Glimpses of Masonic History 

BY 

C. W. Leadbeater

CONTENTS

PREFACE TO THIS EDITION

AUTHOR’S PREFACE 

CHAPTER I

SCHOOLS OF MASONIC THOUGHT

The Origins of Masonry. The Authentic School. The Anthro­pological School. The Mystical School. The Occult  School. The Knowledge of the Occultist. The Occult  Records. The Sacramental Power. The Form and the Life.  Orthodoxy and Heresy.

CHAPTER II

THE EGYPTIAN MYSTERIES

The Message of the World Teacher. The Gods of Egypt. Isis and Osiris. Animal Deities. The Practice of Embalm­ing. Other Deities. The Brothers of Horus. Consecra­tion. The Purpose of the Mysteries. The Degrees of the Mysteries. The Mysteries of Isis. The Preliminary Trials.  The Mystery Language. The Duality of each Degree. The Inner Mysteries of Isis. The Mysteries of Serapis. The Inner Degree of Serapis. The Mysteries of Osiris. The Legend of Osiris. The Meaning of the Story. The Inner Mysteries of Osiris. The Office of Master. The Higher Black Masonry in the Mysteries. White Masonry in the Mysteries. The Stages of the Occult Path. The First Three Initiations. The Fourth Initiation. The Fifth Initiation and Beyond.

 

CHAPTER III

THE CRETAN MYSTERIES

The Unity of the Mysteries. Life in Ancient Crete. The Cretan Race. Recent Discoveries in Crete. Worship in Crete. The Throne Room. The Three Columns. Models of Shrines. The

Altar Objects. Various Symbols. The Statuettes.

 

CHAPTER IV

THE JEWISH MYSTERIES

The Jewish Line of Descent. The Jewish Migrations. The Prophets. The Builders of K.S.T. The Recasting of the Rituals. The Mingling of Traditions. The Transmission of the New Rites. The Essenes and the Christ. Kabbalism. The Spiritualization of the Temple. The Loss of the Divine Name.

 

CHAPTER V

THE GREEK MYSTERIES

The Eleusinian Mysteries. The Origin of the Greek Mysteries. The Gods of Greece. The Officials. The Lesser Mysteries. The Greater Mysteries. The Myths of the Greater Mysteries. The Magic of the Greater Mysteries. The Hidden Mysteries. The School of Pythagoras. The

Three Degrees. Other Greek Mysteries.

 

CHAPTER VI

THE MITHRAIC MYSTERIES

Zarathustra and Mithraism. Mithraism among the Romans. The Mithraic Rites. The Roman Collegia. The Work of King Numa. The Colleges and the Legions. The In­troduction of the Jewish Form. The Transition to the Operatives.

 

CHAPTER VII

CRAFT MASONRY IN MEDIAEVAL TIMES

Evolutionary Methods. The Withdrawal of the Mysteries. The Christian Mysteries. The Repression of the Mysteries. The Crossing of Traditions. The Two Lines of Descent. The Culdees. Celtic Christianity in Britain. The Druidic Mysteries. The Holy Grail. Heredom.

 

CHAPTER VIII

OPERATIVE MASONRY IN THE MIDDLE AGES

The Temporary Custodians. Decline of the Collegia. The Comacini. The Comacine Lodges. Other Survivals of the Collegia. The Compagnonnage. The Stonemasons of Germany. The English Guilds. The Rise of Gothic Ar­chitecture. The Old Charges.

 

CHAPTER IX

THE TRANSITION FROM OPERATIVE TO SPECULATIVE

The Reformation. The Reappearance of Speculative Masonry. The First Minutes. Scottish Minutes. English Minutes. Irish Minutes. The Grand Lodge of England. The Recomposition of the Rituals. Two and Three Degrees. Opposition. The Succession of L.M.s. The Grand Lodges of York, Ireland and Scotland. The “Ancients”. The Holy Royal Arch. The United Grand Lodge. Craft Masonry          in Other Countries

 

CHAPTER X  

OTHER LINES OF MASONIC TRADITION           

The Stream of Secret Societies. The Knights Templars. The  Suppression of the Templars. The Preservation of the Templars’ Tradition. The Royal Order of Scotland. The Brothers of the Rosy Cross. The Literature of Rosicrucianism. The Traditional History of the Rosicrucians. The History of the Order.

 

CHAPTER XI 

THE SCOTTISH RITE          

Origin of the Rite. The Jacobite Movement. The Oration of  Ramsay. The Chapter of Clermont. The Council of Emperors. Stephen Morin. Frederick the Great. The Charleston Transformation. The Spread of the Scottish Rite.

 

CHAPTER XII           

THE CO-MASONIC ORDER

The Restoration of an Ancient Landmark. The Succession of Co-Masonry. The Co-Masonic Rituals. The Future of Masonry

 

APPENDIX I.

Degrees of the Rite of Perfection

II. Principal Masonic Events from 1717

 

 

Author’s Preface

 

1.              WHEN I wrote The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, it was at first my intention to devote my second chapter to a brief outline of Masonic history. I soon found that that plan was impractical. The most com­pressed account that would be of any use would occupy far more space than I could spare, and would entirely overweight the book with what is after all only one department of its subject. The obvious alternative is to publish the historical sketch separately; hence this book, which is really but a second volume of the other.

2.              The keynote of both volumes, and indeed the only reason for their publication, is to explain precisely what the title indicates - the hid­den life in Freemasonry - the mighty force in the background, always at work yet always out of sight, which has guided the transmission of the Masonic tradition through all the vicissitudes of its stormy history, and still inspires the utmost enthusiasm and devotion among the Brn. of the Craft to-day.

3.              The existence and the work of the Head of all true Freemasons is the one and sufficient reason for the virility and power of this most wonderful Organization. If we understand His relation to it and what He wishes to make of it, we shall also understand that it embodies one of the finest schemes ever invented for the helping of the world and for the outpouring of spiritual force.

4.              Many of our Brn. have been for many years unconsciously taking part in this magnificent altruistic work; if they can be brought to com­prehend what it is that they are doing and why, they will continue the great work more happily and more intelligently, throwing into it the whole strength of their nature both bodily and spiritual, and enjoying the fruit of their labours far more definitely than ever before.

 

 

5.             Schools of Masonic Thought

 

6.              A HISTORY of Freemasonry would be a colossal undertaking, needing encyclopaedic knowledge and many years of research. I have no preten­sion to the possession of the qualities and the erudition required for the production of such a work; all I can hope to do is to throw a little light upon some of the dark spots in that history, and to bridge over to some extent some of the more obvious gaps between the sections of it which are already well known.

