THE SECRET TEACHINGS OF ALL

AGES

AN ENCYCLOPEDIC OUTLINE OF

MASONIC, HERMETIC,

QABBALISTIC AND ROSICRUCIAN

SYMBOLICAL PHILOSOPHY

Being an Interpretation of the

Secret Teachings concealed within the Rituals, Allegories,

and Mysteries of all Ages

By

Manly P. Hall

SAN FRANCISCO

PRINTED FOR MANLY P. HALL

BY H.S. CROCKER COMPANY, INCORPORATED

MCMXXVIII

[1928, no renewal]

Scanned at sacred-texts.com, November, 2001. J. B. Hare, Redactor. This text is in the public domain because it was not renewed at the US Copyright Office in a timely fashion. These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose, provided this notice of attribution is left intact.

Note: all page numbers in the original were given as Roman numerals; these have been converted to Arabic numerals in this etext.

p. 3

This Book is dedicated to the Rational Soul of the World

Source URL: http://www.sacred-texts.com/eso/sta/index.htm

PREFACE

NUMEROUS volumes have been written as commentaries upon the secret systems of

philosophy existing in the ancient world, but the ageless truths of life, like many of the

earth's greatest thinkers, have usually been clothed in shabby garments. The present work

is an attempt to supply a tome worthy of those seers and sages whose thoughts are the

substance of its pages. To bring about this coalescence of Beauty and Truth has proved

most costly, but I believe that the result will produce an effect upon the mind of the

reader which will more than justify the expenditure.

Work upon the text of this volume was begun the first day of January, 1926, and has

continued almost uninterruptedly for over two years. The greater part of the research

work, however, was carried on prior to the writing of the manuscript. The collection of

reference material was begun in 1921, and three years later the plans for the book took

definite form. For the sake of clarity, all footnotes were eliminated, the various quotations

and references to other authors being embodied in the text in their logical order. The

bibliography is appended primarily to assist those interested in selecting for future study

the most authoritative and important items dealing with philosophy and symbolism. To

make readily accessible the abstruse information contained in the book, an elaborate

topical cross index is included.

I make no claim for either the infallibility or the originality of any statement herein

contained. I have studied the fragmentary writings of the ancients sufficiently to realize

that dogmatic utterances concerning their tenets are worse than foolhardy. Traditionalism

is the curse of modern philosophy, particularly that of the European schools. While many

of the statements contained in this treatise may appear at first wildly fantastic, I have

sincerely endeavored to refrain from haphazard metaphysical speculation, presenting the

material as far as possible in the spirit rather than the letter of the original authors. By

assuming responsibility only for the mistakes which may' appear herein, I hope to escape

the accusation of plagiarism which has been directed against nearly every writer on the

subject of mystical philosophy.

Having no particular ism of my own to promulgate, I have not attempted to twist the

original writings to substantiate preconceived notions, nor have I distorted doctrines in

any effort to reconcile the irreconcilable differences present in the various systems of

religio-philosophic thought.

The entire theory of the book is diametrically opposed to the modern method of thinking,

for it is concerned with subjects openly ridiculed by the sophists of the twentieth century.

Its true purpose is to introduce the mind of the reader to a hypothesis of living wholly

beyond the pale of materialistic theology, philosophy, or science. The mass of abstruse

material between its covers is not susceptible to perfect organization, but so far as

possible related topics have been grouped together.

Rich as the English language is in media of expression, it is curiously lacking in terms

suitable to the conveyance of abstract philosophical premises. A certain intuitive grasp of

the subtler meanings concealed within groups of inadequate words is necessary therefore

to an understanding of the ancient Mystery Teachings.

Although the majority of the items in the bibliography are in my own library, I wish to

acknowledge gratefully the assistance rendered by the Public Libraries of San Francisco

and Los Angeles, the libraries of the Scottish Rite in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the

libraries of the University of California in Berkeley and Los Angeles, the Mechanics'

Library in San Francisco, and the Krotona Theosophical Library at Ojai, California.

Special recognition for their help is also due to the following persons: Mrs. Max Heindel,

Mrs. Alice Palmer Henderson, Mr. Ernest Dawson and staff, Mr. John Howell, Mr. Paul

Elder, Mr. Phillip Watson Hackett, and Mr. John R. Ruckstell. Single books were lent by

other persons and organizations, to whom thanks are also given.

The matter of translation was the greatest single task in the research work incident to the

preparation of this volume. The necessary

p. 6

German translations, which required nearly three years, were generously undertaken by

Mr. Alfred Beri, who declined all remuneration for his labor. The Latin, Italian, French,

and Spanish translations were made by Prof. Homer P. Earle. The Hebrew text was edited

by Rabbi Jacob M. Alkow. Miscellaneous short translations and checking also were done

by various individuals.

The editorial work was under the supervision of Dr. C. B. Rowlingson, through whose

able efforts literary order was often brought out of literary chaos. Special recognition is

also due the services rendered by Mr. Robert B. Tummonds, of the staff of H. S. Crocker

Company, Inc., to whom were assigned the technical difficulties of fitting the text matter

into its allotted space. For much of the literary charm of the work I am also indebted to

Mr. M. M. Saxton, to whom the entire manuscript was first dictated and to whom was

also entrusted the preparation of the index. The splendid efforts of Mr. J. Augustus

Knapp, the illustrator, have resulted in a series of color plates which add materially to the

beauty and completeness of the work. Q The printing of the book was in the hands of Mr.

Frederick E. Keast, of H. S. Crocker Company, Inc., whose great personal interest in the

volume has been manifested by an untiring effort to improve the quality thereof Through

the gracious cooperation of Dr. John Henry Nash, the foremost designer of printing on

the American Continent, the book appears in a unique and appropriate form, embodying

the finest elements of the printer's craft. An increase in the number of plates and also a

finer quality of workmanship than was first contemplated have been made possible by

Mr. C. E. Benson, of the Los Angeles Engraving Company, who entered heart and soul

into the production of this volume.

The pre-publication sale of this book has been without known precedent in book history.

The subscription list for the first edition of 550 copies was entirely closed a year before

the manuscript was placed in the printer's hands. The second, or King Solomon, edition,

consisting of 550 copies, and the third, or Theosophical, edition, consisting of 200 copies,

were sold before the finished volume was received from the printer. For so ambitious a

production, this constitutes a unique achievement. The credit for this extraordinary sales

program belongs to Mrs. Maud F. Galigher, who had as her ideal not to sell the book in

the commercial sense of the word but to place it in the hands of those particularly

interested in the subject matter it contains. Valuable assistance in this respect was also

rendered by numerous friends who had attended my lectures and who without

compensation undertook and successfully accomplished the distribution of the book.

In conclusion, the author wishes to acknowledge gratefully his indebtedness to each one

of the hundreds of subscribers through whose advance payments the publication of this

folio was made possible. To undertake the enormous expense involved was entirely

beyond his individual means and those who invested in the volume had no assurance of

its production and no security other than their faith in the integrity of the writer.

I sincerely hope that each reader will profit from the perusal of this book, even as I have

profited from the writing of it. The years of labor and thought expended upon it have

meant much to me. The research work discovered to me many great truths; the writing of

it discovered to me the laws of order and patience; the printing of it discovered to me new

wonders of the arts and crafts; and the whole enterprise has discovered to me a multitude

of friends whom otherwise I might never have known. And so, in the words of John

Bunyan:

I penned

It down, until at last it came to be,

For length and breadth, the bigness which you see.

MANLY P. HALL.

Los Angeles, California

May 28,1928

p. 7

Table of Contents

DEDICATION

3

PREFACE

5

COLOR PLATES

9

ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

11

INTRODUCTION

12

THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES AND SECRET SOCIETIES WHICH HAVE

INFLUENCED MODERN MASONIC SYMBOLISM

Ancient systems of education--Celsus concerning the Christians--

21

Knowledge necessary to right living--The Druidic Mysteries of Britain and

Gaul--The Rites of Mithras--The Mithraic and Christian Mysteries

contrasted.

THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES AND SECRET SOCIETIES, PART II

The Gnostic Mysteries--Simon Magus and Basilides--Abraxas, the Gnostic 25

concept of Deity--The Mysteries of Serapis--Labyrinth symbolism--The

Odinic, or Gothic, Mysteries.

THE ANCIENT MYSTERIES AND SECRET SOCIETIES, PART III

The Eleusinian Mysteries--The Lesser Rites--The Greater Rites--The Orphic 29

Mysteries--The Bacchic Mysteries--The Dionysiac Mysteries.

ATLANTIS AND THE GODS OF ANTIQUITY

Plato's Atlantis in the light of modern science-The Myth of the Dying God- 33

The Rite of Tammuz and Ishtar--The Mysteries of Atys and Adonis-The

Rites of Sabazius--The Cabiric Mysteries of Samothrace.

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS OF THOTH HERMES TRISMEGISTUS

Suppositions concerning identity of Hermes--The mutilated Hermetic

37

fragments--The Book of Thoth--Poimandres, the Vision of Hermes--The

Mystery of Universal Mind--The Seven Governors of the World.

THE INITIATION OF THE PYRAMID

The opening of the Great Pyramid by Caliph at Mamoun--The passageways

and chambers of the Great Pyramid--The riddle of the Sphinx--The Pyramid 41

Mysteries--The secret of the Pyramid coffer-The dwelling place of the

Hidden God.

ISIS, THE VIRGIN OF THE WORLD

The birthdays of the gods--The murder of Osiris--The Hermetic Isis--The

45

symbols peculiar to Isis--The Troubadours--The mummification of the dead.

THE SUN, A UNIVERSAL DEITY

49

The Solar Trinity-Christianity and the Sun--The birthday of the Sun--The

three Suns--The celestial inhabitants of the Sun--The midnight Sun.

THE ZODIAC AND ITS SIGNS

Primitive astronomical instruments--The equinoxes and solstices--The

53

astrological ages of the world--The circular zodiac of Tentyra--An

interpretation of the zodiacal signs--The horoscope of the world.

THE BEMBINE TABLE OF ISIS

Plato's initiation in the Great Pyramid--The history of the Bembine Table--

57

Platonic theory of ideas--The interplay of the three philosophical zodiacs--

The Chaldean philosophy of triads--The Orphic Egg.

WONDERS OF ANTIQUITY

The ever-burning lamps--The oracle of Delphi--The Dodonean oracle--The 61

oracle of Trophonius--The initiated architects--The Seven Wonders of the

world.

THE LIFE AND PHILOSOPHY OF PYTHAGORAS

Pythagoras and the School of Crotona--Pythagoric fundamentals--The

65

symmetrical solids--The symbolic aphorisms of Pythagoras--Pythagorean

astronomy--Kepler's theory of the universe.

PYTHAGOREAN MATHEMATICS

The theory of numbers--The numerical values of letters--Method of securing 69

the numerical Power of words--An introduction to the Pythagorean theory of

numbers--The sieve of Eratosthenes--The meanings of the ten numbers.

THE HUMAN BODY IN SYMBOLISM

The philosophical manikin--The three universal centers--The temples of

73

initiation--The hand in symbolism--The greater and lesser man--The

Anthropos, or Oversoul.

THE HIRAMIC LEGEND

The building of Solomon's Temple--The murder of CHiram Abiff--The

martyrdom of Jacques de Molay--The spirit fire and the pineal gland--The

77

wanderings of the astronomical CHiram--Cleopatra's Needle and Masons'

marks.

THE PYTHAGOREAN THEORY OF MUSIC AND COLOR

Pythagoras and the diatonic scale--Therapeutic music--The music of the

81

spheres--The use of color in symbolism--The colors of the spectrum and the

musical scale--Zodiacal and planetary colors.

FISHES, INSECTS, ANIMALS, REPTILES, AND BIRDS

Jonah and the whale--The fish the symbol of Christ--The Egyptian scarab-- 85

Jupiter's fly--The serpent of wisdom--The sacred crocodile.

FISHES, INSECTS, ANIMALS, REPTILES, AND BIRDS, PART II

The dove, the yonic emblem--The self-renewing phœnix--The Great Seal of 89

the United States of America--Bast, the cat goddess of the Ptolemies--Apis,

the sacred bull--The monoceros, or unicorn.

FLOWERS, PLANTS, FRUITS, AND TREES

93

The flower, a phallic symbol--The lotus blossom--The Scandinavian World

Tree, Yggdrasil--The sprig of acacia--The juice of the grape--The magical

powers of the mandrake.

STONES, METALS, AND GEMS

Prehistoric monuments--The tablets of the Law--The Holy Grail--The ages 97

of the world--Talismanic jewels--Zodiacal and planetary stones and gems.

CEREMONIAL MAGIC AND SORCERY

The black magic of Egypt--Doctor Johannes Faustus--The Mephistopheles 101

of the Grimores--The invocation of spirits--Pacts with demons--The

symbolism of the pentagram.

p. 8

THE ELEMENTS AND THEIR INHABITANTS.

The Paracelsian theory of submundanes--The orders of elemental beings--

105

The Gnomes, Undines, Salamanders, and Sylphs--Demonology--The

incubus and succubus--Vampirism.

HERMETIC PHARMACOLOGY, CHEMISTRY, AND THERAPEUTICS

The healing methods of Paracelsus--Palingenesis--Hermetic theories

109

concerning the cause of disease--Medicinal properties of herbs--The use of

drugs in the Mysteries--The sect of the Assassins.

THE QABBALAH, THE SECRET DOCTRINE OF ISRAEL

The written and unwritten laws--The origin of the Qabbalistic writings--

113

Rabbi Simeon ben Jochai--The great Qabbalistic books--The divisions of the

Qabbalistic system--The Sepher Yetzirah.

FUNDAMENTALS OF QABBALISTIC COSMOGONY AIN SOPH

and the Cosmic Egg--The Qabbalistic system of worlds--The Qabbalistic

117

interpretation of Ezekiel's vision--The great image of Nebuchadnezzar's

dream--The Grand Man of the universe--The fifty gates of life.

THE TREE OF THE SEPHIROTH

The thirty-two paths of wisdom--The Greater and the Lesser Face--Kircher's 121

Sephirothic Tree--The mystery of Daath--The three pillars supporting the

Sephirothic Tree--The four letters of the Sacred Name.

QABBALISTIC KEYS TO THE CREATION OF MAN

Gematria, Notarikon, and Temurah--The Elohim--The four Adams--Arabian 125

traditions concerning Adam--Adam as the archetype of mankind--The early

Christian Church on the subject of marriage.

AN ANALYSIS OF THE TAROT CARDS

The origin of playing cards--The rota mundi of the Rosicrucians--The

129

problem of Tarot symbolism--The unnumbered card--The symbolism of the

twenty-one major trumps--The suit cards.

THE TABERNACLE IN THE WILDERNESS

Moses, the Egyptian initiate--The building of the Tabernacle--The

133

furnishings of the Tabernacle--The Ark of the Covenant--The Robes of

Glory--The Urim and Thummim.

THE FRATERNITY OF THE ROSE CROSS

137

The life of Father C.R.C.--Johann Valentin Andreæ--The alchemical

teachings of the Rosicrucians--Significance of the Rose Cross--The

Rosicrucian Temple--The adepts of the Rose Cross.

ROSICRUCIAN DOCTRINES AND TENETS

The Confessio Fraternitatis--The Anatomy of Melancholy--John Heydon on 141

Rosicrucianism--The three mountains of the wise--The philosophical egg--

The objects of the Rosicrucian Order.

FIFTEEN ROSICRUCIAN AND QABBALISTIC DIAGRAMS

Schamayim, the Ocean of Spirit--The Seven Days of Creation--The

145

symbolic tomb of Christian Rosencreutz--The regions of the elements--The

New Jerusalem--The grand secret of Nature.

ALCHEMY AND ITS EXPONENTS

The multiplication of metals--The medal of Emperor Leopold I--Paracelsus 149

of Hohenheim--Raymond Lully--Nicholas Flarnmel--Count Bernard of

Treviso.

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ALCHEMY

The origin of alchemical philosophy--Alexander the Great and the talking

153

trees--Nature and art--Alchemical symbolism--The Song of Solomon--The

Philosopher's Gold.

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF ALCHEMY, PART II

The alchemical prayer--The Emerald Tablet of Hermes--A letter from the

157

Brothers of R.C.--The magical Mountain of the Moon--An alchemical

formula--The dew of the sages.

THE CHEMICAL MARRIAGE

Christian Rosencreutz is invited to the Chemical Wedding--The Virgo

161

Lucifera--The philosophical Inquisition--The Tower of Olympus--The

homunculi--The Knights of the Golden Stone.

BACON, SHAKSPEARE, AND THE ROSICRUCIANS

The Rosicrucian mask--Life of William Shakspere--Sir Francis Bacon--The 165

acrostic signatures--The significant number thirty-three--The philosophic

death.

THE CRYPTOGRAM AS A FACTOR IN SYMBOLIC PHILOSOPHY

Secret alphabets--The biliteral cipher--Pictorial ciphers--Acroamatic

169

ciphers--Numerical and musical ciphers--Code ciphers.

FREEMASONIC SYMBOLISM

The pillars raised by the sons of Seth--Enoch and the Royal Arches--The

173

Dionysiac Architects--The Roman Collegia--Solomon, the personification of

Universal Wisdom--Freemasonry's priceless heritage.

MYSTIC CHRISTIANITY

St. Iranæus on the life of Christ--The original name of Jesus--The Christened 177

man--The Essenes--The Arthurian cycle--Merlin the Mage.

THE CROSS AND THE CRUCIFIXION

The Aurea Legenda--The lost libraries of Alexandria--The cross in pagan

181

symbolism--The crucifixion, a cosmic allegory--The crucifixion of

Quetzalcoatl--The nails of the Passion.

THE MYSTERY OF THE APOCALYPSE

The sacred city of Ephesus--The authorship of the Apocalypse--The Alpha 185

and Omega--The Lamb of God-The Four Horsemen-The number of the

beast.

THE FAITH OF ISLAM

The life of Mohammed--The revelation of the Koran--The valedictory

189

pilgrimage--The tomb of the Prophet--The Caaba at Mecca--The secret

doctrine of Islam.

AMERICAN INDIAN SYMBOLISM

The ceremony of the peace pipe--The historical Hiawatha--The Popol Vuh-- 193

American Indian sorcery--The Mysteries of Xibalba--The Midewiwin.

THE MYSTERIES AND THEIR EMISSARIES

The Golden Chain of Homer--Hypatia, the Alexandrian Neo-Platonist--The 197

"divine" Cagliostro--The Comte de St.-Germain--The designing of the

American flag--The Declaration of Independence.

CONCLUSION

201

BIBLIOGRAPHY

205

INDEX

p. 12 p. 13

Introduction

PHILOSOPHY is the science of estimating values. The superiority of any state or

substance over another is determined by philosophy. By assigning a position of primary

importance to what remains when all that is secondary has been removed, philosophy

thus becomes the true index of priority or emphasis in the realm of speculative thought.

The mission of philosophy a priori is to establish the relation of manifested things to their

invisible ultimate cause or nature.

"Philosophy," writes Sir William Hamilton, "has been defined [as]: The science of things

divine and human, and of the causes in which they are contained [Cicero]; The science of

effects by their causes [Hobbes]; The science of sufficient reasons [Leibnitz]; The science

of things possible, inasmuch as they are possible [Wolf]; The science of things evidently

deduced from first principles [Descartes]; The science of truths, sensible and abstract [de

Condillac]; The application of reason to its legitimate objects [Tennemann]; The science

of the relations of all knowledge to the necessary ends of human reason [Kant];The

science of the original form of the ego or mental self [Krug]; The science of sciences

[Fichte]; The science of the absolute [von Schelling]; The science of the absolute

indifference of the ideal and real [von Schelling]--or, The identity of identity and non-

identity [Hegel]." (See Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic.)

The six headings under which the disciplines of philosophy are commonly classified are:

metaphysics, which deals with such abstract subjects as cosmology, theology, and the

nature of being; logic, which deals with the laws governing rational thinking, or, as it has

been called, "the doctrine of fallacies"; ethics, which is the science of morality, individual

responsibility, and character--concerned chiefly with an effort to determine the nature of

good; psychology, which is devoted to investigation and classification of those forms of

phenomena referable to a mental origin; epistemology, which is the science concerned

primarily with the nature of knowledge itself and the question of whether it may exist in

an absolute form; and æsthetics, which is the science of the nature of and the reactions

awakened by the beautiful, the harmonious, the elegant, and the noble.

Plato regarded philosophy as the greatest good ever imparted by Divinity to man. In the

twentieth century, however, it has become a ponderous and complicated structure of

arbitrary and irreconcilable notions--yet each substantiated by almost incontestible logic.

The lofty theorems of the old Academy which Iamblichus likened to the nectar and

ambrosia of the gods have been so adulterated by opinion--which Heraclitus declared to

be a falling sickness of the mind--that the heavenly mead would now be quite

unrecognizable to this great Neo-Platonist. Convincing evidence of the increasing

superficiality of modern scientific and philosophic thought is its persistent drift towards

materialism. When the great astronomer Laplace was asked by Napoleon why he had not

mentioned God in his Traité de la Mécanique Céleste, the mathematician naively replied:

"Sire, I had no need for that hypothesis!"

In his treatise on Atheism, Sir Francis Bacon tersely summarizes the situation thus: "A

little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's

minds about to religion." The Metaphysics of Aristotle opens with these words: "All men

naturally desire to know." To satisfy this common urge the unfolding human intellect has

explored the extremities of imaginable space without and the extremities of imaginable

self within, seeking to estimate the relationship between the one and the all; the effect and

the cause; Nature and the groundwork of Nature; the mind and the source of the mind; the

spirit and the substance of the spirit; the illusion and the reality.

An ancient philosopher once said: "He who has not even a knowledge of common things

is a brute among men. He who has an accurate knowledge of human concerns alone is a

man among brutes. But he who knows all that can be known by intellectual energy, is a

God among men." Man's status in the natural world is determined, therefore, by the

quality of his thinking. He whose mind is enslaved to his bestial instincts is

philosophically not superior to the brute-, he whose rational faculties ponder human

affairs is a man; and he whose intellect is elevated to the consideration of divine realities

is already a demigod, for his being partakes of the luminosity with which his reason has

brought him into proximity. In his encomium of "the science of sciences" Cicero is led to

exclaim: "O philosophy, life's guide! O searcher--out of virtue and expeller of vices!

What could we and every age of men have been without thee? Thou hast produced cities;

thou hast called men scattered about into the social enjoyment of life."

In this age the word philosophy has little meaning unless accompanied by some other

qualifying term. The body of philosophy has been broken up into numerous isms more or

less antagonistic, which have become so concerned with the effort to disprove each

other's fallacies that the sublimer issues of divine order and human destiny have suffered

deplorable neglect. The ideal function of philosophy is to serve as the stabilizing

influence in human thought. By virtue of its intrinsic nature it should prevent man from

ever establishing unreasonable codes of life. Philosophers themselves, however, have

frustrated the ends of philosophy by exceeding in their woolgathering those untrained

minds whom they are supposed to lead in the straight and narrow path of rational

thinking. To list and classify any but the more important of the now recognized schools

of philosophy is beyond the space limitations of this volume. The vast area of speculation

covered by philosophy will be appreciated best after a brief consideration of a few of the

outstanding systems of philosophic discipline which have swayed the world of thought

during the last twenty-six centuries. The Greek school of philosophy had its inception

with the seven immortalized thinkers upon whom was first conferred the appellation of

Sophos, "the wise." According to Diogenes Laertius, these were Thales, Solon, Chilon,

Pittacus, Bias, Cleobulus, and Periander. Water was conceived by Thales to be the primal

principle or element, upon which the earth floated like a ship, and earthquakes were the

result of disturbances in this universal sea. Since Thales was an Ionian, the school

perpetuating his tenets became known as the Ionic. He died in 546 B.C., and was

succeeded by Anaximander, who in turn was followed by Anaximenes, Anaxagoras, and

Archelaus, with whom the Ionic school ended. Anaximander, differing from his master

Thales, declared measureless and indefinable infinity to be the principle from which all

things were generated. Anaximenes asserted air to be the first element of the universe;

that souls and even the Deity itself were composed of it.

Anaxagoras (whose doctrine savors of atomism) held God to be an infinite self-moving

mind; that this divine infinite Mind, not

Click to enlarge

BABBITT'S ATOM.

From Babbitt's Principles of Light and Color.

Since the postulation of the atomic theory by Democritus, many efforts have been made to determine the

structure of atoms and the method by which they unite to form various elements, Even science has not

refrained from entering this field of speculation and presents for consideration most detailed and elaborate

representations of these minute bodies. By far the most remarkable conception of the atom evolved during

the last century is that produced by the genius of Dr. Edwin D. Babbitt and which is reproduced herewith.

The diagram is self-explanatory. It must be borne in mind that this apparently massive structure is actually

s minute as to defy analysis. Not only did Dr. Babbitt create this form of the atom but he also contrived a

method whereby these particles could be grouped together in an orderly manner and thus result in the

formation of molecular bodies.

p. 14

inclosed in any body, is the efficient cause of all things; out of the infinite matter

consisting of similar parts, everything being made according to its species by the divine

mind, who when all things were at first confusedly mingled together, came and reduced

them to order." Archelaus declared the principle of all things to be twofold: mind (which

was incorporeal) and air (which was corporeal), the rarefaction and condensation of the

latter resulting in fire and water respectively. The stars were conceived by Archelaus to

be burning iron places. Heraclitus (who lived 536-470 B.C. and is sometimes included in

the Ionic school) in his doctrine of change and eternal flux asserted fire to be the first

element and also the state into which the world would ultimately be reabsorbed. The soul

of the world he regarded as an exhalation from its humid parts, and he declared the ebb

and flow of the sea to be caused by the sun.

After Pythagoras of Samos, its founder, the Italic or Pythagorean school numbers among

its most distinguished representatives Empedocles, Epicharmus, Archytas, Alcmæon,

Hippasus, Philolaus, and Eudoxus. Pythagoras (580-500? B.C.) conceived mathematics to

be the most sacred and exact of all the sciences, and demanded of all who came to him

for study a familiarity with arithmetic, music, astronomy, and geometry. He laid special

emphasis upon the philosophic life as a prerequisite to wisdom. Pythagoras was one of

the first teachers to establish a community wherein all the members were of mutual

assistance to one another in the common attainment of the higher sciences. He also

introduced the discipline of retrospection as essential to the development of the spiritual

mind. Pythagoreanism may be summarized as a system of metaphysical speculation

concerning the relationships between numbers and the causal agencies of existence. This

school also first expounded the theory of celestial harmonics or "the music of the

spheres." John Reuchlin said of Pythagoras that he taught nothing to his disciples before

the discipline of silence, silence being the first rudiment of contemplation. In his Sophist,

Aristotle credits Empedocles with the discovery of rhetoric. Both Pythagoras and

Empedocles accepted the theory of transmigration, the latter saying: "A boy I was, then

did a maid become; a plant, bird, fish, and in the vast sea swum." Archytas is credited

with invention of the screw and the crane. Pleasure he declared to be a pestilence because

it was opposed to the temperance of the mind; he considered a man without deceit to be

as rare as a fish without bones.

The Eleatic sect was founded by Xenophanes (570-480 B.C.), who was conspicuous for

his attacks upon the cosmologic and theogonic fables of Homer and Hesiod. Xenophanes

declared that God was "one and incorporeal, in substance and figure round, in no way

resembling man; that He is all sight and all hearing, but breathes not; that He is all things,

the mind and wisdom, not generate but eternal, impassible, immutable, and rational."

Xenophanes believed that all existing things were eternal, that the world was without

beginning or end, and that everything which was generated was subject to corruption. He

lived to great age and is said to have buried his sons with his own hands. Parmenides

studied under Xenophanes, but never entirely subscribed to his doctrines. Parmenides

declared the senses to be uncertain and reason the only criterion of truth. He first asserted

the earth to be round and also divided its surface into zones of hear and cold.

Melissus, who is included in the Eleatic school, held many opinions in common with

Parmenides. He declared the universe to be immovable because, occupying all space,

there was no place to which it could be moved. He further rejected the theory of a

vacuum in space. Zeno of Elea also maintained that a vacuum could not exist. Rejecting

the theory of motion, he asserted that there was but one God, who was an eternal,

ungenerated Being. Like Xenophanes, he conceived Deity to be spherical in shape.

Leucippus held the Universe to consist of two parts: one full and the other a vacuum.

From the Infinite a host of minute fragmentary bodies descended into the vacuum, where,

through continual agitation, they organized themselves into spheres of substance.

The great Democritus to a certain degree enlarged upon the atomic theory of Leucippus.

Democritus declared the principles of all things to be twofold: atoms and vacuum. Both,

he asserted, are infinite--atoms in number, vacuum in magnitude. Thus all bodies must be

composed of atoms or vacuum. Atoms possessed two properties, form and size, both

characterized by infinite variety. The soul Democritus also conceived to be atomic in

structure and subject to dissolution with the body. The mind he believed to be composed

of spiritual atoms. Aristotle intimates that Democritus obtained his atomic theory from

the Pythagorean doctrine of the Monad. Among the Eleatics are also included Protagoras

and Anaxarchus.

Socrates (469-399 B.C.), the founder of the Socratic sect, being fundamentally a Skeptic,

did not force his opinions upon others, but through the medium of questionings caused

each man to give expression to his own philosophy. According to Plutarch, Socrates

conceived every place as appropriate for reaching in that the whole world was a school of

virtue. He held that the soul existed before the body and, prior to immersion therein, was

endowed with all knowledge; that when the soul entered into the material form it became

stupefied, but that by discourses upon sensible objects it was caused to reawaken and to

recover its original knowledge. On these premises was based his attempt to stimulate the

soul-power through irony and inductive reasoning. It has been said of Socrates that the

sole subject of his philosophy was man. He himself declared philosophy to be the way of

true happiness and its purpose twofold: (1) to contemplate God, and (2) to abstract the

soul from corporeal sense.

The principles of all things he conceived to be three in number: God, matter, and ideas.

Of God he said: "What He is I know not; what He is not I know." Matter he defined as

the subject of generation and corruption; idea, as an incorruptible substance--the intellect

of God. Wisdom he considered the sum of the virtues. Among the prominent members of

the Socratic sect were Xenophon, Æschines, Crito, Simon, Glauco, Simmias, and Cebes.

Professor Zeller, the great authority on ancient philosophies, has recently declared the

writings of Xenophon relating to Socrates to be forgeries. When The Clouds of

Aristophanes, a comedy written to ridicule the theories of Socrates, was first presented,

the great Skeptic himself attended the play. During the performance, which caricatured

him seated in a basket high in the air studying the sun, Socrates rose calmly in his seat,

the better to enable the Athenian spectators to compare his own unprepossessing features

with the grotesque mask worn by the actor impersonating him.

The Elean sect was founded by Phædo of Elis, a youth of noble family, who was bought

from slavery at the instigation of Socrates and who became his devoted disciple. Plato so

highly admired Phædo's mentality that he named one of the most famous of his

discourses The Phædo. Phædo was succeeded in his school by Plisthenes, who in turn

was followed by Menedemus. Of the doctrines of the Elean sect little is known.

Menedemus is presumed to have been inclined toward the teachings of Stilpo and the

Megarian sect. When Menedemus' opinions were demanded, he answered that he was

free, thus intimating that most men were enslaved to their opinions. Menedemus was

apparently of a somewhat belligerent temperament and often returned from his lectures in

a badly bruised condition. The most famous of his propositions is stated thus: That which

is not the same is different from that with which it is not the same. This point being

admitted, Menedemus continued: To benefit is not the same as good, therefore good does

not benefit. After the time of Menedemus the Elean sect became known as the Eretrian.

Its exponents denounced all negative propositions and all complex and abstruse theories,

declaring that only affirmative and simple doctrines could be true.

The Megarian sect was founded by Euclid of Megara (not the celebrated mathematician),

a great admirer of Socrates. The Athenians passed a law decreeing death to any citizen of

Megara found in the city of Athens. Nothing daunted, Euclid donned woman's clothing

and went at night to study with Socrates. After the cruel death of their teacher, the

disciples of Socrates, fearing a similar fate, fled to Megara, where they were entertained

with great honor by Euclid. The Megarian school accepted the Socratic doctrine that

virtue is wisdom, adding to it the Eleatic concept that goodness is absolute unity and all

change an illusion of the senses. Euclid maintained that good has no opposite and

therefore evil does not exist. Being asked about the nature of the gods, he declared

himself ignorant of their disposition save that they hated curious persons.

The Megarians are occasionally included among the dialectic philosophers. Euclid (who

died 374? B.C.) was succeeded in his school by Eubulides, among whose disciples were

Alexinus and Apollonius Cronus. Euphantus, who lived to great age and wrote many

tragedies, was among the foremost followers of Eubulides. Diodorus is usually included

in the Megarian school, having heard Eubulides lecture. According to legend, Diodorus

died of grief because he could not answer instantly certain questions asked him by Stilpo,

at one time master of the Megarian school. Diodorus held that nothing

Click to enlarge

PLATO.

From Thomasin's Recuil des Figures, Groupes, Thermes, Fontaines, Vases et autres Ornaments.

Plato's real name was Aristocles. When his father brought him to study with Socrates, the great Skeptic

declared that on the previous night he had dreamed of a white swan, which was an omen that his new

disciple was to become one of the world's illumined. There is a tradition that the immortal Plato was sold as

a slave by the King of Sicily.

p. 15

can be moved, since to be moved it must be taken out of the place in which it is and put

into the place where it is not, which is impossible because all things must always be in

the places where they are.

The Cynics were a sect founded by Antisthenes of Athens (444-365? B.C.), a disciple of

Socrates. Their doctrine may be described as an extreme individualism which considers

man as existing for himself alone and advocates surrounding him by inharmony,

suffering, and direst need that be may thereby be driven to retire more completely into his

own nature. The Cynics renounced all worldly possessions, living in the rudest shelters

and subsisting upon the coarsest and simplest food. On the assumption that the gods

wanted nothing, the Cynics affirmed that those whose needs were fewest consequently

approached closest to the divinities. Being asked what he gained by a life of philosophy,

Antisthenes replied that he had learned how to converse with himself.

Diogenes of Sinopis is remembered chiefly for the tub in the Metroum which for many

years served him as a home. The people of Athens loved the beggar-philosopher, and

when a youth in jest bored holes in the tub, the city presented Diogenes with a new one

and punished the youth. Diogenes believed that nothing in life can be rightly

accomplished without exercitation. He maintained that everything in the world belongs to

the wise, a declaration which he proved by the following logic: "All things belong to the

gods; the gods are friends to wise persons; all things are common amongst friends;

therefore all things belong to the wise." Among the Cynics are Monimus, Onesicritus,

Crates, Metrocles, Hipparchia (who married Crates), Menippus, and Menedemus.

The Cyrenaic sect, founded by Aristippus of Cyrene (435-356? B.C.), promulgated the

doctrine of hedonism. Learning of the fame of Socrates, Aristippus journeyed to Athens

and applied himself to the teachings of the great Skeptic. Socrates, pained by the

voluptuous and mercenary tendencies of Aristippus, vainly labored to reform the young

man. Aristippus has the distinction of being consistent in principle and practice, for he

lived in perfect harmony with his philosophy that the quest of pleasure was the chief

purpose of life. The doctrines of the Cyrenaics may be summarized thus: All that is

actually known concerning any object or condition is the feeling which it awakens in

man's own nature. In the sphere of ethics that which awakens the most pleasant feeling is

consequently to be esteemed as the greatest good. Emotional reactions are classified as

pleasant or gentle, harsh, and mean. The end of pleasant emotion is pleasure; the end of

harsh emotion, grief; the end of mean emotion, nothing.

Through mental perversity some men do not desire pleasure. In reality, however, pleasure

(especially of a physical nature) is the true end of existence and exceeds in every way

mental and spiritual enjoyments. Pleasure, furthermore, is limited wholly to the moment;

now is the only time. The past cannot be regarded without regret and the future cannot be

faced without misgiving; therefore neither is conducive to pleasure. No man should

grieve, for grief is the most serious of all diseases. Nature permits man to do anything he

desires; he is limited only by his own laws and customs. A philosopher is one free from

envy, love, and superstition, and whose days are one long round of pleasure. Indulgence

was thus elevated by Aristippus to the chief position among the virtues. He further

declared philosophers to differ markedly from other men in that they alone would not

change the order of their lives if all the laws of men were abolished. Among prominent

philosophers influenced by the Cyrenaic doctrines were Hegesias, Anniceris, Theodorus,

and Bion.

The sect of the Academic philosophers instituted by Plato (427-347 B.C.) was divided

into three major parts--the old, the middle, and the new Academy. Among the old

Academics were Speusippus, Zenocrates, Poleman, Crates, and Crantor. Arcesilaus

instituted the middle Academy and Carneades founded the new. Chief among the masters

of Plato was Socrates. Plato traveled widely and was initiated by the Egyptians into the

profundities of Hermetic philosophy. He also derived much from the doctrines of the

Pythagoreans. Cicero describes the threefold constitution of Platonic philosophy as

comprising ethics, physics, and dialectics. Plato defined good as threefold in character:

good in the soul, expressed through the virtues; good in the body, expressed through the

symmetry and endurance of the parts; and good in the external world, expressed through

social position and companionship. In The Book of Speusippus on Platonic Definitions,

that great Platonist thus defines God: "A being that lives immortally by means of Himself

alone, sufficing for His own blessedness, the eternal Essence, cause of His own goodness.

According to Plato, the One is the term most suitable for defining the Absolute, since the

whole precedes the parts and diversity is dependent on unity, but unity not on diversity.

The One, moreover, is before being, for to be is an attribute or condition of the One.

Platonic philosophy is based upon the postulation of three orders of being: that which

moves unmoved, that which is self-moved, and that which is moved. That which is

immovable but moves is anterior to that which is self-moved, which likewise is anterior

to that which it moves. That in which motion is inherent cannot be separated from its

motive power; it is therefore incapable of dissolution. Of such nature are the immortals.

That which has motion imparted to it from another can be separated from the source of its

an animating principle; it is therefore subject to dissolution. Of such nature are mortal

beings. Superior to both the mortals and the immortals is that condition which continually

moves yet itself is unmoved. To this constitution the power of abidance is inherent; it is

therefore the Divine Permanence upon which all things are established. Being nobler

even than self-motion, the unmoved Mover is the first of all dignities. The Platonic

discipline was founded upon the theory that learning is really reminiscence, or the

bringing into objectivity of knowledge formerly acquired by the soul in a previous state

of existence. At the entrance of the Platonic school in the Academy were written the

words: "Let none ignorant of geometry enter here."

After the death of Plato, his disciples separated into two groups. One, the Academics,

continued to meet in the Academy where once he had presided; the other, the

Peripatetics, removed to the Lyceum under the leadership of Aristotle (384-322 B.C.).

Plato recognized Aristotle as his greatest disciple and, according to Philoponus, referred

to him as "the mind of the school." If Aristotle were absent from the lectures, Plato would

say: "The intellect is not here." Of the prodigious genius of Aristotle, Thomas Taylor

writes in his introduction to The Metaphysics:

"When we consider that he was not only well acquainted with every science, as his works

abundantly evince, but that he wrote on almost every subject which is comprehended in

the circle of human knowledge, and this with matchless accuracy and skill, we know not

which to admire most, the penetration or extent of his mind."

Click to enlarge

THE PROBLEM OF DIVERSITY.

From Kircher's Ars Magna Sciendi.

In the above diagram Kircher arranges eighteen objects in two vertical columns and then determines he

number of arrangements in which they can be combined. By the same method Kircher further estimates that

fifty objects may be arranged in

1,273,726,838,815,420,339,851,343,083,767,005,515,293,749,454,795,408,000,000,000,000 combinations.

From this it will be evident that infinite diversity is possible, for the countless parts of the universe may be related to each other in an incalculable number of ways; and through the various combinations of these

limitless subdivisions of being, infinite individuality and infinite variety must inevitably result. Thus it is further evident that life can never become monotonous or exhaust the possibilities of variety.

p. 16

[paragraph continues] Of the philosophy of Aristotle, the same author says: "The end of

Aristotle's moral philosophy is perfection through the virtues, and the end of his

contemplative philosophy an union with the one principle of all things."

Aristotle conceived philosophy to be twofold: practical and theoretical. Practical

philosophy embraced ethics and politics; theoretical philosophy, physics and logic.

Metaphysics he considered to be the science concerning that substance which has the

principle of motion and rest inherent to itself. To Aristotle the soul is that by which man

first lives, feels, and understands. Hence to the soul he assigned three faculties: nutritive,

sensitive, and intellective. He further considered the soul to be twofold--rational and

irrational--and in some particulars elevated the sense perceptions above the mind.

Aristotle defined wisdom as the science of first Causes. The four major divisions of his

philosophy are dialectics, physics, ethics, and metaphysics. God is defined as the First

Mover, the Best of beings, an immovable Substance, separate from sensible things, void

of corporeal quantity, without parts and indivisible. Platonism is based upon a priori

reasoning; Aristotelianism upon a posteriori reasoning. Aristotle taught his pupil,

Alexander the Great, to feel that if he had not done a good deed he had not reigned that

day. Among his followers were Theophrastus, Strato, Lyco, Aristo, Critolaus, and

Diodorus.

Of Skepticism as propounded by Pyrrho of Elis (365-275 B.C.) and by Timon, Sextus

Empiricus said that those who seek must find or deny they have found or can find, or

persevere in the inquiry. Those who suppose they have found truth are called Dogmatists;

those who think it incomprehensible are the Academics; those who still seek are the

Skeptics. The attitude of Skepticism towards the knowable is summed up by Sextus

Empiricus in the following words: "But the chief ground of Skepticism is that to every

reason there is an opposite reason equivalent, which makes us forbear to dogmatize." The

Skeptics were strongly opposed to the Dogmatists and were agnostic in that they held the

accepted theories regarding Deity to be self-contradictory and undemonstrable. "How,"

asked the Skeptic, "can we have indubitate knowledge of God, knowing not His

substance, form or place; for, while philosophers disagree irreconcilably on these points,

their conclusions cannot be considered as undoubtedly true?" Since absolute knowledge

was considered unattainable, the Skeptics declared the end of their discipline to be: "In

opinionatives, indisturbance; in impulsives, moderation; and in disquietives, suspension."

The sect of the Stoics was founded by Zeno (340-265 B.C.), the Cittiean, who studied

under Crates the Cynic, from which sect the Stoics had their origin. Zeno was succeeded

by Cleanthes, Chrysippus, Zeno of Tarsis, Diogenes, Antipater, Panætius, and

Posidonius. Most famous of the Roman Stoics are Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius. The

Stoics were essentially pantheists, since they maintained that as there is nothing better

than the world, the world is God. Zeno declared that the reason of the world is diffused

throughout it as seed. Stoicism is a materialistic philosophy, enjoining voluntary

resignation to natural law. Chrysippus maintained that good and evil being contrary, both

are necessary since each sustains the other. The soul was regarded as a body distributed

throughout the physical form and subject to dissolution with it. Though some of the

Stoics held that wisdom prolonged the existence of the soul, actual immortality is not

included in their tenets. The soul was said to be composed of eight parts: the five senses,

the generative power, the vocal power, and an eighth, or hegemonic, part. Nature was

defined as God mixed throughout the substance of the world. All things were looked

upon as bodies either corporeal or incorporeal.

Meekness marked the attitude of the Stoic philosopher. While Diogenes was delivering a

discourse against anger, one of his listeners spat contemptuously in his face. Receiving

the insult with humility, the great Stoic was moved to retort: "I am not angry, but am in

doubt whether I ought to be so or not!"

Epicurus of Samos (341-270 B.C.) was the founder of the Epicurean sect, which in many

respects resembles the Cyrenaic but is higher in its ethical standards. The Epicureans also

posited pleasure as the most desirable state, but conceived it to be a grave and dignified

state achieved through renunciation of those mental and emotional inconstancies which

are productive of pain and sorrow. Epicurus held that as the pains of the mind and soul

are more grievous than those of the body, so the joys of the mind and soul exceed those

of the body. The Cyrenaics asserted pleasure to be dependent upon action or motion; the

Epicureans claimed rest or lack of action to be equally productive of pleasure. Epicurus

accepted the philosophy of Democritus concerning the nature of atoms and based his

physics upon this theory. The Epicurean philosophy may be summed up in four canons:

"(1) Sense is never deceived; and therefore every sensation and every perception of an

appearance is true. (2) Opinion follows upon sense and is superadded to sensation, and

capable of truth or falsehood, (3) All opinion attested, or not contradicted by the evidence

of sense, is true. (4) An opinion contradicted, or not attested by the evidence of sense, is

false." Among the Epicureans of note were Metrodorus of Lampsacus, Zeno of Sidon,

and Phædrus.

Eclecticism may be defined as the practice of choosing apparently irreconcilable

doctrines from antagonistic schools and constructing therefrom a composite philosophic

system in harmony with the convictions of the eclectic himself. Eclecticism can scarcely

be considered philosophically or logically sound, for as individual schools arrive at their

conclusions by different methods of reasoning, so the philosophic product of fragments

from these schools must necessarily be built upon the foundation of conflicting premises.

Eclecticism, accordingly, has been designated the layman's cult. In the Roman Empire

little thought was devoted to philosophic theory; consequently most of its thinkers were

of the eclectic type. Cicero is the outstanding example of early Eclecticism, for his

writings are a veritable potpourri of invaluable fragments from earlier schools of thought.

Eclecticism appears to have had its inception at the moment when men first doubted the

possibility of discovering ultimate truth. Observing all so-called knowledge to be mere

opinion at best, the less studious furthermore concluded that the wiser course to pursue

was to accept that which appeared to be the most reasonable of the teachings of any

school or individual. From this practice, however, arose a pseudo-broadmindedness

devoid of the element of preciseness found in true logic and philosophy.

The Neo-Pythagorean school flourished in Alexandria during the first century of the

Christian Era. Only two names stand out in connection with it--Apollonius of Tyana and

Moderatus of Gades. Neo-Pythagoreanism is a link between the older pagan philosophies

and Neo-Platonism. Like the former, it contained many exact elements of thought derived

from Pythagoras and Plato; like the latter, it emphasized metaphysical speculation and

ascetic habits. A striking similarity has been observed by several authors between Neo-

Pythagoreanism and the doctrines of the Essenes. Special emphasis was laid upon the

mystery of numbers, and it is possible that the Neo-Pythagoreans had a far wider

knowledge of the true teachings of Pythagoras than is available today. Even in the first

century Pythagoras was regarded more as a god than a man, and the revival of his

philosophy was resorted to apparently in the hope that his name would stimulate interest

in the deeper systems of learning. But Greek philosophy had passed the zenith of its

splendor; the mass of humanity was awakening to the importance of physical life and

physical phenomena. The emphasis upon earthly affairs which began to assert itself later

reached maturity of expression in twentieth century materialism and commercialism,

Click to enlarge

ÆNEAS AT THE GATE OF HELL.

From Virgil's Æneid. (Dryden's translation.)

Virgil describes part of the ritual of a Greek Mystery--possibly the Eleusinian--in his account of the descent of Æneas, to the gate of hell under the guidance of the Sibyl. Of that part of the ritual portrayed above the

immortal poet writes:

"Full in the midst of this infernal Road,

An Elm displays her dusky Arms abroad;

The God of Sleep there hides his heavy Head

And empty Dreams on ev'ry Leaf are spread.

Of various Forms, unnumber'd Specters more;

Centaurs, and double Shapes, besiege the Door:

Before the Passage horrid Hydra stands,

And Briareus with all his hundred Hands:

Gorgons, Geryon with his triple Frame;

And vain Chimæra vomits empty Flame.

The Chief unsheath'd his shining Steel, prepar'd,

Tho seiz'd with sudden Fear, to force the Guard.

Off'ring his brandish'd Weapon at their Face,

Had not the Sibyl stop'd his eager Pace,

And told him what those empty Phantoms were;

Forms without Bodies, and impassive Air."

p. 17

even though Neo-Platonism was to intervene and many centuries pass before this

emphasis took definite form.

Although Ammonius Saccus was long believed to be the founder of Neo-Platonism, the

school had its true beginning in Plotinus (A.D. 204-269?). Prominent among the Neo-

Platonists of Alexandria, Syria, Rome, and Athens were Porphyry, Iamblichus, Sallustius,

the Emperor Julian, Plutarch, and Proclus. Neo-Platonism was the supreme effort of

decadent pagandom to publish and thus preserve for posterity its secret (or unwritten)

doctrine. In its teachings ancient idealism found its most perfect expression. Neo-

Platonism was concerned almost exclusively with the problems of higher metaphysics. It

recognized the existence of a secret and all-important doctrine which from the time of the

earliest civilizations had been concealed within the rituals, symbols, and allegories of

religions and philosophies. To the mind unacquainted with its fundamental tenets, Neo-

Platonism may appear to be a mass of speculations interspersed with extravagant flights

of fancy. Such a viewpoint, however, ignores the institutions of the Mysteries--those

secret schools into whose profundities of idealism nearly all of the first philosophers of

antiquity were initiated.

When the physical body of pagan thought collapsed, an attempt was made to resurrect the

form by instilling new life into it by the unveiling of its mystical truths. This effort

apparently was barren of results. Despite the antagonism, however, between pristine

Christianity and Neo-Platonism many basic tenets of the latter were accepted by the

former and woven into the fabric of Patristic philosophy. Briefly described, Neo-

Platonism is a philosophic code which conceives every physical or concrete body of

doctrine to be merely the shell of a spiritual verity which may be discovered through

meditation and certain exercises of a mystic nature. In comparison to the esoteric spiritual

truths which they contain, the corporeal bodies of religion and philosophy were

considered relatively of little value. Likewise, no emphasis was placed upon the material

sciences.

The term Patristic is employed to designate the philosophy of the Fathers of the early

Christian Church. Patristic philosophy is divided into two general epochs: ante-Nicene

and post-Nicene. The ante-Nicene period in the main was devoted to attacks upon

paganism and to apologies and defenses of Christianity. The entire structure of pagan

philosophy was assailed and the dictates of faith elevated above those of reason. In some

instances efforts were made to reconcile the evident truths of paganism with Christian

revelation. Eminent among the ante-Nicene Fathers were St. Irenæus, Clement of

Alexandria, and Justin Martyr. In the post-Nicene period more emphasis was placed upon

the unfoldment of Christian philosophy along Platonic and Neo-Platonic lines, resulting

in the appearance of many strange documents of a lengthy, rambling, and ambiguous

nature, nearly all of which were philosophically unsound. The post-Nicene philosophers

included Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa, and Cyril of Alexandria. The Patristic school is

notable for its emphasis upon the supremacy of man throughout the universe. Man was

conceived to be a separate and divine creation--the crowning achievement of Deity and

an exception to the suzerainty of natural law. To the Patristics it was inconceivable that

there should ever exist another creature so noble, so fortunate, or so able as man, for

whose sole benefit and edification all the kingdoms of Nature were primarily created.

Patristic philosophy culminated in Augustinianism, which may best be defined as

Christian Platonism. Opposing the Pelasgian doctrine that man is the author of his own

salvation, Augustinianism elevated the church and its dogmas to a position of absolute

infallibility--a position which it successfully maintained until the Reformation.

Gnosticism, a system of emanationism, interpreting Christianity in terms of Greek,

Egyptian, and Persian metaphysics, appeared in the latter part of the first century of the

Christian Era. Practically all the information extant regarding the Gnostics and their

doctrines, stigmatized as heresy by the ante-Nicene Church Fathers, is derived from the

accusations made against them, particularly from the writings of St. Irenæus. In the third

century appeared Manichæism, a dualistic system of Persian origin, which taught that

Good and Evil were forever contending for universal supremacy. In Manichæism, Christ

is conceived to be the Principle of redeeming Good in contradistinction to the man Jesus,

who was viewed as an evil personality.

The death of Boethius in the sixth century marked the close of the ancient Greek school

of philosophy. The ninth century saw the rise of the new school of Scholasticism, which

sought to reconcile philosophy with theology. Representative of the main divisions of the

Scholastic school were the Eclecticism of John of Salisbury, the Mysticism of Bernard of

Clairvaux and St. Bonaventura, the Rationalism of Peter Abelard, and the pantheistic

Mysticism of Meister Eckhart. Among the Arabian Aristotelians were Avicenna and

Averroes. The zenith of Scholasticism was reached with the advent of Albertus Magnus

and his illustrious disciple, St. Thomas Aquinas. Thomism (the philosophy of St. Thomas

Aquinas, sometimes referred to as the Christian Aristotle) sought to reconcile the various

factions of the Scholastic school. Thomism was basically Aristotelian with the added

concept that faith is a projection of reason.

Scotism, or the doctrine of Voluntarism promulgated by Joannes Duns Scotus, a

Franciscan Scholastic, emphasized the power and efficacy of the individual will, as

opposed to Thomism. The outstanding characteristic of Scholasticism was its frantic

effort to cast all European thought in an Aristotelian mold. Eventually the Schoolmen

descended to the level of mere wordmongers who picked the words of Aristotle so clean

that nothing but the bones remained. It was this decadent school of meaningless verbiage

against which Sir Francis Bacon directed his bitter shafts of irony and which he relegated

to the potter's field of discarded notions.

The Baconian, or inductive, system of reasoning (whereby facts are arrived at by a

process of observation and verified by experimentation) cleared the way for the schools

of modern science. Bacon was followed by Thomas Hobbes (for some time his

secretary), who held mathematics to be the only exact science and thought to be

essentially a mathematical process. Hobbes declared matter to be the only reality, and

scientific investigation to be limited to the study of bodies, the phenomena relative to

their probable causes, and the consequences which flow from them under every variety of

circumstance. Hobbes laid special stress upon the significance of words, declaring

understanding to be the faculty of perceiving the relationship between words and the

objects for which they stand.

Having broken away from the scholastic and theological schools, Post-Reformation, or

modern, philosophy experienced a most prolific growth along many diverse lines.

According to Humanism, man is the measure of all things; Rationalism makes the

reasoning faculties the basis of all knowledge; Political Philosophy holds that man must

comprehend his natural, social, and national privileges; Empiricism declares that alone to

be true which is demonstrable by experiment or experience; Moralism emphasizes the

necessity of right conduct as a fundamental philosophic tenet; Idealism asserts the

realities of the universe to be superphysical--either mental or psychical; Realism, the

reverse; and Phenomenalism restricts knowledge to facts or events which can be

scientifically described or explained. The most recent developments in the field of

philosophic thought are Behaviorism and Neo-Realism. The former estimates the intrinsic

characteristics through an analysis of behavior; the latter may be summed up as the total

extinction of idealism.

Baruch de Spinoza, the eminent Dutch philosopher, conceived God to be a substance

absolutely self-existent and needing no other conception besides itself to render it

complete and intelligible. The nature of this Being was held by Spinoza to be

comprehensible only through its attributes, which are extension and thought: these

combine

Click to enlarge

THE PTOLEMAIC SCHEME OF THE UNIVERSE.

From an old print, courtesy of Carl Oscar Borg.

In ridiculing the geocentric system of astronomy expounded by Claudius Ptolemy, modem astronomers

have overlooked the philosophic key to the Ptolemaic system. The universe of Ptolemy is a diagrammatic

representation of the relationships existing between the various divine and elemental parts of every

creature, and is not concerned with astronomy as that science is now comprehended. In the above figure,

special attention is called to the three circles of zodiacs surrounding the orbits of the planets. These zodiacs represent the threefold spiritual constitution of the universe. The orbits of the planets are the Governors of the World and the four elemental spheres in the center represent the physical constitution of both man and

the universe, Ptolemy's scheme of the universe is simply a cross section of the universal aura, the planets

and elements to which he refers having no relation to those recognized by modern astronomers.

p. 18

to form an endless variety of aspects or modes. The mind of man is one of the modes of

infinite thought; the body of man one of the modes of infinite extension. Through reason

man is enabled to elevate himself above the illusionary world of the senses and find

eternal repose in perfect union with the Divine Essence. Spinoza, it has been said,

deprived God of all personality, making Deity synonymous with the universe.

German philosophy had its inception with Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibnitz, whose

theories are permeated with the qualities of optimism and idealism. Leibnitz's criteria of

sufficient reason revealed to him the insufficiency of Descartes' theory of extension, and

he therefore concluded that substance itself contained an inherent power in the form of an

incalculable number of separate and all-sufficient units. Matter reduced to its ultimate

particles ceases to exist as a substantial body, being resolved into a mass of immaterial

ideas or metaphysical units of power, to which Leibnitz applied the term monad. Thus the

universe is composed of an infinite number of separate monadic entities unfolding

spontaneously through the objectification of innate active qualities. All things are

conceived as consisting of single monads of varying magnitudes or of aggregations of

these bodies, which may exist as physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual substances. God

is the first and greatest Monad; the spirit of man is an awakened monad in

contradistinction to the lower kingdoms whose governing monadic powers are in a semi-

dormant state.

Though a product of the Leibnitzian-Wolfian school, Immanuel Kant, like Locke,

dedicated himself to investigation of the powers and limits of human understanding. The

result was his critical philosophy, embracing the critique of pure reason, the critique of

practical reason, and the critique of judgment. Dr. W. J. Durant sums up Kant's

philosophy in the concise statement that he rescued mind from matter. The mind Kant

conceived to be the selector and coordinator of all perceptions, which in turn are the

result of sensations grouping themselves about some external object. In the classification

of sensations and ideas the mind employs certain categories: of sense, time and space; of

understanding, quality, relation, modality, and causation; and the unity of apperception.

Being subject to mathematical laws, time and space are considered absolute and

sufficient bases for exact thinking. Kant's practical reason declared that while the nature

of noumenon could never be comprehended by the reason, the fact of morality proves the

existence of three necessary postulates: free will, immortality, and God. In the critique of

judgment Kant demonstrates the union of the noumenon and the phenomenon in art and

biological evolution. German superintellectualism is the outgrowth of an overemphasis of

Kant's theory of the autocratic supremacy of the mind over sensation and thought. The

philosophy of Johann Gottlieb Fichte was a projection of Kant's philosophy, wherein he

attempted to unite Kant's practical reason with his pure reason. Fichte held that the

known is merely the contents of the consciousness of the knower, and that nothing can

exist to the knower until it becomes part of those contents. Nothing is actually real,

therefore, except the facts of one's own mental experience.

Recognizing the necessity of certain objective realities, Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von

Schelling, who succeeded Fichte in the chair of philosophy at Jena, first employed the

doctrine of identity as the groundwork for a complete system of philosophy. Whereas

Fichte regarded self as the Absolute, von Schelling conceived infinite and eternal Mind to

be the all-pervading Cause. Realization of the Absolute is made possible by intellectual

intuition which, being a superior or spiritual sense, is able to dissociate itself from both

subject and object. Kant's categories of space and time von Schelling conceived to be

positive and negative respectively, and material existence the result of the reciprocal

action of these two expressions. Von Schelling also held that the Absolute in its process

of self-development proceeds according to a law or rhythm consisting of three

movements. The first, a reflective movement, is the attempt of the Infinite to embody

itself in the finite. The second, that of subsumption, is the attempt of the Absolute to

return to the Infinite after involvement in the finite. The third, that of reason, is the

neutral point wherein the two former movements are blended.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel considered the intellectual intuition of von Schelling to

be philosophically unsound and hence turned his attention to the establishment of a

system of philosophy based upon pure logic. Of Hegel it has been said that he began with

nothing and showed with logical precision how everything had proceeded from it in

logical order. Hegel elevated logic to a position of supreme importance, in fact as a

quality of the Absolute itself. God he conceived to be a process of unfolding which never

attains to the condition of unfoldment. In like manner, thought is without either beginning

or end. Hegel further believed that all things owe their existence to their opposites and

that all opposites are actually identical. Thus the only existence is the relationship of

opposites to each other, through whose combinations new elements are produced. As the

Divine Mind is an eternal process of thought never accomplished, Hegel assails the very

foundation of theism and his philosophy limits immortality to the everflowing Deity

alone. Evolution is consequently the never-ending flow of Divine Consciousness out of

itself; all creation, though continually moving, never arrives at any state other than that of

ceaseless flow.

Johann Friedrich Herbart's philosophy was a realistic reaction from the idealism of Fichte

and von Schelling. To Herbart the true basis of philosophy was the great mass of

phenomena continually moving through the human mind. Examination of phenomena,

however, demonstrates that a great part of it is unreal, at least incapable of supplying the

mind with actual truth. To correct the false impressions caused by phenomena and

discover reality, Herbart believed it necessary to resolve phenomena into separate

elements, for reality exists in the elements and not in the whole. He stated that objects can

be classified by three general terms: thing, matter, and mind; the first a unit of several

properties, the second an existing object, the third a self-conscious being. All three

notions give rise, however, to certain contradictions, with whose solution Herbart is

primarily concerned. For example, consider matter. Though capable of filling space, if

reduced to its ultimate state it consists of incomprehensibly minute units of divine energy

occupying no physical space whatsoever.

The true subject of Arthur Schopenhauer's philosophy is the will; the object of his

philosophy is the elevation of the mind to the point where it is capable of controlling the

will. Schopenhauer likens the will to a strong blind man who carries on his shoulders the

intellect, which is a weak lame man possessing the power of sight. The will is the tireless

cause of manifestation and every part of Nature the product of will. The brain is the

product of the will to know; the hand the product of the will to grasp. The entire

intellectual and emotional constitutions of man are subservient to the will and are largely

concerned with the effort to justify the dictates of the will. Thus the mind creates

elaborate systems of thought simply to prove the necessity of the thing willed. Genius,

however, represents the state wherein the intellect has gained supremacy over the will

and the life is ruled by reason and not by impulse. The strength of Christianity, said

Schopenhauer, lay in its pessimism and conquest of individual will. His own religious

viewpoints resembled closely the Buddhistic. To him Nirvana represented the

subjugation of will. Life--the manifestation of the blind will to live--he viewed as a

misfortune, claiming that the true philosopher was one who, recognizing the wisdom of

death, resisted the inherent urge to reproduce his kind.

Click to enlarge

THE TREE OF CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY.

From Hort's The New Pantheon.

Before a proper appreciation of the deeper scientific aspects of Greek mythology is possible, it is necessary

to organize the Greek pantheon and arrange its gods, goddesses, and various superhuman hierarchies in

concatenated order. Proclus, the great Neo-Platonist, in his commentaries on the theology of Plato, gives an

invaluable key to the sequence of the various deities in relation to the First Cause and the inferior powers

emanating from themselves. When thus arranged, the divine hierarchies may be likened to the branches of a

great tree. The roots of this tree are firmly imbedded in Unknowable Being. The trunk and larger branches

of the tree symbolize the superior gods; the twigs and leaves, the innumerable existences dependent upon

the first and unchanging Power.

p. 19

Of Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche it has been said that his peculiar contribution to the

cause of human hope was the glad tidings that God had died of pity! The outstanding

features of Nietzsche's philosophy are his doctrine of eternal recurrence and the extreme

emphasis placed by him upon the will to power--a projection of Schopenhauer's will to

live. Nietzsche believed the purpose of existence to be the production of a type of all-

powerful individual, designated by him the superman. This superman was the product of

careful culturing, for if not separated forcibly from the mass and consecrated to the

production of power, the individual would sink back to the level of the deadly mediocre.

Love, Nietzsche said, should be sacrificed to the production of the superman and those

only should marry who are best fitted to produce this outstanding type. Nietzsche also

believed in the rule of the aristocracy, both blood and breeding being essential to the

establishment of this superior type. Nietzsche's doctrine did not liberate the masses; it

rather placed over them supermen for whom their inferior brothers and sisters should be

perfectly reconciled to die. Ethically and politically, the superman was a law unto

himself. To those who understand the true meaning of power to be virtue, self-control,

and truth, the ideality behind Nietzsche's theory is apparent. To the superficial, however,

it is a philosophy heartless and calculating, concerned solely with the survival of the

fittest.

Of the other German schools of philosophic thought, limitations of space preclude

detailed mention. The more recent developments of the German school are Freudianism

and Relativism (often called the Einstein theory). The former is a system of

psychoanalysis through psychopathic and neurological phenomena; the latter attacks the

accuracy of mechanical principles dependent upon the present theory of velocity.

René Descartes stands at the head of the French school of philosophy and shares with Sir

Francis Bacon the honor of founding the systems of modern science and philosophy. As

Bacon based his conclusions upon observation of external things, so Descartes founded

his metaphysical philosophy upon observation of internal things. Cartesianism (the

philosophy of Descartes) first eliminates all things and then replaces as fundamental

those premises without which existence is impossible. Descartes defined an idea as that

which fills the mind when we conceive a thing. The truth of an idea must be determined

by the criteria of clarity and distinctness. Hence Descartes, held that a clear and distinct

idea must be true. Descartes has the distinction also of evolving his own philosophy

without recourse to authority. Consequently his conclusions are built up from the

simplest of premises and grow in complexity as the structure of his philosophy takes

form.

The Positive philosophy of Auguste Comte is based upon the theory that the human

intellect develops through three stages of thought. The first and lowest stage is

theological; the second, metaphysical; and the third and highest, positive. Thus theology

and metaphysics are the feeble intellectual efforts of humanity's child-mind and

positivism is the mental expression of the adult intellect. In his Cours de Philosophie

positive, Comte writes:

"In the final, the positive state, the mind has given over the vain search after Absolute

notions, the origin and destination of the universe, and the causes of phenomena, and

applies itself to the study of their laws,--that is, their invariable relations of succession

and resemblance. Reasoning and observation, duly combined, are the means of this

knowledge." Comte's theory is described as an "enormous system of materialism."

According to Comte, it was formerly said that the heavens declare the glory of God, but

now they only recount the glory of Newton and Laplace.

Among the French schools of philosophy are Traditionalism (often applied to

Christianity), which esteems tradition as the proper foundation for philosophy; the

Sociological school, which regards humanity as one vast social organism; the

Encyclopedists, whose efforts to classify knowledge according to the Baconian system

revolutionized European thought; Voltairism, which assailed the divine origin of the

Christian faith and adopted an attitude of extreme skepticism toward all matters

pertaining to theology; and Neo-Criticism, a French revision of the doctrines of

Immanuel Kant.

Henri Bergson, the intuitionalist, undoubtedly the greatest living French philosopher,

presents a theory of mystic anti-intellectualism founded upon the premise of creative

evolution, His rapid rise to popularity is due to his appeal to the finer sentiments in

human nature, which rebel against the hopelessness and helplessness of materialistic

science and realistic philosophy. Bergson sees God as life continually struggling against

the limitations of matter. He even conceives the possible victory of life over matter, and

in time the annihilation of death.

Applying the Baconian method to the mind, John Locke, the great English philosopher,

declared that everything which passes through the mind is a legitimate object of mental

philosophy, and that these mental phenomena are as real and valid as the objects of any

other science. In his investigations of the origin of phenomena Locke departed from the

Baconian requirement that it was first necessary to make a natural history of facts. The

mind was regarded by Locke to be blank until experience is inscribed upon it. Thus the

mind is built up of received impressions plus reflection. The soul Locke believed to be

incapable of apprehension of Deity, and man's realization or cognition of God to be

merely an inference of the reasoning faculty. David Hume was the most enthusiastic and

also the most powerful of the disciples of Locke.

Attacking Locke's sensationalism, Bishop George Berkeley substituted for it a philosophy

founded on Locke's fundamental premises but which he developed as a system of

idealism. Berkeley held that ideas are the real objects of knowledge. He declared it

impossible to adduce proof that sensations are occasioned by material objects; he also

attempted to prove that matter has no existence. Berkeleianism holds that the universe is

permeated and governed by mind. Thus the belief in the existence of material objects is

merely a mental condition, and the objects themselves may well be fabrications of the

mind. At the same time Berkeley considered it worse than insanity to question the

accuracy of the perceptions; for if the power of the perceptive faculties be questioned

man is reduced to a creature incapable of knowing, estimating, or realizing anything

whatsoever.

In the Associationalism of Hartley and Hume was advanced the theory that the

association of ideas is the fundamental principle of psychology and the explanation for all

mental phenomena. Hartley held that if a sensation be repeated several times there is a

tendency towards its spontaneous repetition, which may be awakened by association with

some other idea even though the object causing the original reaction be absent. The

Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham, Archdeacon Paley, and James and John Stuart Mill

declares that to be the greatest good which is the most useful to the greatest number. John

Stuart Mill believed that if it is possible through sensation to secure knowledge of the

properties of things, it is also possible through a higher state of the mind--that is,

intuition or reason--to gain a knowledge of the true substance of things.

Darwinism is the doctrine of natural selection and physical evolution. It has been said of

Charles Robert Darwin that he determined to banish spirit altogether from the universe

and make the infinite and omnipresent Mind itself synonymous with the all-pervading

powers of an impersonal Nature. Agnosticism and Neo-Hegelianism are also noteworthy

products of this period of philosophic thought. The former is the belief that the nature of

ultimates is unknowable; the latter an English and American revival of Hegel's idealism.

Dr. W. J. Durant declares that Herbert Spencer's Great Work, First Principles, made him

almost at once the most famous philosopher of his time. Spencerianism is a philosophic

positivism which describes evolution as an ever-increasing complexity with equilibrium

as its highest possible state. According to Spencer, life is a continuous process from

homogeneity to heterogeneity and back from heterogeneity to homogeneity. Life also

involves the continual adjustment of internal relations to external relations. Most famous

of all Spencer's aphorisms is his definition of Deity: "God is infinite intelligence,

infinitely diversified through infinite time and infinite space, manifesting through an

infinitude of ever-evolving individualities." The universality of the law of evolution was

emphasized by Spencer, who applied it not only to the form but also to the intelligence

behind the form. In every manifestation of being he recognized the fundamental tendency

of unfoldment from simplicity to complexity, observing that when the point of

equilibrium is reached it is

Click to enlarge

A CHRISTIAN TRINITY.

From Hone's Ancient Mysteries Described.

In an effort to set forth in an appropriate figure the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, it was necessary to devise an image in which the three persons--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost--were separate and yet one. In

different parts of Europe may be seen figures similar to the above, wherein three faces are united in one

head. This is a legitimate method of for to those able to realize the sacred significance of the threefold head a great mystery is revealed. However, in the presence of such applications of symbology in Christian art, it

is scarcely proper to consider the philosophers of other faiths as benighted if, like the Hindus, they have a

three-faced Brahma, or, like the Romans, a two-faced Janus.

p. 20

always followed by the process of dissolution. According to Spencer, however,

disintegration took place only that reintegration might follow upon a higher level of

being.

The chief position in the Italian school of philosophy should be awarded to Giordano

Bruno, who, after enthusiastically accepting Copernicus' theory that the sun is the center

of the solar system, declared the sun to be a star and all the stars to be suns. In Bruno's

time the earth was regarded as the center of all creation. Consequently when he thus

relegated the world and man to an obscure corner in space the effect was cataclysmic. For

the heresy of affirming a multiplicity of universes and conceiving Cosmos to be so vast

that no single creed could fill it, Bruno paid the forfeit of his life.

Vicoism is a philosophy based upon the conclusions of Giovanni Battista Vico, who held

that God controls His world not miraculously but through natural law. The laws by which

men rule themselves, Vico declared, issue from a spiritual source within mankind which

is en rapport with the law of the Deity. Hence material law is of divine origin and reflects

the dictates of the Spiritual Father. The philosophy of Ontologism developed by

Vincenzo Gioberti (generally considered more as a theologian than a philosopher) posits

God as the only being and the origin of all knowledge, knowledge being identical with

Deity itself. God is consequently called Being; all other manifestations are existences.

Truth is to be discovered through reflection upon this mystery.

The most important of modern Italian philosophers is Benedetto Croce, a Hegelian

idealist. Croce conceives ideas to be the only reality. He is anti-theological in his

viewpoints, does not believe in the immortality of the soul, and seeks to substitute ethics

and aesthetics for religion. Among other branches of Italian philosophy should be

mentioned Sensism (Sensationalism), which posits the sense perceptions as the sole

channels for the reception of knowledge; Criticism, or the philosophy of accurate

judgment; and Neo-Scholasticism, which is a revival of Thomism encouraged by the

Roman Catholic Church.

The two outstanding schools of American philosophy are Transcendentalism and

Pragmatism. Transcendentalism, exemplified in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson,

emphasizes the power of the transcendental over the physical. Many of Emerson's

writings show pronounced Oriental influence, particularly his essays on the Oversoul and

the Law of Compensation. The theory of Pragmatism, while not original with Professor

William James, owes its widespread popularity as a philosophic tenet to his efforts.

Pragmatism may be defined as the doctrine that the meaning and nature of things are to

be discovered from consideration of their consequences. The true, according to James, "is

only an expedient in the way of our thinking, just as 'the right' is only an expedient in the

way of our behaving." (See his Pragmatism.) John Dewey, the Instrumentalist, who

applies the experimental attitude to all the aims of life, should be considered a

commentator of James. To Dewey, growth and change are limitless and no ultimates are

postulated. The long residence in America of George Santayana warrants the listing of

this great Spaniard among the ranks of American philosophers. Defending himself with

the shield of skepticism alike from the illusions of the senses and the cumulative errors of

the ages, Santayana seeks to lead mankind into a more apprehending state denominated

by him the life of reason.

(In addition to the authorities already quoted, in the preparation of the foregoing abstract

of the main branches of philosophic thought the present writer has had recourse to

Stanley's History of Philosophy; Morell's An Historical and Critical View of the

Speculative Philosophy of Europe in the Nineteenth Century; Singer's Modern Thinkers

and Present Problems; Rand's Modern Classical Philosophers; Windelband's History of

Philosophy; Perry's Present Philosophical Tendencies; Hamilton's Lectures on

Metaphysics and Logic; and Durant's The Story of Philosophy.)

Having thus traced the more or less sequential development of philosophic speculation

from Thales to James and Bergson, it is now in order to direct the reader's attention to the

elements leading to and the circumstances attendant upon the genesis of philosophic

thinking. Although the Hellenes proved themselves peculiarly responsive to the

disciplines of philosophy, this science of sciences should not be considered indigenous to

them. "Although some of the Grecians," writes Thomas Stanley, "have challenged to their

nation the original of philosophy, yet the more learned of them have acknowledged it [to

be] derived from the East." The magnificent institutions of Hindu, Chaldean, and

Egyptian learning must be recognized as the actual source of Greek wisdom. The last was

patterned after the shadow cast by the sanctuaries of Ellora, Ur, and Memphis upon the

thought substance of a primitive people. Thales, Pythagoras, and Plato in their

philosophic wanderings contacted many distant cults and brought back the lore of Egypt

and the inscrutable Orient.

From indisputable facts such as these it is evident that philosophy emerged from the

religious Mysteries of antiquity, not being separated from religion until after the decay of

the Mysteries. Hence he who would fathom the depths of philosophic thought must

familiarize himself with the teachings of those initiated priests designated as the first

custodians of divine revelation. The Mysteries claimed to be the guardians of a

transcendental knowledge so profound as to be incomprehensible save to the most exalted

intellect and so potent as to be revealed with safety only to those in whom personal

ambition was dead and who had consecrated their lives to the unselfish service of

humanity. Both the dignity of these sacred institutions and the validity of their claim to

possession of Universal Wisdom are attested by the most illustrious philosophers of

antiquity, who were themselves initiated into the profundities of the secret doctrine and

who bore witness to its efficacy.

The question may legitimately be propounded: If these ancient mystical institutions were

of such "great pith and moment," why is so little information now available concerning

them and the arcana they claimed to possess? The answer is simple enough: The

Mysteries were secret societies, binding their initiates to inviolable secrecy, and avenging

with death the betrayal of their sacred trusts. Although these schools were the true

inspiration of the various doctrines promulgated by the ancient philosophers, the

fountainhead of those doctrines was never revealed to the profane. Furthermore, in the

lapse of time the teachings became so inextricably linked with the names of their

disseminators that the actual but recondite source--the Mysteries--came to be wholly

ignored.

Symbolism is the language of the Mysteries; in fact it is the language not only of

mysticism and philosophy but of all Nature, for every law and power active in universal

procedure is manifested to the limited sense perceptions of man through the medium of

symbol. Every form existing in the diversified sphere of being is symbolic of the divine

activity by which it is produced. By symbols men have ever sought to communicate to

each other those thoughts which transcend the limitations of language. Rejecting man-

conceived dialects as inadequate and unworthy to perpetuate divine ideas, the Mysteries

thus chose symbolism as a far more ingenious and ideal method of preserving their

transcendental knowledge. In a single figure a symbol may both reveal and conceal, for to

the wise the subject of the symbol is obvious, while to the ignorant the figure remains

inscrutable. Hence, he who seeks to unveil the secret doctrine of antiquity must search for

that doctrine not upon the open pages of books which might fall into the hands of the

unworthy but in the place where it was originally concealed.

Far-sighted were the initiates of antiquity. They realized that nations come and go, that

empires rise and fall, and that the golden ages of art, science, and idealism are succeeded

by the dark ages of superstition. With the needs of posterity foremost in mind, the sages

of old went to inconceivable extremes to make certain that their knowledge should be

preserved. They engraved it upon the face of mountains and concealed it within the

measurements of colossal images, each of which was a geometric marvel. Their

knowledge of chemistry and mathematics they hid within mythologies which the ignorant

would perpetuate, or in the spans and arches of their temples which time has not entirely

obliterated. They wrote in characters that neither the vandalism of men nor the

ruthlessness of the elements could completely efface, Today men gaze with awe and

reverence upon the mighty Memnons standing alone on the sands of Egypt, or upon the

strange terraced pyramids of Palanque. Mute testimonies these are of the lost arts and

sciences of antiquity; and concealed this wisdom must remain until this race has learned

to read the universal language--SYMBOLISM.

The book to which this is the introduction is dedicated to the proposition that concealed

within the emblematic figures, allegories, and rituals of the ancients is a secret doctrine

concerning the inner mysteries of life, which doctrine has been preserved in toto among a

small band of initiated minds since the beginning of the world. Departing, these illumined

philosophers left their formulæ that others, too, might attain to understanding. But, lest

these secret processes fall into uncultured hands and be perverted, the Great Arcanum

was always concealed in symbol or allegory; and those who can today discover its lost

keys may open with them a treasure house of philosophic, scientific, and religious truths.

Click to enlarge

THE ORPHIC EGG.

From Bryant's An Analysis of Ancient Mythology.

The ancient symbol of the Orphic Mysteries was the serpent-entwined egg, which signified Cosmos as

encircled by the fiery Creative Spirit. The egg also represents the soul of the philosopher; the serpent, the

Mysteries. At the time of initiation the shell is broke. and man emerges from the embryonic state of

physical existence wherein he had remained through the fetal period of philosophic regeneration.

The Ancient Mysteries and Secret

Societies

Which Have Influenced Modern Masonic Symbolism

p. 21

WHEN confronted with a problem involving the use of the reasoning faculties,

individuals of strong intellect keep their poise, and seek to reach a solution by obtaining

facts bearing upon the question. Those of immature mentality, on the other hand, when

similarly confronted, are overwhelmed. While the former may be qualified to solve the

riddle of their own destiny, the latter must be led like a flock of sheep and taught in

simple language. They depend almost entirely upon the ministrations of the shepherd.

The Apostle Paul said that these little ones must be fed with milk, but that meat is the

food of strong men. Thoughtlessness is almost synonymous with childishness, while

thoughtfulness is symbolic of maturity.

There are, however, but few mature minds in the world; and thus it was that the

philosophic-religious doctrines of the pagans were divided to meet the needs of these two

fundamental groups of human intellect--one philosophic, the other incapable of

appreciating the deeper mysteries of life. To the discerning few were revealed the

esoteric, or spiritual, teachings, while the unqualified many received only the literal, or

exoteric, interpretations. In order to make simple the great truths of Nature and the

abstract principles of natural law, the vital forces of the universe were personified,

becoming the gods and goddesses of the ancient mythologies. While the ignorant

multitudes brought their offerings to the altars of Priapus and Pan (deities representing

the procreative energies), the wise recognized in these marble statues only symbolic

concretions of great abstract truths.

In all cities of the ancient world were temples for public worship and offering. In every

community also were philosophers and mystics, deeply versed in Nature's lore. These

individuals were usually banded together, forming seclusive philosophic and religious

schools. The more important of these groups were known as the Mysteries. Many of the

great minds of antiquity were initiated into these secret fraternities by strange and

mysterious rites, some of which were extremely cruel. Alexander Wilder defines the

Mysteries as "Sacred dramas performed at stated periods. The most celebrated were those

of Isis, Sabazius, Cybele, and Eleusis." After being admitted, the initiates were instructed

in the secret wisdom which had been preserved for ages. Plato, an initiate of one of these

sacred orders, was severely criticized because in his writings he revealed to the public

many of the secret philosophic principles of the Mysteries.

Every pagan nation had (and has) not only its state religion, but another into which the

philosophic elect alone have gained entrance. Many of these ancient cults vanished from

the earth without revealing their secrets, but a few have survived the test of ages and their

mysterious symbols are still preserved. Much of the ritualism of Freemasonry is based on

the trials to which candidates were subjected by the ancient hierophants before the keys

of wisdom were entrusted to them.

Few realize the extent to which the ancient secret schools influenced contemporary

intellects and, through those minds, posterity. Robert Macoy, 33°, in his General History

of Freemasonry, pays a magnificent tribute to the part played by the ancient Mysteries in

the rearing of the edifice of human culture. He says, in part: "It appears that all the

perfection of civilization, and all the advancement made in philosophy, science, and art

among the ancients are due to those institutions which, under the veil of mystery, sought

to illustrate the sublimest truths of religion, morality, and virtue, and impress them on the

hearts of their disciples.* * * Their chief object was to teach the doctrine of one God, the

resurrection of man to eternal life, the dignity of the human soul, and to lead the people to

see the shadow of the deity, in the beauty, magnificence, and splendor of the universe."

With the decline of virtue, which has preceded the destruction of every nation of history,

the Mysteries became perverted. Sorcery took the place of the divine magic.

Indescribable practices (such as the Bacchanalia) were introduced, and perversion ruled

supreme; for no institution can be any better than the members of which it is composed.

In despair, the few who were true sought to preserve the secret doctrines from oblivion.

In some cases they succeeded, but more often the arcanum was lost and only the empty

shell of the Mysteries remained.

Thomas Taylor has written, "Man is naturally a religious animal." From the earliest

dawning of his consciousness, man has worshiped and revered things as symbolic of the

invisible, omnipresent, indescribable Thing, concerning which he could discover

practically nothing. The pagan Mysteries opposed the Christians during the early

centuries of their church, declaring that the new faith (Christianity) did not demand virtue

and integrity as requisites for salvation. Celsus expressed himself on the subject in the

following caustic terms:

"That I do not, however, accuse the Christians more bitterly than truth compels, may be

conjectured from hence, that the cryers who call men to other mysteries proclaim as

follows: 'Let him approach whose hands are pure, and whose words are wise.' And again,

others proclaim: 'Let him approach who is pure from all wickedness, whose soul is not

conscious of any evil, and who leads a just and upright life.' And these things are

proclaimed by those who promise a purification from error. Let us now hear who those

are that are called to the Christian mysteries: Whoever is a sinner, whoever is unwise,

whoever is a fool, and whoever, in short, is miserable, him the kingdom of God will

receive. Do you not, therefore, call a sinner, an unjust man, a thief, a housebreaker, a

wizard, one who is sacrilegious, and a robber of sepulchres? What other persons would

the cryer nominate, who should call robbers together?"

It was not the true faith of the early Christian mystics that Celsus attacked, but the false

forms that were creeping in even during his day. The ideals of early Christianity were

based upon the high moral standards of the pagan Mysteries, and the first Christians who

met under the city of Rome used as their places of worship the subterranean temples of

Mithras, from whose cult has been borrowed much of the sacerdotalism of the modem

church.

The ancient philosophers believed that no man could live intelligently who did not have a

fundamental knowledge of Nature and her laws. Before man can obey, he must

understand, and the Mysteries were devoted to instructing man concerning the operation

of divine law in the terrestrial sphere. Few of the early cults actually worshiped

anthropomorphic deities, although their symbolism might lead one to believe they did.

They were moralistic rather than religionistic; philosophic rather than theologic. They

taught man to use his faculties more intelligently, to be patient in the face of adversity, to

be courageous when confronted by danger, to be true in the midst of temptation, and,

most of all, to view a worthy life as the most acceptable sacrifice to God, and his body as

an altar sacred to the Deity.

Sun worship played an important part in nearly all the early pagan Mysteries. This

indicates the probability of their Atlantean origin, for the people of Atlantis were sun

worshipers. The Solar Deity was usually personified as a beautiful youth, with long

golden hair to symbolize the rays of the sun. This golden Sun God was slain by wicked

ruffians, who personified the evil principle of the universe. By means of certain rituals

and ceremonies, symbolic of purification and regeneration, this wonderful God of Good

was brought back to life and became the Savior of His people. The secret processes

whereby He was resurrected symbolized those cultures by means of which man is able to

overcome his lower nature, master his appetites, and give expression to the higher side of

himself. The Mysteries were organized for the purpose of assisting the struggling human

creature to reawaken the spiritual powers which, surrounded by the flaming

Click to enlarge

A FEMALE HIEROPHANT OF THE MYSTERIES.

From Montfaucon's Antiquities.

This illustration shows Cybele, here called the Syrian Goddess, in the robes of a hierophant. Montfaucon

describes the figure as follows: "Upon her head is an episcopal mitre, adorned on the lower part with

towers and pinnacles; over the gate of the city is a crescent, and beneath the circuit of the walls a crown of rays. The Goddess wears a sort of surplice, exactly like the surplice of a priest or bishop; and upon the

surplice a tunic, which falls down to the legs; and over all an episcopal cope, with the twelve signs of the

Zodiac wrought on the borders. The figure hath a lion on each side, and holds in its left hand a Tympanum,

a Sistrum, a Distaff, a Caduceus, and another instrument. In her right hand she holds with her middle finger

a thunderbolt, and upon the same am animals, insects, and, as far as we may guess, flowers, fruit, a bow, a

quiver, a torch, and a scythe." The whereabouts of the statue is unknown, the copy reproduced by

Montfaucon being from drawings by Pirro Ligorio.

p. 22

ring of lust and degeneracy, lay asleep within his soul. In other words, man was offered a

way by which he could regain his lost estate. (See Wagner's Siegfried.)

In the ancient world, nearly all the secret societies were philosophic and religious. During

the mediæval centuries, they were chiefly religious and political, although a few

philosophic schools remained. In modern times, secret societies, in the Occidental

countries, are largely political or fraternal, although in a few of them, as in Masonry, the

ancient religious and philosophic principles still survive.

Space prohibits a detailed discussion of the secret schools. There were literally scores of

these ancient cults, with branches in all parts of the Eastern and Western worlds. Some,

such as those of Pythagoras and the Hermetists, show a decided Oriental influence, while

the Rosicrucians, according to their own proclamations, gained much of their wisdom

from Arabian mystics. Although the Mystery schools are usually associated with

civilization, there is evidence that the most uncivilized peoples of prehistoric times had a

knowledge of them. Natives of distant islands, many in the lowest forms of savagery,

have mystic rituals and secret practices which, although primitive, are of a decided

Masonic tinge.

THE DRUIDIC MYSTERIES OF BRITAIN AND GAUL

"The original and primitive inhabitants of Britain, at some remote period, revived and

reformed their national institutes. Their priest, or instructor, had hitherto been simply

named Gwydd, but it was considered to have become necessary to divide this office

between the national, or superior, priest and another whose influence [would] be more

limited. From henceforth the former became Der-Wydd (Druid), or superior instructor,

and [the latter] Go-Wydd, or O-Vydd (Ovate), subordinate instructor; and both went by

the general name of Beirdd (Bards), or teachers of wisdom. As the system matured and

augmented, the Bardic Order consisted of three classes, the Druids, Beirdd Braint, or

privileged Bards, and Ovates." (See Samuel Meyrick and Charles Smith, The Costume of

The Original Inhabitants of The British Islands.)

The origin of the word Druid is under dispute. Max Müller believes that, like the Irish

word Drui, it means "the men of the oak trees." He further draws attention to the fact that

the forest gods and tree deities of the Greeks were called dryades. Some believe the word

to be of Teutonic origin; others ascribe it to the Welsh. A few trace it to the Gaelic

druidh, which means "a wise man" or "a sorcerer." In Sanskrit the word dru means

"timber."

At the time of the Roman conquest, the Druids were thoroughly ensconced in Britain and

Gaul. Their power over the people was unquestioned, and there were instances in which

armies, about to attack each other, sheathed their swords when ordered to do so by the

white-robed Druids. No undertaking of great importance was scatted without the

assistance of these patriarchs, who stood as mediators between the gods and men. The

Druidic Order is deservedly credited with having had a deep understanding of Nature and

her laws. The Encyclopædia Britannica states that geography, physical science, natural

theology, and astrology were their favorite studies. The Druids had a fundamental

knowledge of medicine, especially the use of herbs and simples. Crude surgical

instruments also have been found in England and Ireland. An odd treatise on early British

medicine states that every practitioner was expected to have a garden or back yard for the

growing of certain herbs necessary to his profession. Eliphas Levi, the celebrated

transcendentalist, makes the following significant statement:

"The Druids were priests and physicians, curing by magnetism and charging amylets with

their fluidic influence. Their universal remedies were mistletoe and serpents' eggs,

because these substances attract the astral light in a special manner. The solemnity with

which mistletoe was cut down drew upon this plant the popular confidence and rendered

it powerfully magnetic. * * * The progress of magnetism will some day reveal to us the

absorbing properties of mistletoe. We shall then understand the secret of those spongy

growths which drew the unused virtues of plants and become surcharged with tinctures

and savors. Mushrooms, truffles, gall on trees, and the different kinds of mistletoe will be

employed with understanding by a medical science, which will be new because it is old *

* * but one must not move quicker than science, which recedes that it may advance the

further. " (See The History of Magic.)

Not only was the mistletoe sacred as symbolic of the universal medicine, or panacea, but

also because of the fact that it grew upon the oak tree. Through the symbol of the oak, the

Druids worshiped the Supreme Deity; therefore, anything growing upon that tree was

sacred to Him. At certain seasons, according to the positions of the sun, moon, and stars,

the Arch-Druid climbed the oak tree and cut the mistletoe with a golden sickle

consecrated for that service. The parasitic growth was caught in white cloths provided for

the purpose, lest it touch the earth and be polluted by terrestrial vibrations. Usually a

sacrifice of a white bull was made under the tree.

The Druids were initiates of a secret school that existed in their midst. This school, which

closely resembled the Bacchic and Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece or the Egyptian rites

of Isis and Osiris, is justly designated the Druidic Mysteries. There has been much

speculation concerning the secret wisdom that the Druids claimed to possess. Their secret

teachings were never written, but were communicated orally to specially prepared

candidates. Robert Brown, 32°, is of the opinion that the British priests secured their

information from Tyrian and Phœnician navigators who, thousands of years before the

Christian Era, established colonies in Britain and Gaul while searching for tin. Thomas

Maurice, in his Indian Antiquities, discourses at length on Phœnician, Carthaginian, and

Greek expeditions to the British Isles for the purpose of procuring tin. Others are of the

opinion that the Mysteries as celebrated by the Druids were of Oriental origin, possibly

Buddhistic.

The proximity of the British Isles to the lost Atlantis may account for the sun worship

which plays an important part in the rituals of Druidism. According to Artemidorus,

Ceres and Persephone were worshiped on an island close to Britain with rites and

ceremonies similar to those of Samothrace. There is no doubt that the Druidic Pantheon

includes a large number of Greek and Roman deities. This greatly amazed Cæsar during

his conquest of Britain and Gaul, and caused him to affirm that these tribes adored

Mercury, Apollo, Mars, and Jupiter, in a manner similar to that of the Latin countries. It

is almost certain that the Druidic Mysteries were not indigenous to Britain or Gaul, but

migrated from one of the more ancient civilizations.

The school of the Druids was divided into three distinct parts, and the secret teachings

embodied therein are practically the same as the mysteries concealed under the allegories

of Blue Lodge Masonry. The lowest of the three divisions was that of Ovate (Ovydd).

This was an honorary degree, requiring no special purification or preparation. The Ovates

dressed in green, the Druidic color of learning, and were expected to know something

about medicine, astronomy, poetry if possible, and sometimes music. An Ovate was an

individual admitted to the Druidic Order because of his general excellence and superior

knowledge concerning the problems of life.

The second division was that of Bard (Beirdd). Its members were robed in sky-blue, to

represent harmony and truth, and to them was assigned the labor of memorizing, at least

in part, the twenty thousand verses of Druidic sacred poetry. They were often pictured

with the primitive British or Irish harp--an instrument strung with human hair, and having

as many strings as there were ribs on one side of the human body. These Bards were

often chosen as teachers of candidates seeking entrance into the Druidic Mysteries.

Neophytes wore striped robes of blue, green, and white, these being the three sacred

colors of the Druidic Order.

The third division was that of Druid (Derwyddon). Its particular labor was to minister to

the religious needs of the people. To reach this dignity, the candidate must first become a

Bard Braint. The Druids always dressed in white--symbolic of their purity, and the color

used by them to symbolize the sun.

In order to reach the exalted position of Arch-Druid, or spiritual head of the organization,

it was necessary for a priest to pass through the six successive degrees of the Druidic

Order. (The members of the different degrees were differentiated by the colors of their

sashes, for all of them wore robes of white.) Some writers are of the opinion that the title

of Arch-Druid was hereditary, descending from father to son, but it is more probable that

the honor was conferred by ballot election. Its recipient was chosen for his virtues and

Click to enlarge

THE ARCH-DRUID IN HIS CEREMONIAL ROBES.

From Wellcome's Ancient Cymric Medicine.

The most striking adornment of the Arch-Druid was the iodhan moran, or breastplate of judgment, which

possessed the mysterious Power of strangling any who made an untrue statement while wearing it. Godfrey

Higgins states that this breastplate was put on the necks of witnesses to test the veracity of their evidence.

The Druidic tiara, or anguinum, its front embossed with a number of points to represent the sun's rays,

indicated that the priest was a personification of the rising sun. On the front of his belt the Arch-Druid wore the liath meisicith--a magic brooch, or buckle in the center of which was a large white stone. To this was

attributed the power of drawing the fire of the gods down from heaven at the priest's command This

specially cut stone was a burning glass, by which the sun's rays were concentrated to light the altar fires.

The Druids also had other symbolic implements, such as the peculiarly shaped golden sickle with which

they cut the mistletoe from the oak, and the cornan, or scepter, in the form of a crescent, symbolic of the

sixth day of the increasing moon and also of the Ark of Noah. An early initiate of the Druidic Mysteries

related that admission to their midnight ceremony was gained by means of a glass boat, called Cwrwg

Gwydrin. This boat symbolized the moon, which, floating upon the waters of eternity, preserved the seeds

of living creatures within its boatlike crescent.

p. 23

integrity from the most learned members of the higher Druidic degrees.

According to James Gardner, there were usually two Arch-Druids in Britain, one residing

on the Isle of Anglesea and the other on the Isle of Man. Presumably there were others in

Gaul. These dignitaries generally carried golden scepters and were crowned with wreaths

of oak leaves, symbolic of their authority. The younger members of the Druidic Order

were clean-shaven and modestly dressed, but the more aged had long gray beards and

wore magnificent golden ornaments. The educational system of the Druids in Britain was

superior to that of their colleagues on the Continent, and consequently many of the Gallic

youths were sent to the Druidic colleges in Britain for their philosophical instruction and

training.

Eliphas Levi states that the Druids lived in strict abstinence, studied the natural sciences,

preserved the deepest secrecy, and admitted new members only after long probationary

periods. Many of the priests of the order lived in buildings not unlike the monasteries of

the modern world. They were associated in groups like ascetics of the Far East. Although

celibacy was not demanded of them, few married. Many of the Druids retired from the

world and lived as recluses in caves, in rough-stone houses, or in little shacks built in the

depths of a forest. Here they prayed and medicated, emerging only to perform their

religious duties.

James Freeman Clarke, in his Ten Great Religions, describes the beliefs of the Druids as

follows: "The Druids believed in three worlds and in transmigration from one to the

other: In a world above this, in which happiness predominated; a world below, of misery;

and this present state. This transmigration was to punish and reward and also to purify the

soul. In the present world, said they, Good and Evil are so exactly balanced that man has

the utmost freedom and is able to choose or reject either. The Welsh Triads tell us there

are three objects of metempsychosis: to collect into the soul the properties of all being, to

acquire a knowledge of all things, and to get power to conquer evil. There are also, they

say, three kinds of knowledge: knowledge of the nature of each thing, of its cause, and its

influence. There are three things which continually grow less: darkness, falsehood, and

death. There are three which constantly increase: light, life, and truth."

Like nearly all schools of the Mysteries, the teachings of the Druids were divided into

two distinct sections. The simpler, a moral code, was taught to all the people, while the

deeper, esoteric doctrine was given only to initiated priests. To be admitted to the order, a

candidate was required to be of good family and of high moral character. No important

secrets were intrusted to him until he had been tempted in many ways and his strength of

character severely tried. The Druids taught the people of Britain and Gaul concerning the

immortality of the soul. They believed in transmigration and apparently in reincarnation.

They borrowed in one life, promising to pay back in the next. They believed in a

purgatorial type of hell where they would be purged of their sins, afterward passing on to

the happiness of unity with the gods. The Druids taught that all men would be saved, but

that some must return to earth many times to learn the lessons of human life and to

overcome the inherent evil of their own natures.

Before a candidate was intrusted with the secret doctrines of the Druids, he was bound

with a vow of secrecy. These doctrines were imparted only in the depths of forests and in

the darkness of caves. In these places, far from the haunts of men, the neophyte was

instructed concerning the creation of the universe, the personalities of the gods, the laws

of Nature, the secrets of occult medicine, the mysteries of the celestial bodies, and the

rudiments of magic and sorcery. The Druids had a great number of feast days. The new

and full moon and the sixth day of the moon were sacred periods. It is believed that

initiations took place only at the two solstices and the two equinoxes. At dawn of the 25th

day of December, the birth of the Sun God was celebrated.

The secret teachings of the Druids are said by some to be tinctured with Pythagorean

philosophy. The Druids had a Madonna, or Virgin Mother, with a Child in her arms, who

was sacred to their Mysteries; and their Sun God was resurrected at the time of the year

corresponding to that at which modern Christians celebrate Easter.

Both the cross and the serpent were sacred to the Druids, who made the former by cutting

off all the branches of an oak tree and fastening one of them to the main trunk in the form

of the letter T. This oaken cross became symbolic of their superior Deity. They also

worshiped the sun, moon, and stars. The moon received their special veneration. Caesar

stated that Mercury was one of the chief deities of the Gauls. The Druids are believed to

have worshiped Mercury under the similitude of a stone cube. They also had great

veneration for the Nature spirits (fairies, gnomes, and undines), little creatures of the

forests and rivers to whom many offerings were made. Describing the temples of the

Druids, Charles Heckethorn, in The Secret Societies of All Ages & Countries, says:

"Their temples wherein the sacred fire was preserved were generally situate on

eminences and in dense groves of oak, and assumed various forms--circular, because a

circle was the emblem of the universe; oval, in allusion to the mundane egg, from which

issued, according to the traditions of many nations, the universe, or, according to others,

our first parents; serpentine, because a serpent was the symbol of Hu, the Druidic Osiris;

cruciform, because a cross is an emblem of regeneration; or winged, to represent the

motion of the Divine Spirit. * * * Their chief deities were reducible to two--a male and a

female, the great father and mother--Hu and Ceridwen, distinguished by the same

characteristics as belong to Osiris and Isis, Bacchus and Ceres, or any other supreme god

and goddess representing the two principles of all Being."

Godfrey Higgins states that Hu, the Mighty, regarded as the first settler of Britain, came

from a place which the Welsh Triads call the Summer Country, the present site of

Constantinople. Albert Pike says that the Lost Word of Masonry is concealed in the name

of the Druid god Hu. The meager information extant concerning the secret initiations of

the Druids indicates a decided similarity between their Mystery school and the schools of

Greece and Egypt. Hu, the Sun God, was murdered and, after a number of strange ordeals

and mystic rituals, was restored to life.

There were three degrees of the Druidic Mysteries, but few successfully passed them all.

The candidate was buried in a coffin, as symbolic of the death of the Sun God. The

supreme test, however, was being sent out to sea in an open boat. While undergoing this

ordeal, many lost their lives. Taliesin, an ancient scholar, who passed through the

Mysteries, describes the initiation of the open boat in Faber's Pagan Idolatry. The few

who passed this third degree were said to have been "born again," and were instructed in

the secret and hidden truths which the Druid priests had preserved from antiquity. From

these initiates were chosen many of the dignitaries of the British religious and political

world. (For further details, see Faber's Pagan Idolatry, Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma,

and Godfrey Higgins' Celtic Druids.)

THE RITES OF MITHRAS

When the Persian Mysteries immigrated into Southern Europe, they were quickly

assimilated by the Latin mind. The cult grew rapidly, especially among the Roman

soldiery, and during the Roman wars of conquest the teachings were carried by the

legionaries to nearly all parts of Europe. So powerful did the cult of Mithras become that

at least one Roman Emperor was initiated into the order, which met in caverns under the

city of Rome. Concerning the spread of this Mystery school through different parts of

Europe, C. W. King, in his Gnostics and Their Remains, says:

"Mithraic bas-reliefs cut on the faces of rocks or on stone tablets still abound in the

countries formerly the western provinces of the Roman Empire; many exist in Germany,

still more in France, and in this island (Britain) they have often been discovered on the

line of the Picts' Wall and the noted one at Bath."

Alexander Wilder, in his Philosophy and Ethics of the Zoroasters, states that Mithras is

the Zend title for the sun, and he is supposed to dwell within that shining orb. Mithras has

a male and a female aspect, though not himself androgynous. As Mithras, he is the ford

of the sun, powerful and radiant, and most magnificent of the Yazatas (Izads, or Genii, of

the sun). As Mithra, this deity represents the feminine principle; the mundane universe is

recognized as her symbol. She represents Nature as receptive and terrestrial, and as

fruitful only when bathed in the glory of the solar orb. The Mithraic cult is a

simplification of the more elaborate teachings of Zarathustra (Zoroaster), the Persian fire

magician.

Click to enlarge

THE GROUND PLAN OF STONEHENGE.

From Maurice's Indian Antiquities.

The Druid temples of places of religious worship were not patterned after those of other nations. Most of

their ceremonies were performed at night, either in thick groves of oak trees or around open-air altars built

of great uncut stones. How these masses of rock were moved ahs not been satisfactorily explained. The

most famous of their altars, a great stone ring of rocks, is Stonehenge, in Southwestern England. This

structure, laid out on an astronomical basis, still stands, a wonder of antiquity.

p. 24

According to the Persians, there coexisted in eternity two principles. The first of these,

Ahura-Mazda, or Ormuzd, was the Spirit of Good. From Ormuzd came forth a number of

hierarchies of good and beautiful spirits (angels and archangels). The second of these

eternally existing principles was called Ahriman. He was also a pure and beautiful spirit,

but he later rebelled against Ormuzd, being jealous of his power. This did not occur,

however, until after Ormuzd had created light, for previously Ahriman had not been

conscious of the existence of Ormuzd. Because of his jealousy and rebellion, Ahriman

became the Spirit of Evil. From himself he individualized a host of destructive creatures

to injure Ormuzd.

When Ormuzd created the earth, Ahriman entered into its grosser elements. Whenever

Ormuzd did a good deed, Ahriman placed the principle of evil within it. At last when

Ormuzd created the human race, Ahriman became incarnate in the lower nature of man

so that in each personality the Spirit of Good and the Spirit of Evil struggle for control.

For 3,000 years Ormuzd ruled the celestial worlds with light and goodness. Then he

created man. For another 3,000 years he ruled man with wisdom, and integrity. Then the

power of Ahriman began, and the struggle for the soul of man continues through the next

period of 3,000 years. During the fourth period of 3,000 years, the power of Ahriman will

be destroyed. Good will return to the world again, evil and death will be vanquished, and

at last the Spirit of Evil will bow humbly before the throne of Ormuzd. While Ormuzd

and Ahriman are struggling for control of the human soul and for supremacy in Nature,

Mithras, God of Intelligence, stands as mediator between the two. Many authors have

noted the similarity between mercury and Mithras. As the chemical mercury acts as a

solvent (according to alchemists), so Mithras seeks to harmonize the two celestial

opposites.

There are many points of resemblance between Christianity and the cult of Mithras. One

of the reasons for this probably is that the Persian mystics invaded Italy during the first

century after Christ and the early history of both cults was closely interwoven. The

Encyclopædia Britannica makes the following statement concerning the Mithraic and

Christian Mysteries:

"The fraternal and democratic spirit of the first communities, and their humble origin; the

identification of the object of adoration with light and the sun; the legends of the

shepherds with their gifts and adoration, the flood, and the ark; the representation in art of

the fiery chariot, the drawing of water from the rock; the use of bell and candle, holy

water and the communion; the sanctification of Sunday and of the 25th of December; the

insistence on moral conduct, the emphasis placed on abstinence and self-control; the

doctrine of heaven and hell, of primitive revelation, of the mediation of the Logos

emanating from the divine, the atoning sacrifice, the constant warfare between good and

evil and the final triumph of the former, the immortality of the soul, the last judgment, the

resurrection of the flesh and the fiery destruction of the universe--[these] are some of the

resemblances which, whether real or only apparent, enabled Mithraism to prolong its

resistance to Christianity,"

The rites of Mithras were performed in caves. Porphyry, in his Cave of the Nymphs, states

that Zarathustra (Zoroaster) was the first to consecrate a cave to the worship of God,

because a cavern was symbolic of the earth, or the lower world of darkness. John P.

Lundy, in his Monumental Christianity, describes the cave of Mithras as follows:

"But this cave was adorned with the signs of the zodiac, Cancer and Capricorn. The

summer and winter solstices were chiefly conspicuous, as the gates of souls descending

into this life, or passing out of it in their ascent to the Gods; Cancer being the gate of

descent, and Capricorn of ascent. These are the two avenues of the immortals passing up

and down from earth to heaven, and from heaven to earth."

The so-called chair of St. Peter, in Rome, was believed to have been used in one of the

pagan Mysteries, possibly that of Mithras, in whose subterranean grottoes the votaries of

the Christian Mysteries met in the early days of their faith. In Anacalypsis, Godfrey

Higgins writes that in 1662, while cleaning this sacred chair of Bar-Jonas, the Twelve

Labors of Hercules were discovered upon it, and that later the French discovered upon

the same chair the Mohammedan confession of faith, written in Arabic.

Initiation into the rites of Mithras, like initiation into many other ancient schools of

philosophy, apparently consisted of three important degrees. Preparation for these

degrees consisted of self-purification, the building up of the intellectual powers, and the

control of the animal nature. In the first degree the candidate was given a crown upon the

point of a sword and instructed in the mysteries of Mithras' hidden power. Probably he

was taught that the golden crown represented his own spiritual nature, which must be

objectified and unfolded before he could truly glorify Mithras; for Mithras was his own

soul, standing as mediator between Ormuzd, his spirit, and Ahriman, his animal nature. In

the second degree he was given the armor of intelligence and purity and sent into the

darkness of subterranean pits to fight the beasts of lust, passion, and degeneracy. In the

third degree he was given a cape, upon which were drawn or woven the signs of the

zodiac and other astronomical symbols. After his initiations were over, he was hailed as

one who had risen from the dead, was instructed in the secret teachings of the Persian

mystics, and became a full-fledged member of the order. Candidates who successfully

passed the Mithraic initiations were called Lions and were marked upon their foreheads

with the Egyptian cross. Mithras himself is often pictured with the head of a lion and two

pairs of wings. Throughout the entire ritual were repeated references to the birth of

Mithras as the Sun God, his sacrifice for man, his death that men might have eternal life,

and lastly, his resurrection and the saving of all humanity by his intercession before the

throne of Ormuzd. (See Heckethorn.)

While the cult of Mithras did not reach the philosophic heights attained by Zarathustra,

its effect upon the civilization of the Western world was far-reaching, for at one time

nearly all Europe was converted to its doctrines. Rome, in her intercourse with other

nations, inoculated them with her religious principles; and many later institutions have

exhibited Mithraic culture. The reference to the "Lion" and the "Grip of the Lion's Paw"

in the Master Mason's degree have a strong Mithraic tinge and may easily have originated

from this cult. A ladder of seven rungs appears in the Mithraic initiation. Faber is of the

opinion that this ladder was originally a pyramid of seven steps. It is possible that the

Masonic ladder with seven rungs had its origin in this Mithraic symbol. Women were

never permitted to enter the Mithraic Order, but children of the male sex were initiates

long before they reached maturity. The refusal to permit women to join the Masonic

Order may be based on the esoteric reason given in the secret instructions of the

Mithraics. This cult is another excellent example of those secret societies whose legends

are largely symbolic representations of the sun and his journey through the houses of the

heavens. Mithras, rising from a stone, is merely the sun rising over the horizon, or, as the

ancients supposed, out of the horizon, at the vernal equinox.

John O'Neill disputes the theory that Mithras was intended as a solar deity. In The Night

of the Gods he writes: "The Avestan Mithra, the yazata of light, has '10,000 eyes, high,

with full knowledge (perethuvaedayana), strong, sleepless and ever awake

(jaghaurvaunghem).'The supreme god Ahura Mazda also has one Eye, or else it is said

that 'with his eyes, the sun, moon and stars, he sees everything.' The theory that Mithra

was originally a title of the supreme heavens-god--putting the sun out of court--is the

only one that answers all requirements. It will be evident that here we have origins in

abundance for the Freemason's Eye and 'its nunquam dormio.'" The reader must nor

confuse the Persian Mithra with the Vedic Mitra. According to Alexander Wilder, "The

Mithraic rites superseded the Mysteries of Bacchus, and became the foundation of the

Gnostic system, which for many centuries prevailed in Asia, Egypt, and even the remote

West."

Click to enlarge

MITHRAS SLAYING THE BULL.

From Lundy's Monumental Christianity.

The most famous sculpturings and reliefs of this prototokos show Mithras kneeling upon the recumbent

form of a great bull, into whose throat he is driving a sword. The slaying of the bull signifies that the rays of the sun, symbolized by the sword, release at the vernal equinox the vital essences of the earth--the blood

of the bull--which, pouring from the wound made by the Sun God, fertilize the seeds of living things. Dogs

were held sacred to the cult of Mithras, being symbolic of sincerity and trustworthiness. The Mithraics used

the serpent a an emblem of Ahriman, the Spirit of Evil, and water rats were held sacred to him. The bull is

esoterically the Constellation of Taurus; the serpent, its opposite in the zodiac, Scorpio; the sun, Mithras,

entering into the side of the bull, slays the celestial creature and nourishes the universe with its blood.

Click to enlarge

THE BIRTH OF MITHRAS.

From Montfaucon's Antiquities

Mithras was born out of a rock, which, breaking open, permitted him to emerge. This occurred in the

darkness of a subterranean chamber. The Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem confirms the theory that

Jesus was born in a grotto, or cave. According to Dupuis, Mithras was put to death by crucifixion and rose

again on the third day.

p. 25

The Ancient Mysteries and Secret

Societies

Part Two

THE entire history of Christian and pagan Gnosticism is shrouded in the deepest mystery

and obscurity; for, while the Gnostics were undoubtedly prolific writers, little of their

literature has survived. They brought down upon themselves the animosity of the early

Christian Church, and when this institution reached its position of world power it

destroyed all available records of the Gnostic cultus. The name Gnostic means wisdom,

or knowledge, and is derived from the Greek Gnosis. The members of the order claimed

to be familiar with the secret doctrines of early Christianity. They interpreted the

Christian Mysteries according to pagan symbolism. Their secret information and

philosophic tenets they concealed from the profane and taught to a small group only of

especially initiated persons.

Simon Magus, the magician of New Testament fame, is often supposed to have been the

founder of Gnosticism. If this be true, the sect was formed during the century after Christ

and is probably the first of the many branches which have sprung from the main trunk of

Christianity. Everything with which the enthusiasts of the early Christian Church might

not agree they declared to be inspired by the Devil. That Simon Magus had mysterious

and supernatural powers is conceded even by his enemies, but they maintained that these

powers were lent to him by the infernal spirits and furies which they asserted were his

ever present companions. Undoubtedly the most interesting legend concerning Simon is

that which tells of his theosophic contests with the Apostle Peter while the two were

promulgating their differing doctrines in Rome. According to the story that the Church

Fathers have preserved, Simon was to prove his spiritual superiority by ascending to

heaven in a chariot of fire. He was actually picked up and carried many feet into the air

by invisible powers. When St. Peter saw this, he cried out in a loud voice, ordering the

demons (spirits of the air) to release their hold upon the magician. The evil spirits, when

so ordered by the great saint, were forced to obey. Simon fell a great distance and was

killed, which decisively proved the superiority of the Christian powers. This story is

undoubtedly manufactured out of whole cloth, as it is only one out of many accounts

concerning his death, few of which agree. As more and more evidence is being amassed

to the effect that St, Peter was never in Rome, its last possible vestige of authenticity is

rapidly being dissipated.

That Simon was a philosopher there is no doubt, for wherever his exact words are

preserved his synthetic and transcending thoughts are beautifully expressed. The

principles of Gnosticism are well described in the following verbatim statement by him,

supposed to have been preserved by Hippolytus: "To you, therefore, I say what I say, and

write what I write. And the writing is this. Of the universal Æons [periods, planes, or

cycles of creative and created life in substance and space, celestial creatures] there are

two shoots, without beginning or end, springing from one Root, which is the power

invisible, inapprehensible silence [Bythos]. Of these shoots one is manifested from

above, which is the Great Power, the Universal Mind ordering all things, male, and the

other, [is manifested] from below, the Great Thought, female, producing all things.

Hence pairing with each other, they unite and manifest the Middle Distance,

incomprehensible Air, without beginning or end. In this is the Father Who sustains all

things, and nourishes those things which have a beginning and end." (See Simon Magus,

by G. R. S. Mead.) By this we are to understand that manifestation is the result of a

positive and a negative principle, one acting upon the other, and it takes place in the

middle plane, or point of equilibrium, called the pleroma. This pleroma is a peculiar

substance produced out of the blending of the spiritual and material æons. Out of the

pleroma was individualized the Demiurgus, the immortal mortal, to whom we are

responsible for our physical existence and the suffering we must go through in

connection with it. In the Gnostic system, three pairs of opposites, called Syzygies,

emanated from the Eternal One. These, with Himself, make the total of seven. The six

(three pairs) Æons (living, divine principles) were described by Simon in the

Philosophumena in the following manner: The first two were Mind (Nous) and Thought

(Epinoia). Then came Voice (Phone) and its opposite, Name (Onoma), and lastly, Reason

(Logismos) and Reflection (Enthumesis). From these primordial six, united with the

Eternal Flame, came forth the Æons (Angels) who formed the lower worlds through the

direction of the Demiurgus. (See the works of H. P. Blavatsky.) How this first Gnosticism

of Simon Magus and Menander, his disciple, was amplified, and frequently distorted, by

later adherents to the cult must now be considered.

The School of Gnosticism was divided into two major parts, commonly called the Syrian

Cult and the Alexandrian Cult. These schools agreed in essentials, but the latter division

was more inclined to be pantheistic, while the former was dualistic. While the Syrian cult

was largely Simonian, the Alexandrian School was the outgrowth of the philosophical

deductions of a clever Egyptian Christian, Basilides by name, who claimed to have

received his instructions from the Apostle Matthew. Like Simon Magus, he was an

emanationist, with Neo-Platonic inclinations. In fact, the entire Gnostic Mystery is based

upon the hypothesis of emanations as being the logical connection between the

irreconcilable opposites Absolute Spirit and Absolute Substance, which the Gnostics

believed to have been coexistent in Eternity. Some assert that Basilides was the true

founder of Gnosticism, but there is much evidence to the effect that Simon Magus laid

down its fundamental principles in the preceding century.

The Alexandrian Basilides inculcated Egyptian Hermeticism, Oriental occultism,

Chaldean astrology, and Persian philosophy in his followers, and in his doctrines sought

to unite the schools of early Christianity with the ancient pagan Mysteries. To him is

attributed the formulation of that peculiar concept of the Deity which carries the name of

Abraxas. In discussing the original meaning of this word, Godfrey Higgins, in his Celtic

Druids, has demonstrated that the numerological powers of the letters forming the word

Abraxas when added together result in the sum of 365. The same author also notes that

the name Mithras when treated in a similar manner has the same numerical value.

Basilides caught that the

Click to enlarge

THE DEATH OF SIMON THE MAGICIAN.

From the Nuremberg Chronicle.

Simon Magus, having called upon the Spirits of the Air, is here shown being picked up by the demons. St.

Peter demands that the evil genii release their hold upon the magician. The demons are forced to comply

and Simon Magus is killed by the fall.

p. 26

powers of the universe were divided into 365 Æons, or spiritual cycles, and that the sum

of all these together was the Supreme Father, and to Him he gave the Qabbalistical

appellation Abraxas, as being symbolical, numerologically, of His divine powers,

attributes, and emanations. Abraxas is usually symbolized as a composite creature, with

the body of a human being and the head of a rooster, and with each of his legs ending in a

serpent. C. W. King, in his Gnostics and Their Remains, gives the following concise

description of the Gnostic philosophy of Basilides, quoting from the writings of the early

Christian bishop and martyr, St. Irenæus: "He asserted that God, the uncreated, eternal

Father, had first brought forth Nous, or Mind; this the Logos, Word; this again Phronesis,

Intelligence; from Phronesis sprung Sophia, Wisdom, and Dynamis, Strength."

In describing Abraxas, C. W. King says: "Bellermann considers the composite image,

inscribed with the actual name Abraxas, to be a Gnostic Pantheos, representing the

Supreme Being, with the Five Emanations marked out by appropriate symbols. From the

human body, the usual form assigned to the Deity, spring the two supporters, Nous and

Logos, expressed in the serpents, symbols of the inner senses, and the quickening

understanding; on which account the Greeks had made the serpent the attribute of Pallas.

His head--that of a cock--represents Phronesis, that bird being the emblem of foresight

and of vigilance. His two arms hold the symbols of Sophia and Dynamis: the shield of

Wisdom and the whip of Power."

The Gnostics were divided in their opinions concerning the Demiurgus, or creator of the

lower worlds. He established the terrestrial universe with the aid of six sons, or

emanations (possibly the planetary Angels) which He formed out of, and yet within,

Himself. As stated before, the Demiurgus was individualized as the lowest creation out of

the substance called pleroma. One group of the Gnostics was of the opinion that the

Demiurgus was the cause of all misery and was an evil creature, who by building this

lower world had separated the souls of men from truth by encasing them in mortal

vehicles. The other sect viewed the Demiurgus as being divinely inspired and merely

fulfilling the dictates of the invisible Lord. Some Gnostics were of the opinion that the

Jewish God, Jehovah, was the Demiurgus. This concept, under a slightly different name,

apparently influenced mediæval Rosicrucianism, which viewed Jehovah as the Lord of

the material universe rather than as the Supreme Deity. Mythology abounds with the

stories of gods who partook of both celestial and terrestrial natures. Odin, of Scandinavia,

is a good example of a deity subject to mortality, bowing before the laws of Nature and

yet being, in certain senses at least, a Supreme Deity.

The Gnostic viewpoint concerning the Christ is well worthy of consideration. This order

claimed to be the only sect to have actual pictures of the Divine Syrian. While these were,

in all probability, idealistic conceptions of the Savior based upon existing sculpturings

and paintings of the pagan sun gods, they were all Christianity had. To the Gnostics, the

Christ was the personification of Nous, the Divine Mind, and emanated from the higher

spiritual Æons. He descended into the body of Jesus at the baptism and left it again

before the crucifixion. The Gnostics declared that the Christ was not crucified, as this

Divine Nous could not suffer death, but that Simon, the Cyrenian, offered his life instead

and that the Nous, by means of its power, caused Simon to resemble Jesus. Irenæus

makes the following statement concerning the cosmic sacrifice of the Christ:

"When the uncreated, unnamed Father saw the corruption of mankind, He sent His

firstborn, Nous, into the world, in the form of Christ, for the redemption of all who

believe in Him, out of the power of those that have fabricated the world (the Demiurgus,

and his six sons, the planetary genii). He appeared amongst men as the Man Jesus, and

wrought miracles." (See King's Gnostics and Their Remains.)

The Gnostics divided humanity into three parts: those who, as savages, worshiped only

the visible Nature; those who, like the Jews, worshiped the Demiurgus; and lastly,

themselves, or others of a similar cult, including certain sects of Christians, who

worshiped Nous (Christ) and the true spiritual light of the higher Æons.

After the death of Basilides, Valentinus became the leading inspiration of the Gnostic

movement. He still further complicated the system of Gnostic philosophy by adding

infinitely to the details. He increased the number of emanations from the Great One (the

Abyss) to fifteen pairs and also laid much emphasis on the Virgin Sophia, or Wisdom. In

the Books of the Savior, parts of which are commonly known as the Pistis Sophia, may be

found much material concerning this strange doctrine of Æons and their strange

inhabitants. James Freeman Clarke, in speaking of the doctrines of the Gnostics, says:

"These doctrines, strange as they seem to us, had a wide influence in the Christian

Church." Many of the theories of the ancient Gnostics, especially those concerning

scientific subjects, have been substantiated by modern research. Several sects branched

off from the main stem of Gnosticism, such as the Valentinians, the Ophites (serpent

worshipers), and the Adamites. After the third century their power waned, and the

Gnostics practically vanished from the philosophic world. An effort was made during the

Middle Ages to resurrect the principles of Gnosticism, but owing to the destruction of

their records the material necessary was not available. Even today there are evidences of

Gnostic philosophy in the modern world, but they bear other names and their true origin

is not suspected. Many of the Gnostic concepts have actually been incorporated into the

dogmas of the Christian Church, and our newer interpretations of Christianity are often

along the lines of Gnostic emanationism.

THE MYSTERIES OF

, ASAR-HAPI

The identity of the Greco-Egyptian Serapis (known to the Greeks as Serapis and the

Egyptians as Asar-Hapi) is shrouded by an impenetrable veil of mystery. While this deity

was a familiar figure among the symbols of the secret Egyptian initiatory rites, his arcane

nature was revealed only to those who had fulfilled the requirements of the Serapic

cultus. Therefore, in all probability, excepting the initiated priests, the Egyptians

themselves were ignorant of his true character. So far as known, there exists no authentic

account of the rites of Serapis, but an analysis of the deity and his accompanying symbols

reveals their salient points. In an oracle delivered to the King of Cyprus, Serapis

described himself thus:

' A god I am such as I show to thee,

The Starry Heavens are my head, my trunk the sea,

Earth forms my feet, mine ears the air supplies,

The Sun's far-darting, brilliant rays, mine eyes."

Several unsatisfactory attempts have been made to etymologize the word Serapis.

Godfrey Higgins notes that Soros was the name given by the Egyptians to a stone coffin,

and Apis was Osiris incarnate in the sacred bull. These two words combined result in

Soros-Apis or Sor-Apis, "the tomb of the bull." But it is improbable that the Egyptians

would worship a coffin in the form of a man.

Several ancient authors, including Macrobius, have affirmed that Serapis was a name for

the Sun, because his image so often had a halo of light about its head. In his Oration

Upon the Sovereign Sun, Julian speaks of the deity in these words: "One Jove, one Pluto,

one Sun is Serapis." In Hebrew, Serapis is Saraph, meaning "to blaze out" or "to blaze

up." For this reason the Jews designated one of their hierarchies of spiritual beings,

Seraphim.

The most common theory, however, regarding the origin of the name Serapis is that

which traces its derivation from the compound Osiris-Apis. At one time the Egyptians

believed that the dead were absorbed into the nature of Osiris, the god of the dead. While

marked similarity exists between Osiris-Apis and Serapis, the theory advanced by

Egyptologists that Serapis is merely a name given to the dead Apis, or sacred bull of

Egypt, is untenable in view of the transcendent wisdom possessed by the Egyptian

priestcraft, who, in all probability, used the god to symbolize the soul of the world (anima

mundi). The material body of Nature was called Apis; the soul which escaped from the

body at death but was enmeshed with the form during physical life was designated

Serapis.

C. W. King believes Serapis to be a deity of Brahmanic extraction, his name being the

Grecianized form of Ser-adah or Sri-pa, two titles ascribed to Yama, the Hindu god of

death. This appears reasonable, especially since there is a legend to the effect that

Serapis, in the form of a bull, was driven by Bacchus from India to Egypt. The priority of

the Hindu Mysteries would further substantiate such a theory.

Among other meanings suggested for the word Serapis are: "The Sacred Bull," "The Sun

in Taurus," "The Soul of Osiris," "The Sacred Serpent," and "The Retiring of the Bull."

The last appellation has reference to the ceremony of drowning the sacred Apis in the

waters of the Nile every twenty-five years.

Click to enlarge

THE LION-FACED LIGHT-POWER.

From Montfaucon's Antiquities.

This Gnostic gem represents by its serpentine body the pathway of the Sun and by its lion head the

exaltation of the solar in the constellation of Leo.

Click to enlarge

A SYMBOLIC LABYRINTH.

From Montfaucon's Antiquities.

Labyrinths and mazes were favored places of initiation among many ancient cults. Remains of these mystic

mazes have been found among the American Indians, Hindus, Persians, Egyptians, and Greeks. Some of

these mazes are merely involved pathways lined with stones; others are literally miles of gloomy caverns

under temples or hollowed from the sides of mountains. The famous labyrinth of Crete, in which roamed

the bull-headed Minotaur, was unquestionably a place of initiation into the Cretan Mysteries.

p. 27

There is considerable evidence that the famous statue of Serapis in the Serapeum at

Alexandria was originally worshiped under another name at Sinope, from which it was

brought to Alexandria. There is also a legend which tells that Serapis was a very early

king of the Egyptians, to whom they owed the foundation of their philosophical and

scientific power. After his death this king was elevated to the estate of a god. Phylarchus

declared that the word Serapis means "the power that disposed the universe into its

present beautiful order."

In his Isis and Osiris, Plutarch gives the following account of the origin of the

magnificent statue of Serapis which stood in the Serapeum at Alexandria:

While he was Pharaoh of Egypt, Ptolemy Soter had a strange dream in which he beheld a

tremendous statue, which came to life and ordered the Pharaoh to bring it to Alexandria

with all possible speed. Ptolemy Soter, not knowing the whereabouts of the statue, was

sorely perplexed as to how he could discover it. While the Pharaoh was relating his

dream, a great traveler by the name of Sosibius, coming forward, declared that he had

seen such an image at Sinope. The Pharaoh immediately dispatched Soteles and

Dionysius to negotiate for the removal of the figure to Alexandria. Three years elapsed

before the image was finally obtained, the representatives of the Pharaoh finally stealing

it and concealing the theft by spreading a story that the statue had come to life and,

walking down the street leading from its temple, had boarded the ship prepared for its

transportation to Alexandria. Upon its arrival in Egypt, the figure was brought into the

presence of two Egyptian Initiates--the Eumolpid Timotheus and Manetho the Sebennite-

-who, immediately pronounced it to be Serapis. The priests then declared that it was

equipollent to Pluto. This was a masterly stroke, for in Serapis the Greeks and Egyptians

found a deity in common and thus religious unity was consummated between the two

nations.

Several figures of Serapis that stood in his various temples in Egypt and Rome have been

described by early authors. Nearly all these showed Grecian rather than Egyptian

influence. In some the body of the god was encircled by the coils of a great serpent.

Others showed him as a composite of Osiris and Apis.

A description of the god that in all probability is reasonably accurate is that which

represents him as a tall, powerful figure, conveying the twofold impression of manly

strength and womanly grace. His face portrayed a deeply pensive mood, the expression

inclining toward sadness. His hair was long and arranged in a somewhat feminine

manner, resting in curls upon his breast and shoulders. The face, save for its heavy beard,

was also decidedly feminine. The figure of Serapis was usually robed from head to foot

in heavy draperies, believed by initiates to conceal the fact that his body was

androgynous.

Various substances were used in making the statues of Serapis. Some undoubtedly were

carved from stone or marble by skilled craftsmen; others may have been cast from base

or precious metals. One colossus of Serapis was composed of plates of various metals

fitted together. In a labyrinth sacred to Serapis stood a thirteen-foot statue of him reputed

to have been made from a single emerald. Modern writers, discussing this image, state

that it was made of green glass poured into a mold. According to the Egyptians, however,

it withstood all the tests of an actual emerald.

Clement of Alexandria describes a figure of Serapis compounded from the following

elements: First, filings of gold, silver, lead, and tin; second, all manner of Egyptian

stones, including sapphires, hematites, emeralds, and topazes; all these being ground

down and mixed together with the coloring matter left over from the funeral of Osiris and

Apis. The result was a rare and curious figure, indigo in color. Some of the statues of

Serapis must have been formed of extremely hard substances, for when a Christian

soldier, carrying out the edict of Theodosius, struck the Alexandrian Serapis with his ax,

that instrument was shattered into fragments and sparks flew from it. It is also quite

probable that Serapis was worshiped in the form of a serpent, in common with many of

the higher deities of the Egyptian and Greek pantheons.

Serapis was called Theon Heptagrammaton, or the god with the name of seven letters.

The name Serapis (like Abraxas and Mithras) contains seven letters. In their hymns to

Serapis the priests chanted the seven vowels. Occasionally Serapis is depicted with horns

or a coronet of seven rays. These evidently represented the seven divine intelligences

manifesting through the solar light. The Encyclopædia Britannica notes that the earliest

authentic mention of Serapis is in connection with the death of Alexander. Such was the

prestige of Serapis that he alone of the gods was consulted in behalf of the dying king.

The Egyptian secret school of philosophy was divided into the Lesser and the Greater

Mysteries, the former being sacred to Isis and the latter to Serapis and Osiris. Wilkinson

is of the opinion that only the priests were permitted to enter the Greater Mysteries. Even

the heir to the throne was not eligible until he had been crowned Pharaoh, when, by virtue

of his kingly office, he automatically became a priest and the temporal head of the state

religion. (See Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Egyptians.) A limited number

were admitted into the Greater Mysteries: these preserved their secrets inviolate.

Much of the information concerning the rituals of the higher degrees of the Egyptian

Mysteries has been gleaned from an examination of the chambers and passageways in

which the initiations were given. Under the temple of Serapis destroyed by Theodosius

were found strange mechanical contrivances constructed by the priests in the

subterranean crypts and caverns where the nocturnal initiatory rites were celebrated.

These machines indicate the severe tests of moral and physical courage undergone by the

candidates. After passing through these tortuous ways, the neophytes who Survived the

ordeals were ushered into the presence of Serapis, a noble and awe-inspiring figure

illumined by unseen lights.

Labyrinths were also a striking feature in connection with the Rice of Serapis, and E. A.

Wallis Budge, in his Gods of the Egyptians, depicts Serapis(Minotaur-like) with the body

of a man and the head of a bull. Labyrinths were symbolic of the involvements and

illusions of the lower world through which wanders the soul of man in its search for truth.

In the labyrinth dwells the lower animal man with the head of the bull, who seeks to

destroy the soul entangled in the maze of worldly ignorance. In this relation Serapis

becomes the Tryer or Adversary who tests the souls of those seeking union with the

Immortals. The maze was also doubtless used to represent the solar system, the Bull-Man

representing the sun dwelling in the mystic maze of its planets, moons, and asteroids.

The Gnostic Mysteries were acquainted with the arcane meaning of Serapis, and through

the medium of Gnosticism this god became inextricably associated with early

Christianity. In fact, the Emperor Hadrian, while traveling in Egypt in A.D. 24, declared

in a letter to Servianus that the worshipers of Serapis were Christians and that the

Bishops of the church also worshiped at his shrine. He even declared that the Patriarch

himself, when in Egypt, was forced to adore Serapis as well as Christ. (See Parsons' New

Light on the Great Pyramid.)

The little-suspected importance of Serapis as a prototype of Christ can be best

appreciated after a consideration of the following extract from C. W. King's Gnostics and

Their Remains: "There can be no doubt that the head of Serapis, marked as the face is by

a grave and pensive majesty, supplied the first idea for the conventional portraits of the

Saviour. The Jewish prejudices of the first converts were so powerful that we may be sure

no attempt was made to depict His countenance until some generations after all that had

beheld it on earth had passed away."

Serapis gradually usurped the positions previously occupied by the other Egyptian and

Greek gods, and became the supreme deity of both religions. His power continued until

the fourth century of

Click to enlarge

THE ALEXANDRIAN SERAPIS.

From Mosaize Historie der Hebreeuwse Kerke.

Serapis is often shown standing on the back of the sacred crocodile, carrying in his left hand a rule with

which to measure the inundations of the Nile, and balancing with his right hand a curious emblem

consisting of an animal with the heads. The first head--that of a lion--signified the present; the second head-

-that of a wolf--the past; and the third head--that of a dog--the future. The body with its three heads was

enveloped by the twisted coils of a serpent. Figures of Serapis are occasionally accompanied by Cerberus,

the three-headed dog of Pluto, and--like Jupiter--carry baskets of grain upon their heads.

p. 28

the Christian Era. In A.D. 385, Theodosius, that would-be exterminator of pagan

philosophy, issued his memorable edict De Idolo Serapidis Diruendo. When the Christian

soldiers, in obedience to this order, entered the Serapeum at Alexandria to destroy the

image of Serapis which had stood there for centuries, so great was their veneration for the

god that they dared not touch the image lest the ground should open at their feet and

engulf them. At length, overcoming their fear, they demolished the statue, sacked the

building, and finally as a fitting climax to their offense burned the magnificent library

which was housed within the lofty apartments of the Serapeum. Several writers have

recorded the remarkable fact that Christian symbols were found in the ruined foundations

of this pagan temple. Socrates, a church historian of the fifth century, declared that after

the pious Christians had razed the Serapeum at Alexandria and scattered the demons who

dwelt there under the guise of gods, beneath the foundations was found the monogram of

Christ!

Two quotations will further establish the relationship existing between the Mysteries of

Serapis and those of other ancient peoples. The first is from Richard Payne Knight's

Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology: "Hence Varro [in De Lingua Latina]

says that Cœlum and Terra, that is universal mind and productive body, were the Great

Gods of the Samothracian Mysteries; and the same as the Serapis and Isis of the later

Ægyptians: the Taautos and Astarte of the Phœnicians, and the Saturn and Ops of the

Latins." The second quotation is from Albert Pike's Morals and Dogma: "'Thee,' says

Martianus Capella, in his hymn to the Sun, 'dwellers on the Nile adore as Serapis, and

Memphis worships as Osiris: in the sacred rites of Persia thou art Mithras, in Phrygia,

Atys, and Libya bows down to thee as Ammon, and Phœnician Byblos as Adonis; thus

the whole world adores thee under different names.'"

THE ODINIC MYSTERIES

The date of the founding of the Odinic Mysteries is uncertain, some writers declaring that

they were established in the first century before Christ; others, the first century after

Christ. Robert Macoy, 33°, gives the following description of their origin: "It appears

from the northern chronicles that in the first century of the Christian Era, Sigge, the chief

of the Aser, an Asiatic tribe, emigrated from the Caspian sea and the Caucasus into

northern Europe. He directed his course northwesterly from the Black sea to Russia, over

which, according to tradition, he placed one of his sons as a ruler, as he is said to have

done over the Saxons and the Franks. He then advanced through Cimbria to Denmark,

which acknowledged his fifth son Skiold as its sovereign, and passed over to Sweden,

where Gylf, who did homage to the wonderful stranger, and was initiated into his

mysteries, then ruled. He soon made himself master here, built Sigtuna as the capital of

his empire, and promulgated a new code of laws, and established the sacred mysteries.

He, himself, assumed the name of Odin, founded the priesthood of the twelve Drottars

(Druids?) who conducted the secret worship, and the administration of justice, and, as

prophets, revealed the future. The secret rites of these mysteries celebrated the death of

Balder, the beautiful and lovely, and represented the grief of Gods and men at his death,

and his restoration to life." (General History of Freemasonry.)

After his death, the historical Odin was apotheosized, his identity being merged into that

of the mythological Odin, god of wisdom, whose cult he had promulgated. Odinism then

supplanted the worship of Thor, the thunderer, the supreme deity of the ancient

Scandinavian pantheon. The mound where, according to legend, King Odin was buried is

still to be seen near the site of his great temple at Upsala.

The twelve Drottars who presided over the Odinic Mysteries evidently personified the

twelve holy and ineffable names of Odin. The rituals of the Odinic Mysteries were very

similar to those of the Greeks, Persians, and Brahmins, after which they were patterned.

The Drottars, who symbolized the signs of the zodiac, were the custodians of the arts and

sciences, which they revealed to those who passed successfully the ordeals of initiation.

Like many other pagan cults, the Odinic Mysteries, as an institution, were destroyed by

Christianity, but the underlying cause of their fall was the corruption of the priesthood.

Mythology is nearly always the ritual and the symbolism of a Mystery school. Briefly

stated, the sacred drama which formed the basis of the Odinic Mysteries was as follows:

The Supreme, invisible Creator of all things was called All-Father. His regent in Nature

was Odin, the one-eyed god. Like Quetzalcoatl, Odin was elevated to the dignity of the

Supreme Deity. According to the Drottars, the universe was fashioned from the body of

Ymir, the hoarfrost giant. Ymir was formed from the clouds of mist that rose from

Ginnungagap, the great cleft in chaos into which the primordial frost giants and flame

giants had hurled snow and fire. The three gods--Odin, Vili, and Ve--slew Ymir and from

him formed the world. From Ymir's various members the different parts of Nature were

fashioned.

After Odin had established order, he caused a wonderful palace, called Asgard, to be built

on the top of a mountain, and here the twelve Æsir (gods) dwelt together, far above the

limitations of mortal men. On this mountain also was Valhalla, the palace of the slain,

where those who had heroically died fought and feasted day after day. Each night their

wounds were healed and the boar whose flesh they ate renewed itself as rapidly as it was

consumed.

Balder the Beautiful--the Scandinavian Christ--was the beloved son of Odin. Balder was

not warlike; his kindly and beautiful spirit brought peace and joy to the hearts of the

gods, and they all loved him save one. As Jesus had a Judas among His twelve disciples,

so one of the twelve gods was false--Loki, the personification of evil. Loki caused Höthr,

the blind god of fate, to shoot Balder with a mistletoe arrow. With the death of Balder,

light and joy vanished from the lives of the other deities. Heartbroken, the gods gathered

to find a method whereby they could resurrect this spirit of eternal life and youth. The

result was the establishment of the Mysteries.

The Odinic Mysteries were given in underground crypts or caves, the chambers, nine in

number, representing the Nine Worlds of the Mysteries. The candidate seeking admission

was assigned the task of raising Balder from the dead. Although he did not realize it, he

himself played the part of Balder. He called himself a wanderer; the caverns through

which he passed were symbolic of the worlds and spheres of Nature. The priests who

initiated him were emblematic of the sun, the moon, and the stars. The three supreme

initiators--the Sublime, the Equal to the Sublime, and the Highest--were analogous to the

Worshipful Master and the junior and Senior Wardens of a Masonic lodge.

After wandering for hours through the intricate passageways, the candidate was ushered

into the presence of a statue of Balder the Beautiful, the prototype of all initiates into the

Mysteries. This figure stood in the center of a great apartment roofed with shields. In the

midst of the chamber stood a plant with seven blossoms, emblematic of the planers. In

this room, which symbolized the house of the Æsir, or Wisdom, the neophyte took his

oath of secrecy and piety upon the naked blade of a sword. He drank the sanctified mead

from a bowl made of a human skull and, having passed successfully through all the

tortures and trials designed to divert him from the course of wisdom, he was finally

permitted to unveil the mystery of Odin--the personification of wisdom. He was

presented, in the name of Balder, with the sacred ring of the order; he was hailed as a

man reborn; and it was said of him that he had died and had been raised again without

passing through the gates of death.

Richard Wagner's immortal composition, Der Ring des Nibelungen, is based upon the

Mystery rituals of the Odinic cult. While the great composer took many liberties with the

original story, the Ring Operas, declared to be the grandest tetralogy of music dramas the

world possesses, have caught and preserved in a remarkable manner the majesty and

power of the original sagas. Beginning with Das Rheingold, the action proceeds through

Die Walküre and Siegfried to an awe-inspiring climax in Götterdämmerung, "The

Twilight of the Gods."

Click to enlarge

THE NINE WORLDS OF THE ODINIC MYSTERIES.

The Nordic Mysteries were given in nine chambers, or caverns, the candidate advancing through them in

sequential order. These chambers of initiation represented the nine spheres into which the Drottars divided

the universe: (1) Asgard, the Heaven World of the Gods; (2) Alf-heim, the World of the light and beautiful

Elves, or Spirits; (3) Nifl-heim, the World of Cold and Darkness, which is located in the North; (4) Jotun-

heim, the World of the Giants, which is located in the East; (5) Midgard, the Earth World of human beings,

which is located in the midst, or middle place; (6) Vana-heim, the World of the Vanes, which is located in

the West; (7) Muspells-heim, the World of Fire, which is located in the South; 8) Svart-alfa-heim, the

World of the dark and treacherous Elves, which is under the earth; and (9) Hel-heim, the World of cold and

the abode of the dead, which is located at the very lowest point of the universe. It is to be understood that

all of these worlds are invisible to the senses, except Midgard, the home of human creatures, but during the

process of initiation the soul of the candidate--liberated from its earthly sheath by the secret power of the

priests--wanders amidst the inhabitants of these various spheres. There is undoubtedly a relationship

between the nine worlds of the Scandinavians and the nine spheres, or planes, through which initiates of the

Eleusinian Mysteries passed in their ritual of regeneration.

p. 29

The Ancient Mysteries and Secret

Societies

Part Three

THE most famous of the ancient religious Mysteries were the Eleusinian, whose rites

were celebrated every five years in the city of Eleusis to honor Ceres (Demeter, Rhea, or

Isis) and her daughter, Persephone. The initiates of the Eleusinian School were famous

throughout Greece for the beauty of their philosophic concepts and the high standards of

morality which they demonstrated in their daily lives. Because of their excellence, these

Mysteries spread to Rome and Britain, and later the initiations were given in both these

countries. The Eleusinian Mysteries, named for the community in Attica where the sacred

dramas were first presented, are generally believed to have been founded by Eumolpos

about fourteen hundred years before the birth of Christ, and through the Platonic system

of philosophy their principles have been preserved to modern times.

The rites of Eleusis, with their Mystic interpretations of Nature's most precious secrets,

overshadowed the civilizations of their time and gradually absorbed many smaller

schools, incorporating into their own system whatever valuable information these lesser

institutions possessed. Heckethorn sees in the Mysteries of Ceres and Bacchus a

metamorphosis of the rites of Isis and Osiris, and there is every reason to believe that all

so-called secret schools of the ancient world were branches from one philosophic tree

which, with its root in heaven and its branches on the earth, is--like the spirit of man--an

invisible but ever-present cause of the objectified vehicles that give it expression. The

Mysteries were the channels through which this one philosophic light was disseminated,

and their initiates, resplendent with intellectual and spiritual understanding, were the

perfect fruitage of the divine tree, bearing witness before the material world of the

recondite source of all Light and Truth.

The rites of Eleusis were divided into what were called the Lesser and the Greater

Mysteries. According to James Gardner, the Lesser Mysteries were celebrated in the

spring (probably at the time of the vernal equinox) in the town of Agræ, and the Greater,

in the fall (the time of the autumnal equinox) at Eleusis or Athens. It is supposed that the

former were given annually and the latter every five years. The rituals of the Eleusinians

were highly involved, and to understand them required a deep study of Greek mythology,

which they interpreted in its esoteric light with the aid of their secret keys.

The Lesser Mysteries were dedicated to Persephone. In his Eleusinian and Bacchic

Mysteries, Thomas Taylor sums up their purpose as follows: "The Lesser Mysteries were

designed by the ancient theologists, their founders, to signify occultly the condition of the

unpurified soul invested with an earthy body, and enveloped in a material and physical

nature."

The legend used in the Lesser rites is that of the abduction of the goddess Persephone, the

daughter of Ceres, by Pluto, the lord of the underworld, or Hades. While Persephone is

picking flowers in a beautiful meadow, the earth suddenly opens and the gloomy lord of

death, riding in a magnificent chariot, emerges from its somber depths and, grasping her

in his arms, carries the screaming and struggling goddess to his subterranean palace,

where he forces her to become his queen.

It is doubtful whether many of the initiates themselves understood the mystic meaning of

this allegory, for most of them apparently believed that it referred solely to the succession

of the seasons. It is difficult to obtain satisfactory information concerning the Mysteries,

for the candidates were bound by inviolable oaths never to reveal their inner secrets to the

profane. At the beginning of the ceremony of initiation, the candidate stood upon the

skins of animals sacrificed for the purpose, and vowed that death should seal his lips

before he would divulge the sacred truths which were about to be communicated to him.

Through indirect channels, however, some of their secrets have been preserved. The

teachings given to the neophytes were substantially as follows:

The soul of man--often called Psyche, and in the Eleusinian Mysteries symbolized by

Persephone--is essentially a spiritual thing. Its true home is in the higher worlds, where,

free from the bondage of material form and material concepts, it is said to be truly alive

and self-expressive. The human, or physical, nature of man, according to this doctrine, is

a tomb, a quagmire, a false and impermanent thing, the source of all sorrow and

suffering. Plato describes the body as the sepulcher of the soul; and by this he means not

only the human form but also the human nature.

The gloom and depression of the Lesser Mysteries represented the agony of the spiritual

soul unable to express itself because it has accepted the limitations and illusions of the

human environment. The crux of the Eleusinian argument was that man is neither better

nor wiser after death than during life. If he does not rise above ignorance during his

sojourn here, man goes at death into eternity to wander about forever, making the same

mistakes which he made here. If he does not outgrow the desire for material possessions

here, he will carry it with him into the invisible world, where, because he can never

gratify the desire, he will continue in endless agony. Dante's Inferno is symbolically

descriptive of the sufferings of those who never freed their spiritual natures from the

cravings, habits, viewpoints, and limitations of their Plutonic personalities. Those who

made no endeavor to improve themselves (whose souls have slept) during their physical

lives, passed at death into Hades, where, lying in rows, they slept through all eternity as

they had slept through life.

To the Eleusinian philosophers, birch into the physical world was death in the fullest

sense of the word, and the only true birth was that of the spiritual soul of man rising out

of the womb of his own fleshly nature. "The soul is dead that slumbers," says

Longfellow, and in this he strikes the keynote of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Just as

Narcissus, gazing at himself in the water (the ancients used this mobile element to

symbolize the transitory, illusionary, material universe) lost his life trying to embrace a

reflection, so man, gazing into the mirror of Nature and accepting as his real self the

senseless clay that he sees reflected, loses the opportunity afforded by physical life to

unfold his immortal, invisible Self.

An ancient initiate once said that the living are ruled by the dead. Only those conversant

with the Eleusinian concept of life could understand that statement. It means that the

majority of people are not ruled by their living spirits but by their senseless (hence dead)

animal personalities. Transmigration and reincarnation were taught in these Mysteries,

but in a somewhat unusual manner. It was believed that at midnight the invisible worlds

were closest to the Terrestrial sphere and that souls coming into material existence

slipped in during the midnight hour. For this reason many of the Eleusinian

Click to enlarge

THE RAPE OF PERSEPHONE.

From Thomassin's Recucil des Figures, Groupes, Themes, Fontaines, Vases et autres Ornements.

Pluto, the lord of the underworld, represents the body intelligence of man; and the rape of Persephone is symbolic of the divine nature assaulted and defiled by the animal soul and dragged downward into the

somber darkness of Hades, which is here used as a synonym for the material, or objective, sphere of

consciousness.

In his Disquisitions upon the Painted Greek Vases, James Christie presents Meursius' version of the

occurrences taking place during the nine days required for the enactment of the Greater Eleusinian Rites.

The first day was that of general meeting, during which those to be initiated were questioned concerning

their several qualifications. The second day was spent in a procession to the sea, possibly for the

submerging of a image of the presiding goddess. The third day was opened by the sacrifice of a mullet. On

the fourth day the mystic basket containing certain sacred symbols was brought to Eleusis, accompanied by

a number of female devotees carrying smaller baskets. On the evening of the fifth day there was a torch

race, on the sixth a procession led by a statue of Iacchus, and on the seventh an athletic contest. The eighth day was devoted to a repetition of the ceremonial for the benefit of any who might have been prevented

from coming sooner. The ninth and last day was devoted to the deepest philosophical issues of the

Eleusinia, during which an urn or jar--the symbol of Bacchus--was exhibited as an emblem of supreme

importance.

p. 30

ceremonies were performed at midnight. Some of those sleeping spirits who had failed to

awaken their higher natures during the earth life and who now floated around in the

invisible worlds, surrounded by a darkness of their own making, occasionally slipped

through at this hour and assumed the forms of various creatures.

The mystics of Eleusis also laid stress upon the evil of suicide, explaining that there was

a profound mystery concerning this crime of which they could not speak, but warning

their disciples that a great sorrow comes to all who take their own lives. This, in

substance, constitutes the esoteric doctrine given to the initiates of the Lesser Mysteries.

As the degree dealt largely with the miseries of those who failed to make the best use of

their philosophic opportunities, the chambers of initiation were subterranean and the

horrors of Hades were vividly depicted in a complicated ritualistic drama. After passing

successfully through the tortuous passageways, with their trials and dangers, the

candidate received the honorary title of Mystes. This meant one who saw through a veil

or had a clouded vision. It also signified that the candidate had been brought up to the

veil, which would be torn away in the higher degree. The modern word mystic, as

referring to a seeker after truth according to the dictates of the heart along the path of

faith, is probably derived from this ancient word, for faith is belief in the reality of things

unseen or veiled.

The Greater Mysteries (into which the candidate was admitted only after he had

successfully passed through the ordeals of the Lesser, and not always then) were sacred

to Ceres, the mother of Persephone, and represent her as wandering through the world in

quest of her abducted daughter. Ceres carried two torches, intuition and reason, to aid her

in the search for her lost child (the soul). At last she found Persephone not far from

Eleusis, and out of gratitude taught the people there to cultivate corn, which is sacred to

her. She also founded the Mysteries. Ceres appeared before Pluto, god of the souls of the

dead, and pleaded with him to allow Persephone to return to her home. This the god at

first refused to do, because Persephone had eaten of the pomegranate, the fruit of

mortality. At last, however, he compromised and agreed to permit Persephone to live in

the upper world half of the year if she would stay with him in the darkness of Hades for

the remaining half.

The Greeks believed that Persephone was a manifestation of the solar energy, which in

the winter months lived under the earth with Pluto, but in the summer returned again with

the goddess of productiveness. There is a legend that the flowers loved Persephone and

that every year when she left for the dark realms of Pluto, the plants and shrubs would die

of grief. While the profane and uninitiated had their own opinions on these subjects, the

truths of the Greek allegories remained safely concealed by the priests, who alone

recognized the sublimity of these great philosophic and religious parables.

Thomas Taylor epitomizes the doctrines of the Greater Mysteries in the following

statement: "The Greater (Mysteries) obscurely intimated, by mystic and splendid visions,

the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter when purified from the defilement of a

material nature, and constantly elevated to the realities of intellectual (spiritual) vision."

Just as the Lesser Mysteries discussed the prenatal epoch of man when the consciousness

in its nine days (embryologically, months) was descending into the realm of illusion and

assuming the veil of unreality, so the Greater Mysteries discussed the principles of

spiritual regeneration and revealed to initiates not only the simplest but also the most

direct and complete method of liberating their higher natures from the bondage of

material ignorance. Like Prometheus chained to the top of Mount Caucasus, man's higher

nature is chained to his inadequate personality. The nine days of initiation were also

symbolic of the nine spheres through which the human soul descends during the process

of assuming a terrestrial form. The secret exercises for spiritual unfoldment given to

disciples of the higher degrees are unknown, but there is every reason to believe that they

were similar to the Brahmanic Mysteries, since it is known that the Eleusinian

ceremonies were closed with the Sanskrit words "Konx Om Pax."

That part of the allegory referring to the two six-month periods during one of which

Persephone must remain with Pluto, while during the other she may revisit the upper

world, offers material for deep consideration. It is probable that the Eleusinians realized

that the soul left the body during steep, or at least was made capable of leaving by the

special training which undoubtedly they were in a position to give. Thus Persephone

would remain as the queen of Pluto's realm during the waking hours, but would ascend to

the spiritual worlds during the periods of sleep. The initiate was taught how to intercede

with Pluto to permit Persephone (the initiate's soul) to ascend from the darkness of his

material nature into the light of understanding. When thus freed from the shackles of clay

and crystallized concepts, the initiate was liberated not only for the period of his life but

for all eternity, for never thereafter was he divested of those soul qualities which after

death were his vehicles for manifestation and expression in the so-called heaven world.

In contrast to the idea of Hades as a state of darkness below, the gods were said to inhabit

the tops of mountains, a well-known example being Mount Olympus, where the twelve

deities of the Greek pantheon were said to dwell together. In his initiatory wanderings the

neophyte therefore entered chambers of ever-increasing brilliancy to portray the ascent of

the spirit from the lower worlds into the realms of bliss. As the climax to such

wanderings he entered a great vaulted room, in the center of which stood a brilliantly

illumined statue of the goddess Ceres. Here, in the presence of the hierophant and

surrounded by priests in magnificent robes, he was instructed in the highest of the secret

mysteries of the Eleusis. At the conclusion of this ceremony he was hailed as an Epoptes,

which means one who has beheld or seen directly. For this reason also initiation was

termed autopsy. The Epoptes was then given certain sacred books, probably written in

cipher, together with tablets of stone on which secret instructions were engraved.

In The Obelisk in Freemasonry, John A. Weisse describes the officiating personages of

the Eleusinian Mysteries as consisting of a male and a female hierophant who directed

the initiations; a male and a female torchbearer; a male herald; and a male and a female

altar attendant. There were also numerous minor officials. He states that, according to

Porphyry, the hierophant represents Plato's Demiurgus, or Creator of the world; the torch

bearer, the Sun; the altar man, the Moon; the herald, Hermes, or Mercury; and the other

officials, minor stars.

From the records available, a number of strange and apparently supernatural phenomena

accompanied the rituals. Many initiates claim to have actually seen the living gods

themselves. Whether this was the result of religious ecstasy or the actual cooperation of

invisible powers with the visible priests must remain a mystery. In The Metamorphosis,

or Golden Ass, Apuleius thus describes what in all probability is his initiation into the

Eleusinian Mysteries:

"I approached to the confines of death, and having trod on the threshold of Proserpine I,

returned from it, being carried through all the elements. At midnight I saw the sun

shining with a splendid light; and I manifestly drew near to, the gods beneath, and the

gods above, and proximately adored them."

Women and children were admitted to the Eleusinian Mysteries, and at one time there

were literally thousands of initiates. Because this vast host was not prepared for the

highest spiritual and mystical doctrines, a division necessarily took place within the

society itself. The higher teachings were given to only a limited number of initiates who,

because of superior mentality, showed a comprehensive grasp of their underlying

philosophical concepts. Socrates refused to be initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, for

knowing its principles without being a member of the order he realized that membership

would seal his tongue. That the Mysteries of Eleusis were based upon great and eternal

truths is attested by the veneration in which they were held by the great minds of the

ancient world. M. Ouvaroff asks, "Would Pindar, Plato, Cicero, Epictetus, have spoken of

them with such admiration, if the hierophant had satisfied himself with loudly

proclaiming his own opinions, or those of his order?"

The garments in which candidates were initiated were preserved for many years and were

believed to possess almost sacred properties. Just as the soul can have no covering save

wisdom and virtue, so the candidates--being as yet without true knowledge--were

presented to the Mysteries unclothed, being first: given the skin of an animal and later a

consecrated robe to symbolize the philosophical teachings received by the initiate. During

the course of initiation the candidate

Click to enlarge

CERES, THE PATRON OF THE MYSTERIES.

From a mural painting in Pompeii.

Ceres, or Demeter, was the daughter of Kronos and Rhea, and by Zeus the mother of Persephone. Some

believe her to be the goddess of the earth, but more correctly she is the deity protecting agriculture in

general and corn in particular. The Poppy is sacred to Ceres and she is often shown carrying or ornamented

by a garland of these flowers. In the Mysteries, Ceres represented riding in a chariot drawn by winged

serpents.

p. 31

Click to enlarge

THE PROCESSIONAL OF THE BACCHIC RITES.

From Ovid's Metamorphosis.

In the initiation, of the Bacchic Mysteries, the rôle of Bacchus is played by the candidate who, set upon by

priests in the guise of the Titans, is slain and finally restored to life amidst great rejoicing. The Bacchic

Mysteries were given every three years, and like the Eleusinian Mysteries, were divided into two degrees.

The initiates were crowned with myrtle and ivy, plants which were sacred to Bacchus.

In the Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins conclusively establishes Bacchus (Dionysos) as one of the early pagan

forms of the Christos myth, "The birthplace of Bacchus, called Sabazius or Sabaoth, was claimed by

several places in Greece; but on Mount Zelmisus, in Thrace, his worship seems to have been chiefly

celebrated. He was born of a virgin on the 25th of December; he performed great miracles for the good of

mankind; particularly one in which he changed water into wine; he rode in a triumphal procession on an

ass; he was put to death by the Titans, and rose again from the dead on the 25th of March: he was always

called the Saviour. In his mysteries, he was shown to the people, as an infant is by the Christians at this

day, on Christmas Day morning in Rome."

While Apollo most generally represents the sun, Bacchus is also a form of solar energy, for his resurrection was accomplished with the assistance of Apollo. The resurrection of Bacchus signifies merely the

extraction or disentanglement of the various Parts of the Bacchic constitution from the Titanic constitution

of the world. This is symbolized by the smoke or soot rising from the burned bodies of the Titans. The soul

is symbolized by smoke because it is extracted by the fire of the Mysteries. Smoke signifies the ascension

of the soul, far evolution is the process of the soul rising, like smoke, from the divinely consumed material

mass. At me time the Bacchic Rites were of a high order, but later they became much degraded . The

Bacchanalia, or orgies of Bacchus, are famous in literature.

p. 32

passed through two gates. The first led downward into the lower worlds and symbolized

his birth into ignorance. The second led upward into a room brilliantly lighted by unseen

lamps, in which was the statue of Ceres and which symbolized the upper world, or the

abode of Light and Truth. Strabo states that the great temple of Eleusis would hold

between twenty and thirty thousand people. The caves dedicated by Zarathustra also had

these two doors, symbolizing the avenues of birth and death.

The following paragraph from Porphyry gives a fairly adequate conception of Eleusinian

symbolism: "God being a luminous principle, residing in the midst of the most subtile

fire, he remains for ever invisible to the eyes of those who do not elevate themselves

above material life: on this account, the sight of transparent bodies, such as crystal,

Parian marble, and even ivory, recalls the idea of divine light; as the sight of gold excites

an idea of its purity, for gold cannot he sullied. Some have thought by a black stone was

signified the invisibility of the divine essence. To express supreme reason, the Divinity

was represented under the human form--and beautiful, for God is the source of beauty; of

different ages, and in various attitudes, sitting or upright; of one or the other sex, as a

virgin or a young man, a husband or a bride, that all the shades and gradations might be

marked. Every thing luminous was subsequently attributed to the gods; the sphere, and all

that is spherical, to the universe, to the sun and the moon--sometimes to Fortune and to

Hope. The circle, and all circular figures, to eternity--to the celestial movements; to the

circles and zones of the heavens. The section of circles, to the phases of the moon; and

pyramids and obelisks, to the igneous principle, and through that to the gods of Heaven.

A cone expresses the sun, a cylinder the earth; the phallus and triangle (a symbol of the

matrix) designate generation." (From Essay on the Mysteries of Eleusis by M. Ouvaroff.)

The Eleusinian Mysteries, according to Heckethorn, survived all others and did not cease

to exist as an institution until nearly four hundred years after Christ, when they were

finally suppressed by Theodosius (styled the Great), who cruelly destroyed all who did

not accept the Christian faith. Of this greatest of all philosophical institutions Cicero said

that it taught men not only how to live but also how to die.

THE ORPHIC MYSTERIES

Orpheus, the Thracian bard, the great initiator of the Greeks, ceased to be known as a

man and was celebrated as a divinity several centuries before the Christian Era. "As to

Orpheus himself * * *, " writes Thomas Taylor, "scarcely a vestige of his life is to be

found amongst the immense ruins of time. For who has ever been able to affirm any thing

with certainty of his origin, his age, his country, and condition? This alone may be

depended on, from general assent, that there formerly lived a person named Orpheus,

who was the founder of theology among the Greeks; the institutor of their lives and

morals; the first of prophets, and the prince of poets; himself the offspring of a Muse;

who taught the Greeks their sacred rites and mysteries, and from whose wisdom, as from

a perennial and abundant fountain, the divine muse of Homer and the sublime theology of

Pythagoras and Plato flowed." (See The Mystical Hymns of Orpheus.)

Orpheus was founder of the Grecian mythological system which he used as the medium

for the promulgation of his philosophical doctrines. The origin of his philosophy is

uncertain. He may have got it from the Brahmins, there being legends to the effect that he

got it was a Hindu, his name possibly being derived from ὀρφανῖος, meaning "dark."

Orpheus was initiated into the Egyptian Mysteries, from which he secured extensive

knowledge of magic, astrology, sorcery, and medicine. The Mysteries of the Cabiri at

Samothrace were also conferred upon him, and these undoubtedly contributed to his

knowledge of medicine and music.

The romance of Orpheus and Eurydice is one of the tragic episodes of Greek mythology

and apparently constitutes the outstanding feature

p. 32

of the Orphic Rite. Eurydice, in her attempt to escape from a villain seeking to seduce

her, died from the venom of a poisonous serpent which stung her in the heel. Orpheus,

penetrating to the very heart of the underworld, so charmed Pluto and Persephone with

the beauty of his music that they agreed to permit Eurydice to return to life if Orpheus

could lead her back to the sphere of the living without once looking round to see if she

were following. So great was his fear, however, that she would stray from him that he

turned his head, and Eurydice with a heartbroken cry was swept back into the land of

death.

Orpheus wandered the earth for a while disconsolate, and there are several conflicting

accounts of the manner of his death. Some declare that he was slain by a bolt of lightning;

others, that failing to save his beloved Eurydice, he committed suicide. The generally

accepted version of his death, however, is that he was torn to pieces by Ciconian women

whose advances he had spurned. In the tenth book of Plato's Republic it is declared that,

because of his sad fate at the hands of women, the soul that had once been Orpheus, upon

being destined to live again in the physical world, chose rather to return in the body of a

swan than be born of woman. The head of Orpheus, after being torn from his body, was

cast with his lyre into the river Hebrus, down which it floated to the sea, where, wedging

in a cleft in a rock, it gave oracles for many years. The lyre, after being stolen from its

shrine and working the destruction of the thief, was picked up by the gods and fashioned

into a constellation.

Orpheus has long been sung as the patron of music. On his seven-stringed lyre he played

such perfect harmonies that the gods themselves were moved to acclaim his power. When

he touched the strings of his instrument the birds and beasts gathered about him, and as

he wandered through the forests his enchanting melodies caused even the ancient trees

with mighty effort to draw their gnarled roots from out the earth and follow him. Orpheus

is one of the many Immortals who have sacrificed themselves that mankind might have

the wisdom of the gods. By the symbolism of his music he communicated the divine

secrets to humanity, and several authors have declared that the gods, though loving him,

feared that he would overthrow their kingdom and therefore reluctantly encompassed his

destruction.

As time passed on the historical Orpheus became hopelessly confounded with the

doctrine he represented and eventually became the symbol of the Greek school of the

ancient wisdom. Thus Orpheus was declared to be the son of Apollo, the divine and

perfect truth, and Calliope, the Muse of harmony and rhythm. In other words, Orpheus is

the secret doctrine (Apollo) revealed through music (Calliope). Eurydice is humanity

dead from the sting of the serpent of false knowledge and imprisoned in the underworld

of ignorance. In this allegory Orpheus signifies theology, which wins her from the king of

the dead but fails to accomplish her resurrection because it falsely estimates and mistrusts

the innate understanding within the human soul. The Ciconian women who tore Orpheus

limb from limb symbolize the various contending theological factions which destroy the

body of Truth. They cannot accomplish this, however, until their discordant cries drown

out the harmony drawn by Orpheus from his magic lyre. The head of Orpheus signifies

the esoteric doctrines of his cult. These doctrines continue to live and speak even after his

body (the cult) has been destroyed. The lyre is the secret teaching of Orpheus; the seven

strings are the seven divine truths which are the keys to universal knowledge. The

differing accounts of his death represent the various means used to destroy the secret

teachings: wisdom can die in many ways at the same time. The allegory of Orpheus

incarnating in the white swan merely signifies that the spiritual truths he promulgated

will continue and will be taught by the illumined initiates of all future ages. The swan is

the symbol of the initiates of the Mysteries; it is a symbol also of the divine power which

is the progenitor of the world.

THE BACCHIC AND DIONYSIAC RITES

The Bacchic Rite centers around the allegory of the youthful Bacchus (Dionysos or

Zagreus) being torn to pieces by the Titans. These giants accomplished the destruction of

Bacchus by causing him to become fascinated by his own image in a mirror. After

dismembering him, the Titans first boiled the pieces in water and afterwards roasted

them. Pallas rescued the heart of the murdered god, and by this precaution Bacchus

(Dionysos) was enabled to spring forth again in all his former glory. Jupiter, the

Demiurgus, beholding the crime of the Titans, hurled his thunderbolts and slew them,

burning their bodies to ashes with heavenly fire. Our of the ashes of the Titans--which

also contained a portion of the flesh of Bacchus, whose body they had partly devoured--

the human race was created. Thus the mundane life of every man was said to contain a

portion of the Bacchic life.

For this reason the Greek Mysteries warned against suicide. He who attempts to destroy

himself raises his hand against the nature of Bacchus within him, since man's body is

indirectly the tomb of this god and consequently must be preserved with the greatest care.

Bacchus (Dionysos) represents the rational soul of the inferior world. He is the chief of

the Titans--the artificers of the mundane spheres. The Pythagoreans called him the

Titanic monad. Thus Bacchus is the all-inclusive idea of the Titanic sphere and the

Titans--or gods of the fragments--the active agencies by means of which universal

substance is fashioned into the pattern of this idea. The Bacchic state signifies the unity

of the rational soul in a state of self-knowledge, and the Titanic state the diversity of the

rational soul which, being scattered throughout creation, loses the consciousness of its

own essential one-ness. The mirror into which Bacchus gazes and which is the cause of

his fall is the great sea of illusion--the lower world fashioned by the Titans. Bacchus (the

mundane rational soul), seeing his image before him, accepts the image as a likeness of

himself and ensouls the likeness; that is, the rational idea ensouls its reflection--the

irrational universe. By ensouling the irrational image it implants in it the urge to become

like its source, the rational image. Therefore the ancients said that man does not know the

gods by logic or by reason but rather by realizing the presence of the gods within himself.

After Bacchus gazed into the mirror and followed his own reflection into matter, the

rational soul of the world was broken up and distributed by the Titans throughout the

mundane sphere of which it is the essential nature, but the heart, or source, of it they

could not: scatter. The Titans took the dismembered body of Bacchus and boiled it in

water--symbol of immersion in the material universe--which represents the incorporation

of the Bacchic principle in form. The pieces were afterwards roasted to signify the

subsequent ascension of the spiritual nature out of form.

When Jupiter, the father of Bacchus and the Demiurgus of the universe, saw that the

Titans were hopelessly involving the rational or divine idea by scattering its members

through the constituent parts of the lower world, he slew the Titans in order that the

divine idea might not be entirely lost. From the ashes of the Titans he formed mankind,

whose purpose of existence was to preserve and eventually to release the Bacchic idea, or

rational soul, from the Titanic fabrication. Jupiter, being the Demiurgus and fabricator of

the material universe, is the third person of the Creative Triad, consequently the Lord of

Death, for death exists only in the lower sphere of being over which he presides.

Disintegration takes place so that reintegration may follow upon a higher level of form or

intelligence. The thunderbolts of Jupiter are emblematic of his disintegrative power; they

reveal the purpose of death, which is to rescue the rational soul from the devouring power

of the irrational nature.

Man is a composite creature, his lower nature consisting of the fragments of the Titans

and his higher nature the sacred, immortal flesh (life) of Bacchus. Therefore man is

capable of either a Titanic (irrational) or a Bacchic (rational) existence. The Titans of

Hesiod, who were twelve in number, are probably analogous to the celestial zodiac,

whereas the Titans who murdered and dismembered Bacchus represent the zodiacal

powers distorted by their involvement in the material world. Thus Bacchus represents the

sun who is dismembered by the signs of the zodiac and from whose body the universe is

formed. When the terrestrial forms were created from the various parts of his body the

sense of wholeness was lost and the sense of separateness established. The heart of

Bacchus, which was saved by Pallas, or Minerva, was lifted out of the four elements

symbolized by his dismembered body and placed in the ether. The heart of Bacchus is the

immortal center of the rational soul.

After the rational soul had been distributed throughout creation and the nature of man, the

Bacchic Mysteries were instituted for the purpose of disentangling it from the irrational

Titanic nature. This disentanglement was the process of lifting the soul out of the state of

separateness into that of unity. The various parts and members of Bacchus were collected

from the different corners of the earth. When all the rational parts are gathered Bacchus is

resurrected.

The Rites of Dionysos were very similar to those of Bacchus, and by many these two

gods are considered as one. Statues of Dionysos were carried in the Eleusinian Mysteries,

especially the lesser degrees. Bacchus, representing the soul of the mundane sphere, was

capable of an infinite multiplicity of form and designations. Dionysos apparently was his

solar aspect.

The Dionysiac Architects constituted an ancient secret society, in principles and doctrines

much like the modern Freemasonic Order. They were an organization of builders bound

together by their secret knowledge of the relationship between the earthly and the divine

sciences of architectonics. They were supposedly employed by King Solomon in the

building of his Temple, although they were not Jews, nor did they worship the God of the

Jews, being followers of Bacchus and Dionysos. The Dionysiac Architects erected many

of the great monuments of antiquity. They possessed a secret language and a system of

marking their stones. They had annual convocations and sacred feasts. The exact nature

of their doctrines is unknown. It is believed that CHiram Abiff was an initiate of this

society.

Atlantis and the Gods of Antiquity

p. 33

ATLANTIS is the subject of a short but important article appearing in the Annual Report

of the Board of Regents of The Smithsonian Institution for the year ending June 30th,

1915. The author, M. Pierre Termier, a member of the Academy of Sciences and Director

of Service of the Geologic Chart of France, in 1912 delivered a lecture on the Atlantean

hypothesis before the Institut Océanographique; it is the translated notes of this

remarkable lecture that are published in the Smithsonian report.

"After a long period of disdainful indifference," writes M. Termier, "observe how in the

last few years science is returning to the study of Atlantis. How many naturalists,

geologists, zoologists, or botanists are asking one another today whether Plato has not

transmitted to us, with slight amplification, a page from the actual history of mankind. No

affirmation is yet permissible; but it seems more and more evident that a vast region,

continental or made up of great islands, has collapsed west of the Pillars of Hercules,

otherwise called the Strait of Gibraltar, and that its collapse occurred in the not far distant

past. In any event, the question of Atlantis is placed anew before men of science; and

since I do not believe that it can ever be solved without the aid of oceanography, I have

thought it natural to discuss it here, in this temple of maritime science, and to call to such

a problem, long scorned but now being revived, the attention of oceanographers, as well

as the attention of those who, though immersed in the tumult of cities, lend an ear to the

distant murmur of the sea."

In his lecture M. Termier presents geologic, geographic, and zoologic data in

substantiation of the Atlantis theory. Figuratively draining the entire bed of the Atlantic

Ocean, he considers the inequalities of its basin and cites locations on a line from the

Azores to Iceland where dredging has brought lava to the surface from a depth of 3,000

meters. The volcanic nature of the islands now existing in the Atlantic Ocean

corroborates Plato's statement that the Atlantean continent was destroyed by volcanic

cataclysms. M. Termier also advances the conclusions of a young French zoologist, M.

Louis Germain, who admitted the existence of an Atlantic continent connected with the

Iberian Peninsula and with Mauritania and prolonged toward the south so as to include

some regions of desert climate. M. Termier concludes his lecture with a graphic picture

of the engulfment of that continent.

The description of the Atlantean civilization given by Plato in the Critias may be

summarized as follows. In the first ages the gods divided the earth among themselves,

proportioning it according to their respective dignities. Each became the peculiar deity of

his own allotment and established therein temples to himself, ordained a priestcraft, and

instituted a system of sacrifice. To Poseidon was given the sea and the island continent of

Atlantis. In the midst of the island was a mountain which was the dwelling place of three

earth-born primitive human beings--Evenor; his wife, Leucipe; and their only daughter,

Cleito. The maiden was very beautiful, and after the sudden death of her parents she was

wooed by Poseidon, who begat by her five pairs of male children. Poseidon apportioned

his continent among these ten, and Atlas, the eldest, he made overlord of the other nine.

Poseidon further called the country Atlantis and the surrounding sea the Atlantic in honor

of Atlas. Before the birth of his ten sons, Poseidon divided the continent and the

coastwise sea into concentric zones of land and water, which were as perfect as though

turned upon a lathe. Two zones of land and three of water surrounded the central island,

which Poseidon caused to be irrigated with two springs of water--one warm and the other

cold.

The descendants of Atlas continued as rulers of Atlantis, and with wise government and

industry elevated the country to a position of surpassing dignity. The natural resources of

Atlantis were apparently limitless. Precious metals were mined, wild animals

domesticated, and perfumes distilled from its fragrant flowers. While enjoying the

abundance natural to their semitropic location, the Atlanteans employed themselves also

in the erection of palaces, temples, and docks. They bridged the zones of sea and later

dug a deep canal to connect the outer ocean with the central island, where stood the

palaces And temple of Poseidon, which excelled all other structures in magnificence. A

network of bridges and canals was created by the Atlanteans to unite the various parts of

their kingdom.

Plato then describes the white, black, and red stones which they quarried from beneath

their continent and used in the construction of public buildings and docks. They

circumscribed each of the land zones with a wall, the outer wall being covered with brass,

the middle with tin, and the inner, which encompassed the citadel, with orichalch. The

citadel, on the central island, contained the pal aces, temples, and other public buildings.

In its center, surrounded by a wall of gold, was a sanctuary dedicated to Cleito and

Poseidon. Here the first ten princes of the island were born and here each year their

descendants brought offerings. Poseidon's own temple, its exterior entirely covered with

silver and its pinnacles with gold, also stood within the citadel. The interior of the temple

was of ivory, gold, silver, and orichalch, even to the pillars and floor. The temple

contained a colossal statue of Poseidon standing in a chariot drawn by six winged horses,

about him a hundred Nereids riding on dolphins. Arranged outside the building were

golden statues of the first ten kings and their wives.

In the groves and gardens were hot and cold springs. There were numerous temples to

various deities, places of exercise for men and for beasts, public baths, and a great race

course for horses. At various vantage points on the zones were fortifications, and to the

great harbor came vessels from every maritime nation. The zones were so thickly

populated that the sound of human voices was ever in the air.

That part of Atlantis facing the sea was described as lofty and precipitous, but about the

central city was a plain sheltered by mountains renowned for their size, number, and

beauty. The plain yielded two crops each year,, in the winter being watered by rains and

in the summer by immense irrigation canals, which were also used for transportation. The

plain was divided into sections, and in time of war each section supplied its quota of

fighting men and chariots.

The ten governments differed from each other in details concerning military

requirements. Each of the kings of Atlantis had complete control over his own kingdom,

but their mutual relationships were governed by a code engraved by the first ten kings on

a column' of orichalch standing in the temple of Poseidon. At alternate intervals of five

and six years a pilgrimage was made to this temple that equal honor might be conferred

upon both the odd and the even numbers. Here, with appropriate sacrifice, each king

renewed his

Click to enlarge

THE SCHEME OF THE UNIVERSE ACCORDING TO THE GREEKS AND ROMANS.

From Cartari's Imagini degli Dei degli Antichi.

By ascending successively through the fiery sphere of Hades, the spheres of water, Earth, and air, and the

heavens of the moon, the plane of Mercury is reached. Above Mercury are the planes of Venus, the sun,

Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, the latter containing the symbols of the Zodiacal constellations. Above the arch

of the heavens (Saturn) is the dwelling Place of the different powers controlling the universe. The supreme

council of the gods is composed of twelve deities--six male and six female--which correspond to the

positive and negative signs of the zodiac. The six gods are Jupiter, Vulcan, Apollo, Mars, Neptune, and

Mercury; the six goddesses are Juno, Ceres, Vesta, Minerva, Venus, and Diana. Jupiter rides his eagle as

the symbol of his sovereignty over the world, and Juno is seated upon a peacock, the proper symbol of her

haughtiness and glory.

p. 34

oath of loyalty upon the sacred inscription. Here also the kings donned azure robes and

sat in judgment. At daybreak they wrote their sentences upon a golden tablet: and

deposited them with their robes as memorials. The chief laws of the Atlantean kings were

that they should not take up arms against each other and that they should come to the

assistance of any of their number who was attacked. In matters of war and great moment

the final decision was in the hands of the direct descendants of the family of Atlas. No

king had the power of life and death over his kinsmen without the assent of a majority of

the ten.

Plato concludes his description by declaring that it was this great empire which attacked

the Hellenic states. This did not occur, however, until their power and glory had lured the

Atlantean kings from the pathway of wisdom and virtue. Filled with false ambition, the

rulers of Atlantis determined to conquer the entire world. Zeus, perceiving the

wickedness of the Atlanteans, gathered the gods into his holy habitation and addressed

them. Here Plato's narrative comes to an abrupt end, for the Critias was never finished. In

the Timæus is a further description of Atlantis, supposedly given to Solon by an Egyptian

priest and which concludes as follows:

"But afterwards there occurred violent earthquakes and floods; and in a single day and

night of rain all your warlike men in a body sank into the earth, and the island of Atlantis

in like manner disappeared, and was sunk beneath the sea. And that is the reason why the

sea in those parts is impassable and impenetrable, because there is such a quantity of

shallow mud in the way; and this was caused by the subsidence of the island."

In the introduction to his translation of the Timæus, Thomas Taylor quotes from a History

of Ethiopia written by Marcellus, which contains the following reference to Atlantis: "For

they relate that in their time there were seven islands in the Atlantic sea, sacred to

Proserpine; and besides these, three others of an immense magnitude; one of which was

sacred to Pluto, another to Ammon, and another, which is the middle of these, and is of a

thousand stadia, to Neptune." Crantor, commenting upon Plato, asserted that the Egyptian

priests declared the story of Atlantis to be written upon pillars which were still preserved

circa 300 B.C. (See Beginnings or Glimpses of Vanished Civilizations.) Ignatius

Donnelly, who gave the subject of Atlantis profound study, believed that horses were first

domesticated by the Atlanteans, for which reason they have always been considered

peculiarly sacred to Poseidon. (See Atlantis.)

From a careful consideration of Plato's description of Atlantis it is evident that the story

should not be regarded as wholly historical but rather as both allegorical and historical.

Origen, Porphyry, Proclus, Iamblichus, and Syrianus realized that the story concealed a

profound philosophical mystery, but they disagreed as to the actual interpretation. Plato's

Atlantis symbolizes the threefold nature of both the universe and the human body. The

ten kings of Atlantis are the tetractys, or numbers, which are born as five pairs of

opposites. (Consult Theon of Smyrna for the Pythagorean doctrine of opposites.) The

numbers 1 to 10 rule every creature, and the numbers, in turn, are under the control of the

Monad, or 1--the Eldest among them.

With the trident scepter of Poseidon these kings held sway over the inhabitants of the

seven small and three great islands comprising Atlantis. Philosophically, the ten islands

symbolize the triune powers of the Superior Deity and the seven regents who bow before

His eternal throne. If Atlantis be considered as the archetypal sphere, then its immersion

signifies the descent of rational, organized consciousness into the illusionary,

impermanent realm of irrational, mortal ignorance. Both the sinking of Atlantis and the

Biblical story of the "fall of man" signify spiritual involution--a prerequisite to conscious

evolution.

Either the initiated Plato used the Atlantis allegory to achieve two widely different ends

or else the accounts preserved by the Egyptian priests were tampered with to perpetuate

the secret doctrine. This does not mean to imply that Atlantis is purely mythological, but

it overcomes the most serious obstacle to acceptance of the Atlantis theory, namely, the

fantastic accounts of its origin, size, appearance, and date of destruction--9600 B.C. In

the midst of the central island of Atlantis was a lofty mountain which cast a shadow five

thousand stadia in extent and whose summit touched the sphere of æther. This is the axle

mountain of the world, sacred among many races and symbolic of the human head, which

rises out of the four elements of the body. This sacred mountain, upon whose summit

stood the temple of the gods, gave rise to the stories of Olympus, Meru, and Asgard. The

City of the Golden Gates--the capital of Atlantis--is the one now preserved among

numerous religions as the City of the Gods or the Holy City. Here is the archetype of the

New Jerusalem, with its streets paved with gold and its twelve gates shining with

precious stones.

"The history of Atlantis," writes Ignatius Donnelly, "is the key of the Greek mythology.

There can be no question that these gods of Greece were human beings. The tendency to

attach divine attributes to great earthly rulers is one deeply implanted in human nature."

(See Atlantis.)

The same author sustains his views by noting that the deities of the Greek pantheon were

nor looked upon as creators of the universe but rather as regents set over it by its more

ancient original fabricators. The Garden of Eden from which humanity was driven by a

flaming sword is perhaps an allusion to the earthly paradise supposedly located west of

the Pillars of Hercules and destroyed by volcanic cataclysms. The Deluge legend may be

traced also to the Atlantean inundation, during which a "world" was destroyed by water.,

Was the religious, philosophic, and scientific knowledge possessed by the priestcrafts of

antiquity secured from Atlantis, whose submergence obliterated every vestige of its part

in the drama of world progress? Atlantean sun worship has been perpetuated in the

ritualism and ceremonialism of both Christianity and pagandom. Both the cross and the

serpent were Atlantean emblems of divine wisdom. The divine (Atlantean) progenitors of

the Mayas and Quichés of Central America coexisted within the green and azure radiance

of Gucumatz, the "plumed" serpent. The six sky-born sages came into manifestation as

centers of light bound together or synthesized by the seventh--and chief--of their order,

the "feathered" snake. (See the Popol Vuh.) The title of "winged" or "plumed" snake was applied to Quetzalcoatl, or Kukulcan, the Central American initiate. The center of the

Atlantean Wisdom-Religion was presumably a great pyramidal temple standing on the

brow of a plateau rising in the midst of the City of the Golden Gates. From here the

Initiate-Priests of the Sacred Feather went forth, carrying the keys of Universal Wisdom

to the uttermost parts of the earth.

The mythologies of many nations contain accounts of gods who "came out of the sea."

Certain shamans among the American Indians tell of holy men dressed in birds' feathers

and wampum who rose out of the blue waters and instructed them in the arts and crafts.

Among the legends of the Chaldeans is that of Oannes, a partly amphibious creature who

came out of the sea and taught the savage peoples along the shore to read and write, till

the soil, cultivate herbs for healing, study the stars, establish rational forms of

government, and become conversant with the sacred Mysteries. Among the Mayas,

Quetzalcoatl, the Savior-God (whom some Christian scholars believe to have been St.

Thomas), issued from the waters and, after instructing the people in the essentials of

civilization, rode out to sea on a magic raft of serpents to escape the wrath of the fierce

god of the Fiery Mirror, Tezcatlipoca.

May it not have been that these demigods of a fabulous age who, Esdras-like, came out of

the sea were Atlantean priests? All that primitive man remembered of the Atlanteans was

the glory of their golden ornaments, the transcendency of their wisdom, and the sanctity

of their symbols--the cross and the serpent. That they came in ships was soon forgotten,

for untutored minds considered even boats as supernatural. Wherever the Atlanteans

proselyted they erected pyramids and temples patterned after the great sanctuary in the

City of the Golden Gates. Such is the origin of the pyramids of Egypt, Mexico, and

Central America. The mounds in Normandy and Britain, as well as those of the American

Indians, are remnants of a similar culture. In the midst of the Atlantean program of world

colonization and conversion, the cataclysms which sank Atlantis began. The Initiate-

Priests of the Sacred Feather who promised to come back to their missionary settlements

never returned; and after the lapse of centuries tradition preserved only a fantastic

account of gods who came from a place where the sea now is.

H. P. Blavatsky thus sums up the causes which precipitated the Atlantean disaster:

"Under the evil insinuations of their demon, Thevetat, the Atlantis-race became a nation

of wicked magicians. In consequence of this, war was declared, the story of which would

be too long to narrate; its substance may be found in the disfigured allegories of the race

of Cain, the giants, and that of Noah and his righteous family. The conflict came to an

end by the submersion of the Atlantis; which finds its imitation in the stories of the

Babylonian and Mosaic flood: The giants and magicians '* * * and all flesh died * * *

and every man.' All except Xisuthrus and Noah, who are substantially identical with the

great Father of the Thlinkithians in the Popol Vuh, or the sacred book of the

Guatemaleans, which also tells of his escaping in a large boat, like the Hindu Noah--

Vaiswasvata. " (See Isis Unveiled.)

From the Atlanteans the world has received not only the heritage of arts and crafts,

philosophies and sciences, ethics and religions, but also the heritage of hate, strife, and

perversion. The Atlanteans instigated the first war; and it has been said that all

subsequent wars were fought in a fruitless effort to justify the first one and right the

wrong which it caused. Before Atlantis sank, its spiritually illumined Initiates, who

realized that their land was doomed because it had departed from the Path of Light,

withdrew from the ill-fated continent. Carrying with them the sacred and secret doctrine,

these Atlanteans

p. 35

established themselves in Egypt, where they became its first "divine" rulers. Nearly all

the great cosmologic myths forming the foundation of the various sacred books of the

world are based upon the Atlantean Mystery rituals.

THE MYTH OF THE DYING GOD

The myth of Tammuz and Ishtar is one of the earliest examples of the dying-god allegory,

probably antedating 4000 B. C. (See Babylonia and Assyria by Lewis Spence.) The

imperfect condition of the tablets upon which the legends are inscribed makes it

impossible to secure more than a fragmentary account of the Tammuz rites. Being the

esoteric god of the sun, Tammuz did not occupy a position among the first deities

venerated by the Babylonians, who for lack of deeper knowledge looked upon him as a

god of agriculture or a vegetation spirit. Originally he was described as being one of the

guardians of the gates of the underworld. Like many other Savior-Gods, he is referred to

as a "shepherd" or "the lord of the shepherd seat." Tammuz occupies the remarkable

position of son and husband of Ishtar, the Babylonian and Assyrian Mother-goddess.

Ishtar--to whom the planer Venus was sacred--was the most widely venerated deity of the

Babylonian and Assyrian pantheon. She was probably identical with Ashterorh, Astarte,

and Aphrodite. The story of her descent into the underworld in search presumably for the

sacred elixir which alone could restore Tammuz to life is the key to the ritual of her

Mysteries. Tammuz, whose annual festival took place just before the summer solstice,

died in midsummer in the ancient month which bore his name, and was mourned with

elaborate ceremonies. The manner of his death is unknown, but some of the accusations

made against Ishtar by Izdubar (Nimrod) would indicate that she, indirectly at least, had

contributed to his demise. The resurrection of Tammuz was the occasion of great

rejoicing, at which time he was hailed as a "redeemer" of his people.

With outspread wings, Ishtar, the daughter of Sin (the Moon), sweeps downward to the

gates of death. The house of darkness--the dwelling of the god Irkalla--is described as

"the place of no return." It is without light; the nourishment of those who dwell therein is

dust and their food is mud. Over the bolts on the door of the house of Irkalla is scattered

dust, and the keepers of the house are covered with feathers like birds. Ishtar demands

that the keepers open the gates, declaring that if they do not she will shatter the doorposts

and strike the hinges and raise up dead devourers of the living. The guardians of the gates

beg her to be patient while they go to the queen of Hades from whom they secure

permission to admit Ishtar, but only in the same manner as all others came to this dreary

house. Ishtar thereupon descends through the seven gates which lead downward into the

depths of the underworld. At the first gate the great crown is removed from her head, at

the second gate the earrings from her ears, at the third gate the necklace from her neck, at

the fourth gate the ornaments from her breast, at the fifth gate the girdle from her waist,

at the sixth gate the bracelets from her hands and feet, and at the seventh gate the

covering cloak of her body. Ishtar remonstrates as each successive article of apparel is

taken from her, bur the guardian tells her that this is the experience of all who enter the

somber domain of death. Enraged upon beholding Ishtar, the Mistress of Hades inflicts

upon her all manner of disease and imprisons her in the underworld.

