor of the new ones, built on their bodies. From thence the vista into the far distant
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Past, beyond the 'Deluge' and the 'Garden of Eden,' began to be forcibly and relentlessly closed by every fair and unfair means against the indiscreet gaze of posterity. Every issue was blocked up, every record that hands could be laid upon, destroyed."*
This same Constantine who, with his soldiers en- vironed the Bishops at the first Council of Nice, a. d. 325, and dictated terms to their deliberations, applied for initiation into the Mysteries, and was told by the officiating priest that no purgation could free him from the crime of putting his wife to death, or from his many perjuries and murders. Every careful and unbiased student of history knows why the Secret Doctrine has been heard of so little since the days of Constantine. An exoteric religion and belief in a personal God blotted it out for self-pro- tection ; and yet, oh, irony of history ! the very Pen- tateuch conceals it, and for many a student of Kabalah of the coming century the seals will be broken.
In trying to apprehend an outline, at least, of the Secret Doctrine, two ideas should be kept con- stantly in mind, viz., Space and Consciousness; the former, in relation to all that is either thought or
*Secret Doctrine.
The Secret Doctrine. 125
asserted regarding Nature and Deity; and the latter, in regard to Deity, Nature, and Man. In the last analysis, both Space and Consciousness elude us. What they are, per se, we shall never know. We may as well take them as facts in our experience, and in analyzing that experience, both Conscious- ness and Knowledge will expand.
"What is that which was, is, and will be, whether there is a Universe or not: whether there be Gods or none? asks the Senzar Catechism. And the an- swer made is — Space."
Now space is not Nature, nor is it Deity. Space may be said to contain nature or creation, and to conceal Divinity. It is therefore the point of ema- nation and the vanishing point.
The Occult Catechism contains the following questions and answers:
"What is it that ever is?" "Space, the eternal Anupadaka" (parentless). "What is it that ever was?" "The germ in the Root." "What is it that is ever coming and going?" "The Great Breath." "Then there are three eternals?" "No, the three are one." "That which ever is, is one; that which ever was, is one; that which is ever being, and becoming, is also one: and this is Space."
"For clearer understanding on the part of the
126 Mystic Masonry.
general reader, it must be stated that the Occult Sci- ence recognizes Seven Cosmical Elements — four entirely physical, and the fifth (Ether) semi- material, as it will become visible in the air toward the end of the Fourth Round, to reign supreme over the others during the whole of the Fifth. The re- maining two are as yet absolutely beyond the range of human perception. These latter will, however, appear as presentiments during the 6th and 7th Rounds respectively. These seven elements, with their numberless Sub-Elements (far more numer- ous than those known to Science), are simply con- ditional modifications and aspects of the one and only Element. This latter is not Ether, nor even Akasa, but the Source of these. The Fifth Element, now advocated quite freely by Science, is not the Ether hypothesized by Sir Isaac Newton — although he calls it by that name, having associated it in his mind, probably, with the iEther, 'Father-Mother' oi Antiquity. As Newton intuitionally says : 'Nature is a perfect circulatory worker, generating fluids out of solids, fixed things out of volatile, and vola- tile out of fixed. Subtle out of gross, and gross out of subtle.' . . . Thus, perhaps, may all things be originated from Ether." (Hypoth. I, 675.)*
* Secret Doctrine.
The Secret Doctrine. 127
It is interesting to notice, in this connection, that Newton was familiar with the writings of Jacob Boehmen, the "Teutonic Theosopher," and that among Newton's posthumous papers were found copious notes and translations from his works. As to the "Races," referred to in the above quotation, it need only be said in passing, that the Secret Doctrine declares that in the evolution of humanity there are to be seven Races, of which ours is now the fifth, and that each race makes seven rounds on our planetary chain, of which rounds the present race is now in the fourth, with here and there a "fifth rounder" appearing. The Secret Doctrine teaches, not only the immortality of the soul, but the perfectibility of humanity by orderly evolution on this Earth. This doctrine concerns the general evolution which the present work touches only inci- dentally; it is complicated, and necessarily so.