 

7.              THE ORIGINS OF MASONRY

 

8.              The actual origins of Freemasonry, as I have said in a previous book, are lost in the mists of antiquity. Masonic writers of the eighteenth century speculated uncritically upon its history, basing their views upon a literal belief in the history and chronology of the Old Testament, and upon the curious legends of the Craft handed down from operative times in the Old Charges. Thus it was put forward in all seriousness by Dr. Anderson in his first Book of Constitutions that “Adam, our first parent, created after the Image of God, the great Architect of the Universe, must have had the Liberal Sciences, particularly Geometry, written on his Heart,” while others, less fanciful, have attributed its origin to Abraham, Moses, or Solomon. Dr. Oliver, writing as late as the first part of the nineteenth century, held that Masonry, as we

9.              have it to-day, is the only true relic of the faith of the patriarchs before the flood, while the ancient Mysteries of Egypt and other countries, which so closely resembled it, were but human corruptions of the one primitive and pure tradition.

10.           As scientific and historical knowledge progressed in other fields of research, and especially in the criticism of the Scriptures, scientific methods were gradually applied to the study of Masonry, so that to­day there exists a vast body of fairly accurate and most interesting information upon the history of the Craft. In consequence of this and other lines of investigation there are four main schools or tendencies of Masonic thought, not in any way necessarily defined or organized as schools, but grouped according to their relation to four important departments of knowledge lying primarily outside the Masonic field. Each has its own characteristic approach towards Freemasonry; each has its own canons of interpretation of Masonic symbols and ceremonies, although it is clear that many modern writers are influenced by more than one school.

 

11.           THE AUTHENTIC SCHOOL

 

12.           We may consider first what is sometimes called the Authentic School, which arose in the latter half of the nineteenth century in response to the growth of critical knowledge in other fields. The old traditions of the Craft were minutely examined in the light of authen­tic records within reach of the historian. An enormous amount of research was undertaken into Lodge minutes, documents of all kinds bearing upon Masonry past and present, records of municipalities and boroughs, legal and judicial enactments; in fact, whatever written records were available were consulted and classified. In this field all Masons are greatly indebted to R. F. Gould, the great Masonic historian; W. J. Hughan; G. W. Speth; David Murray-Lyon, the historian of Scottish Masonry; Dr. Chetwode Crawley, whose work upon the early Irish Craft is in its way a classic; and others of the Inner Circle of the famous Lodge Quattuor Coronati, No. 2076, the fascinating Transactions of which are a precious mine of historical and archaeological lore. Two great names in Germany are J. F. Findel, the historian, and Dr. Wilhelm Begemann, who made the most minute and painstaking researches into the Old Charges of the operative Craft. A vast amount of material which will be of permanent value to students of our Craft has become available through the labours of the scholars of the Authentic School.

13.           This school, however, has limitations which are the outcome of its very method of approach. In a society as secret as Masonry there must be much that has never been written down, but only transmitted orally in the Lodges, so that documents and records are but of partial value.  The written records of speculative Masonry hardly antedate the revival in 1717, while the earliest extant minutes of any operative Lodge belong  to the year 1598.* (*History of the Lodge of Edinburgh, by D. Murray-Lyon, p. 9.) The tendency of this school, therefore, is quite naturally to derive Masonry from the operative Lodges and Guilds of the Middle Ages, and to suppose that speculative elements were later grafted upon the operative stock - this hypothesis being in no way contradicted by existing records. Bro. R. F. Gould affirms that if we can assume the symbolism (or ceremonial) of Masonry to be older than 1717, there is practically no limit whatever to the age that can be assigned to it* (*Concise History of Freemasonry, by R. R Gould, p. 55.); but many other writers look for the origin of our Mysteries no further back than the mediaeval builders.

14.           Amongst this school there is a tendency, also very natural when such a theory of origin is held, to deny the validity of the higher degrees, and to declare, in accordance with the Solemn Act of Union between the two Grand Lodges of the Freemasons of England, in December, 1813, that “pure Antient Masonry consists of three degrees and no more, viz., those of the Entered Apprentice, the Fellow Craft, and the Master Mason, including the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch.”* (*Book of Constitutions, 1884, p. 16.) All other degrees and rites are, among the more rigid followers of this school, looked upon as Continental innovations and are accord­ingly rejected as “spurious” Masonry.

15.           As far as interpretation goes, the authentics have ventured but little further than a moralization upon the symbols and ceremonies of Masonry as an adjunct to Anglican Christianity.

 

16.           THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SCHOOL

 

17.           A second school, still only in process of development, is applying the discoveries of anthropology to a study of Masonic history, with remarkable results. A vast amount of information upon the religious and initiatory customs of many peoples, both ancient and modern, has been gathered by anthropologists; and Masonic students in this field have found many of our signs and symbols, both of the Craft and higher degrees, in the wall-paintings, carvings, sculpture and buildings of the principal races of the world. The Anthropological School, therefore, allows a far greater degree of antiquity to Masonry than the Authentics have ever ventured to do, and traces striking analogies with the ancient Mysteries of many nations, which clearly possessed our symbols and signs, and in all probability ceremonies analogous to those worked in Masonic Lodges to-day.

18.           The Anthropologists do not confine their studies to the past alone, but have investigated the initiatory rites of many existing tribes, both in Africa and Australia, and have found them to possess signs and gestures still in use among Masons. Striking analogies to our Masonic rites have also been found among the inhabitants of India and Syria, interwoven with their religious philosophy in a way which renders en­tirely impossible the idea that they were copied from European sources. Masonic scholars have by no means exhausted the facts which may be discovered in this most interesting field of research, but even with our present knowledge it is clear that rites analogous to those we call Masonic are among the most ancient on earth, and may be found in some form or other in almost all parts of the world. Our signs exist in Egypt and Mexico, in China and India, in Greece and Rome, upon the temples of Burma and the cathedrals of mediaeval Europe; and there are said to be shrines in Southern India where the same secrets are taught under binding pledges as are communicated to us in the Craft and high grades in modern Europe and America.

19.           Among pioneers in this field we should mention Bro. Albert Church­ward, the author of several interesting books on the Egyptian origin of Masonry, although it may be that he is not always quite sufficiently critical; Bro. J. S. M. Ward, the author of Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, Who was Hiram Abiff? and a number of other works, who looks to Syria as the source of Masonry, though he has compiled a mass of valuable information from many other lands; and Mr. Bernard H. Springett, author of Secret Sects of Syria and Lebanon, who has col­lected much material bearing upon Masonic rites among the Arabs.

20.           To the work of the Anthropological School is due a clear revelation of the immense antiquity and diffusion of what we now call Masonic symbolism. It tends, however, to find the origin of the ancient Mysteries in the initiatory customs of savage tribes which, although admittedly of incalculable antiquity, are often neither dignified nor spiritual.

21.           Another important work which has been accomplished by its efforts is the justification of many of the higher degrees to be considered “pure Antient Masonry”; for in spite of the pronouncement of the Grand Lodge of England quoted above, there is just as much evidence for the extreme antiquity of Rose-Croix as of Craft and Arch signs and symbols, and the same may be said of the signs of many other degrees as well. It is quite clear from the researches of anthropologists that, whatever may be the precise links in the chain of descent, we in Masonry are the inheritors of a very ancient tradition, which has for countless ages been associated with the most sacred mysteries of religious worship.

