book is my own, though in many instances the interpretation

given must be placed wholly to my personal responsibility. If the reader does find anything original, or of value, let him give
PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 17
credit to those who I honor as my instructors. By doing so, you will give honor to whom it is due. I do ask the reader to remember this — whatever is herein written is absolutely true; and, if you are willing so to change your life and to become worthy, you will be able to find those who are able and ready to teach you, to indicate the Path, leading to Initiation — the find- ing of the Soul, the Christ, in you.
History informs us thus: As soon as mankind recognized the relation existing between themselves and a Creator, and acknowledged moral responsibility for their acts, to a Supreme Moral Government, then Religion became a pertinent fact, and systems of religious practices were introduced, whereby, in an objective form, their subjectivity could be outwardly made manifest.
These systems are divided into Monotheism and Polythe- ism. The latter includes Dualism and Tritheism. The lowest grade of Polytheism is Fetichism, or idolatry, which teaches the worship of inanimate objects, sticks and stones, and the work of the hands of men. Next is Pyrolatry, or worship of Fire, and Sabaeism, worship of the sun.
"The first step of past Masters or Reformers was to receive a mission and revelation from some God : thus, Amasis and Mneves, Lawgivers of the Egyptians, received their laws from Mercury (Thoth); Zoroaster of the Bactrians, and Zamolxis, lawgiver of the Getes, from Vesta; Zathraustes, of the Armaspi, from a good Spirit or Genius; and all taught the doctrine of the "Law of Karma" as the only just and equable to all men. There is no doubt that all of them were Initiates of the Secret Schools then existing, wherein were taught the Secret Doctrine and Ancient Mysteries; the Right of every man to Opportunity and Justice, and the Mystery of the Philosophy of Fire.
Rhadamanthus and Minos, lawgivers of Crete, and Lycaon of Arcadia had intercourse with Jupiter; Triptolemus of Athens was inspired by Ceres, Pythagoras, and Zaleucus; for the Cro- tonians and Locrians ascribed their institution to Minerva;
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Lycurgus of Sparta acted by direction of Apollo; and Romulus and Numa of Rome put themselves under the guidance of Con- sus and the goddess Egeria.
The first Chinese monarch was called "Fag-Four" — "The Son of Heaven." Tuesco, the founder of the German nations, was sent to reduce mankind from their savage and bestial life to one of order and society, as signified by his name, which, interpreted, means "Interpreter of the gods." Thor and Odin, the lawgivers of the Western Goths, laid claim to inspiration and to divinity; and they have given the names to two days of the week.
The constant epithets to kings in Homer are Dio-genesis, "horn of the gods," and Dio-trepheis, "bred or tutored by the gods." When tru: Init'a.ion is once more understood by schol- ars, they will no longer deny that man can actually be taught by God or the Supreme Intelligence; such is possible. Divine Revelation to man or to the mind and the Soul of man is not so difficult as one might imagine. Therefore it cannot be ques- tioned whether these Masters and Reformers received their in- structions direct from God, through development and Initiation, because man can come into direct communication with his God if he is willing to live the life making such communion and instruction possible.
Plutarch, in "Isis and Osiris," say: "It was a most ancient opinion, derived as well by lawgivers as by divines, that the world was not made by chance, neither did one cause govern all things without opposition."
This is likewise the doctrine of Zoroaster, in which were taught two opposite principles whereby the world was governed.
The first rePgion, cr initial Mysteries were those of At- lantis, known as the Hermetic Philosophy. Later, we find the Oriental Mysteries of Isis and Osiris in Egypt. These were the same Mysteries as the Hermetic Philosophy of Atlantis, merely under a different name. The study of the Mysteries of
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Isis and Osiris will quickly prove to the student that this was the pure Fire Philosophy.
Zoroaster brought these Mysteries into Persia; Cadmus and Inachus, into Greece at large; Orpheus, into Thrace; Me- lampsus, into Athens.
As these Ancient Mysteries were to Isis and Osiris in Egypt, so they were to Mythras in Asia; in Samothrace, to the Mother of the Gods; in Boeotia to Bacchus; in Cyprus to Venus; in Crete to Jupiter; in Athens to Ceres and Prosepine; in Amphura to Castor and Pollux; in Lemnos to Vulcan. The most noted of these were the Orphic, Bacchic, Eleusinian, Samothracian, Cabiric, and Mithriac. It was agreed by Origen and Celsus that the Mysteries taught the Immortality of the Soul, the Law of Karmaj and also the Law of Reincarnation, It was taught in them that that Initiate would be happier than other mortals because he had so lived in this world as to learn in the present incarnation what it would necessitate the pro- fane, many incarnations to comprehend. The Mysteries taught it was the design of Initiation to restore the Soul to that state whence it fell, as from its native seat of perfection. Epictetus taught as follows: "Thus the Mysteries become useful, thus we seize the true spirit of them, when we begin to apprehend that everything therein was instituted by the ancients for in- struction and amendment of life."
All who desired to become candidates for Initiation into any of these Mysteries were required to produce evidence of their fitness by due inquiry into their previous life and charac- ter. The Eleusinian stood open to none who did not approach the Gods with a pure and holy worship, which was originally an indispensable condition observed in common in all the Mys- teries, and instituted by Bacchus, or Osiris, himself, who would initiate none but virtuous and pious men; and it was required to have a prepared purity of mind and disposition, as previ- ously ordered in the sacrifices, or in prayers, in approaching the Mysteries.