There are three fundamental propositions that un- derlie the Secret Doctrine, (a) "An Omnipresent, Eternal, Boundless, and Immutable Principle on which all speculation is impossible, since it tran- scends the power of human conception, and could only be dwarfed by any human expression or simili- tude. It is beyond the range and reach of human thought — in the words of Mandukya, "unthinkable
128 Mystic Masonry.
and unspeakable." This Infinite and Eternal Cause — dimly formulated in the "Unconscious" and "Un- knowable" of current European philosophy — is the rootless root of "all that was, is, or ever shall be." . . . In Sanscrit it is "Sat." This "Beness" is symbolized in the Secret Doctrine under two aspects.
On the one hand, Absolute abstract Space, repre- senting bare subjectivity, the one thing which no human mind can either exclude from any concep- tion or conceive of by itself.
On the other, Absolute abstract Motion repre- senting "Unconditioned Consciousness." "Spirit (or Consciousness) and Matter are, however, to be regarded, not as independent realities, but as the two facets or aspects of the Absolute, which con- stitutes the basis of conditioned Being whether sub- jective or objective." "Considering this metaphys- ical triad" (the only reality, Spirit and Matter) "as the Root from which proceeds all manifestation, the 'Great Breath' assumes the character of precosmic Ideation." (Plato's World of Divine Ideas.)
"It is the fons et origo of force and of all individ- ual consciousness, and supplies the guiding intelli- gence in the vast scheme of Cosmic Evolution. On the other hand, precosmic root-substance (Mulapra-
The Secret Doctrine. 129
kriti) is that aspect of the Absolute which underlies all the objective planes in Nature."
(b) The second of the three postulates of the Secret Doctrine is : "The Eternity of the Universe in toto as a boundless plane: periodically 'the play- ground of numberless Universes incessantly mani- festing and disappearing/ called 'the manifesting stars' and the 'sparks of Eternity,' 'The Eternity of the Pilgrim' (the Monad or Self in man) is like a wink of the Eye of Self-Existence. 'The appear- ance and disappearance of Worlds is like a regular tidal ebb of flux and reflux.' "
The third postulate is:— (c)
"The fundamental identity of all Souls with the Universal Over-Soul, the latter being itself an as- pect of the* Unknown Root ; and the obligatory pil- grimage for every Soul — a spark of the former — through the Cycle of Incarnation (or Necessity) in accordance with Cyclic and Karmic law, during the whole term." . . . "The pivotal doctrine of the Eastern philosophy admits no privileges or special gifts in man, save those won by his own Ego through personal effort and merit throughout a long series of Metempsychosis and Reincarnations."*
* Secret Doctrine, Introduction.
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Every soul must "work out its own salvation," and "take the Kingdom of Heaven by force." Sal- vation by faith and the vicarious atonement were not taught, as now interpreted, by Jesus, nor are these doctrines taught in the exoteric Scriptures. They are later and ignorant perversions of the orig- inal doctrines. In the Early Church, as in the Secret Doctrine, there was not one Christ for the whole world, but a potential Christ in every man. Theologians first made a fetish of the Impersonal, Omnipresent Divinity; and then tore the Christos from the hearts of all humanity in order to deify Jesus; that they might have a God-man peculiarly their own !
All the ancient Mysteries had the true doctrine, and the early Christians had it. Masonry, uncon- taminated by the disciples of Loyola, had and has it also.
The one Immutable Principle, referred to in the first proposition (a), is called in the Kabalah, Ain Soph: the word Ain meaning "nothing." This is not Jehovah, or Adonia, or the G,A,0,U; for it is not .itself creative, but the cause of Creation. ("Causeless Cause.")
The Jewish "creators" (plural) are the Elohim; the "Principalities and Powers." In this conception
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of Divinity lies the secret of the Ineffable Name, i. e., the Nameless. The Lost Word is to the Mas- ter who possesses it and knows how to "pronounce" it, what the Logos or creative power is to the Nameless. Hence the real Master creates, and in this sense is a god. This will be further shown in connection with the Seven Principles and the Na- ture of Man.