As Ishtar represents the spirit of fertility, her loss prevents the ripening of the crops and

the maturing of all life upon the earth.

In this respect the story parallels the legend of Persephone. The gods, realizing that the

loss of Ishtar is disorganizing all Nature, send a messenger to the underworld and demand

her release. The Mistress of Hades is forced to comply, and the water of life is poured

over Ishtar. Thus cured of the infirmities inflicted on her, she retraces her way upward

through the seven gates, at each of which she is reinvested with the article of apparel

which the guardians had removed. (See The Chaldean Account of Genesis.) No record

exists that Ishtar secured the water of life which would have wrought the resurrection of

Tammuz.

The myth of Ishtar symbolizes the descent of the human spirit through the seven worlds,

or spheres of the sacred planets, until finally, deprived of its spiritual adornments, it

incarnates in the physical body--Hades--where the mistress of that body heaps every form

of sorrow and misery upon the imprisoned consciousness. The waters of life--the secret

doctrine--cure the diseases of ignorance; and the spirit, ascending again to its divine

source, regains its God-given adornments as it passes upward through the rings of the

planets.

Another Mystery ritual among the Babylonians and Assyrians was that of Merodach and

the Dragon. Merodach, the creator of the inferior universe, slays a horrible monster and

out of her body forms the universe. Here is the probable source of the so-called Christian

allegory of St. George and the Dragon.

The Mysteries of Adonis, or Adoni, were celebrated annually in many parts of Egypt,

Phœnicia, and Biblos. The name Adonis, or Adoni, means "Lord" and was a designation

applied to the sun and later borrowed by the Jews as the exoteric name of their God.

Smyrna, mother of Adonis, was turned into a tree by the gods and after a time the bark

burst open and the infant Savior issued forth. According to one account, he was liberated

by a wild boar which split the wood of the maternal tree with its tusks. Adonis was born

at midnight of the 24th of December, and through his unhappy death a Mystery rite was

established that wrought the salvation of his people. In the Jewish month of Tammuz

(another name for this deity) he was gored to death by a wild boar sent by the god Ars

(Mars). The Adoniasmos was the ceremony of lamenting the premature death of the

murdered god.

In Ezekiel viii. 14, it is written that women were weeping for Tammuz (Adonis) at the

north gate of the Lord's House in Jerusalem. Sir James George Frazer cites Jerome thus:

"He tells us that Bethlehem, the traditionary birthplace of the Lord, was shaded by a

grove of that still older Syrian Lord, Adonis, and that where the infant Jesus had wept,

the lover of Venus was bewailed." (See The Golden Bough.) The effigy of a wild boar is

said to have been set over one of the gates of Jerusalem in honor of Adonis, and his rites

celebrated in the grotto of the Nativity at Bethlehem. Adonis as the "gored" (or "god")

man is one of the keys to Sir Francis Bacon's use of the "wild boar" in his cryptic

symbolism.

Adonis was originally an androgynous deity who represented the solar power which in

the winter was destroyed by the evil principle of cold--the boar. After three days

(months) in the tomb, Adonis rose triumphant on the 25th day of March, amidst the

acclamation of his priests and followers, "He is risen!" Adonis was born out of a myrrh

tree. Myrrh, the symbol of death because of its connection with the process of

embalming, was one of the gifts brought by the three Magi to the manger of Jesus.

In the Mysteries of Adonis the neophyte passed through the symbolic death of the god

and, "raised" by the priests, entered into the blessed state of redemption made possible by

the sufferings of Adonis. Nearly all authors believe Adonis to have been originally a

vegetation god directly connected with the growth and maturing of flowers

Click to enlarge

THE GREAT GOD PAN.

From Kircher's Œdipus Ægyptiacus.

The great Pan was celebrated as the author and director of the sacred dances which he is supposed to have

instituted to symbolize the circumambulations of the heavenly bodies. Pan was a composite creature, the

upper part--with the exception of his horns--being human, and the lower part in the form of a goat. Pan is

the prototype of natural energy and, while undoubtedly a phallic deity, should nor be confused with

Priapus. The pipes of Pan signify the natural harmony of the spheres, and the god himself is a symbol of

Saturn because this planet is enthroned in Capricorn, whose emblem is a goat. The Egyptians were initiated

into the Mysteries of Pan, who was regarded as a phase of Jupiter, the Demiurgus. Pan represented the

impregnating power of the sun and was the chief of a horde rustic deities, and satyrs. He also signified the

controlling spirit of the lower worlds. The fabricated a story to the effect that at the time of the birth of

Christ the oracles were silenced after giving utterance to one last cry, "Great Pan is dead!"

p. 36

and fruits. In support of this viewpoint they describe the "gardens of Adonis, " which

were small baskets of earth in which seeds were planted and nurtured for a period of eight

days. When those plants prematurely died for lack of sufficient earth, they were

considered emblematic of the murdered Adonis and were usually cast into the sea with

images of the god.

In Phrygia there existed a remarkable school of religious philosophy which centered

around the life and untimely fate of another Savior-God known as Atys, or Attis, by many

considered synonymous with Adonis. This deity was born at midnight on the 24th day of

December. Of his death there are two accounts. In one he was gored to death like Adonis;

in the other he emasculated himself under a pine tree and there died. His body was taken

to a cave by the Great Mother (Cybele), where it remained through the ages without

decaying. To the rites of Atys the modern world is indebted for the symbolism of the

Christmas tree. Atys imparted his immortality to the tree beneath which he died, and

Cybele took the tree with her when she removed the body. Atys remained three days in

the tomb, rose upon a date corresponding with Easter morn, and by this resurrection

overcame death for all who were initiated into his Mysteries.

"In the Mysteries of the Phrygians, "says Julius Firmicus, "which are called those of the

MOTHER OF THE GODS, every year a PINE TREE is cut down and in the inside of the

tree the image of a YOUTH is tied in! In the Mysteries of Isis the trunk of a PINE TREE

is cut: the middle of the trunk is nicely hollowed out; the idol of Osiris made from those

hollowed pieces is BURIED. In the Mysteries of Proserpine a tree cut is put together into

the effigy and form of the VIRGIN, and when it has been carried within the city it is

MOURNED 40 nights, but the fortieth night it is BURNED!" (See Sod, the Mysteries of

Adoni.)

The Mysteries of Atys included a sacramental meal during which the neophyte ate out of

a drum and drank from a cymbal. After being baptized by the blood of a bull, the new

initiate was fed entirely on milk to symbolize that he was still a philosophical infant,

having but recently been born out of the sphere of materiality. (See Frazer's The Golden

Bough.) Is there a possible connection between this lacteal diet prescribed by the Attic

rite and St. Paul's allusion to the food for spiritual babes? Sallust gives a key to the

esoteric interpretation of the Attic rituals. Cybele, the Great Mother, signifies the

vivifying powers of the universe, and Atys that aspect of the spiritual intellect which is

suspended between the divine and animal spheres. The Mother of the gods, loving Atys,

gave him a starry hat, signifying celestial powers, but Atys (mankind), falling in love

with a nymph (symbolic of the lower animal propensities), forfeited his divinity and lost

his creative powers. It is thus evident that Atys represents the human consciousness and

that his Mysteries are concerned with the reattainment of the starry hat. (See Sallust on

the Gods and the World.)

The rites of Sabazius were very similar to those of Bacchus and it is generally believed

that the two deities are identical. Bacchus was born at Sabazius, or Sabaoth, and these

names are frequently assigned to him. The Sabazian Mysteries were performed at night,

and the ritual included the drawing of a live snake across the breast of the candidate.

Clement of Alexandria writes: "The token of the Sabazian Mysteries to the initiated is

'the deity gliding over the breast.'" A golden serpent was the symbol of Sabazius because

this deity represented the annual renovation of the world by the solar power. The Jews

borrowed the name Sabaoth from these Mysteries and adopted it as one of the

appellations of their supreme God. During the time the Sabazian Mysteries were

celebrated in Rome, the cult gained many votaries and later influenced the symbolism of

Christianity.

The Cabiric Mysteries of Samothrace were renowned among the ancients, being next to

the Eleusinian in public esteem. Herodotus declares that the Samothracians received their

doctrines, especially those concerning Mercury, from the Pelasgians. Little is known

concerning the Cabiric rituals, for they were enshrouded in the profoundest secrecy.

Some regard the Cabiri as seven in number and refer to them as "the Seven Spirits of fire

before the throne of Saturn." Others believe the Cabiri to be the seven sacred wanderers,

later called the planets.

While a vast number of deities are associated with the Samothracian Mysteries, the

ritualistic drama centers around four brothers. The first three--Aschieros, Achiochersus,

and Achiochersa--attack and murder the fourth--Cashmala (or Cadmillus). Dionysidorus,

however, identifies Aschieros with Demeter, Achiochersus with Pluto, Achiochersa with

Persephone, and Cashmala with Hermes. Alexander Wilder notes that in the

Samothracian ritual "Cadmillus is made to include the Theban Serpent-god, Cadmus, the

Thoth of Egypt, the Hermes of the Greeks, and the Emeph or Æsculapius of the

Alexandrians and Phœnicians. " Here again is a repetition of the story of Osiris, Bacchus,

Adonis, Balder, and Hiram Abiff. The worship of Atys and Cybele was also involved in

the Samothracian Mysteries. In the rituals of the Cabiri is to be traced a form of pine-tree

worship, for this tree, sacred to Atys, was first trimmed into the form of a cross and then

cut down in honor of the murdered god whose body was discovered at its foot.

"If you wish to inspect the orgies of the Corybantes, " writes Clement, "Then know that,

having killed their third brother, they covered the head of the dead body with a purple

cloth, crowned it, and carrying it on the point of a spear, buried it under the roots of

Olympus. These mysteries are, in short, murders and funerals. [This ante-Nicene Father

in his efforts to defame the pagan rites apparently ignores the fact that, like the Cabirian

martyr, Jesus Christ was foully betrayed, tortured, and finally murdered!] And the priests

Of these rites, who are called kings of the sacred rites by those whose business it is to

name them, give additional strangeness to the tragic occurrence, by forbidding parsley

with the roots from being placed on the table, for they think that parsley grew from the

Corybantic blood that flowed forth; just as the women, in celebrating the Thcsmophoria,

abstain from eating the seeds of the pomegranate, which have fallen on the ground, from

the idea that pomegranates sprang from the drops of the blood of Dionysus. Those

Corybantes also they call Cabiric; and the ceremony itself they announce as the Cabiric

mystery."

The Mysteries of the Cabiri were divided into three degrees, the first of which celebrated

the death of Cashmala, at the hands of his three brothers; the second, the discovery of his

mutilated body, the parts of which had been found and gathered after much labor; and the

third--accompanied by great rejoicing and happiness--his resurrection and the consequent

salvation of the world. The temple of the Cabiri at Samothrace contained a number of

curious divinities, many of them misshapen creatures representing the elemental powers

of Nature, possibly the Bacchic Titans. Children were initiated into the Cabirian cult with

the same dignity as adults, and criminals who reached the sanctuary were safe from

pursuit. The Samothracian rites were particularly concerned with navigation, the

Dioscuri--Castor and Pollux, or the gods of navigation--being among those propitiated by

members of that cult. The Argonautic expedition, listening to the advice of Orpheus,

stopped at the island of Samothrace for the purpose of having its members initiated into

the Cabiric rites.

Herodotus relates that when Cambyses entered the temple of the Cabiri he was unable to

restrain his mirth at seeing before him the figure of a man standing upright and, facing

the man, the figure of a woman standing on her head. Had Cambyses been acquainted

with the principles of divine astronomy, he would have realized that he was then in the

presence of the key to universal equilibrium. "'I ask,' says Voltaire, 'who were these

Hierophants, these sacred Freemasons, who celebrated their Ancient Mysteries of

Samothracia, and whence came they and their gods Cabiri?'" (See Mackey's

Encyclopædia of Freemasonry.) Clement speaks of the Mysteries of the Cabiri as "the

sacred Mystery of a brother slain by his brethren," and the "Cabiric death" was one of the

secret symbols of antiquity. Thus the allegory of the Self murdered by the not-self is

perpetuated through the religious mysticism of all peoples. The philosophic death and the

philosophic resurrection are the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries respectively.

A curious aspect of the dying-god myth is that of the Hanged Man. The most important

example of this peculiar conception is found in the Odinic rituals where Odin hangs

himself for nine nights from the branches of the World Tree and upon the same occasion

also pierces his own side with the sacred spear. As the result of this great sacrifice, Odin,

while suspended over the depths of Nifl-heim, discovered by meditation the runes or

alphabets by which later the records of his people were preserved. Because of this

remarkable experience, Odin is sometimes shown seated on a gallows tree and he became

the patron deity of all who died by the noose. Esoterically, the Hanged Man is the human

spirit which is suspended from heaven by a single thread. Wisdom, not death, is the

reward for this voluntary sacrifice during which the human soul, suspended above the

world of illusion, and meditating upon its unreality, is rewarded by the achievement of

self-realization.

From a consideration of all these ancient and secret rituals it becomes evident that the

mystery of the dying god was universal among the illumined and venerated colleges of

the sacred teaching. This mystery has been perpetuated in Christianity in the crucifixion

and death of the God-man-Jesus the Christ. The secret import of this world tragedy and

the Universal Martyr must be rediscovered if Christianity is to reach the heights attained

by the pagans in the days of their philosophic supremacy. The myth of the dying god is

the key to both universal and individual redemption and regeneration, and those who do

not comprehend the true nature of this supreme allegory are not privileged to consider

themselves either wise or truly religious.

p. 37

The Life and Teachings of Thoth Hermes

Trismegistus

THUNDER rolled, lightning flashed, the veil of the Temple was rent from top to bottom.

The venerable initiator, in his robes of blue and gold, slowly raised his jeweled wand and

pointed with it into the darkness revealed by the tearing of the silken curtain: "Behold the

Light of Egypt! " The candidate, in his plain white robe, gazed into the utter blackness

framed by the two great Lotus-headed columns between which the veil had hung. As he

watched, a luminous haze distributed itself throughout the atmosphere until the air was a

mass of shining particles. The face of the neophyte was illumined by the soft glow as he

scanned the shimmering cloud for some tangible object. The initiator spoke again: "This

Light which ye behold is the secret luminance of the Mysteries. Whence it comes none

knoweth, save the 'Master of the Light.' Behold Him!" Suddenly, through the gleaming

mist a figure appeared, surrounded by a flickering greenish sheen. The initiator lowered

his wand and, bowing his head, placed one hand edgewise against his breast in humble

salutation. The neophyte stepped back in awe, partly blinded by the glory of the revealed

figure. Gaining courage, the youth gazed again at the Divine One. The Form before him

was considerably larger than that of a mortal man. The body seemed partly transparent

so that the heart and brain could be seen pulsating and radiant. As the candidate

watched, the heart changed into an ibis, and the brain into a flashing emerald. In Its

hand this mysterious Being bore a winged rod, entwined with serpents. The aged

initiator, raising his wand, cried out in a loud voice: "All hail Thee, Thoth Hermes,

Thrice Greatest; all hail Thee, Prince of Men; all hail Thee who standeth upon the head

of Typhon!" At the same instant a lurid writhing dragon appeared--a hideous monster,

part serpent, part crocodile, and part hog. From its mouth and nostrils poured sheets of

flame and horrible sounds echoed through the vaulted chambers. Suddenly Hermes

struck the advancing reptile with the serpent-wound staff and with snarling cry the

dragon fell over upon its side, while the flames about it slowly died away. Hermes placed

His foot upon the skull of the vanquished Typhon. The next instant, with a blaze of

unbearable glory that sent the neophyte staggering backward against a pillar, the

immortal Hermes, followed by streamers of greenish mist, passed through the chamber

and faded into nothingness.

SUPPOSITIONS CONCERNING THE IDENTITY OF HERMES

Iamblichus averred that Hermes was the author of twenty thousand books; Manetho

increased the number to more than thirty-six thousand (see James Gardner)--figures

which make it evident that a solitary individual, even though he be overshadowed by

divine prerogative, could scarcely have accomplished such a monumental labor. Among

the arts and sciences which it is affirmed Hermes revealed to mankind were medicine,

chemistry, law, arc, astrology, music, rhetoric, Magic, philosophy, geography,

mathematics (especially geometry), anatomy, and oratory. Orpheus was similarly

acclaimed by the Greeks.

In his Biographia Antiqua, Francis Barrett says of Hermes: "* * * if God ever appeared in

man, he appeared in him, as is evident both from his books and his Pymander; in which

works he has communicated the sum of the Abyss, and the divine knowledge to all

posterity; by which he has demonstrated himself to have been not only an inspired divine,

but also a deep philosopher, obtaining his wisdom from God and heavenly things, and not

from man."

His transcendent learning caused Hermes to be identified with many of the early sages

and prophets. In his Ancient Mythology, Bryant writes: "I have mentioned that Cadmus

was the same as the Egyptian Thoth; and it is manifest from his being Hermes, and from

the invention of letters being attributed to him. " (In the chapter on the theory of

Pythagorean Mathematics will be found the table of the original Cadmean letters.)

Investigators believe that it was Hermes who was known to the Jews as "Enoch," called

by Kenealy the "Second Messenger of God." Hermes was accepted into the mythology of

the Greeks, later becoming the Mercury of the Latins. He was revered through the form

of the planet Mercury because this body is nearest to the sun: Hermes of all creatures was

nearest to God, and became known as the Messenger of the Gods.

In the Egyptian drawings of him, Thoth carries a waxen writing tablet and serves as the

recorder during the weighing of the souls of the dead in the judgment Hall of Osiris--a

ritual of great significance. Hermes is of first importance to Masonic scholars, because he

was the author of the Masonic initiatory rituals, which were borrowed from the Mysteries

established by Hermes. Nearly all of the Masonic symbols are Hermetic in character.

Pythagoras studied mathematics with the Egyptians and from them gained his knowledge

of the symbolic geometric solids. Hermes is also revered for his reformation of the

calendar system. He increased the year from 360 to 365 days, thus establishing a

precedent which still prevails. The appellation "Thrice Greatest" was given to Hermes

because he was considered the greatest of all philosophers, the greatest of all priests, and

the greatest of all kings. It is worthy of note that the last poem of America's beloved poet,

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, was a lyric ode to Hermes. (See Chambers'

Encyclopædia.)

THE MUTILATED HERMETIC FRAGMENTS

On the subject of the Hermetic books, James Campbell Brown, in his History of

Chemistry, has written: "Leaving the Chaldean and earliest Egyptian periods, of which

we have remains but no record, and from which no names of either chemists or

philosophers have come down to us, we now approach the Historic Period, when books

were written, not at first upon parchment or paper, but upon papyrus. A series of early

Egyptian books is attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, who may have been a real savant,

or may be a personification of a long succession of writers. * * * He is identified by some

with the Greek god Hermes, and the Egyptian Thoth or Tuti, who was the moon-god, and

is represented in ancient paintings as ibis-headed with the disc and crescent of the moon.

The Egyptians regarded him as the god of wisdom, letters, and the recording of time. It is

in consequence of the great respect entertained for Hermes by the old alchemists that

chemical writings were called 'hermetic,' and that the phrase 'hermetically sealed' is still

in use to designate the closing of a glass vessel by fusion, after the manner of chemical

manipulators. We find the same root in the hermetic medicines of Paracelsus, and the

hermetic freemasonry of the Middle Ages."

Among the fragmentary writings believed to have come from the stylus of Hermes are

two famous works. The first is the Emerald Table, and the second is the Divine

Pymander, or, as it is more commonly called, The Shepherd of Men, a discussion of

which follows. One outstanding point in connection with Hermes is that he was one of

the few philosopher-priests of pagandom upon whom the early Christians did not vent

their spleen. Some Church Fathers went so far as to declare that Hermes exhibited many

symptoms of intelligence, and that if he had only been born in a more enlightened age so

that he might have benefited by their instructions he would have been a really great man!

In his Stromata, Clement of Alexandria, one of the few chroniclers of pagan lore whose

writings have been preserved to this age, gives practically all the information that is

known concerning the original forty-two books of Hermes and the importance with which

these books were regarded by both the temporal and spiritual powers of Egypt. Clement

describes one of their ceremonial processions as follows:

"For the Egyptians pursue a philosophy of their own. This is

Click to enlarge

HERMES MERCURIUS TRISMEGISTUS.

From Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.

Master of all arts and sciences. perfect in all crafts, Ruler of the Three Worlds, Scribe of the Gods, and

Keeper of the Books of Life, Thoth Hermes Trismegistus--the Three Times Greatest, the "First

Intelligencer"--was regarded by the ancient Egyptians as the embodiment of the Universal Mind. While in

all probability there actually existed a great sage and educator by the name of Hermes, it is impossible to

extricate the historical man from the mass of legendary accounts which attempt to identify him with the

Cosmic Principle of Thought.

p. 38

principally shown by their sacred ceremonial. For first advances the Singer, bearing some

one of the symbols of music. For they say that he must learn two of the books of Hermes,

the one of which contains the hymns of the gods, the second the regulations for the king's

life. And after the Singer advances the Astrologer, with a horologe in his hand, and a

palm, the symbols of astrology. He must have the astrological books of Hermes, which

are four in number, always in his mouth. Of these, one is about the order of the fixed stars

that are visible, and another about the conjunctions and luminous appearances of the sun

and moon; and the rest respecting their risings. Next in order advances the sacred Scribe,

with wings on his head, and in his hand a book and rule, in which were writing ink and

the reed, with which they write. And he must be acquainted with what are called

hieroglyphics, and know about cosmography and geography, the position of the sun and

moon, and about the five planets; also the description of Egypt, and the chart of the Nile;

and the description of the equipment of the priests and of the place consecrated to them,

and about the measures and the things in use in the sacred rites. Then the Stole-keeper

follows those previously mentioned, with the cubit of justice and the cup for libations. He

is acquainted with all points called Pædeutic (relating to training) and Moschophaltic

(sacrificial). There are also ten books which relate to the honour paid by them to their

gods, and containing the Egyptian worship; as that relating to sacrifices, first-fruits,

hymns, prayers, processions, festivals, and the like. And behind all walks the Prophet,

with the water-vase carried openly in his arms; who is followed by those who carry the

issue of loaves. He, as being the governor of the temple, learns the ten books called

'Hieratic'; and they contain all about the laws, and the gods, and the whole of the training

of the priests. For the Prophet is, among the Egyptians, also over the distribution of the

revenues. There are then forty-two books of Hermes indispensably necessary; of which

the six-and-thirty containing the whole philosophy of the Egyptians are learned by the

forementioned personages; and the other six, which are medical, by the Pastophoroi

(image-bearers),--treating of the structure of the body, and of disease, and instruments,

and medicines, and about the eyes, and the last about women.

One of the greatest tragedies of the philosophic world was the loss of nearly all of the

forty-two books of Hermes mentioned in the foregoing. These books disappeared during

the burning of Alexandria, for the Romans--and later the Christians--realized that until

these books were eliminated they could never bring the Egyptians into subjection. The

volumes which escaped the fire were buried in the desert and their location is now known

to only a few initiates of the secret schools.

THE BOOK OF THOTH

While Hermes still walked the earth with men, he entrusted to his chosen successors the

sacred Book of Thoth. This work contained the secret processes by which the regeneration

of humanity was to be accomplished and also served as the key to his other writings.

Nothing definite is known concerning the contents of the Book of Thoth other than that its

pages were covered with strange hieroglyphic figures and symbols, which gave to those

acquainted with their use unlimited power over the spirits of the air and the subterranean

divinities. When certain areas of the brain are stimulated by the secret processes of the

Mysteries, the consciousness of man is extended and he is permitted to behold the

Immortals and enter into the presence of the superior gods. The Book of Thoth described

the method whereby this stimulation was accomplished. In truth, therefore, it was the

"Key to Immortality."

According to legend, the Book of Thoth was kept in a golden box in the inner sanctuary of

the temple. There was but one key and this was in the possession of the "Master of the

Mysteries," the highest initiate of the Hermetic Arcanum. He alone knew what was

written in the secret book. The Book of Thoth was lost to the ancient world with the decay

of the Mysteries, but its faithful initiates carried it sealed in the sacred casket into another

land. The book is still in existence and continues to lead the disciples of this age into the

presence of the Immortals. No other information can be given to the world concerning it

now, but the apostolic succession from the first hierophant initiated by Hermes himself

remains unbroken to this day, and those who are peculiarly fitted to serve the Immortals

may discover this priceless document if they will search sincerely and tirelessly for it.

It has been asserted that the Book of Thoth is, in reality, the mysterious Tarot of the

Bohemians--a strange emblematic book of seventy-eight leaves which has been in

possession of the gypsies since the time when they were driven from their ancient temple,

the Serapeum. (According to the Secret Histories the gypsies were originally Egyptian

priests.) There are now in the world several secret schools privileged to initiate

candidates into the Mysteries, but in nearly every instance they lighted their altar fires

from the flaming torch of Herm. Hermes in his Book of Thoth revealed to all mankind the

"One Way," and for ages the wise of every nation and every faith have reached

immortality by the "Way" established by Hermes in the midst of the darkness for the

redemption of humankind.

POIMANDRES, THE VISION OF HERMES

The Divine Pymander of Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus is one of the earliest of the

Hermetic writings now extant. While probably not in its original form, having been

remodeled during the first centuries of the Christian Era and incorrectly translated since,

this work undoubtedly contains many of the original concepts of the Hermetic cultus. The

Divine Pymander consists of seventeen fragmentary writings gathered together and put

forth as one work. The second book of The Divine Pymander, called Poimandres, or The

Vision, is believed to describe the method by which the divine wisdom was first revealed

to Hermes. It was after Hermes had received this revelation that he began his ministry,

teaching to all who would listen the secrets of the invisible universe as they had been

unfolded to him.

The Vision is the most: famous of all the Hermetic fragments, and contains an exposition

of Hermetic cosmogony and the secret sciences of the Egyptians regarding the culture

and unfoldment of the human soul. For some time it was erroneously called "The Genesis

of Enoch," but that mistake has now been rectified. At hand while preparing the

following interpretation of the symbolic philosophy concealed within The Vision of

Hermes the present author has had these reference works: The Divine Pymander of

Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus (London, 1650), translated out of the Arabic and Greek

by Dr. Everard; Hermetica (Oxford, 1924), edited by Walter Scott; Hermes, The

Mysteries of Egypt (Philadelphia, 1925), by Edouard Schure; and the Thrice-Greatest

Hermes (London, 1906), by G. R. S. Mead. To the material contained in the above

volumes he has added commentaries based upon the esoteric philosophy of the ancient

Egyptians, together with amplifications derived partly from other Hermetic fragments

and partly from the secret arcanum of the Hermetic sciences. For the sake of clarity, the

narrative form has been chosen in preference to the original dialogic style, and obsolete

words have given place to those in current use.

Hermes, while wandering in a rocky and desolate place, gave himself over to meditation

and prayer. Following the secret instructions of the Temple, he gradually freed his higher

consciousness from the bondage of his bodily senses; and, thus released, his divine nature

revealed to him the mysteries of the transcendental spheres. He beheld a figure, terrible

and awe-inspiring. It was the Great Dragon, with wings stretching across the sky and

light streaming in all directions from its body. (The Mysteries taught that the Universal

Life was personified as a dragon.) The Great Dragon called Hermes by name, and asked

him why he thus meditated upon the World Mystery. Terrified by the spectacle, Hermes

prostrated himself before the Dragon, beseeching it to reveal its identity. The great

creature answered that it was Poimandres, the Mind of the Universe, the Creative

Intelligence, and the Absolute Emperor of all. (Schure identifies Poimandres as the god

Osiris.) Hermes then besought Poimandres to disclose the nature of the universe and the

constitution of the gods. The Dragon acquiesced, bidding Trismegistus hold its image in

his mind.

Immediately the form of Poimandres changed. Where it had stood there was a glorious

and pulsating Radiance. This Light was the spiritual nature of the Great Dragon itself.

Hermes was "raised" into the midst of this Divine Effulgence and the universe of material

things faded from his consciousness. Presently a great darkness descended and,

expanding, swallowed up the Light. Everything was troubled. About Hermes swirled a

mysterious watery substance which gave forth a smokelike vapor. The air was filled with

inarticulate moanings and sighings which seemed to come from the Light swallowed up

in the darkness. His mind told Hermes that

Click to enlarge

THOTH, THE IBIS-HEADED.

From Wilkinson's Manners & Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.

It is doubtful that the deity called Thoth by the Egyptians was originally Hermes, but the two personalities

were blended together and it is now impossible to separate them. Thoth was called "The Lord of the Divine Books" and "Scribe of the Company of the Gods." He is generally depicted with the body of a man and the head of an ibis. The exact symbolic meaning of this latter bird has never been discovered. A careful

analysis of the peculiar shape of the ibis--especially its head and beak--should prove illuminating.

p. 39

the Light was the form of the spiritual universe and that the swirling darkness which had

engulfed it represented material substance.

Then out of the imprisoned Light a mysterious and Holy Word came forth and took its

stand upon the smoking waters. This Word--the Voice of the Light--rose out of the

darkness as a great pillar, and the fire and the air followed after it, but the earth and the

water remained unmoved below. Thus the waters of Light were divided from the waters

of darkness, and from the waters of Light were formed the worlds above and from the

waters of darkness were formed the worlds below. The earth and the water next mingled,

becoming inseparable, and the Spiritual Word which is called Reason moved upon their

surface, causing endless turmoil.

Then again was heard the voice of Poimandres, but His form was not revealed: "I Thy

God am the Light and the Mind which were before substance was divided from spirit and

darkness from Light. And the Word which appeared as a pillar of flame out of the

darkness is the Son of God, born of the mystery of the Mind. The name of that Word is

Reason. Reason is the offspring of Thought and Reason shall divide the Light from the

darkness and establish Truth in the midst of the waters. Understand, O Hermes, and

meditate deeply upon the mystery. That which in you sees and hears is not of the earth,

but is the Word of God incarnate. So it is said that Divine Light dwells in the midst of

mortal darkness, and ignorance cannot divide them. The union of the Word and the Mind

produces that mystery which is called Life. As the darkness without you is divided

against itself, so the darkness within you is likewise divided. The Light and the fire which

rise are the divine man, ascending in the path of the Word, and that which fails to ascend

is the mortal man, which may not partake of immortality. Learn deeply of the Mind and

its mystery, for therein lies the secret of immortality."

The Dragon again revealed its form to Hermes, and for a long time the two looked

steadfastly one upon the other, eye to eye, so that Hermes trembled before the gaze of

Poimandres. At the Word of the Dragon the heavens opened and the innumerable Light

Powers were revealed, soaring through Cosmos on pinions of streaming fire. Hermes

beheld the spirits of the stars, the celestials controlling the universe, and all those Powers

which shine with the radiance of the One Fire--the glory of the Sovereign Mind. Hermes

realized that the sight which he beheld was revealed to him only because Poimandres had

spoken a Word. The Word was Reason, and by the Reason of the Word invisible things

were made manifest. Divine Mind--the Dragon--continued its discourse:

"Before the visible universe was formed its mold was cast. This mold was called the

Archetype, and this Archetype was in the Supreme Mind long before the process of

creation began. Beholding the Archetypes, the Supreme Mind became enamored with Its

own thought; so, taking the Word as a mighty hammer, It gouged out caverns in

primordial space and cast the form of the spheres in the Archetypal mold, at the same

time sowing in the newly fashioned bodies the seeds of living things. The darkness

below, receiving the hammer of the Word, was fashioned into an orderly universe. The

elements separated into strata and each brought forth living creatures. The Supreme

Being--the Mind--male and female, brought forth the Word; and the Word, suspended

between Light and darkness, was delivered of another Mind called the Workman, the

Master-Builder, or the Maker of Things.

"In this manner it was accomplished, O Hermes: The Word moving like a breath through

space called forth the Fire by the friction of its motion. Therefore, the Fire is called the

Son of Striving. The Workman passed as a whirlwind through the universe, causing the

substances to vibrate and glow with its friction, The Son of Striving thus formed Seven

Governors, the Spirits of the Planets, whose orbits bounded the world; and the Seven

Governors controlled the world by the mysterious power called Destiny given them by

the Fiery Workman. When the Second Mind (The Workman) had organized Chaos, the

Word of God rose straightway our of its prison of substance, leaving the elements

without Reason, and joined Itself to the nature of the Fiery Workman. Then the Second

Mind, together with the risen Word, established Itself in the midst of the universe and

whirled the wheels of the Celestial Powers. This shall continue from an infinite beginning

to an infinite end, for the beginning and the ending are in the same place and state.

"Then the downward-turned and unreasoning elements brought forth creatures without

Reason. Substance could not bestow Reason, for Reason had ascended out of it. The air

produced flying things and the waters such as swim. The earth conceived strange four-

footed and creeping beasts, dragons, composite demons, and grotesque monsters. Then

the Father--the Supreme Mind--being Light and Life, fashioned a glorious Universal Man

in Its own image, not an earthy man but a heavenly Man dwelling in the Light of God.

The Supreme Mind loved the Man It had fashioned and delivered to Him the control of

the creations and workmanships.

"The Man, desiring to labor, took up His abode in the sphere of generation and observed

the works of His brother--the Second Mind--which sat upon the Ring of the Fire. And

having beheld the achievements of the Fiery Workman, He willed also to make things,

and His Father gave permission. The Seven Governors, of whose powers He partook,

rejoiced and each gave the Man a share of Its own nature.

"The Man longed to pierce the circumference of the circles and understand the mystery of

Him who sat upon the Eternal Fire. Having already all power, He stooped down and

peeped through the seven Harmonies and, breaking through the strength of the circles,

made Himself manifest to Nature stretched out below. The Man, looking into the depths,

smiled, for He beheld a shadow upon the earth and a likeness mirrored in the waters,

which shadow and likeness were a reflection of Himself. The Man fell in love with His

own shadow and desired to descend into it. Coincident with the desire, the Intelligent

Thing united Itself with the unreasoning image or shape.

"Nature, beholding the descent, wrapped herself about the Man whom she loved, and the

two were mingled. For this reason, earthy man is composite. Within him is the Sky Man,

immortal and beautiful; without is Nature, mortal and destructible. Thus, suffering is the

result of the Immortal Man's falling in love with His shadow and giving up Reality to

dwell in the darkness of illusion; for, being immortal, man has the power of the Seven

Governors--also the Life, the Light, and the Word-but being mortal, he is controlled by

the Rings of the Governors--Fate or Destiny.

"Of the Immortal Man it should be said that He is hermaphrodite, or male and female,

and eternally watchful. He neither slumbers nor sleeps, and is governed by a Father also

both male and female, and ever watchful. Such is the mystery kept hidden to this day, for

Nature, being mingled in marriage with the Sky Man, brought forth a wonder most

wonderful--seven men, all bisexual, male and female, and upright of stature, each one

exemplifying the natures of the Seven Governors. These O Hermes, are the seven races,

species, and wheels.

"After this manner were the seven men generated. Earth was the female element and

water the male element, and from the fire and the æther they received their spirits, and

Nature produced bodies after the species and shapes of men. And man received the Life

and Light of the Great Dragon, and of the Life was made his Soul and of the Light his

Mind. And so, all these composite creatures containing immortality, but partaking of

mortality, continued in this state for the duration of a period. They reproduced themselves

out of themselves, for each was male and female. But at the end of the period the knot of

Destiny was untied by the will of God and the bond of all things was loosened.

"Then all living creatures, including man, which had been hermaphroditical, were

separated, the males being set apart by themselves and the females likewise, according to

the dictates of Reason.

"Then God spoke to the Holy Word within the soul of all things, saying: 'Increase in

increasing and multiply in multitudes, all you, my creatures and workmanships. Let him

that is endued with Mind know himself to be immortal and that the cause of death is the

love of the body; and let him learn all things that are, for he who has recognized himself

enters into the state of Good.'

Click to enlarge

A GREEK FORM OF HERMES.

From Bryant's Mythology.

The name Hermes is derived from "Herm," a form of CHiram, the Personified Universal Life Principle,

generally represented by fire. The Scandinavians worshiped Hermes under the name of Odin; the Teutons

as Wotan, and certain of the Oriental peoples as Buddha, or Fo. There are two theories concerning his

demise. The first declares that Hermes was translated like Enoch and carried without death into the

presence of God, the second states that he was buried in the Valley of Ebron and a great treasure placed in

his tomb--not a treasure of gold but of books and sacred learning.

The Egyptians likened humanity to a flock of sheep. The Supreme and Inconceivable Father was the

Shepherd, and Hermes was the shepherd dog. The origin of the shepherd's crook in religious symbolism

may be traced to the Egyptian rituals. The three scepters of Egypt include the shepherd's crook,

symbolizing that by virtue of the power reposing in that symbolic staff the initiated Pharaohs guided the

destiny of their people.

p. 40

"And when God had said this, Providence, with the aid of the Seven Governors and

Harmony, brought the sexes together, making the mixtures and establishing the

generations, and all things were multiplied according to their kind. He who through the

error of attachment loves his body, abides wandering in darkness, sensible and suffering

the things of death, but he who realizes that the body is but the tomb of his soul, rises to

immortality."

Then Hermes desired to know why men should be deprived of immortality for the sin of

ignorance alone. The Great Dragon answered:, To the ignorant the body is supreme and

they are incapable of realizing the immortality that is within them. Knowing only the

body which is subject to death, they believe in death because they worship that substance

which is the cause and reality of death."

Then Hermes asked how the righteous and wise pass to God, to which Poimandres

replied: "That which the Word of God said, say I: 'Because the Father of all things

consists of Life and Light, whereof man is made.' If, therefore, a man shall learn and

understand the nature of Life and Light, then he shall pass into the eternity of Life and

Light."

Hermes next inquired about the road by which the wise attained to Life eternal, and

Poimandres continued: "Let the man endued with a Mind mark, consider, and learn of

himself, and with the power of his Mind divide himself from his not-self and become a

servant of Reality."

Hermes asked if all men did not have Minds, and the Great Dragon replied: "Take heed

what you say, for I am the Mind--the Eternal Teacher. I am the Father of the Word--the

Redeemer of all men--and in the nature of the wise the Word takes flesh. By means of the

Word, the world is saved. I, Thought (Thoth)--the Father of the Word, the Mind--come

only unto men that are holy and good, pure and merciful, and that live piously and

religiously, and my presence is an inspiration and a help to them, for when I come they

immediately know all things and adore the Universal Father. Before such wise and

philosophic ones die, they learn to renounce their senses, knowing that these are the

enemies of their immortal souls.

"I will not permit the evil senses to control the bodies of those who love me, nor will I

allow evil emotions and evil thoughts to enter them. I become as a porter or doorkeeper,

and shut out evil, protecting the wise from their own lower nature. But to the wicked, the

envious and the covetous, I come not, for such cannot understand the mysteries of Mind;

therefore, I am unwelcome. I leave them to the avenging demon that they are making in

their own souls, for evil each day increases itself and torments man more sharply, and

each evil deed adds to the evil deeds that are gone before until finally evil destroys itself.

The punishment of desire is the agony of unfulfillment."

Hermes bowed his head in thankfulness to the Great Dragon who had taught him so

much, and begged to hear more concerning the ultimate of the human soul. So

Poimandres resumed: "At death the material body of man is returned to the elements

from which it came, and the invisible divine man ascends to the source from whence he

came, namely the Eighth Sphere. The evil passes to the dwelling place of the demon, and

the senses, feelings, desires, and body passions return to their source, namely the Seven

Governors, whose natures in the lower man destroy but in the invisible spiritual man give

life.

"After the lower nature has returned to the brutishness, the higher struggles again to

regain its spiritual estate. It ascends the seven Rings upon which sit the Seven Governors

and returns to each their lower powers in this manner: Upon the first ring sits the Moon,

and to it is returned the ability to increase and diminish. Upon the second ring sits

Mercury, and to it are returned machinations, deceit, and craftiness. Upon the third ring

sits Venus, and to it are returned the lusts and passions. Upon the fourth ring sits the Sun,

and to this Lord are returned ambitions. Upon the fifth ring sits Mars, and to it are

returned rashness and profane boldness. Upon the sixth ring sits Jupiter, and to it are

returned the sense of accumulation and riches. And upon the seventh ring sits Saturn, at

the Gate of Chaos, and to it are returned falsehood and evil plotting.

"Then, being naked of all the accumulations of the seven Rings, the soul comes to the

Eighth Sphere, namely, the ring of the fixed stars. Here, freed of all illusion, it dwells in

the Light and sings praises to the Father in a voice which only the pure of spirit may

understand. Behold, O Hermes, there is a great mystery in the Eighth Sphere, for the

Milky Way is the seed-ground of souls, and from it they drop into the Rings, and to the

Milky Way they return again from the wheels of Saturn. But some cannot climb the

seven-runged ladder of the Rings. So they wander in darkness below and are swept into

eternity with the illusion of sense and earthiness.

"The path to immortality is hard, and only a few find it. The rest await the Great Day

when the wheels of the universe shall be stopped and the immortal sparks shall escape

from the sheaths of substance. Woe unto those who wait, for they must return again,

unconscious and unknowing, to the seed-ground of stars, and await a new beginning.

Those who are saved by the light of the mystery which I have revealed unto you, O

Hermes, and which I now bid you to establish among men, shall return again to the

Father who dwelleth in the White Light, and shall deliver themselves up to the Light and

shall be absorbed into the Light, and in the Light they shall become Powers in God. This

is the Way of Good and is revealed only to them that have wisdom.

"Blessed art thou, O Son of Light, to whom of all men, I, Poimandres, the Light of the

World, have revealed myself. I order you to go forth, to become as a guide to those who

wander in darkness, that all men within whom dwells the spirit of My Mind (The

Universal Mind) may be saved by My Mind in you, which shall call forth My Mind in

them. Establish My Mysteries and they shall not fail from the earth, for I am the Mind of

the Mysteries and until Mind fails (which is never) my Mysteries cannot fail." With these

parting words, Poimandres, radiant with celestial light, vanished, mingling with the

powers of the heavens. Raising his eyes unto the heavens, Hermes blessed the Father of

All Things and consecrated his life to the service of the Great Light.

Thus preached Hermes: "O people of the earth, men born and made of the elements, but

with the spirit of the Divine Man within you, rise from your sleep of ignorance! Be sober

and thoughtful. Realize that your home is not in the earth but in the Light. Why have you

delivered yourselves over unto death, having power to partake of immortality? Repent,

and change your minds. Depart from the dark light and forsake corruption forever.

Prepare yourselves to climb through the Seven Rings and to blend your souls with the

eternal Light."

Some who heard mocked and scoffed and went their way, delivering themselves to the

Second Death from which there is no salvation. But others, casting themselves before the

feet of Hermes, besought him to teach them the Way of Life. He lifted them gently,

receiving no approbation for himself, and staff in hand, went forth teaching and guiding

mankind, and showing them how they might be saved. In the worlds of men, Hermes

sowed the seeds of wisdom and nourished the seeds with the Immortal Waters. And at

last came the evening of his life, and as the brightness of the light of earth was beginning

to go down, Hermes commanded his disciples to preserve his doctrines inviolate

throughout all ages. The Vision of Poimandres he committed to writing that all men

desiring immortality might therein find the way.

In concluding his exposition of the Vision, Hermes wrote: "The sleep of the body is the

sober watchfulness of the Mind and the shutting of my eyes reveals the true Light. My

silence is filled with budding life and hope, and is full of good. My words are the

blossoms of fruit of the tree of my soul. For this is the faithful account of what I received

from my true Mind, that is Poimandres, the Great Dragon, the Lord of the Word, through

whom I became inspired by God with the Truth. Since that day my Mind has been ever

with me and in my own soul it hath given birth to the Word: the Word is Reason, and

Reason hath redeemed me. For which cause, with all my soul and all my strength, I give

praise and blessing unto God the Father, the Life and the Light, and the Eternal Good.

"Holy is God, the Father of all things, the One who is before the First Beginning.

"Holy is God, whose will is performed and accomplished by His own Powers which He

hath given birth to out of Himself.

"Holy is God, who has determined that He shall be known, and who is known by His own

to whom He reveals Himself.

"Holy art Thou, who by Thy Word (Reason) hast established all things.

"Holy art Thou, of whom all Nature is the image.

"Holy art Thou, whom the inferior nature has not formed.

"Holy art Thou, who art stronger than all powers.

"Holy art Thou, who art greater than all excellency.

"Holy art Thou, who art better than all praise.

"Accept these reasonable sacrifices from a pure soul and a heart stretched out unto Thee.

"O Thou Unspeakable, Unutterable, to be praised with silence!

"I beseech Thee to look mercifully upon me, that I may not err from the knowledge of

Thee and that I may enlighten those that are in ignorance, my brothers and Thy sons.

"Therefore I believe Thee and bear witness unto Thee, and depart in peace and in

trustfulness into Thy Light and Life.

"Blessed art Thou, O Father! The man Thou hast fashioned would be sanctified with

Thee as Thou hast given him power to sanctify others with Thy Word and Thy Truth."

The Vision of Hermes, like nearly all of the Hermetic writings, is an allegorical

exposition of great philosophic and mystic truths, and its hidden meaning may be

comprehended only by those who have been "raised" into the presence of the True Mind.

p. 41

The Initiation of the Pyramid

SUPREME among the wonders of antiquity, unrivaled by the achievements of later

architects and builders, the Great Pyramid of Gizeh bears mute witness to an unknown

civilization which, having completed its predestined span, passed into oblivion. Eloquent

in its silence, inspiring in its majesty, divine in its simplicity, the Great Pyramid is indeed

a sermon in stone. Its magnitude overwhelms the puny sensibilities of man. Among the

shifting sands of time it stands as a fitting emblem of eternity itself. Who were the

illumined mathematicians who planned its parts and dimensions, the master craftsmen

who supervised its construction, the skilled artisans who trued its blocks of stone?

The earliest and best-known account of the building of the Great Pyramid is that given by

that highly revered but somewhat imaginative historian, Herodotus. "The pyramid was

built in steps, battlement-wise, as it is called, or, according to others, altar-wise. After

laying the stones for the base, they raised the remaining stones to their places by means

of machines formed of short wooden planks. The first machine raised them from the

ground to the top of the first step. On this there was another machine, which received the

stone upon its arrival, and conveyed it to the second step, whence a third machine

advanced it still higher. Either they had as many machines as there were steps in the

pyramid, or possibly they had but a single machine, which, being easily moved, was

transferred from tier to tier as the stone rose. Both accounts are given, and therefore I

mention both. The upper portion of the pyramid was finished first, then the middle, and

finally the part which was lowest and nearest the ground. There is an inscription in

Egyptian characters on the pyramid which records the quantity of radishes, onions, and

garlick consumed by the labourers who constructed it; and I perfectly well remember that

the interpreter who read the writing to me said that the money expended in this way was

1600 talents of silver. If this then is a true record, what a vast sum must have been spent

on the iron tools used in the work, and on the feeding and clothing of the labourers,

considering the length of time the work lasted, which has already been stated [ten years],

and the additional time--no small space, I imagine--which must have been occupied by

the quarrying of the stones, their conveyance, and the formation of the underground

apartments."

While his account is extremely colorful, it is apparent that the Father of History, for

reasons which he doubtless considered sufficient, concocted a fraudulent story to conceal

the true origin and purpose of the Great Pyramid. This is but one of several instances in

his writings which would lead the thoughtful reader to suspect that Herodotus himself

was an initiate of the Sacred Schools and consequently obligated to preserve inviolate the

secrets of the ancient orders. The theory advanced by Herodotus and now generally

accepted that the Pyramid was the tomb of the Pharaoh Cheops cannot be substantiated.

In fact, Manetho, Eratosthenes, and Diodorus Siculus all differ from Herodotus--as well

as from each other--regarding the name of the builder of this supreme edifice. The

sepulchral vault, which, according to the Lepsius Law of pyramid construction, should

have been finished at the same time as the monument or sooner, was never completed.

There is no proof that the building was erected by the Egyptians, for the elaborate

carvings with which the burial chambers of Egyptian royalty are almost invariably

ornamented are entirely lacking and it embodies none of the elements of their architecture

or decoration, such as inscriptions, images, cartouches, paintings, and other distinctive

features associated with dynastic mortuary art. The only hieroglyphics to be found within

the Pyramid are a few builders' marks sealed up in the chambers of construction, first

opened by Howard Vyse. These apparently were painted upon the stones before they

were set in position, for in a number of instances the marks were either inverted or

disfigured by the operation of fitting the blocks together. While Egyptologists have

attempted to identify the crude dabs of paint as cartouches of Cheops, it is almost

inconceivable that this ambitious ruler would have permitted his royal name to suffer

such indignities. As the most eminent authorities on the subject are still uncertain as to

the true meaning of these crude markings, whatever proof they might be that the building

was erected during the fourth dynasty is certainly offset by the sea shells at the base of

the Pyramid which Mr. Gab advances as evidence that it was erected before the Deluge--

a theory substantiated by the much-abused Arabian traditions. One Arabian historian

declared that the Pyramid was built by the Egyptian sages as a refuge against the Flood,

while another proclaimed it to have been the treasure house of the powerful antediluvian

king Sheddad Ben Ad. A panel of hieroglyphs over the entrance, which the casual

observer might consider to afford a solution of the mystery, unfortunately dates back no

further than A.D. 1843, having been cut at that time by Dr. Lepsius as a tribute to the

King of Prussia.

Caliph al Mamoun, an illustrious descendant of the Prophet, inspired by stories of the

immense treasures sealed within its depths, journeyed from Bagdad to Cairo, A.D. 820,

with a great force of workmen to open the mighty Pyramid. When Caliph al Mamoun

first reached the foot of the "Rock of Ages" and gazed up at its smooth glistening surface,

a tumult of emotions undoubtedly racked his soul. The casing stones must have been in

place at the time of his visit, for the Caliph could find no indication of an entrance--four

perfectly smooth surfaces confronted him. Following vague rumors, he set his followers

to work on the north side of the Pyramid, with instructions to keep on cutting and

chiseling until they discovered something. To the Moslems with their crude instruments

and vinegar it was a herculean effort to tunnel a full hundred feet through the limestone.

Many times they were on the point of rebellion, but the word of the Caliph was law and

the hope of a vast fortune buoyed them up.

At last on the eve of total discouragement fate came to their rescue. A great stone was

heard to fall somewhere in the wall near the toiling and disgruntled Arabs. Pushing on

toward the sound with renewed enthusiasm, they finally broke into the descending

passage which leads into the subterranean chamber. They then chiseled their way around

the great stone portcullis which had fallen into a position barring their progress, and

attacked and removed one after another the granite plugs which for a while continued to

slide down the passage leading from the Queen's Chamber above.

Finally no more blocks descended and the way was clear for the followers of the Prophet.

But where were the treasures? From room to room the frantic workmen rushed, looking

in vain for loot. The discontent of the Moslems reached such a height that Caliph al

Mamoun--who had inherited much of the wisdom of his illustrious father, the Caliph al

Raschid--sent to Bagdad for funds, which he caused to be secretly buried near the

entrance of the Pyramid. He then ordered his men to dig at that spot and great was their

rejoicing when the treasure was discovered, the workmen being deeply impressed by the

wisdom of the antediluvian monarch who had carefully estimated their wages and

thoughtfully caused the exact amount to be buried for their benefit!

The Caliph then returned to the city of his fathers and the Great Pyramid was left to the

mercy of succeeding generations. In the ninth century the sun's rays striking the highly

polished surfaces of the original casing stones caused each side of the Pyramid to appear

as

Click to enlarge

ŒDIPUS AND THE SPHINX.

From Levi's Les Mystères de la Kaballe.

The Egyptian Sphinx is closely related to the Greek legend of Œdipus, who first solved the famous riddle

propounded by the mysterious creature with the body of a winged lion and the head of a woman which

frequented the highway leading to Thebes. To each who passed her lair the sphinx addressed the question,

"What animal is it that in the morning goes on four feet, at noon on two feet, and in the evening on three feet?" These who failed to answer her riddle she destroyed. Œdipus declared the answer to be man himself, who in childhood crawled upon his hands and knees, in manhood stood erect, and in old age shuffled along

supporting himself by a staff. Discovering one who knew the answer to her riddle, the sphinx cast herself

from the cliff which bordered the road and perished.

There is still another answer to the riddle of the sphinx, an answer best revealed by a consideration of the

Pythagorean values of numbers. The 4, the 2 and the 3 produce the sum of 9, which is the natural number

of man and also of the lower worlds. The 4 represents the ignorant man, the 2 the intellectual man, and the

3 the spiritual man. Infant humanity walks on four legs, evolving humanity on two legs, and to the power of

his own mind the redeemed and illumined magus adds the staff of wisdom. The sphinx is therefore the

mystery of Nature, the embodiment of the secret doctrine, and all who cannot solve her riddle perish. To

pass the sphinx is to attain personal immortality.

p. 42

a dazzling triangle of light. Since that time, all but two of these casing stones have

disappeared. Investigation has resulted in their discovery, recut and resurfaced, in the

walls of Mohammedan mosques and palaces in various parts of Cairo and its environs.

PYRAMID PROBLEMS

C. Piazzi Smyth asks: "Was the Great Pyramid, then, erected before the invention of

hieroglyphics, and previous to the birth of the Egyptian religion?" Time may yet prove

that the upper chambers of the Pyramid were a sealed mystery before the establishment of

the Egyptian empire. In the subterranean chamber, however, are markings which indicate

that the Romans gained admission there. In the light of the secret philosophy of the

Egyptian initiates, W. W. Harmon, by a series of extremely complicated yet exact

mathematical calculations; determines that the first ceremonial of the Pyramid was

performed 68,890 years ago on the occasion when the star Vega for the first time sent its

ray down the descending passage into the pit. The actual building of the Pyramid was

accomplished in the period of from ten to fifteen years immediately preceding this date.

While such figures doubtless will evoke the ridicule of modern Egyptologists, they are

based upon an exhaustive study of the principles of sidereal mechanics as incorporated

into the structure of the Pyramid by its initiated builders. If the casing stones were in

position at the beginning of the ninth century, the so-called erosion marks upon the

outside were not due to water. The theory also that the salt upon the interior stones of the

Pyramid is evidence that the building was once submerged is weakened by the scientific

fact that this kind of stone is subject to exudations of salt. While the building may have

been submerged, at least in part, during the many thousands of years since its erection,

the evidence adduced to prove this point is not conclusive.

The Great Pyramid was built of limestone and granite throughout, the two kinds of rock

being combined in a peculiar and significant manner. The stones were trued with the

utmost precision, and the cement used was of such remarkable quality that it is now

practically as hard as the stone itself. The limestone blocks were sawed with bronze saws,

the teeth of which were diamonds or other jewels. The chips from the stones were piled

against the north side of the plateau on which the structure stands, where they form an

additional buttress to aid in supporting the weight of the structure. The entire Pyramid is

an example of perfect orientation and actually squares the circle. This last is

accomplished by dropping a vertical line from the apex of the Pyramid to its base line. If

this vertical line be considered as the radius of an imaginary circle, the length of the

circumference of such a circle will be found to equal the sum of the base lines of the four

sides of the Pyramid.

If the passage leading to the King's Chamber and the Queen's Chamber was sealed up

thousands of years before the Christian Era, those later admitted into the Pyramid

Mysteries must have received their initiations in subterranean galleries now unknown.

Without such galleries there could have been no possible means of ingress or egress,

since the single surface entrance was completely dosed with casing stones. If not blocked

by the mass of the Sphinx or concealed in some part of that image, the secret entrance

may be either in one of the adjacent temples or upon the sides of the limestone plateau.

Attention is called to the granite plugs filling the ascending passageway to the Queen's

Chamber which Caliph al Mamoun was forced practically to pulverize before he could

clear a way into the upper chambers. C. Piazzi Smyth notes that the positions of the

stones demonstrate that they were set in place from above--which made it necessary for a

considerable number of workmen to depart from the upper chambers. How did they do it?

Smyth believes they descended through the well (see diagram), dropping the ramp stone

into place behind them. He further contends that robbers probably used the well as a

means of getting into the upper chambers. The ramp stone having been set in a bed of

plaster, the robbers were forced to break through it, leaving a jagged opening. Mr. Dupré,

an architect who has spent years investigating the pyramids, differs from Smyth,

however, in that he believes the well itself to be a robbers' hole, being the first successful

attempt made to enter the upper chambers from the subterranean chamber, then the only

open section of the Pyramid.

Mr. Dupré bases his conclusion upon the fact that the well is merely a rough hole and the

grotto an irregular chamber, without any evidence of the architectural precision with

which the remainder of the structure was erected. The diameter of the well also precludes

the possibility of its having been dug downward; it must have been gouged out from

below, and the grotto was necessary to supply air to the thieves. It is inconceivable that

the Pyramid builders would break one of their own ramp stones and leave its broken

surface and a gaping hole in the side wall of their otherwise perfect gallery. If the well is

a robbers' hole, it may explain why the Pyramid was empty when Caliph al Mamoun

entered it and what happened to the missing coffer lid. A careful examination of the so-

called unfinished subterranean chamber, which must have been the base of operations for

the robbers, might disclose traces of their presence or show where they piled the rubble

which must have accumulated as a result of their operations. While it is not entirely clear

by what entrance the robbers reached the subterranean chamber, it is improbable that they

used the descending passageway.

There is a remarkable niche in the north wall of the Queen's Chamber which the

Mohammedan guides glibly pronounce to be a shrine. The general shape of this niche,

however, with its walls converging by a series of overlaps like those of the Grand

Gallery, would indicate that originally it had been intended as a passageway. Efforts

made to explore this niche have been nonproductive, but Mr. Dupré believes an entrance

to exist here through which--if the well did not exist at the time--the workmen made their

exit from the Pyramid after dropping the stone plugs into the ascending gallery.

Biblical scholars have contributed a number of most extraordinary conceptions regarding

the Great Pyramid. This ancient edifice has been identified by them as Joseph's granary

(despite its hopelessly inadequate capacity); as the tomb prepared for the unfortunate

Pharaoh of the Exodus who could not be buried there because his body was never

recovered from the Red Sea; and finally as a perpetual confirmation of the infallibility of

the numerous prophecies contained in the Authorized Version!

THE SPHINX

Although the Great Pyramid, as Ignatius Donnelly has demonstrated, is patterned after an

antediluvian type of architecture, examples of which are to be found in nearly every part

of the world, the Sphinx (Hu) is typically Egyptian. The stele between its paws states the

Sphinx is an image of the Sun God, Harmackis, which was evidently made in the

similitude of the Pharaoh during whose reign it was chiseled. The statue was restored and

completely excavated by Tahutmes IV as the result of a vision in which the god had

appeared and declared himself oppressed by the weight of the sand about his body. The

broken beard of the Sphinx was discovered during excavations between the front paws.

The steps leading up to the sphinx and also the temple and altar between the paws are

much later additions, probably Roman, for it is known that the Romans reconstructed

many Egyptian antiquities. The shallow depression in the crown of the head, once

thought to be the terminus of a closed up passageway leading from the Sphinx to the

Great Pyramid, was merely intended to help support a headdress now missing.

Metal rods have been driven into the Sphinx in a vain effort to discover chambers or

passages within its body. The major part of the Sphinx is a single stone, but the front

paws have been built up of smaller stones. The Sphinx is about 200 feet long, 70 feet

high, and 38 feet wide across the shoulders. The main stone from which it was carved is

believed by some to have been transported from distant quarries by methods unknown,

while others assert it to be native rock, possibly an outcropping somewhat resembling the

form into which it was later carved. The theory once advanced that both the Pyramid and

the Sphinx were built from artificial stones made on the spot has been abandoned. A

careful analysis of the limestone shows it to be composed of small sea creatures called

mummulites.

The popular supposition that the Sphinx was the true portal of the Great Pyramid, while it

survives with surprising tenacity, has never been substantiated. P. Christian presents this

theory as follows, basing it in part upon the authority of Iamblichus:

"The Sphinx of Gizeh, says the author of the Traité des Mystères, served as the entrance

to the sacred subterranean chambers in which the trials of the initiate were undergone.

This entrance, obstructed in our day by sands and rubbish, may still be traced between the

forelegs of the crouched colossus. It was formerly closed by a bronze gate whose secret

spring could be operated only by the Magi. It was guarded by public respect: and a sort of

religious fear maintained its inviolability better than armed protection would have done.

In the belly of the Sphinx were cut out galleries leading to the subterranean part of the

Great Pyramid. These galleries were so artfully crisscrossed along their course to the

Pyramid that in setting forth into the passage without a guide through this network, one

ceaselessly and inevitably returned to the starting point." (See Histoire de la Magie.)

Unfortunately, the bronze door referred to cannot be found, nor is there any evidence that

it ever existed. The passing centuries have wrought many changes in the colossus,

however, and the original opening may have been closed.

Nearly all students of the subject believe that subterranean chambers exist beneath the

Great Pyramid. Robert Ballard writes: "The priests of the Pyramids of Lake Mœris had

their vast subterranean residences. It appears to me more than probable that those of

Gizeh were similarly provided. And I may go further:--Out of these very caverns may

have been excavated the limestone of which the Pyramids were built. * * * In the bowels

of the limestone ridge on which

p. 43

Click to enlarge

A VERTICAL SECTION OF THE GREAT PYRAMID.

From Smyth's Life and Wok at the Great Pyramid.

The Great Pyramid stands upon a limestone plateau at the base of which, according to ancient history, the

Nile once flooded, thus supplying a method for the huge blocks used in its construction. Presuming that the

capstone as originally in place, the Pyramid is, according to John Taylor, in round figures 486 feet high; the base of each side is 764 feet long, and the entire structure covers a ground area of more than 13 acres.

The Great Pyramid is the only one in the group at Gizeh--in fact, as far as known, the only one in Egypt--

that has chambers within the actual body of the Pyramid itself. Far this reason it is said to refute the Lepsius Law, which asserts that each of these structures is a monument raised over a subterranean chamber in

which a ruler is entombed. The Pyramid contains four chambers, which in the diagram are lettered K, H, F,

and O.

The King's Chamber (K) is an oblong apartment 39 feet long, 17 felt wide, and 19 feet high (disregarding

fractional parts of a foot in each case), with a flat roof consisting of nine great stones, the largest in the Pyramid. Above the King's Chamber are five low compartments (L), generally termed construction

chambers. In the lowest of these the so-called hieroglyphs of the Pharaoh Cheops are located. The roof of

the fifth construction chamber is peaked. At the end of the King's Chamber opposite the entrance stands the

famous sarcophagus, or coffer (I), and behind it is a shallow opening that was dug in the hope of

discovering valuables. Two air vents (M, N) passing through the entire body of the Pyramid ventilate the

King's Chamber. In itself this is sufficient to establish that the building was not intended for a tomb.

Between the upper end of the Grand Gallery (G. G.) and the King's Chamber is a small antechamber (H),

its extreme length 9 feet, its extreme width 5 feet, and its extreme height 12 feet, with its walls grooved far purposes now unknown. In the groove nearest the Grand Gallery is a slab of stone in two sections, with a

peculiar boss or knob protruding about an inch from the surface of the upper part facing the Grand Gallery.

This stone does not reach to the floor of the antechamber and those entering the King's Chamber must pass

under the slab. From the King's Chamber, the Grand Gallery--157 feet in length, 28 feet in height, 7 feet in

width at its widest point and decreasing to 3½ feet as the result of seven converging overlaps, of the stones

forming the walls--descends to a little above the level of the Queen's Chamber. Here a gallery (E) branches

off, passing mere than 100 feet back towards the center of the Pyramid and opening into the Queen's

Chamber (F). The Queen's Chamber is 19 feet long, 17 feet wide, and 20 feet high. Its roof is peaked and

composed of great slabs of stone. Air passages not shown lead from the Queen's Chamber, but these were

not open originally. In the east wall of the Queen's Chamber is a peculiar niche of gradually converging

stone, which in all likelihood, may prove to be a new lost entrance way.

At the paint where the Grand Gallery ends and the horizontal passage towards the Queen's Chamber begins is the entrance to the well and also the opening leading down the first ascending passage (D) to the point

where this passage meets the descending passage (A) leading from the outer wall of the Pyramid down to

the subterranean chamber. After descending 59 feet down the well (P), the grotto is reached. Continuing

through the floor of the grotto the well leads downward 133 feet to the descending entrance passage (A),

which it meets a short distance before this passage becomes horizontal and leads into the subterranean

chamber.

The subterranean chamber (O) is about 46 feet long and 27 feet wide, but is extremely low, the ceiling

varying in height from a little over 3 feet to about 13 feet from the rough and apparently unfinished floor.

From the south side of the subterranean chamber a low tunnel runs about 50 feet and then meets a blank

wall. These constitute the only known openings in the Pyramid, with the exception of a few niches,

exploration holes, blind passages, and the rambling cavernous tunnel (B) hewn out by the Moslems under

the leadership of the Prophet's descendant, Caliph al Mamoun.

____________________

the Pyramids are built will yet be found, I feel convinced, ample information as to their

uses. A good diamond drill with two or three hundred feet of rods is what is wanted to

test this, and the solidarity of the Pyramids at the same time." (See The Solution of the

Pyramid Problem.)

Mr. Ballard's theory of extensive underground apartments and quarries brings up an

important problem in architectonics. The Pyramid builders were too farsighted to

endanger the permanence of the Great Pyramid by placing over five million tons of

limestone and granite on any but a solid foundation. It is therefore reasonably certain that

such chambers or passageways as may exist beneath the building are relatively

insignificant, like those within the body of the structure, which occupy less than one

sixteen-hundredth of the cubic contents of the Pyramid.

The Sphinx was undoubtedly erected for symbolical purposes at the instigation of the

priestcraft. The theories that the uræus upon its forehead was originally the finger of an

immense sundial and that both the Pyramid and the Sphinx were used to measure time,

the seasons, and the precession of the equinoxes are ingenious but not wholly convincing.

If this great creature was erected to obliterate the ancient passageway leading into the

subterranean temple of the Pyramid, its symbolism would be most appropriate. In

comparison with the overwhelming size and dignity of the Great Pyramid, the Sphinx is

almost insignificant. Its battered face, upon which may still be seen vestiges of the red

paint with which the figure was originally covered, is disfigured beyond recognition. Its

nose was broken off by a fanatical Mohammedan, lest the followers of the Prophet be led

into idolatry. The very nature of its construction and the present repairs necessary to

prevent the head from falling off indicate that it could not have survived the great periods

of time which have elapsed since the erection of the Pyramid.

To the Egyptians, the Sphinx was the symbol of strength and intelligence. It was

portrayed as androgynous to signify that they recognized the initiates and gods as

partaking of both the positive and negative creative powers. Gerald Massey writes: "This

is the secret of the Sphinx. The orthodox sphinx of Egypt is masculine in front and

feminine behind. So is the image of Sut-Typhon, a type of horn and tail, male in front and

female behind. The Pharaohs, who wore the tail of the Lioness or Cow behind them, were

male in front and female behind. Like the Gods they included the dual totality of Being in

one person, born of the Mother, but of both sexes as the Child." (See The Natural

Genesis.)

Most investigators have ridiculed the Sphinx and, without even deigning to investigate

the great colossus, have turned their attention to the more overwhelming mystery of the

Pyramid.

THE PYRAMID MYSTERIES

The word pyramid is popularly supposed to be derived from πῦρ, fire, thus signifying that

it is the symbolic representation of the One Divine Flame, the life of every creature. John

Taylor believes the word pyramid to mean a "measure of wheat, " while C. Piazzi Smyth

favors the Coptic meaning, "a division into ten." The initiates of

p. 44

old accepted the pyramid form as the ideal symbol of both the secret doctrine and those

institutions established for its dissemination. Both pyramids and mounds are antitypes of

the Holy Mountain, or High Place of God, which was believed to stand in the "midst" of

the earth. John P. Lundy relates the Great Pyramid to the fabled Olympus, further

assuming that its subterranean passages correspond to the tortuous byways of Hades.

The square base of the Pyramid is a constant reminder that the House of Wisdom is

firmly founded upon Nature and her immutable laws. "The Gnostics," writes Albert Pike,

"claimed that the whole edifice of their science rested on a square whose angles were:

Σιγη, Silence; Βυθος, Profundity; Νους, Intelligence; and Αληθεια Truth." (See Morals

and Dogma.) The sides of the Great Pyramid face the four cardinal angles, the latter

signifying according to Eliphas Levi the extremities of heat and cold (south and north)

and the extremities of light and darkness (east and west). The base of the Pyramid further

represents the four material elements or substances from the combinations of which the

quaternary body of man is formed. From each side of the square there rises a triangle,

typifying the threefold divine being enthroned within every quaternary material nature. If

each base line be considered a square from which ascends a threefold spiritual power,

then the sum of the lines of the four faces (12) and the four hypothetical squares (16)

constituting the base is 28, the sacred number of the lower world. If this be added to the

three septenaries composing the sun (21), it equals 49, the square of 7 and the number of

the universe.

The twelve signs of the zodiac, like the Governors' of the lower worlds, are symbolized

by the twelve lines of the four triangles--the faces of the Pyramid. In the midst of each

face is one of the beasts of Ezekiel, and the structure as a whole becomes the Cherubim.

The three main chambers of the Pyramid are related to the heart, the brain, and the

generative system--the spiritual centers of the human constitution. The triangular form of

the Pyramid also is similar to the posture assumed by the body during the ancient

meditative exercises. The Mysteries taught that the divine energies from the gods

descended upon the top of the Pyramid, which was likened to an inverted tree with its

branches below and its roots at the apex. From this inverted tree the divine wisdom is

disseminated by streaming down the diverging sides and radiating throughout the world.

The size of the capstone of the Great Pyramid cannot be accurately determined, for, while

most investigators have assumed that it was once in place, no vestige of it now remains.

There is a curious tendency among the builders of great religious edifices to leave their

creations unfinished, thereby signifying that God alone is complete. The capstone--if it

existed--was itself a miniature pyramid, the apex of which again would be capped by a

smaller block of similar shape, and so on ad infinitum. The capstone therefore is the

epitome of the entire structure. Thus, the Pyramid may be likened to the universe and the

capstone to man. Following the chain of analogy, the mind is the capstone of man, the

spirit the capstone of the mind, and God--the epitome of the whole--the capstone of the

spirit. As a rough and unfinished block, man is taken from the quarry and by the secret

culture of the Mysteries gradually transformed into a trued and perfect pyramidal

capstone. The temple is complete only when the initiate himself becomes the living apex

through which the divine power is focused into the diverging structure below.

W. Marsham Adams calls the Great Pyramid "the House of the Hidden Places"; such

indeed it was, for it represented the inner sanctuary of pre-Egyptian wisdom. By the

Egyptians the Great Pyramid was associated with Hermes, the god of wisdom and letters

and the Divine Illuminator worshiped through the planet Mercury. Relating Hermes to

the Pyramid emphasizes anew the fact that it was in reality the supreme temple of the

Invisible and Supreme Deity. The Great Pyramid was not a lighthouse, an observatory, or

a tomb, but the first temple of the Mysteries, the first structure erected as a repository for

those secret truths which are the certain foundation of all arts and sciences. It was the

perfect emblem of the microcosm and the macrocosm and, according to the secret

teachings, the tomb of Osiris, the black god of the Nile. Osiris represents a certain

manifestation of solar energy, and therefore his house or tomb is emblematic of the

universe within which he is entombed and upon the cross of which he is crucified.

Through the mystic passageways and chambers of the Great Pyramid passed the

illumined of antiquity. They entered its portals as men; they came forth as gods. It was

the place of the "second birth," the "womb of the Mysteries," and wisdom dwelt in it as

God dwells in the hearts of men. Somewhere in the depths of its recesses there resided an

unknown being who was called "The Initiator," or "The Illustrious One," robed in blue

and gold and bearing in his hand the sevenfold key of Eternity. This was the lion-faced

hierophant, the Holy One, the Master of Masters, who never left the House of Wisdom

and whom no man ever saw save he who had passed through the gates of preparation and

purification. It was in these chambers that Plato--he of the broad brow---came face to

face with the wisdom of the ages personified in the Master of the Hidden House.

Who was the Master dwelling in the mighty Pyramid, the many rooms of which signified

the worlds in space; the Master whom none might behold save those who had been "born

again"? He alone fully knew the secret of the Pyramid, but he has departed the way of the

wise and the house is empty. The hymns of praise no longer echo in muffled tones

through the chambers; the neophyte no longer passes through the elements and wanders

among the seven stars; the candidate no longer receives the "Word of Life" from the lips

of the Eternal One. Nothing now remains that the eye of man can see but an empty shell--

the outer symbol of an inner truth--and men call the House of God a tomb!

The technique of the Mysteries was unfolded by the Sage Illuminator, the Master of the

Secret House. The power to know his guardian spirit was revealed to the new initiate; the

method of disentangling his material body from. his divine vehicle was explained; and to

consummate the magnum opus, there was revealed the Divine Name--the secret and

unutterable designation of the Supreme Deity, by the very knowledge of which man and

his God are made consciously one. With the giving of the Name, the new initiate became

himself a pyramid, within the chambers of whose soul numberless other human beings

might also receive spiritual enlightenment.

In the King's Chamber was enacted the drama of the "second death." Here the candidate,

after being crucified upon the cross of the solstices and the equinoxes, was buried in the

great coffer. There is a profound mystery to the atmosphere and temperature of the King's

Chamber: it is of a peculiar deathlike cold which cuts to the marrow of the bone. This

room was a doorway between the material world and the transcendental spheres of

Nature. While his body lay in the coffer, the soul of the neophyte soared as a human-

headed hawk through the celestial realms, there to discover first hand the eternity of Life,

Light, and Truth, as well as the illusion of Death, Darkness, and Sin. Thus in one sense

the Great Pyramid may be likened to a gate through which the ancient priests permitted a

few to pass toward the attainment of individual completion. It is also to be noted

incidentally that if the coffer in the King's Chamber be struck, the sound emitted has no

counterpart in any known musical scale. This tonal value may have formed part of that

combination of circumstances which rendered the King's Chamber an ideal setting for the

conferment of the highest degree of the Mysteries.

The modern world knows little of these ancient rites. The scientist and the theologian

alike gaze upon the sacred structure, wondering what fundamental urge inspired the

herculean labor. If they would but think for a moment, they would realize that there is

only one urge in the soul of man capable of supplying the required incentive--namely, the

desire to know, to understand, and to exchange the narrowness of human mortality for the

greater breadth and scope of divine enlightenment. So men say of the Great Pyramid that

it is the most perfect building in the world, the source of weights and measures, the

original Noah's Ark, the origin of languages, alphabets,. and scales of temperature and

humidity. Few realize, however, that it is the gateway to the Eternal.

Though the modern world may know a million secrets, the ancient world knew one--and

that one was greater than the million; for the million secrets breed death, disaster, sorrow,

selfishness, lust, and avarice, but the one secret confers life, light, and truth. The time will

come when the secret wisdom shall again be the dominating religious and philosophical

urge of the world. The day is at hand when the doom of dogma shall be sounded. The

great theological Tower of Babel, with its confusion of tongues, was built of bricks of

mud and the mortar of slime. Out of the cold ashes of lifeless creeds, however, shall rise

phœnixlike the ancient Mysteries. No other institution has so completely satisfied the

religious aspirations of humanity, for since the destruction of the Mysteries there never

has been a religious code to which Plato could have subscribed. The unfolding of man's

spiritual nature is as much an exact science as astronomy, medicine or jurisprudence. To

accomplish this end religions were primarily established; and out of religion have come

science, philosophy, and logic as methods whereby this divine purpose might be realized.

The Dying God shall rise again! The secret room in the House of the Hidden Places shall

be rediscovered. The Pyramid again shall stand as the ideal emblem of solidarity,

inspiration, aspiration, resurrection, and regeneration. As the passing sands of time bury

civilization upon civilization beneath their weight, the Pyramid shall remain as the

Visible covenant between Eternal Wisdom and the world. The time may yet come when

the chants of the illumined shall be heard once more in its ancient passageways and the

Master of the Hidden House shall await in the Silent Place for the coming of that man

who, casting aside the fallacies of dogma and tenet, seeks simply Truth and will be

satisfied with neither substitute nor counterfeit.

p. 45

Isis, the Virgin of the World

IT is especially fitting that a study of Hermetic symbolism should begin with a discussion

of the symbols and attributes of the Saitic Isis. This is the Isis of Sais, famous for the

inscription concerning her which appeared on the front of her temple in that city: "I, Isis,

am all that has been, that is or shall be; no mortal Man hath ever me unveiled."

Plutarch affirms that many ancient authors believed this goddess to be the daughter of

Hermes; others held the opinion that she was the child of Prometheus. Both of these

demigods were noted for their divine wisdom. It is not improbable that her kinship to

them is merely allegorical. Plutarch translates the name Isis to mean wisdom. Godfrey

Higgins, in his Anacalypsis, derives the name of Isis from the Hebrew ישע, Iso, and the

Greek ζωω, to save. Some authorities, however, for example, Richard Payne Knight (as

stated in his Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology), believe the word to be

of Northern extraction, possibly Scandinavian or Gothic. In these languages the name is

pronounced Isa, meaning ice, or water in its most passive, crystallized, negative state.

This Egyptian deity under many names appears as the principle of natural fecundity

among nearly all the religions of the ancient world. She was known as the goddess with

ten thousand appellations and was metamorphosed by Christianity into the Virgin Mary,

for Isis, although she gave birth to all living things--chief among them the Sun--still

remained a virgin, according to the legendary accounts.

Apuleius in the eleventh book of The Golden Ass ascribes to the goddess the following

statement concerning her powers and attributes: "Behold, * *, I, moved by thy prayers,

am present with thee; I, who am Nature, the parent of things, the queen of all the

elements, the primordial progeny of ages, the supreme of Divinities, the sovereign of the

spirits of the dead, the first of the celestials, and the uniform resemblance of Gods and

Goddesses. I, who rule by my nod the luminous summits of the heavens, the salubrious

breezes of the sea, and the deplorable silences of the realms beneath, and whose one

divinity the whole orb of the earth venerates under a manifold form, by different rites and

a variety of appellations. Hence the primogenial Phrygians call me Pessinuntica, the

mother of the Gods, the Attic Aborigines, Cecropian Minerva; the floating Cyprians,

Paphian Venus; the arrow-bearing Cretans, Diana Dictynna; the three-tongued Sicilians,

Stygian Proserpine; and the Eleusinians, the ancient Goddess Ceres. Some also call me

Juno, others Bellona, others Hecate, and others Rhamnusia. And those who are

illuminated by the incipient rays of that divinity the Sun, when he rises, viz. the

Ethiopians, the Arii, and the Egyptians skilled in ancient learning, worshipping me by

ceremonies perfectly appropriate, call me by my true name, Queen Isis."

Le Plongeon believes that the Egyptian myth of Isis had a historical basis among the

Mayas of Central America, where this goddess was known as Queen Moo. In Prince Coh

the same author finds a correspondence to Osiris, the brother-husband of Isis. Le

Plongeon's theory is that Mayan civilization was far more ancient than that of Egypt.

After the death of Prince Coh, his widow, Queen Moo, fleeing to escape the wrath of his

murderers, sought refuge among the Mayan colonies in Egypt, where she was accepted as

their queen and was given the name of Isis. While Le Plongeon may be right, the possible

historical queen sinks into insignificance when compared with the allegorical, symbolic

World Virgin; and the fact that she appears among so many different races and peoples

discredits the theory that she was a historical individual.

According to Sextus Empyricus, the Trojan war was fought over a statue of the moon

goddess. For this lunar Helena, and not for a woman, the Greeks and Trojans struggled at

the gates of Troy.

Several authors have attempted to prove that Isis, Osiris, Typhon, Nephthys, and Aroueris

(Thoth, or Mercury) were grandchildren of the great Jewish patriarch Noah by his son

Ham. But as the story of Noah and his ark is a cosmic allegory concerning the

repopulation of planets at the beginning of each world period, this only makes it less

likely that they were historical personages. According to Robert Fludd, the sun has three

properties--life, light, and heat. These three vivify and vitalize the three worlds--spiritual,

intellectual, and material. Therefore, it is said "from one light, three lights," i. e. the first

three Master Masons. In all probability, Osiris represents the third, or material, aspect of

solar activity, which by its beneficent influences vitalizes and enlivens the flora and fauna

of the earth. Osiris is not the sun, but the sun is symbolic of the vital principle of Nature,

which the ancients knew as Osiris. His symbol, therefore, was an opened eye, in honor of

the Great Eye of the universe, the sun. Opposed to the active, radiant principle of

impregnating fire, hear, and motion was the passive, receptive principle of Nature.

Modern science has proved that forms ranging in magnitude from solar systems to atoms

are composed of positive, radiant nuclei surrounded by negative bodies that exist upon

the emanations of the central life. From this allegory we have the story of Solomon and

his wives, for Solomon is the sun and his wives and concubines are the planets, moons,

asteroids, and other receptive bodies within his house--the solar mansion. Isis,

represented in the Song of Solomon by the dark maid of Jerusalem, is symbolic of

receptive Nature--the watery, maternal principle which creates all things out of herself

after impregnation has been achieved by the virility of the sun.

In the ancient world the year had 360 days. The five extra days were gathered together by

the God of Cosmic Intelligence to serve as the birthdays of the five gods and goddesses

who are called the sons and daughters of Ham. Upon the first of these special days Osiris

was born and upon the fourth of them Isis. (The number four shows the relation that this

goddess bears to the earth and its elements.) Typhon, the Egyptian Demon or Spirit of the

Adversary, was born upon the third day. Typhon is often symbolized by a crocodile;

sometimes his body is a combination of crocodile and hog. Isis stands for knowledge and

wisdom, and according to Plutarch the word Typhon means insolence and pride. Egotism,

self-centeredness, and pride are the deadly enemies of understanding and truth. This part

of the allegory is revealed.

After Osiris, here symbolized as the sun, had become King of Egypt and had given to his

people the full advantage of his intellectual light, he continued his path through the

heavens, visiting the peoples of other nations and converting all with whom he came in

contact. Plutarch further asserts that the Greeks recognized in Osiris the same person

whom they revered under the names of Dionysos and Bacchus. While he was away from

his country, his brother, Typhon, the Evil One, like the Loki of Scandinavia, plotted

against the Sun God to destroy him. Gathering seventy-two persons as fellow

conspirators, he attained his nefarious end in a most subtle manner. He had a wonderful

ornamented box made just the size of the body of Osiris. This he brought into a banquet

hall where the gods and goddesses were feasting together. All admired the beautiful

chest, and Typhon promised to give it to the one whose body fitted it most perfectly. One

after another lay down in the box, but in disappointment

Click to enlarge

ISIS, QUEEN OF HEAVEN.

From Mosaize Historie der Hebreeuwse Kerke.

Diodorus writes of a famous inscription carved on a column at Nysa, in Arabia, wherein Isis described

herself as follows: "I am Isis, Queen of this country. I was instructed by Mercury. No one can destroy the laws which I have established. I am the eldest daughter of Saturn, most ancient of the gods. I am the wife

and sister of Osiris the King. I first made known to mortals the use of wheat. I am the mother of Orus the

King. In my honor was the city of Bubaste built. Rejoice, O Egypt, rejoice, land that gave me birth!" (See

"Morals and Dogma," by Albert Pike.)

p. 46

rose again, until at last Osiris also tried. The moment he was in the chest Typhon and his

accomplices nailed the cover down and sealed the cracks with molten lead. They then

cast the box into the Nile, down which it floated to the sea. Plutarch states that the date

upon which this occurred was the seventeenth day of the month Athyr, when the sun was

in the constellation of Scorpio. This is most significant, for the Scorpion is the symbol of

treachery. The time when Osiris entered the chest was also the same season that Noah

entered the ark to escape from the Deluge.

Plutarch further declares that the Pans and Satyrs (the Nature spirits and elementals) first

discovered that Osiris had been murdered. These immediately raised an alarm, and from

this incident the word panic, meaning fright or amazement of the multitudes, originated.

Isis, upon receiving the news of her husband's murder, which she learned from some

children who had seen the murderers making off with the box, at once robed herself in

mourning and started forth in quest of him.

At length Isis discovered that the chest had floated to the coast of Byblos. There it had

lodged in the branches of a tree, which in a short time miraculously grew up around the

box. This so amazed the king of that country that he ordered the tree to be cut down and a

pillar made from its trunk to support the roof of his palace. Isis, visiting Byblos,

recovered the body of her husband, but it was again stolen by Typhon, who cut it into

fourteen parts, which he scattered all over the earth. Isis, in despair, began gathering up

the severed remains of her husband, but found only thirteen pieces. The fourteenth part

(the phallus) she reproduced in gold, for the original had fallen into the river Nile and had

been swallowed by a fish.

Typhon was later slain in battle by the son of Osiris. Some of the Egyptians believed that

the souls of the gods were taken to heaven, where they shone forth as stars. It was

supposed that the soul of Isis gleamed from the Dog Star, while Typhon became the

constellation of the Bear. It is doubtful, however, whether this idea was ever generally

accepted.

Among the Egyptians, Isis is often represented with a headdress consisting of the empty

throne chair of her murdered husband, and this peculiar structure was accepted during

certain dynasties as her hieroglyphic. The headdresses of the Egyptians have great

symbolic and emblematic importance, for they represent the auric bodies of the

superhuman intelligences, and are used in the same way that the nimbus, halo, and

aureole are used in Christian religious art. Frank C. Higgins, a well-known Masonic

symbolist, has astutely noted that the ornate headgears of certain gods and Pharaohs are

inclined backward at the same angle as the earth's axis. The robes, insignia, jewels, and

ornamentations of the ancient hierophants symbolized the spiritual energies radiating

from the human body. Modern science is rediscovering many of the lost secrets of

Hermetic philosophy. One of these is the ability to gauge the mental development, the

soul qualities, and the physical health of an individual from the streamers of semi-visible

electric force which pour through the surface of the skin of every human being at all

times during his life. (For details concerning a scientific process for making the auric

emanations visible, see The Human Atmosphere by Dr. Walter J. Kilner.)

Isis is sometimes symbolized by the head of a cow; occasionally the entire animal is her

symbol. The first gods of the Scandinavians were licked out of blocks of ice by the

Mother Cow (Audhumla), who symbolized the principle of natural nutriment and

fecundity because of her milk. Occasionally Isis is represented as a bird. She often carries

in one hand the crux ansata, the symbol of eternal life, and in the other the flowered

scepter, symbolic of her authority.

Thoth Hermes Trismegistus, the founder of Egyptian learning, the Wise Man of the

ancient world, gave to the priests and philosophers of antiquity the secrets which have

been preserved to this day in myth and legend. These allegories and emblematic figures

conceal the secret formulæ for spiritual, mental, moral, and physical regeneration

commonly known as the Mystic Chemistry of the Soul (alchemy). These sublime truths

were communicated to the initiates of the Mystery Schools, but were concealed from the

profane. The latter, unable to understand the abstract philosophical tenets, worshiped the

concrete sculptured idols which were emblematic of these secret truths. The wisdom and

secrecy of Egypt are epitomized in the Sphinx, which has preserved its secret from the

seekers of a hundred generations. The mysteries of Hermeticism, the great spiritual truths

hidden from the world by the ignorance of the world, and the keys of the secret doctrines

of the ancient philosophers, are all symbolized by the Virgin Isis. Veiled from head to

foot, she reveals her wisdom only to the tried and initiated few who have earned the right

to enter her sacred presence, tear from the veiled figure of Nature its shroud of obscurity,

and stand face to face with the Divine Reality.

The explanations in these pages of the symbols peculiar to the Virgin Isis are based

(unless otherwise noted) on selections from a free translation of the fourth book of

Bibliotèque des Philosophes Hermétiques, entitled "The Hermetical Signification of the

Symbols and Attributes of Isis," with interpolations by the compiler to amplify and

clarify the text.

The statues of Isis were decorated with the sun, moon, and stars, and many emblems

pertaining to the earth, over which Isis was believed to rule (as the guardian spirit of

Nature personified). Several images of the goddess have been found upon which the

marks of her dignity and position were still intact. According to the ancient philosophers,

she personified Universal Nature, the mother of all productions. The deity was generally

represented as a partly nude woman, often pregnant, sometimes loosely covered with a

garment either of green or black color, or of four different shades intermingled-black,

white, yellow, and red.

Apuleius describes her as follows: "In the first place, then, her most copious and long

hairs, being gradually intorted, and promiscuously scattered on her divine neck, were

softly defluous. A multiform crown, consisting of various flowers, bound the sublime

summit of her head. And in the middle of the crown, just on her forehead, there was a

smooth orb resembling a mirror, or rather a white refulgent light, which indicated that she

was the moon. Vipers rising up after the manner of furrows, environed the crown on the

right hand and on the left, and Cerealian ears of corn were also extended from above. Her

garment was of many colours, and woven from the finest flax, and was at one time lucid

with a white splendour, at another yellow from the flower of crocus, and at another

flaming with a rosy redness. But that which most excessively dazzled my sight, was a

very black robe, fulgid with a dark splendour, and which, spreading round and passing

under her right side, and ascending to her left shoulder, there rose protuberant like the

center of a shield, the dependent part of the robe falling in many folds, and having small

knots of fringe, gracefully flowing in its extremities. Glittering stars were dispersed

through the embroidered border of the robe, and through the whole of its surface: and the

full moon, shining in the middle of the stars, breathed forth flaming fires. Nevertheless, a

crown, wholly consisting of flowers and fruits of every kind, adhered with indivisible

connexion to the border of that conspicuous robe, in all its undulating motions. What she

carried in her hands also consisted of things of a very different nature. For her right hand,

indeed, bore a brazen rattle [sistrum] through the narrow lamina of which bent like a belt,

certain rods passing, produced a sharp triple sound, through the vibrating motion of her

arm. An oblong vessel, in the shape of a boat, depended from her left hand, on the handle

of which, in that part in which it was conspicuous, an asp raised its erect head and largely

swelling neck. And shoes woven from the leaves of the victorious palm tree covered her

immortal feet."

The green color alludes to the vegetation which covers the face of the earth, and therefore

represents the robe of Nature. The black represents death and corruption as being the way

to a new life and generation. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of

God." (John iii. 3.) White, yellow, and red signify the three principal colors of the

alchemical, Hermetical, universal medicine after the blackness of its putrefaction is over.

The ancients gave the name Isis to one of their occult medicines; therefore the description

here given relates somewhat to chemistry. Her black drape also signifies that the moon,

or the lunar humidity--the sophic universal mercury and the operating substance of

Nature in alchemical terminology--has no light of its own, but receives its light, its fire,

and its vitalizing force from the sun. Isis was

Click to enlarge

THE SISTRUM.

"The sistrum is designed * * * to represent to us, that every thing must be kept in continual agitation, and never cease from motion; that they ought to be mused and well-shaken, whenever they begin to grow

drowsy as it were, and to droop in their motion. For, say they, the sound of these sistra averts and drives

away Typho; meaning hereby, that as corruption clogs and puts a stop to the regular course of nature; so

generation, by the means of motion, loosens it again, and restores it to its former vigour. Now the outer surface of this instrument is of a convex figure, as within its circumference are contained those four chords

or bars [only three shown], which make such a rattling when they are shaken--nor is this without its

meaning; for that part of the universe which is subject to generation and corruption is contained within the

sphere of the moon; and whatever motions or changes may happen therein, they are all effected by the

different combinations of the four elementary bodies, fire, earth, water, and air--moreover, upon the upper

part of the convex surface of the sistrum is carved the effigies of a cat with a human visage, as on the lower edge of it, under those moving chords, is engraved on the one side the face of Isis, and on the other that of

Nephthys--by the faces symbolically representing generation and corruption (which, as has been already

observed, is nothing but the motion and alteration of the four elements one amongst another),"

(From Plutarch's Isis and Osiris.)

p. 47

the image or representative of the Great Works of the wise men: the Philosopher's Stone,

the Elixir of Life, and the Universal Medicine.

Other hieroglyphics seen in connection with Isis are no less curious than those already

described, but it is impossible to enumerate all, for many symbols were used

interchangeably by the Egyptian Hermetists. The goddess often wore upon her head a hat

made of cypress branches, to signify mourning for her dead husband and also for the

physical death which she caused every creature to undergo in order to receive a new life

in posterity or a periodic resurrection. The head of Isis is sometimes ornamented with a

crown of gold or a garland of olive leaves, as conspicuous marks of her sovereignty as

queen of the world and mistress of the entire universe. The crown of gold signifies also

the aurific unctuosity or sulphurous fatness of the solar and vital fires which she

dispenses to every individual by a continual circulation of the elements, this circulation

being symbolized by the musical rattle which she carries in her hand. This sistrum is also

the yonic symbol of purity.

A serpent interwoven among the olive leaves on her head, devouring its own tail, denotes

that the aurific unctuosity was soiled with the venom of terrestrial corruption which

surrounded it and must be mortified and purified by seven planetary circulations or

purifications called flying eagles (alchemical terminology) in order to make it medicinal

for the restoration of health. (Here the emanations from the sun are recognized as a

medicine for the healing of human ills.) The seven planetary circulations are represented

by the circumambulations of the Masonic lodge; by the marching of the Jewish priests

seven times around the walls of Jericho, and of the Mohammedan priests seven times

around the Kabba at Mecca. From the crown of gold project three horns of plenty,

signifying the abundance of the gifts of Nature proceeding from one root having its origin

in the heavens (head of Isis).

In this figure the pagan naturalists represent all the vital powers of the three kingdoms

and families of sublunary nature-mineral, plant, and animal (man considered as an

animal). At one of her ears was the moon and at the other the sun, to indicate that these

two were the agent and patient, or father and mother principles of all natural objects; and

that Isis, or Nature, makes use of these two luminaries to communicate her powers to the

whole empire of animals, vegetables, and minerals. On the back of her neck were the

characters of the planets and the signs of the zodiac which assisted the planets in their

functions. This signified that the heavenly influences directed the destinies of the

principles and sperms of all things, because they were the governors of all sublunary

bodies, which they transformed into little worlds made in the image of the greater

universe.

Isis holds in her right hand a small sailing ship with the spindle of a spinning wheel for its

mast. From the top of the mast projects a water jug, its handle shaped like a serpent

swelled with venom. This indicates that Isis steers the bark of life, full of troubles and

miseries, on the stormy ocean of Time. The spindle symbolizes the fact that she spins and

cuts the thread of Life. These emblems further signify that Isis abounds in humidity, by

means of which she nourishes all natural bodies, preserving them from the heat of the sun

by humidifying them with nutritious moisture from the atmosphere. Moisture supports

vegetation, but this subtle humidity (life ether) is always more or less infected by some

venom proceeding from corruption or decay. It must be purified by being brought into

contact with the invisible cleansing fire of Nature. This fire digests, perfects, and

revitalizes this substance, in order that the humidity may become a universal medicine to

heal and renew all the bodies in Nature.

The serpent throws off its skin annually and is thereby renewed (symbolic of the

resurrection of the spiritual life from the material nature). This renewal of the earth takes

place every spring, when the vivifying spirit of the sun returns to the countries of the

Northern Hemisphere,

The symbolic Virgin carries in her left hand a sistrum and a cymbal, or square frame of

metal, which when struck gives the key-note of Nature (Fa); sometimes also an olive

branch, to indicate the harmony she preserves among natural things with her regenerating

power. By the processes of death and corruption she gives life to a number of creatures of

diverse forms through periods of perpetual change. The cymbal is made square instead of

the usual triangular shape in order to symbolize that all things are transmuted and

regenerated according to the harmony of the four elements.

Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom believed that if a physician could establish harmony among the

elements of earth, fire, air, and water, and unite them into a stone (the Philosopher's

Stone) symbolized by the six-pointed star or two interlaced triangles, he would possess

the means of healing all disease. Dr. Bacstrom further stated that there was no doubt in

his mind that the universal, omnipresent fire (spirit) of Nature: "does all and is all in all."

By attraction, repulsion, motion, heat, sublimation, evaporation, exsiccation, inspissation,

coagulation, and fixation, the Universal Fire (Spirit) manipulates matter, and manifests

throughout creation. Any individual who can understand these principles and adapt them

to the three departments of Nature becomes a true philosopher.

From the right breast of Isis protruded a bunch of grapes and from, the left an ear of corn

or a sheaf of wheat, golden in color. These indicate that Nature is the source of nutrition

for plant, animal, and human life, nourishing all things from herself. The golden color in

the wheat (corn) indicates that in the sunlight or spiritual gold is concealed the first sperm of all life.

On the girdle surrounding the upper part of the body of the statue appear a number of

mysterious emblems. The girdle is joined together in front by four golden plates (the

elements), placed in the form of a square. This signified that Isis, or Nature, the first

matter (alchemical terminology), was the essence- of the four elements (life, light, heat,

and force), which quintessence generated all things. Numerous stars are represented on

this girdle, thereby indicating their influence in darkness as well as the influence of the

sun in light. Isis is the Virgin immortalized in the constellation of Virgo, where the World

Mother is placed with the serpent under her feet and a crown. of stars on her head. In her

arms she carries a sheaf of grain and sometimes the young Sun God.

The statue of Isis was placed on a pedestal of dark stone ornamented with rams' heads.

Her feet trod upon a number of venomous reptiles. This indicates that Nature has power

to free from acidity or saltness all corrosives and to overcome all impurities from

terrestrial corruption adhering to bodies. The rams' heads indicate that the most

auspicious time for the generation of life is during the period when the sun passes

through the sign of Aries. The serpents under her feet indicate that Nature is inclined to

preserve life and to heal disease by expelling impurities and corruption.

In this sense the axioms known to the ancient philosophers are verified; namely:

Nature contains Nature,

Nature rejoices in her own nature,

Nature surmounts Nature;

Nature cannot be amended but in her own nature.

[paragraph continues] Therefore, in contemplating the statue of Isis, we must not lose sight of the

occult sense of its allegories; otherwise, the Virgin remains an inexplicable enigma.

From a golden ring on her left arm a line descends, to the end of which is suspended a

deep box filled with flaming coals and incense. Isis, or Nature personified, carries with

her the sacred fire, religiously preserved and kept burning in. a special temple by the

vestal virgins. This fire is the genuine, immortal flame of Nature--ethereal, essential, the

author of life. The inconsumable oil; the balsam of life, so much praised by the wise and

so often referred to in the Scriptures, is frequently symbolized as the fuel of this immortal

flame.

From the right arm of the figure also descends a thread, to the end of which is fastened a

pair of scales, to denote the exactitude of Nature in her weights and measures. Isis is

often represented as the symbol of justice, because Nature is eternally consistent.

Click to enlarge

THOTH, THE DOG-HEADED.

From Lenoir's La Franche-Maconnerie.

Aroueris, or Thoth, one of the five immortals, protected the infant Horus from the wrath of Typhon after

the murder of Osiris. He also revised the ancient Egyptian calendar by increasing the year from 360 days to

365. Thoth Hermes was called "The Dog-Headed" because of his faithfulness and integrity. He is shown crowned with a solar nimbus, carrying in one hand the Crux Ansata, the symbol of eternal life, and in the

other a serpent-wound staff symbolic of his dignity as counselor of the gods.

Click to enlarge

THE EGYPTIAN MADONNA.

From Lenoir's La Franche-Maconnerie.

Isis is shown with her son Horus in her arms. She is crowned with the lunar orb, ornamented with the horns

of rams or bulls. Orus, or Horus as he is more generally known, was the son of Isis and Osiris. He was the

god of time, hours, days, and this narrow span of life recognized as mortal existence. In all probability, the four sons of Horus represent the four kingdoms of Nature. It was Horus who finally avenged the murder of

his father, Osiris, by slaying Typhon, the spirit of Evil.

p. 48

The World Virgin is sometimes shown standing between two great pillars--the Jachin and

Boaz of Freemasonry--symbolizing the fact that Nature attains productivity by means of

polarity. As wisdom personified, Isis stands between the pillars of opposites,

demonstrating that understanding is always found at the point of equilibrium and that

truth is often crucified between the two thieves of apparent contradiction.

The sheen of gold in her dark hair indicates that while she is lunar, her power is due to

the sun's rays, from which she secures her ruddy complexion. As the moon is robed in the

reflected light of the sun, so Isis, like the virgin of Revelation, is clothed in the glory of

solar luminosity. Apuleius states that while he was sleeping he beheld the venerable

goddess Isis rising out of the ocean. The ancients realized that the primary forms of life

first came out of water, and modem science concurs in this view. H. G. Wells, in his

Outline of History, describing primitive life on the earth, states: "But though the ocean

and intertidal water already swarmed with life, the land above the high-tide line was still,

so far as we can guess, a stony wilderness without a trace of life." In the next chapter he

adds: "Wherever the shore-line ran there was life, and that life went on in and by and

with water as its home, its medium, and its fundamental necessity." The ancients believed

that the universal sperm proceeded from warm vapor, humid but fiery. The veiled Isis,

whose very coverings represent vapor, is symbolic of this humidity, which is the carrier

or vehicle for the sperm life of the sun, represented by a child in her arms. Because the

sun, moon, and stars in setting appear to sink into the sea and also because the water

receives their rays into itself, the sea was believed to be the breeding ground for the

sperm of living things. This sperm is generated from the combination of the influences of

the celestial bodies; hence Isis is sometimes represented as pregnant.

Frequently the statue of Isis was accompanied by the figure of a large black and white ox.

The ox represents either Osiris as Taurus, the bull of the zodiac, or Apis, an animal

sacred to Osiris because of its peculiar markings and colorings. Among the Egyptians, the

bull was a beast of burden. Hence the presence of the animal was a reminder of the labors

patiently performed by Nature that all creatures may have life and health. Harpocrates,

the God of Silence, holding his fingers to his mouth, often accompanies the statue of Isis.

He warns all to keep the secrets of the wise from those unfit to know them.

The Druids of Britain and Gaul had a deep knowledge concerning the mysteries of Isis

and worshiped her under the symbol of the moon. Godfrey Higgins considers it a mistake

to regard Isis as synonymous with the moon. The moon was chosen for Isis because of its

dominion over water. The Druids considered the sun to be the father and the moon the

mother of all things. By means of these symbols they worshiped Universal Nature.

The figure of Isis is sometimes used to represent the occult and magical arts, such as

necromancy, invocation, sorcery, and thaumaturgy. In one of the myths concerning her,

Isis is said to have conjured the invincible God of Eternities, Ra, to tell her his secret and

sacred name, which he did. This name is equivalent to the Lost Word of Masonry. By

means of this Word, a magician can demand obedience from the invisible and superior

deities. The priests of Isis became adepts in the use of the unseen forces of Nature. They

understood hypnotism, mesmerism, and similar practices long before the modem world

dreamed of their existence.

Plutarch describes the requisites of a follower of Isis in this manner: "For as 'tis not the

length of the beard, or the coarseness of the habit which makes a philosopher, so neither

will those frequent shavings, or the mere wearing [of] a linen vestment constitute a votary

of Isis; but he alone is a true servant or follower of this Goddess, who after he has heard,

and been made acquainted in a proper manner with the history of the actions of these

Gods, searches into the hidden truths which he concealed under them, and examines the

whole by the dictates of reason and philosophy."

During the Middle Ages the troubadours of Central Europe preserved in song the legends

of this Egyptian goddess. They composed sonnets to the most beautiful woman in all the

world. Though few ever discovered her identity, she was Sophia, the Virgin of Wisdom,

whom all the philosophers of the world have wooed. Isis represents the mystery of

motherhood, which the ancients recognized as the most apparent proof of Nature's

omniscient wisdom and God's overshadowing power. To the modern seeker she is the

epitome of the Great Unknown, and only those who unveil her will be able to solve the

mysteries of life, death, generation, and regeneration.

MUMMIFICATION OF THE EGYPTIAN DEAD

Servius, commenting on Virgil's Æneid, observes that "the wise Egyptians took care to

embalm their bodies, and deposit them in catacombs, in order that the soul might be

preserved for a long time in connection with the body, and might not soon be alienated;

while the Romans, with an opposite design, committed the remains of their dead to the

funeral pile, intending that the vital spark might immediately be restored to the general

element, or return to its pristine nature." (From Prichard's An Analysis of the Egyptian

Mythology.)

No complete records are available which give the secret doctrine of the Egyptians

concerning the relationship existing between the spirit, or consciousness, and the body

which it inhabited. It is reasonably certain, however, that Pythagoras, who had been

initiated in the Egyptian temples, when he promulgated the doctrine of metempsychosis,

restated, in part at least, the teachings of the Egyptian initiates. The popular supposition

that the Egyptians mummified their dead in order to preserve the form for a physical

resurrection is untenable in the light of modern knowledge regarding their philosophy of

death. In the fourth book of On Abstinence from Animal Food, Porphyry describes an

Egyptian custom of purifying the dead by removing the contents of the abdominal cavity,

which they placed in a separate chest. He then reproduces the following oration which

had been translated out of the Egyptian tongue by Euphantus: "O sovereign Sun, and all

ye Gods who impart life to men, receive me, and deliver me to the eternal Gods as a

cohabitant. For I have always piously worshipped those divinities which were pointed out

to me by my parents as long as I lived in this age, and have likewise always honored

those who procreated my body. And, with respect to other men, I have never slain any

one, nor defrauded any one of what he deposited with me, nor have I committed any

other atrocious deed. If, therefore, during my life I have acted erroneously, by eating or

drinking things which it is unlawful to cat or drink, I have not erred through myself, but

through these" (pointing to the chest which contained the viscera). The removal of the

organs identified as the seat of the appetites was considered equivalent to the purification

of the body from their evil influences.

So literally did the early Christians interpret their Scriptures that they preserved the

bodies of their dead by pickling them in salt water, so that on the day of resurrection the

spirit of the dead might reenter a complete and perfectly preserved body. Believing that

the incisions necessary to the embalming process and the removal of the internal organs

would prevent the return of the spirit to its body, the Christians buried their dead without

resorting to the more elaborate mummification methods employed by the Egyptian

morticians.

In his work on Egyptian Magic, S.S.D.D. hazards the following speculation concerning

the esoteric purposes behind the practice of mummification. "There is every reason to

suppose," he says, "that only those who had received some grade of initiation were

mummified; for it is certain that, in the eyes of the Egyptians, mummification effectually

prevented reincarnation. Reincarnation was necessary to imperfect souls, to those who

had failed to pass the tests of initiation; but for those who had the Will and the capacity to

enter the Secret Adytum, there was seldom necessity for that liberation of the soul which

is said to be effected by the destruction of the body. The body of the Initiate was

therefore preserved after death as a species of Talisman or material basis for the

manifestation of the Soul upon earth."

During the period of its inception mummification was limited to the Pharaoh and such

other persons of royal rank as presumably partook of the attributes of the great Osiris, the

divine, mummified King of the Egyptian Underworld.

Click to enlarge

OSIRIS, KING OF THE UNDERWORLD.

Osiris is often represented with the lower par, of his body enclosed in a mummy case or wrapped about

with funeral bandages. Man's spirit consists of three distinct parts, only one of which incarnates in physical form. The human body was considered to be a tomb or sepulcher of this incarnating spirit. Therefore Osiris,

a symbol of the incarnating ego, was represented with the lower half of his body mummified to indicate

that he was the living spirit of man enclosed within the material form symbolized by the mummy case.

There is a romance between the active principle of God and the passive principle of Nature. From the union

of these two principles is produced the rational creation. Man is a composite creature. From his Father (the

active principle) he inherits his Divine Spirit, the fire of aspiration--that immortal part of himself which

rises triumphant from the broken clay of mortality: that part which remains after the natural organisms have

disintegrated or have been regenerated. From his Mother (the passive principle) he inherits his body--that

part over which the laws of Nature have control: his humanity, his mortal personality, his appetites, his

feelings, and his emotions. The Egyptians also believed that Osiris was the river Nile and that Isis (his

sister-wife) was the contiguous land, which, when inundated by the river, bore fruit and harvest. The murky

water of the Nile were believed to account for the blackness of Osiris, who was generally symbolized as

being of ebony hue.

p. 49

The Sun, A Universal Deity

THE adoration of the sun was one of the earliest and most natural forms of religious

expression. Complex modern theologies are merely involvements and amplifications of

this simple aboriginal belief. The primitive mind, recognizing the beneficent power of the

solar orb, adored it as the proxy of the Supreme Deity. Concerning the origin of sun

worship, Albert Pike makes the following concise statement in his Morals and Dogma:

"To them [aboriginal peoples] he [the sun] was the innate fire of bodies, the fire of

Nature. Author of Life, heat, and ignition, he was to them the efficient cause of all

generation, for without him there was no movement, no existence, no form. He was to

them immense, indivisible, imperishable, and everywhere present. It was their need of

light, and of his creative energy, that was felt by all men; and nothing was more fearful to

them than his absence. His beneficent influences caused his identification with the

Principle of Good; and the BRAHMA of the Hindus, and MITHRAS of the Persians, and

ATHOM, AMUN, PHTHA, and OSIRIS, of the Egyptians, the BEL of the Chaldeans,

the ADONAI of the Phœnicians, the ADONIS and APOLLO of the Greeks, became but

personifications of the Sun, the regenerating Principle, image of that fecundity which

perpetuates and rejuvenates the world's existence."

Among all the nations of antiquity, altars, mounds, and temples were dedicated to the

worship of the orb of day. The ruins of these sacred places yet remain, notable among

them being the pyramids of Yucatan and Egypt, the snake mounds of the American

Indians, the Zikkurats of Babylon and Chaldea, the round towers of Ireland, and the

massive rings of uncut stone in Britain and Normandy. The Tower of Babel, which,

according to the Scriptures, was built so that man might reach up to God, was probably

an astronomical observatory.

Many early priests and prophets, both pagan and Christian, were versed in astronomy and

astrology; their writings are best understood when read in the light of these ancient

sciences. With the growth of man's knowledge of the constitution and periodicity of the

heavenly bodies, astronomical principles and terminology were introduced into his

religious systems. The tutelary gods were given planetary thrones, the celestial bodies

being named after the deities assigned to them. The fixed stars were divided into

constellations, and through these constellations wandered the sun and its planets, the

latter with their accompanying satellites.

THE SOLAR TRINITY

The sun, as supreme among the celestial bodies visible to the astronomers of antiquity,

was assigned to the highest of the gods and became symbolic of the supreme authority of

the Creator Himself. From a deep philosophic consideration of the powers and principles

of the sun has come the concept of the Trinity as it is understood in the world today. The

tenet of a Triune Divinity is not peculiar to Christian or Mosaic theology, but forms a

conspicuous part of the dogma of the greatest religions of both ancient and modern times.

The Persians, Hindus, Babylonians, and Egyptians had their Trinities. In every instance

these represented the threefold form of one Supreme Intelligence. In modern Masonry,

the Deity is symbolized by an equilateral triangle, its three sides representing the primary

manifestations of the Eternal One who is Himself represented as a tiny flame, called by

the Hebrews Yod (י). Jakob Böhme, the Teutonic mystic, calls the Trinity The Three

Witnesses, by means of which the Invisible is made known to the visible, tangible

universe.

The origin of the Trinity is obvious to anyone who will observe the daily manifestations

of the sun. This orb, being the symbol of all Light, has three distinct phases: rising,

midday, and setting. The philosophers therefore divided the life of all things into three

distinct parts: growth, maturity, and decay. Between the twilight of dawn and the twilight

of evening is the high noon of resplendent glory. God the Father, the Creator of the

world, is symbolized by the dawn. His color is blue, because the sun rising in the

morning is veiled in blue mist. God the Son he Illuminating One sent to bear witness of

His Father before all the worlds, is the celestial globe at noonday, radiant and

magnificent, the maned Lion of Judah, the Golden-haired Savior of the World. Yellow is

His color and His power is without end. God the Holy Ghost is the sunset phase, when

the orb of day, robed in flaming red, rests for a moment upon the horizon line and then

vanishes into the darkness of the night to wandering the lower worlds and later rise again

triumphant from the embrace of darkness.

To the Egyptians the sun was the symbol of immortality, for, while it died each night, it

rose again with each ensuing dawn. Not only has the sun this diurnal activity, but it also

has its annual pilgrimage, during which time it passes successively through the twelve

celestial houses of the heavens, remaining in each for thirty days. Added to these it has a

third path of travel, which is called the precession of the equinoxes, in which it

retrogrades around the zodiac through the twelve signs at the rate of one degree every

seventy-two years.

Concerning the annual passage of the sun through the twelve houses of the heavens,

Robert Hewitt Brown, 32°, makes the following statement: "The Sun, as he pursued his

way among these 'living creatures' of the zodiac, was said, in allegorical language, either

to assume the nature of or to triumph over the sign he entered. The sun thus became a

Bull in Taurus, and was worshipped as such by the Egyptians under the name of Apis,

and by the Assyrians as Bel, Baal, or Bul. In Leo the sun became a Lion-slayer, Hercules,

and an Archer in Sagittarius. In Pisces, the Fishes, he was a fish--Dagon, or Vishnu, the

fish-god of the Philistines and Hindoos."

A careful analysis of the religious systems of pagandom uncovers much evidence of the

fact that its priests served the solar energy and that their Supreme Deity was in every case

this Divine Light personified. Godfrey Higgins, after thirty years of inquiry into the

origin of religious beliefs, is of the opinion that "All the Gods of antiquity resolved

themselves into the solar fire, sometimes itself as God, or sometimes an emblem or

shekinah of that higher principle, known by the name of the creative Being or God."

The Egyptian priests in many of their ceremonies wore the skins of lions, which were

symbols of the solar orb, owing to the fact that the sun is exalted, dignified, and most

fortunately placed in the constellation of Leo, which he rules and which was at one time

the keystone of the celestial arch. Again, Hercules is the Solar Deity, for as this mighty

hunter performed his twelve labors, so the sun, in traversing the twelve houses of the

zodiacal band, performs during his pilgrimage twelve essential and benevolent labors for

the human race and for Nature in general, Hercules, like the Egyptian priests, wore the

skin of a lion for a girdle. Samson, the Hebrew hero, as his

Click to enlarge

THE LION OF THE SUN.

From Maurice's Indian Antiquities.

The sun rising over the back of the lion or, astrologically, in the back of the lion, has always been

considered symbolic of power and rulership. A symbol very similar to the one above appears on the flag of

Persia, whose people have always been sun worshipers. Kings and emperors have frequently associated

their terrestrial power with the celestial Power of the solar orb, and have accepted the sun, or one of its

symbolic beasts or birds, as their emblem. Witness the lion of the Great Mogul and the eagles of Cæsar and

Napoleon.

Click to enlarge

THE WINGED GLOBE OF EGYPT.

From Maurice's Indian Antiquities.

This symbol, which appears over the Pylons or gates of many Egyptian palaces and temples, is emblematic

of the three persons of the Egyptian Trinity. The wings, the serpents, and the solar orb are the insignia of

Ammon, Ra, and Osiris.

p. 50

name implies, is also a solar deity. His fight with the Nubian lion, his battles with the

Philistines, who represent the Powers of Darkness, and his memorable feat of carrying off

the gates of Gaza, all refer to aspects of solar activity. Many of the ancient peoples had

more than one solar deity; in fact, all of the gods and goddesses were supposed to

partake, in part at least, of the sun's effulgence.

The golden ornaments used by the priestcraft of the various world religions are again a

subtle reference to the solar energy, as are also the crowns of kings. In ancient times,

crowns had a number of points extending outward like the rays of the sun, but modern

conventionalism has, in many cases, either removed the points or else bent: them inward,

gathered them together, and placed an orb or cross upon the point where they meet. Many

of the ancient prophets, philosophers, and dignitaries carried a scepter, the upper end of

which bore a representation of the solar globe surrounded by emanating rays. All the

kingdoms of earth were but copies of the kingdoms of Heaven, and the kingdoms of

Heaven were best symbolized by the solar kingdom, in which the sun was the supreme

ruler, the planets his privy council, and all Nature the subjects of his empire.

Many deities have been associated with the sun. The Greeks believed that Apollo,

Bacchus, Dionysos, Sabazius, Hercules, Jason, Ulysses, Zeus, Uranus, and Vulcan

partook of either the visible or invisible attributes of the sun. The Norwegians regarded

Balder the Beautiful as a solar deity, and Odin is often connected with the celestial orb,

especially because of his one eye. Among the Egyptians, Osiris, Ra, Anubis, Hermes, and

even the mysterious Ammon himself had points of resemblance with the solar disc. Isis

was the mother of the sun, and even Typhon, the Destroyer, was supposed to be a form of

solar energy. The Egyptian sun myth finally centered around the person of a mysterious

deity called Serapis. The two Central American deities, Tezcatlipoca and Quetzalcoatl,

while often associated with the winds, were also undoubtedly solar gods.

In Masonry the sun has many symbols. One expression of the solar energy is Solomon,

whose name SOL-OM-ON is the name for the Supreme Light in three different

languages. Hiram Abiff, the CHiram (Hiram) of the Chaldees, is also a solar deity, and

the story of his attack and murder by the Ruffians, with its solar interpretation, will be

found in the chapter The Hiramic Legend. A striking example of the important part which

the sun plays in the symbols and rituals of Freemasonry is given by George Oliver, D.D.,

in his Dictionary of Symbolical Masonry, as follows:

"The sun rises in the east, and in the east is the place for the Worshipful Master. As the

sun is the source of all light and warmth, so should the Worshipful Master enliven and

warm the brethren to their work. Among the ancient Egyptians the sun was the symbol of

divine providence." The hierophants of the Mysteries were adorned with many. insignia

emblematic of solar power. The sunbursts of gilt embroidery on the back of the vestments

of the Catholic priesthood signify that the priest is also an emissary and representative of

Sol Invictus.

CHRISTIANITY AND THE SUN

For reasons which they doubtless considered sufficient, those who chronicled the life and

acts of Jesus found it advisable to metamorphose him into a solar deity. The historical

Jesus was forgotten; nearly all the salient incidents recorded in the four Gospels have

their correlations in the movements, phases, or functions of the heavenly bodies.

Among other allegories borrowed by Christianity from pagan antiquity is the story of the

beautiful, blue-eyed Sun God, with His golden hair falling upon His shoulders, robed

from head to foot in spotless white and carrying in His arms the Lamb of God, symbolic

of the vernal equinox. This handsome youth is a composite of Apollo, Osiris, Orpheus,

Mithras, and Bacchus, for He has certain characteristics in common with each of these

pagan deities.

The philosophers of Greece and Egypt divided the life of the sun during the year into four

parts; therefore they symbolized the Solar Man by four different figures. When He was

born in the winter solstice, the Sun God was symbolized as a dependent infant who in

some mysterious manner had managed to escape the Powers of Darkness seeking to

destroy Him while He was still in the cradle of winter. The sun, being weak at this season

of the year, had no golden rays (or locks of hair), but the survival of the light through the

darkness of winter was symbolized by one tiny hair which alone adorned the head of the

Celestial Child. (As the birth of the sun took place in Capricorn, it was often represented

as being suckled by a goat.)

At the vernal equinox, the sun had grown to be a beautiful youth. His golden hair hung in

ringlets on his shoulders and his light, as Schiller said, extended to all parts of infinity. At

the summer solstice, the sun became a strong man, heavily bearded, who, in the prime of

maturity, symbolized the fact that Nature at this period of the year is strongest and most

fecund. At the autumnal equinox, the sun was pictured as an aged man, shuffling along

with bended back and whitened locks into the oblivion of winter darkness. Thus, twelve

months were assigned to the sun as the length of its life. During this period it circled the

twelve signs of the zodiac in a magnificent triumphal march. When fall came, it entered,

like Samson, into the house of Delilah (Virgo), where its rays were cut off and it lost its

strength. In Masonry, the cruel winter months are symbolized by three murderers who

sought to destroy the God of Light and Truth.

The coming of the sun was hailed with joy; the time of its departure was viewed as a

period to be set aside for sorrow and unhappiness. This glorious, radiant orb of day, the

true light "which lighteth every man who cometh into the world," the supreme

benefactor, who raised all things from the dead, who fed the hungry multitudes, who

stilled the tempest, who after dying rose again and restored all things to life--this

Supreme Spirit of humanitarianism and philanthropy is known to Christendom as Christ,

the Redeemer of worlds, the Only Begotten of The Father, the Word made Flesh, and the

Hope of Glory.

THE BIRTHDAY OF THE SUN

The pagans set aside the 25th of December as the birthday of the Solar Man. They

rejoiced, feasted, gathered in processions, and made offerings in the temples. The

darkness of winter was over and the glorious son of light was returning to the Northern

Hemisphere. With his last effort the old Sun God had torn down the house of the

Philistines (the Spirits of Darkness) and had cleared the way for the new sun who was

born that day from the depths of the earth amidst the symbolic beasts of the lower world.

Concerning this season of celebration, an anonymous Master of Arts of Balliol College,

Oxford, in his scholarly treatise, Mankind Their Origin and Destiny, says: "The Romans

also had their solar festival, and their games of the circus in honor of the birth of the god

of day. It took place the eighth day before the kalends of January--that is, on December

25. Servius, in his commentary on verse 720 of the seventh book of the Æneid, in which

Virgil speaks of the new sun, says that, properly speaking, the sun is new on the 8th of

the Kalends of January-that is, December 25. In the time of Leo I. (Leo, Serm. xxi., De

Nativ. Dom. p. 148), some of the Fathers of the Church said that 'what rendered the

festival (of Christmas) venerable was less the birth of Jesus Christ than the return, and, as

they expressed it, the new birth of the sun.' It was on the same day that the birth of the

Invincible Sun (Natalis solis invicti), was celebrated at Rome, as can be seen in the

Roman calendars, published in the reign of Constantine and of Julian (Hymn to the Sun,

p. 155). This epithet 'Invictus' is the same as the Persians gave to this same god, whom

they worshipped by the name of Mithra, and whom they caused to be born in a grotto

(Justin. Dial. cum Trips. p. 305), just as he is represented as being born in a stable, under

the name of Christ, by the Christians."

Concerning the Catholic Feast of the Assumption and its parallel in astronomy, the same

author adds: "At the end of eight months, when the sun-god, having increased, traverses

the eighth sign, he absorbs the celestial Virgin in his fiery course, and she disappears in

the midst of the luminous rays and the glory of her son. This phenomenon, which takes

place every year about the middle of August, gave rise to a festival which still exists, and

in which it is supposed that the mother of Christ, laying aside her earthly life, is

associated with the glory of her son, and is placed at his side in the heavens. The Roman

calendar of Columella (Col. 1. II. cap. ii. p. 429) marks the death or disappearance of

Virgo at this period. The sun, he says, passes into Virgo on the thirteenth day before the

kalends of September. This is where the Catholics place the Feast of the Assumption, or

the reunion of the Virgin to her Son. This feast

Click to enlarge

THE THREE SUNS.

From Lilly's Astrological Predictions for 1648, 1649, and 1650.)

The following description of this phenomenon appears in a letter written by Jeremiah Shakerley in

Lancashire, March 4th, 1648:--"On Monday the 28th of February last, there arose with the Sun two Parelii, on either side one; their distance from him was by estimation, about ten degrees; they continued still of the

same distance from the Zenith, or height above the Horizon, that the Sun did; and from the parts averse to

the Sun, there seemed to issue out certain bright rays, not unlike those which the Sun sendeth from behind a

cloud, but brighter. The parts of these Parelii which were toward the Sun, were of a mixt colour, wherein

green and red were most predominant. A little above them was a thin rainbow, scarcely discernible, of a

bright colour, with the concave towards the Sun, and the ends thereof seeming to touch the Parelii: Above

that, in a clear diaphanous ayr, [air], appeared another conspicuous Rainbow, beautified with divers

colours; it was as neer as I could discern to the Zenith; it seemed of something a lesser radius than the

other, they being back to back, yet a pretty way between. At or neer the apparent time of the full Moon,

they vanished, leaving abundance of terror and amazement in those that saw them. (See William Lilly.)

p. 51

was formerly called the feast of the Passage of the Virgin (Beausobre, tome i. p. 350);

and in the Library of the Fathers (Bibl. Part. vol. II. part ii. p. 212) we have an account of

the Passage of the Blessed Virgin. The ancient Greeks and Romans fix the assumption of

Astraea, who is also this same Virgin, on that day."

This Virgin mother, giving birth to the Sun God which Christianity has so faithfully

preserved, is a reminder of the inscription concerning her Egyptian prototype, Isis, which

appeared on the Temple of Sais: "The fruit which I have brought forth is the Sun." While

the Virgin was associated with the moon by the early pagans, there is no doubt that they

also understood her position as a constellation in the heavens, for nearly all the peoples of

antiquity credit her as being the mother of the sun, and they realized that although the

moon could not occupy that position, the sign of Virgo could, and did, give birth to the

sun out of her side on the 25th day of December. Albertus Magnus states, "We know that

the sign of the Celestial Virgin rose over the Horizon at the moment at which we fix the

birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Among certain of the Arabian and Persian astronomers the three stars forming the sword

belt of Orion were called the Magi who came to pay homage to the young Sun God. The

author of Mankind--Their Origin and Destiny contributes the following additional

information: "In Cancer, which had risen to the meridian at midnight, is the constellation

of the Stable and of the Ass. The ancients called it Præsepe Jovis. In the north the stars of

the Bear are seen, called by the Arabians Martha and Mary, and also the coffin of

Lazarus. "Thus the esotericism of pagandom was embodied in Christianity, although its

keys are lost. The Christian church blindly follows ancient customs, and when asked for a

reason gives superficial and unsatisfactory explanations, either forgetting or ignoring the

indisputable fact that each religion is based upon the secret doctrines of its predecessor.

THE THREE SUNS

The solar orb, like the nature of man, was divided by the ancient sages into three separate

bodies. According to the mystics, there are three suns in each solar system, analogous to

the three centers of life in each individual constitution. These are called three lights: the

spiritual sun, the intellectual or soular sun, and the material sun (now symbolized in

Freemasonry by three candles). The spiritual sun manifests the power of God the Father;

the soular sun radiates the life of God the Son; and the material sun is the vehicle of

manifestation for God the Holy Spirit. Man's nature was divided by the mystics into three

distinct parts: spirit, soul, and body. His physical body was unfolded and vitalized by the

material sun; his spiritual nature was illuminated by the spiritual sun; and his intellectual

nature was redeemed by the true light of grace--the soular sun. The alignment of these

three globes in the heavens was one explanation offered for the peculiar fact that the

orbits of the planets are not circular but elliptical.

The pagan priests always considered the solar system as a Grand Man, and drew their

analogy of these three centers of activity from the three main centers of life in the human

body: the brain, the heart, and the generative system. The Transfiguration of Jesus

describes three tabernacles, the largest being in the center (the heart), and a smaller one

on either side (the brain and the generative system). It is possible that the philosophical

hypothesis of the existence of the three suns is based upon a peculiar natural phenomenon

which has occurred many times in history. In the fifty- first year after Christ three suns

were seen at once in the sky and also in the sixty-sixth year. In the sixty-ninth year, two

suns were seen together. According to William Lilly, between the years 1156 and 1648

twenty similar occurrences were recorded.

Recognizing the sun as the supreme benefactor of the material world, Hermetists believed

that there was a spiritual sun which ministered to the needs of the invisible and divine

part of Nature--human and universal. Anent this subject, the great Paracelsus wrote:

"There is an earthly sun, which is the cause of all heat, and all who are able to see may

see the sun; and those who are blind and cannot see him may feel his heat. There is an

Eternal Sun, which is the source of all wisdom, and those whose spiritual senses have

awakened to life will see that sun and be conscious of His existence; but those who have

not attained spiritual consciousness may yet feel His power by an inner faculty which is

called Intuition."

Certain Rosicrucian scholars have given special appellations to these three phases of the

sun: the spiritual sun they called Vulcan; the soular and intellectual sun, Christ and

Lucifer respectively; and the material sun, the Jewish Demiurgus Jehovah. Lucifer here

represents the intellectual mind without the illumination of the spiritual mind; therefore it

is "the false light. " The false light is finally overcome and redeemed by the true light of

the soul, called the Second Logos or Christ. The secret processes by which the Luciferian

intellect is transmuted into the Christly intellect constitute one of the great secrets of

alchemy, and are symbolized by the process of transmuting base metals into gold.

In the rare treatise The Secret Symbols of The Rosicrucians, Franz Hartmann defines the

sun alchemically as: "The symbol of Wisdom. The Centre of Power or Heart of things.

The Sun is a centre of energy and a storehouse of power. Each living being contains

within itself a centre of life, which may grow to be a Sun. In the heart of the regenerated,

the divine power, stimulated by the Light of the Logos, grows into a Sun which

illuminates his mind." In a note, the same author amplifies his description by adding:

"The terrestrial sun is the image or reflection of the invisible celestial sun; the former is

in the realm of Spirit what the latter is in the realm of Matter; but the latter receives its

power from the former."

In the majority of cases, the religions of antiquity agree that the material visible sun was a

reflector rather than a source of power. The sun was sometimes represented as a shield

carried on the arm of the Sun God, as for example, Frey, the Scandinavian Solar Deity.

This sun reflected the light of the invisible spiritual sun, which was the true source of

life, light, and truth. The physical nature of the universe is receptive; it is a realm of

effects. The invisible causes of these effects belong to the spiritual world. Hence, the

spiritual world is the sphere of causation; the material world is the sphere of effects;

while the intellectual--or soul--world is the sphere of mediation. Thus Christ, the

personified higher intellect and soul nature, is called "the Mediator" who, by virtue of His

position and power, says: "No man cometh to the Father, but by me."

What the sun is to the solar system, the spirit is to the bodies of man; for his natures,

organs, and functions are as planets surrounding the central life (or sun) and living upon

its emanations. The solar power in man is divided into three parts, which are termed the

threefold human spirit of man. All three of these spiritual natures are said to be radiant

and transcendent; united, they form the Divinity in man. Man's threefold lower nature--

consisting of his physical organism, his emotional nature, and his mental faculties--

reflects the light of his threefold Divinity and bears witness of It in the physical world.

Man's three bodies are symbolized by an upright triangle; his threefold spiritual nature by

an inverted triangle. These two triangles, when united in the form of a six-pointed star,

were called by the Jews "the Star of David," "the Signet of Solomon," and are more

commonly known today as "the Star of Zion." These triangles symbolize the spiritual and

material universes linked together in the constitution of the human creature, who partakes

of both Nature and Divinity. Man's animal nature partakes of the earth; his divine nature

of the heavens; his human nature of the mediator.

THE CELESTIAL INHABITANTS OF THE SUN

The Rosicrucians and the Illuminati, describing the angels, archangels, and other celestial

creatures, declared that they resembled small suns, being centers of radiant energy

surrounded by streamers of Vrilic force. From these outpouring streamers of force is

derived the popular belief that angels have wings. These wings are corona-like fans of

light, by means of which the celestial creatures propel themselves through the subtle

essences of the superphysical worlds.

True mystics are unanimous in their denial of the theory that the angels and archangels

are human in form, as so often pictured. A human figure would be utterly useless in the

ethereal substances through which they manifest. Science has long debated the

probability of the other planers being inhabited. Objections to the idea are based upon the

argument that creatures with human organisms could nor possibly exist in the

environments of Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune. This argument fails to take into

account Nature's universal law of adjustment to environment. The ancients asserted that

life originated from the sun, and that everything when bathed in the light of the solar orb

was capable of absorbing the solar life elements and later radiating them as flora and

fauna. One philosophical

Click to enlarge

SURYA, THE REGENT OF THE SUN.

From Moor's Hindu Pantheon.

Moor describes this figure as follows: "The cast is nine inches in height, representing the glorious god of day-holding the attributes of VISHNU, seated on a seven-headed serpent; his car drawn by a seven-headed

horse, driven by the legless ARUN, a personification of the dawn, or AURORA." (See Moor's Hindu

Pantheon.)

p. 52

concept regarded the sun as a parent and the planers as embryos still connected to the

solar body by means of ethereal umbilical cords which served as channels to convey life

and nourishment to the planets.

Some secret orders have taught that the sun was inhabited by a race of creatures with

bodies composed of a radiant, spiritual ether not unlike in its constituency the actual

glowing ball of the sun itself. The solar heat had no harmful effect upon them, because

their organisms were sufficiently refined and sensitized to harmonize with the sun's

tremendous vibratory rate. These creatures resemble miniature suns, being a little larger

than a dinner plate in size, although some of the more powerful are considerably larger.

Their color is the golden white light of the sun, and from them emanate four streamers of

Vril. These streamers are often of great length and are in constant motion. A peculiar

palpitation is to be noted throughout the structure of the globe and is communicated in

the form of ripples to the emanating streamers. The greatest and most luminous of these

spheres is the Archangel Michael; and the entire order of solar life, which resemble him

and dwell upon the sun, are called by modern Christians "the archangels" or "the spirits

of the light.

THE SUN IN ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLOGY

Gold is the metal of the sun and has been considered by many as crystallized sunlight.

When gold is mentioned in alchemical tracts, it may be either the metal itself or the

celestial orb which is the source, or spirit, of gold. Sulphur because of its fiery nature was

also associated with the sun.

As gold was the symbol of spirit and the base metals represented man's lower nature,

certain alchemists were called "miners" and were pictured with picks and shovels digging

into the earth in search of the precious metal--those finer traits of character buried in the

earthiness of materiality and ignorance. The diamond concealed in the heart of the black

carbon illustrated the same principle. The Illuminati used a pearl hidden in the shell of an

oyster at the bottom of the sea to signify spiritual powers. Thus the seeker after truth

became a pearl-fisher: he descended into the sea of material illusion in search of

understanding, termed by the initiates "the Pearl of Great Price."

When the alchemists stated that every animate and inanimate thing in the universe

contained the seeds of gold, they meant that even the grains of sand possessed a spiritual

nature, for gold was the spirit of all things. Concerning these seeds of spiritual gold the

following Rosicrucian axiom is significant: "A seed is useless and impotent unless it is

put in its appropriate matrix." Franz Hartmann comments on this axiom with these

illuminating words: "A soul cannot develop and progress without an appropriate body,

because it is the physical body that furnishes the material for its development." (See In

the Pronaos of the Temple of Wisdom.)

The purpose of alchemy was not to make something out of nothing but rather to fertilize

and nurture the seed which was already present. Its processes did nor actually create gold

but rather made the ever-present seed of gold grow and flourish. Everything which exists

has a spirit--the seed of Divinity within itself--and regeneration is not the process of

attempting to place something where it previously had not existed. Regeneration actually

means the unfoldment of the omnipresent Divinity in man, that this Divinity may shine

forth as a sun and illumine all with whom it comes in contact.

THE MIDNIGHT SUN

Apuleius said when describing his initiation (vide ante): "At midnight I saw the sun

shining with a splendid light." The midnight sun was also part of the mystery of alchemy.

It symbolized the spirit in man shining through the darkness of his human organisms. It

also referred to the spiritual sun in the solar system, which the mystic could see as well at

midnight as at high noon, the material earth bring powerless to obstruct the rays of this

Divine orb. The mysterious lights which illuminated the temples of the Egyptian

Mysteries during the nocturnal hours were said by some to he reflections of the spiritual

sun gathered by the magical powers of the priests. The weird light seen ten miles below

the surface of the earth by I-AM-THE-MAN in that remarkable Masonic allegory

Etidorhpa (Aphrodite spelt backward) may well refer to the mysterious midnight sun of

the ancient rites.

Primitive conceptions concerning the warfare between the principles of Good and Evil

were often based upon the alternations of day and night. During the Middle Ages, the

practices of black magic were confined to the nocturnal hours; and those who served the

Spirit of Evil were called black magicians, while those who served the Spirit of Good

were called white magicians. Black and white were associated respectively with night

and day, and the endless conflict of light and shadow is alluded to many times in the

mythologies of various peoples.

The Egyptian Demon, Typhon, was symbolized as part crocodile and part: hog because

these animals are gross and earthy in both appearance and temperament. Since the world

began, living things have feared the darkness; those few creatures who use it as a shield

for their maneuvers were usually connected with the Spirit of Evil. Consequently cats,

bats, toads, and owls are associated with witchcraft. In certain parts of Europe it is still

believed that at night black magicians assume the bodies of wolves and roam around

destroying. From this notion originated the stories of the werewolves. Serpents, because

they lived in the earth, were associated with the Spirit of Darkness. As the battle between

Good and Evil centers around the use of the generative forces of Nature, winged serpents

represent the regeneration of the animal nature of man or those Great Ones in whom this

regeneration is complete. Among the Egyptians the sun's rays are often shown ending in

human hands. Masons will find a connection between these hands and the well-known

Paw of the Lion which raises all things to life with its grip.

SOLAR COLORS

The theory so long held of three primary and four secondary colors is purely exoteric, for

since the earliest periods it has been known that there are seven, and not three, primary

colors, the human eye being capable of estimating only three of them. Thus, although

green can be made by combining blue and yellow, there is also a true or primary green

which is not a compound. This can he proved by breaking up the spectrum with a prism.

Helmholtz found that the so-called secondary colors of the spectrum could not be broken

up into their supposed primary colors. Thus the orange of the spectrum, if passed through

a second prism, does not break up into red and yellow but remains orange.

Consciousness, intelligence, and force are fittingly symbolized by the colors blue, yellow,

and red. The therapeutic effects of the colors, moreover, are in harmony with this

concept, for blue is a fine, soothing, electrical color; yellow, a vitalizing and refining

color; and red, an agitating and heat-giving color. It has also been demonstrated that

minerals and plants affect the human constitution according to their colors. Thus a yellow

flower generally yields a medicine that affects the constitution in a manner similar to

yellow light or the musical tone mi. An orange flower will influence in a manner similar

to orange light and, being one of the so-called secondary colors, corresponds either to the

tone re or to the chord of do and mi.

The ancients conceived the spirit of man to correspond with the color blue, the mind with

yellow, and the body with red. Heaven is therefore blue, earth yellow, and hell--or the

underworld--red. The fiery condition of the inferno merely symbolizes the nature of the

sphere or plane of force of which it is composed. In the Greek Mysteries the irrational

sphere was always considered as red, for it represented that condition in which the

consciousness is enslaved by the lusts and passions of the lower nature. In India certain of

the gods--usually attributes of Vishnu--are depicted with blue skin to signify their divine

and supermundane constitution. According to esoteric philosophy, blue is the true and

sacred color of the sun. The apparent orange-yellow shade of this orb is the result of its

rays being immersed in the substances of the illusionary world.

In the original symbolism of the Christian Church, colors were of first importance and

their use was regulated according to carefully prepared rules. Since the Middle Ages,

however, the carelessness with which colors have been employed has resulted in the loss

of their deeper emblematic meanings. In its primary aspect, white or silver signified life,

purity, innocence, joy, and light; red, the suffering and death of Christ and His saints, and

also divine love, blood, and warfare or suffering; blue, the heavenly sphere and the states

of godliness and contemplation; yellow or gold, glory, fruitfulness, and goodness; green,

fecundity, youthfulness, and prosperity; violet, humility, deep affection, and sorrow;

black, death, destruction, and humiliation. In early church art the colors of robes and

ornaments also revealed whether a saint had been martyred, as well as the character of the

work that he had done to deserve canonization.

In addition to the colors of the spectrum there are a vast number of vibratory color waves,

some too low and others too high to be registered by the human optical apparatus. It is

appalling to contemplate man's colossal ignorance concerning these vistas of abstract

space. As in the past man explored unknown continents, so in the future, armed with

curious implements fashioned for the purpose, he will explore these little known

fastnesses of light, color, sound, and consciousness.

Click to enlarge

THE SOLAR FACE.

From Montfaucon's Antiquities.

The corona of the sun is here shown in the form of a lion's mane. This is a subtle reminder of the fact that at one time the summer solstice took place in the sign of Leo, the Celestial Lion.

p. 53

The Zodiac and Its Signs

IT is difficult for this age to estimate correctly the profound effect produced upon the

religions, philosophies, and sciences of antiquity by the study of the planets, luminaries,

and constellations. Not without adequate reason were the Magi of Persia called the Star

Gazers. The Egyptians were honored with a special appellation because of their

proficiency in computing the power and motion of the heavenly bodies and their effect

upon the destinies of nations and individuals. Ruins of primitive astronomical

observatories have been discovered in all parts of the world, although in many cases

modern archæologists are unaware of the true purpose for which these structures were

erected. While the telescope was unknown to ancient astronomers, they made many

remarkable calculations with instruments cut from blocks of granite or pounded from

sheets of brass and cop per. In India such instruments are still in use, and they posses a

high degree of accuracy. In Jaipur, Rajputana, India, an observatory consisting largely of

immense stone sundials is still in operation. The famous Chinese observatory on the wall

of Peking consists of immense bronze instruments, including a telescope in the form of a

hollow tube without lenses.

The pagans looked upon the stars as living things, capable of influencing the destinies of

individuals, nations, and races. That the early Jewish patriarchs believed that the celestial

bodies participated in the affairs of men is evident to any student of Biblical literature, as,

for example, in the Book of Judges: "They fought from heaven, even the stars in their

courses fought against Sisera." The Chaldeans, Phœnicians, Egyptians, Persians, Hindus,

and Chinese all had zodiacs that were much alike in general character, and different

authorities have credited each of these nations with being the cradle of astrology and

astronomy. The Central and North American Indians also had an understanding of the

zodiac, but the patterns and numbers of the signs differed in many details from those of

the Eastern Hemisphere.

The word zodiac is derived from the Greek ζωδιακός (zodiakos), which means "a circle

of animals," or, as some believe, "little animals." It is the name given by the old pagan

astronomers to a band of fixed stars about sixteen degrees wide, apparently encircling the

earth. Robert Hewitt Brown, 32°, states that the Greek word zodiakos comes from zo-on,

meaning "an animal." He adds: "This latter word is compounded directly from the

primitive Egyptian radicals, zo, life, and on, a being."

The Greeks, and later other peoples influenced by their culture, divided the band of the

zodiac into twelve sections, each being sixteen degrees in width and thirty degrees in

length. These divisions were called the Houses of the Zodiac. The sun during its annual

pilgrimage passed through each of these in turn, Imaginary creatures were traced in the

Star groups bounded by these rectangles; and because most of them were animal--or part

animal--in form, they later became known as the Constellations, or Signs, of the Zodiac.

There is a popular theory concerning the origin of the zodiacal creatures to the effect that

they were products of the imagination of shepherds, who, watching their flocks at night,

occupied their minds by tracing the forms of animals and birds in the heavens. This

theory is untenable, unless the "shepherds" be regarded as the shepherd priests of

antiquity. It is unlikely that the zodiacal signs were derived from the star groups which

they now represent. It is far more probable that the creatures assigned to the twelve

houses are symbolic of the qualities and intensity of the sun's power while it occupies

different parts of the zodiacal belt.

On this subject Richard Payne Knight writes: "The emblematical meaning, which certain

animals were employed to signify, was only some particular property generalized; and,

therefore, might easily be invented or discovered by the natural operation of the mind:

but the collections of stars, named after certain animals, have no resemblance whatever to

those animals; which are therefore merely signs of convention adopted to distinguish

certain portions of the heavens, which were probably consecrated to those particular

personified attributes, which they respectively represented." (The Symbolical Language

of Ancient Art and Mythology.)

Some authorities are of the opinion that the zodiac was originally divided into ten

(instead of twelve) houses, or "solar mansions." In early times there were two separate

standards--one solar and the other lunar--used for the measurement of the months, years,

and seasons. The solar year was composed of ten months of thirty-six days each, and five

days sacred to the gods. The lunar year consisted of thirteen months of twenty-eight days

each, with one day left over. The solar zodiac at that time consisted often houses of

thirty-six degrees each.

The first six signs of the zodiac of twelve signs were regarded as benevolent, because the

sun occupied them while traversing the Northern Hemisphere. The 6,000 years during

which, according to the Persians, Ahura-Mazda ruled His universe in harmony and peace,

were symbolic of these six signs. The second six were considered malevolent, because

while the sun was traveling the Southern Hemisphere it was winter with the Greeks,

Egyptians, and Persians. Therefore these six months symbolic of the 6,000 years of

misery and suffering caused by the evil genius of the Persians, Ahriman, who sought to

overthrow the power of Ahura-Mazda.

Those who hold the opinion that before its revision by the Greeks the zodiac consisted of

only ten signs adduce evidence to show that Libra (the Scales) was inserted into the

zodiac by dividing the constellation of Virgo Scorpio (at that time one sign) into two

parts, thus establishing "the balance" at the point of equilibrium between the ascending

northern and the descending southern signs. (See The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and

Mysteries, by Hargrave Jennings.) On this subject Isaac Myer states: "We think that the

Zodiacal constellations were first ten and represented an immense androgenic man or

deity; subsequently this was changed, resulting in Scorpio and Virgo and making eleven;

after this from Scorpio, Libra, the Balance, was taken, making the present twelve." (The

Qabbalah.)

Each year the sun passes entirely around the zodiac and returns to the point from which it

started--the vernal equinox--and each year it falls just a little short of making the

complete circle of the heavens in the allotted period of time. As a result, it crosses the

equator just a little behind the spot in the zodiacal sign where it crossed the previous year.

Each sign of the zodiac consists of thirty degrees, and as the sun loses about one degree

every seventy two years, it regresses through one entire constellation (or sign) in

approximately 2,160 years, and through the entire zodiac in about [paragraph continues]

Click to enlarge

CHART SHOWING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE HUMAN BODY AND THE EXTERIOR UNIVERSE.

From Kircher's Œdipus Ægyptiacus.

The ornamental border contains groups of names of animal, mineral, and vegetable substances, Their

relationship to corresponding parts of the human body is shown by the dotted lines. The words in capital

letters on the dotted lines indicate to what corporeal member, organ, or disease, the herb or other substance

is related. The favorable positions in relation to the time of year are shown by the signs of the zodiac, each

house of which is divided by crosses into its three decans. This influence is further emphasized by the

series of planetary signs placed on either side of the figure.

Click to enlarge

THE EQUINOXES AND SOLSTICES.

The plane of the zodiac intersects the celestial equator at an angle of approximately 23° 28'. The two points

of intersection (A and B) are called the equinoxes.

p. 54

25,920 years. (Authorities disagree concerning these figures.) This retrograde motion is

called the precession of the equinoxes. This means that in the course of about 25,920

years, which constitute one Great Solar or Platonic Year, each one of the twelve

constellations occupies a position at the vernal equinox for nearly 2,160 years, then gives

place to the previous sign.

Among the ancients the sun was always symbolized by the figure and nature of the

constellation through which it passed at the vernal equinox. For nearly the past 2,000

years the sun has crossed the equator at the vernal equinox in the constellation of Pisces

(the Two Fishes). For the 2,160 years before that it crossed through the constellation of

Aries (the Ram). Prior to that the vernal equinox was in the sign of Taurus (the Bull). It is

probable that the form of the bull and the bull's proclivities were assigned to this

constellation because the bull was used by the ancients to plow the fields, and the season

set aside for plowing and furrowing corresponded to the time at which the sun reached

the segment of the heavens named Taurus.

Albert Pike describes the reverence which the Persians felt for this sign and the method

of astrological symbolism in vogue among them, thus: "In Zoroaster's cave of initiation,

the Sun and Planets were represented, overhead, in gems and gold, as was also the

Zodiac. The Sun appeared, emerging from the back of Taurus. " In the constellation of

the Bull are also to be found the "Seven Sisters"--the sacred Pleiades--famous to

Freemasonry as the Seven Stars at the upper end of the Sacred Ladder.

In ancient Egypt it was during this period--when the vernal equinox was in the sign of

Taurus--that the Bull, Apis, was sacred to the Sun God, who was worshiped through the

animal equivalent of the celestial sign which he had impregnated with his presence at the

time of its crossing into the Northern Hemisphere. This is the meaning of an ancient

saying that the celestial Bull "broke the egg of the year with his horns."

Sampson Arnold Mackey, in his Mythological Astronomy of the Ancients Demonstrated,

makes note of two very interesting points concerning the bull in Egyptian symbolism.

Mr. Mackey is of the opinion that the motion of the earth that we know as the alternation

of the poles has resulted in a great change of relative position of the equator and the

zodiacal band. He believes that originally the band of the zodiac was at right angles to the

equator, with the sign of Cancer opposite the north pole and the sign of Capricorn

opposite the south pole. It is possible that the Orphic symbol of the serpent twisted

around the egg attempts to show the motion of the sun in relation to the earth under such

conditions. Mr. Mackey advances the Labyrinth of Crete, the name Abraxas, and the

magic formula, abracadabra, among other things, to substantiate his theory. Concerning

abracadabra he states:

"But the slow progressive disappearance of the Bull is most happily commemorated in

the vanishing series of letters so emphatically expressive of the great astronomical fact.

For ABRACADABRA is The Bull, the only Bull. The ancient sentence split into its

component parts stands thus: Ab'r-achad-ab'ra, i. e., Ab'r, the Bull; achad, the only, &c.--

Achad is one of the names of the Sun, given him in consequence of his Shining ALONE,-

-he is the ONLY Star to be seen when he is seen--the remaining ab'ra, makes the whole to

be, The Bull, the only Bull; while the repetition of the name omitting a letter, till all is

gone, is the most simple, yet the most satisfactory method that could have been devised

to preserve the memory of the fact; and the name of Sorapis, or Serapis, given to the Bull

at the above ceremony puts it beyond all doubt. * * * This word (Abracadabra)

disappears in eleven decreasing stages; as in the figure. And what is very remarkable, a

body with three heads is folded up by a Serpent with eleven Coils, and placed by Sorapis:

and the eleven Volves of the Serpent form a triangle similar to that formed by the

ELEVEN diminishing lines of the abracadabra."

Nearly every religion of the world shows traces of astrological influence. The Old

Testament of the Jews, its writings overshadowed by Egyptian culture, is a mass of

astrological and astronomical allegories. Nearly all the mythology of Greece and Rome

may be traced in star groups. Some writers are of the opinion that the original twenty-two

letters of the Hebrew alphabet were derived from groups of stars, and that the starry

handwriting on the wall of the heavens referred to words spelt out, with fixed stars for

consonants, and the planets, or luminaries, for vowels. These, coming into ever-different

combinations, spelt words which, when properly read, foretold future events.

As the zodiacal band marks the pathway of the sun through the constellations, it results in

the phenomena of the seasons. The ancient systems of measuring the year were based

upon the equinoxes and the solstices. The year always began with the vernal equinox,

celebrated March 21 with rejoicing to mark the moment when the sun crossed the equator

northward up the zodiacal arc. The summer solstice was celebrated when the sun reached

its most northerly position, and the day appointed was June 21. After that time the sun

began to descend toward the equator, which it recrossed southbound at the autumnal

equinox, September 21. The sun reached its most southerly position at the winter solstice,

December 21.

Four of the signs of the zodiac have been permanently dedicated to the equinoxes and the

solstices; and, while the signs no longer correspond with the ancient constellations to

which they were assigned, and from which they secured their names, they are accepted by

modern astronomers as a basis of calculation. The vernal equinox is therefore said to

occur in the constellation of Aries (the Ram). It is fitting that of all beasts a Ram should

be placed at the head of the heavenly flock forming the zodiacal band. Centuries before

the Christian Era, the pagans revered this constellation. Godfrey Higgins states: "This

constellation was called the 'Lamb of God.' He was also called the 'Savior,' and was said

to save mankind from their sins. He was always honored with the appellation of

'Dominus' or 'Lord.' He was called the 'Lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the

world.' The devotees addressing him in their litany, constantly repeated the words, 'O

Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world, have mercy upon us. Grant us Thy

peace."' Therefore, the Lamb of God is a title given to the sun, who is said to be reborn

every year in the Northern Hemisphere in the sign of the Ram, although, due to the

existing discrepancy between the signs of the zodiac and the actual star groups, it actually

rises in the sign of Pisces.

The summer solstice is regarded as occurring in Cancer (the Crab), which the Egyptians

called the scarab--a beetle of the family Lamellicornes, the head of the insect kingdom,

and sacred to the Egyptians as the symbol of Eternal Life. It is evident that the

constellation of the Crab is represented by this peculiar creature because the sun, after

passing through this house, proceeds to walk backwards, or descend the zodiacal arc.

Cancer is the symbol of generation, for it is the house of the Moon, the great Mother of

all things and the patroness of the life forces of Nature. Diana, the moon goddess of the

Greeks, is called the Mother of the World. Concerning the worship of the feminine or

maternal principle, Richard Payne Knight writes:

"By attracting or heaving the waters of the ocean, she naturally appeared to be the

sovereign of humidity; and by seeming to operate so powerfully upon the constitutions of

women, she equally appeared to be the patroness and regulatress of nutrition and passive

generation: whence she is said to have received her nymphs, or subordinate

personifications, from the ocean; and is often represented by the symbol of the sea crab,

an animal that has the property of spontaneously detaching from its own body any limb

that has been hurt or mutilated, and reproducing another in its place." (The Symbolical

Language of Ancient Art and Mythology.) This water sign, being symbolic of the

maternal principle of Nature, and recognized by the pagans as the origin of all life, was a

natural and consistent domicile of the moon.

The autumnal equinox apparently occurs in the constellation of Libra (the Balances). The

scales tipped and the solar globe began its pilgrimage toward the house of winter. The

constellation of the Scales was placed in the zodiac to symbolize the power of choice, by

means of which man may weigh one problem against another. Millions of years ago,

when the human race was in the making, man was like the angels, who knew neither

good nor evil. He fell into the state of the knowledge of good and evil when the gods

gave him the seed for the mental nature. From man's mental reactions to his environments

he distills the product of experience, which then aids him to regain his lost position plus

an individualized intelligence. Paracelsus said: "The body comes from the elements, the

soul from the stars, and the spirit from God. All that the intellect can conceive of comes

from the stars [the spirits of the stars, rather than the material constellations]."

The constellation of Capricorn, in which the winter solstice theoretically takes place, was

called The House of Death, for in winter all life in the Northern Hemisphere is at its

lowest ebb. Capricorn is a composite creature, with the head and upper body of a goat

and the tail of a fish. In this constellation the sun is least powerful

Click to enlarge

THE MICROCOSM.

From Schotus' Margarita Philosophica.

The pagans believed that the zodiac formed the body of the Grand Man of the Universe. This body, which

they called the Macrocosm (the Great World), was divided into twelve major parts, one of which was under

the control of the celestial powers reposing in each of the zodiacal constellations. Believing that the entire universal system was epitomized in man's body, which they called the Microcosm (the Little World), they

evolved that now familiar figure of "the cut-up man in the almanac" by allotting a sign of the zodiac to each of twelve major parts of the human body.

p. 55

in the Northern Hemisphere, and after passing through this constellation it immediately

begins to increase. Hence the Greeks said that Jupiter (a name of the Sun God) was

suckled by a goat. A new and different sidelight on zodiacal symbolism is supplied by

John Cole, in A Treatise on the Circular Zodiac of Tentyra, in Egypt: "The symbol

therefore of the Goat rising from the body of a fish [Capricorn], represents with the

greatest propriety the mountainous buildings of Babylon rising out of its low and marshy

situation; the two horns of the Goat being emblematical of the two towns, Nineveh and

Babylon, the former built on the Tigris, the latter on the Euphrates; but both subjected to

one sovereignty."

The period of 2,160 years required for the regression of the sun through one of the

zodiacal constellations is often termed an age. According to this system, the age secured

its name from the sign through which the sun passes year after year as it crosses the

equator at the vernal equinox. From this arrangement are derived the terms The Taurian

Age, The Aryan Age, The Piscean Age, and The Aquarian Age. During these periods, or

ages, religious worship takes the form of the appropriate celestial sign--that which the sun

is said to assume as a personality in the same manner that a spirit assumes a body. These

twelve signs are the jewels of his breastplate and his light shines forth from them, one

after the other.

From a consideration of this system, it is readily understood why certain religious

symbols were adopted during different ages of the earth's history; for during the 2,160

years the sun was in the constellation of Taurus, it is said that the Solar Deity assumed

the body of Apis, and the Bull became sacred to Osiris. (For details concerning the

astrological ages as related to Biblical symbolism, see The Message of the Stars by Max

and Augusta Foss Heindel.) During the Aryan Age the Lamb was held sacred and the

priests were called shepherds. Sheep and goats were sacrificed upon the altars, and a

scapegoat was appointed to bear the sins of Israel.

During the Age of Pisces, the Fish was the symbol of divinity and the Sun God fed the

multitude with two small fishes. The frontispiece of Inman's Ancient Faiths shows the

goddess Isis with a fish on her head; and the Indian Savior God, Christna, in one of his

incarnations was cast from the mouth of a fish.

Not only is Jesus often referred to as the Fisher of Men, but as John P. Lundy writes:

"The word Fish is an abbreviation of this whole title, Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior,

and Cross; or as St. Augustine expresses it, 'If you join together the initial letters of the

five Greek words, Ἰησοῦς Χριστος Θεου Υιὸσ Σωτήρ, which mean Jesus Christ, Son of

God, Savior, they will make ΙΧΘΥΣ, Fish, in which word Christ is mystically

understood, because He was able to live in the abyss of this mortality as in the depth of

waters, that is, without sin.'" (Monumental Christianity.) Many Christians observe Friday,

which is sacred to the Virgin (Venus), upon which day they shall eat fish and not meat.

The sign of the fish was one of the earliest symbols of Christianity; and when drawn upon

the sand, it informed one Christian that another of the same faith was near.

Aquarius is called the Sign of the Water Bearer, or the man with a jug of water on his

shoulder mentioned in the New Testament. This is sometimes shown as an angelic figure,

supposedly androgynous, either pouring water from an urn or carrying the vessel upon its

shoulder. Among Oriental peoples, a water vessel alone is often used. Edward Upham, in

his History and Doctrine of Budhism, describes Aquarius as being "in the shape of a pot

and of a color between blue and yellow; this Sign is the single house of Saturn."

When Herschel discovered the planet Uranus (sometimes called by the name of its

discoverer), the second half of the sign of Aquarius was allotted to this added member of

the planetary family. The water pouring from the urn of Aquarius under the name of "the

waters of eternal life" appears many times in symbolism. So it is with all the signs. Thus

the sun in its path controls whatever form of worship man offers to the Supreme Deity.

There are two distinct systems of astrological philosophy. One of them, the Ptolemaic, is

geocentric: the earth is considered the center of the solar system, around which the sun,

moon, and planets revolve. Astronomically, the geocentric system is incorrect; but for

thousands of years it has proved its accuracy when applied to the material nature of

earthly things. A careful consideration of the writings of the great occultists and a study

of their diagrams reveal the fact that many of them were acquainted with another method

of arranging the heavenly bodies.

The other system of astrological philosophy is called the heliocentric. This posits the sun

in the center of the solar system, where it naturally belongs, with the planets and their

moons revolving about it. The great difficulty, however, with the heliocentric system is

that, being comparatively new, there has not been sufficient time to experiment

successfully and catalogue the effects of its various aspects and relationships. Geocentric

astrology, as its name implies, is confined to the earthy side of nature, while heliocentric

astrology may be used to analyze the higher intellectual and spiritual faculties of man.

The important point to be remembered is that when the sun was said to be in a certain

sign of the zodiac, the ancients really meant that the sun occupied the opposite sign and

cast its long ray into the house in which they enthroned it. Therefore, when it is said that

the sun is in Taurus, it means (astronomically) that the sun is in the sign opposite to

Taurus, which is Scorpio. This resulted in two distinct schools of philosophy: one

geocentric and exoteric, the other heliocentric and esoteric. While the ignorant multitudes

worshiped the house of the sun's reflection, which in the case described would be the

Bull, the wise revered the house of the sun's actual dwelling, which would be the

Scorpion, or the Serpent, the symbol of the concealed spiritual mystery. This sign has

three different symbols. The most common is that of a Scorpion, who was called by the

ancients the backbiter, being the symbol of deceit and perversion; the second (and less

common) form of the sign is a Serpent, often used by the ancients to symbolize wisdom.

Probably the rarest form of Scorpio is that of an Eagle. The arrangement of the stars of

the constellation bears as much resemblance to a flying bird as to a scorpion. Scorpio,

being the sign of occult initiation, the flying eagle--the king of birds--represents the

highest and most spiritual type of Scorpio, in which it transcends the venomous insect of

the earth. As Scorpio and Taurus are opposite each other in the zodiac, their symbolism is

often closely intermingled. The Hon. E. M. Plunket, in Ancient Calendars and

Constellations, says: "The Scorpion (the constellation Scorpio of the Zodiac opposed to

Taurus) joins with Mithras in his attack upon the Bull, and always the genii of the spring

and autumn equinoxes are present in joyous and mournful attitudes."

The Egyptians, the Assyrians, and the Babylonians, who knew the sun as a Bull, called

the zodiac a series of furrows, through which the great celestial Ox dragged the plow of

the sun. Hence the populace offered up sacrifice and led through the streets magnificent

steers, bedecked with flowers and surrounded with priests, dancing girls of the temple,

and musicians. The philosophic elect did not participate in these idolatrous ceremonials,

but advocated them as most suitable for the types of mind composing the mass of the

population. These few possessed a far deeper understanding, as the Serpent of Scorpio

upon their foreheads--the Uræus--bore witness.

The sun is often symbolized with its rays in the form of a shaggy mane. Concerning the

Masonic significance of Leo, Robert Hewitt Brown, 32°, has written: "On the 21st of

June, when the sun arrives at the summer solstice, the constellation Leo--being but 30° in

advance of the sun--appears to be leading the way, and to aid by his powerful paw in

lifting the sun up to the summit of the zodiacal arch. * * * This visible connection

between the constellation Leo and the return of the sun to his place of power and glory, at

the summit of the Royal Arch of heaven, was the principal reason why that constellation

was held in such high esteem and reverence by the ancients. The astrologers

distinguished Leo as the 'sole house of the sun,' and taught that the world was created

when the sun was in that sign. 'The lion was adored in the East and the West by the

Egyptians and the Mexicans. The chief Druid of Britain was styled a lion.'" (Stellar

Theology and Masonic Astronomy.) When the Aquarian Age is thoroughly established,

the sun will be in Leo, as will be noted from the explanation previously given in this

chapter regarding the distinction between geocentric and heliocentric astrology. Then,

indeed, will the secret religions of the world include once more the raising to initiation by

the Grip of the Lion's Paw. (Lazarus will come forth.)

Click to enlarge

THE CIRCULAR ZODIAC OF TENTYRA.

From Cole's Treatise--the Circular Zodiac of Tentyra, in Egypt.

The oldest circular zodiac known is the one found at Tentyra, in Egypt, and now in the possession of the

French government. Mr. John Cole describes this remarkable zodiac as follows: "The diameter of the

medallion in which the constellations are sculptured, is four feet nine inches, French measure. It is

surrounded by another circle of much larger circumference, containing hieroglyphic characters; this second

circle is enclosed in a square, whose sides are seven feet nine inches long. * * * The asterisms, constituting the Zodiacal constellations mixed with others, are represented in a spiral. The extremities of this spiral,

after one revolution, are Leo and Cancer. Leo is no doubt at the head. It appears to be trampling on a

serpent, and its tail to be held by a woman. Immediately after the Lion comes the Virgin holding an ear of

corn, Further on, we perceive two scales of a balance, above which, in a medal lion, is the figure of

Harpocrates. Then follows the Scorpion and Sagittarius, to whom the Egyptians gave wings, and two faces.

After Sagittarius are successively placed, Capricornus, Aquarius, Pisces, the Ram, the Bull, and the Twins.

This Zodiacal procession is, as we have already observed, terminated by Cancer, the Crab."

p. 56

The antiquity of the zodiac is much in dispute. To contend that it originated but a mere

few thousand years before the Christian Era is a colossal mistake on the part of those who

have sought to compile data, concerning its origin. The zodiac necessarily must be

ancient enough to go backward to that period when its signs and symbols coincided

exactly with the positions of the constellations whose various creatures in their natural

functions exemplified the outstanding features of the sun's activity during each of the

twelve months. One author, after many years of deep study on the subject, believed man's

concept of the zodiac to be at least five million years old. In all probability it is one of the

many things for which the modem world is indebted to the Atlantean or the Lemurian

civilizations. About ten thousand years before the Christian Era there was a period of

many ages when knowledge of every kind was suppressed, tablets destroyed, monuments

torn down, and every vestige of available material concerning previous civilizations

completely obliterated. Only a few copper knives, some arrowheads, and crude carvings

on the walls of caves bear mute witness of those civilizations which preceded this age of

destruction. Here and there a few gigantic structures have remained which, like the

strange monoliths on Easter Island, are evidence of lost arts and sciences and lost races.

The human race is exceedingly old. Modern science counts its age in tens of thousands of

years; occultism, in tens of millions. There is an old saying that "Mother Earth has shaken

many civilizations from her back," and it is not beyond reason that the principles of

astrology and astronomy were evolved millions of years before the first white man

appeared.

The occultists of the ancient world had a most remarkable understanding of the principle

of evolution. They recognized all life as being in various stages of becoming. They

believed that grains of sand were in the process of becoming human in consciousness but

not necessarily in form; that human creatures were in the process of becoming planets;

that planets were in the process of becoming solar systems; and that solar systems were in

the process of becoming cosmic chains; and so on ad infinitum. One of the stages

between the solar system and the cosmic chain was called the zodiac; therefore they

taught that at a certain time a solar system breaks up into a zodiac. The house of the

zodiac become the thrones for twelve Celestial Hierarchies, or as certain of the ancients

state, ten Divine Orders. Pythagoras taught that 10, or the unit of the decimal system, was

the most perfect of all numbers, and he symbolized the number ten by the lesser tetractys,

an arrangement of ten dots in the form of an upright triangle.

The early star gazers, after dividing the zodiac into its houses, appointed the three

brightest scars in each constellation to be the joint rulers of that house. Then they divided

the house into three sections of ten degrees each, which they called decans. These, in

turn, were divided in half, resulting in the breaking up of the zodiac into seventy-two

duodecans of five degrees each. Over each of these duodecans the Hebrews placed a

celestial intelligence, or angel, and from this system, has resulted the Qabbalistic

arrangement of the seventy-two sacred names, which correspond to the seventy-two

flowers, knops, and almonds upon the seven-branched Candlestick of the Tabernacle, and

the seventy-two men who were chosen from the Twelve Tribes to represent Israel.

The only two signs not already mentioned are Gemini and Sagittarius. The constellation

of Gemini is generally represented as two small children, who, according to the ancients,

were born out of eggs, possibly the ones that the Bull broke with his horns. The stories

concerning Castor and Pollux, and Romulus and Remus, may be the result of amplifying

the myths of these celestial Twins. The symbols of Gemini have passed through many

modifications. The one used by the Arabians was the peacock. Two of the important stars

in the constellation of Gemini still bear the names of Castor and Pollux. The sign of

Gemini is supposed to have been the patron of phallic worship, and the two obelisks, or

pillars, in front of temples and churches convey the same symbolism as the Twins.

The sign of Sagittarius consists of what the ancient Greeks called a centaur--a composite

creature, the lower half of whose body was in the form of a horse, while the upper half

was human. The centaur is generally shown with a bow and arrow in his hands, aiming a

shaft far off into the stars. Hence Sagittarius stands for two distinct principles: first, it

represents the spiritual evolution of man, for the human form is rising from the body of

the beast; secondly, it is the symbol of aspiration and ambition, for as the centaur aims his

arrow at the stars, so every human creature aims at a higher mark than he can reach.

Albert Churchward, in The Signs and Symbols of Primordial Man, sums up the influence

of the zodiac upon religious symbolism in the following words: "The division here [is] in

twelve parts, the twelve signs of the Zodiac, twelve tribes of Israel, twelve gates of

heaven mentioned in Revelation, and twelve entrances or portals to be passed through in

the Great Pyramid, before finally reaching the highest degree, and twelve Apostles in the

Christian doctrines, and the twelve original and perfect points in Masonry."

The ancients believed that the theory of man's being made in the image of God was to be

understood literally. They maintained that the universe was a great organism not unlike

the human body, and that every phase and function of the Universal Body had a

correspondence in man. The most precious Key to Wisdom that the priests communicated

to the new initiates was what they termed the law of analogy. Therefore, to the ancients,

the study of the stars was a sacred science, for they saw in the movements of the celestial

bodies the ever-present activity of the Infinite Father.

The Pythagoreans were often undeservedly criticized for promulgating the so-called

doctrine of metempsychosis, or the transmigration of souls. This concept as circulated

among the uninitiated was merely a blind, however, to conceal a sacred truth. Greek

mystics believed that the spiritual nature of man descended into material existence from

the Milky Way--the seed ground of souls--through one of the twelve gates of the great

zodiacal band. The spiritual nature was therefore said to incarnate in the form of the

symbolic creature created by Magian star gazers to represent the various zodiacal

constellations. If the spirit incarnated through the sign of Aries, it was said to be born in

the body of a ram; if in Taurus, in the body of the celestial bull. All human beings were

thus symbolized by twelve mysterious creatures through the natures of which they were

able to incarnate into the material world. The theory of transmigration was not applicable

to the visible material body of man, but rather to the invisible immaterial spirit wandering

along the pathway of the stars and sequentially assuming in the course of evolution the

forms of the sacred zodiacal animals.

In the Third Book of the Mathesis of Julius Firmicus Maternus appears the following

extract concerning the positions of the heavenly bodies at the time of the establishment of

the inferior universe: "According to Æsculapius, therefore, and Anubius, to whom

especially the divinity Mercury committed the secrets of the astrological science, the

geniture of the world is as follows: They constituted the Sun in the 15th part of Leo, the

Moon in the 15th part of Cancer, Saturn in the 15th part of Capricorn, Jupiter in the 15th

part of Sagittary, Mars in the 15th part of Scorpio, Venus in the 15th part of Libra,

Mercury in the 15th part of Virgo, and the Horoscope in the 15th part of Cancer.

Conformably to this geniture, therefore, to these conditions of the stars, and the

testimonies which they adduce in confirmation of this geniture, they are of opinion that

the destinies of men, also, are disposed in accordance with the above arrangement, as

maybe learnt from that book of Æsculapius which is called Μυριογενεσις, (i.e. Ten

Thousand, or an innumerable multitude of Genitures) in order that nothing in the several

genitures of men may be found to be discordant with the above-mentioned geniture of the

world." The seven ages of man are under the control of the planets in the following order:

infancy, the moon; childhood, Mercury; adolescence, Venus; maturity, the sun; middle

age, Mars; advanced age, Jupiter; and decrepitude and dissolution, Saturn.

Click to enlarge

HIEROGLYPHIC PLAN, By HERMES, OF THE ANCIENT ZODIAC.

From Kircher's Œdipus Ægyptiacus.

The inner circle contains the hieroglyph of Hemphta, the triform and pantamorphic deity. In the six

concentric bands surrounding the inner circle are (from within outward): (1) the numbers of the zodiacal

houses in figures and also in words; (2) the modern names of the houses.(3) the Greek or the Egyptian

names of the Egyptian deities assigned to the houses; (4) the complete figures of these deities; (5) the

ancient or the modem zodiacal signs, sometimes both; (6) the number of decans or subdivisions of the

houses.

p. 57

Click to enlarge

THE BEMBINE TABLE OF ISIS.

Concerning the theurgic or magic sense in which the Egyptian priests exhibited in the Bembine Table of

Isis the philosophy of sacrifice, rites, and ceremonies by a system of occult symbols, Athanasius Kircher

writes:

"The early priests believed that a great spiritual power was invoked by correct and unabridged sacrificial ceremonies. If one feature were lacking, the whole was vitiated, says Iamblichus. Hence they were most

careful in all details, for they considered it absolutely essential for the entire chain of logical connections to be exactly according to ritual. Certainly for no other reason did they prepare and prescribe for future use the manuals, as it were, for conducting the rites. They learned, too, what the first hieromancers--possessed, as it were, by a divine fury--devised as a system of symbolism for exhibiting their mysteries. These they placed

in this Tablet of Isis, before the eyes of those admitted to the sanctum sanctorum in order to teach the

nature of the Gods and the prescribed forms of sacrifice. Since each of the orders of Gods had its own

peculiar symbols, gestures, costumes, and ornaments, they thought it necessary to observe these in the

whole apparatus of worship, as nothing was more efficacious in drawing the benign attention of the deities

and genii. * * * Thus their temples, remote from the usual haunts of men, contained representations of

nearly every form in nature. First, in the pavement, they symbolized the physical economy of the world,

using minerals, stones and other things suitable for ornaments, including little streams of water. The walls showed the starry world, and the done the world of genii. In the center was the altar, to suggest the

emanations of the Supreme Mind from its center. Thus the entire interior constituted a picture of the

Universe of Worlds. The priests in making sacrifices wore raiment adorned with figures similar to those

attributed to the Gods. Their bodies were partially bare like those of the deities, and they themselves were

divested of all material cares and practices the strictest chastity. * * * Their heads were veiled to indicate their charge of earthly things. Their heads and bodies were shaved, for they regarded hair as a useless

excrescence. Upon the head they bore the same insignia as those attributed to the Gods. Thus arrayed, they

regarded themselves to be transformed into that intelligence with which they constantly desired to be

identified. For example, in order to call down to the world the soul and spirit of the Universe, they stood

before the image shown in the center of our Tablet, wearing the same symbols as that figure and its

attendants, and offered sacrifices. By these and the accompanying singing of hymns they believed that they

infallibly drew the God's attention to their prayer. And so they did in regard to other regions of the Tablet, believing of necessity the proper ritual properly carried out would evoke the deity desired. That this was the origin of the science of oracles is apparent. As a touched chord produces a harmony of sound, likewise the

adjoining chords respond though not touched. Similarly the idea they expressed by their concurrent acts

while adoring the God came into accord with basic Idea and, by an intellectual union, it was returned to

them deiformed, and they thus obtained the Idea of Ideas. Hence there sprang up in their souls, they

thought, the gift of prophecy and divination, and they believed they could foretell future events, impending

evils, etc. For as in the Supreme Mind everything is simultaneous and spaceless, the future is therefore

present in that Mind; and they thought that while the human mind was absorbed in the Supreme by

contemplation, by that union they were enabled to know all the future. Nearly all that is represented in our

Tablet consists of amulets which, by analogy above described, would inspire them, under the described

conditions, with the virtues of the Supreme Power and enable them to receive good and avert evil. They

also believed they could in this magical manner effect cures of diseases; that genii could be induced to

appear to them during sleep and cure or teach them to cure the sick. In this belief they consulted the Gods

about all sort of doubts and difficulties, while adorned with the simulacra of the mystic rite and intently

contemplating the Divine Ideas; and while so enraptured they believed the God by some sign, nod or

gesture communicated with them, whether asleep or awake, concerning the truth or falsity of the matter in

point." (See Œdipus Ægyptiacus.)

The Bembine Table of Isis

A MANUSCRIPT by Thomas Taylor contains the following remarkable paragraph:

"Plato was initiated into the 'Greater Mysteries' at the age of 49. The initiation took place

in one of the subterranean halls of the Great Pyramid in Egypt. The ISIAC TABLE

formed the altar, before which the Divine Plato stood and received that which was always

his, but which the ceremony of the Mysteries enkindled and brought from its dormant

state. With this ascent, after three days in the Great Hall, he was received by the

Hierophant of the Pyramid (the Hierophant was seen only by those who had passed the

three days, the three degrees, the three dimensions) and given verbally the Highest

Esoteric Teachings, each accompanied with Its appropriate Symbol. After a further three

months' sojourn in the halls of the Pyramid, the Initiate Plato was sent out into the world

to do the work of the Great Order, as Pythagoras and Orpheus had been before him."

Before the sacking of Rome in 1527 there is no historical mention of the Mensa Isiaca,

(Tablet of Isis). At that time the Tablet came into the possession of a certain locksmith or

ironworker, who sold it at an exorbitant price to Cardinal Bembo, a celebrated antiquary,

historiographer of the Republic of Venice, and afterwards librarian of St. Mark's. After

his death in 1547 the Isiac Tablet was acquired by the House of Mantua, in whose

museum it remained until 1630, when troops of Ferdinand II captured the city of Mantua.

Several early writers on the subject have assumed that the Tablet was demolished by the

ignorant soldiery for the silver it contained. The assumption, however, was erroneous.

The Tablet fell into the hands of Cardinal Pava, who presented it to the Duke of Savoy,

who in turn presented it to the King of Sardinia. When the French conquered Italy in

1797 the Tablet was carried to Paris. In 1809, Alexandre Lenoir, writing of the Mensa

Isiaca, said it was on exhibition at the Bibliothèque Nationale. Upon the establishment of

peace between the two countries it was returned to Italy. In his Guide to Northern Italy,

Karl Baedeker describes the Mensa Isiaca as being in the center of Gallery 2 in the

Museum of Antiquities at Turin.

A faithful reproduction of the original Tablet was made in 1559 by the celebrated Æneas

Vicus of Parma, and a copy of the engraving was given by the Chancellor of the Duke of

Bavaria to the Museum of Hieroglyphics. Athanasius Kircher describes the Tablet as

"five palms long and four wide." W. Wynn Westcott says it measures 50 by 30 inches. It

was made of bronze and decorated with encaustic or smalt enamel and silver inlay.

Fosbroke adds: "The figures are cut very shallow, and the contour of most of them is

encircled by threads of silver. The bases upon which the figures were seated or reclined,

and left blank in the prints, were of silver and are torn away." (See Encyclopædia of

Antiquities.)

Those familiar with the fundamental principles of Hermetic philosophy will recognize in

the Mensa Isiaca the key to Chaldean, Egyptian, and Greek theology. In his Antiquities,

the learned Benedictine, Father Montfaucon, admits his inability to cope with the

intricacies of its symbolism. He therefore doubts that the emblems upon the Tablet

possess any significance worthy of consideration and ridicules Kircher, declaring him to

be more obscure than the Tablet itself. Laurentius Pignorius reproduced the Tablet in

connection with a descriptive essay in 1605, but his timidly advanced explanations

demonstrated his ignorance concerning the actual interpretation of the figures.

In his Œdipus Ægyptiacus, published in 1654, Kircher attacked the problem with

characteristic avidity. Being peculiarly qualified for such a task by years of research in

matters pertaining to the secret doctrines of antiquity, and with the assistance of a group

of eminent scholars, Kircher accomplished much towards an exposition of the mysteries

of the Tablet. The master secret, however, eluded even him, as Eliphas Levi has shrewdly

noted in his History of Magic.

"The learned Jesuit, " writes Levi, "divined that it contained the hieroglyphic key to

sacred alphabets, though he was unable to develop the explanation. It is divided into three

equal compartments; above are the twelve houses of heaven and below are the

corresponding distributions of labor [work periods] throughout the year, while in the

middle place are twenty-one sacred signs answering to the letters of the alphabet. In the

midst of all is a seated figure of the pantomorphic IYNX, emblem of universal being and

corresponding as such to the Hebrew Yod, or to that unique letter from which all the other

letters were formed. The IYNX is encircled by the Ophite triad, answering to the Three

Mother Letters of the Egyptian and Hebrew alphabets. On the right are the Ibimorphic

and Serapian triads; on the left are those of Nepthys and Hecate, representing active and

passive, fixed and volatile, fructifying fire and generating water. Each pair of triads in

conjunction with the center produces a septenary, and a septenary is contained in the

center. The three septenaries furnish the absolute number of the three worlds, as well as

the complete number of primitive letters, to which a complementary sign is added, like

zero to the nine numerals."

Levi's hint may be construed to mean that the twenty-one figures in the center section of

the Table represent the twenty-one major trumps of the Tarot cards. If this be so, is not

the zero card, cause of so much controversy, the nameless crown of the Supreme Mind,

the crown being symbolized by the hidden triad in the upper part of the throne in the

center of the Table? Might not the first emanation of this Supreme Mind be well

symbolized by a juggler or magician with the symbols of the four lower worlds spread

out on a table before him: the rod, the sword, the cup, and the coin? Thus considered, the

zero card belongs nowhere among the others but is in fact the fourth dimensional point

from which they all emanated and consequently is broken up into the twenty-one cards

(letters) which, when gathered together, produce the zero. The cipher appearing upon this

card would substantiate this interpretation, for the cipher, or circle, is emblematic of the

superior sphere from which issue the lower worlds, powers, and letters.

Westcott carefully collected the all too meager theories advanced by various authorities

and in 1887 published his now extremely rare volume, which contains the only detailed

description of the Isiac Tablet published in English since Humphreys translated

Montfaucon's worthless description in 1721. After explaining his reticence to reveal that

which Levi evidently felt was better left concealed, Westcott sums up his interpretation of

the Tablet as follows:

"The diagram of Levi, by which he explains the mystery of the Tablet, shows the Upper

Region divided into the four seasons of the year, each with three signs of the Zodiac, and

he has added the four-lettered sacred name, the Tetragrammaton, assigning Jod to

Aquarius, that is Canopus, He to Taurus, that is Apis, Vau to Leo, that is Momphta, and

He final to Typhon. Note the Cherubic parallel--Man, Bull, Lion and Eagle. The fourth

form is found either as Scorpion or Eagle depending upon the Occult good or evil

intention: in the Demotic Zodiac, the Snake replaces the Scorpion.

"The Lower Region he ascribes to the twelve simple Hebrew letters, associating them

with the four quarters of the horizon. Compare the Sepher Yerzirah, Cap. v., sec. 1.

"The Central Region he ascribes to the Solar powers and the

Click to enlarge

LEVI'S KEY TO THE BEMBINE TABLE.

From Levi's History of Magic.

"The Isiac Tablet, writes Levi, is a Key to the Ancient Book of Thoth, which has survived to some extent

the lapse of centuries and is pictured to us in the still comparatively ancient set of Tarocchi Cards. To him

the Book of Thoth was a résumé of the esoteric learning of the Egyptians, after the decadence of their

civilization, this lore became crystallized in a hieroglyphic form as the Tarot; this Tarot having become

partially or entirely forgotten or misunderstood, its pictured symbols fell into the hands of the sham

diviners, and of the providers of the public amusement by games of Cards. The modem Tarot, or Tarocchi

pack of cards consists of 78 cards, of which 22 form a special group of trumps, of pictorial design: the

remaining 56 are composed of four suits of 10 numerals and four court cards, King, Queen, Knight, and

Knave or Valet; the suits are Swords (Militaryism), Cups (Sacerdocy), Clubs or Wands (Agriculture), and

Shekels or Coins (Commerce), answering respectively to our Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds. Our

purpose is with the 22 trumps, these form the special characteristic of the Pack and are the lineal

descendants of the Hieroglyphics of the Tarot. These 22 respond to the letters of the Hebrew and other

sacred alphabets, which fall naturally into three classes of a Trio of Mothers, a Heptad of doubles, and a

duodecad of simple letters. They are also considered as a triad of Heptads and one apart, a system of

Initiation and an Uninitiate." (See Westcott's The Isiac Tablet.)

p. 58

[paragraph continues] Planetary. In the middle we see above, the Sun, marked Ops, and below it

is a Solomon's Seal, above a cross; a double triangle Hexapla, one light and one dark

triangle superposed, the whole forming a sort of complex symbol of Venus. To the

Ibimorphos he gives the three dark planets, Venus, Mercury, and Mars placed around a

dark triangle erect, denoting Fire. To the Nephthæan triad he gives three light planets,

Saturn, Luna, and Jupiter, around a light inverted triangle which denotes Water. There is

a necessary connection between water, female power, passive principle, Binah, and

Sephirotic Mother, and Bride. (See the Kabbalah by Mathers.) Note the ancient signs for

the planets were all composed of a Cross, Solar Disc and Crescent: Venus is a cross

below a Sun disc, Mercury, a disc With a crescent above and cross below, Saturn is a

Cross whose lowest point touches the apex of the crescent; Jupiter is a Crescent whose

lowest point touches the left hand end of a cross: all these are deep mysteries. Note that

Levi in his original plate transposed Serapis and Hecate, but not the Apis noir and Apis

blanc, perhaps because of the head of Bes being associated by him with Hecate. Note that

having referred the 12 simple letters to the lower, the 7 double must correspond to the

central region of the planets, and then the great triad A.M.S. the mother letters

representing Air, Water, and Fire remain to be pictured, around S the Central Iynx, or

Yod, by the Ophionian Triad the two Serpents and the Leonine Sphynx. Levi's word OPS

in the centre is the Latin Ops, Terra, genius of the Earth; and the Greek Ops, Rhea, or

Kubele (Cybele) often drawn as a goddess seated in a chariot drawn by lions; she is

crowned with turrets, and holds a Key." (See The Isiac Tablet.)

The essay published in French by Alexandre Lenoir in 1809, while curious and original,

contains little real information on the Tablet, which the author seeks to prove was an

Egyptian calendar or astrological chart. As both Montfaucon and Lenoir--in fact all

writers on the subject since 1651--either have based their work upon that of Kircher or

have been influenced considerably by him, a careful translation has been made of the

latter's original article (eighty pages of seventeenth century Latin). The double-page plate

at the beginning of this chapter is a faithful reproduction made by Kircher from the

engraving in the Museum of Hieroglyphics. The small letters and numbers used to

designate the figures were added by him to clarify his commentary and will be used for

the same purpose in this work.

Like nearly all religious and philosophical antiquities, the Bembine Table of Isis has been

the subject of much controversy. In a footnote, A. E. Waite--unable to differentiate

between the true and the purported nature or origin of the Tablet--echoes the sentiments

of J.G. Wilkinson, another eminent exotericus: "The original [Table] is exceedingly late

and is roughly termed a forgery." On the other hand, Eduard Winkelmann, a man of

profound learning, defends the genuineness and antiquity of the Tablet. A sincere

consideration of the Mensa Isiaca discloses one fact of paramount importance: that

although whoever fashioned the Table was not necessarily an Egyptian, he was an initiate

of the highest order, conversant with the most arcane tenets of Hermetic esotericism.

SYMBOLISM OF THE BEMBINE TABLE

The following necessarily brief elucidation of the Bembine Table is based upon a digest

of the writings of Kircher supplemented by other information gleaned by the present

author from the mystical writings of the Chaldeans, Hebrews, Egyptians, and Greeks. The

temples of the Egyptians were so designed that the arrangement of chambers,

decorations, and utensils was all of symbolic significance, as shown by the hieroglyphics

that covered them. Beside the altar, which usually was in the center of each room, was

the cistern of Nile water which flowed in and out through unseen pipes. Here also were

images of the gods in concatenated series, accompanied by magical inscriptions. In these

temples, by use of symbols and hieroglyphics, neophytes were instructed in the secrets of

the sacerdotal caste.

The Tablet of Isis was originally a table or altar, and its emblems were part of the

mysteries explained by priests. Tables were dedicated to the various gods and goddesses;

in this case Isis was so honored. The substances from which the tables were made

differed according to the relative dignities of the deities. The tables consecrated to Jupiter

and Apollo were of gold; those to Diana, Venus, and Juno were of silver; those to the

other superior gods, of marble; those to the lesser divinities, of wood. Tables were also

made of metals corresponding to the planets governed by the various celestials. As food

for the body is spread on a banquet table, so on these sacred altars were spread the

symbols which, when understood, feed the invisible nature of man.

In his introduction to the Table, Kircher summarizes its symbolism thus: "It teaches, in

the first place, the whole constitution of the threefold world--archetypal, intellectual, and

sensible. The Supreme Divinity is shown moving from the center to the circumference of

a universe made up of both sensible and inanimate things, all of which are animated and

agitated by the one supreme power which they call the Father Mind and represented by a

threefold symbol. Here also are shown three triads from the Supreme One, each

manifesting one attribute of the first Trimurti. These triads are called the Foundation, or

the base of all things. In the Table is also set forth the arrangement and distribution of

those divine creatures that aid the Father Mind in the control of the universe. Here [in the

upper panel] are to be seen the Governors of the worlds, each with its fiery, ethereal, and

material insignia. Here also [in the lower panel] are the Fathers of Fountains, whose duty

it is to care for and preserve the principles of all things and sustain the inviolable laws of

Nature. Here are the gods of the spheres and also those who wander from place to place,

laboring with all substances and forms (Zonia and Azonia), grouped together as figures of

both sexes, with their faces turned to their superior deity."