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Max Mueller wrote thus: "In the language of mankind, in which everything new is old, and everything old is new, an inexhaustible mine has been discovered for researches of this kind. Language still bears the impress of the earliest thoughts of man, obliterated, it may be, buried under new thoughts, yet here and there still recoverable in their sharp original outline. The growth of language is continuous; and, by continuing our researches backward from the most modern to the most ancient strata, the every elements and roots of human speech have been reached, and with them the elements and roots of human thought. What lies beyond the beginnings of language, how- ever interesting it may be to the philologist, does not yet belong to the history of man, in the true and original sense of that word. Man means the thinker, and the first manifestation of thought is speech.
"But more surprising than the continuity of the growth of language is the continuity in the growth of religion. Of religion, as of language, it may be said that in it everything new is old, and everything old is new, and that there has been no entirely new religion since the beginning of the world. The elements and roots of religion were there as far back as we can trace the history of man; and the history of religion, like the history of language, shows us throughout a succession of new combinations of the same radical elements. An Intuition of God, a sense of human weakness and dependence, a belief in the divine government of the world, a distinction between good and evil, and a hope for a better life— these are some of the radical elements of all religions. Though sometimes hidden, rhey rise again and again to the surface. Though frequently distorted they tend again and again to their perfect form, though always under another name."
St. Augustine himself, in accordance with this idea, said: "What is now called the Christian religion has existed among the ancients, ?nd was not absent from the beginning of the human race, until Jesus came in the flesh, from which time the
jma — _ . — ! 1 ■ ■
PHILOSOPHY OF FIRE 21
leligion which existed already, began to be called Christian."
The underlying principles in all true religions is the Phil- osophy of Fire. The very foundation of the Secret Doctrine and the Ancient Mysteries is this same Philosophy of Fire — Symbol of God — Life of Love. In the work before the reader, quotations have been made from the Secret Science of the Greater Fraternities which were instrumental in shaping the religious beliefs of the people. The only one not thus consid- ered is Zoroaster and his doctrine.
Before the time of Zoroaster, the Persians, like the early Egyptians, worshipped in the open air, long after other nations had constructed temples, as they considered the broad expanse of the heavens as a sublime covering for their devotion of the Deity. Their places of sacrifice were much like those of the northern nations of Europe, composed of circles of upright stones, rough and unhewn. They abominated images, and wor- shipped the Sun and Fire, as representative of the Omnipresent Deity.
The Jews, even though they did not belong to the Inner Circle of any Priesthood and therefore merely followed the exoteric religious ceremonies, were not exempt from the worship of Fire. God appeared in the Cherubim, over the gate of Eden as a Flaming Sword, and to Abraham as Flame of Fire, to Moses as a Fire in the bush at Horeb, and to the whole assem- bly of the people at Sinai when he descended upon the moun- tain in Fire. Moses himself told them that their God was a consuming fire, which was reechoed more than once, and later the Jews were weak enough to worship the material fire, in lieu of the Invisible and Eternal God. Zoroaster succeeded in per- suading them to enclose their sacred fire altars in covered tow- ers, because, being on elevated and exposed hills, the fire was liable to be extinguished by storms. These were circular build- ings, covered with domes, having small openings at the top allowing the smoke to escape.
Undoubtedly a difference of opinion existed between the
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various sects, as is illustrated by the following story: "A Jew entered a Parsee temple and beheld the Sacred Fire. "What!" said he to the priest, "do you worship the fire?" "Not the fire," answered the priest, "U is to us the emblem of the Sun and of his genial heat." "Do you then worship the sun as your God?" questioned the Jew. "Know ye not that this luminary also is but a work of the Almighty Creator?" "We know it," replied the priest, "but the uncultivated man requires a sensible sign in order to form a conception of the Most High, and is not the sun, the incomprehensible source of light, an image of the invisible being who blesses and preserves all things?" "Do you people, then," rejoined the Israelite, "distinguish the type from the original? They call the sun their God, and, descend- ing even from this to a baser object, they kneel before an earthly flame. Ye amuse the outward but blind the inward eye; and while ye hold to them the earthly, ye draw from them the heav- enly Light! Thou shalt not make unto thyself any image or likeness." "How do you designate the Supreme Being?" asked the Parsee. "We call him Jehovah Adonai, that is, Lord who is, who was, and who will be," answered the Jew. "Your appela- tion is grand and sublime," said the Parsee, "but it is awful too." A Christian then drew nigh and said "We call him Father." The Pagan and the Jew looked at each other and said, "Here is at once an image and a reality, it is a word of the heart." Therefore they all raised their eyes to heaven, and said, with reverence and love, "Our Father," and they took each other by the hand, and all three called one another, "brother." The names of the various religious systems may be differ- ent, but the underlying principle, when actually understood, is ever the same. It is immaterial what exoteric system of re- ligion may be studied, it will always be found that God is a "Consuming Fire." In the Ancient Mysteries this is even more a fact because therein we are taught what this living fire actu- ally is, where it is, and how and whence man received it.
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"Ever since the most ancient times Divine Wisdom has taught the same doctrine through the lips of the wise. Hermes Trismegistus, Confucius and Zoroaster, Buddha and Jesus who became the Christ, Socrates, Saint Martin and Jacob Boehmen, Theophrastus Paracelsus, Cornelius Agrippa, Shakespeare and Shoppenhauer, P. B. Randolph, M. D., James R. Phelps,