 

22.           THE MYSTICAL SCHOOL

 

23.           A third school of Masonic thought, which we may call the Mystical, approaches the mysteries of the Craft from another standpoint altogether, seeing in them a plan of man’s spiritual awakening and inner development. Thinkers of this school, on the record of their own spiritual experiences, declare that the degrees of the Order are symbol­ical of certain states of consciousness which must be awakened in the individual initiate if he aspires to win the treasures of the spirit. They give testimony of another and far higher nature upon the validity of our Masonic rites - a testimony that belongs to religion rather than to science. The goal of the mystic is conscious union with God, and to a Mason of this school the Craft is intended to portray the path to that goal, to offer a map, as it were, to guide the feet of the seeker after God.

24.           Such students are often more interested in interpretation than in historical research. They are not primarily concerned in tracing an exact line of descent from the past, but rather in so living the life in­dicated by the symbols of the Order that they may attain to the spiritual reality of which those symbols are the shadows. They hold, however, that Masonry is at least akin to the ancient Mysteries, which were intended for precisely the same purpose - that of offering to man a path by which he might find God; and they deplore the fact that the majority of our modern Brn. have so far forgotten the glory of their Masonic heritage that they have allowed the ancient rites to become little more than empty forms. One well-known representative of this school is Bro. A. E. Waite, one of the finest Masonic scholars of the day, and an authority upon the history of the higher degrees. Another is Bro. W. L. Wilmshurst, who has given some beautiful and deeply spiritual interpretations of Masonic symbolism. This school is doing much to spiritualize masculine Masonry, and the deeper reverence for our mysteries that is becoming more and more apparent is without doubt one of the marks of its influence.

 

25.           THE OCCULT SCHOOL

 

26.           The fourth school of thought is represented by an evergrowing body of students in the Co-Masonic Order, and is gradually attracting adherents in masculine Masonry also. Since one of its chief and distinc­tive tenets is the sacramental efficacy of Masonic ceremonial when duly and lawfully performed, we may perhaps not improperly term it the sacramental or occult school. The term occultism has been much misunderstood; it may be defined as the study and knowledge of the hidden side of nature by means of powers which exist in all men, but are still unawakened in the majority - powers which may be aroused and trained in the occult student by means of long and careful discipline and meditation.

27.           The goal of the occultist, no less than that of the mystic, is con­scious union with God; but the methods of approach are different. The aim of the occultist is to attain that union by means of knowledge and of will, to train the whole nature, physical, emotional and men­tal, until it becomes a perfect expression of the divine spirit within, and can be employed as an efficient instrument in the great plan which God has made for the evolution of mankind, which is typified in Masonry by the building of the holy temple. The mystic, on the other hand, rather aspires to ecstatic union with that level of the divine con­sciousness which his stage of evolution permits him to touch.

28.           The way of the occultist lies through a graded series of steps, a path­way of Initiations conferring successive expansions of consciousness and degrees of sacramental power; that of the mystic is often more individual in character, a “flight of the alone to the Alone,” as Plotinus so beautifully expressed it. To the occultist the exact observance of a form is of great importance, and through the use of ceremonial magic he creates a vehicle through which the divine light may be drawn down and spread abroad for the helping of the world, calling to his aid the assistance of Angels, nature-spirits and other inhabitants of the invisible worlds. The method of the mystic, on the other hand, is through prayer and orison; he cares nothing for forms and, though by his union therewith he too is a channel of the divine Life, he seems to me to lose the enormous advantage of the collective effort made by the oc­cultist, which is so greatly strengthened by the help of the higher Be­ings whose presence he invokes. Both these paths lead to God; to some of us the first will appeal irresistibly, to others the second; it is largely a matter of the Ray to which we belong. The one is more outward-turned in service and sacrifice; the other more inward-turned in con­templation and love.

 

29.           THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE OCCULTIST

 

30.           The student of occultism, therefore, learns to awaken and train for scientific use the powers latent within him, and by their means he is able to see far more of the real meaning of life than the man whose vision is limited by the physical senses. He learns that each man is in essence divine, a veritable spark of God’s fire, gradually evolving towards a future of glory and splendour culminating in union with God; that the method of his progress is by successive descents into earthly bodies for the sake of experience, and withdrawals into worlds or planes which are invisible to physical eyes. He finds that this pro­gress is governed by a law of eternal justice, which renders to each man the fruit of that which he sows, joy for good and suffering for evil.

31.           He learns, too, that the world is ruled, under the will of T.M.H., by a Brotherhood of Adepts, who have Themselves attained divine union, but remain on earth to guide humanity; that all the great religions of the world were founded by Them, according to the needs of the races for which they were intended, and that within these religions there have been schools of the Mysteries to offer to those who are ready a swifter path of unfoldment, with greater knowledge and opportunities for service; that this Path is divided into steps and degrees: the probationary Path, or the Lower Mysteries, wherein the candidates are prepared for discipleship, and the Path proper, or the Greater Mysteries, in which are conferred within the Great White Lodge itself five great Initiations, which lead the disciple from the life of earth to the life of adeptship in God, to become “a living flame,” as it is said, “for the lighting of the world.” He is taught that God, both in the universe and in man, shows Himself as a Trinity of Wisdom, Strength and Beauty, and that these Three Aspects are represented in the Great White Lodge in the Persons of its three chief Officers, through whom the mighty power of God descends to men.

 

32.           THE OCCULT RECORDS

 

33.           It will be seen that this occult knowledge depends no more upon the study of books and records than do the experiences of the mystics; both belong to a higher order of consciousness, the existence of which cannot be satisfactorily demonstrated on the physical plane. Neverthe­less, the study of the physical-plane records of the past is of value in confirming the historical researches of the trained occultist, who is able to read what are sometimes called the akashic records, and so to acquire an accurate knowledge of the past. This subject is so little understood that it may perhaps be useful if at this point I quote somewhat at length from a book entitled Clairvoyance which I wrote many years ago:

 

34.           On the mental plane (the records) have two widely different aspects. When the visitor to that plane is not thinking specially of them in any way, these records simply form a background to whatever is going on, just as the reflec­tions in a pier-glass at the end of a room might form a background to the life of the people in it. It must always be borne in mind that under these condi­tions they are really merely reflections from the ceaseless activity of a great Consciousness upon a far higher plane. …

 

35.           But if the trained investigator turns his attention especially to any one scene, or wishes to call it up before him, an extraordinary change at once takes place, for this is the plane of thought, and to think of anything is to bring it instanta­neously before you. For example, if a man wills to see the record of the land­ing of Julius Caesar in England, he finds himself in a moment … standing on the shore among the legionaries, with the whole scene being enacted around him, precisely in every respect as he would have seen it if he had stood there in the flesh on that autumn morning in the year 55 B.C. Since what he sees is but a reflection, the actors are of course entirely unconscious of him, nor can any effort of his change the course of their action in the smallest degree, except only that he can control the rate at which the drama shall pass before him - can have the events of a whole year rehearsed before his eyes in a single hour, or can at any moment stop the movement altogether, and hold any par­ticular scene in view as a picture as long as he chooses.

