CHAPTER VII.

THE SECRET DOCTRINE (CONTINUED).
The Sign of the Master.
It must not be supposed that in the Ancient Mys- teries every Initiate became a Master in the sense outlined in the preceding chapters. There were the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries. To the Lesser all were eligible; to the Greater, very few; and of these few, fewer still were ever exalted to the sub- lime and last degree. Some remained for a lifetime in the lower degrees, unable to progress further on account of constitutional defect or mental and spir- itual incapacity. The Mysteries unfolded the Build- ing of Worlds, the Religion of Nature, the Brother- hood of Man, the Immortality of the Soul, and the Evolution of Humanity. No ceremony was artificial and meaningless ; no symbol, however grotesque to the ignorant, was merely fanciful.
"It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-
208 Mystic Masonry.
discover the Mysteries of Knowledge. The Priests of Egypt knew better than we do the laws of move- ment and of life. . ."*
Philosophy, however, may give us a Key to sym- bolism, a Universal Modulus. True philosophy dis- cerns the Plans drawn by Divinity on the Tracing Board of Time for the building of Cosmos.
The Primary Concepts of such a Philosophy are few and simple. So, indeed, are the root-forms in Symbolism. The changes rung on concept and Symbol, as the plan unfolds, become more and more complex, even where they are wrought by those who know. When from these the symbolism descends to parable and allegory in order to clothe the primary concept in ethical language, and make it apprehen- sible and binding to the ignorant masses, its garment and Fiat read, "Thus saith the Lord."
When, however, Ignorance in high places, or cupidity and lust for power interpret, or willfully suppress, disfigure and distort the ancient symbols, as has been done for lo, these many centuries, the masses are not prepared to believe that the real truth, uncontaminated by man, has ever been dis- covered. The vandals have done their work better
*Morals and Dogma, p. 734.
The Secret Doctrine. 209
and more successfully in thus blotting out all belief in the existence of the Old Wisdom, than in destroy- ing the records of the Truth itself. The real sym- bols are the Modulus of Nature, and man can never destroy these.
"Thales and Pythagoras learned in the Sanctua- ries of Egypt that the Earth revolved around the Sun, but they did not attempt to make this generally known, because to do so it would have been neces- sary to reveal one of the great Secrets of the Tem- ple, the double law or attraction and radiation, or of sympathy and antipathy, of fixedness and move- ment, which is the principle of creation and the perpetual cause of life. This truth was ridiculed by Lactanius, as it was long after sought to be proven a falsehood by persecution by Papal Rome."
"So the Philosophers reasoned, while the Priests, without replying to them or even smiling at their errors, wrote in those Hieroglyphics that created all dogmas and all poetry, the Secrets of Truth."*
To preserve its authority and its perquisites, Ec- clesiasticism will, today, as in all the past, answer such statements with neither facts, reason, nor ar- guments, but with a curse!! and so long as men
*Morala and Dogma, p. 842.
210 Mystic Masonry.
grovel with fear at the curse will the truth be con- cealed. When men are wise enough and brave enough to defy both the anathema and the anathe- matizer, the whole opposition to light and progress will fall to pieces. Till then, the ignorant masses, imitating their superiors, will scout, ridicule and slander all who speak the truth. Freedom and En- lightenment are the only real Saviors of Mankind; while Ignorance is the father of Superstition, and Selfishness the parent of Vice.
The Ideal in Church and State, the motive for the Ecclesiastical and Political Hierarchies, has been in all ages to govern men professedly for their own good. The Secret Doctrine teaches man to govern himself. So long as Hierarchies subordinate all things to the real benefit of man, and give Light and Knowledge to all in such measure as they are capa- ble of receiving, they are a blessing and not a curse. When, however, the Potentate suppresses Knowl- edge, claims power by Divine Right, or by inherit- ance, rather than by proof of knowledge and by service done to man ; when ignorance or disbelief is punished as a crime and men torture the body, or agonize the mind under that devil's plea — "to save the Soul" — then does the Hierarchy become an enemy of both God and Man.
The Secret Doctrine. 211
Neither Political nor Religious Hierarchy has ever existed for any great length of time in the outer world without becoming corrupt. The continuance of power in such cases must always depend on the ignorance of the people; therefore, the Hierarchy will resist to the utmost the spread of true enlighten- ment. It is for this reason that for many centuries the Secret Doctrine and all of its students or ex- pounders have been under ban of the Church, and of the State, whenever Ecclesiasticism has been able to form an alliance therewith. Persecution in every form, for opinions' sake, is ever the sign-manual of worldliness and irreligion. It is the rule of Might against Right, and the trampling under foot of the weak and helpless by the strong and powerful; and to complete the blasphemy, and monument the cruelty, such persecution is generally enacted "in the name of the Lord."
The Altars of Masonry have ever been the Beacon-Lights of Liberty; and the Lodge a City of Refuge; a Sanctuary of Knowledge and Protection to the way-faring Brother of all Nations and tongues. Patterning after the Sanctuaries of the Ancient Mysteries, and founded on the principle of the Universal and Unqualified Brotherhood of Man, they have held aloft the Torch of Liberty.
212 Mystic Masonry.
If in later times class distinctions and color lines have divided the craft, the Lodge has never re- sorted to persecution, or been the agent of op- pression. When these veils that have for the time obscured the true light are removed, and every man is regarded for his intrinsic worth alone, and Ma- sonry is indeed and in truth no respecter of persons, then will this great organization enter on an era of prosperity such as is its heritage from all the past, and its right by the simple power of Brotherly Love, Relief and Truth.