The second proposition — the Eternity of the Uni- verse in toto — reveals the law of cycles and the "in- cessant" work of creation.
In other words, the creative process never had a beginning, and will never have an end. There is one endless succession of Universes. Worlds and Solar systems continually appear and disappear.
Each sun, star, or solar system has a period of activity and a period of repose; emanates from, and is drawn back into, the All and the One. These periods are called the "Nights and days of Brahm,"
The idea that a God with human qualities and human passions made the Earth out of nothing in six days of twenty-four hours each, is sufficiently miraculous, and sufficiently childish, for those who are ready to burn all who do not accept their inter- pretation.
To endow a God with the power of performing
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the impossible and the inconceivable, was considered sufficient honor bestowed.
The law of periodicity is a necessary corollary of the order of events and the flight of time. Ryth- mical, orderly, harmonious movements in space give us our conception of time, as how fast, how often, how slow, how regular, etc. The ear is a time or- gan, and the basic property of the Ether is Sound. This idea of periodicity, or law of cycles, is sym- bolized in Freemasonry in many ways.
In the three, five, or seven years of pilgrimage or penance ; in the seven years of plenty, and seven of famine. "In the low twelve" and "the high twelve," in calling the Craft from labor to refresh- ment, and many others. In the third postulate we have "the fundamental identity of all souls with the One," which gives the basis of the eternal and uni- versal Brotherhood of Man, and the basis of the en- tire scheme of human Evolution.
When these doctrines are clearly understood, they will be seen to go far beyond any modern scheme of evolution, though running on somewhat similar lines. In them the entire scheme of Cosmic and human evolution will be found to have been worked out ages ago. Pythagoras and Plato found these doctrines completely unfolded in the Mysteries.
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Brother Pike says repeatedly that they have been far oftener disfigured than apprehended, and never transcended in modern times. Masonry derives its genius, its inspiration, its glyphs, and its traditions from this philosophy as taught in the Mysteries. How short-sighted and time-serving, then, must it be for Masonry to allow its Grand Traditions, its priceless inheritance to be dwarfed and overlaid by illogical interpretations, derived from records that were in the beginning, and before being disfigured* by ignorance or cupidity, only an allegory of the true doctrines, prepared by "those who knew" for the ignorant masses, who demanded a sign and could never rise above a fetish. This is like barter- ing a magnificent diamond for a lump of common clay. Shall Masons now complete the folly by try- ing to convince themselves and others that the clay is the only diamond?
How much one's idea of God colors all his thoughts and deeds is seldom realized. The ordi- nary crude and ignorant conception of a personal God more often results in slavish fear on the one hand, and Atheism on the other. It is what Car- lyle calls "an absentee God, doing nothing since the six days of creation, but sitting on the outside and seeing it go !" This idea of God carries with
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it, of course, the idea of creation, as something al- ready completed in time; when the fact is that cre- ation is a process without beginning or end. The world — all worlds — are being "created" today as much as at any period in the past. Even the ap- parent destruction of worlds is a creative, or evo- lutionary process. Emanating from the bosom of the All, and running their cyclic course; day alter- nating with night, on the outer physical plane, they are again indrawn to the invisible plane, only to re- emerge after a longer night and start again on a higher cycle of evolution. Theologians have tried in vain to attach the idea of immanence to that of personality, and ended in a jargon of words and utter confusion of ideas. A personal Absolute is not, except in potency. God does not think, but is the cause of Thought. God does not love, he is Love, in the perfect or absolute sense; and so with all the Divine Attributes. God is thus the concealed Logos, the "Causeless Cause," the "Rootless Root." God never manifests Himself (to be seen of men). Creation is His manifestation: and as creation is not complete, and never will be, and as it never had a beginning, there is a concealed or unrevealed po- tency back of and beyond all creation, which is still God. Now, Space is the most perfect symbol of
The Secret Doctrine. 135
this idea of Divinity; for it enters into all our con- cepts, and is the basis of all our experiences. We can not fathom it, or define it, or exclude it from a single thought or experience. Space is boundless, infinite, unfathomable, unknowable: in all, over all, through all. We know that It Is : and that is all we know about It.