 

36.           In truth he observes not only what he would have seen if he had been there at the time in the flesh, but much more. He hears and understands all that the people say, and he is conscious of all their thoughts and motives; and one of the most interesting of the many possibilities which open up before one who has learnt to read the records is the study of the thought of ages long past - the thought of the cave-men and the lake-dwellers as well as that which ruled the mighty civilizations of Atlantis, of Egypt or Chaldaea. What splen­did possibilities open up before the man who is in full possession of this power may easily be imagined. He has before him a field of historical research of most entrancing interest. Not only can he review at his leisure all history with which we are acquainted, correcting as he examines it the many errors and misconceptions which have crept into the accounts handed down to us; he can also range at will over the whole story of the world from its very begin­ning, watching the slow development of intellect in man, the descent of the Lords of the Flame, and the growth of the mighty civilizations which They founded.

 

37.           Nor is his study confined to the progress of humanity alone; he has before him, as in a museum, all the strange animal and vegetable forms which oc­cupied the stage in days when the world was young; he can follow all the wonderful geological changes which have taken place, and watch the course of the great cataclysms which have altered the whole face of the earth again and again.

 

38.           In one especial case an even closer sympathy with the past is possible to the reader of the records. If in the course of his inquiries he has to look upon some scene in which he himself has in a former birth taken part, he may deal with it in two ways; he can either regard it in the usual manner as a spectator (though always, be it remembered, as a spectator whose insight and sympathy are perfect), or he may once more identify himself with that long-dead personality of his - may throw himself back for the time into that life of long ago, and absolutely experience over again the thoughts and the emotions, the pleasures and the pains of a prehistoric past.

 

39.           In the light of this occult knowledge (which is within the reach of the inner sight) Masonry is seen to be far greater and holier than its initiates appear generally to realize. As tradition has always indicated, it is found to be a direct descendant of the Mysteries of Egypt (once the heart of that splendid faith whose wisdom and power were the glory of the ancient world - those Mysteries which were the parent and pro­totype of the secret schools of other neighbouring lands), and its pur­pose is still to serve as a gateway to the true Mysteries of the Great White Lodge. It offers to its initiates far more than a mere moraliza­tion upon building tools, and yet it is “founded upon the purest prin­ciples of piety and virtue,” for without the practice of morality and the living of the ethical life no true spiritual progress is possible.

40.           The ceremonies of Freemasonry (those at least of its higher degrees) are dramatizations, as it were, of sections of the invisible worlds, through which the candidate must pass after death in the ordinary course of nature - which also he must enter in full consciousness dur­ing the rites of initiation into those true Mysteries of which Masonry is a reflection. Each degree relates to a different plane of nature, or to an aspect of a plane, and possesses layer after layer of meaning applicable to the consciousness of T.G.A.O.T.U., the constitution of the universe, and the principles in man, according to the occult law formulated by Hermes Trismegistus and adopted by Rosicrucians, alchemists and students of the Kabbala in later ages: “As above, so below.” The Masonic rites are thus rites of the probationary Path, in­tended to be a preparation for true Initiation, to be a school for train­ing the Brn. for the far greater knowledge of the Path proper.

 

41.           THE SACRAMENTAL POWER

 

42.           To the occult student Masonry has also another aspect, of the greatest importance, concerning which I have written in The Hidden Life in Freemasonry It is not only a wonderful and intricate system of occult symbols enshrining the secrets of the invisible worlds; it has also a sacramental aspect which is of the utmost beauty and value not only to its initiates but to the world at large. The performance of the ritual of each degree is intended to call down spiritual power, first to assist the Bro. upon whom the degree is conferred to awaken within himself that aspect of consciousness which corresponds to the symbolism of the degree, as far as it can be awakened; secondly to aid in the evolu­tion of the members present; and thirdly and most important of all, to pour out a flood of spiritual power intended to uplift, strengthen and encourage all members of the Craft.

43.           Some years ago I undertook an investigation into the hidden side of the sacraments of the Catholic Church, and published the results of that investigation in a book called The Science of the Sacraments. Those who have read that book will remember that the shedding abroad of spiritual power is one great object of the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, and of other services of the Church, and that it is attained by the invocation of an Angel to build a spiritual temple in the inner worlds with the aid of the forces generated by the love and devotion of the people, and the charging of that temple with the enormous power called down at the consecration of the Sacred Elements. A somewhat similar result is achieved during the ceremonies performed by the Masonic Lodge, although the plan is not exactly the same, being in­deed far older; and each of our rituals, when properly carried out, likewise builds a temple in the inner worlds, through which the spiritual power called down at the initiation of the candidate is stored and radiated. Thus Masonry is seen, in the sacramental sense as well as the mystical, to be “an art of building spiritualized,” and every Masonic Lodge ought to be a channel of no mean order for the shed­ding of spiritual blessing over the district in which it labours.

44.           Sometimes orders and rites which were once channels of great force have admitted, as the years passed by, Brn. less worthy than their predecessors - Brn. who thought more of their own gain than of ser­vice to the world. In such cases the spiritual powers associated with those grades were either entirely withdrawn by the H.O.A.T.F.,* (*See The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, pp. 15, 185.) to be introduced later into some other and more suitable group, or allowed to remain dormant until more fitting candidates should be found to hold them worthily - the bare succession passing down and transmit­ting, as it were, the seeds of the power, although the power itself was largely in abeyance.

45.           On the other hand, there have been cases in which a rite or grade has been manufactured by a student who wished to throw some great truth into ceremonial form, but knew little of all this inner side of Masonry; if such a degree or rite were doing useful work and attract­ing suitable candidates, sacramental powers fitted for that rite or grade were sometimes introduced into it, either by some Bro. on the physical plane who possessed one of the lines of succession mentioned above, which was then adapted by the H.O.A.T.F. for the work, or by a direct and non-physical interference from behind.

46.           Furthermore, the inner effect of a given degree, even in a rite that may be fully valid, may vary greatly with the degree of advancement and general attitude of the Bro. upon whom it is conferred; so that in one case, let us say, the 33 ° would confer stupendous spiritual power, and in another, less worthy, the powers given would be much smaller, because of the candidate’s incapacity to respond fully to them. In such cases a fuller degree of power will manifest itself as greater advance­ment is made in the development of character. It also appears to be possible for power to be temporarily withdrawn in cases of evil-doing by one of the Brn., and to be restored later when the evil-doing has ceased.