The traditions of Masonry in later times exclude woman from participating in the work of the Lodge, but not from all the rights and benefits of the Craft. The reasons that have led to the exclusion of women need not here be discussed. A sufficient answer to all advocates of Androgynous Masonry may be found in the history of all attempts to establish or to revive it. Each and all have failed, and have gen- erally proved fruitful of discord and scandal. Nor is woman either the loser or the most to blame for this result. The Ancient Mysteries were organized schools of learning, and knowledge was the signal of progress and the basis of Fellowship. In modern Masonry Fraternity alone has usurped the place of Wisdom, and in the service of the Lodge to man-
The Secret Doctrine. 213
kind its great work has been to preserve unaltered the Ancient Landmarks as a heritage to posterity. Every true Mason for centuries has thus been a Soldier of the Truth, fighting for its Altars and its Fires. In this work of the Lodge woman could have been of no service.
While every true Mason is the most loyal of men to every office of woman, as Mother, Sister, Daughter and Wife; as Companion, Friend, and Inspirer of man, he would have been trammeled by her presence in the Lodge, and she would have re- ceived no benefit by being admitted. When, how- ever, the days of Ritualism alone are ended, when from the one duty of guarding the altars and light- ing the camp-fires, Masonry resumes its prerogative as Teacher and Enlightener of mankind, and the Philosophy of Nature and of Life are unfolded in its Schools and Colleges as with the Maji of old, and when with no fear of persecution from time- serving Potentate or Creed-ridden Priest, the Light may shine for all, then will the doors of real initia- tion be as open to woman as to man, as was the case in the schools of Pythagoras as shown by Iamlichus. The Ancient Wisdom concerned itself largely with the Souls of men, and undertook to elevate the earthly life by purifying the Soul and exalting its
214 Mystic Masonry.
Ideals. It teaches that souls are sexless; and that the sex of the body is an incident of gestation. No civilization known to man has ever risen to any great heights, or long maintained its supremacy, that debased woman. Indeed, the Secret Doctrine demonstrates with unmistakable clearness that sex- ual debasement in any form is the highway to de- generacy and destruction of both man and woman; and of Nations quite as certainly as of individuals.
The most debased and horrible chapters in human history are recorded in scientific works by medical experts. Atavism is here exemplified as nowhere else. Here, more than anywhere else within the possible experience of man, lies the "Sin against the Holy Ghost;" for through this open door, through which rush the most unholy passions and the hellish fires of lust, it is possible for man to lose his human soul and descend to the animals. If any one doubts this, let him read — if he can — some of the scientific medical works on Sex-perverts, and then consult the attendant physicians of the insane and the symptoms and records of Lunacy.
'The first lesson we are taught in Masonry is to be good men and true." And the f rst declaration made by the neophite in Masonry is that he comes to the Lodge to "learn to subdue his passions, and
The Secret Doctrine. 215
improve himself in Masonry/' i. e., to engage in the building of a fit temple for an indwelling soul.
It may thus be seen that all the traditions and usages of Masonry agree fully with the philosophy of the Secret Doctrine as to true Initiation, and that both are justified by all experience, by all his- tory, and by all scientific discovery and advancement up to date. These ancient institutions, derided, anathematized, misrepresented, persecuted, and sup- pressed, as they have been for the last fifteen hun- dred years, will, in the age that is now dawning, demonstrate their beneficence and their power; and the marvel will be, that the ignorance and brutality of man could have so long succeeded in suppressing them. It is true, even yet, that among otherwise intelligent persons the majority do not believe that any such Fountain of Knowledge has ever existed. They are looking alone to the future, and waiting, and they hail with delight every new discovery in science for the betterment of man. It will be for all such the greatest of all discoveries that "to go back to Plato is to make progress," and that the Egyp- tian, Chaldean, and Hindoo Mysteries had, ages ago, exhausted all philosophies, apprehended all sciences, and recorded their priceless treasures of wisdom in glyph and allegory for the benefit of the latest gen-
216 Mystic Masonry.
erations of the human race. By and by, even our scientists will, like weary and disappointed children, become tired in trying to do it all over again by themselves, and then they will no longer turn a deaf ear to the Immortal, though silent, Voices of the Past. But how, some one may ask, were the Ancients, even before the dawn of what we call his- tory, enabled to make such transcendent discoveries ? If, in the preceding chapter, the present author has succeeded in presenting even a faint outline of the meaning of the word Master, and what Initiation really accomplishes, the inquirer will not have far to seek for an answer to his question. The Secret Doctrine declares that it is the result, not of the vain guesses, or the tortuous investigations of igno- rant men, but of the recorded and carefully tested experiences of generation after generation of trained Adepts and Perfect Masters, the Advance-guards of Humanity in every age. Things are not true be- cause they are old, but old because they are true. Immortality belongs to Truth and not to error. A thing is not true because God hath said it, or is sup- posed to have said it ; God said it because it is true; and the whole manifestation of Nature is thus the uttered word of divinity. The Master who is at-one with both Nature and Divinity discerns the
The Secret Doctrine. 217
truth, and teaches and records it for all future gen- erations of men. But it is only in an age of free- dom and enlightenment that the voice of the Master can be heard ; but it should be ever remembered that the sole authority of the Master is in the Truth ; and not the authority of Truth in the Master. Just here lies the distinction between Religion and Super- stition. The masses will ever seek a sign, but the one only sign of the Master is his service to human- ity. "He who can best work and best agree" is called a Master. Service and Harmony: these are the sign-manuals of the real Initiate. The Ignorant may worship as a god him who can produce signs and wonders, and when weary of worship return to wallow in the mire, forgetful of the miracle. Hence the real Masters in all ages have avoided publicity — "gone into a mountain apart" — and shunned the applause of men, preferring to be despised and slandered rather than have the truth ignored, and be themselves glorified of men.
-2i8 Mystic Masonry.