The Mensa Isiaca, which is divided horizontally into three chambers or panels, may

represent the ground plan of the chambers in which the Isiac Mysteries were given. The

center panel is divided into seven parts or lesser rooms, and the lower has two gates, one

at each end. The entire Table contains forty-five figures of first importance and a number

of lesser symbols. The forty-five main figures are grouped into fifteen triads, of which

four are in the upper panel, seven in the central, and four in the lower. According to both

Kircher and Levi, the triads are divided in the following manner:

In the upper section

1. P, S, V--Mendesian Triad.

2. X, Z, A--Ammonian Triad.

3. B, C, D--Momphtæan Triad.

4. F, G, H-Omphtæan Triad.

In the center section

1. G, I, K--Isiac Triad.

2. L, M, N--Hecatine Triad.

3. O, Q, R--Ibimorphous Triad.

4. V, S, W--Ophionic Triad.

5. X, Y, Z--Nephtæan Triad.

6. ζ, η, θ--Serapæan Triad.

7. γ, δ (not shown), ε--Osirian Triad.

In the lower section

1. λ, Μ, Ν--Horæan Triad.

2. ξ, Ο, Σ--Pandochæan Triad.

3. Τ, Φ, Χ--Thaustic Triad.

4. Ψ, F, Η--Æluristic Triad.

Of these fifteen triads Kircher writes: "The figures differ from each other in eight highly

important respects, i. e., according to form, position, gesture, act, raiment, headdress,

staff, and, lastly, according to the hieroglyphics placed around them, whether these be

flowers, shrubs, small letters or animals." These eight symbolic methods of portraying the

secret powers of the figures are subtle reminders of the eight spiritual senses of cognition

by means of which the Real Self in man may be comprehended. To express this spiritual

truth the Buddhists used the wheel with eight spokes and raised their consciousness by

means of the noble eightfold path. The ornamented border enclosing the three main

panels of the Table contains many symbols consisting of birds, animals, reptiles, human

beings, and composite forms. According to one reading of the Table, this border

represents the four elements; the creatures are elemental beings. According to another

interpretation, the border represents the archetypal spheres, and in its frieze of composite

figures are the patterns of those forms which in various combinations will subsequently

manifest themselves in the material world. The four flowers at the corners of the Table

are those which, because their blossoms always face the sun and follow its course across

the sky, are sacred emblems of that finer part of man's nature which delights in facing its

Creator.

According to the secret doctrine of the Chaldeans, the universe is divided into four states

of being (planes or spheres): archetypal, intellectual, sidereal, and elemental. Each of

these reveals the others; the superior controlling the inferior, and the inferior receiving

influence from the superior. The archetypal plane was considered synonymous with the

intellect of the Triune Divinity. Within this divine, incorporeal, and eternal sphere are

included all the lower manifestations of life-all that is, has been, or ever shall be. Within

the Kosmic Intellect all things spiritual or material exist as archetypes, or divine thought-

forms, which is shown in the Table by a chain of secret similes.

In the middle region of the Table appears the all-form-containing personified Spiritual

Essence--the source and substance of all things. From this proceed the lower worlds as

nine emanations in groups of three (the Ophionic, Ibimorphous, and Nephtæan Triads).

Consider in this connection the analogy of the Qabbalistic Sephiroth, or the nine spheres

issuing from Kether, the Crown. The twelve Governors of the Universe (the Mendesian,

Ammonian, Momphtæan, and Omphtæan Triads)--vehicles for the distribution of the

creative influences, and shown in the upper region of the Table-are directed in their

activities by the Divine Mind patterns existing in the archetypal sphere, The archetypes

are abstract patterns formulated in the Divine Mind and by them all the inferior activities

are controlled.

p. 59

[paragraph continues] In the lower region of the Table are the Father Fountains (the Horæan,

Pandochæan, Thaustic, and Æluristic Triads), keepers of the great gates of the universe.

These distribute to the lower worlds the influences descending from the Governors shown

above.

In the theology of the Egyptians, goodness takes precedence and all things partake of its

nature to a higher or lower degree. Goodness is sought by all. It is the Prime Cause of

causes. Goodness is self-diffused and hence exists in all things, for nothing can produce

that which it does not have in itself. The Table demonstrates that all is in God and God is

in all; that all is in all and each is in each. In the intellectual world are invisible spiritual

counterparts of the creatures which inhabit the elemental world. Therefore, the lowest

exhibits the highest, the corporeal declares the intellectual, and the invisible i,. made

manifest by its works. For this reason the Egyptians made images of substances existing

in the inferior sensible world to serve as visible exemplars of superior and invisible

powers. To the corruptible images they assigned the virtues of the incorruptible divinities,

thus demonstrating arcanely that this world is but the shadow of God, the outward picture

of the paradise within. All that is in the invisible archetypal sphere is revealed in the

sensible corporeal world by the light of Nature.

The Archetypal and Creative Mind--first through its Paternal Foundation and afterwards

through secondary Gods called Intelligences--poured our the whole infinity of its powers

by continuous exchange from highest to lowest. In their phallic symbolism the Egyptians

used the sperm to represent the spiritual spheres, because each contains all that comes

forth from it. The Chaldeans and Egyptians also held that everything which is a result

dwells in the cause of itself and turns to that cause as the lotus to the sun. Accordingly,

the Supreme Intellect, through its Paternal Foundation, first created light--the angelic

world. Out of that light were then created the invisible hierarchies of beings which some

call the stars; and out of the stars the four elements and the sensible world were formed.

Thus all are in all, after their respective kinds. All visible bodies or elements are in the

invisible stars or spiritual elements, and the stars are likewise in those bodies; the stars

are in the angels and the angels in the stars; the angels are in God and God is in all.

Therefore, all are divinely in the Divine, angelically in the angels, and corporeally in the

corporeal world, and vice versa. just as the seed is the tree folded up, so the world is God

unfolded.

Proclus says: "Every property of divinity permeates all creation and gives itself to all

inferior creatures. "One of the manifestations of the Supreme Mind is the power of

reproduction according to species which it confers upon every creature of which it is the

divine part. Thus souls, heavens, elements, animals, plants, and stones generate

themselves each according to its pattern, but all are dependent upon the one fertilizing

principle existing in the Supreme Mind. The fecundative power, though of itself a unit,

manifests differently through the various substances, for in the mineral it contributes to

material existence, in the plant it manifests as vitality, and in the animal as sensibility. It

imparts motion to the heavenly bodies, thought to the souls of men, intellectuality to the

angels, and superessentiality to God. Thus it is seen that all forms are of one substance

and all life of one force, and these are co-existent in the nature of the Supreme One.

This doctrine was first expounded by Plato. His disciple, Aristotle, set it forth in these

words: "We say that this Sensible World is an image of another; therefore since this

world is vivid or alive, how much more, then, that other must live. * * * Yonder,

therefore, above the stellar virtues, stand other heavens to be attained, like the heavens of

this world; beyond them, because they are of a higher kind, brighter and vaster; nor are

they distant from each Other like this one, for they are incorporeal. Yonder, too, exists an

earth, not of inanimate matter, but vivid with animal life and all natural terrestrial

phenomena like this one, but of other kinds and perfections. There are plants, also, and

gardens, and flowing water; there are aquatic animals but of nobler species. Yonder is air

and life appropriate to it, all immortal. And although the life there is analogous to ours,

yet it is nobler, seeing that it is intellectual, perpetual and unalterable. For if anyone

should object and ask, How in the world above do the plants, etc. above mentioned find

footing, we should answer that they do not have objective existence, for they were

produced by the primal Author in an absolute condition and without exteriorization. They

are, therefore, in the same case as intellect and soul; they suffer no defect such as waste

and corruption, since the beings yonder are full of energy, strength and joy, as living in a

life sublime and being the issue of one fount and of one quality, compounded of all like

sweet savors, delicate perfumes, harmonious color and sound, and other perfections. Nor

do they move violently about nor intermix nor corrupt each other, but each perfectly

preserves its own essential character; and they are simple and do not multiply as

corporeal beings do."

In the midst of the Table is a great covered throne with a seated female figure

representing Isis, but here called the Pantomorphic IYNX. G. R. S. Mead defines the

IYNX as "a transmitting intelligence." Others have declared it to be a symbol of

Universal Being. Over the head of the goddess the throne is surmounted by a triple

crown, and beneath her feet is the house of material substance. The threefold crown is

here symbolic of the Triune Divinity, called by the Egyptians the Supreme Mind, and

described in the Sepher ha Zohar as being "hidden and unrevealed." According to the

Hebrew system of Qabbalism, the Tree of the Sephiroth was divided into two parts, the

upper invisible and the lower visible. The upper consisted of three parts and the lower of

seven. The three uncognizable Sephiroth were called Kether, the Crown; Chochmah,

Wisdom; and Binah, Understanding. These are too abstract to permit of comprehension,

whereas the lower seven spheres that came forth from them were within the grasp of

human consciousness. The central panel contains seven triads of figures. These represent

the lower Sephiroth, all emanating from the concealed threefold crown over the throne.

Kircher writes: "The throne denotes the diffusion of the triform Supreme Mind along the

universal paths of the three worlds. Out of these three intangible spheres emerges the

sensible universe, which Plutarch calls the 'House of Horns' and the Egyptians, the 'Great

Gate of the Gods.' The top of the throne is in the midst of diffused serpent-shaped flames,

indicating that the Supreme Mind is filled with light and life, eternal and incorruptible,

removed from all material contact. How the Supreme Mind communicated His fire to all

creatures is clearly set forth in the symbolism of the Table. The Divine Fire is

communicated c to lower spheres through the universal power of Nature personified by

the World Virgin, Isis, here denominated the IYNX, or the polymorphous all-containing

Universal Idea." The word Idea is here used in its Platonic sense. "Plato believed that

there are eternal forms of all possible things which exist without matter; and to these

eternal and immaterial forms he gave the name of ideas. In the Platonic sense, ideas were

the patterns according to which the Deity fashioned the phenomenal or ectypal world."

(Sir W. Hamilton.)

Kircher describes the 21 figures in the central panel thus: "Seven principal triads,

corresponding to seven superior worlds, are shown in the central section of the Table.

They all originate from the fiery, invisible archetype [the triple crown of the throne]. The

first, the Ophionic or IYNX Triad, V S W, corresponds to the vital and fiery world and is

the first intellectual world, called by the ancients the Aetherium. Zoroaster says of it: 'Oh,

what rigorous rulers this world has!' The second, or Ibimorphous Triad, O Q R,

corresponds to the second intellectual, or ethereal, world, and is concerned with the

principle of humidity. The third, or Nephtæan Triad, X Y Z, corresponds to the third

intellectual and ethereal [world] and is concerned with fecundity. These are the three

triads of the ethereal worlds, which correspond to the Father Foundation. Then follow the

four triads of the sensible, or material, worlds, of which the first two correspond to the

sidereal worlds, G I K and γ δ ε, namely, Osiris and Isis, Sun and Moon, indicated by two

bulls. They are followed by two triads--the Hecatine, LM N, and the Serapæan, ζ η θ,

corresponding to the sublunary and subterranean worlds. These complete the seven

worlds of primary Genii ruling the natural universe. Psellus quotes Zoroaster: 'The

Egyptians and the Chaldeans, taught that there were seven corporeal worlds (i. e., worlds

ruled by the intellectual powers);the first is of pure fire; the second, third, and fourth,

ethereal; the fifth, sixth, and seventh, material; the seventh being the one called terrestrial

and hater of light, and is located under the Moon, comprising

Click to enlarge

WESTCOTT'S KEY TO THE BEMBINE TABLE.

From Westcott's The Isiac Tablet.

Zoroaster declared that the number three shines throughout the world. This is revealed in the Bembine,

Table by a series of triads representing the creative impulses. Of the Isiac Table Alexandre Lenoir writes:

"The Isiac Table, as a work of art, is not of great interest. it is but a composition, rather cold and

insignificant, whose figures, summarily sketched and methodically placed near each other, give but little

impression of life. But, if on the contrary after examining it, we understand the purpose of the author, we

become soon convinced that the Isiac Table is an image of the heavenly sphere divided in small parts to be

used very like, for general teaching. According to that idea, we can conclude that the Isiac Table was

originally the introduction to a collection followed by the Mysteries of Isis. It was engraved on copper in

order to be used in the ceremonial of initiation." (See New Essay on the Isiac Table.)

p. 60

within itself the matter called fundus, or foundation. 'These seven, plus the one invisible

crown, constitute the eight worlds. * * *

"Plato writes that it is needful for the philosopher to know how the seven circles beneath the first one are arranged according to the Egyptians. The first triad of fire denotes life;

the second, water, over which rule the Ibimorphous divinities; and the third, air, ruled by

Nephta. From the fire the heavens were created, from the water the earth, and air was the

mediator between them. In the Sephira Yetzirah it is said that from the three originate the

seven, i. e., the height, the depth, the East, the West, the North, and the South, and the

Holy Temple in the center sustaining them all. Is not the Holy Temple in the center the

great throne of the many-formed Spirit of Nature which is shown in the middle of the

Tablet? What are the seven triads but the seven Powers that rule over the world? Psellus

writes: 'The Egyptians worshipped the triad of faith, truth, and love; and the seven

fountains: the Sun as ruler--the fountain of matter; then the fountain of the archangels; the

fountain of the senses; of judgment; of lightning; of reflections; and of characters of

unknown composition. They say that the highest material fountains are those of Apollo,

Osiris, and Mercury--the fountains of the centers of the elements. 'Thus, they understood

by the Sun as ruler the solar world; by the material archangelic, the lunar world; by the

fountain of the senses, the world of Saturn; by judgment, Jupiter; by lightning, Mars; by

that of the reflections, or mirrors, the world of Venus; by the fountain of characters, the

world of Mercury. All these are shown by the figures in the center pane of the Tablet."

The upper panel contains the twelve figures of the zodiac arranged in four triads. The

center figure in each group represents one of the four fixed signs of the zodiac. S is the

sign of Aquarius; Z, Taurus; C, Leo; and G, Scorpio. These are called the Fathers. In the

secret teachings of the Far East these four figures--the man, the bull, the lion, and the

eagle--are called the winged globes or the four Maharajahs who stand upon the corners of

creation. The four cardinal signs--P, Capricorn; X, Aries; B, Cancer; F, Libra--are called

the Powers. The four common signs--V, Pisces; A, Gemini; E, Virgo; H, Sagittarius--are

called the Minds of the Four Lords. This explains the meaning of the winged globes of

Egypt, for the four central figures--Aquarius, Taurus, Leo, and Scorpio (called by Ezekiel

the Cherubim)--are the globes; the cardinal and common signs on either side are the

wings. Therefore the twelve signs of the zodiac may be symbolized by four globes, each

with two wings.

The celestial triads are further shown by the Egyptians as a globe (the Father) from

which issue a serpent (the Mind) and wings (the Power). These twelve forces are the

fabricators of the world, and from them emanate the microcosm, or the mystery of the

twelve sacred animals--representing in the universe the twelve parts of the world and in

man the twelve parts of the human body. Anatomically, the twelve figures in the upper

panel may well symbolize the twelve convolutions of the brain and the twelve figures in

the lower panel the twelve zodiacal members and organs of the human body, for man is a

creature formed of the twelve sacred animals with his members and organs under the

direct control of the twelve governors or powers resident in the brain.

A more profound interpretation is found in the correspondences between the twelve

figures in the upper panel and the twelve in the lower. This furnishes a key to one of the

most arcane of ancient secrets--the relationship existing between the two great zodiacs

the fixed and the movable. The fixed zodiac is described as an immense dodecahedron, its

twelve surfaces representing the outermost walls of abstract space. From each surface of

this dodecahedron a great spiritual power, radiating inward, becomes embodied as one of

the hierarchies of the movable zodiac, which is a band of circumambulating so-called

fixed stars. Within this movable zodiac are posited the various planetary and elemental

bodies. The relation of these two zodiacs to the subzodiacal spheres has a correlation in

the respiratory system of the human body. The great fixed zodiac may be said to represent

the atmosphere, the movable zodiac the lungs, and the subzodiacal worlds the body. The

spiritual atmosphere containing the vivifying energies of the twelve divine powers of the

great fixed zodiac is inhaled by the cosmic lungs--the movable zodiac--and distributed by

them through the constitution of the twelve holy animals which are the parts and

members of the material universe. The functional cycle is completed when the poisonous

effluvia of the lower worlds collected by the movable zodiac are exhaled into the great

fixed zodiac, there to be purified by being passed through the divine natures of its twelve

eternal hierarchies.

The Table as a whole is susceptible of many interpretations. If the border of the Table

with its hieroglyphic figures be accepted as the spiritual source, then the throne in the

center represents the physical body within which human nature is enthroned. From this

point of view the entire Table becomes emblematic of the auric bodies of man, with the

border as the outer extremity or shell of the auric egg. If the throne be accepted as the

symbol of the spiritual sphere, the border typifies the elements, and the various panels

surrounding the central one become emblematic of the worlds or planes emanating from

the one divine source. If the Table be considered from a purely physical basis, the throne

becomes symbolic of the generative system and the Table reveals the secret processes of

embryology as applied to the formation of the material worlds. If a purely physiological

and anatomical interpretation be desired, the central throne becomes the heart, the

Ibimorphous Triad the mind, the Nephtæan Triad the generative system, and the

surrounding hieroglyphics the various parts and members of the human body. From the

evolutionary viewpoint the central gate becomes the point of both entrance and exit. Here

also is set forth the process of initiation, in which the candidate after passing successfully

through the various ordeals is finally brought into the presence of his own soul, which he

alone is capable of unveiling.

If cosmogony be the subject of consideration, the central panel represents the spiritual

worlds, the upper panel the intellectual worlds, and the lower panel the material worlds.

The central panel may also symbolize the nine invisible worlds, and the creature marked

T the physical nature--the footstool of Isis, the Spirit of Universal Life. Considered in the

light of alchemy, the central panel contains the metals and the borders the alchemical

processes. The figure seated on the throne is the Universal Mercury--the "stone of the

wise"; the flaming canopy of the throne above is the Divine Sulphur; and the cube of

earth beneath is the elemental salt.

The three triads--or the Paternal Foundation--in the central panel represent the Silent

Watchers, the three invisible parts of the nature of man; the two panels on either side are

the quaternary lower nature of man. In the central panel are 21 figures. This number is

sacred to the sun--which consists of three great powers, each with seven attributes--and

by Qabbalistic reduction 21 becomes 3, or the Great Triad.

It will yet be proved that the Table of Isis is directly connected with Egyptian

Gnosticism, for in a Gnostic papyrus preserved in the Bodleian Library there is a direct

reference to the twelve Fathers or Paternities beneath whom are twelve Fountains. (See

Egyptian Magic by S.S.D.D.) That the lower panel represents the underworld is further

emphasized by the two gates--the great gate of the East and the great gate of the West--

for in the Chaldean theology the sun rises and sets through gates in the underworld,

where it wanders during the hours of darkness. As Plato was for thirteen years under the

instruction of the Magi Patheneith, Ochoaps, Sechtnouphis, and Etymon of Sebbennithis,

his philosophy consequently is permeated with the Chaldean and Egyptian system of

triads. The Bembine Table is a diagrammatic exposition of the so-called Platonic

philosophy, for in its design is epitomized the entire theory of mystic cosmogony and

generation. The most valuable guide to the interpretation of this Table is the

Commentaries of Proclus on the Theology of Plato. The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster

also contains many allusions to the theogonic principles which are demonstrated by the

Table.

The Theogony of Hesiod contains the most complete account of the Greek cosmogony

myth. Orphic cosmogony has left its impress upon the various forms of philosophy and

religion--Greek, Egyptian, and Syrian--which it contacted. Chief of the Orphic symbols

was the mundane egg from which Phanes sprang into light. Thomas Taylor considers the

Orphic egg to be synonymous with the mixture from bound and infinity mentioned by

Plato in the Philebus. The egg is furthermore the third Intelligible Triad and the proper

symbol of the Demiurgus, whose auric body is the egg of the inferior universe.

Eusebius, on the authority of Porphyry, declared that the Egyptians acknowledged one

intellectual Author or Creator of the world under the name of Cneph and that they

worshiped him in a statue of human form and dark blue complexion, holding in his hand

a girdle and a scepter, wearing on his head a royal plume, and thrusting forth an egg out

of his mouth. (See An Analysis of the Egyptian Mythology) While the Bembine Table is

rectangular-shaped, it signifies philosophically the Orphic egg of the universe with its

contents. In the esoteric doctrines the supreme individual achievement is the breaking of

the Orphic egg, which is equivalent to the return of the spirit to the Nirvana--the absolute

condition--of the Oriental mystics.

The New Pantheon by Samuel Boyse contains three plates showing various sections of

the Bembine Table. The author, however, makes no important contribution to the

knowledge of the subject. In The Mythology and Fables of the Ancients Explained from

History, the Abbé Banier devotes a chapter to a consideration of the Mensa Isiaca. After

reviewing the conclusions of Montfaucon, Kircher, and Pignorius, he adds: "I am of the

opinion that: it was a votive table, which some prince or private person had consecrated

to Isis, as an acknowledgment for some benefit which he believed she had conferred upon

him."

p. 61

Wonders of Antiquity

IT was a common practice among the early Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans to seal

lighted lamps in the sepulchers of their dead as offerings to the God of Death. Possibly it

was also believed that the deceased could use these lights in finding his way through the

Valley of the Shadow. Later as the custom became generally established, not only actual

lamps but miniatures of them in terra cotta were buried with the dead. Some of the lamps

were enclosed in circular vessels for protection; and instances have been recorded in

which the original oil was found in them, in a perfect state of preservation, after more

than 2,000 years. There is ample proof that many of these lamps were burning when the

sepulchers were sealed, and it has been declared that they were still burning when the

vaults were opened hundreds of years later. The possibility of preparing a fuel which

would renew itself as rapidly as it was consumed has been a source of considerable

controversy among mediæval authors. After due consideration of the evidence at hand, it

seems well within the range of possibility that the ancient priest-chemists did

manufacture lamps that burned, if not indefinitely, at least for considerable periods of

time.

Numerous authorities have written on the subject of ever-burning lamps. W. Wynn

Westcott estimates the number of writers who have given the subject consideration as

more than 150, and H. P. Blavatsky as 173. While conclusions reached by different

authors are at variance, a majority admit the existence of these phenomenal lamps. Only a

few maintained that the lamps would burn forever, but many were willing to concede that

they might remain alight for several centuries without replenishment of the fuel. Some

considered the so-called perpetual lights as mere artifices of the crafty pagan priests,

while a great many, admitting that the lamps actually burned, made the sweeping

assertion that the Devil was using this apparent miracle to ensnare the credulous and

thereby lead their souls to perdition.

On this subject the learned Jesuit, Athanasius Kircher, usually dependable, exhibits a

striking inconsistency. In his Œdipus Ægyptiacus he writes: "Not a few of these ever-

burning lamps have been found to be the devices of devils, * * * And I take it that all the

lamps found in the tombs of the Gentiles dedicated to the worship of certain gods, were

of this kind, not because they burned, or have been reported to burn, with a perpetual

flame, but because probably the devil set them there, maliciously intending thereby to

obtain fresh credence for a false worship."

Having admitted that dependable authorities defend the existence of the ever-burning

lamps, and that even the Devil lends himself to their manufacture, Kircher next declared

the entire theory to be desperate and impossible, and to be classed with perpetual motion

and the Philosopher's Stone. Having already solved the problem to his satisfaction once,

Kircher solves it again--but differently--in the following words: "In Egypt there are rich

deposits of asphalt and petroleum. What did these clever fellows [the priests] do, then,

but connect an oil deposit by a secret duct with one or more lamps, provided with wicks

of asbestos! How could such lamps help burning perpetually? * * * In my opinion this is

the solution of the riddle of the supernatural everlastingness of these ancient lamps."

Montfaucon, in his Antiquities, agrees in the main with the later deductions of Kircher,

believing the fabled perpetual lamps of the temples to be cunning mechanical

contrivances. He further adds that the belief that lamps burned indefinitely in tombs was

the result of the noteworthy fact that in some cases fumes resembling smoke poured forth

from the entrances of newly opened vaults. Parties going in later and discovering lamps

scattered about the floor assumed that they were the source of the fumes.

There are several interesting stories concerning the discoveries of ever-burning lamps in

various parts of the world. In a tomb on the Appian Way which was opened during the

papacy of Paul III was found a burning lamp which had remained alight in a hermetically

sealed vault for nearly 1,600 years. According to an account written by a contemporary, a

body--that of a young and beautiful girl with long golden hair--was found floating in an

unknown transparent liquid and as well preserved as though death had occurred but a few

hours before. About the interior of the vault were a number of significant objects, which

included several lamps, one of them alight. Those entering the sepulcher declared that the

draft caused by the opening of the door blew out the light and the lamp could not be

relighted. Kircher reproduces an epitaph, "TULLIOLAE FILIAE MEAE," supposedly

found in the tomb, but which Montfaucon declares never existed, the latter adding that

although conclusive evidence was not found, the body was generally believed to be that

of Tulliola, the daughter of Cicero.

Ever-burning lamps have been discovered in all parts of the world. Not only the

Mediterranean countries but also India, Tibet, China, and South America have

contributed records of lights which burned continuously without fuel. The examples

which follow were selected at random from the imposing list of perpetual lamps found in

different ages.

Plutarch wrote of a lamp that burned over the door of a temple to Jupiter Ammon; the

priests declared that it had remained alight for centuries without fuel.

St. Augustine described a perpetual lamp, guarded in a temple in Egypt sacred to Venus,

which neither wind nor water could extinguish. He believed it to be the work of the

Devil.

An ever-burning lamp was found at Edessa, or Antioch, during the reign of the Emperor

Justinian. It was in a niche over the city gate, elaborately enclosed to protect it from the

elements. The date upon it proved that the lamp had been burning for more than 500

years. It was destroyed by soldiers.

During the early Middle Ages a lamp was found in England which had burned since the

third century after Christ. The monument containing it was believed to be the tomb of the

father of Constantine the Great.

The Lantern of Pallas was discovered near Rome in A.D. 1401. It was found in the

sepulcher of Pallas, son of Evander, immortalized by Virgil in his Æneid. The lamp was

placed at the head of the body and had burned with a steady glow for more than 2,000

years.

In A.D. 1550 on the island of Nesis, in the Bay of Naples, a magnificent marble vault was

opened in which was found a lamp still alight which had been placed there before the

beginning of the Christian Era.

Pausanias described a beautiful golden lamp in the temple of Minerva which burned

steadily for a year without refueling or having the wick trimmed. The ceremony of filling

the lamp took place annually, and time was measured by the ceremony.

According to the Fama Fraternitatis, the crypt of Christian Rosencreutz when opened

120 years after his death was found to be brilliantly illuminated by a perpetual lamp

suspended from the ceiling.

Numa Pompilius, King of Rome and magician of considerable power, caused a perpetual

light to burn in the dome of a temple he had created in honor of an elemental being.

In England a curious tomb was found containing

Click to enlarge

BASE OF A DELPHIAN TRIPOD.

From Montfaucon's Antiquities.

The windings of these serpents formed the base, and the three heads sustained the three feet of the tripod. It is impossible to secure satisfactory information concerning the shape and size of the celebrated Delphian

tripod. Theories concerning it are based (in most part) upon small ornamental tripods discovered in various

temples.

Click to enlarge

THE DELPHIAN TRIPOD RESTORED.

From Beaumont's Gleanings of Antiquities.

According to Beaumont, the above is the most authentic form of the Delphian tripod extant; but as the tripod must have changed considerably during the life of the oracle, hasty conclusions are unwise. In his

description of the tripod, Beaumont divides it into four Parts: (1) a frame with three (2), a reverberating

basin or bowl set in the frame; (e) a flat plate or table upon which the Pythia sat; and (4) a cone-shaped

cover over the table, which completely concealed the priestess and from beneath which her voice sounded

forth in weird and hollow tones, Attempts have been made to relate the Delphian tripod with the Jewish

Ark of the Covenant. The frame of three legs was likened to the Ark of the Covenant; the flat plate or table

to the Mercy Seat; and the cone-shaped covering to the tent of the Tabernacle itself. This entire conception

differs widely from that popularly accepted, but discloses a valuable analogy between Jewish and Greek

symbolism.

p. 62

an automaton which moved when certain stones in the floor of the vault were stepped

upon by an intruder. At that time the Rosicrucian controversy was at its height, so it was

decided that the tomb was that of a Rosicrucian initiate. A countryman, discovering the

tomb and entering, found the interior brilliantly lighted by a lamp hanging from the

ceiling. As he walked, his weight depressed some of the floor stones. At once a seated

figure in heavy armor began to move. Mechanically it rose to its feet and struck the lamp

with an iron baton, completely destroying it, and thus effectually preventing the

discovery of the secret substance which maintained the flame. How long the lamp had

burned is unknown, but certainly it had been for a considerable number of years.

It is related that among the tombs near Memphis and in the Brahmin temples of India

lights have been found in sealed chambers and vessels, but sudden exposure to the air has

extinguished them and caused their fuel to evaporate.

It is now believed that the wicks of these perpetual lamps were made of braided or woven

asbestos, called by the alchemists salamander's wool, and that the fuel was one of the

products of alchemical research. Kircher attempted to extract oil from asbestos, being

convinced that as the substance itself was indestructible by fire an oil extracted from it

would supply the lamp with a fuel likewise indestructible. After spending two years in

fruitless experimental work, he concluded that the task was impossible of

accomplishment.

Several formulæ for the making of the fuel for the lamps have been preserved. In Isis

Unveiled, H. P. Blavatsky reprints two of these formulæ from early authors--Tritenheim

and Bartolomeo Korndorf. One will suffice to give a general understanding of the

process:

"Sulphur. Alum ust. a iv.; sublime them into flowers to ij., of which add of crystalline

Venetian borax (powdered) j.; upon these affuse high rectified spirit of wine and digest

it, then abstract it and pour on fresh; repeat this so often till the sulphur melts like wax

without any smoke, upon a hot plate of brass: this is for the pabulum, but the wick is to

be prepared after this manner: gather the threads or thrums of the Lapis asbestos, to the

thickness of your middle and the length of your little finger, then put them into a

Venetian glass, and covering them over with the aforesaid depurated sulphur or aliment

set the glass in sand for the space of twenty-four hours, so hot that the sulphur may

bubble all the while. The wick being thus besmeared and anointed, is to be put into a

glass like a scallop-shell, in such manner that some part of it may lie above the mass of

prepared sulphur; then setting this glass upon hot sand, you must melt the sulphur, so that

it may lay hold of the wick, and when it is lighted, it will burn with a perpetual flame and

you may set this lamp in any place where you please."

THE GREEK ORACLES

The worship of Apollo included the establishment and maintenance of places of prophecy

by means of which the gods could communicate with mankind and reveal futurity to such

as deserved the boon. The early history of Greece abounds with accounts of talking trees,

rivers, statues, and caves in which nymphs, dryads, or dæmons had taken up their abodes

and from which they delivered oracles. While Christian authors have tried to prove that

oracular revelations were delivered by the Devil for the purpose of misleading humanity,

they have not dared to attack the theory of oracles, because of the repeated reference to it

in their own sacred writings. If the onyx stones on the shoulders of Israel's high priest

made known by their flashings the will of Jehovah, then a black dove, temporarily

endowed with the faculty of speech, could indeed pronounce oracles in the temple of

Jupiter Ammon. If the witch of Endor could invoke the shade of Samuel, who in turn

gave prophecies to Saul, could not a priestess of Apollo call up the specter of her liege to

foretell the destiny of Greece?

The most famous oracles of antiquity were those of Delphi, Dodona, Trophonius, and

Latona, of which the talking oak trees of Dodona were the oldest. Though it is impossible

to trace back to the genesis of the theory of oracular prophecy, it is known that many of

the caves and fissures set aside by the Greeks as oracles were sacred long before the rise

of Greek culture.

The oracle of Apollo at Delphi remains one of the unsolved mysteries of the ancients.

Alexander Wilder derives the name Delphi from delphos, the womb. This name was

chosen by the Greeks be cause of the shape of the cavern and the vent leading into the

depths of the earth. The original name of the oracle was Pytho, so called because its

chambers had been the abode of the great serpent Python, a fearsome creature that had

crept out of the slime left by the receding flood that had destroyed all human beings

except Deucalion and Pyrrha. Apollo, climbing the side of Mount Parnassus, slew the

serpent after a prolonged combat, and threw the body down the fissure of the oracle.

From that time the Sun God, surnamed the Pythian Apollo, gave oracles from the vent.

With Dionysos he shared the honor of being the patron god of Delphi.

After being vanquished by Apollo, the spirit of Python remained at Delphi as the

representative of his conqueror, and it was with the aid of his effluvium that the priestess

was able to become en rapport with the god. The fumes rising from the fissure of the

oracle were supposed to come from the decaying body of Python. The name Pythoness,

or Pythia, given to the female hierophant of the oracle, means literally one who has been

thrown into a religious frenzy by inhaling fumes rising from decomposing matter. It is of

further interest to note that the Greeks believed the oracle of Delphi to be the umbilicus

of the earth, thus proving that they considered the planet an immense human being. The

connection between the principle of oracular revelation and the occult significance of the

navel is an important secret belonging to the ancient Mysteries.

The oracle, however, is much older than the foregoing account indicates. A story of this

kind was probably invented by the priests to explain the phenomena to those inquisitive

persons whom they did not consider worthy of enlightenment regarding the true esoteric

nature of the oracle. Some believe that the Delphic fissure was discovered by a

Hypoborean priest, but as far back as recorded history goes the cave was sacred, and

persons came from all parts of Greece and the surrounding countries to question the

dæmon who dwelt in its chimney-like vent. Priests and priestesses guarded it closely and

served the spirit who dwelt therein and who enlightened humanity through the gift of

prophecy.

The story of the original discovery of the oracle is somewhat as follows: Shepherds

tending their flocks on the side of Mount Parnassus were amazed at the peculiar antics of

goats that wandered close to a great chasm on its southwestern spur. The animals jumped

about as though trying to dance, and emitted strange cries unlike anything before heard.

At last one of the shepherds, curious to learn the cause of the phenomenon, approached

the vent, from which were rising noxious fumes. Immediately he was seized with a

prophetic ecstasy; he danced with wild abandon, sang, jabbered inarticulate sounds, and

foretold future events. Others went close to the fissure, with the same result. The fame of

the place spread, and many came to learn of the future by inhaling the mephitic fumes,

which exhilarated to the verge of delirium.

Some of those who came, being unable to control themselves, and having temporarily the

strength of madmen, tore themselves from those seeking to restrain them, and, jumping

into the vent, perished. In order to prevent others from doing likewise, a wall was erected

around the fissure and a prophetess was appointed to act as mediator between the oracle

and those who came to question it. According to later authorities, a tripod of gold,

ornamented with carvings of Apollo in the form of Python, the great serpent, was placed

over the cleft, and on this was arranged a specially prepared seat, so constructed that a

person would have difficulty in falling off while under the influence of the oracular

fumes. just before this time, a story had been circulated that the fumes of the oracle arose

from the decaying body of Python. It is possible that the oracle revealed its own origin.

For many centuries during its early history, virgin maidens were consecrated to the

service of the oracle. They were called the Phœbades, or Pythiæ, and constituted that

famous order now known as the Pythian priesthood. It is probable that women were

chosen to receive the oracles because their sensitive and emotional nature responded

Click to enlarge

THE PYTHIAN APOLLO.

From Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.

Apollo, the twin brother of Diana, was the son of Jupiter and Latona. Apollo was fully adult at the time of

his birth. He was considered to be the first physician and the inventor of music and song. The Greeks also

acclaimed him to be father of the bow and arrow. The famous temple of Apollo at Delphi was rebuilt five

times. The first temple was formed only of laurel branches; the second was somewhat similar; the third was

brass and the fourth and fifth were probably of marble, of considerable size and great beauty. No other

oracle in Greece equaled in magnificence that of Delphi in the zenith of its power. Writers declared that it

contained many statues of solid gold and silver, marvelous ornaments, and implements of the most valuable

materials and beautiful workmanship, donated by princes and kings who came from all parts of the

civilized world to consult the spirit of Apollo dwelling in this sanctuary.

p. 63

more quickly and completely to "the fumes of enthusiasm." Three days before the time

set to receive the communications from Apollo, the virgin priestess began the ceremony

of purification. She bathed in the Castalian well, abstained from all food, drank only from

the fountain of Cassotis, which was brought into the temple through concealed pipes, and

just before mounting the tripod, she chewed a few leaves of the sacred bay tree. It has

been said that the water was drugged to bring on distorted visions, or the priests of Delphi

were able to manufacture an exhilarating and intoxicating gas, which they conducted by

subterranean ducts and released into the shaft of the oracle several feet below the surface.

Neither of these theories has been proved, however, nor does either in any way explain

the accuracy of the predictions.

When the young prophetess had completed the process of purification, she was clothed in

sanctified raiment and led to the tripod, upon which she seated herself, surrounded by the

noxious vapors rising from the yawning fissure. Gradually, as she inhaled the fumes, a

change came over her. It was as if a different spirit had entered her body. She struggled,

tore her clothing, and uttered inarticulate cries. After a time her struggles ceased. Upon

becoming calm a great majesty seemed to posses her, and with eyes fixed on space and

body rigid, she uttered the prophetic words. The predictions were usually in the form of

hexameter verse, but the words were often ambiguous and sometimes unintelligible.

Every sound that she made, every motion of her body, was carefully recorded by the five

Hosii, or holy men, who were appointed as scribes to preserve the minutest details of

each divination. The Hosii were appointed for life, and were chosen from the direct

descendants of Deucalion.

After the oracle was delivered, the Pythia began to struggle again, and the spirit released

her. She was then carried or supported to a chamber of rest, where she remained till the

nervous ecstasy had passed away.

Iamblichus, in his dissertation on The Mysteries, describes how the spirit of the oracle--a

fiery dæmon, even Apollo himself--took control of the Pythoness and manifested through

her: "But the prophetess in Delphi, whether she gives oracles to mankind through an

attenuated and fiery spirit, bursting from the mouth of the cavern; or whether being

seated in the adytum on a brazen tripod, or on a stool with four feet, she becomes sacred

to the God; whichsoever of these is the case, she entirely gives herself up to a divine

spirit, and is illuminated with a ray of divine fire. And when, indeed, fire ascending from

the mouth of the cavern circularly invests her in collected abundance, she becomes filled

from it with a divine splendour. But when she places herself on the seat of the God, she

becomes co-adapted to his stable prophetic power: and from both of these preparatory

operations she becomes wholly possessed by the God. And then, indeed, he is present

with and illuminates her in a separate manner, and is different from the fire, the spirit, the

proper seat, and, in short, from all the visible apparatus of the place, whether physical or

sacred."

Among the celebrities who visited the oracle of Delphi were the immortal Apollonius of

Tyana and his disciple Damis. He made his offerings and, after being crowned with a

laurel wreath and given a branch of the same plant to carry in his hand, he passed behind

the statue of Apollo which stood before the entrance to the cave, and descended into the

sacred place of the oracle. The priestess was also crowned with laurel and her head bound

with a band of white wool. Apollonius asked the oracle if his name would be remembered

by future generations. The Pythoness answered in the affirmative, but declared that it

would always be calumniated. Apollonius left the cavern in anger, but time has proved

the accuracy of the prediction, for the early church fathers perpetuated the name of

Apollonius as the Antichrist. (For details of the story see Histoire de la Magie.)

The messages given by the virgin prophetess were turned over to the philosophers of the

oracle, whose duty it was to interpret and apply them. The communications were then

delivered to the poets, who immediately translated them into odes and lyrics, setting forth

in exquisite form the statements supposedly made by Apollo and making them available

for the populace.

Serpents were much in evidence at the oracle of Delphi. The base of the tripod upon

which the Pythia sat was formed of the twisted bodies of three gigantic snakes.

According to some authorities, one of the processes used to produce the prophetic ecstasy

was to force the young priestess to gaze into the eyes of a serpent. Fascinated and

hypnotized, she then spoke with the voice of the god.

Although the early Pythian priestesses were always maidens--some still in their teens--a

law was later enacted that only women past fifty years of age should be the mouthpiece

of the oracle. These older women dressed as young girls and went through the same

ceremonial as the first Pythiæ. The change was probably the indirect result of a series of

assaults made upon the persons of the priestesses by the profane.

During the early history of the Delphian oracle the god spoke only at each seventh

birthday of Apollo. As time went on, however, the demand became so great that the

Pythia was forced to seat herself upon the tripod every month. The times selected for the

consultation and the questions to be asked were determined by lot or by vote of the

inhabitants of Delphi.

It is generally admitted that the effect of the Delphian oracle upon Greek culture was

profoundly constructive. James Gardner sums up its influence in the following words: "It

responses revealed many a tyrant and foretold his fate. Through its means many an

unhappy being was saved from destruction and many a perplexed mortal guided in the

right way. It encouraged useful institutions, and promoted the progress of useful

discoveries. Its moral influence was on the side of virtue, and its political influence in

favor of the advancement of civil liberty." (See The Faiths of The World.)

The oracle of Dodona was presided over by Jupiter, who uttered prophecies through oak

trees, birds, and vases of brass. Many writers have noted the similarities between the

rituals of Dodona and those of the Druid priests of Britain and Gaul. The famous oracular

dove of Dodona, alighting upon the branches of the sacred oaks, not only discoursed at

length in the Greek tongue upon philosophy and religion, but also answered the queries

of those who came from distant places to consult it.

The "talking" trees stood together, forming a sacred grove. When the priests desired

answers to important questions, after careful and solemn purifications they retired to the

grove. They then accosted the trees, beseeching a reply from the god who dwelt therein.

When they had stated their questions, the trees spoke with the voices of human beings,

revealing to the priests the desired information. Some assert that there was but one tree

which spoke--an oak or a beech standing in the very heart of the ancient grove. Because

Jupiter was believed to inhabit this tree he was sometimes called Phegonæus, or one who

lives in a beech tree.

Most curious of the oracles of Dodona were the "talking" vases, or kettles. These were

made of brass and so carefully fashioned that when struck they gave off sound for hours.

Some writers have described a row of these vases and have declared that if one of them

was struck its vibrations would be communicated to all the others and a terrifying din

ensue. Other authors describe a large single vase, standing upon a pillar, near which stood

another column, supporting the statue of a child holding a whip. At the end of the whip

were a number of swinging cords tipped with small metal balls, and the wind, which blew

incessantly through the open building, caused the balls to strike against the vase. The

number and intensity of the impacts and the reverberations of the vase were all carefully

noted, and the priests delivered their oracles accordingly.

When the original priests of Dodona--the Selloi--mysteriously vanished, the oracle was

served for many centuries by three priestesses who interpreted the vases and at midnight

interrogated the sacred trees. The patrons of the oracles were expected to bring offerings

and to make contributions.

Another remarkable oracle was the Cave of Trophonius, which stood upon the side of a

hill with an entrance so small that it seemed impossible for a human being to enter. After

the consultant had made his offering at the statue of Trophonius and had donned the

sanctified garments, he climbed the hill to the cave, carrying in one hand a cake of honey.

Sitting down at the edge of the opening, he lowered his feet into the cavern. Thereupon

his entire body was precipitately

Click to enlarge

THE DODONEAN JUPITER.

From Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.

Jupiter was called Dodonean after the city of Dodona in Epirus. Near this city was a hill thickly covered

with oak trees which from the most ancient times had been sacred to Jupiter. The grove was further

venerated because dryads, fauns, satyrs, and nymphs were believed to dwell in its depths. From the ancient

oaks and beeches were hung many chains of tiny bronze bells which tinkled day and night as the wind

swayed the branches. Some assert that the celebrated talking dove of Dodona was in reality a woman,

because in Thessaly both prophetesses and doves were called Peleiadas. It is supposed that the first temple

of Dodona was erected by Deucalion and those who survived the great flood with him. For this reason the

oracle at Dodona was considered the oldest in Greece.

p. 64

drawn into the cave, which was described by those who had entered it as having only the

dimensions of a fair-sized oven. When the oracle had completed its revelation, the

consultant, usually delirious, was forcibly ejected from the cave, feet foremost.

Near the cave of the oracle two fountains bubbled out of the earth within a few feet of

each other. Those about to enter the cave drank first from these fountains, the waters of

which seemed to possess peculiar occult properties. The first contained the water of

forgetfulness, and all who drank thereof forgot their earthly sorrows. From the second

fountain flowed the sacred water of Mnemosyne, or remembrance, for later it enabled

those who partook of it to recall their experiences while in the cave.

Though its entrance was marked by two brass obelisks, the cave, surrounded by a wall of

white stones and concealed in the heart of a grove of sacred trees, did not present an

imposing appearance. There is no doubt that those entering it passed through strange

experiences, for they were obliged to leave at the adjacent temple a complete account of

what they saw and heard while in the oracle. The prophecies were given in the form of

dreams and visions, and were accompanied by severe pains in the head; some never

completely recovered from the after effects of their delirium. The confused recital of their

experiences was interpreted by the priests according to the question to be answered.

While the priests probably used some unknown herb to produce the dreams or visions of

the cavern, their skill in interpreting them bordered on the Supernatural. Before

consulting the oracle, it was necessary to offer a ram to the dæmon of the cave, and the

priest decided by hieromancy whether the time chosen was propitious and the sacrifice

was satisfactory.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE WORLD

Many of the sculptors and architects of the ancient world were initiates of the Mysteries,

particularly the Eleusinian rites. Since the dawn of time, the truers of stone and the

hewers of wood have constituted a divinely overshadowed caste. As civilization spread

slowly over the earth, cities were built and deserted; monuments were erected to heroes at

present unknown; temples were built to gods who lie broken in the dust of the nations

they inspired. Research has proved not only that the builders of these cities and

monuments and the sculptors who chiseled out the inscrutable faces of the gods were

masters of their crafts, but that in the world today there are none to equal them. The

profound knowledge of mathematics and astronomy embodied in ancient architecture,

and the equally profound knowledge of anatomy revealed in Greek statuary, prove that

the fashioners of both were master minds, deeply cultured in the wisdom which

constituted the arcana of the Mysteries .Thus was established the Guild of the Builders,

progenitors of modern Freemasons. When employed to build palaces, temples or combs,

or to carve statues for the wealthy, those initiated architects and artists concealed in their

works the secret doctrine, so that now, long after their bones have returned to dust, the

world realizes that those first artisans were indeed duly initiated and worthy to receive the

wages of Master Masons.

The Seven Wonders of the World, while apparently designed for divers reasons, were

really monuments erected to perpetuate the arcana of the Mysteries. They were symbolic

structures, placed in peculiar spots, and the real purpose of their erection can be sensed

only by the initiated. Eliphas Levi has noted the marked correspondence between these

Seven Wonders and the seven planets. The Seven Wonders of the World were built by

Widow's sons in honor of the seven planetary genii. Their secret symbolism is identical

with that of the seven seals of Revelation and the seven churches of Asia.

1. The Colossus of Rhodes, a gigantic brass statue about 109 feet in height and requiring

over twelve years to build, was the work of an initiated artist, Chares of Lindus. The

popular theory--accepted for several hundred years--that the figure stood with one foot on

each side of the entrance to the harbor of Rhodes and that full-rigged ships passed

between its feet, has never been substantiated. Unfortunately, the figure remained

standing but fifty-six years, being thrown down by an earthquake in 224 B.C. The

shattered parts of the Colossus lay scattered about the ground for more than 900 years,

when they were finally sold to a Jewish merchant, who carried the metal away on the

backs of 700 camels. Some believed that the brass was converted into munitions and

others that it was made into drainage pipes. This gigantic gilded figure, with its crown of

solar rays and its upraised torch, signified occultly the glorious Sun Man of the

Mysteries, the Universal Savior.

2. The architect Ctesiphon, in the fifth century B.C., submitted to the Ionian cities a plan

for erecting a joint monument to their patron goddess, Diana. The place chosen was

Ephesus, a city south of Smyrna. The building was constructed of marble. The roof was

supported by 127 columns, each 60 feet high and weighing over 150 tons. The temple

was destroyed by black magic about 356 B.C., but the world fixes the odious crime upon

the tool by means of which the destruction was accomplished--a mentally deranged man

named Herostratus. It was later rebuilt, but the symbolism was lost. The original temple,

designed as a miniature of the universe, was dedicated to the moon, the occult symbol of

generation.

3. Upon his exile from Athens, Phidias--the greatest of all the Greek sculptors--went to

Olympia in the province of Elis and there designed his colossal statue of Zeus, chief of

the gods of Greece. There is not even an accurate description of this masterpiece now in

existence; only a few old coins give an inadequate idea of its general appearance. The

body of the god was overlaid with ivory and the robes were of beaten gold. In one hand

he is supposed to have held a globe supporting a figure of the Goddess of Victory, in the

other a scepter surmounted by an eagle. The head of Zeus was archaic, heavily bearded,

and crowned with an olive wreath. The statue was seated upon an elaborately decorated

throne. As its name implies, the monument was dedicated to the spirit of the planet

Jupiter,--one of the seven Logi who bow before the Lord of the Sun.

4. Eliphas Levi includes the Temple of Solomon among the Seven Wonders of the World,

giving it the place occupied by the Pharos, or Lighthouse, of Alexandria. The Pharos,

named for the island upon which it stood, was designed and constructed by Sostratus of

Cnidus during the reign of Ptolemy (283-247 B.C.). It is described as being of white

marble and over 600 feet high. Even in that ancient day it cost nearly a million dollars.

Fires were lighted in the top of it and could be seen for miles out at sea. It was destroyed

by an earthquake in the thirteenth century, but remains of it were visible until A.D. 1350.

Being the tallest of all the Wonders, it: was naturally assigned to Saturn, the Father of the

gods and the true illuminator of all humanity.

5. The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was a magnificent monument erected by Queen

Artemisia in memory of her dead husband, King Mausolus, from whose name the word

mausoleum is derived. The designers of the building were Satyrus and Pythis, and four

great sculptors were employed to ornament the edifice. The building, which was 114 feet

long and 92 feet wide, was divided into five major sections (the senses) and surmounted

by a pyramid (the spiritual nature of man). The pyramid rose in 24 steps (a sacred

number), and upon the apex was a statue of King Mausolus in a chariot. His figure was 9

feet 9½ inches tall. Many attempts have been made to reconstruct the monument, which.

was destroyed by an earthquake, but none has been altogether successful. This monument

was sacred to the planet Mars and was built by an initiate for the enlightenment of the

world.

6. The Gardens of Semiramis at Babylon--more commonly known as the Hanging

Gardens--stood within the palace grounds of Nebuchadnezzar, near the Euphrates River.

They rose in a terrace-like pyramid and on the top was a reservoir for the watering of the

gardens. They were built about 600 B.C., but the name of the landscape artist has not

been preserved. They symbolized the planes of the invisible world, and were consecrated

to Venus as the goddess of love and beauty.

7. The Great Pyramid was supreme among the temples of the Mysteries. In order to be

true to its astronomical symbolism, it must have been constructed about 70,000 years ago.

It was the tomb of Osiris, and was believed to have been built by the gods themselves,

and the architect may have been the immortal Hermes. It is the monument of Mercury,

the messenger of the gods, and the universal symbol of wisdom and letters.

Click to enlarge

TROPHONIUS OF LEBADIA.

from Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.

Trophonius and his brother Agamedes were famous architects. While building a certain treasure vault, they

contrived to leave one stone movable so that they might secretly enter and steal the valuables stored there.

A trap was set by the owner, who had discovered the plot, and Agamedes was caught. To prevent

discovery, Trophonius decapitated his brother and fled, hotly pursued. He hid in the grove of Lebadia,

where the earth opened and swallowed him up. The spirit of Trophonius thereafter delivered oracles in the

grove and its caverns. The name Trophonius means "to be agitated, excited, or roiled." It was declared that the terrible experiences through which consultants passed in the oracular caverns so affected them that they

never smiled again. The bees which accompany the figure of Trophonius were sacred because they led the

first envoys from Bœtia to the site of the oracle. The figure above is said to be a production of a statue of

Trophonius which was placed on the brow of the hill above the oracle and surrounded with sharply pointed

stakes that it could not be touched.

p. 65

The Life and Philosophy of Pythagoras

WHILE Mnesarchus, the father of Pythagoras, was in the city of Delphi on matters

pertaining to his business as a merchant, he and his wife, Parthenis, decided to consult the

oracle of Delphi as to whether the Fates were favorable for their return voyage to Syria.

When the Pythoness (prophetess of Apollo) seated herself on the golden tripod over the

yawning vent of the oracle, she did not answer the question they had asked, but told

Mnesarchus that his wife was then with child and would give birth to a son who was

destined to surpass all men in beauty and wisdom, and who throughout the course of his

life would contribute much to the benefit of mankind. Mnesarchus was so deeply

impressed by the prophecy that he changed his wife's name to Pythasis, in honor of the

Pythian priestess. When the child was born at Sidon in Phœnicia, it was--as the oracle

had said--a son. Mnesarchus and Pythasis named the child Pythagoras, for they believed

that he had been predestined by the oracle.

Many strange legends have been preserved concerning the birth of Pythagoras. Some

maintained that he was no mortal man: that he was one of the gods who had taken a

human body to enable him to come into the world and instruct the human race.

Pythagoras was one of the many sages and saviors of antiquity for whom an immaculate

conception is asserted. In his Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins writes: "The first striking

circumstance in which the history of Pythagoras agrees with the history of Jesus is, that

they were natives of nearly the same country; the former being born at Sidon, the latter at

Bethlehem, both in Syria. The father of Pythagoras, as well as the father of Jesus, was

prophetically informed that his wife should bring forth a son, who should be a benefactor

to mankind. They were both born when their mothers were from home on journeys,

Joseph and his wife having gone up to Bethlehem to be taxed, and the father of

Pythagoras having travelled from Samos, his residence, to Sidon, about his mercantile

concerns. Pythais [Pythasis], the mother of Pythagoras, had a connexion with an

Apolloniacal spectre, or ghost, of the God Apollo, or God Sol, (of course this must have

been a holy ghost, and here we have the Holy Ghost) which afterward appeared to her

husband, and told him that he must have no connexion with his wife during her

pregnancy--a story evidently the same as that relating to Joseph and Mary. From these

peculiar circumstances, Pythagoras was known by the same title as Jesus, namely, the son

of God; and was supposed by the multitude to be under the influence of Divine

inspiration."

This most famous philosopher was born sometime between 600 and 590 B.C., and the

length of his life has been estimated at nearly one hundred years.

The teachings of Pythagoras indicate that he was thoroughly conversant with the precepts

of Oriental and Occidental esotericism. He traveled among the Jews and was instructed

by the Rabbins concerning the secret traditions of Moses, the lawgiver of Israel. Later the

School of the Essenes was conducted chiefly for the purpose of interpreting the

Pythagorean symbols. Pythagoras was initiated into the Egyptian, Babylonian, and

Chaldean Mysteries. Although it is believed by some that he was a disciple of Zoroaster,

it is doubtful whether his instructor of that name was the God-man now revered by the

Parsees. While accounts of his travels differ, historians agree that he visited many

countries and studied at the feet of many masters.

"After having acquired all which it was possible for him to learn of the Greek

philosophers and, presumably, become an initiate in the Eleusinian mysteries, he went to

Egypt, and after many rebuffs and refusals, finally succeeded in securing initiation in the

Mysteries of Isis, at the hands of the priests of Thebes. Then this intrepid 'joiner' wended

his way into Phoenicia and Syria where the Mysteries of Adonis were conferred upon

him, and crossing to the valley of the Euphrates he tarried long enough to become versed

in, the secret lore of the Chaldeans, who still dwelt in the vicinity of Babylon. Finally, he

made his greatest and most historic venture through Media and Persia into Hindustan

where he remained several years as a pupil and initiate of the learned Brahmins of

Elephanta and Ellora." (See Ancient Freemasonry, by Frank C. Higgins, 32°.) The same

author adds that the name of Pythagoras is still preserved in the records of the Brahmins

as Yavancharya, the Ionian Teacher.

Pythagoras was said to have been the first man to call himself a philosopher; in fact, the

world is indebted to him for the word philosopher. Before that time the wise men had

called themselves sages, which was interpreted to mean those who know. Pythagoras was

more modest. He coined the word philosopher, which he defined as one who is

attempting to find out.

After returning from his wanderings, Pythagoras established a school, or as it has been

sometimes called, a university, at Crotona, a Dorian colony in Southern Italy. Upon his

arrival at Crotona he was regarded askance, but after a short time those holding important

positions in the surrounding colonies sought his counsel in matters of great moment. He

gathered around him a small group of sincere disciples whom he instructed in the secret

wisdom which had been revealed to him, and also in the fundamentals of occult

mathematics, music, and astronomy, which he considered to be the triangular foundation

of all the arts and sciences.

When he was about sixty years old, Pythagoras married one of his disciples, and seven

children resulted from the union. His wife was a remarkably able woman, who not only

inspired him during the years of his life but after his assassination continued to

promulgate his doctrines.

As is so often the case with genius, Pythagoras by his outspokenness incurred both

political and personal enmity. Among those who came for initiation was one who,

because Pythagoras refused to admit him, determined to destroy both the man and his

philosophy. By means of false propaganda, this disgruntled one turned the minds of the

common people against the philosopher. Without warning, a band of murderers

descended upon the little group of buildings where the great teacher and his disciples

dwelt, burned the structures and killed Pythagoras.

Accounts of the philosopher's death do not agree. Some say that he was murdered with

his disciples; others that, on escaping from Crotona with a small band of followers, he

was trapped and burned alive by his enemies in a little house where the band had decided

to rest for the night. Another account states that, finding themselves trapped in the

burning structure, the disciples threw themselves into the flames, making of their own

bodies a bridge over which Pythagoras escaped, only to die of a broken heart a short time

afterwards as the result of grieving over the apparent fruitlessness of his efforts to serve

and illuminate mankind.

His surviving disciples attempted to perpetuate his doctrines, but they were persecuted on

every hand and very little remains today as a testimonial to the greatness of this

philosopher. It is said that the disciples of Pythagoras never addressed him or referred to

him by his own name, but always as The Master or That Man. This may have been

because of the fact that the name Pythagoras was believed to consist of a certain number

of specially arranged letters with great sacred significance. The Word magazine has

printed an article by T. R. Prater, showing that Pythagoras initiated his candidates by

means of a certain formula concealed within

Click to enlarge

PYTHAGORAS, THE FIRST PHILOSOPHER.

From Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.

During his youth, Pythagoras was a disciple of Pherecydes and Hermodamas, and while in his teens

became renowned for the clarity of his philosophic concepts. In height he exceeded six feet; his body was

as perfectly formed as that of Apollo. Pythagoras was the personification of majesty and power, and in his

presence a felt humble and afraid. As he grew older, his physical power increased rather than waned, so

that as he approached the century mark he was actually in the prime of life. The influence of this great soul

over those about him was such that a word of praise from Pythagoras filled his disciples with ecstasy, while

one committed suicide because the Master became momentarily irritate over something he had dome.

Pythagoras was so impressed by this tragedy that he never again spoke unkindly to or about anyone.

p. 66

the letters of his own name. This may explain why the word Pythagoras was so highly

revered.

After the death of Pythagoras his school gradually disintegrated, but those who had

benefited by its teachings revered the memory of the great philosopher, as during his life

they had reverenced the man himself. As time went on, Pythagoras came to be regarded

as a god rather than a man, and his scattered disciples were bound together by their

common admiration for the transcendent genius of their teacher. Edouard Schure, in his

Pythagoras and the Delphic Mysteries, relates the following incident as illustrative of the

bond of fellowship uniting the members of the Pythagorean School:

"One of them who had fallen upon sickness and poverty was kindly taken in by an

innkeeper. Before dying he traced a few mysterious signs (the pentagram, no doubt) on

the door of the inn and said to the host, 'Do not be uneasy, one of my brothers will pay

my debts.' A year afterwards, as a stranger was passing by this inn he saw the signs and

said to the host, 'I am a Pythagorean; one of my brothers died here; tell me what I owe

you on his account.'"

Frank C. Higgins, 32°, gives an excellent compendium of the Pythagorean tenets in the

following outline:

"Pythagoras' teachings are of the most transcendental importance to Masons, inasmuch as

they are the necessary fruit of his contact with the leading philosophers of the whole

civilized world of his own day, and must represent that in which all were agreed, shorn of

all weeds of controversy. Thus, the determined stand made by Pythagoras, in defense of

pure monotheism, is sufficient evidence that the tradition to the effect that the unity of

God was the supreme secret of all the ancient initiations is substantially correct. The

philosophical school of Pythagoras was, in a measure, also a series of initiations, for he

caused his pupils to pass through a series of degrees and never permitted them personal

contact with himself until they had reached the higher grades. According to his

biographers, his degrees were three in number. The first, that of 'Mathematicus,' assuring

his pupils proficiency in mathematics and geometry, which was then, as it would be now

if Masonry were properly inculcated, the basis upon which all other knowledge was

erected. Secondly, the degree of 'Theoreticus,' which dealt with superficial applications of

the exact sciences, and, lastly, the degree of 'Electus,' which entitled the candidate to pass

forward into the light of the fullest illumination which he was capable of absorbing. The

pupils of the Pythagorean school were divided into 'exoterici,' or pupils in the outer

grades, and 'esoterici,' after they had passed the third degree of initiation and were

entitled to the secret wisdom. Silence, secrecy and unconditional obedience were cardinal

principles of this great order." (See Ancient Freemasonry.)

PYTHAGORIC FUNDAMENTALS

The study of geometry, music, and astronomy was considered essential to a rational

understanding of God, man, or Nature, and no one could accompany Pythagoras as a

disciple who was not thoroughly familiar with these sciences. Many came seeking

admission to his school. Each applicant was tested on these three subjects, and if found

ignorant, was summarily dismissed.

Pythagoras was not an extremist. He taught moderation in all things rather than excess in

anything, for he believed that an excess of virtue was in itself a vice. One of his favorite

statements was: "We must avoid with our utmost endeavor, and amputate with fire and

sword, and by all other means, from the body, sickness; from the soul, ignorance; from

the belly, luxury; from a city, sedition; from a family, discord; and from all things,

excess." Pythagoras also believed that there was no crime equal to that of anarchy.

All men know what they want, but few know what they need. Pythagoras warned his

disciples that when they prayed they should not pray for themselves; that when they

asked things of the gods they should not ask things for themselves, because no man

knows what is good for him and it is for this reason undesirable to ask for things which, if

obtained, would only prove to be injurious.

The God of Pythagoras was the Monad, or the One that is Everything. He described God

as the Supreme Mind distributed throughout all parts of the universe--the Cause of all

things, the Intelligence of all things, and the Power within all things. He further declared

the motion of God to be circular, the body of God to be composed of the substance of

light, and the nature of God to be composed of the substance of truth.

Pythagoras declared that the eating of meat clouded the reasoning faculties. While he did

not condemn its use or totally abstain therefrom himself, he declared that judges should

refrain from eating meat before a trial, in order that those who appeared before them

might receive the most honest and astute decisions. When Pythagoras decided (as he

often did) to retire into the temple of God for an extended period of time to meditate and

pray, he took with his supply of specially prepared food and drink. The food consisted of

equal parts of the seeds of poppy and sesame, the skin of the sea onion from which the

juice had been thoroughly extracted, the flower of daffodil, the leaves of mallows, and a

paste of barley and peas. These he compounded together with the addition of wild honey.

For a beverage he took the seeds of cucumbers, dried raisins (with seeds removed), the

flowers of coriander, the seeds of mallows and purslane, scraped cheese, meal, and

cream, mixed together and sweetened with wild honey. Pythagoras claimed that this was

the diet of Hercules while wandering in the Libyan desert and was according to the

formula given to that hero by the goddess Ceres herself.

The favorite method of healing among the Pythagoreans was by the aid of poultices.

These people also knew the magic properties of vast numbers of plants. Pythagoras

highly esteemed the medicinal properties of the sea onion, and he is said to have written

an entire volume on the subject. Such a work, however, is not known at the present time.

Pythagoras discovered that music had great therapeutic power and he prepared special

harmonies for various diseases. He apparently experimented also with color, attaining

considerable success. One of his unique curative processes resulted from his discovery of

the healing value of certain verses from the Odyssey and the Iliad of Homer. These he

caused to be read to persons suffering from certain ailments. He was opposed to surgery

in all its forms and also objected to cauterizing. He would not permit the disfigurement of

the human body, for such, in his estimation, was a sacrilege against the dwelling place of

the gods.

Pythagoras taught that friendship was the truest and nearest perfect of all relationships.

He declared that in Nature there was a friendship of all for all; of gods for men; of

doctrines one for another; of the soul for the body; of the rational part for the irrational

part; of philosophy for its theory; of men for one another; of countrymen for one another;

that friendship also existed between strangers, between a man and his wife, his children,

and his servants. All bonds without friendship were shackles, and there was no virtue in

their maintenance. Pythagoras believed that relationships were essentially mental rather

than physical, and that a stranger of sympathetic intellect was closer to him than a blood

relation whose viewpoint was at variance with his own. Pythagoras defined knowledge as

the fruitage of mental accumulation. He believed that it would be obtained in many ways,

but principally through observation. Wisdom was the understanding of the source or

cause of all things, and this could be secured only by raising the intellect to a point where

it intuitively cognized the invisible manifesting outwardly through the visible, and thus

became capable of bringing itself en rapport with the spirit of things rather than with

their forms. The ultimate source that wisdom could cognize was the Monad, the

mysterious permanent atom of the Pythagoreans.

Pythagoras taught that both man and the universe were made in the image of God; that

both being made in the same image, the understanding of one predicated the knowledge

of the other. He further taught that there was a constant interplay between the Grand Man

(the universe) and man (the little universe).

Pythagoras believed that all the sidereal bodies were alive and that the forms of the

planets and stars were merely bodies encasing souls, minds, and spirits in the same

manner that the visible human form is but the encasing vehicle for an invisible spiritual

organism which is, in reality, the conscious individual. Pythagoras regarded the planets as

magnificent deities, worthy of the adoration and respect of man. All these deities,

however, he considered subservient to the One First Cause within whom they all existed

temporarily, as mortality exists in the midst of immortality.

The famous Pythagorean Υ signified the power of choice and was used in the Mysteries

as emblematic of the Forking of the Ways. The central stem separated into two parts, one

branching to

Click to enlarge

THE SYMMETRICAL GEOMETRIC SOLIDS.

To the five symmetrical solids of the ancients is added the sphere (1), the most perfect of all created forms.

The five Pythagorean solids are: the tetrahedron (2) with four equilateral triangles as faces; the cube (3)

with six squares as faces; the octahedron (4) with eight equilateral triangles as faces; the icosahedron (5)

with twenty equilateral triangles as faces; and the dodecahedron (6) with twelve regular pentagons as faces.

p. 67

the right and the other to the left. The branch to the right was called Divine Wisdom and

the one to the left Earthly Wisdom. Youth, personified by the candidate, walking the Path

of Life, symbolized by the central stem of the Υ, reaches the point where the Path

divides. The neophyte must then choose whether he will take the left-hand path and,

following the dictates of his lower nature, enter upon a span of folly and thoughtlessness

which will inevitably result in his undoing, or whether he will take the right-hand road

and through integrity, industry, and sincerity ultimately regain union with the immortals

in the superior spheres.

It is probable that Pythagoras obtained his concept of the Υ from the Egyptians, who

included in certain of their initiatory rituals a scene in which the candidate was

confronted by two female figures. One of them, veiled with the white robes of the temple,

urged the neophyte to enter into the halls of learning; the other, bedecked with jewels,

symbolizing earthly treasures, and bearing in her hands a tray loaded with grapes

(emblematic of false light), sought to lure him into the chambers of dissipation. This

symbol is still preserved among the Tarot cards, where it is called The Forking of the

Ways. The forked stick has been the symbol of life among many nations, and it was

placed in the desert to indicate the presence of water.

Concerning the theory of transmigration as disseminated by Pythagoras, there are

differences of opinion. According to one view, he taught that mortals who during their

earthly existence had by their actions become like certain animals, returned to earth again

in the form of the beasts which they had grown to resemble. Thus, a timid person would

return in the form of a rabbit or a deer; a cruel person in the form of a wolf or other

ferocious animal; and a cunning person in the guise of a fox. This concept, however, does

not fit into the general Pythagorean scheme, and it is far more likely that it was given in

an allegorical rather than a literal sense. It was intended to convey the idea that human

beings become bestial when they allow themselves to be dominated by their own lower

desires and destructive tendencies. It is probable that the term transmigration is to be

understood as what is more commonly called reincarnation, a doctrine which Pythagoras

must have contacted directly or indirectly in India and Egypt.

The fact that Pythagoras accepted the theory of successive reappearances of the spiritual

nature in human form is found in a footnote to Levi's History of Magic: "He was an

important champion of what used to be called the doctrine of metempsychosis,

understood as the soul's transmigration into successive bodies. He himself had been (a)

Aethalides, a son of Mercury; (b) Euphorbus, son of Panthus, who perished at the hands

of Menelaus in the Trojan war; (c) Hermotimus, a prophet of Clazomenae, a city of Ionia;

(d) a humble fisherman; and finally (e) the philosopher of Samos."

Pythagoras also taught that each species of creatures had what he termed a seal, given to

it by God, and that the physical form of each was the impression of this seal upon the

wax of physical substance. Thus each body was stamped with the dignity of its divinely

given pattern. Pythagoras believed that ultimately man would reach a state where he

would cast off his gross nature and function in a body of spiritualized ether which would

be in juxtaposition to his physical form at all times and which might be the eighth sphere,

or Antichthon. From this he would ascend into the realm of the immortals, where by

divine birthright he belonged.

Pythagoras taught that everything in nature was divisible into three parts and that no one

could become truly wise who did not view every problem as being diagrammatically

triangular. He said, "Establish the triangle and the problem is two-thirds solved"; further,

"All things consist of three." In conformity with this viewpoint, Pythagoras divided the

universe into three parts, which he called the Supreme World, the Superior World, and

the Inferior World. The highest, or Supreme World, was a subtle, interpenetrative

spiritual essence pervading all things and therefore the true plane of the Supreme Deity

itself, the Deity being in every sense omnipresent, omniactive, omnipotent, and

omniscient. Both of the lower worlds existed within the nature of this supreme sphere.

The Superior World was the home of the immortals. It was also the dwelling place of the

archetypes, or the seals; their natures in no manner partook of the material of earthiness,

but they, casting their shadows upon the deep (the Inferior World), were cognizable only

through their shadows. The third, or Inferior World, was the home of those creatures who

partook of material substance or were engaged in labor with or upon material substance.

Hence, this sphere was the home of the mortal gods, the Demiurgi, the angels who labor

with men; also the dæmons who partake of the nature of the earth; and finally mankind

and the lower kingdoms, those temporarily of the earth but capable of rising above that

sphere by reason and philosophy.

The digits 1 and 2 are not considered numbers by the Pythagoreans, because they typify

the two supermundane spheres. The Pythagorean numbers, therefore, begin with 3, the

triangle, and 4, the square. These added to the 1 and the 2, produce the 10, the great

number of all things, the archetype of the universe. The three worlds were called

receptacles. The first was the receptacle of principles, the second was the receptacle of

intelligences, and the third, or lowest, was the receptacle of quantities.

"The symmetrical solids were regarded by Pythagoras, and by the Greek thinkers after

him, as of the greatest importance. To be perfectly symmetrical or regular, a solid must

have an equal number of faces meeting at each of its angles, and these faces must be

equal regular polygons, i. e., figures whose sides and angles are all equal. Pythagoras,

perhaps, may be credited with the great discovery that there are only five such solids.* *

*

'Now, the Greeks believed the world [material universe] to be composed of four

elements--earth, air, fire, water--and to the Greek mind the conclusion was inevitable that

the shapes of the particles of the elements were those of the regular solids. Earth-particles

were cubical, the cube being the regular solid possessed of greatest stability; fire-particles

were tetrahedral, the tetrahedron being the simplest and, hence, lightest solid. Water-

particles were icosahedral for exactly the reverse reason, whilst air-particles, as

intermediate between the two latter, were octahedral. The dodecahedron was, to these

ancient mathematicians, the most mysterious of the solids; it was by far the most difficult

to construct, the accurate drawing of the regular pentagon necessitating a rather elaborate

application of Pythagoras' great theorem. Hence the conclusion, as Plato put it, that 'this

(the regular dodecahedron) the Deity employed in tracing the plan of the Universe.' (H.

Stanley Redgrove, in Bygone Beliefs.)

Mr. Redgrove has not mentioned the fifth element of the ancient Mysteries, that which

would make the analogy between the symmetrical solids and the elements complete. This

fifth element, or ether, was called by the Hindus akasa. It was closely correlated with the

hypothetical ether of modern science, and was the interpenetrative substance permeating

all of the other elements and acting as a common solvent and common denominator of

them. The twelve-faced solid also subtly referred to the Twelve Immortals who surfaced

the universe, and also to the twelve convolutions of the human brain--the vehicles of

those Immortals in the nature of man.

While Pythagoras, in accordance with others of his day, practiced divination (possibly

arithmomancy), there is no accurate information concerning the methods which he used.

He is believed to have had a remarkable wheel by means of which he could predict future

events, and to have learned hydromancy from the Egyptians. He believed that brass had

oracular powers, because even when everything was perfectly still there was always a

rumbling sound in brass bowls. He once addressed a prayer to the spirit of a river and out

of the water arose a voice, "Pythagoras, I greet thee." It is claimed for him that he was

able to cause dæmons to enter into water and disturb its surface, and by means of the

agitations certain things were predicted.

After having drunk from a certain spring one day, one of the Masters of Pythagoras

announced that the spirit of the water had just predicted that a great earthquake would

occur the next day--a prophecy which was fulfilled. It is highly probable that Pythagoras

possessed hypnotic power, not only over man but also over animals. He caused a bird to

change the course of its flight, a bear to cease its ravages upon a community, and a bull to

change its diet, by the exercise of mental influence. He was also gifted with second sight,

being able to see things at a distance and accurately describe incidents that had not yet

come to pass.

THE SYMBOLIC APHORISMS OF PYTHAGORAS

Iamblichus gathered thirty-nine of the symbolic sayings of Pythagoras and interpreted

them. These have been translated from the Greek by Thomas Taylor. Aphorismic

statement was one of the favorite methods of instruction used in the Pythagorean

university of Crotona. Ten of the most representative of these aphorisms are reproduced

below with a brief elucidation of their concealed meanings.

I. Declining from the public ways, walk in unfrequented paths. By this it is to be

understood that those who desire wisdom must seek it in solitude.

Click to enlarge

NUMBER RELATED TO FORM.

Pythagoras taught that the dot symbolized the power of the number 1, the line the power of the number 2,

the surface the power of the number 3, and the solid the power of the number 4.

p. 68

II. Govern your tongue before all other things, following the gods. This aphorism warns

man that his words, instead of representing him, misrepresent him, and that when in

doubt as to what he should say, he should always be silent.

III. The wind blowing, adore the sound. Pythagoras here reminds his disciples that the fiat

of God is heard in the voice of the elements, and that all things in Nature manifest

through harmony, rhythm, order, or procedure the attributes of the Deity.

IV. Assist a man in raising a burden; but do not assist him in laying it down. The student

is instructed to aid the diligent but never to assist those who seek to evade their

responsibilities, for it is a great sin to encourage indolence.

V. Speak not about Pythagoric concerns without light. The world is herein warned that it

should not attempt to interpret the mysteries of God and the secrets of the sciences

without spiritual and intellectual illumination.

VI. Having departed from your house, turn not back, for the furies will be your

attendants. Pythagoras here warns his followers that any who begin the search for truth

and, after having learned part of the mystery, become discouraged and attempt to return

again to their former ways of vice and ignorance, will suffer exceedingly; for it is better

to know nothing about Divinity than to learn a little and then stop without learning all.

VII. Nourish a cock, but sacrifice it not; for it is sacred to the sun and moon. Two great

lessons are concealed in this aphorism. The first is a warning against the sacrifice of

living things to the gods, because life is sacred and man should not destroy it even as an

offering to the Deity. The second warns man that the human body here referred to as a

cock is sacred to the sun (God) and the moon (Nature), and should be guarded and

preserved as man's most precious medium of expression. Pythagoras also warned his

disciples against suicide.

VIII. Receive not a swallow into your house. This warns the seeker after truth not to

allow drifting thoughts to come into his mind nor shiftless persons to enter into his life.

He must ever surround himself with rationally inspired thinkers and with conscientious

workers.

IX. Offer not your right hand easily to anyone. This warns the disciple to keep his own

counsel and not offer wisdom and knowledge (his right hand) to such as are incapable of

appreciating them. The hand here represents Truth, which raises those who have fallen

because of ignorance; but as many of the unregenerate do not desire wisdom they will cut

off the hand that is extended in kindness to them. Time alone can effect the redemption of

the ignorant masses

X. When rising from the bedclothes, roll them together, and obliterate the impression of

the body. Pythagoras directed his disciples who had awakened from the sleep of

ignorance into the waking state of intelligence to eliminate from their recollection all

memory of their former spiritual darkness; for a wise man in passing leaves no form

behind him which others less intelligent, seeing, shall use as a mold for the casting of

idols.

The most famous of the Pythagorean fragments are the Golden Verses, ascribed to

Pythagoras himself, but concerning whose authorship there is an element of doubt. The

Golden Verses contain a brief summary of the entire system of philosophy forming the

basis of the educational doctrines of Crotona, or, as it is more commonly known, the

Italic School. These verses open by counseling the reader to love God, venerate the great

heroes, and respect the dæmons and elemental inhabitants. They then urge man to think

carefully and industriously concerning his daily life, and to prefer the treasures of the

mind and soul to accumulations of earthly goods. The verses also promise man that if he

will rise above his lower material nature and cultivate self-control, he will ultimately be

acceptable in the sight of the gods, be reunited with them, and partake of their

immortality. (It is rather significant to note that Plato paid a great price for some of the

manuscripts of Pythagoras which had been saved from the destruction of Crotona. See

Historia Deorum Fatidicorum, Geneva, 1675.)

PYTHAGOREAN ASTRONOMY

According to Pythagoras, the position of each body in the universe was determined by the

essential dignity of that body. The popular concept of his day was that the earth occupied

the center of the solar system; that the planets, including the sun and moon, moved about

the earth; and that the earth itself was flat and square. Contrary to this concept, and

regardless of criticism, Pythagoras declared that fire was the most important of all the

elements; that the center was the most important part of every body; and that, just as

Vesta's fire was in the midst of every home, so in the midst of the universe was a flaming

sphere of celestial radiance. This central globe he called the Tower of Jupiter, the Globe

of Unity, the Grand Monad, and the Altar of Vesta. As the sacred number 10 symbolized

the sum of all parts and the completeness of all things, it was only natural for Pythagoras

to divide the universe into ten spheres, symbolized by ten concentric circles. These

circles began at the center with the globe of Divine Fire; then came the seven planers, the

earth, and another mysterious planet, called Antichthon, which was never visible.

Opinions differ as to the nature of Antichthon. Clement of Alexandria believed that it

represented the mass of the heavens; others held the opinion that it was the moon. More

probably it was the mysterious eighth sphere of the ancients, the dark planet which

moved in the same orbit as the earth but which was always concealed from the earth by

the body of the sun, being in exact opposition to the earth at all times. Is this the

mysterious Lilith concerning which astrologers have speculated so long?

Isaac Myer has stated: "The Pythagoreans held that each star was a world having its own

atmosphere, with an immense extent surrounding it, of aether." (See The Qabbalah.) The

disciples of Pythagoras also highly revered the planet Venus, because it was the only

planet bright enough to cast a shadow. As the morning star, Venus is visible before

sunrise, and as the evening star it shines forth immediately after sunset. Because of these

qualities, a number of names have been given to it by the ancients. Being visible in the

sky at sunset, it was called vesper, and as it arose before the sun, it was called the false

light, the star of the morning, or Lucifer, which means the light-bearer. Because of this

relation to the sun, the planet was also referred to as Venus, Astarte, Aphrodite, Isis, and

The Mother of the Gods. It is possible that: at some seasons of the year in certain

latitudes the fact that Venus was a crescent could be detected without the aid of a

telescope. This would account for the crescent which is often seen in connection with the

goddesses of antiquity, the stories of which do not agree with the phases of the moon.

The accurate knowledge which Pythagoras possessed concerning astronomy he

undoubtedly secured in the Egyptian temples, for their priests understood the true

relationship of the heavenly bodies many thousands of years before that knowledge was

revealed to the uninitiated world. The fact that the knowledge he acquired in the temples

enabled him to make assertions requiring two thousand years to check proves why Plato

and Aristotle so highly esteemed the profundity of the ancient Mysteries. In the midst of

comparative scientific ignorance, and without the aid of any modern instruments, the

priest-philosophers had discovered the true fundamentals of universal dynamics.

An interesting application of the Pythagorean doctrine of geometric solids as expounded

by Plato is found in The Canon. "Nearly all the old philosophers," says its anonymous

author, "devised an harmonic theory with respect to the universe, and the practice

continued till the old mode of philosophizing died out. Kepler (1596), in order to

demonstrate the Platonic doctrine, that the universe was formed of the five regular solids,

proposed the following rule. 'The earth is a circle, the measurer of all. Round it describe a

dodecahedron; the circle inclosing this will be Mars. Round Mars describe a tetrahedron;

the sphere inclosing this will be Jupiter. Describe a cube round Jupiter; the sphere

containing this will be Saturn. Now inscribe in the earth an icosahedron; the circle

inscribed in it will be Venus. Inscribe an octahedron in Venus; the circle inscribed in it

will be Mercury' (Mysterium Cosmographicum, 1596). This rule cannot be taken

seriously as a real statement of the proportions of the cosmos, fox it bears no real

resemblance to the ratios published by Copernicus in the beginning of the sixteenth

century. Yet Kepler was very proud of his formula, and said he valued it more than the

Electorate of Saxony. It was also approved by those two eminent authorities, Tycho and

Galileo, who evidently understood it. Kepler himself never gives the least hint of how his

precious rule is to be interpreted." Platonic astronomy was not concerned with the

material constitution or arrangement of the heavenly bodies, but considered the stars and

planers primarily as focal points of Divine intelligence. Physical astronomy was regarded

as the science of "shadows," philosophical astronomy the science of "realities."

Click to enlarge

THE TETRACTYS.

Theon of Smyrna declares that the ten dots, or tetractys of Pythagoras, was a symbol of the greatest

importance, for to the discerning mind it revealed the mystery of universal nature. The Pythagoreans bound

themselves by the following oath: "By Him who gave to our soul the tetractys, which hath the fountain and root of ever-springing nature."

Click to enlarge

THE CUBE AND THE STAR.

By connecting the ten dots of the tetractys, nine triangles are formed. Six of these are involved in the

forming of the cube. The same triangles, when lines are properly drawn between them, also reveal the six-

pointed star with a dot in the center. Only seven dots are used in forming the cube and the star.

Qabbalistically, the three unused corner dots represent the threefold, invisible causal nature of the universe, while the seven dots involved in the cube and the star are the Elohim--the Spirits of the seven creative

periods. The Sabbath, or seventh day, is the central dot.

p. 69

Pythagorean Mathematics

CONCERNING the secret significance of numbers there has been much speculation.

Though many interesting discoveries have been made, it may be safely said that with the

death of Pythagoras the great key to this science was lost. For nearly 2500 years

philosophers of all nations have attempted to unravel the Pythagorean skein, but

apparently none has been successful. Notwithstanding attempts made to obliterate all

records of the teachings of Pythagoras, fragments have survived which give clues to some

of the simpler parts of his philosophy. The major secrets were never committed to

writing, but were communicated orally to a few chosen disciples. These apparently dated

not divulge their secrets to the profane, the result being that when death sealed their lips

the arcana died with diem.

Certain of the secret schools in the world today are perpetuations of the ancient

Mysteries, and although it is quite possible that they may possess some of the original

numerical formulæ, there is no evidence of it in the voluminous writings which have

issued from these groups during the last five hundred years. These writings, while

frequently discussing Pythagoras, show no indication of a more complete knowledge of

his intricate doctrines than the post-Pythagorean Greek speculators had, who talked

much, wrote little, knew less, and concealed their ignorance under a series of mysterious

hints and promises. Here and there among the literary products of early writers are found

enigmatic statements which they made no effort: to interpret. The following example is

quoted from Plutarch:

"The Pythagoreans indeed go farther than this, and honour even numbers and geometrical

diagrams with the names and titles of the gods. Thus they call the equilateral triangle

head-born Minerva and Tritogenia, because it may be equally divided by three

perpendiculars drawn from each of the angles. So the unit they term Apollo, as to the

number two they have affixed the name of strife and audaciousness, and to that of three,

justice. For, as doing an injury is an extreme on the one side, and suffering one is an

extreme on the on the one side, and suffering in the middle between them. In like manner

the number thirty-six, their Tetractys, or sacred Quaternion, being composed of the first

four odd numbers added to the first four even ones, as is commonly reported, is looked

upon by them as the most solemn oath they can take, and called Kosmos." (Isis and

Osiris.)

Earlier in the same work, Plutarch also notes: "For as the power of the triangle is

expressive of the nature of Pluto, Bacchus, and Mars; and the properties of the square of

Rhea, Venus, Ceres, Vesta, and Juno; of the Dodecahedron of Jupiter; so, as we are

informed by Eudoxus, is the figure of fifty-six angles expressive of the nature of

Typhon." Plutarch did not pretend to explain the inner significance of the symbols, but

believed that the relationship which Pythagoras established between the geometrical

solids and the gods was the result of images the great sage had seen in the Egyptian

temples.

Albert Pike, the great Masonic symbolist, admitted that there were many points

concerning which he could secure no reliable information. In his Symbolism, for the 32°

and 33°, he wrote: "I do not understand why the 7 should be called Minerva, or the cube,

Neptune." Further on he added: "Undoubtedly the names given by the Pythagoreans to

the different numbers were themselves enigmatical and symbolic-and there is little doubt

that in the time of Plutarch the meanings these names concealed were lost. Pythagoras

had succeeded too well in concealing his symbols with a veil that was from the first

impenetrable, without his oral explanation * * *."

This uncertainty shared by all true students of the subject proves conclusively that it is

unwise to make definite statements founded on the indefinite and fragmentary

information available concerning the Pythagorean system of mathematical philosophy.

The material which follows represents an effort to collect a few salient points from the

scattered records preserved by disciples of Pythagoras and others who have since

contacted his philosophy.

METHOD OF SECURING THE NUMERICAL POWER OF WORDS

The first step in obtaining the numerical value of a word is to resolve it back into its

original tongue. Only words of Greek or Hebrew derivation can be successfully analyzed

by this method, and all words must be spelled in their most ancient and complete forms.

Old Testament words and names, therefore, must be translated back into the early

Hebrew characters and New Testament words into the Greek. Two examples will help to

clarify this principle.

The Demiurgus of the Jews is called in English Jehovah, but when seeking the numerical

value of the name Jehovah it is necessary to resolve the name into its Hebrew letters. It

becomes יהוה, and is read from right to left. The Hebrew letters are: ה, He; ו, Vau; ה, He; י,

Yod; and when reversed into the English order from left to right read: Yod-He-Vau-He.

By consulting the foregoing table of letter values, it is found that the four characters of

this sacred name have the following numerical significance: Yod equals 10. He equals 5,

Vau equals 6, and the second He equals 5. Therefore, 10+5+6+5=26, a synonym of

Jehovah. If the English letters were used, the answer obviously would not be correct.

The second example is the mysterious Gnostic pantheos Abraxas. For this name the

Greek table is used. Abraxas in Greek is Ἀβραξας. Α = 1, β = 2, ρ = 100, α = 1, ξ =60, α =

1, ς = 200, the sum being 365, the number of days in the year. This number furnishes the

key to the mystery of Abraxas, who is symbolic of the 365 Æons, or Spirits of the Days,

gathered together in one composite personality. Abraxas is symbolic of five creatures,

and as the circle of the year actually consists of 360 degrees, each of the emanating

deities is one-fifth of this power, or 72, one of the most sacred numbers in the Old

Testament of the Jews and in their Qabbalistic system. This same method is used in

finding the numerical value of the names of the gods and goddesses of the Greeks and

Jews.

All higher numbers can be reduced to one of the original ten numerals, and the 10 itself to

1. Therefore, all groups of numbers resulting from the translation of names of deities into

their numerical equivalents have a basis in one of the first ten numbers. By this system, in

which the digits are added together, 666 becomes 6+6+6 or 18, and this, in turn, becomes

1+8 or 9. According to Revelation, 144,000 are to be saved. This number becomes

1+4+4+0+0+0, which equals 9, thus proving that both the Beast of Babylon and the

number of the saved refer to man himself, whose symbol is the number 9. This system

can be used successfully with both Greek and Hebrew letter values.

The original Pythagorean system of numerical philosophy contains nothing to justify the

practice now in vogue of changing the given name or surname in the hope of improving

the temperament or financial condition by altering the name vibrations.

There is also a system of calculation in vogue for the English language, but its accuracy

is a matter of legitimate dispute. It is comparatively modern and has no relationship either

to the Hebrew Qabbalistic system or to the Greek procedure. The claim made by some

that it is Pythagorean is not supported by any tangible evidence, and there are many

reasons why such a contention is untenable. The fact that Pythagoras used 10 as the basis

of calculation, while this system uses 9--an imperfect number--is in itself almost

conclusive. Furthermore, the arrangement of the Greek and Hebrew letters does not agree

closely enough with the English to permit the application of the number sequences of one

language to the number sequences of the others. Further experimentation with

Click to enlarge

THE NUMERICAL VALUES OF THE HEBREW, GREEK, AND SAMARITAN ALPHABETS.

From Higgins' Celtic Druids.

Column

1

Names of the Hebrew letters.

2

Samaritan Letters.

3

Hebrew and Chaldean letters.

4

Numerical equivalents of the letters.

5

Capital and small Greek letters.

The letters marked with asterisks are those brought to Greece from Phœnicia

6

by Cadmus.

7

Name of the Greek letters.

8

Nearest English equivalents to the Hebrew, Greek, and Samaritan Letters.

NOTE. When used at the end of a word, the Hebrew Tau has the numerical value 440, Caph 500, Mem 600,

Nun 700, Pe 800, Tzadi 900. A dotted Alpha and a dashed Aleph have the value of 1,000.

p. 70

the system may prove profitable, but it is without basis in antiquity. The arrangement of

the letters and numbers is as follows:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z

The letters under each of the numbers have the value of the figure at: the top of the

column. Thus, in the word man, M = 4, A = 1, N = 5: a total of 10. The values of the

numbers are practically the same as those given by the Pythagorean system.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE PYTHAGOREAN THEORY OF

NUMBERS

(The following outline of Pythagorean mathematics is a paraphrase of the opening

chapters of Thomas Taylor's Theoretic Arithmetic, the rarest and most important

compilation of Pythagorean mathematical fragments extant.)

The Pythagoreans declared arithmetic to be the mother of the mathematical sciences. This

is proved by the fact that geometry, music, and astronomy are dependent upon it but it is

not dependent upon them. Thus, geometry may be removed but arithmetic will remain;

but if arithmetic be removed, geometry is eliminated. In the same manner music depends

upon arithmetic, but the elimination of music affects arithmetic only by limiting one of its

expressions. The Pythagoreans also demonstrated arithmetic to be prior to astronomy, for

the latter is dependent upon both geometry and music. The size, form, and motion of the

celestial bodies is determined by the use of geometry; their harmony and rhythm by the

use of music. If astronomy be removed, neither geometry nor music is injured; but if

geometry and music be eliminated, astronomy is destroyed. The priority of both geometry

and music to astronomy is therefore established. Arithmetic, however, is prior to all; it is

primary and fundamental.

Pythagoras instructed his disciples that the science of mathematics is divided into two

major parts. The first is concerned with the multitude, or the constituent parts of a thing,

and the second with the magnitude, or the relative size or density of a thing.

Magnitude is divided into two parts--magnitude which is stationary and magnitude which

is movable, the stationary pare having priority. Multitude is also divided into two parts,

for it is related both to itself and to other things, the first relationship having priority.

Pythagoras assigned the science of arithmetic to multitude related to itself, and the art of

music to multitude related to other things. Geometry likewise was assigned to stationary

magnitude, and spherics (used partly in the sense of astronomy) to movable magnitude.

Both multitude and magnitude were circumscribed by the circumference of mind. The

atomic theory has proved size to be the result of number, for a mass is made up of minute

units though mistaken by the uninformed for a single simple substance.

Owing to the fragmentary condition of existing Pythagorean records, it is difficult to

arrive at exact definitions of terms. Before it is possible, however, to unfold the subject

further some light must he cast upon the meanings of the words number, monad, and one.

The monad signifies (a) the all-including ONE. The Pythagoreans called the monad the

"noble number, Sire of Gods and men." The monad also signifies (b) the sum of any

combination of numbers considered as a whole. Thus, the universe is considered as a

monad, but the individual parts of the universe (such as the planets and elements) are

monads in relation to the parts of which they themselves are composed, though they, in

turn, are parts of the greater monad formed of their sum. The monad may also be likened

(c) to the seed of a tree which, when it has grown, has many branches (the numbers). In

other words, the numbers are to the monad what the branches of the tree are to the seed of

the tree. From the study of the mysterious Pythagorean monad, Leibnitz evolved his

magnificent theory of the world atoms--a theory in perfect accord with the ancient

teachings of the Mysteries, for Leibnitz himself was an initiate of a secret school. By

some Pythagoreans the monad is also considered (d) synonymous with the one.

Number is the term applied to all numerals and their combinations. (A strict interpretation

of the term number by certain of the Pythagoreans excludes 1 and 2.) Pythagoras defines

number to be the extension and energy of the spermatic reasons contained in the monad.

The followers of Hippasus declared number to be the first pattern used by the Demiurgus

in the formation of the universe.

The one was defined by the Platonists as "the summit of the many." The one differs from

the monad in that the term monad is used to designate the sum of the parts considered as

a unit, whereas the one is the term applied to each of its integral parts.

There are two orders of number: odd and even. Because unity, or 1, always remains

indivisible, the odd number cannot be divided equally. Thus, 9 is 4+1+4, the unity in the

center being indivisible. Furthermore, if any odd number be divided into two parts, one

part will always be odd and the other even. Thus, 9 may be 5+4, 3+6, 7+2, or 8+1. The

Pythagoreans considered the odd number--of which the monad was the prototype--to be

definite and masculine. They were not all agreed, however, as to the nature of unity, or 1.

Some declared it to be positive, because if added to an even (negative) number, it

produces an odd (positive) number. Others demonstrated that if unity be added to an odd

number, the latter becomes even, thereby making the masculine to be feminine. Unity, or

1, therefore, was considered an androgynous number, partaking of both the masculine

and the feminine attributes; consequently both odd and even. For this reason the

Pythagoreans called it evenly-odd. It was customary for the Pythagoreans to offer

sacrifices of an uneven number of objects to the superior gods, while to the goddesses

and subterranean spirits an even number was offered.

Any even number may be divided into two equal parts, which are always either both odd

or both even. Thus, 10 by equal division gives 5+5, both odd numbers. The same

principle holds true if the 10 be unequally divided. For example, in 6+4, both parts are

even; in 7+3, both parts are odd; in 8+2, both parts are again even; and in 9+1, both parts

are again odd. Thus, in the even number, however it may be divided, the parts will always

be both odd or both even. The Pythagoreans considered the even number-of which the

duad was the prototype--to be indefinite and feminine.

The odd numbers are divided by a mathematical contrivance--called "the Sieve of

Eratosthenes"--into three general classes: incomposite, composite, and incomposite-

composite.

The incomposite numbers are those which have no divisor other than themselves and

unity, such as 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31, 37, 41, 43, 47, and so forth. For example,

7 is divisible only by 7, which goes into itself once, and unity, which goes into 7 seven

times.

The composite numbers are those which are divisible not only by themselves and unity

but also by some other number, such as 9, 15, 21, 25, 27, 33, 39, 45, 51, 57, and so forth.

For example, 21 is divisible not only by itself and by unity, but also by 3 and by 7.

The incomposite-composite numbers are those which have no common divisor, although

each of itself is capable of division, such as 9 and 25. For example, 9 is divisible by 3 and

25 by 5, but neither is divisible by the divisor of the other; thus they have no common

divisor. Because they have individual divisors, they are called composite; and because

they have no common divisor, they are called in, composite. Accordingly, the term

incomposite-composite was created to describe their properties.

Even numbers are divided into three classes: evenly-even, evenly-odd, and oddly-odd.

The evenly-even numbers are all in duple ratio from unity; thus: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128,

256, 512, and 1,024. The proof of the perfect evenly-even number is that it can be halved

and the halves again halved back to unity, as 1/2 of 64 = 32; 1/2 of 32 = 16; 1/2 of 16 = 8;

1/2 of 8 = 4; 1/2 of 4 = 2; 1/2 of 2 = 1; beyond unity it is impossible to go.

The evenly-even numbers possess certain unique properties. The sum of any number of

terms but the last term is always equal to the last term minus one. For example: the sum

of the first and second terms (1+2) equals the third term (4) minus one; or, the sum of the

first, second, third, and fourth terms (1+2+4+8) equals the fifth term (16) minus one.

In a series of evenly-even numbers, the first multiplied by the last equals the last, the

second multiplied by the second from the last equals the last, and so on until in an odd

series one number remains, which multiplied by itself equals the last number of the

series; or, in an even series two numbers remain, which multiplied by each other give the

last number of the series. For example: 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 is an odd series. The first number (1)

multiplied by the last number (16) equals the last number (16). The second number (2)

multiplied by the second from the last number (8) equals the last number (16). Being an

odd series, the 4 is left in the center, and this multiplied by itself also equals the last

number (16).

The evenly-odd numbers are those which, when halved, are incapable of further division

by halving. They are formed by taking the odd numbers in sequential order and

multiplying them by 2. By this process the odd numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 produce the

evenly-odd numbers, 2, 6, 10, 14, 18, 22. Thus, every fourth number is evenly-odd. Each

of the even-odd numbers may be divided once, as 2, which becomes two 1's and cannot

be divided further; or 6, which becomes two 3's and cannot be divided further.

Another peculiarity of the evenly-odd numbers is that if the divisor be odd the quotient is

always even, and if the divisor be even the quotient is always odd. For example: if 18 be

divided by 2 (an even divisor) the quotient is 9 (an odd number); if 18 be divided by 3 (an

odd divisor) the quotient is 6 (an even number).

The evenly-odd numbers are also remarkable in that each term is one-half of the sum of

the terms on either side of it. For example: [paragraph continues]

p. 71

Click to enlarge

THE SIEVE OF ERATOSTHENES.

Redrawn from Taylor's Theoretic Arithmetic.

This sieve is a mathematical device originated by Eratosthenes about 230 B.C. far the purpose of

segregating the composite and incomposite odd numbers. Its use is extremely simple after the theory has

once been mastered. All the odd numbers are first arranged in their natural order as shown in the second

panel from the bottom, designated Odd Numbers. It will then be seen that every third number (beginning

with 3) is divisible by 3, every fifth number (beginning with 5;) is divisible by 5, every seventh number

(beginning with 7) is divisible by 7, every ninth number (beginning with 9) is divisible by 9, every eleventh

number (beginning with 11) is divisible by 11, and so on to infinity. This system finally sifts out what the

Pythagoreans called the "incomposite" numbers, or those having no divisor other than themselves and

unity. These will be found in the lowest panel, designated Primary and Incomposite Numbers. In his

History of Mathematics, David Eugene Smith states that Eratosthenes was one of the greatest scholars of

Alexandria and was called by his admirers "the second Plato." Eratosthenes was educated at Athens, and is renowned not only for his sieve but for having computed, by a very ingenious method, the circumference

and diameter of the earth. His estimate of the earth's diameter was only 50 miles less than the polar

diameter accepted by modern scientists. This and other mathematical achievements of Eratosthenes, are

indisputable evidence that in the third century before Christ the Greeks not only knew the earth to be

spherical in farm but could also approximate, with amazing accuracy, its actual size and distance from both

the sun and the moon. Aristarchus of Samos, another great Greek astronomer and mathematician, who lived

about 250 B.C., established by philosophical deduction and a few simple scientific instruments that the

earth revolved around the sun. While Copernicus actually believed himself to be the discoverer of this fact,

he but restated the findings advanced by Aristarchus seventeen hundred years earlier.

__________________________

[paragraph continues] 10 is one-half of the sum of 6 and 14; 18 is one-half the sum of 14 and 22;

and 6 is one-half the sum of 2 and 10.

The oddly-odd, or unevenly-even, numbers are a compromise between the evenly-even

and the evenly-odd numbers. Unlike the evenly-even, they cannot be halved back to

unity; and unlike the evenly-odd, they are capable of more than one division by halving.

The oddly-odd numbers are formed by multiplying the evenly-even numbers above 2 by

the odd numbers above one. The odd numbers above one are 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and so forth.

The evenly-even numbers above 2 are 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, and soon. The first odd number of

the series (3) multiplied by 4 (the first evenly-even number of the series) gives 12, the

first oddly-odd number. By multiplying 5, 7, 9, 11, and so forth, by 4, oddly-odd numbers

are found. The other oddly-odd numbers are produced by multiplying 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and

so forth, in turn, by the other evenly-even numbers (8, 16, 32, 64, and so forth). An

example of the halving of the oddly-odd number is as follows: 1/2 of 12 = 6; 1/2 of 6 = 3,

which cannot be halved further because the Pythagoreans did not divide unity.

Even numbers are also divided into three other classes: superperfect, deficient, and

perfect.

Superperfect or superabundant numbers are such as have the sum of their fractional parts

greater than themselves. For example: 1/2 of 24 = 12; 1/4 = 6; 1/3 = 8; 1/6 = 4; 1/12 = 2;

and 1/24 = 1. The sum of these parts (12+6+8+4+2+1) is 33, which is in excess of 24, the

original number.

Deficient numbers are such as have the sum of their fractional parts less than themselves.

For example: 1/2 of 14 = 7; 1/7 = 2; and 1/14 = 1. The sum of these parts (7+2+1) is 10,

which is less than 14, the original number.

Perfect numbers are such as have the sum of their fractional parts equal to themselves.

For example: 1/2 of 28 = 14; 1/4 = 7; 1/7 = 4; 1/14 = 2; and 1/28 = 1. The sum of these

parts (14+7+4+2+1) is equal to 28.

The perfect numbers are extremely rare. There is only one between 1 and 10, namely, 6;

one between 10 and 100, namely, 28; one between 100 and 1,000, namely, 496; and one

between 1,000 and 10,000, namely, 8,128. The perfect numbers are found by the

following rule: The first number of the evenly-even series of numbers (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32,

and so forth) is added to the second number of the series, and if an incomposite number

results it is multiplied by the last number of the series of evenly-even numbers whose

sum produced it. The product is the first perfect number. For example: the first and

second evenly-even numbers are 1 and 2. Their sum is 3, an incomposite number. If 3 be

multiplied by 2, the last number of the series of evenly-even numbers used to produce it,

the product is 6, the first perfect number. If the addition of the evenly-even numbers does

not result in an incomposite number, the next evenly-even number of the series must be

added until an incomposite number results. The second perfect number is found in the

following manner: The sum of the evenly-even numbers 1, 2, and 4 is 7, an incomposite

number. If 7 be multiplied by 4 (the last of the series of evenly-even numbers used to

produce it) the product is 28, the second perfect number. This method of calculation may

be continued to infinity.

Perfect numbers when multiplied by 2 produce superabundant numbers, and when

divided by 2 produce deficient numbers.

The Pythagoreans evolved their philosophy from the science of numbers. The following

quotation from Theoretic Arithmetic is an excellent example of this practice:

"Perfect numbers, therefore, are beautiful images of the virtues which are certain media

between excess and defect, and are not summits, as by some of the ancients they were

supposed to be. And evil indeed is opposed to evil, but both are opposed to one good.

Good, however, is never opposed to good, but to two evils at one and the same time.

Thus timidity is opposed to audacity, to both [of] which the want of true courage is

common; but both timidity and audacity are opposed to fortitude. Craft also is opposed to

fatuity, to both [of] which the want of intellect is common; and both these are opposed to

prudence. Thus, too, profusion is opposed to avarice, to both [of] which illiberality is

common; and both these are opposed to liberality. And in a similar manner in the other

virtues; by all [of] which it is evident that perfect numbers have a great similitude to the

virtues. But they also resemble the virtues on another account; for they are rarely found,

as being few, and they are generated in a very constant order. On the contrary, an infinite

multitude of superabundant and diminished numbers may be found, nor are they disposed

in any orderly series, nor generated from any certain end; and hence they have a great

similitude to the vices, which are numerous, inordinate, and indefinite."

THE TABLE OF THE TEN NUMBERS

(The following outline of the Pythagorean numbers is a paraphrase of the writings of

Nicomachus, Theon of Smyrna, Proclus, Porphyry, Plutarch, Clement of Alexandria,

Aristotle, and other early authorities.)

Monad--1--is so called because it remains always in the same condition--that is, separate from multitude.

Its attributes are as follows: It is called mind, because the mind is stable and has preeminence;

hermaphrodism, because it is both male and female; odd and even, for being added to the even it makes

odd, and to the odd, even; God, because it is the beginning and end of all, but itself has neither beginning

nor end; good, for such is the nature of God; the receptacle of matter, because it produces the duad, which

is essentially material.

By the Pythagoreans monad was called chaos, obscurity, chasm, Tartarus, Styx, abyss, Lethe, Atlas, Axis,

Morpho (a name for Venus), and Tower or Throne of Jupiter, because of the great power which abides in

the center of the universe and controls the circular motion of the planers about itself. Monad is also called

germinal reason, because it is the origin of all the thoughts in the universe. Other names given to it were:

Apollo, because of its relation to the sun; Prometheus, because he brought man light; Pyralios, one who

exists in fire; geniture, because without it no number can exist; substance, because substance is primary;

cause of truth; and constitution of symphony: all these because it is the primordial one.

Between greater and lesser the monad is equal; between intention and remission it is middle; in multitude it

is mean; and in time it is now, because

p. 72

eternity knows neither past nor future. It is called Jupiter, because he is Father and head of the gods; Vesta, the fire of the home, because it is located in the midst of the universe and remains there inclining to no side as a dot in a circle; form, because it circumscribes, comprehends, and terminates; love, concord, and piety,

because it is indivisible. Other symbolic names for the monad are ship, chariot, Proteus (a god capable of

changing his form), Mnemosyne, and Polyonymous (having many names).

The following symbolic names were given to the duad--2--because it has been divided, and is two rather

than one; and when there are two, each is opposed to the other: genius, evil, darkness, inequality,

instability, movability, boldness, fortitude, contention, matter, dissimilarity, partition between multitude

and monad, defect, shapelessness, indefiniteness, indeterminate ness, harmony, tolerance, root, feet of

fountain-abounding idea, top, Phanes, opinion, fallacy, alterity, diffidence, impulse, death, motion,

generation, mutation, division, longitude, augmentation, composition, communion, misfortune,

sustentation, imposition, marriage, soul, and science.

In his book, Numbers, W. Wynn Westcott says of the duad: "it was called 'Audacity,' from its being the earliest number to separate itself from the Divine One; from the 'Adytum of God-nourished Silence,' as the

Chaldean oracles say."

As the monad is the father, so the duad is the mother; therefore, the duad has certain points in common with

the goddesses Isis, Rhea (Jove's mother), Phrygia, Lydia, Dindymene (Cybele), and Ceres; Erato (one of

the Muses); Diana, because the moon is forked; Dictynna, Venus, Dione, Cytherea; Juno, because she is

both wife and sister of Jupiter; and Maia, the mother of Mercury.

While the monad is the symbol of wisdom, the duad is the symbol of ignorance, for in it exists the sense of

separateness--which sense is the beginning of ignorance. The duad, however, is also the mother of wisdom,

for ignorance--out of the nature of itself--invariably gives birth to wisdom.

The Pythagoreans revered the monad but despised the duad, because it was the symbol of polarity. By the

power of the duad the deep was created in contradistinction to the heavens. The deep mirrored the heavens

and became the symbol of illusion, for the below was merely a reflection of the above. The below was

called maya, the illusion, the sea, the Great Void, and to symbolize it the Magi of Persia carried mirrors.

From the duad arose disputes and contentions, until by bringing the monad between the duad, equilibrium

was reestablished by the Savior-God, who took upon Himself the form of a number and was crucified

between two thieves for the sins of men.

The triad--3--is the first number actually odd (monad not always being considered a number). It is the first

equilibrium of unities; therefore, Pythagoras said that Apollo gave oracles from a tripod, and advised offer

of libation three times. The keywords to the qualities of the triad are friendship, peace, justice, prudence,

piety, temperance, and virtue. The following deities partake of the principles of the triad: Saturn (ruler of

time), Latona, Cornucopiæ, Ophion (the great serpent), Thetis, Hecate, Polyhymnia (a Muse), Pluto, Triton,

President of the Sea, Tritogenia, Achelous, and the Faces, Furies, and Graces. This number is called

wisdom, because men organize the present, foresee the future, and benefit by the experiences of the fast. It

is cause of wisdom and understanding. The triad is the number of knowledge--music, geometry, and

astronomy, and the science of the celestials and terrestrials. Pythagoras taught that the cube of this number

had the power of the lunar circle.

The sacredness of the triad and its symbol--the triangle--is derived from the fact that it is made up of the

monad and the duad. The monad is the symbol of the Divine Father and the duad of the Great Mother. The

triad being made of these two is therefore androgynous and is symbolic of the fact that God gave birth to

His worlds out of Himself, who in His creative aspect is always symbolized by the triangle. The monad

passing into the duad was thus capable of becoming the parent of progeny, for the duad was the womb of

Meru, within which the world was incubated and within which it still exists in embryo.

The tetrad--4--was esteemed by the Pythagoreans as the primogenial number, the root of all things, the

fountain of Nature and the most perfect number. All tetrads are intellectual; they have an emergent order

and encircle the world as the Empyreum passes through it. Why the Pythagoreans expressed God as a tetrad

is explained in a sacred discourse ascribed to Pythagoras, wherein God is called the Number of Numbers.

This is because the decad, or 10, is composed of 1, 2, 3, and 4. The number 4 is symbolic of God because it

is symbolic of the first four numbers. Moreover, the tetrad is the center of the week, being halfway between

1 and 7. The tetrad is also the first geometric solid.

Pythagoras maintained that the soul of man consists of a tetrad, the four powers of the soul being mind,

science, opinion, and sense. The tetrad connects all beings, elements, numbers, and seasons; nor can

anything be named which does not depend upon the tetractys. It is the Cause and Maker of all things, the

intelligible God, Author of celestial and sensible good, Plutarch interprets this tetractys, which he said was also called the world, to be 36, consisting of the first four odd numbers added to the first four even

numbers, thus:

1 + 3 +5 +7

= 16

2 + 4 + 6 + 8

= 20

36

Keywords given to the tetrad are impetuosity, strength, virility, two-mothered, and the key keeper of

Nature, because the universal constitution cannot be without it. It is also called harmony and the first

profundity. The following deities partook of the nature of the tetrad: Hercules, Mercury, Vulcan, Bacchus,

and Urania (one of the Muses).

The triad represents the primary colors and the major planets, while the tetrad represents the secondary

colors and the minor planets. From the first triangle come forth the seven spirits, symbolized by a triangle

and a square. These together form the Masonic apron.

The pentad--5--is the union of an odd and an even number (3 and 2). Among the Greeks, the pentagram

was a sacred symbol of light, health, and vitality. It also symbolized the fifth element--ether--because it is free from the disturbances of the four lower elements. It is called equilibrium, because it divides the perfect number 10 into two equal parts.

The pentad is symbolic of Nature, for, when multiplied by itself it returns into itself, just as grains of wheat, starting in the form of seed, pass through Nature's processes and reproduce the seed of the wheat as the

ultimate form of their own growth. Other numbers multiplied by themselves produce other numbers, but

only 5 and 6 multiplied by themselves represent and retain their original number as the last figure in their

products.

The pentad represents all the superior and inferior beings. It is sometimes referred to as the hierophant, or

the priest of the Mysteries, because of its connection with the spiritual ethers, by means of which mystic

development is attained. Keywords of the pentad are reconciliation, alternation, marriage, immortality,

cordiality, Providence, and sound. Among the deities who partook of the nature of the pentad were Pallas,

Nemesis, Bubastia (Bast), Venus, Androgynia, Cytherea, and the messengers of Jupiter.

The tetrad (the elements) plus the monad equals the pentad. The Pythagoreans taught that the elements of

earth, fire, air, and water were permeated by a substance called ether--the basis of vitality and life.

Therefore, they chose the five-pointed star, or pentagram, as the symbol of vitality, health, and

interpenetration.

It was customary for the philosophers to conceal the element of earth under the symbol of a dragon, and

many of the heroes of antiquity were told to go forth and slay the dragon. Hence, they drove their sword

(the monad) into the body of the dragon (the tetrad). This resulted in the formation of the pentad, a symbol

of the victory of the spiritual nature over the material nature. The four elements are symbolized in the early Biblical writings as the four rivers that poured out of Garden of Eden. The elements themselves are under

the control of the composite Cherubim of Ezekiel.

The Pythagoreans held the hexad--6--to represent, as Clement of Alexandria conceived, the creation of the

world according to both the prophets and the ancient Mysteries. It was called by the Pythagoreans the

perfection of all the parts. This number was particularly sacred to Orpheus, and also to the Fate, Lachesis,

and the Muse, Thalia. It was called the form of forms, the articulation of the universe, and the maker of the

soul.

Among the Greeks, harmony and the soul were considered to be similar in nature, because all souls are

harmonic. The hexad is also the symbol of marriage, because it is formed by the union of two triangles, one

masculine and the other feminine. Among the keywords given to the hexad are: time, for it is the measure of duration; panacea, because health is equilibrium, and the hexad is a balance number; the world, because

the world, like the hexad, is often seen to consist of contraries by harmony; omnisufficient, because its

parts are sufficient for totality (3 +2 + 1 = 6); unwearied, because it contains the elements of immortality.

By the Pythagoreans the heptad--7--was called "worthy of veneration." It was held to be the number of religion, because man is controlled by seven celestial spirits to whom it is proper for him to make offerings.

It was called the number of life, because it was believed that human creatures born in the seventh month of

embryonic life usually lived, but those born in the eighth month often died. One author called it the

Motherless Virgin, Minerva, because it was nor born of a mother but out of the crown, or the head of the

Father, the monad. Keywords of the heptad are fortune, occasion, custody, control, government, judgment,

dreams, voices, sounds, and that which leads all things to their end. Deities whose attributes were expressed

by the heptad were Ægis, Osiris, Mars, and Cleo (one of the Muses).

Among many ancient nations the heptad is a sacred number. The Elohim of the Jews were supposedly

seven in number. They were the Spirits of the Dawn, more commonly known as the Archangels controlling

the planets. The seven Archangels, with the three spirits controlling the sun in its threefold aspect,

constitute the 10, the sacred Pythagorean decad. The mysterious Pythagorean tetractys, or four rows of

dots, increasing from 1 to 4, was symbolic of the stages of creation. The great Pythagorean truth that all

things in Nature are regenerated through the decad, or 10, is subtly preserved in Freemasonry through these

grips being effected by the uniting of 10 fingers, five on the hand of each person.

The 3 (spirit, mind, and soul) descend into the 4 (the world), the sum being the 7, or the mystic nature of

man, consisting of a threefold spiritual body and a fourfold material form. These are symbolized by the

cube, which has six surfaces and a mysterious seventh point within. The six surfaces are the directions:

north, east, south, west, up, and down; or, front, back, right, left, above, and below; or again, earth, fire, air, water, spirit, and matter. In the midst of these stands the 1, which is the upright figure of man, from whose

center in the cube radiate six pyramids. From this comes the great occult axiom: "The center is the father of the directions, the dimensions, and the distances."

The heptad is the number of the law, because it is the number of the Makers of Cosmic law, the Seven

Spirits before the Throne.

The ogdoad--8--was sacred because it was the number of the first cube, which form had eight corners, and

was the only evenly-even number under 10 (1-2-4-8-4-2-1). Thus, the 8 is divided into two 4's, each 4 is

divided into two 2's, and each 2 is divided into two 1's, thereby reestablishing the monad. Among the

keywords of the ogdoad are love, counsel, prudence, law, and convenience. Among the divinities partaking

of its nature were Panarmonia, Rhea, Cibele, Cadmæa, Dindymene, Orcia, Neptune, Themis, and Euterpe

(a Muse).

The ogdoad was a mysterious number associated with the Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece and the Cabiri. It

was called the little holy number. It derived its form partly from the twisted snakes on the Caduceus of

Hermes and partly from the serpentine motion of the celestial bodies; possibly also from the moon's nodes.

The ennead--9--was the first square of an odd number (3x3). It was associated with failure and shortcoming

because it fell short of the perfect number 10 by one. It was called the called the number of man, because of

the nine months of his embryonic life. Among its keywords are ocean and horizon, because to the ancients

these were boundless. The ennead is the limitless number because there is nothing beyond it but the infinite

10. It was called boundary and limitation, because it gathered all numbers within itself. It was called the

sphere of the air, because it surrounded the numbers as air surrounds the earth, Among the gods and

goddesses who partook in greater or less degree of its nature were Prometheus, Vulcan, Juno, the sister and

wife of Jupiter, Pæan, and Aglaia, Tritogenia, Curetes, Proserpine, Hyperion, and Terpsichore (a Muse).

The 9 was looked upon as evil, because it was an inverted 6. According to the Eleusinian Mysteries, it was the number of the spheres through which the consciousness passed on its way to birth. Because of its close

resemblance to the spermatozoon, the 9 has been associated with germinal life.

The decad--10--according to the Pythagoreans, is the greatest of numbers, not only because it is the

tetractys (the 10 dots) but because it comprehends all arithmetic and harmonic proportions. Pythagoras said

that 10 is the nature of number, because all nations reckon to it and when they arrive at it they return to the monad. The decad was called both heaven and the world, because the former includes the latter. Being a

perfect number, the decad was applied by the Pythagoreans to those things relating to age, power, faith,

necessity, and the power of memory. It was also called unwearied, because, like God, it was tireless. The

Pythagoreans divided the heavenly bodies into ten orders. They also stated that the decad perfected all

numbers and comprehended within itself the nature of odd and even, moved and unmoved, good and ill.

They associated its power with the following deities: Atlas (for it carried the numbers on its shoulders),

Urania, Mnemosyne, the Sun, Phanes, and the One God.

The decimal system can probably be traced back to the time when it was customary to reckon on the

fingers, these being among the most primitive of calculating devices and still in use among many aboriginal

peoples.

p. 73

The Human Body in Symbolism

THE oldest, the most profound, the most universal of all symbols is the human body. The

Greeks, Persians, Egyptians, and Hindus considered a philosophical analysis of man's

triune nature to be an indispensable part of ethical and religious training. The Mysteries

of every nation taught that the laws, elements, and powers of the universe were

epitomized in the human constitution; that everything which existed outside of man had

its analogue within man. The universe, being immeasurable in its immensity and

inconceivable in its profundity, was beyond mortal estimation. Even the gods themselves

could comprehend but a part of the inaccessible glory which was their source. When

temporarily permeated with divine enthusiasm, man may transcend for a brief moment

the limitations of his own personality and behold in part that celestial effulgence in which

all creation is bathed. But even in his periods of greatest illumination man is incapable of

imprinting upon the substance of his rational soul a perfect image of the multiform

expression of celestial activity.

Recognizing the futility of attempting to cope intellectually with that which transcends

the comprehension of the rational faculties, the early philosophers turned their attention

from the inconceivable Divinity to man himself, with in the narrow confines of whose

nature they found manifested all the mysteries of the external spheres. As the natural

outgrowth of this practice there was fabricated a secret theological system in which God

was considered as the Grand Man and, conversely, man as the little god. Continuing this

analogy, the universe was regarded as a man and, conversely, man as a miniature

universe. The greater universe was termed the Macrocosm--the Great World or Body--

and the Divine Life or spiritual entity controlling its functions was called the

Macroprosophus. Man's body, or the individual human universe, was termed the

Microcosm, and the Divine Life or spiritual entity controlling its functions was called the

Microprosophus. The pagan Mysteries were primarily concerned with instructing

neophytes in the true relationship existing between the Macrocosm and the Microcosm--

in other words, between God and man. Accordingly, the key to these analogies between

the organs and functions of the Microcosmic man and those of the Macrocosmic Man

constituted the most prized possession of the early initiates.

In Isis Unveiled, H. P. Blavatsky summarizes the pagan concept of man as follows: "Man

is a little world--a microcosm inside the great universe. Like a fetus, he is suspended, by

all his three spirits, in the matrix of the macrocosmos; and while his terrestrial body is in

constant sympathy with its parent earth, his astral soul lives in unison with the sidereal

anima mundi. He is in it, as it is in him, for the world-pervading element fills all space,

and is space itself, only shoreless and infinite. As to his third spirit, the divine, what is it

but an infinitesimal ray, one of the countless radiations proceeding directly from the

Highest Cause--the Spiritual Light of the World? This is the trinity of organic and

inorganic nature--the spiritual and the physical, which are three in one, and of which

Proclus says that 'The first monad is the Eternal God; the second, eternity; the third, the

paradigm, or pattern of the universe;' the three constituting the Intelligible Triad."

Long before the introduction of idolatry into religion, the early priests caused the statue

of a man to be placed in the sanctuary of the temple. This human figure symbolized the

Divine Power in all its intricate manifestations. Thus the priests of antiquity accepted

man as their textbook, and through the study of him learned to understand the greater and

more abstruse mysteries of the celestial scheme of which they were a part. It is not

improbable that this mysterious figure standing over the primitive altars was made in the

nature of a manikin and, like certain emblematic hands in the Mystery schools, was

covered with either carved or painted hieroglyphs. The statue may have opened, thus

showing the relative positions of the organs, bones, muscles, nerves, and other parts.

After ages of research, the manikin became a mass of intricate hieroglyphs and symbolic

figures. Every part had its secret meaning. The measurements formed a basic standard by

means of which it was possible to measure all parts of cosmos. It was a glorious

composite emblem of all the knowledge possessed by the sages and hierophants.

Then came the age of idolatry. The Mysteries decayed from within. The secrets were lost

and none knew the identity of the mysterious man who stood over the altar. It was

remembered only that the figure was a sacred and glorious symbol of the Universal

Power, and it: finally came to be looked upon as a god--the One in whose image man was

made. Having lost the knowledge of the purpose for which the manikin was originally

constructed, the priests worshiped this effigy until at last their lack of spiritual

understanding brought the temple down in ruins about their heads and the statue

crumbled with the civilization that had forgotten its meaning.

Proceeding from this assumption of the first theologians that man is actually fashioned in

the image of God, the initiated minds of past ages erected the stupendous structure of

theology upon the foundation of the human body. The religious world of today is almost

totally ignorant of the fact that the science of biology is the fountainhead of its doctrines

and tenets. Many of the codes and laws believed by modern divines to have been direct

revelations from Divinity are in reality the fruitage of ages of patient delving into the

intricacies of the human constitution and the infinite wonders revealed by such a study.

In nearly all the sacred books of the world can be traced an anatomical analogy. This is

most evident in their creation myths. Anyone familiar with embryology and obstetrics

will have no difficulty in recognizing the basis of the allegory concerning Adam and Eve

and the Garden of Eden, the nine degrees of the Eleusinian Mysteries, and the Brahmanic

legend of Vishnu's incarnations. The story of the Universal Egg, the Scandinavian myth

of Ginnungagap (the dark cleft in space in which the seed of the world is sown), and the

use of the fish as the emblem of the paternal generative power--all show the true origin of

theological speculation. The philosophers of antiquity realized that man himself was the

key to the riddle of life, for he was the living image of the Divine Plan, and in future ages

humanity also will come to realize more fully the solemn import of those ancient words:

"The proper study of mankind is man."

Both God and man have a twofold constitution, of which the superior part is invisible and

the inferior visible. In both there is also an intermediary sphere, marking the point where

these visible and invisible natures meet. As the spiritual nature of God controls His

objective universal form-which is actually a crystallized idea--so the spiritual nature of

man is the invisible cause and controlling power of his visible material personality. Thus

it is evident that the spirit of man bears the same relationship to his material body that

God bears to the objective universe. The Mysteries taught that spirit, or life, was anterior

to form and that what is anterior includes all that is posterior to itself. Spirit being

anterior to form, form is therefore included within the realm of spirit. It is also a popular

statement or belief that man's spirit is within his body. According to the conclusions of

philosophy and theology, however, this belief is erroneous, for spirit first circumscribes

an area and then manifests within it. Philosophically speaking, form, being a part of

spirit, is within spirit; but: spirit is more than the sum of form, As the material nature of

man is therefore within the sum of spirit, so the Universal Nature, including the entire

sidereal system, is within the all-pervading essence of God--the Universal Spirit.

According to another concept of the ancient wisdom, all bodies--whether spiritual or

material--have three centers, called by the Greeks the upper center, the middle center, and

the lower center. An apparent ambiguity will here be noted. To diagram or symbolize

adequately abstract mental verities is impossible, for the diagrammatic representation of

one aspect of metaphysical relationships may be an actual contradiction of some other

aspect. While that which

Click to enlarge

THE TETRAGRAMMATON IN THE HUMAN HEART.

From Böhme's Libri Apologetici.

The Tetragrammaton, or four-lettered Name of God, is here arranged as a tetractys within the inverted human heart. Beneath, the name Jehovah is shown transformed into Jehoshua by the interpolation of the

radiant Hebrew letter סה, Shin. The drawing as a whole represents the throne of God and His hierarchies

within the heart of man. In the first book of his Libri Apologetici, Jakob Böhme thus describes the meaning

of the symbol: "For we men have one book in common which points to God. Each has it within himself,

which is the priceless Name of God. Its letters are the flames of His love, which He out of His heart in the

priceless Name of Jesus has revealed in us. Read these letters in your hearts and spirits and you have books

enough. All the writings of the children of God direct you unto that one book, for therein lie all the

treasures of wisdom. * * * This book is Christ in you."

p. 74

is above is generally considered superior in dignity and power, in reality that which is in

the center is superior and anterior to both that which is said to be above and that which is

said to be below. Therefore, it must be said that the first--which is considered as being

above--is actually in the center, while both of the others (which are said to be either

above or below) are actually beneath. This point can be further simplified if the reader

will consider above as indicating degree of proximity to source and below as indicating

degree of distance from source, source being posited in the actual center and relative

distance being the various points along the radii from the center toward the

circumference. In matters pertaining to philosophy and theology, up may be considered

as toward the center and down as toward the circumference. Center is spirit;

circumference is matter. Therefore, up is toward spirit along an ascending scale of

spirituality; down is toward matter along an ascending scale of materiality. The latter

concept is partly expressed by the apex of a cone which, when viewed from above, is

seen as a point in the exact center of the circumference formed by the base of the cone.

These three universal centers--the one above, the one below, and the link uniting them-

represent three suns or three aspects of one sun--centers of effulgence. These also have

their analogues in the three grand centers of the human body, which, like the physical

universe, is a Demiurgic fabrication. "The first of these [suns]," says Thomas Taylor, "is

analogous to light when viewed subsisting in its fountain the sun; the second to the light

immediately proceeding from the sun; and the third to the splendour communicated to

other natures by this light."

Since the superior (or spiritual) center is in the midst of the other two, its analogue in the

physical body is the heart--the most spiritual and mysterious organ in the human body.

The second center (or the link between the superior and inferior worlds) is elevated to the

position of greatest physical dignity--the brain. The third (or lower) center is relegated to

the position of least physical dignity but greatest physical importance--the generative

system. Thus the heart is symbolically the source of life; the brain the link by which,

through rational intelligence, life and form are united; and the generative system--or

infernal creator--the source of that power by which physical organisms are produced. The

ideals and aspirations of the individual depend largely upon which of these three centers

of power predominates in scope and activity of expression. In the materialist the lower

center is the strongest, in the intellectualist the higher center; but in the initiate the middle

center--by bathing the two extremes in a flood of spiritual effulgence--controls

wholesomely both the mind and the body.

As light bears witness of life-which is its source-so the mind bears witness of the spirit,

and activity in a still lower plane bears witness of intelligence. Thus the mind bears

witness of the heart, while the generative system, in turn, bears witness of the mind.

Accordingly, the spiritual nature is most commonly symbolized by a heart; the

intellectual power by an opened eye, symbolizing the pineal gland or Cyclopean eye,

which is the two-faced Janus of the pagan Mysteries; and the generative system by a

flower, a staff, a cup, or a hand.

While all the Mysteries recognized the heart as the center of spiritual consciousness, they

often purposely ignored this concept and used the heart in its exoteric sense as the symbol

of the emotional nature, In this arrangement the generative center represented the

physical body, the heart the emotional body, and the brain the mental body. The brain

represented the superior sphere, but after the initiates had passed through the lower

degrees they were instructed that the brain was the proxy of the spiritual flame dwelling

in the innermost recesses of the heart. The student of esotericism discovers ere long that

the ancients often resorted to various blinds to conceal the true interpretations of their

Mysteries. The substitution of the brain for the heart was one of these blinds.

The three degrees of the ancient Mysteries were, with few exceptions, given in chambers

which represented the three great centers of the human and Universal bodies. If possible,

the temple itself was constructed in the form of the human body. The candidate entered

between the feet and received the highest degree in the point corresponding to the brain.

Thus the first degree was the material mystery and its symbol was the generative system;

it raised the candidate through the various degrees of concrete thought. The second

degree was given in the chamber corresponding to the heart, but represented the middle

power which was the mental link. Here the candidate was initiated into the mysteries of

abstract thought and lifted as high as the mind was capable of penetrating. He then passed

into the third chamber, which, analogous to the brain, occupied the highest position in the

temple but, analogous to the heart, was of the greatest dignity. In the brain chamber the

heart mystery was given. Here the initiate for the first time truly comprehended the

meaning of those immortal words: "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." As there are

seven hearts in the brain so there are seven brains in the heart, but this is a matter of

superphysics of which little can be said at the present time.

Proclus writes on this subject in the first book of On the Theology of Plato: "Indeed,

Socrates in the (First) Alcibiades rightly observes, that the soul entering into herself will

behold all other things, and deity itself. For verging to her own union, and to the centre of

all life, laying aside multitude, and the variety of the all manifold powers which she

contains, she ascends to the highest watch-tower offerings. And as in the most holy of the

mysteries, they say, that the mystics at first meet with the multi form, and many-shaped

genera, which are hurled forth before the gods, but on entering the temple, unmoved, and

guarded by the mystic rites, they genuinely receive in their bosom [heart] divine

illumination, and divested of their garments, as they would say, participate of a divine

nature; the same mode, as it appears to me, takes place in the speculation of wholes. For

the soul when looking at things posterior to herself, beholds the shadows and images of

beings, but when she converts herself to herself she evolves her own essence, and the

reasons which she contains. And at first indeed, she only as it were beholds herself; but,

when she penetrates more profoundly into the knowledge of herself, she finds in herself

both intellect, and the orders of beings. When however, she proceeds into her interior

recesses, and into the adytum as it were of the soul, she perceives with her eye closed

[without the aid of the lower mind], the genus of the gods, and the unities of beings. For

all things are in us psychically, and through this we are naturally capable of knowing all

things, by exciting the powers and the images of wholes which we contain."

The initiates of old warned their disciples that an image is not a reality but merely the

objectification of a subjective idea. The image, of the gods were nor designed to be

objects of worship but were to be regarded merely as emblems or reminders of invisible

powers and principles. Similarly, the body of man must not be considered as the

individual but only as the house of the individual, in the same manner that the temple was

the House of God. In a state of grossness and perversion man's body is the tomb or prison

of a divine

Click to enlarge

HAND DECORATED WITH EFFIGIES OF JESUS CHRIST, THE VIRGIN MARY, AND THE TWELVE APOSTLES.

From an old print, courtesy of Carl Oscar Borg.

Upon the twelve phalanges of the fingers, appear the likenesses of the Apostles, each bearing its own

appropriate symbol. In the case of those who suffered martyrdom the symbol signifies the instrument of

death. Thus, the symbol of St. Andrew is a cross; of St. Thomas, a javelin or a builder's square; of St. James the Less, a club; of St Philip, a cross; of St. Bartholomew, a large knife or scimitar; of St. Matthew, a sword or spear (sometimes a purse); of St. Simon, a club or saw; of St. Matthias, an axe; and of St. Judas, a

halbert. The Apostles whose symbols do not elate to their martyrdom are St. Peter, who carries two crossed

keys, one gold and one silver; St. James the Great, who bears a pilgrim's staff and an escalop shell; and St.

John, who holds a cup from which the poison miraculously departed in the form of a serpent. (See

Handbook of Christian Symbolism.) The figure of Christ upon the second phalange of the thumb does not

follow the pagan system of assigning the first Person of the Creative Triad to this Position. God the Father

should occupy the second Phalange, God the Son the first phalange, while to God the Holy Spirit is

assigned the base of the thumb.--Also, according to the Philosophic arrangement, the Virgin should occupy

the base of the thumb, which is sacred to the moon.

p. 75

principle; in a state of unfoldment and regeneration it is the House or Sanctuary of the

Deity by whose creative powers it was fashioned. "Personality is suspended upon a

thread from the nature of Being," declares the secret work. Man is essentially a

permanent and immortal principle; only his bodies pass through the cycle of birth and

death. The immortal is the reality; the mortal is the unreality. During each period of earth

life, reality thus dwells in unreality, to be liberated from it temporarily by death and

permanently by illumination.

While generally regarded as polytheists, the pagans gained this reputation not because

they worshiped more than one God but rather because they personified the attributes of

this God, thereby creating a pantheon of posterior deities each manifesting a part of what

the One God manifested as a whole. The various pantheons of ancient religions therefore

actually represent the catalogued and personified attributes of Deity. In this respect they

correspond to the hierarchies of the Hebrew Qabbalists. All the gods and goddesses of

antiquity consequently have their analogies in the human body, as have also the elements,

planets, and constellations which were assigned as proper vehicles for these celestials.

Four body centers are assigned to the elements, the seven vital organs to the planets, the

twelve principal parts and members to the zodiac, the invisible parts of man's divine

nature to various supermundane deities, while the hidden God was declared to manifest

through the marrow in the bones.

It is difficult for many to realize that they are actual universes; that their physical bodies

are a visible nature through the structure of which countless waves of evolving life are

unfolding their latent potentialities. Yet through man's physical body not only are a

mineral, a plant, and an animal kingdom evolving, but also unknown classifications and

divisions of invisible spiritual life. just as cells are infinitesimal units in the structure of

man, so man is an infinitesimal unit in the structure of the universe. A theology based

upon the knowledge and appreciation of these relationships is as profoundly just as it is

profoundly true.

As man's physical body has five distinct and important extremities--two legs, two arms,

and a head, of which the last governs the first four--the number 5 has been accepted as

the symbol of man. By its four corners the pyramid symbolizes the arms and legs, and by

its apex the head, thus indicating that one rational power controls four irrational corners.

The hands and feet are used to represent the four elements, of which the two feet are earth

and water, and the two hands fire and air. The brain then symbolizes the sacred fifth

element--æther--which controls and unites the other four. If the feet are placed together

and the arms outspread, man then symbolizes the cross with the rational intellect as the

head or upper limb.

The fingers and toes also have special significance. The toes represent the Ten

Commandments of the physical law and the fingers the Ten Commandments of the

spiritual law. The four fingers of each hand represent the four elements and the three

phalanges of each finger represent the divisions of the element, so that in each hand there

are twelve parts to the fingers, which are analogous to the signs of the zodiac, whereas

the two phalanges and base of each thumb signify the threefold Deity. The first phalange

corresponds to the creative aspect, the second to the preservative aspect, and the base to

the generative and destructive aspect. When the hands are brought together, the result is

the twenty-four Elders and the six Days of Creation.

In symbolism the body is divided vertically into halves, the right half being considered as

light and the left half as darkness. By those unacquainted with the true meanings of light

and darkness the light half was denominated spiritual and the left half material. Light is

the symbol of objectivity; darkness of subjectivity. Light is a manifestation of life and is

therefore posterior to life. That which is anterior to light is darkness, in which light exists

temporarily but darkness permanently. As life precedes light, its only symbol is darkness,

and darkness is considered as the veil which must eternally conceal the true nature of

abstract and undifferentiated Being.

In ancient times men fought with their right arms and defended the vital centers with their

left arms, on which was carried the protecting shield. The right half of the body was

regarded therefore as offensive and the left half defensive. For this reason also the right

side of the body was considered masculine and the left side feminine. Several authorities

are of the opinion that the present prevalent right-handedness of the race is the outgrowth

of the custom of holding the left hand in restraint for defensive purposes. Furthermore, as

the source of Being is in the primal darkness which preceded light, so the spiritual nature

of man is in the dark part of his being, for the heart is on the left side.

Among the curious misconceptions arising from the false practice of associating darkness

with evil is one by which several early nations used the right hand for all constructive

labors and the left hand for only those purposes termed unclean and unfit for the sight of

the gods. For the same reason black magic was often referred to as the left-hand path, and

heaven was said to be upon the right and hell upon the left. Some philosophers further

declared that there were two methods of writing: one from left to right, which was

considered the exoteric method; the other from right to left, which was considered

esoteric. The exoteric writing was that which was done out or away from the heart, while

the esoteric writing was that which--like the ancient Hebrew--was written toward the

heart.

The secret doctrine declares that every part and member of the body is epitomized in the

brain and, in turn, that all that is in the brain is epitomized in the heart. In symbolism the

human head is frequently used to represent intelligence and self-knowledge. As the

human body in its entirety is the most perfect known product of the earth's evolution, it

was employed to represent Divinity--the highest appreciable state or condition. Artists,

attempting to portray Divinity, often show only a hand emerging from an impenetrable

cloud. The cloud signifies the Unknowable Divinity concealed from man by human

limitation. The hand signifies the Divine activity, the only part of God which is

cognizable to the lower senses.

The face consists of a natural trinity: the eyes representing the spiritual power which

comprehends; the nostrils representing the preservative and vivifying power; and the

mouth and ears representing the material Demiurgic power of the lower world. The first

sphere is eternally existent and is creative; the second sphere pertains to the mystery of

the creative breach; and the third sphere

Click to enlarge

THE THREEFOLD LIFE OF THE INNER MAN.

Redrawn from Gichtel's Theosophia Practica.

Johann Georg Gichtel, a profound Philosopher and mystic, the most illumined of the disciples of Jakob

Böhme, secretly circulated the above diagrams among a small group of devoted friends and students.

Gichtel republished the writings of Böhme, illustrating them with numerous remarkable figures. According

to Gichtel, the diagrams above, represent the anatomy of the divine (or inner) man, and graphically set forth

its condition during its human, infernal, and divine states. The plates in the William Law edition of

Böhme's works are based apparently upon Gichtel's diagrams, which they follow in all essentials. Gichtel

gives no detailed description of his figures, and the lettering on the original diagrams here translated out of the German is the only clue to the interpretation of the charts.

The two end figures represent the obverse and reverse of the same diagram and are termed Table Three.

They are "designed to show the Condition of the whole Man, as to all his three essential Parts, Spirit, Soul, and Body, in his Regenerated State." The third figure from the left is called the Second Table, and sets forth

"the Condition of Man in his old, lapsed, and corrupted State; without any respect to, or consideration of his renewing by regeneration." The third figure, however, does not correspond with the First Table of

William Law. The First Table presumably represents the condition of humanity before the Fall, but the

Gichtel plate pertains to the third, or regenerated, state of mankind. William Law thus describes the purpose

of the diagrams, and the symbols upon them: "These three tables are designed to represent Man in his

different Threefold State: the First before his Fall, in Purity, Dominion, and Glory: the Second after his

Fall, in Pollution and Perdition: and the Third in his rising from the Fall, or on the Way of regeneration, in Sanctification and Tendency to his last Perfection." The student of Orientalism will immediately recognize in the symbols upon the figures the Hindu chakras, or centers of spiritual force, the various motions and

aspects of which reveal the condition of the disciple's internal divine nature.

p. 76

to the creative word. By the Word of God the material universe was fabricated, and the

seven creative powers, or vowel sounds--which had been brought into existence by the

speaking of the Word--became the seven Elohim or Deities by whose power and

ministration the lower world was organized. Occasionally the Deity is symbolized by an

eye, an ear, a nose, or a mouth. By the first, Divine awareness is signified; by the second,

Divine interest; by the third, Divine vitality; and by the fourth, Divine command.

The ancients did not believe that spirituality made men either righteous or rational, but

rather that righteousness and rationality made men spiritual. The Mysteries taught that

spiritual illumination was attained only by bringing the lower nature up to a certain

standard of efficiency and purity. The Mysteries were therefore established for the

purpose of unfolding the nature of man according to certain fixed rules which, when

faithfully followed, elevated the human consciousness to a point where it was capable of

cognizing its own constitution and the true purpose of existence. This knowledge of how

man's manifold constitution could be most quickly and most completely regenerated to

the point of spiritual illumination constituted the secret, or esoteric, doctrine of antiquity.

Certain apparently physical organs and centers are in reality the veils or sheaths of

spiritual centers. What these were and how they could be unfolded was never revealed to

the unregenerate, for the philosophers realized that once he understands the complete

working of any system, a man may accomplish a prescribed end without being qualified

to manipulate and control the effects which he has produced. For this reason long periods

of probation were imposed, so that the knowledge of how to become as the gods might

remain the sole possession of the worthy.

Lest that knowledge be lost, however, it was concealed in allegories and myths which

were meaningless to the profane but self-evident to those acquainted with that theory of

personal redemption which was the foundation of philosophical theology. Christianity

itself may be cited as an example. The entire New Testament is in fact an ingeniously

concealed exposition of the secret processes of human regeneration. The characters so

long considered as historical men and women are really the personification of certain

processes which take place in the human body when man begins the task of consciously

liberating himself from the bondage of ignorance and death.

The garments and ornamentations supposedly worn by the gods are also keys, for in the

Mysteries clothing was considered as synonymous with form. The degree of spirituality

or materiality of the organisms was signified by the quality, beauty, and value of the

garments worn. Man's physical body was looked upon as the robe of his spiritual nature;

consequently, the more developed were his super-substantial powers the more glorious

his apparel. Of course, clothing was originally worn for ornamentation rather than

protection, and such practice still prevails among many primitive peoples. The Mysteries

caught that man's only lasting adornments were his virtues and worthy characteristics;

that he was clothed in his own accomplishments and adorned by his attainments. Thus the

white robe was symbolic of purity, the red robe of sacrifice and love, and the blue robe of

altruism and integrity. Since the body was said to be the robe of the spirit, mental or

moral deformities were depicted as deformities of the body.

Considering man's body as the measuring rule of the universe, the philosophers declared

that all things resemble in constitution--if not in form--the human body. The Greeks, for

example, declared Delphi to be the navel of the earth, for the physical planet was looked

upon as a gigantic human being twisted into the form of a ball. In contradistinction to the

belief of Christendom that the earth is an inanimate thing, the pagans considered not only

the earth but also all the sidereal bodies as individual creatures possessing individual

intelligences. They even went so far as to view the various kingdoms of Nature as

individual entities. The animal kingdom, for example, was looked upon as one being--a

composite of all the creatures composing that kingdom. This prototypic beast was a

mosaic embodiment of all animal propensities and within its nature the entire animal

world existed as the human species exists within the constitution of the prototypic Adam.

In the same manner, races, nations, tribes, religions, states, communities, and cities were

viewed as composite entities, each made up of varying numbers of individual units.

Every community has an individuality which is the sum of the individual attitudes of its

inhabitants. Every religion is an individual whose body is made up of a hierarchy and

vast host of individual worshipers. The organization of any religion represents its

physical body, and its individual members the cell life making up this organism.

Accordingly, religions, races, and communities--like individuals--pass through

Shakespeare's Seven Ages, for the life of man is a standard by which the perpetuity of all

things is estimated.

According to the secret doctrine, man, through the gradual refinement of his vehicles and

the ever-increasing sensitiveness resulting from that refinement, is gradually overcoming

the limitations of matter and is disentangling himself from his mortal coil. When

humanity has completed its physical evolution, the empty shell of materiality left behind

will be used by other life waves as steppingstones to their own liberation. The trend of

man's evolutionary growth is ever toward his own essential Selfhood. At the point of

deepest materialism, therefore, man is at the greatest distance from Himself. According to

the Mystery teachings, not all the spiritual nature of man incarnates in matter. The spirit

of man is diagrammatically shown as an equilateral triangle with one point downward.

This lower point, which is one-third of the spiritual nature but in comparison to the

dignity of the other two is much less than a third, descends into the illusion of material

existence for a brief space of time. That which never clothes itself in the sheath of matter

is the Hermetic Anthropos--the Overman-- analogous to the Cyclops or guardian dæmon

of the Greeks, the angel of Jakob Böhme, and the Oversoul of Emerson, "that Unity, that

Oversoul, within which every man's particular being is contained and made one with all

other."

At birth only a third part of the Divine Nature of man temporarily dissociates itself from

its own immortality and takes upon itself the dream of physical birth and existence,

animating with its own celestial enthusiasm a vehicle composed of material elements,

part of and bound to the material sphere. At death this incarnated part awakens from the

dream of physical existence and reunites itself once more with its eternal condition. This

periodical descent of spirit into matter is termed the wheel of life and death, and the

principles involved are treated at length by the philosophers under the subject of

metempsychosis. By initiation into the Mysteries and a certain process known as

operative theology, this law of birth and death is transcended, and during the course of

physical existence that part of the spirit which is asleep in form is awakened without the

intervention of death--the inevitable Initiator--and is consciously reunited with the

Anthropos, or the overshadowing substance of itself. This is at once the primary purpose

and the consummate achievement of the Mysteries: that man shall become aware of and

consciously be reunited with the divine source of himself without tasting of physical

dissolution.

Click to enlarge

THE DIVINE TREE IN MAN

(reverse)

From Law's Figures of Jakob Böhme.

Just as the diagram representing the front view of man illustrates his divine principles in their regenerated

state, so the back view of the same figure sets forth the inferior, or "night," condition of the sun. From the Sphere of the Astral Mind a line ascends through the Sphere of reason into that of the Senses. The Sphere

of the Astral Mind and of the Senses are filled with stars to signify the nocturnal condition of their natures.

In the sphere of reason, the superior and the inferior are reconciled, Reason in the mortal man

corresponding to Illumined Understanding in the spiritual man.

Click to enlarge

THE DIVINE TREE IN MAN

(obverse)

From Law's Figures of Jakob Böhme.

A tree with its roots in the heart rises from the Mirror of the Deity through the Sphere of the Understanding

to branch forth in the Sphere of the Senses. The roots and trunk of this tree represent the divine nature of

man and may be called his spirituality; the branches of the tree are the separate parts of the divine

constitution and may be likened to the individuality; and the leaves--because of their ephemeral nature--

correspond to the personality, which partakes of none of the permanence of its divine source.

The Hiramic Legend

p. 77

WHEN Solomon--the beloved of God, builder of the Everlasting House, and Grand

Master of the Lodge of Jerusalem--ascended the throne of his father David he

consecrated his life to the erection of a temple to God and a palace for the kings of Israel.

David's faithful friend, Hiram, King of Tyre, hearing that a son of David sat upon the

throne of Israel, sent messages of congratulation and offers of assistance to the new ruler.

In his History of the Jews, Josephus mentions that copies of the letters passing between

the two kings were then to be seen both at Jerusalem and at Tyre. Despite Hiram's lack of

appreciation for the twenty cities of Galilee which Solomon presented to him upon the

completion of the temple, the two monarchs remained the best of friends. Both were

famous for their wit and wisdom, and when they exchanged letters each devised puzzling

questions to test the mental ingenuity of the other. Solomon made an agreement with

Hiram of Tyre promising vast amounts of barley, wheat, corn, wine, and oil as wages for

the masons and carpenters from Tyre who were to assist the Jews in the erection of the

temple. Hiram also supplied cedars and other fine trees, which were made into rafts and

floated down the sea to Joppa, whence they were taken inland by Solomon's workmen to

the temple site.

Because of his great love for Solomon, Hiram of Tyre sent also the Grand Master of the

Dionysiac Architects, CHiram Abiff, a Widow's Son, who had no equal among the

craftsmen of the earth. CHiram is described as being "a Tyrian by birch, but of Israelitish

descent," and "a second Bezaleel, honored by his king with the title of Father." The

Freemason's Pocket Companion (published in 1771) describes CHiram as "the most

cunning, skilful and curious workman that ever lived, whose abilities were not confined

to building alone, but extended to all kinds of work, whether in gold, silver, brass or iron;

whether in linen, tapestry, or embroidery; whether considered as an architect, statuary

[sic]; founder or designer, separately or together, he equally excelled. From his designs,

and under his direction, all the rich and splendid furniture of the Temple and its several

appendages were begun, carried on, and finished. Solomon appointed him, in his absence,

to fill the chair, as Deputy Grand-Master; and in his presence, Senior Grand-Warden,

Master of work, and general overseer of all artists, as well those whom David had

formerly procured from Tyre and Sidon, as those Hiram should now send." (Modem

Masonic writers differ as to the accuracy of the last sentence.)

Although an immense amount of labor was involved in its construction, Solomon's

Temple--in the words of George Oliver--"was only a small building and very inferior in

point of size to some of our churches." The number of buildings contiguous to it and the

vast treasure of gold and precious stones used in its construction concentrated a great

amount of wealth within the temple area. In the midst of the temple stood the Holy of

Holies, sometimes called the Oracle. It was an exact cube, each dimension being twenty

cubits, and exemplified the influence of Egyptian symbolism. The buildings of the temple

group were ornamented with 1,453 columns of Parian marble, magnificently sculptured,

and 2,906 pilasters decorated with capitals. There was a broad porch facing the east, and

the sanctum sanctorum was upon the west. According to tradition, the various buildings

and courtyards could hold in all 300,000 persons. Both the Sanctuary and the Holy of

Holies were entirely lined with solid gold plates encrusted with jewels.

King Solomon began the building of the temple in the fourth year of his reign on what

would be, according to modern calculation, the 21st day of April, and finished it in the

eleventh year of his reign on the 23rd day of October. The temple was begun in the 480th

year after the children of Israel had passed the Red Sea. Part of the labor of construction

included the building of an artificial foundation on the brow of Mount Moriah. The

stones for the temple were hoisted from quarries directly beneath Mount Moriah and

were trued before being brought to the surface. The brass and golden ornaments for the

temple were cast in molds in the clay ground between Succoth and Zeredatha, and the

wooden parts were all finished before they reached the temple site. The building was put

together, consequently, without sound and without instruments, all its parts fitting exactly

"without the hammer of contention, the axe of division, or any tool of mischief."

Anderson's much-discussed Constitutions of the Free-Masons, published in London in

1723, and reprinted by Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia in 1734, thus describes the

division of the laborers engaged in the building of the Everlasting House:

"But Dagon's Temple, and the finest structures of Tyre and Sidon, could not be compared

with the Eternal God's Temple at Jerusalem, * * * there were employed about it no less

than 3,600 Princes, or Master-Masons, to conduct the work according to Solomon's

directions, with 80,000 hewers of stone in the mountain, or Fellow Craftsmen, and 70,000

labourers, in all 153,600 besides the levy under Adoniram to work in the mountains of

Lebanon by turns with the Sidonians, viz., 30,000, being in all 183,600." Daniel Sickels

gives 3,300 overseers, instead of 3,600, and lists the three Grand Masters separately. The

same author estimates the cost of the temple at nearly four thousand millions of dollars.

The Masonic legend of the building of Solomon's Temple does not in every particular

parallel the Scriptural version, especially in those portions relating to CHiram Abiff.

According to the Biblical account, this Master workman returned to his own country; in

the Masonic allegory he is foully murdered. On this point A. E. Waite, in his New

Encyclopædia of Freemasonry, makes the following explanatory comment:

"The legend of the Master-Builder is the great allegory of Masonry. It happens that his

figurative story is grounded on the fact of a personality mentioned in Holy Scripture, but

this historical background is of the accidents and not the essence; the significance is in

the allegory and not in any point of history which may lie behind it."

CHiram, as Master of the Builders, divided his workmen into three groups, which were

termed Entered Apprentices, Fellow-Craftsmen, and Master Masons. To each division he

gave certain

Click to enlarge

A MASONIC APRON WITH SYMBOLIC FIGURES.

From an early hand-painted Masonic apron.

While the mystic symbolism of Freemasonry decrees that the apron shall be a simple square of white

lambskin with appropriate flap, Masonic aprons are frequently decorated with curious and impressive

figures. "When silk cotton, or linen is worn," writes Albert Pike, "the symbolism is lost. Nor is one clothed who blots, defaces, and desecrates the white surface with ornamentation, figuring, or colors of any kind."

(See Symbolism.)

To Mars, the ancient plane of cosmic energy, the Atlantean and Chaldean "star gazers" assigned Aries as a diurnal throne and Scorpio as a nocturnal throne. Those not raised to spiritual life by initiation are

described as "dead from the sting of a scorpion," for they wander in the night side of divine power.

Through the mystery of the Paschal Lamb, or the attainment of the Golden Fleece, these soul are raised into

the constructive day Power of Mars in Aries--the symbol of the Creator.

When worn over the area related to the animal passions, the pure lambskin signifies the regeneration of the

procreative forces and their consecration to the service of the Deity. The size of the apron, exclusive of the flap, makes it the symbol of salvation, for the Mysteries declare that it must consist of 144 square inches.

The apron shown above contains a wealth of symbolism: the beehive, emblematic of the Masonic lodge itself, the trowel, the mallet, and the trestleboad; the rough and trued ashlars; the pyramids and hills of

Lebanon; the pillars, the Temple, and checkerboard floor; and the blazing star and tools of the Craft. The

center of the apron is occupied by the compass and square, representative of the Macrocosm an the

microcosm, and the alternately black and white serpent of astral light. Below is an acacia branch with seven

sprigs, signifying the life Centers of the superior and the inferior man. The skull and cross bones are a

continual reminder that the spiritual nature attains liberation only after the philosophical death of man's

sensuous personality.

p. 78

passwords and signs by which their respective excellence could be quickly determined.

While all were classified according to their merits some were dissatisfied, for they

desired a more exalted position than they were capable of filling. At last three Fellow-

Craftsmen, more daring than their companions, determined to force CHiram to reveal to

them the password of the Master's degree. Knowing that CHiram always went into the

unfinished sanctum sanctorum at high noon to pray, these ruffians--whose names were

Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum--lay in wait for him, one at each of the main gates of the

temple. CHiram, about to leave the temple by the south gate, was suddenly confronted by

Jubela armed with a twenty-four-inch gauge. Upon CHiram's refusal to reveal the

Master's Word, the ruffian struck him on the throat with the rule, and the wounded Master

then hastened to the west gate, where Jubelo, armed with a square, awaited him and made

a similar demand. Again CHiram was silent, and the second assassin struck him on the

breast with the square. CHiram thereupon staggered to the east gate, only to be met there

by Jubelum armed with a maul. When CHiram, refused him the Master's Word, Jubelum

struck the Master between the eyes with the mallet and CHiram fell dead.

The body of CHiram was buried by the murderers over the brow of Mount Moriah and a

sprig of acacia placed upon the grave. The murderers then sought to escape punishment

for their crime by embarking for Ethiopia, but the port was closed. All three were finally

captured, and after admitting their guilt were duly executed. Parties of three were then

sent out by King Solomon, and one of these groups discovered the newly made grave

marked by the evergreen sprig. After the Entered Apprentices and the Fellow-Craftsmen

had failed to resurrect their Master from the dead he was finally raised by the Master

Mason with the "strong grip of a Lion's Paw."

To the initiated Builder the name CHiram Abiff signifies "My Father, the Universal

Spirit, one in essence, three in aspect." Thus the murdered Master is a type of the Cosmic

Martyr--the crucified Spirit of Good, the dying god--whose Mystery is celebrated

throughout the world. Among the manuscripts of Dr. Sigismund Bastrom, the initiated

Rosicrucian, appears the following extract from von Welling concerning the true

philosophic nature of the Masonic CHiram:

"The original word חירם, CHiram, is a radical word consisting of three consonants ח ר and

ם i. e. Cheth, Resh and Mem. (1) ח, Cheth, signifies Chamah, the Sun's light, i. e. the

Universal, invisible, cold fire of Nature attracted by the Sun, manifested into light and

sent down to us and to every planetary body belonging to the solar system. (2) ר, Resh,

signifies ריח Ruach, i. e. Spirit, air, wind, as being the Vehicle which conveys and

collects the light into numberless Foci, wherein the solar rays of light are agitated by a

circular motion and manifested in Heat and burning Fire. (3) ם, or מ Mem, signifies

majim, water, humidity, but rather the mother of water, i. e. Radical Humidity or a

particular kind of condensed air. These three constitute the Universal Agent or fire of

Nature in one word, חירם, CHiram, not Hiram."

Albert Pike mentions several forms of the name CHiram: Khirm, Khurm, and Khur-Om,

the latter ending in the sacred Hindu monosyllable OM, which may also be extracted

from the names of the three murderers. Pike further relates the three ruffians to a triad of

stars in the constellation of Libra and also calls attention to the fact that the Chaldean god

Bal--metamorphosed into a demon by the Jews--appears in the name of each of the

murderers, Jubela, Jubelo, and Jubelum. To interpret the Hiramic legend requires

familiarity with both the Pythagorean and Qabbalistic systems of numbers and letters,

and also the philosophic and astronomic cycles of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and

Brahmins. For example, consider the number 33. The first temple of Solomon stood for

thirty-three years in its pristine splendor. At the end of that time it was pillaged by the

Egyptian King Shishak, and finally (588 B.C.) it was completely destroyed by

Nebuchadnezzar and the people of Jerusalem were led into captivity to Babylon. (See

General History of Freemasonry, by Robert Macoy.) Also King David ruled for thirty-

three years in Jerusalem; the Masonic Order is divided into thirty-three symbolic degrees;

there are thirty-three segments in the human spinal column; and Jesus was crucified in the

thirty-third year of His life.

The efforts made to discover the origin of the Hiramic legend show that, while the legend

in its present form is comparatively modem, its underlying principles run back to

remotest antiquity. It is generally admitted by modem Masonic scholars that the story of

the martyred CHiram is based upon the Egyptian rites of Osiris, whose death and

resurrection figuratively portrayed the spiritual death of man and his regeneration through

initiation into the Mysteries. CHiram is also identified with Hermes through the

inscription on the Emerald Table. From these associations it is evident that CHiram is to

be considered as a prototype of humanity; in fact he is Plato's Idea (archetype) of man.

As Adam after the Fall symbolizes the Idea of human degeneration, so CHiram through

his resurrection symbolizes the Idea of human regeneration.

On the 19th day of March, 1314, Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights

Templars, was burned on a pyre erected upon that point of the islet of the Seine, at Paris,

where afterwards was erected the statue of King Henry IV. (See The Indian Religions, by

Hargrave Jennings.) "It is mentioned as a tradition in some of the accounts of the

burning," writes Jennings, "that Molay, ere he expired, summoned Clement, the Pope

who had pronounced the bull of abolition against the Order and had condemned the

Grand Master to the flames, to appear, within forty days, before the Supreme Eternal

judge, and Philip [the king] to the same awful tribunal within the space of a year. Both

predictions were fulfilled." The close relationship between Freemasonry and the original

Knights Templars has caused the story of CHiram to be linked with the martyrdom of

Jacques de Molay. According to this interpretation, the three ruffians who cruelly slew

their Master at the gates of the temple because he refused to reveal the secrets of his

Order represent the Pope, the king, and the executioners. De Molay died maintaining his

innocence and refusing to disclose the philosophical and magical arcana of the Templars.

Those who have sought to identify CHiram with the murdered King Charles the First

conceive the Hiramic legend to have been invented for that purpose by Elias Ashmole, a

mystical philosopher, who was probably a member of the Rosicrucian Fraternity. Charles

was dethroned in 1647 and died on the block in 1649, leaving the Royalist party

leaderless. An attempt has been made to relate the term "the Sons of the Widow" (an

appellation frequently applied to members of the Masonic Order) to this incident in

English history, for by the murder of her king England became a Widow and all

Englishmen Widow's Sons.

To the mystic Christian Mason, CHiram. represents the Christ who in three days

(degrees) raised the temple of His body from its earthly sepulcher. His three murderers

were Cæsar's agent (the state), the Sanhedrin (the church), and the incited populace (the

mob). Thus considered, CHiram becomes the higher nature of man and the murderers are

ignorance, superstition, and fear. The indwelling Christ can give expression to Himself in

this world only through man's thoughts, feelings, and actions. Right thinking, right

feeling, and right action--these are three gates through which the Christ power passes into

the material world, there to labor in the erection of the Temple of Universal Brotherhood.

Ignorance, superstition, and fear are three ruffians through whose agencies the Spirit of

Good is murdered and a false kingdom, controlled by wrong thinking, wrong feeling, and

wrong action, established in its stead. In the material universe evil appears ever

victorious.

"In this sense," writes Daniel Sickels, "the myth of the Tyrian is perpetually repeated in

the history of human affairs. Orpheus was murdered, and his body thrown into the

Hebrus; Socrates was made to drink the hemlock; and, in all ages, we have seen Evil

temporarily triumphant, and Virtue and Truth calumniated, persecuted, crucified, and

slain. But Eternal justice marches surely and swiftly through the world: the Typhons, the

children of darkness, the plotters of crime, all the infinitely varied forms of evil, are

swept into oblivion; and Truth and Virtue--for a time laid low--come forth, clothed with

diviner majesty, and crowned with everlasting glory!" (See General Ahiman Rezon.)

If, as there is ample reason to suspect, the modern Freemasonic Order was profoundly

influenced by, if it is not an actual outgrowth of, Francis Bacon's secret society, its

symbolism is undoubtedly permeated with Bacon's two great ideals: universal education

and universal democracy. The deadly enemies of universal education are ignorance,

superstition, and fear, by which the human soul is held in bondage to the lowest part of its

own constitution. The arrant enemies of universal democracy have ever been the crown,

the tiara, and the torch. Thus CHiram symbolizes that ideal state of spiritual, intellectual,

and physical emancipation which has ever been sacrificed upon the altar of human

selfishness. CHiram is the Beautifier of the Eternal House. Modern utilitarianism,

however, sacrifices the beautiful for the practical, in the same breath declaring the

obvious lie that selfishness, hatred, and discord are practical.

Dr. Orville Ward Owen found a considerable part of the first

Click to enlarge

THE EMBLEMATIC HAND OF THE MYSTERIES.

From Montfaucon's Antiquities.

A hand covered with numerous symbols was extended to the neophytes when they entered into the Temple

of Wisdom. An understanding of the embossed upon the surface of the hand brought with it Divine power

and regeneration Therefore, by means of these symbolic hands the candidate was said to be raised from the

dead.

p. 79

thirty-two degrees of Freemasonic ritualism hidden in the text of the First Shakespeare

Folio. Masonic emblems are to be observed also upon the title pages of nearly every book

published by Bacon. Sir Francis Bacon considered himself as a living sacrifice upon the

altar of human need; he was obviously cut down in the midst of his labors, and no student

of his New Atlantis can fail to recognize the Masonic symbolism contained therein.

According to the observations of Joseph Fort Newton, the Temple of Solomon described

by Bacon in that utopian romance was not a house at all but the name of an ideal state. Is

it not true that the Temple of Freemasonry is also emblematic of a condition of society?

While, as before stated, the principles of the Hiramic legend are of the greatest antiquity,

it is not impossible that its present form may be based upon incidents in the life of Lord

Bacon, who passed through the philosophic death and was raised in Germany.

In an old manuscript appears the statement that the Freemasonic Order was formed by

alchemists and Hermetic philosophers who had banded themselves together to protect

their secrets against the infamous methods used by avaricious persons to wring from

them the secret of gold-making. The fact that the Hiramic legend contains an alchemical

formula gives credence to this story. Thus the building of Solomon's Temple represents

the consummation of the magnum opus, which cannot be realized without the assistance

of CHiram, the Universal Agent. The Masonic Mysteries teach the initiate how to prepare

within his own soul a miraculous powder of projection by which it is possible for him to

transmute the base lump of human ignorance, perversion, and discord into an ingot of

spiritual and philosophic gold.

Sufficient similarity exists between the Masonic CHiram and the Kundalini of Hindu

mysticism to warrant the assumption that CHiram may be considered a symbol also of the

Spirit Fire moving through the sixth ventricle of the spinal column. The exact science of

human regeneration is the Lost Key of Masonry, for when the Spirit Fire is lifted up

through the thirty-three degrees, or segments of the spinal column, and enters into the

domed chamber of the human skull, it finally passes into the pituitary body (Isis), where

it invokes Ra (the pineal gland) and demands the Sacred Name. Operative Masonry, in

the fullest meaning of that term, signifies the process by which the Eye of Horus is

opened. E. A. Wallis Budge has noted that in some of the papyri illustrating the entrance

of the souls of the dead into the judgment hall of Osiris the deceased person has a pine

cone attached to the crown of his head. The Greek mystics also carried a symbolic staff,

the upper end being in the form of a pine cone, which was called the thyrsus of Bacchus.

In the human brain there is a tiny gland called the pineal body, which is the sacred eye of

the ancients, and corresponds to the third eye of the Cyclops. Little is known concerning

the function of the pineal body, which Descartes suggested (more wisely than he knew)

might be the abode of the spirit of man. As its name signifies, the pineal gland is the

sacred pine cone in man--the eye single, which cannot be opened until CHiram (the Spirit

Fire) is raised through the sacred seals which are called the Seven Churches in Asia.

There is an Oriental painting which shows three sun bursts. One sunburst covers the head,

in the midst of which sits Brahma with four heads, his body a mysterious dark color. The

second sunburst--which covers the heart, solar plexus, and upper abdominal region--

shows Vishnu sitting in the blossom of the lotus on a couch formed of the coils of the

serpent of cosmic motion, its seven-hooded head forming a canopy over the god. The

third sunburst is over the generative system, in the midst of which sits Shiva, his body a

grayish white and the Ganges River flowing out of the crown of his head. This painting

was the work of a Hindu mystic who spent many years subtly concealing great

philosophical principles within these figures. The Christian legends could be related also

to the human body by the same method as the Oriental, for the arcane meanings hidden in

the teachings of both schools are identical.

As applied to Masonry, the three sunbursts represent the gates of the temple at which

CHiram was struck, there being no gate in the north because the sun never shines from

the northern angle of the heavens. The north is the symbol of the physical because of its

relation to ice (crystallized water) and to the body (crystallized spirit). In man the light

shines toward the north but never from it, because the body has no light of its own but

shines with the reflected glory of the divine life-particles concealed within physical

substance. For this reason the moon is accepted as the symbol of man's physical nature.

CHiram is the mysterious fiery, airy water which must be raised through the three grand

centers symbolized by the ladder with three rungs and the sunburst flowers mentioned in

the description of the Hindu painting. It must also pass upward by means of the ladder of

seven rungs-the seven plexuses proximate to the spine. The nine segments of the sacrum

and coccyx are pierced by ten foramina, through which pass the roots of the Tree of Life.

Nine is the sacred number of man, and in the symbolism of the sacrum and coccyx a great

mystery is concealed. That part of the body from the kidneys downward was termed by

the early Qabbalists the Land of Egypt into which the children of Israel were taken during

the captivity. Out of Egypt, Moses (the illuminated mind, as his name implies) led the

tribes of Israel (the twelve faculties) by raising the brazen serpent in the wilderness upon

the symbol of the Tau cross. Not only CHiram but the god-men of nearly every pagan

Mystery ritual are personifications of the Spirit Fire in the human spinal cord.

The astronomical aspect of the Hiramic legend must not be overlooked. The tragedy of

CHiram is enacted annually by the sun during its passage through the signs of the zodiac.

"From the journey of the Sun through the twelve signs," writes Albert Pike, "come the

legend of the twelve labors of Hercules, and the incarnations of Vishnu and Buddha.

Hence came the legend of the murder of Khurum, representative of the Sun, by the three

Fellow-Crafts, symbols of the Winter signs, Capricornus, Aquarius, and Pisces, who

assailed him at the three gates of Heaven and slew him at the Winter Solstice. Hence the

search for him by the nine Fellow-Crafts, the other nine signs, his finding, burial, and

resurrection." (See Morals and Dogma.)

Other authors consider Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius as the three murderers of the sun,

inasmuch as Osiris was murdered by Typhon, to whom were assigned the thirty degrees

of the constellation of Scorpio. In the Christian Mysteries also Judas signifies the

Scorpion, and the thirty pieces of silver for which he betrayed His Lord represent the

number of degrees in that sign. Having been struck by Libra (the state), Scorpio (the

church), and Sagittarius (the mob), the sun (CHiram) is secretly home through the

darkness by the signs of Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces and buried over the brow of a

hill (the vernal equinox). Capricorn has for its symbol an old man with a scythe in his

hand. This is Father Time--a wayfarer--who is symbolized in Masonry as straightening

out the ringlets of a young girl's hair. If the Weeping Virgin be considered a symbol of

Virgo, and Father Time with his scythe a symbol of Capricorn, then the interval of ninety

degrees between these two signs will be found to correspond to that occupied by the three

murderers. Esoterically, the urn containing the ashes of CHiram represents the human

heart. Saturn, the old man who lives at the north pole, and brings with him to the children

of men a sprig of evergreen (the Christmas tree), is familiar to the little folks under the

name of Santa Claus, for he brings each winter the gift of a new year.

The martyred sun is discovered by Aries, a Fellow-Craftsman, and at the vernal equinox

the process of raising him begins. This is finally accomplished by the Lion of Judah, who

in ancient times occupied the position of the keystone of the Royal Arch of Heaven. The

precession of the equinoxes causes various signs to play the rôle of the murderers of the

sun during the different ages of the world, but the principle involved remains unchanged.

Such is the cosmic story of CHiram, the Universal Benefactor, the Fiery Architect: of the

Divine House, who carries with him to the grave that Lost Word which, when spoken,

raises all life to power and glory. According to Christian mysticism, when the Lost Word

is found it is discovered in a stable, surrounded by beasts and marked by a star. "After the

sun leaves Leo," writes Robert Hewitt Brown, "the days begin to grow unequivocally

shorter as the sun declines toward the autumnal equinox, to be again slain by the three

autumnal months, lie dead through the three winter ones, and be raised again by the three

vernal ones. Each year the great tragedy is repeated, and the glorious resurrection takes

place." (See Stellar Theology and Masonic Astronomy.)

CHiram is termed dead because in the average individual the cosmic creative forces are

limited in their manifestation to purely physical--and correspondingly materialistic--

expression. Obsessed by his belief in the reality and permanence of physical existence,

man does not correlate the material universe with the blank north wall of the temple. As

the solar light symbolically is said to die as it approaches the winter solstice, so the

physical world may be termed

Click to enlarge

DIANA OF EPHESUS.

From Montfaucon's Antiquities.

Crowned with a triple tower-like tiara and her form adorned with symbolic creatures representative of her

spiritual powers, Diana stood for the source of that imperishable doctrine which, flowing from the bosom

of the Great Multimammia, is the spiritual food of those aspiring men and women who have consecrated

their lives to the contemplation of reality. As the physical body of man receives its nutriment from the

Great Earth Mother, so the spiritual nature of man is fed from the never failing fountains of Truth pouring

outward from the invisible worlds.

p. 80

the winter solstice of the spirit. Reaching the winter solstice, the sun apparently stands

still for three days and then, rolling away the stone of winter, begins its triumphal march

north towards the summer solstice. The condition of ignorance may be likened to the

winter solstice of philosophy; spiritual understanding to the summer solstice. From this

point of view, initiation into the Mysteries becomes the vernal equinox of the spirit, at

which time the CHiram in man crosses from the realm of mortality into that of eternal

life. The autumnal equinox is analogous to the mythological fall of man, at which time

the human spirit descended into the realms of Hades by being immersed in the illusion of

terrestrial existence.

In An Essay on the Beautiful, Plotinus describes the refining effect of beauty upon the

unfolding consciousness of man. Commissioned to decorate the Everlasting House,

CHiram Abiff is the embodiment of the beautifying principle. Beauty is essential to the

natural unfoldment of the human soul. The Mysteries held that man, in part at least, was

the product of his environment. Therefore they considered it imperative that every person

be surrounded by objects which would evoke the highest and noblest sentiments. They

proved that it was possible to produce beauty in life by surrounding life with beauty.

They discovered that symmetrical bodies were built by souls continuously in the presence

of symmetrical bodies; that noble thoughts were produced by minds surrounded by

examples of mental nobility. Conversely, if a man were forced to look upon an ignoble or

asymmetrical structure it would arouse within him a sense of ignobility which would

provoke him to commit ignoble deeds. If an ill-proportioned building were erected in the

midst of a city there would be ill-proportioned children born in that community; and men

and women, gazing upon the asymmetrical structure, would live inharmonious lives.

Thoughtful men of antiquity realized that their great philosophers were the natural

products of the æsthetic ideals of architecture, music, and art established as the standards

of the cultural systems of the time.

The substitution of the discord of the fantastic for the harmony of the beautiful constitutes

one of the great tragedies of every civilization. Not only were the Savior-Gods of the

ancient world beautiful, but each performed a ministry of beauty, seeking to effect man's

regeneration by arousing within him the love of the beautiful. A renaissance of the golden

age of fable can be made possible only by the elevation of beauty to its rightful dignity as

the all-pervading, idealizing quality in the religious, ethical, sociological, scientific, and

political departments of life. The Dionysiac Architects were consecrated to the raising of

their Master Spirit--Cosmic Beauty--from the sepulcher of material ignorance and

selfishness by erecting buildings which were such perfect exemplars of symmetry and

majesty that they were actually magical formulæ by which was evoked the spirit of the

martyred Beautifier entombed within a materialistic world.

In the Masonic Mysteries the triune spirit of man (the light Delta) is symbolized by the

three Grand Masters of the Lodge of Jerusalem. As God is the pervading principle of

three worlds, in each of which He manifests as an active principle, so the spirit of man,

partaking of the nature of Divinity, dwells upon three planes of being: the Supreme, the

Superior, and the Inferior spheres of the Pythagoreans. At the gate of the Inferior sphere

(the underworld, or dwelling place of mortal creatures) stands the guardian of Hades--the

three--headed dog Cerberus, who is analogous to the three murderers of the Hiramic

legend. According to this symbolic interpretation of the triune spirit, CHiram is the third,

or incarnating, part--the Master Builder who through all ages erects living temples of

flesh and blood as shrines of the Most High. CHiram comes forth as a flower and is cut

down; he dies at the gates of matter; he is buried in the elements of creation, but--like

Thor--he swings his mighty hammer in the fields of space, sets the primordial atoms in

motion, and establishes order out of Chaos. As the potentiality of cosmic power within

each human soul, CHiram lies waiting for man by the elaborate ritualism of life to

transmute potentiality into divine potency. As the sense perceptions of the individual

increase, however, man gains ever greater control over his various parts, and the spirit of

life within gradually attains freedom. The three murderers represent the laws of the

Inferior world--birth, growth, and decay--which ever frustrate the plan of the Builder. To

the average individual, physical birch actually signifies the death of CHiram, and

physical death the resurrection of CHiram. To the initiate, however, the resurrection of

the spiritual nature is accomplished without the intervention of physical death.

The curious symbols found in the base of Cleopatra's Needle now standing in Central

Park, New York, were interpreted as being of first Masonic significance by S. A. Zola,

33° Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Egypt. Masons' marks and symbols are to

be found on the stones of numerous public buildings not only in England and on the

Continent but also in Asia. In his Indian Masons' Marks of the Moghul Dynasty, A.

Gorham describes scores of markings appearing on the walls of buildings such as the Taj

Mahal, the Jama Masjid, and that: famous Masonic structure, the Kutab Minar.

According to those who regard Masonry as an outgrowth of the secret society of

architects and builders which for thousands of years formed a caste of master craftsmen,

CHiram Abiff was the Tyrian Grand Master of a world-wide organization of artisans,

with headquarters in Tyre. Their philosophy consisted of incorporating into the

measurements and ornamentation of temples, palaces, mausoleums, fortresses, and other

public buildings their knowledge of the laws controlling the universe. Every initiated

workman was given a hieroglyphic with which he marked the stones he trued to show to

all posterity that he thus dedicated to the Supreme Architect of the Universe each

perfected product of his labor. Concerning Masons' marks, Robert Freke Gould writes:

"It is very remarkable that these marks are to be found in all countries--in the chambers

of the Great Pyramid at Gizeh, on the underground walls of Jerusalem, in Herculaneum

and Pompeii, on Roman walls and Grecian temples, in Hindustan, Mexico, Peru, Asia

Minor--as well as on the great ruins of England, France, Germany, Scotland, Italy,

Portugal and Spain." (See A Concise History of Freemasonry.)

From this viewpoint the story of CHiram may well represent the incorporation of the

divine secrets of architecture into the actual parts and dimensions of earthly buildings.

The three degrees of the Craft bury the Grand Master (the Great Arcanum) in the actual

structure they erect, after first having killed him with the builders' tools, by reducing the

dimensionless Spirit of Cosmic Beauty to the limitations of concrete form. These abstract

ideals of architecture can be resurrected, however, by the Master Mason who, by

meditating upon the structure, releases therefrom the divine principles of architectonic

philosophy incorporated or buried within it. Thus the physical building is actually the

tomb or embodiment of the Creative Ideal of which its material dimensions are but the

shadow.

Moreover, the Hiramic legend may be considered to embody the vicissitudes of

philosophy itself. As institutions for the dissemination of ethical culture, the pagan

Mysteries were the architects of civilization. Their power and dignity were personified in

CHiram Abiff--the Master Builder--but they eventually fell a victim to the onslaughts of

that recurrent trio of state, church, and mob. They were desecrated by the state, jealous of

their wealth and power; by the early church, fearful of their wisdom; and by the rabble or

soldiery incited by both state and church. As CHiram when raised from his grave

whispers the Master Mason's Word which was lost through his untimely death, so

according to the tenets of philosophy the reestablishment or resurrection of the ancient

Mysteries will result in the rediscovery of that secret teaching without which civilization

must continue in a state of spiritual confusion and uncertainty.

When the mob governs, man is ruled by ignorance; when the church governs, he is ruled

by superstition; and when the state governs, he is ruled by fear. Before men can live

together in harmony and understanding, ignorance must be transmuted into wisdom,

superstition into an illumined faith, and fear into love. Despite statements to the contrary,

Masonry is a religion seeking to unite God and man by elevating its initiates to that level

of consciousness whereon they can behold with clarified vision the workings of the Great

Architect of the Universe. From age to age the vision of a perfect civilization is preserved

as the ideal for mankind. In the midst of that civilization shall stand a mighty university

wherein both the sacred and secular sciences concerning the mysteries of life will be

freely taught to all who will assume the philosophic life. Here creed and dogma will have

no place; the superficial will be removed and only the essential be preserved. The world

will be ruled by its most illumined minds, and each will occupy the position for which he

is most admirably fitted.

The great university will be divided into grades, admission to which will be through

preliminary tests or initiations. Here mankind will be instructed in the most sacred, the

most secret, and the most enduring of all Mysteries--Symbolism. Here the initiate will be

taught that every visible object, every abstract thought, every emotional reaction is but

the symbol of an eternal principle. Here mankind will learn that CHiram (Truth) lies

buried in every atom of Kosmos; that every form is a symbol and every symbol the tomb

of an eternal verity. Through education--spiritual, mental, moral, and physical--man will

learn to release living truths from their lifeless coverings. The perfect government of the

earth must be patterned eventually after that divine government by which the universe is

ordered. In that day when perfect order is reestablished, with peace universal and good

triumphant, men will no longer seek for happiness, for they shall find it welling up within

themselves. Dead hopes, dead aspirations, dead virtues shall rise from their graves, and

the Spirit of Beauty and Goodness repeatedly slain by ignorant men shall again be the

Master of Work. Then shall sages sit upon the seats of the mighty and the gods walk with

men.

p. 81

The Pythagorean Theory of Music and

Color

HARMONY is a state recognized by great philosophers as the immediate prerequisite of

beauty. A compound is termed beautiful only when its parts are in harmonious

combination. The world is called beautiful and its Creator is designated the Good because

good perforce must act in conformity with its own nature; and good acting according to

its own nature is harmony, because the good which it accomplishes is harmonious with

the good which it is. Beauty, therefore, is harmony manifesting its own intrinsic nature in

the world of form.

The universe is made up of successive gradations of good, these gradations ascending

from matter (which is the least degree of good) to spirit (which is the greatest degree of

good). In man, his superior nature is the summum bonum. It therefore follows that his

highest nature most readily cognizes good because the good external to him in the world

is in harmonic ratio with the good present in his soul. What man terms evil is therefore, in

common with matter, merely the least degree of its own opposite. The least degree of

good presupposes likewise the least degree of harmony and beauty. Thus deformity (evil)

is really the least harmonious combination of elements naturally harmonic as individual

units. Deformity is unnatural, for, the sum of all things being the Good, it is natural that

all things should partake of the Good and be arranged in combinations that are

harmonious. Harmony is the manifesting expression of the Will of the eternal Good.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MUSIC

It is highly probable that the Greek initiates gained their knowledge of the philosophic

and therapeutic aspects of music from the Egyptians, who, in turn, considered Hermes the

founder of the art. According to one legend, this god constructed the first lyre by

stretching strings across the concavity of a turtle shell. Both Isis and Osiris were patrons

of music and poetry. Plato, in describing the antiquity of these arts among the Egyptians,

declared that songs and poetry had existed in Egypt for at least ten thousand years, and

that these were of such an exalted and inspiring nature that only gods or godlike men

could have composed them. In the Mysteries the lyre was regarded as the secret symbol

of the human constitution, the body of the instrument representing the physical form, the

strings the nerves, and the musician the spirit. Playing upon the nerves, the spirit thus

created the harmonies of normal functioning, which, however, became discords if the

nature of man were defiled.

While the early Chinese, Hindus, Persians, Egyptians, Israelites, and Greeks employed

both vocal and instrumental music in their religious ceremonials, also to complement

their poetry and drama, it remained for Pythagoras to raise the art to its true dignity by

demonstrating its mathematical foundation. Although it is said that he himself was not a

musician, Pythagoras is now generally credited with the discovery of the diatonic scale.

Having first learned the divine theory of music from the priests of the various Mysteries

into which he had been accepted, Pythagoras pondered for several years upon the laws

governing consonance and dissonance. How he actually solved the problem is unknown,

but the following explanation has been invented.

One day while meditating upon the problem of harmony, Pythagoras chanced to pass a

brazier's shop where workmen were pounding out a piece of metal upon an anvil. By

noting the variances in pitch between the sounds made by large hammers and those made

by smaller implements, and carefully estimating the harmonies and discords resulting

from combinations of these sounds, he gained his first clue to the musical intervals of the

diatonic scale. He entered the shop, and after carefully examining the tools and making

mental note of their weights, returned to his own house and constructed an arm of wood

so that it: extended out from the wall of his room. At regular intervals along this arm he

attached four cords, all of like composition, size, and weight. To the first of these he

attached a twelve-pound weight, to the second a nine-pound weight, to the third an eight-

pound weight, and to the fourth a six-pound weight. These different weights

corresponded to the sizes of the braziers' hammers.

Pythagoras thereupon discovered that the first and fourth strings when sounded together

produced the harmonic interval of the octave, for doubling the weight had the same effect

as halving the string. The tension of the first string being twice that of the fourth string,

their ratio was said to be 2:1, or duple. By similar experimentation he ascertained that the

first and third string produced the harmony of the diapente, or the interval of the fifth.

The tension of the first string being half again as much as that of the third string, their

ratio was said to be 3:2, or sesquialter. Likewise the second and fourth strings, having the

same ratio as the first and third strings, yielded a diapente harmony. Continuing his

investigation, Pythagoras discovered that the first and second strings produced the

harmony of the diatessaron, or the interval of the third; and the tension of the first string

being a third greater than that of the second string, their ratio was said to be 4:3, or

sesquitercian. The third and fourth strings, having the same ratio as the first and second

strings, produced another harmony of the diatessaron. According to Iamblichus, the

second and third strings had the ratio of 8:9, or epogdoan.

The key to harmonic ratios is hidden in the famous Pythagorean tetractys, or pyramid of

dots. The tetractys is made up of the first four numbers--1, 2, 3, and 4--which in their

proportions reveal the intervals of the octave, the diapente, and the diatessaron. While the

law of harmonic intervals as set forth above is true, it has been subsequently proved that

hammers striking metal in the manner

Click to enlarge

THE INTERVALS AND HARMONIES OF THE SPHERES.

From Stanley's The History of Philosophy.

In the Pythagorean concept of the music of the spheres, the interval between the earth and the sphere of the

fixed stars was considered to be a diapason--the most perfect harmonic interval. The allowing arrangement

is most generally accepted for the musical intervals of the planets between the earth and the sphere of the

fixed stars: From the sphere of the earth to the sphere of the moon; one tone; from the sphere of the moon

to that of Mercury, one half-tone; from Mercury to Venus, one-half; from Venus to the sun, one and one-

half tones; from the sun to Mars, one tone; from Mars to Jupiter, one-half tone; from Jupiter to Saturn, one-

half tone; from Saturn to the fixed stars, one-half tone. The sum of these intervals equals the six whole

tones of the octave.

Click to enlarge

THE CONSONANCES OF THE MUNDANE MONOCHORD.

From Fludd's De Musica Mundana.

This diagrammatic sector represents the major gradations of energy and substance between elemental earth

and absolute unconditioned force. Beginning with the superior, the fifteen graduated spheres descend in the

following order: Limitless and Eternal Life; the superior, the middle, and the inferior Empyrean; the seven

planets; and the four elements. Energy is symbolized by Fludd as a pyramid with its base upon the concave

surface of the superior Empyrean, and substance as another Pyramid with its base upon the convex surface

of the sphere (not planet) of earth. These pyramids demonstrate the relative proportions of energy and

substance entering into the composition of the fifteen planes of being. It will be noted that the ascending

pyramid of substance touches but does not pierce the fifteenth sphere--that of Limitless and Eternal Life.

Likewise, the descending pyramid of energy touches but does not pierce the first sphere--the grossest

condition of substance. The plane of the sun is denominated the sphere of equality, for here neither energy

nor substance predominate. The mundane monochord consists of a hypothetical string stretched from the base of the pyramid of energy to the base of the pyramid of substance.

p. 82

described will not produce the various tones ascribed to them. In all probability,

therefore, Pythagoras actually worked out his theory of harmony from the monochord--a

contrivance consisting of a single string stretched between two pegs and supplied with

movable frets.

To Pythagoras music was one of the dependencies of the divine science of mathematics,

and its harmonies were inflexibly controlled by mathematical proportions. The

Pythagoreans averred that mathematics demonstrated the exact method by which the

good established and maintained its universe. Number therefore preceded harmony, since

it was the immutable law that governs all harmonic proportions. After discovering these

harmonic ratios, Pythagoras gradually initiated his disciples into this, the supreme

arcanum of his Mysteries. He divided the multitudinous parts of creation into a vast

number of planes or spheres, to each of which he assigned a tone, a harmonic interval, a

number, a name, a color, and a form. He then proceeded to prove the accuracy of his

deductions by demonstrating them upon the different planes of intelligence and substance

ranging from the most abstract logical premise to the most concrete geometrical solid.

From the common agreement of these diversified methods of proof he established the

indisputable existence of certain natural laws.

Having once established music as an exact science, Pythagoras applied his newly found

law of harmonic intervals to all the phenomena of Nature, even going so far as to

demonstrate the harmonic relationship of the planets, constellations, and elements to each

other. A notable example of modern corroboration of ancient philosophical reaching is

that of the progression of the elements according to harmonic ratios. While making a list

of the elements in the ascending order of their atomic weights, John A. Newlands

discovered at every eighth element a distinct repetition of properties. This discovery is

known as the law of octaves in modern chemistry.

Since they held that harmony must be determined not by the sense perceptions but by

reason and mathematics, the Pythagoreans called themselves Canonics, as distinguished

from musicians of the Harmonic School, who asserted taste and instinct to be the true

normative principles of harmony. Recognizing, however, the profound effect: of music

upon the senses and emotions, Pythagoras did not hesitate to influence the mind and body

with what he termed "musical medicine."

Pythagoras evinced such a marked preference for stringed instruments that he even went

so far as to warn his disciples against allowing their ears to be defiled by the sounds of

flutes or cymbals. He further declared that the soul could be purified from its irrational

influences by solemn songs sung to the accompaniment of the lyre. In his investigation of

the therapeutic value of harmonics, Pythagoras discovered that the seven modes--or keys-

-of the Greek system of music had the power to incite or allay the various emotions. It is

related that while observing the stars one night he encountered a young man befuddled

with strong drink and mad with jealousy who was piling faggots about his mistress' door

with the intention of burning the house. The frenzy of the youth was accentuated by a

flutist a short distance away who was playing a tune in the stirring Phrygian mode.