47.           All this may seem a little bewildering to the student of the form side of Masonry; and indeed it is a fact that there is but little means on the physical plane of judging the inner effect of a given degree without reference to those who may be working it. It may however be generally stated that the chief lines of Masonic tradition - those which are of the greatest inner or spiritual value - are the Craft degrees, upon which all other grades are superimposed, the Mark and the Arch degrees, and the chief degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish  Rite, the 18 °, 30 ° and 33 °. Other degrees that are worked have their own peculiar powers, and these are often valuable; but the grades which I have mentioned are those which are considered by the H.O.A.T.F. to be of the greatest value to our present generation, and they are therefore those which are worked at present in the Co-Masonic Order. Another line of great interest, though very different from any other degrees existing among us, is that of the rites of Memphis and Mizraim, which are relics in their occult power, although not in their form, of perhaps the very oldest Mysteries existing upon earth. These too have their part to play in the future, as in the past, and they have therefore been preserved and transmitted to us in the present day.

 

48.           THE FORM AND THE LIFE

 

49.           In all cases we must realize that the form of the degrees of Masonry and their life are two very different things, although of course in a perfect system, as in that of the ancient Mysteries at the height of their glory, they would correspond perfectly. Masonry is yet in a transi­tional stage, and is but emerging from the ignorance of the Dark Ages. The rites of Memphis and Mizraim are an example of this discrepancy. These colossal systems of 96 ° and 90 ° respectively are a mass of arti­ficially-manufactured ceremonies, of but little value to a Masonic stu­dent except as a record of high-grade Masonic invention in France at the end of the eighteenth century. Most of the degrees have little occult power, and have simply been inserted into the rites by Brn. who could have known nothing of their real purpose; but behind the rites and quite independent of the form side of the tradition a line of suc­cession has been handed down from a past even more ancient than that of the Scottish Rite itself. Even in the Scottish Rite many of the intermediate degrees are of but little occult value.

50.           The whole position will be best understood if it can be realized that the plan of Masonry is in the hands of the H.O.A.T.F., who rules His mighty Order with perfect justice and the most marvellous skill, so that all that can be done is done for the greatest good of all. The powers that stand behind Freemasonry are great and holy, and it is but right that they should be conferred in their fullness only upon those who are likely to use them as they should be used and to treat them with the reverence they deserve. There is a great and glorious reality in the background all the time, ever pressing towards realization, and employing whatever channels are available for its manifestation. Whatever can be used is always used to the very fullest extent, and none need fear that he is overlooked. It is obvious, however, that where the Brn. think more of gratifying their own vanity than of the Hidden Work, where they spend their time in banqueting and revelry and curtail the sacred ritual in order that they may adjourn as quickly as possible to the South, they are less worthy channels of the Divine Glory than those more spiritual Brn. who are willing to study and to understand. All the time the H.O.A.T.F. is watching; He sees the slightest endeavor of the Craftsmen to serve, and He will pour forth His won­drous power just in so far as the Brn. become worthy of it.

 

51.           ORTHODOXY AND HERESY

 

52.           Another point which arises in connection with the transmission of Masonic degrees will be developed more fully as we proceed. We must realize that in Masonic ritual it is not a case of one orthodoxy, and a number of heresies and schisms; it is rather that there are as many lines of tradition in form as there are types of succession in inner power. The Mysteries worked in the different countries of the ancient world varied considerably in the details of their form and legend, and vestiges of these differences remain in the various workings now in use among us. Many equally valid streams of tradition have crossed and recrossed one another throughout the ages, and have influenced each other to a greater or less degree. The seating of the principal officers in a Craft Lodge, for instance, differs in English and Continental Masonry. English Masonry follows the old Egyptian method of arranging them, while Continental Masonry follows the Chaldaean plan and seats them in an isosceles triangle.

53.           The powers of the succession of I.M.s in these two systems are in essence the same, but since in the Continental Lodges the ceremony of Installation is reduced to the merest vestige, only the minimum of power necessary for the actual transmission of the degrees is conferred, and very much less is done for the R.W.M. than under the English plan. But this is a question of imperfection of form rather than of absence of power. The spiritual powers behind Masonry work through the different forms according to the value of the form and the will of the H.O.A.T.F. behind, who is the only judge of the much-argued difference between genuine and spurious Masonry. In the light of this view of the Masonic succession, it will be seen that genuine rites are those which possess and transmit spiritual power, whereas spurious  Masonry is the working of a form from which for one reason or another the life has been withdrawn, or to which it has never been linked.

54.           In the following chapters I shall endeavour to trace the descent of the Masonic tradition from the Egyptian Mysteries to the present day, not in any way attempting to delineate each separate link in the chain of succession, for that would be the work of a life-time and would not be of any fuller value to the student, but touching rather upon im­portant periods of Masonic history, as revealed by the inner sight, and confirmed in the writings of Masonic scholars.

 

 

2      The Egyptian Mysteries

 

55.           THE MESSAGE OF THE WORLD-TEACHER

 

56.           In The Hidden Life in Freemasonry I have described to some extent the form and meaning of Freemasonry as I knew it in Egypt about six thousand years ago. That form was largely due to the birth of the World Teacher among the Egyptian people about 40,000 B.C. when He taught them the doctrine of the Hidden Light. It may be well to sketch briefly the history of the nation from that period up to 13,500 B.C., where I took it up in the previous book.

57.           The authentic history of Egypt, as determined by modern scholars, begins with the First Dynasty, which was founded by Mena or Manu about 5,000 B.C. - the dates are variously given. It is considered that the pyramids of Gizeh, which played so great a part in the hidden side of Egyptian worship, were built by the Kings of the Fourth Dynasty, Khufu (Cheops), Khafra (Chephren) and Menkaura (Mycerinus), dur­ing the fourth millennium B.C. But the inner history of Egypt and its pyramids extends back further than this, into ages upon which even tradition is almost silent, although some echoes of the reigns of the Divine Kings of the Atlantean Dynasties, who ruled Egypt for many thousands of years, appear in the Egyptian and Greek myths of the gods and demigods who are said to have reigned before the coming of Manu.

58.           According to Manetho, the Egyptian historian of the Ptolemaic period, whose works are now lost (except for certain fragments preserved in quotations), the gods and demigods reigned for 12,843 years. After these came the Nekyes or Manes, who are said to have reigned for 5,813 years; and some of these may perhaps be identified with the Shemsu Heru, or Followers of Horus, who are frequently mentioned in Egyptian texts.* (*Sir E. A. Wallis Budge. The Nile, p. 26.) Diodorus Siculus, who visited Egypt about 57 B.C. , tells us that it was traditionally believed that the gods and heroes had reigned over Egypt for a little less than eighteen thousand years before the time of Mena.* (*Diod. Sic., Hist., Bk. I., xliv.) The book Man: Whence, How and Whither carries us much further into the past, and gives us the following facts.