But are not these just the attributes that are as- signed to the Absolute and Infinite Deity? and they are all negations. God, says the Kabalah, is No Thing. But the Theologian will hasten to say that this is pure Pantheism. It is no more Pantheism than it is Atheism, for, as already shown, the Ain Soph is before and beyond Creation or Cosmos. It is not God deduced or derived from Nature, but pre- cisely the reverse; nature derived from God, and yet God remains "the same, yesterday, today, and forever" — the Changeless. The stability of nature is derived from the unchangeableness of God. God never tires, is not exhausted at His work, needing rest. That were so human as to be child- ish, and the idea, perhaps, originated from the cyclic law found in the Kabalah of the "Days and Nights of Brahm/' the "Manvantaras and Pralayas," or periods of "outbreaking" and of "inbreathing" in the cycles of evolution.
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Hence the parable, given to the ignorant or the profane, of God's working and then resting. If the reader will but reflect a moment on his own proc- ess of breathing, he will find that the inbreathing (inhalation) and the outbreathing (exhalation) are equal, and equally active processes, although so dif- ferent, each being the opposite of the other: each, in its turn, the cause of the other. Stop one, and the other ceases also. The more one reflects on this symbol of the Great Breath which creation is, the more will he understand of both Eternal Nature and his own being.
But it may be asked: is man to be deprived of all idea of Personality except his own? By no means. God is the Author of Being, is the Author of Per- sonality. He personifies Himself, i. e., expresses that potency of Himself which personality is, through Man. The Hand of Providence is always a human hand. Humanity is both the vehicle and the agent of what man has called the Providence of God.
Humanity in toto, then, is the only Personal God ; and Christos is the realization, or perfection of this Divine Persona, in Individual conscious experience. When this perfection is realized, the state is called Christos, with the Greeks, and Buddha, with the
The Secret -Doctrine. i2>7
Hindoos. Hence the Christ is at-one with the Father. "Be ye perfect, even as your Father in Heaven is perfect."
Humanity in toto ! What is it? Is it the genera- tions of the present age? or of any age in the past? or of the future? and these alone? Justice rules the Universe, and is the foundation of all Law. Jus- tice is the "Kingdom," the "Permanency" of Deity. Humanity, therefore, means every human being ever born, in any age, or to be born in coming ages, on this Planet. All are "in the Hollow of His hand." One God, One Law for all ! else there is no Justice.
And if :t shall be done unto each according to the deeds done in the body; if as a man soweth so shall he reap, the only logical deduction is Law governing action and determining results according to Abso- lute Justice. And this the Kabalah, the Secret Doc- trine and Masonry, and all Sacred Books, and all Religions, everywhere teach. By taking the Sym- bols for the thing symbolized, men have made con- tradictions out of details, and then built up a system of final rewards and punishments, attaching to acts in time; and claimed their unreason and injustice as binding to all eternity. The result "is Atheism and Materialism ; for there is an instinct in man, as part of his Divine inheritance, and that instinct is an
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innate sense of Justice. Destroy this, and the result is Atheism, pure and simple. Destruction of the sense of Justice has honey-combed the churches, and been the parent of modern Materialism. It is true that Materialism is not the logical, but the actual result. The issue is not logically between an Uujust God and no God, but between a God that is inconceivable because Unjust; and a God that is conceivable because Just, and therefore the issue of the Supreme Reason.
But this philosophical concept of Divinity has another and still wider bearing. It concerns not only man's personal life, but determines his relations to his fellow men. It is the basis of ethics, and furthermore co-ordinates all his experience and all his knowledge, and this leads to true wisdom. "To know God is the Supreme Wisdom."
It will be urged by modern Theologians that this view dethrones Christ. To this objection the an- swer is that any other view orphans Humanity. It is far more important that men should strive to become Christs than that they should believe that Jesus was Christ. If the Christ-state can be at- tained by but one human being during the whole evolution of the race, then the evolution of man is a farce and human perfection an impossibility.