Pythagoras induced the musician to change his air to the slow, and rhythmic Spondaic

mode, whereupon the intoxicated youth immediately became composed and, gathering up

his bundles of wood, returned quietly to his own home.

There is also an account of how Empedocles, a disciple of Pythagoras, by quickly

changing the mode of a musical composition he was playing, saved the life of his host,

Anchitus, when the latter was threatened with death by the sword of one whose father he

had condemned to public execution. It is also known that Esculapius, the Greek

physician, cured sciatica and other diseases of the nerves by blowing a loud trumpet in

the presence of the patient.

Pythagoras cured many ailments of the spirit, soul, and body by having certain specially

prepared musical compositions played in the presence of the sufferer or by personally

reciting short selections from such early poets as Hesiod and Homer. In his university at

Crotona it was customary for the Pythagoreans to open and to close each day with songs-

-those in the morning calculated to clear the mind from sleep and inspire it to the

activities of the coming day; those in the evening of a mode soothing, relaxing, and

conducive to rest. At the vernal equinox, Pythagoras caused his disciples to gather in a

circle around one of their number who led them in song and played their accompaniment

upon a lyre.

The therapeutic music of Pythagoras is described by Iamblichus thus: "And there are

certain melodies devised as remedies against the passions of the soul, and also against

despondency and lamentation, which Pythagoras invented as things that afford the

greatest assistance in these maladies. And again, he employed other melodies against rage

and anger, and against every aberration of the soul. There is also another kind of

modulation invented as a remedy against desires." (See The Life of Pythagoras.)

It is probable that the Pythagoreans recognized a connection between the seven Greek

modes and the planets. As an example, Pliny declares that Saturn moves in the Dorian

mode and Jupiter in the Phrygian mode. It is also apparent that the temperaments are

keyed to the various modes, and the passions likewise. Thus, anger--which is a fiery

passion--may be accentuated by a fiery mode or its power neutralized by a watery mode.

The far-reaching effect exercised by music upon the culture of the Greeks is thus summed

up by Emil Nauman: "Plato depreciated the notion that music was intended solely to

create cheerful and agreeable emotions, maintaining rather that it should inculcate a love

of all that is noble, and hatred of all that is mean, and that nothing could more strongly

influence man's innermost feelings than melody and rhythm. Firmly convinced of this, he

agreed with Damon of Athens, the musical instructor of Socrates, that the introduction of

a new and presumably enervating scale would endanger the future of a whole nation, and

that it was not possible to alter a key without shaking the very foundations of the State.

Plato affirmed that music which ennobled the mind was of a far higher kind than that

which merely appealed to the senses, and he strongly insisted that it was the paramount

duty of the Legislature to suppress all music of an effeminate and lascivious character,

and to encourage only s that which was pure and dignified; that bold and stirring

melodies were for men, gentle and soothing ones for women. From this it is evident that

music played a considerable part in the education of the Greek youth. The greatest care

was also to be taken in the selection of instrumental music, because the absence of words

rendered its signification doubtful, and it was difficult to foresee whether it would

exercise upon the people a benign or baneful influence. Popular taste, being always

tickled by sensuous and meretricious effects, was to be treated with deserved contempt.

(See The History of Music.)

Even today martial music is used with telling effect in times of war, and religious music,

while no longer developed in accordance with the ancient theory, still profoundly

influences the emotions of the laity.

THE MUSIC OF THE SPHERES

The most sublime but least known of all the Pythagorean speculations was that of sidereal

harmonics. It was said that of all men only Pythagoras heard the music of the spheres.

Apparently the Chaldeans were the first people to conceive of the heavenly bodies

joining in a cosmic chant as they moved in stately manner across the sky. Job describes a

time "when the stars of the morning sang together," and in The Merchant of Venice the

author of the Shakesperian plays

Click to enlarge

THE MUNDANE MONOCHORD WITH ITS PROPORTIONS AND INTERVALS.

From Fludd's De Musica Mundana.

In this chart is set forth a summary of Fludd's theory of universal music. The interval between the element

of earth and the highest heaven is considered as a double octave, thus showing the two extremes of

existence to be in disdiapason harmony. It is signifies that the highest heaven, the sun, and the earth have

the same time, the difference being in pitch. The sun is the lower octave of the highest heaven and the earth

the lower octave of the sun. The lower octave (Γ to G) comprises that part of the universe in which

substance predominate over energy. Its harmonies, therefore, are more gross than those of the higher octave

(G to g) wherein energy predominates over substance. "If struck in the more spiritual part," writes Fludd,

"the monochord will give eternal life; if in the more material part, transitory life." It will be noted that certain elements, planets, and celestial spheres sustain a harmonic ratio to each other, Fludd advanced this

as a key to the sympathies and antipathies existing between the various departments of Nature.

p. 83

writes: "There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st but in his motion like an angel sings." So little remains, however, of the Pythagorean system of celestial music that it is

only possible to approximate his actual theory.

Pythagoras conceived the universe to be an immense monochord, with its single string

connected at its upper end to absolute spirit and at its lower end to absolute matter--in

other words, a cord stretched between heaven and earth. Counting inward from the

circumference of the heavens, Pythagoras, according to some authorities, divided the

universe into nine parts; according to others, into twelve parts. The twelvefold system

was as follows: The first division was called the empyrean, or the sphere of the fixed

stars, and was the dwelling place of the immortals. The second to twelfth divisions were

(in order) the spheres of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the sun, Venus, Mercury, and the moon,

and fire, air, water, and earth. This arrangement of the seven planets (the sun and moon

being regarded as planets in the old astronomy) is identical with the candlestick

symbolism of the Jews--the sun in the center as the main stem with three planets on either

side of it.

The names given by the Pythagoreans to the various notes of the diatonic scale were,

according to Macrobius, derived from an estimation of the velocity and magnitude of the

planetary bodies. Each of these gigantic spheres as it rushed endlessly through space was

believed to sound a certain tone caused by its continuous displacement of the æthereal

diffusion. As these tones were a manifestation of divine order and motion, it must

necessarily follow that they partook of the harmony of their own source. "The assertion

that the planets in their revolutions round the earth uttered certain sounds differing

according to their respective 'magnitude, celerity and local distance,' was commonly

made by the Greeks. Thus Saturn, the farthest planet, was said to give the gravest note,

while the Moon, which is the nearest, gave the sharpest. 'These sounds of the seven

planets, and the sphere of the fixed stars, together with that above us [Antichthon], are the

nine Muses, and their joint symphony is called Mnemosyne.'" (See The Canon.)This

quotation contains an obscure reference to the ninefold division of the universe

previously mentioned.

The Greek initiates also recognized a fundamental relationship between the individual

heavens or spheres of the seven planets, and the seven sacred vowels. The first heaven

uttered the sound of the sacred vowel Α (Alpha); the second heaven, the sacred vowel Ε

(Epsilon); the third, Η (Eta); the fourth, Ι (Iota); the fifth, Ο (Omicron); the sixth, Υ

(Upsilon); and the seventh heaven, the sacred vowel Ω (Omega). When these seven

heavens sing together they produce a perfect harmony which ascends as an everlasting

praise to the throne of the Creator. (See Irenæus' Against Heresies.) Although not so

stated, it is probable that the planetary heavens are to be considered as ascending in the

Pythagorean order, beginning with the sphere of the moon, which would be the first

heaven.

Many early instruments had seven Strings, and it is generally conceded that Pythagoras

was the one who added the eighth string to the lyre of Terpander. The seven strings were

always related both to their correspondences in the human body and to the planets. The

names of God were also conceived to be formed from combinations of the seven

planetary harmonies. The Egyptians confined their sacred songs to the seven primary

sounds, forbidding any others to be uttered in their temples. One of their hymns contained

the following invocation: "The seven sounding tones praise Thee, the Great God, the

ceaseless working Father of the whole universe." In another the Deity describes Himself

thus: "I am the great indestructible lyre of the whole world, attuning the songs of the

heavens. (See Nauman's History of Music.)

The Pythagoreans believed that everything which existed had a voice and that all

creatures were eternally singing the praise of the Creator. Man fails to hear these divine

melodies because his soul is enmeshed in the illusion of material existence. When he

liberates himself from the bondage of the lower world with its sense limitations, the

music of the spheres will again be audible as it was in the Golden Age. Harmony

recognizes harmony, and when the human soul regains its true estate it will not only hear

the celestial choir but also join with it in an everlasting anthem of praise to that Eternal

Good controlling the infinite number of parts and conditions of Being.

The Greek Mysteries included in their doctrines a magnificent concept of the relationship

existing between music and form. The elements of architecture, for example, were

considered as comparable to musical modes and notes, or as having a musical

counterpart. Consequently when a building was erected in which a number of these

elements were combined, the structure was then likened to a musical chord, which was

harmonic only when it fully satisfied the mathematical requirements of harmonic

intervals. The realization of this analogy between sound and form led Goethe to declare

that "architecture is crystallized music."

In constructing their temples of initiation, the early priests frequently demonstrated their

superior knowledge of the principles underlying the phenomena known as vibration. A

considerable part of the Mystery rituals consisted of invocations and intonements, for

which purpose special sound chambers were constructed. A word whispered in one of

these apartments was so intensified that the reverberations made the entire building sway

and be filled with a deafening roar. The very wood and stone used in the erection of these

sacred buildings eventually became so thoroughly permeated with the sound vibrations of

the religious ceremonies that when struck they would reproduce the same tones thus

repeatedly impressed into their substances by the rituals.

Every element in Nature has its individual keynote. If these elements are combined in a

composite structure the result is a chord that, if sounded, will disintegrate the compound

into its integral parts. Likewise each individual has a keynote that, if sounded, will

destroy him. The allegory of the walls of Jericho falling when the trumpets of Israel were

sounded is undoubtedly intended to set forth the arcane significance of individual keynote

or vibration.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF COLOR

"Light," writes Edwin D. Babbitt, "reveals the glories of the external world and yet is the

most glorious of them all. It gives beauty, reveals beauty and is itself most beautiful. It is

the analyzer, the truth-teller and the exposer of shams, for it shows things as they are. Its

infinite streams measure off the universe and flow into our telescopes from stars which

are quintillions of miles distant. On the other hand it descends to objects inconceivably

small, and reveals through the microscope objects fifty millions of times less than can be

seen by the naked eye. Like all other fine forces, its movement is wonderfully soft, yet

penetrating and powerful. Without its vivifying influence, vegetable, animal, and human

life must immediately perish from the earth, and general ruin take place. We shall do

well, then, to consider this potential and beautiful principle of light and its component

colors, for the more deeply we penetrate into its inner laws, the more will it present itself

as a marvelous storehouse of power to vitalize, heal, refine, and delight mankind." (See

The Principles of Light and Color.)

Since light is the basic physical manifestation of life, bathing all creation in its radiance,

it is highly important to realize, in part at least, the subtle nature of this divine substance.

That which is called light is actually a rate of vibration causing certain reactions upon the

optic nerve. Few realize how they are walled in by the limitations

Click to enlarge

THE THEORY OF ELEMENTAL MUSIC.

From Fludd's De Musica Mundana.

In this diagram two interpenetrating pyramids are again employed, one of which represents fire and the

other earth. It is demonstrated according to the law of elemental harmony that fire does not enter into the

composition of earth nor earth into the composition of fire. The figures on the chart disclose the harmonic

relationships existing between the four primary elements according to both Fludd and the Pythagoreans.

Earth consists of four parts of its own nature; water of three parts of earth and one part of fire. The sphere of equality is a hypothetical point where there is an equilibrium of two parts of earth and two parts of fire.

Air is composed of three parts of fire and one part of earth; fire, of four parts of its own nature. Thus earth and water bear to each other the ratio of 4 to 3, or the diatessaron harmony, and water and the sphere of

equality the ratio of 3 to 2, or the diapente harmony. Fire and air also bear to each other the ratio of 4 to 3, or the diatessaron harmony, and air and the sphere of equality the ratio of 3 to 2, or the diapente harmony.

As the sum of a diatessaron and a diapente equals a diapason, or octave, it is evident that both the sphere of fire and the sphere of earth are in diapason harmony with the sphere of equality, and also that fire and earth are in disdiapason harmony with each other.

p. 84

of the sense perceptions. Not only is there a great deal more to light than anyone has ever

seen but there are also unknown forms of light which no optical equipment will ever

register. There are unnumbered colors which cannot be seen, as well as sounds which

cannot be heard, odors which cannot be smelt, flavors which cannot be tasted, and

substances which cannot be felt. Man is thus surrounded by a supersensible universe of

which he knows nothing because the centers of sense perception within himself have not

been developed sufficiently to respond to the subtler rates of vibration of which that

universe is composed.

Among both civilized and savage peoples color has been accepted as a natural language

in which to couch their religious and philosophical doctrines. The ancient city of

Ecbatana as described by Herodotus, its seven walls colored according to the seven

planets, revealed the knowledge of this subject possessed by the Persian Magi. The

famous zikkurat or astronomical tower of the god Nebo at Borsippa ascended in seven

great steps or stages, each step being painted in the key color of one of the planetary

bodies. (See Lenormant's Chaldean Magic.) It is thus evident that the Babylonians were

familiar with the concept of the spectrum in its relation to the seven Creative Gods or

Powers. In India, one of the Mogul emperors caused a fountain to be made with seven

levels. The water pouring down the sides through specially arranged channels changed

color as it descended, passing sequentially through all shades of the spectrum. In Tibet,

color is employed by the native artists to express various moods. L. Austine Waddell,

writing of Northern Buddhist art, notes that in Tibetan mythology "White and yellow

complexions usually typify mild moods, while the red, blue, and black belong to fierce

forms, though sometimes light blue, as indicating the sky, means merely celestial.

Generally the gods are pictured white, goblins red, and devils black, like their European

relative." (See The Buddhism of Tibet.)

In Meno, Plato, speaking through Socrates, describes color as "an effluence of form,

commensurate with sight, and sensible." In Theætetus he discourses more at length on the

subject thus: "Let us carry out the principle which has just been affirmed, that nothing is

self-existent, and then we shall see that every color, white, black, and every other color,

arises out of the eye meeting the appropriate motion, and that what we term the substance

of each color is neither the active nor the passive element, but something which passes

between them, and is peculiar to each percipient; are you certain that the several colors

appear to every animal--say a dog--as they appear to you?"

In the Pythagorean tetractys--the supreme symbol of universal forces and processes--are

set forth the theories of the Greeks concerning color and music. The first three dots

represent the threefold White Light, which is the Godhead containing potentially all

sound and color. The remaining seven dots are the colors of the spectrum and the notes of

the musical scale. The colors and tones are the active creative powers which, emanating

from the First Cause, establish the universe. The seven are divided into two groups, one

containing three powers and the other four a relationship also shown in the tetractys. The

higher group--that of three--becomes the spiritual nature of the created universe; the

lower group--that of four--manifests as the irrational sphere, or inferior world.

In the Mysteries the seven Logi, or Creative Lords, are shown as streams of force issuing

from the mouth of the Eternal One. This signifies the spectrum being extracted from the

white light of the Supreme Deity. The seven Creators, or Fabricators, of the inferior

spheres were called by the Jews the Elohim. By the Egyptians they were referred to as the

Builders (sometimes as the Governors) and are depicted with great knives in their hands

with which they carved the universe from its primordial substance. Worship of the

planets is based upon their acceptation as the cosmic embodiments of the seven creative

attributes of God. The Lords of the planets were described as dwelling within the body of

the sun, for the true nature of the sun, being analogous to the white light, contains the

seeds of all the tone and color potencies which it manifests.

There are numerous arbitrary arrangements setting forth the mutual relationships of the

planets, the colors, and the musical notes. The most satisfactory system is that based upon

the law of the octave. The sense of hearing has a much wider scope than that of sight, for

whereas the ear can register from nine to eleven octaves of sound the eye is restricted to

the cognition of but seven fundamental color tones, or one tone short of the octave. Red,

when posited as the lowest color tone in the scale of chromatics, thus corresponds to do,

the first note of the musical scale. Continuing the analogy, orange corresponds to re,

yellow to mi, green to fa, blue to sol, indigo to la, and violet to si (ti). The eighth color

tone necessary to complete the scale should be the higher octave of red, the first color

tone. The accuracy of the above arrangement is attested by two striking facts: (1) the

three fundamental notes of the musical scale--the first, the third, and the fifth--correspond

with the three primary colors--red, yellow, and blue; (2) the seventh, and least perfect,

note of the musical scale corresponds with purple, the least perfect tone of the color scale.

In The Principles of Light and Color, Edwin D. Babbitt confirms the correspondence of

the color and musical scales: "As C is at the bottom of the musical scale and made with

the coarsest waves of air, so is red at the bottom of the chromatic scale and made with the

coarsest waves of luminous ether. As the musical note B [the seventh note of the scale]

requires 45 vibrations of air every time the note C at the lower end of the scale requires

24, or but little over half as many, so does extreme violet require about 300 trillions of

vibrations of ether in a second, while extreme red requires only about 450 trillions, which

also are but little more than half as many. When one musical octave is finished another

one commences and progresses with just twice as many vibrations as were used in the

first octave, and so the same notes are repeated on a finer scale. In the same way when

the scale of colors visible to the ordinary eye is completed in the violet, another octave of

finer invisible colors, with just twice as many vibrations, will commence and progress on

precisely the same law."

When the colors are related to the twelve signs of the zodiac, they are arranged as the

spokes of a wheel. To Aries is assigned pure red; to Taurus, red-orange; to Gemini, pure

orange; to Cancer, orange-yellow; to Leo, pure yellow; to Virgo, yellow-green; to Libra,

pure green; to Scorpio, green-blue; to Sagittarius, pure blue; to Capricorn, blue-violet; to

Aquarius, pure violet; and to Pisces, violet-red.

In expounding the Eastern system of esoteric philosophy, H. P, Blavatsky relates the

colors to the septenary constitution of man and the seven states of matter as follows:

COLOR

PRINCIPLES OF MAN

STATES OF MATTER

Violet

Chaya, or Etheric Double

Ether

Indigo

Higher Manas, or Spiritual Intelligence

Critical State called Air

Blue

Auric Envelope

Steam or Vapor

Green

Lower Manas, or Animal Soul

Critical State

Yellow

Buddhi, or Spiritual Soul

Water

Orange

Prana, or Life Principle

Critical State

Red

Kama Rupa, or Seat of Animal Life

Ice

This arrangement of the colors of the spectrum and the musical notes of the octave

necessitates a different grouping of the planets in order to preserve their proper tone and

color analogies. Thus do becomes Mars; re, the sun; mi, Mercury; fa, Saturn; sol, Jupiter;

la, Venus; si (ti) the moon. (See The E. S. Instructions.)

Click to enlarge

THE FOUR ELEMENTS AND THEIR CONSONANTAL INTERVALS.

From Fludd's De Musica Mundana.

In this diagram Fludd has divided each of the four Primary elements into three subdivisions. The first

division of each element is the grossest, partaking somewhat of the substance directly inferior to itself

(except in the case of the earth, which has no state inferior to itself). The second division consists of the

element in its relatively pure state, while the third division is that condition wherein the element partakes

somewhat of the substance immediately superior to itself. For example the lowest division of the element of

water is sedimentary, as it contains earth substance in solution; the second division represents water in its

most common state--salty--as in the case of the ocean; and the third division is water in its purest state--free from salt. The harmonic interval assigned to the lowest division of each element is one tone, to the central

division also a tone, but to the higher division a half-tone because it partakes of the division immediately

above it. Fludd emphasizes the fact that as the elements ascend in series of two and a half tones, the

diatessaron is the dominating harmonic interval of the elements.

p. 85

Fishes, Insects, Animals, Reptiles and

Birds

Part One

THE creatures inhabiting the water, air, and earth were held in veneration by all races of

antiquity. Realizing that visible bodies are only symbols of invisible forces, the ancients

worshiped the Divine Power through the lower kingdoms of Nature, because those less

evolved and more simply constituted creatures responded most readily to the creative

impulses of the gods. The sages of old studied living things to a point of realization that

God is most perfectly understood through a knowledge of His supreme handiwork--

animate and inanimate Nature.

Every existing creature manifests some aspect of the intelligence or power of the Eternal

One, who can never be known save through a study and appreciation of His numbered

but inconceivable parts. When a creature is chosen, therefore, to symbolize to the

concrete human mind some concealed abstract principle it is because its characteristics

demonstrate this invisible principle in visible action. Fishes, insects, animals, reptiles, and

birds appear in the religious symbolism of nearly all nations, because the forms and

habits of these creatures and the media in which they exist closely relate them to the

various generative and germinative powers of Nature, which were considered as prima-

facie evidence of divine omnipresence.

The early philosophers and scientists, realizing that all life has its origin in water, chose

the fish as the symbol of the life germ. The fact that fishes are most prolific makes the

simile still more apt. While the early priests may not have possessed the instruments

necessary to analyze the spermatozoon, they concluded by deduction that it resembled a

fish.

Fishes were sacred to the Greeks and Romans, being connected with the worship of

Aphrodite (Venus). An interesting survival of pagan ritualism is found in the custom of

eating fish on Friday. Freya, in whose honor the day was named, was the Scandinavian

Venus, and this day was sacred among many nations to the goddess of beauty and

fecundity. This analogy further links the fish with the procreative mystery. Friday is also

sacred to the followers of the Prophet Mohammed.

The word nun means both fish and growth, and as Inman says: "The Jews were led to

victory by the Son of the Fish whose other names were Joshua and Jesus (the Savior).

Nun is still the name of a female devotee" of the Christian faith. Among early Christians

three fishes were used to symbolize the Trinity, and the fish is also one of the eight sacred

symbols of the great Buddha. It is also significant that the dolphin should be sacred to

both Apollo (the Solar Savior) and Neptune. It was believed that this fish carried

shipwrecked sailors to heaven on its back. The dolphin was accepted by the early

Christians as an emblem of Christ, because the pagans had viewed this beautiful creature

as a friend and benefactor of man. The heir to the throne of France, the Dauphin, may

have secured his title from this ancient pagan symbol of the divine preservative power.

The first advocates of Christianity likened converts to fishes, who at the time of baptism

"returned again into the sea of Christ."

Primitive peoples believed the sea and land were inhabited by strange creatures, and early

books on zoology contain curious illustrations of composite beasts, reptiles, and fishes,

which did not exist at the time the mediæval authors compiled these voluminous books.

In the ancient initiatory rituals of the Persian, Greek, and Egyptian Mysteries the priests

disguised themselves as composite creatures, thereby symbolizing different aspects of

human consciousness. They used birds and reptiles as emblems of their various deities,

often creating forms of grotesque appearance and assigning to them imaginary traits,

habits, and places of domicile, all of which were symbolic of certain spiritual and

transcendental truths thus concealed from the profane. The phœnix made its nest of

incense and flames. The unicorn had the body of a horse, the feet of an elephant, and the

tail of a wild boar. The upper half of the centaur's body was human and the lower half

equine. The pelican of the Hermetists fed its young from its own breast, and to this bird

were assigned other mysterious attributes which could have been true only allegorically.

Though regarded by many writers of the Middle Ages as actual living creatures, none of

these--the pelican excepted--ever existed outside the symbolism of the Mysteries.

Possibly they originated in rumors of animals then little known. In the temple, however,

they became a reality, for there they signified the manifold characteristics of man's

nature. The mantichora had certain points in common with the hyena; the unicorn may

have been the single-horned rhinoceros. To the student of the secret wisdom these

composite animals. and birds simply represent various forces working in the invisible

worlds. This is a point which nearly all writers on the subject of mediæval monsters seem

to have overlooked. (See Vlyssis Aldrovandi's Monstrorum Historia, 1642, and Physica

Curiosa, by P. Gaspare Schotto, 1697.)

There are also legends to the effect that long before the appearance of human beings there

existed a race or species of composite creatures which was destroyed by the gods. The

temples of antiquity preserved their own historical records and possessed information

concerning the prehistoric world that has never been revealed to the uninitiated.

According to these records, the human race evolved from a species of creature that

partook somewhat of the nature of an amphibian, for at that time primitive man had the

gills of a fish and was partly covered with scales. To a limited degree, the human embryo

demonstrates the possibility of such a condition. As a result of the theory of man's origin

in water, the fish was looked upon as the progenitor of the human family. This gave rise

to the ichthyolatry of the Chaldeans, Phœnicians, and Brahmins. The American Indians

believe that the waters of lakes, rivers, and oceans are inhabited by a mysterious people,

the "Water Indians."

The fish has been used as an emblem of damnation; but among the Chinese it typified

contentment and good fortune, and fishes appear on many of their coins. When Typhon,

or Set, the Egyptian evil genius, had divided the body of the god Osiris into fourteen

parts, he cast one part into the river Nile, where, according to Plutarch, it was devoured

by three fishes--the lepidotus (probably the lepidosiren), the phagrus, and the oxyrynchus

(a form of pike). For this reason the Egyptians would not eat the flesh of these fishes,

believing that to do so would be to devour the body of their god. When used as a symbol

of evil, the fish represented the earth (man's lower nature) and the tomb (the sepulcher of

the Mysteries). Thus was Jonah three days in the belly of the "great fish," as Christ was

three days in the tomb.

Several early church fathers believed that the "whale" which swallowed Jonah was the

symbol of God the Father, who, when the hapless prophet was thrown overboard,

accepted Jonah into His own nature until a place of safety was reached. The story of

Jonah is really a legend of initiation into the Mysteries, and the "great fish" represents the

darkness of ignorance which engulfs man when he is thrown over the side of the ship (is

born) into the sea (life). The custom of building ships in the form of fishes or birds,

common in ancient times, could give rise to the story, and mayhap Jonah was merely

picked up by

Click to enlarge

THE FIRST INCARNATION, OR MATSYA AVATAR, OF VISHNU.

From Picart's Religious Ceremonials.

The fish has often been associated with the World Saviors. Vishnu, the Hindu Redeemer, who takes upon

himself ten forms for the redemption of the universe, was expelled from the mouth of a fish in his first

incarnation. Isis, while nursing the infant Horus, is often shown with a fish on her headdress. Oannes, the

Chaldean Savior (borrowed from the Brahmins), is depicted with the head and body of a fish, from which

his human form protrudes at various points. Jesus was often symbolized by a fish. He told His disciples that

they should became "fishers of men." The sign of the fish was also the first monogram of the Christians.

The mysterious Greek name of Jesus, ΙΧΘΥΣ, means "a fish." The fish was accepted as a symbol of the

Christ by a number of early canonized church fathers. St. Augustine likened the Christ to a fish that had

been broiled, and it was also pointed out that the flesh of that Fish was the food of righteous and holy men.

p. 86

another vessel and carried into port, the pattern of the ship causing it to be called a "great

fish." ("Veritatis simplex oratio est!") More probably the "whale" of Jonah is based upon the pagan mythological creature, hippocampus, part horse and part dolphin, for the early

Christian statues and carvings show the composite creature and not a true whale.

It is reasonable to suppose that the mysterious sea serpents, which, according to the

Mayan and Toltec legends, brought the gods to Mexico were Viking or Chaldean ships,

built in the shape of composite sea monsters or dragons. H. P. Blavatsky advances the

theory that the word cetus, the great whale, is derived from keto, a name for the fish god,

Dagon, and that Jonah was actually confined in a cell hollowed out in the body of a

gigantic statue of Dagon after he had been captured by Phœnician sailors and carried to

one of their cities. There is no doubt a great mystery in the gigantic form of cetus, which

is still preserved as a constellation.

According to many scattered fragments extant, man's lower nature was symbolized by a

tremendous, awkward creature resembling a great sea serpent, or dragon, called

leviathan. All symbols having serpentine form or motion signify the solar energy in one

of its many forms. This great creature of the sea therefore represents the solar life force

imprisoned in water and also the divine energy coursing through the body of man, where,

until transmuted, it manifests itself as a writhing, twisting monster---man's greeds,

passions, and lusts. Among the symbols of Christ as the Savior of men are a number

relating to the mystery of His divine nature concealed within the personality of the lowly

Jesus.

The Gnostics divided the nature of the Christian Redeemer into two parts--the one Jesus,

a mortal man; the other, Christos, a personification of Nous, the principle of Cosmic

Mind. Nous, the greater, was for the period of three years (from baptism to crucifixion)

using the fleshly garment of the mortal man (Jesus). In order to illustrate this point and

still conceal it from the ignorant, many strange, and often repulsive, creatures were used

whose rough exteriors concealed magnificent organisms. Kenealy, in his notes on the

Book of Enoch, observes: "Why the caterpillar was a symbol of the Messiah is evident;

because, under a lowly, creeping, and wholly terrestrial aspect, he conceals the beautiful

butterfly-form, with its radiant wings, emulating in its varied colors the Rainbow, the

Serpent, the Salmon, the Scarab, the Peacock, and the dying Dolphin * * *.

INSECTS

In 1609 Henry Khunrath's Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ Æternæ was published. Eliphas

Levi declared that within its pages are concealed all the great secrets of magical

philosophy. A remarkable plate in this work shows the Hermetic sciences being attacked

by the bigoted and ignorant pedagogues of the seventeenth century. In order to express

his complete contempt for his slanderers, Khunrath made out of each a composite beast,

adding donkey ears to one and a false tail to another. He reserved the upper part of the

picture for certain petty backbiters whom he gave appropriate forms. The air was filled

with strange creatures--great dragon flies, winged frogs, birds with human heads, and

other weird forms which defy description--heaping venom, gossip, spite, slander, and

other forms of persecution upon the secret arcanum of the wise. The drawing indicated

that their attacks were ineffectual. Poisonous insects were often used to symbolize the

deadly power of the human tongue.

Insects of all kinds were also considered emblematic of the Nature spirits and dæmons,

for both were believed to inhabit the atmosphere. Mediæval drawings showing magicians

in the act of invoking spirits, often portray the mysterious powers of the other world,

which the conjurer has exorcised, as appearing to him in composite part-insect forms.

The early philosophers apparently held the opinion that the disease which swept through

communities in the form of plagues were actually living creatures, but instead of

considering a number of tiny germs they viewed the entire plague as one individuality

and gave it a hideous shape to symbolize its destructiveness. The fact that plagues came

in the air caused an insect or a bird to be used as their symbol.

Beautiful symmetrical forms were assigned to all natural benevolent conditions or

powers, but to unnatural or malevolent powers were assigned contorted and abnormal

figures. The Evil One was either hideously deformed or else of the nature of certain

despised animals. A popular superstition during the Middle Ages held that the Devil had

the feet of a rooster, while the Egyptians assigned to Typhon (Devil) the body of a hog.

The habits of the insects were carefully studied. Therefore the ant was looked upon as

emblematic of industry and foresight, as it stored up supplies for the winter and also had

strength to move objects many times its own weight. The locusts which swept down in

clouds, and in some parts of Africa and Asia obscured the sun and destroyed every green

thing, were considered fit emblems of passion, disease, hate, and strife; for these

emotions destroy all that is good in the soul of man and leave a barren desert behind

them. In the folklore of various nations, certain insects are given special significance, but

the ones which have received world-wide veneration and consideration ate the scarab, the

king of the insect kingdom; the scorpion, the great betrayer; the butterfly, the emblem of

metamorphosis; and the bee, the symbol of industry.

The Egyptian scarab is one of the most remarkable symbolic figures ever conceived by

the mind of man. It was evolved by the erudition of the priestcraft from a simple insect

which, because of its peculiar habits and appearance, properly symbolized the strength of

the body, the resurrection of the soul, and the Eternal and Incomprehensible Creator in

His aspect as Lord of the Sun. E. A. Wallis Budge says, in effect, of the worship of the

scarab by the Egyptians:

"Yet another view held in primitive times was that the sky was a vast meadow over

which a huge beetle crawled, pushing the disk of the sun before him. This beetle was the

Sky-god, and, arguing from the example of the beetle (Scarabæus sacer), which was

observed to roll along with its hind legs a ball that was believed to contain its eggs, the

early Egyptians thought that the ball of the Sky-god contained his egg and that the sun

was his offspring. Thanks, however, to the investigations of the eminent entomologist,

Monsieur J. H. Fabre, we now know that the ball which the Scarabæus sacer rolls along

contains not its eggs, but dung that is to serve as food for its egg, which it lays in a

carefully prepared place."

Initiates of the Egyptian Mysteries were sometimes called scarabs; again, lions and

panthers. The scarab was the emissary of the sun, symbolizing light, truth, and

regeneration. Stone scarabs, called heart scarabs, about three inches long, were placed in

the heart cavity of the dead when that organ was removed to be embalmed separately as

part of the process of mummifying. Some maintain that the stone beetles were merely

wrapped in the winding cloths at the time of preparing the body for eternal preservation.

The following passage concerning this appears in the great Egyptian book of initiation,

The Book of the Dead: "And behold, thou shalt make a scarab of green stone, which shalt

be placed in the breast of a man, and it shall perform for him, 'the opening of the mouth.'"

The funeral rites of many nations bear a striking resemblance to the initiatory ceremonies

of their Mysteries.

Ra, the god of the sun, had three important aspects. As the Creator of the universe he was

symbolized by the head of a scarab and was called Khepera, which signified the

resurrection of the soul and a new life at the end of the mortal span. The mummy cases of

the Egyptian dead were nearly always ornamented with scarabs. Usually one of these

beetles, with outspread wings, was painted on the mummy case directly over the breast of

the dead. The finding of such great numbers of small stone scarabs indicates that they

were a favorite article of adornment among the Egyptians. Because of its relationship to

the sun, the scarab symbolized the divine part of man's nature. The fact that its beautiful

wings were concealed under its glossy shell typified the winged soul of man hidden

within its earthly sheath. The Egyptian soldiers were given the scarab as their special

symbol because the ancients believed that these creatures were all of the male sex and

consequently appropriate emblems of virility, strength, and courage.

Plutarch noted the fact that the scarab rolled its peculiar ball of dung backwards, while

the insect itself faced the opposite direction. This made it an especially fitting symbol for

the sun, because this orb (according to Egyptian astronomy) was rolling from west to

east, although apparently moving in the opposite direction. An Egyptian allegory states

that the sunrise is caused by the scarab unfolding

Click to enlarge

THE MANTICHORA.

From Redgrove's Bygone Beliefs.

The most remarkable of allegorical creatures was the mantichora, which Ctesias describes as having

aflame-colored body, lionlike in shape, three rows of teeth, a human head and ears, blue eyes, a tail ending

in a series of spikes and stings, thorny and scorpionlike, and a voice which sounded like the blare of

trumpets. This synthetic quadruped ambled into mediæval works on natural history, but, though seriously

considered, had never been seen, because it inhabited inaccessible regions and consequently was difficult to

locate.

Click to enlarge

ROYAL EGYPTIAN SCARAB.

From Hall's Catalogue of Egyptian Scarabs, Etc., in the British Museum.

The flat under side of a scarab usually bears an inscription relating to the dynasty during which it was cut.

These scarabs were sometimes used as seals. Some were cut from ordinary or precious stones; others were

made of clay, baked and glazed. Occasionally the stone scarabs were also glazed. The majority of the small

scarabs are pierced as though originally used as beads. Some are so hard that they will cut glass. In the

picture above, A shows top and side views of the scarab, and B and B the under surface with the name of Men-ka-Ra within the central cartouche.

p. 87

its wings, which stretch out as glorious colors on each side of its body--the solar globe--

and that when it folds its wings under its dark shell at sunset, night follows. Khepera, the

scarab-headed aspect of Ra, is often symbolized riding through the sea of the sky in a

wonderful ship called the Boat of the Sun.

The scorpion is the symbol of both wisdom and self-destruction. It was called by the

Egyptians the creature accursed; the time of year when the sun entered the sign of

Scorpio marked the beginning of the rulership of Typhon. When the twelve signs of the

zodiac were used to represent the twelve Apostles (although the reverse is true), the

scorpion was assigned to Judas Iscariot--the betrayer.

The scorpion stings with its tail, and for this reason it has been called a backbiter, a false

and deceitful thing. Calmet, in his Dictionary of the Bible, declares the scorpion to be a

fit emblem of the wicked and the symbol of persecution. The dry winds of Egypt are said

to be produced by Typhon, who imparts to the sand the blistering heat of the infernal

world and the sting of the scorpion. This insect was also the symbol of the spinal fire

which, according to the Egyptian Mysteries, destroyed man when it was permitted to

gather at the base of his spine (the tail of the scorpion).The red star Antares in the back of

the celestial scorpion was considered the worst light in the heavens. Kalb al Akrab, or the

heart of the scorpion, was called by the ancients the lieutenant or deputy of Mars. (See

footnote to Ptolemy's Tetrabiblos.) Antares was believed to impair the eyesight, often

causing blindness if it rose over the horizon when a child was born. This may refer again

to the sand storm, which was capable of blinding unwary travelers.

The scorpion was also the symbol of wisdom, for the fire which it controlled was capable

of illuminating as well as consuming. Initiation into the Greater Mysteries among the

pagans was said to take place only in the sign of the scorpion. In the papyrus of Ani (The

Book of the Dead), the deceased likens his soul to a scorpion, saying: "I am a swallow, I

am that scorpion, the daughter of Ra!" Elizabeth Goldsmith, in her treatise on Sex

Symbolism, states that the scorpions were a "symbol of Selk, the Egyptian goddess of

writing, and also [were] revered by the Babylonians and Assyrians as guardians of the

gateway of the sun. Seven scorpions were said to have accompanied Isis when she

searched for the remains of Osiris scattered by Set" (Typhon).

In his Chaldean Account of the Genesis, George Smith, copying from the cuneiform

cylinders, in describing the wanderings of the hero Izdubar (Nimrod), throws some light

on the scorpion god who guards the sun. The tablet which he translated is not perfect, but

the meaning is fairly clear: "* * * who each day guard the rising sun. Their crown was at

the lattice of heaven, under hell their feet were placed [the spinal column]. The scorpion

man guarded the gate, burning with terribleness, their appearance was like death, the

might of his fear shook the forest. At the rising of the sun and the setting of the sun, they

guarded the sun; Izdubar saw them and fear and terror came into his face." Among the

early Latins there was a machine of war called the scorpion. It was used for firing arrows

and probably obtained its name from a long beam, resembling a scorpion's tail, which

flew up to hurl the arrows. The missiles discharged by this machine were also called

scorpions.

The butterfly (under the name of Psyche, a beautiful maiden with wings of opalescent

light) symbolizes the human soul because of the stages it passes through in order to

unfold its power of flight. The three divisions through which the butterfly passes in its

unfoldment resemble closely the three degrees of the Mystery School, which degrees are

regarded as consummating the unfoldment of man by giving him emblematic wings by

which he may soar to the skies. Unregenerate man, ignorant and helpless, is symbolized

by the stage between ovum and larva; the disciple, seeking truth and dwelling in

medication, by the second stage, from larva to pupa, at which time the insect enters its

chrysalis (the tomb of the Mysteries); the third stage, from pupa to imago (wherein the

perfect butterfly comes forth), typifies the unfolded enlightened soul of the initiate rising

from the tomb of his baser nature.

Night moths typify the secret wisdom, because they are hard to discover and are

concealed by the darkness (ignorance). Some are emblems of death, as Acherontia

atropos, the death's-head moth, which has a marking on its body somewhat like a human

skull. The death-watch beetle, which was believed to give warning of approaching death

by a peculiar ticking sound, is another instance of insects involved in human affairs.

Opinions differ concerning the spider. Its shape makes it an appropriate emblem of the

nerve plexus and ganglia of the human body. Some Europeans consider it extremely bad

luck to kill a spider--possibly because it is looked upon as an emissary of the Evil One,

whom no person desires to offend. There is a mystery concerning all poisonous creatures,

especially insects. Paracelsus taught that the spider was the medium for a powerful but

evil force which the Black Magicians used in their nefarious undertakings.

Certain plants, minerals, and animals have been sacred among all the nations of the earth

because of their peculiar sensitiveness to the astral fire--a mysterious agency in Nature

which the scientific world has contacted through its manifestations as electricity and

magnetism. Lodestone and radium in the mineral world and various parasitic growths in

the plant kingdom are strangely susceptible to this cosmic electric fire, or universal life

force. The magicians of the Middle Ages surrounded themselves with such creatures as

bats, spiders, cats, snakes, and monkeys, because they were able to appropriate the life

forces of these species and use them to the attainment of their own ends. Some ancient

schools of wisdom taught that all poisonous insects and reptiles are germinated out of the

evil nature of man, and that when intelligent human beings no longer breed hate in their

own souls there will be no more ferocious animals, loathsome diseases, or poisonous

plants and insects.

Among the American Indians is the legend of a "Spider Man," whose web connected the

heaven worlds with the earth. The secret schools of India symbolize certain of the gods

who labored with the universe during its making as connecting the realms of light with

those of darkness by means of webs. Therefore the builders of the cosmic system who

held the embryonic universe together with threads of invisible force were sometimes

referred to as the Spider Gods and their ruler was designated The Great Spider.

The beehive is found in Masonry as a reminder that in diligence and labor for a common

good true happiness and prosperity are found. The bee is a symbol of wisdom, for as this

tiny insect collects pollen from the flowers, so men may extract wisdom from the

experiences of daily life. The bee is sacred to the goddess Venus and, according to

mystics, it is one of several forms of life which came to the earth from the planet Venus

millions of years ago. Wheat and bananas are said to be of similar origin. This is the

reason why the origin of these three forms of life cannot be traced. The fact that bees are

ruled by queens is one reason why this insect is considered a sacred feminine symbol.

In India the god Prana--the personification of the universal life force--is sometimes

shown surrounded by a circle of bees. Because of its importance in pollenizing flowers,

the bee is the accepted symbol of the generative power. At one time the bee was the

emblem of the French kings. The rulers of France wore robes embroidered with bees, and

the canopies of their thrones were decorated with gigantic figures of these insects.

The fly symbolizes the tormentor, because of the annoyance it causes to animals. The

Chaldean god Baal was often called Baal-Zebul, or the god of the dwelling place. The

word zebub, or zabab, means a fly, and Baal-Zebul became Baalzebub, or Beelzebub, a

word which was loosely translated to mean Jupiter's fly. The fly was looked upon as a

form of the divine power, because of its ability to destroy decaying substances and thus

promote health. The fly may have obtained its name Zebub from its peculiar buzzing or

humming. Inman believes that Baalzebub, which the Jews ridiculed as My Lord of Flies,

really means My Lord Who Hums or Murmurs.

Inman recalls the singing Memnon on the Egyptian desert, a tremendous figure with an

Æolian harp on the top of its head. When the wind blows strongly this great Statue sighs,

or hums. The Jews changed Baalzebub into Beelzebub, and made him their prince of

devils by interpreting dæmon as "demon." Naudæus, in defending Virgil from

accusations of sorcery, attempted a wholesale denial of the miracles supposedly

performed by Virgil and produced enough evidence to convict the poet on all counts.

Among other strange fears, Virgil fashioned a fly out of brass, and after certain

mysterious ceremonies, placed it over one of the gates of Naples. As a result, no flies

entered the city for more than eight years.

REPTILES

The serpent was chosen as the head of the reptilian family. Serpent worship in some form

has permeated nearly all parts of the

Click to enlarge

THE FLEUR-DE-LIS.

The bee was used as, a symbol of royalty by the immortal Charlemagne, and it is probable that the fleur-de-

lis, or lily of France, is merely a conventionalized bee and not a flower. There is an ancient Greek legend to the effect that the nine Muses occasionally assumed the form of bees.

Click to enlarge

THE SCORPION TALISMAN.

From Paracelsus' Archidoxes Magica.

The scorpion often appears upon the talismans and charms of the Middle Ages. This hieroglyphic

Arachnida was supposed to have the power of curing disease. The scorpion shown above was composed of

several metals, and was made under certain planetary configurations. Paracelsus advised that it be worn by

those suffering from any derangement of the reproductive system.

p. 88

earth. The serpent mounds of the American Indian; the carved-stone snakes of Central

and South America; the hooded cobras of India; Python, the great snake o the Greeks; the

sacred serpents of the Druids; the Midgard snake of Scandinavia; the Nagas of Burma,

Siam, and Cambodia; the brazen serpent of the Jews; the mystic serpent of Orpheus; the

snakes at the oracle; of Delphi twining themselves around the tripod upon which the

Pythian priestess sat, the tripod itself being in the form of twisted serpents; the sacred

serpents preserved in the Egyptian temples; the Uræus coiled upon the foreheads of the

Pharaohs and priests;--all these bear witness to the universal veneration in which the

snake was held. In the ancient Mysteries the serpent entwining a staff was the symbol of

the physician. The serpent-wound staff of Hermes remains the emblem of the medical

profession. Among nearly all these ancient peoples the serpent was accepted as the

symbol of wisdom or salvation. The antipathy which Christendom feels towards the

snake is based upon the little-understood allegory of the Garden of Eden.

The serpent is true to the principle of wisdom, for it tempts man to the knowledge of

himself. Therefore the knowledge of self resulted from man's disobedience to the

Demiurgus, Jehovah. How the serpent came to be in the garden of the Lord after God had

declared that all creatures which He had made during the six days of creation were good

has not been satisfactorily answered by the interpreters of Scripture. The tree that grows

in the midst of the garden is the spinal fire; the knowledge of the use of that spinal fire is

the gift of the great serpent. Notwithstanding statements to the contrary, the serpent is the

symbol and prototype of the Universal Savior, who redeems the worlds by giving

creation the knowledge of itself and the realization of good and evil. If this be not so,

why did Moses raise a brazen serpent upon a cross in the wilderness that all who looked

upon it might be saved from the sting of the lesser snakes? Was not the brazen serpent a

prophecy of the crucified Man to come? If the serpent be only a thing of evil, why did

Christ instruct His disciples to be as wise as serpents?

The accepted theory that the serpent is evil cannot be substantiated. It has long been

viewed as the emblem of immortality. It is the symbol of reincarnation, or

metempsychosis, because it annually sheds its skin, reappearing, as it were, in a new

body. There is an ancient superstition to the effect that snakes never die except by

violence and that, if uninjured, they would live forever. It was also believed that snakes

swallowed themselves, and this resulted in their being considered emblematic of the

Supreme Creator, who periodically reabsorbed His universe back into Himself.

In Isis Unveiled, H. P. Blavatsky makes this significant statement concerning the origin

of serpent worship: "Before our globe had become egg-shaped or round it was a long trail

of cosmic dust or fire-mist, moving and writhing like a serpent. This, say the

explanations, was the Spirit of God moving on the chaos until its breath had incubated

cosmic matter and made it assume the annular shape of a serpent with its tail in its

month--emblem of eternity in its spiritual and of our world in its physical sense."

The seven-headed snake represents the Supreme Deity manifesting through His Elohim,

or Seven Spirits, by whose aid He established His universe. The coils of the snake have

been used by the pagans to symbolize the motion and also the orbits of the celestial

bodies, and it is probable that the symbol of the serpent twisted around the egg--which

was common to many of the ancient Mystery schools--represented both the apparent

motion of the sun around the earth, and the bands of astral light, or the great magical

agent, which move about the planet incessantly.

Electricity was commonly symbolized by the serpent because of its motion. Electricity

passing between the poles of a spark gap is serpentine in its motion. Force projected

through atmosphere was called The Great Snake. Being symbolic of universal force, the

serpent was emblematic of both good and evil. Force can tear down as rapidly as it can

build up. The serpent with its tail in its mouth is the symbol of eternity, for in this

position the body of the reptile has neither beginning nor end. The head and tail represent

the positive and negative poles of the cosmic life circuit. The initiates of the Mysteries

were often referred to as serpents, and their wisdom was considered analogous to the

divinely inspired power of the snake. There is no doubt that the title "Winged Serpents"

(the Seraphim?) was given to one of the invisible hierarchies that labored with the earth

during its early formation.

There is a legend that in the beginning of the world winged serpents reigned upon the

earth. These were probably the demigods which antedate the historical civilization of

every nation. The symbolic relationship between the sun and the serpent found literal

witness in the fact that life remains in the snake until sunset, even though it be cut into a

dozen parts. The Hopi Indians consider the serpent to be in close communication with the

Earth Spirit. Therefore, at the time of their annual snake dance they send their prayers to

the Earth Spirit by first specially sanctifying large numbers of these reptiles and then

liberating them to return to the earth with the prayers of the tribe.

The great rapidity of motion manifested by lizards has caused them to be associated with

Mercury, the Messenger of the Gods, whose winged feet traveled infinite distances

almost instantaneously. A point which must not be overlooked in connection with reptiles

in symbolism is clearly brought out by the eminent scholar, Dr. H. E. Santee, in his

Anatomy of the Brain and Spinal Cord: "In reptiles there are two pineal bodies, an

anterior and a posterior, of which the posterior remains undeveloped but the anterior

forms a rudimentary, cyclopean eye. In the Hatteria, a New Zealand lizard, it projects

through the parietal foramen and presents an imperfect lens and retina and, in its long

stalk, nerve fibers."

Crocodiles were regarded by the Egyptians both as symbols of Typhon and emblems of

the Supreme Deity, of the latter because while under water the crocodile is capable of

seeing--Plutarch asserts--though its eyes are covered by a thin membrane. The Egyptians

declared that no matter how far away the crocodile laid its eggs, the Nile would reach up

to them in its next inundation, this reptile being endowed with a mysterious sense capable

of making known the extent of the flood months before it took place. There were two

kinds of crocodiles. The larger and more ferocious was hated by the Egyptians, for they

likened it to the nature of Typhon, their destroying demon. Typhon waited to devour all

who failed to pass the judgment of the Dead, which rite took place in the Hall of Justice

between the earth and the Elysian Fields. Anthony Todd Thomson thus describes the

good treatment accorded the smaller and tamer crocodiles, which the Egyptians accepted

as personifications of good: "They were fed daily and occasionally had mulled wine

poured down their throats. Their ears were ornamented with rings of gold and precious

stones, and their forefeet adorned with bracelets."

To the Chinese the turtle was a symbol of longevity. At a temple in Singapore a number

of sacred turtles are kept, their age recorded by carvings on their shells. The American

Indians use the ridge down the back of the turtle shell as a symbol of the Great Divide

between life and death. The turtle is a symbol of wisdom because it retires into itself and

is its own protection. It is also a phallic symbol, as its relation to long life would signify.

The Hindus symbolized the universe as being supported on the backs of four great

elephants who, in turn, are standing upon an immense turtle which is crawling

continually through chaos.

The Egyptian sphinx, the Greek centaur, and the Assyrian man-bull have much in

common. All are composite creatures combining human and animal members; in the

Mysteries all signify the composite nature of man and subtly refer to the hierarchies of

celestial beings that have charge of the destiny of mankind. These hierarchies are the

twelve holy animals now known as constellations--star groups which are merely symbols

of impersonal spiritual impulses. Chiron, the centaur, teaching the sons of men,

symbolizes the intelligences of the constellation of Sagittarius, who were the custodians

of the secret doctrine while (geocentrically) the sun was passing through the sign of

Gemini. The five-footed Assyrian man-bull with the wings of an eagle and the head of a

man is a reminder that the invisible nature of man has the wings of a god, the head of a

man, and the body of a beast. The same concept was expressed through the sphinx--that

armed guardian of the Mysteries who, crouching at the gate of the temple, denied

entrance to the profane. Thus placed between man and his divine possibilities, the sphinx

also represented the secret doctrine itself. Children's fairy stories abound with

descriptions of symbolic monsters, for nearly all such tales are based upon the ancient

mystic folklore.

Click to enlarge

THE URÆUS.

From Kircher's Œdipus Ægyptiacus.

The spinal cord was symbolized by a snake, and the serpent coiled upon the foreheads of the Egyptian

initiates represented the Divine Fire which had crawled serpentlike up the Tree of Life.

Click to enlarge

GOOD AND EVIL CONTENDING FOR THE UNIVERSAL EGG.

From Maurice's Indian Antiquities.

Both Mithras, the Persian Redeemer, and Serapis, the Egyptian God of the Earth, are symbolized by

serpents coiled about their bodies. This remarkable drawing shows the good and evil principles of Persia--

Ahura-Mazda and Ahriman--contending for the Egg of the Earth, which each trying to wrench from the

teeth of the other.

p. 89

Fishes, Insects, Animals, Reptiles and

Birds

(Part Two)

AS appropriate emblems of various human and divine attributes birds were included in

religious and philosophic symbolism that of pagans and of Christians alike. Cruelty was

signified by the buzzard; courage by the eagle; self-sacrifice by the pelican; and pride by

the peacock. The ability of birds to leave the earth and fly aloft toward the source of light

has resulted in their being associated with aspiration, purity, and beauty. Wings were

therefore often added to various terrene creatures in an effort to suggest transcendency.

Because their habitat was among the branches of the sacred trees in the hearts of ancient

forests, birds were also regarded as the appointed messengers of the tree spirits and

Nature gods dwelling in these consecrated groves, and through their clear notes the gods

themselves were said to speak. Many myths have been fabricated to explain the brilliant

plumage of birds. A familiar example is the story of Juno's peacock, in whose tail

feathers were placed the eyes of Argus. Numerous American Indian legends also deal

with birds and the origin of the various colors of feathers. The Navahos declare that when

all living things climbed to the stalk of a bamboo to escape the Flood, the wild turkey was

on the lowest branch and his tail feathers trailed in the water; hence the color was all

washed out.

Gravitation, which is a law in the material world, is the impulse toward the center of

materiality; levitation, which is a law in the spiritual world, is the impulse toward the

center of spirituality. Seeming to be capable of neutralizing the effect of gravity, the bird

was said to partake of a nature superior to other terrestrial creation; and its feathers,

because of their sustaining power, came to be accepted as symbols of divinity, courage,

and accomplishment. A notable example is the dignity attached to eagle feathers by the

American Indians, among whom they are insignia of merit. Angels have been invested

with wings because, like birds, they were considered to be the intermediaries between the

gods and men and to inhabit the air or middle kingdom betwixt heaven and earth. As the

dome of the heavens was likened to a skull in the Gothic Mysteries, so the birds which

flew across the sky were regarded as thoughts of the Deity. For this reason Odin's two

messenger ravens were called Hugin and Munin--thought and memory.

Among the Greeks and Romans, the eagle was the appointed bird of Jupiter and

consequently signified the swiftly moving forces of the Demiurgus; hence it was looked

upon as the mundane lord of the birds, in contradistinction to the phœnix, which was

symbolic of the celestial ruler. The eagle typified the sun in its material phase and also

the immutable Demiurgic law beneath which all mortal creatures must bend. The eagle

was also the Hermetic symbol of sulphur, and signified the mysterious fire of Scorpio--

the most profoundly significant sign of the zodiac and the Gate of the Great Mystery.

Being one of the three symbols of Scorpio, the eagle, like the Goat of Mendes, was an

emblem of the theurgic art and the secret processes by which the infernal fire of the

scorpion was transmuted into the spiritual light-fire of the gods.

Among certain American Indian tribes the thunderbird is held in peculiar esteem. This

divine creature is said to live above the clouds; the flapping of its wings causes the

rumbling which accompanies storms, while the flashes from its eyes are the lightning.

Birds were used to signify the vital breath; and among the Egyptians, mysterious

hawklike birds with human heads, and carrying in their claws the symbols of immortality,

are often shown hovering as emblems of the liberated soul over the mummified bodies of

the dead. In Egypt the hawk was the sacred symbol of the sun; and Ra, Osiris, and Horns

are often depicted with the heads of hawks. The cock, or rooster, was a symbol of

Cashmala (Cadmillus) in the Samothracian Mysteries, and is also a phallic symbol sacred

to the sun. It was accepted by the Greeks as the emblem of Ares (Mars) and typified

watchfulness and defense. When placed in the center of a weather vane it signifies the

sun in the midst of the four corners of creation. The Greeks sacrificed a rooster to the

gods at the time of entering the Eleusinian Mysteries. Sir Francis Bacon is supposed to

have died as the result of stuffing a fowl with snow. May this not signify Bacon's

initiation into the pagan Mysteries which still existed in his day?

Both the peacock and the ibis were objects of veneration because they destroyed the

poisonous reptiles which were popularly regarded as the emissaries of the infernal gods.

Because of the myriad of eyes in its tail feathers the peacock was accepted as the symbol

of wisdom, and on account of its general appearance it was often confused with the

fabled phœnix of the Mysteries. There is a curious belief that the flesh of the peacock will

not putrefy even though kept for a considerable time. As an outgrowth of this belief the

peacock became the emblem of immortality, because the spiritual nature of man--like the

flesh of this bird--is incorruptible.

The Egyptians paid divine honors to the ibis and it was a cardinal crime to kill one, even

by accident. It was asserted that the ibis could live only in Egypt and that if transported to

a foreign country it would die of grief. The Egyptians declared this bird to be the

preserver of crops and especially worthy of veneration because it drove out the winged

serpents of Libya which the wind blew into Egypt. The ibis was sacred to Thoth, and

when its head and neck were tucked under its wing its body closely resembled a human

heart. (See Montfaucon's Antiquities.) The black and white ibis was sacred to the moon;

but all forms were revered because they destroyed crocodile eggs, the crocodile being a

symbol of the detested Typhon.

Nocturnal birds were appropriate symbols of both sorcery and the secret divine sciences:

sorcery because black magic cannot function in the light of truth (day) and is powerful

only when surrounded by ignorance (night); and the divine sciences because those

possessing the arcana are able to see through the darkness of ignorance and materiality.

Owls and bats were consequently often associated with either witchcraft or wisdom. The

goose was an emblem of the first primitive substance or condition from which and within

which the worlds were fashioned. In the Mysteries, the universe was likened to an egg

which the Cosmic Goose had laid in space. Because of its blackness the crow was the

symbol of chaos or the chaotic darkness preceding the light of creation. The grace and

purity of the swan were emblematic of the spiritual grace and purity of the initiate. This

bird also represented the Mysteries which unfolded these qualities in humanity. This

explains the allegories of the gods (the secret wisdom) incarnating in the body of a swan

(the initiate).

Being scavengers, the vulture, the buzzard, and the condor signified that form of divine

power which by disposing of refuse and other matter dangerous to the life and health of

humanity cleanses and purifies the lower spheres. These birds were therefore adopted as

symbols of the disintegrative processes which accomplish good while apparently

destroying, and by some religions have been mistakenly regarded as evil. Birds such as

the parrot and raven were accorded veneration because, being able to mimic the human

voice, they were looked upon as links between the human and animal kingdoms.

The dove, accepted by Christianity as the emblem of the Holy Ghost, is an extremely

ancient and highly revered pagan yonic emblem. In many of the ancient Mysteries it

represented the third person of the Creative Triad, or the Fabricator of the world. As the

lower worlds were brought into existence through a generative process, so the dove has

been associated with those deities identified with the procreative functions. It is sacred to

Astarte, Cybele, Isis, Venus, Juno, Mylitta, and Aphrodite. On account of its gentleness

and devotion to its young, the dove was looked upon as the embodiment of the maternal

instinct. The dove is also an emblem of wisdom, for it represents the power and order by

which the lower worlds are maintained. It has long been accepted as a messenger of the

divine will, and signifies the activity of God.

The name dove has been given to oracles and to prophets. "The true name of the dove

was Ionah or Iönas; it was a very sacred emblem, and atone time almost universally

received; it was adopted by the Hebrews; and the mystic Dove was regarded as a symbol

Click to enlarge

THE PHŒNIX ON ITS NEST OF FLAMES.

From Lycosthenes' Prodigiorum, ac Ostentorum Chronicon.

The phœnix is the most celebrated of all the symbolic creatures fabricated by the ancient Mysteries for the

purpose of concealing the great truths of esoteric philosophy. Though modern scholars of natural history

declare the existence of the phœnix to be purely mythical, Pliny describes the capture of one of these birds

and it exhibition in the Roman Forum during the reign of the Emperor Claudius.

p. 90

from the days of Noah by all those who were of the Church of God. The prophet sent to

Ninevah as God's messenger was called Jonah or the Dove; our Lord's forerunner, the

Baptist, was called in Greek by the name of Ioannes; and so was the Apostle of Love, the

author Of the fourth Gospel and of the Apocalypse, named Ioannes." (Bryant's Analysis

of Ancient Mythology.)

In Masonry the dove is the symbol of purity and innocence. It is significant that in the

pagan Mysteries the dove of Venus was crucified upon the four spokes of a great wheel,

thus foreshadowing the mystery of the crucified Lord of Love. Although Mohammed

drove the doves from the temple at Mecca, occasionally he is depicted with a dove sitting

upon his shoulder as the symbol of divine inspiration. In ancient times the effigies of

doves were placed upon the heads of scepters to signify that those bearing them were

overshadowed by divine prerogative. In mediæval art, the dove frequently was pictured

as an emblem of divine benediction.

THE PHŒNIX

Clement, one of the ante-Nicæan Fathers, describes, in the first century after Christ, the

peculiar nature and habits of the phœnix, in this wise: "There is a certain bird which is

called a Phœnix. This is the only one of its kind and lives five hundred years. And when

the time of its dissolution draws near that it must die, it builds itself a nest of

frankincense, and myrrh, and other spices, into which, when the time is fulfilled, it enters

and dies. But as the flesh decays a certain kind of worm is produced, which, being

nourished by the juices of the dead bird, brings forth feathers. Then, when it has acquired

strength, it takes up that nest in which are the bones of its parent, and bearing these it

passes from the land of Arabia into Egypt, to the city called Heliopolis. And, in open day,

flying in the sight of all men, it places them on the altar of the sun, and having done this,

hastens back to its former abode. The priests then inspect the registers of the dates, and

find that it has returned exactly as the five hundredth year was completed."

Although admitting that he had not seen the phœnix bird (there being only one alive at a

time), Herodotus amplifies a bit the description given by Clement: "They tell a story of

what this bird does which does not seem to me to be credible: that he comes all the way

from Arabia, and brings the parent bird, all plastered with myrrh, to the temple of the sun,

and there buries the body. In order to bring him, they say, he first forms a ball of myrrh as

big as he finds that he can carry; then he hollows out the ball, and puts his parent inside;

after which he covers over the opening with fresh myrrh, and the ball is then of exactly

the same weight as at first; so he brings it to Egypt, plastered over as I have said, and

deposits it in the temple of the sun. Such is the story they tell of the doings of this bird."

Both Herodotus and Pliny noted the general resemblance in shape between the phœnix

and the eagle, a point which the reader should carefully consider, for it is reasonably

certain that the modern Masonic eagle was originally a phœnix. The body of the phœnix

is described as having been covered with glossy purple feathers, while its long tail

feathers were alternately blue and red. Its head was light in color and about its neck was a

circlet of golden plumage. At the back of its head the phœnix had a peculiar tuft of

feathers, a fact quite evident, although it has been overlooked by most writers and

symbolists.

The phœnix was regarded as sacred to the sun, and the length of its life (500 to 1000

years) was taken as a standard for measuring the motion of the heavenly bodies and also

the cycles of time used in the Mysteries to designate the periods of existence. The diet of

the bird was unknown. Some writers declare that it subsisted upon the atmosphere; others

that it ate at rare intervals but never in the presence of man. Modern Masons should

realize the special Masonic significance of the phœnix, for the bird is described as using

sprigs of acacia in the manufacture of its nest.

The phœnix (which is the mythological Persian roc) is also the name of a Southern

constellation, and therefore it has both an astronomical and an astrological significance.

In all probability, the phœnix was the swan of the Greeks, the eagle of the Romans, and

the peacock of the Far East. To the ancient mystics the phœnix was a most appropriate

symbol of the immortality of the human soul, for just as the phœnix was reborn out of its

own dead self seven times seven, so again and again the spiritual nature of man rises

triumphant from his dead physical body.

Mediæval Hermetists regarded the phœnix as a symbol of the accomplishment of

alchemical transmutation, a process equivalent to human regeneration. The name phœnix

was also given to one of the secret alchemical formula. The familiar pelican of the Rose

Croix degree, feeding its young from its own breast, is in reality a phœnix, a fact which

can be confirmed by an examination of the head of the bird. The ungainly lower part of

the pelican's beak is entirely missing, the head of the phœnix being far more like that of

an eagle than of a pelican. In the Mysteries it was customary to refer to initiates as

phœnixes or men who had been born again, for just as physical birth gives man

consciousness in the physical world, so the neophyte, after nine degrees in the womb of

the Mysteries, was born into a consciousness of the Spiritual world. This is the mystery

of initiation to which Christ referred when he said, "Except a man be born again, he

cannot see the kingdom of God" (John iii. 3). The phœnix is a fitting symbol of this

spiritual truth.

European mysticism was not dead at the time the United States of America was founded.

The hand of the Mysteries controlled in the establishment of the new government, for the

signature of the Mysteries may still be seen on the Great Seal of the United States of

America. Careful analysis of the seal discloses a mass of occult and Masonic symbols,

chief among them the so-called American eagle--a bird which Benjamin Franklin

declared unworthy to be chosen as the emblem of a great, powerful, and progressive

people. Here again only the student of symbolism can see through the subterfuge and

realize that the American eagle upon the Great Seal is but a conventionalized phœnix, a

fact plainly discernible from an examination of the original seal. In his sketch of The

History of the Seal of the United States, Gaillard Hunt unwittingly brings forward much

material to substantiate the belief that the original seal carried the Phœnix bird on its

obverse surface and the Great Pyramid of Gizeh upon its reverse surface. In a colored

sketch submitted as a design for the Great Seal by William Barton in 1782, an actual

phœnix appears sitting upon a nest of flames. This itself demonstrates a tendency towards

the use of this emblematic bird.

Click to enlarge

PHŒNIX OR EAGLE, WHICH?

On the left is the bird's head from the first Great Seal of the United States (1782) and on the right the Great Seal of 1902. When the first great Seal was actually cut, the bird represented upon it was very different

from the eagle which now appears; the neck was much longer and the tuft of feathers, at the upper back part

of the head was quite noticeable; the beak bore little resemblance to that of the eagle; and the entire bird

was much thinner and its wings shorter. It requires very little imagination to trace in this first so-called

eagle the mythological Phœnix of antiquity. What is more, there is every reason why a phœnix bird should

be used to represent a new country rising out of an old, while as Benjamin Franklin caustically noted, the

eagle was not a bird of good moral character!

Click to enlarge

AN EGYPTIAN PHŒNIX.

From Wilkinson's Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians.

The Egyptians occasionally represented the Phœnix as having the body of a man and the wings of a bird.

This biform, creature had a tuft of feathers upon its head and its arms were upraised in an attitude of prayer.

As the phœnix was the symbol of regeneration, the tuft of feathers on the back of its head might well

symbolize the activity of the Pineal gland, or third eye, the occult function of which was apparently well

understood by the ancient priestcraft.

Click to enlarge

THE OBVERSE AND REVERSE OF THE GREAT SEAL OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

From Hunt's History of the Seal of the United States.

The significance of the mystical number 13, which frequently appears upon the Great Seal of the United

States, is not limited to the number of the original colonies. The sacred emblem of the ancient initiates, here composed of 13 stars,, also appears above the head of the "eagle." The motto, E Pluribus Unum, contains 13 letters, as does also the inscription, Annuit Cœptis. The "eagle" clutches in its right talon a branch bearing 13 leaves and 13 berries and in its left a sheaf of 13 arrows. The face of the pyramid, exclusive of

the panel containing the date, consists of 72 stones arranged in 13 rows.

p. 91

If any one doubts the presence of Masonic and occult influences at the time the Great

Seal was designed, he should give due consideration to the comments of Professor

Charles Eliot Norton of Harvard, who wrote concerning the unfinished pyramid and the

All-Seeing Eye which adorned the reverse of the seal, as follows: "The device adopted by

Congress is practically incapable of effective treatment; it can hardly (however

artistically treated by the designer) look otherwise than as a dull emblem of a Masonic

fraternity." (The History of the Seal of the United States.)

The eagles of Napoleon and Cæsar and the zodiacal eagle of Scorpio are really phœnixes,

for the latter bird--not the eagle--is the symbol of spiritual victory and achievement.

Masonry will be in a position to solve many of the secrets of its esoteric doctrine when it

realizes that both its single- and double-headed eagles are phœnixes, and that to all

initiates and philosophers the phœnix is the symbol of the transmutation and regeneration

of the creative energy--commonly called the accomplishment of the Great Work. The

double-headed phœnix is the prototype of an androgynous man, for according to the

secret teachings there will come a time when the human body will have two spinal cords,

by means of which vibratory equilibrium will be maintained in the body.

Not only were many of the founders of the United States Government Masons, but they

received aid from a secret and august body existing in Europe, which helped them to

establish this country for a peculiar and particular purpose known only to the initiated

few. The Great Seal is the signature of this exalted body--unseen and for the most part

unknown--and the unfinished pyramid upon its reverse side is a trestleboard setting forth

symbolically the task to the accomplishment of which the United States Government was

dedicated from the day of its inception.

ANIMALS

The lion is the king of the animal family and, like the head of each kingdom, is sacred to

the sun, whose rays are symbolized by the lion's shaggy mane. The allegories perpetuated

by the Mysteries (such as the one to the effect that the lion opens the secret book) signify

that the solar power opens the seed pods, releasing the spiritual life within. There was

also a curious belief among the ancients that the lion sleeps with his eyes open, and for

this reason the animal was chosen as a symbol of vigilance. The figure of a lion placed on

either side of doors and gateways is an emblem of divine guardianship. King Solomon

was often symbolized as a lion. For ages the feline family has been regarded with

peculiar veneration. In several of the Mysteries--most notably the Egyptian--the priests

wore the skins of lions, tigers, panthers, pumas, or leopards. Hercules and Samson (both

solar symbols) slew the lion of the constellation of Leo and robed themselves in his skin,

thus signifying that they represented the sun itself when at the summit of the celestial

arch.

At Bubastis in Egypt was the temple of the famous goddess Bast, the cat deity of the

Ptolemies. The Egyptians paid homage to the cat, especially when its fur was of three

shades or its eyes of different colors. To the priests the cat was symbolic of the magnetic

forces of Nature, and they surrounded themselves with these animals for the sake of the

astral fire which emanated from their bodies. The cat was also a symbol of eternity, for

when it sleeps it curls up into a ball with its head and tail touching. Among the Greeks

and Latins the cat was sacred to the goddess Diana. The Buddhists of India invested the

cat with special significance, but for a different reason. The cat was the only animal

absent at the death of the great Buddha, because it had stopped on the way to chase a

mouse. That the symbol of the lower astral forces should not be present at the liberation

of the Buddha is significant.

Regarding the cat, Herodotus says: "Whenever a fire breaks out, cats are agitated with a

kind of divine motion, which they that keep them observe, neglecting the fire: The cats,

however, in spite of their care, break from them, leaping even over the heads of their

keepers to throw themselves into the fire. The Egyptians then make great mourning for

their death. If a cat dies a natural death in a house, all they of that house shave their

eyebrows: If a dog, they shave the head and all the body. They used to embalm their dead

cats, and carry them to Bubastis to be interred in a sacred house. (Montfaucon's

Antiquities.)

The most important of all symbolic animals was the Apis, or Egyptian bull of Memphis,

which was regarded as the sacred vehicle for the transmigration of the soul of the god

Osiris. It was declared that the Apis was conceived by a bolt of lightning, and the

ceremony attendant upon its selection and consecration was one of the most impressive in

Egyptian ritualism. The Apis had to be marked in a certain manner. Herodotus states that

the bull must be black with a square white spot on his forehead, the form of an eagle

(probably a vulture) on his back, a beetle upon (under) his tongue, and the hair of his tail

lying two ways. Other writers declare that the sacred bull was marked with twenty-nine

sacred symbols, his body was spotted, and upon his right side was a white mark in the

form of a crescent. After its sanctification the Apis was kept in a stable adjacent to the

temple and led in processionals through the streets of the city upon certain solemn

occasions. It was a popular belief among the Egyptians that any child upon whom the bull

breathed would become illustrious. After reaching a certain age (twenty-five years) the

Apis was taken either to the river Nile or to a sacred fountain (authorities differ on this

point) and drowned, amidst the lamentations of the populace. The mourning and wailing

for his death continued until the new Apis was found, when it was declared that Osiris

had reincarnated, whereupon rejoicing took the place of grief.

The worship of the bull was not confined to Egypt, but was prevalent in many nations of

the ancient world. In India, Nandi--the sacred white bull of Siva--is still the object of

much veneration; and both the Persians and the Jews accepted the bull as an important

religious symbol. The Assyrians, Phœnicians, Chaldeans, and even the Greeks reverenced

this animal, and Jupiter turned himself into a white bull to abduct Europa. The bull was a

powerful phallic emblem signifying the paternal creative power of the Demiurgus. At his

death he was frequently mummified and buried with the pomp and dignity of a god in a

specially prepared sarcophagus. Excavations in the Serapeum at Memphis have

uncovered the tombs of more than sixty of these sacred animals.

As the sign rising over the horizon at the vernal equinox constitutes the starry body for

the annual incarnation of the sun, the bull not only was the celestial symbol of the Solar

Man but, because the vernal equinox took place in the constellation of Taurus, was called

the breaker or opener of the year. For this reason in astronomical symbolism the bull is

often shown breaking the annular egg with his horns. The Apis further signifies that the

God-Mind is incarnated in the body of a beast and therefore that the physical beast form

is the sacred vehicle of divinity. Man's lower personality is the Apis in which Osiris

incarnates. The result of the combination is the creation of Sor-Apis (Serapis)-the

material soul as ruler of the irrational material body and involved therein. After a certain

period (which is determined by the square of five, or twenty-five years), the body of the

Apis is destroyed and the soul liberated by the water which drowns the material life. This

was indicative of the washing away of the material nature by the baptismal waters of

divine light and truth. The drowning of the Apis is the symbol of death; the resurrection

of Osiris in the new bull is the symbol of eternal renovation. The white bull was also

symbolically sacred as the appointed emblem of the initiates, signifying the spiritualized

material bodies of both man and Nature.

When the vernal equinox no longer occurred in the sign of Taurus, the Sun God

incarnated in the constellation of Aries and the ram then became the vehicle of the solar

power. Thus the sun rising in the sign of the Celestial Lamb triumphs over the symbolic

serpent of darkness. The lamb is a familiar emblem of purity because of its gentleness

and the whiteness of its wool. In many of the pagan Mysteries it signified the Universal

Savior, and in Christianity it is the favorite symbol of Christ. Early church paintings show

a lamb standing upon a little hill, and from its feet pour four streams of living water

signifying the four Gospels. The blood of the lamb is the solar life pouring into the world

through the sign of Aries.

The goat is both a phallic symbol and also an emblem of courage or aspiration because of

its surefootedness and ability to scale the loftiest peaks. To the alchemists the goat's head

was the symbol of sulphur. The practice among the ancient Jews of choosing a scapegoat

upon which to heap the sins of mankind is merely an allegorical

p. 09100

From Kircher's Sphinx Mystagoga.

THE SACRED BULL, OR APIS.

The importance of the bull as the symbol of the sun at the vernal equinox is discussed in

the chapter on The Zodiac and Its Signs. The bull and the ox are ancient emblems of the

element of earth--consequently of the planet itself. They also signify the animal nature of

man, and for this reason were sacrificed upon the altars of such ancient Mysteries as the

Jewish and Druidic. Plutarch wrote: "The Apis ought to be regarded by us, as a fair and

beautiful image of the soul of Osiris." Osiris represents the spiritual nature of the lower

world which is murdered and distributed throughout the substance of the physical

spheres; Apis is the emblem of the material world within which is the spiritual nature--

Osiris. The Apis is also the symbol of the exoteric (or profane) doctrine, in

contradistinction to the esoteric (or divine) teachings represented by the uræus worn upon

the foreheads of the priests. Front this is derived the mythological allegory of Serapis,

who in a certain sense is not only the composite figure of Osiris and the lower world in

which he is incarnated but also of the Mysteries, which are the terrestrial bodies

containing the secret teachings, or the spiritual soul.

p. 92

depiction of the Sun Man who is the scapegoat of the world and upon whom are cast the

sins of the twelve houses (tribes) of the celestial universe. Truth is the Divine Lamb

worshiped throughout pagandom and slain for the sins of the world, and since the dawn

of time the Savior Gods of all religions have been personifications of this Truth. The

Golden Fleece sought by Jason and his Argonauts is the Celestial Lamb--the spiritual and

intellectual sun. The secret doctrine is also typified by the Golden Fleece--the wool of the

Divine Life, the rays of the Sun of Truth. Suidas declares the Golden Fleece to have been

in reality a book, written upon skin, which contained the formulæ for the production of

gold by means of chemistry. The Mysteries were institutions erected for the

transmutation of base ignorance into precious illumination. The dragon of ignorance was

the terrible creature set to guard the Golden Fleece, and represents the darkness of the old

year which battles with the sun at the time of its equinoctial passage.

Deer were sacred in the Bacchic Mysteries of the Greeks; the Bacchantes were often

clothed in fawnskins. Deer were associated with the worship of the moon goddess and the

Bacchic orgies were usually conducted at night. The grace and speed of this animal

caused it to be accepted as the proper symbol of esthetic abandon. Deer were objects of

veneration with many nations. In Japan, herds of them are still maintained in connection

with the temples.

The wolf is usually associated with the principle of evil, because of the mournful

discordance of its howl and the viciousness of its nature. In Scandinavian mythology the

Fenris Wolf was one of the sons of Loki, the infernal god of the fires. With the temple of

Asgard in flames about them, the gods under the command of Odin fought their last great

battle against the chaotic forces of evil. With frothing jowls the Fenris Wolf devoured

Odin, the Father of the Gods, and thus destroyed the Odinic universe. Here the Fenris

Wolf represents those mindless powers of Nature that overthrew the primitive creation.

The unicorn, or monoceros, was a most curious creation of the ancient initiates. It is

described by Thomas Boreman as "a beast, which though doubted of by many writers, yet

is by others thus described: He has but one horn, and that an exceedingly rich one,

growing out of the middle of his forehead. His head resembles an hart's, his feet an

elephant's, his tail a boar's, and the rest of his body an horse's. The horn is about a foot

and half in length. His voice is like the lowing of an ox. His mane and hair are of a

yellowish colour. His horn is as hard as iron, and as rough as any file, twisted or curled,

like a flaming sword; very straight, sharp, and every where black, excepting the point.

Great virtues are attributed to it, in expelling of poison and curing of several diseases. He

is not a beast of prey. " (See Redgrove's Bygone Beliefs.)

While the unicorn is mentioned several times in Scripture, no proof has yet been

discovered of its existence. There are a number of drinking horns in various museums

presumably fashioned from its spike. It is reasonably certain, however, that these

drinking vessels were really made either from the tusks of some large mammal or the

horn of a rhinoceros. J. P. Lundy believes that the horn of the unicorn symbolizes the

hem of salvation mentioned by St. Luke which, pricking the hearts of men, turns them to

a consideration of salvation through Christ. Mediæval Christian mystics employed the

unicorn as an emblem of Christ, and this creature must therefore signify the spiritual life

in man. The single horn of the unicorn may represent the pineal gland, or third eye, which

is the spiritual cognition center in the brain. The unicorn was adopted by the Mysteries as

a symbol of the illumined spiritual nature of the initiate, the horn with which it defends

itself being the flaming sword of the spiritual doctrine against, which nothing can prevail.

In the Book of Lambspring, a rare Hermetic tract, appears an engraving showing a deer

and a unicorn standing together in a wood. The picture is accompanied by the following

text: "The Sages say truly that two animals are in this forest: One glorious, beautiful, and

swift, a great and strong deer; the other an unicorn. * * * If we apply the parable of our

art, we shall call the forest the body. * * * The unicorn will be the spirit at all times. The

deer desires no other name but that of the soul; * * *. He that knows how to tame and

master them by art, to couple them together, and to lead them in and our of the form, may

justly be called a Master."

The Egyptian devil, Typhon, was often symbolized by the Set monster whose identity is

obscure. It has a queer snoutlike nose and pointed ears, and may have been a

conventional hyena. The Set monster lived in the sand storms and wandered about the

world promulgating evil. The Egyptians related the howling of the desert winds with the

moaning cry of the hyena. Thus when in the depths of the night the hyena sent forth its

doleful wail it sounded like the last despairing cry of a lost soul in the clutches of

Typhon. Among the duties of this evil creature was that of protecting the Egyptian dead

against: grave robbers.

Among other symbols of Typhon was the hippopotamus, sacred to the god Mars because

Mars was enthroned in the sign of Scorpio, the house of Typhon. The ass was also sacred

to this Egyptian demon. Jesus riding into Jerusalem upon the back of an ass has the same

significance as Hermes standing upon the prostrate form of Typhon. The early Christians

were accused of worshiping the head of an ass. A most curious animal symbol is the hog

or sow, sacred to Diana, and frequently employed in the Mysteries as an emblem of the

occult art. The wild boar which gored Atys shows the use of this animal in the Mysteries.

According to the Mysteries, the monkey represents the condition of man before the

rational soul entered into his constitution. Therefore it typifies the irrational man. By

some the monkey is looked upon as a species not ensouled by the spiritual hierarchies; by

others as a fallen state wherein man has been deprived of his divine nature through

degeneracy. The ancients, though evolutionists, did not trace man's ascent through the

monkey; the monkey they considered as having separated itself from the main stem of

progress. The monkey was occasionally employed as a symbol of learning.

Cynocephalus, the dog-headed ape, was the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol of writing, and

was closely associated with Thoth. Cynocephalus is symbolic of the moon and Thoth of

the planet Mercury. Because of the ancient belief that the moon followed Mercury about

the heavens the dog-ape was described as the faithful companion of Thoth.

The dog, because of its faithfulness, denotes the relationship which should exist between

disciple and master or between the initiate and his God. The shepherd dog was a type of

the priestcraft. The dog's ability to sense and follow unseen persons for miles symbolized

the transcendental power by which the philosopher follows the thread of truth through the

labyrinth of earthly error. The dog is also the symbol of Mercury. The Dog Star, Sirius or

Sothis, was sacred to the Egyptians because it presaged the annual inundations of the

Nile.

As a beast of burden the horse was the symbol of the body of man forced to sustain the

weight of his spiritual constitution. Conversely, it also typified the spiritual nature of man

forced to maintain the burden of the material personality. Chiron, the centaur, mentor of

Achilles, represents the primitive creation which was the progenitor and instructor of

mankind, as described by Berossus. The winged horse and the magic carpet both

symbolize the secret doctrine and the spiritualized body of man. The wooden horse of

Troy, secreting an army for the capture of the city, represents man's body concealing

within it those infinite potentialities which will later come forth and conquer his

environment. Again, like Noah's Ark, it represents the spiritual nature of man as

containing a host of latent potentialities which subsequently become active. The siege of

Troy is a symbolic account of the abduction of the human soul (Helena) by the

personality (Paris) and its final redemption, through persevering struggle, by the secret

doctrine--the Greek army under the command of Agamemnon.

Click to enlarge

ÆNEAS AND THE HARPIES.

From Virgil's Æneid. (Dryden's translation.)

Among the mythological creatures of the Mysteries were the harpies--projections into material substance of

beings existing in the invisible world of Nature. They were described the Greeks as being composite, with

the heads of maidens and the bodies of birds. The wings of the harpies were composed of metal and their

flight was, accompanied by a terrible clanging noise. During his wanderings, Æneas, the Trojan hero,

landed on the island of the harpies, where he and his followers vainly battled with these monsters. One of

the harpies perched upon a cliff and there prophesied to Æneid that his attack upon them would bring dire

calamity to the Trojans.

p. 93

Flowers, Plants, Fruits, and Trees

THE yoni and phallus were worshiped by nearly all ancient peoples as appropriate

symbols of God's creative power. The Garden of Eden, the Ark, the Gate of the Temple,

the Veil of the Mysteries, the vesica piscis or oval nimbus, and the Holy Grail are

important yonic symbols; the pyramid, the obelisk, the cone, the candle, the tower, the

Celtic monolith, the spire, the campanile, the Maypole, and the Sacred Spear are

symbolic of the phallus. In treating the subject of Priapic worship, too many modern

authors judge pagan standards by their own and wallow in the mire of self-created

vulgarity. The Eleusinian Mysteries--the greatest of all the ancient secret societies--

established one of the highest known standards of morality and ethics, and those

criticizing their use of phallic symbols should ponder the trenchant words of King

Edward III, "Honi soit qui mal y pense."

The obscene rites practiced by the later Bacchanalia and Dionysia were no more

representative of the standards of purity originally upheld by the Mysteries than the

orgies occasionally occurring among the adherents of Christianity till the eighteenth

century were representative of primitive Christianity. Sir William Hamilton, British

Minister at the Court of Naples, declares that in 1780, Isernia, a community of Christians

in Italy, worshiped with phallic ceremonies the pagan god Priapus under the name of St.

Cosmo. (See Two Essays on the Worship of Priapus, by Richard Payne Knight.)

Father, mother, and child constitute the natural trinity. The Mysteries glorified the home

as the supreme institution consisting of this trinity functioning as a unit. Pythagoras

likened the universe to the family, declaring that as the supreme fire of the universe was

in the midst of its heavenly bodies, so, by analogy, the supreme fire of the world was

upon its hearthstones. The Pythagorean and other schools of philosophy conceived the

one divine nature of God to manifest itself in the threefold aspect of Father, Mother, and

Child. These three constituted the Divine Family, whose dwelling place is creation and

whose natural and peculiar symbol is the 47th problem of Euclid. God the Father is spirit,

God the Mother is matter, and God the Child--the product of the two--represents the sum

of living things born out of and constituting Nature. The seed of spirit is sown in the

womb of matter, and by an immaculate (pure) conception the progeny is brought into

being. Is not this the true mystery of the Madonna holding the Holy Babe in her arms?

Who dares to say that such symbolism is improper? The mystery of life is the supreme

mystery, revealed in all of its divine dignity and glorified as Nature's per feet

achievement by the initiated sages and seers of all ages.

The prudery of today, however, declares this same mystery to be unfit for the

consideration of holy-minded people. Contrary to the dictates of reason, a standard has

been established which affirms that innocence bred of ignorance is more to be desired

than virtue born of knowledge. Eventually, however, man will learn that he need never be

ashamed of truth. Until he does learn this, he is false to his God, to his world, and to

himself. In this respect, Christianity has woefully failed in its mission. While declaring

man's body to be the living temple of the living God, in the same breath it asserts the

substances and functions of this temple to be unclean and their study defiling to the

sensitive sentiments of the righteous. By this unwholesome attitude, man's body--the

house of God--is degraded and defamed. Yet the cross itself is the oldest of phallic

emblems, and the lozenge-shaped windows of cathedrals are proof that yonic symbols

have survived the destruction of the pagan Mysteries. The very structure of the church

itself is permeated with phallicism. Remove from the Christian Church all emblems of

Priapic origin and nothing is left, for even the earth upon which it stands was, because of

its fertility, the first yonic symbol. As the presence of these emblems of the generative

processes is either unknown or unheeded by the majority, the irony of the situation is not

generally appreciated. Only those conversant with the secret language of antiquity are

capable of understanding the divine significance of these emblems.

Flowers were chosen as symbols for many reasons. The great variety of flora made it

possible to find some plant or flower which would be a suitable figure for nearly any

abstract quality or condition. A plant might be chosen because of some myth connected

with its origin, as the stories of Daphne and Narcissus; because of the peculiar

environment in which it thrived, as the orchid and the fungus; because of its significant

shape, as the passion flower and the Easter lily; because of its brilliance or fragrance, as

the verbena and the sweet lavender; because it preserved its form indefinitely, as the

everlasting flower; because of unusual characteristics as the sunflower and heliotrope,

which have long been sacred because of their affinity for the sun.

The plant might also be considered worthy of veneration because from its crushed leaves,

petals, stalks, or roots could be extracted healing unctions, essences, or drugs affecting

the nature and intelligence of human beings--such as the poppy and the ancient herbs of

prophecy. The plant might also be regarded as efficacious in the cure of many diseases

because its fruit, leaves, petals, or roots bore a resemblance in shape or color to parts or

organs of the human body. For example, the distilled juices of certain species of ferns,

also the hairy moss growing upon oaks, and the thistledown were said to have the power

of growing hair; the dentaria, which resembles a tooth in shape, was said to cure the

toothache; and the palma Christi plant, because of its shape, cured all afflictions of the

hands.

The blossom is really the reproductive system of the plant and is therefore singularly

appropriate as a symbol of sexual purity--an absolute requisite of the ancient Mysteries.

Thus the flower signifies this ideal of beauty and regeneration which must ultimately take

the place of lust and degeneracy.

Of all symbolic flowers the locus blossom of India and Egypt and the rose of the

Rosicrucians are the most important. In their symbolism these two flowers are considered

identical. The esoteric doctrines for which the Eastern lotus stands have been perpetuated

in modern Europe under the form of the rose. The rose and the lotus are yonic emblems,

signifying primarily the maternal creative mystery, while the Easter lily is considered to

be phallic.

The Brahmin and Egyptian initiates, who undoubtedly understood the secret systems of

spiritual culture whereby the latent centers of cosmic energy in man may be stimulated,

employed the lotus blossoms to represent the spinning vortices of spiritual energy located

at various points along the spinal column and called chakras, or whirling wheels, by the

Hindus. Seven of these chakras are of prime importance and have their individual

correspondences in the nerve ganglia and plexuses. According to the secret schools, the

sacral ganglion is called the four-petaled lotus; the prostatic plexus, the six-petaled lotus;

the epigastric plexus and navel, the ten-petaled lotus; the cardiac plexus, the twelve-

petaled lotus; the pharyngeal plexus, the sixteen-petaled locus; the cavernous plexus, the

two-petaled lotus; and the pineal gland or adjacent unknown center, the thousand-petaled

locus. The color, size, and number of petals upon the

Click to enlarge

THE TREE OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND TABLE.

This remarkable example of the use of the tree in symbolism is from the Chateau de Pierrefonds in the little

town of Pierrefonds, northern France. The eight side branches end in conventional cup-like flowers, from

each of which rises the body of a knight carrying in his hand a ribbon bearing his name. The central stem is

surmounted by a larger flower, from which emerges the body of King Arthur himself. The tree is a favorite

motif in heraldry. The one trunk with its multitude of branches caused the tree to be frequently used in

diagramming family lineage, from which practice has arisen the custom of terming such tables "family

trees."

p. 94

lotus are the keys to its symbolic import. A hint concerning the unfoldment of spiritual

understanding according to the secret science of the Mysteries is found in the story of

Aaron's rod that budded, and also in Wagner's great opera, Tannhäuser, where the

budding staff of the Pope signifies the unfolding blossoms upon the sacred rod of the

Mysteries--the spinal column.

The Rosicrucians used a garland of roses to signify the same spiritual vortices, which are

referred to in the Bible as the seven lamps of the candlestick and the seven churches of

Asia. In the 1642 edition of Sir Francis Bacon's History of Henry the Seventh is a

frontispiece showing Lord Bacon with Rosicrucian roses for shoe buckles.

In the Hindu system of philosophy, each petal of the lotus bears a certain symbol which

gives an added clue to the meaning of the flower. The Orientals also used the lotus plant

to signify the growth of man through the three periods of human consciousness--

ignorance, endeavor, and understanding. As the lotus exists in three elements (earth,

water, and air) so man lives in three worlds--material, intellectual, and spiritual. As the

plant, with its roots in the mud and the slime, grows upward through the water and finally

blossoms forth in the light and air, so the spiritual growth of man is upward from the

darkness of base action and desire into the light of truth and understanding, the water

serving as a symbol of the ever-changing world of illusion through which the soul must

pass in its struggle to reach the state of spiritual illumination. The rose and its Eastern

equivalent, the lotus, like all beautiful flowers, represent spiritual unfoldment and

attainment: hence, the Eastern deities are often shown seated upon the open petals of the

lotus blossoms.

The lotus was also a universal motif in Egyptian art and architecture. The roofs of many

temples were upheld by lotus columns, signifying the eternal wisdom; and the lotus-

headed scepter--symbolic of self-unfoldment and divine prerogative--was often carried in

religious processions. When the flower had nine petals, it was symbolic of man; when

twelve, of the universe and the gods; when seven, of the planets and the law; when five,

of the senses and the Mysteries; and when three, of the chief deities and the worlds. The

heraldic rose of the Middle Ages generally has either five or ten petals thereby showing

its relationship to the spiritual mystery of man through the Pythagorean pentad and decad.

CULTUS ARBORUM

The worship of trees as proxies of Divinity was prevalent throughout the ancient world.

Temples were often built in the heart of sacred groves, and nocturnal ceremonials were

conducted under the wide-spreading branches of great trees, fantastically decorated and

festooned in honor of their patron deities. In many instances the trees themselves were

believed to possess the attributes of divine power and intelligence, and therefore

supplications were often addressed to them. The beauty, dignity, massiveness, and

strength of oaks, elms, and cedars led to their adoption as symbols of power, integrity,

permanence, virility, and divine protection.

Several ancient peoples--notably the Hindus and Scandinavians---regarded the

Macrocosm, or Grand Universe, as a divine tree growing from a single seed sown in

space. The Greeks, Persians, Chaldeans, and Japanese have legends describing the axle

tree or reed upon which the earth revolves. Kapila declares the universe to be the eternal

tree, Brahma, which springs from an imperceptible and intangible seed--the material

monad. The mediæval Qabbalists represented creation as a tree with its roots in the

reality of spirit and its branches in the illusion of tangible existence. The Sephirothic tree

of the Qabbalah was therefore inverted, with its roots in heaven and its branches upon the

earth. Madam Blavatsky notes that the Great Pyramid was considered to be a symbol of

this inverted tree, with its root at the apex of the pyramid and its branches diverging in

four streams towards the base.

The Scandinavian world-tree, Yggdrasil, supports on its branches nine spheres or

worlds,--which the Egyptians symbolized by the nine stamens of the persea or avocado.

All of these are enclosed within the mysterious tenth sphere or cosmic egg--the

definitionless Cipher of the Mysteries. The Qabbalistic tree of the Jews also consists of

nine branches, or worlds, emanating from the First Cause or Crown, which surrounds its

emanations as the shell surrounds the egg. The single source of life and the endless

diversity of its expression has a perfect analogy in the structure of the tree. The trunk

represents the single origin of all diversity; the roots, deeply imbedded in the dark earth,

are symbolic of divine nutriment; and its multiplicity of branches spreading from the

central trunk represent the infinity of universal effects dependent upon a single cause.

The tree has also been accepted as symbolic of the Microcosm, that is, man. According to

the esoteric doctrine, man first exists potentially within the body of the world-tree and

later blossoms forth into objective manifestation upon its branches. According to an early

Greek Mystery myth, the god Zeus fabricated the third race of men from ash trees. The

serpent so often shown wound around the trunk of the tree usually signifies the mind--the

power of thought--and is the eternal tempter or urge which leads all rational creatures to

the ultimate discovery of reality and thus overthrows the rule of the gods. The serpent

hidden in the foliage of the universal tree represents the cosmic mind; and in the human

tree, the individualized intellect.

The concept that all life originates from seeds caused grain and various plants to be

accepted as emblematic of the human spermatozoon, and the tree was therefore symbolic

of organized life unfolding from its primitive germ. The growth of the universe from its

primitive seed may be likened to the growth of the mighty oak from the tiny acorn. While

the tree is apparently much greater than its own source, nevertheless that source contains

potentially every branch, twig, and leaf which will later be objectively unfolded by the

processes of growth.

Man's veneration for trees as symbols of the abstract qualities of wisdom and integrity

also led him to designate as trees those individuals who possessed these divine qualities

to an apparently superhuman degree. Highly illumined philosophers and priests were

therefore often referred to as trees or tree men--for example, the Druids, whose name,

according to one interpretation, signifies the men of the oak trees, or the initiates of

certain Syrian Mysteries who were called cedars; in fact it is far more credible and

probable that the famous cedars of Lebanon, cut down for the building of King

Solomon's Temple, were really illumined, initiated sages. The mystic knows that the true

supports of God's Glorious House were not the logs subject to decay but the immortal and

imperishable intellects of the tree hierophants.

Trees are repeatedly mentioned in the Old and New Testaments, and in the scriptures of

various pagan nations. The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil

mentioned in Genesis, the burning bush in which the angel appeared to Moses, the

famous vine and fig tree of the New Testament, the grove of olives in the Garden of

Gethsemane where Jesus went to pray, and the miraculous tree of Revelation, which bore

twelve manners of fruit and whose leaves were for the healing of the nations, all bear

witness to the esteem in which trees were held by the scribes of Holy Writ. Buddha

received his illumination while under the bodhi tree, near Madras in India, and several of

the Eastern gods are pictured sitting in meditation beneath the spreading branches of

mighty trees. Many of the great sages and saviors carried wands, rods, or staves cut from

the wood of sacred trees, as the rods of Moses and Aaron; Gungnir--the spear of Odin--

cut from the Tree of Life; and the consecrated rod of Hermes, around which the fighting

serpents entwined themselves.

The numerous uses which the ancients made of the tree and its products are factors in its

symbolism. Its worship was, to a certain degree, based upon its usefulness. Of this J. P.

Lundy writes: "Trees occupy such an important place in the economy of nature by way of

attracting and retaining moisture, and shading the water-sources and the soil so as to

prevent barrenness and desolation; the), are so

Click to enlarge

THE TREE OF NOAH.

From the "Breeches" Bible of 1599.

Most Bibles published during the Middle Ages contain a section devoted to genealogical tables showing the

descent of humanity from Father Adam to the advent of Jesus Christ. The tree growing from the roof of the

Ark represents the body of Noah and its three branches, his sons--Shem, Ham, and Japheth. The nations by

the descendents of Noah's three sons are appropriately shown in the circles upon the branches of the tree.

While such tables are hopelessly incorrect from a historical point of view, to the symbolist their allegorical interpretations are of inestimable importance.

p. 95

useful to man for shade, for fruit, for medicine, for fuel, for building houses and ships, for

furniture, for almost every department of life, that it is no wonder that some of the more

conspicuous ones, such as the oak, the pine, the palm, and the sycamore, have been made

sacred and used for worship." (See Monumental Christianity.)

The early Fathers of the church sometimes used the tree to symbolize Christ. They

believed that ultimately Christianity would grow up like a mighty oak and overshadow all

other faiths of mankind. Because it annually discards its foliage, the tree was also looked

upon as an appropriate emblem of resurrection and reincarnation, for though apparently

dying each fall it blossomed forth again with renewed verdure each ensuing spring.

Under the appellations of the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and

Evil is concealed the great arcanum of antiquity--the mystery of equilibrium. The Tree of

Life represents the spiritual point of balance--the secret of immortality. The Tree of the

Knowledge of Good and Evil, as its name implies, represents polarity, or unbalance--the

secret of mortality. The Qabbalists reveal this by assigning the central column of their

Sephirothic diagram to the Tree of Life and the two side branches to the Tree of the

Knowledge of Good and Evil. "Unbalanced forces perish in the void," declares the secret

work, and all is made known. The apple represents the knowledge of the procreative

processes, by the awakening of which the material universe was established. The allegory

of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden is a cosmic myth, revealing the methods of

universal and individual establishment. The literal story, accepted for so many centuries

by an unthinking world, is preposterous, but the creative mystery of which it is the

symbol is one of Nature's profoundest verities. The Ophites (serpent worshipers) revered

the Edenic snake because it was the cause of individual existence. Though humanity is

still wandering in a world of good and evil, it will ultimately attain completion and eat of

the fruit of the Tree of Life growing in the midst of the illusionary garden of worldly

things. Thus the Tree of Life is also the appointed symbol of the Mysteries, and by

partaking of its fruit man attains immortality.

The oak, the pine, the ash, the cypress, and the palm are the five trees of greatest

symbolic importance. The Father God of the Mysteries was often worshiped under the

form of an oak; the Savior God--frequently the World Martyr--in the form of a pine; the

world axis and the divine nature in humanity in the form of an ash; the goddesses, or

maternal principle, in the form of a cypress; and the positive pole of generation in the

form of the inflorescence of the mate date palm. The pine cone is a phallic symbol of

remote antiquity. The thyrsus of Bacchus--a long wand or staff surmounted by a pine

cone or cluster of grapes and entwined with ivy or grape-vine leaves, sometimes ribbons-

-signifies that the wonders of Nature may only be accomplished by the aid of solar

virility, as symbolized by the cone or grapes. In the Phrygian Mysteries, Atys--the ever-

present sun-savior--dies under the branches of the pine tree (an allusion to the solar globe

at the winter solstice) and for this reason the pine tree was sacred to his cult. This tree

was also sacred in the Mysteries of Dionysos and Apollo.

Among the ancient Egyptians and Jews the acacia, or tamarisk, was held in the highest

religious esteem; and among modern Masons, branches of acacia, cypress, cedar, or

evergreen are still regarded as most significant emblems. The shittim-wood used by the

children of Israel in the construction of the Tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant was a

species of acacia. In describing this sacred tree, Albert Pike has written: "The genuine

acacia, also, is the thorny tamarisk, the same tree which grew around the body of Osiris.

It was a sacred tree among the Arabs, who made of it the idol Al-Uzza, which

Mohammed destroyed. It is abundant as a bush in the desert of Thur; and of it the 'crown

of thorns' was composed, which was set on the forehead of Jesus of Nazareth. It is a fit

type of immortality on account of its tenacity of life; for it has been known, when planted

as a door-post, to take root again and shoot out budding boughs above the threshold."

(See Morals and Dogma.)

It is quite possible that much of the veneration accorded the acacia is due to the peculiar

attributes of the mimosa, or sensitive plant, with which it was often identified by the

ancients. There is a Coptic legend to the effect that the sensitive plant was the first of all

trees or shrubs to worship Christ. The rapid growth of the acacia and its beauty have also

caused it to be regarded as emblematic of fecundity and generation.

The symbolism of the acacia is susceptible of four distinct interpretations: (1) it is the

emblem of the vernal equinox--the annual resurrection of the solar deity; (2) under the

form of the sensitive plant which shrinks from human touch, the acacia signifies purity

and innocence, as one of the Greek meanings of its name implies; (3) it fittingly typifies

human immortality and regeneration, and under the form of the evergreen represents that

immortal part of man which survives the destruction of his visible nature; (4) it is the

ancient and revered emblem of the Mysteries, and candidates entering the tortuous

passageways in which the ceremonials were given carried in their hands branches of

these sacred plants or small clusters of sanctified flowers.

Albert G. Mackey calls attention to the fact that each of the ancient Mysteries had its own

peculiar plant sacred to the gods or goddesses in whose honor the rituals were celebrated.

These sacred plants were later adopted as the symbols of the various degrees in which

they were used. Thus, in the Mysteries of Adonis, lettuce was sacred; in the Brahmin and

Egyptian rites, the lotus; among the Druids, the mistletoe; and among certain of the Greek

Mysteries, the myrtle. (See Encyclopædia of Freemasonry.)

As the legend of CHiram Abiff is based upon the ancient Egyptian Mystery ritual of the

murder and resurrection of Osiris, it is natural that the sprig of acacia should be preserved

as symbolic of the resurrection of CHiram. The chest containing the body of Osiris was

washed ashore near Byblos and lodged in the roots of a tamarisk, or acacia, which,

growing into a mighty tree, enclosed within its trunk the body of the murdered god. This

is undoubtedly the origin of the story that a sprig of acacia marks the grave of CHiram.

The mystery of the evergreen marking the grave of the dead sun god is also perpetuated

in the Christmas tree.

The apricot and quince are familiar yonic symbols, while the bunch of grapes and the fig

are phallic. The pomegranate is the mystic fruit of the Eleusinian rites; by eating it,

Prosperine bound herself to the realms of Pluto. The fruit here signifies the sensuous life

which, once tasted, temporarily deprives man of immortality. Also on account of its vast

number of seeds the pomegranate was often employed to represent natural fecundity. For

the same reason, Jacob Bryant in his Ancient Mythology notes that the ancients

recognized in this fruit an appropriate emblem of the Ark of the Deluge,

Click to enlarge

THE SUNFLOWER.

From Kircher's Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica Opus Tripartitum.

The above diagram illustrates a curious experiment in plant magnetism reproduced with several other

experiments in Athanasius Kircher's rare volume on magnetism. Several plants were sacred to the ancient

Egyptians, Greeks, and Hindus because of the peculiar effect which the sun exerted over them. As it is

difficult for man to look upon the face of the sun without being blinded by the light, those plants which

turned and deliberately faced the solar orb were considered typical of very highly advanced souls. Since the

sun was regarded as the personification of the Supreme Deity, those forms of life over which it exercised

marked influence were venerated as being sacred to Divinity. The sunflower, because of its plainly

perceptible affinity for the sun, was given high rank among sacred plants.

p. 96

which contained the seeds of the new human race. Among the ancient Mysteries the

pomegranate was also considered to be a divine symbol of such peculiar significance that

its true explanation could not be divulged. It was termed by the Cabiri "the forbidden

secret." Many Greek gods and goddesses are depicted holding the fruit or flower of the

pomegranate in their hands, evidently to signify that they are givers of life and plenty.

Pomegranate capitals were placed upon the pillars of Jachin and Boaz standing in front of

King Solomon's Temple; and by the order of Jehovah, pomegranate blossoms were

embroidered upon the bottom of the High Priest's ephod.

Strong wine made from the juice of the grape was looked upon as symbolic of the false

life and false light of the universe, for it was produced by a false process--artificial

fermentation. The rational faculties are clouded by strong drink, and the animal nature,

liberated from bondage, controls the individual--facts which necessarily were of the

greatest spiritual significance. As the lower nature is the eternal tempter seeking co lead

man into excesses which inhibit the spiritual faculties, the grape and its product were

used to symbolize the Adversary.

The juice of the grape was thought by the Egyptians to resemble human blood more

closely than did any other substance. In fact, they believed that the grape secured its life

from the blood of the dead who had been buried in the earth. According to Plutarch, "The

priests of the sun at Heliopolis never carry any wine into their temples, * * * and if they

made use of it at any time in their libations to the gods, it was not because they looked

upon it as in its own nature acceptable to them; but they poured it upon their altars as the

blood of those enemies who formerly had fought against them. For they look upon the

vine to have first sprung out of the earth after it was fattened with the carcasses of those

who fell in the wars against the gods. And this, say they, is the reason why drinking its

juice in great quantities makes men mad and beside themselves, filling them as it were

with the blood of their own ancestors." (See Isis and Osiris.)

Among some cults the state of intoxication was viewed as a condition somewhat akin to

ecstasy, for the individual was believed to be possessed by the Universal Spirit of Life,

whose chosen vehicle was the vine. In the Mysteries, the grape was often used to

symbolize lust and debauchery because of its demoralizing effect upon the emotional

nature. The fact was recognized, however, that fermentation was the certain evidence of

the presence of the solar fire, hence the grape was accepted as the proper symbol of the

Solar Spirit--the giver of divine enthusiasm. In a somewhat similar manner, Christians

have accepted wine as the emblem of the blood of Christ, partaking of it in Holy

Communion. Christ, the exoteric emblem of the Solar Spirit, said, "I am the vine." He

was therefore worshiped with the wine of ecstasy in the same manner as were his pagan

prototypes--Bacchus, Dionysos, Arys, and Adonis.

The mandragora officinarum, or mandrake, is accredited with possessing the most

remarkable magical powers. Its narcotic properties were recognized by the Greeks, who

employed it to deaden pain during surgical operations, and it has been identified also with

baaras, the mystic herb used by the Jews for casting out demons. In the Jewish Wars,

Josephus describes the method of securing the baaras, which he declares emits flashes of

lightning and destroys all who seek to touch it, unless they proceed according to certain

rules supposedly formulated by King Solomon himself.

The occult properties of the mandrake, while little understood, have been responsible for

the adoption of the plant as a talisman capable of increasing the value or quantity of

anything with which it was associated. As a phallic charm, the mandrake was considered

to be an infallible cure for sterility. It was one of the Priapic symbols which the Knights

Templars were accused of worshiping. The root of the plant closely resembles a human

body and often bore the outlines of the human head, arms, or legs. This striking similarity

between the body of man and the mandragora is one of the puzzles of natural science and

is the real basis for the veneration in which this plant was held. In Isis Unveiled, Madam

Blavatsky notes that the mandragora seems to occupy upon earth the point where the

vegetable and animal kingdoms meet, as the zoophites and polypi do in die sea. This

thought opens a vast field of speculation concerning the nature of this animal-plant.

According to a popular superstition, the mandrake shrank from being touched and, crying

out with a human voice, clung desperately to the soil in which it was imbedded. Anyone

who heard its cry while plucking it either immediately died or went mad. To circumvent

this tragedy, it was customary to dig around the roots of the mandrake until the plant was

thoroughly loosened and then to tie one end of a cord about the stalk and fasten the other

end to a dog. The dog, obeying his master's call, thereupon dragged the root from the

earth and became the victim of the mandragora curse. When once uprooted, the plant

could be handled with immunity.

During the Middle Ages, mandrake charms brought great prices and an art was evolved

by which the resemblance between the mandragora root and the human body was

considerably accentuated. Like most superstitions, the belief in the peculiar powers of the

mandrake was founded upon an ancient secret doctrine concerning the true nature of the

plant. "It is slightly narcotic," says Eliphas Levi, "and an aphrodisiacal virtue was

ascribed to it by the ancients, who represented it as being sought by Thessalian sorcerers

for the composition of philtres. Is this root the umbilical vestige of our terrestrial origin,

as a certain magical mysticism has suggested? We dare not affirm it seriously, but it is

true all the same that man issued from the slime of earth and his first appearance must

have been in the form of a rough sketch. The analogies of Nature compel us to admit the

notion, at least as a possibility. The first men were, in this case, a family of gigantic,

sensitive mandrogores, animated by the sun, who rooted themselves up from the earth."

(See Transcendental Magic.)

The homely onion was revered by the Egyptians as a symbol of the universe because its

rings and layers represented the concentric planes into which creation was divided

according to the Hermetic Mysteries. It was also regarded as possessing great medicinal

virtue. Because of peculiar properties resulting from its pungency, the garlic plant was a

powerful agent in transcendental magic. To this day no better medium has been found for

the treatment of obsession. Vampirism and certain forms of insanity--especially those

resulting from mediumship and the influences of elemental larvæ--respond immediately

to the use of garlic. In the Middle Ages, its presence in a house was believed to ward off

all evil powers.

Trifoliate plants, such as the shamrock, were employed by many religious cults to

represent the principle of the Trinity. St. Patrick is supposed to have used the shamrock to

illustrate this doctrine of the triune Divinity. The reason for the additional sanctity

conferred by a fourth leaf is that the fourth principle of the Trinity is man, and the

presence of this leaf therefore signifies the redemption of humanity.

Wreaths were worn during initiation into the Mysteries and the reading of the sacred

books to signify that these processes were consecrated to the deities. On the symbolism

of wreaths, Richard Payne Knight writes: "Instead of beads, wreaths of foliage, generally

of laurel, olive, myrtle, ivy, or oak, appear upon coins, sometimes encircling the

symbolical figures, and sometimes as chaplets upon their heads. All these were sacred to

some peculiar personifications of the deity, and significant of some particular attributes,

and, in general, all evergreens were Dionysiac planes; that is, symbols of the generative

power, signifying perpetuity of youth and vigor, as the circles of beads and diadems

signify perpetuity of existence. (See Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and

Mythology.)

Click to enlarge

THE TREE OF ALCHEMY.

From Musæum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum.

The alchemists were went to symbolize their metals by means of a tree, to indicate that all seven were

branches dependent upon the single trunk of solar life. As the Seven Spirits depend upon God and are

branches of a tree of which He is the root, trunk, and the spiritual earth from which the root derives its

nourishment, so the single trunk of divine life and power nourishes all the multitudinous forms of which the

universe is composed.

In Gloria Mundi, from which the above illustration is reproduced, there is contained an important thought

concerning the plantlike growth of metals: "All trees, herbs, stones, metals, and minerals grow and attain to perfection without being necessarily touched by any human hand: for the seed is raised up from the ground,

puts forth flowers, and bears fruit, simply through the agency of natural influences. As it is with plants, so it is with metals. While they lie in the heart of the earth, in their natural ore, they grow and are developed, day by day, through the influence of the four elements: their fire is the splendor of the Sun and Moon; the earth

conceives in her womb the splendor of the Sun, and by it the seeds of the metals are well and equally

warmed, just like the grain in the fields. * * * For as each tree of the field has its own peculiar shape,

appearance, and fruit, so each mountain bears its own particular ore; those stones and that earth being the

soil in which the metals grow." (See Translation of 1893.)

p. 97

Stones, Metals and Gems

EACH of the four primary elements as taught by the early philosophers has its analogue

in the quaternary terrestrial constitution of man. The rocks and earth correspond to the

bones and flesh; the water to the various fluids; the air to the gases; and the fire to the

bodily heat. Since the bones are the framework that sustains the corporeal structure, they

may be regarded as a fitting emblem of the spirit--that divine foundation which supports

the composite fabric of mind, soul, and body. To the initiate, the skeleton of death

holding in bony fingers the reaper's scythe denotes Saturn (Kronos), the father of the

gods, carrying the sickle with which he mutilated Ouranos, his own sire.

In the language of the Mysteries, the spirits of men are the powdered bones of Saturn.

The latter deity was always worshiped under the symbol of the base or footing, inasmuch

as he was considered to be the substructure upholding creation. The myth of Saturn has

its historical basis in the fragmentary records preserved by the early Greeks and

Phœnicians concerning a king by that name who ruled over the ancient continent of

Hyperborea. Polaris, Hyperborea, and Atlantis, because they lie buried beneath the

continents and oceans of the modern world, have frequently been symbolized as rocks

supporting upon their broad surfaces new lands, races, and empires. According to the

Scandinavian Mysteries, the stones and cliffs were formed from the bones of Ymir, the

primordial giant of the seething clay, while to the Hellenic mystics the rocks were the

bones of the Great Mother, Gæa.

After the deluge sent by the gods to destroy mankind at the close of the Iron Age, only

Deucalion and Pyrrha were left alive. Entering a ruined sanctuary to pray, they were

directed by an oracle to depart from the temple and with heads veiled and garments

unbound cast behind them the bones of their mother. Construing the cryptic message of

the god to mean that the earth was the Great Mother of all creatures, Deucalion picked up

loose rocks and, bidding Pyrrha do likewise, cast them behind him. From these rocks

there sprang forth a new and stalwart race of human beings, the rocks thrown by

Deucalion becoming men and those thrown by Pyrrha becoming women. In this allegory

is epitomized the mystery of human evolution; for spirit, by ensouling matter, becomes

that indwelling power which gradually but sequentially raises the mineral to the status of

the plant; the plant to the plane of the animal; the animal to the dignity of man; and man

to the estate of the gods.

The solar system was organized by forces operating inward from the great ring of the

Saturnian sphere; and since the beginnings of all things were under the control of Saturn,

the most reasonable inference is that the first forms of worship were dedicated to him and

his peculiar symbol--the stone. Thus the intrinsic nature of Saturn is synonymous with

that spiritual rock which is the enduring foundation of the Solar Temple, and has its

antitypc or lower octave in that terrestrial rock--the planet Earth--which sustains upon its

jagged surface the diversified genera of mundane life.

Although its origin is uncertain, litholatry undoubtedly constitutes one of the earliest

forms of religious expression. "Throughout all the world, " writes Godfrey Higgins, "the

first object of Idolatry seems to have been a plain, unwrought stone, placed in the ground,

as an emblem of the generative or procreative powers of nature." (See The Celtic Druids.)

Remnants of stone worship are distributed over the greater part of the earth's surface, a

notable example being the menhirs at Carnac, in Brittany, where several thousand

gigantic uncut stones are arranged in eleven orderly rows. Many of these monoliths stand

over twenty feet out of the sand in which they are embedded, and it has been calculated

that some of the larger ones weigh as much as 250,000 pounds. By some it is believed

that certain of the menhirs mark the location of buried treasure, but the most plausible

view is that which regards Carnac as a monument to the astronomical knowledge of

antiquity. Scattered throughout the British Isles and Europe, these cairns, dolmens,

menhirs, and cistvaens stand as mute but eloquent testimonials to the existence and

achievements of races now extinct.

Of particular interest are the rocking or logan stones, which evince the mechanical skill

of these early peoples. These relics consist of enormous boulders poised upon one or two

small points in such a manner that the slightest pressure will sway them, but the greatest

effort is not sufficient to overthrow them. These were called living stones by the Greeks

and Latins, the most famous one being the Gygorian stone in the Strait of Gibraltar.

Though so perfectly balanced that it could be moved with the stalk of a daffodil, this rock

could not be upset by the combined weight of many men. There is a legend that Hercules

raised a rocking stone over the graves of the two sons of Boreas whom he had killed in

combat. This stone was so delicately poised that it swayed back and forth with the wind,

but no application of force could overturn it. A number of logan stones have been found

in Britain, traces of one no longer standing having been discovered in Stonehenge. (See

The Celtic Druids.) It is interesting to note that the green stones forming the inner ring of

Stonehenge are believed to have been brought from Africa.

In many cases the monoliths are without carving or inscription, for they undoubtedly

antedate both the use of tools and the art of writing. In some instances the stones have

been trued into columns or obelisks, as in the runic monuments and the Hindu lingams

and sakti stones; in other instances they are fashioned into rough likenesses of the human

body, as in the Easter Island statues, or into the elaborately sculptured figures of the

Central American Indians and the Khmers of Cambodia. The first rough-stone images can

hardly be considered as effigies of any particular deity but rather as the crude effort of

primitive man to portray in the enduring qualities of stone the procreative attributes of

abstract Divinity. An instinctive recognition of the stability of Deity has persisted through

all the intervening ages between primitive man and modem civilization. Ample proof of

the survival of litholatry in the Christian faith is furnished by allusions to the rock of

refuge, the rock upon which the church of Christ was to be founded, the corner stone

which the builders rejected, Jacob's stony pillow which he set up and anointed with oil,

the sling stone of David, the rock Moriah upon which the altar of King Solomon's

Temple was erected, the white stone of Revelation, and the Rock of Ages.

Stones were highly venerated by prehistoric peoples primarily because of their

usefulness. Jagged bits of stone were probably man's first weapons; rocky cliffs and crags

constituted his first fortifications, and from these vantage points he hurled loose boulders

down upon marauders. In caverns or rude huts fashioned from slabs of rock the first

humans protected themselves from the rigors of the elements. Stones were set up as

markers and monuments to primitive achievement; they were also placed upon the graves

of the dead, probably as a precautionary measure to prevent the depredations of wild

beasts. During migrations, it was apparently customary for primitive peoples to carry

about with them stones taken from their original habitat. As the homeland or birthplace of

a race was considered sacred, these stones were emblematic of that universal regard

shared by all nations for the place of their geniture. The discovery that fire could be

produced by striking together two pieces of stone augmented man's reverence for stones,

but ultimately the hitherto unsuspected world of wonders opened by the newly discovered

element of fire caused pyrolatry to supplant stone worship. The dark, cold Father--stone--

gave birth out of itself to the bright, glowing Son-fire; and the newly born flame, by

displacing its parent, became the most impressive and mysterious of all religio-

philosophic symbols, widespread and enduring through the ages.

Click to enlarge

SATURN SWALLOWING THE STONE SUBSTITUTED FOR JUPITER.

From Catrari's Imagini degli Dei degli Antichi.

Saturn, having been warned by his parents that one of his own children would dethrone him, devoured each

child at birth. At last Rhea, his wife, in order to save Jupiter, her sixth child substituted for him a rock

enveloped in swaddling clothes--which Saturn, ignorant of the deception practiced upon him, immediately

swallowed. Jupiter was concealed on the island of Crete until he attained manhood, when he forced his

father to disgorge the five children he had eaten. The stone swallowed by Saturn in lieu of his youngest son

was placed by Jupiter at Delphi, where it was held in great veneration and was daily anointed.

p. 98

The body of every thing was likened to a rock, trued either into a cube or more ornately

chiseled to form a pedestal, while the spirit of everything was likened to the elaborately

carved figure surmounting it. Accordingly, altars were erected as a symbol of the lower

world, and fires were kept burning upon them to represent that spiritual essence

illuminating the body it surmounted. The square is actually one surface of a cube, its

corresponding figure in plane geometry, and its proper philosophic symbol.

Consequently, when considering the earth as an element and not as a body, the Greeks,

Brahmins, and Egyptians always referred to its four corners, although they were fully

aware that the planet itself was a sphere.

Because their doctrines were the sure foundation of all knowledge and the first step in the

attainment of conscious immortality, the Mysteries were often represented as cubical or

pyramidal stones. Conversely, these stones themselves became the emblem of that

condition of self-achieved godhood. The unchangeability of the stone made it an

appropriate emblem of God--the immovable and unchangeable Source of Existence--and

also of the divine sciences--the eternal revelation of Himself to mankind. As the

personification of the rational intellect, which is the true foundation of human life,

Mercury, or Hermes, was symbolized in a like manner. Square or cylindrical pillars,

surmounted by a bearded head of Hermes and called hermæ, were set up in public places.

Terminus, a form of Jupiter and god of boundaries and highways, from whose name is

derived the modern word terminal, was also symbolized by an upright stone, sometimes

ornamented with the head of the god, which was placed at the borders of provinces and

the intersections of important roads.

The philosopher's stone is really the philosophical stone, for philosophy is truly likened

to a magic jewel whose touch transmutes base substances into priceless gems like itself.

Wisdom is the alchemist's powder of projection which transforms many thousand times

its own weight of gross ignorance into the precious substance of enlightenment.

THE TABLETS OF THE LAW

While upon the heights of Mount Sinai, Moses received from Jehovah two tablets bearing

the characters of the Decalogue traced by the very finger of Israel's God. These tables

were fashioned from the divine sapphire, Schethiyâ, which the Most High, after removing

from His own throne, had cast into the Abyss to become the foundation and generator of

the worlds. This sacred stone, formed of heavenly dew, was sundered by the breath of

God, and upon the two parts were drawn in black fire the figures of the Law. These

precious inscriptions, aglow with celestial splendor, were delivered by the Lord on the

Sabbath day into the hands of Moses, who was able to read the illumined letters from the

reverse side because of the transparency of the great jewel. (See The Secret Doctrine in

Israel or The Zohar for details of this legend.)

The Ten Commandments are the ten shining gems placed by the Holy One in the

sapphire sea of Being, and in the depths of matter the reflections of these jewels are seen

as the laws governing the sublunary spheres. They are the sacred ten by which the

Supreme Deity has stamped His will upon the face of Nature. This same decad was

celebrated by the Pythagoreans under the form of the tetractys--that triangle of spermatic

points which reveals to the initiated the whole working of the cosmic scheme; for ten is

the number of perfection, the key to creation, and the proper symbol of God, man, and the

universe.

Because of the idolatry of the Israelites, Moses deemed the people unworthy to receive

the sapphire tables; hence he destroyed them, that the Mysteries of Jehovah should not be

violated. For the original set Moses substituted two tablets of rough stone into the surface

of which he had cut ten ancient letters. While the former tables--partaking of the divinity

of the Tree of Life--blazed forth eternal verities, the latter--partaking of the nature of the

Tree of Good and Evil--revealed only temporal truths. Thus the ancient tradition of Israel

returned again to heaven, leaving only its shadow with the children of the twelve tribes.

One of the two tables of stone delivered by the Lawgiver to his followers stood for the

oral, the other for the written traditions upon which the Rabbinical School was founded.

Authorities differ widely as to the size and substance of the inferior tables. Some describe

them as being so small that they could be held in the hollow of a man's hand; others

declare that each table was ten or twelve cubits in length and of enormous weight. A few

even deny that the tables were of stone, maintaining that they were of a wood called sedr,

which, according to the Mohammedans, grows profusely in Paradise.

The two tables signify respectively the superior and the inferior worlds--the paternal and

the maternal formative principles. In their undivided state they represent the Cosmic

Androgyne. The breaking of the tables signifies obscurely the separation of the superior

and the inferior spheres and also the division of the sexes. In the religious processionals

of the Greeks and Egyptians an ark or ship was carried which contained stone tablets,

cones, and vessels of various shapes emblematic of the procreative processes. The Ark of

the Israelites--which was patterned after the sacred chests of the Isiac Mysteries--

contained three holy objects, each having an important phallic interpretation: the pot of

manna, the rod that budded, and the Tablets of the Law--the first, second, and third

Principles of the Creative Triad. The manna, the blossoming staff, and the stone tables

are also appropriate images respectively of the Qabbalah, the Mishna, and the written

law--the spirit, soul, and body of Judaism. When placed in King Solomon's Everlasting

House, the Ark of the Covenant contained only the Tablets of the Law. Does this indicate

that even at that early date the secret tradition had been lost and the letter of the

revelation alone remained?

As representing the power that fabricated the lower, or Demiurgic, sphere, the tablets of

stone were sacred to Jehovah in contradistinction to the tablets of sapphire that signified

the potency that established the higher, or celestial, sphere. Without doubt the Mosaic

tablets have their prototype in the stone pillars or obelisks placed on either side of the

entrance to pagan temples. These columns may pertain to that remote time when men

worshiped the Creator through His zodiacal sign of Gemini, the symbol of which is still

the phallic pillars of the Celestial Twins. "The Ten Commandments, writes Hargrave

Jennings, "are inscribed in two groups of five each, in columnar form. The five to the

right (looking from the altar) mean the 'Law'; the five to the left mean the 'Prophets.' The

right stone is masculine, the left stone is feminine. They correspond to the two disjoined

pillars of stone (or towers) in the front of every cathedral, and of every temple in the

heathen times." (See The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries.) The same author

states that the Law is masculine because it was delivered direct from the Deity, while the

Prophets, or Gospels, were feminine because born through the nature of man.

The right Tablet of the Law further signifies Jachin--the white pillar of light; the left

Tablet, Boaz--the shadowy pillar of darkness. These were the names of the two pillars

cast from brass set up on the porch of King Solomon's Temple. They were eighteen

cubits in height and beautifully ornamented with wreaths of chainwork, nets, and

pomegranates. On the top of each pillar was a large bowl--now erroneously called a ball

or globe--one of the bowls probably containing fire and the other water. The celestial

globe (originally the bowl of fire), surmounting the right-hand column (Jachin),

symbolized the divine man; the terrestrial globe (the bowl of water), surmounting the left-

hand column (Boaz), signified the earthly man. These two pillars respectively connote

also the active and the passive expressions of Divine Energy, the sun and the moon,

sulphur and salt, good and bad, light and darkness. Between them is the door leading into

the House of God, and standing thus at the gates of Sanctuary they are a reminder that

Jehovah is both an androgynous and an anthropomorphic deity. As two parallel columns

they denote the zodiacal signs of Cancer and Capricorn, which were formerly placed in

the chamber of initiation to represent birth and death--the extremes of physical life. They

accordingly signify the summer and the winter solstices, now known to Freemasons

under the comparatively modern appellation of the "two St. Johns."

In the mysterious Sephirothic Tree of the Jews, these two pillars symbolize Mercy and

Severity. Standing before the gate of King Solomon's Temple, these columns had the

same symbolic import as the obelisks before the sanctuaries of Egypt. When interpreted

Qabbalistically, the names of the two pillars mean "In strength shall

Click to enlarge

MOSES RECEIVING THE TABLES OF THE LAW.

From an old Bible.

Moses Maimonides, the great Jewish Philosopher of the twelfth century, in describing the Tables of the

Law written by the finger of God, divides all productions into two general orders: products of Nature and

products of art. God works through Nature and man through art, he asserts in his Guide for the Perplexed.

Thus the Word of the Lord is the hand, or active principle, by which the will of the Creator is traced upon

the face of His creation. The Tannaim, or initiates of the Jewish Mystery School, alone possessed a

complete understanding of the significance of the Ten Commandments. These laws are esoterically related

to the ten degrees of contemplation constituting the Path of Ecstasy, which winds upward through he four

worlds and ends in the effulgence of AIN SOPH.

p. 99

[paragraph continues] My House be established. "In the splendor of mental and spiritual

illumination, the High Priest stood between the pillars as a mute witness to the perfect

virtue of equilibrium--that hypothetical point equidistant from all extremes. He thus

personified the divine nature of man in the midst of his compound constitution--the

mysterious Pythagorean Monad in the presence of the Duad. On one side towered the

stupendous column of the intellect; on the other, the brazen pillar of the flesh. Midway

between these two stands the glorified wise man, but he cannot reach this high estate

without first suffering upon the cross made by joining these pillars together. The early

Jews occasionally represented the two pillars, Jachin and Boaz, as the legs of Jehovah,

thereby signifying to the modern philosopher that Wisdom and Love, in their most

exalted sense, support the whole order of creation--both mundane and supermundane.

THE HOLY GRAIL

Like the sapphire Schethiyâ, the Lapis Exilis, crown jewel of the Archangel Lucifer, fell

from heaven. Michael, archangel of the sun and the Hidden God of Israel, at the head of

the angelic hosts swooped down upon Lucifer and his legions of rebellious spirits. During

the conflict, Michael with his flaming sword struck the flashing Lapis Exilis from the

coronet of his adversary, and the green stone fell through all the celestial rings into the

dark and immeasurable Abyss. Out of Lucifer's radiant gem was fashioned the Sangreal,

or Holy Grail, from which Christ is said to have drunk at the Last Supper.

Though some controversy exists as to whether the Grail was a cup or a platter, it is

generally depicted in art as a chalice of considerable size and unusual beauty. According

to the legend, Joseph of Arimathea brought the Grail Cup to the place of the crucifixion

and in it caught the blood pouring from the wounds of the dying Nazarene. Later Joseph,

who had become custodian of the sacred relics--the Sangreal and the Spear of Longinus--

carried them into a distant country. According to one version, his descendants finally

placed these relics in Glastonbury Abbey in England; according to another, in a

wonderful castle on Mount Salvat, Spain, built by angels in a single night. Under the

name of Preston John, Parsifal, the last of the Grail Kings, carried the Holy Cup with him

into India, and it disappeared forever from the Western World. Subsequent search for the

Sangreal was the motif for much of the knight errantry of the Arthurian legends and the

ceremonials of the Round Table. (See the Morte d'Arthur.)

No adequate interpretation has ever been given to the Grail Mysteries. Some believe the

Knights of the Holy Grail to have been a powerful organization of Christian mystics

perpetuating the Ancient Wisdom under the rituals and sacraments of the oracular Cup.

The quest for the Holy Grail is the eternal search for truth, and Albert G. Mackey sees in

it a variation of the Masonic legend of the Lost Word so long sought by the brethren of

the Craft. There is also evidence to support the claim that the story of the Grail is an

elaboration of an early pagan Nature myth which has been preserved by reason of the

subtle manner in which it was engrafted upon the cult of Christianity. From this particular

viewpoint, the Holy Grail is undoubtedly a type of the ark or vessel in which the life of

the world is preserved and therefore is significant of the body of the Great Mother--

Nature. Its green color relates it to Venus and to the mystery of generation; also to the

Islamic faith, whose sacred color is green and whose Sabbath is Friday, the day of Venus.

The Holy Grail is a symbol both of the lower (or irrational) world and of the bodily

nature of man, because both are receptacles for the living essences of the superior worlds.

Such is the mystery of the redeeming blood which, descending into the condition of

death, overcomes the last enemy by ensouling all substance with its own immortality. To

the Christian, whose mystic faith especially emphasizes the love element, the Holy Grail

typifies the heart in which continually swirls the living water of eternal life. Moreover, to

the Christian, the search for the Holy Grail is the search for the real Self which, when

found, is the consummation of the magnum opus.

The Holy Cup can be discovered only by those who have raised themselves above the

limitations of sensuous existence. In his mystic poem, The Vision of Sir Launfal, James

Russell Lowell discloses the true nature of the Holy Grail by showing that it is visible

only to a certain state of spiritual consciousness. Only upon returning from the vain

pursuit of haughty ambition did the aged and broken knight see in the transformed leper's

cup the glowing chalice of his lifelong dream. Some writers trace a similarity between the

Grail legend and the stories of the martyred Sun Gods whose blood, descending from

heaven into the earth, was caught in the cup of matter and liberated therefrom by the

initiatory rites. The Holy Grail may also be the seed pod so frequently employed in the

ancient Mysteries as an emblem of germination and resurrection; and if the cuplike shape

of the Grail be derived from the flower, it signifies the regeneration and spiritualization

of the generative forces in man.

There are many accounts of stone images which, because of the substances entering into

their composition and the ceremonials attendant upon their construction, were ensouled

by the divinities whom they were created to resemble. To such images were ascribed

various human faculties and powers, such as speech, thought, and even motion. While

renegade priests doubtless resorted to trickery--an instance of which is related in a

curious apocryphal fragment entitled Bel and the Dragon and supposedly deleted from

the end of the Book of Daniel--many of the phenomena recorded in connection with

sanctified statues and relics can hardly be explained unless the work of supernatural

agencies be admitted.

History records the existence of stones which, when struck, threw all who heard the

sound into a state of ecstasy. There were also echoing images which whispered for hours

after the room itself had become silent, and musical stones productive of the sweetest

harmonies. In recognition of the sanctity which the Greeks and Latins ascribed to stones,

they placed their hands upon certain consecrated pillars when taking an oath. In ancient

times stones played a part in determining the fate of accused persons, for it was

customary for juries to reach their verdicts by dropping pebbles into a bag.

Divination by stones was often resorted to by the Greeks, and Helena is said to have

foretold by lithomancy the destruction of Troy. Many popular superstitions about stones

survive the so-called Dark Ages. Chief among these is the one concerning the famous

black stone in the seat of the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey, which is declared to

be the actual rock used by Jacob as a pillow. The black stone also appears several times

in religious symbolism. It was called Heliogabalus, a word presumably derived from

Elagabal, the Syro-Phœnician sun god. This stone was sacred to the sun and declared to

possess great and diversified properties. The black stone in the Caaba at Mecca is still

revered throughout the Mohammedan world. It is said to have been white originally and

of such brilliancy that it could be seen many days' journey from Mecca, but as ages

passed it became blackened by the tears of pilgrims and the sins of the world.

THE MAGIC OF METALS AND GEMS

According to the teachings of the Mysteries, the rays of the celestial bodies, striking the

crystallizing influences of the lower world, become the various elements. Partaking of the

astral virtues of their source, these elements neutralize certain unbalanced forms of

celestial activity and, when properly combined, contribute much to the well-being of

man. Little is known today concerning these magical properties, but the modern world

may yet find it profitable to consider the findings of the early philosophers who

determined these relationships by extensive experimentation. Out of such research arose

the practice of identifying the metals with the bones of the various deities. For example,

the Egyptians, according to Manetho, considered iron to be the bone of Mars and the

lodestone the bone of Horus. By analogy, lead would be the physical skeleton of Saturn,

copper of Venus, quicksilver of Mercury, gold of the sun, silver of the moon, and

antimony of the earth. It is possible that uranium

Click to enlarge

EXAMPLES OF HERMÆ.

From Christie's Disquisitions upon the Painted Greek Vases.

The Primitive custom of worshiping the gods in the form of heaps of stones gave place to the practice of

erecting phallic pillars, or cones, in their honor. These columns differed widely in size and appearance.

Some were of gigantic proportions and were richly ornamented with inscriptions or likenesses of the gods

and heroes; others--like the votive offerings of the Babylonians--were but a few inches high, without

ornament, and merely bore a brief statement of the purpose for which they had been prepared or a hymn to

the god of the temple in which they were placed. These small baked clay cones were identical in their

symbolic meaning with the large hermæ set up by the roadside and in other public places. Later the upper

end of the column was surmounted by a human head. Often two projections, or tenons, corresponding to

shoulders were placed, one on either side, to support the wreaths of flowers adorning the columns.

Offerings, usually of food, were placed near the hermæ. Occasionally these columns were used to uphold

roofs and were numbered among the art objects ornamenting the villas of wealthy Romans.

p. 100

will prove to be the metal of Uranus and radium to be the metal of Neptune.

The four Ages of the Greek mystics--the Golden Age, the Silver Age, the Bronze Age,

and the Iron Age--are metaphoric expressions referring to the four major periods in the

life of all things. In the divisions of the day they signify dawn, midday, sunset, and

midnight; in the duration of gods, men, and universes, they denote the periods of birth,

growth, maturity, and decay. The Greek Ages also bear a close correspondence to the

four Yugas of the Hindus: Krita-Yuga, Treta-Yuga, Dvapara-Yuga, and Kali-Yuga. Their

method of calculation is described by Ullamudeian as follows: "In each of the 12 signs

there are 1800 minutes; multiply this number by 12 you have 21600; e.g. 1800 X

12=21600. Multiply this 21600 by 80 and it will give 1,728,000, which is the duration of

the first age, called Krita-Yuga. If the same number be multiplied by 60, it will give

1,296,000, the years of the second age, Treta-Yuga. The same number multiplied by 40

gives 864,000, the length of the third age, Dvapara-Yuga. The same multiplied by 20

gives 432,000, the fourth age, Kali-Yuga." (It will be noted that these multipliers decrease

in inverse ratio to the Pythagorean tetractys: 1, 2, 3, and 4.)

H. P. Blavatsky declares that Orpheus taught his followers how to affect a whole

audience by means of a lodestone, and that Pythagoras paid particular attention to the

color and nature of precious stones. She adds: "The Buddhists assert that the sapphire

produces peace of mind, equanimity, and chases all evil thoughts by establishing a

healthy circulation in man. So does an electric battery, with its well-directed fluid, say

our electricians. 'The sapphire,' say the Buddhists, 'will open barred doors and dwellings

(for the spirit of man); it produces a desire for prayer, and brings with it more peace than

any other gem; but he who would wear it must lead a pure and holy life."' (See Isis

Unveiled.)

Mythology abounds with accounts of magical rings and talismanic jewels. In the second

book of his Republic, Plato describes a ring which, when the collet was turned in ward,

rendered its wearer invisible. With this Gyges, the shepherd, secured for himself the

throne of Lydia. Josephus also describes magical rings designed by Moses and King

Solomon, and Aristotle mentions one which brought love and honor to its possessor. In

his chapter dealing with the subject, Henry Cornelius Agrippa not only mentions the

same rings, but states, upon the authority of Philostratus Jarchus, that Apollonius of

Tyana extended his life to over 20 years with the aid of seven magical rings presented to

him by an East Indian prince. Each of these seven rings was set with a gem partaking of

the nature of one of the seven ruling planets of the week, and by daily changing the rings

Apollonius protected himself against sickness and death by the intervention of the

planetary influences. The philosopher also instructed his disciples in the virtues of these

talismanic jewels, considering such information to be indispensable to the theurgist.

Agrippa describes the preparation of magical rings as follows: "When any Star [planet]

ascends fortunately, with the fortunate aspect or conjunction of the Moon, we must take a

stone and herb that is under that Star, and make a ring of the metal that is suitable to this

Star, and in it fasten the stone, putting the herb or root under it-not omitting the

inscriptions of images, names, and characters, as also the proper suffumigations." (See

Three Books of Occult Philosophy.)

The ring has long been regarded as the symbol of attainment, perfection, and

immortality-the last because the circlet of precious metal had neither beginning nor end.

In the Mysteries, rings chased to resemble a serpent with its tail in its mouth were worn

by the initiates as material evidence of the position reached by them in the order. Signet

rings, engraved with certain secret emblems, were worn by the hierophants, and it was

not uncommon for a messenger to prove that he was the official representative of a prince

or other dignitary by bringing with his message either an impression from his master's

ring or the signet itself. The wedding ring originally was intended to imply that in the

nature of the one who wore it the state of equilibrium and completion had been attained.

This plain band of gold therefore bore witness of the union of the Higher Self (God) with

the lower self (Nature) and the ceremony consummating this indissoluble blending of

Divinity and humanity in the one nature of the initiated mystic constituted the hermetic

marriage of the Mysteries.

In describing the regalia of a magician, Eliphas Levi declares that on Sunday (the day of

the sun) he should carry in his right hand a golden wand, set with a ruby or chrysolite; on

Monday (the day of the moon) he should wear a collar of three strands consisting of

pearls, crystals, and selenites; on Tuesday (the day of Mars) he should carry a wand of

magnetized steel and a ring of the same metal set with an amethyst, on Wednesday (the

day of Mercury) he should wear a necklace of pearls or glass beads containing mercury,

and a ring set with an agate; on Thursday (the day of Jupiter) he should carry a wand of

glass or resin and wear a ring set with an emerald or a sapphire; on Friday (the day of

Venus) he should carry a wand of polished copper and wear a ring set with a turquoise

and a crown or diadem decorated with lapis lazuli and beryl; and on Saturday (the day of

Saturn) he should carry a wand ornamented with onyx stone and wear a ring set with

onyx and a chain about the neck formed of lead. (See The Magical Ritual of the Sanctum

Regnum.)

Paracelsus, Agrippa, Kircher, Lilly, and numerous other magicians and astrologers have

tabulated the gems and stones corresponding to the various planets and zodiacal signs.

The following list has been compiled from their writings. To the sun is assigned the

carbuncle, ruby, garnet---especially the pyrope--and other fiery stones, sometimes the

diamond; to the moon, the pearl, selenite, and other forms of crystal; to Saturn, the onyx,

jasper, topaz, and sometimes the lapis lazuli; to Jupiter, the sapphire, emerald, and

marble; to Mars, the amethyst, hyacinth, lodestone, sometimes the diamond; to Venus,

the turquoise, beryl, emerald, and sometimes the pearl, alabaster, coral, and carnelian; to

Mercury, the chrysolite, agate, and variegated marble.

To the zodiac the same authorities assigned the following gems and stones: To Aries the

sardonyx, bloodstone, amethyst, and diamond; to Taurus the carnelian, turquoise,

hyacinth, sapphire, moss agate, and emerald; to Gemini the topaz, agate, chrysoprase,

crystal, and aquamarine; to Cancer the topaz, chalcedony, black onyx, moonstone, pearl,

cat's-eye, crystal, and sometimes the emerald; to Leo the jasper, sardonyx, beryl, ruby,

chrysolite, amber, tourmaline, sometimes the diamond; to Virgo the emerald, camelian,

jade, chrysolite, and sometimes the pink jasper and hyacinth; to Libra the beryl, sardius,

coral, lapis lazuli, opal, and sometimes the diamond; to Scorpio the amethyst, beryl,

sardonyx, aquamarine, carbuncle, lodestone, topaz, and malachite; to Sagittarius die

hyacinth, topaz, chrysolite, emerald, carbuncle, and turquoise; to Capricorn the

chrysoprase, ruby, malachite, black onyx, white onyx, jet, and moonstone; to Aquarius

the crystal, sapphire, garnet, zircon, and opal; to Pisces the sapphire, jasper, chrysolite,

moonstone, and amethyst

Both the magic mirror and the crystal ball are symbols little understood. Woe to that

benighted mortal who accepts literally the stories circulated concerning them! He will

discover--often at the cost of sanity and health--that sorcery and philosophy, while often

confused, have nothing in common. The Persian Magi carried mirrors as an emblem of

the material sphere which reflects Divinity from its every part. The crystal ball, long

misused as a medium for the cultivation of psychical powers, is a threefold symbol: (1) it

signifies the crystalline Universal Egg in whose transparent depths creation exists; (2) it

is a proper figure of Deity previous to Its immersion in matter; (3) it signifies the ætheric

sphere of the world in whose translucent essences is impressed and preserved the perfect

image of all terrestrial activity.

Meteors, or rocks from heaven, were considered tokens of divine favor and enshrined as

evidence of a pact between the gods and the community in which they fell. Curiously

marked or chipped natural stones are occasionally found. In China there is a slab of

marble the grain of which forms a perfect likeness of the Chinese dragon. The

Oberammergau stone, chipped by Nature into a close resemblance to the popular

conception of the face of Christ, is so remarkable that even the crowned heads of Europe

requested the privilege of beholding it. Stones of such nature were held in the highest

esteem among primitive peoples and even today exert a wide influence upon the

religiously-minded.

Click to enlarge

THE PYTHAGOREAN SIGNET RING.

From Cartari's Imagini degli Dei degli Antichi.

The number five was peculiarly associated by the Pythagoreans with the art of healing, and the pentagram,

or five-pointed star, was to them the symbol of health. The above figure represents a magical ring set with a

talismanic gem bearing the pentalpha, or star formed by five different positions of the Greek Alpha. On this

subject Mackey writes: "The disciples of Pythagoras, who were indeed its real inventors, placed within

each of its interior angles one of the letters of the Greek word ΥΓΕΙΑ, or the Latin one SALUS, both of

which signify health; and thus it was made the talisman of health. They placed it at the beginning of their

epistles as a greeting to invoke a secure health to their correspondent. But its use was not confined to the

disciples of Pythagoras. As a talisman, it was employed all over the East as a charm to resist evil spirits."

p. 101

CEREMONIAL MAGIC AND

SORCERY

CEREMONIAL magic is the ancient art of invoking and controlling spirits by a scientific

application of certain formulæ. A magician, enveloped in sanctified vestments and

carrying a wand inscribed with hieroglyphic figures, could by the power vested in certain

words and symbols control the invisible inhabitants of the elements and of the astral

world. While the elaborate ceremonial magic of antiquity was not necessarily evil, there

arose from its perversion several false schools of sorcery, or black magic.

Egypt, a great center of learning and the birthplace of many arts and sciences, furnished

an ideal environment for transcendental experimentation. Here the black magicians of

Atlantis continued to exercise their superhuman powers until they had completely

undermined and corrupted the morals of the primitive Mysteries. By establishing a

sacerdotal caste they usurped the position formerly occupied by the initiates, and seized

the reins of spiritual government. Thus black magic dictated the state religion and

paralyzed the intellectual and spiritual activities of the individual by demanding his

complete and unhesitating acquiescence in the dogma formulated by the priestcraft. The

Pharaoh became a puppet in the hands of the Scarlet Council--a committee of arch-

sorcerers elevated to power by the priesthood.

These sorcerers then began the systematic destruction of all keys to the ancient wisdom,

so that none might have access to the knowledge necessary to reach adeptship without

first becoming one of their order. They mutilated the rituals of the Mysteries while

professing to preserve them, so that even though the neophyte passed through the degrees

he could not secure the knowledge to which he was entitled. Idolatry was introduced by

encouraging the worship of the images which in the beginning the wise had erected solely

as symbols for study and meditation. False interpretations were given to the emblems and

figures of the Mysteries, and elaborate theologies were created to confuse the minds of

their devotees. The masses, deprived of their birthright of understanding and groveling in

ignorance, eventually became the abject slaves of the spiritual impostors. Superstition

universally prevailed and the black magicians completely dominated national affairs,

with the result that humanity still suffers from the sophistries of the priestcrafts of

Atlantis and Egypt.

Fully convinced that their Scriptures sanctioned it, numerous mediæval Qabbalists

devoted their lives to the practice of ceremonial magic. The transcendentalism of the

Qabbalists is founded upon the ancient and magical formula of King Solomon, who has

long been considered by the Jews as the prince of ceremonial magicians.

Among the Qabbalists of the Middle Ages were a great number of black magicians who

strayed from the noble concepts of the Sepher Yetzirah and became enmeshed in

demonism and witchcraft. They sought to substitute magic mirrors, consecrated daggers,

and circles spread around posts of coffin nails, for the living of that virtuous life which,

without the assistance of complicated rituals or submundane creatures, unfailingly brings

man to the state of true individual completion.

Those who sought to control elemental spirits through ceremonial magic did so largely

with the hope of securing from the invisible worlds either rare knowledge or supernatural

power. The little red demon of Napoleon Bonaparte and the infamous oracular heads of

de Medici are examples of the disastrous results of permitting elemental beings to dictate

the course of human procedure. While the learned and godlike dæmon of Socrates seems

to have been an exception, this really proves that the intellectual and moral status of the

magician has much to do with the type of elemental he is capable of invoking. But even

the dæmon of Socrates deserted the philosopher when the sentence of death was passed.

Transcendentalism and all forms of phenomenalistic magic are but blind alleys--

outgrowths of Atlantean sorcery; and those who forsake the straight path of philosophy to

wander therein almost invariably fall victims to their imprudence. Man, incapable of

controlling his own appetites, is not equal to the task of governing the fiery and

tempestuous elemental spirits.

Many a magician has lost his life as the result of opening a way whereby submundane

creatures could become active participants in his affairs. When Eliphas Levi invoked the

spirit of Apollonius of Tyana, what did he hope to accomplish? Is the gratification of

curiosity a motive sufficient to warrant the devotion of an entire lifetime to a dangerous

and unprofitable pursuit? If the living Apollonius refused to divulge his secrets to the

profane, is there any probability that after death he would disclose them to the curious-

minded? Levi himself did not dare to assert that the specter which appeared to him was

actually the great philosopher, for Levi realized only too well the proclivity of elementals

to impersonate those who have passed on. The majority of modern mediumistic

apparitions are but elemental creatures masquerading through bodies composed of

thought substance supplied by the very persons desiring to behold these wraiths of

decarnate beings.

THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF BLACK MAGIC

Some understanding of the intricate theory and practice of ceremonial magic may be

derived from a brief consideration of its underlying premises.

First. The visible universe has an invisible counterpart, the higher planes of which are

peopled by good and beautiful spirits; the lower planes, dark and foreboding, are the

habitation of evil spirits and demons under the leadership of the Fallen Angel and his ten

Princes.

Second. By means of the secret processes of ceremonial magic it is possible to contact

these invisible creatures and gain their help in some human undertaking. Good spirits

willingly lend their assistance to any worthy enterprise, but the evil spirits serve only

those who live to pervert and destroy.

Third. It is possible to make contracts with spirits whereby the magician becomes for a

stipulated time the master of an elemental being.

Fourth. True black magic is performed with the aid of a demoniacal spirit, who serves the

sorcerer for the length of his earthly life, with the understanding that after death the

magician shall become the servant of his own demon. For this reason a black magician

will go to inconceivable ends to prolong his physical life, since there is nothing for him

beyond the grave.

The most dangerous form of black magic is the scientific perversion of occult power for

the gratification of personal desire. Its less complex and more universal form is human

selfishness, for selfishness is the fundamental cause of all worldly evil. A man will barter

his eternal soul for temporal power, and down through the ages a mysterious process has

been evolved which actually enables him to make this exchange. In its various branches

the black art includes nearly all forms of ceremonial magic, necromancy, witchcraft,

sorcery, and vampirism. Under the same general heading are also included mesmerism

and hypnotism, except when used solely for medical purposes, and even then there is an

element of risk for all concerned.

Though the demonism of the Middle Ages seems to have disappeared, there is abundant

evidence that in many forms of modern thought--especially the so-called "prosperity"

psychology, "willpower-building" metaphysics, and systems of "high-pressure"

salesmanship--

Click to enlarge

BAPHOMET, THE GOAT OF MENDES.

From Levi's Transcendental Magic.

The practice of magic--either white or black--depends upon the ability of the adept to control the universal

life force--that which Eliphas Levi calls the great magical agent or the astral light. By the manipulation of

this fluidic essence the phenomena of transcendentalism are produced. The famous hermaphroditic Goat of

Mendes was a composite creature formulated to symbolize this astral light. It is identical with Baphomet

the mystic pantheos of those disciples of ceremonial magic, the Templars, who probably obtained it from

the Arabians.

p. 102

black magic has merely passed through a metamorphosis, and although its name be

changed its nature remains the same.

A well-known magician of the Middle Ages was Dr. Johannes Faustus, more commonly

known as Dr. Faust. By a study of magical writings he was enabled to bind to his service

an elemental who served him for many years in various capacities. Strange legends are

told concerning the magical powers possessed by Dr. Faust. Upon one occasion the

philosopher, being apparently in a playful mood, threw his mantle over a number of eggs

in a market-woman's basket, causing them to hatch instantly. At another time, having

fallen overboard from a small boat, he was picked up and returned to the craft with his

clothes still dry. But, like nearly all other magicians, Dr. Faust came at length to disaster;

he was found one morning with a knife in his back, and it was commonly believed that

his familiar spirit had murdered him. Although Goethe's Dr. Faust is generally regarded

as merely a fictional character, this old magician actually lived during the sixteenth

century. Dr. Faust wrote a book describing his experiences with spirits, a section of

which is reprinted below. (Dr. Faust must not be confused with Johann Fust, the printer.)

EXTRACT FROM THE BOOK OF DR. FAUST, WITTENBERG, 1524

(An abridged translation from the original German of a book ordered destroyed.)

"From my youth I followed art and science and was tireless in my reading of books.

Among those which came to my hand was a volume containing all kinds of invocations

and magical formulæ. In this book I discovered information to the effect that a spirit,

whether he be of the fire, the water, the earth or the air, can be compelled to do the will of

a magician capable of controlling him. I also discovered that according as one spirit has

more power than another, each is adapted for a different operation and each is capable of

producing certain supernatural effects.

"After reading this wonderful book, I made several experiments, desiring to rest the

accuracy of the statements made therein. At first I had little faith that what was promised

would take place. But at the very first invocation which I attempted a mighty spirit

manifested to me, desiring to know why I had invoked him. His coming so amazed me

that I scarcely knew what to say, but finally asked him if he would serve me in my

magical investigations. He replied that if certain conditions were agreed upon he would.

The conditions were that I should make a pact with him. This I did not desire to do, but as

in my ignorance I had not protected myself with a circle and was actually at the mercy of

the spirit, I did not dare to refuse his request and resigned myself to the inevitable,

considering it wisest to turn my mantle according to the wind.

"I then told him that if he would be serviceable to me according to my desires and needs

for a certain length of time, I would sign myself over to him. After the pact had been

arranged, this mighty spirit, whose name was Asteroth, introduced me to another spirit by

the name of Marbuel, who was appointed to be my servant. I questioned Marbuel as to

his suitability for my needs. I asked him how quick he was, and he answered, 'As swift as

the winds.' This did not satisfy me, so I replied, 'You cannot become my servant. Go

again whence you have come.' Soon another spirit manifested itself, whose name was

Aniguel. Upon asking him the same question he answered that he was swift as a bird in

the air. I said, 'You are still too slow for me. Go whence you came.' In the same moment

another spirit by the name of Aciel manifested himself. For the third time I asked my

question and he answered, 'I am as swift as human thought.' 'You shall serve me,' I

replied. This spirit was faithful for a long time, but to tell you how he served me is not

possible in a document of this length and I will here only indicate how spirits are to be

invoked and how the circles for protection are to be prepared. There are many kinds of

spirits which will permit themselves to be invoked by man and become his servant. Of

these I will list a few:

"Aciel: The mightiest among those who serve men. He manifests in pleasing human form

about three feet high. He must be invoked three times before he will come forth into the

circle prepared for him. He will furnish riches and will instantly fetch things from a great

distance, according to the will of the magician. He is as swift as human thought.

"Aniguel: Serviceable and most useful, and comes in the form of a ten-year-old boy. He

must be invoked three times. His special power is to discover treasures and minerals

hidden in the ground, which he will furnish to the magician.

"Marbuel: A true lord of the mountains and swift as a bird on the wing. He is an opposing

and troublesome spirit, hard to control. You must invoke him four times. He appears in

the person of Mars [a warrior in heavy armor]. He will furnish the magician those things

which grow above and under the earth. He is particularly the lord of the spring-root. [The

spring-root is a mysterious herb, possibly of a reddish color, which mediæval magicians

asserted had the property of drawing forth or opening anything it touched. If placed

against a locked door, it would open the door. The Hermetists believed that the red-

capped woodpecker was specially endowed with the faculty of discovering spring-root,

so they followed this bird to its nest, and then stopped up the hole in the tree where its

young were. The red-crested woodpecker went at once in quest of the spring-root, and,

discovering it, brought it to the tree. It immediately drew forth the stopper from the

entrance to the nest. The magician then secured the root from the bird. It was also

asserted that because of its structure, the etheric body of the spring-root was utilized as a

vehicle of expression by certain elemental spirits which manifested through the proclivity

of drawing out or opening things.]

"Aciebel: A mighty ruler of the sea, controlling things both upon and under the water. He

furnishes things lost or sunk in rivers, lakes, and oceans, such as sunken ships and

treasures. The more sharply you invoke him, the swifter he is upon his errands.

"Machiel: Comes in the form of a beautiful maiden and by her aid the magician is raised

to honor and dignity. She makes those she serves worthy and noble, gracious and kindly,

and assists in all matters of litigation and justice. She will not come unless invoked twice.

"Baruel: The master of all arts. He manifests as a master workman and comes wearing an

apron. He can teach a magician more in a moment than all the master workmen of the

world combined could accomplish in twenty years. He must be invoked three times.

"These are the spirits most serviceable to man, but there are numerous others which, for

lack of space, I am unable to describe. Now, if you desire the aid of the spirit to get this

or that, then you must first draw the sign of the spirit whom you desire to invoke. The

drawing must be made just in front of a circle made before sunrise, in which you and

your assistants will stand. If you desire financial assistance, then you must invoke the

spirit Aciel. Draw his sign in front of the circle. If you need other things, then draw the

sign of the spirit capable of furnishing them. On the place where you intend to make the

circle, you must first draw a great cross with a large sword with which no one ever has

been hurt. Then you must make three concentric circles. The innermost circle is made of

a

Click to enlarge

A MAGICAL SWORD.

From Levi's The Magical Ritual.

Eliphas Levi describes the preparation of a magical sword in substance as follows: The steel blade should

be forged in the hour of Mars, with new tools. The pommel should be of hollow silver containing

quicksilver, and the symbols of Mercury and the moon and the signatures of Gabriel and Samael should be

engraved upon it. The hilt should be encased with tin, with the symbol of Jupiter and the signature of

Michael engraved upon it. A copper triangle should extend from the hilt along the blade a short distance on

each side: these should bear the symbols of Mercury and Venus. Five Sephiroth should be engraved upon

the handle, as shown. The blade itself should have the word Malchut upon one side and Quis ut Deus upon

the other. The sword should be consecrated on Sunday.

Click to enlarge

A MAGIC CIRCLE.

From The Complete Book of Magic Science (unpublished).

The above figure is a complete and faithful representation of a magic circle as designed by mediæval

conjurers for the invocation of spirits. The magician accompanied by his assistant takes his place at the

point formed by the crossing of the central lines marked MAGISTER. The words about the circle are the

names of the invisible intelligences, and the small crosses mark points at which certain prayers and

invocations are recited. The small circle outside is prepared for the spirit to be invoked, and while in use

has the signature of the desired intelligence traced within the triangle.

p. 103

long narrow strip of virgin parchment and must be hung upon twelve crosses made of the

wood of cross-thorn. Upon the parchment you must write the names and symbols

according to the figure which follows. Outside this first circle make the second as

follows:

"First secure a thread of red silk that has been spun or twisted to the left instead of the

right. Then place in the ground twelve crosses made of laurel leaves, and also prepare a

long strip of new white paper. Write with an unused pen the characters and symbols as

seen on the second circle. Wind this latter strip of paper around with the red silken thread

and pin them upon the twelve crosses of laurel leaves. Outside this second circle make a

third one which is also of virgin parchment and pinned upon twelve crosses of

consecrated palm. When you have made these three circles, retire into them until at last

you stand in the center upon a pentagram drawn in the midst of the great cross first

drawn. Now, to insure success, do everything according to the description, and when you

have read off the sacred invocation pronounce the name of the spirit which you desire to

appear. It is essential that you pronounce the name very distinctly. You must also note the

day and the hour, for each spirit can only be invoked at certain times."

While the black magician at the time of signing his pact with the elemental demon maybe

fully convinced that he is strong enough to control indefinitely the powers placed at his

disposal, he is speedily undeceived. Before many years elapse he must turn all his

energies to the problem of self-preservation. A world of horrors to which he has attuned

himself by his own covetousness looms nearer every day, until he exists upon the edge of

a seething maelstrom, expecting momentarily to be sucked down into its turbid depths.

Afraid to die--because he will become the servant of his own demon--the magician

commits crime after crime to prolong his wretched earthly existence. Realizing that life is

maintained by the aid of a mysterious universal life force which is the common property

of all creatures, the black magician often becomes an occult vampire, stealing this energy

from others. According to mediæval superstition, black magicians turned themselves into

werewolves and roamed the earth at night, attacking defenseless victims for the life force

contained in their blood.

MODUS OPERANDI FOR THE INVOCATION OF SPIRITS

The following condensed extract from an ancient manuscript is reproduced herewith as

representative of the ritualism of ceremonial magic. The extract is from The Complete

Book of Magic Science, an unpublished manuscript (original in the British Museum), with

pentacles in colors, mentioned by Francis Barrett in his Magus.

"Opening Prayer

"Omnipotent and Eternal God who hath ordained the whole creation for thy praise and

glory and for the salvation of man, I earnestly beseech thee that thou wouldst send one of

thy spirits of the order of Jupiter, one of the messengers of Zadkiel whom thou hast

appointed governor of thy firmament at the present time, most faithfully, willingly, and

readily to show me these things which I shall ask, command or require of him, and truly

execute my desires. Nevertheless, O Most Holy God, thy will and not mine be done

through JC, thine only begotten Son our Lord. Amen.

"The Invocation.

[The magician, having properly consecrated his vestments and utensils and being

protected by his circle, now calls upon the spirits to appear and accede to his demands.]

"Spirits, whose assistance I require, behold the sign and the very Hallowed Names of

God full of power. Obey the power of this our pentacle; go out your hidden caves and

dark places; cease your hurtful occupations to those unhappy mortals whom without

ceasing you torment; come into this place where the Divine Goodness has assembled us;

be attentive to our orders and known to our just demands; believe not that your resistance

will cause us to abandon our operations. Nothing can dispense with your obeying us. We

command you by the Mysterious Names Elohe Agla Elohim Adonay Gibort. Amen.

"I call upon thee, Zadkiel, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

Ghost, blessed Trinity, unspeakable Unity.

"I invoke and intreat thee, Zadkiel, in this hour to attend to the words and conjurations

which I shall use this day by the Holy Names of God Elohe El Elohim Elion Zebaoth

Escerehie Iah Adonay Tetragrammaton.

"I conjure thee, I exorcise thee, thou Spirit Zadkiel, by these Holy Names Hagios O

Theos Iscyros Athanatos Paracletus Agla on Alpha et Omega Ioth Aglanbroth Abiel

Anathiel Tetragrammaton: And by all other great and glorious, holy and unspeakable,

mysterious, mighty, powerful, incomprehensible Names of God, that you attend unto the

words of my mouth, and send unto me Pabiel or other of your ministering, serving

Spirits, who may show me such things as I shall demand of him in the Name of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

"I intreat thee, Pabiel, by the whole Spirit of Heaven, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones,

Dominations, Witnesses, Powers, Principalities, Archangels, and Angels, by the holy,

great, and glorious Angels Orphaniel Tetra-Dagiel Salamla Acimoy pastor poti, that thou

come forthwith, readily show thyself that we may see you and audibly hear you, speak

unto us and fulfil our desires, and by your star which is Jupiter, and by all the

constellations of Heaven, and by whatsoever you obey, and by your character which you

have given, proposed, and confirmed, that you attend unto me according to the prayer and

petitions which I have made unto Almighty God, and that you forthwith send me one of

your ministering Spirits, who may willingly, truly, and faithfully fulfil all my desires, and

that you command him to appear unto me in the form of a beautiful Angel, gently,

courteously, affably, and meekly, entering into communication with me, and that he

neither permitting any evil Spirit to approach in any sort of hurt, terrify or affright me in

any way nor deceiving me in any wise. Through the virtue of Our Lord JC, in whose

Name I attend, wait for, and expect thy appearance. Fiat, fiat, fiat. Amen, Amen, Amen.

"Interrogatories.

[Having summoned the spirit unto his presence, the magician shall question him as

follows:]

"'Comest thou in peace in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost?'

[And the spirit shall answer:] 'Yes.'

"'Thou art welcome, noble Spirit. What is thy Name?' [And the spirit shall answer:]

'Pabiel.'

"'I have called thee in the Name of Jesu of Nazareth at whose Name every knee doth bow

in heaven, earth, and hell, and every tongue shall confess there is no name like unto the

Name of Jesus, who hath given power unto man to bind and to loose all things in his most

Holy Name, yea even unto those that trust in his salvation.

"'Art thou the messenger of Zadkiel?' [And the spirit shall answer:] 'Yes.'

"'Wilt thou confirm thyself unto me at this time and henceforth reveal all things unto me

that I shall desire to know, and teach me how I may increase in wisdom and knowledge

and show unto me all the secrets of the Magic Art, and of all liberal sciences, that I may

thereby set forth the glory of Almighty God?' [And the spirit shall answer:] 'Yes.'

"'Then I pray thee give and confirm thy character unto me whereby I may call thee at all

times, and also swear unto me this oath and I will religiously keep my vow and covenant

unto Almighty God and will courteously receive thee at all times where thou dost appear

unto me.'

"License to Depart.

"'Forasmuch as thou comest in peace and quietness and hath answered

Click to enlarge

THE PENTAGRAM.

From Levi's Transcendental Magic.

THE PENTAGRAM. The pentagram is the figure of the microcosm--the magical formula of man. It is the

one rising out of the four--the human soul rising from the bondage of the animal nature. It is the true light--

the "Star of the morning." It marks the location of five mysterious centers of force, the awakening of which is the supreme secret of white magic.

Click to enlarge

FORM OF PACT WITH THE SPIRIT OF JUPITER.

From The Complete Book of Magic Science.

The aforesaid Bond of spirits, together with the seal and character of the planetary angel, must be written m

virgin Parchment and laid before the Spirit [for signature] when he appears; at that time the invocant must

not lost confidence but be patient, firm, bold, and Persevering, and take care that he asks nor requires

nothing of the Spirit but with a view to the glory of God and the well-being fellow creatures. Having

obtained his desires of the Spirit, the invocant may license him to depart."

p. 104

unto my petitions, I give humble and hearty thanks unto Almighty God in whose Name I

called and thou camest, and now thou mayest depart in peace unto thine orders and return

unto me again at what time soever I shall call thee by thine oath, or by thy name or by

thine order, or by thine office which is granted thee from the Creator, and the power of

God be with me and thee and upon the whole issue of God, Amen.

"'Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.'

[Note.] "It would be advisable for the invocant to remain in the circle for a few minutes

after reciting the license, and if the place of operation be in the open air, let him destroy

all traces of the circle, etcetera, and return quietly to his home. But should the operation

be performed in a retired part of a house, cc cetera, the circle may remain, as it might

serve in alike future operation, but the room or building must be locked up to avoid the

intrusion of strangers."

The agreement set forth above is purely ceremonial magic. In the case of black magic, it

is the magician and not the demon who must sign the pact. When the black magician

binds an elemental to his service, a battle of wits ensues, which the demon eventually

wins. With his own blood the magician signs the pact between himself and the demon,

for in the arcanum of magic it is declared that "he controls the soul who controls the

blood of another." As long as the magician does not fail, the elemental will fulfil to the

letter his obligation under the pact, but the demon will try in every possible way to

prevent the magician from carrying out his part of the contract. When the conjurer,

ensconced within his circle, has evoked the spirit he desires to control and has made

known his intention, the spirit will answer somewhat as follows: "I cannot accede to your

request nor fulfil it, unless after fifty years you give yourself to me, body and soul, to do

with as I may please."

If the magician refuses, other terms will be discussed. The spirit may say: "I will remain in your service as long as on every Friday morning you will go forth upon the public

street giving alms in the name of Lucifer. The first time you fail in this you belong to

me."

If the magician still refuses, realizing that the demon will make it impossible for him to

fulfil his contract, other terms will be discussed, until at last a pact is agreed upon. It may

read as follows: "I hereby promise the Great Spirit Lucifuge, Prince of Demons, that each

year I will bring unto him a human soul to do with as it may please him, and in return

Lucifuge promises to bestow upon me the treasures of the earth and fulfil my every desire

for the length of my natural life. If I fail to bring him each year the offering specified

above, then my own soul shall be forfeit to him. Signed . . . . . . . . . . . . . " [Invocant signs

pact with his own blood.]

THE PENTAGRAM

In symbolism, an inverted figure always signifies a perverted power. The average person

does not even suspect the occult properties of emblematic pentacles. On this subject the

great Paracelsus has written: "No doubt many will scoff at the seals, their characters and

their uses, which are described in these books, because it seems incredible to them that

metals and characters which are dead should have any power and effect. Yet no one has

ever proved that the metals and also the characters as we know them are dead, for the

salts, sulphur, and quintessences of metals are the highest preservatives of human life and

are far superior to all other simples." (Translated from the original German.)

The black magician cannot use the symbols of white magic without bringing down upon

himself the forces of white magic, which would be fatal to his schemes. He must

therefore distort the hierograms so that they typify the occult fact that he himself is

distorting the principles for which the symbols stand. Black magic is not a fundamental

art; it is the misuse of an art. Therefore it has no symbols of its own. It merely takes the

emblematic figures of white magic, and by inverting and reversing them signifies that it

is left-handed.

A good instance of this practice is found in the pentagram, or five-pointed star, made of

five connected lines. This figure is the time-honored symbol of the magical arts, and

signifies the five properties of the Great Magical Agent, the five senses of man, the five

elements of nature, the five extremities of the human body. By means of the pentagram

within his own soul, man not only may master and govern all creatures inferior to

himself, but may demand consideration at the hands of those superior to himself.

The pentagram is used extensively in black magic, but when so used its form always

differs in one of three ways: The star may be broken at one point by not permitting the

converging lines to touch; it may be inverted by having one point down and two up; or it

may be distorted by having the points of varying lengths. When used in black magic, the

pentagram is called the "sign of the cloven hoof," or the footprint of the Devil. The star

with two points upward is also called the "Goat of Mendes," because the inverted star is

the same shape as a goat's head. When the upright star turns and the upper point falls to

the bottom, it signifies the fall of the Morning Star.

Click to enlarge

THE PENTACLES OF THE SEVEN PLANETS AND THE SEALS AND CHARACTERS OF THE PLANETARY ANGELS.

From a mediæval Book of Spirits (unpublished).

The seven large circle are the planets, while the two small circles under each contain the seal and the

character of the controlling intelligence of the planet.

p. 105

The Elements and Their Inhabitants

FOR the most comprehensive and lucid exposition of occult pneumatology (the branch of

philosophy dealing with spiritual substances) extant, mankind is indebted to Philippus

Aureolus Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), prince of alchemists

and Hermetic philosophers and true possessor of the Royal Secret (the Philosopher's

Stone and the Elixir of Life). Paracelsus believed that each of the four primary elements

known to the ancients (earth, fire, air, and water) consisted of a subtle, vaporous principle

and a gross corporeal substance.

Air is, therefore, twofold in nature-tangible atmosphere and an intangible, volatile

substratum which may be termed spiritual air. Fire is visible and invisible, discernible

and indiscernible--a spiritual, ethereal flame manifesting through a material, substantial

flame. Carrying the analogy further, water consists of a dense fluid and a potential

essence of a fluidic nature. Earth has likewise two essential parts--the lower being fixed,

terreous, immobile; the higher, rarefied, mobile, and virtual. The general term elements

has been applied to the lower, or physical, phases of these four primary principles, and

the name elemental essences to their corresponding invisible, spiritual constitutions.

Minerals, plants, animals, and men live in a world composed of the gross side of these

four elements, and from various combinations of them construct their living organisms.

Henry Drummond, in Natural Law in the Spiritual World, describes this process as

follows: "If we analyse this material point at which all life starts, we shall find it to

consist of a clear structureless, jelly-like substance resembling albumen or white of egg.

It is made of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. Its name is protoplasm. And it is

not only the structural unit with which all living bodies start in life, but with which they

are subsequently built up. 'Protoplasm,' says Huxley, 'simple or nucleated, is the formal

basis of all life. It is the clay of the Potter.'"

The water element of the ancient philosophers has been metamorphosed into the

hydrogen of modern science; the air has become oxygen; the fire, nitrogen; the earth,

carbon.

Just as visible Nature is populated by an infinite number of living creatures, so, according

to Paracelsus, the invisible, spiritual counterpart of visible Nature (composed of the

tenuous principles of the visible elements) is inhabited by a host of peculiar beings, to

whom he has given the name elementals, and which have later been termed the Nature

spirits. Paracelsus divided these people of the elements into four distinct groups, which

he called gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders. He taught that they were really

living entities, many resembling human beings in shape, and inhabiting worlds of their

own, unknown to man because his undeveloped senses were incapable of functioning

beyond the limitations of the grosser elements.

The civilizations of Greece, Rome, Egypt, China, and India believed implicitly in satyrs,

sprites, and goblins. They peopled the sea with mermaids, the rivers and fountains with

nymphs, the air with fairies, the fire with Lares and Penates, and the earth with fauns,

dryads, and hamadryads. These Nature spirits were held in the highest esteem, and

propitiatory offerings were made to them. Occasionally, as the result of atmospheric

conditions or the peculiar sensitiveness of the devotee, they became visible. Many

authors wrote concerning them in terms which signify that they had actually beheld these

inhabitants of Nature's finer realms. A number of authorities are of the opinion that many

of the gods worshiped by the pagans were elementals, for some of these invisibles were

believed to be of commanding stature and magnificent deportment.

The Greeks gave the name dæmon to some of these elementals, especially those of the

higher orders, and worshiped them. Probably the most famous of these dæmons is the

mysterious spirit which instructed Socrates, and of whom that great philosopher spoke in

the highest terms. Those who have devoted much study to the invisible constitution of

man realize that it is quite probable the dæmon of Socrates and the angel of Jakob Böhme

were in reality not elementals, but the overshadowing divine natures of these

philosophers themselves. In his notes to Apuleius on the God of Socrates, Thomas Taylor

says:

"As the dæmon of Socrates, therefore, was doubtless one of the highest order, as may be

inferred from the intellectual superiority of Socrates to most other men, Apuleius is

justified in calling this dæmon a God. And that the dæmon of Socrates indeed was divine,

is evident from the testimony of Socrates himself in the First Alcibiades: for in the course

of that dialogue he clearly says, 'I have long been of the opinion that the God did not as

yet direct me to hold any conversation with you.' And in the Apology he most

unequivocally evinces that this dæmon is allotted a divine transcendency, considered as

ranking in the order of dæmons."

The idea once held, that the invisible elements surrounding and interpenetrating the earth

were peopled with living, intelligent beings, may seem ridiculous to the prosaic mind of

today. This doctrine, however, has found favor with some of the greatest intellects of the

world. The sylphs of Facius Cardin, the philosopher of Milan; the salamander seen by

Benvenuto Cellini; the pan of St. Anthony; and le petit homme rouge (the little red man,

or gnome) of Napoleon Bonaparte, have found their places in the pages of history.

Literature has also perpetuated the concept of Nature spirits. The mischievous Puck of

Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream; the elementals of Alexander Pope's

Rosicrucian poem, The Rape of the Lock, the mysterious creatures of Lord Lytton's

Zanoni; James Barrie's immortal Tinker Bell; and the famous bowlers that Rip Van

Winkle encountered in the Catskill Mountains, are well-known characters to students of

literature. The folklore and mythology of all peoples abound in legends concerning these

mysterious little figures who haunt old castles, guard treasures in the depths of the earth,

and build their homes under the spreading protection of toadstools. Fairies are the delight

of childhood, and most children give them up with reluctance. Not so very long ago the

greatest minds of the world believed in the existence of fairies, and it is still an open

question as to whether Plato, Socrates, and Iamblichus were wrong when they avowed

their reality.

Paracelsus, when describing the substances which constitute the bodies of the elementals,

divided flesh into two kinds, the first being that which we have all inherited through

Adam. This is the visible, corporeal flesh. The second was that flesh which had not

descended from Adam and, being more attenuated, was not subject to the limitations of

the former. The bodies of the elementals were composed of this transubstantial flesh.

Paracelsus stated that there is as much difference between the bodies of men and the

bodies of the Nature spirits as there is between matter and spirit.

"Yet," he adds, "the Elementals are not spirits, because they have flesh, blood and bones;

they live and propagate offspring; they cat and talk, act and sleep, &c., and consequently

they cannot be properly called 'spirits.' They are beings occupying a place between men

and spirits, resembling men and spirits, resembling men and women in their organization

and form, and resembling spirits in the rapidity of their locomotion." (Philosophia

Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.) Later the same author calls these creatures

composita, inasmuch as the substance out of which they are composed seems to be a

composite of spirit and matter. He uses color to explain the idea. Thus, the mixture of

blue and red gives purple, a new color, resembling neither of the others yet composed of

both. Such is the case with the Nature spirits; they resemble neither spiritual creatures nor

material beings, yet are composed of the substance which we may call spiritual matter, or

ether.

Paracelsus further adds that whereas man is composed of several natures (spirit, soul,

mind, and body) combined in one unit, the elemental has but one principle, the ether out

of which it is composed and in which it lives. The reader must remember that by ether

Click to enlarge

A SALAMANDER, ACCORDING TO PARACELSUS.

From Paracelsus' Auslegung von 30 magischen Figuren.

The Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Persians often mistook the salamanders for gods, because of their radiant

splendor and great power. The Greeks, following the example of earlier nations, deified the fire spirits and

in their honor kept incense and altar fire, burning perpetually.

p. 106

is meant the spiritual essence of one of the four elements. There areas many ethers as

there are elements and as many distinct families of Nature spirits as there are ethers.

These families are completely isolated in their own ether and have no intercourse with the

denizens of the other ethers; but, as man has within his own nature centers of

consciousness sensitive to the impulses of all the four ethers, it is possible for any of the

elemental kingdoms to communicate with him under proper conditions.

The Nature spirits cannot be destroyed by the grosser elements, such as material fire,

earth, air, or water, for they function in a rate of vibration higher than that of earthy

substances. Being composed of only one element or principle (the ether in which they

function), they have no immortal spirit and at death merely disintegrate back into the

element from which they were originally individualized. No individual consciousness is

preserved after death, for there is no superior vehicle present to contain it. Being made of

but one substance, there is no friction between vehicles: thus there is little wear or tear

incurred by their bodily functions, and they therefore live to great age. Those composed

of earth ether are the shortest lived; those composed of air ether, the longest. The average

length of life is between three hundred and a thousand years. Paracelsus maintained that

they live in conditions similar to our earth environments, and are somewhat subject to

disease. These creatures are thought to be incapable of spiritual development, but most of

them are of a high moral character.

Concerning the elemental ethers in which the Nature spirits exist, Paracelsus wrote:

"They live in the four elements: the Nymphæ in the element of water, the Sylphes in that

of the air, the Pigmies in the earth, and the Salamanders in fire. They are also called

Undinæ, Sylvestres, Gnomi, Vulcani, &c. Each species moves only in the element to

which it belongs, and neither of them can go out of its appropriate element, which is to

them as the air is to us, or the water to fishes; and none of them can live in the element

belonging to another class. To each elemental being the element in which it lives is

transparent, invisible and respirable, as the atmosphere is to ourselves." (Philosophia

Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)

The reader should be careful not to confuse the Nature spirits with the true life waves

evolving through the invisible worlds. While the elementals are composed of only one

etheric (or atomic) essence, the angels, archangels, and other superior, transcendental

entities have composite organisms, consisting of a spiritual nature and a chain of vehicles

to express that nature not unlike those of men, but not including the physical body with

its attendant limitations.

To the philosophy of Nature spirits is generally attributed an Eastern origin, probably

Brahmanic; and Paracelsus secured his knowledge of them from Oriental sages with

whom he came in contact during his lifetime of philosophical wanderings. The Egyptians

and Greeks gleaned their information from the same source. The four main divisions of

Nature spirits must now be considered separately, according to the teachings of

Paracelsus and the Abbé de Villars and such scanty writings of other authors as are

available.

THE GNOMES

The elementals who dwell in that attenuated body of the earth which is called the terreous

ether are grouped together under the general heading of gnomes. (The name is probably

derived from the Greek genomus, meaning earth dweller. See New English Dictionary.)

Just as there are many types of human beings evolving through the objective physical

elements of Nature, so there are many types of gnomes evolving through the subjective

ethereal body of Nature. These earth spirits work in an element so close in vibratory rate

to the material earth that they have immense power over its rocks and flora, and also over

the mineral elements in the animal and human kingdoms. Some, like the pygmies, work

with the stones, gems, and metals, and are supposed to be the guardians of hidden

treasures. They live in caves, far down in what the Scandinavians called the Land of the

Nibelungen. In Wagner's wonderful opera cycle, The Ring of the Nibelungen, Alberich

makes himself King of the Pygmies and forces these little creatures to gather for him the

treasures concealed beneath the surface of the earth.

Besides the pygmies there are other gnomes, who are called tree and forest sprites. To

this group belong the sylvestres, satyrs, pans, dryads, hamadryads, durdalis, elves,

brownies, and little old men of the woods. Paracelsus states that the gnomes build houses

of substances resembling in their constituencies alabaster, marble, and cement, but the

true nature of these materials is unknown, having no counterpart in physical nature. Some

families of gnomes gather in communities, while others are indigenous to the substances

with and in which they work. For example, the hamadryads live and die with the plants or

trees of which they are a part. Every shrub and flower is said to have its own Nature

spirit, which often uses the physical body of the plant as its habitation. The ancient

philosophers, recognizing the principle of intelligence manifesting itself in every

department of Nature alike, believed that the quality of natural selection exhibited by

creatures not possessing organized mentalities expressed in reality the decisions of the

Nature spirits themselves.

C. M. Gayley, in The Classic Myths, says: "It was a pleasing trait in the old paganism that

it loved to trace in every operation of nature the agency of deity. The imagination of the

Greeks peopled the regions of earth and sea with divinities, to whose agency it attributed

the phenomena that our philosophy ascribes to the operation of natural law." Thus, in

behalf of the plant it worked with, the elemental accepted and rejected food elements,

deposited coloring matter therein, preserved and protected the seed, and performed many

other beneficent offices. Each species was served by a different but appropriate type of

Nature spirit. Those working with poisonous shrubs, for example, were offensive in their

appearance. It is said the Nature spirits of poison hemlock resemble closely tiny human

skeletons, thinly covered with a semi-transparent flesh. They live in and through the

hemlock, and if it be cut down remain with the broken shoots until both die, but while

there is the slightest evidence of life in the shrub it shows the presence of the elemental

guardian.

Great trees also have their Nature spirits, but these are much larger than the elementals of

smaller plants. The labors of the pygmies include the cutting of the crystals in the rocks

and the development of veins of ore. When the gnomes are laboring with animals or

human beings, their work is confined to the tissues corresponding with their own natures.

Hence they work with the bones, which belong to the mineral kingdom, and the ancients

believed the reconstruction of broken members to be impossible without the cooperation

of the elementals.

The gnomes are of various sizes--most of them much smaller than human beings, though

some of them have the power of changing their stature at will. This is the result of the

extreme mobility of the element in which they function. Concerning them the Abbé de

Villars wrote: "The earth is filled well nigh to its center with Gnomes, people of slight

stature, who are the guardians of treasures, minerals and precious stones. They are

ingenious, friends of man, and easy to govern."

Not all authorities agree concerning the amiable disposition of the gnomes. Many state

that they are of a tricky and malicious nature, difficult to manage, and treacherous.

Writers agree, however, that when their confidence is won they are faithful and true. The

philosophers and initiates of the ancient world were instructed concerning these

mysterious little people and were taught how to communicate with them and gain their

cooperation in undertakings of importance. The magi were always warned, however,

never to betray the trust of the elementals, for if they did, the invisible creatures, working

through the subjective nature of man, could cause them endless sorrow and probably

ultimate destruction. So long as the mystic served others, the gnomes would serve him,

but if he sought to use their aid selfishly to gain temporal power they would turn upon

him with unrelenting fury. The same was true if he sought to deceive them.

The earth spirits meet at certain times of the year in great conclaves, as Shakespeare

suggests in his Midsummer Night's Dream, where the elementals all gather to rejoice in

the beauty and harmony of Nature and the prospects of an excellent harvest. The gnomes

are ruled over by a king, whom they greatly love and revere. His name is Gob; hence his

subjects are often called goblins. Mediæval mystics gave a corner of creation (one of the

cardinal points) to each of the four kingdoms of Nature spirits, and because of their

earthy character the gnomes were assigned to the North--the place recognized by the

ancients as the source of darkness and death. One of the four main divisions of human

disposition was also assigned to the gnomes, and because so many of them dwelt in the

darkness of caves and the gloom of forests their temperament was said to be melancholy,

gloomy, and despondent. By this it is not meant that they themselves are of such

disposition, but rather that they have special control over elements of similar consistency.

The gnomes marry and have families, and the female gnomes are called gnomides. Some

wear clothing woven of the element in which they live. In other instances their garments

are part of themselves and grow with them, like the fur of animals. The gnomes are said

to have insatiable appetites, and to spend a great part of the rime eating, but they earn

their food by diligent and conscientious

Click to enlarge

CONVENTIONAL GNOMES.

From Gjellerup's Den Ældre Eddas Gudesange.

The type of gnome most frequently seen is the brownie, or elf, a mischievous and grotesque little creature

from twelve to eighteen inches high, usually dressed in green or russet brown. Most of them appear as very

aged, often with long white beards, and their figures are inclined to rotundity. They can be seen scampering

out of holes in the stumps of trees and sometimes they vanish by actually dissolving into the tree itself.

p. 107

labor. Most of them are of a miserly temperament, fond of storing things away in secret

places. There is abundant evidence of the fact that small children often see the gnomes,

inasmuch as their contact with the material side of Nature is not yet complete and they

still function more or less consciously in the invisible worlds.

According to Paracelsus, "Man lives in the exterior elements and the Elementals live in

the interior elements. The latter have dwellings and clothing, manners and customs,

languages and governments of their own, in the same sense as the bees have their queens

and herds of animals their leaders." (Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)

Paracelsus differs somewhat from the Greek mystics concerning the environmental

limitations imposed on the Nature spirits. The Swiss philosopher constitutes them of

subtle invisible ethers. According to this hypothesis they would be visible only at certain

times and only to those en rapport with their ethereal vibrations. The Greeks, on the other

hand, apparently believed that many Nature spirits had material constitutions capable of

functioning in the physical world. Often the recollection of a dream is so vivid that, upon

awakening, a person actually believes that he has passed through a physical experience.

The difficulty of accurately judging as to the end of physical sight and the beginning of

ethereal vision may account for these differences of opinion.

Even this explanation, however, does not satisfactorily account for the satyr which,

according to St. Jerome, was captured alive during the reign of Constantine and exhibited

to the people. It was of human form with the horns and feet of a goat. After its death it

was preserved in salt and taken to the Emperor that he might testify to its reality. (It is

within the bounds of probability that this curiosity was what modern science knows as a

monstrosity.)

THE UNDINES

As the gnomes were limited in their function to the elements of the earth, so the undines

(a name given to the family of water elementals) function in the invisible, spiritual

essence called humid (or liquid) ether. In its vibratory rate this is close to the element

water, and so the undines are able to control, to a great degree, the course and function of

this fluid in Nature. Beauty seems to be the keynote of the water spirits. Wherever we

find them pictured in art or sculpture, they abound in symmetry and grace. Controlling

the water element--which has always been a feminine symbol--it is natural that the water

spirits should most often be symbolized as female.

There are many groups of undines. Some inhabit waterfalls, where they can be seen in the

spray; others are indigenous to swiftly moving rivers; some have their habitat in dripping,

oozing fens or marshes; while other groups dwell in clear mountain lakes. According to

the philosophers of antiquity, every fountain had its nymph; every ocean wave its

oceanid. The water spirits were known under such names as oreades, nereides,

limoniades, naiades, water sprites, sea maids, mermaids, and potamides. Often the water

nymphs derived their names from the streams, lakes, or seas in which they dwelt.

In describing them, the ancients agreed on certain salient features. In general, nearly all

the undines closely resembled human beings in appearance and size, though the ones

inhabiting small streams and fountains were of correspondingly lesser proportions. It was

believed that these water spirits were occasionally capable of assuming the appearance of

normal human beings and actually associating with men and women. There are many

legends about these spirits and their adoption by the families of fishermen, but in nearly

every case the undines heard the call of the waters and returned to the realm of Neptune,

the King of the Sea.

Practically nothing is known concerning the male undines. The water spirits did not

establish homes in the same way that the gnomes did, but lived in coral caves under the

ocean or among the reeds growing on the banks of rivers or the shores of lakes. Among

the Celts there is a legend to the effect that Ireland was peopled, before the coming of its

present inhabitants, by a strange race of semi-divine creatures; with the coming of the

modem Celts they retired into the marshes and fens, where they remain even to this day.