59.           The Atlantean conquest of Egypt took place over one hundred and fifty thousand years ago, and the first great Egyptian empire lasted until the catastrophe of 75,025 B.C., when the two great islands Ruta and Daitya were whelmed beneath the ocean, and only the island of Poseidonis remained.* (*Op. cit., pp. 119 and 132, and The Story of Atlantis, by Scott Elliott.) It was during the dominance of that empire that the three pyramids were built in accordance with the astronomical and mathematical lore of the Atlantean priests;* (*See The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, p. 229.) and it is to this age also that we look for the origin of those Mysteries which have been handed down to us in the ceremonies of Freemasonry. Even then the ceremonies were ancient, and we must search a still more remote past for their ultimate source. In the great catastrophe of 75,025 B.C. the whole land of Egypt was flooded, and nothing remained of all its glory save the three pyramids rising above the waters.* (*Man: Whence, How and Whither, pp. 242 and 283.) After this, when the swamps had become habitable, there came a negroid domination; and then the land was again colonized by the Atlanteans, who restored the splendour of the Egyptian temples and established once more the hid­den Mysteries which had been celebrated in the great pyramid. This empire lasted up to the time of the Aryanization of Egypt in 13,500 B.C.; it was ruled by a great dynasty of divine kings, among whom were many of the heroes whom Greece later regarded as demigods, such as Herakles of the twelve labours, whose tradition was handed on to  classical times.

60.           It was to this people about 40,000 B.C. that the World Teacher came forth from the White Lodge, bearing the name of Tehuti or Thoth, called later by the Greeks Hermes; He founded the outer cult of the Egyptian Gods and restored the Mysteries to the splendour of byegone days.

 

61.           He came to teach the great doctrine of the ‘Inner Light’ to the priests of the Temples, to the powerful sacerdotal hierarchy of Egypt, headed by its Pharaoh. In the inner court of the chief Temple He taught them of ‘the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world’ - phrase of His that was handed down through the ages, and was echoed in the fourth Gospel in its early Egyptian-coloured words. He taught them that the Light was universal, and that that Light, which was God, dwelt in the heart of every man: “I am that Light,” He bade them repeat, “That Light am I”. “That Light,” He said, “is the true man, although men may not recognize it, although they neglect it. Osiris is Light; He came forth from the Light; He dwells in the Light; He is the Light. The Light is hidden everywhere; it is in every rock and in every stone. When a man becomes one with Osiris the Light, then he becomes one with the whole of which he was part, and then he can see the Light in everyone, however thickly veiled, pressed down, and shut away. All the rest is not; but the Light is. The Light is the life of men. To every man - though there are glorious ceremonies, though there are many duties for the priest to do, and many ways in which he should help men - that Light is nearer than aught else, within his very heart. For every man the Reality is nearer than any ceremony, for he has only to turn inwards, and then will he see the Light. That is the object of every ceremony, and ceremonies should not be done away with, for I come not to destroy but to fulfil. When a man knows, he goes beyond the ceremony, he goes to Osiris, he goes to the Light, the Light Amen-Ra, from which all came forth, to which all shall return.

 

62.           “Osiris is in the heavens, but Osiris is also in the very heart of men. When Osiris in the heart knows Osiris in the heavens, then man becomes God, and Osiris, once rent into fragments, again becomes one. But see! Osiris the Divine Spirit, Isis, the Eternal Mother, give life to Horus, who is Man, Man born of both, yet one with Osiris. Horus is merged in Osiris, and Isis, who had been Matter, becomes through him the Queen of Life and Wisdom. And Osiris, Isis, and Horus are all born of the Light.

 

63.           “Two are the births of Horus. He is born of Isis, the God born into humanity, taking flesh of the Mother Eternal, Matter, the Ever-Virgin. He is born again into Osiris, redeeming his Mother from her long search for the fragments of her husband scattered over the earth. He is born into Osiris when Osiris in the heart sees Osiris in the heavens, and knows that the twain are one.”

 

64.           So taught He, and the wise among the priests were glad.

 

65.           To Pharaoh, the Monarch, He gave the motto: “Look for the Light”; He said that only as a King saw the Light in the heart of each could he rule well. And to the people He gave as a motto: “Thou art the Light. Let that Light shine.” And He set that motto round the pylon in a great Temple, running up one pillar, and across the bar, and down the other pillar. And this was inscribed over the doors of houses, and little models were made of the pylon on which He had inscribed it, models in precious metals, and also in baked clay, so that the poorest could buy little blue clay models, with brown veins running through them, and glazed. Another favourite motto was: “Follow the Light,” and this became later: “Follow the King,” and this spread westward and became the motto of the Round Table. And the people learned to say of their dead: “He has gone to the Light.”

 

66.           And the joyous civilization of Egypt grew yet more joyous, because He had dwelt among them, the embodied Light. The priests whom He had taught handed on His teachings and His secret instructions, which they enshrined in their Mysteries, and students came from all nations to learn the Wisdom of the Egyptians, and the fame of the Schools of Egypt went abroad to all lands.* (*Man: Whence, How and Whither, pp. 284-7.)

 

67.           THE GODS OF EGYPT

 

68.           It will be seen from the above that the deities, or rather forms of  Deity, Osiris, Isis and Horus were already familiar to the people, and the World Teacher made it part of His work to draw their attention to the true meaning of the three Persons. At what time knowledge of these three Aspects of God was introduced into the land we do not know, but at the date of our experience they had their places in the symbology of the Mysteries.

 

69.           ISIS AND OSIRIS

 

70.           Isis, to whom the Lesser Mysteries were ascribed, was not only the universal feminine principle expressed in nature, but also a real and very lofty Being, just as the Christ is the universal Life, the Second Logos, and also a high Official of the Occult Hierarchy. She by virtue of her high development and office was able to represent the Feminine Aspect of the Deity to man. Isis was the Mother of all that lives, and wisdom and truth and power; upon her temple at Sais the inscription was written: “I am that which is, which hath been, and which shall be; and no man has ever lifted the veil that hides my Divinity from mortal eyes.”* (*Plutarch. Moralia; De Iside et Osiride.) The moon was her symbol; and the influence which she outpoured upon her worshippers to the music of the shaken sistrum was of brilliant blue light veined with delicate silver, as of shimmer­ing moonbeams, the very touch of which brought upliftment and ecstasy.

71.           Osiris was the embodiment of God the Father in a mighty Planetary Spirit. His symbol was the sun, and the influence which He outpoured was a dazzling glory of light shot through with gold, like the rays of the sun caught upon the surface of a lake. The influence of Horus, who represented the divine Child, was the glowing rose and gold of the eternal love which is perfect wisdom.

 

72.           ANIMAL DEITIES

 

73.           The Egyptians also followed the ancient practice of regarding cer­tain animals as mirroring various aspects of the divine, because of their outstanding qualities. Thus they took the intelligence of the ape, the clear-sightedness of the hawk, the strength of the bull, and so on, and attributed the quality to some particular aspect of the Deity. They carefully bred certain animals as perfect representatives of their species, and kept them apart as symbols of those divine qualities. Such were the Apis bulls, and the cats of Bast or Pasht. These animals were regarded not exactly as sacred, but as objectified examples of the qualities. In the beginning the creature was a mere symbol, but in later days the Egyptians had the idea that those which had been especially set apart came to be linked with the godhead, and so were to some extent a manifestation of the deity. They then embalmed the animals and laid up the mummies in their temples, with the intention of preser­ving the divine influence.