The Secret Doctrine. 139
Jesus is no less Divine because all men may reach the same Divine perfection. Again, it will be urged, "There is no other name given under Heaven or amongst men whereby ye can be saved." But this is the Ineffable Name, which every Master is to possess and become, and salvation and perfection are synonymous. It has also been shown that every act in the drama of the life of Jesus, and every quality assigned to Christ, is to be found in the life of Krishna and in the legend of all the Sun-Gods from the remotest antiquity.
That which the orthodox Christian will find to oppose to this view is not that it dethrones or de- grades Christ, but that it disproves the idea of Christ as their exclusive possession, and denies that all other religions are less Divine than their own. We have brought the same selfishness into our religions that we indulge in regard to our other pos- sessions, such as wife and children, and houses and land, and country; and the same partisan spirit as in our politics, and this more than anything else appears to justify selfishness in general, militates against the Brotherhood of Man, and prevents the founding of the "Great Republic, composed of many Nations and all people." This idea of Uni- versal Brotherhood which was a cardinal doctrine
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in the Ancient Mysteries — as it is involved in the first postulate of the Secret Doctrine, and openly- declared in the third; and which is equally given the very first rank in Masonry — is the logical de- duction from our idea of Divinity, and of the essen- tial nature and meaning of Christos. Humanity, in toto, as already explained, is the personification of the Divine in Creation, and the idea of exact and universal Justice regards each individual of all the myriads constituting Humanity with equal favor. There are no favorites in the Divine Conception, Justice of God toward all implies Justice toward each other amongst men. This principle of Justice is Law Universal, and this principle of Brotherhood and the perfectibility of man's nature through evo- lution necessitate Reincarnation. The number of souls constituting Humanity, though practically in- numerable, is, nevertheless definite. Hence the doc- trine of pre-existence taught in all the Mysteries applies to "every child of woman born;" all con- ditions in each life being determined by previous living. This will be further elaborated in another section of this work. Thus the Fatherhood of God in the Personification of Divinity in Humanity in- cludes the Universal and Unqualified Brotherhood of Man.
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The real Masters in all ages, knowing this from the lessons taught in the mysteries of initiation, have ever been the foes of Autocrats, Oligarchies, and Oppression in every form, whether Ecclesiastical or Political. Masons are taught to obey the laws of the country in which they reside. They are not agents of Revolution, but of Evolution. By enlight- enment and persuasion they may strive to reform a nation or a church. The true Republic is the out- growth of Brotherhood, and a jealous monarch in Church or State will naturally oppose the diffusion of doctrines that tend to the liberation and the en- lightenment of the people.
It is true, however, that all the Masters or Adepts may not be equally enlightened or equally prudent.
Mystics like Jacob Boehmen, or Adepts like St. Germain, or Masons like de Molai, or Philosophers like Bruno, or other Agents of the Great Lodge sought only to instruct and enlighten mankind.
The rabble were deaf to their doctrines and ap- peals, and turned like ravenous wolves upon them.
"Because true Masonry unemasculated, bore the banners of Freedom and Equal Right, and was in rebellion against spiritual tyranny, its Lodges were proscribed in 1738 by an edict of the States of Hol- land. In 1737 Louis XV. forbade them in France.
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In 1738 Pope Clement XII. issued against them his famous Bull of Excommunication, which was re- newed by Benedict XIV.; and in 1743 the Council of Berne also proscribed them."*
"Masonry has ever the most vivid remembrance of the terrible and artificial torments that were used to put down new forms of religion, or extinguish the old. It sees with the eye of memory the ruthless extermination of all the people of all ages and both sexes because it was their misfortune not to know the God of the Hebrews, or to worship Him under the wrong name by the savage troops of Moses and Joshua. It sees the thumb-screws and the racks, the whip, the gallows, and the stake, the victims of Diocletian and Alva, the miserable Covenanters, the Non-Conformists, Servetus burned, and the unof- fending Quaker hung. It sees the persecutions of Peter and Paul, the martyrdom of Stephen, the trials of Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin and Ireneus; and then, in turn, the sufferings of wretched Pagans under the Christian Emperors, as of Papists in Ireland under Elizabeth, and the bloated Henry; the Roman Virgin naked before the hungry lions, young Mar- garet Graham tied to a stake at low-water mark,
*Monals and Dogma, p. 50.