Diminutive undines lived under lily pads and in little houses of moss sprayed by

waterfalls. The undines worked with the vital essences and liquids in plants, animals, and

human beings, and were present in everything containing water. When seen, the undines

generally resembled the goddesses of Greek statuary. They rose from the water draped in

mist and could not exist very long apart from it.

There are many families of undines, each with its peculiar limitations, it is impossible to

consider them here in detail. Their ruler, Necksa, they love and honor, and serve

untiringly. Their temperament is said to be vital, and to them has been given as their

throne the western corner of creation. They are rather emotional beings, friendly to

human life and fond of serving mankind. They are sometimes pictured riding on dolphins

or other great fish and seem to have a special love of flowers and plants, which they serve

almost as devotedly and intelligently as the gnomes. Ancient poets have said that the

songs of the undines were heard in the West Wind and that their lives were consecrated to

the beautifying of the material earth.

THE SALAMANDERS

The third group of elementals is the salamanders, or spirits of fire, who live in that

attenuated, spiritual ether which is the invisible fire element of Nature. Without them

material fire cannot exist; a match cannot be struck nor will flint and steel give off their

spark without the assistance of a salamander, who immediately appears (so the mediæval

mystics believed), evoked by friction. Man is unable to communicate successfully with

the salamanders, owing to the fiery element in which they dwell, for everything is

resolved to ashes that comes into their presence. By specially prepared compounds of

herbs and perfumes the philosophers of the ancient world manufactured many kinds of

incense. When incense was burned, the vapors which arose were especially suitable as a

medium for the expression of these elementals, who, by borrowing the ethereal effluvium

from the incense smoke, were able to make their presence felt.

The salamanders are as varied in their grouping and arrangement as either the undines or

the gnomes. There are many families of them, differing in appearance, size, and dignity.

Sometimes the salamanders were visible as small balls of light. Paracelsus says:

"Salamanders have been seen in the shapes of fiery balls, or tongues of fire, running over

the fields or peering in houses." (Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)

Mediæval investigators of the Nature spirits were of the opinion that the most common

form of salamander was lizard-like in shape, a foot or more in length, and visible as a

glowing Urodela, twisting and crawling in the midst of the fire. Another group was

described as huge flaming giants in flowing robes, protected with sheets of fiery armor.

Certain mediæval authorities, among them the Abbé de Villars, held that Zarathustra

(Zoroaster) was the son of Vesta (believed to have been the wife of Noah) and the great

salamander Oromasis. Hence, from that time onward, undying fires have been maintained

upon the Persian altars in honor of Zarathustra's flaming father.

One most important subdivision of the salamanders was the Acthnici. These creatures

appeared only as indistinct globes. They were supposed to float over water at night and

occasionally to appear as forks of flame on the masts and rigging of ships (St. Elmo's

fire). The salamanders were the strongest and most powerful of the elementals, and had

as their ruler a magnificent flaming spirit called Djin, terrible and awe-inspiring in

appearance. The salamanders were dangerous and the sages were warned to keep away

from them, as the benefits derived from studying them were often not commensurate with

the price paid. As the ancients associated heat with the South, this corner of creation was

assigned to the salamanders as their drone, and they exerted special influence over all

beings of fiery or tempestuous temperament. In both animals and men, the salamanders

work through the emotional nature by means of the body heat, the liver, and the blood

stream. Without their assistance there would be no warmth.

THE SYLPHS

While the sages said that the fourth class of elementals, or sylphs, lived in the element of

air, they meant by this not the natural atmosphere of the earth, but the invisible,

intangible, spiritual medium--an ethereal substance similar in composition to our

atmosphere, but far more subtle. In the last: discourse of Socrates, as preserved by Plato

in his Phædo, the condemned philosopher says:

"And upon the earth are animals and men, some in a middle region, others (elementals]

dwelling about the air as we dwell about the sea; others in islands which the air flows

round, near the continent; and in a word, the air is used by them as the water and the sea

are by us, and the ether is to them what the air is to us. More over, the temperament of

their seasons is such that they have no disease [Paracelsus disputes this], and live much

longer than we do,

Click to enlarge

A MERMAID.

From Lycosthenes' Prodigiorum ac Ostentorum Chronicon.

Probably the most famous of the undines were the mythological mermaids, with which early mariners

peopled the Seven Seas. Belief in the existence of these creatures, the upper half of their bodies human in

form and the lower half fishlike, may have been inspired by flocks of penguins seen at great distance, or

possibly seals. In mediæval descriptions of mermaids, it was also stated that their hair was green like

seaweed and that they wore wreaths twisted from the blossoms of subaqueous plants and sea anemones.

p. 108

and have sight and bearing and smell, and all the other senses, in far greater perfection, in

the same degree that air is purer than water or the ether than air. Also they have temples

and sacred places in which the gods really dwell, and they hear their voices and receive

their answers, and are conscious of them and hold converse with them, and they see the

sun, moon, and stars as they really are, and their other blessedness is of a piece with this."

While the sylphs were believed to live among the clouds and in the surrounding air, their

true home was upon the tops of mountains.

In his editorial notes to the Occult Sciences of Salverte, Anthony Todd Thomson says:

"The Fayes and Fairies are evidently of Scandinavian origin, although the name of Fairy

is supposed to be derived from, or rather [is] a modification of the Persian Peri, an

imaginary benevolent being, whose province it was to guard men from the maledictions

of evil spirits; but with more probability it may be referred to the Gothic Fagur, as the

term Elves is from Alfa, the general appellation for the whole tribe. If this derivation of

the name of Fairy be admitted, we may date the commencement of the popular belief in

British Fairies to the period of the Danish conquest. They were supposed to be diminutive

aerial beings, beautiful, lively, and beneficent in their intercourse with mortals, inhabiting

a region called Fairy Land, Alf-heinner; commonly appearing on earth at intervals--when

they left traces of their visits, in beautiful green-rings, where the dewy sward had been

trodden in their moonlight dances."

To the sylphs the ancients gave the labor of modeling the snowflakes and gathering

clouds. This latter they accomplished with the cooperation of the undines who supplied

the moisture. The winds were their particular vehicle and the ancients referred to them as

the spirits of the air. They are the highest of all the elementals, their native element being

the highest in vibratory rate. They live hundreds of years, often attaining to a thousand

years and never seeming to grow old. The leader of the sylphs is called Paralda, who is

said to dwell on the highest mountain of the earth. The female sylphs were called

sylphids.

It is believed that the sylphs, salamanders, and nymphs had much to do with the oracles

of the ancients; that in fact they were the ones who spoke from the depths of the earth and

from the air above.

The sylphs sometimes assume human form, but apparently for only short periods of time.

Their size varies, but in the majority of cases they are no larger than human beings and

often considerably smaller. It is said that the sylphs have accepted human beings into

their communities and have permitted them to live there for a considerable period; in fact,

Paracelsus wrote of such an incident, but of course it could not have occurred while the

human stranger was in his physical body. By some, the Muses of the Greeks are believed

to have been sylphs, for these spirits are said to gather around the mind of the dreamer,

the poet, and the artist, and inspire him with their intimate knowledge of the beauties and

workings of Nature. To the sylphs were given the eastern corner of creation. Their

temperament is mirthful, changeable, and eccentric. The peculiar qualities common to

men of genius are supposedly the result of the cooperation of sylphs, whose aid also

brings with it the sylphic inconsistency. The sylphs labor with the gases of the human

body and indirectly with the nervous system, where their inconstancy is again apparent.

They have no fixed domicile, but wander about from place to place--elemental nomads,

invisible but ever-present powers in the intelligent activity of the universe.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS

Certain of the ancients, differing with Paracelsus, shared the opinion that the elemental

kingdoms were capable of waging war upon one another, and they recognized in the

battlings of the elements disagreements among these kingdoms of Nature spirits. When

lightning struck a rock and splintered it, they believed that the salamanders were

attacking the gnomes. As they could not attack one another on the plane of their own

peculiar etheric essences, owing to the fact that there was no vibratory correspondence

between the four ethers of which these kingdoms are composed, they had to attack

through a common denominator, namely, the material substance of the physical universe

over which they had a certain amount of power.

Wars were also fought within the groups themselves; one army of gnomes would attack

another army, and civil war would be rife among them. Philosophers of long ago solved

the problems of Nature's apparent inconsistencies by individualizing and personifying all

its forces, crediting them with having temperaments not unlike the human and then

expecting them to exhibit typical human inconsistencies. The four fixed signs of the

zodiac were assigned to the four kingdoms of elementals. The gnomes were said to be of

the nature of Taurus; the undines, of the nature of Scorpio; the salamanders exemplified

the constitution of Leo; while the sylphs manipulated the emanations of Aquarius.

The Christian Church gathered all the elemental entities together under the title of demon.

This is a misnomer with far-reaching consequences, for to the average mind the word

demon means an evil thing, and the Nature spirits are essentially no more malevolent

than are the minerals, plants, and animals. Many of the early Church Fathers asserted that

they had met and debated with the elementals.

As already stated, the Nature spirits are without hope of immortality, although some

philosophers have maintained that in isolated cases immortality was conferred upon them

by adepts and initiates who understood certain subtle principles of the invisible world. As

disintegration takes place in the physical world, so it takes place in the ethereal

counterpart of physical substance. Under normal conditions at death, a Nature spirit is

merely resolved back into the transparent primary essence from which it was originally

individualized. Whatever evolutionary growth is made is recorded solely in the

consciousness of that primary essence, or element, and not in the temporarily

individualized entity of the elemental. Being without man's compound organism and

lacking his spiritual and intellectual vehicles, the Nature spirits are subhuman in their

rational intelligence, but from their functions--limited to one element--has resulted a

specialized type of intelligence far ahead of man in those lines of research peculiar to the

element in which they exist.

The terms incubus and succubus have been applied indiscriminately by the Church

Fathers to elementals. The incubus and succubus, however, are evil and unnatural

creations, whereas elementals is a collective term for all the inhabitants of the four

elemental essences. According to Paracelsus, the incubus and succubus (which are male

and female respectively) are parasitical creatures subsisting upon the evil thoughts and

emotions of the astral body. These terms are also applied to the superphysical organisms

of sorcerers and black magicians. While these larvæ are in no sense imaginary beings,

they are, nevertheless, the offspring of the imagination. By the ancient sages they were

recognized as the invisible cause of vice because they hover in the ethers surrounding the

morally weak and continually incite them to excesses of a degrading nature. For this

reason they frequent the atmosphere of the dope den, the dive, and the brothel, where

they attach themselves to those unfortunates who have given themselves up to iniquity.

By permitting his senses to become deadened through indulgence in habit-forming drugs

or alcoholic stimulants, the individual becomes temporarily en rapport with these

denizens of the astral plane. The houris seen by the hasheesh or opium addict and the

lurid monsters which torment the victim of delirium tremens are examples of

submundane beings, visible only to those whose evil practices are the magnet for their

attraction.

Differing widely from the elementals and also the incubus and succubus is the vampire,

which is defined by Paracelsus as the astral body of a person either living or dead

(usually the latter state). The vampire seeks to prolong existence upon the physical plane

by robbing the living of their vital energies and misappropriating such energies to its own

ends.

In his De Ente Spirituali Paracelsus writes thus of these malignant beings: "A healthy and

pure person cannot become obsessed by them, because such Larvæ can only act upon

men if the later make room for them in their minds. A healthy mind is a castle that cannot

be invaded without the will of its master; but if they are allowed to enter, they excite the

passions of men and women, they create cravings in them, they produce bad thoughts

which act injuriously upon the brain; they sharpen the animal intellect and suffocate the

moral sense. Evil spirits obsess only those human beings in whom the animal nature is

predominating. Minds that are illuminated by the spirit of truth cannot be possessed; only

those who are habitually guided by their own lower impulses may become subjected to

their influences." (See Paracelsus, by Franz Hartmann.)

A strange concept, and one somewhat at variance with the conventional, is that evolved

by the Count de Gabalis concerning the immaculate conception, namely, that it represents

the union of a human being with an elemental. Among the offspring of such unions he

lists Hercules, Achilles, Æneas, Theseus, Melchizedek, the divine Plato, Apollonius of

Tyana, and Merlin the Magician.

Click to enlarge

A SYLPH.

From sketch by Howard Wookey.

The sylphs were changeable entities, passing to and fro with the rapidity of lightning. They work through

the gases and ethers of the earth and are kindly disposed toward human beings. They are nearly always

represented as winged, sometimes as tiny cherubs and at other times as delicate fairies.

p. 109

Hermetic Pharmacology, Chemistry, and

Therapeutics

THE art of healing was originally one of the secret sciences of the priestcraft, and the

mystery of its source is obscured by the same veil which hides the genesis of religious

belief. All higher forms of knowledge were originally in the possession of the sacerdotal

castes. The temple was the cradle of civilization. The priests, exercising their divine

prerogative, made the laws and enforced them; appointed the rulers and controlled than;

ministered to the needs of the living, and guided the destinies of the dead. All branches of

learning were monopolized by the priesthood, who admitted into their ranks only those

intellectually and morally qualified to perpetuate their arcanum. The following quotation

from Plato's Statesman is apropos of the subject: " * * * in Egypt, the King himself is not

allowed to reign, unless he have priestly powers; and if he should be one of another class,

and have obtained the throne by violence, he must get enrolled in the priestcraft."

Candidates aspiring to membership in the religious orders underwent severe tests to prove

their worthiness. These ordeals were called initiations. Those who passed them

successfully were welcomed as brothers by the priests and were instructed in the secret

teachings. Among the ancients, philosophy, science, and religion were never considered

as separate units: each was regarded as an integral part of the whole. Philosophy was

scientific and religious; science was philosophic and religious I religion was philosophic

and scientific. Perfect wisdom was considered unattainable save as the result of

harmonizing all three of these expressions of mental and moral activity.

While modern physicians accredit Hippocrates with being the father of medicine, the

ancient therapeutæ ascribed to the immortal Hermes the distinction of being the founder

of the art of healing. Clemens Alexandrinus, in describing the books purported to be from

the stylus of Hermes, divided the sacred writings into six general classifications, one of

which, the Pastophorus, was devoted to the science of medicine. The Smaragdine, or

Emerald Tablet found in the valley of Ebron and generally accredited to Hermes, is in

reality a chemical formula of a high and secret order.

Hippocrates, the famous Greek physician, during the fifth century before Christ,

dissociated the healing art from the other sciences of the temple and thereby established a

precedent for separateness. One of the consequences is the present widespread crass

scientific materialism. The ancients realized the interdependence of the sciences. The

moderns do not; and as a result, incomplete systems of learning are attempting to

maintain isolated individualism. The obstacles which confront present-day scientific

research are largely the result of prejudicial limitations imposed by those who are

unwilling to accept that which transcends the concrete perceptions of the five primary

human senses.

THE PARACELSIAN SYSTEM OF MEDICAL PHILOSOPHY

During the Middle Ages the long-ignored axioms and formulæ of Hermetic wisdom were

assembled once more, and chronicled, and systematic attempts were made to test their

accuracy. To Theophrastus of Hohenheim, who called himself Paracelsus (a name

meaning "greater than Celsus"), the world is indebted for much of the knowledge it now

possesses of the ancient systems of medicine. Paracelsus devoted his entire life to the

study and exposition of Hermetic philosophy. Every notion and theory was grist to his

mill, and, while members of the medical fraternity belittle his memory now as they

opposed his system then, the occult world knows that he will yet be recognized as the

greatest physician of all times. While the heterodox and exotic temperament of

Paracelsus has been held against him by his enemies, and his wanderlust has been called

vagabondage, he was one of the few minds who intelligently sought to reconcile the art of

healing with the philosophic and religious systems of paganism and Christianity.

In defending his right to seek knowledge in all parts of the earth, and among all classes of

society, Paracelsus wrote: "Therefore I consider that it is for me a matter of praise, not of

blame, that I have hitherto and worthily pursued my wanderings. For this will I bear

witness respecting nature: he who will investigate her ways must travel her books with

his feet. That which is written is investigated through its letters, but nature from land to

land-as often a land so often a leaf. Thus is the Codex of Nature, thus must its leaves be

turned." (Paracelsus, by John Maxson Stillman.)

Paracelsus was a great observationalist, and those who knew him best have called him

"The Second Hermes" and "The Trismegistus of Switzerland." He traveled Europe from

end to end, and may have penetrated Eastern lands while running down superstitions and

ferreting out supposedly lost doctrines. From the gypsies he learned much concerning the

uses of simples, and apparently from the Arabians concerning the making of talismans

and the influences of the heavenly bodies. Paracelsus felt that the healing of the sick was

of far greater importance than the maintaining of an orthodox medical standing, so he

sacrificed what might otherwise have been a dignified medical career and at the cost of

lifelong persecution bitterly attacked the therapeutic systems of his day.

Uppermost in his mind was the hypothesis that everything in the universe is good for

something--which accounts for his cutting fungus from tombstones and collecting dew on

glass plates at midnight. He was a true explorer of Nature's arcanum. Many authorities

have held the opinion that he was the discoverer of mesmerism, and that Mesmer evolved

the art as the result of studying the writings of this great Swiss physician.

The utter contempt which Paracelsus felt for the narrow systems of medicine in vogue

during his lifetime, and his conviction of their inadequacy, are best expressed in his own

quaint way: "But the number of diseases that originate from some unknown causes is far

greater than those that come from mechanical causes, and for such diseases our

physicians know no cure because not knowing such causes they cannot remove them. All

they can prudently do is to observe the patient and make their guesses about his

condition; and the patient may rest satisfied if the medicines administered to him do no

serious harm, and do not prevent his recovery. The best of our popular physicians are the

ones that do least harm. But, unfortunately, some poison their patients with mercury,

others purge them or bleed them to death. There are some who have learned so much that

their learning has driven out all their common sense, and a there are others who care a

great: deal more for their own profit than for the health of their patients. A disease does

not change its state to accommodate itself to the knowledge of the physician, but the

physician should understand the causes of the disease. A physician should be a servant of

Nature, and not her enemy; he should be able to guide and direct her in her struggle for

life and not throw, by his unreasonable interference, fresh obstacles in the way of

recovery." (From the Paragranum, translated by Franz Hartmann.)

The belief that nearly all diseases have their origin in the invisible nature of man (the

Astrum) is a fundamental precept of Hermetic medicine, for while Hermetists in no way

disregarded the physical body, they believed that man's material constitution was an

emanation from, or an objectification of, his invisible spiritual principles. A brief, but it is

believed fairly comprehensive, résumé of the Hermetic principles of Paracelsus follows.

Click to enlarge

THE TITLE PAGE OF THE BOOK OF ALZE.

From Musæum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum.

This title page is a further example of Hermetic and alchemical symbolism. The seven-pointed star of the

sacred metals is arranged that one black point is downward, thus symbolizing Saturn, the Destroyer.

Beginning in the space immediately to the left of the black point, reading clockwise discloses the cryptic

word VITRIOL formed by the capital letters of the seven Latin words in the outer circle.

p. 110

There is one vital substance in Nature upon which all things subsist. It is called archæus,

or vital life force, and is synonymous with the astral light or spiritual air of the ancients.

In regard to this substance, Eliphas Levi has written: "Light, that creative agent, the

vibrations of which are the movement and life of all things; light, latent in the universal

ether, radiating about absorbing centres, which, being saturated thereby, project

movement and life in their turn, so forming creative currents; light, astralized in the stars,

animalized in animals, humanized in human beings; light, which vegetates all plants,

glistens in metals, produces all forms of Nature and equilibrates all by the laws of

universal sympathy--this is the light which exhibits the phenomena of magnetism,

divined by Paracelsus, which tinctures the blood, being released from the air as it is

inhaled and discharged by the hermetic bellows of the lungs." (The History of Magic.)

This vital energy has its origin in the spiritual body of the earth. Every created thing has

two bodies, one visible and substantial, the other invisible and transcendent. The latter

consists of an ethereal counterpart of the physical form; it constitutes the vehicle of

archæus, and may be called a vital body. This etheric shadow sheath is not dissipated by

death, but remains until the physical form is entirely disintegrated. These "etheric

doubles, "seen around graveyards, have given rise to a belief in ghosts. Being much finer

in its substances than the earthly body, the etheric double is far more susceptible to

impulses and inharmonies. It is derangements of this astral light body that cause much

disease. Paracelsus taught that a person with a morbid mental attitude could poison his

own etheric nature, and this infection, diverting the natural flow of vital life force, would

later appear as a physical ailment. All plants and minerals have an invisible nature

composed of this "archæus," but each manifests it in a different way.

Concerning the astral-light bodies of flowers, James Gaffarel, in 1650, wrote the

following: "I answer, that though they be chopt in pieces, brayed in a Mortar, and even

burnt to Ashes; yet do they neverthelesse retaine, (by a certaine Secret, and wonderfull

Power of Nature), both in the Juyce, and in the Ashes, the selfe same Forme, and Figure,

that they had before: and though it be not there Visible, yet it may by Art be drawne

forth, and made Visible to the Eye, by an Artist. This perhaps will seem a Ridiculous

story to those, who reade only the Titles of Bookes: but, those that please, may see this

truth confirmed, if they but have recourse to the Workes of M. du Chesne, S. de la

Violette, one of the best Chymists that our Age hath produced; who affirmes, that

himselfe saw an Excellent Polich Physician of Cracovia, who kept, in Glasses, the Ashes

of almost all the Hearbs that are knowne: so that, when any one, out of Curiosity, had a

desire to see any of them, as (for example) a Rose, in one of his Glasses, he tooke That

where the Ashes of a Rose were preserved; and holding it over a lighted Candle, so soone

as it ever began to feele the Heat, you should presently see the Ashes begin to Move;

which afterwards rising up, and dispersing themselves about the Glasse, you should

immediately observe a kind of little Dark Cloud; which dividing it selfe into many parts,

it came at length to represent a Rose; but so Faire, so Fresh, and so Perfect a one, that you

would have thought it to have been as Substancial, & as Odoriferous a Rose, as growes

on the Rose-tree." (Unheard-of Curiosities Concerning Talismanical Sculpture of the

Persians.)

Paracelsus, recognizing derangements of the etheric double as the most important cause

of disease, sought to reharmonize its substances by bringing into contact with it other

bodies whose vital energy could supply elements needed, or were strong enough to

overcome the diseased conditions existing in the aura of the sufferer. Its invisible cause

having been thus removed, the ailment speedily vanished.

The vehicle for the archæus, or vital life force, Paracelsus called the mumia. A good

example of a physical mumia is vaccine, which is the vehicle of a semi-astral virus.

Anything which serves as a medium for the transmission of the archæus, whether it be

organic or inorganic, truly physical or partly spiritualized, was termed a mumia. The most

universal form of the mumia was ether, which modern science has accepted as a

hypothetical substance serving as a medium between the realm of vital energy and that of

organic and inorganic substance.

The control of universal energy is virtually impossible, save through one of its vehicles

(the mumia). A good example of this is food. Man does not secure nourishment from

dead animal or plant organisms, but when he incorporates their structures into his own

body he first gains control over the mumia, or etheric double, of the animal or plant.

Having obtained this control, the human organism then diverts the flow of the archæus to

its own uses. Paracelsus says: "That which constitutes life is contained in the Mumia, and

by imparting the Mumia we impart life." This is the secret of the remedial properties of

talismans and amulets, for the mumia of the substances of which they are composed

serves as a channel to connect the person wearing them with certain manifestations of the

universal vital life force.

According to Paracelsus, in the same way that plants purify the atmosphere by accepting

into their constitutions the carbon dioxid exhaled by animals and humans, so may plants

and animals accept disease elements transferred to them by human beings. These lower

forms of life, having organisms and needs different from man, are often able to assimilate

these substances without ill effect. At other times, the plant or animal dies, sacrificed in

order that the more intelligent, and consequently more useful, creature may survive.

Paracelsus discovered that in either case the patient was gradually relieved of his malady.

When the lower life had either completely assimilated the foreign mumia from the

patient, or had itself died and disintegrated as the result of its inability to do so, complete

recovery resulted. Many years of investigation were necessary to determine which herb

or animal most readily accepted the mumia of each of various diseases.

Paracelsus discovered that in many cases plants revealed by their shape the particular

organs of the human body which they served most effectively. The medical system of

Paracelsus was based on the theory that by removing the diseased etheric mumia from the

organism of the patient and causing it to be accepted into the nature of some distant and

disinterested thing of comparatively little value, it was possible to divert from the patient

the flow of the archæus which had been continually revitalizing and nourishing the

malady. Its vehicle of expression being transplanted, the archæus necessarily

accompanied its mumia, and the patient recovered.

THE HERMETIC THEORY CONCERNING THE CAUSATIONS OF

DISEASE

According to the Hermetic philosophers, there were seven primary causes of disease. The

first was evil spirits. These were regarded as creatures born of degenerate actions,

subsisting on the vital energies of those to whom they attached themselves. The second

cause was a derangement of the spiritual nature and the material nature: these two,

failing to coordinate, produced

Click to enlarge

JOHANNIS BAPTISTAE VON HELMONT.

From von Helmont's Ausgang der Artznen-Kunst.

At the beginning of the seventeenth century von Helmont, the Belgian alchemist (to whom incidentally, the

world is indebted for the common term gas, as distinguished from other kinds of air), while experimenting

with the root of A---, touched it to the tip of his tongue, without swallowing any of the substance. He

himself describes the result in the following manner:

"Immediately my head seemed tied tightly with a string, and soon after there happened to me a singular

circumstance such as I had never before experienced. I observed with astonishment that I no longer felt and

thought with the head, but with the region of the stomach, as if consciousness had now taken up its seat in

the stomach. Terrified by this unusual phenomenon, I asked myself and inquired into myself carefully; but I

only became the more convinced that my power of perception was became greater and more

comprehensive. This intellectual clearness was associated with great pleasure. I did not sleep, nor did I

dream; I was perfectly sober; and my health was perfect. I had occasionally had ecstasies, but these had

nothing in common with this condition of the stomach, in which it thought and felt, and almost excluded all

cooperation of the head. In the meantime my friends were troubled with the fear that I might go mad. But

my faith to God, and my submission to His will, soon dissipated this fear. This state continued for two

hours, after which I had same dizziness. I afterwards frequently tasted of the A---, but I never again could

reproduce these sensations." (Van Helmont, Demens idea. Reprinted by P. Davidson in The Mistletoe and

Its Philosophy.)

Von Helmont is only one of many who have accidentally hit upon the secrets of the early priestcrafts, but

none in this age give evidence of an adequate comprehension of the ancient Hermetic secrets. From the

description von Helmont gives, it is probable that the herb mentioned by him paralyzed temporarily the

cerebrospinal nervous system, the result being that the consciousness was forced to function through the

sympathetic nervous system and its brain--the solar plexus.

p. 1111

mental and physical subnormality. The third was an unhealthy or abnormal mental

attitude. Melancholia, morbid emotions, excess of feeling, such as passions, lusts, greeds,

and hates, affected the mumia, from which they reacted into the physical body, where

they resulted in ulcers, tumors, cancers, fevers, and tuberculosis. The ancients viewed the

disease germ as a unit of mumia which had been impregnated with the emanations from

evil influences which it had contacted. In other words, germs were minute creatures born

out of man's evil thoughts and actions.

The fourth cause of disease was what the Orientals called Karma, that is, the Law of

Compensation, which demanded that the individual pay in full for the indiscretions and

delinquencies of the past. A physician had to be very careful how he interfered with the

workings of this law, lest he thwart the plan of Eternal justice. The fifth cause was the

motion and aspects of the heavenly bodies. The stars did not compel the sickness but

rather impelled it. The Hermetists taught that a strong and wise man ruled his stars, but

that a negative, weak person was ruled by them. These five causes of disease are all

superphysical in nature. They must be estimated by inductive and deductive reasoning

and a careful consideration of the life and temperament of the patient.

The sixth cause of disease was a misuse of faculty, organ, or function, such as

overstraining a member or overtaxing the nerves. The seventh cause was the presence in

the system of foreign substances, impurities, or obstructions. Under this heading must be

considered diet, air, sunlight, and the presence of foreign bodies. This list does not

include accidental injuries; such do not belong under the heading of disease. Frequently

they are methods by which the Law of Karma expresses itself.

According to the Hermetists, disease could be prevented or successfully combated in

seven ways. First, by spells and invocations, in which the physician ordered the evil spirit

causing the disease to depart from the patient. This procedure was probably based on the

Biblical account of the man possessed of devils whom Jesus healed by commanding the

devils to leave the man and enter into a herd of swine. Sometimes the evil spirits entered

a patient at the bidding of someone desiring to injure him. In these cases the physician

commanded the spirits to return to the one who sent them. It is recorded that in some

instances the evil spirits departed through the mouth in the form of clouds of smoke;

sometimes from the nostrils as flames. It is even averred that the spirits might depart in

the form of birds and insects.

The second method of healing was by vibration. The inharmonies of the bodies were

neutralized by chanting spells and intoning the sacred names or by playing upon musical

instruments and singing. Sometimes articles of various colors were exposed to the sight

of the sick, for the ancients recognized, at least in part, the principle of color therapeutics,

now in the process of rediscovery.

The third method was with the aid of talismans, charms, and amulets. The ancients

believed that the planets controlled the functions of the human body and that by making

charms out of different metals they could combat the malignant influences of the various

stars. Thus, a person who is anæmic lacks iron. Iron was believed to be under the control

of Mars. Therefore, in order to bring the influence of Mars to the sufferer, around his

neck was hung a talisman made of iron and bearing upon it certain secret instructions

reputed to have the power of invoking the spirit of Mars. If there was too much iron in

the system, the patient was subjected to the influence of a talisman composed of the metal

corresponding to some planet having an antipathy to Mars. This influence would then

offset the Mars energy and thus aid in restoring normality.

The fourth method was by the aid of herbs and simples. While they used metal talismans,

the majority of the ancient physicians did not approve of mineral medicine in any form

for internal use. Herbs were their favorite remedies. Like the metals, each herb was

assigned to one of the planets. Having diagnosed by the stars the sickness and its cause,

the doctors then administered the herbal antidote.

The fifth method of healing disease was by prayer. All ancient peoples believed in the

compassionate intercession of the Deity for the alleviation of human suffering. Paracelsus

said that faith would cure all disease. Few persons, however, possess a sufficient degree

of faith.

The sixth method--which was prevention rather than cure--was regulation of the diet and

daily habits of life. The individual, by avoiding the things which caused illness, remained

well. The ancients believed that health was the normal state of man; disease was the

result of man's disregard of the dictates of Nature.

The seventh method was "practical medicine," consisting chiefly of bleeding, purging,

and similar lines of treatment. These procedures, while useful in moderation, were

dangerous in excess. Many a useful citizen has died twenty-five or fifty years before his

time as the result of drastic purging or of having all the blood drained out of his body.

Paracelsus used all seven methods of treatment, and even his worst enemies admitted that

he accomplished results almost miraculous in character. Near his old estate in

Hohenheim, the dew falls very heavily at certain seasons of the year, and Paracelsus

discovered that by gathering the dew under certain configurations of the planets he

obtained a water possessing marvelous medicinal virtue, for it had absorbed the

properties of the heavenly bodies.

HERMETIC HERBALISM AND PHARMACOLOGY

The herbs of the fields were sacred to the early pagans, who believed that the gods had

made plants for the cure of human ills. When properly prepared and applied, each root

and shrub could be used for the alleviation of suffering, or for the development of

spiritual, mental, moral, or physical powers. In The Mistletoe and Its Philosophy, P.

Davidson pays the following beautiful tribute to the plants: "Books have been written on

the language of flowers and herbs, the poet from the earliest ages has held the sweetest

and most loving converse with them, kings are even glad to obtain their essences at

second hand to perfume themselves; but to the true physician--Nature's High-Priest--they

speak in a far higher and more exalted strain. There is not a plant or mineral which has

disclosed the last of its properties to the scientists. How can they feel confident that for

every one of the discovered properties there may not be many powers concealed in the

inner nature of the plant? Well have flowers been called the 'Stars of Earth,' and why

should they not be beautiful? Have they not from the time of their birth smiled in the

splendor of the sun by day, and slumbered under the brightness of the stars by night?

Have they not come from another and more spiritual world to our earth, seeing that God

made 'every plant of the field BEFORE it was in the earth, and every herb of the field

BEFORE IT GREW'?"

Many primitive peoples used herbal remedies, with many remarkable cures. The Chinese,

Egyptians, and American Indians cured with herbs diseases for which modern science

knows no remedy. Doctor Nicholas Culpeper, whose useful life ended in 1654, was

probably the most famous of herbalists. Finding that the medical systems of his day were

unsatisfactory in the extreme, Culpeper turned his attention to the plants of the fields, and

discovered a medium of healing which gained for him national renown.

In Doctor Culpeper's correlation of astrology and herbalism, each plant was under the

jurisdiction of one of the planets or luminaries. He believed that disease was also

controlled by celestial configurations. He summed up his system of treatment as follows:

"You may oppose diseases by Herbs of the planet opposite to the planet that causes them:

as diseases of Jupiter by Herbs of Mercury, and the contrary; diseases of the Luminaries

by the Herbs of Saturn, and the contrary; diseases of Mars by Herbs of Venus and the

contrary. * * * There is a way to cure diseases sometimes by Sympathy, and so every

planet cures his own disease; as the Sun and Moon by their Herbs cure the Eyes, Saturn

the Spleen, Jupiter the Liver, Mars the Gall and diseases of choler, and Venus diseases in

the Instruments of Generation." (The Complete Herbal.)

Mediæval European herbalists rediscovered only in part the ancient Hermetic secrets of

Egypt and Greece. These earlier nations evolved the fundamentals of nearly all modern

arcs and sciences.

Click to enlarge

NICHOLAS CULPEPER.

From Culpeper's Semeiotica Uranica.

This famous physician, herbalist, and astrologer spent the greater part of his useful life ranging the hills and forests of England and cataloguing literally hundreds of medicinal herbs. Condemning the unnatural

methods of contemporaneous medicos, Culpeper wrote: "This not being pleasing, and less profitable tome,

I consulted with my two brothers, DR. REASON and DR. EXPERIENCE, and took a voyage to visit my

mother NATURE, by whose advice, together with the help of Dr. DILIGENCE, I at last obtained my

desire; and, being warned by MR. HONESTY, a stranger in our days, to publish it to the world, I have done

it." (From the Introduction to the 1835 Edition of The Complete Herbal.) Doctor Johnson said of Culpeper

that he merited the gratitude of posterity.

p. 112

[paragraph continues] At that time the methods used in healing were among the secrets imparted to initiates of the Mysteries. Unctions, collyria, philters, and potions were concocted to

the accompaniment of strange rites. The effectiveness of these medicines is a matter of

historical record. Incenses and perfumes were also much used.

Barrett in his Magus describes the theory on which they worked, as follows: "For,

because our spirit is the pure, subtil, lucid, airy and unctuous vapour of the blood,

nothing, therefore, is better adapted for collyriums than the like vapours which are more

suitable to our spirit in substance; for then, by reason of their likeness, they do more stir

up, attract and transform the spirit."

Poisons were thoroughly studied, and in some communities extracts of deadly herbs were

administered to persons sentenced to death--as in the case of Socrates. The infamous

Borgias of Italy developed the art of poisoning to its highest degree. Unnumbered

brilliant men and women were quietly and efficiently disposed of by the almost

superhuman knowledge of chemistry which for many centuries was preserved in the

Borgia family.

Egyptian priests discovered herb extracts by means of which temporary clairvoyance

could be induced, and they made use of these during the initiatory rituals of their

Mysteries. The drugs were sometimes mixed with the food given to candidates, and at

other times were presented in the form of sacred potions, the nature of which was

explained. Shortly after the drugs were administered to him, the neophyte was attacked

by a spell of dizziness. He found himself floating through space, and while his physical

body was absolutely insensible (being guarded by priests that no ill should befall it) the

candidate passed through a number of weird experiences, which he was able to relate

after regaining consciousness. In the light of present-day knowledge, it is difficult to

appreciate an art so highly developed that by means of draughts, perfumes, and incenses

any mental attitude desired could be induced almost instantaneously, yet such an art

actually existed among the priestcraft of the early pagan world.

Concerning this subject, H. P. Blavatsky, the foremost occultist of the nineteenth century,

has written: 'Plants also have like mystical properties in a most wonderful degree, and the

secrets of the herbs of dreams and enchantments are only lost to European science, and

useless to say, too, are unknown to it, except in a few marked instances, such as opium

and hashish. Yet, the psychical effects of even these few upon the human system are

regarded as evidences of a temporary mental disorder. The women of Thessaly and

Epirus, the female hierophants of the rites of Sabazius, did not carry their secrets away

with the downfall of their sanctuaries. They are still preserved, and those who are aware

of the nature of Soma, know the properties of other plants as well." (Isis Unveiled.)

Herbal compounds were used to cause temporary clairvoyance in connection with the

oracles, especially the one at Delphi. Words spoken while in these imposed trances were

regarded as prophetic. Modem mediums, while under control as the result of partly self-

imposed catalepsy, give messages somewhat similar to those of the ancient prophets, but

in the majority of cases their results are far less accurate, for the soothsayers of today lack the knowledge of Nature's hidden forces.

The Mysteries taught that during the higher degrees of initiation the gods themselves took

part in the instruction of candidates or at least were present, which was in itself a

benediction. As the deities dwelt in the invisible worlds and came only in their spiritual

bodies, it was impossible for the neophyte to cognize them without the assistance of

drugs which stimulated the clairvoyant center of his consciousness (probably the pineal

gland). Many initiates in the ancient Mysteries stated emphatically that they had

conversed with the immortals, and had beheld the gods.

When the standards of the pagans became corrupted, a division took place in the

Mysteries. The band of truly enlightened ones separated themselves from the rest and,

preserving the most important of their secrets, vanished without leaving a trace. The rest

slowly drifted, like rudderless ships, on the rocks of degeneracy and disintegration. Some

of the less important of the secret formulæ fell into the hands of the profane, who

perverted them--as in the case of the Bacchanalia, during which drugs were mixed with

wine and became the real cause of the orgies.

In certain parts of the earth it was maintained that there were natural wells, springs, or

fountains, in which the water (because of the minerals through which it coursed) was

tinctured with sacred properties. Temples were often built near these spots, and in some

cases natural caves which chanced to be in the vicinity were sanctified to some deity.

"The aspirants to initiation, and those who came to request prophetic dreams of the Gods,

were prepared by a fast, more or less prolonged, after which they partook of meals

expressly prepared; and also of mysterious drinks, such as the water of Lethe, and the

water of Mnemosyne in the grotto of Trophonius; or of the Ciceion in the mysteries of the

Eleusinia. Different drugs were easily mixed up with the meats or introduced into the

drinks, according to the state of mind or body into which it was necessary to throw the

recipient, and the nature of the visions he was desirous of procuring.'' (Salverte's The

Occult Sciences.) The same author states that certain sects of early Christianity were

accused of using drugs for the same general purposes as the pagans.

The sect of the Assassins, or the Yezidees as they are more generally known,

demonstrated a rather interesting aspect of the drug problem. In the eleventh century this

order, by capturing the fortress of Mount Alamont, established itself at Irak. Hassan

Sabbah, the founder of the order, known as the "Old Man of the Mountain, " is suspected

of having controlled his followers by the use of narcotics. Hassan made his followers

believe that they were in Paradise, where they would be forever if they implicitly obeyed

him while they were alive. De Quincey, in his Confessions of an Opium Eater, describes

the peculiar psychological effects produced by this product of the poppy, and the use of a

similar drug may have given rise to the idea of Paradise which filled the minds of the

Yezidees.

The philosophers of all ages have taught that the visible universe was but a fractional part

of the whole, and that by analogy the physical body of man is in reality the least

important part of his composite constitution. Most of the medical systems of today almost

entirely ignore the superphysical man. They pay but scant attention to causes, and

concentrate their efforts on ameliorating effects. Paracelsus, noting the same proclivity on

the part of physicians during his day, aptly remarked: "There is a great difference

between the power that removes the invisible causes of disease, and which is Magic, and

that which causes merely external effects [to] disappear, and which is Physic, Sorcery,

and Quackery." (Translated by Franz Hartmann.)

Disease is unnatural, and is evidence that there is a maladjustment within or between

organs or tissues. Permanent health cannot be regained until harmony is restored. The

outstanding virtue of Hermetic medicine was its recognition of spiritual and

psychophysical derangements as being largely responsible for the condition which is

called physical disease. Suggestive therapy was used with marked success by the priest-

physicians of the ancient world. Among the-American Indians, the Shamans--or

"Medicine Men"--dispelled sickness with the aid of mysterious dances, invocations, and

charms. The fact that in spite of their ignorance of modern methods of medical treatment

these sorcerers effected innumerable cures, is well worthy of consideration.

The magic rituals used by the Egyptian priests for the curing of disease were based upon

a highly developed comprehension of the complex workings of the human mind and its

reactions upon the physical constitution. The Egyptian and Brahmin worlds undoubtedly

understood the fundamental principle of vibrotherapeutics. By means of chants and

mantras, which emphasized certain vowel and consonant sounds, they set up vibratory

reactions which dispelled congestions and assisted Nature in reconstructing broken

members and depleted organisms. They also applied their knowledge of the laws

governing vibration to the spiritual constitution of man; by their intonings, they

stimulated latent centers of consciousness and thereby vastly increased the sensitiveness

of the subjective nature.

In the Book of Coming Forth by Day, many of the Egyptian secrets have been preserved

to this generation. While this ancient scroll has been well translated, only a few

understand the secret: significance of its magical passages. Oriental races have a keen

realization of the dynamics of sound. They know that every spoken word has tremendous

power and that by certain arrangements of words they can create vortices of force in the

invisible universe about them and thereby profoundly influence physical substance. The

Sacred Word by which the world was established, the Lost Word which Masonry is still

seeking, and the threefold Divine Name symbolized by A. U. M.--the creative tone of the

Hindus--all are indicative of the veneration accorded the principle of sound.

The so-called "new discoveries" of modern science are often only rediscoveries of secrets

well known to the priests and philosophers of ancient pagandom. Man's inhumanity to

man has resulted in the loss of records and formula: which, had they been preserved,

would have solved many of the greatest problems of this civilization. With sword and

firebrand, races obliterate the records of their predecessors, and then inevitably meet with

an untimely fate for need of the very wisdom they have destroyed.

Click to enlarge

CHEMICAL SYLLABLES.

From De Monte-Snyders' Metamorphosis Planetarum.

De Monte-Snyders declares that each of the above characters forms one syllables of a word having seven

syllables, the word itself representing the materia prima, or first substance of the universe. As all substance is composed of seven powers combined according to certain cosmic laws, a great mystery is concealed

within the sevenfold constitution of man, and the universe. Of the above seven characters, De Monte-

Snyder writes:

Whoever wants to know the true name and character of the materia prima shall know that out of the

combination of the above figures syllables are produced, and out of these the verbum significativum."

p. 113

The Qabbalah, the Secret Doctrine of

Israel

ALBERT PIKE, quoting from Transcendental Magic, thus sums up the importance of

Qabbalism as a key to Masonic esotericism: "One is filled with admiration, on

penetrating into the Sanctuary of the Kabalah, at seeing a doctrine so logical, so simple,

and at the same time so absolute. The necessary union of ideas and signs, the

consecration of the most fundamental realities by the primitive characters; the Trinity of

Words, Letters, and Numbers; a philosophy simple as the alphabet, profound and infinite

as the Word; theorems more complete and luminous than those of Pythagoras; a theology

summed up by counting on one's fingers; an Infinite which can be held in the hollow of

an infant's hand; ten ciphers and twenty-two letters, a triangle, a square, and a circle,--

these are all the elements of the Kabalah. These are the elementary principles of the

written Word, reflection of that spoken Word that created the world!" (Morals and

Dogma.)

Hebrew theology was divided into three distinct parts. The first was the law, the second

was the soul of the law, and the third was the soul of the soul of the law. The law was

taught to all the children of Israel; the Mishna, or the soul of the law, was revealed to the

Rabbins and teachers; but the Qabbalah, the soul of the soul of the law, was cunningly

concealed, and only the highest initiates among the Jews were instructed in its secret

principles.

According to certain Jewish mystics, Moses ascended Mount Sinai three times, remaining

in the presence of God forty days each time. During the first forty days the tables of the

written law were delivered to the prophet; during the second forty days he received the

soul of the law; and during the last forty days God instructed him in the mysteries of the

Qabbalah, the soul of the soul of the law. Moses concealed in the first four books of the

Pentateuch the secret instructions that God had given him, and for centuries students of

Qabbalism. have sought therein the secret doctrine of Israel. As the spiritual nature of

man is concealed in his physical body, so the unwritten law--the Mishna and the

Qabbalah--is concealed within the written teachings of the Mosaic code. Qabbalah

means the secret or hidden tradition, the unwritten law, and according to an early Rabbi,

it was delivered to man in order that through the aid of its abstruse principles he might

learn to understand the mystery of both the universe about him and the universe within

him.

The origin of Qabbalism is a legitimate subject for controversy. Early initiates of the

Qabbalistic Mysteries believed that its principles were first taught by God to a school of

His angels before the fall of man. The angels later communicated the secrets to Adam, so

that through the knowledge gained from an understanding of its principles fallen

humanity might regain its lost a estate. The Angel Raziel was dispatched from heaven to

instruct Adam in the mysteries of the Qabbalah. Different angels were employed to

initiate the succeeding patriarchs in this difficult science. Tophiel was the teacher of

Shem, Raphael of Isaac, Metatron of Moses, and Michael of David. (See Faiths of the

World.)

Christian D. Ginsburg has written: "From Adam it passed over to Noah, and then to

Abraham, the friend of God, who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch allowed

a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out. It was in this way that the Egyptians

obtained some knowledge of it, and the other Eastern nations could introduce it into their

philosophical systems. Moses, who was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt, was first

initiated into it in the land of his birth, but became most proficient in it during his

wanderings in the wilderness, when he not only devoted to it the leisure hours of the

whole forty years, but received lessons in it from one of the angels. * * * Moses also

initiated the seventy Elders into the secrets of this doctrine and they again transmitted

them from hand to hand. Of all who formed the unbroken line of tradition, David and

Solomon were most initiated into the Kabbalah." (See The Kabbalah.)

According to Eliphas Levi, the three greatest books of Qabbalism are the Sepher

Yetzirah, The Book of Formation; the Sepher ha Zohar, The Book of Splendor; and the

Apocalypse, The Book of Revelation. The dates of the writing of these books are by no

means thoroughly established. Qabbalists declare that the Sepher Yetzirah was written by

Abraham. Although it is by far the oldest of the Qabbalistic books, it was probably from

the pen of the Rabbi Akiba, A.D. 120.

The Sepher ha Zohar presumably was written by Simeon ben Jochai, a disciple of Akiba.

Rabbi Simeon was sentenced to death about A.D. 161 by Lucius Verus, co-regent of the

Emperor Marc Aurelius Antoninus. He escaped with his son and, hiding in a cave,

transcribed the manuscript of the Zohar with the assistance of Elias, who appeared to

them at intervals. Simeon was twelve years in the cave, during which time he evolved the

complicated symbolism of the "Greater Face" and the "Lesser Face." While discoursing

with disciples Rabbi Simeon expired, and the "Lamp of Israel" was extinguished. His

death and burial were accompanied by many supernatural phenomena. The legend goes

on to relate that the secret doctrines of Qabbalism had been in existence since the

beginning of the world, but that Rabbi Simeon was the first man permitted to reduce them

to writing. Twelve hundred years later the books which he had compiled were discovered

and published for the benefit of humanity by Moses de León. The probability is that

Moses de León himself compiled the Zohar about A.D. 1305, drawing his material from

the unwritten secrets of earlier Jewish mystics. The Apocalypse, accredited to St. John the

Divine, is also of uncertain date, and the identity of its author has never been

satisfactorily proved.

Because of its brevity and because it is the key to Qabbalistic thought, the Sepher

Yetzirah is reproduced in full in this chapter. So far as is

Click to enlarge

THE SEVENTY-TWO NAMES OF GOD.

From Kircher's Œdipus Ægyptiacus.

This rare cut shows the name of God in seventy-two languages inscribed upon the petals of a symbolic

sunflower. Above the circle are the seventy-two powers of God according to the Hebrew Qabbalah. Below

two trees, that on the left bearing the symbols of the planets and that on the right the signs of the zodiac and the names of the tribes of Israel. The esoteric doctrines of the Qabbalah are in alignment with the secret

teachings of all the schools of philosophy, but the method by which its secrets are revealed to the wise and

concealed from the ignorant is most unusual. As the religious world interprets its scriptures with twentieth-

century educational facilities, it becomes ever more apparent that the sacred books were not historical

documents, but that the kings, sages, prophets, and saviors whom Bible students ham revered for ages as

once-existing personalities are in reality only personified attributes of man himself.

p. 114

known, the Sepher ha Zohar has never been completely translated into English, but it can

be obtained in French. (S. L. MacGregor-Mathers translated three books of the Zohar into

English.) The Zohar contains a vast number of philosophical tenets, and a paraphrase of

its salient points is embodied in this work.

Few realize the influence exerted by Qabbalism over mediæval thought, both Christian

and Jewish. It taught that there existed within the sacred writings a hidden doctrine which

was the key to those writings. This is symbolized by the crossed keys upon the papal

crest. Scores of learned minds began to search for those arcane truths by which the race

should be redeemed; and that their labor was not without its reward, their subsequent

writings have demonstrated.

The theories of Qabbalism are inextricably interwoven with the tenets of alchemy,

Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, and Freemasonry. The words Qabbalism and Hermeticism

are now considered as synonymous terms covering all the arcana and esotericism of

antiquity. The simple Qabbalism of the first centuries of the Christian Era gradually

evolved into an elaborate theological system, which became so involved that it was next

to impossible to comprehend its dogma.

The Qabbalists divided the uses of their sacred science into five sections. The Natural

Qabbalah was used solely to assist the investigator in his study of Nature's mysteries.

The Analogical Qabbalah was formulated to exhibit the relationship which exists

between all things in Nature, and it revealed to the wise that all creatures and substances

were one in essence, and that man--the Little Universe--was a replica in miniature of

God--the Great Universe. The Contemplative Qabbalah was evolved for the purpose of

revealing through the higher intellectual faculties the mysteries of the celestial spheres.

By its aid the abstract reasoning faculties cognized the measureless planes of infinity and

learned to know the creatures existing within them. The Astrological Qabbalah instructed

those who studied its lore in the power, magnitude, and actual substance of the sidereal

bodies, and also revealed the mystical constitution of the planet itself. The fifth, or

Magical Qabbalah, was studied by such as desired to gain control over the demons and

subhuman intelligences of the invisible worlds. It was also highly valued as a method of

healing the sick by talismans, amulets, charms, and invocations.

The Sepher Yetzirah, according to Adolph Franck, differs from other sacred books in that

it does not explain the world and the phenomena of which it is the stage by leaning on the

idea of God or by setting itself up as the interpreter of the supreme will. This ancient

work rather reveals God by estimating His manifold handiwork. In preparing the Sepher

Yetzirah for the consideration of the reader, five separate English translations have been

compared. The resulting form, while it embodies the salient features of each, is not a

direct translation from any one Hebrew or Latin text. Although the purpose was to

convey the spirit rather than the letter of the ancient document, there are no wide

deviations from the original rendition. So far as known, the first translation of the Sepher

Yetzirah into English was made by the Rev. Dr. Isidor Kalisch, in 1877. (See Arthur

Edward Waite.) In this translation the Hebrew text accompanies the English words. The

work of Dr. Kalisch has been used as the foundation of the following interpretation, but

material from other authorities has been incorporated and many passages have been

rewritten to simplify the general theme.

At hand also was a manuscript copy in English of the Book of the Cabalistick Art, by

Doctor John Pistor. The document is undated; but judging from the general type of the

writing, the copy was made during the eighteenth century. The third volume used as a

reference was the Sepher Yetzirah, by the late Win. Wynn Westcott, Magus of the

Rosicrucian Society of England. The fourth was the Sepher Yetzirah, or The Book of

Creation, according to the translation in the Sacred Books and Early Literature of the

East, edited by Prof. Charles F. Horne. The fifth was a recent publication, The Book of

Formation, by Knut Stenring, containing an introduction by Arthur Edward Waite. At

hand also were four other copies--two German, one Hebrew, and one Latin. Certain

portions of the Sepher Yetzirah are considered older and more authentic than the rest, bur

the controversy regarding them is involved and nonproductive that it is useless to add

further comment. The doubtful passages are therefore included in the document at the

points where they would naturally fall.

THE SEPHER YETZIRAH, THE BOOK OF FORMATION

Chapter One

1. YAH, the Lord of Hosts, the living Elohim, King of the Universe, Omnipotent, the

Merciful and Gracious God, Supreme and Extolled, Dweller in the Height whose

habitation is Eternity, who is Sublime and Most-Holy, engraved His name and ordained

(formed) and created the Universe in thirty-two mysterious paths (stages) of wisdom

(science), by three Sepharim, namely, Numbers, Letters, and Sounds, which are in Him

one and the same.

2. Ten Sephiroth (ten properties from the Ineffable One) and twenty-two letters are the

Foundation of all things. Of these twenty-two letters three are called "Mothers," sewn

"Double," and twelve "Simple."

3. The ten numbers (Sephiroth) out of Nothing are analogous to the ten fingers and the

ten toes: five over against five. In the center between them is the covenant with the Only

One God. In the spiritual world it is the covenant of the voice (the Word), and in the

corporeal world the circumcision of the flesh (the rite of Abraham).

4. Ten are the numbers (of the Sephiroth) out of Nothing, ten--not nine; ten--not eleven.

Comprehend this great, wisdom, understand this knowledge and be wise. Inquire into the

mystery and ponder it. Examine all things by means of the ten Sephiroth. Restore the

Word to Its Creator and lead the Creator back to His throne again. He is the only

Formator and beside Him there is no other. His attributes are ten and are without limit.

5. The ten ineffable Sephiroth have ten infinitudes, which are as follows:

The infinite beginning and the infinite end;

The infinite good and the infinite evil;

The infinite height and the infinite depth;

The infinite East and the infinite West;

The infinite North and the infinite South;

and over them is the Lord Superlatively One, the faithful King. He rules over all in all

from His holy habitation for ages of ages.

6. The appearance of the ten spheres (Sephiroth) out of Nothing is as a flash of lightning

or a sparkling flame, and they are without beginning or end. The Word of God is in them

when they go forth and when they return. They run by His order like a whirlwind and

prostrate themselves before His throne.

7. The ten Sephiroth have their end linked to their beginning and their beginning linked to

their end, cojoined as the flame is wedded to the live coal, for the Lord is Superlatively

One and to Him there is no second. Before One what can you count?

8. Concerning the number (10) of the spheres of existence (Sephiroth) out of Nothing,

seal up your lips and guard your heart as you consider them, and if your month opens for

utterance and your heart turns towards thought, control them, returning to silence. So it is

written: "And the living creatures ran and returned." (Ezekiel i. 14.) And on this wise was

the covenant made with us,

9. These are the ten emanations of number out of Nothing:

1st. The spirit of the living Elohim, blessed and more than blessed be the living Elohim of

ages. His Voice, His Spirit, and His Word are the Holy Spirit.

2nd. He produced air from the spirit and in the air. He formed and established twenty-two

sounds--the letters. Three of them were fundamental, or mothers; seven were double; and

twelve were simple (single); but the spirit is the first one and above all.

3rd. Primordial water He extracted from the air. He formed therein twenty-two letters and

established them out of mud and loam, making them like a border, putting them up like a

wall, and surrounding them as with a rampart. He poured snow upon them and it became

earth, as it reads: "He said to the snow be thou earth." (Job. xxxvii. 6.)

4th. Fire (ether) He drew forth from the water. He engraved and established by it the

Throne of Glory. He fashioned the Seraphim, the Ophanim, and the Holy Living

Creatures (Cherubim?), as His ministering angels; and with (of) these three He formed

His habitation, as it reads: "Who made His angels spirits, His ministers a flaming fire."

(Psalms civ. 4.)

Click to enlarge

THE TETRAGRAMMATON.

By arranging the four letters of the Great Name, י ה ו ה, (I H V H), in the form of the Pythagorean Tetractys, the 72 powers of the Great Name of God are manifested. The key to the problem is as follows:

.

=

I

=

10

=

10

. .

=

H I

=

5+10

=

15

. . .

=

V H I

=

6+5+10

=

21

. . . .

=

H V H I

=

5+6+5+10

=

26

The Great

Name of

=

72

God

p. 115

5th. He selected three consonants (I, H, V) from the simple ones--a secret belonging to

the three mothers, or first elements; א מ ש (A, M, Sh), air, water, fire (ether). He sealed

them with His spirit and fashioned them into a Great Name and with this sealed the

universe in six directions. He turned towards the above and sealed the height with י ה ו (I,

H, V).

6th. He turned towards the below and sealed the depth withה י ו (H, I, V).

7th. He turned forward and sealed the East with ו י ה (V, I, H).

8th. He turned backward and sealed the West with ו ה י (V H, I).

9th. He turned to the right and sealed the South with י ו ה (I, V, H).

10th. He turned to the left and sealed the North with ה ו י (H, V, I).

NOTE. This arrangement of the letters of the Great Name is according to the Rev. Dr.

Isidor Kalisch.

10. These are the ten ineffable existences out of nothing; From the spirit of the Living

God emanated air; from the air, water; from the water, fire (ether); from the fire, the

height and the depth, the East and the West, the North and the South.

Chapter Two

1. There are twenty-two basic (sounds and) letters. Three are the first elements (water,

air, fire), fundamentals, or mothers; seven are double letters; and twelve are simple

letters. The three fundamental letters א מ ש have as their basis the balance. At one end of

the scale are the virtues and at the other the vices, placed in equilibrium by the tongue. Of

the fundamental letters מ (M) is mute like the water, ש (Sh) hissing like fire, א (A) a

reconciling breath between them. t

2. The twenty-two basic letters having been designed, appointed, and established by God,

He combined, weighed, and exchanged them (each with the others), and formed by them

all beings which are in existence, and all which will be formed in time to come.

3. He established twenty-two basic letters, formed by the voice and impressed upon the

air by the breath. He set them to be audibly uttered in five different parts of the human

mouth: namely, Gutturals, א ה ח ע; Palatals, ג י כ ק; Linguals, ד ט ל נ ת Dentals, ז ש ס ר ץ;

Labials, ב ו מ ף.

4. He fixed the twenty-two basic letters in a ring (sphere) like a wall with two hundred

and thirty-one gates, and turned the sphere forward and backward. Turned forward, the

sphere signified good; when reversed, evil. Three letters may serve for an illustration:

There is nothing better than ע נ ג (O, N, G), pleasure (joy), and nothing worse than נ ג ע

(N, G, O), plague (sorrow).

5. How was it all accomplished? He combined, weighed, and changed: the א (A) with all

the other letters in succession, and all the others again with א (A), and all again with ב

(B); and so with the whole series of letters. Hence it follows that there are two hundred

and thirty-one formations, or gates, through which the powers of the letters go forth;

every creature and every language proceeded from One Name and the combinations of its

letters.

6. He created a reality out of Nothing. He called the nonentity into existence and hewed

colossal pillars from intangible air. This has been shown by the example of combining

the letter א (A) with all the other letters, and all the other letters with א. By speaking He

created every creature and every word by the power of One Name. As an illustration,

consider the twenty-two elementary substances from the primitive substance of א. The

production of every creature from the twenty-two letters is proof that they are in reality

the twenty-two parts of one living body.

Chapter Three

1. The first three elements (the Mother letters, א מ ש) resemble a balance, in one scale

virtue and in the other vice, placed in equilibrium by the tongue.

2. The three Mothers, א מ ש, enclose a great, wonderful, and unknown mystery, and are

sealed by six wings (or elementary circles), namely, air, water, fire--each divided into an

active and a passive power. The Mothers, א מ ש, gave birth to the Fathers (the

progenitors), and these gave birth to the generations.

3. God appointed and established three Mothers, א מ ש, combined, weighed, and

exchanged them, forming by them three Mothers, in the universe, in the year, and in man

(male and female).

4. The three Mothers, א מ ש, in the universe are: air, water, and fire. Heaven was created

from the elementary fire (or ether) ש, the earth, comprising sea and land, from the

elementary water, מ, and the atmospheric air from the elementary air, or spirit, א, which

establishes the balance among them. Thus were all things produced.

5. The three Mothers, א מ ש, produce in the year heat, coldness, and the temperate state.

Heat was created from fire, coldness from water, and the temperate state from air, which

equilibrates them.

6. The three Mothers, א מ ש, produce in man (male and female) breast, abdomen, and

head. The head was formed from the fire, ש; the abdomen from the water, מ; and the

breast (thorax) from air, א, which places them in equilibrium.

7. God let the letter א (A) predominate in primordial air, crowned it, combined it with the

other two, and sealed the air in the universe, the temperate state in the year, and the breast

in man (male and female).

8. He let the letter מ (M) predominate in primordial water, crowned it, combined it with

the other two, and sealed the earth in the universe (including land and sea), coldness in

the year, and the abdomen in man (male and female).

9. He let the letter ש (Sh) predominate in primordial fire, crowned it, combined it with the

other two, and sealed heaven in the universe, heat in the year, and the head of man (male

and female).

Chapter Four

1. The seven double letters, ב ג ד כ פ ר ת (B, G, D, K, P, R, Th), have a duplicity of

pronunciation (two voices), aspirated and unaspirated, namely: ת פּ, ר, פּ פ, כּ כ, דּ ד,

גּ גThey serve as a model of softness and hardness, strength and weakness.

2. The seven double letters symbolize wisdom, riches, fertility life, power, peace, and

grace.

3. The seven double letters also signify the antitheses to which human life is exposed.

The opposite of wisdom is foolishness; of riches, poverty; of fertility, sterility; of life,

death; of power, servitude; of peace, war; and of beauty, deformity.

4. The seven double letters point out the six dimensions, height, depth, East and West,

North and South, and the Holy Temple in the center, which sustains them all.

5. The double letters are seven and not six, they are seven and not eight; reflect upon this

fact, search into it and reveal its hidden mystery and place the Creator on His throne

again.

6. The seven double letters having been designed, established, purified, weighed, and

exchanged by God, He formed of them seven planets in the universe, seven days in the

Year, and seven gateways of the senses in man (male and female). From these seven He

also produced seven heavens, seven earths, and seven Sabbaths. Therefore He loved

seven more than any other number beneath His throne.

7. The seven planets in the universe are: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and

Moon. The seven days in the Year are the seven days of the week (possibly the seven

creative days are meant). The seven gateways in man (male and female) are two eyes,

two ears, two nostrils, and the mouth.

8. NOTE. Knut Stenring differs from other authorities in his arrangement of the planets

and days of the week in the following seven stanzas. Kircher has still a different order.

Rev. Dr. Isidor Kalisch, Wm. Wynn Westcott, and The Sacred Books and Early

Literature of the East adopt the following arrangement.

Click to enlarge

THE HEBREW LETTERS ACCORDING TO THE SEPHER YETZIRAH.

In the central triangle are the three Mother Letters from which come forth the seven Double Letters--the

planets and the heavens. Surrounding the black star are the signs of the zodiac symbolized by the twelve

Simple Letters. In the midst of this star is the Invisible Throne of the Most Ancient of the Ancients--the

Supreme Definitionless Creator.

p. 116

1st. He caused the letter. ב (B) to predominate in wisdom, crowned it, combined each

with the others, and formed by them the Moon in the universe, the first day in the year,

and the right eye in man (male and female).

2nd. He caused the letter ג (G) to predominate in riches, crowned it, combined each with

the others, and formed by them Mars in the universe, the second day in the year, and the

right ear in man (male and female).

3rd. He caused the letter ד (D) to predominate infertility, crowned it, combined each with

the others, and formed by them the Sun in the universe, the third day in the year, and the

right nostril in man (male and female).

4th. He caused the letterכ (K) to predominate in life, crowned it, combined each with the

others, and formed by them Venus in the universe, the fourth day in the year, and the left

eye in man (male and female).

5th. He caused the letter פ (P) to predominate in power, crowned it, combined each with

the others, and formed by them Mercury in the universe, the fifth day in the year, and the

left ear in man (male and female).

6th. He caused the letter ר (R) to predominate in peace, crowned it, combined each with

the others, and formed by them Saturn in the universe, the sixth day in the year, and the

left nostril in man (male and female).

7th. He caused the letter ת (Th) to predominate in grace, crowned it, combined each with

the others, and formed by them Jupiter in the universe, the seventh day in the year, and

the mouth of man (male and female).

9. With the seven double letters He also designed seven earths, seven heavens, seven

continents, seven seas, seven rivers, seven deserts, seven days, seven weeks (from

Passover to Pentecost), and in the midst of them His Holy Palace. There is a cycle of

seven years and the seventh is the release year, and after seven release years is the

Jubilee. For this reason God loves the number seven more than any other thing under the

heavens.

10. In this manner God joined the seven double letters together. Two stones build two

houses, three stones build six houses, four stones build twenty-four houses, five stones

build 120 houses, six stones build 720 houses, and seven stones build 5,040 houses. Make

a beginning according to this arrangement and reckon further than the mouth can express

or the ear can hear.

Chapter Five

1. The twelve simple letters ה ו ז ח ט י ל נ ס ע צ ק (H, V, Z, Ch, T, I, L, N, S, O, Tz, Q)

symbolize the twelve fundamental properties: speech, thought, movement, sight, hearing,

work, coition, smell, sleep, anger, taste (or swallowing), and mirth.

2. The simple letters correspond to twelve directions: east height, northeast, east depth;

south height, southeast, south depth; west height, southwest, west depth; north height,

northwest, north depth. They diverge to all eternity and are the arms of the universe.

3. The simple letters having been designed, established, weighed, and exchanged by God,

He produced by them twelve zodiacal signs in the universe, twelve months in the year,

and twelve chief organs in ` human body (male and female).

4, The signs of the zodiac are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio,

Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. The months of the year are: Nisan, liar,

Sivan, Tammuz, Ab, Elul, Tisri, Marcheshvan, Kislev, Tebet, Sebat, and Adar. The

organs of the human body are: two hands, two feet, two kidneys, gall, small intestine,

liver, esophagus, stomach, and spleen.

5. NOTE. In the following twelve stanzas, Knut Stenring again differs, this time as to the

arrangement of properties:

1st. God caused the letter ה (H) to predominate in speech, crowned it, combined it with

the others, and fashioned by them Aries (the Ram) in the universe, the month Nisan in the

year, and the right foot of the human body (male and female).

2nd. He caused the letter ו (V) to predominate in thought, crowned it, combined it with

the others, and fashioned by them Taurus (the Bull) in the universe, the month liar in the

year, and the right kidney of the human body (male and female).

3rd. He caused the letter ז (Z) to predominate in movement, crowned it, combined it with

the others, and fashioned by them Gemini (the Twins) in the universe, the month Sivan in

the year, and the left foot of the human body (male and female).

4th. He caused the letter ח (Ch) to predominate in sight, crowned it, combined it with the

others, and fashioned by them Cancer (the Crab) in the universe, the month Tammuz in

the year, and the right hand of the human body (male and female).

5th. He caused the letter ט (T) to predominate in hearing, crowned it, combined it with the

others, and fashioned by them Leo (the Lion) in the universe, the month Ab in the year,

and the left kidney of the human body (male and female).

6th. He caused the letter י (I) to predominate in work, crowned it, combined it with the

others, and fashioned by them Virgo (the Virgin) in the universe, the month Elul in the

year, and the left hand of the human body (male and female).

7th. He caused the letter ל (L) to predominate in coition, crowned it, combined it with the

others, and fashioned by them Libra (the Balance) in the universe, the month Tisri in the

year, and the gall of the human body (male and female).

8th. He caused the letter נ (N) to predominate in smell, crowned it, combined it with the

others, and fashioned by them Scorpio (the Scorpion) in the universe, the month

Marcheshvan in the year, and the small intestine in the human body (male and female).

9th. He caused the letter ס (S) to predominate in sleep, crowned it, combined it with the

others, and fashioned by them Sagittarius (the Archer) in the universe, the month Kislev

in the year, and the stomach in the human body (male and female).

10th. He caused the letter ע (O) to predominate in anger, crowned it, combined it with the

others, and fashioned by them Capricorn (the Goat) in the universe, the month Tebet in

the year, and the liver in the human body (male and female).

11th. He caused the letter צ (Tz) to predominate in taste (or swallowing), crowned it,

combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Aquarius (the Water Bearer) in the

universe, the month Sebat in the year, and the esophagus in the human body (male and

female).

12th. He caused the letter ק (Q) to predominate in mirth, crowned it, combined it with the

others, and fashioned by them Pisces (the Fishes) in the universe, the month Adar in the

year, and the spleen in the human body (male and female).

6. He made them as a conflict, He arranged them as provinces and drew them up like a

wall. He armed them and set one against another as in warfare. (The Elohim did likewise

in the other spheres.)

Chapter Six

1. There are three Mothers or first elements, א מ ש (A, M, Sh), from which emanated

three Fathers (progenitors)--primordial (spiritual) air, water, and fire--from which issued

the seven planets (heavens) with their angels, and the twelve oblique points (zodiac).

2. To prove this there are three faithful witnesses: the universe, the year, and man. There

are the twelve, the balance, and the seven. Above is the Dragon, below is the world, and

lastly the heart of man; and in the midst is God who regulates them all.

3. The first elements are air, water, and fire; the fire is above, the water is below, and a

breath of air establishes balance between them. The token is: the fire carries the water.

The letterמ (M) is mute; ש (Sh) is hissing like fire; there is א (A) among them, a breath of

air which reconciles the two.

4. The Dragon (Tali) is in the universe like a king upon his throne; the celestial sphere is

in the year like a king in his empire; and the heart is in the body of men like a king in

warfare.

5. God also set the opposites against each other: the good against the evil, and the evil

against the good. Good proceeds from good, evil from evil; the good purifies the bad, the

bad the good. The good is reserved for the good, and the evil for the wicked.

6. There are three of which each stands by itself: one is in the affirmative (filled with

good), one is in the negative (filled with evil), and the third equilibrates them.

7. There are seven divided three against three, and one in the midst of them (balance).

Twelve stand in warfare: three produce love and three hatred; three are life-givers and

three are destroyers.

8. The three that cause love are the heart and the two ears; the three that produce hatred

are the liver, the gall, and the tongues; the three life-givers are the two nostrils and the

spleen; and the three destroyers are the mouth and the two lower openings of the body.

Over all these rules God, the faithful king, from His holy habitation in all eternity. God is

One above three, three are above seven, seven are above twelve, yet all are linked

together.

9. There are twenty-two letters by which the I AM (YAH), the Lord of Hosts, Almighty

and Eternal, designed and created by three Sepharim (Numbers, Letters, and Sounds) His

universe, and formed by them all creatures and all those things that are yet to come.

10. When the Patriarch Abraham had comprehended the great truths, meditated upon

them, and understood them perfectly, the Lord of the Universe (the Tetragrammaton)

appeared to him, called him His friend, kissed him upon the head, and made with him a

covenant. First, the covenant was between the ten fingers of his hands, which is the

covenant of the tongue (spiritual); second, the covenant was between the ten toes of his

feet, which is the covenant of circumcision (material); and God said of him, "Before

Abraham bound the spirit of the twenty-two letters (the Thora) upon his tongue and God

disclosed to him their secrets. God permitted the letters to be immersed in water, He

burned them in the fire and imprinted them upon the winds. He distributed them among

the seven planets and gave them to the twelve zodiacal signs.

p. 117

Fundamentals of Qabbalistic Cosmogony

THE Qabbalists conceive of the Supreme Deity as an Incomprehensible Principle to be

discovered only through the process of eliminating, in order, all its cognizable attributes.

That which remains--when every knowable thing has been removed--is AIN SOPH, the

eternal state of Being. Although indefinable, the Absolute permeates all space. Abstract

to the degree of inconceivability, AIN SOPH is the unconditioned state of all things.

Substances, essences, and intelligences are manifested out of the inscrutability of AIN

SOPH, but the Absolute itself is without substance, essence, or intelligence. AIN SOPH

may be likened to a great field of rich earth out of which rises a myriad of plants, each

different in color, formation, and fragrance, yet each with its roots in the same dark loam-

-which, however, is unlike any of the forms nurtured by it. The "plants" are universes,

gods, and man, all nourished by AIN SOPH and all with their source in one definitionless

essence; all with their spirits, souls, and bodies fashioned from this essence, and doomed,

like the plant, to return to the black ground--AIN SOPH, the only Immortal--whence they

came.

AIN SOPH was referred to by the Qabbalists as The Most Ancient of all the Ancients. It

was always considered as sexless. Its symbol was a closed eye. While it may be truly said

of AIN SOPH that to define It is to defile It, the Rabbis postulated certain theories

regarding the manner in which AIN SOPH projected creations out of Itself, and they also

assigned to this Absolute Not-Being certain symbols as being descriptive, in part at least,

of Its powers. The nature of AIN SOPH they symbolize by a circle, itself emblematic of

eternity. This hypothetical circle encloses a dimensionless area of incomprehensible life,

and the circular boundary of this life is abstract and measureless infinity.

According to this concept, God is not only a Center but also Area. Centralization is the

first step towards limitation. Therefore, centers which form in the substances of AIN

SOPH are finite because they are predestined to dissolution back into the Cause of

themselves, while AIN SOPH Itself is infinite because It is the ultimate condition of all

things. The circular shape given to AIN SOPH signifies that space is hypothetically

enclosed within a great crystal-like globe, outside of which there is nothing, not even a

vacuum. Within this globe--symbolic of AIN SOPH--creation and dissolution take place.

Every element and principle that will ever be used in the eternities of Kosmic birth,

growth, and decay is within the transparent substances of this intangible sphere. It is the

Kosmic Egg which is not broken till the great day "Be With Us," which is the end of the

Cycle of Necessity, when all things return to their ultimate cause.

In the process of creation the diffused life of AIN SOPH retires from the circumference

to the center of the circle and establishes a point, which is the first manifesting One--the

primitive limitation of the all-pervading O. When the Divine Essence thus retires from

the circular boundary to the center, It leaves behind the Abyss, or, as the Qabbalists term

it, the Great Privation. Thus, in AIN SOPH is established a twofold condition where

previously had existed but one. The first condition is the central point--the primitive

objectified radiance of the eternal, subjectified life. About this radiance is darkness

caused by the deprivation of the life which is drawn to the center to create the first point,

or universal germ. The universal AIN SOPH, therefore, no longer shines through space,

but rather upon space from an established first point. Isaac Myer describes this process as

follows: "The Ain Soph at first was filling All and then made an absolute concentration

into Itself which produced the Abyss, Deep, or Space, the Aveer Qadmon or Primitive

Air, the Azoth; but this is not considered in the Qabbalah as a perfect void or vacuum, a

perfectly empty Space, but is thought of as the Waters or Crystalline Chaotic Sea, in

which was a certain degree of Light inferior to that by which all the created [worlds and

hierarchies] were made." (See The Qabbalah.)

In the secret teachings of the Qabbalah it is taught that man's body is enveloped in an

ovoid of bubble-like iridescence, which is called the Auric Egg. This is the causal sphere

of man. It bears the same relationship to man's physical body that the globe of AIN

SOPH bears to Its created universes. In fact, this Auric Egg is the AIN SOPH sphere of

the entity called man. In reality, therefore, the supreme consciousness of man is in this

aura, which extends in all directions and completely encircles his lower bodies. As the

consciousness in the Kosmic Egg is withdrawn into a central point, which is then called

God--the Supreme One--so the consciousness in the Auric Egg of man is concentrated,

thereby causing the establishment of a point of consciousness called the Ego. As the

universes in Nature are formed from powers latent in the Kosmic Egg, so everything used

by man in all his incarnations throughout the kingdoms of Nature is drawn from the latent

powers within his Auric Egg. Man never passes from this egg; it remains even after

death. His births, deaths, and rebirths all take place within it, and it cannot be broken until

the lesser day "Be With Us," when mankind--like the universe--is liberated from the

Wheel of Necessity.

THE QABBALISTIC SYSTEM OF WORLDS

On the accompanying circular chart, the concentric rings represent diagrammatically the

forty rates of vibration (called by the Qabbalists Spheres) which emanate from AIN

SOPH. The circle X 1 is the outer boundary of space. It circumscribes the area of AIN

SOPH. The nature of AIN SOPH Itself is divided into three parts, represented by the

spaces respectively between X 1 and X 2, X 2 and X 3, X 3 and A 1; thus:

X 1 to X 2,

אין, AIN, the vacuum of pure spirit.

X 2 to X 3,

אין סוף, AIN SOPH, the Limitless and Boundless.

X 3 to A 1,

אין סוף אור, AIN SOPH AUR, the Limitless Light.

It should be borne in mind that in the beginning the Supreme Substance, AIN, alone

permeated the area of the circle; the inner rings had not yet come into manifestation. As

the Divine Essence concentrated Itself, the rings X 2 and X 3 became apprehensible, for

AIN SOPH is a limitation of AIN, and AIN SOPH AUR, or Light, is a still greater

limitation. Thus the nature of the Supreme One is considered to be threefold, and from

this threefold nature the powers and elements of creation were reflected into the Abyss

left by the motion of AIN SOPH towards the center of Itself. The continual motion of

AIN SOPH towards the center of Itself resulted in the establishment of the dot in the

circle. The dot was called God, as being the supreme individualization of the Universal

Essence. Concerning this the Zohar says:

"When the concealed of the Concealed wished to reveal Himself He first made a single

point: the Infinite was entirely unknown, and diffused no light before this luminous point

violently broke through into vision."

The name of this point is I AM, called by the Hebrews Eheieh. The Qabbalists gave many

names to this dot. On this subject Christian D. Ginsberg writes, in substance: The dot is

called the first crown, because it occupies the highest position. It is called the aged,

because it is the first emanation. It is called the primordial or smooth point. It is called the

white head, the Long Face--Macroprosophus--and the inscrutable height, because it

controls and governs all the other emanations.

When the white shining point had appeared, it was called Kether, which means the

Crown, and out of it radiated nine great globes, which arranged themselves in the form of

a tree. These nine together with the first crown constituted the first system of Sephiroth.

These ten were the first limitation of ten abstract points within the nature of AIN SOPH

Itself. The power of AIN SOPH did not descend into these globes but rather was reflected

upon them as the light of the sun is reflected upon the earth and planets. These ten globes

were called the shining sapphires, and it is believed by many Rabbins that the word

sapphire is the basis of the word Sephira (the singular of Sephiroth). The great area

which had been privated by the withdrawal of AIN SOPH into the central point, Kether,

was now filled by four concentric globes called worlds, or spheres, and the light of the

ten Sephiroth was reflected down through each of these in turn. This resulted in the

establishment of four symbolical

Click to enlarge

THE HEBREW TRIAD.

The Qabbalists used the letter ש, Shin, to signify the trinity of the first three Sephiroth. The central circle slightly above the other two is the first Sephira--Kether, the White Head, the Crown. The other two circles

represent Chochmah, the Father, and Binah, the Mother. From the union of the Divine Father and the

Divine Mother are produced the worlds and the generations of living things. The three flame-like points of

the letter ש have long been used to conceal this Creative Triad of the Qabbalists.

p. 118

trees, each hearing the reflections of the ten Sephirothic globes. The 40 spheres of

creation out of AIN SOPH are divided into four great world chains, as follows:

A 1 to A 10, Atziluth, the Boundless World of Divine Names.

B 1 to B 10, Briah, the Archangelic World of Creations.

C 1 to C 10, Yetzirah, the Hierarchal World of Formations.

D 1 to D 10, Assiah, the Elemental World of Substances.

Each of these worlds has ten powers, or spheres--a parent globe and nine others which

conic out of it as emanations, each globe born out of the one preceding. On the plane of

Atziluth (A 1 to A 10), the highest and most divine of all the created worlds, the

unmanifested AIN SOPH established His first point or dot in the Divine Sea--the three

spheres of X. This dot--A 1--contains all creation within it, but in this first divine and

uncontaminated state the dot, or first manifested. God, was not considered as a

personality by the Qabbalists but rather as a divine establishment or foundation. It was

called the First Crown and from it issued the other circles of the Atziluthic World: A 2, A

3, A 4, A 5, A 6, A 7, A 8, A 9, and A 10. In the three lower worlds these circles are

intelligences, planers, and elements, but in this first divine world they are called the Rings

of the Sacred Names.

The first ten great circles (or globes) of light which were manifested out of AIN SOPH

and the ten names of God assigned to them by the Qabbalists are as follows:

From AIN SOPH came A 1, the First Crown, and the name of the first power of God was

Eheieh, which means I Am [That I Am].

From A 1 came A 2, the first Wisdom, and the name of the second power of God was

Jehovah, which means Essence of Being.

From A 2 came A 3, the first Understanding, and the name of the third power of God was

Jehovah Elohim, which means God of Gods.

From A 3 came A 4, the first Mercy, and the name of the fourth power of God was El,

which means God the Creator.

From A 4 came A 5, the first Severity, and the name of the fifth power of God was

Elohim Gibor, which means God the Potent.

From A 5 came A 6, the first Beauty, and the name of the sixth power of God was Eloah

Vadaath, which means God the Strong.

From A 6 came A 7, the first Victory, and the name of the seventh power of God was

Jehovah Tzaboath, which means God of Hosts.

From A 7 came A 8, the first Glory, and the name of the eighth power of God was

Elohim Tzaboath, which means Lord God of Hosts.

From A 8 came A 9, the first Foundation, and the name of the ninth power of God was

Shaddai, El Chai, which means Omnipotent.

From A 9 came A 10, the first Kingdom, and the name of the tenth power of God was

Adonai Melekh, which means God.

From A 10 came B 1, the Second Crown, and the World of Briah was established.

The ten emanations from A 1 to A 10 inclusive are called the foundations of all creations.

The Qabbalists designate them the ten roots of the Tree of Life. They are arranged in the

form of a great human figure called Adam Qadmon--the man made from the fire mist

(red dirt), the prototypic Universal Man. In the Atziluthic World, the powers of God are

most purely manifested. These ten pure and perfect radiations do not descend into the

lower worlds and take upon themselves forms, but are reflected upon the substances of

the inferior spheres. From the first, or Atziluthic, World they are reflected into the second,

or Briatic, World. As the reflection always lacks some of the brilliancy of the original

image, so in the Briatic World the ten radiations lose part of their infinite power. A

reflection is always like the thing reflected, but smaller and fainter.

In the second world, B 1 to B 10, the order of the spheres is the Name as in the Atziluthic

World, but the ten circles of light are less brilliant and more tangible, and are here

referred to as ten great Spirits--divine creatures who assist in the establishment of order

and intelligence in the universe. As already noted, B 1 is born out of A 10 and is included

within all the spheres superior to itself. Out of B 1 are taken nine globes--B 2, B 3, B 4, B

5, B 6, B 7, B 8, B 9, and B 10--which constitute the World of Briah. These ten

subdivisions, however, are really the ten Atziluthic powers reflected into the substance of

the Briatic World. B 1 is the ruler of this world, for it contains all the other rings of its

own world and also the rings of the third and fourth worlds, C and D. In the World of

Briah the ten spheres of light are called the Archangels of Briah. Their order and powers

are as follows:

From A 10 came B 1, the Second Crown; it is called Metatron, the Angel of the Presence.

From B 1 came B 2, the second Wisdom; it is called Raziel, the Herald of Deity who

revealed the mysteries of Qabbalah to Adam.

From B 2 carne B 3, the second Understanding; it is called Tsaphkiel, the Contemplation

of God.

From B 3 came B 4 ' the second Mercy; it is called Tsadkiel, the justice of God.

From B 4 came B 5, the second Severity; it is called Samael, the Severity of God.

From B 5 came B 6, the second Beauty; it is called Michael, Like Unto God.

From B 6 came B 7, the second Victory; it is called Haniel, the Grace of God.

From B 7 came B 8, the second Glory; it is called Raphael, the Divine Physician.

From B 8 came B 9, the second Foundation; it is called Gabriel, the Man-God.

From B 9 came B 10, the second Kingdom; it is called Sandalphon, the Messias.

From B 10 came C 1, the Third Crown, and the World of Yetzirah was established.

The ten Archangels of Briah are conceived to be ten great spiritual beings, whose duty is

to manifest the ten powers of the Great Name of God existent in the Atziluthic World,

which surrounds and interpenetrates the entire world of creation. All things manifesting

in the lower worlds exist first in the intangible rings of the upper spheres, so that creation

is, in truth, the process of making tangible the intangible by extending the intangible into

various vibratory rates. The ten globes of Briatic power, while themselves reflections, are

mirrored downward into the third or Yetziratic World, where still more limited in their

expression they become the spiritual and invisible zodiac which is behind the visible

band of constellations. In this third world the ten globes of the original Atziluthic World

are greatly limited and dimmed, but they are still infinitely powerful in comparison with

the state of substance in which man dwells. In the third world, C 1 to C 10, the globes

become hierarchies of celestial creatures, called the Choirs of Yetzirah. Here again, all are

included within the ring C 1, the power which controls the Yetziratic World and which

includes within itself and controls the entire world D. The order of the globes and the

names of the hierarchies composing them are as follows:

From B 10 came C 1, the Third Crown; the Hierarchy is the Cherubim, Chaioth Ha

Kadosh, the Holy Animals.

From C 1 came C 2, the third Wisdom; the Hierarchy is the Cherubim, Orphanim, the

Wheels.

From C 2 came C 3, the third Understanding; the Hierarchy is the Thrones, Aralim, the

Mighty Ones.

From C 3 came C 4, the third Mercy; the Hierarchy is the Dominations, Chashmalim, the

Brilliant Ones.

From C 4 came C 5, the third Severity; the Hierarchy is the Powers, Seraphim, the

Flaming Serpents.

From C 5 came C 6, the third Beauty; the Hierarchy is the Virtues, Melachim, the Kings.

From C 6 came C 7, the third Victory; the Hierarchy is the Principalities, Elohim, the

Gods.

From C 7 came C 8, the third Glory; the Hierarchy is the Archangels, Ben Elohim, the

Sons of God.

From C 8 came C 9, the third Foundation; the Hierarchy is the Angels, Cherubim, the

Scat of the Sons.

From C 9 came C 10, the third Kingdom; the Hierarchy is Humanity, the Ishim, the Souls

of Just Men.

From C 10 came D 1, the Fourth Crown, and the World of Assiah was established.

From the Yetziratic World the light of the ten spheres is reflected into the World of

Assiah, the lowest of the four. The ten globes of the original Atziluthic World here take

upon themselves forms of physical matter and the sidereal system is the result. The

World of Assiah, or the elemental world of substance, is the one into which humanity

descended at the time of Adam's fall. The Garden of Eden is the three upper worlds, and

for his sins man was forced into the sphere of substance and assumed coats of skin

(bodies). All of the spiritual forces of the upper worlds, A, B, C, when they strike against

the elements of the lower world, D, are distorted and perverted, resulting in the creation

of hierarchies of demons to correspond with the good spirits in each of the higher worlds.

In all the ancient Mysteries, matter was regarded as the source of all evil and spirit the

source of all good, for matter inhibits and limits, often so clogging the inner perceptions

that man is unable to recognize his own divine potentialities. Since matter thus prevents

humanity from claiming its birthright, it is called the Adversary, the power of evil. The

fourth world, D, is the world of solar systems,

Click to enlarge

THE PLAN OF DIVINE ACTIVITY.

According to the Qabbalists, the life of the Supreme Creator permeates all substance, all space, and all

time, but for diagrammatic purposes the Supreme, All-Inclusive Life is limited by Circle 3, which may be

called "the boundary line of Divine existence." The Divine Life permeating the area bounded by Circle 3 is focused at Point 1, which thus becomes the personification of the impersonal life and is termed "the First Crown." The creative forces pouring through Point 1 come into manifestation as the objective universe in

the intermediate space, Circle 2.

p. 119

comprising not only the one of which the earth is a part but all the solar systems in the

universe.

Opinions differ as to the arrangement of the globes of this last world, D 1 to D 10

inclusive. The ruler of the fourth world is D 1, called by some the Fiery Heaven; by

others the Primum Mobile, or the First Motion. From this whirling fire emanates the

material starry zodiac, D 2, in contradistinction to the invisible spiritual zodiac of the

Yetziratic World. From the zodiac, D 2, are differentiated the spheres of the planets in

concatenate order. The ten spheres of the World of Assiah are as follows:

From C 10 came D 1, the Fourth Crown; Rashith Ha-Galagalum, the Primum Mobile, the

fiery mist which is the beginning of the material universe.

From D 1 came D 2, the fourth Wisdom; Masloth, the Zodiac, the Firmament of the

Fixed Stars.

From D 2 came D 3, the fourth Understanding; Shabbathai, the sphere of Saturn.

From D 3 came D 4, the fourth Mercy; Tzedeg, the sphere of Jupiter.

From D 4 came D 5, the fourth Severity; Madim, the sphere of Mars.

From D 5 came D 6, the fourth Beauty; Shemesh, the sphere of the Sun.

From D 6 came D 7, the fourth Victory; Nogah, the sphere of Venus.

From D 7 came D 8, the fourth Glory; Kokab, the sphere of Mercury.

From D 8 came D 9, the fourth Foundation; Levanah, the sphere of the Moon.

From D 9 came D 10, the Fourth Kingdom; Cholom Yosodoth, the sphere of the Four

Elements.

By inserting a sphere (which he calls the Empyrean) before the Primum Mobile, Kircher

moves each of the other spheres down one, resulting in the elimination of the sphere of

the elements and making D 10 the sphere of the Moon.

In the World of Assiah are to be found the demons and tempters. These are likewise

reflections of the ten great globes of Atziluth, but because of the distortion of the images

resulting from the base substances of the World of Assiah upon which they are reflected,

they become evil creatures, called shells by the Qabbalists. There are ten hierarchies of

these demons to correlate with the ten hierarchies of good spirits composing the

Yetziratic World. There are

Click to enlarge

THE QABBALISTIC SCHEME OF THE FOUR WORLDS.

In the above chart the dark line between X 3 and A 1 constitutes the boundary of the original dot, while the

concentric circles within this heavier line symbolize the emanations and the worlds which came forth from

the dot. As this dot is contained within the outer rings X 1, X 2, and X 3, and represents the first

establishment of an individualized existence, so the lower universe symbolized by the forty concentric

circles within the dot represents the lower creation evolved out of and yet contained within the nature of the first Crown, which may be called God, within whom the divine powers, the celestial beings the sidereal

worlds, and man, live and move and have their being. It is highly important that all the rings within A 1 be

considered as being enclosed by the primitive dot, which is itself encircled by the great ring X 1, or the

Auric Egg of AIN SOPH.

Each ring includes with in its own nature all the rings within itself and is included within the natures of all the rings outside of itself. Thus, A 1--the primitive dot--controls and contains the thirty-nine rings which it encloses, all of these partaking of its nature in varying degrees according to their respective dignities.

Consequently, the entire area from A 1 to D 10 inclusive is the original dot, and the rings symbolize the

divisions which took place with in it and the emanations which poured out from it after its establishment in

the midst of the abstract nature of AIN SOPH. The powers of the rings decrease towards the center of the

diagram, for Power is measured by the number of things controlled, and each ring controls the rings within

it and is controlled by the rings outside of it. Thus, while A 1 controls thirty-nine rings besides itself, B 1

controls only twenty-nine rings besides its own. Therefore, A 1 is more powerful than B 1. As the greatest

spiritual solidity, or permanence, is at the circumference and the greatest material density, or

impermanence, is at the center of the diagram, the rings as they decrease in Power become more material

and substantial until the center sphere, D 10, symbolizes the actual chemical elements of the earth. The

rates of vibration are also lower as the rings approach the center. Thus, the vibration of A 2 is lower than A 1 but higher than A 3, and so on in decreasing scale towards the center, A 1 being the highest and D 10 the

lowest sphere of creation. While A 1, the ruler of creation, controls the circles marked A, B, C, and D, it is less than the three rings of AIN SOPH--X 1, X2, and X3--and therefore bows before the throne of the

ineffable Creator from whose substances it was individualized.

p. 120

also ten Archdemons, corresponding to the ten Archangels of Briah. The black magicians

use these inverted spirits in their efforts to attain their nefarious ends, but in time the

demon destroys those who bind themselves to it. The ten orders of demons and the ten

Archdemons of the World of Assiah are as follows:

D 1, the evil Crown; the hierarchy is called Thaumiel, the doubles of God, the Two-

headed; the Archdemons are Satan and Moloch.

From D 1 came D 2, the evil Wisdom; the hierarchy is called Chaigidiel, those who

obstruct; the Archdemon is Adam Belial.

From D 2 came D 3, the evil Understanding; the hierarchy is called Satharial, the

concealment of God, the Archdemon is Lucifuge.

From D 3 came D 4, the evil Mercy; the hierarchy is called Gamchicoth, the disturber of

things; the Archdemon is Astaroth.

From D 4 came D 5, the evil Severity; the hierarchy is called Golab, incendiarism and

burning; the Archdemon is Asmodeus.

From D 5 came D 6, the evil Beauty; the hierarchy is called Togarini, the wranglers; the

Archdemon is Belphegor.

From D 6 came D 7, the evil Victory; the hierarchy is called Harab Serap, the dispensing

Raven; the Archdemon is Baal Chanan.

From D 7 came D 8, the evil Glory; the hierarchy is called Samael, the embroiler; the

Archdemon is Adramelek.

From D 8 came D 9, the evil Foundation; the hierarchy is called Gamaliel, the obscene;

the Archdemon is Lilith.

From D 9 came D 10, the evil Kingdom; the hierarchy is called Nahemoth, the impure;

the Archdemon is Nahema.

The Qabbalists declare that the worlds, intelligences, and hierarchies were established

according to the vision of Ezekiel. By the man of Ezekiel's vision is symbolized the

World of Atziluth; by the throne, the World of Briah; by the firmament, the World of

Yetzirah; and by the living creatures the World of Assiah. These spheres are the wheels

within wheels of the prophet. The Qabbalists next established a human figure in each of

the four worlds: A 1 was the head and A 10 the feet of the man of Atziluth; B 1 was the

head and B 10 the feet of the man of Briah; C 1 was the head and C 10 the feet of the

man of Yetzirah; D 1 was the head and D 10 the feet of the man of Assiah. These four are

called the World Men. They are considered androgynous and are the prototypes of

humanity.

The human body, like that of the universe, is considered to be a material expression of ten

globes or spheres of light. Therefore man is called the Microcosm--the little world, built

in the image of the great world of which he is a part. The Qabbalists also established a

mysterious universal man with his head at A 1 and his feet at D 10. This is probably the

secret significance of the great figure of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, with its head in the

World of Atziluth, its arms and hands in the World of Briah, its generative system in the

World of Yetzirah, and its legs and feet in the World of Assiah. This is the Grand Man of

the Zohar, of whom Eliphas Levi writes:

"It is not less astonishing to observe at the beginning of the Zohar the profundity of its

notions and the sublime simplicity of its images. It is said as follows: 'The science of

equilibrium is the key of occult science. Unbalanced forces perish in the void. So passed

the kings of the elder world, the princes of the giants. They have fallen like trees without

roots, and their place is found no more. Through the conflict of unbalanced forces, the

devastated earth was void and formless, until the Spirit of God made for itself a place in

heaven and reduced the mass of waters. All the aspirations of Nature were directed then

towards unity of form, towards the living synthesis (if equilibrated forces; the face of

God, crowned with light, rose over the vast sea and was reflected in the waters thereof.

His two eyes were manifested, radiating with splendour, darting two beams of light

which crossed with those of the reflection. The brow of God and His eyes formed a

triangle in heaven, and its reflection formed a second triangle in the waters. So was

revealed the number six, being that of universal creation.' The text, which would be

unintelligible in a literal version, is translated here by way of interpretation. The author

makes it plain that the human form which he ascribes to Deity is only an image of his

meaning and that God is beyond expression by human thought or representation by any

figure. Pascal said that God is a circle, of which the center is everywhere and the

circumference nowhere. But how is one to imagine a circle apart from its circumference?

The Zohar adopts the antithesis of this paradoxical image and in respect of the circle of

Pascal would say rather that the circumference is everywhere, while that which is

nowhere is the center. It is however to a balance and not to a circle that it compares the

universal equilibrium of things. It affirms that equilibrium is everywhere and so also is

the central point where the balance hangs in suspension. We find that the Zohar is thus

more forcible and more profound than Pascal. * * * The Zohar is a genesis of light; the

Sepher Yetzirah is a ladder of truth. Therein are expounded the two-and-thirty absolute

symbols of speech--being numbers and letters. Each letter produces a number, an idea

and a form, so that mathematics are applicable to forms and ideas, even as to numbers, in

virtue of an exact proportion, and a perfect correspondence. By the science of the Sepher

Yetzirah, the human mind is rooted in truth and in reason; it accounts for all progress

possible to intelligence by means of the evolution of numbers. Thus does the Zohar

represent absolute truth, while the Sepher Yetzirah furnishes the method of its

acquisition, its discernment and application." (History of Magic.)

By placing man himself at the point D 10, his true constitution is revealed. He exists upon

four worlds, only one of which is visible. It is then made evident that his parts and

members upon the material plane are, by analogy, hierarchies and intelligences in the

higher worlds. Here, again, the law of interpenetration is evidenced. Although within man

is the entire universe (the 43 spheres interpenetrating D 10), he is ignorant of its existence because he cannot exercise control over that which is superior to or greater than himself.

Nevertheless, all these higher spheres exercise control over him, as his functions and

activities demonstrate. If they did not, he would be an inert mass of substance. Death is

merely the result of deflecting the life impulses of the higher rings away from the lower

body.

The control of the transubstantial rings over their own material reflection is called life,

and the spirit of man is, in reality, a name given to this great host of intelligences, which

are focused upon substance through a point called the ego, established in the midst of

themselves. X 1 is the outside boundary of the human Auric Egg, and the entire diagram

becomes a cross section of the constitution of man, or a cross section of the Kosmic

constitution, if correlated with the universe. By the secret culture of the Qabbalistic

School, man is taught how to climb the rings (unfold his consciousness) until at last he

returns to AIN SOPH. The process by which this is accomplished is called the Fifty Gates

of Light. Kircher, the Jesuit Qabbalist, declares that Moses passed through forty-nine of

the gates, but that Christ alone passed the fiftieth gate.

To the third edition of the Sepher Yetzirah translated from the Hebrew by Wm. Wynn

Westcott are appended the Fifty Gates of Intelligence emanating from Binah, the second

Sephira. The source of this information is Kircher's Œdipus Ægyptiacus. The gates are

divided into six orders, of which the first four have each ten subdivisions, the fifth nine,

and the sixth only one.

The first order of gates is termed Elementary and its divisions areas follows: (1) Chaos,

Hyle, the First Matter; (2) Formless, void, lifeless; (3) The Abyss; (4) Origin of the

Elements; (5) Earth (no seed germs); (6) Water;(7) Air;(8) Fire;(9) Differentiation of

qualities; (10) Mixture and combination.

The second order of gates is termed Decad of Evolution and its divisions areas follows:

(11) Minerals differentiate; (12) Vegetable principles appear; (13) Seeds germinate in

moisture; (14) Herbs and Trees; (15) Fructification in vegetable life; (16) Origin of low

forms of animal life; (17) Insects and Reptiles appear; (18) Fishes, vertebrate life in the

waters; (19) Birds, vertebrate life in the air; (20) Quadrupeds, vertebrate earth animals.

The third order of gates is termed Decad of Humanity and its divisions are as follows:

(21) Appearance of Man; (22) Material human body; (23) Human Soul conferred; (24)

Mystery of Adam and Eve; (25) Complete Man as the Microcosm; (26) Gift of five

human faces acting exteriorly; (27) Gift of five powers to the soul; (28) Adam Kadmon,

the Heavenly Man; (29) Angelic beings, (30) Man in the image of God.

The fourth order of gates is termed World of Spheres and its divisions are as follows: (31)

The Heaven of the Moon; (32) The Heaven of Mercury, (33) The Heaven of Venus; (34)

The Heaven of the Sun; (35) The Heaven of Mars; (36) The Heaven of Jupiter; (37) The

Heaven of Saturn; (38) The Firmament; (39) The Primum Mobile; (40) The Empyrean

Heaven.

The fifth order of gates is termed The Angelic World and its divisions are as follows: (41)

Ishim--Sons of Fire; (42) Orphanim--Cherubim; (43) Aralim--Thrones; (44)

Chashmalim--Dominions; (45) Seraphim--Virtues; (46) Melachim--Powers; (47) Elohim-

-Principalities; (48) Ben Elohim--Angels; (49) Cherubim--Archangels. [The order of the

Angels is a matter of controversy, the arrangement above differing from that accepted in

other sections of this volume. The Rabbins disagree fundamentally as to the proper

sequence of the Angelic names.]

The sixth order is termed The Archetype and consists of but one gate: (50) God, AIN

SOPH, He whom no mortal eye hath seen. The fiftieth gate leads from creation into the

Creative Principle and he who passes through it returns into the unlimited and

undifferentiated condition of ALL. The fifty gates reveal a certain evolutionary process

and it was declared by the Rabbins that he who would attain to the highest degree of

understanding must pass sequentially through all of these orders of life, each of which

constituted a gate in that the spirit, passing from the lower to the higher, found in each

more responsive organism new avenues of self-expression.

p. 121

The Tree of the Sephiroth

THE Tree of the Sephiroth may be considered an invaluable compendium of the secret

philosophy which originally was the spirit and soul of Chasidism. The Qabbalah is the

priceless heritage of Israel, but each year those who comprehend its true principles

become fewer in number. The Jew of today, if he lacks a realization of the profundity of

his people's doctrines, is usually permeated with that most dangerous form of ignorance,

modernism, and is prone to regard the Qabbalah either as an evil to be shunned like the

plague or as a ridiculous superstition which has survived the black magic of the Dark

Ages. Yet without the key which the Qabbalah supplies, the spiritual mysteries of both

the Old and the New Testament must remain unsolved by Jew and Gentile alike.

The Sephirothic Tree consists of ten globes of luminous splendor arranged in three

vertical columns and connected by 22 channels or paths. The ten globes are called the

Sephiroth and to them are assigned the numbers i to 10. The three columns are called

Mercy (on the right), Severity (on the left), and, between them, Mildness, as the

reconciling power. The columns may also be said to represent Wisdom, Strength, and

Beauty, which form the triune support of the universe, for it is written that the foundation

of all things is the Three. The 22 channels are the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and to

them are assigned the major trumps of the Tarot deck of symbolic cards.

Eliphas Levi declared that by arranging the Tarot cards according to a definite order man

could discover all that is knowable concerning his God, his universe, and himself. When

the ten numbers which pertain to the globes (Sephiroth) are combined with the 22 letters

relating to the channels, the resultant sum is 32--the number peculiar to the Qabbalistic

Paths of Wisdom. These Paths, occasionally referred to as the 32 teeth in the mouth of the

Vast Countenance or as the 32 nerves that branch out from the Divine Brain, are

analogous to the first 32 degrees of Freemasonry, which elevate the candidate to the

dignity of a Prince of the Royal Secret. Qabbalists also consider it extremely significant

that in the original Hebrew Scriptures the name of God should occur 32 times in the first

chapter of Genesis. (In the English translations of the Bible the name appears 33 times.)

In the mystic analysis of the human body, according to the Rabbins, 32 spinal segments

lead upward to the Temple of Wisdom--the skull.

The four Qabbalistic Trees described in the preceding chapter were combined by later

Jewish scholars into one all-inclusive diagram and termed by them not only the

Sephirothic but also the Archetypal, or Heavenly, Adam. According to some authorities, it

is this Heavenly Adam, and not a terrestrial man, whose creation is described in the

opening chapters of Genesis. Out of the substances of this divine man the universe was

formed; in him it remains and will continue even after dissolution shall resolve the

spheres back into their own primitive substance. The Deity is never conceived of as

actually contained in the Sephiroth, which are purely hypothetical vessels employed to

define the limits of the Creative Essence. Adolph Franck rather likens the Sephiroth to

varicolored transparent glass bowls filled with pure light, which apparently assumes the

color of its containers but whose essential nature remains ever unchanged and

unchangeable.

The ten Sephiroth composing the body of the prototypic Adam, the numbers related to

them, and the parts of the universe to which they correspond are as follows:

No.

THE SEPHIROTH

THE UNIVERSE

ALTERNATIVE

1

Kether--the Crown

Primum Mobile

The Fiery Heavens

2

Chochmah--Wisdom

The Zodiac

The First Motion

3

Binah--Understanding

Saturn

The Zodiac

4

Chesed--Mercy

Jupiter

Saturn

5

Geburah--Severity

Mars

Jupiter

6

Tiphereth--Beauty

Sun

Mars

7

Netsah--Victory

Venus

Sun

8

Hod--Glory

Mercury

Venus

9

Jesod--the Foundation

Moon

Mercury

10

Malchuth--the Kingdom

Elements

Moon

It must continually be emphasized that the Sephiroth and the properties assigned to them,

like the tetractys of the Pythagoreans, are merely symbols of the cosmic system with its

multitude of parts. The truer and fuller meaning of these emblems may not be revealed by

writing or by word of mouth, but must be divined as the result of study and meditation. In

the Sepher ha Zohar it is written that there is a garment--the written doctrine-which every

man may see. Those with understanding do not look upon the garment but at the body

beneath it--the intellectual and philosophical code. The wisest of all, however, the

servants of the Heavenly King, look at nothing save the soul--the spiritual doctrine--

which is the eternal and ever-springing root of the law. Of this great truth Eliphas Levi

also writes declaring that none can gain entrance to the secret House of Wisdom unless

he wear the voluminous cape of Apollonius of Tyana and carry in his hand the lamp of

Hermes. The cape signifies the qualities of self-possession and self-reliance which must

envelope the seeker as a cloak of strength, while the ever-burning lamp of the sage

represents the illumined mind and perfectly balanced intellect without which the mystery

of the ages can never be solved.

The Sephirothic Tree is sometimes depicted as a human body, thus more definitely

establishing the true identity of the first, or Heavenly, Man--Adam Kadmon--the Idea of

the Universe. The ten divine globes (Sephiroth) are then considered as analogous to the

ten sacred members and organs of the Protogonos, according to the following

arrangement. Kether is the crown of the Prototypic Head and perhaps refers to the pineal

gland; Chochmah and Binah are the right and left hemispheres respectively of the Great

Brain; Chesed and Geburah (Pechad) are the right and left arms respectively, signifying

the active creative members of the Grand Man; Tiphereth is the heart, or, according to

some, the entire viscera; Netsah and Hod are the right and left legs respectively, or the

supports of the world; Jesod is the generative system, or the foundation of form; and

Malchuth represents the two feet, or the base of being. Occasionally Jesod is considered

as the male and Malchuth as the female generative power. The Grand Man thus

conceived is the gigantic image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, with head of gold, arms and

chest of silver, body of brass, legs of iron, and feet of clay. The mediæval Qabbalists also

assigned one of the Ten Commandments and a tenth part of the Lord's Prayer in

sequential order to each of the ten Sephiroth.

Concerning the emanations from Kether which establish themselves as three triads of

Creative Powers--termed in the Sepher ha Zohar three heads each with three faces--H. P.

Blavatsky writes: "This [Kether] was the first Sephiroth, containing in herself the other

nine תוריפּס Sephiroth, or intelligences. In their totality and unity they represent the

archetypal man, Adam Kadmon, the πρωτόγονος, who in his individuality or unity is yet

dual, or bisexual, the Greek Didumos, for he is the prototype of all humanity. Thus we

obtain three trinities, each contained in a 'head.' In the first head, or face (the three-faced

Hindu Trimurti),

Click to enlarge

THE FOUR SEPHIROTHIC TREES.

The forty concentric circles shown in the large circular cut in the preceding chapter are here arranged as four trees, each consisting of ten circles. These trees disclose the organization of the hierarchies controlling the destinies of all creation. The trees are the same in each of the four world but the powers vested in the

globes express themselves differently through the substances of each world, resulting in endless

differentiation.

p. 123

we find Sephira [Kether], the first androgyne, at the apex of the upper triangle, emitting

Hachama [Chochmah], or Wisdom, a masculine and active potency--also called Jah, יה--

and Binah, בינה, or Intelligence, a female and passive potency, also represented by the

name Jehovah יהוה. These three form the first trinity or 'face' of the Sephiroth. This triad

emanated Hesed, הסד, or Mercy, a masculine active potency, also called El, from which

emanated Geburah גבורה, or justice, also called Eloha, a feminine passive potency; from

the union of these two was produced Tiphereth תראפּט, Beauty, Clemency, the Spiritual

Sun, known by the divine name Elohim; and the second triad, 'face,' or 'head,' was

formed. These emanating, in their turn, the masculine potency Netzah, נצה, Firmness, or

Jehovah Sabaoth, who issued the feminine passive potency Hod,הוד, Splendor, or Elohim

Sabaoth; the two produced Jesod, יסוד, Foundation, who is the mighty living one El-Chai,

thus yielding the third trinity or 'head.' The tenth Sephiroth is rather a duad, and is

represented on the diagrams as the lowest circle. It is Malchuth or Kingdom, מלכות, and

Shekinah, שכינה, also called Adonai, and Cherubim among the angelic hosts. The first

'Head' is called the Intellectual world; the second 'Head' is the Sensuous, or the world of

Perception, and the third is the material or Physical world." (See Isis Unveiled.)

Among the later Qabbalists there is also a division of the Sephirothic Tree into five parts,

in which the distribution of the globes is according to the following order:

(1) Macroprosophus, or the Great Face, is the term applied to Kether as the first and

most exalted of the Sephiroth and includes the nine potencies or Sephiroth issuing from

Kether.

(2) Abba, the Great Father, is the term generally applied to Chochmah--Universal

Wisdom--the first emanation of Kether, but, according to Ibn Gebirol, Chochmah

represents the Son, the Logos or the Word born from the union of Kether and Binah.

(3) Aima, the Great Mother, is the name by which Binah, or the third Sephira, is

generally known. This is the Holy Ghost, from whose body the generations issue forth.

Being the third person of the Creative Triad, it corresponds to Jehovah, the Demiurgus.

(4) Microprosophus, or the Lesser Face, is composed of the six Sephiroth--Chesed,

Geburah, Tiphereth, Netsah, Hod, and Jesod. The Microprosophus is commonly called

the Lesser Adam, or Zauir Anpin, whereas the Macroprosophus, or Superior Adam, is

Arikh Anpin. The Lesser Face is properly symbolized by the six-pointed star or interlaced

triangles of Zion and also by the six faces of the cube. It represents the directions north,

east, south, west, up, and down, and also the first six days of Creation. In his list of the

parts of the Microprosophus, MacGregor-Mathers includes Binah as the first and superior

part of the Lesser Adam, thus making his constitution septenary. If Microprosophus be

considered as sexpartite, then his globes (Sephiroth) are analogous to the six days of

Creation, and the tenth globe, Malchuth, to the Sabbath of rest.

(5) The Bride of Microprosophus is Malchuth--the epitome of the Sephiroth, its

quaternary constitution being composed of blendings of the four elements. This is the

divine Eve that is taken out

Click to enlarge

A TABLE OF SEPHIROTHIC CORRESPONDENCES.

From Fludd's Collectio Operum.

The above diagram has been specially translated from the Latin as being of unique value to students of

Qabbalism and also as an example of Robert Fludd's unusual ability in assembling tables of

correspondences. Robert Fludd ranks among the most eminent Rosicrucians and Freemasons; in fact, he

has often been called "the first English Rosicrucian." He has written several valuable documents directly bearing upon the Rosicrucian enigma. It is significant that the most important of his works should be

published at the same time as those of Bacon, Shakespeare, and the first Rosicrucian authors.

p. 123

Click to enlarge

THE SEPHIROTHIC TREE OF THE LATER QABBALISTS.

Translated from Kircher's Œdipus Ægyptiacus.

Having demonstrated that the Qabbalists divided the universe into four worlds, each consisting of ten

spheres, it is necessary to consider next how the ten spheres of each world were arranged into what is called

the ' Sephirothic Tree." This Tree is composed of ten circles, representing the numbers 1 to 20 and connected together by twenty-two canals--the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The ten numbers

plus the twenty-two letters result in the occult number 32, which, according to the Mishna, signifies the

Thirty-two Paths of Wisdom. Letters and numbers, according to the Qabbalists, are the keys to all

knowledge, for by a secret system of arranging them the mysteries of creation are revealed. For this reason

they are called "the Paths of Wisdom." This occult fact is carefully concealed in the 32nd degree of Freemasonry.

There are four trees, one in each of the four worlds established in the preceding chapter. The first is in the Atziluthic World, the ten circles being the ten globes of light established in the midst of AIN SOPH. The

powers and attributes of this Tree are reflected into each of the three lower worlds, the form of the Tree

remaining the same but its power diminishing as it descends. To further complicate their doctrine, the

Qabbalists created another tree, which was a composite of all four of the world trees but consisted of only

ten globes. In this single tree were condensed all the arcana previously scattered through the voluminous

archives of Qabbalistic literature.

p. 124

of the side of Microprosophus and combines the potencies of the entire Qabbalistic Tree

in one sphere, which may be termed man.

According to the mysteries of the Sephiroth, the order of the Creation, or the Divine

Lightning Flash which zigzags through the four worlds according to the order of the

divine emanations, is thus described: From AIN SOPH, the Nothing and All, the Eternal

and Unconditioned Potency, issues Macroprosophus, the Long Face, of whom it is

written, "Within His skull exist daily thirteen thousand myriads of worlds which draw

their existence from Him and by Him are upheld." (See The Greater Holy Assembly.)

Macroprosophus, the directionalized will of AIN SOPH, corresponding to Kether, the

Crown of the Sephiroth, gives birth out of Himself to the nine lesser spheres of which He

is the sum and the overbrooding cause. The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet, by the

various combinations of which the laws of the universe are established, constitute the

scepter of Macroprosophus which He wields from His flaming throne in the Atziluthic

World.

From this eternal and ancient androgyne--Kether--come forth Chochmah, the great

Father, and Binah, the great Mother. These two are usually referred to as Abba and Aima

respectively--the first male and the first female, the prototypes of sex. These correspond

to the first two letters of the sacred name, Jehovah, יהוה, IHVH. The Father is the י, or I,

and the Mother is the ה, or H. Abba and Aima symbolize the creative activities of the

universe, and are established in the creative world of Briah. In the Sepher ha Zohar it is

written, "And therefore are all things established in the equality of male and female; for

were it not so, how could they subsist? This beginning is the Father of all things; the

Father of all Fathers; and both are mutually bound together, and the one path shineth into

the other--Chochmah, Wisdom, as the Father; Binah, Understanding, as the Mother."

There is a difference of opinion concerning certain of the relationships of the parts of the

first triad. Some Qabbalists, including Ibn Gebirol, consider Kether as the Father, Binah

as the Mother, and Chochmah as the Son. In this later arrangement, Wisdom, which is the

attribute of the Son, becomes the creator of the lower spheres. The symbol of Binah is the

dove, a proper emblem for the brooding maternal instinct of the Universal Mother.

Because of the close similarity of their creative triad to the Christian Trinity, the later

Qabbalists rearranged the first three Sephiroth and added a mysterious point called

Daath--a hypothetical eleventh Sephira. This is located where the horizontal line

connecting Chochmah and Binah crosses the vertical line joining Kether and Tiphereth.

While Daath is not mentioned by the first Qabbalists, it is a highly important element and

its addition to the Sephirothic Tree was not made without full realization of the

significance of such action. If Chochmah be considered the active, intelligent energy of

Kether, and Binah the receptive capacity of Kether, then Daath becomes the thought

which, created by Chochmah, flows into Binah. The postulation of Daath clarifies the

problem of the Creative Trinity, for here it is diagrammatically represented as consisting

of Chochmah (the Father), Binah (the Mother, or Holy Ghost), and Daath, the Word by

which the worlds were established. Isaac Myer discounts the importance of Daath,

declaring it a subterfuge to conceal the fact that Kether, and not Chochmah; is the true

Father of the Creative Triad. He makes no attempt to give a satisfactory explanation for

the symbolism of this hypothetical Sephira.

According to the original conception, from the union of the Divine Father and the Divine

Mother is produced Microprosophus--the Short Face or the Lesser Countenance, which

is established in the Yetziratic World of formation and corresponds to the letter ו, or V, in

the Great Name. The six powers of Microprosophus flow from and are contained in their

own source, which is Binah, the Mother of the Lesser Adam. These constitute the spheres

of the sacred planets; their name is Elohim, and they move upon the face of the deep. The

tenth Sephira--Malchuth, the Kingdom--is described as the Bride of the Lesser Adam,

created back to back with her lord, and to it is assigned the final, ה, or H, the last letter of

the Sacred Name. The dwelling place of Malchuth is in the fourth world--Assiah--and it

is composed of all the superior powers reflected into the elements of the terrestrial

sphere. Thus it will be seen that the Qabbalistic Tree extends through four worlds, with

its branches in matter and its roots in the Ancient of Ancients--Macroprosophus.

Three vertical columns support the universal system as typified by the Sephirothic Tree.

The central pillar has its foundation in Kether, the Eternal One. It passes downward

through the hypothetical Sephira, Daath, and then through Tiphereth and Jesod, with its

lower end resting upon the firm foundation of Malchuth, the last of the globes. The true

import of the central pillar is equilibrium. It demonstrates how the Deity always

manifests by emanating poles of expression from the midst of Itself but remaining free

from the illusion of polarity. If the numbers of the four Sephiroth connected by this

column be added together (1 +6 +9 + 10), the sum is 26, the number of Jehovah. (See

chapter on Pythagorean Mathematics.)

The column on the right, which is called Jachin, has its foundation on Chochmah, the

outpouring Wisdom of God; the three globes suspended from it are all masculine

potencies. The column at the left is called Boaz. The three globes upon it are feminine

and receptive potencies, for it is founded in Understanding, a receptive and maternal

potency. Wisdom, it will be noted, is considered as radiant or outpouring, and

Understanding as receptive, or something which is filled by the flowing of Wisdom. The

three pillars are ultimately united in Malchuth, in which all the powers of the superior

worlds are manifested.

The four globes upon the central column reveal the function of the creative power in the

various worlds. In the first world the creative power is Will--the one Divine Cause; in the

second world, the hypothetical Daath--the Word coming forth from the Divine Thought;

in the third world, Tiphereth--the Sun, or focal point between God and Nature; in the

fourth world it is twofold, being the positive and negative poles of the reproductive

system, of which Jesod is the male and Malchuth the female.

In Kircher's Sephirothic Tree it should be especially noted that the ornaments of the

Tabernacle appear in the various parts of the diagram. These indicate a direct relationship

between the sacred House of God and the universe--a relationship which must always be

considered as existing between the Deity through whose activity the world is produced

and the world itself, which must be the house or vehicle of that Deity. Could the modern

scientific world but sense the true profundity of these philosophical deductions of the

ancients, it would realize that those who fabricated the structure of the Qabbalah

possessed a knowledge of the celestial plan comparable in every respect with that of the

modern savant.

The Tetragrammaton, or the four-lettered Name of God, written thus יהוה, is pronounce

Jehovah. The first letter is י, Yod, the Germ, the Life, the Flame, the Cause, the One, and

the most fundamental of the Jewish phallic emblems. Its numerical value is 10, and it is

to be considered as the 1 containing the 10. In the Qabbalah it is declared that the a Yod is

in reality three Yods, of which the first is the beginning, the second is the center, and the

third is the end. Its throne is the Sephira Chochmah (according to Ibn Gebirol, Kether),

from which it goes forth to impregnate Binah, which is the first ה, He. The result of this

union is Tiphereth, which is the ו Vau, whose power is 6 and which symbolizes the six

members of the Lesser Adam. The final ה, He, is Malchuth, the Inferior Mother, partaking

in part of the potencies of the Divine Mother, the first He. By placing the four letters of

the Tetragrammaton in a vertical column, a figure closely resembling the human body is

produced, with Yod for the head, the first He for the arms and shoulders, Vau for the

trunk of the body, and the final He for the hips and legs. If the Hebrew letters be

exchanged for their English equivalents, the form is not materially changed or the

analogy altered. It is also extremely significant that by inserting the letter ש, Shin, in the

middle of the name Jehovah, the word Jehoshua, or Jesus, is formed thus:

יהשוה

In the Qabbalistic Mysteries, according to Eliphas Levi, the name Jehovah is occasionally

written by connecting together 24 dots--the 24 powers before the throne--and it is

believed that the name of the Power of Evil is the sign of Jehovah reversed or inverted.

(See Transcendental Magic.) Of the Great Word, Albert Pike writes: "The True Word of

a Mason is to be found in the concealed and profound meaning of the Ineffable Name of

Deity, communicated by God to Moses; and which meaning was long lost by the very

precautions taken to conceal it. The true pronunciation of that name was in truth a secret,

in which, however, was involved the far more profound secret of its meaning. In that

meaning is included all the truth that can be known by us, in regard to the nature of God."

(See Morals and Dogma.)

Click to enlarge

THE SEPHIROTH IN THE FORM OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM.

From Maurice's Indian Antiquities.

Thomas Maurice reproduces the above engraving, which is modification of the elaborate tree on the

preceding page. The Sephiroth are here superimposed, decreasing in size as they decrease in power and

dignity. Thus, the Crown is the greatest and the all-inclusive, and the Kingdom--which represents the

physical universe--is the smallest and of least importance.

p. 125

Qabbalistic Keys to the Creation of Man

HENRIE STEPHEN, in A World of Wonders, published in 1607, mentions a monk of St.

Anthony who declared that while in Jerusalem the patriarch of that city had shown him

not only one of the ribs of the Word made flesh and some rays from the Star of

Bethlehem, but also the snout of a seraph, a finger nail of a cherub, the horns of Moses,

and a casket containing the breath of Christ! To a people believing implicitly in a seraph

sufficiently tangible to have its proboscis preserved, the more profound issues of

Judaistic philosophy must necessarily be incomprehensible. Nor is it difficult to imagine

the reaction taking place in the mind of some ancient sage should he hear that a cherub--

which, according to St. Augustine, signifies the Evangelists; according to Philo Judæus,

the outermost circumference of the entire heavens, and according to several of the Church

Fathers, the wisdom of God--had sprouted finger nails. The hopeless confusion of divine

principles with the allegorical figures created to represent them to the limited faculties of

the uninitiated has resulted in the most atrocious misconceptions of spiritual truths.

Concepts well-nigh as preposterous as these, however, still stand as adamantine barriers

to a true understanding of Old and New Testament symbolism; for, until man

disentangles his reasoning powers from the web of venerated absurdities in which his

mind has lain ensnared for centuries, how can Truth ever be discovered?

The Old Testament--especially the Pentateuch--contains not only the traditional account

of the creation of the world and of man, but also, locked within it, the secrets of the

Egyptian initiators of the Moses concerning the genesis of the god-man (the initiate) and

the mystery of his rebirth through philosophy. While the Lawgiver of Israel is known to

have compiled several works other than those generally attributed to him, the writings

now commonly circulated as the purported sixth and seventh books of Moses are in

reality spurious treatises on black magic foisted on the credulous during the Middle Ages.

Out of the hundreds of millions of pious and thoughtful students of Holy Writ, it is

almost inconceivable that but a mere handful have sensed the sublimity of the esoteric

teachings of Sod (the Jewish Mysteries of Adonai). Yet familiarity with the three

Qabbalistical processes termed Gematria, Notarikon, and Temurah makes possible the

discovery of many of the profoundest truths of ancient Jewish superphysics.

By Gematria is meant not only the exchange of letters for their numerical equivalents but

also the method of determining by an analysis of its measurements the mystic purpose for

which a building or other object was constructed. S. L. MacGregor-Mathers, in The

Kabbalah Unveiled, gives this example of the application of Gematria: "Thus also the

passage, Gen. xviii. 2 VHNH SHLSHH, Vehenna Shalisha, 'And lo, three men,' equals in

numerical value 'ALV MIKAL GBRIAL VRPAL, Elo Mikhael Gabriel Ve-Raphael,' These

are Mikhael, Gabriel and Raphael; 'for each phrase = 701." Assuming the sides of a

scalene to be 11, 9, and 6 inches, a triangle of such dimensions would then be an

appropriate symbol of Jehovah, for the sum of its three sides would be 26, the numerical

value of the Hebrew word IHVH. Gematria also includes the system of discovering the

arcane meaning of a word by analyzing the size and arrangement of the strokes employed

in the formation of its various letters. Gematria was employed by the Greeks as well as

the Jews. The books of the New Testament--particularly those attributed to St. John--

contain many examples of its use. Nicephorus Callistus declared the Gospel according to

St. John to have been discovered in a cavern under the Temple at Jerusalem, the volume

having been secreted "long anterior to the Christian æra." The existence of interpolated

material in the fourth Gospel substantiates the belief that the work was originally written

without any specific reference to the man Jesus, the statements therein accredited to Him

being originally mystical discourses delivered by the personification of the Universal

Mind. The remaining Johannine writings--the Epistles and the Apocalypse--are

enshrouded by a similar veil of mystery.

By Notarikon each letter of a word may become the initial character of a new word. Thus

from BRASHITH, first word in the book of Genesis, are extracted six words which mean

that "in the beginning the Elohim saw that Israel would accept the law." Mr. MacGregor-

Mathers also gives six additional examples of Notarikon formed from the above word by

Solomon Meir Ben Moses, a mediæval Qabbalist. From the famous acrostic ascribed to

the Erythræan Sibyl, St. Augustine derived the word ΙΧΘΥΣ, which by Notarikon was

expanded into the phrase, "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior." By another use of

Notarikon, directly the reverse of the first, the initial, last, or middle letters of the words

of a sentence may be joined together to form a new word or words. For example, the

name Amen, ἁµήν, maybe extracted from ארנימלרנאטז, "the Lord is the faithful King."

Because they had embodied these cryptic devices in their sacred writings, the ancient

priests admonished their disciples never to translate, edit, or rewrite the contents of the

sacred books. .

Under the general heading of Temurah several systems may be grouped and explained in

which various letters are substituted for other letters according to prearranged tables or

certain mathematical arrangements of letters, regular or irregular. Thus the alphabet may

be broken into two equal parts and written in horizontal lines so that the letters of the

lower row can be exchanged for those of the upper row, or vice versa. By this procedure

the letters of the word Kuzu may be exchanged for those of IHVH, the Tetragrammaton.

In another form of Temurah the letters are merely rearranged., שתיה is the stone which is

found in the center of the world, from which point the earth spread out on all sides.

Click to enlarge

THE VISION OF EZEKIEL.

From The "Bear" Bible.

This plate, which is from the first Protestant Bible published in Spanish, shows the Mercavah, or chariot of

Jehovah, which appeared to Ezekiel by the river Chebar. The prophet beheld four strange creatures (E),

each having four heads, four wings, and brazen hoofs like those of a calf. And there were four wheels (F)

filled with eyes. Where the cherubim went the wheels went also. The space between the cherubim and the

wheels was filled with coals of fire. Upon the top of the chariot was a throne, upon which sat the likeness of a man (H). Ezekiel fell upon his knees when he beheld the Mercavah surrounded by a whirlwind of clouds

and flames (A, B, C). A hand (K) reached out from the clouds and the prophet was ordered to eat of a scroll

which the hand held forth.

According to the mystics, the wheels supporting the throne of God represent the orbits of the planets, and

the entire solar system is properly the Mercavah, or chariot of God. One of the divisions of the Qabbalah--

that dealing with the arts and sciences of those planes which are under the heavens--is called the Mercavah.

In the Zohar it is written that the celestial throne or Ezekiel's vision signifies the traditional law; the

appearance of a man sitting upon the throne represents the written law, Philo Judæus in describing the

cherubim upon the Ark of the Covenant declares that the figures are an intimation of the revolutions of the

whole heavens, one of the cherubim representing the outer circumference and the other the inner sphere.

Facing each other, they represent the two hemispheres of the world. The flaming sword of the cherubim of

Genesis is the central motion and agitation of the heavenly bodies. In all probability it also represents the

solar ray.

p. 126

[paragraph continues] When broken in two the stone is שת יה, which means "the placing of

God."(See Pekudei Rakov, 71, 72.) Again, Temurah may consist of a simple anagram, as

in the English word live, which reversed becomes evil. The various systems of Temurah

are among the most complicated and profound devices of the ancient Rabbins.

Among theological scholars there is a growing conviction that the hitherto accepted

translations of the Scriptural writings do not adequately express the spirit of the original

documents.

"After the first copy of the Book of God," writes H. P. Blavatsky, "has been edited and launched on the world by Hilkiah, this copy disappears, and Ezra has to make a new

Bible, which Judas Maccabeus finishes; * * * when it was copied from the horned letters

into square letters, it was corrupted beyond recognition; * * * the Masorah completed the

work of destruction; finally, we have a text, not 900 years old, abounding with omissions,

interpolations, and premeditated perversions." (See Isis Unveiled.)

Prof. Crawford Howell Toy of Harvard notes: "Manuscripts were copied and recopied by

scribes who not only sometimes made errors in letters and words, but permitted

themselves to introduce new material into the text, or to combine in one manuscript,

without mark of division, writings composed by different men; instances of these sorts of

procedure are found especially in Micah and Jeremiah, and the groups of prophecies

which go under the names of Isaiah and Zachariah." (See Judaism and Christianity.)

Does the mutilated condition of the Holy Bible--in part accidental--represent none the

less a definite effort to confuse the uninitiated reader and thus better conceal the secrets

of the Jewish Tannaim? Never has the Christian world been in possession of those hidden

scrolls which contain the secret doctrine of Israel, and if the Qabbalists were correct in

their assumption that the lost books of the Mosaic Mysteries have been woven into the

fabric of the Torah, then the Scriptures are veritably books within books. In rabbinical

circles the opinion is prevalent that Christendom never has understood the Old Testament

and probably never will. In fact, the feeling exists--in some quarters, at least--that the Old

Testament is the exclusive possession of the Jewish faith; also that Christianity, after its

unrelenting persecution of the Jew, takes unwarranted liberties when it includes strictly

Jewish writings in its sacred canon. But, as noted by one rabbi, if Christianity must use

the Jewish Scriptures, it should at least strive to do so with some degree of intelligence!

In the opening chapter of Genesis it is stated that after creating light and separating it

from darkness, the seven Elohim divided the waters which were under the firmament

from the waters which were above the firmament. Having thus established the inferior

universe in perfect accord with the esoteric teachings of the Hindu, Egyptian, and Greek

Mysteries, the Elohim next turned their attention to the production of flora and fauna and

lastly man. "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. * * * So

God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female

created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and

multiply, and replenish the earth, * * *."

Consider in thoughtful silence the startling use of pronouns in the above extract from "the

most perfect example of English literature." When the plural and androgynous Hebrew

word Elohim was translated into the singular and sexless word God, the opening chapters

of Genesis were rendered comparatively meaningless. It may have been feared that had

the word been correctly translated as "the male and female creative agencies," the

Christians would have been justly accused of worshiping a plurality of gods in the face of

their repeated claims to monotheism! The plural form of the pronouns us and our reveals

unmistakably, however, the pantheistic nature of Divinity. Further, the androgynous

constitution of the Elohim (God) is disclosed in the next verse, where he (referring to

God) is said to have created man in his own image, male and female; or, more properly,

as the division of the sexes had not yet taken place, male-female. This is a deathblow to

the time-honored concept that God is a masculine potency as portrayed by Michelangelo

on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The Elohim then order these androgynous beings to

be fruitful. Note that neither the masculine nor the feminine principle as yet existed in a

separate state! And, lastly, note the word "replenish." The prefix re denotes "back to an

original or former state or position," or "repetition or restoration." (See Webster's

International Dictionary, 1926.) This definite reference to a humanity existing prior to

the "creation of man" described in Genesis must be evident to the most casual reader of

Scripture.

An examination of Bible dictionaries, encyclopedias, and commentaries discloses the

plural form of the word Elohim to be beyond the comprehension of their respected

authors and editors. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge thus

sums up the controversy over the plural form of the word Elohim: "Does it now or did it

originally signify plurality of divine being?" A Dictionary of the Bible, edited by James

Hastings, contains the following conclusion, which echoes the sentiments of more critical

etymologists of the Bible: "The use of the plur. Elohim is also difficult to explain." Dr.

Havernick considers the plural form Elohim to signify the abundance and super-richness

existing in the Divine Being. His statement, which appears in The Popular and Critical

Bible Encyclopædia, is representative of the efforts made to circumvent this extremely

damaging word. The International Standard Bible Dictionary considers the explanations

offered by modern theologians--of which Dr. Havernick's is a fair example--to be too

ingenious to have been conceived by the early Hebrews and maintains that the word

represents the survival of a polytheistic stage of Semitic thought. The Jewish

Encyclopedia supports the latter assumption with the following concise statement: "As

far as epigraphic material, traditions, and folk-lore throw light on the question, the

Semites are shown to be of polytheistic leanings."

Various schools of philosophy, both Jewish and Gentile, have offered explanations

erudite and otherwise of the identity of Adam. In this primordial man the Neo-Platonists

recognized the Platonic Idea of humanity--the archetype or pattern of the genus homo.

Philo Judæus considered Adam to represent the human mind, which could understand

(and hence give names to) the creatures about it, but could not comprehend (and hence

left nameless) the mystery of its own nature. Adam was also likened to the Pythagorean

monad which by virtue of its state of perfect unity could dwell in the Edenic sphere.

When through a process akin to fission the monad became the duad--the proper symbol

of discord and delusion--the creature thus formed was exiled from its celestial home.

Thus the twofold man was driven from the Paradise belonging to the undivided creation

and cherubim and a flaming sword were placed on guard at the gates of the Causal

World. Consequently, only after the reestablishment of unity within himself can man

regain his primal spiritual state.

According to the Isarim, the secret doctrine of Israel taught the existence of four Adams,

each dwelling in one of the four Qabbalistic worlds. The first, or heavenly, Adam dwelt

alone in the Atziluthic sphere and within his nature existed all spiritual and material

potentialities. The second Adam resided in the sphere of Briah. Like the first Adam, this

being was androgynous and the tenth division of its body (its heel, Malchuth)

corresponded to the church of Israel that shall bruise the serpent's head. The third Adam--

likewise androgynous--was clothed in a body of light and abode in the sphere of

Yetzirah. The fourth Adam was merely the third Adam after the fall into the sphere of

Assiah, at which time the spiritual man took upon himself the animal shell or coat of

skins. The fourth Adam was still considered as a single individual, though division had

taken place within his nature and two shells or physical bodies existed, in one of which

was incarnated the masculine and in the other the feminine potency. (For further details

consult Isaac Myer.)

The universal nature of Adam is revealed in the various accounts concerning the

substances of which he was formed. It was originally ordained that the "dirt" to be used

in fashioning him was to be derived from the seven worlds. As these planes, however,

refused to give of their substances, the Creator wrenched from them by force the

elements to be employed in the Adamic constitution. St. Augustine discovered a

Notarikon in the name of Adam. He showed that the four letters, A-D-A-M, are the first

letters of the four words Anatole Dysis Arktos Mesembria, the Greek names for the four

corners of the world. The same author also sees in Adam a prototype of Christ, for he

writes: "Adam sleeps that Eve may be formed: Christ dies, that the Church may be

formed. While Adam sleeps, Eve is formed from his side. When Christ is dead, His side

is smitten with a spear, that there flow forth sacraments to form the church. * * * Adam

himself was the figure of Him that was to come."

In his recent work, Judaism, George Foote Moore thus describes the proportions of the

Adamic man: "He was a huge mass that filled the whole world to all the points of the

compass. The dust of which his body was formed was gathered from every part of the

world, or from the site of the future altar. Of greater interest is the notion that man was

created androgynous, because it is probably a bit of foreign lore adapted to the first pair

in Genesis. R. Samuel bar Nahman (third century), said, when God created Adam, He

created him facing both ways (דיו פרעופים); then He sawed him in two and made two

backs, one for each figure.

The Zohar holds the concept of two Adams: the first a divine being who, stepping forth

from the highest original darkness, created the second, or earthly, Adam in His own

image. The higher, or celestial, man was the Causal sphere With its divine potencies and

potentialities considered as a gigantic personality; its members, according to the

Gnostics, being the basic elements of existence. This Adam may have been symbolized

as facing both ways to signify that with one face it looked upon the proximate Cause of

itself and with the other face looked upon the vast sea of Cosmos into which it was to be

immersed.

Philosophically, Adam may be regarded as representative of the full spiritual nature of

man--androgynous and nor subject to decay.

p. 127

[paragraph continues] Of this fuller nature the mortal man has little comprehension. Just as spirit contains matter within itself and is both the source and ultimate of the state denominated

matter, so Eve represents the lower, or mortal, portion that is taken out of, or has

temporal existence in the greater and fuller spiritual creation. Being representative of the

inferior part of the individual, Eve is the temptress who, conspiring with the serpent of

mortal knowledge, caused Adam to sink into a trancelike condition in which he was

unconscious of his own higher Self. When Adam seemingly awoke, he actually sank into

sleep, for he no longer was in the spirit but in the body; division having taken place

within him, the true Adam rested in Paradise while his lesser part incarnated in a material

organism (Eve) and wandered in the darkness of mortal existence.

The followers of Mohammed apparently sensed more accurately than the uninitiated of

other sects the true mystic import of Paradise, for they realized that prior to his fall the

dwelling place of man was not in a physical garden in any particular part of the earth but

rather in a higher sphere (the angelic world) watered by four mystical streams of life.

After his banishment from Paradise, Adam alighted on the Island of Ceylon, and this spot

is sacred to certain Hindu sects who recognize the old Island of Lanka--once presumably

connected with the mainland by a bridge--as the actual site of the Garden of Eden from

which the human race migrated. According to the Arabian Nights (Sir Richard Burton's

translation), Adam's footprint may still be seen on the top of a Ceylonese mountain. In

the Islamic legends, Adam was later reunited with his wife and after his death his body

was brought to Jerusalem subsequent to the Flood for burial by Melchizedek. (See the

Koran.)

The word ADM signifies a species or race and only for lack of proper understanding has

Adam been considered as an individual. As the Macrocosm, Adam is the gigantic

Androgyne, even the Demiurgus; as the Microcosm, he is the chief production of the

Demiurgus and within the nature of the Microcosm the Demiurgus established all the

qualities and powers which He Himself possessed. The Demiurgus, however, did not

possess immortality and, therefore, could not bestow it upon Adam. According to legend,

the Demiurgus strove to keep man from learning the incompleteness of his Maker. The

Adamic man consequently partook of the qualities and characteristics of the angels who

were the ministers of the Demiurgus. It was affirmed by the Gnostic Christians that the

redemption of humanity was assured through the descent of Nous (Universal Mind), who

was a great spiritual being superior to the Demiurgus and who, entering into the

constitution of man, conferred conscious immortality upon the Demiurgic fabrications.

That phallic symbolism occupies an important place in early Jewish mysticism is

indisputable. Hargrave Jennings sees in the figure of Adam a type of the lingam of Shiva,

which was a stone representative of the creative power of the World Generator. "In

Gregorie's works * * *," writes Jennings, "is a passage to the effect that 'Noah daily

prayed in the Ark before the Body of Adam,' i.e., before the Phallus--Adam being the

primitive Phallus, great procreator of the human race. 'It may possibly seem strange,' he

says, 'that this orison should be daily said before the body of Adam,' but 'it is a most

confessed tradition among the eastern men that Adam was commanded by God that his

dead body should be kept above ground till a fullness of time should come to commit it

פדככאלאועto the middle of the earth by a priest of the Most High God.' This means Mount

Moriah, the Meru of India. 'This body of Adam was embalmed and transmitted from

father to son, till at last it was delivered up by Lamech into the hands of Noah.'" (See

Phallicism.)

This interpretation somewhat clarifies the Qabbalistic assertion that in the first Adam

were contained all the souls of the Israelites. (See Sod.) Though according to the Aurea

Legenda Adam was buried with the three seeds of the Tree of Knowledge in his mouth, it

should be borne in mind that apparently conflicting myths were often woven around a

single individual. One of the profound mysteries of Qabbalism is that set forth in the

Notarikon based upon the letters of the name Adam (ADM). These three letters form the

initials of the names Adam, David, and the Messiah, and these three personalities were

said to contain one soul. As this soul represents the World Soul of humanity, Adam

signifies the involving soul, the Messiah the evolving soul, and David that condition of

the soul termed epigenesis.

In common with certain philosophic institutions of Asia, the Jewish Mysteries contained

a strange doctrine concerning the shadows of the Gods. Gazing down into the Abyss, the

Elohim beheld their own shadows and from these shadows patterned the inferior creation.

"In the dramatic representation of the creation of man in the Mysteries," writes the

anonymous Master of Balliol College, "the Aleim [Elohim] were represented by men

who, when sculpturing the form of an Adamite being, of a man, traced the outline of it on

their own shadow, or modelled it on their own shadow traced on the wall. This is how the

art of drawing originated in Egypt, and the hieroglyphic figures carved on the Egyptian

monuments have so little relief that they still resemble a shadow."

In the ritualism of the early Jewish Mysteries the pageantry of creation was enacted, the

various actors impersonating the Creative Agencies. The red dirt from which the Adamic

man was fashioned may signify fire, particularly since Adam is related to the Yod, or fire

flame, which is the first letter of the sacred name Jehovah. In John ii. 20 it is written that

the Temple was forty and six years in the building, a statement in which St. Augustine

sees a secret and sacred Gematria; for, according to the Greek philosophy of numbers, the

numerical value of the name Adam is 46. Adam thus becomes the type of the Temple, for

the House of God-like primitive man--was a microcosm or epitome of the universe.

In the Mysteries, Adam is accredited with having the peculiar power of spiritual

generation. Instead of reproducing his kind by the physical generative processes, he

caused to issue from himself--or, more correctly, to be reflected upon substance--a

shadow of

Click to enlarge

NOAH AND HIS ZODIACAL ARK.

From Myer's Qabbalah.

The early Church Father--notably Tertullian, Firmilian, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and St. Chrysostom--

recognized in the ark a type or symbol of the Holy Catholic Church. Bede the Venerable, declared that

Noah in all things typified Christ as Noah alone of his generation was just, so Christ alone was without sin.

With Christ there was a sevenfold spirit of grace: with Noah seven righteous Persons. Noah by water and

wood saved his own family Christ by baptism and the cross saves Christians. The ark was built of wood

that did not decay. the church is composed of men who will live forever, for this ark means the church

which floats upon the waves of the world.

The diagram shown above is also reproduced in The Rosicrucians, by Hargrave Jennings. This author adds

to the original diagram appearing in Antiquitatum Judaicarum Libri IX the signs of the zodiac, placing

Aries at the head and continuing in sequential order to Leo, which occupies the fifth cross section of the

ark. Jennings assigns the panel containing the door to the undivided constellation of Virgo-Libra-Scorpio

(which is continued into the first subdivision of the second section) and the remaining four cress sections to the constellations of Sagittarius to Pisces inclusive. A study of the plate discloses the ark to be divided into eleven main sections, and along the base and roof of each section are shown three subdivisions, thus

making in all the sacred number 33. Occupying the position corresponding to the generative system of the

human body will also be noted the cross upon the door of the central section. Two openings are shown in

the ark: one--the main door representing the orifice through which the animal lives descend into physical

existence; the other a small window proximate to the crown of the head through which the spirit gains

liberty according to the ancient rites.

"When the androgenic Scorpio-Virgo was separated and the Balance or Harmony made from Scorpio, and

placed between Scorpio, i.e., male, and Virgo, i.e., female, then appeared the 32 constellations or signs, as

we now have them. The ark is three stories high (perhaps to symbolize Heaven, Man, Earth). In the figure

of the Man, notice the parting of the hair in the middle of the forehead and the arrangement of the beard,

whiskers, moustache and the hair, on the back of the neck and shoulders." (See The Qabbalah by Isaac

Myer.)

p. 128

himself. This shadow he then ensouled and it became a living creature. These shadows,

however, remain only as long as the original figure of which they are the reflections

endures, for with the removal of the original the host of likenesses vanish with it. Herein

is the key to the allegorical creation of Eve out of the side of Adam; for Adam,

representative of the idea or pattern, is reflected into the material universe as a multitude

of ensouled images which collectively are designated Eve. According to another theory,

the division of the sexes took place in the archetypal sphere; hence the shadows in the

lower world were divided into two classes consistent with the orders established in the

Archetype. In the apparently incomprehensible attraction of one sex for the other Plato

recognized a cosmic urge toward reunion of the severed halves of this archetypal Being.

Exactly what is to be inferred by the division of the sexes as symbolically described in

Genesis is a much-debated question. That man was primarily androgynous is quite

universally conceded and it is a reasonable presumption that he will ultimately regain this

bisexual state. As to the manner in which this will be accomplished two opinions are

advanced. One school of thought affirms that the human soul was actually divided into

two parts (male and female) and that man remains an unperfected creature until these

parts are reunited through the emotion which man calls love. From this concept has

grown the much-abused doctrine of "soul mates" who must quest through the ages until

the complementary part of each severed soul is discovered. The modern concept of

marriage is to a certain degree founded upon this ideal.

According to the other school, the so-called division of the sexes resulted from

suppression of one pole of the androgynous being in order that the vital energies

manifesting through it might be diverted to development of the rational faculties. From

this point of view man is still actually androgynous and spiritually complete, but in the

material world the feminine part of man's nature and the masculine part of woman's

nature are quiescent. Through spiritual unfoldment and knowledge imparted by the

Mysteries, however, the latent element in each nature is gradually brought into activity

and ultimately the human being thus regains sexual equilibrium. By this theory woman is

elevated from the position of being man's errant part to one of complete equality. From

this point of view, marriage is regarded as a companionship in which two complete

individualities manifesting opposite polarities are brought into association that each may

thereby awaken the qualities latent in the other and thus assist in the attainment of

individual completeness. The first theory may be said to regard marriage as an end; the

second as a means to an end. The deeper schools of philosophy have leaned toward the

latter as more adequately acknowledging the infinite potentialities of divine completeness

in both aspects of creation.

The Christian Church is fundamentally opposed to the theory of marriage, claiming that

the highest degree of spirituality is achievable only by those preserving the virginal state.

This concept seemingly originated among certain sects of the early Gnostic Christians,

who taught that to propagate the human species was to increase and perpetuate the power

of the Demiurgus; for the lower world was looked upon as an evil fabrication created to

ensnare the souls of all born into it--hence it was a crime to assist in bringing souls to

earth. When, therefore, the unfortunate father or mother shall stand before the Final

Tribunal, all their offspring will also appear and accuse them of being the cause of those

miseries attendant upon physical existence. This view is strengthened by the allegory of

Adam and Eve, whose sin through which humanity has been brought low is universally

admitted to have been concerned with the mystery of generation. Mankind, owing to

Father Adam its physical existence, regards its progenitor as the primary cause of its

misery; and in the judgment Day, rising up as a mighty progeny, will accuse its common

paternal ancestor.

Those Gnostic sects maintaining a more rational attitude on the subject declared the very

existence of the lower worlds to signify that the Supreme Creator had a definite purpose

in their creation; to doubt his judgment was, therefore, a grievous error. The church,

however, seemingly arrogated to itself the astonishing prerogative of correcting God in

this respect, for wherever possible it continued to impose celibacy, a practice resulting in

an alarming number of neurotics. In the Mysteries, celibacy is reserved for those who

have reached a certain degree of spiritual unfoldment. When advocated for the mass of

unenlightened humanity, however, it becomes a dangerous heresy, fatal alike to both

religion and philosophy. As Christendom in its fanaticism has blamed every individual

Jew for the crucifixion of Jesus, so with equal consistency it has maligned every member

of the feminine sex. In vindication of Eve philosophy claims that the allegory signifies

merely that man is tempted by his emotions to depart from the sure path of reason.

Many of the early Church Fathers sought to establish a direct relationship between Adam

and Christ, thereby obviously discounting the extremely sinful nature of man's common

ancestor, since it is quite certain that when St. Augustine likens Adam to Christ and Eve

to the church he does not intend to brand the latter institution as the direct cause of the

fall of man. For some inexplicable reason, however, religion has ever regarded

intellectualism--in fact every form of knowledge--as fatal to man's spiritual growth. The

Ignaratitine Friars are an outstanding example of this attitude.

In this ritualistic drama--possibly derived from the Egyptians--Adam, banished from the

Garden of Eden, represents man philosophically exiled from the sphere of Truth. Through

ignorance man falls; through wisdom he redeems himself. The Garden of Eden represents

the House of the Mysteries (see The Vision of Enoch) in the midst of which grew both the

Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Man, the banished Adam, seeks to pass from the outer court of the Sanctuary (the exterior

universe) into the sanctum sanctorum, but before him rises a vast creature armed with a

flashing sword that, moving slowly but continually, sweeps clear a wide circle, and

through this "Ring Pass Not" the Adamic man cannot break.

The cherubim address the seeker thus: "Man, thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return.

Thou wert fashioned by the Builder of Forms; thou belongest to the sphere of form, and

the breath that was breathed into thy soul was the breath of form and like a flame it shall

flicker out. More than thou art thou canst not be. Thou art a denizen of the outer world

and it is forbidden thee to enter this inner place."

And the Adam replies: "Many times have I stood within this courtyard and begged

admission to my Father's house and thou hast refused it me and sent me back to wander

in darkness. True it is that I was fashioned out of the dirt and that my Maker could not

confer upon me the boon of immortality. But no more shalt thou send me away; for,

wandering in the darkness, I have discovered that the Almighty hath decreed my

salvation because He hath sent out of the most hidden Mystery His Only Begotten who

didst take upon Himself the world fashioned by the Demiurgus. Upon the elements of

that world was He crucified and from Him hath poured forth the blood of my salvation.

And God, entering into His creation, hath quickened it and established therein a road that

leadeth to Himself. While my Maker could not give me immortality, immortality was

inherent in the very dust of which I was composed, for before the world was fabricated

and before the Demiurgus became the Regent of Nature the Eternal Life had impressed

itself upon the face of Cosmos. This is its sign--the Cross. Do you now deny me entrance,

I who have at last learned the mystery of myself?"

And the voice replies: "He who is aware, IS! Behold!"

Gazing about him, Adam finds himself in a radiant place, in the midst of which stands a

tree with flashing jewels for fruit and entwined about its trunk a flaming, winged serpent

crowned with a diadem of stars. It was the voice of the serpent that had spoken.

"Who art thou?" demands the Adam.

"I," the serpent answers, "am Satan who was stoned; I am the Adversary--the Lord who is

against you, the one who pleads for your destruction before the Eternal Tribunal. I was

your enemy upon the day that you were formed; I have led you into temptation; I have

delivered you into the hands of evil; I have maligned you; I have striven ever to achieve

your undoing. I am the guardian of the Tree of Knowledge and I have sworn that none

whom I can lead astray shall partake of its fruits."

The Adam replies: "For uncounted ages have I been thy servant. In my ignorance I

listened to thy words and they led me into paths of sorrow. Thou hast placed in my mind

dreams of power, and when I struggled to realize those dreams they brought me naught

but pain. Thou hast sowed in me the seeds of desire, and when I lusted after the things of

the flesh agony was my only recompense. Thou hast sent me false prophets and false

reasoning, and when I strove to grasp the magnitude of Truth I found thy laws were false

and only dismay rewarded my strivings. I am done with thee forever, O artful Spirit! I

have tired of thy world of illusions. No longer will I labor in thy vineyards of iniquity.

Get thee behind me, rempter, and the host of thy temptations. There is no happiness, no

peace, no good, no future in the doctrines of selfishness, hate, and passion preached by

thee. All these things do I cast aside. Renounced is thy rule forever!"

And the serpent makes answer: "Behold, O Adam, the nature of thy Adversary!" The

serpent disappears in a blinding sunburst of radiance and in its place stands an angel

resplendent in shining, golden garments with great scarlet wings that spread from one

corner of the heavens to the other. Dismayed and awestruck, the Adam falls before the

divine creature.

"I am the Lord who is against thee and thus accomplishes thy salvation, " continues the

voice. "Thou hast hated me, but through the ages yet to be thou shalt bless me, for I have

led thee our of the sphere of the Demiurgus; I have turned thee against the illusion of

worldliness; I have weaned thee of desire; I have awakened in thy soul the immortality of

which I myself partake. Follow me, O Adam, for I am the Way, the Life, and the Truth!"

p. 129

An Analysis of Tarot Cards

OPINIONS of authorities differ widely concerning the origin of playing cards, the

purpose for which they were intended, and the time of their introduction into Europe. In

his Researches into the History of Playing Cards, Samuel Weller Singer advances the

opinion that cards reached Southern Europe from India by way of Arabia. It is probable

that the Tarot cards were part of the magical and philosophical lore secured by the

Knights Templars from the Saracens or one of the mystical sects then flourishing in

Syria. Returning to Europe, the Templars, to avoid persecution, concealed the arcane

meaning of the symbols by introducing the leaves of their magical book ostensibly as a

device for amusement and gambling. In support of this contention, Mrs. John King Van

Rensselaer states:

"That cards were brought by the home-returning warriors, who imported many of the

newly acquired customs and habits of the Orient to their own countries, seems to be a

well-established fact; and it does not contradict the statement made by some writers who

declared that the gypsies--who about that time began to wander over Europe--brought

with them and introduced cards, which they used, as they do at the present day, for

divining the future." (See The Devil's Picture Books.)

Through the Gypsies the Tarot cards may be traced back to the religious symbolism of

the ancient Egyptians. In his remarkable work, The Gypsies, Samuel Roberts presents

ample proof of their Egyptian origin. In one place he writes: "When Gypsies originally

arrived in England is very uncertain. They are first noticed in our laws, by several statutes

against them in the reign of Henry VIII.; in which they are described as 'an outlandish

people, calling themselves Egyptians,--who do not profess any craft or trade, but go about

in great numbers, * * *.'" A curious legend relates that after the destruction of the

Serapeum in Alexandria, the large body of attendant priests banded themselves together

to preserve the secrets of the rites of Serapis. Their descendants (Gypsies) carrying with

them the most precious of the volumes saved from the burning library--the Book of

Enoch, or Thoth (the Tarot)--became wanderers upon the face of the earth, remaining a

people apart with an ancient language and a birthright of magic and mystery.

Court de Gébelin believed the word Tarot itself to be derived from two Egyptian words,

Tar, meaning "road," and Ro, meaning "royal." Thus the Tarot constitutes the royal road

to wisdom. (See Le Monde Primitif.) In his History of Magic, P. Christian, the

mouthpiece of a certain French secret society, presents a fantastic account of a purported

initiation into the Egyptian Mysteries wherein the 22 major Tarots assume the

proportions of trestleboards of immense size and line a great gallery. Stopping before

each card in turn, the initiator described its symbolism to the candidate. Edouard Schuré,

whose source of information was similar to that of Christian's, hints at the same

ceremony in his chapter on initiation into the Hermetic Mysteries. (See The Great

Initiates.) While the Egyptians may well have employed the Tarot cards in their rituals,

these French mystics present no evidence other than their own assertions to support this

theory. The validity also of the so-called Egyptian Tarots now in circulation has never

been satisfactorily established. The drawings are not only quite modem but the

symbolism itself savors of French rather than Egyptian influence.

The Tarot is undoubtedly a vital element in Rosicrucian symbolism, possibly the very

book of universal knowledge which the members of the order claimed to possess. The

Rota Mundi is a term frequently occurring in the early manifestoes of the Fraternity of the

Rose Cross. The word Rota by a rearrangement of its letters becomes Taro, the ancient

name of these mysterious cards. W. F. C. Wigston has discovered evidence that Sir

Francis Bacon employed the Tarot symbolism in his ciphers. The numbers 21, 56, and 78,

which are all directly related to the divisions of the Tarot deck, are frequently involved in

Bacon's cryptograms. In the great Shakespearian Folio of 1623 the Christian name of

Lord Bacon appears 21 times on page 56 of the Histories. (See The Columbus of

Literature.)

Many symbols appearing upon the Tarot cards have definite Masonic interest. The

Pythagorean numerologist will also find an important relationship to exist between the

numbers on the cards and the designs accompanying the numbers. The Qabbalist will be

immediately impressed by the significant sequence of the cards, and the alchemist will

discover certain emblems meaningless save to one versed in the divine chemistry of

transmutation and regeneration.' As the Greeks placed the letters of their alphabet--with

their corresponding numbers--upon the various parts of the body of their humanly

represented Logos, so the Tarot cards have an analogy not only in the parts and members

of the universe but also in the divisions of the human body.. They are in fact the key to

the magical constitution of man.

The Tarot cards must be considered (1) as separate and complete hieroglyphs, each

representing a distinct principle, law, power, or element in Nature; (2) in relation to each

other as the effect of one agent operating upon another; and (3) as vowels and consonants

of a philosophic alphabet. The laws governing all phenomena are represented by the

symbols upon the Tarot cards, whose numerical values are equal to the numerical

equivalents of the phenomena. As every structure consists of certain elemental parts, so

the Tarot cards represent the components of the structure of philosophy. Irrespective of

the science or philosophy with which the student is working, the Tarot cards can be

identified with the essential constituents of his subject, each card thus being related to a

specific part according to mathematical and philosophical laws. "An imprisoned person,"

writes Eliphas Levi, "with no other book than the Tarot, if he knew how to use it, could in

a few years acquire universal knowledge, and would be able to speak on all subjects with

unequalled learning and inexhaustible eloquence. " (See Transcendental Magic.)

The diverse opinions of eminent authorities on the Tarot symbolism are quite

irreconcilable. The conclusions of the scholarly Court de Gébelin and the bizarre Grand

Etteila--the first authorities on the subject--not only are at radical variance but both are

equally discredited by Levi, whose arrangement of the Tarot trumps was rejected in turn

by Arthur Edward Waite and Paul Case as being an effort to mislead students. The

followers of Levi--especially Papus, Christian, Westcott, and Schuré-are regarded by the

"reformed Tarotists" as honest but benighted individuals who wandered in darkness for

lack of Pamela Coleman Smith's new deck of Tarot cards with revisions by Mr. Waite.

Most writers on the Tarot (Mr. Waite a notable exception) have proceeded upon the

hypothesis that the 22 major trumps represent the letters of the Hebrew alphabet. This

supposition is based upon nothing more substantial than the coincidence that both consist

of 22 parts. That Postel, St. Martin, and Levi all wrote books divided into sections

corresponding to the major Tarots is an interesting sidelight on the subject. The major

trump cards portray incidents from the Book of Revelation; and the Apocalypse of St.

John is also divided into 22 chapters. Assuming the Qabbalah to hold the solution to the

Tarot riddle, seekers have often ignored other possible lines of research. The task,

however, of discovering the proper relationship sustained by the Tarot trumps to the

letters of the Hebrew alphabet and the Paths of Wisdom thus far has not met with any

great

Click to enlarge

EARLY PORTUGUESE CARDS.

From Chatto's Origin and History of Playing Cards.

In writing of the deck from which the four cavaliers (jacks) here reproduced were taken, William Andrew

Chatto notes: "Some of the specimens of Portuguese cards given in the 'Jeux de Cartes, Tarots et de Cartes Numérales' have very much the appearance of having been originally suggested by, if net copied from, an

Oriental type; more especially in the suits of Danari and Bastani,--Money and Clubs. In those cards the

circular figure, generally understood as representing Danari, or Money, is certainly much more like the

Chakra, or quoit of Vichnou [Vishnu], as seen in Hindostanic drawings, than a piece of coin; while on the

top of the Club is a diamond proper, which is another of the attributes of the same deity." Also worthy of note are the Rosicrucian and Masonic emblems appearing on various mediæval decks. As the secrets of

these organizations were often concealed in cryptic engravings, it is very probable that the enigmatic

diagrams upon various decks of cards were used both to conceal and to perpetuate the political and

philosophical arcana of these orders. The frontispiece of Mr. Chatto's books shows a knave of hearts

bearing a shield emblazoned with a crowned Rosicrucian rose.

p. 130

measure of success. The major trumps of the Tarot and the 22 letters of the Hebrew

alphabet cannot be synchronized without first fixing the correct place of the unnumbered,

or zero, card--Le Mat, the Fool. Levi places this card between the 20th and 21st Tarots,

assigning to it the Hebrew letter Shin (ש). The same order is followed by Papus,

Christian, and Waite, the last, however, declaring this arrangement to be incorrect.

Westcott makes the zero card the 22nd of the Tarot major trumps. On the other hand,

both Court de Gébelin and Paul Case place the unnumbered card before the first

numbered card of the major trumps, for if the natural order of the numbers (according to

either the Pythagorean or Qabbalistic system) be adhered to, the zero card must naturally

precede the number 1.

This does not dispose of the problem, however, for efforts to assign a Hebrew letter to

each Tarot trump in sequence produce an effect far from convincing. Mr. Waite, who

reedited the Tarot, expresses himself thus: "I am not to be included among those who are

satisfied that there is a valid correspondence between Hebrew letters and Tarot Trump

symbols." (See introduction to The Book of Formation by Knut Stenring.) The real

explanation may be that the major Tarots no longer are in the same sequence as when

they formed the leaves of Hermes' sacred book, for the Egyptians--or even their Arabian

successors--could have purposely confused the cards so that their secrets might be better

preserved. Mr. Case has developed a system which, while superior to most, depends

largely upon two debatable points, namely, the accuracy of Mr. Waite's revised Tarot and

the justification for assigning the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet to the unnumbered,

or zero, card. Since Aleph (the first Hebrew letter) has the numerical value of 1, its

assignment to the zero card is equivalent to the statement that zero is equal to the letter

Aleph and therefore synonymous with the number 1.

With rare insight, Court de Gébelin assigned the zero card to AIN SOPH, the

Unknowable First Cause. As the central panel of the Bembine Table represents the

Creative Power surrounded by seven triads of manifesting divinities, so may the zero card

represent that Eternal Power of which the 21 surrounding or manifesting aspects are but

limited expressions. If the 21 major trumps be considered as limited forms existing in the

abstract substance of the zero card, it then becomes their common denominator. Which

letter, then, of the Hebrew alphabet is the origin of all the remaining letters? The answer

is apparent: Yod. In the presence of so many speculations, one more may not offend. The

zero card--Le Mat, the Fool--has been likened to the material universe because the mortal

sphere is the world of unreality. The lower universe, like the mortal body of man, is but a

garment, a motley costume, well likened to cap and bells. Beneath the garments of the

fool is the divine substance, however, of which the jester is but a shadow; this world is a

Mardi Gras--a pageantry of divine sparks masked in the garb of fools. Was not this zero

card (the Fool) placed in the Tarot deck to deceive all who could not pierce the veil of

illusion?

The Tarot cards were entrusted by the illumined hierophants of the Mysteries into the

keeping of the foolish and the ignorant, thus becoming playthings--in many instances

even instruments of vice. Man's evil habits therefore actually became the unconscious

perpetuators of his philosophical precepts. "We must admire the wisdom of the Initiates,"

writes Papus, "who utilized vice and made it produce more beneficial results than virtue."

Does not this act of the ancient priests itself afford proof that the entire mystery of the

Tarot is wrapped up in the symbolism of its zero card? If knowledge was thus entrusted

to fools, should it not be sought for in this card?

If Le Mat be placed before the first card of the Tarot deck and the others laid out in a

horizontal line in sequence from left to right, it will be found that the Fool is walking

toward the other trumps as though about to pass through the various cards. Like the

spiritually hoodwinked and bound neophyte, Le Mat is about to enter upon the supreme

adventure--that of passage through the gates of the Divine Wisdom. If the zero card be

considered as extraneous to the major trumps, this destroys the numerical analogy

between these cards and the Hebrew letters by leaving one letter without a Tarot

correspondent. In this event it will be necessary to assign the missing letter to a

hypothetical Tarot card called the elements, assumed to have been broken up to form the

56 cards of the minor trumps. It is possible that each of the major trumps may be subject

to a similar division.

The first numbered major trump is called Le Bateleur, the juggler, and according to Court

de Gébelin, indicates the entire fabric of creation to be but a dream, existence a juggling

of divine elements, and life a perpetual game of hazard. The seeming miracles of Nature

are but feats of cosmic legerdemain. Man is like the little ball in the hands of the juggler,

who waves his wand and, presto! the ball vanishes. The world looking on does not realize

that the vanished article is still cleverly concealed by the juggler in the hollow of his

hand. This is also the Adept whom Omar Khayyám calls "the master of the show." His

message is that the wise direct the phenomena of Nature and are never deceived thereby.

The magician stands behind a table on which are spread out a number of objects,

prominent among them a cup--the Holy Grail and the cup placed by Joseph in Benjamin's

sack; a coin--the tribute money and the wages of a Master Builder, and a sword, that of

Goliath and also the mystic blade of the philosopher which divides the false from the

true. The magician's hat is in the form of the cosmic lemniscate, signifying the first

motion of creation. His right hand points to the earth, his left holds aloft the rod of Jacob

and also the staff that budded--the human spine crowned with the globe of creative

intelligence. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the magician wears an uræus or golden band

around his forehead, the table before him is in the form of a perfect cube, and his girdle is

the serpent of eternity devouring its own tail.

The second numbered major trump is called La Papesse, the Female Pope, and has been

associated with a curious legend of the only woman who ever sat in the pontifical chair.

Pope Joan is supposed to have accomplished this by masquerading in malt attire, and was

stoned to death when her subterfuge was discovered. This card portrays a seated woman

crowned with a tiara surmounted by a lunar crescent. In her lap is the Tora, or book of the

Law (usually partly closed), and in her left hand are the keys to the secret doctrine, one

gold and the other silver. Behind her rise two pillars (Jachin and Boaz) with a

multicolored veil stretched between. Her throne stands upon a checker-hoard floor. A

figure called Juno is occasionally substituted for La Papesse. like the female hierophant

of the Mysteries of Cybele, this symbolic figure personifies the Shekinah, or Divine

Wisdom. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the priestess is veiled, a reminder that the full

countenance truth is not revealed to uninitiated man. A veil also covers one-half of her

book, thus intimating that but one-half of the mystery of being can be comprehended.

The third numbered major trump is called L'Impératrice, the Empress, and has been

likened to the "woman clothed with the sun" described in the Apocalypse. On this card

appears the winged figure of a woman seated upon a throne, supporting with her right

hand a shield emblazoned with a phœnix and holding in her left a scepter surmounted by

an orb or trifoliate flower. Beneath her left foot is sometimes shown the crescent. Either

the Empress is crowned or her head is surrounded by a diadem of stars; sometimes both.

She is called Generation, and represents the threefold spiritual world out of which

proceeds the fourfold material world. To the graduate of the College of the Mysteries she

is the Alma Mater out of whose body the initiate has "born again." In the pseudo-

Egyptian Tarot the Empress is shown seated upon a cube filled with eyes and a bird is

balanced upon the forefinger other left hand. The upper part of her body is surrounded by

a radiant golden nimbus. Being emblematic of the power from which emanates the entire

tangible universe, L'Impératrice is frequently symbolized as pregnant.

The fourth numbered major trump is called L'Empereur, the Emperor, and by its

numerical value is directly associated with the great Deity revered by the Pythagoreans

under the form of the tetrad. His symbols declare the Emperor to be the Demiurgus, the

Great King of the inferior world. The Emperor is dressed in armor and his throne is a

cube stone, upon which a phœnix is also clearly visible. The king has his legs crossed in a

most significant manner and carries either a scepter surmounted by an orb or a scepter in

his right hand and an orb n his left. The orb itself is evidence that he is supreme ruler of

the world. Upon his right and left breasts respectively appear the symbols of the sun and

moon, which in symbolism are referred to as the eyes of the Great King. The position of

the body and legs forms the symbol of sulphur, the sign of the ancient alchemical

monarch. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the figure is in profile. He wears a Masonic apron

and the skirt forms s right-angled triangle. Upon his head is the Crown of the North and

his forehead is adorned wit the coiled uræus.

The fifth numbered major trump is called Le Pape, the Pope, and represents the high

priest of a pagan or Christian Mystery school. In this card the hierophant wears the tiara

and carries in his left hand the triple cross surmounting the globe of the world. His right

hand, bearing upon its back the stigmata, makes "the ecclesiastic sign of esotericism,"

and before him kneel two suppliants or acolytes. The back of the papal throne is in the

form of a celestial and a terrestrial column. This card signifies the initiate or master of the

mystery of life and according to the Pythagoreans, the spiritual physician. The illusionary

universe in the form of the two figures (polarity) kneels before the throne upon which sits

the initiate who has elevated his consciousness to the plane of spiritual understanding and

reality. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the Master wears the uræus. A white and a black

figure--life and death, light and darkness, good and evil--kneel before him. The initiate's

mastery over unreality is indicated by the tiara and the triple cross, emblems of rulership

over the three worlds which have issued from the Unknowable First Cause.

The sixth numbered major trump is called L'Amoureux, the Lovers. There are two distinct

forms of this Tarot. One shows a marriage ceremony in which a priest is uniting a youth

and a maiden (Adam and Eve?) in holy wedlock. Sometimes a winged figure above

transfixes the lovers with his dart. The second form of the card portrays a youth with a

female figure on either side. One of these figures wears a golden crown and is winged,

while the other is attired in the flowing robes of the bacchante and on her head is a wreath

of vine leaves. The maidens represent the twofold soul of man (spiritual and animal), the

first his guardian angel and the second his ever-present demon. The youth stands at the

beginning of mature life, "the Parting of the Ways," where he must choose between virtue

and vice, the eternal and the temporal. Above, in a halo of light, is the genius of Fate (his

star), mistaken for Cupid by the uninformed. If youth chooses unwisely, the arrow of

blindfolded Fate will transfix him. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the arrow of the genius

points directly to the figure of vice, thereby signifying that the end of her path is

destruction. This card reminds man that the price of free will--or, more correctly, the

power of choice--is responsibility.

The seventh numbered major trump is called Le Chariot, the Chariot, and portrays a

victorious warrior crowned and riding in a chariot drawn by black and white sphinxes or

horses. The starry canopy of the chariot is upheld by four columns. This card signifies the

Exalted One who rides in the chariot of creation. The vehicle of the solar energy being

numbered seven reveals the arcane truth that the seven planers are the chariots of the

solar power which rides victorious in their midst. The four columns supporting the

canopy represent the four Mighty Ones who uphold the worlds represented by the star-

strewn drapery. The figure carries the scepter of the solar energy and its shoulders are

ornamented with lunar crescents--the Urim. and Thummim. The sphinxes drawing the

chariot resent the secret and unknown power by which the victorious ruler is moved

continuously through the various parts of his universe. In certain Tarot decks the victor

signifies the regenerated man, for the body of the chariot is a cubic stone. The man in

armor is not standing in the chariot but is rising out of the cube, thus typifying the

ascension of the 3 out of the 4--the turning upward of the flap of the Master Mason's

apron. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the warrior carries the curved sword of Luna, is

bearded to signify maturity, and wears the collar of the planetary orbits. His scepter

(emblematic of the threefold universe) is crowned with a square upon which is a circle

surmounted by a triangle.

p. 131

The eighth numbered major trump is called La Justice, Justice, and portrays a seated

figure upon a throne, the back of which rises in the form of two columns. Justice is

crowned and carries in her right hand a sword and in her left a pair of scales. This card is

a reminder of the judgment of the soul in the hall of Osiris. It teaches that only balanced

forces can endure and that eternal justice destroys with the sword that which is

unbalanced. Sometimes justice is depicted with a braid of her own hair twisted around

her neck in a manner resembling a hangman's knot. This may subtly imply that man is the

cause of his own undoing, his actions (symbolized by his hair) being the instrument of his

annihilation. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the figure of Justice is raised upon a dais of

three steps, for justice can be fully administered only by such as have been elevated to the

third degree. Justice is blindfolded, that the visible shall in no way influence its decision.

(For reasons he considers beyond his readers' intelligence, Mr. Waite reversed the eighth

and eleventh major trumps.)

The ninth numbered major trump is called L'Hermite, the Hermit, and portrays an aged

man, robed in a monkish habit and cowl, leaning on a staff. This card was popularly

supposed to represent Diogenes in his quest for an honest man. In his right hand the

recluse carries a lamp which he partly conceals within the folds of his cape. The hermit

thereby personifies the secret organizations which for uncounted centuries have carefully

concealed the light of the Ancient Wisdom from the profane. The staff of the hermit is

knowledge, which is man's main and only enduring support. Sometimes the mystic rod is

divided by knobs into seven sections, a subtle reference to the mystery of the seven

sacred centers along the human spine. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the hermit shields the

lamp behind a rectangular cape to emphasize the philosophic truth that wisdom, if

exposed to the fury of ignorance, would be destroyed like the tiny flame of a lamp

unprotected from the storm. Man's bodies form a cloak through which his divine nature is

faintly visible like the flame of the partly covered lantern. Through renunciation--the

Hermetic life--man attains depth of character and tranquility of spirit.

The tenth numbered major trump is called La Roue de Fortune, the Wheel of Fortune,

and portrays a mysterious wheel with eight spokes--the familiar Buddhist symbol of the

Cycle of Necessity. To its rim cling Anubis and Typhon--the principles of good and evil.

Above sits the immobile sphinx, carrying the sword of Justice and signifying the perfect

equilibrium of Universal Wisdom. Anubis is shown rising and Typhon descending; but

when Typhon reaches the bottom, evil ascends again, and when Anubis reaches the top

good wanes once more. The Wheel of Fortune represents the lower universe as a whole

with Divine Wisdom (the sphinx) as the eternal arbiter between good and evil. In India,

the chakra, or wheel, is associated with the life centers either of a world or of an

individual. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the Sphinx is armed with a javelin, and Typhon

is being thrown from the wheel. The vertical columns, supporting the wheel and so

placed that but one is visible, represent the axis of the world with the inscrutable sphinx

upon its northern pole. Sometimes the wheel with its supports is in a boat upon the water.

The water is the Ocean of Illusion, which is the sole foundation of the Cycle of Necessity.

The eleventh numbered major trump is called La Force, Strength, and portrays a girl

wearing a hat in the form of a lemniscate, with her hands upon the mouth of an

apparently ferocious lion. Considerable controversy exists as to whether the maid is

dosing or opening the lion's mouth. Most writers declare her to be closing the jaws of the

beast, but a critical inspection conveys the opposite impression. The young woman

symbolizes spiritual strength and the lion either the animal world which the girl is

mastering or the Secret Wisdom over which she is mistress. The lion also signifies the

summer solstice and the girl, Virgo, for when the sun enters this constellation, the Virgin

robs the lion of his strength. King Solomon's throne was ornamented with lions and he

himself was likened to the king of beasts with the key of wisdom between its teeth. In this

sense, the girl may be opening the lion's mouth to find the key contained therein for

courage is a prerequisite to the attainment of knowledge. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot

the symbolism is the same except that the maiden is represented as a priestess wearing an

elaborate crown in the form of a bird surmounted by serpents and an ibis.

The twelfth numbered major trump is called Le Pendu, the Hanged Man, an portrays a

young man hanging by his left leg from a horizontal beam, the latter supported by two

tree trunks from each of which six branches have been removed. The right leg of the

youth is crossed in back of the left and his arms are folded behind his back in such a way

as to form a cross surmounting a downward pointing triangle. The figure thus forms an

inverted symbol of sulphur and, according to Levi, signifies the accomplishment of the

magnum opus. In some decks the figure carries under each arm a money bag from which

coins are escaping. Popular tradition associates this card with Judas Iscariot, who is said

to have gone forth and hanged himself, the money bags representing the payment he

received for his crime.

Levi likens the hanged man to Prometheus, the Eternal Sufferer, further declaring that the

upturned feet signify the spiritualization of the lower nature. It is also possible that the

inverted figure denotes the loss of the spiritual faculties, for the head is below the level of

the body. The stumps of the twelve branches are the signs of the zodiac divided into two

groups--positive and negative. The picture therefore depicts polarity temporarily

triumphant over the spiritual principle of equilibrium. To attain the heights of philosophy,

therefore, man must reverse (or invert) the order of his life. He then loses his sense of

personal possession because he renounces the rule of gold in favor of the golden rule. In

the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the hanged man is suspended between two palm trees and

signifies the Sun God who dies perennially for his world.

The thirteenth numbered major trump is called La Mort, Death, and portrays a reaping

skeleton with a great scythe cutting off the heads, hands, and feet rising out of the earth

about it. In the course of its labors the skeleton has apparently cut off one of its own feet.

Not all Tarot decks show this peculiarity, but this point well emphasizes the philosophic

truth that unbalance and destructiveness are synonymous. The skeleton is the proper

emblem of the first and supreme Deity because it is the foundation of the body, as the

Absolute is the foundation of creation. The reaping skeleton physically signifies death but

philosophically that irresistible impulse in Nature which causes every being to be

ultimately absorbed into the divine condition in which it existed before the illusionary

universe had been manifested. The blade of the scythe is the moon with its crystallizing

power. The field in which death reaps is the universe, and the card discloses that all

things growing out of the earth shall be cut down and return to earth again.

Kings, Queens, courtesans, and knaves are alike to death, the master of the visible and a

parent parts of all creatures. In some Tarot decks death is symbolized as a figure in armor

mounted on a white horse which tramples under foot old and young alike. In the pseudo-

Egyptian Tarot a rainbow is seen behind the figure of death, thus signifying that the

mortality of the body of itself achieves the immortality of the spirit. Death, though it

destroys form, can never destroy life, which continually renews itself. This card is the

symbol of the constant renovation of the universe--disintegration that reintegration may

follow upon a higher level of expression.

The fourteenth numbered major trump is called La Temperance, Temperance, and

portrays an angelic figure with the sun upon her forehead. She carries two urns, one

empty and the other full, and continually pours the contents of the upper into the lower,

In some Tarot decks the flowing water takes the form of the symbol of Aquarius. Not one

drop, however, of the living water is lost in this endless transference between the superior

vessel and the inferior. When the lower urn is filled the vases are reversed, thus

signifying that life pours first from the invisible into the visible, then from the visible

back into the invisible. The spirit controlling this flow is an emissary of the great

Jehovah, Demiurgus of the world. The sun, or light cluster, upon the woman's forehead

controls the flow of water, which, being drawn upward into the air by the solar rays,

descends upon the earth as rain, to drawn up and fall again ad infinitum. Herein is also

shown the passage of the human life forces back and forth between positive and negative

poles of the creative system. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the symbolism is the same,

except that the winged figure is male instead of female. It is surrounded by a solar

nimbus and pours water from a golden urn into a silver one, typifying the descent of

celestial forces into the sublunary spheres.

The fifteenth numbered major trump is called Le Diable, the Devil, and portrays a

creature resembling Pan with the horns of a ram or deer, the arms and body of a man, and

the legs and feet of a goat or dragon. The figure stands upon a cubic stone, to a ring in the

front of which are chained two satyrs. For a scepter this so-called demon carries a lighted

torch or candle. The entire figure is symbolic of the magic powers of the astral light, or

universal mirror, in which the divine forces are reflected in an inverted, or infernal, state.

The demon is winged like a bar, showing that it pertains to the nocturnal, or shadow

inferior sphere. The animal natures of man, in the form of a male and a female elemental,

are chained to its footstool. The torch is the false light which guides unillumined souls to

their own undoing. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot appears Typhon--a winged creature

composed of a hog, a man, a bat, a crocodile, and a hippopotamus--standing in the midst

of its own destructiveness and holding aloft the firebrand of the incendiary. Typhon is

created by man's own misdeeds, which, turning upon their maker, destroy him.

The sixteenth numbered major trump is called Le Feu du Ciel, the Fire of Heaven, and

portrays a tower the battlements of which, in the form of a crown, are being destroyed by

a bolt of lightning issuing from the sun. The crown, being considerably smaller than the

tower which it surmounts, possibly indicates that its destruction resulted from its

insufficiency. The lighting bolt sometimes takes the form of the zodiacal sign of Scorpio,

and the tower may be considered a phallic emblem. Two figures are failing from the

tower, one in front and the other behind. This Tarot card is popularly associated with the

traditional fall of man. The divine nature of humanity is depicted as a tower. When his

crown is destroyed, man falls into the lower world and takes upon himself the illusion of

materiality. Here also is a key to the mystery of sex. The tower is supposedly filled with

gold coins which, showering out in great numbers from the rent made by the lightning

bolt, suggesting potential powers. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the tower is a pyramid,

its apex shattered by a lightning bolt. Here is a reference to the missing capstone of the

Universal House. In support of Levi's contention that this card is connected with the

Hebrew letter Ayin, the failing figure in the foreground is similar in general appearance to

the sixteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

The seventeenth numbered major trump is called Les Etoiles, the Stars, and portrays a

young girl kneeling with one foot in water and the other on and, her body somewhat

suggesting the swastika. She has two urns, the contents of which she pours upon the land

and sea. Above the girl's head are eight stars, one of which is exceptionally large and

bright. Count de Gébelin considers the great star to be Sothis or Sirius; the other seven

are the sacred planets of the ancients. He believes the female figure to be Isis in the act of

causing the inundations of the Nile which accompanied the rising of the Dog Star. The

unclothed figure of Isis may well signify that Nature does not receive her garment of

verdure until the rising of the Nile waters releases the germinal life of plants and flowers.

The bush and bird (or butterfly) signify the growth and resurrection which accompany the

rising of the waters. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the great star contains a diamond

composed of a black and white triangle, and the flowering bush is a tall plant with a

trifoliate head upon which a butterfly alights. Here Isis is in the form of an upright

triangle and the vases have become shallow cups. The elements of water and earth under

her feet represent the opposites of Nature sharing impartially in the divine abundance.

The eighteenth numbered major trump is called La Lune, the Moon, and portrays Luna

rising between two towers--one light and the other dark. A dog and a wolf are baying at

the rising moon, and in the foreground is a pool of water from which emerges a crawfish.

Between the towers a path

Click to enlarge

A CARD FROM THE MANTEGNA PACK.

From Taylor's The History of Playing Cards.

Among the more curious examples of playing cards are those of the Mantegna deck. In 1820, a perfect deck

of fifty cards brought the then amazing price of eighty pounds. The fifty subjects composing the Mantegna

deck, each of which is represented by an appropriate figure, are: (1) A beggar; (2) A page; (3) A goldsmith;

(4) A merchant; (5) A gentleman; (6) A knight; (7) The Doge; (8) A king; (9) An emperor, (10) The Pope;

(11) Calliope; (12) Urania; (13) Terpsichore; (14) Erato; (15) Polyhymnia; (16) Thalia; (17) Melpomene;

(18) Euterpe; (19) Clio; (20) Apollo; (21) Grammar, (22) Logic; (23) Rhetoric; (24) Geometry; (25)

Arithmetic; (26) Music, (27) Poetry; (28) Philosophy; (29) Astrology; (30) Theology; (31) Astronomy; (32)

Chronology (33) Cosmogony; (34) Temperance; (35) Prudence; (36) Fortitude; (37) Justice; (38) Charity;

(39) Fortitude, (40) Faith; (41) the Moon; (42) Mercury; (43) Venus; (45) the Sun; (45) Mars; (46) Jupiter;

(47) Saturn; (48) the eighth Sphere; (49) the Primum Mobile; (50) the First Cause. The Qabbalistic

significance of these cards is apparent, and it is possible that they have a direct analogy to the fifty gates of light referred to in Qabbalistic writings.

p. 132

winds, vanishing in the extreme background. Court de Gébelin sees in this card another

reference to the rising of the Nile and states on the authority of Pausanius that the

Egyptians believed the inundations of the Nile to result from the tears of the moon

goddess which, falling into the river, swelled its flow. These tears are seen dropping from

the lunar face. Court de Gébelin also relates the towers to the Pillars of Hercules, beyond

which, according to the Egyptians, the luminaries never passed. He notes also that the

Egyptians represented the tropics as dogs who as faithful doorkeepers prevented the sun

and moon from penetrating too near the poles. The crab or crawfish signifies the

retrograde motion of the moon.

This card also refers to the path of wisdom. Man in his quest of reality emerges from the

pool of illusion. After mastering the guardians of the gates of wisdom he passes between

the fortresses of science and theology and follows the winding path leading to spiritual

liberation. His way is faintly lighted by human reason (the moon), which is but a

reflection of divine wisdom. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the towers are pyramids, the

dogs are black and white respectively, and the moon is partly obscured by clouds. The

entire scene suggests the dreary and desolate place in which the Mystery dramas of the

Lesser Rites were enacted.

The nineteenth numbered major trump is called Le Soleil, the Sun, and portrays two

children--probably Gemini, the Twins--standing together in a garden surrounded by a

magic ring of flowers. One of these children should be shown as male and the other

female. Behind them is a brick wall apparently enclosing the garden. Above the wall the

sun is rising, its rays alternately straight and curved. Thirteen teardrops are falling from

the solar face Levi, seeing in the two children Faith and Reason, which must coexist as

long as the temporal universe endures, writes: "Human equilibrium requires two feet, the

worlds gravitate by means of two forces, generation needs two sexes. Such is the

meaning of the arcanum of Solomon, represented by the two pillars of the temple, Jakin

and Bohas." (See Transcendental Magic.) The sun of Truth is shining into the garden of

the world over which these two children, as personifications of eternal powers reside. The

harmony of the world depends upon the coordination of two qualities symbolized

throughout the ages as the mind and the heart. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the children

give place to a youth and a maiden. Above them in a solar nimbus is the phallic emblem

of generation--a line piercing a circle. Gemini is ruled by Mercury and the two children

personify the serpents entwined around the caduceus.

The twentieth numbered major trump is called Le Jugement, the judgment, and portrays

three figures rising apparently from their tombs, though but one coffin is visible. Above

them in a blaze of glory is a winged figure (presumably the Angel Gabriel) blowing a

trumpet. This Tarot represents the liberation of man's threefold spiritual nature from the

sepulcher of his material constitution. Since but one-third of the spirit actually enters the

physical body, the other two-thirds constituting the Hermetic anthropos or overman, only

one of the three figures is actually rising from the tomb. Court de Gébelin believes that

the coffin may have been an afterthought of the card makers and that the scene actually

represents creation rather than resurrection, In philosophy these two words are practically

synonymous. The blast of the trumpet represents the Creative Word, by the intoning of

which man is liberated from his terrestrial limitations. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot it is

evident that the three figures signify the parts of a single being, for three mummies are

shown emerging from one mummy case.

The twenty-first numbered major trump is called Le Monde, the World, and portrays a

female figure draped with a scarf which the wind blows into the form of the Hebrew

letter Kaph. Her extended hands--each of which holds a wand--and her left leg, which

crosses behind the right, cause the figure to assume the form of the alchemical symbol of

sulphur. The central figure is surrounded by a wreath in the form of a vesica piscis which

Levi likens to the Qabbalistic crown Kether. The Cherubim of Ezekiel's vision occupy

the corners of the card. This Tarot is called the Microcosm and the Macrocosm because

in it are summed up every agency contributing to the structure of creation. The figure in

the form Of the emblem of sulphur represents the divine fire and the heart of the Great

Mystery. The wreath is Nature, which surrounds the fiery center. The Cherubim represent

the elements, worlds, forces, and planes issuing out of the divine fiery center of life. The

wreath signifies the crown of the initiate which is given to those who master the four

guardians and enter into the presence of unveiled Truth. In the pseudo-Egyptian Tarot the

Cherubim surround a wreath composed of twelve trifoliate flowers--the decanates of the

zodiac. A human figure kneels below this wreath, playing upon a harp of three strings, for

the spirit must create harmony in the triple constitution of its inferior nature before it can

gain for itself the solar crown of immortality.

The four suits of the minor trumps are considered as analogous to the four elements, the

four corners of creation, and the four worlds of Qabbalism. The key to the lesser Tarots is

presumably the Tetragrammaton, or the four-letter name of Jehovah, IHVH. The four

suits of the minor trumps represent also the major divisions of society: cups are the

priesthood, swords the military, coins the tradesmen, and rods the farming class. From

the standpoint of what Court de Gébelin calls "political geography," cups represent the

northern countries, swords the Orient, coins the Occident, and rods the southern

countries. The ten pip cards of each suit represent the nations composing each of these

grand divisions. The kings are their governments, the queens their religions, the knights

their histories and national characteristics, and the pages their arts and sciences. Elaborate

treatises have been written concerning the use of the Tarot cards in divination, but as this

practice is contrary to the primary purpose of the Tarot no profit can result from its

discussion.