 

74.           THE PRACTICE OF EMBALMING

 

75.           In the same way the Pharaoh was embalmed with the idea that his power, his connection with the deity (which was a very close one as Pharaoh), would be preserved and would continue to radiate so long as the body remained. This resembled the later custom of preserving the relics of a saint. The strong love of the Egyptians for their coun­try provided another reason for embalming their dead; they hoped to preserve a definite link on the physical plane which would operate to draw them back to rebirth among their own people. That it did so operate in many cases seems to have been a fact, although the will of the re-incarnating ego would doubtless have been sufficient to achieve the same result. The custom was not altogether a good one, because if the body of a man of evil life is embalmed, a good deal of additional power is thereby left to him after death; he may more easily materialize and operate on the physical plane in undesirable ways. It is on the whole fortunate that the practice has not persisted.

 

76.           OTHER DEITIES

 

77.           Many other deities were reverenced in ancient Egypt, in much the same way as numerous gods are adored to-day in India; and in every case the devotion addressed to the Supreme obtained its response  through the particular channel chosen by the worshipper. Great Angels of different Orders and Rays were appointed to represent these various qualities of the Deity, and these were worshipped as gods in the older faiths. But so close is the union in these cases that devotion rendered to one of these was at the same time given to God Himself. Shri Krishna, speaking as the Supreme in the Bhagavad Gita says: “Even those who worship other Gods with devotion, full of faith - they also worship Me.”* (*Op. cit., ix, 23.)

78.           Wherever devotion is offered through a particular form, we may be sure that there is an Intelligence behind that form who acts as a mediator or channel between the suppliant and the Deity behind. Hathor, for instance, was the goddess of love and beauty, while as we have seen, Isis was the Queen of Truth and the Mother of all things; yet both were representatives of the feminine aspect of the Deity, as also was Nephthys. Ptah was the Master Architect of the Universe, the Holy Spirit who is the Creative Fire of God; He was the celestial worker in metals, and the chief smelter, caster and sculptor of the Gods, the skilful Craftsman by whom the design for every part of the framework of the world was made.* (*Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, The Papyrus of Ani, p. 170.)

 

79.           THE BROTHERS OF HORUS

 

80.           Among the other deities who were especially connected with the Mysteries, who still play a most important part in the inner working of our Masonic ceremonies to-day, are to be found the four children or brothers of Horus, who are depicted in the well-known judgment scene as standing on a lotus before the throne of Osiris. These repre­sent the Gods of the four quarters, or of the cardinal points, who sup­port the canopy of heaven at its four corners. The God of the north was Hapi, who bore the head of an ape; the God of the east was Tuamutef, who bore the head of a jackal; Amset or Kestha ruled the south, and had the head of a man; while the west was governed by Qebsennuf, whose head was that of a hawk.* (*Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, The Nile, p. 267, Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life, p. 107.)

81.           The truth underlying these strange deities is of the deepest interest when examined by the inner sight, for these four are the same as the four Devarajas of India - the Kings of the elements, earth, air, fire and water, who likewise preside over the cardinal points. They correspond also with the cherubim described by Ezekiel, and with the four beasts of the Revelation. S. John says of them:

 

82.           And in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle. And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, which was and is, and is to come.* (*Rev., iv, 6-8.)

 

83.           Ezekiel describes them a little differently:

 

84.           Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel. When they went, they went upon their four sides: and they turned not when they went. As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.* (*Ezekiel, I, 9, 10, 13, 15-18.)

 

85.           This symbolism is strange; but it has its meaning, and any in­vestigator who has ever had the privilege of seeing the mighty Four will at once recognize that S. John and the prophet Ezekiel had seen them too, however inadequate are their descriptions. The beast with the face of a man stands for the physical body (earth); the ox or the bull (as in the case of the bull of Mithra and the Apis bull) typifies the emotional or astral body (water); the lion symbolizes the will or the mental aspect (air); and the soaring eagle is taken to indicate the spiritual side of man’s nature (fire). The Egyptian forms were a little different; but the same four elements and their Rulers are depicted in that ancient symbolism, which indeed we find in all religions. There is a four-faced Brahma; there is the fourfold Jupiter, who is aerial, fulgurant, marine and terrestrial. And that leads us back to the reality behind all these symbols, the four great Angel-Rulers of the elements, the administrators of the great law, who are the gods or leaders of the hierarchies of Angels of earth, water, air and fire. Those are the mystical four; and they are full of eyes within, because they are the scribes, the recorders, the agents of the Lipika: they watch all that happens, all that is done, all that is written or spoken or thought in all the worlds.

86.           In The Light of Asia they are described as the Rulers of the four points of the compass:

 

87.           … the four Regents of the Earth, come down

88.           From Mount Sumeru - they who write men’s deeds

89.           On brazen plates - the Angel of the East,

90.           Whose hosts are clad in silver robes, and bear

91.           Targets of pearl: the Angel of the South,

92.           Whose horsemen, the Kumbhandas, ride blue steeds,

93.           With sapphire shields: the Angel of the West,

94.           By Nagas followed, riding steeds blood-red,

95.           With coral shields: the Angel of the North,

96.           Environed by his Yakshas, all in gold,

97.           On yellow horses, bearing shields of gold.

 

98.           This is a poetical Oriental description; yet it has a definite founda­tion. The form in which it is cast is obviously merely traditional; but always there is a fact behind. Those Great Ones are surrounded by, and in constant communication with, vast hosts of Angels and assistants, but these do not take the form of a guard of horsemen; yet the colours of the respective hosts are correctly given. These four most strange and wondrous beings are not exactly Angels, in the ordinary sense of the word, though they are often called so; under them are hierarchies of Angels who carry out their will in accordance with the Law, for they direct the whole tremendous machinery of divine justice and in their hands is the working of the law of karma. They are sometimes spoken of as the overseers who guard the gates and test the material for the building of the holy temple.

 

99.           CONSECRATION

 

100.        These beings are very closely connected with the inner working of the Mysteries, and therefore of Masonry which is derived therefrom. They represent the great building forces of the universe, the construc­tive powers of nature; and since in our Lodges we are engaged in building a universe in miniature, it is these who are invoked to assist us in our work. This invocation is performed at the consecration of every Lodge, however little the modern consecrating officer may know what he is really doing when he pours forth the traditional offerings of corn, wine, oil and salt, symbols which they themselves have chosen from time immemorial to represent their especial powers. This an­cient piece of ritual, when performed by an I.M. duly commissioned to consecrate a Lodge, produces stupendous results in the inner worlds; for it amounts to a call made to the planetary spirits at the head of the four lines to recognize the new Lodge and to dedicate it to the service of T.G.A.O.T.U.