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and there left to drown, singing hymns to God until the savage waters broke over her head ; and all that in all ages have suffered by hunger and nakedness, peril and prison, the rack, the stake, the sword — it sees them all, and shudders at the long roll of hu- man atrocities. And it sees the oppression still prac- ticed in the name of religion — men shot in a Chris- tian Jail in Christian Italy for reading the Christian Bible; in almost every Christian State laws forbid- ding freedom of speech on matters relating to Christianity, and the gallows reaching its arm over the pulpit."
"The fires of Moloch in Syria, the harsh mutila- tions in the name of Astarte, Cybele, and Jehovah; the barbarities of imperial Pagan Torturers ; the still grosser torments which Roman Gothic Christians in Italy and Spain heaped on their brother-men; the fiendish cruelties to which Switzerland and France, the Netherlands, England, Scotland, Ireland, Amer- ica, have been witness, are' none too powerful to warn man of the unspeakable evils which follow from mistakes and errors in the matter of religion, and especially from investing the God of Love with the cruel and vindictive passions of erring humanity, and making blood to have a sweet savor in his nos-
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trils, and groans of agony to be delicious in his ears."
"Man never had the right to usurp the unexer- cised prerogative of God, and condemn and punish another for his belief."*
All men are brothers by all the laws of Nature and by the very Being of God. But so long as Religion defines Heresy as a crime, or imagines a God with human attributes, "man's inhumanity to man" will continue to make "countless millions mourn," and find vent for all evil passions justified by their idea of God. But, some will say this is all a thing of the past. Mankind, especially in Chris- tian countries, have outgrown these relics of Bar- barism. Alas ! if it were only true. We do not drown, or burn, or torture physically, but quite as subtle torture to the sensitive is found in scorn, contempt, ridicule, and ostracism, in slander and defamation of character. Are we any nearer genu- ine brotherhood today than we were a century ago? or have, we but refined our cruelties and merely dis- guised the claw of the tiger? Do not supreme selfishness and relentless greed lie at the heart of competition? Are not the Trade Unions and the
*Morals and Dogma, p. 162 et seq.
The Secret Doctrine. 145
Syndicates glowering at each other like cages of wild beasts? Ah, my Brother, we are but little re- moved from Barbarism after all, and it does make all the difference in the world what idea we enter- tain of God, and what is our basis of Ethics. The one idea of the modern Scheme of Salvation is self- preservation. We must be saved, if all the rest are damned, and competition, and egotism, and selfish- ness in every form are the legitimate result.
Masonry does not preach a new religion, it but reiterates the New Commandment announced by Jesus, which was also announced by every great re- former of religion since history began. Drop the theological barnacles from the Religion of Jesus, as taught by Him, and by the Essgnes and Gnostics of the first centuries, and it becomes Masonry. Ma- sonry in its purity, derived as it is from the old Hebrew Kabalah as part of the Great Universal Wisdom-Religion of remotest Antiquity, stands squarely for the Unqualified and Universal Brother- hood of Man, in all time and in every age. To Christianize Masonry, or to narrow it to the secta- rian bounds of any Creed, is not only to dwarf and belittle it, but must inevitably result, as among war- ring sects, has always resulted with religions, in setting brother against brother, and Lodge against
146 Mystic Masonry.
Lodge, and result in final dissolution. This is one of the plainest meanings of the Legend of the Lost Word.
The thinnest veil over the sublime Mystery of the Ineffable Name is Brotherhood and Love ! This is the Light of the Logos.
The gross darkness that hangs like a black veil over the Shekinah is Selfishness and Hate. Even so hath it ever been; and so will it ever be till Brotherly Love, Relief, and Truth reign universally in the hearts of all Humanity. The refinements of so-called Civilization do not change the essential nature of man. Beneath all these there sleeps or wakes a demon or an angel, and one of these is ever in chains, for no man can serve two masters.
The Secret Doctrine. 147