Many interesting examples of early playing cards are found in the museums of Europe,

and there are also noteworthy specimens in the cabinets of various private collectors. A

few hand-painted decks exist which are extremely artistic. These depict various important

personages contemporary with the artists. In some instances, the court cards are

portraitures of the reigning monarch and his family. In England engraved cards became

popular, and in the British Museum are also to be seen some extremely quaint stenciled

cards. Heraldic devices were employed; and Chatto, in his Origin and History of Playing

Cards, reproduces four heraldic cards in which the arms of Pope Clement IX adorn the

king of clubs. There have been philosophical decks with emblems chosen from Greek and

Roman mythology, also educational decks ornamented with maps or pictorial

representations of famous historic places and incidents. Many rare examples of playing-

cards have been found bound into the covers of early books. In Japan there are card

games the successful playing of which requires familiarity with nearly all the literary

masterpieces of that nation. In India there are circular decks depicting episodes from

Oriental myths. There are also cards which in one sense of the word are not cards, for the

designs are on wood, ivory, and even metal. There are comic cards caricaturing disliked

persons and places, and there are cards commemorating various human achievements.

During the American Civil War a patriotic deck was circulated in which stars, eagles,

anchors, and American flags were substituted for the suits and the court cards were

famous generals.

Modern playing cards are the minor trumps of the Tarot, from each suit of which the

page, or valet, has been eliminated, leaving 13 cards. Even in its abridged form, however,

the modern deck is of profound symbolic importance, for its arrangement is apparently in

accord with the divisions of the year. The two colors, red and black, represent the two

grand divisions of the year--that during which the sun is north of the equator and that

during which it is south of the equator. The four suits represent the seasons, the ages of

the ancient Greeks, and the Yugas of the Hindus. The twelve court cards are the signs of

the zodiac arranged in triads of a Father, a Power, and a Mind according to the upper

section of the Bembine Table. The ten pip cards of each suit represent the Sephirothic

trees existing in each of the four worlds (the suits). The 13 cards of each suit are the 13

lunar months in each year, and the 52 cards of the deck are the 52 weeks in the year.

Counting the number of pips and reckoning the jacks, queens, and kings as 11, 12, and 13

respectively, the sum for the 52 cards is 364. If the joker be considered as one point, the

result is 365, or the number of days in the year. Milton Pottenger believed that the United

States of America was laid out according to the conventional deck of playing cards, and

that the government will ultimately consist of 52 States administered by a 53rd

undenominated division, the District of Columbia.

The court cards contain a number of important Masonic symbols. Nine are full face and

three are profile. Here is the broken "Wheel of the Law," signifying the nine months of

the prenatal epoch and the three degrees of spiritual unfoldment necessary to produce the

perfect man. The four armed kings are the Egyptian Ammonian Architects who gouged

out the universe with knives. They are also the cardinal signs of the zodiac. The four

queens, carrying eight-petaled flowers symbolic of the Christ, are the fixed signs of the

zodiac. The four jacks, two of whom bear acacia sprigs--the jack of hearts in his hand, the

jack of clubs in his hat-are the four common signs of the zodiac. It should be noted also

that the court cards of the spade suit will not look upon the pip in the corner of the card

but face away from it as though fearing this emblem of death. The Grand Master of the

Order of the Cards is the king of clubs, who carries the orb as emblematic of his dignity.

In its symbolism chess is the most significant of all games. It has been called "the royal

game"--the pastime of kings. Like the Tarot cards, the chessmen represent the elements

of life and philosophy. The game was played in India and China long before its

introduction into Europe. East Indian princes were wont to sit on the balconies of their

palaces and play chess with living men standing upon a checkerboard pavement of black

and white marble in the courtyard below. It is popularly believed that the Egyptian

Pharaohs played chess, but an examination of their sculpture and illuminations has led to

the conclusion that the Egyptian game was a form of draughts. In China, chessmen are

often carved to represent warring dynasties, as the Manchu and the Ming. The chessboard

consists of 64 squares alternately black and white and symbolizes the floor of the House

of the Mysteries. Upon this field of existence or thought move a number of strangely

carved figures, each according to fixed law. The white king is Ormuzd; the black king,

Ahriman; and upon the plains of Cosmos the great war between Light and Darkness is

fought through all the ages. Of the philosophical constitution of man, the kings represent

the spirit; the queens the mind; the bishops the emotions; the knights the vitality; the

castles, or rooks, the physical body. The pieces upon the kings' side are positive; those

upon the queens' side, negative. The pawns are the sensory impulses and perceptive

faculties--the eight parts of the soul. The white king and his suite symbolize the Self and

its vehicles; the black king and his retinue, the not-self--the false Ego and its legion. The

game of chess thus sets forth the eternal struggle of each part of man's compound nature

against the shadow of itself. The nature of each of the chessmen is revealed by the way in

which it moves; geometry is the key to their interpretation. For example: The castle (the

body) moves on the square; the bishop (the emotions) moves on the slant; the king, being

the spirit, cannot be captured, but loses the battle when so surrounded that it cannot

escape.

p. 133

The Tabernacle in the Wilderness

THERE is no doubt that much of the material recorded in the first five books of the Old

Testament is derived from the initiatory rituals of the Egyptian Mysteries. The priests of

Isis were deeply versed in occult lore, and the Israelites during their captivity in Egypt

learned from them many things concerning the significance of Divinity and the manner of

worshiping It. The authorship of the first five books of the Old Testament is generally

attributed to Moses, but whether or not he was the actual writer of them is a matter of

controversy. There is considerable evidence to substantiate the hypothesis that the

Pentateuch was compiled at a much later date, from oral traditions. Concerning the

authorship of these books, Thomas Inman makes a rather startling statement: "It is true

that we have books which purport to be the books of Moses; so there are, or have been,

books purporting to be written by Homer, Orpheus, Enoch, Mormon, and Junius; yet the

existence of the writings, and the belief that they were written by those whose name they

bear, are no real evidences of the men or the genuineness of the works called by their

names. It is true also that Moses is spoken of occasionally in the time of the early Kings

of Jerusalem; but it is clear that these passages are written by a late hand, and have been

introduced into the places where they are found, with the definite intention of making it

appear that the lawgiver was known to David and Solomon." (See Ancient Faiths

Embodied in Ancient Names.)

While this noted scholar undoubtedly had much evidence to support his belief, it seems

that this statement is somewhat too sweeping in character. It is apparently based upon the

fact that Thomas Inman doubted the historical existence of Moses. This doubt was based

upon the etymological resemblance of the word Moses to an ancient name for the sun. As

the result of these deductions, Inman sought to prove that the Lawgiver of Israel was

merely another form of the omnipresent solar myth. While Inman demonstrated that by

transposing two of the ancient letters the word Moses (משה) became Shemmah (שמה), an

appellation of the celestial globe, he seems to have overlooked the fact that in the ancient

Mysteries the initiates were often given names synonymous with the sun, to symbolize

the fact that the redemption and regeneration of the solar power had been achieved within

their own natures. It is far more probable that the man whom we know as Moses was an

accredited representative of the secret schools, laboring--as many other emissaries have

labored--to instruct primitive races in the mysteries of their immortal souls.

The true name of the Grand Old Man of Israel who is known to history as Moses will

probably never be ascertained. The word Moses, when understood in its esoteric Egyptian

sense, means one who has been admitted into the Mystery Schools of Wisdom and ~as

gone forth to teach the ignorant concerning the will of the gods and the mysteries of life,

as these mysteries were explained within the temples of Isis, Osiris, and Serapis. There is

much controversy concerning the nationality of Moses. Some assert that he was a Jew,

adopted and educated by the ruling house of Egypt; others hold the opinion that he was a

full-blooded Egyptian. A few even believe him to be identical with the immortal Hermes,

for both these illustrious founders of religious systems received tablets from heaven

supposedly written by the finger of God. The stories told concerning Moses, his

discovery in the ark of bulrushes by Pharaoh's daughter, his adoption into the royal

family of Egypt, and his later revolt against Egyptian autocracy coincide exactly with

certain ceremonies through which the candidates of the Egyptian Mysteries passed in

their ritualistic wanderings in search of truth and understanding. The analogy can also be

traced in the movements of the heavenly bodies.

It is not strange that the erudite Moses, initiated in Egypt, should teach the Jews a

philosophy containing the more important principles of Egyptian esotericism. The

religions of Egypt at the time of the Israelitic captivity were far older than even the

Egyptians themselves realized. Histories were difficult to compile in those days, and the

Egyptians were satisfied to trace their race back to a mythological period when the gods

themselves walked the earth and with their own power established the Double Empire of

the Nile. The Egyptians did not dream that these divine progenitors were the Atlanteans,

who, forced to abandon their seven islands because of volcanic cataclysms, had

immigrated into Egypt--then an Atlantean colony--where they established a great

philosophic and literary center of civilization which was later to influence profoundly the

religions and science of unnumbered races and peoples. Today Egypt is forgotten, but

things Egyptian will always be remembered and revered. Egypt is dead--yet it lives

immortal in its philosophy, and architectonics.

As Odin founded his Mysteries in Scandinavia, and Quexalcoatl in Mexico, so Moses,

laboring with the then nomadic people of Israel's twelve tribes, established in the midst of

them his secret and symbolic school, which has came to be known as The Tabernacle

Mysteries. The Tabernacle of: the Jews was merely a temple patterned after the temples

of Egypt, and transportable to meet the needs of that roving disposition which the

Israelites were famous. Every part of the Tabernacle and the enclosure which surrounded

it was symbolic of some great natural or philosophic truth. To the ignorant it was but a

place to which to bring offerings and in which to make sacrifice; to the wise it was a

temple of learning, sacred to the Universal Spirit of Wisdom.

While the greatest, minds of the Jewish and Christian worlds have realized that the Bible

is a book of allegories, few seem to have taken the trouble to investigate its symbols and

parables. When Moses instituted his Mysteries, he is said to have given to a chosen few

initiates certain oral teachings which could never be written but were to be preserved

from one generation to the next by word-of-mouth transmission. Those instructions were

in the form of philosophical keys, by means of which the allegories were made to reveal

their hidden significance. These mystic keys to their sacred writings were called by the

Jews the Qabbalah (Cabala, Kaballah).

The modern world seems to have forgotten the existence of those unwritten teachings

which explained satisfactorily the apparent contradictions of the written Scriptures, nor

does it remember that the pagans appointed their two-faced Janus as custodian of the key

to the Temple of Wisdom. Janus has been metamorphosed into St. Peter, so often

symbolized as holding in his hand the key to the gate of heaven. The gold and silver keys

of "God's Vicar on Earth," the Pope, symbolizes this "secret doctrine" which, when

properly understood, unlocks the treasure chest of the Christian and Jewish Qabbalah.

The temples of Egyptian mysticism (from which the Tabernacle was copied) were--

according to their own priests--miniature representations of the universe. The solar

system was always regarded as a great temple of initiation, which candidates entered

through the gates of birth; after threading the tortuous passageways of earthly existence,

they finally approached the veil of the Great Mystery--Death--through whose gate they

vanished back into the invisible world. Socrates subtly reminded his disciples that Death

was, in reality, the great initiation, for his last words were: "Crito, I owe a cock to

Asclepius; will you remember to pay the debt?" (As the rooster was sacred to the gods

and the sacrifice of this bird accompanied a candidate's introduction into the Mysteries,

Socrates implied that he was about to take his great initiation.)

Life is the great mystery, and only those who pass successfully through its tests and trials,

interpreting them aright and extracting the essence of experience therefrom, achieve true

understanding. Thus, the temples were built in the form of the world and their rituals

were based upon life and its multitudinous problems. Nor only was the Tabernacle itself

patterned according to Egyptian mysticism; its utensils were also of ancient and accepted

form. The Ark

Click to enlarge

THE ANCIENT OF DAYS.

From Montfaucon's Antiquities.

It is in this form that Jehovah is generally pictured by the Qabbalists. The drawing is intended to represent

the Demiurgus of the Greeks and Gnostics, called by the Greeks "Zeus," the Immortal Mortal, and by the Hebrews "IHVH."

p. 134

of the Covenant itself was an adaptation of the Egyptian Ark, even to the kneeling figures

upon its lid. Bas-reliefs on the Temple of Philæ show Egyptian priests carrying their Ark-

-which closely resembled the Ark of the Jews--upon their shoulders by means of staves

like those described in Exodus.

The following description of the Tabernacle and its priests is based upon the account of

its construction and ceremonies recorded by Josephus in the Third Book of his Antiquities

of the Jews. The Bible references are from a "Breeches" Bible (famous for its rendering

of the seventh verse of the third chapter of Genesis), printed in London in 1599, and the

quotations are reproduced in their original spelling and punctuation.

THE BUILDING OF THE TABERNACLE

Moses, speaking for Jehovah, the God of Israel, appointed two architects to superintend

the building of the Tabernacle. They were Besaleel, the son of Uri, of the tribe of Judah,

and Aholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan. Their popularity was so great that

they were also the unanimous choice of the people. When Jacob upon his deathbed

blessed his sons (see Genesis xlix), he assigned to each a symbol. The symbol of Judah

was a lion; that of Dan a serpent or a bird (possibly an eagle). The lion and the eagle are

two of the four beasts of the Cherubim (the fixed signs of the zodiac); and the

Rosicrucian alchemists maintained that the mysterious Stone of the Wise (the Soul) was

compounded with the aid of the Blood of the Red Lion and the Gluten of the White

Eagle. It seems probable that there is a hidden mystic relationship between fire (the Red

Lion), water (the White Eagle), as they were used in occult chemistry, and the

representatives of these two tribes whose symbols were identical with these alchemical

elements.

As the Tabernacle was the dwelling place of God among men, likewise the soul body in

man is the dwelling place of his divine nature, round which gathers a twelvefold material

constitution in the same manner that the tribes of Israel camped about the enclosure

sacred to Jehovah. The idea that the Tabernacle was really symbolic of an invisible

spiritual truth outside the comprehension of the Israelites is substantiated by a statement

made in the eighth chapter of Hebrews: "Who serve unto the paterne and shadowe of

heavenly things, as Moses was warned by God, when he was about to finish the

Tabernacle." Here we find the material physical place of worship called a "shadow" or

symbol of a spiritual institution, invisible but omnipotent.

The specifications of the Tabernacle are described in the book of Exodus, twenty-fifth

chapter: "Then the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speake unto the children of Israel that

they receive an offering for me: of every man, whose heart giveth it freely, yee shall take

the offering for me. And this is the offering which ye shall take of them, gold and silver,

and brass, and blue silke, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linnen and goats haire. And

rammes skinnes coloured red, and the skinnes of badgers, and the wood Shittim, oyle for

the light, spices for anoynting oyle, and for the perfume of sweet favour, onix stones, and

stories to be set in the Ephod, and in the breastplate. Also they shall make me a

Sanctuary, that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, even so shall

ye make the forme of the Tabernacle, and the fashion of all the instruments thereof."

The court of the Tabernacle was an enclosed area, fifty cubits wide and one hundred

cubits long, circumscribed by a wall of linen curtains hung from brazen pillars five cubits

apart. (The cubit is an ancient standard of measurement, its length being equal to the

distance between the elbow and the extreme end of the index finger, approximately

eighteen inches.) There were twenty of these pillars on each of the longer sides and ten

on the shorter. Each pillar had a base of brass and a capital of silver. The Tabernacle was

always laid out with the long sides facing north and south and the short sides facing east

and west, with the entrance to the east, thus showing the influence of primitive sun

worship.

The outer court served the principal purpose of isolating the tent of the Tabernacle

proper, which stood in the midst of the enclosure. At the entrance to the courtyard, which

was in the eastern face of the rectangle, stood the Altar of Burnt Offerings, made of brass

plates over wood and ornamented with the horns of bulls and rams. Farther in, but on a

line with this altar, stood the Laver of Purification, a great vessel containing water for

priestly ablutions. The Laver was twofold in its construction, the upper part being a large

bowl, probably covered, which served as a source of supply for a lower basin in which

the priests bathed themselves before participating in the various ceremonials. It is

supposed that this Laver was encrusted with the metal mirrors of the women of the

twelve tribes of Israel.

The dimensions of the Tabernacle proper were as follows: "Its length, when it was set up,

was thirty cubits, and its breadth was ten cubits. The one of its walls was on the south,

and the other was exposed to the north, and on the back part of it remained the west. It

was necessary that its height should be equal to its breadth (ten cubits)." (Josephus.)

It is the custom of bibliologists to divide the interior of the Tabernacle into two rooms:

one room ten cubits wide, ten cubits high, and twenty cubits long, which was called the

Holy Place and contained three special articles of furniture, namely, the Seven-Branched

Candlestick, the Table of the Shewbread, and the Altar of Burnt Incense; the other room

ten cubits wide, ten cubits high, and ten cubits long, which was called the Holy of Holies

and contained but one article of furniture--the Ark of the Covenant. The two rooms were

separated from each other by an ornamental veil upon which were embroidered many

kinds of flowers, but no animal or human figures.

Josephus hints that there was a third compartment which was formed by subdividing the

Holy Place, at least hypothetically, into two chambers. The Jewish historian is not very

explicit in his description of this third room, and the majority of writers seem to have

entirely overlooked and neglected this point, although Josephus emphatically states that

Moses himself divided the inner tent into three sections. The veil separating the Holy

Place from the Holy of Holies was hung across four pillars, which probably indicated in a

subtle way the four elements, while at the entrance to the tent proper the Jews placed

seven pillars, referring to the seven senses and the seven vowels of the Sacred Name.

That later only five pillars are mentioned may be accounted for by the fact that at the

present time man has only five developed senses and five active vowels. The early Jewish

writer of The Baraitha treats of the curtains as follows:

"There were provided ten curtains of blue, of purple, and scarlet, and fine-twined linen.

As is said, 'Moreover thou shall make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine-twined

linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet.' * * * There were provided eleven curtains of

goats' hair, and the length of every one of them was thirty cubits, * * *. Rabbi Judah said,

'There were two covers-the lower one of rams' skins dyed red, and the upper one of

badgers' skins. '"

Calmet is of the opinion that the Hebrew word translated "badger" really means "dark

purple" and therefore did not refer to any particular animal, but probably to a heavily

woven waterproof fabric of dark and inconspicuous color. During the time of Israel's

wanderings through the wilderness, it is supposed that a pillar of fire hovered over the

Tabernacle at night, while a column of smoke traveled with it by day. This cloud was

called by the Jews the Shechinah and was symbolic of the presence of the Lord. In one of

the early Jewish books rejected at the time of the compiling of the Talmud the following

description of the Shechinah appears:

"Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the

Tabernacle. And that was one of the clouds of glory, which served the Israelites in the

wilderness forty years. One on the right hand, and one on the left, and one before them,

and one behind them. And one over them, and a cloud dwelling in their midst (and the

cloud, the Shechinah which was in the tent), and the pillar of cloud which moved before

them, making low before them the high places, and making high before them the low

places, and killing serpents and scorpions, and burning thorns and briars, and guiding

them in the straight way." (From The Baraitha, the Book of the Tabernacle.)

THE FURNISHINGS OF THE TABERNACLE

There is no doubt that the Tabernacle, its furnishings and ceremonials, when considered

esoterically, are analogous to the structure, organs, and functions of the human body. At

the entrance to the outer court of the Tabernacle stood the Altar of Burnt Offerings, five

cubits long and five cubits wide but only three cubits high. Its upper surface was a brazen

grill upon which the sacrifice was placed, while beneath was a space for the fire. This

altar signified

Click to enlarge

THE BREASTPLATE OF THE HIGH PRIEST.

From Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible.

The order of the stones and the tribe over which each administered were, according to Calmet, as in the

above diagram. These gems, according to the Rosicrucians, were symbolic of the twelve great qualities and

virtues: Illumination, Love, Wisdom, Truth, Justice, Peace, Equilibrium, Humility, Faith, Strength, Joy, Victory.

p. 135

that a candidate, when first entering the precincts of sanctuary, must offer upon the

brazen altar not a poor unoffending bull or ram but its correspondence within his own

nature. The bull, being symbolic of earthiness, represented his own gross constitution

which must be burned up by the fire of his Divinity. (The sacrificing of beasts, and in

some cases human beings, upon the altars of the pagans was the result of their ignorance

concerning the fundamental principle underlying sacrifice. They did not realize that their

offerings must come from within their own natures in order to be acceptable.)

Farther westward, in line with the Brazen Altar, was the Laver of Purification already

described. It signified to the priest that he should cleanse not only his body but also his

soul from all stains of impurity, for none who is not clean in both body and mind can

enter into the presence of Divinity and live. Beyond the Laver of Purification was the

entrance to the Tabernacle proper, facing the east, so that the first rays of the rising sun

might enter and light the chamber. Between the encrusted pillars could be seen the Holy

Place, a mysterious chamber, its walls hung with magnificent drapes embroidered with

the faces of Cherubs.

Against the wall on the southern side of the Holy Place stood the great Candlestick, or

lampstand, of cast gold, which was believed to weigh about a hundred pounds. From its

central shaft branched out six arms, each ending in a cup-shaped depression in which

stood an oil lamp. There were seven lamps, three on the arms at each side and one on the

central stem. The Candlestick was ornamented with seventy-two almonds, knops, and

flowers. Josephus says seventy, but wherever this round number is used by the Hebrews

it really means seventy-two. Opposite the Candlestick, against the northern wall, was a

table bearing twelve loaves of Shewbread in two stacks of six loaves each. (Calmet is of

the opinion that the bread was not stacked up but spread out on the table in two rows,

each containing six loaves.) On this table also stood two lighted incensories, which were

placed upon the tops of the stacks of Shewbread so that the smoke of the incense might

be an acceptable aroma to the Lord, bearing with it in its ascent the soul of the

Shewbread.

In the center of the room, almost against the partition leading into the Holy of Holies,

stood the Altar of Burnt Incense, made of wood overlaid with golden plates. Its width and

length were each a cubit and its height was two cubits. This altar was symbolic of the

human larynx, from which the words of man's mouth ascend as an acceptable offering

unto the Lord, for the larynx occupies the position in the constitution of man between the

Holy Place, which is the trunk of his body, and the Holy of Holies, which is the head with

its contents.

Into the Holy of Holies none might pass save the High Priest, and he only at certain

prescribed times, The room contained no furnishings save the Ark of the Covenant,

which stood against the western wall, opposite the entrance. In Exodus the dimensions of

the Ark are given as two and a half cubits for its length, one cubit and a half its breadth

and one cubit and a half its height. It was made of shittim-wood, gold plated within and

without, and contained the sacred tablets of the Law delivered to Moses upon Sinai. The

lid of the Ark was in the form of a golden plate upon which knelt two mysterious

creatures called Cherubim, facing each other, with wings arched overhead. It was upon

this mercy seat between the wings of the celestials that the Lord of Israel descended when

He desired to communicate with His High Priest.

The furnishings of the Tabernacle were made conveniently portable. Each altar and

implement of any size was supplied with staves which could be put: through rings; by

this means it could be picked up and carried by four or more bearers. The staves were

never removed from the Ark of the Covenant until it was finally placed in the Holy of

Holies of the Everlasting House, King Solomon's Temple.

There is no doubt that the Jews in early times realized, at least in part, that their

Tabernacle was a symbolic edifice. Josephus realized this and while he has been severely

criticized because he interpreted the Tabernacle symbolism according to Egyptian and

Grecian paganism, his description of the secret meanings of its drapes and furnishings is

well worthy of consideration. He says:

"When Moses distinguished the tabernacle into three parts, and allowed two of them to

the priests, as a place accessible and common, he denoted the land and the sea, these

being of general access to all; but he set apart the third division for God, because heaven

is inaccessible to men. And when he ordered twelve loaves to be set on a table, he

denoted the year, as distinguished into so many months. By branching out the candlestick

into seventy parts, he secretly intimated the Decani, or seventy divisions of the planets;

and as to the seven lamps upon the candlesticks, they referred to the course of the planets,

of which that is the number. The veils too, which were composed of four things, they

declared the four elements; for the plain linen was proper to signify the earth, because the

flax grows out of the earth; the purple signified the sea, because that color is dyed by the

blood of a sea shell-fish; the blue is fit to signify the air; and the scarlet will naturally be

an indication of fire.

"Now the vestment of the high-priest being made of linen, signified the earth; the blue

denoted the sky, being like lightning in its pomegranates, and in the noise of the bells

resembling thunder. And for the Ephod, it showed that God had made the universe of

four (elements); and as for the gold interwoven, * * * it related to the splendor by which

all things are enlightened. He also appointed the breastplate to be placed in the middle of

the Ephod, to resemble the earth, for that has the very middle place of the world. And the

girdle which encompassed the high-priest round signified the ocean, for that goes round

about and includes the universe. Each of the sardonyxes declares to us the sun and the

moon, those, I mean, that were in the nature of buttons on the high-priest's shoulders.

And for the twelve stones, whether we understand by them the months, or whether we

understand the like number of the signs of that circle which the Greeks call the Zodiac,

we shall not be mistaken in their meaning. And for the mitre, which was of a blue colour,

it seems to me to mean heaven; for how otherwise could the name of God be inscribed

upon it? That it was also illustrated with a crown, and that of gold also, is because of that

splendour with which God is pleased." It is also symbolically significant that the

Tabernacle was built in seven months and dedicated to God at the time of the new moon.

The metals used in the building of the Tabernacle were all emblematic. Gold represents

spirituality, and the golden plates laid over the shittim-wood were emblems of the

spiritual nature which glorifies the human nature symbolized by the wood. Mystics have

taught that man's physical body is surrounded by a series of invisible bodies of diverse

colors and great splendor. In the majority of people the spiritual nature is concealed and

imprisoned in the material nature, but in a few this internal constitution has been

objectified and the spiritual nature is outside, so that it surrounds man's personality with a

great radiance.

Silver, used as the capitals for the pillars, has its reference to the moon, which was sacred

to the Jews and the Egyptians alike. The priests held secret ritualistic ceremonies at the

time of the new and the full moon, both of which periods were sacred to Jehovah. Silver,

so the ancients taught, was gold with its sun-ray turned inward instead of objectified.

While gold symbolized the spiritual soul, silver represented the purified and regenerated

human nature of man.

The brass used in the outer altars was a composite substance consisting of an alloy of

precious and base metals. Thus, it represented the constitution of the average individual,

who is a combination of both the higher and the lower elements.

The three divisions of the Tabernacle should have a special interest to Freemasons, for

they represent the three degrees of the Blue Lodge, while the three orders of priests who

served the Tabernacle are preserved to modern Masonry as the Entered Apprentice, the

Fellow Craftsman, and the Master Mason. The Hawaiian Islanders built a Tabernacle not

unlike that of the Jews, except that their rooms were one above another and not one

behind another, as in the case of the Tabernacle of the Israelites. The three rooms are also

the three important chambers of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh.

THE ROBES OF GLORY

As explained in the quotation from Josephus, the robes and adornments of the Jewish

priests had a secret significance, and even to this day there is a religious cipher language

concealed in the colors, forms, and uses of sacred garments, not only among the Christian

and Jewish priests but also among pagan religions. The vestments of the Tabernacle

priests were called Cahanææ; those of the High Priest were termed Cahanææ Rabbæ.

Over the Machanese, an undergarment resembling short trousers, they wore the

Chethone, a finely woven linen robe, which reached to the ground and had long sleeves

tied to the arms of the wearer. A brightly embroidered sash, twisted several times around

the waist (a little higher than is customary), with one end pendent in front, and a closely

fitting linen cap, designated Masnaemphthes, completed the costume of the ordinary

priest.

Click to enlarge

THE GARMENTS OF GLORY.

From Mosaize Historie der Hebreeuwse Kerke.

Th. robe of the High Priest of Israel were often called "The Garments of Glory", for they resembled the regenerated and spiritualized nature of man, symbolized by a vestment which all must weave from the

threads of character and virtue before they can become High Priests after the Order of Melchizedek.

p. 136

The vestments of the High Priest were the same as those of the lesser degrees, except that

certain garments and adornments were added. Over the specially woven white linen robe

the High Priest wore a seamless and sleeveless habit, sky-blue in color and reaching

nearly to his feet. This was called the Meeir and was ornamented with a fringe of

alternated golden bells and pomegranates. In Ecclesiasticus (one of the books rejected

from the modern Bible), these bells and their purpose are described in the following

words: "And he compassed him with pomegranates, and with many golden bells round

about, that as he went, there might be a sound and a noise that might be heard in the

temple, for a memorial to the children of his people." The Meeir was also bound in with a

variegated girdle finely embroidered and with gold wire inserted through the embroidery.

The Ephod, a short vestment described by Josephus as resembling a coat or jacket, was

worn over the upper part of the Meeir. The threads of which the Ephod was woven were

of many colors, probably red, blue, purple, and white, like the curtains and coverings of

the Tabernacle. Fine gold wires were also woven into the fabric. The Ephod was fastened

at each shoulder with a large onyx in the form of a button, and the names of the twelve

sons of Jacob were engraven upon these two stones, six on each. These onyx buttons

were supposed to have oracular powers, and when the High Priest asked certain

questions, they emitted a celestial radiance. When the onyx on the right shoulder was

illuminated, it signified that Jehovah answered the question of the High Priest: in the

affirmative, and when the one on the left gleamed, it indicated a negative answer to the

query.

In the middle of the front surface of the Ephod was a space to accommodate the Essen, or

Breastplate of Righteousness and Prophecy, which, as its name signifies, was also an

oracle of great power. This pectoral was roughly square in shape and consisted of a frame

of embroidery into which were set twelve stones, each held in a socket of gold. Because

of the great weight of its stones, each of which was of considerable size and immense

value, the breastplate was held in position by special golden chains and ribbons. The

twelve stones of the breastplate, like the onyx stones at the shoulders of the Ephod, had

the mysterious power of lighting up with Divine glory and so serving as oracles.

Concerning the strange power of these flashing symbols of Israel's twelve tribes,

Josephus writes:

"Yet will I mention what is still more wonderful than this: For God declared beforehand,

by those twelve stones which the High Priest bare upon his breast and which were

inserted into his breastplate, when they should be victorious in battle; for so great a

splendor shone forth from them before the army began to march, that all the people were

sensible of God's being present for their assistance. Whence it came to pass that those

Greeks, who had a veneration for our laws, because they could not possibly contradict

this, called the breastplate, 'the Oracle'." The writer then adds that the stones ceased to

light up and gleam some two hundred years before he wrote his history, because the Jews

had broken the laws of Jehovah and the God of Israel was no longer pleased with His

chosen people.

The Jews learned astronomy from the Egyptians, and it is not unlikely that the twelve

jewels of the breastplate were symbolic of the twelve constellations of the zodiac. These

twelve celestial hierarchies were looked upon as jewels adorning the breastplate of the

Universal Man, the Macroprosophus, who is referred to in the Zohar as The Ancient of

Days. The number twelve frequently occurs among ancient peoples, who in nearly every

case had a pantheon consisting of twelve demigods and goddesses presided over by The

Invincible One, who was Himself subject to the Incomprehensible All-Father. This use of

the number twelve is especially noted in the Jewish and Christian writings. The twelve

prophets, the twelve patriarchs, the twelve tribes, and the twelve Apostles--each group

has a certain occult significance, for each refers to the Divine Duodecimo, or Twelvefold

Deity, whose emanations are manifested in the tangible created Universe through twelve

individualized channels. The secret doctrine also caught the priests that the jewels

represented centers of life within their own constitutions, which when unfolded according

to the esoteric instructions of the Temple, were capable of absorbing into themselves and

radiating forth again the Divine light of the Deity. (The East Indian lotus blossoms have a

similar meaning.) The Rabbis have taught that each twisted linen thread used in weaving

the Tabernacle curtains and ornamentations consisted of twenty-four separate strands,

reminding the discerning that the experience, gained during the twenty-four hours of the

day (symbolized in Masonry by the twenty-four-inch rule) becomes the threads from

which are woven the Garments of Glory.

THE URIM AND THUMMIM

In the reverse side of the Essen, or breastplate, was a pocket containing mysterious

objects--the Urim and Thummim. Aside from the fact that they were used in divination,

little is now known about these objects. Some writers contend that they were small stones

(resembling the fetishes still revered by certain aboriginal peoples) which the Israelites

had brought with them out of Egypt because of their belief that they possessed divine

power. Others believe that the Urim and Thummim were in the form of dice, used for

deciding events by being cast upon the ground. A few have maintained that they were

merely sacred names, written on plates of gold and carried as talismans. "According to

some, the Urim and the Thummim signify 'lights and perfections,' or 'light and truth'

which last present a striking analogy to the. two figures of Re (Ra) and Themi in the

breastplate worn by the Egyptians." (Gardner's The Faiths of the World.)

Not the least remarkable of the vestments of the High Priest was his bonnet, or headdress.

Over the plain white cap of the ordinary priest this dignitary wore an outer cloth of blue

and a crown of gold, the crown consisting of three bands, one above the other like the

triple miter of the Persian Magi. This crown symbolized that the High Priest was ruler not

only over the three worlds which the ancients had differentiated (heaven, earth, and hell),

but also over the threefold divisions of man and the universe--the spiritual, intellectual,

and material worlds. These divisions were also symbolized by the three apartments of the

Tabernacle itself.

At the peak of the headdress was a tiny cup of gold, made in the form of a flower. This

signified that the nature of the priest was receptive and that he had a vessel in his own

soul which, cuplike, was capable of catching the eternal waters of life pouring upon him

from the heavens above. This flower over the crown of his head is similar in its esoteric

meaning to the rose growing out of a skull, so famous in Templar symbology. The

ancients believed that the spiritual nature escaping from the body passed upward through

the crown of the head; therefore, the flowerlike calyx, or cup, symbolized also the

spiritual consciousness. On the front of the golden crown were inscribed in Hebrew,

Holiness unto the Lord.

Though robes and ornaments augmented the respect and veneration of the Israelites for

their High Priest, such trappings meant nothing to Jehovah. Therefore, before entering the

Holy of Holies, the High Priest removed his earthly finery and entered into the presence

of the Lord God of Israel unclothed. There he could be robed only in his own virtues, and

his spirituality must adorn him as a garment.

There is a legend to the effect that any who chanced to enter the Holy of Holies unclean

were destroyed by a bolt of Divine fire from the Mercy Seat. If the High Priest had but

one selfish thought, he would be struck dead. As no man knows when an unworthy

thought may flash through his mind, precautions had to be taken in case the High Priest

should be struck dead while in the presence of Jehovah. The other priests could not enter

the sanctuary therefore, when their leader was about to go in and receive the commands

of the Lord, they tied a chain around one of his feet so that if he were struck down while

behind the veil they could drag the body out.

Click to enlarge

THE HEADDRESS OF THE PRIESTS.

From Mosaize Historie der Hebreeuwse Kerke.

Over the plain white cap of the ordinary priests the High Priest wore an overcloth of blue and a band of

gold. On the front of the golden band were inscribed the Hebrew words "Holiness unto the Lord." This illustration shows the arrangement of the bonnet both with and without the golden crown.

Click to enlarge

THE ARK WITH ITS CHERUBIM.

From Calmet's Dictionary of the Holy Bible.

Josephus tells its that the Cherubim were flying creatures but different in appearance, from anything to be

seen on earth; therefore impossible to describe. Moses is supposed to have seen these beings kneeling at the

footstool of God when he was picked up and brought into the Presence of Jehovah. It is probable that they

resembled, at least in general appearance, the famous Cherubim of Ezekiel.

p. 137

The Fraternity of the Rose Cross

WHO were the Rosicrucians? Were they an organization of profound thinkers rebelling

against the inquisitional religious and philosophical limitations of their time or were they

isolated transcendentalists united only by the similarity of their viewpoints and

deductions? Where was the "House of the Holy Spirit, " in which, according to their

manifestoes, they met once a year to plan the future activities of their Order? Who was

the mysterious person referred to as "Our Illustrious Father and Brother C.R.C."? Did

those three letters actually stand for the words "Christian Rosie Cross"? Was Christian

Rosencreutz, the supposed author of the Chymical Nuptials, the same person who with

three others founded "The Society of the Rose Cross"?

What relationship existed between Rosicrucianism and mediæval Freemasonry? Why

were the destinies of these two organizations so closely interwoven? Is the "Brotherhood

of the Rose Cross" the much-sought-after link connecting the Freemasonry of the Middle

Ages with the symbolism and mysticism of antiquity, and are its secrets being

perpetuated by modern Masonry? Did the original Rosicrucian Order disintegrate in the

latter part of the eighteenth century, or does the Society still exist as an organization,

maintaining the same secrecy for which it was originally famous? What was the true

purpose for which the "Brotherhood of the Rose Cross" was formed? Were the

Rosicrucians a religious and philosophic brotherhood, as they claimed to be, or were their

avowed tenets a blind to conceal the true object of the Fraternity, which possibly was the

political control of Europe? These are some of the problems involved in the study of

Rosicrucianism.

There are four distinct theories regarding the Rosicrucian enigma. Each is the result of a

careful consideration of the evidence by scholars who have spent their lives ransacking

the archives of Hermetic lore. The conclusions reached demonstrate clearly the

inadequacy of the records available concerning the genesis and early activities of the

"Brethren of the Rose Cross."

THE FIRST POSTULATE

It is assumed that the Rosicrucian Order existed historically in accordance with the

description of its foundation and subsequent activities published in its manifesto, the

Fama Fraternitatis, which is believed to have been written in the year 1610, but

apparently did not appear in print until 1614, although an earlier edition is suspected by

some authorities. Intelligent consideration of the origin of Rosicrucianism requires a

familiarity with the contents of the first and most important of its documents. The Fama

Fraternitatis begins with a reminder to all the world of God's goodness and mercy, and it

warns the intelligentsia that their egotism and covetousness cause them to follow after

false prophets and to ignore the true knowledge which God in His goodness has revealed

to them. Hence, a reformation is necessary, and God has raised up philosophers and sages

for this purpose.

In order to assist in bringing about the reformation, a mysterious person called "The

Highly Illuminated Father C.R.C.," a German by birth, descended of a noble family, but

himself a poor man, instituted the "Secret Society of the Rose Cross." C.R.C. was placed

in a cloister when only five years of age, but later becoming dissatisfied with its

educational system, he associated himself with a brother of Holy Orders who was setting

forth on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. They started out together, but the brother died at

Cyprus and C.R.C! continued alone to Damascus. Poor health prevented him from

reaching Jerusalem, so he remained at Damascus, studying with the philosophers who

dwelt there.

While pursuing his studies, he heard of a group of mystics and Qabbalists abiding in the

mystic Arabian city of Damcar. Giving up his desire to visit Jerusalem, he arranged with

the Arabians for his transportation to Damcar. C.R.C. was but sixteen years of age when

he arrived at Damcar. He was received as one who had been long expected, a comrade

and a friend in philosophy, and was instructed in the secrets of the Arabian adepts. While

there, C.R.C. learned the Arabic tongue and translated the sacred book M into Latin; and

upon returning to Europe he brought this important volume with him.

After studying three years in Damcar, C.R.C. departed for the city of Fez, where the

Arabian magicians declared further information would be given him. At Fez he was

instructed how to communicate with the Elementary inhabitants [probably the Nature

spirits], and these disclosed to him many other great secrets of Nature. While the

philosophers in Fez were not so great as those in Damcar, the previous experiences of

C.R.C. enabled him to distinguish the true from the false and thus add greatly to his store

of knowledge.

After two years in Fez, C.R.C. sailed for Spain, carrying with him many treasures, among

them rare plants and animals accumulated during his wanderings. He fondly hoped that

the learned men of Europe would receive with gratitude the rare intellectual and material

treasures which he had brought for their consideration. Instead he encountered only

ridicule, for the so-called wise were afraid to admit their previous ignorance lest their

prestige be impaired. At this point in the narrative is an interpolation stating that

Paracelsus, while not a member of the "Fraternity of the Rose Cross," had read the book

M and from a consideration of its contents had secured information which made him the

foremost physician of mediæval Europe.

Tired, but not discouraged, as the result of the fruitlessness of his efforts, C.R.C. returned

to Germany, where he built a house in which he could quietly carry on his study and

research. He also manufactured a number of rare scientific instruments for research

purposes. While he could have made himself famous had he cared to commercialize his

knowledge, he preferred the companionship of God to the esteem of men.

After five years of retirement he decided to renew his struggle for a reformation of the

arts and sciences of his day, this time with the aid of a few trusted friends. He sent to the

cloister where his early training had been received and called to himself three brethren,

whom he bound by an oath to preserve inviolate the secrets he should impart and to write

down for the sake of posterity the information

Click to enlarge

THE GOLDEN AND ROSY CROSS.

From Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer.

It is said of this cross that it is made of spiritual gold and that each Brother wears it upon his breast. It bears the alchemical symbols of salt, sulphur, and mercury; also a star of the planets; and around it are the four

words FAITH, HOPE, LOVE, and PATIENCE. The double-headed eagle, or Phœnix, subtly foreshadows

the ultimate androgynous state of the human creature. Rosicrucian alchemy was not concerned with metals

alone. Man's own body was the alchemical laboratory, and none could reach Rosicrucian adeptship until he

had performed the supreme experiment of transmutation by changing the base metals of ignorance into the

pure gold of wisdom and understanding.

p. 138

he should dictate. These four founded the "Fraternity of the Rose Cross." They prepared

its secret cipher language and, according to the Fama, a great dictionary in which all

forms of wisdom were classified to the glorification of God. They also began the work of

transcribing the book M, but found the task too difficult because of the demands of the

great numbers of sick who came to them for healing.

Having completed a newer and larger building, which they called the "House of the Holy

Spirit," they decided to include four new members in the Fraternity, thus increasing the

number to eight, seven of whom were German. All were unmarried. Working

industriously together, they speedily completed the arduous labor of preparing the

documents, instructions, and arcana of the Order. They also put the house called "Sancti

Spiritus" in order.

They then decided to separate and visit the other countries of the earth, not only that their

wisdom might be given to others who deserved it but also that they might check and

correct any mistakes existing in their own system. Before separating, the Brethren

prepared six rules, or by-laws, and each bound himself to obey them. The first rule was

that they should take to themselves no other dignity or credit than that they were willing

to heal the sick without charge. The second was that from that time on forever they

should wear no special robe or garment, but should dress according to the custom of the

country wherein they dwelt. The third stated that every year upon a certain day they

should meet in the "House of the Holy Spirit," or, if unable to do so, should be

represented by an epistle. The fourth decreed that each member should search for a

worthy person to succeed him at his own demise. The fifth stated that the letters "R.C."

should be their seal, mark, and character from that time onward. The sixth specified that

the Fraternity should remain unknown to the world for a period of one hundred years.

After they had sworn to this code five of the Brothers departed to distant lands, and a year

later two of the others also went their way, leaving Father C.R. C. alone in the "House of

the Holy Spirit." Year after year they met with great joy, for they had quietly and

sincerely promulgated their doctrines among the wise of the earth.

When the first of the Order died in England, it was decided that the burial places of the

members should be secret. Soon afterward Father C.R.C. called the remaining six

together, and it is supposed that then he prepared his own symbolic tomb. The Fama

records that none of the Brothers alive at the time of its writing knew when Father C.R.C.

died or where he was buried. His body was accidentally discovered 120 years after his

death when one of the Brothers, who possessed considerable architectural skill, decided

to make some alterations in the "House of the Holy Spirit." [It is only suspected that the

tomb was in this building.]

While making his alterations, the Brother discovered a memorial tablet upon which were

inscribed the names of the early members of the Order. This he decided to transfer to a

more imposing chapel, for at that time no one knew in what country Father C.R.C. had

died, this information having been concealed by the original members. In attempting to

remove the memorial tablet, which was held in place by a large nail, some stones and

plastering were broken from the wall, disclosing a door concealed in the masonry. The

members of the Order immediately cleared away the rest of the débris and uncovered the

entrance to a vault. Upon the door in large letters were the words: POST CXX ANNOS

PATEBO. This, according to the mystic interpretation of the Brethren, meant, "In 120

years I shall come forth."

The following morning the door was opened and the members entered a vault with seven

sides and seven corners, each side five feet broad and eight feet high. Although the sun

never penetrated this tomb, it was brilliantly illuminated by a mysterious light in the

ceiling. In the center was a circular altar, upon which were brass plates engraved with

strange characters. In each of the seven sides was a small door which, upon being opened,

revealed a number of boxes filled with books, secret instructions, and the supposedly lost

arcanum of the Fraternity.

Upon moving the altar to one side a brass cover was disclosed. Lifting this revealed a

body, presumedly that of C.R.C., which, although it had lain there 120 years, was as well

preserved as though it had just been interred. It was ornamented and attired in the robes

of the Order, and in one hand was clasped a mysterious parchment which, next to the

Bible, was the most valued possession of the Society. After thoroughly investigating the

contents of the secret chamber, the brass plate and altar were put back in place, the door

of the vault was again sealed, and the Brothers went their respective ways, their spirits

raised and their faith increased by the miraculous spectacle which they had beheld.

The document ends by saying in effect, "In accordance with the will of Father C.R.C., the

Fama has been prepared and sent forth to the wise and learned of all Europe in five

languages, that all may know and understand the secrets of the august Fraternity. All of

sincere soul who labor for the glory of God are invited to communicate with the Brethren

and are promised that their appeal shall be heard, regardless of where they are or how the

messages are sent. At the same time, those of selfish and ulterior motives are warned that

only sorrow and misery will attend any who attempt to discover the Fraternity without a

clean heart and a pure mind."

Such, in brief, is the story of the Fama Fraternitatis. Those who accept it literally regard

Father C.R.C. as the actual founder of the Brotherhood, which he is believed to have

organized about 1400. The fact that historical corroboration of the important points of the

Fama has never been discovered is held against this theory. There is no proof that Father

C.R.C. ever approached the learned men of Spain. The mysterious city of Damcar cannot

be found, and there is no record that anywhere in Germany there existed a place where

great numbers of the halt and sick came and were mysteriously healed. A. E. Waite's The

Secret Tradition in Freemasonry contains a picture of Father C.R.C. showing him with a

long beard upon his breast, sitting before a table upon which burns a candle. One hand is

supporting his head and the other is resting the tip of its index finger on the temple of a

human skull. The picture, however (see plate at head of chapter), proves nothing. Father

C.R.C. was never seen by other than members of his own Order, and they did not

preserve a description of him. That his name was Christian Rosencreutz is most

improbable, as the two were not even associated until the writing of the Chymical

Nuptials.

THE SECOND POSTULATE

Those Masonic brethren who have investigated the subject accept the historical existence

of the "Brotherhood of the Rose Cross" but are divided concerning the origin of the

Order. One group holds the society originated in mediæval Europe as an outgrowth of

alchemical speculation. Robert Macoy, 33°, believes that Johann Valentin Andreæ, a

German theologian, was the true founder, and he also believes it possible that this divine

merely reformed and amplified an existing society which had been founded by Sir Henry

Cornelius Agrippa. Some believe that Rosicrucianism represented the first European

invasion of Buddhist and Brahmin culture. Still others hold the opinion that the "Society

of the Rose Cross" was founded in Egypt during n the philosophic supremacy of that

empire, and that it also perpetuated the Mysteries of ancient Persia and Chaldea.

In his Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins writes: "The Rosicrucians of Germany are quite

ignorant of their origin; but, by tradition, they suppose themselves descendants of the

ancient Egyptians, Chaldeans, Magi, and Gymnosophists." (The last was a name given by

the followers of Alexander the Great to a caste of naked Wise Men whom they found

meditating along the river banks in India.) The consensus among these factions is that the

story of Father C.R.C., like the Masonic legend of Hiram Abiff, is an allegory and should

not be considered literally. A similar problem has confronted students of the Bible, who

have found not only difficult, but in the majority of cases impossible, their efforts to

substantiate the historical interpretation of the Scriptures.

Admitting the existence of the Rosicrucians as a secret society with both philosophic and

political ends, it is remarkable that an organization with members in all parts of Europe

could maintain absolute secrecy throughout the centuries. Nevertheless, the "Brothers of

the Rose Cross" were apparently able to accomplish this. A great number of scholars and

philosophers, among them Sir Francis Bacon and Wolfgang von Goethe, have been

suspected of affiliation with the Order, but their connection has not been established to

the satisfaction of prosaic historians. Pseudo-Rosicrucians abounded, but the true

members of the "Ancient and Secret Order of The Unknown Philosophers" have

successfully lived up to their name; to this day they remain unknown.

During the Middle Ages a number of tracts appeared, purporting to be from the pens of

Rosicrucians. Many of them, however, were spurious, being issued for their self-

aggrandizement by unscrupulous persons who used the revered and magic name

Rosicrucian in the hope of gaining religious or political power. This has greatly

complicated

Click to enlarge

THE CRUCIFIED ROSE.

The original symbol of the Rosicrucian Fraternity was a hieroglyphic rose crucified upon a cross. The cross was often raised upon a three-stepped Calvary. Occasionally the symbol of a cross rising from a rose was

used in connection with their activities. The Rosicrucian rose was drawn upon the Round Table of King

Arthur, and is the central motif for the links forming the chain from which the "Great George" is suspended among the jewels of The Order of the Garter. Hargrave Jennings suspects this Order of having some

connection with the Rosicrucians.

p. 139

the work of investigating the Society. One group of pseudo-Rosicrucians went so far as to

supply its members with a black cord by which they were to know each other, and

warned them that if they broke their vow of secrecy the cord would be used to strangle

them. Few of the principles of Rosicrucianism have been preserved in literature, for the

original Fraternity published only fragmentary accounts of its principles and activities.

In his Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians, Dr. Franz Hartmann describes the Fraternity as

"A secret society of men possessing superhuman--if not supernatural--powers; they were

said to be able to prophesy future events, to penetrate into the deepest mysteries of

Nature, to transform Iron, Copper, Lead, or Mercury into Gold, to prepare an Elixir of

Life, or Universal Panacea, by the use of which they could preserve their youth and

manhood; and moreover it was believed that they could command the Elemental Spirits

of Nature, and knew the secret of the Philosopher's Stone, a substance which rendered

him who possessed it all-powerful, immortal, and supremely wise."

The same author further defines a Rosicrucian as "A person who by the process of

spiritual awakening has attained a practical knowledge of the secret significance of the

Rose and the Cross. * * * To call a person a Rosicrucian does not make him one, nor

does the act of calling a person a Christian make him a Christ. The real Rosicrucian or

Mason cannot be made; he must grow to be one by the expansion and unfoldment of the

divine power within his own heart. The inattention to this truth is the cause that many

churches and secret societies are far from being that which their names express."

The symbolic principles of Rosicrucianism are so profound that even today they are little

appreciated. Their charts and diagrams are concerned with weighty cosmic principles

which they treat with a philosophic understanding decidedly refreshing when compared

with the orthodox narrowness prevalent in their day. According to the available records,

the Rosicrucians were bound together by mutual aspirations rather than by the laws of a

fraternity. The "Brothers of the Rose Cross" are believed to have lived unobtrusively,

laboring industriously in trades and professions, disclosing their secret affiliation to no

one--in many cases not even to their own families. After the death of C.R.C., most of the

Brethren apparently had no central meeting place. Whatever initiatory ritual the Order

possessed was so closely guarded that it has never been revealed. Doubtless it was

couched in chemical terminology.

Efforts to join the Order were apparently futile, for the Rosicrucians always chose their

disciples. Having agreed on one who they believed would do honor to their illustrious

fraternity, they communicated with him in one of many mysterious ways. He might

receive a letter, either anonymous or with a peculiar seal, usually bearing the letters

"C.R.C. "or "R.C. "upon it. He would be instructed to go to a certain place at an appointed time. What was disclosed to him he never revealed, although in many cases his

later writings showed that a new influence had come into his life, deepening his

understanding and broadening his intellect. A few have written allegorically concerning

what they beheld when in the august presence of the "Brethren of the Rose Cross."

Alchemists were sometimes visited in their laboratories by mysterious strangers, who

delivered learned discourses concerning the secret processes of the Hermetic arts and,

after disclosing certain processes, departed, leaving no trace. Others declared that the

"Brothers of the Rose Cross" communicated with them through dreams and visions,

revealing the secrets of Hermetic wisdom to them while they were asleep. Having been

instructed, the candidate was bound to secrecy not only concerning the chemical formulæ

which had been disclosed to him but also concerning the method by which he had

secured them. While these nameless adepts were suspected of being ''Brothers of the

Rose Cross," it could never be proved who they were, and those visited could only

conjecture.

Many suspect the Rosicrucian rose to be a conventionalization of the Egyptian and Hindu

lotus blossom, with the same symbolic meaning as this more ancient symbol. The Divine

Comedy stamps Dante Alighieri as being familiar with the theory of Rosicrucianism.

Concerning this point, Albert Pike in his Morals and Dogma makes this significant

statement: "His Hell is but a negative Purgatory. His heaven is composed of a series of

Kabalistic circles, divided by a cross, like the Pantacle of Ezekiel. In the center of this

cross blooms a rose, and we see the symbol of the Adepts of the Rose-Croix for the first

time publicly expounded and almost categorically explained."

Doubt has always existed as to whether the name Rosicrucian came from the symbol of

the rose and cross, or whether this was merely a blind to deceive the uninformed and

further conceal the true meaning of the Order. Godfrey Higgins believes that the word

Rosicrucian is not derived from the flower but from the word Ros, which means dew. It is

also interesting to note that the word Ras means wisdom, while Rus is translated

concealment. Doubtless all of these meanings have contributed to Rosicrucian

symbolism.

A. E. Waite holds with Godfrey Higgins that the process of forming the Philosopher's

Stone with the aid of dew is the secret concealed within the name Rosicrucian. It is

possible that the dew referred to is a mysterious substance within the human brain,

closely resembling the description given by alchemists of the dew which, falling from

heaven, redeemed the earth. The cross is symbolic of the human body, and the two

symbols together--the rose on the cross--signify that the soul of man is crucified upon the

body, where it is held by three nails.

It is probable that Rosicrucian symbolism is a perpetuation of the secret tenets of the

Egyptian Hermes, and that the Society of Unknown Philosophers is the true link

connecting modern Masonry, with its mass of symbols, to ancient Egyptian Hermeticism,

the source of that symbolism. In his Doctrine and Literature of the Kabalah, A. E. Waite

makes this important observation: "There are certain indications which point to a possible connection between Masonry and Rosicrucianism, and this, if admitted, would constitute

the first link in its connection with the past. The evidence is, however, inconclusive, or at

least unextricated. Freemasonry per se, in spite of the affinity with mysticism which I

have just mentioned, has never exhibited any mystic character, nor has it a clear notion

how it came by its symbols."

Many of those connected with the development of Freemasonry were suspected of being

Rosicrucians; some, as in the case of Robert Fludd, even wrote defenses of this

organization. Frank C. Higgins, a modern Masonic symbolist, writes: "Doctor Ashmole, a

member of this fraternity [Rosicrucian], is revered by Masons as one of the founders of

the first Grand Lodge in London." (See Ancient Freemasonry.) Elias Ashmole is but one

of many intellectual links connecting Rosicrucianism with the genesis of Freemasonry.

The Encyclopædia Britannica notes that Elias Ashmole was initiated into the

Freemasonic Order in 1646, and further states that he was "the first gentleman, or

amateur, to be 'accepted'."

On this same subject, Papus, in his Tarot of the Bohemians, has written: "We must not

forger that the Rosicrucians were the Initiators of Leibnitz, and the founders of actual

Freemasonry through Ashmole." If the founders of Freemasonry were initiated into the

Great Arcanum of Egypt--and the symbolism of modern Masonry would indicate that

such was the case--then it is reasonable to suppose that they secured their information

from a society whose existence they admitted and which was duly qualified to teach them

these symbols and allegories.

One theory concerning the two Orders is to the effect that Freemasonry was an outgrowth

of Rosicrucianism; in other words, that the "Unknown Philosophers" became known

through an organization which they created to serve them in the material world. The story

goes on to relate that the Rosicrucian adepts became dissatisfied with their progeny and

silently withdrew from the Masonic hierarchy, leaving behind their symbolism and

allegories, but carrying away the keys by which the locked symbols could be made to

give tip their secret meanings. Speculators have gone so far as to state that, in their

opinion, modern Freemasonry has completely absorbed Rosicrucianism and succeeded it

as the world's greatest secret society. Other minds of equal learning declare that the

Rosicrucian Brotherhood still exists, preserving its individuality as the result of having

withdrawn from the Masonic Order.

According to a widely accepted tradition, the headquarters of the Rosicrucian Order is

near Carlsbad, in Austria (see Doctor Franz Hartmann). Another version has it that a

mysterious school, resembling in general principles the Rosicrucian Fraternity, which

calls itself "The Bohemian Brothers," still maintains its individuality in the Schwarzwald

(Black Forest) of Germany. One thing is certain: with the rise of Freemasonry, the

Rosicrucian Order in Europe practically disappeared, and notwithstanding existing

statements to the contrary, it is certain that the 18th degree (commonly known as the

Rose-Croix) perpetuates many of the symbols of the Rosicrucian Fire Alchemists.

In an anonymous unpublished manuscript of the eighteenth century bearing the earmarks

of Rosicrucian Qabbalism appears this

Click to enlarge

THE ROSICRUCIAN ROSE.

From Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer.

The rose is a yonic symbol associated with generation, fecundity, and purity. The fact that flowers blossom

by unfolding has caused them to be chosen as symbolic of spiritual unfoldment. The red color of the rose

refers to the blood of Christ, and the golden heart concealed within the midst of the flower corresponds to

the spiritual gold concealed within the human nature. The number of its petals being ten is also a subtle

reminder of the perfect Pythagorean number. The rose symbolizes the heart, and the heart has always been

accepted by Christians as emblematic of the virtues of love and compassion, as well as of the nature of

Christ--the personification of these virtues. The rose as a religious emblem is of great antiquity. It was

accepted by the Greeks as the symbol of the sunrise, or of the coming of dawn. In his Metamorphosis, or

Golden Ass, Apuleius, turned into a donkey because of his foolishness, regained his human shape by eating

a sacred rose given to him by the Egyptian priests.

The presence of a hieroglyphic rose upon the escutcheon of Martin Luther has been the basis of much

speculation as to whether any connection existed between his Reformation and the secret activities of the

Rose Cross.

p. 140

statement: "Yet will I now give the over-wise world a paradox to be solved, namely, that

some illuminated men have undertaken to found Schools of Wisdom in Europe and these

for some peculiar reason have called themselves Fratres Rosa: Crucis. But soon

afterwards came false schools into existence and corrupted the good intentions of these

wise men. Therefore, the Order no longer exists as most people would understand

existence, and as this Fraternity of the Seculo Fili call themselves Brothers of the Rosie

Cross, so also will they in the Seculo Spiritus Sancti call themselves Brothers of the Lily

Cross and the Knights of the White Lion. Then will the Schools of Wisdom begin again to

blossom, but why the first one chose their name and why the others shall also choose

theirs, only those can solve who have understanding grounded in Nature."

Political aspirations of the Rosicrucians were expressed through the activities of Sir

Francis Bacon, the Comte de St.-Germain, and the Comte di Cagliostro. The last named

is suspected of having been an emissary of the Knights Templars, a society deeply

involved in transcendentalism, as Eliphas Levi has noted. There is a popular supposition

to the effect that the Rosicrucians were at least partial instigators of the French

Revolution. (Note particularly the introduction to Lord Bulwer-Lytton's Rosicrucian

novel Zanoni.)

THE THIRD POSTULATE

The third theory takes the form of a sweeping denial of Rosicrucianism, asserting that the

so-called original Order never had any foundation in fact but was entirely a product of

imagination. This viewpoint is best expressed by a number of questions which are still

being asked by investigators of this elusive group of metaphysicians. Was the

"Brotherhood of the Rose Cross" merely a mythical institution created in the fertile mind

of some literary cynic for the purpose of deriding the alchemical and Hermetic sciences?

Did the "House of the Holy Spirit" ever exist outside the imagination of some mediæval

mystic? Was the whole Rosicrucian story a satire to ridicule the gullibility of scholastic

Europe? Was the mysterious Father C.R.C. a product of the literary genius of Johann

Valentin Andreæ, or another of similar mind, who, attempting to score alchemical and

Hermetic philosophy, unwittingly became a great power in furthering the cause of its

promulgation? That at least one of the early documents of the Rosicrucians was from the

pen of Andreæ there is little doubt, but for just what purpose he compiled it still remains

a matter of speculation. Did Andreæ himself receive from some unknown person, or

persons, instructions to be carried out? If he wrote the Chymical Nuptials of Christian

Rosencreutz when only fifteen years old, was he overshadowed in the preparation of that

book?

To these vital questions no answers are forthcoming. A number of persons accepted the

magnificent imposture of Andreæ as absolute truth. It is maintained by many that, as a

consequence, numerous pseudo-societies sprang up, each asserting that it was the

organization concerning which the Fama Fraternitatis and the Confessio Fraternitatis

were written. Beyond doubt there are many spurious orders in existence today; but few of

them can offer valid claims that their history dates back farther than the beginning of the

nineteenth century.

The mystery associated with the Rosicrucian Fraternity has resulted in endless

controversy. Many able minds, notable among them Eugenius Philalethes, Michael

Maier, John Heydon, and Robert Fludd, defended the concrete existence of "The Society

of Unknown Philosophers." Others equally qualified have asserted it to be of fraudulent

origin and doubtful existence. Eugenius Philalethes, while dedicating books to the Order,

and himself writing an extended exposition of its principles, disclaims all personal

connection with it. Many others have done likewise.

Some are of the opinion that Sir Francis Bacon had a hand in the writing of the Fama and

Confessio Fraternitatis, on the basis that the rhetorical style of these works is similar to

that of Bacon's New Atlantis. They also contend that certain statements in the latter work

point to an acquaintance with Rosicrucian symbology. The elusiveness of the

Rosicrucians has caused them to be favorite subject's for literary works. Outstanding

among the romances which have been woven around them is Zanoni. The author, Lord

Bulwer-Lytton, is regarded by some as a member of the Order, while others assert that he

applied for membership but was rejected. Pope's Rape of the Lock, &c. Comte de Gabalis

by Abbé de Villars, and essays by De Quincy, Hartmann, Jennings, Mackenzie, and

others, are examples of Rosicrucian literature. Although the existence of these mediæval

Rosicrucians is difficult to prove, sufficient evidence is at hand to make it extremely

probable that there existed in Germany, and afterwards in France, Italy, England, and

other European countries, a secret society of illuminated savants who made contributions

of great import to the sum of human knowledge, while maintaining absolute secrecy

concerning their personalities and their organization.

THE FOURTH POSTULATE

The apparent incongruities of the Rosicrucian controversy have also been accounted for

by a purely transcendental explanation. There is evidence that early writers were

acquainted with such a supposition--which, however, was popularized only after it had

been espoused by Theosophy. This theory asserts that the Rosicrucians actually possessed

all the supernatural powers with which they were credited; that they were in reality

citizens of two worlds: that, while they had physical bodies for expression on the material

plane, they were also capable, through the instructions they received from the

Brotherhood, of functioning in a mysterious ethereal body not subject to the limitations of

time or distance. By means of this "astral form" they were able to function in the invisible

realm of Nature, and in this realm, beyond reach of the profane, their temple was located.

According to this viewpoint, the true Rosicrucian Brotherhood consisted of a limited

number of highly developed adepts, or initiates, those of the higher degrees being no

longer subject to the laws of mortality; candidates were accepted into the Order only after

long periods of probation; adepts possessed the secret of the Philosopher's Stone and

knew the process of transmuting the base metals into gold, but taught that these were only

allegorical terms concealing the true mystery of human regeneration through the

transmutation of the "base elements" of man's lower nature into the "gold" of intellectual and spiritual realization. According to this theory, those who have sought to record the

events of importance in connection with the Rosicrucian controversy have invariably

failed because they approached their subject from a purely physical or materialistic angle.

These adepts were believed to have been able to teach man how to function away from

his physical body at will by assisting him to remove the "rose from the cross." They

taught that the spiritual nature was attached to the material form at certain points,

symbolized by the "nails" of the crucifixion; but by three alchemical initiations which

took place in the spiritual world, in the true Temple of the Rose Cross, they were able to

"draw" these nails and permit the divine nature of man to come down from its cross.

They concealed the processes by which this was accomplished under three alchemical

metaphoric expressions: "The Casting of the Molten Sea," "The Making of the Rose

Diamond," and "The Achieving of the Philosopher's Stone."

While the intellectualist flounders among contradictory theories, the mystic treats the

problem in an entirely different manner. He believes that the true Rosicrucian Fraternity,

consisting of a school of supermen (not unlike the fabled Mahatmas of India), is an

institution existing not in the visible world bur in its spiritual counterpart, which he sees

fit to call the "inner planes of Nature"; that the Brothers can be reached only by those

who are capable of transcending the limitations of the material world. To substantiate

their viewpoint, these mystics cite the following significant statement from the Confessio

Fraternitatis: "A thousand times the unworthy may clamour, a thousand times may

present themselves, yet God hath commanded our ears that they should hear none of

them, and hath so compassed us about with His clouds that unto us, His servants, no

violence can be done; wherefore now no longer are we beheld by human eyes, unless

they have received strength borrowed from the eagle." In mysticism the eagle is a symbol

of initiation (the spinal Spirit Fire), and by this is explained the inability of the

unregenerated world to understand the Secret Order of the Rose Cross.

Those professing this theory regard the Comte de St.-Germain as their highest adept and

assert that he and Christian Rosencreutz were one and the same individual. They accept

fire as their universal symbol because it was the one element by means of which they

could control the metals. They declared themselves the descendants of Tubal-cain and

Hiram Abiff, and that the purpose of their existence was to preserve the spiritual nature of

man through ages of materiality. "The Gnostic sects, the Arabs, Alchemists, Templars,

Rosicrucians, and lastly the Freemasons, form the Western chain in the transmission of

occult science." (See The Tarot of the Bohemians translated by A. E. Waite from the

French of Papus.)

Max Heindel, the Christian mystic, described the Rosicrucian Temple as an "etheric

structure" located in and around the home of a European country gentleman. He believed

that this invisible building would ultimately be moved to the American continent. Mr.

Heindel referred to the Rosicrucian Initiates as so advanced in the science of life that

"death had forgotten them."

Click to enlarge

THE CREST OF JOHANN VALENTIN ANDREÆ.

From Chymische Hochzeit.

The reference to four red roses and a white cross in the Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz

identified Johann Valentin Andreæ as its author, for his family crest, shown above, consisted of four red

roses and a white cross.

p. 141

Rosicrucian Doctrines and Tenets

TRUSTWORTHY information is unavailable concerning the actual philosophical beliefs,

political aspirations, and humanitarian activities of the Rosicrucian Fraternity. Today, as

of old, the mysteries of the Society are preserved inviolate by virtue of their essential

nature; and attempts to interpret Rosicrucian philosophy are but speculations, anything to

the contrary notwithstanding.

Evidence points to the probable existence of two distinct Rosicrucian bodies: an inner

organization whose members never revealed their identity or teachings to the world, and

an outer body under the supervision of the inner group. In all probability, the symbolic

tomb of Christian Rosencreutz, Knight of the Golden Stone, was in reality this outer

body, the spirit of which is in a more exalted sphere. For a period of more than a century

subsequent to 1614, the outer body circulated tracts and manifestoes under either its own

name or the names of various initiated members. The purpose of these writings was

apparently to confuse and mislead investigators, and thus effectively to conceal the actual

designs of the Fraternity.

When Rosicrucianism became the philosophical "fad" of the seventeenth century,

numerous documents on the subject were also circulated for purely commercial purposes

by impostors desirous of capitalizing its popularity. The cunningly contrived artifices of

the Fraternity itself and the blundering literary impostures of charlatans formed a double

veil behind which the inner organization carried on its activities in a manner totally

dissimilar to its purposes and principles as publicly disseminated. The Fratres Rosa

Crucis naively refer to the misunderstandings which they have for obvious reasons

permitted to exist concerning themselves as being "clouds" within which they labor and

behind which they are concealed.

An inkling of the substance of Rosicrucianism--its esoteric doctrines--can be gleaned

from an analysis of its shadow--its exoteric writings. In one of the most important of their

"clouds," the Confessio Fraternitatis, the Brethren of the Fraternity of R.C. seek to justify

their existence and explain (?) the purposes and activities of their Order. In its original

form the Confessio is divided into fourteen chapters, which are here epitomized.

CONFESSIO FRATERNITATIS R. C. AD ERUDITOS EUROPÆ

Chapter I. Do not through hasty judgment or prejudice misinterpret the statements

concerning our Fraternity published in our previous manifesto--the Fama Fraternitatis.

Jehovah, beholding the decadence of civilization, seeks to redeem humanity by revealing

to the willing and by thrusting upon the reluctant those secrets which previously He had

reserved for His elect. By this wisdom the godly shall be saved, but the sorrows of the

ungodly shall be multiplied. While the true purpose of our Order was set forth in the

Fama Fraternitatis, misunderstandings have arisen through which we have been falsely

accused of heresy and treason. In this document we hope so to clarify our position that

the learned of Europe will be moved to join with us in the dissemination of divine

knowledge according to the will of our illustrious founder.

Chapter II. While it is alleged by many that the philosophic cide (sic. JBH) of our day is

sound, we declare it to be false and soon to die of its own inherent weakness. just as

Nature, however, provides a remedy for each new disease that manifests itself, so our

Fraternity has provided a remedy for the infirmities of the world's philosophic system.

The secret philosophy of the R.C. is founded upon that knowledge which is the sum and

head of all faculties, sciences, and arts. By our divinely revealed system--which partakes

much of theology and medicine but little of jurisprudence--we analyze the heavens and

the earth; but mostly we study man himself, within whose nature is concealed the

supreme secret. If the learned of out day will accept our invitation and join themselves to

our Fraternity, we will reveal to them undreamed-of secrets and wonders concerning the

hidden workings of Nature.

Chapter III. Do not believe that the secrets discussed in this brief document are lightly

esteemed by us. We cannot describe fully the marvels of our Fraternity lest the

uninformed be overwhelmed by our astonishing declarations and the vulgar ridicule the

mysteries which they do not comprehend. We also fear that many will be confused by the

unexpected generosity of our proclamation, for not understanding the wonders of this

sixth age they do nor realize the great changes which are to come. Like blind men living

in a world full of light, they discern only through the sense of feeling. [By sight is

implied spiritual cognition: by feeling, the material senses.]

Chapter IV. We firmly believe that through deep meditation on the inventions of the

human mind and the mysteries of life, through the cooperation of the angels and spirits,

and through experience and long observation, our loving Christian Father C.R.C. was so

fully illumined with God's wisdom that were all the books and writings of the world lost

and the foundations of science overturned, the Fraternity of R.C. could reestablish the

structure of world thought upon the foundation of divine truth and integrity. Because of

the great depth and perfection of our knowledge, those desiring to understand the

mysteries of the Fraternity of R. C. cannot attain to that wisdom immediately, but must

grow in understanding and knowledge. Therefore, our Fraternity is divided into grades

through which each must ascend step by step to the Great Arcanum. Now that it has

pleased God to lighten unto us His sixth candelabrum, is it not better to seek truth in this

way than to wander through the labyrinths of worldly ignorance?

Furthermore, those who receive this knowledge shall become masters of all arts and

crafts; no secret shall be hidden from them; and all good works of the past, present, and

future shall be accessible to them. The whole world shall become as one book and the

contradictions of science and theology shall be reconciled. Rejoice, O humanity! for the

time has come when God has decreed that the number of our Fraternity shall be

increased, a labor that we have joyously undertaken. The doors of wisdom are now open

to the world, but only to those who have earned the privilege may the Brothers present

themselves, for it is forbidden to reveal our knowledge even to our own children. The

right to receive spiritual truth cannot be inherited: it must be evolved within the soul of

man himself.

Chapter V. Though we may be accused of indiscretion in offering our treasures so freely

and promiscuously--without discriminating between the godly, the wise, the prince, the

peasant--we affirm that we have not betrayed our trust; for although we have published

our Fama in five languages, only those understand it who have that right. Our Society is

not to be discovered by curiosity

Click to enlarge

JOHANN VALENTIN ANDREÆ.

From a rare print.

In certain esoteric circles there are vague rumors which intimate that the humble personality of Johann

Valentin Andreæ masked an exalted emissary of the Rose Cross. While there is sufficient evidence at hand

to establish the actual existence of a German theologian by the name of Andreæ, there are many

discrepancies in his biography which have net been cleared up to the satisfaction of critical investigators. A comparison of the face shown above with that of Sir Francis Bacon discloses striking resemblances in spite

of the differences due to age. If Lord Bacon borrowed the name and identity of William Shakspere, he

could also assume, after his mock funeral in England, the personality of Johann Valentin Andreæ. The

crescent below the bust is significant, as it also appears upon the crest of Lord Bacon; to denote that he was the second son of Sir Nicholas Bacon. Further, the four letters (O MDC) in the frame at the lower right

corner of the plate, by a very simple Baconian cipher, can be changed into number whose sum gives 33--

the numerical equivalent of the name Bacon. These several points of interest, when considered together, go

far towards clearing up the mystery surrounding the authorship of the first Rosicrucian manifestoes.

p. 142

seekers, but only by serious and consecrated thinkers; nevertheless we have circulated

our Fama in five mother tongues so that the righteous of all nations may have an

opportunity to know of us, even though they be not scholars. A thousand times the

unworthy may present themselves and clamor at the gates, but God has forbidden us of

the Fraternity of R.C. to hear their voices, and He has surrounded us with His clouds and

His protection so that no harm may come to us, and God has decreed that we of the Order

of R.C. can no longer be seen by mortal eyes unless they have received strength

borrowed from the eagle. We further affirm that we shall reform the governments of

Europe and pattern them according to the system applied by the philosophers of Damcar.

All men desirous of securing knowledge shall receive as much as they are capable of

understanding. The rule of false theology shall be overthrown and God shall make His

will known through His chosen philosophers.

Chapter VII. Because of the need of brevity, it is enough to say that our Father C.R.C.

was born in the year 1378 and departed at the age of 106, leaving to us the labor of

spreading die doctrine of philosophic religion to the entire world. Our Fraternity is open

to all who sincerely seek for truth; but we publicly warn the false and impious that they

cannot betray or injure us, for God has protected our Fraternity, and all who seek to do it

harm shall have their evil designs return and destroy them, while the treasures of our

Fraternity shall remain untouched, to be used by the Lion in the establishment of his

kingdom.

Chapter VII. We declare that God, before the end of the world, shall create a great flood

of spiritual light to alleviate the sufferings of humankind. Falsehood and darkness which

have crept into the arts, sciences, religions, and governments of humanity--making it

difficult for even the wise to discover the path of reality--shall be forever removed and a

single standard established, so that all may enjoy the fruitage of truth. We shall not be

recognized as those responsible for this change, for people shall say that it is the result of

the progressiveness of the age. Great are the reforms about to take place; but we of the

Fraternity of R.C. do not arrogate to ourselves the glory for this divine reformation, since

many there are, not members of our Fraternity but honest, true and wise men, who by

their intelligence and their writings shall hasten its coming. We testify that sooner the

stones shall rise up and offer their services than that there shall be any lack of righteous

persons to execute the will of God upon earth.

Chapter VIII. That no one may doubt, we declare that God has sent messengers and signs

in the heavens, namely, the i new stars in Serpentarius and Cygnus, to show that a great

Council of the Elect is to take place. This proves that God reveals in visible nature--for

the discerning few--signs and symbols of all things that are coming to pass. God has

given man two eyes, two nostrils, and two ears, but only one tongue. Whereas the eyes,

the nostrils, and the ears admit the wisdom of Nature into the mind, the tongue alone may

give it forth. In various ages there have been illumined ones who have seen, smelt, tasted,

or heard the will of God, but it will shortly come to pass that those who have seen, smelt,

tasted, or heard shall speak, and truth shall be revealed. Before this revelation of

righteousness is possible, however, the world must sleep away the intoxication of her

poisoned chalice (filled with the false life of the theological vine) and, opening her heart

to virtue and understanding, welcome the rising sun of Truth.

Chapter IX. We have a magic writing, copied from that divine alphabet with which God

writes His will upon the face of celestial and terrestrial Nature. With this new language

we read God's will for all His creatures, and just as astronomers predict eclipses so we

prognosticate the obscurations of the church and how long they shall last. Our language is

like unto that of Adam and Enoch before the Fall, and though we understand and can

explain our mysteries in this our sacred language, we cannot do so in Latin, a tongue

contaminated by the confusion of Babylon.

Chapter X. Although there are still certain powerful persons who oppose and hinder us--

because of which we must remain concealed--we exhort those who would become of our

Fraternity to study unceasingly the Sacred Scriptures, for such as do this cannot be far

from us. We do not mean that the Bible should be continually in the mouth of man, but

that he should search for its true and eternal meaning, which is seldom discovered by

theologians, scientists, or mathematicians because they are blinded by the opinions of

their sects. We bear witness that never since the beginning of the world has there been

given to man a more excellent book than the Holy Bible. Blessed is he who possesses it,

more blessed he who reads it, most blessed he who understands it, and most godlike he

who obeys it.

Chapter XI. We wish the statements we made in the Fama Fraternitatis concerning the

transmutation of metals and the universal medicine to be lightly understood. While we

realize that both these works are attainable by man, we fear that many really great minds

may be led away from the true quest of knowledge and understanding if they permit

themselves to limit their investigation to the transmutation of metals. When to a man is

given power to heal disease, to overcome poverty, and to reach a position of worldly

dignity, that man is beset by numerous temptations and unless he possess true knowledge

and full understanding he will become a terrible menace to mankind. The alchemist who

attains to the art of transmuting base metals can do all manner of evil unless his

understanding be as great as his self-created wealth. We therefore affirm that man must

first gain knowledge, virtue, and understanding; then all other things may be added unto

him. We accuse the Christian Church of the great sin of possessing power and using it

unwisely; therefore we prophesy that it shall fall by the weight of its own iniquities and

its crown shall be brought to naught.

Chapter XII. In concluding our Confessio, we earnestly admonish you to cast aside the

worthless books of pseudo-alchemists and philosophers (of whom there are many in our

age), who make light of the Holy Trinity and deceive the credulous with meaningless

enigmas. One of the greatest of these is a stage player, a man with

Click to enlarge

A SYMBOLIC DIAGRAM OF THE OPERATIONS OF NATURE.

From Fludd's Collectio Operum.

This plate, engraved by de Bry, is the most famous of the diagrams illustrating the philosophic principles of

Robert Fludd (Robertus de Fluctibus). Three figures are outstanding links between Rosicrucianism and

Freemasonry: Michael Maier, Elias Ashmole, and Robert Fludd. De Quincey considers Robert Fludd to be

the immediate father of Freemasonry. (See The Rosicrucians and Freemasons.) Edward Waite considers

Robert Fludd as second to none of the disciples of Paracelsus, even going as far as to declare that Fludd far

surpassed his master. He further adds, "The central figure of Rosicrucian literature, towering as an

intellectual giant above the crowd of souffleurs, theosophists, and charlatanic Professors of the magnum

opus, who, directly or otherwise, were connected with the mysterious Brotherhood, is Robertus de

Fluctibus, the great English mystical philosopher of the seventeenth century, a man of immense erudition,

of exalted mind, and, to judge by his writings, of extreme personal sanctity. " (See The Real History of the Rosicrucians.) Robert Fludd was born in 1574 and died in 1637.

The de Bry diagram shown above is almost self-explanatory. Outside the circle of the starry heavens are the

three fiery rings of the empyreum--the triple fire of the Supreme Creator--in which dwell the celestial

creatures. Within he, of the stars are the circles of the planets and elements. After the element of air comes the circle of the world (earth). The circle of animals is followed by the circle of plants, which, in turn is

followed by the circle of he minerals. Then come various industries and in the center is a terrestrial globe with an ape-man sitting upon it, measuring a sphere with a pair of compasses. This little figure represents

the animal creation. In the outer ring of fire, above is the sacred name of Jehovah surrounded by clouds.

From these clouds issues a hand holding a chain. Between the divine sphere and the lower world

personified by the ape is the figure of a woman. It is to be specially noted that the female figure is merely

holding the chain connecting her with the lower world, but the chain connecting her with the higher world

ends in a shackle about her wrist. This female figure is capable of several interpretations: she may represent humanity suspended between divinity and the beast; she may represent Nature as the link between God and

the lower world; or she may represent the human soul--the common denominator between the superior and

the inferior.

p. 143

sufficient ingenuity for imposition. Such men are mingled by the Enemy of human

welfare among those who seek to do good, thus making Truth more difficult of discovery.

Believe us, Truth is simple and unconcealed, while falsehood is complex, deeply hidden,

proud, and its fictitious worldly knowledge, seemingly a glitter with godly luster, is often

mistaken for divine wisdom. You that are wise will turn from these false teachings and

come to us, who seek not your money but freely offer you our greater treasure. We desire

not your goods, but that you should become partakers of our goods. We do not deride

parables, but invite you to understand all parables and all secrets. We do not ask you to

receive us, but invite you to come unto our kingly houses and palaces, not because of

ourselves but because we are so ordered by the Spirit of God, the desire of our most

excellent Father C.R.C., and the need of the present moment, which is very great.

Chapter XIII. Now that we have made our position clear that we sincerely confess Christ;

disavow the Papacy; devote our lives to true philosophy and worthy living; and daily

invite and admit into our Fraternity the worthy of all nations, who thereafter share with us

the Light of God: will you not join yourselves with us to the perfection of yourselves, the

development of all the arts, and the service of the world? If you will take this step, the

treasures of every part of the earth shall be at one time given unto you, and the darkness

which envelopes human knowledge and which results in the vanities of material arts and

sciences shall be forever dispelled.

Chapter XIV. Again we warn those who are dazzled by the glitter of gold or those who,

now upright, might be turned by great riches to a life of idleness and pomp, not to disturb

our sacred silence with their clamorings; for though there be a medicine which will cure

all diseases and give unto all men wisdom, yet it is against the will of God that men

should attain to understanding by any means other than virtue, labor, and integrity. We

are not permitted to manifest ourselves to any man except it be by the will of God. Those

who believe that they can partake of our spiritual wealth against the will of God or

without His sanction will find that they shall sooner lose their lives in seeking us than

attain happiness by finding us.

FRATERNITAS R.C.

Johann Valentin Andreæ is generally reputed to be the author of the Confessio. It is a

much-mooted question, however, whether Andreæ did not permit his name to be used as

a pseudonym by Sir Francis Bacon. Apropos of this subject are two extremely significant

references occurring in the introduction to that remarkable potpourri, The Anatomy of

Melancholy. This volume first appeared in 1621 from the pen of Democritus junior, who

was afterwards identified as Robert Burton, who, in turn, was a suspected intimate of Sir

Francis Bacon. One reference archly suggests that at the time of publishing The Anatomy

of Melancholy in 1621 the founder of the Fraternity of R.C. was still alive. This

statement--concealed from general recognition by its textual involvement--has escaped

the notice of most students of Rosicrucianism. In the same work there also appears a

short footnote of stupendous import. It contains merely the words: "Job. Valent. Andreas,

Lord Verulam." This single line definitely relates Johann Valentin Andreæ to Sir Francis

Bacon, who was Lord Verulam, and by its punctuation intimates that they are one and the

same individual.

Prominent among Rosicrucian apologists was John Heydon, who inscribes himself "A

Servant of God, and a Secretary of Nature." In his curious work, The Rosie Cross

Uncovered, he gives an enigmatic but valuable description of the Fraternity of R.C. in the

following language:

"Now there are a kind of men, as they themselves report, named Rosie Crucians, a divine

fraternity that inhabit the suburbs of heaven, and these are the officers of the

Generalissimo of the world, that are as the eyes and ears of the great King, seeing and

hearing all things: they say these Rosie Crucians are seraphically illuminated, as Moses

was, according to this order of the elements, earth refin'd to water, water to air, air to

fire." He further declares that these mysterious Brethren possessed polymorphous

powers, appearing in any desired form at will. In the preface of the same work, he

enumerates the strange powers of the Rosicrucian adepts:

"I shall here tell you what Rosie Crucians are, and that Moses was their Father, and he

was Θεοῦ παῖς; some say they were of the order of Elias, some say the Disciples of

Ezekiel; * * * For it should seem Rosie Crucians were not only initiated into the

Mosaical Theory, but have arrived also to the power of working miracles, as Moses,

Elias, Ezekiel, and the succeeding Prophets did, as being transported where they please,

as Habakkuk was from Jewry to Babylon, or as Philip, after he had baptized the Eunuch

to Azorus, and one of these went from me to a friend of mine in Devonshire, and came

and brought me an answer to London the some day, which is four days journey; they

caught me excellent predictions of Astrology and Earthquakes; they slack the Plague in

Cities; they silence the violent Winds and Tempests; they calm the rage of the Sea and

Rivers; they walk in the Air, they frustrate the malicious aspects of Witches; they cure all

Diseases."

The writings of John Heydon are considered a most important contribution to Rosicrucian

literature. John Heydon was probably related to Sir Christopher Heydon, "a Seraphically

Illuminated Rosie Crucian, " whom the late F. Leigh Gardner, Hon. Secretary Sec. Ros.

in Anglia, believes to have been the source of his Rosicrucian knowledge. In his

Bibliotheca Rosicruciana he makes the following statement concerning John Heydon:

"On the whole, from the internal evidence of his writings, he appears to have gone

through the lower grade of the R. C. Order and to have given out much of this to the

world." John Heydon traveled extensively, visiting Arabia, Egypt, Persia, and various

parts of Europe, as related in a biographical introduction to his work, The Wise-Mans

Crown, Set with Angels, Planets, Metals, etc., or The Glory of the Rosie Cross--a work

declared by him to be a translation into English of the mysterious book M brought from

Arabia by Christian Rosencreutz.

Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes), another champion of the Order, corroborates

the statement of John Heydon concerning the ability of the Rosicrucian initiates to make

themselves invisible at will: "The Fraternity of R.C. can move in this white mist.

'Whosoever would communicate with us must be able to see in this light, or us he will

never see unless by our own will.'"

The Fraternity of R.C. is an august and sovereign body, arbitrarily manipulating the

symbols of alchemy, Qabbalism, astrology, and magic to the attainment of its own

peculiar purposes, but entirely independent of the cults whose terminology it employs.

The three major objects of the Fraternity are:

1. The abolition of all monarchical forms of government and the substitution therefor of

the rulership of the philosophic elect. The present democracies are the direct outgrowth

of Rosicrucian efforts to liberate the maws from the domination of despotism. In the early

part of the eighteenth century the Rosicrucians turned their attention to the new American

Colonies, then forming the nucleus of a great nation in the New World. The American

War of Independence represents their first great political experiment and resulted in the

establishment of a national government founded upon the fundamental principles of

divine and natural law. As an imperishable reminder of their

Click to enlarge

THE ALCHEMICAL ANDROGYNE

From the Turbæ Philosophorum.

The Turbæ Philosophorum is one of the earliest known documents on alchemy in the Latin tongue. Its

exact origin is unknown. It is sometimes referred to as The Third Pythagorical Synod. As its name implies,

it is an assembly of the sages and sets forth the alchemical viewpoints of many of the early Greek

philosophers. The symbol reproduced above is from a rare edition of the Turbæ Philosophorum published

in Germany in 1750, and represents by a hermaphroditic figure the accomplishment of the magnum opus.

The active and passive principles of Nature were often depicted by male and female figures, and when

these two principle, were harmoniously conjoined in any one nature or body it was customary to symbolize

this state of perfect equilibrium by the composite figure above shown.

Click to enlarge

A ROSICRUCIAN TITLE PAGE.

From Maier's Viatorium.

Count Michael Maier, physician to Rudolph II., was an outstanding figure in the Rosicrucian controversy.

There is little doubt that he was an initiated member of the Rosicrucian Fraternity, empowered by the Order

to promulgate its secrets among the philosophic elect of Europe. The above title page shows the seven

planets represented by appropriate figures. Behind the central figure in each case is a smaller emblem,

signifying the zodiacal sign in which the planet is enthroned. In the arch over the title itself is a portrait of the learned Maier. The volume of which this is the title page is devoted to an analysis of the nature and

effect of the seven planets, and is couched in alchemical terminology throughout. Michael Maier concealed

his knowledge so cunningly that it is exceedingly difficult to tract from his writings the secrets which he

possessed. He was profuse in his use of emblems and the greater part of his philosophical lore is concealed

in the engravings which illustrate his books.

p. 144

sub rosa activities, the Rosicrucians left the Great Seal of the United States. The

Rosicrucians were also the instigators of the French Revolution, but in this instance were

not wholly successful, owing to the fact that the fanaticism of the revolutionists could not

be controlled and the Reign of Terror ensued.

2. The reformation of science, philosophy, and ethics. The Rosicrucians declared that the

material arts and sciences were but shadows of the divine wisdom, and that only by

penetrating the innermost recesses of Nature could man attain to reality and

understanding. Though calling themselves Christians, the Rosicrucians were evidently

Platonists and also profoundly versed in the deepest mysteries of early Hebrew and

Hindu theology. There is undeniable evidence that the Rosicrucians desired to reestablish

the institutions of the ancient Mysteries as the foremost method of instructing humanity

in the secret and eternal doctrine. Indeed, being in all probability the perpetuators of the

ancient Mysteries, the Rosicrucians were able to maintain themselves against the

obliterating forces of dogmatic Christianity only by absolute secrecy and the subtlety of

their subterfuges. They so carefully guarded and preserved the Supreme Mystery--the

identity and interrelationship of the Three Selves--that no one to whom they did not of

their own accord reveal themselves has ever secured any satisfactory information

regarding either the existence or the purpose of the Order. The Fraternity of R.C., through

its outer organization, is gradually creating an environment or body in which the

Illustrious Brother C.R.C. may ultimately incarnate and consummate for humanity the

vast spiritual and material labors of the Fraternity.

3. The discovery of the Universal Medicine, or panacea, for all forms of disease. There is

ample evidence that the Rosicrucians were successful in their quest for the Elixir of Life.

In his Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, Elias Ashmole states that the Rosicrucians were

not appreciated in England, but were welcomed on the Continent. He also states that

Queen Elizabeth was twice cured of the smallpox by the Brethren of the Rosy Cross, and

that the Earl of Norfolk was healed of leprosy by a Rosicrucian physician. In the

quotations that follow it is .hinted by John Heydon that the Brothers of the Fraternity

possessed the secret of prolonging human existence indefinitely, but not beyond the time

appointed by the will of God:

"And at last they could restore by the same course every Brother that died to life again,

and so continue many ages; the rules you find in the fourth book. * * * After this manner

began the Fraternity of the Rosie Cross, first by four persons, who died and rose again

until Christ, and then they came to worship as the Star guided them to Bethlehem of

Judea, where lay our Saviour in his mother's arms; and then they opened their treasure

and presented unto him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and by the commandment of

God went home to their habitation. These four waxing young again successively many

hundreds of years, made a magical language and writing, with a large dictionary, which

we yet daily use to God's praise and glory, and do find great wisdom therein. * * * Now

whilst Brother C.R. was in a proper womb quickening, they concluded to draw and

receive yet others more into their Fraternity."

The womb herein referred to was apparently the glass casket, or container, in which the

Brothers were buried. This was also called the philosophical egg. After a certain period

of time the philosopher, breaking the shell of his egg, came forth and functioned for a

prescribed period, after which he retired again into his shell of glass, The Rosicrucian

medicine for the healing of all human infirmities may be interpreted either as a chemical

substance which produces the physical effects described or as spiritual understanding--the

true healing power which, whet a man has partaken of it, reveals truth to him. Ignorance

is the worst form of disease, and that: which heals ignorance is therefore the most potent

of all medicines. The perfect Rosicrucian medicine was for the healing of nations, races,

and individuals.

In an early unpublished manuscript, an unknown philosopher declares alchemy,

Qabbalism, astrology, and magic to have been divine sciences originally, but that through

perversion they had become false doctrines, leading seekers after wisdom ever farther

from their goal. The same author gives a valuable key to esoteric Rosicrucianism by

dividing the path of spiritual attainment into three steps, or schools, which he calls

mountains. The first and lowest of these mountains is Mount Sophia; the second, Mount

Qabbalah; and the third, Mount Magia. These three mountains are sequential stages of

spiritual growth. The unknown author then states:

"By philosophy is to be understood the knowledge of the workings of Nature, by which

knowledge man learns to climb to those higher mountains above the limitations of sense.

By Qabbalism is to be understood the language of the angelic or celestial beings, and he

who masters it is able to converse with the messengers of God. On the highest of the

mountains is the School of Magia (Divine Magic, which is the language of God) wherein

man is taught the true nature of all things by God Himself."

There is a growing conviction that if the true nature of Rosicrucianism were divulged, it

would cause consternation, to say the least. Rosicrucian symbols have many meanings,

but the Rosicrucian meaning has not yet been revealed. The mount upon which stands the

House of the Rosy Cross is still concealed by clouds, in which the Brethren hide both

themselves and their secrets. Michael Maier writes: "What is contained in the Fama and

Confessio is true. It is a very childish objection that the brotherhood have promised so

much and performed so little. With them, as elsewhere, many are called but few are

chosen. The masters of the order hold out the rose as the remote prize, but they impose

the cross on those who are entering." (See Silentium post Clamores, by Maier, and The

Rosicrucians and the Freemasons, by De Quincey.)

The rose and the cross appear upon the stained glass windows of Lichfield Chapter

House, where Walter Conrad Arensberg believes Lord Bacon and his mother to have

been buried. A crucified rose within a heart is watermarked into the dedication page of

the 1628 edition of Robert Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.

The fundamental symbols of the Rosicrucians were the rose and the cross; the rose

female and the cross male, both universal phallic emblems. While such learned

gentlemen as Thomas Inman, Hargrave Jennings, and Richard Payne Knight have truly

observed that the rose and the cross typify the generative processes, these scholars seem

unable to pierce the veil of symbolism; they do not realize that the creative mystery in the

material world is merely a shadow of the divine creative mystery in the spiritual world.

Because of the phallic significance of their symbols, both the Rosicrucians and the

Templars have been falsely accused of practicing obscene rites in their secret

ceremonials. While it is quite true that the alchemical retort symbolizes the womb, it also

has a far more significant meaning concealed under the allegory of the second birth. As

generation is the key to material existence, it is natural that the Fraternity of R.C. should

adopt as its characteristic symbols those exemplifying the reproductive processes. As

regeneration is the key to spiritual existence, they therefore founded their symbolism

upon the rose and the cross, which typify the redemption of man through the union of his

lower temporal nature with his higher eternal nature. The rosy cross is also a hieroglyphic

figure representing the formula of the Universal Medicine.

Click to enlarge

THE ELEMENTARY WORLD.

From Musæum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum.

The outer circle contains the figures of the Zodiac; the second, their signs and that part of the human body

which they rule; the third, the months of the year, with brief notes concerning temperaments, etc. The

fourth circle contains the elements accompanied by their appropriate symbols, and the following seven

circles mark the orbits of the planets; also the planetary angels, the seven major members of the Universal

Man, and the seven metals, each division appearing under its appropriate element according to the

elemental names in the fourth circle. In the twelfth circle appear the words: "There are Three Principles, Three Worlds, Three Ages, and Three Kingdoms." In the thirteenth circle appear the names of the twelve

arts and sciences which are considered essential to spiritual growth. In the fourteenth circle is the word

Nature. The fifteenth circle contains the following words. "It is the great honour of faithful souls, that from their very birth an angel is appointed to preserve and keep each of them." (See first English translation, London, 1893.)

p. 145

Fifteen Rosicrucian and Qabbalistic

Diagrams

IN his well-known work, The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries, Hargrave

Jennings reproduces five Qabbalistic charts which he declares to be genuine Rosicrucian

drawings. He gives no information concerning their origin nor does he attempt an

elucidation of their symbolism. A recent writer who reproduced one of these charts

correlated it to the emblematic tomb of Father C.R.C., thus exposing the true nature of

Christian Rosencreutz.

The five plates reproduced in Hargrave Jennings' book are part of a series of fifteen

diagrams which appear in The Magical, Qabbalistical, and Theosophical Writings of

Georgius von Welling, on the Subject of Salt, Sulphur, and Mercury. This extremely rare

volume was published at Frankfort and Leipzig in 1735 and 1760. The numbers and

figures on the charts refer to the chapters and sections of the Writings. These fifteen

charts constitute a remarkable and invaluable addition to the few other known admittedly

authentic Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian diagrams.

Lucifer is the greatest mystery of symbolism. The secret knowledge of the Rosicrucians

concerning Lucifer is nowhere so plainly set forth as in these plates, which virtually

reveal his true identity, a carefully guarded secret about which little has been written.

Lucifer is represented by the number 741.

Von Welling does not give a complete exposition of the fifteen charts; to have done so

would have been contrary to the principles of Qabbalistic philosophy. The deeper

significance of the symbols is revealed only by profound study and contemplation.

TABLE I, Figures 1-11. Figure 1 is a Ptolemaic chart showing the true relationship

existing between the primordial elements. Its secret significance is as follows: The outer

ring enclosed by the lines A and B is the region of Schamayim, a Qabbalistic name for the

Supreme Deity, signifying the expanse of the heavens, or a spiritual fiery water.

Schamayim is "The Ocean of Spirit, " within which all created and uncreated things exist and by the life of which they are animated. In the lower worlds Schamayim becomes the

astral light.

The space between B and C marks the orbits or planes of the seven Spiritual Intelligences

called the Divine Planets (not the visible planets). According to the Mysteries, the souls

of men enter the lower worlds through ring B, the fixed stars. All creation reflects the

glory of Schamayim, the energy that filters into the spheres of the elements through the

windows of the stars and planets. Between C and D lies the region of the subtle, spiritual

air, a subdivision of ether. D to E marks the surface of the earth and sea, by which are

also meant grades of ether. E to F marks the lower region, called "The Gathering of the

Waters and the Production of the Virgin Earth, " or "Ares. " The alchemists called this

"quicksand," the true mystic foundation of the solid earth. F to G marks the circle of the

subterranean air, which is more dense and coarse than that in the outer space, C to D. In

this denser atmosphere the stellar influences and celestial impulses are crystallized into

corporeal spirits, thus forming the multitude of forms which exist without knowledge of

their own fiery source. G is the region of the central fire of the element earth, a coarse fire

in contradistinction to the divine fiery Schamayim. The sphere of the starry heavens

likewise has its opposite in the sphere of the subterranean air; and the sphere of the upper

air (or subtle vaporous water) has its opposite in the sphere E to F. The focal point, D to

E, between the three higher and the three lower spheres, is called "The Reservoir." It

receives impressions from both the superior and the inferior regions and is common to

both.

Figure 2 is the Qabbalistic symbol of elemental water; Figure 9 represents the spiritual

invisible water. Figure 3 is the Qabbalistic symbol of elemental air; Figure 7 represents

the spiritual and invisible air. Figure 4 is the Qabbalistic sign of the elemental earth;

Figure 8 represents the spiritual and invisible earth. Figure 5 is the Qabbalistic sign of the

elemental fire; Figure 6 represents the spiritual and invisible fire. Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9

symbolize the four elements before the descent of Lucifer. They are the four rivers

spoken of in Genesis, having their source in the one river, Figure W, which represents the

elements superimposed on one another. The golden ball in the center is Schamayim, the

fiery source of all elements. Figure 11 is the emblem of the beginning and the end of all

creatures. From it all things proceed and to it all must return again, to become one with

the fiery water of divine understanding.

TABLE II, Figures 12-51. Figures 12, 13, 14 demonstrate the sphere as a symbol of

motion to be emblematic of fire, water, and air; and the cube as a symbol of weight to be

emblematic of earth. The sphere rests upon a point, the cube upon a surface; the sphere is

therefore used to symbolize spirit, and the cube, matter. Figure 14 demonstrates that

atmosphere rushing in behind a falling object increases its velocity and apparently adds to

its weight. The essential nature of each element is occultly signified by the peculiar

symbol and character assigned to it.

Of Figure 15, the symbol of salt, von Welling writes, in substance: The cube has six

sides, corresponding to the six days of creation, with the point of rest (the seventh day) in

the center of the cube. On each surface of the cube appear the signs of the four elements

[triangles]. The alchemists declared that salt was the first created substance produced by

the fire (Schamayim) which flowed out of God. In salt all creation is concentrated; in salt

are the beginning and end of all things. The cube, furthermore, is composed of twelve

bodies, each of which has six sides. These bodies are the twelve fundamental pillars of

the true invisible church, and when these twelve bodies are multiplied by their six sides

the magical number 72 results. The wise have said that nothing is perfect until it has been

dissolved, separated, and again united so that it becomes a body composed of twelve

bodies, like the cube. The cube also consists of six pyramids with the six surfaces of the

cube as their bases. The points of these six pyramids meet at the center of the cube. These

six pyramids, each consisting of four triangles, signify the elements, and produce the

magical number 24, which refers to the Elders before the Throne. The six surfaces and

the point constitute the magical number 7. If 7 be multiplied by 7 again, and so on 7

times, the answer will reveal the method used by the ancients for measuring the periods

of eternity; thus: (1) 7 X 7 = 49; (2) 49 X 7 = 343; (3) 343 X 7 = 2,401; (4) 2,401 X 7 =

16,807; (5):16,807 X 7 = 117,649; (6) 117,649 X 7 = 823,543; (7) 823,543 X 7 =

5,764,801. (This is not to be taken as earth years or times.) The 5,000, 000 represents the

great hall year; the 700,000 the great Sabbath year, wherein all human beings gradually

gain true understanding and become heirs to their original and eternal inheritance, which

was lost when they were enmeshed in the lower elements. The 64,800 is the number of

the fallen angels, and the last one year signifies the liberation of Lucifer and return to his

original estate.

Figure 16 is another symbol of salt, while Figure 17 (the dot) is the sign of spirit, gold,

the sun, or the germ of life. If the dot be moved before itself it becomes a line, Figure 18.

This motion of the dot is the first motion. The beginning and end of every line is a dot.

Figure 19 is the circle. It is the second motion and the most perfect of all lines. Out of it

are formed all figures and bodies

Click to enlarge

TABLE I, Figures 1-11.

Click to enlarge

TABLE II, Figures 12-51.

p. 146

imaginable. Figure 20 represents the outpouring of the upper and spiritual life into

manifestation. Figure 21 represents darkness, for it is the loosening of the subterrene

destructive principle. Figure 20 is also the symbol of day, and Figure 21 of night.

Figure 22 is a symbol of water; Figure 23 is the complete universal character of light and

darkness. The upright triangle represents Schamayim; the inverted triangle the dark earth

which imprisons the infernal subterranean fire. It is "The First Day of Creation," or the

time of the separation of Schamayim and Ares. Figure 24 represents the six days of

creation and proves that the elements are an outflow of the Divine Fire which, breaking

up, becomes the substances of the tangible universe, as signified in Figure 25.

Figure 26 is the character of the air, showing that air is born out of the Eternal Light and

the ethereal water. Figure 27 is the character of water. It is the inversion of Figure 26,

indicating that its origin is from the lower fire and not the higher. Its upper part signifies

that water does not lack the Divine element, but as a universal mirror reflects the

heavenly influences. Figures 28 and 29 are symbols of salt, showing that it is both fire

and water in one. Figure 30 is the character of fire in all its attributes, and Figure M (the

same inverted), water in all its powers. Figure 32 is the character of salt in all its

attributes. Figure 33 represents both gold and the sun. Their essential natures are

identical, being formed from the first fire out of Schamayim. They are perfect, as can be

seen from their symbol, for no more perfect form can be produced out of the dot than the

circle.

Figure 34 is the character of the greater and lesser worlds; as the dot is surrounded by its

circumference, this world is surrounded by Schamayim. Man (the Little World) is

included in this symbol because his inner nature is potential gold (Aphar Min

Haadamah), which gold is his eternal indestructible spiritual body. Gold is the masculine

principle of the universe.

Figure 35 is the character of silver and the moon. It signifies that silver (like gold) is a

perfect metal, except that the red part of its nature is turned inward. Silver is the feminine

principle of the universe.

Figure 36 is the character of copper and Venus; Figure 37, of iron and Mars; Figure 38,

of tin and Jupiter; Figure 39, of lead and Saturn; Figure 40, of Mercury (both the planet

and the element); Figure 41, of antimony, the key metal of the earth itself; Figure 42, of

arsenic; Figure 43, of sulphur; Figure 44, of cinnabar; Figure 45, of quicklime; Figure 46,

of nitre; and Figure 47, of vitriol. Figure 48 is the character of sal ammoniac, which

element derives its name from the Temple of Jupiter Ammon in an Egyptian desert,

where it was found. Figure 49 is the character of alum; Figure 50, of alkali, a name of

Arabian origin; and Figure 51, of sal tartar, a substance possessing great occult virtue.

TABLE Ill, Figure 52. The eight globes and the central square represent the seven days of

creation. The three worlds wherein creation occurs are symbolized by three concentric

rings. The German words in the outer ring are extracts from the first chapter of Genesis.

The words around the outside of the outer ring are The First Day. The four small globes

inside the outer ring deal with the abstract phases of creation. The upper globe containing

the triangle encloses the words Heaven and Earth. The globe to the right contains the

word Light, and the one to the left, Jehovah Elohim in the upper part and Darkness in the

lower part. The globe at the bottom contains the word Day in the upper half and Night in

the lower.

The four globes within the second ring depict the second, third, fourth, and fifth days of

creation. The white globe above divided by a dotted line is designated The Second Day;

the globe to the left with the mountains, The Third Day; the globe to the right with the

planetary rings, The Fourth Day; and the globe below bisected by a dotted line, The Fifth

Day. The square in the central ring containing the human form is marked The Sixth Day.

This chart is a diagrammatic exposition of the three layers of the macrocosmic and

microcosmic auric eggs, showing the forces active within them.

TABLE IV, Figure. 53. Figure 53 has been designated the symbolic tomb of Christian

Rosencreutz. The upper circle is the first world--the Divine Sphere of God. The triangle

in the center is the throne of God. The small circles at the points of the star symbolize the

seven great Spirits before the throne, mentioned in the Book of Revelation, in the midst

of which walks the Alpha and Omega--the Son of God. The central triangle contains

three flames--the Divine Trinity. From the lowest of these flames proceeds the first divine

outflow, shown by two parallel lines descending through the throne of Saturn (the Spirit

Orifelis, through whom God manifested Himself). Passing through the boundary of the

celestial universe and the 22 spheres of the lower system, the lines end at point B, the

throne of Lucifer, in whom the divine outpouring is concentrated and reflected. From him

the divine light irradiates in succession to d (Capricorn), e (Gemini), f (Libra), g (Taurus),

h (Pisces), i (Aquarius), k (Cancer), l (Virgo), m (Aries), n (Leo), o (Scorpio), p

(Sagittarius), thence back to d. The zodiacal circles represent twelve orders of great and

beneficent Spirits, and the smaller circles within the ring of fixed stars mark the orbits of

the sacred planets.

TABLE V, Figure 54. Figure 54 is similar to Figure 53, but represents the universe at the

time God manifested Himself through the character of Jupiter, the Spirit Sachasiel. Von

Welling gives no reason for the change in the order of influx into the twelve orders of

spirits, for the third world, for the adding of another circle and the interlaced triangles in

the upper world, or for the letters Y and Z. In the upper triangle,

Click to enlarge

Table III, Figure 52

Click to enlarge

Table IV, Figure 53

Click to enlarge

Table V, Figure 54

Click to enlarge

Table VII, Figures 1-5, 7 and 8

p. 147

[paragraph continues] A represents the Father Principle, F the divine outflow, G the point of

influx into the twelve orders of spirits (probably Sagittarius). The letters H, I, J, K, L, M,

N, O, P, Q, S, and T denote the sequential points of irradiations to each other; W and X,

the World of the Sons of God; and B, C, D, and E, the World of Lucifer. This plate shows

the universe after the descent of Lucifer into matter. According to von Welling, when

Lucifer wanted to control power, the influx of the divine light instantly ceased. Lucifer's

world (which later became the solar system), with all its legions of spirits (who in their

essence were Schamayim) reflecting his ideas and inverting the divine light, was turned

into darkness. Lucifer's Schamayim thereupon became a contracted disc, a tangible

substance; and Chaos came into existence.

TABLE VI, Figures 55-59. Figure 55 symbolizes the Chaos of Lucifer; Figure 56, the

separation of light from darkness; Figure 57, the light in the midst of the darkness; and

Figure 58, the regions of the elements and their inhabitants. The four A's signify the

Abyss surrounding all things. The A B is the fiery throne of Lucifer. The plane of g is the

subterranean air; f, the subterranean water; c, the earth region; d, the outer water; e, the

outer air, W and X the region of Schamayim. The elemental inhabitants of the planes

differ in goodness according to their proximity to the center of wickedness (A B). The

earth's surface (c) divides the subterranean elementals from those of the outer water, air,

and fire (d, c, and X). The elementals of the upper strata (the upper half of c, and all of d,

e, and X) represent an ascending scale of virtue, while those of the lower strata (the lower

half of c, and all of f, g, and A B) represent a descending scale of depravity.

The region of air (e) is a partial exception to this order. While air is close to the light and

filled with beautiful spirits, it is also the habitation of Beelzebub, the Evil Spirit of the air,

with his legion of elemental demons. Upon the subtle element of air are impressed the

influences of the stars; the thoughts, words, and deeds of man; and a myriad of

mysterious influences from the various planes of Nature. Man inhales these impressions,

and they produce diverse effects upon his mind. In air are suspended also the seed germs

by which water is impregnated and made capable of bringing forth forms of organic and

inorganic life. The grotesque figures seen in crystal caves and frost pictures upon

windows are caused by these aerial impressions. While the air elementals are great and

wise, they are treacherous and confused because amenable to both good and evil

impressions. The mighty elemental beings who inhabit the watery light fire of the region

X cannot be deceived by the spirits of darkness. They love the creatures of the waters, for

the watery element (d) proceeded from the fiery water (X). Mortal man cannot endure the

society of these fiery spirits, but gains wisdom from them through the creatures of the

waters in which they continually mirror themselves. Figure 59 represents this solar

system, with W and X as the locality of the Garden of Eden.

TABLE VII, Figures 1-5, 7, 8. (Table VIII has Figure 6.) Figure 1 is the triune divine

sulphur, the All-Perfect out of the All-Perfect, the Soul of creatures. The threefold Divine

One is symbolized by three interlaced circles designated alchemically salt, sulphur, and

mercury. In the central triangle is the divine name Ehieh. Geist means spirit. The other

words require no translation. Figure 2 is common destructive sulphur. A bar placed in the

triangle makes it the character of earth. Figure 3 is true oil of vitriol, composed of a circle

with two diameters and two reversed half-circles hanging below. In this are hidden the

characters of all metals. Tin is symbolized by Figure 4 and iron by Figure 5. Figure 7 is

the solar system according to Copernicus. Figure 8 is the last judgment. The sun is

removed from the center of the solar system and replaced by the earth. This changes the

respective positions of all the other planets except Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn, which retain

their respective circles. The letter a signifies the circle of the sun; b, that of Mercury; c,

that of Venus; d, (sic) that of the moon; and E, that of the earth. Inward from the sphere h

are the great circles of damnation.

TABLE VII., Figure 6. In Figure 6 the letter a marks the center of eternity. The motion of

the rays toward b, d, and c was the first divine manifestation and is symbolized by the

equilateral triangle, b, d, c. The eternal world within the inner circle became manifest in

the water (salt), the light (mercury), and the fire (sulphur) of the archetypal world,

represented by the three circles (f, e, g) within the triangle of complete equality (h, i, k),

which is in turn surrounded by the circle of the high throne. The circle f is named

understanding; e, wisdom; g, reason. In circle i is the word Father; in circle h, Son; in

circle k, Spirit. The seven outer circles are the seven spirits before the throne. The lower

part of the figure is similar to Figures 53 and 54. The outer circles are the angelic world

ending in the cognizable world of the Sons of God. Then comes the circle of the visible

constellations and fixed stars; within this is the solar system with the sun as the center (l).

Ungrund means the Abyss.

TABLE IX, Figure 9. Figure 9 is a synthesis of the Old and New Testaments and

represents the interblending planes of being. In the right margin the seven outer circles

contain the names of the planetary angels. The words in the graduated circles from the

top triangle downward read: (1) Abyss of Compassion; (2) Zion; (3) The New Heaven and

the New Earth; (4) The New Jerusalem; (5) Paradise; (6) The Bosom of Abraham; (7)

The Outer Courts of the Lord. From below the circles of darkness reach upward, each

divine principle being opposed by an infernal opposite. The small circle on the left

containing a triangle and cross is named The Tree of Life, and that on the right The Tree

of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. In the center of the diagram is the Trinity, joined

with the superior and inferior planes by lines of activity.

TABLE X, Figures 10-15. Figure 10 shows the New Jerusalem in form of a cube, with the

names of the twelve tribes of Israel written on the twelve lines of the cube. In the center

is the eye of God. The words round the outer circle are from the Book of Revelation.

Figures 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15 possibly are cipher symbols of the angels of the plagues,

the name of the Antichrist, the signature of the beast of Babylon, and the name of the

woman riding on the beast of blasphemy.

Click to enlarge

Table VIII, Figure 6.

Click to enlarge

Table X, Figures 10-15.

Click to enlarge

Table IX, Figure 9.

Click to enlarge

Table XI, Figures 1-11

p. 148

TABLE XI, Figures 1.-11. Figure 1 is the solar system according to Genesis. The o on top

of the radius of the circle is the dot of Eternity--the Beginning of Beginnings. The whole

diameter is the outflow of God, manifesting first in the heaven of heavens--the

Schamayim, in which region human understanding cannot function. The space from k to i

contains the heavens of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars; l to m, the heavens of Venus and

Mercury; m to h, the heavens of the sun. The letter e is the moon, the circle of the earth.

Figure 2 is the globe of the earth, showing the houses and signs of the zodiac. Figure 3 is

the character of the Universal Mercury (Divine Life) in its triune aspect of mercury,

sulphur, and salt. Figure 4 is true saltpetre purified with quicklime and alkali. Figure 5

shows the exact degree or angle of the planets' places as well as the individual fixed stars

in the zodiac. The letter a is the sun and b is the earth. From k to i are the circles of

Mercury and Venus; g to h, the circles of earth and moon; f to e and e to c, of Jupiter and

Saturn; c to d, the starry belt or zodiac. Figure 6 is the Microcosm, with the planets and

signs of the zodiac corresponding to the different parts of its form. The words upon the

figure read: Know thyself. In words, herbs, and stones lies a great power. Figure 7 is the

universal character from which all characters have been taken. Figures 8, 9, and 10 are

left to the solution of the reader. Figure 11 is the radiating Universal Mercury.

TABLE XII, Figures 12-19. Figure 12 is called A Mirror of Astrological Aspects. Below it

is an astrologer's wheel. Figure 13 is similar to Figure 12. Figure 14 is a secret alchemical

formula. The words around the circle read: Out of one in all is all. Figure 15 is an

unsatisfactory attempt to show the comparative sizes of the suns and planets and their

distances from each other. Figure 16 is the solar system with its internal and spiritual

heavens. A B is the solar system; C is the sphere of fixed stars; D, E, F, G are the systems

of the spiritual worlds; H is the throne of the living God; J, K, L, M, and N are the Great

Beyond, unmeasurable.

Figure 17 shows the creation of the solar system out of the ring of the Divine Eternity.

The four A's are the Abyss, B is the first revelation of God out of the Abyss, and from this

revelation C, D, E, F, and G were created. C and D represent the spiritual hierarchies; D

and E, the upper worlds, or constellations; E and F, the distance from Jupiter to the upper

worlds; F and G, the solar system with its planets and their heavens; B and C the throne

of Christ.

Figure 18 describes the division according to Genesis of the waters above the heavens

(D) from the waters below (A, B, and C). Figure 19 is the mercury of the philosophers,

essential to material existence.

TABLE XIII, Figures 1-4. Figure 1 is Ain Soph, the Incomprehensible Abyss of Divine

Majesty, an endless welling up, limitless in time and space. Figure 2 symbolizes the three

Divine Principles--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Around the triangle is written: I Shall Be

That I Shall Be. At the apex of the triangle is the word Crown; in the left point, Wisdom;

in the right point, Understanding. Figure 3 represents the Trinity with its outflow. The

words above the upper sphere are Revelation of the Divine Majesty in Jehovah Elohim.

The lower circles contain the names of the Hierarchies controlling the lower worlds. The

words within the circle of stars read: Lucifer the Son of the Aurora of the morning. The

letter C represents the Universal Mercury. The words within the circle read: The first

beginning of all creatures. Figure 4 represents the abode of Lucifer and his angels, the

Chaos spoken of in Genesis.

TABLE XIV, Figures 5, 7, 8. Figure 5 shows the triangle of triune Divinity in the midst of

a cross. At the left is a small triangle containing the words The Secrets of Elohim, and at

the right is another inscribed The Secrets of Nature. On the horizontal arms of the cross

are the words The Tree of Life and The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The

plate explains the interblending of the spiritual and infernal powers in the creation of the

universe. Figure 7 is called The Road to Paradise. It probably indicates the positions of

the sun, moon, and planets at the moment of their genesis. Figure 8 is the earth before the

flood, when it was watered by a mist or vapor. The words at the left are The Tree of Life;

those at the right, The Tree of the Knowledge of good and Evil. The diagram with the

symbol of Mars is devoted to a consideration of the rainbow.

TABLE XV, Figures 6, 9, 10. Figure 6 is similar to Figure 5 and is called The Secret of

Nature. An interesting diagram is shown on either side of the central figure, each

consisting of a triangle with circles radiating from its points. The diagram on the left is

called The Secrets of the Upper World, and the one on right The Secrets of the

Underworld.

Figure 9 is the solar system. Around the central part are the words The Place of the

Damned. Figure 10 shows the dot, or point of rest, surrounded by a triangle enclosing a

circle containing the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. It represents completion of the

process of regeneration and the consummation of the Great Work.

Click to enlarge

Table XII, Figures 12-19

Click to enlarge

Table XIII, Figures 1-4

Click to enlarge

Table XIV, Figures 5, 7, and 8

Click to enlarge

Table XV, Figures 6, 9, and 10

p. 149

Alchemy and Its Exponents

IS the transmutation of base metals into gold possible? Is the idea one at which the

learned of the modern world can afford to scoff? Alchemy was more than a speculative

art: it was also an operative art. Since the time of the immortal Hermes, alchemists have

asserted (and not without substantiating evidence) that they could manufacture gold from

tin, silver, lead, and mercury. That the galaxy of brilliant philosophic and scientific minds

who, over a period of two thousand years, affirmed the actuality of metallic transmutation

and multiplication, could be completely sane and rational on all other problems of

philosophy and science, yet hopelessly mistaken on this one point, is untenable. Nor is it

reasonable that the hundreds declaring to have seen and performed transmutations of

metals could all have been dupes, imbeciles, or liars.

Those assuming that all alchemists were of unsound mentality would be forced to put in

this category nearly all the philosophers and scientists of the ancient and mediæval

worlds. Emperors, princes, priests, and common townsfolk have witnessed the apparent

miracle of metallic metamorphosis. In the face of existing testimony, anyone is privileged

to remain unconvinced, but the scoffer elects to ignore evidence worthy of respectful

consideration. Many great alchemists and Hermetic philosophers occupy an honored

niche in the Hall of Fame, while their multitudinous critics remain obscure. To list all

these sincere seekers after Nature's great arcanum is impossible, but a few will suffice to

acquaint the reader with the superior types of intellect who interested themselves in this

abstruse subject.

Among the more prominent names are those of Thomas Norton, Isaac of Holland, Basil

Valentine (the supposed discoverer of antimony), Jean de Meung, Roger Bacon, Albertus

Magnus, Quercetanus Gerber (the Arabian who brought the knowledge of alchemy to

Europe through his writings), Paracelsus, Nicholas Flarnmel, John Frederick Helvetius,

Raymond Lully, Alexander Sethon, Michael Sendivogius, Count Bernard of Treviso, Sir

George Ripley, Picus de Mirandola, John Dee, Henry Khunrath, Michael Maier, Thomas

Vaughan, J. B. von Helmont, John Heydon, Lascaris, Thomas Charnock, Synesius

(Bishop of Ptolemais), Morieu, the Comte di Cagliostro, and the Comte de St.-Germain.

There are legends to the effect that King Solomon and Pythagoras were alchemists and

that the former manufactured by alchemical means the gold used in his temple.

Albert Pike takes sides with the alchemical philosophers by declaring that the gold of the

Hermetists was a reality. He says: "The Hermetic science, like all the real sciences, is

mathematically demonstrable. Its results, even material, are as rigorous as that of a

correct equation. The Hermetic Gold is not only a true dogma, a light without Shadow, a

Truth without alloy of falsehood; it is also a material gold, real, pure, the most precious

that can be found in the mines of the earth." So much for the Masonic angle.

William and Mary jointly ascended the throne of England in 1689, at which time

alchemists must have abounded in the kingdom, for during the first year of their reign

they repealed an Act made by King Henry IV in which that sovereign declared the

multiplying of metals to be a crime against the crown. In Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom's

Collection of Alchemical Manuscripts is a handwritten copy of the Act passed by William

and Mary, copied from Chapter 30 of Statutes at Large for the first year of their reign.

The Act reads as follows: "An Act to repeal the Statute made in the 5th year of King

Henry IV, late king of England, [wherein] it was enacted, among other things, in these

words, or to this effect, namely: 'that none from henceforth should use to multiply Gold

or Silver or use the craft of multiplication, and if any the same do they shall incur the

pain of felony.' And whereas, since the making of the said statute, divers persons have by

their study, industry and learning, arrived to great skill & perfection in the art of melting

and refining of metals, and otherwise improving and multiplying them and their ores,

which very much abound in this realm, and extracting gold and silver our of the same, but

dare not to exercise their said skill within this realm, for fear of falling under the penalty

of the said statute, but exercise the said art in foreign parts, to the great loss and detriment

of this realm: Be it therefore enacted by the King's and Queen's most excellent Majesties,

by and with the advice and consent of the Lords spiritual and temporal and Commons in

this present parliament assembled, that from henceforth the aforesaid branch, article, or

sentence, contained in the said act, and every word, matter and thing contained in the said

branch or sentence, shall be repealed, annulled, revoked, and for ever made void, any

thing in the said act to the contrary in any wise whatsoever notwithstanding. Provided

always, and be it enacted by the authority aforesaid, that all the gold and silver that shall

be extracted by the aforesaid art of melting or refining of metals, and otherwise

improving and multiplying of them and their ores, as before set forth, be from henceforth

employed for no other use or uses whatsoever but for the increase of monies; and that the

place hereby appointed for the disposal thereof shall be their Majesties mint, within the

Tower of London, at which place they are to receive the full and true value of their gold

and silver, so procured, from time to time, according to the assay and fineness thereof,

and so for any greater or less weight, and that none of that metal of gold and silver so

refined and procured be permitted to be used or disposed of in any other place or places

within their Majesties dominions." After this repealing measure had become effective,

William and Mary encouraged the further study of alchemy.

Dr. Franz Hartmann has collected reliable evidence concerning four different: alchemists

who transmuted base metals into gold not once but many times. One of these accounts

concerns a monk of the Order of St. Augustine named Wenzel Seiler, who discovered a

small amount of mysterious red powder in his convent. In the presence of Emperor

Leopold I, King of Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia, he transmuted quantities of tin into

gold. Among other things which he dipped into his mysterious essence was a large silver

medal. That part of the medal which came in contact with the gold-producing substance

was transmuted into the purest quality of the more precious metal. The rest remained

silver. With regard to this medal, Dr. Hartmann writes:

"The most indisputable proof (if appearances can prove anything) of the possibility of

transmuting base metals into gold, may be seen by everyone who visits Vienna; it being a

medal preserved in the Imperial treasury chamber, and it is stated that this medal,

consisting originally of silver, has been partly transformed into gold, by alchemical

means, by the same Wenzel Seiler who was afterwards made a knight by the Emperor

Leopold I. and given the title Wenzeslaus Ritter von Reinburg. "(In the Pronaos of the

Temple of Wisdom.)

Space limitations preclude a lengthy discussion of the alchemists. A brief sketch of the

lives of four should serve to show the general principles on which they worked, the

method by which they obtained their knowledge, and the use which they made of it.

These four were Grand Masters of this secret science; and the stories of

Click to enlarge

PARACELSUS.

From The Complete Writings of Paracelsus, of Hohenheim.

In his Biographia Antiqua, Francis Barrett appends to the name of Paracelsus the following titles of

distinction: "The Prince of Physicians and Philosophers by Fire; Grand Paradoxical Physician; The

Trismegistus of Switzerland; First Reformer of Chymical Philosophy; Adept in Alchymy, Cabala, and

Magic; Nature's Faithful Secretary; Master of the Elixir of Life and The Philosopher's Stone," and the

"Great Monarch of Chymical Secrets"

p. 150

their wanderings and strivings, as recorded by their own pens and by contemporaneous

disciples of the Hermetic art, are as fascinating as any romance of fiction.

PARACELSUS OF HOHENHEIM

The most famous of alchemical and Hermetic philosophers was Philippus Aureolus

Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim. This man, who called himself Paracelsus,

declared that some day all the doctors of Europe would turn from the other schools and,

following him, revere him above every other physician. The accepted date of the birth of

Paracelsus is December 17, 1493. He was an only child. Both his father and mother were

interested in medicine and chemistry. His father was a physician and his mother the

superintendent of a hospital. While still a youth, Paracelsus became greatly interested in

the writings of Isaac of Holland, and determined to reform the medical science of his day.

When twenty years old he began a series of travels which continued for about twelve

years. He visited many European countries, including Russia. It is possible that he

penetrated into Asia. It was in Constantinople that the great secret of the Hermetic arts

was bestowed upon him by Arabian adepts. His knowledge of the Nature spirits and the

inhabitants of the invisible worlds he probably secured from the Brahmins of India with

whom he came in contact either directly or through their disciples. He became an army

physician, and his understanding and skill brought him great success.

Upon his return to Germany, he began his long-dreamed-of reformation of the medical

arts and sciences. He was opposed on every hand and criticized unmercifully. His violent

temper and tremendously strong personality undoubtedly precipitated many storms upon

his head which might have been avoided had he been of a less caustic disposition. He

flayed the apothecaries, asserting that they did not use the proper ingredients in their

prescriptions and did not consider the needs of their patients, desiring only to collect

exorbitant fees for their concoctions.

The remarkable cures which Paracelsus effected only made his enemies hate him more

bitterly, for they could not duplicate the apparent miracles which he wrought. He not only

treated the more common diseases of his day but is said to have actually cured leprosy,

cholera, and cancer. His friends claimed for him that he all but raised the dead. His

systems of healing were so heterodox, however, that slowly but surely his enemies

overwhelmed him and again and again forced him to leave the fields of his labors and

seek refuge where he was not known.

There is much controversy concerning the personality of Paracelsus. That he had an

irascible disposition there is no doubt. His barred for physicians and for women

amounted to a mania; for them he had nothing but abuse. As far as can be learned, there

was never a love affair in his life. His peculiar appearance and immoderate system of

living were always held against him by his adversaries. It is believed that his physical

abnormalities may have been responsible for much of the bitterness against society which

he carried with him throughout all his intolerant and tempestuous life.

His reputed intemperance brought upon him still more persecution, for it was asserted

that even during the time of his professorship in the University of Basel he was seldom

sober. Such an accusation is difficult to understand in view of the marvelous mental

clarity for which he was noted at all times. The vast amount of writing which he

accomplished (the Strassburg Edition of his collected works is in three large volumes,

each containing several hundred pages) is a monumental contradiction of the tales

regarding his excessive use of alcoholics.

No doubt many of the vices of which he is accused were sheer inventions by his enemies,

who, not satisfied with hiring assassins to murder him, sought to besmirch his memory

after they had revengefully ended his life. The manner in which Paracelsus met his death

is uncertain, but: the most credible account is that he died as the indirect result of a

scuffle with a number of assassins who had been hired by some of his professional

enemies to make away with the one who had exposed their chicanery.

Few manuscripts are extant in the handwriting of Paracelsus, for he dictated the majority

of his works to his disciples, who wrote them down. Professor John Maxson Stillman, of

Stanford University, pays the following tribute to his memory: "Whatever be the final

judgment as to the relative importance of Paracelsus in the upbuilding of medical science

and practice, it must be recognized that he entered upon his career at Basel with the zeal

and the self-assurance of one who believed himself inspired with a great truth, and

destined to effect a great advance in the science and practice of medicine. By nature he

was a keen and open-minded observer of whatever came under his observation, though

probably also not a very critical analyst of the observed phenomena. He was evidently an

unusually self-reliant and independent thinker, though the degree of originality in his

thought may be a matter of legitimate differences of opinion. Certainly once having, from

whatever combination of influences, made up his mind to reject the sacredness of the

authority of Aristotle, Galen and Avicenna, and having found what to his mind was a

satisfactory substitute for the ancient dogmas in his own modification of the neo-Platonic

philosophy, he did not hesitate to burn his ships behind him.

"Having cut loose from the dominant Galenism of his time, he determined to preach and

teach that the basis of the medical science of the future should be the study of nature,

observation of the patient, experiment and experience, and not the infallible dogmas of

authors long dead. Doubtless in the pride and self-confidence of his youthful enthusiasm

he did not rightly estimate the tremendous force of conservatism against which he

directed his assaults. If so, his experience in Basel surely undeceived him. From that time

on he was to be a wanderer again, sometimes in great poverty, sometimes in moderate

comfort, but manifestly disillusioned as to the immediate success of his campaign though

never in doubt as to its ultimate success--for to his mind his new theories and practice of

medicine were at one with the forces of nature, which were the expression of God's will,

and eventually they must prevail."

This strange man, his nature a mass of contradictions, his stupendous genius shining like

a star through the philosophic and scientific darkness of mediæval Europe, struggling

against the jealousy of his colleagues as well as against the irascibility of his own nature,

fought for the good of the many against the domination of the few. He was the first man

to write scientific books in the language of the common people so that all could read

them.

Even in death Paracelsus found no rest. Again and again his bones were dug up and

reinterred in another place. The slab of marble over his grave bears the following

inscription: "Here lies buried Philip Theophrastus the famous Doctor of Medicine who

cured Wounds, Leprosy, Gout, Dropsy and other incurable Maladies of the Body, with

wonderful Knowledge and gave his Goods to be divided and distributed to the Poor. In

the Year 1541 on the 24th day of September he exchanged Life for Death. To the Living

Peace, to the Sepulchred Eternal Rest."

A. M. Stoddart, in her Life of Paracelsus, gives a remarkable testimonial of the love

which the masses had for the great physician. Referring to his tomb, she writes: "To this

day the poor pray there. Hohenheim's memory has 'blossomed in the dust' to sainthood,

for the poor have canonized him. When cholera threatened Salzburg in 1830, the people

made a pilgrimage to his monument and prayed him to avert it from their homes. The

dreaded scourge passed away from them and raged in Germany and the rest of Austria."

Click to enlarge

ALBERTUS MAGNUS.

From Jovius' Vitae Illustrium Virorum.

Albert de Groot was born about 1206 and died at the age of 74. It has been said of him that he was "magnus in magia, major in philosophia, maximus in theologia." He was a member of the Dominican order and the

mentor of St. Thomas Aquinas in alchemy and philosophy. Among other positions of dignity occupied by

Albertus Magnus was that of Bishop of Regensburg. He was beatified in 1622. Albertus was an Aristotelian

philosopher, an astrologer, and a profound student of medicine and physics. During his youth, he was

considered of deficient mentality, but his since service and devotion were rewarded by a vision in which

the Virgin Mary appeared to him and bestowed upon him great philosophical and intellectual powers.

Having become master of the magical sciences, Albertus began the construction of a curious automaton,

which he invested with the powers of speech and thought. The Android, as it was called, was composed of

metals and unknown substances chosen according to the stars and endued with spiritual qualities by

magical formulæ and invocations, and the labor upon it consumed over thirty years. St. Thomas Aquinas,

thinking the device to be a diabolical mechanism, destroyed it, thus frustrating the labor of a lifetime. In

spite of this act, Albertus Magnus left to St. Thomas Aquinas his alchemical formulæ, including (according

to legend) the secret of the Philosopher's Stone.

On one occasion Albertus Magnus invited William II, Count of Holland and King of the Romans, to a

garden party in midwinter. The ground was covered with snow, but Albertus, had prepare a sumptuous

banquet in the open grounds of his monastery at Cologne. The guests were amazed at the imprudence of the

philosopher, but as they sat down to eat Albertus, uttered a few words, the snow disappeared, the garden

was filled with flowers and singing birds, and the air was warm with the breezes of summer. As soon as the

feast was over, the snow returned, much to the amazement of the assembled nobles. (For details, see The Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers.)

p. 151

[paragraph continues] It was supposed that one early teacher of Paracelsus was a mysterious

alchemist who called himself Solomon Trismosin. Concerning this person nothing is

known save that after some years of wandering he secured the formula of transmutation

and claimed to have made vast amounts of gold. A beautifully illuminated manuscript of

this author, dated 1582 and called Splendor Solis, is in the British Museum. Trismosin

claimed to have lived to the age of 150 as the result of his knowledge of alchemy. One

very significant statement appears in his Alchemical Wanderings, which work is

supposed to narrate his search for the Philosopher's Scone: "Study what thou art, whereof

thou art a part, what thou knowest of this art, this is really what thou art. All that is

without thee also is within, thus wrote Trismosin."

RAYMOND LULLY

This most famous of all the Spanish alchemists was born about the year 1235. His father

was seneschal to James the First of Aragon, and young Raymond was brought up in the

court surrounded by the temptations and profligacy abounding in such places. He was

later appointed to the position which his father had occupied. A wealthy marriage ensured

Raymond's financial position, and he lived the life of a grandee.

One of the most beautiful women at: the court of Aragon was Donna Ambrosia Eleanora

Di Castello, whose virtue and beauty had brought her great renown. She was at that time

married and was not particularly pleased to discover that young Lully was rapidly

developing a passion for her. Wherever she went Raymond followed, and at last over a

trivial incident he wrote some very amorous verses to her, which produced an effect quite

different from what he had expected. He received a message inviting him to visit the

lady. He responded with alacrity. She told him that it was only fair that he should behold

more of the beauty concerning which he wrote such appealing poems and, drawing aside

part of her garments, disclosed that one side of her body was nearly eaten away by a

cancer. Raymond never recovered from the shock. It turned the entire course of his life.

He renounced the frivolities of the court and became a recluse.

Sometime afterwards while doing penance for his worldly sins a vision appeared to him

in which Christ told him to follow in the direction in which He should lead. Later the

vision was repeated. Hesitating no longer, Raymond divided his property among his

family and retired to a hut on the side of a hill, where he devoted himself to the study of

Arabic, that he might go forth and convert the infidels. After six years in this retreat he

set out with a Mohammedan servant, who, when he learned that Raymond was about to

attack the faith of his people, buried his knife in his master's back. Raymond refused to

allow his would-be assassin to be executed, but later the man strangled himself in prison.

When Raymond regained his health he became a teacher of the Arabic language to those

who intended traveling in the Holy Land. It was while so engaged that he came in

contact: with Arnold of Villa Nova, who taught him the principles or alchemy. As a result

of this training, Raymond learned the secret of the transmutation and multiplication of

metals. His life of wandering continued, and during the course of it he arrived at Tunis,

where he began to debate with the Mohammedan teachers, and nearly lost his life as the

result of his fanatical attacks upon their religion. He was ordered to leave the country and

never to return again upon pain of death. Notwithstanding their threats he made a second

visit to Tunis, but the inhabitants instead of killing him merely deported him to Italy.

An unsigned article appearing in Household Words, No. 273, a magazine conducted by

Charles Dickens, throws considerable light on Lully's alchemical ability. "Whilst at

Vienna he [Lully] received flattering letters from Edward the Second, King of England,

and from Robert Bruce, King of Scotland, entreating him to visit them. He had also, in

the course of his travels, met with John Cremer, Abbot of Westminster, with whom he

formed a strong friendship; and it was more to please him than the king, that Raymond

consented to go to England. [A tract by John Cremer appears in the Hermetic Museum,

but there is no record in the annals of Westminster of anyone by that name.] Cremer had

an intense desire to learn the last great secret of alchemy--to make the powder of

transmutation--and Raymond, with all his friendship, had never disclosed it. Cremer,

however, set to work very cunningly; he was not long in discovering the object that was

nearest to Raymond's heart--the conversion of the infidels. He told the king wonderful

stories of the gold Lully had the art to make; and he worked upon Raymond by the hope

that King Edward would be easily induced to raise a crusade against the Mahommedans,

if he had the means.

"Raymond had appealed so often to popes and kings that he had lost all faith in them;

nevertheless, as a last hope, he accompanied his friend Cremer to England. Cremer

lodged him in his abbey, treating him with distinction; and there Lully at last instructed

him in the powder, the secret of which Cremer had so long desired to know. When the

powder was perfected, Cremer presented him to the king, who received him as a man

may be supposed to receive one who could give him boundless riches. Raymond made

only one condition; that the gold he made should not be expended upon the luxuries of

the court or upon a war with any Christian king; and that Edward himself should go in

person with an army against the infidels. Edward promised everything and anything.

"Raymond had apartments assigned him in the Tower, and there he tells us he transmuted

fifty thousand pounds weight of quicksilver, lead, and tin into pure gold, which was

coined at the mint into six million of nobles, each worth about three pounds sterling at the

present day. Some of the pieces said to have been coined out of this gold are still to be

found in antiquarian collections. [While desperate attempts have been made to disprove

these statements, the evidence is still about equally divided.] To Robert Bruce he sent a

little work entitled Of the Art of Transmuting Metals. Dr. Edmund Dickenson relates that

when the cloister which Raymond occupied at Westminster was removed, the workmen

found some of the powder, with which they enriched themselves.

"During Lully's residence in England, he became the friend of Roger Bacon. Nothing, of

course, could be further from King Edward's thoughts than to go on a crusade.

Raymond's apartments in the Tower were only an honorable prison; and he soon

perceived how matters were. He declared that Edward would meet with nothing but

misfortune and misery for his breach of faith. He made his escape from England in 1315,

and set off once more to preach to the infidels. He was now a very old man, and none of

his friends could ever hope to see his face again.

"He went first to Egypt, then to Jerusalem, and thence to Tunis a third time. There he at

last met with the martyrdom he had so often braved. The people fell upon him and stoned

him. Some Genoese merchants carried away his body, in which they discerned some

feeble signs of life. They carried him on board their vessel; but, though he lingered

awhile, he died as they came in sight of Majorca, on the 28th of June, 1315, at the age of

eighty-one. He was buried with great honour in his family chapel at St. Ulma, the viceroy

and all the principal nobility attending."

NICHOLAS FLAMMEL

In the latter part of the fourteenth century there lived in Paris one whose business was

that of illuminating manuscripts and preparing deeds and documents. To Nicholas

Flammel the world is indebted for its knowledge of a most remarkable volume, which he

bought for a paltry sum from some bookdealer with whom his profession of scrivener

brought him in contact. The story of this curious document, called the Book of Abraham

the Jew, is best narrated

Click to enlarge

TITLE PAGE OF ALCHEMICAL TRACT ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN CREMER.

From Musæum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum.

John Cremer, the mythical Abbot of Westminster, is an interesting personality in the alchemical imbroglio

of the fourteenth century. As it is not reasonably certain that m abbot by such a name ever occupied the See

of Westminster, the question naturally arises, "Who was the person concealing his identity under the

Pseudonym of John Cremer?" Fictitious characters such as John Cremer illustrate two important practices

of mediæval alchemists: (1) many persons of high political or religious rank were secretly engaged in

Hermetic chemical research but, fearing persecution and ridicule, published their findings under various

pseudonyms; (2) for thousands of years it was the practice of those initiates who possessed the true key to

the great Hermetic arcanum to perpetuate their wisdom by creating imaginary persons, involving them in

episodes of contemporaneous history and thus establishing these beings as prominent members of society--

in some cases even fabricating complete genealogies to attain that end. The names by which these fictitious

characters were known revealed nothing to the uniformed. To the initiated, however, they signified that the

personality to which they were assigned had no existence other than a symbolic one. These initiated

chroniclers carefully concealed their arcanum in the lives, thoughts, words. and acts ascribed to these

imaginary persons and thus safely transmitted through the ages the deepest secrets of occultism as writings which to the unconversant were nothing more than biographies.

p. 152

in his own words as preserved in his Hieroglyphical Figures: "Whilst therefore, I

Nicholas Flammel, Notary, after the decease of my parents, got my living at our art of

writing, by making inventories, dressing accounts, and summing up the expenses of

tutors and pupils, there fell into my hands for the sum of two florins, a guilded book, very

old and large. It was not of paper, nor of parchment, as other books be, but was only

made of delicate rinds (as it seemed to me) of tender young trees. The cover of it was of

brass, well bound, all engraven with letters, or strange figures; and for my part I think

they might well be Greek characters, or some such like ancient language. Sure I am. I

could not read them, and I know well they were not notes nor letters of the Latin nor of

the Gaul, for of them we understand a little.

"As for that which was within it, the leaves of bark or rind, were engraven and with

admirable diligence written, with a point of iron, in fair and neat Latin letters colored. It

contained thrice seven leaves, for so were they counted in the top of the leaves, and

always every seventh leaf there was painted a virgin and serpent swallowing her up. In

the second seventh, a cross where a serpent was crucified; and the last seventh, there

were painted deserts, or wildernesse, in the midst whereof ran many fair fountains, from

whence there issued out a number of serpents, which ran up and down here and there.

Upon the first of the leaves, was written in great capital letters of gold, Abraham the Jew,

Prince, Priest, Levite, Astrologer, and Philosopher, to the Nation of the Jews, by the

Wrath of God dispersed among the Gauls, sendeth Health. After this it was filled with

great execrations and curses (with this word Maranatha, which was often repeated there)

against every person that should cast his eyes upon it, if he were not Sacrificer or Scribe.

"He that sold me this book knew not what it was worth nor more than I when I bought it;

I believe it had been stolen or taken from the miserable Jews, or found in some part of the

ancient place of their abode. Within the book, in the second leaf, he comforted his nation,

counselling them to fly vices, and above all idolatry, attending with sweet patience the

coming of the Messias, Who should vanquish all the kings of the earth and should reign

with His people in glory eternally. Without doubt this had been some very wise and

understanding man.

"In the third leaf, and in all the other writings that followed, to help his captive nation to

pay their tributes unto the Roman emperors, and to do other things, which I will not speak

of, he taught them in common words the transmutation of metals; he painted the vessels

by the sides, and he advertised them of the colors, and of all the rest, saving of the first

agent, of the which he spake not a word, but only (as he said) in the fourth and fifth

leaves entire he painted it, and figured it with very great cunning and workman ship: for

although it was well and intelligibly figured and painted, yet no man could ever have

been able to understand it, without being well skilled in their Cabala, which goeth by

tradition, and without having well studied their books.

"The fourth and fifth leaves therefore, were without any writing, all full of fair figures enlightened, or as it were enlightened, for the work was very exquisite. First he painted a

young man with wings at his ancles, having in his hand a Caducean rod, writhen about

with two serpents, wherewith he struck upon a helmet which covered his head. He

seemed to my small judgment, to be the God Mercury of the pagans: against him there

came running and flying with open wings, a great old man, who upon his head had an

hour glass fastened, and in his hand a book (or syrhe) like death, with the which, in

terrible and furious manner, he would have cut off the feet of Mercury. On the other side

of the fourth leaf, he painted a fair flower on the top of a very high mountain which was

sore shaken with the North wind; it had the foot blue, the flowers white and red, the

leaves shining like fine gold: and round about it the dragons and griffons of the North

made their nests and abode.

"On the fifth leaf there was a fair rose tree flowered in the midst of a sweet garden,

climbing up against a hollow oak; at the foot whereof boiled a fountain of most white

water, which ran headlong down into the depths, notwithstanding it first passed among

the hands of infinite people, who digged in the earth seeking for it; but because they were

blind, none of them knew it, except here and there one who considered the weight. On the

last side of the fifth leaf there was a king with a great fauchion, who made to be killed in

his presence by some soldiers a great multitude of little infants, whose mothers wept at

the feet of the unpitiful soldiers: the blood of which infants was afterwards by other

soldiers gathered up, and put in a great vessel, wherein the sun and the moon came to

bathe themselves.

"And because that this history did represent the more part of that of the innocents slain by

Herod, and that in this book I learned the greatest part of the art, this was one of the

causes why I placed in their church-yard these Hieroglyphic Symbols of this secret

science. And thus you see that which was in the first five leaves.

"I will not represent unto you that which was written in good and intelligible Latin in all

the other written leaves, for God would punish me, because I should commit a greater

wickedness, than he who (as it is said) wished that all the men of the World had but one

head that he might cut it off with one blow. Having with me therefore this fair book, I did

nothing else day nor night, but study upon it, understanding very well all the operations

that it showed, but not knowing with what matter I should begin, which made me very

heavy and solitary, and caused me to fetch many a sigh. My wife Perrenella, whom I

loved as myself, and had lately married was much astonished at this, comforting me, and

earnestly demanding, if she could by any means deliver me from this trouble. I could not

possibly hold my tongue, but told her all, and showed this fair book, whereof at the same

instant that she saw it, she became as much enamoured as myself, taking extreme

pleasure to behold the fair cover, gravings, images, and portraits, whereof

notwithstanding she understood as little as I: yet it was a great comfort to me to talk with

her, and to entertain myself, what we should do to have the interpretation of them."

Nicholas Flammel spent many years studying the mysterious book. He even painted the

pictures from it all over the walls of his house and made numerous copies which he

showed to the learned men with whom he came in contact, but none could explain their

secret significance. At last he determined to go forth in quest of an adept, or wise man,

and after many wanderings he met a physician--by name Master Canches--who was

immediately interested in the diagrams and asked to see the original book. They started

forth together for Paris, and or, the way the physician adept explained many of the

principles of the hieroglyphics to Flammel, but before they reached their journey's end

Master Canches was taken ill and died. Flammel buried him at Orleans, but having

meditated deeply on the information he had secured during their brief acquaintance, he

was able, with the assistance of his wife, to work out the formula for transmuting base

metals into gold. He performed the experiment several times with perfect success, and

before his death caused a number of hieroglyphic figures to be painted upon an arch of

St. Innocent's churchyard in Paris, wherein he concealed the entire formula as it had been

revealed to him from the Book of Abraham the Jew.

COUNT BERNARD OF TREVISO

Of all those who sought for the Elixir of Life and the Philosopher's Scone, few passed

through the chain of disappointments that beset Count Bernard of Treviso, who was born

in Padua in 1406 and died in 1490. His search for the Philosopher's Stone and the secret

of the transmutation of metals began when he was but fourteen years of age. He spent not

only a lifetime but also a fortune in his quest. Count Bernard went from one alchemist

and philosopher to another, each of whom unfolded some pet theorem which he eagerly

accepted and experimented with but always without the desired result. His family

believed him to be mad and declared that he was disgracing his house by his experiments,

which were rapidly reducing him to a state of penury. He traveled in many countries,

hoping that in distant places he would find wise men capable of assisting him. At last as

he was approaching his seventy-sixth year, he was rewarded with success. The great

secrets of the Elixir of Life, the Philosopher's Stone, and the transmutation of metals were

revealed to him. He wrote a little book describing the results of his labors, and while he

lived only a few years to enjoy the fruitage of his discovery he was thoroughly satisfied

that the treasure he had found was worth the lifetime spent in search of it. An example of

the industry and perseverance displayed by him is to be found in one of the processes

which some foolish pretender coaxed him to attempt and which resulted in his spending

twenty years calcining egg shells and nearly an equal period distilling alcohol and other

substances. In the history of alchemical research there never was a more patient and

persevering disciple of the Great Arcanum.

Bernard declared the process of dissolution, accomplished not with fire but with mercury,

to be the supreme secret of alchemy,

Click to enlarge

THE SYMBOLS OF ABRAHAM THE JEW.

From Flammel's Hieroglyphical Figures.

Robert H. Fryar, in a footnote to his reprint of the Hieroglyphical Figures by Nicholas Flammel, says: "One thing which seems to prove the reality of this story beyond dispute, is, that this very book of Abraham the

Jew, with the annotations of 'Flammel,' who wrote from the instructions he received from this physician,

was actually in the hands of Cardinal Richelieu, as Borel was told by the Count de Cabrines, who saw and

examined it."

p. 153

The Theory and Practice of Alchemy

Part One

ALCHEMY, the secret art of the land of Khem, is one of the two oldest sciences known

to the world. The other is astrology. The beginnings of both extend back into the

obscurity of prehistoric times. According to the earliest records extant, alchemy and

astrology were considered as divinely revealed to man so that by their aid he might regain

his lost estate. According to old legends preserved by the Rabbins, the angel at the gate of

Eden instructed Adam in the mysteries of Qabbalah and of alchemy, promising that when

the human race had thoroughly mastered the secret wisdom concealed within these

inspired arts, the curse of the forbidden fruit would be removed and man might again

enter into the Garden of the Lord. As man took upon himself "coats of skins" (physical

bodies) at the time of his fall, so these sacred sciences were brought by him into the lower

worlds incarnated in dense vehicles, through which their spiritual transcendental natures

could no longer manifest themselves. Therefore they were considered as being dead or

lost.

The earthly body of alchemy is chemistry, for chemists do not realize that half of The

Book of Torah is forever concealed behind the veil of Isis (see the Tarot), and that so long

as they study only material elements they can at best discover but half of the mystery.

Astrology has crystallized into astronomy, whose votaries ridicule the dreams of ancient

seers and sages, deriding their symbols as meaningless products of superstition.

Nevertheless, the intelligentsia of the modern world can never pass behind the veil which

divides the seen from the unseen except in the way appointed--the Mysteries.

What is life? What is intelligence? What is force? These are the problems to the solution

of which the ancients consecrated their temples of learning. Who shall say that they did

not answer those questions? Who would recognize the answers if given? Is it possible

that under the symbols of alchemy and astrology lies concealed a wisdom so abstruse that

the mind of this race is not qualified to conceive its principles?

The Chaldeans, Phœnicians, and Babylonians were familiar with the principles of

alchemy, as were many early Oriental races. It was practiced in Greece and Rome; was

the master science of the Egyptians. Khem was an ancient name for the land of Egypt;

and both the words alchemy and chemistry are a perpetual reminder of the priority of

Egypt's scientific knowledge. According to the fragmentary writings of those early

peoples, alchemy was to them no speculative art. They implicitly believed in the

multiplication of metals; and in the face of their reiterations both the scholar and the

materialist should be more kindly in their consideration of alchemical theorems.

Evolutionists trace the unfoldment of the arts and sciences up through the growing

intelligence of the prehistoric man, while others, of a transcendental point of view, like to

consider them as being direct revelations from God.

Many interesting solutions to the riddle of alchemy's origin have been advanced. One is

that alchemy was revealed to man by the mysterious Egyptian demigod Hermes

Trismegistus. This sublime figure, looming through the mists of time and bearing in his

hand the immortal Emerald, is credited by the Egyptians as being the author of all the arts

and sciences. In honor of him all scientific knowledge was gathered under the general

title of The Hermetic Arts. When the body of Hermes was interred in the Valley of Ebron

(or Hebron), the divine Emerald was buried with it. Many centuries afterward the

Emerald was discovered--according to one version, by an Arabian initiate; according to

another, by Alexander the Great, King of Macedon. By means of the power of this

Emerald, upon which were the mysterious inscriptions of the Thrice Great Hermes--

thirteen sentences in all--Alexander conquered all the then known world. Not having

conquered himself, however, he ultimately failed. Regardless of his glory and power, the

prophecies of the talking trees were fulfilled, and Alexander was cut down in the midst of

his triumph. (There are persistent rumors to the effect that Alexander was an initiate of

high order who failed because of his inability to withstand the temptations of power.)

E. Y. Kenealy, quoting from the Cosmodromium of Doctor Gobelin Persona, describes

the incident of Alexander and the talking trees, into the presence of which the King of

Macedon is said to have been brought while on his campaign in India: "And now

Alexander marched into other quarters equally dangerous; at one time over the tops of

mountains, at another through dark valleys, in which his army was attacked by serpents

and wild beasts, until after three hundred days he came into a most pleasant mountain, on

whose sides hung chains or ropes of gold. This mountain had two thousand and fifty steps

all of purest sapphire, by which one could ascend to the summit, and near this Alexander

encamped. And on a day, Alexander with his Twelve Princes, ascended by the

aforenamed steps to the top of the Mountain, and found there a Palace marvellously

beautiful, having Twelve Gates, and seventy windows of the purest gold, and it was

called the Palace of the Sun, and there was in it a Temple all of gold, before whose gates

were vine trees bearing bunches of carbuncles and pearls, and Alexander and his Princes

having entered the Palace, found there a Man lying on a golden bedstead; he was very

stately and beautiful in appearance, and his head and beard were white as snow. Then

Alexander and his princes bent the knee to the Sage who spake thus: 'Alexander, thou

shalt now see what no earthly man hath ever before seen or heard.' To whom Alexander

made answer: 'O, Sage, most happy, how dost thou know me?' He replied: 'Before the

wave of the Deluge covered the face of the earth I knew thy works.' He added: 'Wouldst

thou behold the most hallowed Trees of the Sun and Moon, which announce all future

things?' Alexander made answer: 'It is well, my lord; greatly do we long to see them.' * *

*

"Then the Sage said: 'Put away your rings and ornaments, and take off your shoes, and

follow me.' And Alexander did so, and choosing out three from the Princes, and leaving

the rest to await his return, he followed the Sage, and came to the Trees of the Sun and

Moon. The Tree of the Sun has leaves of red gold, the Tree of the Moon has leaves of

silver, and they are very great, and Alexander, at the suggestion of the Sage questioned

the Trees, asking if he should return in triumph to Macedon? to which the Trees gave

answer, No, but that he should live yet another year and eight months, after which he

should die by a poisoned cup. And when he inquired, Who was he who should give him

that poison? he received no reply, and the Tree of the Moon said to him, that his Mother,

after a most shameful and unhappy death, should lie long unburied, but that happiness

was in store for his sisters." (See The Book of Enoch, The Second Messenger of God.)

In all probability, the so-called talking trees were merely strips of wood with tables of

letters upon them, by means of which oracles were evoked. At one time books written

upon wood were called "talking trees." The difficulty in deciding the origin of alchemy is

directly due to ignoring the lost continent of Atlantis. The Great Arcanum was the most

prized of the secrets of the Atlantean priestcraft. When the land of Atlas sank,

hierophants of the Fire Mystery brought the formula to Egypt, where it remained for

centuries in the possession of the sages and philosophers. It gradually moved into Europe,

where its secrets are still preserved intact.

Click to enlarge

THE LEAVES OF HERMES' SACRED TREE.

Redrawn from an original manuscript dated 1577.

In his Key to Alchemy, Samuel Norton divides into fourteen parts the processes or states through which the

alchemical substances pass from the time they are first placed in the test tube until ready as medicine for

plants, minerals, or men:

1. Solution, the act of passing from a gaseous or solid condition, into one of liquidity.

2. Filtration, the mechanical separation of a liquid from the undissolved particles suspended in it.

3. Evaporation, the changing or converting from a liquid or solid state into a vaporous state with the aid of

heat.

4. Distillation, an operation by which a volatile liquid may be separated from substances which it holds in

solution.

5. Separation, the operation of disuniting or decomposing substances.

6. Rectification, the process of refining or purifying any substance by repeated distillation.

7. Calcination, the conversion into a powder or calx by the action of heat; expulsion of the volatile

substance from a matter.

8. Commixtion, the blending of different ingredients into new compounds or mass.

9. Purification (through putrefaction), disintegration by spontaneous decomposition; decay by artificial

means.

10. Inhibition, the process of holding back or restraining.

11. Fermentation, the conversion of organic substances into new compounds in the presence of a ferment.

12. Fixation, the act or process of ceasing to be a fluid and becoming firm; state of being fixed.

13. Multiplication, the act or process of multiplying or increasing in number, the state of being multiplied.

14. Projection, the process of turning the base Metals into gold.

p. 154

Those disagreeing with the legend of Hermes and his Emerald Tablet see in the two

hundred angels who descended upon the mountains, as described by the Prophet: Enoch,

the first instructors in the alchemical art. Regardless of its originator, it was left to the

Egyptian priests to preserve alchemy for the modern world. Egypt, because of the color

of its earth, was called "the black empire" and is referred to in the Old Testament as "the

land of darkness." By reason of its possible origin there, alchemy has long been known as

"the black art, " not in the sense of evil but in the sense of that darkness which has always

enshrouded its secret processes.

During the Middle Ages, alchemy was not only a philosophy and a science but also a

religion. Those who rebelled against the religious limitations of their day concealed their

philosophic teachings under the allegory of gold-making. In this way they preserved their

personal liberty and were ridiculed rather than persecuted. Alchemy is a threefold art, its

mystery well symbolized by a triangle. Its symbol is 3 times 3--three elements or

processes in three worlds or spheres. The 3 times 3 is part of the mystery of the 33rd

degree of Freemasonry, for 33 is 3 times 3, which is 9, the number of esoteric man and

the number of emanations from the root of the Divine Tree. It is the number of worlds

nourished by the four rivers that pour out of the Divine Mouth as the verbum fiat.

Beneath the so-called symbolism of alchemy is concealed a magnificent concept, for this

ridiculed and despised craft still preserves intact the triple key to the gates of eternal life.

Realizing, therefore, that alchemy is a mystery in three worlds--the divine, the human,

and the elemental--it can easily be appreciated why the sages and philosophers created

and evolved an intricate allegory to conceal their wisdom.

Alchemy is the science of multiplication and is based upon the natural phenomenon of

growth. "Nothing from nothing comes," is an extremely ancient adage. Alchemy is not

the process of making something from nothing; it is the process of increasing and

improving that which already exists. If a philosopher were to state that a living man could

be made from a stone, the unenlightened would probably exclaim, "Impossible!" Thus

would they reveal their ignorance, for to the wise it is known that in every stone is the

seed of man. A philosopher might declare that a universe could be made out of a man, but

the foolish would regard this as an impossibility, not realizing that a man is a seed from

which a universe may be brought forth.

God is the "within" and the "without" of all things. The Supreme One manifests Himself

through growth, which is an urge from within outward, a struggle for expression and

manifestation. There is no greater miracle in the growing and multiplication of gold by

the alchemist than in a tiny mustard seed producing a bush many thousands of times the

size of the seed. If a mustard seed produces a hundred thousand times its own size and

weight when planted in an entirely different substance (the earth), why should not the

seed of gold be multiplied a hundred thousand times by art when that seed is planted in

its earth (the base metals) and nourished artificially by the secret process of alchemy?

Alchemy teaches that God is in everything; that He is One Universal Spirit, manifesting

through an infinity of forms. God, therefore, is the spiritual seed planted in the dark earth

(the material universe). By arc it is possible so to grow and expand this seed that the

entire universe of substance is tinctured thereby and becomes like unto the seed--pure

gold. In the spiritual nature of man this is termed regeneration; in the material body of

the elements it is called transmutation. As it is in the spiritual and material universes, so

it is in the intellectual world. Wisdom cannot be imparted to an idiot because the seed of

wisdom is not within him, but wisdom may be imparted to an ignorant person, however

ignorant he may be, because the seed of wisdom exists in him and can be developed by

art and culture. Hence a philosopher is only an ignorant man within whose nature a

projection has taken place.

Through art (the process of learning) the whole mass of base metals (the mental body of

ignorance) was transmuted into pure gold (wisdom), for it was tinctured with

understanding. If, then, through faith and proximity to God the consciousness of man

may be transmuted from base animal desires (represented by the masses of the planetary

metals) into a pure, golden, and godly consciousness, illumined and redeemed, and the

manifesting God within that one increased from a tiny spark to a great and glorious

Being; if also the base metals of mental ignorance can, through proper endeavor and

training, be transmuted into transcendent genius and wisdom, why is the process in two

worlds or spheres of application not equally true in the third? If both the spiritual and

mental elements of the universe can be multiplied in their expression, then by the law of

analogy the material elements of the universe can also be multiplied, if the necessary

process can be ascertained.

That which is true in the superior is true in the inferior. If alchemy be a great spiritual

fact, then it is also a great material fact. If it can take place in the universe, it can take

place in man; if it can take place in man, it can take place in the plants and minerals. If

one thing in the universe grows, then everything in the universe grows. If one thing can

be multiplied, then all things can be multiplied, "for the superior agrees with the inferior and the inferior agrees with the superior." But as the way for the redemption of the soul is

concealed by the Mysteries, so the secrets for the redemption of the metals are also

concealed, that they may not fall into the hands of the profane and thereby become

perverted.

If any would grow metals, he must first learn the secrets of the metals: he must realize

that all metals--like all stones, plants, animals, and universes--grow from seeds, and that

these seeds are already in the body of Substance (the womb of the World Virgin); for the

seed of man is in the universe before he is born (or grows), and as the seed of the plant

exists for all time though the plant live but a part of that time, so the seeds of spiritual

gold and material gold are ever present in all things. The metals grow throughout the

ages, because life is imparted to them from the sun. They grow imperceptibly, in form

like tiny shrubs, for everything grows in some way. Only the methods of growth differ,

according to kind and magnitude.

One of the great axioms is, "Within everything is the seed of everything," although by the

simple processes of Nature it may remain latent for many centuries, or its growth may be

exceedingly slow. Therefore, every grain of sand contains not only the seed of the

precious metals as well as the seed of the priceless gems, but also the seeds of sun, moon,

and stars. As within the nature of man is reflected the entire universe in miniature, so in

each grain of sand, each drop of water, each tiny particle of cosmic dust, are concealed all

the parts and elements of cosmos in the form of tiny seed germs so minute that even the

most powerful microscope cannot detect them. Trillions of times smaller than the ion or

electron, these seeds--unrecognizable and incomprehensible--await the time assigned

them for growth and expression. (Consider the monads of Leibnitz.)

There are two methods whereby growth may be accomplished. The first is by Nature, for

Nature is an alchemist forever achieving the apparently impossible. The second is by art,

and through art is produced in a comparatively short time that which requires Nature

almost endless periods to duplicate. The true philosopher, desiring to accomplish the

Magnum Opus, patterns his conduct according to the laws of Nature, recognizing that the

art of alchemy is merely a method copied from Nature but with the aid of certain secret

formulæ greatly shortened by being correspondingly intensified. Nature, in order to

achieve her miracles, must work through either extensiveness; or intensiveness. The

extensive processes of Nature are such as are used in the transmutation of the pitch of

black carbon into diamonds, requiring millions of years of natural hardening. The

intensive process is art, which is ever the faithful servant of Nature (as Dr. A. Dee says),

supplementing her every step and cooperating with her in all her ways. "So, in this

philosophical work, Nature and Art ought so lovingly to embrace each other, as that Art

may not require what Nature denies, nor Nature deny what may be perfected by Art. For

Nature assenting, she demeans herself obediently to every artist, whilst by their industry

she is helped, not hindered. " (Dr. A. Dee in his Chemical Collections.)

By means of this art the seed which is within the soul of a stone may be made to

germinate so intensively that in a few moments a diamond is grown from the seed of

itself. If the seed of the diamond were not in the marble, granite, and sand, a diamond

could not be grown therefrom. But as the seed is within all these things, a diamond may

be grown out of any other substance in the universe. In some substances, however, it is

easier to perform this miracle because in them these germs have already been long

fertilized and are thus more nearly prepared for the vivifying process of the art. Likewise,

to teach some men wisdom is easier than to teach others, for some already have a

foundation upon which to work, while in others the thinking faculties are entirely

dormant. Alchemy, therefore, should be regarded as the art of increasing and bringing

into perfect flower with the greatest possible expedition. Nature may accomplish her

desired end or, because of the destructiveness exercised by one element over another, she

may not; but with the aid of the true art, Nature always accomplishes her end, for this art

is not subject either to the wastings of time or to the vandalism of elemental reactions.

In his History of Chemistry, James Campbell Brown, late professor of chemistry in the

University of Liverpool, sums up the ends which alchemists sought to achieve, in the

following paragraphs:

"This, therefore, was the general aim of the alchemists--to carry out in the laboratory, as

far as possible, the processes which Nature carried out in the interior of the earth. Seven

leading problems occupied their attention:--

"1. The preparation of a compound named elixir, magisterium medicine, or philosopher's

stone, which possessed the property of transmuting the baser metals into gold and silver,

and of performing many other marvelous operations. * * *

p. 155

"2. The creation of homunculi, or living. beings, of which many wonderful but incredible

tales are told.

"3. The preparation of the alcahest or universal solvent, which dissolved every substance

which was immersed in it. * * *

"4. Palingenesis, or the restoration of a plant from its ashes. Had they succeeded in this,

they would have hoped to be able to raise the dead. [Professor Brown takes a great deal

for granted.]

"5. The preparation of spiritus mundi, a mystic substance possessing many powers, the

principal of which was its capacity of dissolving gold.

"6. The extraction of the quintessence or active principle of all substances.

"7. The preparation of aurum potabile, liquid gold, a sovereign remedy, because gold

being itself perfect could produce perfection in the human frame."

ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLISM

In alchemy there are three symbolic substances: mercury, sulphur, and salt. To these was

added a fourth mysterious life principle called Azoth. Concerning the first three, Herr von

Welling has written: "There are three basic chemical substances which are called by the

philosophers salt, sulphur, and mercury, but which are not to be confounded in any way

with the crude salt, sulphur, and mercury taken from the earth or secured from the

apothecary. Salt, sulphur, and mercury each has a triune nature, for each of these

substances contains, in reality, also the other two substances, according to the secret

arcanum of the wise. The body of salt is, therefore, threefold, namely salt, sulphur, and

mercury; but in the body of salt one of the three (salt) predominates. Mercury is likewise

composed of salt, sulphur, and mercury with the latter element predominating. Sulphur,

similarly, is actually salt, sulphur, and mercury, with sulphur predominating. These nine

divisions--3 times 3, plus Azoth (the mysterious universal life force), equals 10, the

sacred decad of Pythagoras. Concerning the nature of Azoth there is much controversy.

Some view it as the invisible, eternal fire; others as electricity; still others as magnetism.

Transcendentalism refer to it as the astral light.

"The universe is surrounded by the sphere of the stars. Beyond that sphere is the sphere

of Schamayim, which is the Divine fiery water, the first outflow of the Word of God, the

flaming river pouring from the presence of the Eternal. Schamayim, the fiery

androgynous water, divides. The fire becomes the solar fire and the water becomes the

lunar water. Schamayim is the universal mercury--sometimes called Azoth--the

measureless spirit of life. The spiritual fiery original water--Schamayim--comes through

Eden (in Hebrew, vapor) and pours itself into four main rivers [the elements]. This is the

river of living water--Azoth [the fiery mercurial essence] that flows out from the throne of

God and the Lamb. In this Eden [vaporous essence or mist] is the spiritual earth

[incomprehensible and intangible], or the dust Aphar, out of which God formed Adam

min Haadamah, the spiritual body of man, which body must sometime become revealed."

In another part of his writings von Welling also says that there was no material universe

until Lucifer, attempting to perform the cosmic alchemy, misused the Schamayim, or the

Divine Fire. In order to reestablish the Schamayim which Lucifer had perverted, this

universe was formed as a means of liberating it from the dark cloud within which it was

locked by the failure of Lucifer's attempt to control it. These statements clearly

emphasize the fact that the early philosophers recognized in the Bible a book of chemical

and alchemical formulæ. It is essential that this point be kept in mind at all times. Woe to

that seeker who accepts as literal the rambling allegories of the alchemists. Such a one

can never enter the inner sanctuary of truth. Elias Ashmole in his Theatrum Chemicum

Britannicum thus describes the methods employed by the alchemists to conceal their true

doctrines: "Their chiefest study was to wrap up their Secrets in Fables, and spin out their

Fancies in Vailes and shadows, whose Radii seems to extend every way, yet so, that they

meet in a Common Center, and point onely at One thing."

The fact that the Scriptures reveal a hidden knowledge, if considered allegorically, is

clearly demonstrated by a parable describing King Solomon, his wives, concubines, and

virgins, which parable occurs in Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer, published in Ultona

in 1785. Dr. Hartmann, who translated part of this work into English, declared that the

wives of Solomon represented the arts, the concubines the sciences, and the virgins the

still unrevealed secrets of Nature. By order of the King the virgins were forced to remove

their veils, thus signifying that by means of wisdom (Solomon) the mystic arts were

forced to disclose their hidden parts to the philosopher, while to the uninitiated world

only the outside garments were visible. (Such is the mystery of the veil of Isis.)

As the alchemist must do his work in four worlds simultaneously if he would achieve the

Magnum Opus, a table showing the analogies of the three principles in the four worlds

may clarify the relationship which the various parts bear to each other. The early masters

of the art of alchemical symbolism did not standardize either their symbols or their terms.

Thus it required great familiarity with the subject combined with considerable intuitive

power to unravel some of their enigmatical statements. The third and fourth divisions of

the following table are given alternative renderings, owing to the fact that some authors

did not draw a clear line between spirit and soul. According to the Scriptures, spirit is

indestructible, but soul is destructible. Obviously, then, they are not synonymous. It is

clearly stated that "the soul that sinneth, it shall die," but "the spirit shall return unto God who gave it." The table of analogies, as nearly as they can be established, is as follows:

The Triune Power in Four Worlds

WORLD OF

Father

Son

Mother

1. God

Father

Son

Holy Ghost

2. Man

Spirit

Soul

Body

3. Elements

Air

Fire

Water

4. Chemicals

Mercury

Sulphur

Salt

The alternative renderings of 3 and 4 are:

WORLD OF

Father

Son

Mother

3. Elements

Fire

Air

Water

4. Chemicals

Sulphur

Mercury

Salt

Paracelsus made a different arrangement, somewhat Aristotelian, in which the three

phases of the Triune God are omitted, combining only the elements of the second, third,

and fourth worlds:

WORLD OF

Father

Son

Mother

2. Man

Spirit

Soul

Body

3. Elements

Air

Water

Earth

4. Chemicals

Sulphur

Mercury

Salt

The main point, however, is proved: the alchemical philosophers used the symbols of

salt, sulphur, and mercury to represent not only chemicals but the spiritual and invisible

principles of God, man, and the universe. The three substances (salt, sulphur, and

mercury) existing in four worlds, as shown in the table, sum up to the sacred number 12.

As these 12 are the foundations of the Great Work, they are called in Revelation the

twelve foundation stones of the sacred city. In line with the same idea Pythagoras

asserted that the dodecahedron, or twelve-faced symmetrical geometric solid, was the

foundation of the universe. May there not be a relation also between this mysterious 3

times 4 and the four parties of three which in the legend of the third degree of

Freemasonry go forth to the four angles of the cherubim, the composite creature of four

parts?

Click to enlarge

A TABLE OF MEDIÆVAL ALCHEMICAL SYMBOLS.

From Valentine's The Last Will and Testament.

Hermetists used the curious symbols shown in this rare table to represent various chemical elements and

alchemical processes. The full meaning of these strange characters has never been revealed, the characters

concealing effectually within their own forms the occult secrets regarding the spiritual nature of the metals

and elements which they represent.

In their allegories the alchemists also wed human, animal, and plant emblems; sometimes weird composite

figures, such as the dragon, the winged serpent, the unicorn, and the phœnix. In almost every case they

symbolized gold as a king with a crown on his head and often with a scepter in his hand. Sometimes they

depicted him with the ace of the solar disc surrounded by rays. Silver was personified as a woman who they

called the queen. She wore no crown but often stood upon a lunar crescent: much after the fashion of the

Madonna. Mercury was typified as a youth with wings, often with two heads, carrying serpents or

sometimes the caduceus. Lead they symbolized by an old man with a scythe in his hand; iron by a soldier

dressed in armor. To aqua fortis was given the curious name "the ostrich's stomach," and to the attainment of the "Great Work" they assigned the symbol of the phœnix sitting upon a nest of fire. The union of elements they symbolized by a marriage, the Process of putrefaction by a skull, antimony by a dragon.

p. 156

The following table shows the angles to which the parties of three (salt, sulphur, and

mercury) go in search of CHiram:

The Four "Corners" of

Creation

East

South

West

North

The Fixed Signs of the

Aquarius

Leo

Scorpio

Taurus

Zodiac

The Parts of the Cherubim Man

Lion

Eagle

Bull

The Four Seasons

Spring

Summer

Autumn

Winter

The Ages of Man

Childhood

Youth

Maturity

Age

The Stages of Existence Birth

Growth

Maturity

Decay

The Parts of Man's

Spirit

Soul

Mind

Body

Constitution

The Four Elements

Air

Fire

Water

Earth

One more table should prove of interest to Masonic scholars: one showing the

relationship existing between the three substances, salt, sulphur, and mercury, and certain

symbols with which Masons are familiar. This table also has an alternative rendering,

based on the interblending of philosophic principles, which are difficult--if not

impossible--to separate into chronological order.

1. The Three Lights

Stellar Fire

Solar Fire

Lunar Fire

2. The Three Grand

Hiram

Solomon

Hiram of Tyre

Masters

3. The Geometric Solids

Sphere

Pyramid

Cube

4. Alchemical Substances Mercury

Sulphur

Salt

The alternative rendering of No. 2 is:

2. The Three Grand

Solomon

Hiram

Hiram of Tyre

Masters

In alchemy is found again the perpetuation of the Universal Mystery; for as surely as

Jesus died upon the cross, Hiram (CHiram) at the west gate of the Temple, Orpheus on

the banks of the river Hebros, Christna on the banks of the Ganges, and Osiris in the

coffin prepared by Typhon, so in alchemy, unless the elements first die, the Great Work

cannot be achieved. The stages of the alchemical processes can be traced in the lives and

activities of nearly all the world Saviors and teachers, and also among the mythologies of

several nations. It is said in the Bible that "except a man be born again, he cannot see the

kingdom of God." In alchemy it is declared that without putrefaction the Great Work

cannot be accomplished. What is it that dies on the cross, is buried in the tomb of the

Mysteries, and that dies also in the retort and becomes black with putrefaction? Also,

what is it that does this same thing in the nature of man, that he may rise again, phœnix-

like, from his own ashes (caput mortuum)?

The solution in the alchemical retort, if digested a certain length of time, will turn into a

red elixir, which is called the universal medicine. It resembles a fiery water and is

luminous in the dark. During the process of digestion it passes through many colors

which has given rise to its being called the peacock because of its iridescence during one

of the periods of its digestion. If the augmentations of its power be carried too far, the test

tube containing the substance will explode and vanish as dust. This commonly occurs and

is the greatest danger involved in the preparation of the medicine for men and metals. If

developed too far, it will also seep through the glass, for there is no physical container

sufficiently strong to hold it, The reason for this is that it is no longer a substance but a

divine essence partaking of the interpenetrative power of Divinity. When it is properly

developed, this universal solvent in liquid form will dissolve into itself all other metals.

In this high state the universal salt is a liquid fire. This salt dissolved with the proper

amount of any metal and run through the different stages of digestion and rotations; of

augmentations will eventually become a medicine for the transmuting of inferior metals.

The True Way of Nature by Hermes Trismegistus, given out by a genuine Freemason,

I.C.H., describes the danger of over-augmenting the universal salt: "But this

multiplication cannot be carried on ad infinitum but it attains completeness in the ninth

rotation. For when this tincture has been rotated nine times it cannot be exalted any

further because it will not permit any further separation. For as soon as it perceives only

the smallest degree of material fire it goes instantly into a flux and passes through the

glass like hot oil through paper."

In classifying the processes through which the chemical elements must pass before the

Hermetic medicine is produced, lack of uniformity in terminology is evidenced, for in

The True Way of Nature seven stages are given, while in the Dictionnaire Mytho-

Hermétique twelve are noted. These twelve are linked with the signs of the zodiac in a

manner worthy of consideration.

1. Aries, Calcination

5. Leo, Digestion

9. Sagittarius, Incineration

2. Taurus, Congelation

6. Virgo, Distillation

10. Capricorn, Fermentation

3. Gemini, Fixation

7. Libra, Sublimation

11. Aquarius, Multiplication

4. Cancer, Dissolution

8. Scorpio, Separation

12. Pisces, Projection

This arrangement opens an interesting field of speculation which may be of great service

if intelligently carried out. These twelve "steps" leading up to the accomplishment of the

Magnum Opus are a reminder of the twelve degrees of the ancient Rosicrucian Mysteries.

To a certain degree, Rosicrucianism was chemistry theologized and alchemy

philosophized. According to the Mysteries, man was redeemed as the result of his

passage in rotation through the twelve mansions of the heavens. The twelve processes by

means of which the "secret essence" may be discovered remind the student forcibly of the

twelve Fellow Craftsmen who are sent forth in search of the murdered Builder of the

Universe, the Universal Mercury.

According to Solomon Trismosin, the stages through which matter passes in its journey

towards perfection are divided into twenty-two parts, each of which is represented by an

appropriate drawing. There is an important connection between the twenty-two emblems

of Trismosin, the twenty-two major cards of the Tarot, and the twenty-two letters of the

Hebrew alphabet. These mysterious Tarot cards are themselves an alchemical formula, if

properly interpreted. As if to substantiate the claims of mediæval philosophers that King

Solomon was a master of alchemy, Dr. Franz Hartmann has noted that the much-abused

and misunderstood Song of Solomon is in reality an alchemical formula. The student of

natural philosophy will immediately recognize the "dark maid of Jerusalem," not as a person but as a material sacred to the sages. Dr. Hartmann writes: "The 'Song of

Solomon,' in the Old Testament, is a description of the processes of Alchemy. In this

Song the Subjectum is described in Cant. i., 5; the Lilium artis in C. ii., 1; the

Preparation and Purification in C. ii., 4; the Fire in C. ii., 7, and C. iv., 16, the

Putrefaction in C. iii., 1; Sublimation and Distillation in C. iii., 6, Coagulation and

Change of Colors, C. v., 9 to 14; Fixation, C. ii., 12, and C. viii., 4; Multiplication, C. vi.,

7; Augmentation and Projection, C. viii., 8, etc., etc."

A tiny particle of the Philosopher's Scone, if cast upon the surface of water, will,

according to an appendix to the work on the universal salt by Herr von Welling,

immediately begin a process of recapitulating in miniature the history of the universe, for

instantly the tincture--like the Spirits of Elohim--moves upon the face of the waters. A

miniature universe is formed which the philosophers have affirmed actually rises out of

the water and floats in the air, where it passes through all the stages of cosmic

unfoldment and finally disintegrates into dust again. Not only is it possible to prepare a

medicine for metals; it is also possible to prepare a tincture for minerals by means of

which pieces of granite and marble can be turned into precious stones; also stones of

inferior quality may be improved.

As one of the great alchemists fittingly observed, man's quest for gold is often his

undoing, for he mistakes the alchemical processes, believing them to be purely material.

He does not realize that the Philosopher's Gold, the Philosopher's Stone, and the

Philosopher's Medicine exist in each of the four worlds and that the consummation of the

experiment cannot be realized until it is successfully carried on in four worlds

simultaneously according to one formula. Furthermore, one of the constituents of the

alchemical formula exists only within the nature of man himself, without which his

chemicals will not combine, and though he spend his life and fortune in chemical

experimentation, he will not produce the desired end. The paramount reason why the

material scientist is incapable of duplicating the achievements of the mediæval

alchemists--although he follow every step carefully and accurately--is that the subtle

element which comes out of the nature of the illuminated and regenerated alchemical

philosopher is missing in his experimentation.

On this subject Dr. Franz Hartmann in a footnote to his translation of extracts from

Paracelsus clearly expresses the conclusions of a modern investigator of alchemical lore:

"I wish to warn the reader, who might be inclined to try any of the alchemical

prescriptions * * *, not to do so unless he is an alchemist, because, although I know from

personal experience that these prescriptions are not only allegorically but literally true,

and will prove successful in the hands of an alchemist, they would only cause a waste of

time and money in the hands of one who has not the necessary qualifications. A person

who wants to be an alchemist must have in himself the 'magnesia', which means, the

magnetic power to attract and 'coagulate' invisible astral elements."

In considering the formulæ on the following pages, it must be recognized that the

experiments cannot be successfully conducted unless the one who performs them be

himself a Magus. If two persons, one an initiate and the other unilluminated in the

supreme art, were to set to work, side by side, using the same vessels, the same

substances, and exactly the same modus operandi, the initiate would produce his "gold"

and the uninitiated would not. Unless the greater alchemy has first taken place within the

soul of man, he cannot perform the lesser alchemy in the retort. This is an invariable rule,

although it is cunningly hidden in the allegories and emblems of Hermetic philosophy.

Unless a man be "born again" he cannot accomplish the Great Work, and if the student of

alchemical formulæ will remember this, it will save him much sorrow and

disappointment. To speak of that part of the mystery which is concerned with the secret

life principle within the actual nature of man, is forbidden, for it is decreed by the

Masters of the art that each shall discover that for himself and on this subject it is

unlawful to speak at greater length.

p. 157

The Theory and Practice of Alchemy

Part Two

All true Philosophers of the natural or Hermetic sciences begin their labors with a prayer

to the Supreme Alchemist of the Universe, beseeching His assistance in the

consummation of the Magnum Opus. The prayer that follows, written in a provincial

German centuries ago by an adept now unknown, is representative: "O holy and hallowed

Trinity, Thou undivided and triple Unity! Cause me to sink into the abyss of Thy limitless

eternal Fire, for only in that Fire can the mortal nature of man be changed into humble

dust, while the new body of the salt union lies in the light. Oh, melt me and transmute me

in this Thy holy Fire, so that on the day at Thy command the fiery waters of the Holy

Spirit draw me out from the dark dust, giving me new birth and making me alive with His

breath. May I also be exalted through the humble humility of Thy Son, rising through His

assistance out of the dust and ashes and changing into a pure spiritual body of rainbow

colors like unto the transparent, crystal-like, paradisiacal gold, that my own nature may

be redeemed and purified like the elements before me in these glasses and bottles.

Diffuse me in the waters of life as though I were in the wine cellar of the eternal

Solomon. Here the fire of Thy love will receive new fuel and will blaze forth so that no

streams can extinguish it. Through the aid of this divine fire, may I in the end be found

worthy to be called into the illumination of the righteous. May I then be sealed up with

the light of the new world that I may also attain unto the immortality and glory where

there shall be no more alternation of light and darkness. Amen."

THE ORIGIN OF ALCHEMICAL FORMULÆ

Apparently but few of the mediæval alchemists discovered the Great Arcanum without

aid, some authors declaring that none of them attained the desired end without the

assistance of a Master or Teacher. In every instance the identity of these Masters has been

carefully concealed, and even during the Middle Ages speculation ran rife concerning

them. It was customary to call such illuminated sages adepts, a title which indicated that

they possessed the true secrets of transmutation and multiplication. These adepts were

polyonymous individuals who unexpectedly appeared and disappeared again, leaving no

trace of their whereabouts. There are indications that a certain degree of organization

existed among them. The most powerful of the alchemical organizations were the

Rosicrucians, the Illuminati, and certain Arabian and Syrian sects.

I n the documents which follow, references are made to the "Brethren "or "Brothers. "

These are to signify that those who had actually accomplished the Magnum Opus were

banded together and known to each other by cipher codes and secret signs or symbols.

Apparently a number of these illuminated adepts dwelt in Arabia, for several of the great

European alchemists were initiated in Asia Minor. When a disciple of the alchemical arts

had learned the supreme secret, he guarded it jealously, revealing to no man his priceless

treasure. He was not permitted to disclose it even to the members of his immediate

family.

As the years passed, one who had discovered the secret--or, more properly, one to whom

it had been revealed--sought for some younger man worthy to be entrusted with the

formulæ. To this one, and to this one only, as a rule, the philosopher was permitted to

disclose the arcanum. The younger man then became the "philosophical son" of the old

sage, and to him the latter bequeathed his secrets. Occasionally, however, an adept, on

finding a sincere and earnest seeker, would instruct him in the fundamental principles of

the art, and if the disciple persisted, he was quietly initiated into the august fraternity of

the Brethren. In such manner the alchemical processes were preserved, but the number of

those who knew them did not increase rapidly.

During the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries a considerable number of

alchemical adepts made their way from place to place throughout Europe, appearing and

disappearing apparently at will. According to popular tradition, these adepts were

immortal, and kept themselves alive by means of the mysterious medicine that was one of

the goals of alchemical aspiration. It is asserted that some lived hundreds of years, taking

no food except this elixir, a few drops of which would preserve their youth for a long

period of time. That such mysterious men did exist there can be little doubt, as their

presence is attested by scores of reliable witnesses.

It is further asserted that they are still to be found by those who have qualified themselves

to contact them. The philosophers taught that like attracts like, and that when the disciple

has developed a virtue and integrity acceptable to the adepts they will appear to him and

reveal those parts of the secret processes which cannot be discovered without such help.

"Wisdom is as a flower from which the bee its honey makes and the spider poison, each

according to its own nature." (By an unknown adept.)

The reader must bear in mind at all times that the formulæ and emblems of alchemy are

to be taken primarily as allegorical symbols; for until their esoteric significance has been

comprehended, their literal interpretation is valueless. Nearly every alchemical formula

has one element purposely omitted, it being decided by the mediæval philosophers that

those who could not with their own intelligence discover that missing substance or

process were not qualified to be entrusted with secrets which could give them control

over great masses of humanity and likewise subject to their will the elemental forces of

Nature.

THE EMERALD TABLE OF HERMES

The oldest and most revered of all the alchemical formulæ is the sacred Emerald Tablet

of Hermes. Authorities do not agree as to the genuineness of this Table, some declaring it

to be a post-Christian fraud, but there is much evidence that, regardless of its author, the

Table is of great antiquity. While the symbol of the Emerald Table is of special Masonic

import--relating as it does to the personality of CHiram (Hiram)--it is first and

fundamentally an alchemical formula, relating both to the alchemy of the base metals and

the divine alchemy of human regeneration.

In Dr. Sigismund Bacstrom's collection of alchemical manuscripts is a section devoted to

the translations and interpretations of this remarkable Tablet, which was known to the

ancients as the Tabula Smaragdina. Dr. Bacstrom was initiated into the Brotherhood of

the Rose Cross on the island of Mauritius by one of those unknown adepts who at that

time called himself Comte de Chazal. Dr. Bacstrom's translations and notes on the

Emerald Tablet are, in part, as follows, the actual text being reproduced in capital letters:

"The Emerald Table, the Most Ancient Monument of the Chaldeans concerning the Lapis

Philosophorum (the stone of the philosophers).

"The Emerald Table furnishes the origin of the allegorical history of King Hiram (rather

Chiram). The Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Hebrews in what concerns Chiram have taken

their knowledge from one and the same fountain; Homerus, who relates this history in a

different manner, followed that original, and Virgil followed

Click to enlarge

THE KEY TO ALCHEMY ACCORDING TO THE EGYPTIANS.

From Kircher's Œdipus Ægyptiacus.

The priests of Egypt not only used the scarab as a symbol of regeneration but also discovered in its habits

many analogies to the secret process whereby base metals could be transmuted into gold. They saw in the

egg of the scarab the seed of the metals, and the above figure shows the path of this seed through the

various planetary bodies until, finally reaching the center, it is perfected and then returns again to its

source. The words in the mall spiral at the top read: "The spiral Progress of the mundane spirit." After the scarab has wound its way around the spiral to the center of the lower part of the figure, it returns to the

upper world along the path bearing the words: "Return of the spirit to the center of unity."

p. 158

[paragraph continues] Homerus, as Hesiodus took the subject for his Theogony likewise from

thence, which Ovidius took afterwards for a pattern for his Metamorphosis. The

knowledge of Nature's secret operations constitutes the principal sense of all these

ancient writings, but ignorance framed out of it that external or veiled mythology and the

lower class of people turned it into idolatry.

"The Genuine Translation from the Original Very Ancient Chaldee is as Follows:

"THE SECRET WORKS OF CHIRAM ONE IN ESSENCE, BUT THREE IN ASPECT.

"(The two first large words mean the Secret Work.)

"(The second line in large letters, reads: Chiram Telat Machasot, i.e. Chiram the

Universal Agent, One in Essence but three in aspect.)

'IT IS TRUE, NO LIE, CERTAIN, AND TO BE DEPENDED UPON, THE SUPERIOR

AGREES WITH THE INFERIOR, AND THE INFERIOR WITH THE SUPERIOR, TO

EFFECT THAT ONE TRULY WONDERFUL WORK. AS ALL THINGS OWE THEIR

EXISTENCE TO THE WILL OF THE ONLY ONE, SO ALL THINGS OWE THEIR

ORIGIN TO THE ONE ONLY THING, THE MOST HIDDEN, BY THE

ARRANGEMENT OF THE ONLY GOD. THE FATHER OF THAT ONE ONLY THING

IS THE SUN, ITS MOTHER IS THE MOON, THE WIND CARRIES IT IN ITS BELLY;

BUT ITS NOURSE IS A SPIRITUOUS EARTH. THAT ONE ONLY THING (after God)

IS THE FATHER OF ALL THINGS IN THE UNIVERSE. ITS POWER IS PERFECT,

AFTER IT HAS BEEN UNITED TO A SPIRITUOUS EARTH.

"(Process--First Distillation.) SEPARATE THAT SPIRITUOUS EARTH FROM THE

DENSE OR CRUDE BY MEANS OF A GENTLE HEAT, WITH MUCH ATTENTION.

"(Last Digestion.) IN GREAT MEASURE IT ASCENDS FROM THE EARTH UP TO

HEAVEN, AND DESCENDS AGAIN, NEWBORN, ON THE EARTH, AND THE

SUPERIOR AND THE INFERIOR ARE INCREASED IN POWER. The Azoth ascends

from the Earth, from the bottom of the Glass, and redescends in Veins and drops into the

Earth and by this continual circulation the Azoth is more and more subtilized, Volatilizes

Sol and carries the volatilized Solar atoms along with it and thereby becomes a Solar

Azoth, i.e. our third, and genuine Sophic Mercury, and this circulation of the Solar Azoth

must continue until it ceases of itself, and the Earth has sucked it all in, when it muse

become the black pitchy matter, the Toad [the substances in the alchemical retort and also

the lower elements in the body of man], which denotes complete putrefaction or Death of

the Compound.

"BY THIS THOU WILT PARTAKE OF THE HONOURS OF THE WHOLE WORLD.

Without doubt as the black, pitchy matter will and must of necessity become White and

Red, and the Red having been carried to perfection, medicinally and for Metals, is then

fully capable to preserve mentem sanam in corpore sano until the natural period of Life

and promise us ample means, in infinitum multipliable, to be benevolent and charitable

without any diminution of our inexhaustible resources, therefore well may it be called the

Glory [Honours] of the Whole World, as truly the study and contemplation of the L. P.

[Lapis Philosophorum], harmonising with Divine Truths, elevates the mind to God our

Creator and merciful Father, and if He should permit us to possess it practically must

eradicate the very principle of Avarice, Envy, and Evil Inclinations, and cause our hearts

to melt in gratitude toward Him that has been so kind to us! Therefore the Philosophers

say with great Truth, that the L. P. either finds a good man or makes one.

"AND DARKNESS WILL FLY FROM THEE. By invigorating the Organs the Soul

makes use of for communicating with exterior objects, the Soul must acquire greater

powers not only for conception but also for retention, and therefore if we wish to obtain

still more knowledge, the organs and secret springs of physical life being wonderfully

strengthened and invigorated, the Soul must acquire new powers for conceiving and

retaining, especially if we pray to God for knowledge, and confirm our prayers by faith,

all Obscurity must vanish of course. That this has not been the case with all possessors,

was their own fault, as they contented themselves merely with the Transmutation of

Metals.

"(Use.) THIS IS THE STRENGTH OF ALL POWERS. This is a very strong figure, to

indicate that the L. P. positively does possess all the Powers concealed in Nature, not for

destruction but for exaltation and regeneration of matter, in the three Departments of

Nature.

"WITH THIS THOU WILT BE ABLE TO OVERCOME ALL THINGS, AND TO

TRANSMUTE ALL WHAT IS FINE (☉☉) AND WHAT IS COARSE (☉☉ ♀ ♂ ☉

). It will conquer every subtil Thing, of course, as it refixes the most subtil Oxygen into

its own fiery Nature and that with more power, penetration and virtue, in a tenfold ratio,

at every multiplication, and each time in a much shorter period, until its power becomes

incalculable, which multiplied power also penetrates [overcomes] every Solid Thing, such

as unconquerable Gold and Silver, the otherwise unalterable Mercury, Crystals and

Glass Fluxes, to which it is able to give natural hardness and fixity, as Philaletha does

attest, and is proved by an artificial Diamond, in my father's time, in possession of Prince

Lichtenstein in Vienna, valued at Five Hundred Thousand Ducats, fixed by the Lapis

[Philosopher's Stone].

"IN THIS MANNER THE WORLD WAS CREATED; THE ARRANGEMENTS TO

FOLLOW THIS ROAD ARE HIDDEN. FOR THIS REASON I AM CALLED CHIRAM

TELAT MECHASOT, ONE IN ESSENCE, BUT THREE IN ASPECT. IN THIS TRINITY

IS HIDDEN THE WISDOM OF THE WHOLE WORLD (i.e., in Chiram and its Use). It

is thought that Hermes was Moses or Zoroaster, otherwise Hermes signifies a Serpent,

and the Serpent used to be an Emblem of Knowledge or Wisdom. The Serpent is met with

everywhere amongst the Hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians, so is the Globe with

Wings, the Sun and Moon, Dragons and Griffins, whereby the Egyptians denoted their

sublime knowledge of the Lapis Philosophorum, according to Suidas, the hints in the

Scriptures, and even De Non where he speaks of the sanctuaries of the ancient Egyptian

Temples.

"IT IS ENDED NOW, WHAT I HAVE SAID CONCERNING THE EFFECTS OF THE

SUN. FINISH OF THE TABULA SMARAGDINA. What I have said or taught of the

Solar Work, is now finished. The perfect Seed, fit for multiplication.

"This I know is acknowledged to be the genuine Tabula Smaragdina Hermetis."

A LETTER FROM THE

BROTHERS OF R. C. (ROSE CROSS)

Although Eugenius Philalethes disclaimed membership in the Rosicrucian Fraternity, it is

believed that for a number of years he was the head of that Order. In a little work called

Lumen de Lumine, or A New Magical Light Discovered and Communicated to the World,

published in London in 1651, Eugenius Philalethes gives a remarkable letter, presumably

from the Rosicrucian Order. Accompanying the letter is an emblematic figure setting

forth in symbolic form the processes and formulæ of the Philosopher's Stone. This epistle

is an excellent example of the Rosicrucian system of combining abstract theological

speculations with concrete chemical formulæ. With the aid of the material contained in

various parts of this present book the student would do well to set himself the task of

solving the riddle contained in this hieroglyph.

"A Letter from the Brothers of R. C. Concerning the Invisible, Magical Mountain, And

the Treasure therein Contained.

"Every man naturally desires a superiority, to have treasures of Gold and Silver [intellect

and soul], and to seem great in the eyes of the world. God indeed created all things for the

use of man, that he might rule over them, and acknowledge therein the singular goodness

and omnipotence of God, give Him thanks for His benefits, honor Him and praise Him.

But there is no man looks after these things, otherwise than by spending his days idly;

they would enjoy them without any previous labor and danger; neither do they look them

out of that place where God hath treasured them up, Who expects also that man should

seek for them there, and to those that seek will He give them. But there is not any that

labors for a possession in that place, and therefore these riches are not found: For the way

to this place, and the place itself hath been unknown for a long time, and it is hidden from

the greatest part of the world. But notwithstanding it be difficult and laborious to find Out

this way and place, yet the place should be sought after.

"But it is not the will of God to conceal anything from those that are His, and therefore in

this last age, before the final judgment comes, all these things shall be manifested to

those that are worthy: As He Himself (though obscurely, lest it should be manifested to,

the unworthy) hath spoken in a certain place: There is nothing covered that shall not be

revealed, and hidden that shall not be known. We therefore being moved by the Spirit of

God, do declare the will of God to the world, which we have also already performed and

published in several languages. But most men either revile, or contemne that, our

Manifesto, (the Fama and Confessio Fraternitatis) or else waiving the Spirit of God, they

expect the proposals thereof from us, supposing we will straightway teach them how to

make gold by Art, or furnish them with ample treasures, whereby they may live

pompously in the face of the world, swagger, and make wars, turn usurers, gluttons, and

drunkards, live unchastely, and defile their whole life With several other sins, all which

things are contrary to the blessed will of God. These men should have learnt from those

Ten Virgins (whereof five that were foolish demanded oil for their lamps, from those five

that were wise) how that the case is much otherwise.

p. 159

"It is expedient that every man should labor for this treasure by the assistance of God, and

his own particular search and industry. But the perverse intentions of these fellows we

understand out of their own writings, by the singular grace and revelation of God. We do

stop our ears, and wrap ourselves as it were in clouds, to avoid the bellowings and

howlings of those men, who in vain cry out for gold. And hence indeed it comes to pass

that they brand us with infinite calumnies and slanders, which notwithstanding we do not

resent but God in His good time will judge them for it. But after that we had well known

(though unknown to you) and perceived also by your writing how diligently you are to

peruse the Holy Scripture, and seek the true knowledge of God: we have also above many

thousands, thought you worthy of some answer, and we signify this much to you by the

will of God and the admonition of the Holy Ghost.

"There is a mountain situated in the midst of the earth, or center of the world, which is

both small and great. It is soft, also above measure hard and stony. It is far off, and near

at hand, but by the providence of God, invisible. In it are hidden most ample treasures,

which the world is not able to value. This mountain by envy of the devil, who always

opposeth the glory of God and the happiness of man, is compassed about with very cruel

beasts and other [sic] ravenous birds, which make the way thither both difficult and

dangerous; and therefore hitherto, because the time is not yet come, the way thither could

not be sought after nor found out. But now at last the way is to be found by those that are

worthy, but notwithstanding by every man's self-labor and endeavors.

"To this mountain you shall go in a certain night (when it: comes) most long and most

dark, and see that you prepare yourselves by prayer. Insist upon the way that: leads to the

mountain, but ask not of any man where the way lies: only follow your Guide, who will

offer himself to you, and will meet you in the way but you shall not know him. This

Guide will bring you to the mountain at midnight, when all things are silent and dark. It is

necessary that you arm yourselves with a resolute heroic courage, lest you fear those

things that will happen, and so fall back. You need no sword, nor any other bodily

weapons, only call upon God sincerely and heartily.

"When you have discovered the mountain, the first miracle that will appear is this. A

most vehement and very great wind, that will shake the mountain and shatter the rocks to

pieces. You shall be encountered also by lions and dragons and other terrible beasts, but

fear not any of these things. Be resolute and rake heed that you return not, for your Guide

who brought you thither will not suffer any evil to befall you. As for the treasure, it is not

yet discovered but it is very near. After this wind will come an earthquake, that will

overthrow those things which the wind hath left and make all flat. But be sure that you

fall not off.

"The earthquake being past, there shall follow afire, that will consume the earthly

rubbish, and discover the treasure, but as yet you cannot see it. After all these things and

near the daybreak there shall be a great calm, and you shall see the Day-Star arise and the

dawning will appear, and you shall perceive a great treasure. The chiefest thing in it, and

the most perfect, is a certain exalted tincture, with which the world (if it served God and

were worthy of such gifts) might be tinged and turned into most pure gold.

"This tincture being used, as your Guide shall reach you, will make you young when you

are old, and you shall perceive no disease in any part of your bodies. By means of this

tincture also you shall find pearls of that excellency which cannot be imagined. But do

not you arrogate anything to yourselves because of your present power, but be contented

with that which your Guide shall communicate to you. Praise God perpetually for this His

gift, and have a special care that you use it not for worldly pride, but employ it in such

works which are contrary to the world. Use it rightly and enjoy it so, as if you had it not.

Live a temperate life, and beware of all sin, otherwise your Guide will forsake you, and

you shall be deprived of this happiness. For know this of a truth, whosoever abuseth this

tincture and lives not exemplarly, purely, and devoutly before men he shall lose this

benefit, and scarce any hope will there be left ever to recover it afterwards."

If, as transcendentalists believe, the initiations into the Fraternity of the Rose Cross were

given in the invisible worlds which surround and interpenetrate the visible universe, it is

not beyond the range of possibility that this allegory is to be considered in the light of an

initiatory ritual as well as an alchemical formula.

As has been noted, it is difficult to secure a complete formula for any of the alchemical

operations. The one presented here is the most nearly complete of any available. The

collecting of the rays and energies of the celestial bodies as precipitated in dew is a

process which Paracelsus used with great success. Bear constantly in mind that these

processes are only for those who have been properly instructed in the secret art.

"A TRUE REVELATION OF THE MANUAL OPERATION FOR THE UNIVERSAL

MEDICINE COMMONLY CALLED 'THE PHILOSOPHER'S STONE.' By the celebrated

philosopher of Leyden, as attested upon his deathbed with his own Blood, Anno Domini

1662. To my Loving Cousin and Son, the True Hermetic Philosopher--

"Dear Loving Cousin and Son:

"Although I had resolved never to give in writing to any person the secret of the Ancient

Sages, yet notwithstanding out of peculiar affection and love to you, I have taken it upon

me, to which the nearness of our relation obliges me, and especially because this

temporal life is short, and Art is very dark and you may therefore not attain the wished

for end;--but my Son because so precious a jewel belongs not to swine; and also this so

great a gift of God may be treated carefully and Christianlike, in consideration thereof I

do so largely declare myself to thee.

"I conjure thee with hand and mouth sacredly;

"1st. That most especially thou faithfully keep the same from all wicked, lustful and

criminal persons.

"2dly. That thou exalt not thyself in any way.

"3dly. That thou seek to advance the honor of thy Creator of all things and the good of

thy neighbor, preserve it sacredly that thy Lord may not have cause to complain of thee at

the last day. I have written here in this treatise such a part of the Kingdom of Heaven, just

as I myself have worked this treasure and finished it with my fingers, therefore I have

subscribed all this work with my blood, lying on my deathbed in Leyden.

"THE PROCESS--In the Name of God, take of the purest and cleanest salt, sea salt, so as

it is made by the sun itself, such as is brought by shipping from Spain, (I used salt that

came from St. Uber) let it be dried in a warm stove, grind it in a stone mortar, as fine as

possible to a powder that it may be so much the easier dissolve and taken up by our Dew-

water, which is thus to be had in the months of May or June: When the Moon is at the

full, observe when the dew falls with an East or South East wind. Then you must have

sticks about one and a half feet high above the ground when driven in the Earth. Upon

two or three such sticks, lay some four square plates of glass, and as the dew falls it easily

fastens on the glass like a vapour, then have glass Vessels in readiness, let the dew drain

from the sides of the glasses into your vessels. Do this until you have enough. The full of

the Moon is a good season, afterwards it will be hard."

The solar rays descending from the sun carry with them solar sulphur--the Divine Fire.

These rays are crystallized by contact with

Click to enlarge

THE INVISIBLE MAGICAL MOUNTAIN.

From Phililethales' Lumen de Lumine.

On Page 24 of Lumen de Lumine, Eugenius Philalethes describes the magical mountain as follows:

"This is that emblematical magical type, which Thalia delivered to me in the invisible Guiana. The first and superior Part of it represents the Mountains of the Moon. The philosophers commonly call them the

Mountains of India, on whose tops grows their secret and famous Lunaria. It is an Herb easy to be found,

but [for the fact] that men are blind discovers itself and shines after night like pearl. The earth of these

mountains is very red and soft beyond all expression. It is full of crystalline rocks, which the philosophers

call their glass and their stone: birds and fish (say they) bring it to them. Of these mountains speaks Hali the Arabian, a most excellent judicious author: 'Go, my son, to the Mountains of India, and to their quarries or

caverns, and take thence our precious stones which dissolve or melt in water, when they are mingled

therewith. Much indeed might be spoken of these mountains, if it were lawful to publish their mysteries,

but one thing I shall not forbear to tell you. They are very dangerous places after night, for they are haunted with fires and other strange apparitions, (as a I am told by the Magi) by certain spirits, which dabble

lasciviously with the sperm of the world and imprint their imaginations in, producing many times fantastic

and monstrous generations. The access and pilgrimage to this place, with the difficulties which attend them,

are faithfully and magisterially described by the Brothers of R.C." (Set accompanying letter.)

p. 160

the lunar rays. The solar rays are also met by the emanations pouring upward from the

earth's surface and are thus still further crystallized into a partly tangible substance,

which is soluble in pure water. This substance is the "Magical Mountain of the Moon"

referred to in the R. C. letter. The crystallization of the solar and lunar rays in water

(dew) produces the virgin earth--a pure, invisible substance, uncontaminated by material

matter. When the virgin earth crystals are wet, they appear green; when dry, white.

Von Welling makes a suggestion for the extraction of the solar life from stagnant water,

but is reticent both as to naming the essence extracted and also as to the various processes

through which it must pass to be refined and increased in power. His hint, however, is

both valuable and unusual:

"Take sweet clean water and seal it in a large bottle, leaving about one-fourth empty.

Place the bottle in the sun for some weeks until it rots, showing a precipitation in the

bottom. This precipitation, when properly manipulated by distillation, will produce a

clear, fiery, burning oil, the constituents and use of which are only known to the wise."

The philosopher of Leyden continues: "Now when you have enough of your dew close

your glasses exactly, and keep it till you use it, that none of its spirits may evaporate,

which may easily happen. Set it therefore in a cool place, that no warmth may come to it,

or else the subtle spirit will rise and be gone; which will not so happen if after you have

filled your glasses with Dew quite full, you close them very well with wax.

"Now in the Name of God, take of this Dew-water as much as thou wilt, put in a clean

dissolving glass, then cast a little of your forementioned powdered salt into it to be

dissolved, and continue to put it in till your Dew-water will dissolve no more or till the

salt lies in it four days without being dissolved, then it has enough, and unto your Dew is

given its proper powder. Of this compounded water, take as much as thou wilt, I took

about a pound and a half, and put it into a round vial with a short neck, fill it with out

water and lute it with a good lute, a cover and stopple that fits it well, that the subtle and

living spirit of the dew may not fume away, for if they should the soul of the salt will

never be stirred up, nor the work ever brought to a right end. Let the lute dry very well of

itself, and set it in the furnace of B. M. to putrefy. Make a slow fire and let it digest for

forty days or fifty, and that the fume of the water be continually round about it, and you

will see your matter grow black, which is a token of its putrefaction.

"As soon as you have taken it out, have your dry furnace ready. Set your glass with the

matter into an inner globe to coagulate, give it a slow degree of fire, continue it equally

for twelve or fifteen days, and your matter will begin to coagulate and to fasten round

about your glass like a gray salt, which as soon as you see and before it be two days,

slacken the fire that it may cool leisurely. Then have in readiness your putrefying furnace

as before. Set your glass therein and give the same degree of fire as before. Let it stand

twelve days, and again you will see the matter resolve and open as before, and open

itself, but you must every time see that the lute and your glass is not hurt. When you set

your glass in the putrefying furnace, take care that the neck of your glass is covered with

a wooden or glass stopper that fits it exactly, that the moisture of the water may not come

at it.

"When you see it black set your glass as before to coagulate and when it begins to be of a

grayish color and whitish, set it in a third time to putrefy, and coagulate to the fifth time,

until you see that your water in its dissolution is clean, pellucid and clear, and that it

appears in its Calcination of a fine white like Snow. Then it is prepared and becomes a

Salt fixed which will melt on hot Silver plate like wax; but before you set this your Salt

out, set it again [in] the furnace of putrefaction that it may dissolve of itself, then let it

cool, open your Glass and you will find your Matter lessened a third part. But instead of

your former Salt Water you will have a fine Sweet and very penetrating Water which the

Philosophers have hid under very wonderful Names--It is the Mercury of all true

Philosophers, the Water out of which comes Gold and Silver, for they say its Father is

Gold and its Mother is Silver. Thus hast thou the strength of both these Luminaries

conjoined in this Water, most true, in its right Pondus.

"Prescription. 5 Drops of this Water taken inwardly strengthens the understanding and

memory, and opens to us most wonderful and sweet things, of which no man hath heard,

and of which I dare not further write, because of the Oath I made God to the contrary.

Time and the holy use of this blessed Water will teach us, as soon as you have taken it

inwardly such influence will happen to thee as if the whole heavens and all the stars with

their powers are working in thee. All Knowledge and secret Arts will be opened to thee

as in a dream, but the most excellent of all is, you will perfectly learn rightly to know all

creatures in their Nature, and by means thereof, the true understanding of God, the

Creator of us, Heaven and Earth, like David and Moses and all the Saints of God, for the

wisdom of our fountain of living Water will instruct thee as it did Solomon and the

Brethren of our fraternity."

In his rare treatise on Salt, Sulphur and Mercury, von Welling discloses a secret: not

generally revealed in alchemical writings, namely, that the alchemists were concerned not

only with the transmutation of metals but had a complete cosmological and philosophical

system based upon the Qabbalah.

According to von Welling, the universal salt (in watery form) is a positive cure for all the

physical ailments of mankind; it is in every living thing, but from some things it is more

easily secured than from others: especially is this true of virgin earth; it is the universal

solvent, the alkahest. The same writer also states that in the first stages of its preparation

this salt will cure any and all diseases of the heart. The anonymous philosopher of

Leyden continues:

"Would you now proceed further with our blessed Water to the forementioned intention

of preparing a Tincture for Metals, hearken my Son--

"Take in the NAME of the Lord, of thy Paradisiacal Water, of heavenly Water of

Mercury, as much as thou wilt, put it into a glass to dissolve, and set it in a slow heat of

Ashes, that it may just feel the warmth, then have ready well purified Gold for the Red, or

Silver for the White Elixir, for in both the Processes are the same. Let your Gold or Silver

be beaten as thin as leaf Gold, cast it by degrees into your dissolving Glass, that contains

your blessed Water, as you did in the beginning with your Salt, and it will melt like Ice in

Warm Water, and continue so to do till your Gold or Silver lie therein four days without

dissolving, then it has received its due Pondus. Then put this dissolution as before into a

round Glass, fill it two thirds parts full, seal it hermetically as before, let your Sigillum be

well dried. Set it in the furnace of Balneum Vapori, make a fire and let it remain forty

days, as before, then will the Gold or Silver be dissolved radically and will turn of the

deepest black in the world, which as soon as you see, have your other drying furnace in

readiness."

Continuing: "Philosophers say there is no true solution of the body without a proceeding

coagulation of the spirit, for they are interchangeably mixed in a due proportion, whereby

the bodily essence becomes of a spiritual penetrating nature. On the other hand, the

incomprehensible spiritual essential virtue is also made corporeal by the fire, because

there is made between them so near a relation or friendship, like as the heavens operate to

the very Depth of Earth, and producing from thence all the treasures and riches of the

whole World.

"Admirandum Naturæ Operationem in Archidoxes Cognitam.

"With this Powder--You may as follows project on metals. Take five parts of fine Gold or

Silver according as you work, and melt it in a Crucible. Wrap up your Medicine in Wax,

cast it therein, give a strong fire for an hour, then take the Crucible out, as it were,

calcined, then cast one part on ten parts of imperfect metals, be it what it will, and the

same will be immediately changed into purer Metal, than what is brought out of the

Mines and produced by Melting; and when you augment it in strength and virtue by

resolving and coagulating, the fifth time it will resolve itself in three days and be

coagulated in twenty-four hours time, to an incredible and most highly pellucid Stone or

Red Shining burning Coal. For the white work it will become like a white stream of

Lightning.

"Of this last coagulation take one part, cast it upon five thousand of melted Gold or Silver as before. It changes the same into perfect Medicine, one part whereof will tinge one

hundred thousand parts of melted imperfect Metals into the very finest Gold or Silver. So

far I have brought and further I would not come, for as I would set in the matter [to

distill] six times in twelve hours, it subtilized so highly that the most part (like somewhat

most wonderful to behold) past through the Glass causing an inexpressible odoriferous

Smell. Take heed that it happens not to you.

"Many more wonders of this holy Art might be added, namely how to prepare therewith

all sorts of precious Stones, and other most admirable things, but it would require too

great a book to express the whole as it ought to be, especially as the Art is endless and not

to be apprehended with one view, and my purpose has been, Loving Cousin and Son,

devoutly to lead thee into the Mysteries of Nature and this holy Science, and I have

faithfully performed it."

In conclusion, the letter states: "Go thou to work as I have done before thee, fear God,

Love thy neighbour from the bottom of thy Soul sincerely. So will in the Manual

operation, everything to thee, and when thou art at work therein many of our brethren

will reveal themselves to thee, of our holy order, privately; For I have on my part by the

Eternal God wrote the truth which I found out by prayer and searching into Nature, which

work I have seen with my eyes, and with my hands extracted. Therefore also I have

subscribed this Testament with my own blood, the last day of my Life on my deathbed.

Actum Leyden, 27 March 1662."

p. A1

THE HERMETIC AND ALCHEMICAL

FIGURES OF CLAUDIUS DE

DOMINICO CELENTANO VALLIS

NOVI FROM A MANUSCRIPT

WRITTEN AND ILLUMINATED AT

NAPLES A.D. 1606

No better way can be found of introducing to the "Royal Art" a seeker after the mysteries

of symbolical philosophy than to place at his disposal an actual example of alchemical

writing. The text of this manuscript is as enigmatic as are its diagrams; but to him who

will meditate upon the profound significance of both, the deeper issues of mysticism in

due time will be made clear. An unknown person through whose hands this manuscript

passed wrote thus of it:

"Because of its drawings and illustrated expositions, the manuscript is of preeminent

importance to the Rosicrucians and the contemporary order of Freemasons. The first, and

larger, part of the illustrations deals with the Hermetic philosophy, explaining its

teachings and doctrines. Interspersed among these are portraits of great teachers and

satirical representations of bunglers and their mistaken views. The systematically

arranged part shows with wonderful clearness the color development of the alchemical

processes from blue-gold over black to white and rose. Throughout it treats of the change

in human beings and not of the making of gold. Ever upon the Grade of Black (the return

into Chaos from which new creations are possible) follows the Grade of the Neophytes,

the New Birth, which is often repeated with impressive lucidity. The black stage occurs

as usual through fire. This unopened and unpublished manuscript belongs to the order of

the most important Precepts and Documents of the Rosicrucians, and Freemasons. A

search through the museums and library collections of Germany has failed to reveal any

item of even a similar character."

In addition to the 26 leaves here reproduced there are ten bottles or retorts, each half

filled with varicolored substances. These bottles can be so easily described that it is

unnecessary to reproduce them. The first bottle (from the mouth of which issues a golden

shrub with three blossoms) contains a bluish-gray liquid, the entire figure being called

"Our Quicksilver." Under the vessel is a verse containing the significant words: "He will

have white garments for black and then red." The second bottle (from the neck of which

rise four golden flowers) also contains the bluish-gray substance termed quicksilver.

Below the bottle is the admonition to "make spirit of the body and grace of the gross, that

the corporeal may become incorporeal."

The third bottle is entirely black save for a golden tree trunk having six lopped-off

branches and terminating in five branches which end in knobs and protrude from the neck

of the bottle. The state of the substance is termed "Blackness showing through the Head

of the Raven." Under the bottle occurs the statement that "the tincture of the Philosophers

is hidden in the air like the soul in the human body." The fourth bottle is of the deepest

blackness and is called "The Head of the Raven." Nothing rises from the neck of the

vessel, for the earth (its contents) is described as "submerged in Chaos." The bottom of

the fifth bottle contains a bluish-gray, spotted liquid, the upper part being filled with a

brick-colored substance. Above are the words: "Sixth Raven's Head"; below is added: "At

the bottom of the vessel worms are born."

The lower half of the sixth bottle is of a bluish-gray, the u per half black, the entire figure

being termed "Seventh Raven's Head." A child is seated beside the bottle, concerning

whom it is written: "This newly-born, black son is called Elixir and will be made

perfectly white." The seventh bottle is black below and black spotted with red above. The

process is thus described: "Black blacker than black, for many divers colors will appear.

Those black clouds will [descend] to the body whence they came, and the junction of

body, soul, and spirit has been completed and turned to ashes."

The eighth bottle is divided horizontally by a golden band, from which rises a golden

stem ending in five leaves protruding from the neck of the bottle. The contents of the

vessel are transparent, and it is written that "the black clouds are past and the great

whiteness has been completed." The ninth bottle (from the neck of which rises a golden

white rose) is also partly filled with a transparent liquid. The rose is made to say: "He

who blanches me makes me red." The tenth and last bottle represents the consummation

of the Great Work. The lower half of the vessel is filled with the blood-red Elixir and

from the neck rises a red rose with many petals and of extreme beauty. After declaring all

the planets to have been present at the consummation of the Great Work, the author of the

document concludes: "I gave to the Master [spirit] so much silver and gold that be can

never be poor."

In his dedication the author and illustrator of the manuscript declares that he has set forth

all the operations of the Great Work. He prays to the Holy Spirit that he may be included

in the number of those who have pursued this most noble of the sciences and that he may

be set always in the path of righteousness. Exclusive of his own researches, the main

sources of his information are said to be the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, Raymond

Lully, and Arnold of Villa Nova.

To protect themselves from the persecution of despotic theology the mediæval alchemists

couched their philosophy in Christian terminology, although the great secrets of the Art

were derived largely from Egyptian or Arabian adepts. The Mohammedans were masters

of the Hermetic secrets and even the great Paracelsus secured from them the major part of

his knowledge. In their manifestoes the Rosicrucians also disclose the Arabian source of

their secret doctrine. Hence it should be borne in mind that the relating of the alchemical

teachings to Biblical symbolism was a gesture of expediency. In their search of the

Scriptures for the arcana of Israel, the Qabbalists substantiated in great measure the

alchemical interpretations of the Bible, for the soul of alchemy is one with that of

Qabbalism. Both schools have a common end, being who concerned with the mystery of

human regeneration, despite apparent discrepancies in their symbolism.

The publication of this manuscript places at the student's disposal the most profound

secrets of the Hermetic Art. At first the task of decipherment may seem hopeless and the

superficially-minded will be tempted to scoff at the possibility of real knowledge being

perpetuated in such unconventional fashion. The scoffer will not realize that one of the

purposes of the document is to awaken ridicule and thus preserve more effectually its

arcana from the profane. A few sheets (such as those here reproduced) represent the life

work of one who has consecrated himself to the task of tearing aside the veil of the World

Virgin. Years of research and experimentation, days of incessant labor, nights of prayer

and meditation, and at last comes the realization of accomplishment! This is the real story

told by the grotesque figures drawn so painstakingly upon the faded, worm-eaten pages.

Those who have glimpsed the greater realities of being realize that the fundamental

verities of life find at best only imperfect expression through physical symbols. Only

those who have passed through the travail of spiritual birth can adequately comprehend

and properly reverence the pathetic efforts to portray for others that knowledge

necessarily locked within the heart of the one who knows.

Click to enlarge

Leaf 1. The top line reads: "Our earliest medicine was made of natural objects." About

the king and queen appears the statement that to them a son shall be born "in two trees of

the vine," resembling his father and without equal in all the world. About the vase is

written: "Green and white." "The vase flame color, the flowers green." "Our water, our silver." The lines below read: "The material of the Philosopher's Stone is that thick,

viscous water, which either heat or cold congeals. It is Mercury boiled down and

thickened, cooked in neutral earth with sulphurous heat and is called the Prime Material

of the metals. In caverns yet dark, and forbidding mountains, if a Stone be found which a

thousand years ago Nature made out of her fruits, it will bring him that has it out of

trouble. * * * Listen carefully to all my verses; I speak them without veil and without

deception.

Click to enlarge

Leaf 2. At the top is a quotation from St. Thomas Aquinas concerning the composition of

the Philosopher's Stone, which is described as of the purest transparency; in it all the

forms of the elements and their contrarieties were visible. Beneath the figure of St.

Thomas Aquinas is a short paragraph praising the excellence of the Philosophic Stone,

declaring that from the one substance can be derived three and from the three, two. To the

right of St. Thomas Aquinas is a likeness of Raymond Lully seated in the door of his

hermitage. Under his feet appears a quotation from this celebrated alchemist, beginning

with the question, "What is the Philosopher's Stone?" After declaring it to be a reddish,

fixed mercury, Lully swears to the Almighty that he has told the truth and that it is not

permissible to say more. (The original manuscript is mutilated at this point.)

p. A2

Click to enlarge

Leaf 3. The writing at the top of the page reads: "Death of Saturn; life of Mercury." After

describing the use of the saturnine substances, the key to the process is declared to be

depicted below. The verse reads "This [the stone] is made of four elements. This is the

truth in all Nature. Take it in hand, bright and shining, with all diligence and great care

and then try to bind all securely together side by side, so the fire may cause alarm."

Above the human figure is written: "Saturn is almost dead." To the right if the devouring

serpent is a statement of Albertus Magnus that Saturn and Mercury are the first principles

of the Stone. It also declares that Nature wisely provided a mixture of elements so that

earth can communicate its dryness to fire, fire its heat to air, air its moisture to water, and

water its coldness to earth. (Text about the vase is illegible in original.)

Click to enlarge

Leaf 4. At the top: "Let them believe that . everything is possible. The art is fleeting,

bright and rare, and not believed by the foolish." The words between the sun and crescent

read "It is hidden," and on the panel across the body "The Book of life and true Treasury

of the World." The panel to the left of the figure says "Moving almost all, and the soul of

its body returns to the place from which it had fled, and ripens seven months or nine, and

the King crowned with his diadem appears." The right panel states: "There are three

Mercuries: animal, vegetable, and mineral." The text below is of such a cryptic nature

that to translate it is well nigh impossible. It declares that by putting fire beneath the feet

of the symbolic figure it is possible to extract therefrom the sun and the moon which the

human body is shown elevating to a position of dignity above its head.

Click to enlarge

Leaf 5. In the upper panel it is declared that the sun-bird battles with the earth-serpent,

who, tearing out his own entrails, gives them to the bird. The spirit is vivified and

Lazarus with joy is raised from the dead. Above the bird is written: "This is the sun in the

form of a bird," and above the dragon "This is the dragon devouring the bird. The first

operation." The panel of text at the lower left reads in substance: "When our sperm

(quicksilver) is mixed with the mother of elements (earth), the action is called coitus. The

detention by the earth of a bit of quicksilver is called conception. The earth grows and

multiplies and the operation is called impregnation. When earth is whitened with water

and made of uniform color and appearance, it is called birth and the King is born out of

fire." The text at lower right was deliberately mutilated to conceal a too evident secret.

Click to enlarge

Leaf 6. This plate shows all the secrets of the great Stone. In the center stands the Paschal

Virgin, in her hair the prime virtue which is described as an herb flourishing in wells. The

hands hold the symbols of the spiritual and material elements. The statement at the upper

left is to the effect that there are four spirits with two faces, which are called the

elements. At the upper right it is written that fire lives on air, air on water, water on earth,

and thus the Stone lives Peacefully on all the pure elements. Under the sun appears the

word Summer; under the moon, Autumn. About the tree on the left with its attendant eyes

are the words: "Turn away your eyes to [from?] the fire. There is space [?]." About the

tree to the right. "Open your eyes to the fire. There is time." The lower panel opens with

this sentence "I am exalted above the circles of world."

p. A3

Click to enlarge

Leaf 7. The verse at the top reads:," This Stone is so noble and worthy that Nature has

hidden it in her recesses. Its soul is all fair, and pure, for it is the true sun. I inform you of

this. Keep it removed, apart and separated. Whatever boon you crave, it will come to you

bounteously. without sin, with pleasure and delight." The seated figure on the left holding

aloft the hammer is described as breaking hard stone, while the words beside the man

with the retort read: "Breaking of stone our replenishment." Between the standing figures

below is the exclamation; "O Sages, seek and ye shall find my Stone!" Under the

outstretched hand of the man with a basket appear the words: "Draw out sorerem [?] in

the bottom." Below the pool which the man on the left is stirring appears the simple

statement: "Our healing water." The faces of the four men are extremely well drawn.

Click to enlarge

Leaf 8. Under the sun, moon, and Mercury are the words Three and One, an inference

that the three are one. The words under the flower stems read: "Whiteness forty days after

ashes." Under the blossoms is written: (left) "Minor time of the Stone"; (right) "The

selected red." Between the arms of the central figure appears: "Let one pound of Mercury

be placed." To the left is written: "If you who read shall have known this figure, you will

possess the whole science of the Stone"; to the right: "And if you do not acknowledge it,

you will be stiff-necked and dull." Above the sun is the word Father; above the satyr,

"Ferment of the work." Beside the child is the sentence: "The son of the moon would

threw the Stone into the fire--his mother." Above the flaming basket is written: "I am the

true Stone." Under the central figure are the words: "A moderate fire is the master of the

work."

Click to enlarge

Leaf 9. In the upper left it is written that without the light of the Moon the Sun does not

heat the earth and that into the Moon the Sun emits its fruits. In the upper right the true

herb of the philosophers is described, and it is declared that whoever believes in and it

shall be [spiritually] rich. The panel concludes thus: "Understand thoroughly what it is

that the man has in either hand if you wish to be enlightened." The text to the left above

the sun reads: "Entirely without the Sun and Moon, make dye; dissolve, congeal, and like

produces for itself like." The words to the right of the man holding the Philosopher's herb

declare sublimation to be the beginning, the middle and the end of the Great Work. The

last sentence reads: "Out of the Sun and Moon make a thing of equal parts, and by their

union, God willing, let the Philosopher's Stone be made."

Click to enlarge

Leaf 10. The two short lines of text at upper left read: "Some take a recent stone." The

lines to the right of the symbol of Mars (iron) admonish the student to control his

appetites and apply his mind to the accumulation of knowledge. No satisfactory

translation can be found for the words under the outstretched arm of the man holding the

upper part of the tree. The lower panel reads thus: "After the Stone has been well refined

it will appear to penetrate thoroughly. It should be put into its vessel with its water. Close

it well with a little fire, and await the wonders of Nature." The large red oval filling the

lower half of the leaf is evidently the egg or vessel of the Sages. The tree is a symbol of

the growth of the sacred metals, for the alchemists affirmed that the metals are like plants

and grow in the rocks, spreading their branches (veins) through the interstices.

p. A4

Click to enlarge

Leaf 11. The fount is described as that from which the two Mercuries of the Philosophers

are extracted. At the upper left is described the white Mercury and at the right the red

Mercury. The text about the fountain declares that Saturn collects the white Mercury,

which is called the Water of Earth; and the Earth collects the red Mercury, which is

called the Water of Heaven. The text to the left of the frog reads: "Through Him who

created the Heavens and the Earth I am the Philosopher's Stone, and in my body I carry

something the wise seek. If such a charm be extracted from me, it will be a sweet

refreshment for you. I am an animal having father and mother, and father and mother

were created; and in my body are contained the four elements, and I am before father and

mother and I am a poisonous animal." The lines at the right describe distilling and

calcining processes.

Click to enlarge

Leaf 12. The three words at the top read: "This is Nature." The lines above the donkey

read: "This is the Philosophers' donkey who wished to rise to the practice of the

Philosopher's Some." The three lines below the animal are translated: "Frogs gather in

multitudes but science consists of clear water made from the Sun and Moon." The text

under the symbolic bird is as follows: "This is fortune with two wings. Whosoever has it

knows that fruit will in such away be produced. A great philosopher has shown that the

stone is a certain white sun, to see which needs a telescope. To dissolve it in water

requires the Sun and Moon, and here one must open 200 telescopes, putting body and

soul in one mass. And here is lost the mass; other sages cook the frogs and add nothing, if

the juice of the Wise you wish to enjoy." To the Greeks the frog symbolized both

metempsychosis and earthly humidity.

Click to enlarge

Leaf 13. This Page contains but two figures. At the left stands Morienus, the philosopher,

pointing towards the salamander who "lives and grows in fire." Morienus, who was born

in the twelfth century, became the disciple of the great Arabian alchemist Adfar, from

whom he learned the Hermetic arts. Morienus prepared the Philosophical Elixir for the

Sultan of Egypt, inscribing upon the vase in which he placed the precious substance the

words: "He who possesses all has no need of others." He spent many years as a hermit

near Jerusalem. The lines below the salamander are: "Let the fire be of a perfect red

color; the earth white, the water clear. Then compound them by philosophical means and

calcine them as many times with the water which the body had as to turn it white by its

kindness. Having done this, you will have the greatest treasure in the world."

Click to enlarge

Leaf 14. The three words at the top of the left page are translated: "The man that digs."

Above the birds it is declared that none but the cocks of Hermes, the two Mercuries, shall

put hand to the plow, and only after irrigation will the earth bring forth her fruits. The

seated man is Count Bernard of Treviso, who says: "Work the earth with Mercury." (See

chapter on Alchemy and Its Exponents.) The three sentences to the Count's left read: "Go

to the fire and with Mercury, thy brother, await me for a month. Crumble the stone I gave

thee and I shall go to the fire. Thy death, my life. I shall net die but, living, tell of the

works of this, my master." Bernard of Treviso in his alchemical speculation emphasized

the necessity of meditation upon the philosophical writings of the great adepts rather than

chemical experimentation. He ultimately discovered the "Stone."

p. A5

Click to enlarge

Leaf 15. The first sentence reads: "The fruit of plants by virtue of the Sun, our Stone."

The boy holding the dish is made to say: "Drink here all ye that are athirst. Come unto

me, run to the waters. Here drink, without price, and drink your fill. Open your eyes and

see the wonders of the earth. They learn, my thirsty twenty and four." Beneath the boy

are the words: "In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth, and divided the

waters from the waters. Bless the waters which are above the Heavens." The circle

contains this statement: "The earth without form and void. Out of the stars come the

rains." The lower left panel continues the alchemical process, ending with admonition to

renounce the misery of worldly existence. Above is a prayer to the Virgin Mary which

opens thus: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord be with thee. Blessed thou among

women."

Click to enlarge

Leaf 16. The first sentence reads: "The dead bodies remain; the spirits are freed by the

death in the bodies. You will ride with that death with a scythe, and the light of the Sun,

the Moon, and the fixed stars." Over the scythe is written: "Subject to the Sun, the Moon

and Azoth, complete the Work." The four words in the curve of the scythe blade say:

"Man's head, head of raven." The three lines to the right are interpreted thus: "This figure

is called Laton, for it looks black in a vessel, and is the beginning of corruption." The text

below the ladder states: "This is the ladder of primitive matter which when placed in a

vessel turns black, the gradually changes to white by the scale [ladder] of digestion,

according to the degree of heat." Here a ladder is used to signify the natural steps up

which matter must ascend before it can attain to a truly spiritual state.

Click to enlarge

Leaf 17. The verse at the top of the page reads: "Not only must this material be fixed, but

it must be allowed to enter into everything so that this material may be well completed

and have infinite virtue. Then by making it thick, it becomes at once all white,

sublimation from white it becomes shining." Above the sun are the words: "God and

Nature do nothing in vain." The man on the left is a mediæval conception of Hermes, the

great Egyptian philosopher; the one on the right is Christopher, the philosopher of Paris.

Above the latter is written: "If the Stone is black, it is not useless." The words over the

retort are: "There is air, fire, water, and earth." Below is added: "A dissolution of the

body is the first step. " The curious chemical apparatus must be considered purely

symbolic in this work and, as its author himself says, is intended to give only a hint of the

"Art."

Click to enlarge

Leaf 18. At the left holding a book stands Aristotle, who is described as the most learned

of all the Greeks. The tree surmounted by the Sun and Mon. is accompanied by the

wards: "When the Stone is dead, that is changed to water, in this it will produce flowers."

Beneath Aristotle and the prostrate human figure from which rises the flowering tree are

these statements: "He who makes everything descend from heaven to earth, and then

ascend from earth to heaven, has information about the Stone. For in Mercury there is

something the wise seek, not invoked except by white or red ferment." The first part of

this quotation is based upon the Emerald Tablet of Hermes (which see). In ordinary man,

the spirit is figuratively absorbed by the body; but in the true philosopher, the spirit is so

greatly increased in power that it absorbs into itself and is nourished by man's corporeal

body.

p. A6

Click to enlarge

Leaf 19. At the top it reads: "He that comes to know this figure will have knowledge of

the Stone." The seated man probably represents Paracelsus. To his right are the words: "I

am neither tree nor animal, nor stone nor vegetable, but the Philosopher's Stone, trampled

on by men, cast into the fire by my father, and in fire I rejoice." The four words to the left

say "In dryness is the Stone." Below the man is the Philosophic Egg containing the

words: "It is the end in which the beginning rests." The capital T stands for "Tincture."

The text to the right states: "In Stone it is formed, as Gerber writes in his book very

learnedly, and possessing so much of its nature that it changes into clear, living water;

and it has the power to make folks rich, satisfied, and free from all cares, so they will be

always happy if they attain by their wit to the secret."

Click to enlarge

Leaf 20. At the top is written: "Rains are made by six stars." Under the inverted man it

reads: "Receive new spirit. Arise, for you are asleep." The two sentences about the large

figure read: "Remember Mercury, for ashes thou art and unto ashes thou shalt return. I

thirst and am dead." Above the seven globes at the left is the admonition: "If he thirst,

give him a drink and he shall live." Over the small man is written: "Hermes, the father of

philosophers." The curved line of writing to which Hermes points says: "The measure of

the drink." Under the central pedestal appears: "The light of my eyes is a lantern to my

feet." Below is added: "If the beginning is unknown, the rest is unknown." Above the

figure rising from the flames on the right is the statement: "He was resurrected after new

Moon," and under the eagle: "Thou shalt not fly further with me."

Click to enlarge

Leaf 21. The upper line reads: "Two things and double, but finally one is dissolved into

the first and they make sperm." The four capitals. I A A T, are the initial letters of the

names of the elements: Ignis, Aer, Aqua, and Terra. The writing under them reads: "Our

fire is water; if you can give fire to fire, fire and Mercury will suffice." Along the arm

appear the words: "The Art of the Stone is," and on the ribbon: "Swift, brief, bright, and

rare." The two lines under the ribbon read: "Every hand is a key, because it was called the

herb celandine"; under the Sun: "I am the gift of God " The verse reads: "So that you

remain contented in all matters, I must listen attentively. My body [is] naked, clean, and

shining, and I run like oil ready to drop, resplendent like bright gold, and then succumb to

the plague in its bright and cheerful little chamber [retort]."

Click to enlarge

Leaf 22. The verse in the upper left is as follows: "This group is composed of three

stones: lunar, solar, and mercurial. In the lunar is white sulphur; in the solar, red sulphur,

in the mercurial, both; i.e. white and red, and this is the strength of all instruction." In the

bottle at the left are the words: "Dissolving, calcination, sublimation complete the

instruction"; and at the base: "Wash, congeal, and coagulate. " Under the central tower is

written: "Metallic salts, however, are hidden by one letter"; around the bottom of the red

circle: "Dryness, coldness, humidity, heat, and dryness." On the points below are the

names of the four elements. The initial, I A A T appear four times with the same meaning

as that already given. The three powers of the Philosopher's Stone are symbolized by the

heads of the cherubs in the circle in the upper left corner.

p. A7

Click to enlarge

Leaf 23. The writing at the upper left is, in substance, the Lord's Prayer, with the addition

of the words Jesus and Mary at the end. The inverted words in the banner read: "Ye can

do nothing without me, for God has so promised, saying 'So be it.'" The text under the

angel reads: "By this plague he will be damned who knows he is dead, all cold in a black

body. And let this be thy first comfort: then he will burn unto calcination. When I have

reduced him within this door, know for certain that I shall be blessed if I shall know how

to cultivate the garden." The main part of the leaf is devoted to an elaborate symbolic

drawing of alchemical equipment, under which are the words: "The furnace of

distillation, congealing, rectification, perfection, fixation: quintessence of the

Philosophers." By "quintessence" should be understood the "fifth essence" of the most wise.

Click to enlarge

Leaf 24. The words at the top read: "I, the bird [the adept], speak into thine ears from the

Sun, Moon and Azoth. The work is perfected with little labor." The panel to the left

describes the nature of primordial matter and the drink of the Philosophers. The text to

the right reads: "This is my beloved Son whom I saw and loved. If he be resurrected, He

will remain at home, and in that house the spirit will be the soul and the body; for

Mercury may be called the son of the Sun and the Moon." Under the child's figure is

added: "If he were not dead, I should not have been his mother. I bore him after death

before he was born in the world; under my feet I have what was his, and out of me and

my Son and the foundation of my feet the Philosopher's Stone is made." At the lower left

the three constituents of the Stone are shown elevated upon a pedestal to signify their

dignity.

Click to enlarge

Leaf 25. Above the figure of the Queen are three lines stating, in substance, that in the

beginning of the book it was written of her that from her maternal breasts she nourished

the Sun, and that he who was capable of converting her into Primal matter possessed rare

skill. Opposite the Queen's head are the words: "In the highest mountains this water" and

"I am the light of the Philosophers." To the left of the Queen is an admonition to strike

the sons whom she bears. She calls herself "The mother of the Sun, the sister of the

Moon, and the servant and spouse of Mercury." On the right she is made to exclaim: "I

cannot be crowned unless these sons of mine become ashes. " The sons are shown

directly below. The verse under the Queen continues the alchemical processes, describing

the method in which the exudations from the substance should be preserved.

Click to enlarge

Leaf 26. This page, which concludes that part of the Hermetic manuscript bearing the

symbols of the Secret Work, contains a number of emblems not directly correlated. At the

top is the head of the King--the most common of alchemical figures. To the right of the

King is an alchemical vessel designated the Hermetic Seal. Below is the head of a

ferocious bird, here designated a griffon. To the left of the King is a headless figure

elevating a Sun, or spiritual face. This figure is the world, which must be headless, since

its spiritual and rational part is not material and consequently, is invisible. Below is a

circle unaccompanied by descriptive matter. Directly under the King's head is a vase of

flowers, in which rises the golden plant of the Philosophers. At the bottom of the page is

additional alchemical equipment, this also being termed a Hermetic Seal.

p. 161

The Chemical Marriage

THE self-admitted author of The Chemical Marriage, Johann Valentin Andreæ, born in

Württemberg in 1586, was twenty-eight years of age when that work was first published.

It was presumably written about twelve years prior to its publication--or when the author

was fifteen or sixteen years old. The fact is almost incredible that one so young could

produce a volume containing the wealth of symbolic thought and philosophy hidden

between the lines of The Chemical Marriage. This book makes the earliest known

reference to Christian Rosencreutz, and is generally regarded as the third of the series of

original Rosicrucian manifestoes. As a symbolic work, the book itself is hopelessly

irreconcilable with the statements made by Andreæ concerning it. The story of The

Chemical Marriage relates in detail a series of incidents occurring to an aged man,

presumably the Father C.R.C. of the Fama and Confessio. If Father C.R.C. was born in

1378, as stated in the Confessio, and is identical with the Christian Rosencreutz of The

Chemical Marriage, he was elevated to the dignity of a Knight of the Golden Stone in the

eighty-first year of his life (1459). In the light of his own statements, it is inconceivable

that Andreæ could have been Father Rosy Cross.

Many figures found in the various books on symbolism published in the early part of the

seventeenth century bear a striking resemblance to the characters and episodes in The

Chemical Marriage. The alchemical wedding may prove to be the key to the riddle of

Baconian Rosicrucianism. The presence in the German text of The Chemical Marriage of

some words in English indicates its author to have been conversant also with that

language. The following summary of the main episodes of the seven days of The

Chemical Marriage will give the reader a fairly comprehensive idea of the profundity of

its symbolism.

THE FIRST DAY

Christian Rosencreutz, having prepared in his heart the Paschal Lamb together with a

small unleavened loaf, was disturbed while at prayer one evening before Easter by a

violent storm which threatened to demolish not only his little house but the very hill on

which it stood. In the midst of the tempest he was touched on the back and, turning, he

beheld a glorious woman with wings filled with eyes, and robed in sky-colored garments

spangled with stars. In one hand she held a trumpet and in the other a bundle of letters in

every language. Handing a letter to C.R.C., she immediately ascended into the air, at the

same time blowing upon her trumpet a blast which shook the house. Upon the seal of the

letter was a curious cross and the words In hoc signo vinces. Within, traced in letters of

gold on an azure field, was an invitation to a royal wedding.

C.R.C. was deeply moved by the invitation because it was the fulfillment of a prophecy

which he had received seven years before, but so unworthy did he feel that he was

paralyzed with fear. At length, after resorting to prayer, he sought sleep. In his dreams he

found himself in a loathsome dungeon with a multitude of other men, all bound and

fettered with great chains. The grievousness of their sufferings was increased as they

stumbled over each other in the darkness. Suddenly from above came the sound of

trumpets; the cover of the dungeon was lifted, and a ray of light pierced the gloom.

Framed in the light stood a hoary-headed man who announced that a rope would be

lowered seven times and whoever could cling to the rope would be drawn up to freedom.

Great confusion ensued. All sought to grasp the rope and many were pulled away from it

by others. C.R.C. despaired of being saved, but suddenly the rope swung towards him

and, grasping it, he was raised from the dungeon. An aged woman called the "Ancient

Matron" wrote in a golden yellow book the names of those drawn forth, and each of the

redeemed was given for remembrance a piece of gold bearing the symbol of the sun and

the letters D L S. C.R.C., who had been injured while clinging to the rope, found it

difficult to walk. The aged woman bade him not to worry, but to thank God who had

permitted him to come into so high a light. Thereupon trumpets sounded and C.R.C.

awoke, but so vivid was the dream that he was still sensible of the wounds received while

asleep.

With renewed faith C. R. C. arose and prepared himself for the Hermetic Marriage. He

donned a white linen coat and bound a red ribbon crosswise over his shoulders. In his hat

he stuck four roses and for food he carried bread, water, and salt. Before leaving his

cottage, he knelt and vowed that whatever knowledge was revealed to him he would

devote to the service of his neighbor. He then departed from his house with joy.

THE SECOND DAY

As he entered the forest surrounding his little house, it seemed to C.R.C. that all Nature

had joyously prepared for the wedding. As he proceeded singing merrily, he came to a

green heath in which stood three great cedars, one bearing a tablet with an inscription

describing the four paths that led to the palace of the King: the first short and dangerous,

the second circuitous, the third a pleasant and royal road, and the fourth suitable only for

incorruptible bodies. Weary and perplexed, C.R.C. decided to rest and, cutting a slice of

bread, was about to partake thereof when a white dove begged it from him. The dove was

at once attacked by a raven, and in his efforts to separate the birds C.R.C. unknowingly

ran a considerable distance along one of the four paths--that leading southward. A terrific

wind preventing him from retracing his steps, the wedding guest resigned himself to the

loss of his bread and continued along the road until he espied in the distance a great gate.

The sun being low, he hastened towards the portal, upon which, among other figures, was

a tablet bearing the words Procul hinc procul ite profani.

A gatekeeper in sky-colored habit immediately asked C.R.C. for his letter of invitation

and, on receiving it, bade him enter and requested that he purchase a token. After

describing himself as a Brother of the Red Rosie Cross, C.R.C. received in exchange for

his water bottle a golden disk bearing the letters S C. Night drawing near, the wanderer

hastened on to a second gate, guarded by a lion, and to which was affixed a tablet with

the words Date et dabitur volis, where he presented a letter given him by the first

gatekeeper. Being urged to purchase a token bearing the letters S M, he gave his little

package of salt and then hastened on to reach the palace gates before they were locked for

the night.

A beautiful virgin called Virgo Lucifera was extinguishing the castle lights as C.R.C.

approached, and he was barely able to squeeze through the closing gates. As they closed

they caught part of his coat, which he was forced to leave behind. Here his name was

written in the Lord Bridegroom's little vellum book and he was presented with a new pair

of shoes and also a token bearing the letters S P N. He was then conducted by pages to a

small chamber where the "ice-grey locks" were cut from the crown of his head by

invisible barbers, after which he was ushered into a spacious hall where a goodly number

of kings, princes, and commoners were assembled. At the sound of trumpets each seated

himself at the table, taking a position corresponding to his dignity, so that C.R.C.

received a very humble seat. Most of the pseudo-philosophers present being vain

pretenders, the banquet became an orgy, which, however, suddenly ceased at the sound of

Click to enlarge

TITLE PAGE OF 1616 EDITION OF CHYMISCHE HOCHZEIT: CHRISTIAN ROSENCREUTZ.

From Rosencreutz' Chemical Marriage.

The most remarkable of all the publications involved in the Rosicrucian controversy is that of The

Chemical Marriage, published in Strasbourg. This work, which is very rare, should be reproduced in exact

facsimile to provide students with the opportunity of examining the actual text for the various forms of

cipher employed. Probably no other volume in the history or literature created such a profound disturbance

as this unpretentious little book. Immediately following its publication the purpose for which the volume

was intended became the subject of popular speculation. It was both attacked and defended by theologians

and philosophers alike, but when the various contending elements are simmered down the mysteries

surrounding the book remain unsolved. That its author was a man of exceptional learning was admitted,

and it is noteworthy that those minds which possessed the deepest understanding of Nature's mysteries were

among those profoundly impressed by the contents of The Chemical Marriage.

p. 162

stately and inspired music. For nearly half an hour no one spoke. Then amidst a great

sound the door of the dining hall swung open and thousands of lighted tapers held by

invisible hands entered. These were followed by the two pages lighting the beautiful

Virgo Lucifera seated on a self-moving throne. The white-and-gold-robed Virgin then

rose and announced that to prevent the admission of unworthy persons to the mystical

wedding a set of scales would be erected the following day upon which each guest would

be weighed to determine his integrity. Those unwilling to undergo this ordeal she stated

should remain in the dining hall. She then withdrew, but many of the tapers stayed to

accompany the guests to their quarters for the night.

Most of those present were presumptuous enough to believe that they could be safety

weighed, but nine--including C.R.C.--felt their shortcomings so deeply that they feared

the outcome and remained in the hall while the others were led away to their sleeping

chambers. These nine were bound with ropes and left alone in darkness. C.R.C. then

dreamed that he saw many men suspended over the earth by threads, and among them

flew an aged man who, cutting here and there a thread, caused many to fall to earth.

Those who in arrogance had soared to lofty heights accordingly fell a greater distance and

sustained more serious injury than the more humble ones who, falling but a short

distance, often landed without mishap. Considering this dream to be a good omen, C.R.C.

related it to a companion, continuing in discourse with him until dawn.

THE THIRD DAY

Soon after dawn the trumpets sounded and the Virgo Lucifera, arrayed in red velvet,

girded with a white sash, and crowned with a laurel wreath, entered accompanied by two

hundred men in red-and-white livery. She intimated to C.R.C. and his eight companions

that they might fare better than the other, self-satisfied guests. Golden scales were then

hung in the midst of the hall and near them were placed seven weights, one good-sized,

four small, and two very large. The men in livery, each carrying a naked sword and a

strong rope, were divided into seven groups and from each group was chosen a captain,

who was given charge of one of the weights. Having remounted her high throne, Virgo

Lucifera ordered the ceremony to begin. The first to step on the scales was an emperor so

virtuous that the balances did not tip until six weights had been placed upon the opposite

end. He was therefore turned over to the sixth group. The rich and poor alike stood upon

the scales, but only a few passed the test successfully. To these were given velvet robes

and wreaths of laurel, after which they were seated upon the steps of Virgo Lucifera's

throne. Those who failed were ridiculed and scourged.

The "inquisition" being finished, one of the captains begged Virgo Lucifera to permit the

nine men who had declared themselves unworthy also to be weighed, and this caused

C.R.C. anguish and fear. Of the first seven one succeeded and was greeted with joy.

C.R.C. was the eighth and he not only withstood all the weights but even when three men

hung on the opposite end of the beam he could not be moved. A page cried out: "THAT

IS HE!" C.R.C. was quickly set at liberty and permitted to release one of the captives. He

chose the first emperor. Virgo Lucifera then requested the red roses that C.R.C. carried,

which he immediately gave her. The ceremony of the scales ended about ten o'clock in

the forenoon.

After agreeing upon the penalties to be imposed upon those whose shortcomings had

been thus exposed, a dinner was served to all. The few successful "artists," including

C.R.C., were given the chief seats, after which the Golden Fleece and a Flying Lion were

bestowed upon them in the name of the Bridegroom. Virgo Lucifera then presented a

magnificent goblet to the guests, stating that the King had requested all to share its

contents, Following this, C.R.C. and his companions were taken out upon a scaffolding

where they beheld the various penalties suffered by those who failed. Before leaving the

palace, each of the rejected guests was given a draught of forgetfulness. The elect then

returned to the castle, where to each was assigned a learned page, who conducted them

through the various parts of the edifice. C.R.C. saw many things his companions were not

privileged to behold, including the Royal Sepulcher, where he learned "more than is

extant in all books." He also visited a magnificent library and an observatory containing a

great globe thirty feet in diameter and with all the countries of the world marked upon it.

At supper the various guests propounded enigmas and C.R.C. solved the riddle which

Virgo Lucifera asked concerning her own identity. Then entered the dining hall two

youths and six virgins beautifully robed, followed by a seventh virgin wearing a coronet.

The latter was called the Duchess, and was mistaken for the Hermetic Bride. The

Duchess told C.R.C. that he had received more than the others, therefore should make a

greater return. The Duchess then asked each of the virgins to pick up one of the seven

weights which still remained in the great room. To Virgo Lucifera was given the heaviest

weight, which was hung in the Queen's chamber during the singing of a hymn. In the

second chamber the first virgin hung her weight during a similar ceremony; thus they

proceeded from room to room until the weights had been disposed of. The Duchess then

presented her hand to C. R. C. and his companions and, followed by her virgins,

withdrew. Pages then conducted the guests to their sleeping chambers. The one assigned

to C.R.C. was hung with rare tapestries and with beautiful paintings.

THE FOURTH DAY

After washing and drinking in the garden from a fountain which bore several

inscriptions--among them one reading, "Drink, brothers, and live"--the guests, led by

Virgo Lucifera, ascended the 365 steps of the royal winding stairs. The guests were given

wreaths of laurel and, a curtain being raised, found themselves in the presence of the

King and Queen. C.R.C. was awestruck by the glory of the throne room and especially by

the magnificence of the Queen's robes, which were so dazzling that he could not gaze

upon them. Each guest was presented to the King by one of the virgins and after this

ceremony the Virgo Lucifera made a short speech in which she recited the achievements

of the honest "artists" and begged that each be questioned as to whether she had properly

fulfilled her duty. Old Atlas then stepped forward and in the name of their Royal

Majesties greeted the intrepid band of philosophers and assured Virgo Lucifera that she

should receive a royal reward.

The length of the throne room was five times its width. To the west was a great porch in

which stood three thrones, the central one elevated. On each throne sat two persons: on

the first an ancient king with a young consort; on the third a black king with a veiled

matron beside him; and on the central throne two young persons over whose heads hung

a large and costly crown, about which hovered a little Cupid who shot his arrows first at

the two lovers and then about the hall. Before the Queen a book bound in black velvet lay

on a small altar, on which were golden decorations. Beside this were a burning candle, a

celestial globe, a small striking-watch, a little crystal pipe from which ran a stream of

clear blood-red liquor, and a skull with a white serpent crawling in and out of the orbits.

After their presentations, the guests retired down the winding stairs to the great hall.

Click to enlarge

KEY TO THE GREAT PHILOSOPHICAL SECRET.

From Ashmole's Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum.

This plate, which is the key to mystic Christian alchemy, is missing from almost every copy of the

Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, a work compiled by Elias Ashmole and containing about a score of

pieces by English poets treating of the Philosopher's Stone and the Hermetic mysteries. In view of the

consistent manner in which the plate disappeared, it is possible that the diagram was purposely removed

because it revealed too plainly the Rosicrucian arcana. Worthy of notice also is the care with which owners'

names have been effaced from early books pertaining to alchemy and Hermeticism. The original names are

usually rendered illegible being covered with heavy ink lines, the procedure often seriously defacing the

volume, While an occasional exception is found, in practically every instance the mutilated books either

deal with Rosicrucianism or contain cryptic writings of suspected Rosicrucian origin. It is presumed that

this Practice of obliterating the owners names was to prevent the early Rosicrucians and Hermetists from

being discovered through the volumes composing their libraries. Elias Ashmole's plate shows the analogies

between the life of Christ and the four grand divisions of the alchemical process. Herein is also revealed the teaching that the Philosopher's Stone itself is a macrocosm and a microcosm, embodying the principles of

astronomy and cosmogony, both universal and human.

p. 163

Later the Virgo Lucifera announced that a comedy was to be performed for the benefit of

the six royal guests in a building called the House of the Sun. C.R.C. and his companions

formed part of the royal procession, which after a considerable walk arrived at the

theater. The play was in seven acts, and after its happy ending all returned through the

garden and up the winding stairs to the throne room. C.R.C. noticed the young King was

very sad and that at the banquet following he often sent meat to the white serpent in the

skull. The feast over, the young King, holding in his hand the little black book from the

altar, asked the guests if they would all be true to him through prosperity and adversity,

and when they tremblingly agreed he asked that each should sign his name in the little

black book as proof of his fealty. The royal persons then drank from the little crystal

fountain, the others afterwards doing likewise. This was called the "Draught of Silence."

The royal persons then sadly shook hands with all present. Suddenly a little bell tinkled

and immediately the kings and queens took off their white garments and donned black

ones, the room was hung in sable draperies, and the tables were removed. The eyes of the

royal persons were bound with six black taffeta scarfs and six coffins were placed in the

center of the room. An executioner, a Moor, robed in black and bearing an axe, entered,

and beheaded in turn each of the six royal persons. The blood of each was caught in a

golden goblet, which was placed in the coffins with the body. The executioner was also

decapitated and his head placed in a small chest.

The Virgo Lucifera, after assuring C.R.C. and his companions that all should be well if

they were faithful and true, ordered the pages to conduct them to their rooms for the night

while she remained to watch with the dead. About midnight C.R.C. awakened suddenly

and, looking from his window, beheld seven ships sailing upon a lake. Above each

hovered a flame; these he believed to be the spirits of the beheaded. When the ships

reached shore, the Virgo Lucifera met them and on each of six of the vessels was placed a

covered coffin. As soon as the coffins had been thus disposed of, the lights were

extinguished and the flames passed back over the lake so that there remained but one

light for a watch in each ship. After beholding this strange ceremony, C.R.C. returned to

his bed and slept till morning.

THE FIFTH DAY

Rising at daybreak and entreating his page to show him other treasures of the palace,

C.R.C. was conducted down many steps to a great iron door bearing a curious inscription,

which he carefully copied. Passing through, he found himself in the royal treasury, the

light in which came entirely from some huge carbuncles. In the center stood the

triangular sepulcher of Lady Venus. Lifting a copper door in the pavement, the page

ushered C.R.C. into a crypt where stood a great bed upon which, when his guide had

raised the coverlets, C.R.C. beheld the body of Venus. Led by his page, C.R.C. then

rejoined his companions, saying nothing to them of his experience.

Virgo Lucifera, robed in black velvet and accompanied by her virgins, then led the guests

out into the courtyard where stood six coffins, each with eight pallbearers. C.R.C. was the

only one of the group of "artists" who suspected the royal bodies were no longer in these

coffins. The coffins were lowered into graves and great stones rolled over them. The

Virgo Lucifera then made a short oration in which she exhorted each to assist in restoring

the royal persons to life, declaring that they should journey with her to the Tower of

Olympus, where the medicines necessary to the resurrection of the six royal persons

could alone be found. C.R.C. and his companions followed Virgo Lucifera to the

seashore, where all embarked on seven ships disposed according to a certain strange

order. As the ships sailed across the lake and through a narrow channel into the open sea,

they were attended by sirens, nymphs, and sea goddesses, who in honor of the wedding

presented a great and beautiful pearl to the royal couple. When the ships came in sight of

the Tower of Olympus, Virgo Lucifera ordered the discharge of cannon to signal their

approach. Immediately a white flag appeared upon the tower and a small gilded pinnace,

containing an ancient man--the warden of the tower--with his white-clad guards came out

to meet the ships.

The Tower of Olympus stood upon an island which was exactly square and was

surrounded by a great wall. Entering the gate, the group was led to the bottom of the

central tower, which contained an excellent laboratory where the guests were fain to beat

and wash plants, precious stones, and all sorts of things, extract their juice and essence,

and put these latter into glasses. Virgo Lucifera set the "artists" to work so arduously that

they felt they were mere drudges. When the day's work was finished, each was assigned a

mattress on the stone floor. Being unable to sleep, C.R.C. wandered about contemplating

the stars. Chancing upon a flight of steps leading to the top of the wall, he climbed up and

looked out upon the sea. Remaining here for some time, about midnight he beheld seven

flames which, passing over the sea towards him, gathered themselves on the top of the

spire of the central tower. Simultaneously the winds arose, the sea became tempestuous,

and the moon was covered with clouds. With some fear C.R.C. ran down the stairs and

returned to the tower and, lying down on his mattress, was lulled to sleep by the sound of

a gently flowing fountain in the laboratory.

THE SIXTH DAY

The next morning the aged warden of the tower, after examining the work performed by

the wedding guests in the laboratory and finding it satisfactory, caused ladders, ropes, and

large wings to be brought forth, and addressed the assembled "artists" thus: "My dear

sons, one of these three things must each of you this day constantly bear about with him."

Lots were cast and to C.R.C., much to his chagrin, fell a heavy ladder. Those who

secured wings had them fastened to their backs so cunningly that it was impossible to

detect that they were artificial. The aged warden then locked the "artists" in the lower

room of the tower, but in a short time a round hole was uncovered in the ceiling and

Virgo Lucifera invited all to ascend. Those with wings flew at once through the opening,

those with ropes had many difficulties, while C.R.C. with his ladder made reasonable

speed. On the second floor the wedding guests, musicians, and Virgo Lucifera gathered

about a fountain-like contrivance containing the bodies of the six royal persons.

Virgo Lucifera then placed the if Moor's head in a kettle-like receptacle in the upper part

of the fountain and poured upon it the substances prepared on the previous day in the

laboratory. The virgins placed lamps beneath. These substances when they boiled passed

out through holes in the sides of the kettle and, falling upon the bodies in the fountain

below, dissolved them. The six royal bodies having been reduced thus to a liquid state, a

tap was opened in the lower end of the fountain and the fluid drained into an immense

golden globe, which, when filled, was of great weight. All but the wedding guests then

retired and shortly a hole in the ceiling opened as before and the guests ascended pell-

mell to the third floor. Here the globe were suspended by a strong chain. The walls of the

apartment were of glass, and mirrors were so arranged that the sun's rays were

concentrated upon the central globe, thus causing it to become very hot. Later the sun's

rays were deflected and the globe permitted to cool, after which it was cut open with a

diamond, revealing a beautiful white egg. Carrying this with her, Virgo Lucifera

departed.

The guests, having ascended through another trap door, found

Click to enlarge

THE UNIVERSE CREATED BY THE DUAL PRINCIPLE OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS.

From Fludd's Philosophia Mosaica.

The Supreme Deity is symbolized by the small globe at the top, which is divided into two hemispheres, the

dark half representing the divine darkness with which the Deity surround Himself and which serves as His

hiding place. The radiant hemisphere signifies the divine light which is in God and which, pouring forth,

manifests as the objective creative power. The large dark globe to the left and beneath the dark half of the

upper sphere signifies the potential darkness which was upon the face of the primordial deep and within

which moved the Spirit of God. The light globe to the right is the Deity who is revealed out of the darkness.

Here the shining Word has dissipated the shadows and a glorious universe has been formed. The divine

power of this radiant globe is cognizable to man as the sun. The large light and a dark section represents the created universes partaking of the light and darkness which are in the nature of the Creator. The dark half

represents the Deep, or Chaos, the Eternal Waters pouring forth out of the Deity; the light half-circle

containing the figure of Apollo represents the diurnal hemisphere of the world, which in the ancient

Mysteries was ruled over by Apollo. The dark half-circle is the nocturnal hemisphere ruled over by

Dionysius (Dionysos), whose figure is faintly visible in the gloom.

p. 164

themselves upon the fourth floor, where stood a square kettle filled with silver sand

warmed by a gentle fire. The great white egg was placed upon the warm sand to mature.

In a short time it cracked and there emerged an ugly, ill-tempered bird, which was fed

with the blood of the beheaded royal persons diluted with prepared water. At each

feeding its feathers changed color; from black they turned to white and at last they

became varicolored, the disposition of the bird improving the while. Dinner was then

served, after which Virgo Lucifera departed with the bird. The guests ascended with

ropes, ladders, and wings to the fifth floor, where a bath colored with fine white powder

had been prepared for the bird, which enjoyed bathing in it until the lamps placed beneath

the bath caused the water to become uncomfortably warm. When the heat had removed

all the bird's feathers it was taken out, but the fire continued until nothing remained in the

bath save a sediment in the form of a blue stone. This was later pounded up and made

into a pigment; with this, all of the bird except the head was painted.

The guests thereupon ascended to the sixth floor, where stood a small altar resembling

that in the King's throne room. The bird drank from the little fountain and was fed with

the blood of the white serpent which crawled through the openings in the skull. The

sphere by the altar revolved continuously. The watch struck one, two, and then three, at

which time the bird, laying its neck upon the book, suffered itself to be decapitated. Its

body was burned to ashes, which were placed in a box of cypress wood. Virgo Lucifera

told C.R.C. and three of his comrades that they were lazy and sluggish "labourators" and

would therefore be excluded from the seventh room. Musicians were sent for, who with

cornets were to "blow" the four in ridicule from the chamber. C.R.C. and his three

companions were disheartened until the musicians told them to be of good cheer and led

them up a winding stair to the eighth floor of the tower directly beneath the roof. Here the

old warden, standing upon a little round furnace, welcomed them and congratulated them

upon being chosen by Virgo Lucifera, for this greater work. Virgo Lucifera then entered,

and after laughing at the perplexity of her guests, emptied the ashes of the bird into

another vessel, filling the cypress box with useless matter. She thereupon returned to the

seventh floor, presumably to mislead those assembled there by setting them to work upon

the false ashes in the box.

C.R.C. and his three friends were set to work moistening the bird's ashes with specially

prepared water until the mixture became of doughlike consistency, after which it was

heated and molded into two miniature forms. Later these were opened, disclosing two

bright and almost transparent human images about four inches high (homunculi), one

male and the other female. These tiny forms were laid upon satin cushions and fed drop

by drop with the blood of the bird until they grew to normal size and of great beauty.

Though the bodies had the consistency of flesh, they showed no signs of life, for the soul

was not in them. The bodies were next surrounded with torches and their faces covered

with silk. Virgo Lucifera then appeared, bearing two curious white garments. The virgins

also entered, among them six bearing great trumpets. A trumpet was placed upon the

mouth of one of the two figures and C.R.C. saw a tiny hole open in the dome of the tower

and a ray of light descend through the tube of the trumpet and enter the body. This

process was repeated three times on each body. The two newly ensouled forms were then

removed upon a traveling couch. In about half an hour the young King and Queen

awakened and the Virgo Lucifera presented them with the white garments. These they

donned and the King in his own person most graciously returned thanks to C.R.C. and his

companions, after which the royal persons departed upon a ship. C.R.C. and his three

privileged friends then rejoined the other "artists," making no mention of that which they

had seen. Later the entire party were assigned handsome chambers, where they rested till

morning.

THE SEVENTH DAY

In the morning Virgo Lucifera announced that each of the wedding guests had become a

"Knight of the Golden Stone. " The aged warden then presented each man with a gold

medal, bearing on one side the inscription "At. Nat. Mi. " and on the other, "Tem. Na. F."

The entire company returned in twelve ships to the King's palace. The flags on the

vessels bore the signs of the zodiac, and C.R.C. sat under that of Libra. As they entered

the lake, many ships met them and the King and Queen, together with their lords, ladies,

and virgins, rode forth on a golden barge to greet the returning guests. Atlas then made a

short oration in the King's behalf, also asking for the royal presents. In reply the aged

warden delivered to Cupid, who hovered about the royal pair, a small, curious-shaped

casket. C.R.C. and the old lord, each bearing a snow-white ensign with a red cross on it,

rode in the carriage with the King. At the first gate stood the porter with blue clothes,

who, upon seeing C.R.C., begged him to intercede with the King to release him from that

post of servitude. The King replied that the porter was a famous astrologer who was

forced to keep the gate as a punishment for the crime of having gazed upon Lady Venus

reposing upon her couch. The King further declared that the porter could be released only

when another was found who had committed the same crime. Upon hearing this, C.R.C.'s

heart sank, for he realized himself to be the culprit, but he remained silent at that time.

The newly created Knights of the Golden Stone were obliged to subscribe to five articles

drawn up by His Royal Highness: (1) That they would ascribe their Order only to God

and His handmaid, Nature. (2) That they should abominate all uncleanness and vice. (3)

That they should always be ready to assist the worthy and needy. (4) That they should not

use their knowledge and power for the attainment of worldly dignity. (5) That they

should not desire to live longer than God had decreed. They were then duly installed as

Knights, which ceremony was ratified in a little chapel where C. R. C. hung up his

Golden Fleece and his hat for an eternal memorial, and here he inscribed the following:

Summa Scientia nihil Scire, Fr. Christianus Rosencreutz. Eques aurei Lapidis. Anno

1459.

After the ceremony, C.R.C. admitted that he was the one who had beheld Venus and

consequently must become the porter of the gate. The King embraced him fondly and he

was assigned to a great room containing three beds--one for himself, one for the aged lord

of the tower, and the third for old Atlas.

The Chemical Marriage here comes to an abrupt end, leaving the impression that C.R.C.

was to assume his duties as porter on the following morning. The book ends in the middle

of a sentence, with a note in italics presumably by the editor.

Under the symbolism of an alchemical marriage, mediæval philosophers concealed the

secret system of spiritual culture whereby they hoped to coordinate the disjecta membra

of both the human and social organisms. Society, they maintained, was a threefold

structure and had its analogy in the triune constitution of man, for as man consists of

spirit, mind, and body, so society is made up of the church, the state, and the populace.

The bigotry of the church, the tyranny of the state, and the fury of the mob are the three

murderous agencies of society which seek to destroy Truth as recounted in the Masonic

legend of Hiram Abiff. The first six days of The Chemical Marriage set forth the

processes of philosophical "creation" through which every organism must pass. The three

kings are the threefold spirit of man and their consorts the corresponding vehicles of their

expression in the lower world. The executioner is the mind, the higher part of which--

symbolized by the head--is necessary to the achievement of the philosophical labor. Thus

the parts of man--by the alchemists symbolized as planets and elements--when blended

together according to a certain Divine formula result in the creation of two philosophic

"babes" which, fed upon the blood of the alchemical bird, become rulers of the world.

From an ethical standpoint, the young King and Queen resurrected at the summit of the

tower and ensouled by Divine Life represent the forces of Intelligence and Love which

must ultimately guide society. Intelligence and Love are the two great ethical luminaries

of the world and correspond to enlightened spirit and regenerated body. The bridegroom

is reality and the bride the regenerated being who attains perfection by becoming one

with reality through a cosmic marriage wherein the mortal part attains immortality by

being united with its own immortal Source. In the Hermetic Marriage divine and human

consciousness are united in holy wedlock and he in whom this sacred ceremony takes

place is designated as "Knight of the Golden Stone"; he thereby becomes a divine

philosophic diamond composed of the quintessence of his own sevenfold constitution.

Such is the true interpretation of the mystical process of becoming "a bride of the Lamb."

The Lamb of God is signified by the Golden Fleece that Jason was forced to win before

he could assume his kingship. The Flying Lion is illumined will, an absolute prerequisite

to the achievement of the Great Work. The episode of weighing the souls of men has its

parallel in the ceremony described in the Egyptian Book of the Dead. The walled city

entered by C.R.C. represents the sanctuary of wisdom wherein dwell the real rulers of the

world--the initiated philosophers.

Like the ancient Mysteries after which it was patterned, the Order of the Rose Cross

possessed a secret ritual which was lived by the candidate for a prescribed number of

years before he was eligible to the inner degrees of the society. The various floors of the

Tower of Olympus represent the orbits of the planets. The ascent of the philosophers

from one floor to another also parallels certain rituals of the Eleusinian Mysteries and the

rites of Mithras wherein the candidate ascended the seven rungs of a ladder or climbed

the seven steps of a pyramid in order to signify release from the influences of the

Planetary Governors. Man becomes master of the seven spheres only when he transmutes

the impulses received from them. He who masters the seven worlds and is reunited with

the Divine Source of his own nature consummates the Hermetic Marriage.

p. 165

Bacon, Shakspere, and the Rosicrucians

THE present consideration of the Bacon--Shakspere--Rosicrucian controversy is

undertaken not for the vain purpose of digging up dead men's bones but rather in the hope

that a critical analysis will aid in the rediscovery of that knowledge lost to the world since

the oracles were silenced. It was W. F. C. Wigston who called the Bard of Avon

"phantom Captain Shakespeare, the Rosicrucian mask." This constitutes one of the most

significant statements relating to the Bacon-Shakspere controversy.

It is quite evident that William Shakspere could not, unaided, have produced the

immortal writings bearing his name. He did not possess the necessary literary culture, for

the town of Stratford where he was reared contained no school capable of imparting the

higher forms of learning reflected in the writings ascribed to him. His parents were

illiterate, and in his early life he evinced a total disregard for study. There are in existence

but six known examples of Shakspere's handwriting. All are signatures, and three of them

are in his will. The scrawling, uncertain method of their execution stamps Shakspere as

unfamiliar with the use of a pen, and it is obvious either that he copied a signature

prepared for him or that his hand was guided while he wrote. No autograph manuscripts

of the "Shakespearian" plays or sonnets have been discovered, nor is there even a

tradition concerning them other than the fantastic and impossible statement appearing in

the foreword of the Great Folio.

A well-stocked library would be an essential part of the equipment of an author whose

literary productions demonstrate him to be familiar with the literature of all ages, yet

there is no record that Shakspere ever possessed a library, nor does he make any mention

of books in his will. Commenting on the known illiteracy of Shakspere's daughter Judith,

who at twenty-seven could only make her mark, Ignatius Donnelly declares it to be

unbelievable that William Shakspere if he wrote the plays bearing his name would have

permitted his own daughter to reach womanhood and marry without being able to read

one line of the writings that made her father wealthy and locally famous.

The query also has been raised, "Where did William Shakspere secure his knowledge of

modern French, Italian, Spanish, and Danish, to say nothing of classical Latin and

Greek?" For, in spite of the rare discrimination with which Latin is used by the author of

the Shakespearian plays, Ben Jonson, who knew Shakspere intimately, declared that the

Stratford actor understood "small Latin and less Greek"! Is it not also more than strange

that no record exists of William Shakspere's having ever played a leading rôle in the

famous dramas he is supposed to have written or in others produced by the company of

which he was a member? True, he may have owned a small interest in the Globe Theatre

or Blackfriars, but apparently the height of his thespian achievements was the Ghost in

Hamlet!

In spite of his admitted avarice, Shakspere seemingly made no effort during his lifetime

to control or secure remuneration from the plays bearing his name, many of which were

first published anonymously. As far as can be ascertained, none of his heirs were

involved in any manner whatsoever in the printing of the First Folio after his death, nor

did they benefit financially therefrom. Had he been their author, Shakspere's manuscripts

and unpublished plays would certainly have constituted his most valued possessions, yet

his will--while making special disposition of his second-best bed and his "broad silver

gilt bowl" neither mentions nor intimates that he possessed any literary productions

whatsoever.

While the Folios and Quartos usually are signed "William Shakespeare," all the known

autographs of the Stratford actor read "William Shakspere." Does this change in spelling

contain any significance heretofore generally overlooked? Furthermore, if the publishers

of the First Shakespearian Folio revered their fellow actor as much as their claims in that

volume would indicate, why did they, as if in ironical allusion to a hoax which they were

perpetrating, place an evident caricature of him on the title page?

Certain absurdities also in Shakspere's private life are irreconcilable. While supposedly at

the zenith of his literary career, he was actually engaged in buying malt, presumably for a

brewing business! Also picture the immortal Shakspere--the reputed author of The

Merchant of Venice--as a moneylender! Yet among those against whom Shakspere

brought action to collect petty sums was a fellow townsman--one Philip Rogers--whom

he sued for an unpaid loan of two shillings, or about forty-eight cents! In short, there is

nothing known in the life of Shakspere that would justify the literary excellence imputed

to him.

The philosophic ideals promulgated throughout the Shakespearian plays distinctly

demonstrate their author to have been thoroughly familiar with certain doctrines and

tenets peculiar to Rosicrucianism; in fact the profundity of the Shakespearian productions

stamps their creator as one of the illuminati of the ages. Most of those seeking a solution

for the Bacon-Shakspere controversy have been intellectualists. Notwithstanding their

scholarly attainments, they have overlooked the important part played by

transcendentalism in the philosophic achievements of the ages. The mysteries of

superphysics are inexplicable to the materialist, whose training does not equip him to

estimate the extent of their ramifications and complexities. Yet who but a Platonist, a

Qabbalist, or a Pythagorean could have written The Tempest, Macbeth, Hamlet, or The

Tragedy of Cymbeline? Who but one deeply versed in Paracelsian lore could have

conceived, A Midsummer Night's Dream?

Father of modern science, remodeler

Click to enlarge

HEADPIECE SHOWING LIGHT AND SHADED A's.

From Shakespeare's King Richard The Second, Quarto of 1597.

The ornamental headpiece shown above has long been considered a Baconian or Rosicrucian signature. The

light and the dark A's appear in several volumes published by emissaries of the Rosicrucians. If the above

figure be compared with that from the Alciati Emblemata on the following pages, the cryptic use of the two

A's will be further demonstrated.

Click to enlarge

THE TITLE PAGE OF BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY.

From Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy.

Baconian experts declare Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy to be in reality Francis Bacon's scrapbook in

which he gathered strange and rare bits of knowledge during the many years of eventful life. This title page

has long been supposed to contain a cryptic message. The key to this cipher is the pointing figure of the

maniac in the lower right-hand corner of the design. According to Mrs. Elizabeth Wells Gallup, the

celestial globe at which the maniac is pointing is a cryptic symbol of Sir Francis Bacon. The planetary signs

which appear in the clouds opposite the marginal figures 4, 5;, 6, and 7 signify the planetary configurations,

which produce the forms of mania depicted. The seated man, with his head resting upon his hand. is declared by Baconian enthusiasts to represent Sir Francis Bacon.

p. 166

of modern law, editor of the modem Bible, patron of modem democracy, and one of the

founders of modern Freemasonry, Sir Francis Bacon was a man of many aims and

purposes. He was a Rosicrucian, some have intimated the Rosicrucian. If not actually the

Illustrious Father C.R.C. referred to in the Rosicrucian manifestoes, he was certainly a

high initiate of the Rosicrucian Order, and it is his activities in connection with this secret

body that are of prime importance to students of symbolism, philosophy, and literature.

Scores of volumes have been written to establish Sir Francis Bacon as the real author of

the plays and sonnets popularly ascribed to William Shakspere. An impartial

consideration of these documents cannot but convince the open-minded of the

verisimilitude of the Baconian theory. In fact those enthusiasts who for years have

struggled to identify Sir Francis Bacon as the true "Bard of Avon" might long since have

won their case had they emphasized its most important angle, namely, that Sir Francis

Bacon, the Rosicrucian initiate, wrote into the Shakespearian plays the secret teachings of

the Fraternity of R.C. and the true rituals of the Freemasonic Order, of which order it may

yet be discovered that he was the actual founder. A sentimental world, however, dislikes

to give up a traditional hero, either to solve a controversy or to right a wrong.

Nevertheless, if it can be proved that by raveling out the riddle there can be discovered

information of practical value to mankind, then the best minds of the world will

cooperate in the enterprise. The Bacon-Shakspere controversy, as its most able advocates

realize, involves the most profound aspects of science, religion, and ethics; he who solves

its mystery may yet find therein the key to the supposedly lost wisdom of antiquity.

It was in recognition of Bacon's intellectual accomplishments that King James turned

over to him the translators' manuscripts of what is now known as the King James Bible

for the presumable purpose of checking, editing, and revising them. The documents

remained in his hands for nearly a year, but no information is to be had concerning what

occurred in that time. Regarding this work, William T. Smedley writes: " It will

eventually be proved that the whole scheme of the Authorised Version of the Bible was

Francis Bacon's." (See The Mystery of Francis Bacon.) The first edition of the King

James Bible contains a cryptic Baconian headpiece. Did Bacon cryptographically conceal

in the Authorized Bible that which he dared not literally reveal in the text--the secret

Rosicrucian key to mystic and Masonic Christianity?

Sir Francis Bacon unquestionably possessed the range of general and philosophical

knowledge necessary to write the Shakespearian plays and sonnets, for it is usually

conceded that he was a composer, lawyer, and linguist. His chaplain, Doctor William

Rawley, and Ben Jonson both attest his philosophic and poetic accomplishments. The

former pays Bacon this remarkable tribute: "I have been enduced to think that if there

were a beame of knowledge derived from God upon any man in these modern times, it

was upon him. For though he was a great reader of books; yet he had not his knowledge

from books but from some grounds and notions from within himself. " (See Introduction

to the Resuscitado.)

Sir Francis Bacon, being not only an able barrister but also a polished courtier, also

possessed that intimate knowledge of parliamentary law and the etiquette of the royal

court revealed in the Shakespearian plays which could scarcely have been acquired by a

man in the humble station of the Stratford actor. Lord Verulam furthermore visited many

of the foreign countries forming the background for the plays and was therefore in a

position to create the authentic local atmosphere contained therein, but there is no record

of William Shakspere's ever having traveled outside of England.

The magnificent library amassed by Sir Francis Bacon contained the very volumes

necessary to supply the quotations and anecdotes incorporated into the Shakespearian

plays. Many of the plays, in fact, were taken from plots in earlier writings of which there

was no English translation at that time. Because of his scholastic acquirements, Lord

Verulam could have read the original books; it is most unlikely that William Shakspere

could have done so.

Abundant cryptographic proof exists that Bacon was concerned in the production of the

Shakespearian plays. Sir Francis Bacon's cipher number was 33. In the First Part of King

Henry the Fourth, the word "Francis" appears 33 times upon one page. To attain this end,

obviously awkward sentences were required, as: "Anon Francis? No Francis, but

tomorrow Francis: or Francis, on Thursday: or indeed Francis when thou wilt. But

Francis."

Throughout the Shakespearian Folios and Quartos occur scores of acrostic signatures.

The simplest form of the acrostic is that whereby a name--in these instances Bacon's--was

hidden in the first few letters of lines. In The Tempest, Act I, Scene 2, appears a striking

example of the Baconian acrostic:

"Begun to tell me what I am, but stopt

And left me to a bootelesse Inquisition,

Concluding, stay: not yet.

The first letters of the first and second lines together with the first three letters of the third

line form the word BACon. Similar acrostics appear frequently in Bacon's acknowledged

writings.

The tenor of the Shakespearian dramas politically is in harmony with the recognized

viewpoints of Sir Francis Bacon, whose enemies are frequently caricatured in the plays.

Likewise their religious, philosophic, and educational undercurrents all reflect his

personal opinions. Not only do these marked similarities of style and terminology exist in

Bacon's writings and the Shakespearian plays, but there are also certain historical and

philosophical inaccuracies common to both, such as identical misquotations from

Aristotle.

"Evidently realizing that futurity would unveil his full genius, Lord Verulam in his will

bequeathed his soul to God above by the oblations of his Savior, his body to be buried

obscurely, his name and memory to men's charitable speeches, to foreign nations, to

succeeding ages, and to his own countrymen after some time had elapsed. That portion

appearing in italics Bacon deleted from his will, apparently fearing that he had said too

much.

That Sir Francis Bacon's subterfuge was known to a limited few during his lifetime is

quite evident. Accordingly, stray hints regarding the true author of the Shakespearian

plays may be found in many seventeenth century volumes. On page 33 (Bacon's cipher

number) of the 1609 edition of Robert Cawdry's Treasurie or Storehouse

Click to enlarge

A BACONIAN SIGNATURE.

From Alciati Emblemata.

The curious volume from which this figure is taken was published in Paris in r618. The attention of the

Baconian student is immediately attracted by the form of the hog in the foreground. Bacon often used this

animal as a play upon his own name, especially because the name Bacon was derived from he word beech

and the nut of this tree was used to fatten hogs. The two pillars in the background have considerable

Masonic interest. The two A's nearly in the center of the picture--one light and one shaded--are alone

almost conclusive proof of Baconian influence. The most convincing evidence, however, is the fact that 17

is the numerical equivalent of the letters of the Latin farm of Bacon's name (F. Baco) and there are 17

letters in the three words appearing in the illustration.

Click to enlarge

FRANCIS BACON, BARON VERULAM, VISCOUNT ST. ALBANS.

From Bacon's Advancement of Learning.

Lord Bacon was born in 1561 and history records his death in 1626. There are records in existence,

however, which would indicate the probability that his funeral was a mock funeral and that, leaving

England, he lived for many years under another name in Germany, there faithfully serving the secret

society to the promulgation of whose doctrines he had consecrate his life. Little doubt seems to exist in the

minds of impartial investigators that Lord Bacon was the legitimate son of Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Leicester.

p. 167

of Similes appears the following significant allusion: "Like as men would laugh at a poore

man, if having precious garments lent him to act and play the part of some honourable

personage upon a stage, when the play were at an ende he should keepe them as his

owne, and bragge up and downe in them."

Repeated references to the word hog and the presence of cryptographic statements on

page 33 of various contemporary writings demonstrate that the keys to Bacon's ciphers

were his own name, words playing upon it, or its numerical equivalent. Notable examples

are the famous statement of Mistress Quickly in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "Hang-hog

is latten for Bacon, I warrant you"; the title pages of The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia

and Edmund Spenser's Faerie Queene; and the emblems appearing in the works of

Alciatus and Wither. Furthermore, the word honorificabilitudinitatibus appearing in the

fifth act of Love's Labour's Lost is a Rosicrucian signature, as its numerical equivalent

(287) indicates.

Again, on the title page of the first edition of Sir Francis Bacon's New Atlantis, Father

Time is depicted bringing a female figure out of the darkness of a cave. Around the

device is a Latin inscription: "In time the secret truth shall be revealed." The catchwords

and printer's devices appearing in volumes published especially during the first half of the

seventeenth century were designed, arranged, and in some cases mutilated according to a

definite plan.

It is evident also that the mispaginations in the Shakespearian Folios and other volumes

are keys to Baconian ciphers, for re-editions--often from new type and by different

printers--contain the same mistakes. For example, the First and Second Folios of

Shakespeare are printed from entirely different type and by different printers nine years

apart, but in both editions page 153 of the Comedies is numbered 151, and pages 249 and

250 are numbered 250 and 251 respectively. Also in the 1640 edition of Bacon's The

Advancement and Proficience of Learning, pages 353 and 354 are numbered 351 and 352

respectively, and in the 1641 edition of Du Bartas' Divine Weeks pages 346 to 350

inclusive are entirely missing, while page 450 is numbered 442. The frequency with

which pages ending in numbers 50, 51, 52,53, and 54 are involved will he noted.

The requirements of Lord Verulam's biliteral cipher are fully met in scores of volumes

printed between 1590 and 1650 and in some printed at other times. An examination of the

verses by L. Digges, dedicated to the memory of the deceased "Authour Maister W.

Shakespeare," reveals the use of two fonts of type for both capital and small letters, the

differences being most marked in the capital T's, N's, and A's, (Seethe First Folio.) The

cipher has been deleted from subsequent editions.

The presence of hidden material in the text is often indicated by needless involvement of

words. On the sixteenth unnumbered page of the 1641 edition of Du Bartas' Divine Weeks

is a boar surmounting a pyramidal text. The text is meaningless jargon, evidently inserted

for cryptographic reasons and marked with Bacon's signature--the hog. The year

following publication of the First Folio of Shakespeare's plays in 1623, there was printed

in "Lunæburg" a remarkable volume on cryptography, avowedly by Gustavus Selenus. It

is considered extremely probable that this volume constitutes the cryptographic key to the

Great Shakespearian Folio.

Peculiar symbolical head- and tail-pieces also mark the presence of cryptograms. While

such ornaments are found in many early printed books, certain emblems are peculiar to

volumes containing Baconian Rosicrucian ciphers. The light and dark shaded A is an

interesting example. Bearing in mind the frequent recurrence in Baconian symbolism of

the light and dark shaded A and the hog, the following statement by Bacon in his

Interpretation of Nature is highly significant: "If the sow with her snout should happen to

imprint the letter A upon the ground, wouldst thou therefore imagine that she could write

out a whole tragedy as one letter?"

The Rosicrucians and other secret societies of the seventeenth century used watermarks

as mediums for the conveyance of cryptographic references, and books presumably

containing Baconian ciphers are usually printed upon paper bearing Rosicrucian or

Masonic watermarks; often there are several symbols in one book, such as the Rose

Cross, urns, bunches of grapes, and others.

At hand is a document which may prove a remarkable key to a cipher beginning in The

Tragedy of Cymbeline. So far as known it has never been published and is applicable only

to the 1623 Folio of the Shakespearian plays. The cipher is a line-and-word count

involving punctuation, especially the long and short exclamation points and the straight

and slanting interrogation points. This code was discovered by Henry William Bearse in

1900, and after it has been thoroughly checked its exact nature will be made public.

No reasonable doubt remains that the Masonic Order is the direct outgrowth of the secret

societies of the Middle Ages, nor can it be denied that Freemasonry is permeated by the

symbolism and mysticism of the ancient and mediæval worlds. Sir Francis Bacon knew

the true secret of Masonic origin and there is reason to suspect that he concealed this

knowledge in cipher and cryptogram. Bacon is not to be regarded solely as a man but

rather as the focal point between an invisible institution and a world which was never

able to distinguish between the messenger and the message which he promulgated. This

secret society, having rediscovered the lost wisdom of the ages and fearing that the

knowledge might be lost again, perpetuated it in two ways: (1) by an organization

(Freemasonry)

Click to enlarge

A CRYPTIC HEADPIECE.

From Ralegh's History of the World.

Many documents influenced by Baconian philosophy--or intended m conceal Baconian or Rosicrucian

cryptograms--use certain conventional designs at the beginning and end of chapters, which reveal to the

initiated the presence of concealed information. The above ornamental has long been accepted as of the

presence of Baconian influence and is to be found only in a certain number of rare volumes, all of which

contain Baconian cryptograms. These cipher messages were placed in the books either by Bacon himself or

by contemporaneous and subsequent authors belonging to the same secret society which Bacon served with

his remarkable knowledge of ciphers and enigmas. Variants of this headpiece adorn the Great

Shakespearian Folio (1623); Bacon's Novum Organum (1620); the St. James Bible (1611); Spencer's Faerie

Queene (1611); and Sir Walter Ralegh's History of the World (1614) (See American Baconiana.)

Click to enlarge

THE DROESHOUT PORTRAIT OF SHAKSPERE.

From Shakespeare's Great Folio of 1623.

There are no authentic portraits of Shakspere in existence. The dissimilarities the Droeshout, Chandos,

Janssen, Hunt, Ashbourne, Soest, and Dunford portraits prove conclusively that the artists were unaware of

Shakspere's actual features. An examination of the Droeshout portrait discloses several peculiarities.

Baconian enthusiasts are convinced that the face is only a caricature, possibly the death mask of Francis

Bacon. A comparison of the Droeshout Shakspere with portraits and engravings of Francis Bacon

demonstrates the identity of the structure of the two faces, the difference in expression being caused by

lines of shading. Not also the peculiar line running from the ear down to the chin. Does this line subtly

signify that the face itself a mask, ending at the ear? Notice also that the head is not connected with the

body, but is resting on the collar. Most strange of all is the coat: one-half is on backwards. In drawing the

jacket, the artist has made the left arm correctly, but the right arm has the back of the shoulder to the front.

Frank Woodward has noted that there are 157 letters on the title page. This is a Rosicrucian signature of

first importance. The date, 1623, Plus the two letters "ON" from the word "LONDON," gives the cryptic signature of Francis Bacon, by a simple numerical cipher. By merely exchanging the 26 letters of the

alphabet for numbers, 1 became A, 6 becomes F, 2 becomes B, and 3 becomes C, giving AFBC. To this is

added the ON from LONDON, resulting in AFBCON, which rearranged forms F. BACON.

p. 168

to the initiates of which it revealed its wisdom in the form of symbols; (2) by embodying

its arcana in the literature of the day by means of cunningly contrived ciphers and

enigmas.

Evidence points to the existence of a group of wise and illustrious Fratres who assumed

the responsibility of publishing and preserving for future generations the choicest of the

secret books of the ancients, together with certain other documents which they

themselves had prepared. That future members of their fraternity might not only identify

these volumes bur also immediately note the significant passages, words, chapters, or

sections therein, they created a symbolic alphabet of hieroglyphic designs. By means of a

certain key and order, the discerning few were thus enabled to find that wisdom by which

a man is "raised" to an illumined life.

The tremendous import of the Baconian mystery is daily becoming more apparent. Sir

Francis Bacon was a link in that great chain of minds which has perpetuated the secret

doctrine of antiquity from its beginning. This secret doctrine is concealed in his cryptic

writings. The search for this divine wisdom is the only legitimate motive for the effort to

decode his cryptograms.

Masonic research might discover much of value if it would turn its attention to certain

volumes published during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries which bear the stamp

and signet of that secret society whose members first established modern Freemasonry

but themselves remained as an intangible group controlling and directing the activities of

the outer body. The unknown history and lost rituals of Freemasonry may be

rediscovered in the symbolism and cryptograms of the Middle Ages. Freemasonry is the

bright and glorious son of a mysterious and hidden father. It cannot trace its parentage

because that origin is obscured by the veil of the superphysical and the mystical. The

Great Folio of 1623 is a veritable treasure house of Masonic lore and symbolism, and the

time is at hand when that Great Work should be accorded the consideration which is its

due.

Though Christianity shattered the material organization of the pagan Mysteries, it could

not destroy the knowledge of supernatural power which the pagans possessed. Therefore

it is known that the Mysteries of Greece and Egypt were secretly perpetuated through the

early centuries of the church, and later, by being clothed in the symbolism of Christianity,

were accepted as elements of that faith. Sir Francis Bacon was one of those who had been

entrusted with the perpetuation and dissemination of s the arcana of the superphysical

originally in the possession of the pagan hierophants, and to attain that end either

formulated the Fraternity of R.C. or was admitted into an organization already existing

under that name and became one of its principal representatives.

For some reason not apparent to the uninitiated there has been a continued and consistent

effort to prevent the unraveling of the Baconian skein. Whatever the power may be which

continually blocks the efforts of investigators, it is as unremitting now as it was

immediately following Bacon's death, and those attempting to solve the enigma still feel

the weight of its resentment.

A misunderstanding world has ever persecuted those who understood the secret workings

of Nature, seeking in every conceivable manner to exterminate the custodians of this

divine wisdom. Sir Francis Bacon's political prestige was finally undermined and Sir

Walter Ralegh met a shameful fate because their transcendental knowledge was

considered dangerous.

The forging of Shakspere's handwriting; the foisting of fraudulent portraits and death

masks upon a gullible public; the fabrication of spurious biographies; the mutilation of

books and documents; the destruction or rendering illegible of tablets and inscriptions

containing cryptographic messages, have all compounded the difficulties attendant upon

the solution of the Bacon-Shakspere-Rosicrucian riddle. The Ireland forgeries deceived

experts for years.

According to material available, the supreme council of the Fraternity of R.C. was

composed of a certain number of individuals who had died what is known as the

"philosophic death." When the time came for an initiate to enter upon his labors for the

Order, he conveniently "died" under somewhat mysterious circumstances. In reality he

changed his name and place of residence, and a box of rocks or a body secured for the

purpose was buried in his stead. It is believed that this happened in the case of Sir Francis

Bacon who, like all servants of the Mysteries, renounced all personal credit and permitted

others to be considered as the authors of the documents which he wrote or inspired.

The cryptic writings of Francis Bacon constitute one of the most powerful tangible

elements in the mysteries of transcendentalism and symbolic philosophy. Apparently

many years must yet pass before an uncomprehending world will appreciate the

transcending genius of that mysterious man who wrote the Novum Organum, who sailed

his little ship far out into the unexplored sea of learning through the Pillars of Hercules,

and whose ideals for a new civilization are magnificently expressed in the Utopian dream

of The New Atlantis. Was Sir Francis Bacon a second Prometheus? Did his great love for

the people of the world and his pity for their ignorance cause him to bring the divine fire

from heaven concealed within the contents of a printed page?

In all probability, the keys to the Baconian riddle will be found in classical mythology.

He who understands the secret of the Seven-Rayed God will comprehend the method

employed by Bacon to accomplish his monumental labor. Aliases were assumed by him

in accordance with the attributes and order of the members of the planetary system. One

of the least known--but most important--keys to the Baconian enigma is the Third, or

1637, Edition, published in Paris, of Les Images ou Tableaux de platte peinture des deux

Philostrates sophistes grecs et les statues de Callistrate, by Blaise de Vigenere. The title

page of this volume--which, as the name of the author when properly deciphered

indicates, was written by or under the direction of Bacon or his secret society--is one

mass of important Masonic or Rosicrucian symbols. On page 486 appears a plate entitled

"Hercules Furieux," showing a gigantic figure shaking a spear, the ground before him

strewn with curious emblems. In his curious work, Das Bild des Speershüttlers die

Lösung des Shakespeare-Rätsels, Alfred Freund attempts to explain the Baconian

symbolism in the Philostrates. Bacon he reveals as the philosophical Hercules, whom

time will establish as the true "Spear-Shaker" (Shakespeare).

Click to enlarge

TITLE PAGE OF THE FAMOUS FIRST EDITION OF SIR WALTER RALEGH'S HISTORY OF THE WORLD.

From Ralegh's History of the World.

What was the mysterious knowledge which Sir Walter Ralegh possessed and which was declared to be

detrimental to the British government? Why was he executed when the charges against him could not be

proved? Was he a member of me of those feared and hated secret societies which nearly overthrew political

and religious Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Was Sir Walter Ralegh an important

factor in the Bacon-Shakspere-Rosicrucian-Masonic enigma? By those seeking the keys to this great

controversy, he seems to have been almost entirely overlooked. His contemporaries are unanimous in their

praise of his remarkable intellect, and he has long been considered me of Britain's most brilliant sons.

Sir Walter Ralegh--soldier, courtier, statesman, writer, poet, philosopher, and explorer--was a scintillating

figure at the court of Queen Elizabeth. Upon this same man, King James--after the death of Elizabeth--

heaped every indignity within his power. The cowardly James, who shuddered at the mention of weapons

and cried like a child when he was crossed, was insanely jealous of the brilliant courtier. Ralegh's enemies,

Playing upon the king's weakness, did not cease their relentless persecution until Ralegh had been hanged

and his decapitated, quartered, and disemboweled body lay at their feet.

The title page reproduced above was used by Ralegh's political foes as a powerful weapon against him.

They convinced James I that the face of the central figure upholding the globe was a caricature of his own,

and the enraged king ordered every copy of the engraving destroyed. But a few copies escaped the royal

wrath; consequently the plate is extremely rare. The engraving is a mass Rosicrucian and Masonic symbols,

and the figures on the columns in all probability conceal a cryptogram. More significant still is the fact that the page facing this plate is a headpiece identical with that used in the 1623 Folio of "Shakespeare" and also in Bacon's Novum Organum.

p. 169

The Cryptogram as a factor in Symbolic

Philosophy

NO treatise which deals with symbolism would be complete without a section devoted to

the consideration of cryptograms. The use of ciphers has long been recognized as

indispensable in military and diplomatic circles, but the modern world has overlooked the

important rôle played by cryptography in literature and philosophy. If the art of

deciphering cryptograms could be made popular, it would result in the discovery of much

hitherto unsuspected wisdom possessed by both ancient and mediæval philosophers. It

would prove that many apparently verbose and rambling authors were wordy for the sake

of concealing words. Ciphers are hidden in the most subtle manner: they may be

concealed in the watermark of the paper upon which a book is printed; they may be

bound into the covers of ancient books; they may be hidden under imperfect pagination;

they may be extracted from the first letters of words or the first words of sentences; they

may be artfully concealed in mathematical equations or in apparently unintelligible

characters; they may be extracted from the jargon of clowns or revealed by heat as having

been written in sympathetic ink; they may be word ciphers, letter ciphers, or apparently

ambiguous statements whose meaning could be understood only by repeated careful

readings; they may he discovered in the elaborately illuminated initial letters of early

books or they may be revealed by a process of counting words or letters. If those

interested in Freemasonic research would give serious consideration to this subject, they

might find in books and manuscripts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the

information necessary to bridge the gap in Masonic history that now exists between the

Mysteries of the ancient world and the Craft Masonry of the last three centuries.

The arcana of the ancient Mysteries were never revealed to the profane except through

the media of symbols. Symbolism fulfilled the dual office of concealing the sacred truths

from the uninitiated and revealing them to those qualified to understand the symbols.

Forms are the symbols of formless divine principles; symbolism is the language of

Nature. With reverence the wise pierce the veil and with clearer vision contemplate the

reality; but the ignorant, unable to distinguish between the false and the true, behold a

universe of symbols. It may well be said of Nature--the Great Mother--that she is ever

tracing strange characters upon the surface of things, but only to her eldest and wisest

sons as a reward for their faith and devotion does she reveal the cryptic alphabet which is

the key to the import of these tracings.

The temples of the ancient Mysteries evolved their own sacred languages, known only to

their initiates and never spoken save in the sanctuary. The illumined priests considered it

sacrilege to discuss the sacred truths of the higher worlds or the divine verities of eternal

Nature in the same tongue as that used by the vulgar for wrangling and dissension. A

sacred science must needs be couched in a sacred language. Secret alphabets also were

invented, and whenever the secrets of the wise were committed to writing, characters

meaningless to the uninformed were employed. Such forms of writing were called sacred

or Hermetic alphabets. Some--such as the famous angelic writing--are still retained in the

higher degrees of Masonry.

Secret alphabets were not entirely satisfactory, however, for although they rendered

unintelligible the true nature of the writings, their very presence disclosed the fact of

concealed information--which the priests also sought to conceal. Through patience or

persecution, the keys to these alphabets were eventually acquired and the contents of the

documents revealed to the unworthy. This necessitated employment of more subtle

methods for concealing the divine truths. The result was the appearance of cryptic

systems of writing designed to conceal the presence of both the message and the

cryptogram. Having thus devised a method of transmitting their secrets to posterity, the

illuminati encouraged the circulation of certain documents specially prepared through

incorporating into them ciphers containing the deepest secrets of mysticism and

philosophy. Thus mediæval philosophers disseminated their theories throughout Europe

without evoking suspicion, since volumes containing these cryptograms could be

subjected to the closest scrutiny without revealing the presence of the hidden message.

During the Middle Ages scores of writers--members of secret political or religious

organizations--published books containing ciphers. Secret writing became a fad; every

European court had its own diplomatic cipher, and the intelligentsia vied with one

another in devising curious and complicated cryptograms. The literature of the fifteenth,

sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries is permeated with ciphers, few of which have ever

been decoded. Many of the magnificent scientific and philosophic intellects of this period

dared not publish their findings, because of the religious intolerance of their day. In order

to preserve the fruitage of their intellectual labors for mankind, these pioneers of progress

concealed their discoveries in ciphers, trusting that future generations, more kindly than

their own, would discover and appreciate their learning.

Many churchmen, it is interesting to note, used cryptograms, fearing excommunication or

a worse fate should their scientific researches be suspected. Only recently an intricate

cipher of Roger Bacon's has been unraveled, revealing the fact that this early scientist

was well versed in the cellular theory. Lecturing before the American Philosophical

Society, Dr. William Romaine Newbold,

Click to enlarge

A FAMOUS CRYPTIC TITLE PAGE.

From Selenus' Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiæ.

One year after the publication of the first Great "Shakespearian" Folio, a remarkable volume on

cryptogram, and ciphers was published. The title page of the work is reproduced above. The year of its

publication (1624) was during the Rosicrucian controversy. The translation of the title page is as follows:

"The Cryptomenysis and Cryptography of Gustavus Selenus in nine books, to which is added a clear

explanation of the System of Steganography of John Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim and Herbipolis, a man

of admirable genius. Interspersed with worthy inventions of the Author and others, 1624." The author of

this volume was believed to be Augustus, Duke of Brunswick. The symbols and emblems ornamenting the

title page, however, are conclusive evidence that the fine hand of the Rosicrucians was behind its

publication. At the bottom of the picture is a nobleman (Bacon?) placing his hat on another man's head. In

the oval at the top of the plate, it is possible that the lights are beacons, or a play upon the name Bacon. In the two side panels are striking and subtle "Shakespearian" allusions. On the left is a nobleman (possibly Bacon) handing a paper to another man of mean appearance who carries in his hand a spear. At the right,

the man who previously carried the spear is shown in the costume of an actor, wearing spurs and blowing a

horn. The allusion to the actor blowing his horn and the figure carrying the spear suggest much, especially as spear is the last syllable of the name "Shakespeare."

p. 170

who translated the cipher manuscript of the friar, declared: "There are drawings which so

accurately portray the actual appearance of certain objects that it is difficult to resist the

inference that Bacon had seen them with the microscope. * * * These are spermatozoa,

the body cells and the seminiferous tubes, the ova, with their nuclei distinctly indicated.

There are nine large drawings, of which one at least bears considerable resemblance to a

certain stage of development of a fertilized cell." (See Review of Reviews, July, 1921.)

Had Roger Bacon failed to conceal this discovery under a complicated cipher, he would

have been persecuted as a heretic and would probably have met the fate of other early

liberal thinkers. In spite of the rapid progress made by science in the last two hundred and

fifty years, it still remains ignorant concerning many of the original discoveries made by

mediæval investigators. The only record of these important findings is that contained in

the cryptograms of the volumes which they published. While many authors have written

on the subject of cryptography, the books most valuable to students of philosophy and

religion are: Polygraphia and Steganographia, by Trithemius, Abbot of Spanheim;

Mercury, or The Secret and Swift Messenger, by John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester;

Œdipus Ægyptiacus and other works by Athanasius Kircher, Society of Jesus; and

Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiæ, by Gustavus Selenus.

To illustrate the basic differences in their construction and use, the various forms of

ciphers are here grouped under seven general headings:

1. The literal cipher. The most famous of all literal cryptograms is the famous biliteral

cipher described by Sir Francis Bacon in his De Augmentis Scientiarum. Lord Bacon

originated the system while still a young man residing in Paris. The biliteral cipher

requires the use of two styles of type, one an ordinary face and the other specially cut.

The differences between the two fonts are in many case so minute that it requires a

powerful magnifying glass to detect them. Originally, the cipher messages were

concealed only in the italicized words, sentences, or paragraphs, because the italic letters,

being more ornate than the Roman letters, offered greater opportunity for concealing the

slight but necessary variations. Sometimes the letters vary a trifle in size; at other times in

thickness or in their ornamental flourishes. Later, Lord Bacon is believed to have had two

Roman alphabets specially prepared in which the differences were so trivial that it is

almost impossible for experts to distinguish them.

A careful inspection of the first four "Shakespeare" folios discloses the use throughout

the volumes of several styles of type differing in minute but distinguishable details. It is

possible that all the "Shakespeare" folios contain ciphers running through the text. These

ciphers may have been added to the original plays, which are much longer in the folios

than in the original quartos, full scenes having been added in some instances.

The biliteral cipher was not confined to the writings of Bacon and "Shakespeare,"

however, but appears in many books published during Lord Bacon's lifetime and for

nearly a century after his b death. In referring to the biliteral cipher, Lord Bacon terms it

omnia per omnia. The cipher may run through an entire book and be placed therein at the

time of printing without the knowledge of the original author, for it does not necessitate

the changing of either words or punctuation. It is possible that this cipher was inserted for

political purposes into many documents and volumes published during the seventeenth

century. It is well known that ciphers were used for the same reason as early as the

Council of Nicæa.

The Baconian biliteral cipher is difficult to use today, owing to the present exact

standardization of type and the fact that so few books are now hand set. Accompanying

this chapter are facsimiles of Lord Bacon's biliteral alphabet as it appeared in the 1640

English translation of De Augmentis Scientiarum. There are four alphabets, two for the

capital and two for the small letters. Consider carefully the differences between these four

and note that each alphabet has the power of either the letter a or the letter b, and that

when reading a word its letters are divisible into one of two groups: those which

correspond to the letter a and those which correspond to the letter b. In order to employ

the biliteral cipher, a document must contain five times as many letters as there are in the

cipher message to be concealed, for it requires five letters to conceal one. The biliteral

cipher somewhat resembles a telegraph code in which letters are changed into dots and

dashes; according to the biliteral system, however, the dots and dashes are represented

respectively by a's and b's. The word biliteral is derived from the fact that all letters of

the alphabet may be reduced to either a or b. An example of biliteral writing is shown in

one of the accompanying diagrams. In order to demonstrate the working of this cipher,

the message concealed within the words "Wisdom and understanding are more to be

desired than riches" will now be deciphered.

The first step is to discover [he letters of each alphabet and replace them by their

equivalent a or b in accordance with the key given by Lord Bacon in his biliteral alphabet

(q.v.). In the word wisdom, the W is from the b alphabet; therefore it is replaced by a b.

The i is from the a alphabet; therefore an a is put in its place. The s is also from the a

alphabet, but the d belongs to the b alphabet. The o and the m both belong to the a

alphabet is replaced by a. By this process the word WISDOM become baabaa. Treating

the remaining words of the sentence in a similar manner, AND becomes aba;

UNDERSTANDING, aaabaaaaaabab; ARE, aba; MORE, abbb; TO, ab; BE, ab;

DESIRED, abaabaa; THAN, aaba; RICHES, aaaaaa.

The next step is to run all the letters together; thus:

baabaaabaaaabaaaaaabababaabbbabababaabaaaabaaaaaaa. All the combinations used

in the Baconian biliteral cipher consist of groups containing five letters each. Therefore

the solid line of letters must be broken into groups of five in the following manner: baaba

aabaa aabaa aaaab ababa abbba babab aabaa aabaa aaaaa. Each of these groups of

five letters now represents one letter of the cipher, and the actual letter can now be

determined by comparing the groups with the alphabetical table, The Key to the Biliteral

Cipher, from De Augmentis Scientiarum (q.v.): baaba = T, aabaa = E, aabaa = E; aaaab

= B; ababa = L; abbba = P; babab = X; aabaa = E, aabaa = E; aaaaa = A; but the last

five letters of the word riches being set off by a period from the initial r, the last five a's

do not count in the cipher. The letters thus extracted are now brought together in order,

resulting in TEEBLPXEE.

At this point the inquirer might reasonably expect the letters to make intelligible words;

but he will very likely be disappointed, for, as in the case above, the letters thus extracted

are themselves a cryptogram, doubly involved to discourage those who might have a

casual acquaintance with the biliteral system. The next step is to apply the nine letters to

what is commonly called a wheel (or disc) cipher (q.v.), which consists of two alphabets,

one revolving around the other in such a manner that numerous transpositions of letters

are possible. In the accompanying cut the A of the inner alphabet

Click to enlarge

AN EXAMPLE OF BILITERAL WRITING.

In the above sentence note carefully the formation of the letters. Compare each letter with the two types of

letters in the biliteral alphabet table reproduced from Lord Bacon's De Augmentis Scientiarum. A

comparison of the "d" in "wisdom" with the "d" in "and" discloses a large loop at the top of the first, while the second shows practically no loop at all. Contrast the "i" in "wisdom" with the "i" in "understanding." In the former, the lines are curved and in the latter angular. A similar analysis of the two "r's" in "desired"

reveals obvious differences. The "o" in "more" differs only from the "o" in "wisdom" in that it a tiny line continues from the top over towards the "r." The "a" in "than" is thinner and more angular than the "a" in

"are," while the "r" in "riches" differs from that in "desired" in that the final upright stroke terminates in a ball instead of a sharp point. These minor differences disclose the presence of the two alphabets employed

in writing the sentence.

Click to enlarge

THE KEY TO THE BILITERAL CIPHER.

From Bacon's De Augmentis Scientiarum.

After the document to be deciphered has been reduced to its "a" and "b" equivalents, it is then broken up into five-letter groups and the message read with the aid of the above table.

Click to enlarge

A MODERN WHEEL, OR DISC, CIPHER.

The above diagram shows a wheel cipher. The smaller, or inner, alphabet moves around so that any one of

its letters may be brought opposite any me of he letters on the larger, or outer, alphabet. In some, cases the inner alphabet is written backwards, but in the present example, both alphabets read the same way.

Click to enlarge

THE BILITERAL ALPHABET.

From Bacon's De Augmentis Scientiarum.

This Plate is reproduced from Bacon's De Augmentis Scientiarum, and shows the two alphabets as designed

by him for the purpose of his cipher. Each capital and small letter has two distinct forms which are

designated "a" and "b". The biliteral system did not in every instance make use of two alphabets in which the differences were as perceptible as in the example here given, but the two alphabets were always used;

sometimes variations are so minute that it requires a powerful magnifying glass to distinguish the

difference between the "a" and "b" types of letters.

p. 171

is opposite the H of the outer alphabet, so that for cipher purposes these letters are

interchangeable. The F and M, the P, and Y, the W and D, in fact all the letters, may be

transposed as shown by the two circles. The nine letters extracted by the biliteral cipher

may thus be exchanged for nine others by the wheel cipher. The nine letters are

considered as being on the inner circle of the wheel and are exchanged for the nine letters

on the outer circle which are opposite the inner letters. By this process the T becomes A;

the two E's become two L's; the B becomes I, the L becomes S; the P becomes W; the X

becomes E; and the two E's become two L's. The result is ALLISWELL, which, broken

up into words, reads: "All is well."

Of course, by moving the inner disc of the wheel cipher, many different combinations in

addition to the one given above can be made of the letters, but this is the only one which

will produce sense, and the cryptogrammatist must keep on experimenting until he

discovers a logical and intelligible message. He may then feel reasonably sure that he has

deciphered the system. Lord Bacon involved the biliteral cipher in many different ways.

There are probably a score of different systems used in the "Shakespeare" folio alone,

some so intricate that they may forever baffle all attempts at their decipherment. In those

susceptible of solution, sometimes the a's and b's have to be exchanged; at other times the

concealed message is written backwards; again only every other letter is counted; and so

on.

There are several other forms of the literal cipher in which letters are substituted for each

other by a prearranged sequence. The simplest form is that in which two alphabets are

written thus:

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

K

L

M

N

Z

Y

X

W

U

T

S

R

Q

P

O

N

M

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

W

X

Y

Z

L

K

I

H

G

F

E

D

C

B

A

By substituting the letters of the lower alphabet for their equivalents in the upper one, a

meaningless conglomeration results, the hidden message being decoded by reversing the

process. There is also a form of the literal cipher in which the actual cryptogram is

written in the body of the document, but unimportant words are inserted between

important ones according to a prearranged order. The literal cipher also includes what are

called acrostic signatures--that is, words written down the column by the use of the first

letter of each line and also more complicated acrostics in which the important letters are

scattered through entire paragraphs or chapters. The two accompanying alchemical

cryptograms illustrate another form of the literal cipher involving the first letter of each

word. Every cryptogram based upon the arrangement or combination of the letters of the

alphabet is called a literal cipher.

2. The pictorial cipher. Any picture or drawing with other than its obvious meaning may

be considered a pictorial cryptogram. Instances of pictorial cipher are frequently found in

Egyptian symbolism and early religious art. The diagrams of alchemists and Hermetic

philosophers are invariably pictorial ciphers. In addition to the simple pictorial cipher,

there is a more technical form in which words or letters are concealed by the number of

stones in a wall, by the spread of birds' wings in flight, by ripples on the surface of water,

or by the length and order of lines used in shading. Such cryptograms are not obvious,

and must be decoded with the aid of an arbitrary measuring scale, the length of the lines

determining the letter or word concealed. The shape and proportion of a building, the

height of a tower, the number of bars in a window, the folds of a man's garments--even

the proportions or attitude of the human body--were used to conceal definite figures or

characters which could be exchanged for letters or words by a person acquainted with the

code.

Initial letters of names were secreted in architectural arches and spans. A notable example

of this practice is found on the title page of Montaigue's Essays, third edition, where an

initial B is formed by two arches and an F by a broken arch. Pictorial cryptograms are

sometimes accompanied by the key necessary for their decipherment. A figure may point

toward the starting point of the cipher or carry in its hand some implement disclosing the

system of measurement used. There are also frequent instances in which the

cryptographer purposely distorted or improperly clothed some figure in his drawing by

placing the hat on backwards, the sword on the wrong side, or the shield on the wrong

arm, or by employing some similar artifice. The much-discussed fifth finger on the Pope's

hand in Raphael's Sistine Madonna and the sixth toe on Joseph's foot in the same artist's

Marriage of the Virgin are cunningly concealed cryptograms.

3. The acroamatic cipher. The religious and philosophical writings of all nations abound

with acroamatic cryptograms, that is, parables and allegories. The acroamatic is unique in

that the document containing it may be translated or reprinted without affecting the

cryptogram. Parables and allegories have been used since remote antiquity to present

moral truths in an attractive and understandable manner. The acroamatic cryptogram is a

pictorial cipher drawn in words and its symbolism must be so interpreted. The Old and

New Testaments of the Jews, the writings of Plato and Aristotle, Homer's Odyssey and

Iliad, Virgil's Æneid, The Metamorphosis of Apuleius, and Æsop's Fables are

outstanding examples of acroamatic cryptography in which are concealed the deepest and

most sublime truths of ancient mystical philosophy.

The acroamatic cipher is the most subtle of all, for the parable or allegory is susceptible

of several interpretations. Bible students for centuries have been confronted by this

difficultly. They are satisfied with the moral interpretation of the parable and forget that

each parable and allegory is capable of seven interpretations, of which the seventh--the

highest--is complete and all-inclusive, whereas the other six (and lesser) interpretations

are fragmentary, revealing but part of the mystery. The creation myths of the world are

acroamatic cryptograms, and the deities of the various pantheons are only cryptic

characters which, if properly understood, become the constituents of a divine alphabet.

The initiated few comprehend the true nature of this alphabet, but the uninitiated many

worship the letters of it as gods.

Click to enlarge

AN ALCHEMICAL CRYPTOGRAM.

From Brown's History of Chemistry.

James Campbell Brown reprints a curious cipher from Kircher. The capital letters of the seven words in the

outer circle read clockwise, form the word SVLPHVR. From the words in the second circle, when read in a

similar manner, is derived FIXVM. The capitals of the six words in the inner circle, when properly

arranged, also read ESTSOL. The following cipher is thus extracted: "Sulphur Fixum Est Sol," which when translated is: "Fixed sulphur is gold."

Click to enlarge

AN ALCHEMICAL CRYPTOGRAM.

From Geheime Figuren der Rosenkreuzer.

Beginning with the word VISITA and reading clockwise, the seven initial letters of the seven words

inscribed in the outer circle read: VITRIOL. This is a very simple alchemical enigma, but is a reminder that

those studying works on Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, alchemy, and Freemasonry should always be on the

lookout for concealed meanings hidden either in Parables and allegories or in cryptic arrangements of

numbers, letters, and words.

Click to enlarge

A CRYPTIC DEPICTION OF DIVINE AND NATURAL JUSTICE.

From Selenus' Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiæ.

The first circle portrays the divine antecedents of justice, the second the universal scope of justice, and the third the results of human application of justice. Hence, the first circle deals with divine principles, the

second circle with mundane affairs, and the third circle with man. On the at the top of the picture sits

Themis, the presiding spirit of law, and at her feet three other queens--Juno, Minerva, and Venus--their

robes ornamented with geometric figures. The axis of law connects the throne, of divine justice above with

the throne of human judgment at the bottom of the picture. Upon the latter throne is seated a queen with a

scepter in her hand, before whom stands the winged goddess Nemesis--the angel of judgment.

The second Circle is divided into three parts by two sets of two horizontal lines. The upper and light section is called the Supreme Region and is the abode of the gods, the good spirits, and the heroes. The lower and

dark section is the abode of lust, sin, and ignorance. Between these two extremes is the larger section in

which are blended the powers and impulses of both the superior and the inferior regions.

In the third or inner circle is man, a tenfold creature, consisting of nine parts--three of spirit, three of

intellect, and three of soul--enclosed within one constitution. According to Selenus, man's three spiritual

qualities are thought, speech, and action; his three intellectual qualities are memory, intelligence, and will; and his three qualities of soul are understanding, courage, and desire. The third circle is further divided into three parts called ages: the Golden Age of spiritual truth in the upper right section, the Iron Age of spiritual darkness in the lower right section and the Bronze Age--a composite of the two occupying the entire left

half of the inner circle and itself divided into three parts. The lowest division of the Bronze Age depicts

ignorant man controlled by force, the central the partly awakened man controlled by jurisprudence, and the

upper the spiritually illuminated man controlled by love. Both the second and third circles revolve upon the

axis of law, but the divine source, of law--Heavenly Justice--is concealed by clouds. All of the symbols and

figures ornamenting the plate are devoted to a detailed amplification of the principles here outlined.

p. 172

4. The numerical cipher. Many cryptograms have been produced in which numbers in

various sequences are substituted for letters, words, or even complete thoughts. The

reading of numerical ciphers usually depends upon the possession of specially arranged

tables of correspondences. The numerical cryptograms of the Old Testament are so

complicated that only a few scholars versed in rabbinical lore have ever sought to unravel

their mysteries. In his Œdipus Ægyptiacus, Athanasius Kircher describes several Arabian

Qabbalistic theorems, and a great part of the Pythagorean mystery was concealed in a

secret method in vogue among Greek mystics of substituting letters for numbers.

The most simple numerical cipher is that in which the letters of the alphabet are

exchanged for numbers in ordinary sequence. Thus A becomes 1, B 2, C 3, and so on,

counting both I and J as 9 and both U and V as 20. The word yes by this system would be

written 23-5-18. This cipher can be made more difficult by reversing the alphabet so that

Z becomes 1, Y 2, X 3, and so on. By inserting a non-significant, or uncounted, number

after each of the significant numbers the cipher is still more effectively concealed, thus:

23-16-5-9-18. The word yes is found by eliminating the second and fourth numbers. By

adding 23, 5, and 18 together the sum 46 results. Therefore 46 is the numerical equivalent

of the word yes. According to the simple numerical cipher, the sum 138 is equal to the

words Note carefully. Therefore in a book using this method, line 138, page 138, or

paragraph 138 may contain the concealed message. In addition to this simple numerical

cipher there are scores of others so complicated that no one without the key can hope to

solve them.

Authors sometimes based their cryptograms upon the numerical value of their own

names; for example, Sir Francis Bacon repeatedly used the cryptic number 33--the

numerical equivalent of his name. Numerical ciphers often involve the pagination of a

book. Imperfect pagination, though generally attributed to carelessness, often conceals

important secrets. The mispaginations found in the 1623 folio of "Shakespeare" and the

consistent recurrence of similar errors in various volumes printed about the same period

have occasioned considerable thought among scholars and cryptogrammatists. In

Baconian cryptograms, all page numbers ending in 89 seem to have a special

significance. The 89th page of the Comedies in the 1623 folio of "Shakespeare" shows an

error of type in the pagination, the "9" being from a considerably smaller font than the

"8." The 189th page is entirely missing, there being two pages numbered 187; and page

188 shows the second " 8 " scarcely more than half the size of the first one. Page 289 is

correctly numbered and has no unusual features, but page 89 of the Histories is missing.

Several volumes published by Bacon show similar errors, page 89 being often involved.

There are also numerical ciphers from which the cryptic message may be extracted by

counting every tenth word, every twentieth word, or every fiftieth word. In some cases

the count is irregular. The first important word may be found by counting 100, the second

by counting 90, the third by counting 80, and so on until the count of 10 is reached. The

count then returns to 100 and the process is repeated.

5. The musical cipher. John Wilkins, afterwards Bishop of Chester, in 1641 circulated an

anonymous essay entitled Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger. In this little

volume, which was largely derived from the more voluminous treatises of Trithemius and

Selenus, the author sets forth a method whereby musicians can converse with each other

by substituting musical notes for the letters of the alphabet. Two persons understanding

the code could converse with each other by merely playing certain notes upon a piano or

other instrument. Musical cryptograms can be involved to an inconceivable point; by

certain systems it is possible to take an already existing musical theme and conceal in it a

cryptogram without actually changing the composition in any way. The pennants upon

the notes may conceal the cipher, or the actual sounds of the notes may be exchanged for

syllables of similar sound. This latter method is effective but its scope is somewhat

limited. Several musical compositions by Sir Francis Bacon are still in existence. An

examination of them might reveal musical cryptograms, for it is quite certain that Lord

Bacon was well acquainted with the manner of their construction.

6. The arbitrary cipher. The system of exchanging letters of the alphabet for hieroglyphic

figures is too easily decoded to be popular. Albert: Pike describes an arbitrary cipher

based upon the various parts of the Knights Templars' cross, each angle representing a

letter. The many curious alphabets that have been devised are rendered worthless,

however, by the table of recurrence. According to Edgar Allan Poe, a great

cryptogrammatist, the most common letter of the English language is E, the other letters

in their order of frequency are as follows: A, O, I, D, H, N, R, S, T, V, Y, C, F, Q L, M, W,

B, K, P, Q, X, Z. Other authorities declare the table of frequency to be: E, T, A, O, N, I, R,

S, H, D, L, C, W, U, M, F, Y, G, P, B, V, K, X, Q, J, Z. By merely counting the number of

times each character appears in the message, the law of recurrence discloses the English

letter for which the arbitrary character stands. Further help is also rendered by the fact

that if the cryptogram be split up into words there are only three single letters which may

form words: A, I, O. Thus any single character set off from the rest of the text must be

one of these three letters. For details of this System see The Gold Bug, by Edgar Allan

Poe.

To render more difficult the decoding of arbitrary ciphers, however, the characters are

seldom broken up into words, and, further, the table of recurrence is partly nullified by

assigning two or more different characters to each letter, thereby making it impossible to

estimate accurately the frequency of recurrence. Therefore, the greater the number of

arbitrary characters used to represent any single letter of the alphabet, the more difficult it

is to decipher an arbitrary cryptogram. The secret alphabets of the ancients are

comparatively easy to decode, the only requisites being a table of frequency, a knowledge

of the language in which the cryptogram was originally written, a moderate amount of

patience, and a little ingenuity.

7. The code cipher. The most modem form of cryptogram is the code system. Its most

familiar form is the Morse code for use in telegraphic and wireless communication. This

form of cipher may be complicated somewhat by embodying dots and dashes into a

document in which periods and colons are dots, while commas and semicolons are

dashes. There are also codes used by the business world which can be solved only by the

use of a private code book. Because they furnish an economical and efficient method of

transmitting confidential information, the use of such codes is far more prevalent than the

average person has any suspicion.

In addition to the foregoing classifications there are a number of miscellaneous systems

of secret writing, some employing mechanical devices, others colors. A few make use of

sundry miscellaneous objects to represent words and even complete thoughts. But as

these more elaborate devices were seldom employed by the ancients or by the mediæval

philosophers and alchemists, they have no direct bearing upon religion and philosophy.

The mystics of the Middle Ages, borrowing the terminology of the various arts and

sciences, evolved a system of cryptography which concealed the secrets of the human

soul under terms generally applied to chemistry, biology, astronomy, botany, and

physiology. Ciphers of this nature can only be decoded by individuals versed in the deep

philosophic principles upon which these mediæval mystics based their theories of life.

Much information relating to the invisible nature of man is concealed under what seem to

be chemical experiments or scientific speculations. Every student of symbolism and

philosophy, therefore, should be reasonably well acquainted with the underlying

principles of cryptography; in addition to serving him well in his researches, this art

furnishes a fascinating method of developing the acuteness of the mental faculties.

Discrimination and observation are indispensable to the seeker after knowledge, and no

study is equal to cryptography as a means of stimulating these powers.

Click to enlarge

QABBALISTIC AND MAGIC ALPHABETS.

From Barrett's Magus.

Curious alphabets were invented by the early and mediæval philosophers to conceal their doctrines and

tenets from the profane. Some of these alphabets are still used to a limited extent in the higher degrees of

Freemasonry. Probably the most famous is the angelic writing, termed in the above plate "The Writing

called Malachim." Its figures are supposedly derived from the constellations. Advanced students of occult philosophy will come upon many valuable documents in which these figures are used. Under each letter of

the first alphabet above is its equivalent in English. Above each letter of the other three alphabets is its

Hebrew letter equivalent.

p. 173

Freemasonic Symbolism

IN several early Masonic manuscripts--for example, the Harleian, Sloane, Lansdowne,

and Edinburgh-Kilwinning--it is stated that the craft of initiated builders existed before

the Deluge, and that its members were employed in the building of the Tower of Babel. A

Masonic Constitution dated 1701 gives the following naive account of the origin of the

sciences, arts, and crafts from which the major part of Masonic symbolism is derived:

"How this worthy Science was first begunne, I shall tell. Before Noah's Flood, there was

a man called Lameck as it is written in the 4 Chap. of Gen.: and this Lameck had two

Wives. The one was called Adah, and the other Zillah; by the first wife Adah he gott two

Sons, the one called Jaball, and the other Juball, and by the other wife Zillah he got a Son

and Daughter, and the four children found the beginning of all Crafts in the world. This

Jaball was the elder Son, and he found the Craft of Geometric, and he parted flocks, as of

Sheep and Lambs in the fields, and first wrought Houses of Stone and Tree, as it is noted

in the Chap, aforesaid, and his Brother Juball found the crafte of Musick, of Songs,

Organs and Harp. The Third Brother [Tubal-cain] found out Smith's craft to work Iron

and steel, and their sister Naamah found out the art of Weaving. These children did know

thatt God would take Vengeance for Sinne, either by fire or water, wherefor they wrote

these Sciences which they had found in Two Pillars of stone, thatt they might be found

after the Flood. The one stone was called Marbell--cannott burn with Fire, and the other

was called Laturus [brass?], thatt cannott drown in the Water." The author of this

Constitution there upon declares that one of these pillars was later discovered by Hermes,

who communicated to mankind the secrets thereon inscribed.

In his Antiquities of the Jews, Josephus writes that Adam had forewarned his descendants

that sinful humanity would be destroyed by a deluge. In order to preserve their science

and philosophy, the children of Seth there fore raised two pillars, one of brick and the

other of stone, on which were inscribed the keys to their knowledge. The Patriarch

Enoch--whose name means the Initiator--is evidently a personification of the sun, since

he lived 365 years. He also constructed an underground temple consisting of nine vaults,

one beneath the other, placing in the deepest vault a triangular tablet of gold bearing upon

it the absolute and ineffable Name of Deity. According to some accounts, Enoch made

two golden deltas. The larger he placed upon the white cubical altar in the lowest vault

and the smaller he gave into the keeping of his son, Methuseleh, who did the actual

construction work of the brick chambers according to the pattern revealed to his father by

the Most High. In the form and arrangement of these vaults Enoch epitomized the nine

spheres of the ancient Mysteries and the nine sacred strata of the earth through which the

initiate must pass to reach the flaming Spirit dwelling in its central core.

According to Freemasonic symbolism, Enoch, fearing that all knowledge of the sacred

Mysteries would be lost at the time of the Deluge, erected the two columns mentioned in

the quotation. Upon the metal column in appropriate allegorical symbols he engraved the

secret reaching and upon the marble column placed an inscription stating that a short

distance away a priceless treasure would be discovered in a subterranean vault. After

having thus faithfully completed his labors, Enoch was translated from the brow Of

Mount Moriah. In time the location of the secret vaults was lost, but after the lapse of

ages there came another builder--an initiate after the order of Enoch--and he, while laying

the foundations for another temple to the Great Architect of the Universe, discovered the

long-lost vaults and the secrets contained within.

John Leylande was appointed by King Henry VIII to go through the archives of the

various religious institutions dissolved by the king and remove for preservation any

books or manuscripts of an important character. Among the documents copied by

Leylande was a series of questions and answers concerning the mystery of Masonry

written by King Henry VI. In answer to the question, "How came Masonry into

England?" the document States that Peter Gower, a Grecian, traveled for knowledge in

Egypt, Syria, and every land where the Phœnicians had planted Masonry; winning

entrance in all lodges of Masons, he learned much, and returning, dwelt in Greater

Greece. He became renowned for his wisdom, formed a great lodge at Groton, and made

many Masons, some of whom journeyed in France, spreading Masonry there; from

France in the course of time the order passed into England.

To even the superficial student of the subject it must be evident that the name of Peter

Gower, the Grecian, is merely an Anglicized form of Pythagoras; consequently Groton,

where he formed his lodge, is easily identified with Crotona. A link is thus established

between the philosophic Mysteries of Greece and mediæval Freemasonry. In his notes on

King Henry's questions and answers, William Preston enlarges upon the vow of secrecy

as it was practiced by the ancient initiates. On the authority of Pliny he describes how

Anaxarchus, having been imprisoned in order to extort from him some of the secrets with

which he had been entrusted, bit out his own tongue and threw it in the face of

Nicocreon, the tyrant of Cyprus. Preston adds that the Athenians revered a brazen statue

that was represented without a tongue to denote the sanctity with which they regarded

their oath-bound secrets. It is also noteworthy that, according to King Henry's

manuscript, Masonry had its origin in the East and was the carrier of the arts and sciences

of civilization to the primitive humanity of the western nations.

Conspicuous among the symbols of Freemasonry are the seven liberal arts and sciences.

By grammar man is taught to express in noble and adequate language his innermost

thoughts and ideals; by rhetoric he is enabled to conceal his ideals under the protecting

cover of ambiguous language and figures of speech; by logic he is trained

Click to enlarge

THE MYSTERY OF THE MACROCOSM.

Redrawn from Cesariano's Edition of Vitruvius.

Summarizing the relationship between the human body and the theory of architectonics, Vitruvius writes:

"Since nature has designed the human body so that its members are duly proportioned to the frame as a

whole, it appears that the ancients had good reason for their rule, that in perfect building the different

members must be in exact symmetrical relations to the whole general scheme. Hence, while transmitting to

us the proper arrangements for buildings of all kinds, they were particularly careful to do so in the case of

temples of the gods, buildings in which merits and faults usually last forever. * * * Therefore, if it is agreed that number was found out from the human fingers, and that there is a symmetrical correspondent between

the members separately and the entire form of the body, in accordance with a certain part selected as

standard, we can have nothing but respect for those who, in constructing temples of the immortal gods,

have so arranged the members of the works that both the separate parts and the whole design may

harmonize in their proportions and symmetry." (See The Ten Books on Architecture)

By some it is believed that St. Paul was initiated into the Dionysiac Mysteries, for in the tenth verse of the third chapter of First Corinthians he calls himself a "master-builder" or adept: "According to the grace of God which is given into me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation and another buildeth

thereon. " As survivals of the ancient Dionysiac rites, the two diagrams of Cesariano, accompanying this

chapter are of incalculable value to the modern mystic architect.

p. 174

in the organization of the intellectual faculties with which he has been endowed; by

arithmetic he not only is instructed in the mystery of universal order but also gains the

key to multitude, magnitude, and proportion; by geometry he is inducted into the

mathematics of form, the harmony and rhythm of angles, and the philosophy of

organization; by music he is reminded that the universe is founded upon the laws of

celestial harmonics and that harmony and rhythm are all-pervading; by astronomy he

gains an understanding of the immensities of time and space, of the proper relationship

between himself and the universe, and of the awesomeness of that Unknown Power

which is driving the countless stars of the firmament through illimitable space. Equipped

with the knowledge conferred by familiarity with the liberal arts and sciences, the

studious Freemason therefore finds himself confronted by few problems with which he

cannot cope.

THE DIONYSIAC ARCHITECTS

The most celebrated of the ancient fraternities of artisans was that of the Dionysiac

Architects. This organization was composed exclusively of initiates of the Bacchus-

Dionysos cult and was peculiarly consecrated to the science of building and the art of

decoration. Acclaimed as being the custodians of a secret and sacred knowledge of

architectonics, its members were entrusted with the design and erection of public

buildings and monuments. The superlative excellence of their handiwork elevated the

members of the guild to a position of surpassing dignity; they were regarded as the

master craftsmen of the earth. Because of the first dances held in honor of Dionysos, he

was considered the founder and patron of the theater, and the Dionysians specialized in

the construction of buildings adapted for the presentation of dramatic performances. In

the circular or semicircular orchestra they invariably erected an altar to Æschylus, the

famous Greek poet, that while appearing in one of his own plays he was suspected by a

mob of angry spectators of revealing one of the profound secrets of the Mysteries and

was forced to seek refuge at the altar of Dionysos.

So carefully did the Dionysiac Architects safeguard the secrets of their craft that only

fragmentary records exist of their esoteric teachings. John A. Weisse thus sums up the

meager data available concerning the order:

"They made their appearance certainly not later than 1000 B.C., and appear to have

enjoyed particular privileges and immunities. They also possessed secret means of

recognition, and were bound together by special ties only known to themselves. The

richer of this fraternity were bound to provide for their poorer brethren. They were

divided into communities, governed by a Master and Wardens, and called γυνοικιαι

(connected houses). They held a grand festival annually, and were held in high esteem.

Their ceremonials were regarded as sacred. It has been claimed that Solomon, at the

instance of Hiram, King of Tyre, employed them at his temple and palaces. They were

also employed at the construction of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. They had means of

intercommunication all over the then known world, and from them, doubtless, sprang the

guilds of the Traveling Masons known in the Middle Ages." (See The Obelisk and

Freemasonry.)

The fraternity of the Dionysiac Architects spread throughout all of Asia Minor, even

reaching Egypt and India. They established themselves in nearly all the countries

bordering on the Mediterranean, and with the rise of the Roman Empire found their way

into Central Europe and even into England. The most stately and enduring buildings in

Constantinople, Rhodes, Athens, and Rome were erected by these inspired craftsmen.

One of the most illustrious of their number was Vitruvius, the great architect, renowned

as the author of De Architectura Libri Decem. In the various sections of his book

Vitruvius gives several hints as to the philosophy underlying the Dionysiac concept of the

principle of symmetry applied to the science of architecture, as derived from a

consideration of the proportions established by Nature between the parts and members of

the human body. The following extract from Vitruvius on the subject of symmetry is

representative:

"The design of a temple depends on symmetry, the principles of which must be most

carefully observed by the architect. They are due to proportion, in ἀναλογία. Proportion

is a correspondence among the measures of the members of an entire work, and of the

whole to a certain part selected as standard. From this result the principles of symmetry.

Without symmetry and proportion there can be no principles in the design of any temple;

that is, if there is no precise relation between its members, as in the case of those of a

well shaped man. For the human body is so designed by nature that the face, from the

chin to the top of the forehead and the lowest roots of the hair, is a tenth part of the whole

height; the open hand from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger is just the same; the

head from the chin to the crown is an eighth, and with the neck and shoulder from the top

of the breast to the lowest roots of the hair is a sixth; from the middle of the breast to the

summit of the crown is a fourth. If we take the height of the face itself, the distance from

the bottom of the chin to the under side of the nostrils [and from that point] to a line

between the eyebrows is the same; from there to the lowest roots of the hair is also a

third, comprising the forehead. The length of the foot is one sixth of the height of the

body; of the forearm, one fourth; and the breadth of the breast is also one fourth. The

other members, too, have their own symmetrical proportions, and it was by employing

them that the famous painters and sculptors of antiquity attained to great and endless

renown."

The edifices raised by the Dionysiac Builders were indeed "sermons in stone." Though

unable to comprehend fully the cosmic principles thus embodied in these masterpieces of

human ingenuity and industry, even the uninitiated were invariably overwhelmed by the

sense of majesty and symmetry resulting from the perfect coordination of pillars, spans,

arches, and domes. By variations in the details of size, material, type, arrangement,

ornamentation, and color, these inspired builders believed it possible to provoke in the

nature of the onlooker certain distinct mental or emotional reactions. Vitruvius, for

example, describes the disposition of bronze vases about a room so as to produce certain

definite changes in the tone and quality of the human voice. In like manner, each

chamber in the Mysteries through which the candidate passed had its own peculiar

acoustics. Thus in one chamber the voice of the priest was amplified until his words

caused the very room to vibrate, while in another the voice was diminished and softened

to such a degree that it sounded like the distant tinkling of silver bells. Again, in some of

the underground passageways the candidate was apparently bereft of the power of

speech, for though he shouted at the top of his voice not even a whisper was audible to

his ears. After progressing a few feet, however, he would discover that his softest sigh

would be reechoed a hundred times.

The supreme ambition of the Dionysiac Architects was the construction of buildings

which would create distinct impressions consistent with the purpose for which the

structure itself was designed. In common with the Pythagoreans, they believed it possible

by combinations of straight lines and curves to induce any desired mental attitude or

emotion. They labored, therefore, to the end of producing a building perfectly

harmonious with the structure of the universe itself. They may have even believed that an

edifice so constructed because it was in no respect at variance with any existing reality

would not be subject to dissolution but would endure throughout the span of mortal time.

As a logical deduction from their philosophic trend of thought, such a building--en

rapport with Cosmos--would also have become an oracle. Certain early works on

magical philosophy hint that the Ark of the Covenant was oracular in character because

of specially prepared chambers in its interior. These by their shape and arrangement were

so attuned to the vibrations of the invisible world that they caught and amplified the

voices of the ages imprinted upon and eternally existent in the substance of the astral

light.

Unskilled in these ancient subtleties of their profession, modern architects often create

architectural absurdities which would cause their creators to blush with shame did they

comprehend their actual symbolic import. Thus, phallic emblems are strewn in profusion

among the adornments of banks, office buildings, and department stores. Christian

churches also may be surmounted with Brahmin or Mohammedan domes or be designed

in a style suitable for a Jewish synagogue or a Greek temple to Pluto. These incongruities

may be considered trivial in importance by the modern designer, but to the trained

psychologist the purpose for which a building was erected is frustrated in large measure

by the presence of such architectural discordances. Vitruvius thus defines the principle of

propriety as conceived and applied by the Dionysians:

"Propriety is that: perfection of style which comes when a work is authoritatively

constructed on approved principles. It arises from prescription (Greek θεµατισµῷ), from

usage, or from nature. From prescription, in the case of hypæthral edifices, open to the

sky, in honour of Jupiter Lightning, the Heaven, the Sun, or the Moon: for these are gods

whose semblances and manifestations we behold before our very eyes in the sky when it

is cloudless and bright. The temples of Minerva, Mars, and Hercules will be Doric, since

the virile strength of these gods makes daintiness entirely inappropriate to their houses. In

temples to Venus, Flora, Proserpine, Spring-Water, and the Nymphs, the Corinthian order

will be found to have peculiar significance, because these are delicate divinities and so its

rather slender outlines, its flowers, leaves, and ornamental volutes will lend propriety

where it is due. The construction of temples of the Ionic order to Juno, Diana, Father

Bacchus, and the other gods of that kind, will be in keeping with the middle position

which they hold; for the building of such will be an appropriate combination of the

severity of the Doric and the delicacy of the Corinthian."

p. 175

In describing the societies of Ionian artificers, Joseph Da Costa declares the Dionysiac

rites to have been founded upon the science of astronomy, which by the initiates of this

order was correlated to the builder's art. In various documents dealing with the origin of

architecture are found hints to the effect that the great buildings erected by these initiated

craftsmen were based upon geometrical patterns derived from the constellations. Thus, a

temple might be planned according to the constellation of Pegasus or a court of judgment

modeled after the constellation of the Scales. The Dionysians evolved a peculiar code by

which they were able to communicate with one another in the dark and both the symbols

and the terminology of their guild were derived, in the main, from the elements of

architecture.

While stigmatized as pagans by reason of their philosophic principles, it is noteworthy

that these Dionysiac craftsmen were almost universally employed in the erection of early

Christian abbeys and cathedrals, whose stones even to this very day bear distinguishing

marks and symbols cut into their surfaces by these illustrious builders. Among the ornate

carvings upon the fronts of great churches of the Old World are frequently found

representations of compasses, squares, rules, mallets, and clusters of builders' tools

skillfully incorporated into mural decorations and even placed in the hands of the effigies

of saints and prophets standing in exalted niches. A great mystery was contained in the

ancient portals of the Cathedral Of Notre Dame which were destroyed during the French

Revolution, for among their carvings were numerous Rosicrucian and Masonic emblems;

and according to the records preserved by alchemists who studied their bas-reliefs, the

secret processes for metallic transmutation were set forth in their grotesque yet most

significant figures.

The checkerboard floor upon which the modern Freemasonic lodge stands is the old

tracing board of the Dionysiac Architects, and while the modern organization is no longer

limited to workmen's guilds it still preserves in its symbols the metaphysical doctrines of

the ancient society of which it is presumably the outgrowth. The investigator of the origin

of Freemasonic symbolism who desires to trace the development of the order through the

ages will find a practical suggestion in the following statement of Charles W.

Heckethorn:

"But considering that Freemasonry is a tree the roots of which spread through so many

soils, it follows that traces thereof must be found in its fruit; that its language and ritual

should retain much of the various sects and institutions it has passed through before

arriving at their present state, and in Masonry we meet with Indian, Egyptian, Jewish, and

Christian ideas, terms therefrom the supreme ambition of their craft and symbols." (See

The Secret Societies of All Ages and Countries.)

The Roman Collegia of skilled architects were apparently a subdivision of the greater

Ionian body, their principles and organization being practically identical with the older

Ionian institution. It has been suspected that the Dionysians also profoundly influenced

early Islamic culture, for part of their symbolism found its way into the Mysteries of the

dervishes. At one time the Dionysians referred to themselves as Sons of Solomon, and

one of the most important of their symbols was the Seal of Solomon--two interlaced

triangles. This motif is frequently seen in conspicuous parts of Mohammedan mosques.

The Knights Templars--who were suspected of anything and everything--are believed to

have contacted these Dionysiac artificers and to have introduced many of their symbols

and doctrines into mediæval Europe. But Freemasonry most of all owes to the Dionysiac

cult the great mass of its symbols and rituals which are related to the science of

architecture. From these ancient and illustrious artisans it also received the legacy of the

unfinished Temple of Civilization-that vast, invisible structure upon which these initiated

builders have labored continuously since the inception of their fraternity. This mighty

edifice, which has fallen and been rebuilt time after time but whose foundations remain

unmoved, is the true Everlasting House of which the temple on the brow of Mount

Moriah was but an impermanent symbol.

Aside from the operative aspect of their order, the Dionysiac Architects had a speculative

philosophic code. Human society they considered as a rough and untrued ashlar but lately

chiseled from the quarry of elemental Nature. This crude block was the true object upon

which these skilled craftsmen labored--polishing it, squaring it, and with the aid of fine

carvings transforming it into a miracle of beauty. While mystics released their souls from

the bondage of matter by meditation and philosophers found their keenest joy in the

profundities of thought, these master workmen achieved liberation from the Wheel of

Life and Death by learning to swing their hammers with the same rhythm that moves the

swirling forces of Cosmos. They venerated the Deity under the guise of a Great Architect

and Master Craftsman who was ever gouging rough ashlars from the fields of space and

truing them into universes. The Dionysians affirmed constructiveness to be the supreme

expression of the soul, and attuning themselves with the ever-visible constructive natural

processes going on around them, believed immortality could be achieved by thus

becoming a part of the creative agencies of Nature.

SOLOMON, THE PERSONIFICATION OF UNIVERSAL WISDOM

The name Solomon may be divided into three syllables, SOL-OM-ON, symbolizing light,

glory, and truth collectively and respectively. The Temple of Solomon is, therefore, first

of all "the House of Everlasting Light," its earthly symbol being the temple of stone on

the brow of Mount Moriah. According to the Mystery teachings, there are three Temples

of Solomon--as there are three Grand Masters, three Witnesses, and three Tabernacles of

the Transfiguration. The first temple is the Grand House of the Universe, in the midst of

which sits the sun (SOL) upon his golden throne. The twelve signs of the zodiac as

Fellow-Craftsmen gather around their shining lord. Three lights--the stellar, the solar, and

the lunar--illuminate this Cosmic Temple. Accompanied by his retinue of planets, moons,

and asteroids, this Divine King (SOLomon), whose glory no earthly monarch shall ever

equal, passes in stately pomp down the avenues of space. Whereas CHiram represents the

active physical light of the sun, SOLomon signifies its invisible but all-powerful, spiritual

and intellectual effulgency.

The second symbolic temple is the human body-the Little House made in the image of

the Great Universal House. "Know ye not," asked the Apostle Paul, "that ye are the

temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?" Freemasonry within a temple

of stone cannot be other than speculative, but Freemasonry within the living temple of the

body is operative. The third symbolic temple is the Soular House, an invisible structure,

the comprehension of which is a supreme Freemasonic arcanum. The mystery of this

intangible edifice is concealed under the allegory of the Soma Psuchicon, or Wedding

Garment described by St. Paul, the Robes of Glory of the High Priest of Israel, the

Yellow Robe of the Buddhist monk, and the Robe of Blue and Gold to which Albert Pike

refers in his Symbolism. The soul, constructed from an invisible fiery substance, a

flaming golden metal, is cast by the Master Workman, CHiram Abiff, into the mold of

clay (the physical body) and is called the Molten Sea. The temple of the human soul is

built by three Master Masons personifying Wisdom, Love, and Service, and when

constructed according to the Law of Life the spirit of God dwells in the Holy Place

thereof. The Soular Temple is the true Everlasting House, and he who can raise

Click to enlarge

THE MYSTERY OF THE MICROCOSM.

Redrawn from Cesariano's Edition of Vitruvius.

Herein is depicted the mysterious Word of Plato which was crucified in space before the foundation of the

world. The anonymous author of The Canon writes:

"The Logos or soul of the world, according to Plato, the Greek Hermes, and the Christ, according to the

Christian Gnostics, are all one and the same as the Hebrew Adam Kadmon, who is the second person of the

cabalistic triad. The Cyllenian Hermes, described by Hippolytus, so exactly resembles the lesser man found

in Cesariano's edition of Vitruvius, that they may be justifiably considered to be identical."

After relating the figure to Dionysus because of the vine leaves wound in the hair, the same writer

concludes: "Here we have clearly and distinctly a curious survival of the cosmic deity of Greece, copied

and disfigured by the crude draughtsmen of the Middle Ages, but faithfully preserved, and recognizable to

the last." Similar figures are to be found in Agrippa's De Occulta Philosophia. Like Cesariano's diagrams, however, the key given for their interpretation is most inadequate. Agrippa declares that, being a type of the lesser world, man contains in himself all numbers, measures, weights, motions, and elements. The secret

doctrine of Freemasonry, like that of the Dionysiac Architects, is concerned primarily with the effort to

measure or estimate philosophically the parts and proportions of the microcosm, so that by the knowledge

derived therefrom the supreme ambition of their craft might be realized--the creation of a perfect man.

p. 176

or cast it is a Master Mason indeed! The best-informed Masonic writers have realized

that Solomon's Temple is a representation in miniature of the Universal Temple.

Concerning this point, A. E. Waite, in A New Encyclopædia of Freemasonry, writes: "It is

macrocosmic in character, so that the Temple is a symbol of the universe, a type of

manifestation itself."

Solomon, the Spirit of Universal Illumination--mental, spiritual, moral, and physical--is

personified in the king of an earthly nation. While a great ruler by that name may have

built a temple, he who considers the story solely from its historical angle will never clear

away the rubbish that covers the secret vaults. The rubbish is interpolated matter in the

form of superficial symbols, allegories, and degrees which have no legitimate part in the

original Freemasonic Mysteries. Concerning the loss of the true esoteric key to Masonic

secrets, Albert Pike writes:

"No one journeys now 'from the high place of Cabaon to the threshing floor of Oman the

Yebusite,' nor has seen, 'his Master, clothed in blue and gold;' nor are apprentices and

Fellow-crafts any longer paid at their respective Columns; nor is the Master's working

tool the Tracing Board, nor does he use in his work 'Chalk, Charcoal, and an Earthen

Vessel,' nor does the Apprentice, becoming a Fellow Craft, pass from the square to the

compass; for the meanings of these phrases as symbols have long been lost."

According to the ancient Rabbins, Solomon was an initiate of the Mystery schools and

the temple which he built was actually a house of initiation containing amass of pagan

philosophic and phallic emblems. The pomegranates, the palm-headed columns, the

Pillars before the door, the Babylonian cherubim, and the arrangement of the chambers

and draperies all indicate the temple to have been patterned after the sanctuaries of Egypt

and Atlantis. Isaac Myer, in The Qabbalah, makes the following observation:

"The pseudo-Clement of Rome, writes: 'God made man male and female. The male is

Christ: the female, the Church.' The Qabbalists called the Holy Spirit, the mother, and the

Church of Israel, the Daughter. Solomon engraved on the walls of his Temple, likenesses

of the male and female principles, to adumbrate this mystery; such, it is said, were the

figures of the cherubim. This was, however, not in obedience to the words of the Thorah.

They were symbolical of the Upper, the spiritual, the former or maker, positive or male,

and the Lower, the passive, the negative or female, formed or made by the first."

Masonry came to Northern Africa and Asia Minor from the lost continent of Atlantis, not

under its present name but rather under the general designation Sun and Fire Worship.

The ancient Mysteries did not cease to exist when Christianity became the world's most

powerful religion. Great Pan did not die! Freemasonry is the proof of his survival. The

pre-Christian Mysteries simply assumed the symbolism of the new faith, perpetuating

through its emblems and allegories the same truths which had been the property of the

wise since the beginning of the world. There is no true explanation, therefore, for

Christian symbols save that which is concealed within pagan philosophy. Without the

mysterious keys carried by the hierophants of the Egyptian, Brahmin, and Persian cults

the gates of Wisdom cannot be opened. Consider with reverent spirit, therefore, the

sublime allegory of the Temple and its Builders, realizing that beneath its literal

interpretation lies hidden a Royal Secret.

According to the Talmudic legends, Solomon understood the mysteries of the Qabbalah.

He was also an alchemist and a necromancer, being able to control the dæmons, and from

them and other inhabitants of the invisible worlds he secured much of his wisdom. In his

translation of Clavicula Salomonis, or The Key of Solomon the King, a work presumably

setting forth the magical secrets gathered by Solomon and used by him in the conjuration

of spirits and which, according to Frank C. Higgins, contains many sidelights on Masonic

initiatory rituals, S. L. MacGregor-Mathers recognizes the probability that King Solomon

was a magician in the fullest sense of that word. "I see no reason to doubt," he affirms,

"the tradition which assigns the authorship of the 'Key' to King Solomon, for among

others Josephus, the Jewish historian, especially mentions the magical works attributed to

that monarch; this is confirmed by many Eastern traditions, and his magical skill is

frequently mentioned in the Arabian Nights."

Concerning Solomon's supernatural powers, Josephus writes in his Eighth Book of the

Antiquities of the Jews:

"Now the sagacity and wisdom which God had bestowed on Solomon was so great that

he exceeded the ancients, in so much that he was no way inferior to the Egyptians, who

are said to have been beyond all men in understanding; * * * God also enabled him to

learn that skill which expelled demons, which is a science useful and sanative to him. He

composed such incantations also by which distempers are alleviated. And he left behind

him the manner of using exorcisms, by which they drive away demons, so that they never

return; and this method of cure is of great force unto this day."

The mediæval alchemists were convinced that King Solomon understood the secret

processes of Hermes by means of which it was possible to multiply metals. Dr. Bacstrom

writes that the Universal Spirit (CHiram) assisted King Solomon to build his temple,

because Solomon being wise in the wisdom of alchemy knew how to control this

incorporeal essence and, setting it to work for him, caused the invisible universe to

supply him with vast amounts of gold and silver which most people believed were mined

by natural methods.

The mysteries of the Islamic faith are now in the keeping of the dervishes--men who,

renouncing worldliness, have withstood the test of a thousand and one days of

temptation. Jelal-ud-din, the great Persian Sufic poet and philosopher, is accredited with

having founded the Order of Mevlevi, or the "dancing dervishes," whose movements

exoterically signify the motions of the celestial bodies and esoterically result in the

establishment of a rhythm which stimulates the centers of spiritual consciousness within

the dancer's body.

"According to the mystical canon, there are always on earth a certain number of holy men

who are admitted to intimate communion with the Deity. The one who occupies the

highest position among his contemporaries is called the 'Axis' (Qūtb) or 'Pole' of his time.

* * * Subordinate to the Qūtb are two holy beings who bear the title of 'The Faithful

Ones,' and are assigned places on his right and left respectively. Below these is a

quartette of 'Intermediate Ones' (Evtād); and on successively lower planes ate five 'Lights'

(Envār), and seven 'Very Good' (Akhyār). The next rank is filled by forty 'Absent Ones'

(Rijal-i-ghaib), also termed 'Martyrs' (Shuheda). When an 'Axis' quits this earthly

existence, he is succeeded by the 'Faithful One' who has occupied the place at his right

hand. * * * For to these holy men, who also bear the collective titles of 'Lords of Souls,'

and 'Directors,' is committed a spiritual supremacy over mankind far exceeding the

temporal authority of earthly rulers." (See Mysticism and Magic in Turkey, by L. M. J.

Garnett.)

The Axis is a mysterious individual who, unknown and unsuspected, mingles with

mankind and who, according to tradition, has his favorite seat upon the roof of the Caaba.

J. P. Brown, in The Dervishes, gives a description of these "Master Souls."

FREEMASONRY'S PRICELESS HERITAGE

The sanctum sanctorum of Freemasonry is ornamented with the gnostic jewels of a

thousand ages; its rituals ring with the divinely inspired words of seers and sages. A

hundred religious have brought their gifts of wisdom to its altar; arts and sciences

unnumbered have contributed to its symbolism. Freemasonry is a world-wide university,

teaching the liberal arts and sciences of the soul to all who will hearken to its words. Its

chairs are seats of learning and its pillars uphold an arch of universal education. Its

trestleboards are inscribed with the eternal verities of all ages and upon those who

comprehend its sacred depths has dawned the realization that within the Freemasonic

Mysteries lie hidden the long-lost arcana sought by all peoples since the genesis of

human reason.

The philosophic power of Freemasonry lies in its symbols--its priceless heritage from the

Mystery schools of antiquity. In a letter to Robert Freke Gould, Albert Pike writes:

"It began to shape itself to my intellectual vision into something more imposing and

majestic, solemnly mysterious and grand. It seemed to me like the Pyramids in their

loneliness, in whose yet undiscovered chambers may be hidden, for the enlightenment of

coming generations, the sacred books of the Egyptians, so long lost to the world; like the

Sphynx half buried in the desert. In its symbolism, which and its spirit of brotherhood are

its essence, Freemasonry is more ancient than any of the world's living religions. It has

the symbols and doctrines which, older than himself, Zarathustra inculcated; and ii

seemed to me a spectacle sublime, yet pitiful--the ancient Faith of our ancestors holding

out to the world its symbols once so eloquent, and mutely and in vain asking for an

interpreter. And so I came at last to see that the true greatness and majesty of

Freemasonry consist in its proprietorship of these and its other symbols; and that its

symbolism is its soul."

Though the temples of Thebes and Karnak be now but majestic heaps of broken and

time-battered stone, the spirit: of Egyptian philosophy still marches triumphant through

the centuries. Though the rock-hewn sanctuaries of the ancient Brahmins be now deserted

and their carvings crumbled into dust, still the wisdom of the Vedas endures. Though the

oracles be silenced and the House of the Mysteries be now but rows of ghostly columns,

still shines the spiritual glory of Hellas with luster undiminished. Though Zoroaster,

Hermes, Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle are now but dim memories in a world once

rocked by the transcendency of their intellectual genius, still in the mystic temple of

Freemasonry these god-men live again in their words and symbols; and the candidate,

passing through the initiations, feels himself face to face with these illumined hierophants

of days long past.

p. 177

Mystic Christianity

THE true story of the life of Jesus of Nazareth has never been unfolded to the world,

either in the accepted Gospels or in the Apocrypha, although a few stray hints may be

found in some of the commentaries written by the ante-Nicene Fathers. The facts

concerning His identity and mission are among the priceless mysteries preserved to this

day in the secret vaults beneath the "Houses of the Brethren." To a few of the Knights

Templars, who were initiated into the arcana of the Druses, Nazarenes, Essenes,

Johannites, and other sects still inhabiting the remote and inaccessible fastnesses of the

Holy Land, part of the strange story was told. The knowledge of the Templars concerning

the early history of Christianity was undoubtedly one of the main reasons for their

persecution and final annihilation. The discrepancies in the writings of the early Church

Fathers not only are irreconcilable, but demonstrate beyond question that even during the

first five centuries after Christ these learned men had for the basis of their writings little

more substantial than folklore and hearsay. To the easy believer everything is possible

and there are no problems. The unemotional person in search of facts, however, is

confronted by a host of problems with uncertain factors, of which the following are

typical:

According to popular conception, Jesus was crucified during the thirty-third year of His

life and in the third year of His ministry following His baptism. About A.D. 180, St.

Irenæus, Bishop of Lyons, one of the most eminent of the ante-Nicene theologians, wrote

Against Heresies, an attack on the doctrines of the Gnostics. In this work Irenæus

declared upon the authority of the Apostles themselves that Jesus lived to old age. To

quote: "They, however, that they may establish their false opinion regarding that which is

written, 'to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,' maintain that He preached for one

year only, and then suffered in the twelfth month. [In speaking thus], they are forgetful of

their own disadvantage, destroying His whole work, and robbing Him of that age which

is both more necessary and more honourable than any other; that more advanced age, I

mean, during which also as a teacher He excelled all others. For how could He have had

His disciples, if He did not teach? And how could He have taught, unless He had reached

the age of a Master? For when He came to be baptised, He had not yet completed His

thirtieth year, but was beginning to be about thirty years of age (for thus Luke, who has

mentioned His years, has expressed it: 'Now Jesus was, as it were, beginning to be thirty

years old,' when He came to receive baptism); and, (according to these men,) He

preached only one year reckoning from His baptism. On completing His thirtieth year He

suffered, being in fact still a young man, and who had by no means attained to advanced

age. Now, that the first stage of early life embraces thirty years, and that this extends

onward to the fortieth year, every one will admit; but from the fortieth and fiftieth year a

man begins to decline towards old age, which Our Lord possessed while He still fulfilled

the office of a Teacher, even as the Gospel and all the elders testify; those who were

conversant in Asia with John, the disciple of the Lord, (affirming) that John conveyed to

them that information. And he remained among them up to the time of Trajan. Some of

them, moreover, saw not only John, but the other apostles also, and heard the very same

account from them, and bear testimony as to the'(validity of) the statement. Whom then

should we rather believe? Whether such men as these, or Ptolemæus, who never saw the

apostles, and who never even in his dreams attained to the slightest trace of an apostle?"

Commenting on the foregoing passage, Godfrey Higgins remarks that it has fortunately

escaped the hands of those destroyers who have attempted to render the Gospel narratives

consistent by deleting all such statements. He also notes that the doctrine of the

crucifixion was a vexata questio among Christians even during the second century. "The

evidence of Irenæus," he says, "cannot be touched. On every principle of sound criticism,

and of the doctrine of probabilities, it is unimpeachable."

It should further be noted that Irenæus prepared this statement to contradict another

apparently current in his time to the effect that the ministry of Jesus lasted but one year.

Of all the early Fathers, Irenæus, writing within eighty years after the death of St. John

the Evangelist, should have had reasonably accurate information. If the disciples

themselves related that Jesus lived to advanced age in the body, why has the mysterious

number 33 been arbitrarily chosen to symbolize the duration of His life? Were the

incidents in the life of Jesus purposely altered so that His actions would fit more closely

into the pattern established by the numerous Savior-Gods who preceded Him? That these

analogies were recognized and used as a leverage in converting the Greeks and Romans

is evident from a perusal of the writings of Justin Martyr, another second-century

authority. In his Apology, Justin addresses the pagans thus:

"And when we say also that the Word, who is the first-birth of God, was produced

without sexual union, and that He, Jesus Christ, Our Teacher, was crucified and died, and

rose again, and ascended into heaven, we propound nothing different from what you

believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of Jupiter. * * * And if we assert that the

Word of God was born of God in a peculiar manner, different from ordinary generation,

let this, as said above, be no extraordinary thing to you, who say that Mercury is the

angelic word of God. But if any one objects that He was crucified, in this also He is on a

par with those reputed sons of Jupiter of yours, who suffered as we have now

enumerated."

From this it is evident that the first missionaries of the Christian Church were far more

willing to admit the similarities between their faith and the faiths of the pagans than were

their successors in later centuries.

In an effort to solve some of the problems arising from any attempt to chronicle

accurately the life of Jesus, it has been suggested that there may have lived in Syria at

that time two or more religious teachers bearing the name Jesus, Jehoshua or Joshua, and

that the lives of these men may have been confused in the Gospel stories. In his Secret

Sects of Syria and the Lebanon, Bernard H. Springett, a Masonic author, quotes from an

early book, the name of which he was not at liberty to disclose because of its connection

with the ritual of a sect. The last part of his quotation is germane to the subject at hand:

"But Jehovah prospered the seed of the Essenians, in holiness and love, for many

generations. Then came the chief of the angels, according to the commandment of GOD,

to raise up an heir to the Voice of Jehovah. And, in four generations more, an heir was

born, and named Joshua, and he was the child of Joseph and Mara, devout worshippers of

Jehovah, who stood aloof from all other people save the Essenians. And this Joshua, in

Nazareth, reestablished Jehovah, and restored many of the lost rites and ceremonies. In

the thirty-sixth year of his age he was stoned to death in Jerusalem * * *"

Click to enlarge

THE ROUND TABLE OF KING ARTHUR.

From Jennings' The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries.

According to tradition, Arthur, when a boy of fifteen, was crowned King of Britain, in A.D. 516. Soon after

his ascension to the throne he founded the Order of the Knights of the Round Table at Windsor. Thereafter

the Knights met annually at Carleon, Winchester, or at Camelot, to celebrate Pentecost. From all parts of

Europe came the brave and the bold, seeking admission into this noble order of British knighthood.

Nobility, virtue, and valor were its requirements, and those possessing these qualities to a marked degree

were welcomed to King Arthur's court at Camelot. Having gathered the bravest and noblest Knights of

Europe about him, King Arthur chose twenty-four who excelled all the others in daring and integrity and

formed of them his Circle of the Round Table. According to legend, each of these Knights was so great in

dignity and power that none could occupy a more exalted seat than another, so when they gathered at the

table to celebrate the anniversary of their foundation it was necessary to use a round table that all might

occupy chairs of equal importance.

While it is probable that the Order of the Round Table had its distinctive rituals and symbols, the

knowledge of them has not survived the ages. Elias Ashmole, in his volume on the Order of the Garter,

inserted a double-page plate showing the insignia of all the orders of knighthood, the block set aside for the symbol of the Round Table being left blank. The chief reason for the loss of the symbolism of the Round

Table was the untimely death of King Arthur upon the field of Kamblan (A.D. 542) in the forty-first year of

his life. While he destroyed his bitter enemy, Mordred, in this famous battle, it cast him not only his own

life but the lives of nearly all his Knights of the Round Table, who died defending their commander.

p. 178

Within the last century several books have been published to supplement the meager

descriptions in the Gospels of Jesus and His ministry. In some instances these narratives

claim to be founded upon early manuscripts recently discovered; in others, upon direct

spiritual revelation. Some of these writings are highly plausible, while others are

incredible. There are persistent rumors that Jesus visited and studied in both Greece and

India, and that a coin struck in His honor in India during the first century has been

discovered. Early Christian records are known to exist in Tibet, and the monks of a

Buddhist monastery in Ceylon still preserve a record which indicates that Jesus sojourned

with them and became conversant with their philosophy.

Although early Christianity shows every evidence of Oriental influence, this is a subject

the modern church declines to discuss. If it is ever established beyond question that Jesus

was an initiate of the pagan Greek or Asiatic Mysteries, the effect upon the more

conservative members of the Christian faith is likely to be cataclysmic. If Jesus was God

incarnate, as the solemn councils of the church discovered, why is He referred to in the

New Testament as "called of God an high prim after the order of Melchizedek"? The

words "after the order" make Jesus one of a line or order of which there must have been

others of equal or even superior dignity. If the "Melchizedeks" were the divine or priestly

rulers of the nations of the earth before the inauguration of the system of temporal rulers,

then the statements attributed to St. Paul would indicate that Jesus either was one of these

"philosophic elect" or was attempting to reestablish their system of government. It will be

remembered that Melchizedek also performed the same ceremony of the drinking of wine

and the breaking of bread as did Jesus at the Last Supper.

George Faber declares the original name of Jesus was Jescua Hammassiah. Godfrey

Higgins has discovered two references, one in the Midrashjoholeth and the other in the

Abodazara (early Jewish commentaries on the Scriptures), to the effect that the surname

of Joseph's family was Panther, for in both of these works it is stated that a man was

healed "in the name of Jesus ben Panther." The name Panther establishes a direct

connection between Jesus and Bacchus--who was nursed by panthers and is sometimes

depicted riding either on one of these animals or in a chariot drawn by them. The skin of

the panther was also sacred in certain of the Egyptian initiatory ceremonials. The

monogram IHS, now interpreted to mean Iesus Hominum Salvator (Jesus Savior of Men),

is another direct link between the Christian and the Bacchic rites. IHS is derived from the

Greek ΥΗΣ, which, as its numerical value (608) signifies, is emblematic of the sun and

constituted the sacred and concealed name of Bacchus. (See The Celtic Druids by

Godfrey Higgins.) The question arises, Was early Roman Christianity confused with the

worship of Bacchus because of the numerous parallelisms in the two faiths? If the

affirmative can be proved, many hitherto incomprehensible enigmas of the New

Testament will be solved.

It is by no means improbable that Jesus Himself originally propounded as allegories the

cosmic activities which were later con fused with His own life. That the Χριστός,

Christos, represents the solar power reverenced by every nation of antiquity cannot be

controverted. If Jesus revealed the nature and purpose of this solar power under the name

and personality of Christos, thereby giving to this abstract power the attributes of a god-

man, He but followed a precedent set by all previous World-Teachers. This god-man,

thus endowed with all the qualities of Deity, signifies the latent divinity in every man.

Mortal man achieves deification only through at-one-ment with this divine Self. Union

with the immortal Self constitutes immortality, and he who finds his true Self is therefore

"saved." This Christos, or divine man in man, is man's real hope of salvation--the living

Mediator between abstract Deity and mortal humankind. As Atys, Adonis, Bacchus, and

Orpheus in all likelihood were originally illumined men who later were confused with the

symbolic personages whom they created as personifications of this divine power, so Jesus

has been confused with the Christos, or god-man, whose wonders He preached. Since the

Christos was the god-man imprisoned in every creature, it was the first duty of the initiate

to liberate, or "resurrect, " this Eternal One within himself. He who attained reunion with

his Christos was consequently termed a Christian, or Christened, man.

One of the most profound doctrines of the pagan philosophers concerned the Universal

Savior-God who lifted the souls of regenerated men to heaven through His own nature.

This concept was unquestionably the inspiration for the words attributed to Jesus: "I am

the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me." In an effort to

make a single person out of Jesus and His Christos, Christian writers have patched

together a doctrine which must be resolved back into its original constituents if the true

meaning of Christianity is to be rediscovered. In the Gospel narratives the Christos

represents the perfect man who, having passed through the various stages of the "World

Mystery" symbolized by the thirty-three years, ascends to the heaven sphere where he is

reunited with his Eternal Father. The story of Jesus as now preserved is--like the Masonic

story of Hiram Abiff--part of a secret initiatory ritualism belonging to the early Christian

and pagan Mysteries.

During the centuries just prior to the Christian Era, the secrets of the pagan Mysteries had

gradually fallen into the hands of the profane. To the student of comparative religion it is

evident that these secrets, gathered by a small group of faithful philosophers and mystics,

were reclothed in new symbolical garments and thus preserved for several centuries

under the name of Mystic Christianity. It is generally supposed that the Essenes were the

custodians of this knowledge and also the initiators and educators of Jesus. If so, Jesus

was undoubtedly initiated in the same temple of Melchizedek where Pythagoras had

studied six centuries before.

The Essenes--the most prominent of the early Syrian sects--were an order of pious men

and women who lived lives of asceticism, spending their days in simple labor and their

evenings in prayer. Josephus, the great Jewish historian, speaks of them in the highest

terms. "They teach the immortality of the soul," he says, "and esteem that the rewards of

righteousness are to be earnestly striven for." In another place he adds, "Yet is their

course of life better than that of other men and they entirely addict themselves to

husbandry. " The name Essenes is supposed to be derived from an ancient Syrian word

meaning "physician," and these kindly folk are believed to have held as their purpose of

existence the healing of the sick in mind, soul, and body. According to Edouard Schuré,

they had two principal communities, or centers, one in Egypt on the banks of Lake

Maoris, the other in Palestine at Engaddi, near the Dead Sea. Some authorities trace the

Essenes back to the schools of Samuel the Prophet, but most agree on either an Egyptian

or Oriental origin. Their methods of prayer, meditation, and fasting were not unlike those

of the holy men of the Far East. Membership in the Essene Order was possible only after

a year of probation. This Mystery school, like so many others, had three degrees, and

only a few candidates passed successfully through all. The Essenes were divided into two

distinct communities, one consisting of celibates and the other of members who were

married.

The Essenes never became merchants or entered into the commercial life of cities, but

maintained themselves by agriculture and the raising of sheep for wool; also by such

crafts as pottery and carpentry. In the Gospels and Apocrypha, Joseph, the father of Jesus,

is referred to as both a carpenter and a potter. In the Apocryphal Gospel of Thomas and

also that of Pseudo-Matthew, the child Jesus is described as making sparrows out of clay

which came to life and flew away when he clapped his hands. The Essenes were regarded

as among the better educated class of Jews and there are accounts of their having been

chosen as tutors for the children of Roman officers stationed in Syria. The fact that so

many artificers were listed among their number is responsible for the order's being

considered as a progenitor of modern Freemasonry. The symbols of the Essenes include a

number of builders' tools, and they were secretly engaged

Click to enlarge

THE GREAT GEORGE AND COLLAR OF THE GARTER.

From Ashmole's Order of the Garter.

The Order of the Garter was probably formed by Edward III in imitation of King Arthur's Knights of the

Round Table, which institution was hopelessly scattered after the battle of Kamblan. The popular story to

the effect that the Countess of Salisbury's garter was the original inspiration for the foundation of the order is untenable. The motto of the Order of the Carter is "Honi soit qui mal y pense" (Shamed be he who thinks evil of it). St. George is looked upon as the Patron of the order, for he typifies the higher nature of man

overcoming the dragon of his own lower nature. While St. George is supposed to have lived during the

third century, it is probable that he was a mythological personage borrowed from pagan mythology.

p. 179

in the erection of a spiritual and philosophical temple to serve as a dwelling place for the

living God.

Like the Gnostics, the Essenes were emanationists. One of their chief objects was the

reinterpretation of the Mosaic Law according to certain secret spiritual keys preserved by

them from the time of the founding of their order. It would thus follow that the Essenes

were Qabbalists and, like several other contemporary sects flourishing in Syria, were

awaiting the advent of the Messiah promised in the early Biblical writings. Joseph and

Mary, the parents of Jesus, are believed to have been members of the Essene Order.

Joseph was many years the senior of Mary. According to The Protevangelium, he was a

widower with grown sons, and in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew he refers to Mary as a

little child less in age than his own grandchildren. In her infancy Mary was dedicated to

the Lord, and the Apocryphal writings contain many accounts of miracles associated with

her early childhood. When she was twelve years old, the priests held counsel as to the

future of this child who had dedicated herself to the Lord, and the Jewish high priest,

bearing the breastplate, entered into the Holy of Holies, where an angel appeared to him,

saying, "Zacharias, go forth and summon the widowers of the people and let them take a

rod apiece and she shall be the wife of him to whom the Lord shall show a sign." Going

forth to meet the priests at the head of the widowers, Joseph collected the rods of all the

other men and gave them into the keeping of the priests. Now Joseph's rod was but half

as long as the others, and the priests on returning the rods to the widowers paid no

attention to Joseph's but left it behind in the Holy of Holies. When all the other widowers

had received back their wands, the priests awaited a sign from heaven, but none came.

Joseph, because of his advanced age, did not: ask for the return of his rod, for to him it

was inconceivable that he should be chosen. But an angel appeared to the high priest,

ordering him to give back the short rod which lay unnoticed in the Holy of Holies. As the

high priest handed the rod to Joseph, a white dove flew from the end of it and rested upon

the head of the aged carpenter, and to him was given the child.

The editor of The Sacred Books and Early Literature of the East calls attention to the

peculiar spirit with which the childhood of Jesus is treated in most of the Apocryphal

books of the New Testament, particularly in one work attributed to the doubting Thomas,

the earliest known Greek version of which dates from about A.D. 200: "The child Christ

is represented almost as an imp, cursing and destroying those who annoy him." This

Apocryphal work, calculated to inspire its readers with fear and trembling, was popular

during the Middle Ages because it was in full accord with the cruel and persecuting spirit

of mediæval Christianity. Like many other early sacred books, the book of Thomas was

fabricated for two closely allied purposes: first, to outshine the pagans in miracle

working; second, to inspire all unbelievers with the "fear of the Lord." Apocryphal

writings of this sort have no possible basis in fact. At one time an asset, the "miracles" of

Christianity have become its greatest liability. Supernatural phenomena, in a credulous

age interpolated to impress the ignorant, in this century have only achieved the alienation

of the intelligent.

In The Greek Gospel of Nicodemus it is declared that when Jesus was brought into the

presence of Pilate the standards borne by the Roman guards bowed their tops in homage

to him in spite of every effort made by the soldiers to prevent it. In The Letters of Pilate

the statement also appears that Cæsar, being wroth at Pilate for executing a just man,

ordered him to be decapitated. Praying for forgiveness, Pilate was visited by an angel of

the Lord, who reassured the Roman governor by promising him that all Christendom

should remember his name and that when Christ came the second time to judge His

people he (Pilate) should come before Him as His witness.

Stories like the foregoing represent the incrustations that have attached themselves to the

body of Christianity during the centuries. The popular mind itself has been the self-

appointed guardian and perpetuator of these legends, bitterly opposing every effort to

divest the faith of these questionable accumulations. While popular tradition often

contains certain basic elements of truth, these elements are usually distorted out of all

proportion. Thus, while the generalities of the story may be fundamentally true, the

details are hopelessly erroneous. Of truth as of beauty it may be said that it is most

adorned when unadorned. Through the mist of fantastic accounts which obscure the true

foundation of the Christian faith is faintly visible to the discerning few a great and noble

doctrine communicated to the world by a great and noble soul. Joseph and Mary, two

devout and holy-minded souls, consecrated to the service of God and dreaming of the

coming of a Messiah to serve Israel, obeyed the injunctions of the high priest of the

Essenes to prepare a body for the coming of a great soul. Thus of an immaculate

conception Jesus was born. By immaculate is meant clean, rather than supernatural.

Jesus was reared and educated by the Essenes and later initiated into the most profound

of their Mysteries. Like all great initiates, He must travel in an easterly direction, and the

silent years of His life no doubt were spent in familiarizing Himself with that secret

teaching later to be communicated by Him to the world. Having consummated the ascetic

practices of His order, He attained to the Christening. Having thus reunited Himself with

His own spiritual source, He then went forth in the name of the One who has been

crucified since before the worlds were and, gathering about Him disciples and apostles,

He instructed them in that secret teaching which had been lost--in part, at least--from the

doctrines of Israel. His fate is unknown, but in all probability He suffered that persecution

which is the lot of those who seek to reconstruct the ethical, philosophical, or religious

systems of their day.

To the multitudes Jesus spoke in parables; to His disciples He also spoke in parables,

though of a more exalted and philosophic nature. Voltaire said that Plato should have

been canonized by the Christian Church, for, being the first propounder of the Christos

mystery, he contributed more to its fundamental doctrines than any other single

individual. Jesus disclosed to His disciples that the lower world is under the control of a

great spiritual being which had fashioned it according to the will of the Eternal Father.

The mind of this great angel was both the mind of the world and also the worldly mind.

So that men should not die of worldliness the Eternal Father sent unto creation the eldest

and most exalted of His powers--the Divine Mind. This Divine Mind offered Itself as a

living sacrifice and was broken up and eaten by the world. Having given Its spirit and Its

body at a secret and sacred supper to the twelve manners of rational creatures, this Divine

Mind became a part of every living thing. Man was thereby enabled to use this power as a

bridge across which he might pass and attain immortality. He who lifted up his soul to

this Divine Mind and served It was righteous and, having attained righteousness,

liberated this Divine Mind, which thereupon returned again in glory to Its own divine

source. And because He had brought to them this knowledge, the disciples said one to

another: "Lo, He is Himself this Mind personified!"

THE ARTHURIAN CYCLE AND LEGEND OF THE HOLY GRAIL

According to legend, the body of the Christos (the Spiritual Law) was given into the

keeping of two men, of whom the Gospels make

Click to enlarge

JAKOB BÖHME, THE TEUTONIC THEOSOPHER.

From William Law's Translation of The Works of Jakob Böhme.

Jakob Böhme was born in the year 1575 in a village near Gorlitz, and died in Silesia in 1624. He had but

little schooling and was apprenticed at an early age to a shoemaker. He later became a journeyman

shoemaker, married and had four children One day while tending his master's shoe shop, a mysterious

stranger entered who while he seemed to possess but little of this world's goods, appeared to be most wise

and noble in spiritual attainment. The stranger asked the price of a pair of shoes, but young Böhme did not

dare to name a figure, for fear that he would displease his master. The stranger insisted and Böhme finally

placed a valuation which he was all that his master possibly could hope to secure for the shoes. The

stranger immediately bought them and departed. A short distance down the street the mysterious stranger

stopped and cried out in a loud voice, "Jakob, Jakob come forth." In amazement and fright, Böhme ran out of the house. The strange man fixed his yes upon the youth--great eyes which sparkled and seemed filled

with divine light. He took the boy's right hand and addressed him as follows--"Jakob, thou art little, but shalt be great, and become another Man, such a one as at whom the World shall wonder. Therefore be

pious, fear God, and reverence His Word. Read diligently the Holy Scriptures, wherein you have Comfort

and Instruction. For thou ust endure much Misery and Poverty, and suffer Persecution, but be courageous

and persevere, far God loves, and is gracious to thee." Deeply impressed by the prediction, Böhme became

ever more intense in his search for truth. At last his labors were reworded. For seven days he remained in a

mysterious condition during which time the mysteries of the invisible world were revealed to him. It has

been said of Jakob Böhme that he revealed to all mankind the deepest secrets of alchemy. He died

surrounded by his family, his last words being "Now I go hence into Paradise."

p. 180

but brief mention. These were Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, both devout men

who, though not listed among the disciples or apostles of the Christos, were of all men

chosen to be custodians of His sacred remains. Joseph of Arimathea was one of the

initiated brethren and is called by A. E. Waite, in his A New Encyclopædia of

Freemasonry, "the first bishop of Christendom." just as the temporal (or visible) power of

the Holy See was established by St. Peter(?), so the spiritual (or invisible) body of the

faith was entrusted to the "Secret Church of the Holy Grail" through apostolic succession

from Joseph of Arimathea, into whose keeping had been given the perpetual symbols of

the covenant--the ever-flowing cup and the bleeding spear.

Presumably obeying instructions of St. Philip, Joseph of Arimathea, carrying the sacred

relics, reached Britain after passing through many and varied hardships. Here a site was

allotted to him for the erection of a church, and in this manner Glastonbury Abbey was

founded. Joseph planted his staff in the earth and it took root, becoming a miraculous

thorn bush which blossomed twice a year and which is now called the Glastonbury thorn.

The end of the life of Joseph of Arimathea is unknown. By some it is believed that, like

Enoch, he was translated; by others, that he was buried in Glastonbury Abbey. Repeated

attempts have been made to find the Holy Grail, which many believe to have been hidden

in a crypt beneath the ancient abbey. The Glastonbury chalice recently discovered and by

the devout supposed to be the original Sangreal can scarcely be accepted as genuine by

the critical investigator. Beyond its inherent interest as a relic, like the famous Antioch

chalice it actually proves nothing when it is realized that practically little more was

known about the Christian Mysteries eighteen centuries ago than can be discovered

today.

The origin of the Grail myth, as of nearly every other element in the great drama, is

curiously elusive. Sufficient foundation for it may be found in the folklore of the British

Isles, which contains many accounts of magic cauldrons, kettles, cups, and drinking

horns. The earliest Grail legends describe the cup as a veritable horn of plenty. Its

contents were inexhaustible and those who served it never hungered or thirsted. One

account states that no matter how desperately ill a person might be he could not die

within eight days of beholding the cup. Some authorities believe the Holy Grail to be the

perpetuation of the holy cup used in the rites of Adonis and Atys. A communion cup or

chalice was used in several of the ancient Mysteries, and the god Bacchus is frequently

symbolized in the form of a vase, cup, or urn. In Nature worship the ever-flowing Grail

signifies the bounty of the harvest by which the life of man is sustained; like Mercury's

bottomless pitcher, it is the inexhaustible fountain of natural re source. From the evidence

at hand it would indeed be erroneous to ascribe a purely Christian origin to the Grail

symbolism.

In the Arthurian Cycle appears a strange and mysterious figure--Merlin, the magician. In

one of the legends concerning him it is declared that when Jesus was sent to liberate the

world from the bondage of evil, the Adversary determined to send an Antichrist to undo

His labors. The Devil therefore in the form of a horrible dragon overshadowed a young

woman who had taken refuge in sanctuary to escape the evil which had dcstroyed her

family. When Merlin, her child, was born he partook of the characteristics of his human

mother and demon father. Merlin, however, did not serve the powers of darkness but,

being converted to the true light, retained only two of the supernatural powers inherited

from his father: prophecy and miracle working. The story of Merlin's infernal father must

really be considered as an allegorical allusion to the fact that he was a "philosophical son"

of the serpent or dragon, a title applied to all initiates of the Mysteries, who thus

acknowledge Nature as their mortal mother and wisdom in the form of the serpent or

dragon as their immortal Father. Confusion of the dragon and serpent with the powers of

evil has resulted as an inevitable consequence from misinterpretation of the early chapters

of Genesis.

Arthur while an infant was given into the keeping of Merlin, the Mage, and in his youth

instructed by him in the secret doctrine and probably initiated into the deepest secrets of

natural magic. With Merlin's assistance, Arthur became the leading general of Britain, a

degree of dignity which has been confused with kingship. After Arthur had drawn the

sword of Branstock from the anvil and thus established his divine right to leadership,

Merlin further assisted him to secure from the Lady of the Lake the sacred sword

Excalibur. After the establishment of the Round Table, having fulfilled his duty, Merlin

disappeared, according to one account vanishing into the air, where he still exists as a

shadow communicating at will with mortals; according to another, retiring of his own

accord into a great stone vault which he sealed from within.

It is reasonably certain that many legends regarding Charlemagne were later associated

with Arthur, who is most famous for establishing the Order of the Round Table at

Winchester. Reliable information is not to be had concerning the ceremonies and

initiatory rituals of the "Table Round." In one story the Table was endowed with the

powers of expansion and contraction so that fifteen or fifteen hundred could be seated

around it, according to whatever need might arise. The most common accounts fix the

number of knights who could be seated at one time at the Round Table at either twelve or

twenty-four. The twelve signified the signs of the zodiac and also the apostles of Jesus.

The knights' names and also their heraldic arms were emblazoned upon their chairs.

When twenty-four are shown seated at the Table, each of the twelve signs of the zodiac is

divided into two parts--a light and a dark half--to signify the nocturnal and diurnal phases

of each sign. As each sign of the zodiac is ascending for two hours every day, so the

twenty-four knights represent the hours, the twenty-four elders before the throne in

Revelation, and twenty-four Persian deities who represent the spirits of the divisions of

the day. In the center of the Table was the symbolic rose of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus

Christ, the symbol of resurrection in that He "rose" from the dead. There was also a

mysterious empty seat called the Siege Perilous in which none might sit except he who

was successful in his quest for the Holy Grad.

In the personality of Arthur is to be found a new form of the ever-recurrent cosmic myth.

The prince of Britain is the sun, his knights are the zodiac, and his flashing sword may be

the sun's ray with which he fights and vanquishes the dragons of darkness or it may

represent the earth's axis. Arthur's Round Table is the universe; the Siege Perilous the

throne of the perfect man. In its terrestrial sense, Arthur was the Grand Master of a secret

Christian-Masonic brotherhood of philosophic mystics who termed themselves Knights.

Arthur received the exalted position of Grand Master of these Knights because he had

faithfully accomplished the withdrawal of the sword (spirit) from the anvil of the base

metals (his lower nature). As invariably happens, the historical Arthur soon was confused

with the allegories and myths of his order until now the two are inseparable. After

Arthur's death on the field of Kamblan his Mysteries ceased, and esoterically he was

borne away on a black barge, as is so beautifully described by Tennyson in his Morte

d'Arthur. The great sword Excalibur was also cast back into the waters of eternity--all of

which is a vivid portrayal of the descent of cosmic night at the end of the Day of

Universal Manifestation. The body of the historical Arthur was probably interred at

Glastonbury Abbey, a building closely identified with the mystic rites of both the Grail

and the Arthurian Cycle.

The mediæval Rosicrucians were undoubtedly in possession of the true secret of the

Arthurian Cycle and the Grail legend, much of their symbolism having been incorporated

into that order. Though the most obvious of all keys to the Christos mystery, the Grail

legend has received the least consideration.

Click to enlarge

THE NIMBUS AND AUREOLE IN SYMBOLISM.

From Audsley's Handbook of Christian Symbolism.

The golden halos around the heads of pagan gods and Christian saints refer both to their being bathed in the

glory of the sun and also to the fact that a spiritual sun within their own natures is radiating its glow-ray and surrounding them with celestial splendor. Whenever the nimbus is composed of straight radiant lines, it is

solar in significance; whenever curved lines are used for beams, it partakes lunar nature; whenever they are

united, it symbolizes a, harmonious blending of both principles. The circular nimbus is solar and masculine,

while the lozenge-shaped nimbus, or vesica piscis, is lunar and feminine. The same symbolism is preserved

in the circular and lozenge-shaped windows of cathedrals. There is a complete science contained in the

shape, color, and adornments of the halos of saints and martyrs. A plain golden ring usually surrounds the

head of a canonized saint, while God the Father and God the Son have a far more ornate aureole, usually

adorned with a St. George Cross, a flowered cross, or a lilied cross, with only three of the arms visible.

p. 181

The Cross and the Crucifixion

ONE of the most interesting legends concerning the cross is that preserved in Aurea

Legenda, by Jacobus de Vorgaine. The Story is to the effect that Adam, feeling the end of

his life was near, entreated his son Seth to make a pilgrimage to the Garden of Eden and

secure from the angel on guard at the entrance the Oil of Mercy which God had promised

mankind. Seth did not know the way; but his father told him it was in an eastward

direction, and the path would be easy to follow, for when Adam and Eve were banished

from the Garden of the Lord, upon the path which their feet had trod the grass had never

grown.

Seth, following the directions of his father, discovered the Garden of Eden without

difficulty. The angel who guarded the gate permitted him to enter, and in the midst of the

garden Seth beheld a great tree, the branches of which reached up to heaven. The tree was

in the form of a cross, and stood on the brink of a precipice which led downward into the

depths of hell. Among the roots of the tree he saw the body of his brother Cain, held

prisoner by the entwining limbs. The angel refused to give Seth the Oil of Mercy, but

presented him instead with three seeds from the Tree of Life (some say the Tree of

Knowledge). With these Seth returned to his father, who was so overjoyed that he did not

desire to live longer. Three days later he died, and the three seeds were buried in his

mouth, as the angel had instructed. The seeds became a sapling with three trunks in one,

which absorbed into itself the blood of Adam, so that the life of Adam was in the tree.

Noah dug up this tree by the roots and took it with him into the Ark. After the waters

subsided, he buried the skull of Adam under Mount Calvary, and planted the tree on the

summit of Mount Lebanon.

Moses beheld a visionary being in the midst of this tree (the burning bush) and from it cut

the magical rod with which he was able to bring water out of a stone. But because he

failed to call upon the Lord the second time he struck the rock, he was not permitted to

carry the sacred staff into the Promised Land; so he planted it in the hills of Moab. After

much searching, King David discovered the tree; and his son, Solomon, tried to use it for

a pillar in his Temple, but his carpenters could not cut it so that it would fit; it was always

either too long or too short. At last, disgusted, they cast it aside and used it for a bridge to

connect Jerusalem with the surrounding hills. When the Queen of Sheba came to visit

King Solomon she was expected to walk across this bridge. Instead, when she beheld the

tree, she refused to put her foot upon it, but, after kneeling and praying, removed her

sandals and forded the stream. This so impressed King Solomon that he ordered the log to

be overlaid with golden places and placed above the door of his Temple. There it

remained until his covetous grandson stole the gold, and buried the tree so that the crime

would not be discovered.

From the ground where the tree was buried there immediately bubbled forth a spring of

water, which became known as Bethesda. To it the sick from all Syria came to be healed.

The angel of the pool became the guardian of the tree, and it remained undisturbed for

many years. Eventually the log floated to the surface and was used as a bridge again, this

time between Calvary and Jerusalem; and over it Jesus passed to be crucified. There was

no wood on Calvary; so the tree was cut into two parts to serve as the cross upon which

the Son of Man was crucified. The cross was set up at the very spot where the skull of

Adam had been buried. Later, when the cross was discovered by the Empress Helena, the

wood was found to be of four different varieties contained in one tree (representing the

elements), and thereafter the cross continued to heal all the sick who were permitted to

touch it.

The prevalent idea that the reverence for the cross is limited to the Christian world is

disproved by even the most superficial investigation of its place in religious symbolism.

The early Christians used every means possible to conceal the pagan origin of their

symbols, doctrines, and rituals. They either destroyed the sacred books of other peoples

among whom they settled, or made them inaccessible to students of comparative

philosophy, apparently believing that in this way they could stamp out all record of the

pre-Christian origin of their doctrines. In some cases the writings of various ancient

authors were tampered with, passages of a compromising nature being removed or

foreign material interpolated. The supposedly spurious passage in Josephus concerning

Jesus is an example adduced to illustrate this proclivity.

THE LOST LIBRARIES OF ALEXANDRIA

Prior to the Christian Era seven hundred thousand of the most valuable books, written

upon parchment, papyrus, vellum, and wax, and also tablets of stone, terra cotta, and

wood, were gathered from all parts of the ancient world and housed in Alexandria, in

buildings specially prepared for the purpose. This magnificent repository of knowledge

was destroyed by a series of three fires. The parts that escaped the conflagration lighted

by Cæsar to destroy the fleet in the harbor were destroyed about A.D. 389 by the

Christians in obedience to the edict of Theodosius, who had ordered the destruction of the

Serapeum, a building sacred to Serapis in which the volumes were kept. This

conflagration is supposed to have destroyed the library that Marcus Antonius had

presented to Cleopatra to compensate in part for that burned in the fire of the year 51.

Concerning this, H. P. Blavatsky, in Isis Unveiled, has written: "They [the Rabbis of

Palestine and the wise men] say that not all the rolls and manuscripts, reported in history

to have been burned by Cæsar, by the Christian mob, in 389, and by the Arab General

Amru, perished as it is commonly believed; and the story they tell is the following: At the

time of the contest for the throne, in 51 B. C., between Cleopatra and her brother

Dionysius Ptolemy, the Bruckion, which contained over seven hundred thousand rolls all

bound in wood and fire-proof parchment, was undergoing repairs and a great portion of

the original manuscripts, considered among the most precious, and which were not

duplicated, were stored away in the house of one of the librarians. * * *Several hours

passed between the burning of the fleet, set on fire by Cæsar's order, and the moment

when the first buildings situated near the harbor caught fire in their turn; and * * * the

librarians, aided by several hundred slaves attached to the museum, succeeded in saving

the most precious of the rolls." In all probability, the books which were saved lie buried

either in Egypt or in India, and until they are discovered the modern world must remain

in ignorance concerning many great philosophical and mystical truths. The ancient world

more clearly understood these missing links--the continuity of the pagan Mysteries in

Christianity.

THE CROSS IN PAGAN SYMBOLISM

In his article on the Cross and Crucifixion in the Encyclopædia Britannica, Thomas

Macall Fallow casts much light on the antiquity of this ideograph. "The use of the cross

as a religious symbol in pre-Christian times, and among non-Christian peoples, may

Click to enlarge

HISTORY OF THE HOLY CROSS.

From Berjeau's History of the Holy Cross.

(1) Adam directing Seth how to reach the Garden of Eden. (2) Seth placing the three seeds from the Tree of Life under the tongue of the dead Adam. (3) The Queen of Sheba, refusing to place her feet upon the sacred

tree, forded the stream. (4) Placing the sacred tree over the door of Solomon's Temple. (5) The crucifixion

of Christ upon a cross made from the wood of the holy tree. (6) Distinguishing the true cross from the other

two by testing its power to raise a corpse to life.

p. 182

probably be regarded as almost universal, and in very many cases it was connected with

some form of nature worship."

Not only is the cross itself a familiar object in the art of all nations, but the veneration for

it is an essential part of the religious life of the greater part of humanity. It is a common

symbol among the American Indians--North, Central, and South. William W. Seymour

states: "The Aztec goddess of rain bore a cross in her hand, and the Toltecs claimed that

their deity, Quetzalcoatl, taught them the sign and ritual of the cross, hence his staff, or

sceptre of power, resembled a crosier, and his mantle was covered with red crosses." (The

Cross in Tradition, History and Art.)

The cross is also highly revered by the Japanese and Chinese. To the Pythagoreans the

most sacred of all numbers was the 10, the symbol of which is an X, or cross. In both the

Japanese and Chinese languages the character of the number 10 is a cross. The Buddhist

wheel of life is composed of two crosses superimposed, and its eight points are still

preserved to Christendom in the peculiarly formed cross of the Knights Templars, which

is essentially Buddhistic. India has preserved the cross, not only in its carvings and

paintings, but also in its architectonics; a great number of its temples--like the churches

and cathedrals of Christendom--are raised from cruciform foundations.

On the mandalas of the Tibetans, heaven is laid out in the form of a cross, with a demon

king at each of the four gates. A remarkable cross of great antiquity was discovered in the

island caves of Elephanta in the harbor of Bombay. Crosses of various kinds were

favorite motifs in the art of Chaldea, Phœnicia, Egypt, and Assyria. The initiates of the

Eleusinian Mysteries of Greece were given a cross which they suspended about their

necks on a chain, or cord, at the time of initiation. To the Rosicrucians, Alchemists, and

Illuminati, the cross was the symbol of light, because each of the three letters L V X is

derived from some part of the cross.

THE TAU CROSS

There are three distinct forms of the cross. The first is called the TAU (more correctly the

TAV). It closely resembles the modern letter T, consisting of a horizontal bar resting on a

vertical column, the two arms being of equal length. An oak tree cut off some feet above

the ground and its upper part laid across the lower in this form was the symbol of the

Druid god Hu. It is suspected that this symbol originated among the Egyptians from the

spread of the horns of a bull or ram (Taurus or Aries) and the vertical line of its face. This

is sometimes designated as the hammer cross, because if held by its vertical base it is not

unlike a mallet or gavel. In one of the Qabbalistic Masonic legends, CHiram Abiff is

given a hammer in the form of a TAU by his ancestor, Tubal-cain. The TAU cross is

preserved to modern Masonry under the symbol of the T square. This appears to be the

oldest form of the cross extant.

The TAU cross was inscribed on the forehead of every person admitted into the

Mysteries of Mithras. When a king was initiated into the Egyptian Mysteries, the TAU

was placed against his lips. It was tattooed upon the bodies of the candidates in some of

the American Indian Mysteries. To the Qabbalist, the TAU stood for heaven and the

Pythagorean tetractys. The Caduceus of Hermes was an outgrowth of the TAU cross.

(See Albert Pike.)

THE CRUX ANSATA

The second type was that of a T, or TAU, cross surmounted by a circle, often

foreshortened to the form of an upright oval. This was called by the ancients the Crux

Ansata, or the cross of life . It was the key to the Mysteries of antiquity and it probably

gave rise to the more modern story of St. Peter's golden key to heaven. In the Mysteries

of Egypt the candidate passed through all forms of actual and imaginary dangers, holding

above his head the Crux Ansata, before which the powers of darkness fell back abashed.

The student is reminded of the words In hoc signo vinces. The TAU form of the cross is

not unlike the seal of Venus, as Richard Payne Knight has noted. He states: "The cross in

this form is sometimes observable on coins, and several of them were found in a temple

of Serapis [the Serapeum], demolished at the general destruction of those edifices by the

Emperor Theodosius, and were said by the Christian antiquaries of that time to signify

the future life."

Augustus Le Plongeon, in his Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayas and Quiches, notes

that the Crux Ansata, which he calls The Key to the Nile and the Symbol of Symbols,

either in its complete form or as a simple TAU, was to be seen adorning the breasts of

statues and bas-reliefs at Palenque, Copan, and throughout Central America. He notes

that it was always associated with water; that among the Babylonians it was the emblem

of the water gods; among the Scandinavians, of heaven and immortality; and among the

Mayas, of rejuvenation and freedom from physical suffering.

Concerning the association of this symbol with the waters of life, Count Goblet

d'Alviella, in his Migration of Symbols, calls attention to the fact that an instrument

resembling the Crux Ansata and called the Nilometer was used by the ancient Egyptians

for measuring and regulating the inundations of the river Nile. It is probable that this

relationship to the Nile caused it to be considered the symbol of life, for Egypt depended

entirely upon the inundations of this river for the irrigation necessary to insure sufficient

crops. In the papyrus scrolls the Crux Ansata is shown issuing from the mouths of

Egyptian kings when they pardoned enemies, and it was buried with them to signify the

immortality of the soul. It was carried by many of the gods and goddesses and apparently

signified their divine benevolence and life-giving power. The Cairo Museum contains a

magnificent collection of crosses of many shapes, sizes, and designs, proving that they

were a common symbol among the Egyptians.

THE ROMAN AND GREEK CATHOLIC CROSSES

The third form of the cross is the familiar Roman or Greek type, which is closely

associated with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, although it is improbable that the cross

used resembled its more familiar modern form. There are unlimited sub-varieties of

crosses, differing in the relative proportions of their vertical and horizontal sections.

Among the secret orders of different generations we find compounded crosses, such as

the triple TAU in the Royal Arch of Freemasonry and the double and triple crosses of

both Masonic and Roman Catholic symbolism.

To the Christian the cross has a twofold significance. First, it is the symbol of the death

of his Redeemer, through whose martyrdom he feels that he partakes of the glory of God;

secondly, it is the symbol of humility, patience, and the burden of life. It is interesting

that the cross should be both a symbol of life and a symbol of death. Many nations deeply

considered the astronomical aspect of religion, and it is probable that the Persians,

Greeks, and Hindus looked upon the cross as a symbol of the equinoxes and the solstices,

in the belief that at certain seasons of the year the sun was symbolically crucified upon

these imaginary celestial angles.

The fact that so many nations have regarded their Savior as a personification of the sun

globe is convincing evidence that the cross must exist as an astronomical element in

pagan allegory. Augustus Le Plongeon believed that the veneration for the cross was

partly due to the rising of a constellation called the Southern Cross, which immediately

preceded the annual rains, and as the natives of those latitudes relied wholly upon these

rains to raise their crops, they viewed the cross as an annual promise of the approaching

storms, which to them meant life.

There are four basic elements (according to both ancient philosophy and modern

science), and the ancients represented them by the four arms of the cross, placing at the

end of each arm a mysterious Qabbalistic creature to symbolize the power of one of these

elements. Thus, they symbolized the element of earth by a bull; water by a scorpion, a

serpent, or an eagle; fire by a lion; and air by a human head surrounded by wings. It is

significant that the four letters inscribed upon parchment (some say wood) and fastened

to the top of the cross at the time of the crucifixion should be the first letters of four

Hebrew words which stand for the four elements: "Iammin, the sea or water; Nour, fire;

Rouach, the air; and Iebeschah, the dry earth." (See Morals and Dogma, by Albeit Pike.)

That a cross can be formed by opening or unfolding the surfaces of a cube has caused that

symbol to be associated with the earth. Though a cross within a circle has long been

regarded as a sign of the planet Earth, it should really be considered as the symbol of the

composite element earth, since it is composed of the four triangles of the elements. For

thousands of years the cross has been identified with the plan of salvation for humanity.

The elements--salt, sulphur, mercury, and Azoth--used in making the Philosopher's Scone

in Alchemy, were often symbolized by a cross. The cross of the four cardinal angles also

had its secret significance, and Masonic parties of three still go forth to the four cardinal

points of the compass in search of the Lost Word.

The material of which the cross was formed was looked upon as being an essential

element in its symbolism. Thus, a golden cross symbolized illumination; a silver cross,

purification; a cross of base metals, humiliation; a cross of wood, aspiration. The fact that

Click to enlarge

THE EASTER ISLAND FIGURE SHOWING CRUX ANSATA ON REVERSE

That the Crux Ansata migrated to many parts of the earth is proved by the fact that it was sculptured upon

the back of at least one of the mysterious stone figures found on Easter Island in the south Pacific. The

statue in question--one of the smallest in the group--was brought to London by a sailing ship, and is now in

the British Museum; the Crux Ansata on the reverse side is plainly visible.

p. 183

among many nations it was customary to spread the arms in prayer has influenced the

symbolism of the cross, which, because of its shape, has come to be regarded as

emblematic of the human body. The four major divisions of the human structure--bones,

muscles, nerves, and arteries--are considered to have contributed to the symbolism of the

cross. This is especially due to the fact that the spinal nerves cross at the base of the

spine, and is a reminder that "Our Lord was crucified also in Egypt."

Man has four vehicles (or mediums) of expression by means of which the spiritual Ego

contacts the external universe: the physical nature, the vital nature, the emotional nature,

and the mental nature. Each of these partakes in principle of one of the primary elements,

and the four creatures assigned to them by the Qabbalists caused the cross to be symbolic

of the compound nature of man.

THE CRUCIFIXION--A COSMIC ALLEGORY

Saviors unnumbered have died for the sins of man and by the hands of man, and through

their deaths have interceded in heaven for the souls of their executioners. The martyrdom

of the God-Man and the redemption of the world through His blood has been an essential

tenet of many great religions. Nearly all these stories can be traced to sun worship, for the

glorious orb of day is the Savior who dies annually for every creature within his universe,

but year after year rises again victorious from the tomb of winter. Without doubt the

doctrine of the crucifixion is based upon the secret traditions of the Ancient Wisdom; it is

a constant reminder that the divine nature of man is perpetually crucified upon the animal

organism. Certain of the pagan Mysteries included in the ceremony of initiation the

crucifixion of the candidate upon a cross, or the laying of his body upon a cruciform altar.

It has been claimed that Apollonius of Tyana (the Antichrist) was initiated into the

Arcanum of Egypt in the Great Pyramid, where he hung upon a cross until unconscious

and was then laid in the tomb (the coffer) for three days. While his body was

unconscious, his soul was thought to pass into the realms of the immortals (the place of

death) After it had vanquished death (by recognizing that life is eternal) it returned again

to the body, which then rose from the coffer, after which he was hailed as a brother by the

priests, who believed that he had returned from the land of the dead. This concept was, in

substance, the teaching of the Mysteries.

THE CRUCIFIED SAVIORS

The list of the deathless mortals who suffered for man that he might receive the boon of

eternal life is an imposing one. Among those connected historically or allegorically with

a crucifixion are Prometheus, Adonis, Apollo, Arys, Bacchus, Buddha, Christna, Horus,

Indra, Ixion, Mithras, Osiris, Pythagoras, Quetzalcoatl, Semiramis, and Jupiter.

According to the fragmentary accounts extant, all these heroes gave their lives to the

service of humanity and, with one or two exceptions, died as martyrs for the cause of

human progress. In many mysterious ways the manner of their death has been designedly

concealed, but it is possible that most of them were crucified upon a cross or tree. The

first friend of man, the immortal Prometheus, was crucified on the pinnacle of Mount

Caucasus, and a vulture was placed over his liver to torment him throughout eternity by

clawing and rending his flesh with its talons. Prometheus disobeyed the edict of Zeus by

bringing fire and immortality to man, so for man he suffered until the coming of Hercules

released him from his ages of torment.

Concerning the crucifixion of the Persian Mithras, J. P. Lundy has written: "Dupuis tells

us that Mithra was put to death by crucifixion, and rose again on the 25th of March. In

the Persian Mysteries the body of a young man, apparently dead, was exhibited, which

was feigned to be restored to life. By his sufferings he was believed to have worked their

salvation, and on this account he was called their Savior. His priests watched his tomb to

the midnight of the vigil of the 25th of March, with loud cries, and in darkness; when all

at once the light burst forth from all parts, the priest cried, Rejoice, O sacred initiated,

your God is risen. His death, his pains, and sufferings, have worked your salvation." (See

Monumental Christianity.)

In some cases, as in that of the Buddha, the crucifixion mythos must be taken in an

allegorical rather than a literal sense, for the manner of his death has been recorded by his

own disciples in the Book of the Great Decease. However, the mere fact that the

symbolic reference to death upon a tree has been associated with these heroes is sufficient

to prove the universality of the crucifixion story.

The East Indian equivalent of Christ is the immortal Christna, who, sitting in the forest

playing his flute, charmed the birds and beasts by his music. It is supposed that this

divinely inspired Savior of humanity was crucified upon a tree by his enemies, but great

care has been taken to destroy any evidence pointing in that direction. Louis Jacolliot, in

his book The Bible in India, thus describes the death of Christna: "Christna understood

that the hour had come for him to quit the earth, and return to the bosom of him who had

sent him. Forbidding his disciples to follow him, he went, one day, to make his ablutions

on the banks of the Ganges * * *. Arriving at the sacred river, he plunged himself three

times therein, then, kneeling, and looking to heaven, he prayed, expecting death. In this

position he was pierced with arrows by one of those whose crimes he had unveiled, and

who, hearing of his journey to the Ganges, had, with generation. a strong troop, followed

with the design of assassinating him * * *. The body of the God-man was suspended to

the branches of a tree by his murderer, that it might become the prey of vultures. News of

the death having spread, the people came in a crowd conducted by Ardjouna, the dearest

of the disciples of Christna, to recover his sacred remains. But the mortal frame of the

redeemer had disappeared--no doubt it had regained the celestial abodes * * * and the

tree to which it had been attached had become suddenly covered with great red flowers

and diffused around it the sweetest perfume." Other accounts of the death of Christna

declare that he was tied to a cross-shaped tree before the arrows were aimed at him.

The existence in Moor's The Hindu Pantheon of a plate of Christna with nail wounds in

his hands and feet, and a plate in Inman's Ancient Faiths showing an Oriental deity with

what might well be a nail hole in one of his feet, should be sufficient motive for further

investigation of this subject by those of unbiased minds. Concerning the startling

discoveries which can be made along these lines, J. P. Lundy in his Monumental

Christianity presents the following information: "Where did the Persians get their notion

of this prophecy as thus interpreted respecting Christ, and His saving mercy and love

displayed on the cross? Both by symbol and actual crucifix we see it on all their

monuments. If it came from India, how did it get there, except from the one common and

original centre of all primitive and pure religion? There is a most extraordinary plate,

illustrative of the whole subject, which representation I believe to be anterior to

Christianity. It is copied from Moor's Hindu Pantheon, not as a curiosity, but as a most

singular monument of the crucifixion. I do not venture to give it a name, other than that

of a crucifixion in space. * * * Can it be the Victim-Man, or the Priest and Victim both in

one, of the Hindu mythology, who offered himself a sacrifice before the worlds were?

Can it be Plato's second God who impressed himself on the universe in the form of the

cross? Or is it his divine man who would be scourged, tormented, fettered, have his eyes

burnt out; and lastly, having suffered all manner of evils, would be crucified? Plato

learned his theology in Egypt and the East, and must have known of the crucifixion of

Krishna, Buddha, Mithra [et al]. At any rate, the religion of India had its mythical

crucified victim long anterior to Christianity,

Click to enlarge

THE TAU CROSS.

The TAU Cross was the sign which the Lord told the people of Jerusalem to mark on their foreheads, as

related by the Prophet Ezekiel. It was also placed as a symbol of liberation upon those charged with crimes

but acquitted.

Click to enlarge

THE CRUX ANSATA.

Both the cross and the circle were phallic symbols, for the ancient world venerated the generative powers

of Nature as being expressive of the creative attributes of the Deity. The Crux Ansata, by combining the

masculine TAU with the feminine oval, exemplified the principles of generation.

Click to enlarge

APOLLONIUS OF TYANA.

From Historia Deorum Fatidicorum.

Concerning Apollonius and his remarkable Powers, Francis Barrett, in his Biographia Antiqua, after

describing how Apollonius quelled a riot without speaking a word, continues: "He traveled much, professed himself a legislator; understood all languages, without having learned them; he had the surprising faculty of

knowing what was transacted at an immense distance, and at the time the Emperor Domitian was stabbed,

Apollonius being at a vast distance and standing in the market-place of the city, exclaimed, 'Strike! strike!--

'tis time, the tyrant is no more.' He understood the language of birds; he condemned dancing and other

diversions of that sort. he recommended charity and piety; he traveled over almost all the countries of the

world; and he died at a very great age."

p. 184

as a type of the real one [Pro Deo et Ecclesia!], and I am inclined to think that we have it

in this remarkable plate."

The modern world has been misled in its attitude towards the so-called pagan deities, and

has come to view them in a light entirely different from their true characters and

meanings. The ridicule and slander heaped by Christendom upon Christna and Bacchus

are excellent examples of the persecution of immortal principles by those who have

utterly failed to sense the secret meaning of the allegories. Who was the crucified man of

Greece, concerning whom vague rumors have been afloat? Higgins thinks it was

Pythagoras, the true story of whose death was suppressed by early Christian authors

because it conflicted with their teachings. Was it true also that the Roman legionaries

carried on the field of battle standards upon which were crosses bearing the crucified Sun

Man?

THE CRUCIFIXION OF QUETZALCOATL

One of the most remarkable of the crucified World Saviors is the Central American god

of the winds, or the Sun, Quetzalcoatl, concerning whose activities great secrecy was

maintained by the Indian priests of Mexico and Central America. This strange immortal,

whose name means feathered snake, appears to have come out of the sea, bringing with

him a mysterious cross. On his garments were embellished clouds and red crosses. In his

honor, great serpents carved from stone were placed in different parts of Mexico.

The cross of Quetzalcoatl became a sacred symbol among the Mayas, and according to

available records the Maya Indian angels had crosses of various pigments painted on their

foreheads. Similar crosses were placed over the eyes of those initiated into their

Mysteries. When Cortez arrived in Mexico, he brought with him the cross. Recognizing

this, the natives believed that he was Quetzalcoatl returned, for the latter had promised to

come back in the infinite future and redeem his people.

In Anacalypsis, Godfrey Higgins throws some light on the cross and its symbolism in

America: "The Incas had a cross of very fine marble, or beautiful jasper, highly polished,

of one piece, three-fourths of an ell in length, and three fingers in width and thickness. It

was kept in a sacred chamber of a palace, and held in great veneration. The Spaniards

enriched this cross with gold and jewels, and placed it in the cathedral of Cuzco. Mexican

temples are in the form of a cross, and face the four cardinal points. Quexalcoatl is

represented in the paintings of the Codex Borgianus nailed to the cross. Sometimes even

the two thieves are there crucified with him. In Vol. II. plate 75, the God is crucified in

the Heavens, in a circle of nineteen figures, the number of the Metonic cycle. A serpent is

depriving him of the organs of generation. In the Codex Borgianus, (pp. 4, 72, 73, 75,)

the Mexican God is represented crucified and nailed to the cross, and in another place

hanging to it, with a cross in his hands. And in one instance, where the figure is not

merely outlined, the cross is red, the clothes are coloured, and the face and hands quite

black. If this was the Christianity of the German Nestorius, how came he to teach that the

crucified Savior was black? The name of the God who was crucified was Quexalcoatl.

The crucifixion of the Word in space, the crucifixion of the dove often seen in religious

symbolism--both of these are reminders of pagan overshadowing. The fact that a cross is

formed by the spread wings of a bird in relation to its body is no doubt one of the reasons

why the Egyptians used a bird to symbolize the immortal nature of man, and often show

it hovering over the mummified body of the dead and carrying in one of its claws the sign

of life and in the other the sign of breath.

THE NAILS OF THE PASSION

The three nails of the Passion have found their way into the symbolism of many races and

faiths. There are many legends concerning these nails. One of these is to the effect that

originally there were four nails, but one was dematerialized by a Hebrew Qabbalist and

magician just as they were about to drive it through the foot of the Master. Hence it was

necessary to cross the feet. Another legend relates that one of the nails was hammered

into a crown and that it still exists as the imperial diadem of a European house. Still

another story has it that the bit on the bridle of Constantine's horse was a Passion nail. It

is improbable, however, that the nails were made of iron, for at that time it was

customary to use sharpened wooden pegs. Hargrave Jennings, in his Rosicrucians, Their

Rites and Mysteries, calls attention to the fact that the mark or sign used in England to

designate royal property and called the broad arrow is nothing more nor less than the

three nails of the crucifixion grouped together, and that by placing them point to point the

ancient symbol of the Egyptian TAU cross is formed.

In his Ancient Freemasonry, Frank C. Higgins reproduces the Masonic apron of a

colossal stone figure at Quirigua, Guatemala. The central ornament of the apron is the

three Passion nails, arranged exactly like the British broad arrow. That three nails should

be used to crucify the Christ, three murderers to kill CHiram Abiff, and three wounds to

slay Prince Coh, the Mexican Indian Osiris, is significant.

C. W. King, in his Gnostics and Their Remains, thus describes a Gnostic gem: "The

Gnostic Pleroma, or combination of all the Æons [is] expressed by the outline of a man

holding a scroll * * *. The left hand is formed like three bent spikes or nails;

unmistakably the same symbol that Belus often holds in his extended hand on the

Babylonian cylinders, afterwards discovered by the Jewish Cabalists in the points of the

letter Shin, and by the mediæval mystics in o the Three Nails of the Cross." From this

point Hargrave Jennings continues King's speculations, noting the resemblance of the nail

to an obelisk, or pillar, and that the Qabbalistic value of the Hebrew letter Shin, or Sin, is

300, namely, 100 for each spike.

The Passion nails are highly important symbols, especially when it is realized that,

according to the esoteric systems of culture, there are certain secret centers of force in the

palms of the hands and in the soles of the feet.

The driving of the nails and the flow of blood and water from the wounds were symbolic

of certain secret philosophic practices of the Temple. Many of the Oriental deities have

mysterious symbols on the hands and feet. The so-called footprints of Buddha are usually

embellished with a magnificent sunburst at the point where the nail pierced the foot of

Christ.

In his notes on the theology of Jakob Böhme, Dr. Franz Hartmann thus sums up the

mystic symbolism of the crucifixion: "The cross represents terrestrial life, and the crown

of thorns the sufferings of the soul within the elementary body, but also the victory of the

spirit over the elements of darkness. The body is naked, to indicate that the candidate for

immortality must divest himself of all desires for terrestrial things. The figure is nailed to

the cross, which symbolizes the death and surrender of the self-will, and that it should not

attempt to accomplish anything by its own power, but merely serve as an instrument

wherein the Divine will is executed. Above the head are inscribed the letters: I. N. R. J.

whose most important meaning is: In Nobis Regnat Jesus (Within ourselves reigns Jesus).

But this signification of this inscription can be practically known only to those who have

actually died relatively to the world of desires, and risen above the temptation for

personal existence; or, to express it in other words, those who have become alive in

Christ, and in whom thus the kingdom of Jesus (the holy love-will issuing from the heart

of God) has been established." One of the most interesting interpretations of the

crucifixion allegory is that which identifies the man Jesus with the personal

consciousness of the individual. It is this personal consciousness that conceives of and

dwells in the sense of separateness, and before the aspiring soul can be reunited with the

ever-present and all-pervading Father this personality must be sacrificed that the

Universal Consciousness may be liberated.

Click to enlarge

THE CRUCIFIXION OF QUETZALCOATL.

(From the Codex Borgianus.)

From Kingsborough's Antiquities of Mexico.

Lord Kingsborough writes: "May we not refer to the seventy-third page of the Borgian MS., which

represents Quexalcoatl both crucified, and as it were cut in pieces for the cauldron, and with equal reason

demand, whether anyone can help thinking that the Jews of the New World (Lord Kingsborough sought to

prove that the Mexicans were descendants of the Jews] applied to their Messiah not only all the prophecies

contained in the Old Testament relating to Christ, but likewise many of the incidents recorded of him in the

Gospels."

Click to enlarge

THE CRUCIFIXION IN SPACE.

From Higgins' Anacalypsis.

Of this remarkable Oriental drawing, J. P. Lundy has written:----It looks like a Christian crucifix in many

respects, and in some others it does not. The drawing, attitude, and the nail-marks in hands and feet,

indicate a Christian origin; while the Parthian coronet of seven points, the absence of the wood and of the

usual inscription, and the rays of glory above seem to point to some Christian origin. Can it be the Victim,

Man, or the Priest and Victim both in one, of the Hindu mythology, who offered himself a sacrifice before

the worlds were?"

p. 185

The Mystery of the Apocalypse

THE presence of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus marked that city as sacred to the

Mystery religion, for the Seven Wonders of the ancient world were erected to indicate the

repositories of recondite knowledge. Of Ephesus, H. P. Blavatsky writes:

"It was a focus of the universal 'secret' doctrines; the weird laboratory whence, fashioned

in elegant Grecian phraseology, sprang the quintessence of Buddhistic, Zoroastrian, and

Chaldean philosophy. Artemis, the gigantic concrete symbol of theosophico-pantheistic

abstractions, the great mother Multimamma, androgyne and patroness of the 'Ephesian

writings,' was conquered by Paul; but although the zealous converts of the apostles

pretended to burn all their books on 'curious arts, τα περιεργα, enough of these remained

for them to study when their first zeal had cooled off." (See Isis Unveiled.)

Being a great center of pagan learning, Ephesus has been the locale for many early

Christian myths. The assertion has been made that it was the last domicile of the Virgin

Mary; also that the tomb of St. John the Divine was located there. According to legend,

St. John did not depart from this life in the usual manner but, selecting his vault, entered

it while still alive, and closing the entrance behind him, vanished forever from mortal

sight. A rumor was current in ancient Ephesus that St. John would sleep in his tomb until

the return of the Savior, and that when the apostle turned over on his sepulchral couch the

earth above moved like the coverlets of a bed.

Subjected to more criticism than any other book now incorporated in the New Testament,

the Apocalypse--popularly accredited to St. John the Divine--is by far the most important

but least understood of the Gnostic Christian writings. Though Justin Martyr declared the

Book of Revelation to have been written by "John, one of Christ's apostles," its

authorship was disputed as early as the second century after Christ. In the third century

these contentions became acute and even Dionysius of Alexandria and Eusebius attacked

the Johannine theory, declaring that both the Book of Revelation and the Gospel

according to St. John were written by one Cerinthus, who borrowed the name of the great

apostle the better to foist his own doctrines upon the Christians. Later Jerome questioned

the authorship of the Apocalypse and during the Reformation his objections were revived

by Luther and Erasmus. The once generally accepted notion that the Book of Revelation

was the actual record of a "mystical experience" occurring to St. John while that seer was

an exile in the Isle of Parmos is now regarded with disfavor by more critical scholars.

Other explanations have therefore been advanced to account for the symbolism

permeating the volume and the original motive for its writing. The more reasonable of

these theories may be summed up as follows:

First, upon the weight of evidence furnished by its own contents the Book of Revelation

may well be pronounced a pagan writing--one of the sacred books of the Eleusinian or

Phrygian Mysteries. As a corollary, the real author of a work setting forth the profundities

of Egyptian and Greek mysticism must have been an initiate himself and consequently

obligated to write only in the symbolic language of the Mysteries.

Second, it is possible that the Book of Revelation was written to reconcile the seeming

discrepancies between the early Christian and pagan religious philosophies. When the

zealots of the primitive Christian Church sought to Christianize pagandom, the pagan

initiates retorted with a powerful effort to paganize Christianity. The Christians failed but

the pagans succeeded. With the decline of paganism the initiated pagan hierophants

transferred their base of operations to the new vehicle of primitive Christianity, adopting

the symbols of the new cult to conceal those eternal verities which are ever the priceless

possession of the wise. The Apocalypse shows clearly the resultant fusion of pagan and

Christian symbolism and thus bears irrefutable evidence of the activities of these initiated

minds operating through early Christianity.

Third, the theory has been advanced that the Book of Revelation represents the attempt

made by the unscrupulous members of a certain religious order to undermine the

Christian Mysteries by satirizing their philosophy. This nefarious end they hoped to attain

by showing the new faith to be merely a restatement of the ancient pagan doctrines, by

heaping ridicule upon Christianity, and by using its own symbols toward its

disparagement. For example, the star which fell to earth (Rev. viii. 10-11) could be

construed to mean the Star of Bethlehem, and the bitterness of that star (called

Wormwood and which poisoned mankind) could signify the "false" teachings of the

Christian Church. While the last theory has gained a certain measure of popularity, the

profundity of the Apocalypse leads the discerning reader to the inevitable conclusion that

this is the least plausible of the three hypotheses. To those able to pierce the veil of its

symbolism, the inspired source of the document requires no further corroborative

evidence.

In the final analysis, true philosophy can be limited by neither creed nor faction; in fact it

is incompatible with every artificial limitation of human thought. The question of the

pagan or Christian origin of the Book of Revelation is, consequently, of little importance.

The intrinsic value of the book lies in its magnificent epitome of the Universal Mystery--

an observation which led St. Jerome to declare that it is susceptible of seven entirely

different interpretations. Untrained in the reaches of ancient thought, the modem

theologian cannot possibly cope with the complexities of the Apocalypse, for to him this

mystic writing is but a phantasmagoria the divine inspiration of which he is sorely

tempted to question. In the limited space here available it is possible to sketch but briefly

a few of the salient features of the vision of the seer of Patmos. A careful consideration of

the various pagan Mysteries will assist materially also in filling the inevitable gaps in this

abridgment.

In the opening chapter of the Apocalypse, St. John describes the Alpha and Omega who

stood in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. Surrounded by his flaming planetary

regents, this Sublime One thus epitomizes in one impressive and mysterious figure the

entire sweep of humanity's evolutionary growth--past, present, and future.

"The first stages of man's earthly development," writes Dr. Rudolph Steiner, "ran their

course at a period when the earth was still 'fiery'; and the first human incarnations were

formed out of the element of fire; at the end of his earthly career man will himself radiate

his inner being outwards creatively by the force of the element of fire. This continuous

development from the beginning to the end of the earth reveals itself to the 'seer,' when he

sees on the astral plane the archetype of evolving man. * * * The beginning of earthly

evolution stands forth in the fiery feet, its end in the fiery countenance, and the complete

power of the 'creative word,' to be finally won, is seen in the fiery source coming out of

the mouth." (See Occult Seals and Columns.)

In his Restored New Testament, James Morgan Pryse traces the

Click to enlarge

THE THRONE OF GOD AND OF THE LAMB.

From Jacob Behmen's Works.

Before the throne of God was the crystal sea representing the Schamayim, or the living waters which are

above the heavens. Before the throne also were four creatures--a bull, a lion, an eagle, and a man. These

represented the four corners of creation and the multitude of eyes with which they were covered are the

stars of the firmament. The twenty-four elders have the same significance as the priests gathered around the

statue of Ceres in the Greater Eleusinian Rite and also the Persian Genii, or gods of the hours of the day,

who, casting away their crowns, glorify the Holy One. As symbolic of the divisions of time, the elders

adore the timeless and enduring Spirit in the midst of them.

p. 186

relationship of the various parts of the Alpha and Omega to the seven sacred planets of

the ancients. To quote:

"The Logos-figure described is a composite picture of the seven sacred planets: he has

the snowy-white hair of Kronos ('Father Time'), the blazing eyes of 'wide-seeing' Zeus,

the sword of Arcs, the shining face of Helios, and the chiton and girdle of Aphrodite; his

feet are of mercury, the metal sacred to Hermes, and his voice is like the murmur of the

ocean's waves (the 'many waters'), alluding to Selene, the Moon-Goddess of the four

seasons and of the waters."

The seven stars carried by this immense Being in his right hand are the Governors of the

world; the flaming sword issuing from his mouth is the Creative Fiat, or Word of Power,

by which the illusion of material permanence is slain. Here also is represented, in all his

symbolic splendor, the hierophant of the Phrygian Mysteries, his various insignia

emblematic of his divine attributes. Seven priests bearing lamps are his attendants and the

stars carried in his hand are the seven schools of the Mysteries whose power he

administers. As one born again out of spiritual darkness, into perfect wisdom, this

archimagus is made to say: "I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive

forever more, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death."

In the second and third chapters St. John delivers to the "seven churches which are in

Asia" the injunctions received by him from the Alpha and Omega. The churches are here

analogous to the rungs of a Mithraic ladder, and John, being "in the spirit," ascended

through the orbits of the seven sacred planets until he reached the inner surface of the

Empyrean.

"After the soul of the prophet," writes the anonymous author of Mankind: Their Origin

and Destiny, "in his ecstatic state has passed in its rapid flight through the seven spheres,

from the sphere of the moon to that of Saturn, or from the planet which corresponds to

Cancer, the gate of men, to that of Capricorn, which is the gate of the gods, a new gate

opens to him in the highest heaven, and in the zodiac, beneath which the seven planets

revolve; in a word, in the firmament, or that which the ancients called crystallinum

primum, or the crystal heaven."

When related to the Eastern system of metaphysics, these churches represent the chakras,

or nerve ganglia, along the human spine, the "door in heaven" being the brahmarandra,

or point in the crown of the skull (Golgotha), through which the spinal spirit fire passes to

liberation. The church of Ephesus corresponds to the muladhara, or sacral ganglion, and

the other churches to the higher ganglia according to the order given in Revelation. Dr.

Steiner discovers a relationship between the seven churches and the divisions of the

Aryan race. Thus, the church of Ephesus stands for the Arch-Indian branch; the church of

Smyrna, the Arch-Persians; the church of Pergamos, the Chaldean-Egyptian-Semitic; the

church of Thyatira, the Grecian-Latin-Roman; the church of Sardis, the Teuton-Anglo-

Saxon; the church of Philadelphia, the Slavic; and the church of Laodicea, the

Manichæan. The seven churches also signify the Greek vowels, of which Alpha and

Omega are the first and the last. A difference of opinion exists as to the order in which

the seven planers should be related to the churches. Some proceed from the hypothesis

that Saturn represents the church of Ephesus; but from the fact that this city was sacred to

the moon goddess and also that the sphere of the moon is the first above that of the earth,

the planets obviously should ascend in their ancient order from the moon to Saturn. From

Saturn the soul would naturally ascend through the door in the Empyrean.

In the fourth and fifth chapters St. John describes the throne of God upon which sat the

Holy One "which was and is, and is to come." About the throne were twenty-four lesser

seats upon which sat twenty-four elders arrayed in white garments and wearing crowns of

gold. "And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there

were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God."

He who sat upon the throne held in His right hand a book sealed with seven seals which

no man in heaven or earth had been found worthy to open. Then appeared a Lamb (Aries,

the first and chief of the zodiacal signs) which had been slain, having seven horns (rays)

and seven eyes (lights). The Lamb took the book from the right hand of Him that sat upon

the throne and the four beasts and all the elders fell down and worshiped God and the

Lamb. During the early centuries of the Christian Church the lamb was universally

recognized as the symbol of Christ, and not until after the fifth synod of Constantinople

(the "Quinisext Synod," A.D. 692) was the figure of the crucified man substituted for that

of Agnus Dei. As shrewdly noted by one writer on the subject, the use of a lamb is

indicative of the Persian origin of Christianity, for the Persians were the only people to

symbolize the first sign of the zodiac by a lamb.

Because a lamb was the sin offering of the ancient pagans, the early mystic Christians

considered this animal as an appropriate emblem of Christ, whom they regarded as the

sin offering of the world. The Greeks and the Egyptians highly venerated the lamb or

ram, often placing its horns upon the foreheads of their gods. The Scandinavian god Thor

carried a hammer made from a pair of ram's horns. The lamb is used in preference to the

ram apparently because of its purity and gentleness; also, since the Creator Himself was

symbolized by Aries, His Son would consequently be the little Ram or Lamb. The

lambskin apron worn by the Freemasons over that part of the body symbolized by

Typhon or Judas represents that purification

Click to enlarge

EPISODES FROM THE MYSTERIES OF THE APOCALYPSE.

From Klauber's Historiae Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti.

In the central foreground, St. John the Divine is kneeling before the apparition of the Alpha and Omega

standing in the midst of the seven lights and surrounded by an aureole of flames and smoke. In the heavens

above the twenty-four elders with their harps and censers bow before the throne of the Ancient One, from

whose hand the Lamb is taking the book sealed with seven seals. The seven spirit, of God, in the form of

cups from which issue tongues of fire, surround the head of the Ancient One, and the four beasts (the

cherubim) kneel at the corners of His throne. In the upper left-hand corner are shown the seven angels

bearing the trumpets and also the altar of God and the angel with the censer. In the upper right are the

spirits of the winds; below them is the virgin clothed wit h the sun, to whom wings were given that she

might fly into the wilderness. To her right is a scene representing the spirits of God hurling the evil serpent into the bottomless pit. At the lower left St. John is shown receiving from the angelic figure, whose legs are pillars of fire and whose face is a shining sun, the little book which he is told to eat if he would understand the mysteries of the spiritual life.

The plate also contains a number of other symbols, including episodes from the destruction of the world

and the crystal sea pouring forth from the throne of God. By the presentation of such symbolic conceptions

in the form of rituals and dramatic episodes the secrets of the Phrygian Mysteries were perpetuated. When

these sacred pageantries were thus revealed to all mankind indiscriminately and each human soul was

appointed it own initiator into the holy rite, of the philosophic life, a boon was conferred upon humanity

which cannot be fully appreciated until men and women have grown more responsive to those mysteries

which are of the spirit.

p. 187

of the generative processes which is a prerequisite to true spirituality. In this allegory the Lamb signifies the purified candidate, its seven horns representing the divisions of

illuminated reason and its seven eyes the chakras, or perfected sense-perceptions.

The sixth to eleventh chapters inclusive are devoted to an account of the opening of the

seven seals on the book held by the Lamb. When the first seal was broken, there rode

forth a man on a white horse wearing a crown and holding in his hand a bow. When the

second seal was broken, there rode forth a man upon a red horse and in his hand was a

great sword. When the third seal was broken there rode forth a man upon a black horse

and with a pair of balances in his hand. And when the fourth seal was broken there rode

forth Death upon a pale horse and hell followed after him. The four horsemen of the

Apocalypse may be interpreted to signify the four main divisions of human life. Birth is

represented by the rider on the white horse who comes forth conquering and to conquer;

the impetuosity of youth by the rider on the red horse who took peace from the earth;

maturity by the rider on the black horse who weighs all things in the scales of reason; and

death by the rider on the pale horse who was given power over a fourth part of the earth.

In the Eastern philosophy these horsemen signify the four yugas, or ages, of the world

which, riding forth at: their appointed times, become for a certain span the rulers of

creation.

Commenting on the twenty-fourth allocution of Chrysostom, in The Origin of all

Religious Worship, Dupuis notes that each of the four elements was represented by a

horse bearing the name of the god "who is set over the element." The first horse,

signifying the fire ether, was called Jupiter and occupied the highest place in the order of

the elements. This horse was winged, very fleet, and, describing the largest circle,

encompassed all the others. It shone with the purest light, and on its body were the

images of the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the bodies in the ethereal regions. The

second horse, signifying the element of air, was Juno. It was inferior to the horse of

Jupiter and described a smaller circle; its color was black but that part exposed to the sun

became luminous, thus signifying the diurnal and nocturnal conditions of air. The third

horse, symbolizing the element of water, was sacred to Neptune. It was of heavy gait and

described a very small circle. The fourth horse, signifying the static element of earth,

described as immovable and champing its bit, was the steed of Vesta. Despite their

differences in temperature, these four horses lived harmoniously together, which is in

accord with the principles of the philosophers, who declared the world to be preserved by

the concord and harmony of its elements. In time, however, the racing horse of Jupiter

burned the mane of the horse of earth; the thundering steed of Neptune also became

covered with sweat, which overflowed the immovable horse of Vesta and resulted in the

deluge of Deucalion. At last the fiery horse of Jupiter will consume the rest, when the

three inferior elements--purified by reabsorption in the fiery ether--will come forth

renewed, constituting "a new heaven and a new earth."

When the fifth seal was opened St. John beheld those who had died for the word of God.

When the sixth seal was broken there was a great earthquake, the sun being darkened and

the moon becoming like blood. The angels of the winds came forth and also another

angel, who sealed upon their foreheads 144,000 of the children of Israel that they should

be preserved against the awful day of tribulation. By adding the digits together according

to the Pythagorean system of numerical philosophy, the number 144,000 is reduced to 9,

the mystic symbol of man and also the number of initiation, for he who passes through

the nine degrees of the Mysteries receives the sign of the cross as emblematic of his

regeneration and liberation from the bondage of his own infernal, or inferior, nature. The

addition of the three ciphers to the original sacred number 1.44 indicates the elevation of

the mystery to the third sphere.

When the seventh seal was broken there was silence for the space of half an hour. Then

came forth seven angels and to each was given a trumpet. When the seven angels

sounded their trumpets--intoned the seven-lettered Name of the Logos--great catastrophes

ensued. A star, which was called Wormwood, fell from heaven, thereby signifying that

the secret doctrine of the ancients had been given to men who had profaned it and caused

the wisdom of God to become a destructive agency. And another star--symbolizing the

false light of human reason as distinguished from the divine reason of the initiate--fell

from heaven and to it (materialistic reason) was given the key to the bottomless pit

(Nature), which it opened, causing all manner of evil creatures to issue forth. And there

came also a mighty angel who was clothed in a cloud, whose face was as the sun and his

feet and legs as pillars of fire, and one foot was upon the waters and the other upon the

land (the Hermetic Anthropos). This celestial being gave St. John a little book, bidding

him eat it, which the seer did. The book is representative of the secret doctrine--that

spiritual food which is the nourishment of the spirit. And St. John, being "in the spirit,"

ate his fill of the wisdom of God and the hunger of his soul was appeased.

The twelfth chapter treats of a great wonder appearing in the heavens: a woman clothed

with the sun, the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. This

woman represents the constellation of Virgo and also the Egyptian Isis, who, about to be

delivered of her son Horus, is attacked by Typhon, the latter attempting to destroy the

child predestined by the gods to slay the

Click to enlarge

JOHN'S VISION OF THE NEW JERUSALEM.

From Klauber's Historiae Biblicae Veteris et Novi Testamenti.

In the upper left-hand corner is shown the destruction of Babylon, also the angel which

cast the great millstone into the sea, saying, "Thus with violence shall that great city

Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all." Below is the horseman,

called Faithful and True, casting the beast into the bottomless pit. At the lower right is the

angel with the key to the bottomless pit, who with a great chain binds Satan for a

thousand years. In the heavens above is represented one like unto the Son of Man, who

carries a great sickle with which he reaps the harvest of the world. In the center is the

Holy City, the New Jerusalem, with its twelve gates and the mountain of the Lamb rising

in the midst thereof. From the throne of the Lamb pours the great river of crystal, or

living water, signifying the spiritual doctrine: upon all who discover and drink of its

waters are conferred immortality. Kneeling upon a high cliff, St. John gazes down upon

the mystic city, the archetype of the perfect civilization yet to be. Above the New

Jerusalem, in a great sunburst of glory, is the throne of the Ancient One, which is the

light of those who dwell in the matchless empire of the spirit. Beyond the recognition of

the uninitiated world is an ever-increasing aggregation composed of the spiritual elect.

Though they walk the earth as ordinary mortals, they are of a world apart and through

their ceaseless efforts the kingdom of God is being slowly but surely established upon

earth. These illumined souls are the builders of the New Jerusalem, and their bodies are

the living stones in its walls. Lighted by the torch of truth they carry on their work,

through their activities the golden age will return to the earth and the power of sin and

death will be destroyed. For this reason the declare that virtuous and illumined men,

instead of ascending to heaven, will bring heaven down and establish it in the midst of

earth itself.

p. 188

Spirit of Evil. The war in heaven relates to the destruction of the planet Ragnarok and to

the fall of the angels. The virgin can be interpreted to signify the secret doctrine itself and

her son the initiate born out of the "womb of the Mysteries." The Spirit of Evil thus

personified in the great dragon attempted to control mankind by destroying the mother of

those illumined souls who have labored unceasingly for the salvation of the world. Wings

were given to the Mysteries (the virgin) and they flew into the wilderness; and the evil

dragon tried to destroy them with a flood (of false doctrine) but the earth (oblivion)

swallowed up the false doctrines and the Mysteries endured.

The thirteenth chapter describes a great beast which rose out of the sea, having seven

heads and ten horns. Faber sees in this amphibious monster the Demiurgus, or Creator of

the world, rising out of the Ocean of Chaos. While most interpreters of the Apocalypse

consider the various beasts described therein as typical of evil agencies, this viewpoint is

the inevitable result of unfamiliarity with the ancient doctrines from which the symbolism

of the book is derived. Astronomically, the great monster rising out of the sea is the

constellation of Cetus (the whale). Because religious ascetics looked upon the universe

itself as an evil and ensnaring fabrication, they also came to regard its very Creator as a

weaver of delusions. Thus the great sea monster (the world) and its Maker (the

Demiurgus), whose strength is derived from the Dragon of Cosmic Power, came to be

personified as a beast of horror and destruction, seeking to swallow up the immortal part:

of human nature. The seven heads of the monster represent the seven stars (spirits)

composing the constellation of the Great Dipper, called by the Hindus Rishis, or Cosmic

Creative Spirits. The ten horns Faber relates to the ten primordial patriarchs. These may

also denote the ancient zodiac of ten signs.

The number of the beast (666) is an interesting example of the use of Qabbalism in the

New Testament and among early Christian mystics. In the following table Kircher shows

that the names of Antichrist as given by Iranæus all have 666 as their numerical

equivalent.

Τ

300

Λ

30

Λ

1

Λ

30

ε

5

α

1

ν

50

α

1

ι

10

µ

40

τ

300

τ

300

τ

300

π

80

ε

5

ε

5

α

1

ε

5

µ

40

ι

10

ν

50

τ

300

ο

70

ν

50

ι

10

ς

200

ο

70

ς

200

ς

200

666

666

666

666

James Morgan Pryse also notes that according to this method of figuring, the Greek term

ἡ φρην, which signifies the lower mind, has 666 as its numerical equivalent. It is also

well known to Qabbalists that Ἰησους, Jesus, has for its numerical value another sacred

and secret number--888. Adding the digits of the number 666 and again adding the digits

of the sum gives the sacred number--9 the symbol of man in his unregenerate state and

also the path of his resurrection.

The fourteenth chapter opens with the Lamb standing on Mount Zion (the eastern

horizon), about Him gathered the 144,000 with the name of God written in their

foreheads. An angel thereupon announces the fall of Babylon--the city of confusion or

worldliness. Those perish who do not overcome worldliness and enter into the realization

that spirit--and not matter--is enduring; for, having no interests other than those which are

material, they are swept to destruction with the material world. And St. John beheld One

like unto the Son of Man (Perseus) riding upon a cloud (the substances of the invisible

world) and bearing in his hand a sharp sickle, and with the sickle the Shining One reaped

the earth. This is a symbol of the Initiator releasing into the sphere of reality the higher

natures of those who, symbolized by ripened grain, have reached the point of liberation.

And there came another angel (Boötes)--Death--also with a sickle (Karma), who reaped

the vines of the earth (those who have lived by the false light) and cast them into the

winepress of the wrath of God (the purgatorial spheres).

The fifteenth to eighteenth chapters inclusive contain an account of seven angels (the

Pleiades) who pour their vials upon the earth. The contents of their vials (the loosened

energy of the Cosmic Bull) are called the seven last plagues. Here also is introduced a

symbolic figure, termed "the harlot of Babylon, "which is described as a woman seated

upon a scarlet-colored beast having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed

in purple and scarlet and bedecked with gold, precious stones, and pearls, having in her

hand a golden cup full of abominations. This figure may be an effort (probably

interpolated) to vilify Cybele, or Artemis, the Great Mother goddess of antiquity.

Because the pagans venerated the Mater Deorum through symbols appropriate to the

feminine generative principle they were accused by the early Christians of worshiping a

courtesan. As nearly all the ancient Mysteries included a test of the neophyte's moral

character, the temptress (the animal soul) is here portrayed as a pagan goddess.

In the nineteenth and twentieth chapters is set forth the preparation of that mystical

sacrament called the marriage of the Lamb. The bride is the soul of the neophyte, which

attains conscious immortality by uniting itself to its own spiritual source. The heavens

opened once more and St. John saw a white horse, and the rider (the illumined mind)

which sat upon it was called Faithful and True. Out of his mouth issued a sharp sword

and the armies of heaven followed after him. Upon the plains of heaven was fought the

mystic Armageddon--the last great war between light and darkness. The forces of evil

under the Persian Ahriman battled against the forces of good under Ahura-Mazda. Evil

was vanquished and the beast and the false prophet cast into a lake of fiery brimstone.

Satan was bound for a thousand years. Then followed the last judgment; the books were

opened, including the book of life. The dead were judged according to their works and

those whose names were not in the book of life were cast into a sea of fire. To the

neophyte, Armageddon represents the last struggle between the flesh and the spirit when,

finally overcoming the world, the illumined soul rises to union with its spiritual Self. The

judgment signifies the weighing of the soul and was borrowed from the Mysteries of

Osiris. The rising of the dead from their graves and from the sea of illusion represents the

consummation of the process of human regeneration. The sea of fire into which those are

cast who fail in the ordeal of initiation signifies the fiery sphere of the animal world.

In the twenty-first and twenty-second chapters are pictured the new heaven and the new

earth to be established at the close of Ahriman's reign. St. John, carried in the spirit to a

great and high mountain (the brain), beheld the New Jerusalem descending as a bride

adorned for her husband. The Holy City represents the regenerated and perfected world,

the trued ashlar of the Mason, for the city was a perfect cube, it being written, "the length

and the breadth and the height of it are equal." The foundation of the Holy City consisted

of a hundred and forty-four stones in twelve rows, from which it is evident that the New

Jerusalem represents the microcosm, patterned after the greater universe in which it:

stands. The twelve gates of this symbolic dodecahedron are the signs of the zodiac

through which the celestial impulses descend into the inferior world; the jewels are the

precious stones of the zodiacal signs; and the transparent golden streets are the streams of

spiritual light along which the initiate passes on his path towards the sun. There is no

material temple in that city, for God and the Lamb are the temple; and there is neither sun

nor moon, for God and the Lamb are the light. The glorified and spiritualized initiate is

here depicted as a city. This city will ultimately be united with the spirit of God and

absorbed into the Divine Effulgency.

And St. John beheld a river, the Water of Life, which proceeded out of the throne of the

Lamb. The river represents the stream pouring from the First Logos, which is the life of

all things and the active cause of all creation. There also was the Tree of Life (the spirit)

bearing twelve manner of fruit, whose leaves were for the healing of the nations. By the

tree is also represented the year, which every month yields some good for the

maintenance of existing creatures. Jesus then tells St. John that He is the root and the

offspring of David and the bright and morning star (Venus). St. John concludes with the

words, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."

Click to enlarge

THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE.

From Solis' Biblische Figuren.

In the allegory of the four horsemen--according to the mysteries of philosophy--is set forth the condition of

man during the stages of his existence. In his first and spiritual state he is crowed. As he descend into the

realm of experience he carries the sword. Reaching physical expression--which is his least spiritual state--

he carries the scales, and by the "philosophic death" is released again into the highest spheres. In the ancient Roman games the chariot of the sun was drawn by four horses of different colors and the horsemen

of the Apocalypse may be interpreted to represent the solar energy riding upon the four elements which

serve as media for its expression.

p. 189

The Faith of Islam

REPRESENTATIVE of the attitude of Christendom toward Islam, till recent years at

least, is Alexander Ross's postscript to the Anglicized version, published in 1649, of

Sieur Du Ryer's French translation of the Koran. The author of the postscript directs the

following invective against Mohammed and the Koran:

"Good Reader, the great Arabian Impostor now at last after a thousand years, is by the

way of France arrived in England, and his Alcoran, or gallimaufry of errors, (a brat as

deformed as the parent, and as full of heresies as his scald head was of scurvy) hath

learned to speak English. * * * If you will take a brief view of the Alcoran, you shall find

it a hodgepodge made up of these four ingredients: 1. Of Contradictions. 2. Of

Blasphemy. 3. Of ridiculous Fables. 4. Of Lies."

The accusation of blasphemy is emphasized against Mohammed because he affirmed that

God, being unmarried, was incapable of having a Son! The fallacious argument, however,

is apparent from the Prophet's own views of the nature of God as contained in the second

sura of the Koran:

"To Allah [God] belongeth the east and the west; therefore, whithersoever ye turn

yourselves to pray, there is the face of Allah; for Allah is omnipresent and omniscient.

They say, Allah hath begotten children: Allah forbid! To him belongeth whatever is in

heaven, and on earth; all is possessed by him, the Creator of heaven and earth; and when

he decreeth a thing, he only saith unto it, Be, and it is." In other words, the God of Islam

has but to desire and the object of that desire at once comes into being, whereas the God

of Alexander Ross must proceed in accord with the laws of human generation!

Mohammed, Prophet of Islam, "the desired of all nations," was born in Mecca, A.D. 570

(?) and died in Medina, A.D. 632, or in the eleventh ),ear after the Hegira. Washington

Irving thus describes the signs and wonders accompanying the birth of the Prophet:

"His mother suffered none of the pangs of travail. At the moment of his coming into the

world a celestial light illumined the surrounding country, and the new born child, raising

his eyes to heaven, exclaimed: 'God is great! There is no God bur God, and I am his

prophet!' Heaven and earth, we are assured, were agitated at his advent. The Lake Sawa

shrank back to its secret springs, leaving its borders dry; while the Tigris, bursting its

bounds, overflowed the neighboring lands. The palace of Khosru the king of Persia shook

t on its foundations, and several of its towers were toppled to the earth. * * * In the same

eventful night the sacred fire of Zoroaster, which, guarded by the Magi, had burned

without interruption for upward of a thousand years, was suddenly extinguished, and all

the idols in the world fell down." (See Mahomet and His Successors.)

While the Prophet was still but a toddling babe, the Angel Gabriel with seventy wings

came to him, and cutting open the child, withdrew the heart. This Gabriel cleansed of the

black drop of original sin which is in every human heart because of the perfidy of Adam

and then returned the organ to its proper place in the Prophet's body. (See footnote in E.

H. Palmer's translation of the Qur'an.)

In his youth Mohammed traveled with the Meccan caravans, on one occasion acted as

armor-bearer for his uncle, and spent a considerable time among the Bedouins, from

whom he learned many of the religious and philosophic traditions of ancient Arabia.

While traveling with his uncle, Abu Taleb, Mohammed contacted the Nestorian

Christians, having encamped on a certain night near one of their monasteries. Here the

young Prophet-to-be secured much of his information concerning the origin and doctrines

of the Christian faith.

With the passing years Mohammed attained marked success in business and when about

twenty-six years old married one of his employers, a wealthy widow nearly fifteen years

his senior. The widow, Khadijah by name, was apparently somewhat mercenary, for,

finding her young business manager most efficient, she resolved to retain him in that

capacity for life! Khadijah was a woman of exceptional mentality and to her integrity and

devotion must be ascribed the early success of the Islamic cause. By his marriage

Mohammed was elevated from a position of comparative poverty to one of great wealth

and power, and so exemplary was his conduct that he became known throughout Mecca

as "the faithful and true."

Mohammed would have lived and died an honored and respected Meccan had he not

unhesitatingly sacrificed both his wealth and social position in the service of the God

whose voice he heard while meditating in the cavern on Mount Hira in the month of

Ramadan. Year after year Mohammed climbed the rocky and desolate slopes of Mount

Hira (since called Jebel Nur, "the Mountain of light") and here in his loneliness cried out

to God to reveal anew the pure religion of Adam, that spiritual doctrine lost to mankind

through the dissensions of religious factions. Khadijah, solicitous over her husband's

ascetic practices which were impairing his physical health, sometimes accompanied him

in his weary vigil, and with womanly intuition sensed the travail of his soul. At last one

night in his fortieth year as he lay upon the floor of the cavern, enveloped in his cloak, a

great light burst upon him. Overcome with a sense of perfect peace and understanding in

the blessedness of the celestial presence, he lost consciousness. When he came to himself

again the Angel Gabriel stood before him, exhibiting a silken shawl with mysterious

characters traced upon it. From these characters Mohammed gained the basic doctrines

later embodied in the Koran. Then Gabriel spoke in a clear and wonderful voice,

declaring Mohammed to be the Prophet of the living God.

In awe and trembling, Mohammed hastened to Khadijah, fearing the vision to have been

inspired by the same evil spirits who served the pagan magicians so greatly despised by

him, Khadijah

Click to enlarge

MOHAMMED'S NIGHT JOURNEY TO HEAVEN.

From D'Ohsson's Tableau Général de l'Empire Othoman.

In the seventeenth sura of the Koran it is written that upon a certain night Mohammed was transported from

the temple at Mecca to that of Jerusalem, but no details are given of the strange journey. In the Mishkāteu

’l-Masabih, Mohammed is made to describe his ascent through the seven heavens into the icy presence of

the may-veiled God and his subsequent return to his own bed, all in a single night. Mohammed was

awakened in the night by the Angel Gabriel, who, after removing the Prophet's heart, washed the cavity

with Zamzam water, and filled the heart itself with faith and science. A strange creature, called Alborak, or

the lightning bolt, was brought for the conveyance of the Prophet. Alborak is described as white animal of

the shape and size of a mule, with the head of a woman and the tail of a peacock. According to some

versions, Mohammed merely rode Alborak to Jerusalem, where, dismounting upon Mount Moriah, he

caught hold of the lower rung of a golden ladder lowered from heaven and, accompanied by Gabriel,

ascended through the seven spheres separating he earth from the inner surface of the empyrean. At the gate

of each sphere stood me of the Patriarchs, whom Mohammed saluted as he entered the various planes. At

the gate of the first heaven stood Adam; at the gate of the second, John and Jesus (sisters' sons); at the third, Joseph; at the fourth, Enoch; at the fifth, Aaron; at the sixth, Moses; and at the seventh, Abraham. Another

order of the Patriarchs and prophets is given which places Jesus at the gate of the seventh heaven, and upon

reaching this Point Mohammed is said to have requested Jesus to intercede for him before the throne of

God.

p. 190

assured him that his own virtuous life would be his protection and that he need fear no

evil. Thus reassured, the Prophet awaited further visitations from Gabriel. When these did

not come, however, such a despair filled his soul that he attempted self-destruction, only

to be stopped in the very act of casting himself over a cliff by the sudden reappearance of

Gabriel, who again assured the Prophet that the revelations needed by his people would

be given to him as necessity arose.

Possibly as a result of his lonely periods of meditation, Mohammed seemingly was

subject to ecstatic swoons. On the occasions when the various suras of the Koran were

dictated he is said to have fallen unconscious, and, regardless of the chill of the

surrounding air, to have been covered with beads of perspiration. Often these attacks

came without warning; at other times he would sit wrapped in a blanket to prevent a chill

from the copious perspiration, and while apparently unconscious would dictate the

various passages which a small circle of trusted friends would either commit to memory

or reduce to writing. On one occasion in later life when Abu Bekr referred to the gray

hairs in his beard, Mohammed, lifting the end of his beard and looking at it, declared its

whiteness to be due to the physical agony attendant upon his periods of inspiration.

If the writings attributed to Mohammed be considered as merely the hallucinations of an

epileptic--and for that reason discounted--his Christian detractors should beware lest with

the doctrines of the Prophet they also undermine the very teachings which they

themselves affirm, for many of the disciples, apostles, and saints of the early church are

known to have been subject to nervous disorders. Mohammed's first convert was his own

wife, Khadijah, who was followed by other members of his immediate family, a

circumstance which moved Sir William Muir to note:

"It is strongly corroborative of Mohammed's sincerity that the earliest converts to Islam

were not only of upright character, but his own bosom friends and people of his

household; who, intimately acquainted with his private life, could not fail otherwise to

have detected those discrepancies which ever more or less exist between the professions

of the hypocritical deceiver abroad and his actions at: home." (See The Life of

Mohammad.)

Among the first to accept the faith of Islam was Abu Bekr, who became Mohammed's

closest and most faithful friend, in fact his alter ego. Abu Bekr, a man of brilliant

attainments, contributed materially to the success of the Prophet's enterprise, and in

accord with the express wish of the Prophet became the leader of the faithful after

Mohammed's death. A’isha, the daughter of Abu Bekr, later became the wife of

Mohammed, thus still further cementing the bond of fraternity between the two men.

Quietly, but industriously, Mohammed promulgated his doctrines among a small circle of

powerful friends. When the enthusiasm of his followers finally forced his hand and he

publicly announced his mission, he was already the leader of a strong and well-organized

faction. Fearing Mohammed's growing prestige, the people of Mecca, waiving the time-

honored tradition that blood could not be spilt within the holy city, decided to

exterminate Islam by assassinating the Prophet. All the different groups combined in this

undertaking so that the guilt for the crime might thereby be more evenly distributed.

Discovering the danger in time, Mohammed left his friend Ali in his bed and fled with

Abu Bekr from the city, and after adroitly eluding the Meccans, joined the main body of

his followers that had preceded him to Yathrib (afterwards called Medina). Upon this

incident-called the Hegira or "flight"--is based the Islamic chronological system.

Dating from the Hegira the power of the Prophet steadily grew until in the eighth year

Mohammed entered Mecca after practically a bloodless victory and established it as the

spiritual center of his faith. Planting his standard to the north of Mecca, he rode into the

city, and after circling seven times the sacred Caaba, ordered the 360 images within its

precincts to be hewn down. He then entered the Caaba itself, cleansed it of its idolatrous

associations, and rededicated the structure to Allah, the monotheistic God of Islam.

Mohammed next granted amnesty to all his enemies for their attempts to destroy him.

Under his protection Mecca increased in power and glory, becoming the focal point of a

great annual pilgrimage, which even to this day winds across the desert in the months of

pilgrimage and numbers over threescore thousand in its train.

In the tenth year after the Hegira, Mohammed led the valedictory pilgrimage and for the

last time rode at the head of the faithful along the sacred way leading to Mecca and the

Black Stone. As the premonition of death was strong upon him, he desired this

pilgrimage to be the perfect model for all the thousands that would follow.

"Conscious that life was waning away within him," writes Washington Irving, "Mahomet,

during this last sojourn in the sacred city of his faith, sought to engrave his doctrines

deeply in the minds and hearts of his followers. For this purpose he preached frequently

in the Caaba from the pulpit, or in the open air from the back of his camel. 'Listen to my

words,' would he say, 'for I know not whether, after this year, we shall ever meet here

again. Oh, my hearers, I am but a man like yourselves; the angel of death may at any time

appear, and I must obey his summons."' While thus preaching, the very heavens are said

to have opened and the voice of God spoke, saying: "This day I have perfected your

religion, and accomplished in you my grace." When these words were uttered the

multitude fell down in adoration and even Mohammed's camel knelt. (See Mahomet and

His Successors.) Having completed the valedictory pilgrimage, Mohammed returned to

Medina.

In the seventh year after the Hegira (A.H. 7) an attempt was made at Kheibar to poison

the Prophet. As Mohammed took the first mouthful of the poisoned food, the evil design

was revealed to him either by the taste of the meat or, as the faithful believe, by divine

intercession. He had already swallowed a small portion of the food, however, and for the

remainder of his life he suffered almost constantly from the effects of the poison. In A.H.

11, when his final illness came upon him, Mohammed insisted that the subtle effects of

the poison were the indirect cause of his approaching end. It is related that during his last

sickness he rose one night and visited a burial ground on the outskirts of Medina,

evidently believing that he, too, would soon be numbered with the dead. At this time he

told an attendant that the choice had been offered him of continuing his physical life or

going to his Lord, and that he had chosen to meet his Maker.

Mohammed suffered greatly with his head and side and also from fever, but on June 8th

seemed convalescent. He joined his followers in prayer and, seating himself in the

courtyard, delivered a lecture to the faithful in a clear and powerful voice. Apparently he

overtaxed his strength, for it was necessary to assist him into the house of A’isha, which

opened into the court of the mosque. Here upon a tough pallet laid on the bare floor the

prophet of Islam spent his last two hours on earth. When she saw that her aged husband

was suffering intense pain, A’isha--then but a girl of twenty--lifting the gray head of the

man she had known from infancy and who must have seemed more like a father than a

husband, supported him in her arms until the end. Feeling that death was upon him,

Mohammed prayed: "O Lord, I beseech Thee, assist me in the agonies of death." Then

almost in a whisper he repeated three times: "Gabriel, come close unto me." (For details

consult The Life of Mohammad by Sir William Muir.) In The Hero as Prophet, Thomas

Carlyle writes thus of the death of Mohammed: "His last words were a prayer, broken

ejaculations of a heart struggling-up in trembling hope towards its Maker."

Mohammed was buried under the floor of the apartment in which he died. The present

condition of the grave is thus described:

"Above the Hujrah is a green dome, surmounted by a large gilt crescent, springing from a

series of globes. Within the building are the tombs of Muhammad, Abū Bakr, and ’Umar,

with a space reserved for the grave of our Lord Jesus Christ, who Muslims say will again

visit the earth, and die and be buried at al-Madīnah. The grave of Fātimah, the Prophet's

daughter, is supposed to be in a separate part of the building, although some say she was

buried in Baqī’. The Prophet's body is said to be stretched full length on the right side,

with the right palm supporting the right check, the face fronting Makkah. Close behind

him is placed Abū Bakr, whose face fronts Muhammad's shoulder, and then ’Umar, who

occupies the same position with respect to his predecessor. Amongst Christian historians

there is a popular story to the effect that Muhammadans believed the coffin of their

Prophet to be suspended in the air, which has no foundation whatever in Muslim

literature, and Niebuhr thinks the story must have arisen from the rude pictures sold to

strangers. (See A Dictionary of Islam.)

Concerning the character of Mohammed there have been the grossest misconceptions. No

evidence exists to support the charges of extreme cruelty and licentiousness laid at his

door. On the other hand, the more closely the life of Mohammed is scrutinized by

dispassionate investigators, the more apparent become the finer qualities of his nature. In

the words of Carlyle:

"Mahomet himself, after all that can be said about him, was nor, a sensual man. We so err

widely if we consider this man as a common voluptuary, intent mainly on base

enjoyments--nay, on enjoyments of any kind. His household was of the frugalest, his

common diet barley bread and water. Sometimes for months there was not a fire once

lighted on his hearth. * * * A poor, hard-working, ill-provided man; careless of what

vulgar man toiled for. * * * They called him a Prophet, you say? Why, he stood there

face to face with them; there, not enshrined in any mystery, visibly clouting his own

cloak, cobbling his own shoes, fighting, counselling, ordering in the midst of them, they

must have seen what kind of a man he was, let him be called what you like! No emperor

with his tiaras was obeyed as this man in a cloak of his own clouting."

Confused by the apparently hopeless task of reconciling the life of the Prophet with the

absurd statements long accepted as authentic, Washington Irving weighs him in the scales

of fairness.

p. 191

"His military triumphs awakened no pride nor vainglory, as they would have done had

they been effected for selfish purposes. In the time of his greatest power, he maintained

the same simplicity of manners and appearances as in the days of his adversity. * * * It is

this perfect abnegation of self, connected with this apparent heartfelt piety, running

throughout the various phases of his fortune, which perplex one in forming a just estimate

of Mahomet's character. * * * When he hung over the death-bed of his infant son

Ibrahim, resignation to the will of God was exhibited in his conduct under this keenest of

afflictions; and the hope of soon rejoining his child in Paradise was his consolation." (See

Mahomet and His Successors.)

A'isha, questioned after the death of the Prophet concerning his habits, replied that he

mended his own clothes, cobbled his own shoes, and helped her in the household duties.

How far removed from Western concepts of Mohammed's sanguinary character is

A’isha's simple admission that he loved most of all to sew! He also accepted the

invitations of slaves and sat at meals with servants, declaring himself to be a servant. Of

all vices he hated lying the most. Before his death he freed all his slaves. He never

permitted his family to use for personal ends any of the alms or tithe money given by his

people. He was fond of sweetmeats and used rain water for drinking purposes. His time

he divided into three parts, namely: the first he gave to God, the second to his family, and

the third to himself. The latter portion, however, he later sacrificed to the service of his

people. He dressed chiefly in white but also wore red, yellow, and green. Mohammed

entered Mecca wearing a black turban and

bearing a black standard. He wore only the plainest of garments, declaring that rich and

conspicuous raiment did not become the pious, and did not remove his shoes at prayer.

He was particularly concerned with the cleanliness of his teeth and at the time of his

death, when too weak to speak, indicated his desire for a toothpick. When fearful of

forgetting something, the Prophet tied a thread to his ring. He once had a very fine gold

ring but, noting that his followers had taken to wearing similar rings in emulation of him,

he removed his own and threw it away lest his followers form an evil habit. (See The Life

of Mohammad.)

The most frequent, and apparently the most damaging, accusation brought against

Mohammed is that of polygamy. Those who sincerely believe the harem to be

irreconcilable with spirituality should with consistency move for the expurgation of the

Psalms of David and the Proverbs of Solomon from the list of inspired writings, for the

harem of Islam's Prophet was insignificant compared with that maintained by Israel's

wisest king and the reputed favorite of the Most High! The popular conception that

Mohammed taught that woman had no soul and could attain heaven only through

marriage is not substantiated by the words and attitude of the Prophet during his lifetime.

In a paper entitled The Influence of Islam on Social Conditions, read at the World's

Parliament of Religions held in Chicago, in 1893, Mohammed Webb states the charge

and answers it thus:

"it has been said that Mohammed and the Koran denied a soul to woman and ranked her

with the animals. The Koran places her

Click to enlarge

THE CAABA, THE HOLY PLACE OF ISLAM.

Section from panorama of Mecca in D'Ohsson's Tableau Général de l'Empire Othman.

The Caaba, or cube-shaped building in the midst of the great court of the mosque at Mecca, is the most

holy spot in the Islamic world. Toward it the followers of the Prophet must face five times a day at the

appointed hours of prayer. Like the devotees of nearly all other faiths, the Mussulman originally faced the

East while in prayer, but by a later decree he was ordered to turn his face toward Mecca.

Little is known of the history of the Caaba prior to its rededication as a Mohammedan mosque, other than

that the building was a pagan temple. At the time the Prophet captured Mecca, the Caaba and surrounding

court contained 360 idols, which were destroyed by Mohammed before he actually gained access to the

shrine itself. The "Ancient House," as the Caaba is called, is an irregular cube measuring about 38 feet in length, 35 feet in height, and 30 feet in width. The length of each side wall varies slightly and that of the

end walls over a foot. In the southeast corner of the wall at a convenient distance above the ground (about

five feet) is embedded the sacred and mysterious black stone or aerolite of Abraham. When first given to

that patriarch by the Angel Gabriel this stone was of such strong whiteness as to be visible from every part

of the earth, but late, it became black because of the sins of man. This black stone, oval in shape and about

seven inches in diameter, was broken in the seventh century and is now held together by a silver mounting.

According to tradition, 2,000 years before the creation of the world the Caaba was first constructed in

heaven, where a model of it still remains. Adam erected the Caaba on earth exactly below the spot in

heaven occupied by the original, and selected the stones from the five sacred mountains Sinai, al-Judī, Hirā,

Olivet, and Lebanon. Ten thousand angels were appointed to guard the structure. At the time of the Deluge

the sacred house was destroyed, but afterward was rebuilt by Abraham and his son Ishmael. (For details see

A Dictionary of Islam). It is probable that the site of the Caaba was originally occupied by a prehistoric

stone altar or ring of uncut monoliths similar to those of Stonehenge. Like the temple at Jerusalem, the

Caaba has undergone many vicissitudes, and the present structure does not antedate the seventeenth century

of the Christian Era. When Mecca was sacked in A.D. 930, the famous black stone was captured by the

Carmathians, in whose possession it remained over twenty years and it is a moot question whether the stone

finally returned by them in exchange far a princely ransom was actually the original block or a substitute.

The side of the Caaba are the supposed graves of Hagar and Ishmael, and near the door (which is about seven feet above the ground) is the stone upon which Abraham stood while rebuilding the Caaba. Various

coverings have always been thrown over the cube-shaped structure; the present drape, which is replaced

annually, is a black brocade embroidered in a gold. Small pieces a the old drape are cherished by pilgrims

as holy relics.

Entrance to the Caaba is effected by a movable flight of steps. The interior is lined with varicolored marble, silver, and gilt. Although the building is generally conceived to be windowless, this point is disputed.

Access to the roof is had through a silver-plated door. In addition to the sacred books the Caaba contains

thirteen lamps. The great courtyard around the building contains a number of holy objects, and is bounded

by a colonnade which originally consisted of 360 pillars. Opening into the courtyard are nineteen gates, the

sacred and significant number of the Metonic Cycle and also the number of stones in the inner ring of

Stonehenge. Seven great minarets tower above the Caaba, and one of the sacred ceremonials in connection

with the building includes seven circumambulations about the central Caaba in an apparent effort to portray

the motion of the celestial bodies.

p. 192

on a perfect and complete equality with man, and the Prophet's teachings often place her

in a position superior to the male in some respects." Mr. Webb justifies his stand by

quoting from the thirty-fifth verse of the thirty-third sura of the Koran:

"Verily the Moslems of either sex, and the true believers of either sex, and the devout

men, and the devout women, and the men of veracity, and the women of veracity, and the

patient men, and the patient women, and the humble men, and the humble women, and

the alms-givers of either sex, and the men who fast, and the women who fast, and the

chaste men, and the chaste women, and those of either sex who remember Allah

frequently: for them hath Allah prepared forgiveness and a great reward." Here the

attainment of heaven is clearly set forth as a problem whose only solution is that of

individual merit.

On the day of his death Mohammed told Fatima, his beloved daughter, and Safiya, his

aunt: "Work ye out that which shall gain acceptance for you with the Lord: for I verily

have no power with Him to save you in any wise." The Prophet did not advise either

woman to rely upon the virtues of her husband nor in any manner did he indicate

woman's salvation to be dependent upon the human frailty of her spouse.

Everything to the contrary notwithstanding, Mohammed is not responsible for the

contradictions and inconsistencies in the Koran, for the volume was not compiled and did

not assume its present form until over twenty years after his death. In its present state the

Koran is, for the major part, a jumble of hearsay through which occasionally shines forth

an example of true inspiration. From what is known of the man Mohammed, it is

reasonable to suppose that these nobler and finer portions represent the actual doctrines

of the Prophet; the remainder are obvious interpolations, some arising from

misunderstanding and others direct forgeries calculated to satisfy the temporal ambitions

of conquering Islam. On this subject, Godfrey Higgins speaks with his usual perspicacity:

"Here we have the Koran of Mohammed and the first four sincere and zealous patriarchs,

and the Koran of the conquering and magnificent Saracens--puffed up with pride and

vanity. The Koran of the eclectic philosopher was not likely to suit the conquerors of

Asia. A new one must be grafted on the old, to find a justification for their enormities."

(See Anacalypsis.)

To the discerning few it is evident that Mohammed had a knowledge of that secret

doctrine which must needs constitute the core of every great philosophical, religious, or

ethical institution. Through one of four possible avenues Mohammed may have contacted

the ancient Mystery teachings: (1) through direct contact with the Great School in the

invisible world; (2) through the Nestorian Christian monks; (3) through the mysterious

holy man who appeared and disappeared at frequent intervals during the period in which

the suras of the Koran were revealed; (4) through a decadent school already existing in

Arabia, which school in spite of its lapse into idolatry still retained the secrets of the

Ancient Wisdom cult. The arcana of Islam may yet be demonstrated to have been directly

founded upon the ancient pagan Mysteries performed at the Caaba centuries before the

birth of the Prophet; in fact it is generally admitted that many of the ceremonials now

embodied in the Islamic Mysteries are survivals of pagan Arabia.

The feminine principle is repeatedly emphasized in Islamic symbolism. For example,

Friday, which is sacred to the planer Venus, is the Moslem's holy day; green is the color

of the Prophet and, being symbolic of verdure, is inevitably associated with the World

Mother; and both the Islamic crescent and the scimitar may be interpreted to signify the

crescent shape of either the moon or Venus.

"The famous 'Stone of Cabar,' Kaaba, Cabir, or Kebir, at Mecca," says Jennings, "which

is so devoutly kissed by the Faithful, is a Talisman. It is said that the figure of Venus is

seen to this day engraved upon it with a crescent. This very Caaba itself was at first an

idolatrous temple, where the Arabians worshipped Al-Uzza (God and Issa), that is

Venus." (See Kenealy's Enoch, The Second Messenger of God.)

"The Mussulmans," writes Sir William Jones, "are already a sort of heterodox Christians:

they are Christians, if Locke reasons justly, because they firmly believe the immaculate

conception, divine character, and miracles of the MESSIAH; but they are heterodox, in

denying vehemently his character of Son, and his equality, as God, with the Father, of

whose unity and attributes they entertain and express the most awful ideas; while they

consider our doctrine as perfect blasphemy, and insist that our copies of the Scriptures

have been corrupted both by Jews and Christians."

The following lines are declared by the followers of the Prophet to have been deleted

from the Christian Gospels: "And when Jesus, the Son of Mary, said, O children of Israel,

verily I am the apostle of God sent unto you, confirming the law which was delivered

before me, and bringing good tidings of an apostle who shall come after me, and whose

name shall be AHMED." In the present text containing the prophecy of Jesus concerning

a comforter to come after Him, it is further claimed that the word comforter should be

translated illustrious and that it had a direct reference to Mohammed; also that the

tongues of flame that descended upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost in no way

could be interpreted as signifying the promised comforter. When asked, however, for

definite proof that the original Gospels contained these so-called expurgated references to

Mohammed, the Moslems make a counter-demand for production of the original

documents upon which Christianity is founded. Until such writings are discovered, the

point under dispute must remain a source of controversy.

To ignore the heritage of culture received from Islam would be an unpardonable

oversight, for when the crescent triumphed over the cross in Southern Europe it was the

harbinger of a civilization which had no equal in its day. In Studies in a Mosque, Stanley

Lane-Poole writes:

"For nearly eight centuries under her Mohammedan rulers Spain set to all Europe a

shining example of a civilized and enlightened state. * * * Art, literature and science

prospered as they then prospered nowhere else in Europe. Students flocked from France

and Germany and England to drink from the fountains of learning which flowed only in

the cities of the Moors. The surgeons and doctors of Andalusia were in the van of

science; women were encouraged to devote themselves to serious study, and a lady

doctor was not unknown among the people of Cordova. Mathematics, astronomy and

botany, history, philosophy and jurisprudence, were to he mastered in Spain and in Spain

alone."

The Library of Original Sources thus sums up the effects of Islam:

"The results of Mohammedism have been greatly underestimated. In the century after

Mohammed's death it wrested Asia Minor, Africa, and Spain from Christianity, more

than half of the civilized world, and established a civilization, the highest in the world

during the Dark Ages. It brought the Arabian race to their highest development, raised the

position of women in the East, though it retained polygamy, was intensively

monotheistic, and until the Turks gained control for the most part encouraged progress."

In the same work, among the great Islamic scientists and philosophers who have made

substantial contributions to human knowledge are listed Gerber, or Djafer, who in the

ninth century laid the foundations for modern chemistry; Ben Musa, who in the tenth

century introduced the theory of algebra; Alhaze, who in the eleventh century made a

profound study of optics and discovered the magnifying power of convex lenses; and in

the eleventh century also, both Avicenna, or Ibn Sina, whose medical encyclopedia was

the standard of his age, and the great Qabbalist Avicebron, or Ibn Gebirol.

"Looking back upon the science of the Mohammedans," resumes the authority just

quoted, "it will be seen that they laid the first foundations of chemistry, and made

important advances in mathematics and optics. Their discoveries never had the influence

they should have had upon the course of European civilization, but this was because

Europe itself was not enlightened enough to grasp and make use of them. Gerber's

observation that oxidized iron weighs heavier than before oxidation had to be made over

again. So had some of their work in optics, and many of their geographical discoveries.

They had rounded Africa long before Vasco da Gama. The composition of gunpowder

came into Northern Europe from them. We must never forget that the dark ages in

Christian Europe were the bright ones of the Mohammedan world. In the field of

philosophy the Arabs started by adopting the neo-Platonism they found in Europe, and

gradually working back to Aristotle."

What means the subtle mystery of the phœnix reborn every six hundred years? Faintly

from within the sanctuary of the World Mysteries is whispered the answer. Six hundred

years before Christ the phœnix of wisdom (Pythagoras?) spread its wings and died upon

the altar of humanity, consumed by the sacrificial fire. In Nazareth the bird was again

reborn from its own ashes, only to die upon the tree which had its roots in Adam's skull.

In A.D. 600 appeared Ahmed (Mohammed). Again the phœnix suffered, this time from

the poison of Kheibar, and from its charred ashes rose to spread its wings across the face

of Mongolia, where in the twelfth century Genghis Khan established the rule of wisdom.

Circling the mighty desert of Gobi, the phœnix again gave up its form, which now lies

buried in a glass sarcophagus under a pyramid bearing upon it the ineffable figures of the

Mysteries. After the lapse of six hundred years from the death of Genghis Khan, did

Napoleon Bonaparte--who believed himself to be the man of destiny--contact in his

wanderings this strange legend of the continual periodic rebirth of wisdom? Did he feel

the spreading wings of the phœnix within himself and did he believe the hope of the

world had taken flesh in him? The eagle on his standard may well have been the phœnix.

This would explain why he was moved to believe himself predestined to establish the

kingdom of Christ on earth and is, perhaps, the clue to his little-understood friendliness

toward the Moslem.

p. 193

American Indian Symbolism

THE North American Indian is by nature a symbolist, a mystic, and a philosopher. Like

most: aboriginal peoples, his soul was en rapport with the cosmic agencies manifesting

about him. Not only did his Manidos control creation from their exalted seats above the

clouds, but they also descended into the world of men and mingled with their red

children. The gray clouds hanging over the horizon were the smoke from the calumets of

the gods, who could build fires of petrified wood and use a comet for a flame. The

American Indian peopled the forests, rivers, and sky with myriads of superphysical and

invisible beings. There are legends of entire tribes of Indians who lived in lake bottoms;

of races who were never seen in the daytime but who, coming forth from their hidden

caves, roamed the earth at night and waylaid unwary travelers; also of Bat Indians, with

human bodies and batlike wings, who lived in gloomy forests and inaccessible cliffs and

who slept hanging head downward from great branches and outcroppings of rock. The

red man's philosophy of elemental creatures is apparently the outcome of his intimate

contact with Nature, whose inexplicable wonders become the generating cause of such

metaphysical speculations.

In common with the early Scandinavians, the Indians of North America considered the

earth (the Great Mother) to be an intermediate plane, bounded above by a heavenly

sphere (the dwelling place of the Great Spirit) and below by a dark and terrifying

subterranean world (the abode of shadows and of submundane powers). Like the

Chaldeans, they divided the interval between the surface of earth and heaven into various

strata, one consisting of clouds, another of the paths of the heavenly bodies, and so on.

The underworld was similarly divided and like the Greek system represented to the

initiated the House of the Lesser Mysteries. Those creatures capable of functioning in two

or more elements were considered as messengers between the spirits of these various

planes. The abode of the dead was presumed to be in a distant place: in the heavens

above, the earth below, the distant corners of the world, or across wide seas. Sometimes a

river flows between the world of the dead and that of the living, in this respect paralleling

Egyptian, Greek, and Christian theology. To the Indian the number four has a peculiar

sanctity, presumably because the Great Spirit created His universe in a square frame. This

is suggestive of the veneration accorded the tetrad by the Pythagoreans, who held it to be

a fitting symbol of the Creator. The legendary narratives of the strange adventures of

intrepid heroes who while in the physical body penetrated the realms of the dead prove

beyond question the presence of Mystery cults among the North American red men.

Wherever the Mysteries were established they were recognized as the philosophic

equivalents of death, for those passing through the rituals experienced all after-death

conditions while still in the physical body. At the consummation of the ritual the initiate

actually gained the ability to pass in and out of his physical body at will. This is the

philosophic foundation for the allegories of adventures in the Indian Shadow Land, or

World of Ghosts.

"From coast to coast," writes Hartley Burr Alexander, "the sacred Calumet is the Indian's

altar, and its smoke is the proper offering to Heaven." (See Mythology of All Paces.) In

the Notes on the same work is given the following description of the pipe ceremony:

"The master of ceremonies, again rising to his feet, filled and lighted the pipe of peace

from his own fire. Drawing three whiffs, one after the other, he blew the first towards the

zenith, the second towards the ground, and the third towards the Sun. By the first act he

returned thanks to the Great Spirit for the preservation of his life during the past year, and

for being permitted to be present at this council. By the second, he returned thanks to his

Mother, the Earth, for her various productions which had ministered to his sustenance.

And by the third, he returned thanks to the Sun for his never-failing light, ever shining

upon all."

It was necessary for the Indian to secure the red stone for his calumet from the pipestone

quarry where in some remote past the Great Spirit had come and, after fashioning with

His own hands a great pipe, had smoked it toward the four corners of creation and thus

instituted this most sacred ceremony. Scores of Indian tribes--some of them traveling

thousands of miles--secured the sacred stone from this single quarry, where the mandate

of the Great Spirit had decreed that eternal peace should reign.

The Indian does not worship the sun; he rather regards this shining orb as an appropriate

symbol of the Great and Good Spirit who forever radiates life to his red children. In

Indian symbolism the serpent--especially the Great Serpent--corroborates other evidence

pointing to the presence of the Mysteries on the North American Continent. The flying

serpent is the Atlantean token of the initiate; the seven-headed snake represents the seven

great Atlantean islands (the cities of Chibola?) and also the seven great prehistoric

schools of esoteric philosophy. Moreover, who can doubt the presence of the secret

doctrine in the Americas when he gazes upon the great serpent mound in Adams County,

Ohio, where the huge reptile is represented as disgorging the Egg of Existence? Many

American Indian tribes are reincarnationists, some are transmigrationists. They even

called their children by the names supposed to have been borne by them in a former life.

There is an account of an instance where a parent by inadvertence had given his infant the

wrong name, whereupon the babe cried incessantly until the mistake had been rectified!

The belief in reincarnation is also prevalent among the Eskimos. Aged Eskimos not

infrequently kill themselves in order to reincarnate in the family of some newly married

loved one.

The American Indians recognize the difference between the ghost and the actual soul of a

dead person, a knowledge restricted to initiates of the Mysteries. In common with the

Platonists they also understood the principles of an archetypal sphere wherein exist the

Click to enlarge

NAVAHO SAND PAINTING.

From an original drawing by Hasteen Klah.

The Navaho dry or sand paintings are made by sprinkling varicolored ground pigment upon a base of

smooth sand. The one here reproduced is encircled by the rainbow goddess, and portrays an episode from

the Navaho cosmogony myth. According to Hasteen Klah, the Navaho sand priest who designed this

painting, the Navahos do not believe in idolatry, hence they make no images of their gods, but perpetuate

only the mental concept of them. Just as the gods draw pictures upon the moving clouds, so the priests

make paintings on the sand, and when the purpose of the drawing has been fulfilled it is effaced by a sweep

of the hand. According to this informant, the Zuni, Hopi, and Navaho nations had a common genesis; they

all came out of the earth and then separated into three nations.

The Navahos first emerged about 3,000 years ago at a point now called La Platte Mountain in Colorado.

The four mountains sacred to the Navahos are La Platte Mountain, Mount Taylor, Navaho Mountain, and

San Francisco Mountain. While these three nations were under the earth four mountain ranges were below

with them. The eastern mountains were white, the southern blue, the western yellow, and the northern

black. The rise and fall of these mountains caused the alternation of day and night. When the white

mountains rose it was day under the earth; when the yellow ones rose, twilight; the black mountains

brought night, and the blue, dawn. Seven major deities were recognized by the Navahos, but Hasteen Klah

was unable to say whether the Indians related these deities to the planets. Bakochiddy, one of these seven

major gods, was white in color with light reddish hair and gray eyes. His father was the sun ray and his

mother the daylight. He ascended to heaven and in some respects his life parallels that of Christ. To avenge

the kidnapping of his child, Kahothsode, a fish god, caused a great flood to arise. To escape destruction, the Zunis, Hopis, and Navahos ascended to the surface of the earth.

The sand painting here reproduced is part of the medicine series prepared far the healing of disease. In the

healing ceremony the patient is placed upon the drawing, which is made in a consecrated hogan, and all

outsiders excluded. The sacred swastika in the center of the drawing is perhaps the most nearly universal of religious emblems and represents the four corners of the world. The two hunchback god, at the right and

left assume their appearance by reason of the great clouds borne upon their backs. In Navaho religious art,

male divinities are always shown with circular heads and female divinities with square heads.

p. 194

patterns of all forms manifesting in the earth plane, The theory of Group, or Elder, Souls

having supervision over the animal species is also shared by them. The red man's belief

in guardian spirits would have warmed the heart of Paracelsus. When they attain the

importance of being protectors of entire clans or tribes, these guardians are called totems.

In some tribes impressive ceremonies mark the occasion when the young men are sent

out into the forest to fast and pray and there remain until their guardian spirit manifests to

them. Whatever creature appears thereupon becomes their peculiar genius, to whom they

appeal in time of trouble.

The outstanding hero of North American Indian folklore is Hiawatha, a name which,

according to Lewis Spence, signifies "he who seeks the wampum-belt." Hiawatha enjoys

the distinction of anticipating by several centuries the late Woodrow Wilson's cherished

dream of a League of Nations. Following in the footsteps of Schoolcraft, Longfellow

confused the historical Hiawatha of the Iroquois with Manabozho, a mythological hero of

the Algonquins and Ojibwas. Hiawatha, a chief of the Iroquois, after many reverses and

disappointments, succeeded in uniting the five great nations of the Iroquois into the

"League of the Five Nations." The original purpose of the league--to abolish war by

substituting councils of arbitration--was not wholly successful, but the power of the

"Silver Chain" conferred upon the Iroquois a solidarity attained by no other confederacy

of North American Indians. Hiawatha, however, met the same opposition which has

confronted every great idealist, irrespective of time or race. The shamans turned their

magic against him and, according to one legend, created an evil bird which, swooping

down from heaven, tore his only daughter to pieces before his eyes. When Hiawatha,

after accomplishing his mission, had sailed away in his self-propelled canoe along the

path of the sunset, his people realized the true greatness of their benefactor and elevated

him to the dignity of a demigod. In Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha the poet has cast the

great Indian statesman in a charming setting of magic and enchantment; yet through the

maze of symbol and allegory is ever faintly visible the figure of Hiawatha the initiate--the

very personification of the red man and his philosophy.

THE POPOL VUH

No other sacred book sets forth so completely as the Popol Vuh the initiatory rituals of a

great school of mystical philosophy. This volume alone is sufficient to establish

incontestably the philosophical excellence of the red race.

"The Red 'Children of the Sun,'" writes James Morgan Pryse, "do not worship the One

God. For them that One God is absolutely impersonal, and all the Forces emanated from

that One God are personal. This is the exact reverse of the popular western conception of

a personal God and impersonal working forces in nature. Decide for yourself which of

these beliefs is the more philosophical. These Children of the Sun adore the Plumèd

Serpent, who is the messenger of the Sun. He was the God Quetzalcoatl in Mexico,

Gucumatz in Quiché; and in Peru he was called Amaru. From the latter name comes our

word America. Amaruca is, literally translated, 'Land of the Plumèd Serpent.' The priests

of this God of Peace, from their chief centre in the Cordilleras, once ruled both Americas.

All the Red men who have remained true to the ancient religion are still under their sway.

One of their strong centres was in Guatemala, and of their Order was the author of the

book called Popol Vuh. In the Quiché tongue Gucumatz is the exact equivalent of

Quetzalcoatl in the Nahuatl language; quetzal, the bird of Paradise; coatl, serpent--'the

Serpent veiled in plumes of the paradise-bird'!"

The Popol Vuh was discovered by Father Ximinez in the seventeenth century. It was

translated into French by Brasseur de Bourbourg and published in 1861. The only

complete English translation is that by Kenneth Sylvan Guthrie, which ran through the

early files of The Word magazine and which is used as the basis of this article. A portion

of the Popol Vuh was translated into English, with extremely valuable commentaries, by

James Morgan Pryse, but unfortunately his translation was never completed. The second

book of the Popol Vuh is largely devoted to the initiatory rituals of the Quiché nation.

These ceremonials are of first importance to students of Masonic symbolism and mystical

philosophy, since they establish beyond doubt the existence of ancient and divinely

instituted Mystery schools on the American Continent.

Lewis Spence, in describing the Popol Vuh, gives a number of translations of the title of

the manuscript itself. Passing over the renditions, "The Book of the Mat" and "The

Record of the Community," he considers it likely that the correct title is "The Collection

of Written Leaves," Popol signifying the "prepared bark" and Vuh, "paper" or "book"

from the verb uoch, to write. Dr. Guthrie interprets the words Popol Vuh to mean "The

Senate Book," or "The Book of the Holy Assembly"; Brasseur de Bourbourg calls it "The

Sacred Book"; and Father Ximinez designates the volume "The National Book." In his

articles on the Popol Vuh appearing in the fifteenth volume of Lucifer, James Morgan

Pryse, approaching the subject from the standpoint of the mystic, calls this work "The

Book of the Azure Veil." In the Popol Vuh itself the ancient records from which the

Christianized Indian who compiled it derived his material are referred to as "The Tale of

Human Existence in the Land of Shadows, and, How Man Saw Light and Life."

The meager available native records contain abundant evidence that the later civilizations

of Central and South America were hopelessly dominated by the black arts of their

priestcrafts. In the convexities of their magnetized mirrors the Indian sorcerers captured

the intelligences of elemental beings and, gazing into the depths of these abominable

devices, eventually made the scepter subservient to the wand. Robed in garments of sable

hue, the neophytes in their search for truth were led by their sinister guides through the

confused passageways of necromancy. By the left-hand path they descended into the

somber depths of the infernal world, where they learned to endow stones with the power

of speech and to subtly ensnare the minds of men with their chants and fetishes. As

typical of the perversion which prevailed, none could achieve to the greater Mysteries

until a human being had suffered immolation at his hand and the bleeding heart of the

victim had been elevated before the leering face of the stone idol fabricated by a

priestcraft the members of which realized more fully than they dared to admit the true

nature of the man-made demon. The sanguinary and indescribable rites practiced by

many of the Central American Indians may represent remnants of the later Atlantean

perversion of the ancient sun Mysteries. According to the secret tradition, it was during

the later Atlantean epoch that black magic and sorcery dominated the esoteric schools,

resulting in the bloody sacrificial rites and gruesome idolatry which ultimately overthrew

the Atlantean empire and even penetrated the Aryan religious world.

THE MYSTERIES OF XIBALBA

The princes of Xibalba (so the Popol Vuh recounts) sent their four owl messengers to

Hunhun-ahpu and Vukub-hunhun-ahpu, ordering them to come at once to the place of

initiation in the fastnesses of the Guatemalan mountains. Failing in the tests imposed by

the princes of Xibalba, the two brothers--according to the ancient custom--paid with their

lives for their shortcomings. Hunhun-ahpu and Vukub-hunhun-ahpu were buried

together, but the head of Hunhun-ahpu was placed among the branches of the sacred

calabash tree which grew in the middle of the road leading to the awful Mysteries of

Xibalba. Immediately the calabash tree covered itself with fruit and the head of Hunhun-

ahpu "showed itself no more; for it reunited itself with the other fruits of the calabash

tree." Now Xquiq was the virgin daughter of prince Cuchumaquiq. From her father she

had learned of the marvelous calabash tree, and desiring to possess some of its fruit, she

journeyed alone to the somber place where it grew. When Xquiq put forth her hand to

pick the fruit of the tree, some saliva from the mouth of Hunhun-ahpu fell into it and the

head spoke to Xquiq, saying: "This saliva and froth is my posterity which I have just

given you. Now my head will cease to speak, for it is only the head of a corpse, which

has no more flesh."

Following the admonitions of Hunhun-ahpu, the young girl returned to her home. Her

father, Cuchumaquiq, later discovering that she was about to become a mother,

questioned her concerning the father of her child. Xquiq replied that the child was

begotten while she was gazing upon the head of Hunhun-ahpu in the calabash tree and

that she had known no man. Cuchumaquiq, refusing to believe her story, at the instigation

of the princes of Xibalba, demanded her heart in an urn. Led away by her executioners,

Xquiq pleaded with them to spare her life, which they agreed to do, substituting for her

heart the fruit of a certain tree (rubber) whose sap was red and of the consistency of

blood. When the princes of Xibalba placed the supposed heart upon the coals of the altar

to be consumed, they were all amazed by the perfume which rose therefrom, for they did

not know that they were burning the fruit of a fragrant plant.

Xquiq gave birth to twin sons, who were named Hunahpu and Xbalanque and whose

lives were dedicated to avenging the deaths of Hunhun-ahpu and Vukub-hunhun-ahpu.

The years passed, and the two boys grew up to manhood and great were their deeds.

Especially did they excel in a certain game called tennis but somewhat resembling

hockey. Hearing of the prowess of the youths, the princes of Xibalba asked: "Who, then,

are those who now begin again to play over our heads, and who do not scruple to shake

(the earth)? Are not Hunhun-ahpu and Vukub-hunhun-ahpu dead, who wished

Click to enlarge

FRAGMENT OF INDIAN POTTERY.

Courtesy of Alice Palmer Henderson

This curious fragment was found four feet under the ground beneath a trash pile of

broken early Indian pottery not far from the Casa Grande ruins in Arizona. It is

significant because of its striking to the Masonic compass and square. Indian baskets

pottery, and blankets frequently bear ornamental designs of especial Masonic and

philosophic interest.

p. 195

to exalt themselves before our face?" So the princes of Xibalba sent for the two youths,

Hunahpu and Xbalanque, that they might destroy them also in the seven days of the

Mysteries. Before departing, the two brothers bade farewell to their grandmother, each

planting in the midst of the house a cane plant, saying that as long as the cane lived she

would know that they were alive. "O, our grandmother, O, our mother, do not weep;

behold the sign of our word which remains with you. " Hunahpu and Xbalanque then

departed, each with his sabarcan (blowpipe), and for many days they journeyed along the

perilous trail, descending through tortuous ravines and along precipitous cliffs, past

strange birds and boiling springs, cowards the sanctuary of Xibalba.

The actual ordeals of the Xibalbian Mysteries were seven in number. As a preliminary

the two adventurers crossed a river of mud and then a stream of blood, accomplishing

these difficult feats by using their sabarcans as bridges. Continuing on their way, they

reached a point where four roads converged--a black road, a white road, a red road, and a

green road. Now Hunahpu and Xbalanque knew that their first test would consist of being

able to discriminate between the princes of Xibalba and the wooden effigies robed to

resemble them; also that they must call each of the princes by his correct name without

having been given the information. To secure this information, Hunahpu pulled a hair

from his leg, which hair then became a strange insect called Xan; buzzing along the black

road, the Xan entered the council chamber of the princes of Xibalba and stung the leg of

the figure nearest the door, which it discovered to be a manikin. By the same artifice the

second figure was proved to be of wood, but upon stinging the third, there was an

immediate response. By stinging each of the twelve assembled princes in turn the insect

thus discovered each one's name, for the princes called each other by name in discussing

the cause of the mysterious bites. Having secured the desired information in this novel

manner, the insect then flew back to Hunahpu and Xbalanque, who thus fortified,

fearlessly approached the threshold of Xibalba and presented themselves to the twelve

assembled princes.

When told to adore the king, Hunahpu and Xbalanque laughed, for they knew that the

figure pointed out to them was the lifeless manikin. The young adventurers thereupon

addressed the twelve princes by name thus: "Hail, Hun-came; hail, Vukub-came; hail,

Xiquiripat; hail, Cuchumaquiq; hail, Ahalpuh; hail, Ahalcana; hail, Chamiabak; hail,

Chamiaholona; hail, Quiqxic; hail, Patan; hail, Quiqre; hail, Quiqrixqaq." When invited

by the Xibalbians to seat themselves upon a great stone bench, Hunahpu and Xbalanque

declined to do so, declaring that they well knew the stone to be heated so that they would

he burned to death if they sat upon it. The princes of Xibalba then ordered Hunahpu and

Xbalanque to rest for the night in the House of Shadows. This completed the first degree

of the Xibalbian Mysteries.

The second trial was given in the House of Shadows, where to each of the candidates was

brought a pine torch and a cigar, with the injunction that both must be kept alight

throughout the entire night and yet each must be returned the next morning unconsumed.

Knowing that death was the alternative to failure in the test, the young men burnt aras-

feathers in place of the pine splinters (which they closely resemble) and also put fireflies

on the tips of the cigars. Seeing the lights, those who watched felt certain that Hunahpu

and Xbalanque had fallen into the trap, but when morning came the torches and cigars

were returned to the guards unconsumed and still burning. In amazement and awe, the

princes of Xibalba gazed upon the unconsumed splinters and cigars, for never before had

these been returned intact.

The third ordeal took place presumably in a cavern called the House of Spears. Here hour

after hour the youths were forced to defend themselves against the strongest and most

skillful warriors armed with spears. Hunahpu and Xbalanque pacified the spearmen, who

thereupon ceased attacking them. They then turned their attention to the second and most

difficult part of the test: the production of four vases of the rarest flowers but which they

were not permitted to leave the temple to gather. Unable to pass the guards, the two

young men secured the assistance of the ants. These tiny creatures, crawling into the

gardens of the temple, brought back the blossoms so that by morning the vases were

filled. When Hunahpu and Xbalanque presented the flowers to the twelve princes, the

latter, in amazement, recognized the blossoms as having been filched from their own

private gardens. In consternation, the princes of Xibalba then counseled together how

they could destroy the intrepid neophytes and forthwith prepared for them the next

ordeal.

For their fourth test, the two brothers were made to enter the House of Cold, where they

remained for an entire night. The princes of Xibalba considered the chill of the icy cavern

to be unbearable and it is described as "the abode of the frozen winds of the North."

Hunahpu and Xbalanque, however, protected themselves from the deadening influence of

the frozen air by building fires of pine cones, whose warmth caused the spirit of cold to

leave the cavern so that the youths were not dead but full of life when day dawned. Even

greater than before was the amazement of the princes of Xibalba when Hunahpu and

Xbalanque again entered the Hall of Assembly in the custody of their guardians.

The fifth ordeal was also of a nocturnal nature. Hunahpu and Xbalanque were ushered

into a great chamber which was immediately filled with ferocious tigers. Here they were

forced to remain throughout the night. The young men tossed bones to the tigers, which

they ground to pieces with their strong jaws. Gazing into the House of the Tigers, the

princes of Xibalba beheld the animals chewing the bones and said one to the other: "They

have at last learned (to know the power of Xibalba), and they have given themselves up

to the beasts. " But when at dawn Hunahpu and Xbalanque emerged from the House of

the Tigers unharmed, the Xibalbians

Click to enlarge

MIDEWIWIN RECORD ON BIRCH BARK.

Courtesy of Alice Palmer Henderson.

The birch-bark roll is one of the most sacred possessions of an initiate of the Midewiwin, or Grand

Medicine Society, of the Ojibwas. Concerning these rolls, Colonel Carrick Mallery writes: "To persons

acquainted with secret societies, a good comparison for the Midewiwin charts would be what is called a

trestleboard of a Masonic order, which is printed and published and publicly exposed without exhibiting

any secrets of the order; yet it is net only significant, but useful to the esoteric in assistance to their memory as to the details of ceremony." A most complete and trustworthy account of the Midewiwin is that given by W. J. Hoffman in the Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. He writes:

The Midewiwin--Society of the Mide or Shaman--consists of an indefinite number of Mide of both sexes.

The society is graded into four separate and distinct degrees, although there is a general impression

prevailing even among certain members that any degree beyond the first is practically a mere repetition.

The greater power attained by one in making advancement depends upon the fact of his having submitted to

'being shot at with the medicine sacks' in the hands of the officiating priests. * * * It has always been

customary for the Mide priests to preserve birch-bark records, bearing delicate incised lines to represent

pictorially the ground plan of the number of degrees to which the owner is entitled. Such records or charts

are sacred and are never exposed to the public view."

The two rectangular diagrams represent two degrees of the Mide lodge and the straight line through the

center the spiritual path, or "straight and narrow way," running through the degrees. The lines running tangent to the central Path signify temptations, and the faces at the termini of the lines are manidos, or

powerful spirits. Writing of the Midewiwin, Schoolcraft, the great authority on the American Indian, says:

"In the society of the Midewiwin the object is to teach the higher doctrines of spiritual existence, its nature and mode of existence, and the influence it exercises among men. It is an association of men who profess

the highest knowledge known to the tribes."

According to legend, Manabozho, the great Rabbit, who was a servant of Dzhe Manido, the Good Spirit,

gazing down upon the progenitors of the Ojibwas and perceiving them to be without spiritual knowledge,

instructed an otter in the mysteries of Midewiwin. Manabozho built a Midewigan and initiated the otter,

shooting the sacred Migis (a small shell, the sacred symbol of the Mide) into the body of the otter. He then

conferred immortality upon the animal, and entrusted to it the secrets of the Grand Medicine Society. The ceremony of initiation is preceded by sweat baths and consists chiefly of overcoming the influences of evil

manidos. The initiate is also instructed in the art of healing and (judging from Plate III of Mr. Hoffman's

article) a knowledge of directionalizing the forces moving through the vital centers of the human body.

Though the cross is an important symbol in the Midewiwin rites, it is noteworthy that the Mide Priests

steadfastly refused to give up their religion and be converted to Christianity.

p. 196

cried: "Of what race are those?" for they could not understand how any man could escape

the tigers' fury. Then the princes of Xibalba prepared for the two brothers a new ordeal.

The sixth test consisted of remaining from sunset to sunrise in the House of Fire.

Hunahpu and Xbalanque entered a large apartment arranged like a furnace. On every side

the flames arose and the air was stifling; so great was the heat that those who entered this

chamber could survive only a few moments. But at sunrise when the doors of the furnace

were opened, Hunahpu and Xbalanque came forth unscorched by the fury of the flames.

The princes of Xibalba, perceiving how the two intrepid youths had survived every ordeal

prepared for their destruction, were filled with fear lest all the secrets of Xibalba should

fall into the hands of Hunahpu and Xbalanque. So they prepared the last ordeal, an ordeal

yet more terrible than any which had gone before, certain that the youths could not

withstand this crucial test.

The seventh ordeal took place in the House of the Bats. Here in a dark subterranean

labyrinth lurked many strange and odious creatures of destruction. Huge bars fluttered

dismally through the corridors and hung with folded wings from the carvings on the walls

and ceilings. Here also dwelt Camazotz, the God of Bats, a hideous monster with the

body of a man and the wings and head of a bat. Camazotz carried a great sword and,

soaring through the gloom, decapitated with a single sweep of his blade any unwary

wanderers seeking to find their way through the terror-filled chambers. Xbalanque passed

successfully through this horrifying test, but Hunahpu, caught off his guard, was

beheaded by Camazotz.

Later, Hunahpu was restored to life by magic, and the two brothers, having thus foiled

every attempt against their lives by the Xibalbians, in order to better avenge the murder

of Hunhun-ahpu and Vukub-hunhun-ahpu, permitted themselves to be burned upon a

funeral pyre. Their powdered bones were then cast into a river and immediately became

two great man-fishes. Later taking upon themselves the forms of aged wanderers, they

danced for the Xibalbians and wrought strange miracles. Thus one would cut the other to

pieces and with a single word resurrect him, or they would burn houses by magic and

then instantly rebuild them. The fame of the two dancers--who were in reality Hunahpu

and Xbalanque--finally came to the notice of the twelve princes of Xibalba, who

thereupon desired these two miracle-workers to perform their strange fears before them.

After Hunahpu and Xbalanque had slain the dog of the princes and restored it to life, had

burned the royal palace and instantly rebuilt it, and given other demonstrations of their

magical powers, the monarch of the Xibalbians asked the magicians to destroy him and

restore him also to life. So Hunahpu and Xbalanque slew the princes of Xibalba but did

not return them to life, thereby avenging the murder of Hunhun-ahpu and Vukub-hunhun-

ahpu. These heroes later ascended to heaven, where they became the celestial lights.

KEYS TO THE MYSTERIES OF XIBALBA

"Do not these initiations," writes Le Plongeon, "vividly recall to mind what Henoch said

he saw in his visions? That blazing house of crystal, burning hot and icy cold--that place

where were the bow of fire, the quiver of arrows, the sword of fire--that other where he

had to cross the babbling stream, and the river of fire-and those extremities of the Earth

full of all kinds of huge beasts and birds--or the habitation where appeared one of great

glory sitting upon the orb of the sun--and, lastly, does not the tamarind tree in the midst

of the earth, that he was cold was the Tree of Knowledge, find its simile in the calabash

tree, in the middle of the road where those of Xibalba placed the head of Hunhun Ahpu,

after sacrificing him for having failed to support the first trial of the initiation? * * *

These were the awful ordeals that the candidates for initiation into the sacred mysteries

had to pass through in Xibalba. Do they not seem an exact counterpart of what happened

in a milder form at the initiation into the Eleusinian mysteries? and also the greater

mysteries of Egypt, from which these were copied? Does not the recital of what the

candidates to the mysteries in Xibalba were required to know, before being admitted, * *

* recall to mind the wonderful similar feats said to be performed by the Mahatmas, the

Brothers in India, and of several of the passages of the book of Daniel, who had been

initiated to the mysteries of the Chaldeans or Magi which, according to Eubulus, were

divided into three classes or genera, the highest being the most learned?" (See Sacred

Mysteries among the Mayas and the Quiches.)

In his introductory notes to the Popol Vuh, Dr. Guthrie presents a number of important

parallelisms between this sacred book of the Quichés and the sacred writings of other

great civilizations. In the tests through which Hunahpu and Xbalanque are forced to pass

he finds the following analogy with the signs of the zodiac as employed in the Mysteries

of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Greeks:

"Aries, crossing the river of mud. Taurus, crossing the river of blood. Gemini, detecting

the two dummy kings. Cancer, the House of Darkness. Leo, the House of Spears. Virgo,

the House of Cold (the usual trip to Hell). Libra, the House of Tigers (feline poise).

Scorpio, the House of Fire. Sagittarius, the House of Bats, where the God Camazotz

decapitates one of the heroes. Capricorn, the burning on the scaffold (the dual Phœnix).

Aquarius, their ashes being scattered in a river. Pisces, their ashes turning into man-

fishes, and later back into human form."

It would seem more appropriate to assign the river of blood to Aries and that of mud to

Taurus, and it is not at all improbable that in the ancient form of the legend the order of

the rivers was reversed. Dr. Guthrie's most astonishing conclusion is his effort to identify

Xibalba with the ancient continent of Atlantis. He sees in the twelve princes of Xibalba

the rulers of the Atlantean empire, and in the destruction of these princes by the magic of

Hunahpu and Xbalanque an allegorical depiction of the tragic end of Atlantis. To the

initiated, however, it is evident that Atlantis is simply a symbolic figure in which is set

forth the mystery of origins.

Concerned primarily with the problems of mystical anatomy, Mr. Pryse relates the

various symbols described in the Popol Vuh to the occult centers of consciousness in the

human body. Accordingly, he sees in the elastic ball the pineal gland and in Hunahpu and

Xbalanque the dual electric current directed along the spinal column. Unfortunately, Mr.

Pryse did not translate that portion of the Popol Vuh dealing directly with the initiatory

ceremonial. Xibalba he considers to be the shadowy or etheric sphere which, according to

the Mystery teachings, was located within the body of the planet itself. The fourth book

of the Popol Vuh concludes with an account of the erection of a majestic temple, all

white, where was preserved a secret black divining stone, cubical in shape. Gucumatz (or

Quetzalcoatl) partakes of many of the attributes of King Solomon: the account of the

temple building in the Popol Vuh is a reminder of the story of Solomon's Temple, and

undoubtedly has a similar significance. Brasseur de Bourbourg was first attracted to the

study of religious parallelisms in the Popol Vuh by the fact that the temple together with

the black stone which it contained, was named the Caabaha, a name astonishingly similar

to that of the Temple, or Caaba, which contains the sacred black stone of Islam.

The exploits of Hunahpu and Xbalanque take place before the actual creation of the

human race and therefore are to be considered essentially as spiritual mysteries. Xibalba

doubtless signifies the inferior universe of Chaldean and Pythagorean philosophy; the

princes of Xibalba are the twelve Governors of the lower universe; and the two dummies

or manikins in their midst may be interpreted as the two false signs of the ancient zodiac

inserted in the heavens to make the astronomical Mysteries incomprehensible to the

profane. The descent of Hunahpu and Xbalanque into the subterranean kingdom of

Xibalba by crossing over the rivers on bridges made from their blowguns has a subtle

analogy to the descent of the spiritual nature of man into the physical body through

certain superphysical channels that may be likened to the blowguns or tubes. The

sabarcan is also an appropriate emblem of the spinal cord and the power resident within

its tiny central opening. The two youths are invited to play the "Game of Life" with the

Gods of Death, and only with the aid of supernatural power imparted to them by the

"Sages" can they triumph over these gloomy lords. The tests represent the soul wandering

through the sub-zodiacal realms of the created universe; their final victory over the Lords

of Death represents the ascension of the spiritual and illumined consciousness from the

tower nature which has been wholly consumed by the fire of spiritual purification.

That the Quichés possessed the keys to the mystery of regeneration is evident from an

analysis of the symbols appearing upon the images of their priests and gods. In Vol. II of

the Anales del Museo Nacional de México is reproduced the head of an image generally

considered to represent Quetzalcoatl. The sculpturing is distinctly Oriental in character

and on the crown of the head appear both the thousand-petaled sunburst of spiritual

illumination and the serpent of the liberated spinal fire. The Hindu chakra is

unmistakable and it frequently appears in the religious art of the three Americas. One of

the carved monoliths of Central America is adorned with the heads of two elephants with

their drivers. No such animals have existed in the Western Hemisphere since prehistoric

times and it is evident that the carvings are the result of contact with the distant continent of Asia. Among the Mysteries of the Central American Indians is a remarkable doctrine

concerning the consecrated mantles or, as they were called in Europe, magic capes.

Because their glory was fatal to mortal vision, the gods, when appearing to the initiated

priests, robed themselves in these mantles, Allegory and fable likewise are the mantles

with which the secret doctrine is ever enveloped. Such a magic cape of concealment is

the Popol Vuh, and deep within its folds sits the god of Quiché philosophy. The massive

pyramids, temples, and monoliths of Central America may be likened also to the feet of

gods, whose upper parts are enshrouded in magic mantles of invisibility.

p. 197

The Mysteries and Their Emissaries

DID that divine knowledge which constituted the supreme possession of the pagan

priestcrafts survive the destruction of their temples? Is it yet accessible to mankind, or

does it lie buried beneath the rubbish of ages, entombed within the very sanctuaries that

were once illuminated by its splendor? "In Egypt," writes Origen, "the philosophers have

a sublime and secret knowledge respecting the nature of God. What did Julian imply

when he spoke of the secret initiations into the sacred Mysteries of the Seven-Rayed God

who lifted souls to salvation through His own nature? Who were the blessed theurgists

who understood them profundities concerning which Julian dared not speak? If this inner

doctrine were always concealed from the masses, for whom a simpler code had been

devised, is it not highly probable that the exponents of every aspect of modern

civilization--philosophic, ethical, religious, and scientific-are ignorant of the true

meaning of the very theories and tenets on which their beliefs are founded? Do the arts

and sciences that the race has inherited from older nations conceal beneath their fair

exterior a mystery so great that only the most illumined intellect can grasp its import?

Such is undoubtedly the case.

Albert Pike, who has gathered ample evidence of the excellence of the doctrines

promulgated by the Mysteries, supports his assertions by quoting from the writings of

Clement of Alexandria, Plato, Epictetus, Proclus, Aristophanes, and Cicero, all of whom

unite in lauding the high ideals of these institutions. From the unqualified testimony of

such reputable authorities no reasonable doubt can exist that the initiates of Greece,

Egypt, and other ancient countries possessed the correct solution to those great cultural,

intellectual, moral, and social problems which in an unsolved state confront the humanity

of the twentieth century. The reader must not interpret this statement to mean that

antiquity had foreseen and analyzed every complexity of this generation, but rather that

the Mysteries had evolved a method whereby the mind was so trained in the fundamental

verities of life that it was able to cope intelligently with any emergency which might

arise. Thus the reasoning faculties were organized by a simple process of mental culture,

for it was asserted that where reason reigns supreme, inconsistency cannot exist.

Wisdom, it was maintained, lifts man to the condition of Godhood, a fact which explains

the enigmatical statement that the Mysteries transformed "roaring beasts into divinities."

The preeminence of any philosophical system can be determined only by the excellence

of its products. The Mysteries have demonstrated the superiority of their culture by

giving to the world minds of such overwhelming greatness, souls of such beatific vision,

and lives of such outstanding impeccability that even after the lapse of ages the teachings

of these individuals constitute the present spiritual, intellectual, and ethical standards of

the race. The initiates of the various Mystery schools of past ages form a veritable golden

chain of supermen and superwomen connecting heaven and earth. They are the links of

that Homeric "golden chain" with which Zeus boasted he could bind the several parts of

the universe to the pinnacle of Olympus. The sons and daughters of Isis are indeed an

illustrious line--founders of sciences and philosophies, patrons of arts and crafts,

supporting by the transcendency of their divinely given power the structures of world

religions erected to do them homage. Founders of doctrines which have molded the lives

of uncounted generations, these Initiate-Teachers bear witness to that spiritual culture

which has always existed--and always will exist--as a divine institution in the world of

men.

Those who represent an ideal beyond the comprehension of the masses must face the

persecution of the unthinking multitude who are without that divine idealism which

inspires progress and those rational faculties which unerringly sift truth from falsehood.

The lot of the Initiate-Teacher is therefore almost invariably an unhappy one. Pythagoras,

crucified and his university burned; Hypatia, torn from her chariot and rended limb from

limb; Jacques de Molay, whose memory survives the consuming flame; Savonarola,

burned in the square of Florence; Galileo, forced to recant upon bended knee; Giordano

Bruno, burned by the Inquisition; Roger Bacon, compelled to carry on his experiments in

the secrecy of his cell and leave his knowledge hidden under cipher; Dante Alighieri,

dying in exile from his beloved city; Francis Bacon, patient. under the burden of

persecution; Cagliostro, the most vilified man of modern times--all this illustrious line

bear unending witness of man's inhumanity to man. The world has ever been prone to

heap plaudits upon its fools and calumny upon its thinkers. Here and there notable

exceptions occur, as in the case of the Comte de St.-Germain, a philosopher who survived

his inquisitors and through the sheer transcendency of his genius won a position of

comparative immunity. But even the illustrious Comte--whose illumined intellect merited

the homage of the world--could not escape being branded an impostor, a charlatan, and

an adventurer. From this long fist of immortal men and women who have represented the

Ancient Wisdom before the world, three have been chosen as outstanding examples for

more detailed consideration: the first the most eminent woman philosopher of all ages;

the second the most maligned and persecuted man since the beginning of Christian Era;

the third the most brilliant and the most successful modern exponent of this Ancient

Wisdom.

HYPATIA

Sitting in the chair of philosophy previously occupied by her father, Theon the

mathematician, the immortal Hypatia was for many years the central figure in the

Alexandrian School of Neo-Platonism. Famed alike for the depth of her learning and the

charm of her person, beloved by the citizens of Alexandria, and frequently consulted by

the magistrates of that city, this noble woman stands out from the

Click to enlarge

THE TABLE OF CEBES.

From Vænius' Theatro Moral de la Vida Humana.

There is legend to the effect that the Tablet of Cebes, a dialogue between Cebes and Gerundio, was based

upon an ancient table set up in the Temple of Kronos at Athens or Thebes which depicted the entire

progress of human life. The author of the Tablet of Cebes was a disciple of Socrates, and lived about 390

B.C. The world is represented as a great mountain. Out of the earth at the base of it come he myriads of

human creatures who climb upward in search of truth and immortality. Above the clouds which conceal the

summit of the mountain is the goal of human attainment--true happiness. The figures and groups are

arranged as follows: (1) the door of the wall of life; (2) the Genius or Intelligence; (3) deceit (4) opinions, desires, and pleasures; (5) fortune; (6) the strong; (7) venery, insatiability, flattery; (8) sorrow; (9) sadness; (10) misery; (11) grief, (12) rage or despair; (13) the house of misfortune; (14) penitence; (15) true opinion; (16) false opinion; (17) false doctrine; (18) poets, orators, geometers, et. al.; (19) incontinence, sexual

indulgence, and opinion; (20) the road of the true doctrine (21) continence and patience; (22) the true

doctrine; (23) truth and persuasion; (24) science and the virtues; (25) happiness, (26) the highest (first)

pleasure of the wise man; (27) the lazy and the strays.

p. 198

pages of history as the greatest of the pagan martyrs. A personal disciple of the magician

Plutarch, and versed in the profundities of the Platonic School, Hypatia eclipsed in

argument and public esteem every proponent of the Christian doctrines in Northern

Egypt. While her writings perished at the time of the burning of the library of Alexandria

by the Mohammedans, some hint of their nature may be gleaned from the statements of

contemporaneous authors. Hypatia evidently wrote a commentary on the Arithmetic of

Diophantus, another on the Astronomical Canon of Ptolemy, and a third on the Conics of

Apollonius of Perga. Synesius, Bishop of Ptolemais, her devoted friend, wrote to Hypatia

for assistance in the construction of an astrolabe and a hydroscope. Recognizing the

transcendency of her intellect, the learned of many nations flocked to the academy where

she lectured.

A number of writers have credited the teachings of Hypatia with being Christian in spirit;

in fact she removed the veil of mystery in which the new cult had enshrouded itself,

discoursing with such clarity upon its most involved principles that many newly

converted to the Christian faith deserted it to become her disciples. Hypatia not only

proved conclusively the pagan origin of the Christian faith but also exposed the purported

miracles then advanced by the Christians as tokens of divine preference by demonstrating

the natural laws controlling the phenomena.

At this time Cyril--later to be renowned as the founder of the doctrine of the Christian

Trinity and canonized for his zeal--was Bishop of Alexandria. Seeing in Hypatia a

continual menace to the promulgation of the Christian faith, Cyril--indirectly at least--

was the cause of her tragic end. Despite every later effort to exonerate him from the

stigma of her murder, the incontrovertible fact remains that he made no effort to avert the

foul and brutal crime. The only shred of excuse which might be offered in his defense is

that, blinded by the spell of fanaticism, Cyril considered Hypatia to be a sorceress in

league with the Devil. In contrast to the otherwise general excellence of the literary

works of Charles Kingsley maybe noted his puerile delineation of character of Hypatia in

his book by that name. Without exception, the meager historical references to this virgin

philosopher attest her virtue, integrity, and absolute devotion to the principles of Truth

and Right.

While it is true that the best minds of the Christianity of that period may readily be

absolved from the charge of participes criminis, the implacable hatred of Cyril

unquestionably communicated itself to the more fanatical members of his faith,

particularly to a group of monks from the Nitrian desert. Led by Peter the Reader, a

savage and illiterate man, they attacked Hypatia on the open street as she was passing

from the academy to her home. Dragging the defenseless woman from her chariot, they

took her to the Cæsarean Church. Tearing away her garments, they pounded her to death

with clubs, after which they scraped the flesh from her bones with oyster shells and

carried the mutilated remains to a place called Cindron, where they burned them to ashes.

Thus perished in A.D. 415 the greatest woman initiate of the ancient world, and with her

fell also the Neo-Platonic School of Alexandria. The memory of Hypatia has probably

been perpetuated in the hagiolatry of the Roman Catholic Church in the person of St.

Catherine of Alexandria.

THE COMTE DI CAGLIOSTRO

The "divine" Cagliostro, one moment the idol of Paris, the next a lonely prisoner in a

dungeon of the Inquisition, passed like a meteor across the face of France. According to

his memoirs written by him during his confinement in the Bastille, Alessandro Cagliostro

was born in Malta of a noble but unknown family. He was reared and educated in Arabia

under the tutelage of Altotas, a man well versed in several branches of philosophy and

science and also a master of the transcendental arts. While Cagliostro's biographers

generally ridicule this account, they utterly fail to advance in its stead any logical solution

for the source of his magnificent store of arcane knowledge.

Branded as an impostor and a charlatan, his miracles declared to be legerdemain, and his

very generosity suspected of an ulterior motive, the Comte di Cagliostro is undoubtedly

the most calumniated man in modem history. "The mistrust," writes W. H. K.

Trowbridge, "that mystery and magic always inspire made Cagliostro with his fantastic

personality an easy target for calumny. After having been riddled with abuse till he was

unrecognizable, prejudice, the foster child of calumny, proceeded to lynch him, so to

speak. For over one hundred years his character has dangled on the gibbet of infamy,

upon which the sbirri of tradition have inscribed a curse on any one who shall attempt to

cut him down. His fate has been his fame. He is remembered in history, not so much for

anything he did, as for what was done to him." (See Cagliostro, the Splendour and

Misery of a Master of Magic.)

According to popular belief Cagliostro's real name was Giuseppe Balsamo, and he was a

Sicilian by birth. Within recent years, however, doubts have arisen as to whether this

belief is in accord with the facts. It may yet be proved that in part, at least, the tirades of

abuse heaped upon the unfortunate Comte have been directed against the wrong man.

Giuseppe Balsamo was born in 1743 of honest but humble parentage. From boyhood he

exhibited selfish, worthless, and even criminal tendencies, and after a series of escapades

disappeared. Trowbridge(loc. cit.) presents ample proof that Cagliostro was not Giuseppe

Balsamo, thus disposing of the worst accusation against him. After six months'

imprisonment in the Bastille, on his trial Cagliostro was exonerated from any implication

in the theft of the famous "Queen's Necklace," and later the fact was established that he

had actually warned Cardinal de Rohan of the intended crime. Despite the fact, however,

that he was discharged as innocent by the French trial court, a deliberate effort to vilify

Cagliostro was made by an artist--more talented than intelligent--who painted a picture

showing him holding the fatal necklace in his hand. The trial of Cagliostro has been

called the prologue of the French Revolution. The smoldering animosity against Marie

Antoinette and Louis XVI engendered by this trial later burst forth as the holocaust of the

Reign of Terror. In his brochure, Cagliostro and His Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry,

Henry R. Evans also ably defends this much persecuted man against the infamies so

unjustly linked with his name.

Sincere investigators of the facts surrounding the life and mysterious "death" of

Cagliostro are of the opinion that the stories circulated against him may be traced to the

machinations of the Inquisition, which in this manner sought to justify his persecution.

The basic charge against Cagliostro was that he had attempted to found a Masonic lodge

in Rome--nothing more. All other accusations are of subsequent date. For some reason

undisclosed, the Pope commuted Cagliostro's sentence of death to perpetual

imprisonment. This act in itself showed the regard in which Cagliostro was held even by

his enemies. While his death is believed to have occurred several years later in an

Inquisitional dungeon in the castle of San Leo, it is highly improbable that such was the

case. There are rumors that he escaped, and according to one very significant story

Cagliostro fled to India, where his talents received the appreciation denied them in

politics-ridden Europe.

After creating his Egyptian Rite, Cagliostro declared that since women had been admitted

into the ancient Mysteries there was no reason why they should be excluded from the

modem orders. The Princesse de Lamballe graciously accepted the dignity of Mistress of

Honor in his secret society, and on the evening of her initiation the most important

members of the French court were present. The brilliance of the affair attracted the

attention of the Masonic lodges in Paris. Their representatives, in a sincere desire to

understand the Masonic Mysteries, chose the learned orientalist Court de Gébelin as their

spokesman, and invited Comte di Cagliostro to attend a conference to assist in clearing

up a number of important questions concerning Masonic philosophy. The Comte

accepted the invitation.

On May 10, 1785, Cagliostro attended the conference called for that purpose, and his

power and simplicity immediately won for him the favorable opinion of the entire

gathering. It took but a few words for the Court de Gébelin to discover that he was

talking nor only to a fellow scholar but to a man infinitely his superior. Cagliostro

immediately presented an address, which was so unexpected, so totally different from

anything ever heard before by those assembled, that all were speechless with amazement.

Cagliostro declared the Rose-Cross to be the ancient and true symbol of the Mysteries

and, after a brief description of its original symbolism, branched out into a consideration

of the symbolic meaning of letters, predicting to the assembly the future of France in a

graphic manner that left no room for doubt that the speaker was a man of insight and

supernatural power. With a curious arrangement of the letters of the alphabet, Cagliostro

foretold in detail the horrors of the coming revolution and the fall of the monarchy,

describing minutely the fate of the various members of the royal family. He also

prophesied the advent of Napoleon and the rise of the First Empire. All this he did to

demonstrate that which can be accomplished by superior knowledge.

Later when arrested and sent to the Bastille, Cagliostro wrote on the wall of his cell the

following cryptic message which, when interpreted, reads: "In 1789 the besieged Bastille

will on July 14th be pulled down by you from top to bottom." Cagliostro was the

mysterious agent of the Knights Templars, the Rosicrucian initiate whose magnificent

store of learning is attested by the profundity of the Egyptian Rite of Freemasonry. Thus

Comte di Cagliostro remains one of the strangest characters in history--believed by his

friends to have lived forever and to have taken part in the marriage feast of Cana, and

accused by his enemies of being the Devil incarnate! His powers of prophecy are ably

described by Alexandre Dumas in The Queen's Necklace. The world he sought to serve in

his own

p. 199

strange way received him not, but has followed with relentless persecution down through

the centuries even the very memory of this illustrious adept who, unable to accomplish

the great labor at hand, stepped aside in favor of his more successful compatriot, the

Comte de St-Germain.

THE COMTE DE ST.-GERMAIN

During the early part of the eighteenth century there appeared in the diplomatic circles of

Europe the most baffling personality of history--a man whose life was so near a synonym

of mystery that the enigma of his true identity was as insolvable to his contemporaries as

it has been to later investigators. The Comte de St.-Germain was recognized as the

outstanding scholar and linguist of his day. His versatile accomplishments extended from

chemistry and history to poetry and music. He played several musical instruments with

great skill and among his numerous compositions was a short opera. He was also an artist

of rare ability and the remarkably luminous effects which he created on canvas are

believed to have been the result of his mixing powdered mother-of-pearl with his

pigments. He gained worldwide distinction for his ability to reproduce in his paintings the

original luster of the precious stones appearing upon the costumes of his subjects. His

linguistic proficiency verged on the supernatural. He spoke German, English, Italian,

Portuguese, Spanish, French with a Piedmontese accent, Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic,

and Chinese with such fluency that in every land he visited he was accepted as a native.

He was ambidextrous to such a degree that: he could write the same article with both

hands simultaneously. When the two pieces of paper were afterwards placed together

with a light behind them, the writing on one sheet exactly covered, letter for letter, the

writing on the other.

As a historian, the Comte de St.-Germain possessed uncanny knowledge of every

occurrence of the preceding two thousand years, and in his reminiscences he described in

intimate detail events of previous centuries in which he had played important rôles. He

assisted Mesmer in developing the theory of mesmerism, and in all probability was the

actual discoverer of that science. His knowledge of chemistry was so profound that he

could remove flaws from diamonds and other precious stones--a feat which he actually

performed at the request of Louis XV in 1757. He was also recognized as an art critic

without a peer and was often consulted regarding paintings accredited to the great

masters. His claim to the possession of the fabled elixir of life was home witness to by

Madame de Pompadour, who discovered, she declared, that he had presented a lady of

the court with a certain priceless liquid which had had the effect of preserving her

youthful vivacity and beauty for over twenty-five years beyond the normal term.

The startling accuracy of his prophetic utterances gained for him no small degree of

fame. To Marie Antoinette he predicted the fall of the French monarchy, and he was also

aware of the unhappy fate of the royal family years before the Revolution actually took

place. The crowning evidence, however, of the Comte's genius was his penetrating grasp

of the political situation of Europe and the consummate skill with which he parried the

thrusts of his diplomatic adversaries. He was employed by a number of European

governments, including the French, as a secret agent, and at all times bore credentials

which gave him entrée to the most exclusive circles.

In her excellent monograph, The Comte de St.-Germain, the Secret of Kings, Mrs.

Cooper-Oakley lists the most important names under which this amazing person

masqueraded between the years 1710 and 1822. "During this time," she writes, "we have

M. de St.-Germain as the Marquis de Montferrat, Comte Bellamarre or Aymar at Venice,

Chevalier Schoening at Pisa, Chevalier Weldon at Milan and Leipzig, Comte Soltikoff at

Genoa and Leghorn, Graf Tzarogy at Schwalbach and Triesdorf, Prinz Ragoczy at

Dresden, and Comte de St.-Germain at Paris, The Hague, London, and St. Petersburg." It

is evident that M. de St.-Germain adopted these various names in the interests of the

political secret service work which historians have presumed to be the major mission of

his life.

The Comte de St.-Germain has been described as of medium height, well proportioned in

body, and of regular and pleasing features. His complexion was somewhat swarthy and

his hair dark, though often shown powdered. He dressed simply, usually in black, but his

clothes were well fitting and of the best quality. He had apparently a mania for diamonds,

which he wore not only in rings but also in his watch and chain, his snuff box, and upon

his buckles. A jeweler once estimated the value of his shoe buckles at 200,000 francs.

The Comte is generally depicted as a man in middle life, entirely devoid of wrinkles and

free from any physical infirmity. He ate no meat and drank no wine, in fact seldom dined

in the presence of any second person. Although he was looked upon as a charlatan and

impostor by a few nobles at the French court, Louis XV severely reprimanded a courtier

who made a disparaging remark concerning him. The grace and dignity that characterized

his conduct, together with his perfect control of every situation, attested the innate

refinement and culture of one "to the manner born." This remarkable person also had the

surprising and impressive ability to divine, even to the most minute details, the questions

of his inquisitors before they were asked. By something akin to telepathy he was also able

to feel when his presence was needed in some distant city or state, and it has even been

recorded of him that he had the astonishing habit not only of appearing in his own

apartment and in those of friends without resorting to the conventionality of the door but

also of departing therefrom in a similar manner.

M. de St.-Germain's travels covered many countries. During the reign of Peter III he was

in Russia and between the years 1737 and 1742 in the court of the Shah of Persia as an

honored guest. On the subject: of his wanderings Una Birch writes: "The travels of the

Comte de Saint-Germain covered a long period of years and a great range of countries.

From Persia to France and from Calcutta to Rome he was known and respected. Horace

Walpole spoke with him in London in 1745; Clive knew him in India in 1756; Madame

d'Adhémar alleges that she met him in Paris in 1789, five years after his supposed death;

while other persons pretend to have held conversations with him in the early nineteenth

century. He was on familiar and intimate terms with the crowned heads of Europe and the

honoured friend of many distinguished persons of all nationalities. He is even mentioned

in the memoirs and letters of the day, and always as a man of mystery. Frederick the

Great, Voltaire, Madame de Pompadour, Rousseau, Chatham, and Walpole, all of whom

knew him personally, rivalled each other in curiosity as to his origin. During the many

decades in which he was before the world, however, no one succeeded in discovering

why he appeared as a Jacobite agent in London, as a conspirator in Petersburg, as an

alchemist and connoisseur of pictures in Paris, or as a Russian general at Naples. * * *

Now and again the curtain which shrouds his actions is drawn aside, and we are permitted

to see him fiddling in the music room at Versailles, gossiping with Horace Walpole in

London, sitting in Frederick the Great's library at Berlin, or conducting illuminist

meetings in caverns by the Rhine." (See The Nineteenth Century, January, 1908.)

The Comte de St.-Germain has been generally regarded as an important figure in early

activities of the Freemasons. Repeated efforts, however, probably with an ulterior motive,

have been made to discredit his Masonic affiliations. An example of this is the account

appearing in The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry, by Arthur Edward

Click to enlarge

THE ' DIVINE' CAGLIOSTRO.

From Houdon's Bust of Cagliostro.

The Comte di Cagliostro is described as a man not overly tall, but square shouldered and deep of chest. His

head, which was large, was abundantly covered with black hair combed back from his broad and noble

forehead. His eyes were black and very brilliant, and when he spoke with great feeling upon some profound

subject the pupils dilated, his eyebrows rose, and he shook his head like a maned lion. His hands and feet

were small--an indication of noble birth--and his whole bearing was one of dignity and studiousness. He

was filled with energy, and could accomplish a prodigious amount of work. He dressed somewhat

fantastically, gave so freely from an inexhaustible purse that he received the title of "Father of the Poor,"

accepted nothing from anyone, and maintained himself in magnificence in a combined temple and palace in

the Rue d, la Sourdière. According to his own statement he was initiated into the Mysteries by none other

than the Comte de St.-Germain. He had traveled through all parts of the world, and in the ruins of ancient

Babylon and Nineveh had discovered wise men who understood all the secrets of human life.

p. 200

[paragraph continues] Waite. This author, after making several rather disparaging remarks on the

subject, amplifies his article by reproducing an engraving of the wrong Comte de St.-

Germain, apparently being unable to distinguish between the great illuminist and the

French general. It will yet be established beyond all doubt that the Comte de St.-Germain

was both a Mason and a Templar; in fact the memoirs of Cagliostro contain a direct

statement of his initiation into the order of the Knights Templars at the hands of St.-

Germain. Many of the illustrious personages with whom the Comte de St.-Germain

associated were high Masons, and sufficient memoranda have been preserved concerning

the discussions which they held to prove that he was a master of Freemasonic lore. It is

also reasonably certain that he was connected with the Rosicrucians--possibly having

been the actual head of that order.

The Comte de St.-Germain was thoroughly conversant with the principles of Oriental

esotericism. He practiced the Eastern system of meditation and concentration, upon

several occasions having been seen seated with his feet crossed and hands folded in the

posture of a Hindu Buddha. He had a retreat in the heart of the Himalayas to which he

retired periodically from the world. On one occasion he declared that he would remain in

India for eighty-five years and then would return to the scene of his European labors. At

various times he admitted that he was obeying the orders of a power higher and greater

than himself. What he did not say was that this superior power was the Mystery school

which had sent him into the world to accomplish a definite mission. The Comte de St.-

Germain and Sir Francis Bacon are the two greatest emissaries sent into the world by the

Secret Brotherhood in the last thousand years.

E. Francis Udny, a Theosophical writer, is of the belief that the Comte de St.-Germain

was not the son of Prince Rákóczy of Transylvania, but because of his age could have

been none other than the prince himself, who was known to be of a deep philosophic and

mystic nature. The same writer believes the Comte de St.-Germain passed through the

"philosophic death" as Francis Bacon in 1626, as François Rákóczy in 1735, and as

Comte de St.-Germain in 1784. He also feels that the Comte de St.-Germain was the

famous Comte de Gabalis, and as Count Hompesch was the last Grand Master of the

Knights of Malta. It is well known that many members of the European secret societies

have feigned death for various purposes. Marshal Ney, a member of the Society of

Unknown Philosophers, escaped the firing squad and under the name of Peter Stuart Ney

lived and taught school for over thirty years in North Carolina. On his deathbed, P. S.

Ney told Doctor Locke, the attending physician, that he was Marshal Ney of France.

In concluding an article on the identity of the inscrutable Comte de St.-Germain, Andrew

Lang writes: "Did Saint-Germain really die in the palace of Prince Charles of Hesse

about 1780-85? Did he, on the other hand, escape from the French prison where Grosley

thought he saw him, during the French Revolution? Was he known to Lord Lytton about

1860? * * * Is he the mysterious Muscovite adviser of the Dalai Lama? Who knows? He

is a will-o'-the-wisp of the memoir-writers of the eighteenth century. " (See Historical

Mysteries.)

EPISODES FROM AMERICAN HISTORY

Many times the question has been asked, Was Francis Bacon's vision of the "New

Atlantis" a prophetic dream of the great civilization which was so soon to rise upon the

soil of the New World? It cannot be doubted that the secret societies of Europe conspired

to establish upon the American continent "a new nation, conceived in liberty and

dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal." Two incidents in the early

history of the United States evidence the influence of that silent body which has so long

guided the destinies of peoples and religions. By them nations are created as vehicles for

the promulgation of ideals, and while nations are true to these ideals they survive; when

they vary from them they vanish like the Atlantis of old which had ceased to "know the

gods."

In his admirable little treatise, Our Flag, Robert Allen Campbell revives the details of an

obscure, but most important, episode of American history--the designing of the Colonial

flag of 1775. The account involves a mysterious man concerning whom no information is

available other than that he was on familiar terms with both General George Washington

and Dr. Benjamin Franklin. The following description of him is taken from Campbell's

treatise:

"Little seems to have been known concerning this old gentleman; and in the materials

from which this account is compiled his name is not even once mentioned, for he is

uniformly spoken of or referred to as 'the Professor.' He was evidently far beyond his

threescore and ten years; and he often referred to historical events of more than a century

previous just as if he had been a living witness of their occurrence; still he was erect,

vigorous and active--hale, hearty, and clear-minded--as strong and energetic every way as

in the prime of his life He was tall, of fine figure, perfectly easy, and very dignified in his

manners; being at once courteous, gracious and commanding. He was, for those times

and considering the customs of the Colonists, very peculiar in his method of living; for he

ate no flesh, fowl or fish; he never used for food any 'green thing,' any roots or anything

unripe; he drank no liquor, wine or ale; but confined his diet to cereals and their products,

fruits that were ripened on the stem in the sun, nuts, mild tea and the sweets of honey,

sugar or molasses.

"He was well educated, highly cultivated, of extensive as well as varied information, and

very studious. He spent considerable of his time in the patient and persistent conning of a

number of very rare old books and ancient manuscripts which he seemed to be

deciphering, translating or rewriting. These books and manuscripts, together with his own

writings, he never showed to anyone; and he did not even mention them in his

conversations with the family, except in the most casual way; and he always locked them

up carefully in a large, old-fashioned, cubically shaped, iron-bound, heavy, oaken chest,

whenever he left his room, even for his meals. He took long and frequent walks alone, sat

on the brows of the neighboring hills, or mused in the midst of the green and flower-

gemmed meadows. He was fairly liberal--but in no way lavish--in spending his money,

with which he was well supplied. He was a quiet, though a very genial and very

interesting, member of the family; and be was seemingly at home upon any and every

topic coming up in conversation. He was, in short, one whom everyone would notice and

respect, whom few would feel well acquainted with, and whom no one would presume to

question concerning himself--as to whence he came, why he tarried, or whither he

journeyed. "

By something more than a mere coincidence the committee appointed by the Colonial

Congress to design a flag accepted an invitation to be guests, while in Cambridge, of the

same family with which the Professor was staying. It was here that General Washington

joined them for the purpose of deciding upon a fitting emblem. By the signs which passed

between them it was evident that both General Washington and Doctor Franklin

recognized the Professor, and by unanimous approval he was invited to become an active

member of the committee. During the proceedings which followed, the Professor was

treated with the most profound respect and all of his suggestions immediately acted upon.

He submitted a pattern which he considered symbolically appropriate for the new flag,

and this was unhesitatingly accepted by the other six members of the committee, who

voted that the arrangement suggested by the Professor be forthwith adopted. After the

episode of the flag the Professor quietly vanished, and nothing further is known

concerning him.

Did General Washington and Doctor Franklin recognize the Professor as an emissary of

the Mystery school which has so long controlled the political destinies of this planet?

Benjamin Franklin was a philosopher and a Freemason--possibly a Rosicrucian initiate.

He and the Marquis de Lafayette--also a man of mystery--constitute two of the most

important links in the chain of circumstance that culminated in the establishment of the

original thirteen American Colonies as a free and independent nation. Doctor Franklin's

philosophic attainments are well attested in Poor Richard's Almanac, published by him

for many years under the name of Richard Saunders. His interest in the cause of

Freemasonry is also shown by his republication of Anderson's Constitutions of

Freemasonry, a rare and much disputed work on the subject.

It was during the evening of July 4, 1776, that the second of these mysterious episodes

occurred. In the old State House in Philadelphia a group of men were gathered for the

momentous task of severing the last tie between the old country and the new. It was a

grave moment and not a few of those present feared that their lives would be the forfeit

for their audacity. In the midst of the debate a fierce voice rang out. The debaters stopped

and turned to look upon the stranger. Who was this man who had suddenly appeared in

their midst and transfixed them with his oratory? They had never seen him before, none

knew when he had entered, but his tall form and pale face filled them with awe. His voice

ringing with a holy zeal, the stranger stirred them to their very souls. His closing words

rang through the building: "God has given America to be free!" As the stranger sank into

a chair exhausted, a wild enthusiasm burst forth. Name after name was placed upon the

parchment: the Declaration of Independence was signed. But where was the man who had

precipitated the accomplishment of this immortal task--who had lifted for a moment the

veil from the eyes of the assemblage and revealed to them a part at least of the great

purpose for which the new nation was conceived? He had disappeared, nor was he ever

seen again or his identity established. This episode parallels others of a similar kind

recorded by ancient historians attendant upon the founding of every new nation. Are they

coincidences, or do they demonstrate that the divine wisdom of the ancient Mysteries still

is present in the world, serving mankind as it did of old?

p. 201

Conclusion

PHILIP, King of Macedon, ambitious to obtain the teacher who would be most capable of

imparting the higher branches of learning to his fourteen-year-old son, Alexander, and

wishing the prince to have for his mentor the most famous and learned of the great

philosophers, decided to communicate with Aristotle. He dispatched the following letter

to the Greek sage: "PHILIP TO ARISTOTLE, HEALTH: Know that I have a son. I

render the gods many thanks; not so much for his birth, as that he was born in your time,

for I hope that being educated and instructed by you, he will become worthy of us both

and the kingdom which he shall inherit." Accepting Philip's invitation, Aristotle

journeyed to Macedon in the fourth year of the 108th Olympiad, and remained for eight

years as the tutor of Alexander. The young prince's affection for his instructor became as

great as that which he felt for his father. He said that his father had given him being, but

that Aristotle had given him well-being.

The basic principles of the Ancient Wisdom were imparted to Alexander the Great by

Aristotle, and at the philosopher's feet the Macedonian youth came to realize the

transcendency of Greek learning as it was personified in Plato's immortal disciple.

Elevated by his illumined teacher to the threshold of the philosophic sphere, he beheld

the world of the sages--the world that fate and the limitations of his own soul decreed he

should not conquer.

Aristotle in his leisure hours edited and annotated the Iliad of Horner and presented the

finished volume to Alexander. This book the young conqueror so highly prized that he

carried it with him on all his campaigns. At the time of his triumph over Darius,

discovering among the spoils a magnificent, gem-studded casket of unguents, he dumped

its contents upon the ground, declaring that at last he had found a case worthy of

Aristotle's edition of the Iliad!

While on his Asiatic campaign, Alexander learned that Aristotle had published one of his

most prized discourses, an occurrence which deeply grieved the young king. So to

Aristotle, Conqueror of the Unknown, Alexander, Conqueror of the Known, sent this

reproachful and pathetic and admission of the insufficiency of worldly pomp and power:

"ALEXANDER TO ARISTOTLE, HEALTH: You were wrong in publishing those

branches of science hitherto not to be acquired except from oral instruction. In what shall

I excel others if the more profound knowledge I gained from you be communicated to

all? For my part I had rather surpass the majority of mankind in the sublimer branches of

learning, than in extent of power and dominion. Farewell." The receipt of this amazing

letter caused no ripple in the placid life of Aristotle, who replied that although the

discourse had been communicated to the multitudes, none who had not heard him deliver

the lecture (who lacked spiritual comprehension) could understand its true import.

A few short years and Alexander the Great went the way of all flesh, and with his body

crumbled the structure of empire erected upon his personality. One year later Aristotle

also passed into that greater world concerning whose mysteries he had so often

discoursed with his disciples in the Lyceum. But, as Aristotle excelled Alexander in life,

so he excelled him in death; for though his body moldered in an obscure tomb, the great

philosopher continued to live in his intellectual achievements. Age after age paid him

grateful tribute, generation after generation pondered over his theorems until by the sheer

transcendency of his rational faculties Aristotle--"the master of those who know," as

Dante has called him--became the actual conqueror of the very world which Alexander

had sought to subdue with the sword.

Thus it is demonstrated that to capture a man it is not sufficient to enslave his body--it is

necessary to enlist his reason; that to free a man it is not enough to strike the shackles

from his limbs--his mind must be liberated from bondage to his own ignorance. Physical

conquest must ever fail, for, generating hatred and dissension, it spurs the mind to the

avenging of an outraged body; but all men are bound whether willingly or unwillingly to

obey that intellect in which they recognize qualities and virtues superior to their own.

That the philosophic culture of ancient Greece, Egypt, and India excelled that of the

modern, world must be admitted by all, even by the most confirmed of modernists. The

golden era of Greek æsthetics, intellectualism, and ethics has never since been equaled.

The true philosopher belongs to the most noble order of men: the nation or race which is

blessed by possession of illumined thinkers is fortunate indeed, and its name shall be

remembered for their sake. In the famous Pythagorean school at Crotona, philosophy was

regarded as indispensable to the life of man. He who did not comprehend the dignity of

the reasoning power could not properly be said to live. Therefore, when through innate

perverseness a member either voluntarily withdrew or was forcibly ejected from the

philosophic fraternity, a headstone was set up for him in the community graveyard; for he

who had forsaken intellectual and ethical pursuits to reenter the material sphere with its

illusions of sense and false ambition was regarded as one dead to the sphere of Reality.

The life represented by the thraldom of the senses the Pythagoreans conceived to be

spiritual death, while they regarded death to the sense-world as spiritual life.

Philosophy bestows life in that it reveals the dignity and purpose of living. Materiality

bestows death in that it benumbs or clouds those faculties of the human soul which

should be responsive to the enlivening impulses of creative thought and ennobling virtue.

How inferior to these standards of remote days are the laws by which men live in the

twentieth century! Today man, a sublime creature with infinite capacity for self-

improvement, in an effort to be true to false standards, turns from his birthright of

understanding--without realizing the consequences--and plunges into the maelstrom of

material illusion. The precious span of his earthly years he devotes to the pathetically

futile effort to establish himself as an enduring power in a realm of unenduring things.

Gradually the memory of his life as a spiritual being vanishes from his objective mind

and he focuses all his partly awakened faculties upon

Click to enlarge

JOHN AND THE VISION OF THE APOCALYPSE.

From an engraving by Jean Duvet.

Jean Duvet of Langres (who was born in 1485 and presumably died sometime after 1561, the year in which

his illustrations to the Apocalypse were printed in book form) was the oldest and greatest of French

Renaissance engravers. Little is known concerning Duvet beyond the fact that he was the goldsmith to the

King of France. His engravings for the Book of Revelation, executed after he had passed his seventieth

year, were his masterpiece. (For further information regarding this obscure master, consult article by

William M. Ivins, Jr., in The Arts, May, 1926.) The face of John is an actual portrait of Duvet. This plate,

like many others cut by Duvet, is rich in philosophical symbolism.

p. 202

the seething beehive of industry which he has come to consider the sole actuality. From

the lofty heights of his Selfhood he slowly sinks into the gloomy depths of ephemerality.

He falls to the level of the beast, and in brutish fashion mumbles the problems arising

from his all too insufficient knowledge of the Divine Plan. Here in the lurid turmoil of a

great industrial, political, commercial inferno, men writhe in self-inflicted agony and,

reaching out into the swirling mists, strive to clutch and hold the grotesque phantoms of

success and power.

Ignorant of the cause of life, ignorant of the purpose of life, ignorant of what lies beyond

the mystery of death, yet possessing within himself the answer to it all, man is willing to

sacrifice the beautiful, the true, and the good within and without upon the blood-stained

altar of worldly ambition. The world of philosophy--that beautiful garden of thought

wherein the sages dwell in the bond of fraternity--fades from view. In its place rises an

empire of stone, steel, smoke, and hate-a world in which millions of creatures potentially

human scurry to and fro in the desperate effort to exist and at the same time maintain the

vast institution which they have erected and which, like some mighty, juggernaut, is

rumbling inevitably towards an unknown end. In this physical empire, which man erects

in the vain belief that he can outshine the kingdom of the celestials, everything is changed

to stone, Fascinated by the glitter of gain, man gazes at the Medusa-like face of greed and

stands petrified.

In this commercial age science is concerned solely with the classification of physical

knowledge and investigation of the temporal and illusionary parts of Nature. Its so-called

practical discoveries bind man but more tightly with the bonds of physical limitation,

Religion, too, has become materialistic: the beauty and dignity of faith is measured by

huge piles of masonry, by tracts of real estate, or by the balance sheet. Philosophy which

connects heaven and earth like a mighty ladder, up the rungs of which the illumined of all

ages have climbed into the living presence of Reality--even philosophy has become a

prosaic and heterogeneous mass of conflicting notions. Its beauty, its dignity, its

transcendency are no more. Like other branches of human thought, it has been made

materialistic--"practical"--and its activities so directionalized that they may also

contribute their part to the erection of this modern world of stone and steel.

In the ranks of the so-called learned there is rising up a new order of thinkers, which may

best be termed the School of the Worldly Wise Men. After arriving at the astounding

conclusion that they are the intellectual salt of the earth, these gentlemen of letters have

appointed themselves the final judges of all knowledge, both human and divine. This

group affirms that all mystics must have been epileptic and most of the saints neurotic! It

declares God to be a fabrication of primitive superstition; the universe to be intended for

no particular purpose; immortality to be a figment of the imagination; and an outstanding

individuality to be but a fortuitous combination of cells! Pythagoras is asserted to have

suffered from a "bean complex"; Socrates was a notorious inebriate; St. Paul was subject

to fits; Paracelsus was an infamous quack, the Comte di Cagliostro a mountebank, and

the Comte de St.-Germain the outstanding crook of history!

What do the lofty concepts of the world's illumined saviors and sages have in common

with these stunted, distorted products of the "realism" of this century? All over the world

men and women ground down by the soulless cultural systems of today are crying out for

the return of the banished age of beauty and enlightenment--for something practical in

the highest sense of the word. A few are beginning to realize that so-called civilization in

its present form is at the vanishing point; that coldness, heartlessness, commercialism,

and material efficiency are impractical, and only that which offers opportunity for the

expression of love and ideality is truly worth while. All the world is seeking happiness,

but knows not in what direction to search. Men must learn that happiness crowns the

soul's quest for understanding. Only through the realization of infinite goodness and

infinite accomplishment can the peace of the inner Self be assured. In spite of man's

geocentricism, there is something in the human mind that is reaching out to philosophy--

not to this or that philosophic code, but simply to philosophy in the broadest and fullest

sense.

The great philosophic institutions of the past must rise again, for these alone can tend the

veil which divides the world of causes from that of effects. Only the Mysteries--those

sacred Colleges of Wisdom--can reveal to struggling humanity that greater and more

glorious universe which is the true home of the spiritual being called man. Modern

philosophy has failed in that it has come to regard thinking as simply an intellectual

process. Materialistic thought is as hopeless a code of life as commercialism itself. The

power to think true is the savior of humanity. The mythological and historical Redeemers

of every age were all personifications of that power. He who has a little more rationality

than his neighbor is a little better than his neighbor. He who functions on a higher plane

of rationality than the rest of the world is termed the greatest thinker. He who functions

on a lower plane is regarded as a barbarian. Thus comparative rational development is the

true gauge of the individual's evolutionary status.

Briefly stated, the true purpose of ancient philosophy was to discover a method whereby

development of the rational nature could be accelerated instead of awaiting the slower

processes of Nature, This supreme source of power, this attainment of knowledge, this

unfolding of the god within, is concealed under the epigrammatic statement of the

philosophic life. This was the key to the Great Work, the mystery of the Philosopher's

Stone, for it meant that alchemical transmutation had been accomplished. Thus ancient

philosophy was primarily the living of a life; secondarily, an intellectual method. He

alone can become a philosopher in the highest sense who lives the philosophic life. What

man lives he comes to know. Consequently, a great philosopher is one whose threefold

life--physical, mental, and spiritual--is wholly devoted to and completely permeated by

his rationality.

Man's physical, emotional, and mental natures provide environments of reciprocal benefit

or detriment to each other. Since the physical nature is the immediate environment of the

mental, only that mind is capable of rational thinking which is enthroned in a harmonious

and highly refined material constitution. Hence right action, right feeling, and right

thinking are prerequisites of right knowing, and the attainment of philosophic power is

possible only to such as have harmonized their thinking with their living. The wise have

therefore declared that none can attain to the highest in the science of knowing until first

he has attained to the highest in the science of living. Philosophic power is the natural

outgrowth of the philosophic life. Just as an intense physical existence emphasizes the

importance of physical things, or just as the monastic metaphysical asceticism establishes

the desirability of the ecstatic state, so complete philosophic absorption ushers the

consciousness of the thinker into the most elevated and noble of all spheres--the pure

philosophic, or rational, world.

In a civilization primarily concerned with the accomplishment of the extremes of

temporal activity, the philosopher represents an equilibrating intellect capable of

estimating and guiding the cultural growth. The establishment of the philosophic rhythm

in the nature of an individual ordinarily requires from fifteen to twenty years. During that

entire period the disciples of old were constantly subjected to the most severe discipline.

Every activity of life was gradually disengaged from other interests and focalized upon

the reasoning part. In the ancient world there was another and most vital factor which

entered into the production of rational intellects and which is entirely beyond the

comprehension of modern thinkers: namely, initiation into the philosophic Mysteries. A

man who had demonstrated his peculiar mental and spiritual fitness was accepted into the

body of the learned and to him was revealed that priceless heritage of arcane lore

preserved from generation to generation. This heritage of philosophic truth is the

matchless treasure of all ages, and each disciple admitted into these brotherhoods of the

wise made, in turn, his individual contribution to this store of classified knowledge.

The one hope of the world is philosophy, for all the sorrows of modern life result from

the lack of a proper philosophic code. Those who sense even in part the dignity of life

cannot but realize the shallowness apparent in the activities of this age. Well has it been

said that no individual can succeed until he has developed his philosophy of life. Neither

can a race or nation attain true greatness until it has formulated an adequate philosophy

and has dedicated its existence to a policy consistent with that philosophy. During the

World War, when so-called civilization hurled one half of itself against the other in a

frenzy of hate, men ruthlessly destroyed something more precious even than human life:

they obliterated those records of human thought by which life can be intelligently

directionalized. Truly did Mohammed declare the ink of philosophers to be more

precious than the blood of martyrs. Priceless documents, invaluable records of

achievement, knowledge founded on ages of patient observation and experimentation by

the elect of the earth--all were destroyed with scarcely a qualm of regret. What was

knowledge, what was truth, beauty, love, idealism, philosophy, or religion when

compared to man's desire to control an infinitesimal spot in the fields of Cosmos for an

inestimably minute fragment of time? Merely to satisfy some whim or urge of ambition

man would uproot the universe, though well he knows that in a few short years he must

depart, leaving all that he has seized to posterity as an old cause for fresh contention.

War--the irrefutable evidence of irrationality--still smolders in the hearts of men; it

cannot die until human selfishness is overcome. Armed with multifarious inventions and

destructive agencies, civilization will continue its fratricidal strife through future ages,

But upon the mind of man there is dawning a great fear--the fear that

p. 203

Click to enlarge

THE ENTRANCE TO THE HOUSE OF THE MYSTERIES.

From Khunrath's Amphitheatrum Sapientiæ, etc.

This symbolic figure, representing the way to everlasting life, is described by Khunrath in substance as

follows: "This is the Portal of the amphitheatre of the only true and eternal Wisdom--a narrow one, indeed, but sufficiently august, and consecrated to Jehovah. To this portal ascent is made by a mystic, indisputably

prologetic, flight of steps, set before it as shown in the picture. It consists of seven theosophic, or, rather, philosophic steps of the Doctrine of the Faithful Sons. After ascending the steps, the path is along the way

of God the Father, either directly by inspiration or by various mediate means. According to the seven

oracular laws shining at the portal, those who are inspired divinely have the power to enter and with the

eyes of the body and of the mind, of seeing, contemplating and investigating in a Christiano-Kabalistic,

divino-magical, physico-chemical manner, the nature of the Wisdom: Goodness, and Power of the Creator;

to the end that they die not sophistically but live theosophically, and that the orthodox philosophers so

created may with sincere philosophy expound the works of the Lord, and worthily praise God who has thus

blessed these friend, of God." The above figure and description constitute one of the most remarkable

expositions ever made of the appearance of the Wise Man's House and the way by which it must be

entered.

____________________________

eventually civilization will destroy itself in one great cataclysmic struggle. Then must be

reenacted the eternal drama of reconstruction. Out of the ruins of the civilization which

died when its idealism died, some primitive people yet in the womb of destiny must build

a new world. Foreseeing the needs of that day, the philosophers of the ages have desired

that into the structure of this new world shall be incorporated the truest and finest of all

that has gone before. It is a divine law that the sum of previous accomplishment shall be

the foundation of each new order of things. The great philosophic treasures of humanity

must be preserved. That which is superficial may he allowed to perish; that which is

fundamental and essential must remain, regardless of cost.

Two fundamental forms of ignorance were recognized by the Platonists: simple ignorance

and complex ignorance. Simple ignorance is merely lack of knowledge and is common to

all creatures existing posterior to the First Cause, which alone has perfection of

knowledge. Simple ignorance is an ever-active agent, urging the soul onward to the

acquisition of knowledge. From this virginal state of unawareness grows the desire to

become aware with its resultant improvement in the mental condition. The human

intellect is ever surrounded by forms of existence beyond the estimation of its partly

developed faculties. In this realm of objects not understood is a never-failing source of

mental stimuli. Thus wisdom eventually results from the effort to cope rationally with the

problem of the unknown.

In the last analysis, the Ultimate Cause alone can be denominated wise; in simpler words,

only God is good. Socrates declared knowledge, virtue, and utility to be one with the

innate nature of good. Knowledge is a condition of knowing; virtue a condition of being;

utility a condition of doing. Considering wisdom as synonymous with mental

completeness, it is evident that such a state can exist only in the Whole, for that which is

less than the Whole cannot possess the fullness of the All. No part of creation is

complete; hence each part is imperfect to the extent that it falls short of entirety. Where

incompleteness is, it also follows that ignorance must be coexistent; for every part, while

capable of knowing its own Self, cannot become aware of the Self in the other parts.

Philosophically considered, growth from the standpoint of human evolution is a process

proceeding from heterogeneity to homogeneity. In time, therefore, the isolated

consciousness of the individual fragments is reunited to become the complete

consciousness of the Whole. Then, and then only, is the condition of all-knowing an

absolute reality.

Thus all creatures are relatively ignorant yet relatively wise; comparatively nothing yet

comparatively all. The microscope reveals to man his significance; the telescope, his

insignificance. Through the eternities of existence man is gradually increasing in both

wisdom and understanding; his ever-expanding consciousness is including more of the

external within the area of itself. Even in man's present state of imperfection it is dawning

upon his realization that he can never be truly happy until he is perfect, and that of all the

faculties contributing to his self-perfection none is equal in importance to the rational

intellect. Through the labyrinth of diversity only the illumined mind can, and must, lead

the soul into the perfect light of unity.

In addition to the simple ignorance which is the most potent factor in mental growth there

exists another, which is of a far more dangerous and subtle type. This second form, called

twofold or complex ignorance, may be briefly defined as ignorance of ignorance.

Worshiping the sun, moon, and stars, and offering sacrifices to the winds, the primitive

savage sought with crude fetishes to propitiate his unknown gods. He dwelt in a world

filled with wonders which he did not understand. Now great cities stand where once

roamed the Crookboned men. Humanity no longer regards itself as primitive or

aboriginal. The spirit of wonder and awe has been succeeded by one of sophistication.

Today man worships his own accomplishments, and either relegates the immensities of

time and space to the background of his consciousness or disregards them entirely.

The twentieth century makes a fetish of civilization and is overwhelmed by its own

fabrications; its gods are of its own fashioning. Humanity has forgotten how

infinitesimal, how impermanent and how ignorant it actually is. Ptolemy has been

ridiculed for conceiving the earth to be the center of the universe, yet modern civilization

is seemingly founded upon the hypothesis that the planet earth is the most permanent and

important of all the heavenly spheres,

p. 204

and that the gods from their starry thrones are fascinated by the monumental and epochal

events taking place upon this spherical ant-hill in Chaos.

From age to age men ceaselessly toil to build cities that they may rule over them with

pomp and power--as though a fillet of gold or ten million vassals could elevate man

above the dignity of his own thoughts and make the glitter of his scepter visible to the

distant stars. As this tiny planet rolls along its orbit in space, it carries with it some two

billion human beings who live and die oblivious to that immeasurable existence lying

beyond the lump on which they dwell. Measured by the infinities of time and space, what

are the captains of industry or the lords of finance? If one of these plutocrats should rise

until he ruled the earth itself, what would he be but a petty despot seated on a grain of

Cosmic dust?

Philosophy reveals to man his kinship with the All. It shows him that he is a brother to

the suns which dot the firmament; it lifts him from a taxpayer on a whirling atom to a

citizen of Cosmos. It teaches him that while physically bound to earth (of which his blood

and bones are part), there is nevertheless within him a spiritual power, a diviner Self,

through which he is one with the symphony of the Whole. Ignorance of ignorance, then,

is that self-satisfied state of unawareness in which man, knowing nothing outside the

limited area of his physical senses, bumptiously declares there is nothing more to know!

He who knows no life save the physical is merely ignorant; but he who declares physical

life to be all-important and elevates it to the position of supreme reality--such a one is

ignorant of his own ignorance.

If the Infinite had not desired man to become wise, He would not have bestowed upon

him the faculty of knowing. If He had not intended man to become virtuous, He would

not have sown within the human heart the seeds of virtue. If He had predestined man to

be limited to his narrow physical life, He would not have equipped him with perceptions

and sensibilities capable of grasping, in part at least, the immensity of the outer universe.

The criers of philosophy call all men to a comradeship of the spirit: to a fraternity of

thought: to a convocation of Selves. Philosophy invites man out of the vainness of

selfishness; out of the sorrow of ignorance and the despair of worldliness; out of the

travesty of ambition and the cruel clutches of greed; out of the red hell of hate and the

cold tomb of dead idealism.

Philosophy would lead all men into the broad, calm vistas of truth, for the world of

philosophy is a land of peace where those finer qualities pent up within each human soul

are given opportunity for expression. Here men are taught the wonders of the blades of

grass; each stick and stone is endowed with speech and tells the secret of its being. All

life, bathed in the radiance of understanding, becomes a wonderful and beautiful reality.

From the four corners of creation swells a mighty anthem of rejoicing, for here in the

light of philosophy is revealed the purpose of existence; the wisdom and goodness

permeating the Whole become evident to even man's imperfect intellect. Here the

yearning heart of humanity finds that companionship which draws forth from the

innermost recesses of the soul that great store of good which lies there like precious metal

in some deep hidden vein.

Following the path pointed out by the wise, the seeker after truth ultimately attains to the

summit of wisdom's mount, and gazing down, beholds the panorama of life spread out

before him. The cities of the plains are but tiny specks and the horizon on every hand is

obscured by the gray haze of the Unknown. Then the soul realizes that wisdom lies in

breadth of vision; that it increases in comparison to the vista. Then as man's thoughts lift

him heavenward, streets are lost in cities, cities in nations, nations in continents,

continents in the earth, the earth in space, and space in an infinite eternity, until at last but

two things remain: the Self and the goodness of God.

While man's physical body resides with him and mingles with the heedless throng, it is

difficult to conceive of man as actually inhabiting a world of his own-a world which he

has discovered by lifting himself into communion with the profundities of his own

internal nature. Man may live two lives. One is a struggle from the womb to the tomb. Its

span is measured by man's own creation--time. Well may it be called the unheeding life.

The other life is from realization to infinity. It begins with understanding, its duration is

forever, and upon the plane of eternity it is consummated. This is called the philosophic

life. Philosophers are nor born nor do they die; for once having achieved the realization

of immortality, they are immortal. Having once communed with Self, they realize that

within there is an immortal foundation that will not pass away. Upon this living, vibrant

base--Self--they erect a civilization which will endure after the sun, the moon, and the

stars have ceased to be. The fool lives but for today; the philosopher lives forever.

When once the rational consciousness of man rolls away the stone and comes forth from

its sepulcher, it dies no more; for to this second or philosophic birth there is no

dissolution. By this should not be inferred physical immortality, but rather that the

philosopher has learned that his physical body is no more his true Self than the physical

earth is his true world. In the realization that he and his body are dissimilar--that though

the form must perish the life will not fail--he achieves conscious immortality. This was

the immortality to which Socrates referred when he said: "Anytus and Melitus may

indeed put me to death, but they cannot injure me." To the wise, physical existence is but

the outer room of the hall of life. Swinging open the doors of this antechamber, the

illumined pass into the greater and more perfect existence. The ignorant dwell in a world

bounded by time and space. To those, however, who grasp the import and dignity of

Being, these are but phantom shapes, illusions of the senses-arbitrary limits imposed by

man's ignorance upon the duration of Deity. The philosopher lives and thrills with the

realization of this duration, for to him this infinite period has been designed by the All-

Wise Cause as the time of all accomplishment.

Man is not the insignificant creature that he appears to be; his physical body is not the

true measure of his real self. The invisible nature of man is as vast as his comprehension

and as measureless as his thoughts. The fingers of his mind reach out and grasp the stars;

his spirit mingles with the throbbing life of Cosmos itself. He who has attained to the

state of understanding thereby has so increased his capacity to know that he gradually

incorporates within himself the various elements of the universe. The unknown is merely

that which is yet to be included within the consciousness of the seeker. Philosophy assists

man to develop the sense of appreciation; for as it reveals the glory and the sufficiency of

knowledge, it also unfolds those latent powers and faculties whereby man is enabled to

master the secrets of the seven spheres.

From the world of physical pursuits the initiates of old called their disciples into the life

of the mind and the spirit. Throughout the ages, the Mysteries have stood at the threshold

of Reality--that hypothetical spot between noumenon and phenomenon, the Substance

and the shadow. The gates of the Mysteries stand ever ajar and those who will may pass

through into the spacious domicile of spirit. The world of philosophy lies neither to the

right nor to the left, neither above nor below. Like a subtle essence permeating all space

and all substance, it is everywhere; it penetrates the innermost and the outermost parts of

all being. In every man and woman these two spheres are connected by a gate which

leads from the not-self and its concerns to the Self and its realizations. In the mystic this

gate is the heart, and through spiritualization of his emotions he contacts that more

elevated plane which, once felt and known, becomes the sum of the worth-while. In the

philosopher, reason is the gate between the outer and the inner worlds, the illumined

mind bridging the chasm between the corporeal and the incorporeal. Thus godhood is

born within the one who sees, and from the concerns of men he rises to the concerns of

gods.

In this era of "practical" things men ridicule even the existence of God. They scoff at

goodness while they ponder with befuddled minds the phantasmagoria of materiality.

They have forgotten the path which leads beyond the stars. The great mystical institutions

of antiquity which invited man to enter into his divine inheritance have crumbled, and

institutions of human scheming now stand where once the ancient houses of learning rose

a mystery of fluted columns and polished marble. The white-robed sages who gave to the

world its ideals of culture and beauty have gathered their robes about them and departed

from the sight of men. Nevertheless, this little earth is bathed as of old in the sunlight of

its Providential Generator. Wide-eyed babes still face the mysteries of physical existence.

Men continue to laugh and cry, to love and hate; Some still dream of a nobler world, a

fuller life, a more perfect realization. In both the heart and mind of man the gates which

lead from mortality to immortality are still ajar. Virtue, love, and idealism are yet the

regenerators of humanity. God continues to love and guide the destinies of His creation.

The path still winds upward to accomplishment. The soul of man has not been deprived

of its wings; they are merely folded under its garment of flesh. Philosophy is ever that

magic power which, sundering the vessel of clay, releases the soul from its bondage to

habit and perversion. Still as of old, the soul released can spread its wings and soar to the

very source of itself.

The criers of the Mysteries speak again, bidding all men welcome to the House of Light.

The great institution of materiality has failed. The false civilization built by man has

turned, and like the monster of Frankenstein, is destroying its creator. Religion wanders

aimlessly in the maze of theological speculation. Science batters itself impotently against

the barriers of the unknown. Only transcendental philosophy knows the path. Only the

illumined reason can carry the understanding part of man upward to the light. Only

philosophy can teach man to be born well, to live well, to die well, and in perfect measure

be born again. Into this band of the elect--those who have chosen the life of knowledge,

of virtue, and of utility--the philosophers of the ages invite YOU.

Table of Contents

Part Two

Part Three

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Part One

Part Two