101.        The call is answered. As the corn is scattered in the north, a great golden Angel of earth descends in majesty, followed by his Angel-train, some of whom are left behind to be the channels of the power of his hierarchy whenever the Lodge is opened in due and ancient form. The pouring of wine in the south invokes a great blue Angel of water, also attended by other Angels less great than he; similarly the offer­ing of oil in the west calls upon a mighty crimson Angel of fire, who pours down into the Lodge the splendid rhythmic Power of that ‘most terrible and lovely’ of the elements. As the salt is strewn in the east, an Angel of the air flashes down from on high, he and his attendants being of a wonderful silver hue shot through with mother-of-pearl. These four Great Ones, representing the four gods of the elements, the four children or brothers of Horus, solemnly consecrate the Lodge, binding the Brn. into a close unity in the inner worlds and linking with them Angels of their orders, who will act as their representatives at each Lodge meeting. The tradition of these four passed down to the mediaeval operative Craftsmen and became mingled with that of the four Crowned Martyrs who are the patron-saints of the Craft.

102.        Let me warn my Brn. who may be called upon to act as consecrating officers to see that it is corn which is supplied to them for the ceremony - wheat, and not maize. Once, through an oversight, maize (which in America is called “Indian corn”) was given to me on such an occasion, and as there was no time to send for wheat I used what was offered. The result was unanticipated, for there came a cloud of nature-spirits of a totally different type, who knew nothing whatever of the work expected of them, and were entirely unsuited for it. I had to repeat that part of the consecration afterwards with the proper material.

 

103.        THE PURPOSE OF THE MYSTERIES

 

104.        In The Hidden Life in Freemasonry I have already written briefly of the purpose of the Mysteries.* (*Op. cit., p. 34.) I said there:

 

105.        The Mysteries were great public institutions, supported by the State, centres of national and religious life to which people of the better classes flocked in thousands; and they did their work exceedingly well, for one who had passed through their degrees - a process of many years - thereby became what we should now call a highly-educated and cultured man or woman, with, in ad­dition to his knowledge of this world, a vivid realization of the future after  death, of man’s place in the scheme of things, and therefore of what was really worth doing and living for.

 

106.        It should not be thought therefore that the Mysteries were secret societies, with all their affairs deliberately concealed from the ordinary public. It will be seen presently that thousands of people entered the ordinary degrees of Isis. The teaching and the training of the inner and higher degrees (as we may call them) certainly were concealed from those whom they did not concern, that is to say from those who were not sufficiently evolved to be fit to take part in them, but only as in a modern University the classes in which, let us say, conic sec­tions are taught are closed to children who are as yet learning simple arithmetic.

107.        Everyone in Egypt knew that there were Mysteries, and practically everyone knew that they were largely concerned with the life after death and the preparation for it. This teaching was, however, given to the initiates of the Mysteries under solemn and binding pledges of secrecy; and the results of certain lines of action in the world after death were shown in elaborate detail. The essential outline of this secret instruc­tion was embodied in the rituals of Initiation, Passing, and Raising, and it is these rituals which have in part descended to us in the ceremonies of Freemasonry, which are still protected by oaths of secrecy as in the old days.

108.        Every great nation has had its Mysteries, through which the great Teachers of mankind sought to instruct the people in matters of impor­tance, inspired by the Great White Lodge which stands behind all religions alike. Among these the Egyptian Mysteries were preeminent among the western peoples of the ancient world, not only because of their immemorial age, but because of the fact that Egypt was one of the auxiliary centres of the White Lodge. The Great White Brotherhood has its headquarters in Central Asia, but it has at various times and for various purposes maintained subsidiary Lodges in different parts of the world.

109.        The presence of this secret centre belonging to the White Brotherhood had much to do with Egypt’s greatness throughout the ages; although the fact of its existence was not known to the outer world, that Lodge of the true Mysteries supervised the whole scheme of Egyptian initiation, and made it the prototype of the Mysteries of all the nations around. Egypt was thus the centre of spiritual illumina­tion for the entire western world, and all those who sought the Great Initiations were attracted to it; and it is this fact which explains the reverence paid to the Egyptian Mysteries by learned Greeks in later times.

110.        The principal centre for the public work of these Mysteries was the great pyramid, called in ancient Egypt Khut, “The Light”. It was built on the most exact astronomical and mathematical calculations, and provided a veritable key in stone to the enigmas of the universe.* (*See The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, pp. 228-30.)

111.        The initiates of the Egyptian Mysteries were symbolically engaged in the building of the pyramid, just as in our modern Masonry we are engaged in erecting the temple of King Solomon, both structures being intended to be emblematical of the building processes of nature. In the halls below the pyramid - those underground chambers which  were mentioned by Herodotus as being contained in an island, fed by a channel from the Nile,* (*Her. Book ii, 124.) - certain of the ceremonies of the Mysteries were held. These and other halls in and near the great pyramid are still unknown to the explorer, though they may yet be opened “by the proper steps” - the secret doors turning upon pivots according to an  elaborate system of counterpoises, and being set in motion by treading upon certain spots in the floor in a certain order.

112.        The ceremonies of the Mysteries were also intended to portray the higher evolution of man, his return to the divine source whence he came, through the development of the higher part of his nature, which is not merely consequent upon practices of meditation and ceremonial, but even more upon the living out of the ethical precepts which were taught. Many people of our day imagine that we know ethical truths without being taught them, but that is not so; they seem to us quite natural now, but long ago they were discoveries or revelations somewhat analogous to the steps of advancement in material science and invention.

113.        Each degree of the Mysteries was designed to reflect one or other of the great Initiations of the White Lodge, so that the initiates of this lower level might prepare themselves ultimately to enter the Path of Holiness and so strive after the fullness of union with Osiris, the Hid­den Light. When we come to consider these degrees we shall see how this teaching was graded, and how those initiates who were properly prepared were enabled to reach the true knowledge which they were seeking. The whole scheme of initiation provided a complete chart of man’s spiritual evolution, and it was for the individual candidate to endeavour to put the teachings into practice and to make real in his own consciousness that which was symbolized in the ritual.

 

114.        THE DEGREES OF THE MYSTERIES

 

115.        The Mysteries of Egypt were, as ever, divided into two main sec­tions, the Lesser and the Greater. The Lesser Mysteries are typified to some extent by what we now know as the First Degree of Craft Masonry, while the Greater Mysteries were analogous to what we now call the Second and Third Degrees. Beyond these there was a ceremony corresponding to the degree of I.M., in which the succession of powers was guarded and transmitted from age to age; and still further in reserve there were the yet greater spiritual powers that are indicated, and even given to some extent, in the higher degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Behind the whole system of Masonic initiation was (and is) the White Lodge itself, conferring the five great Initiations which lead to human perfection and full union with God.

 

116.        THE MYSTERIES OF ISIS

 

117.        In the Lesser Mysteries the initiate was taught what lies on the other side of death, and the ceremony of initiation was a symbolical map of that intermediate world which is sometimes called the astral plane. Probably Apuleius refers to this degree when he describes the Mysteries of Isis as celebrated in Greece during the second century A. D., although he wrote at a time when they had fallen into consider­able decay. After mentioning various purifications through which he passed, he goes on to relate something of what took place at his initiation:

 

118.        Then, behold, the day approached when as the sacrifice of dedication should be done; and when the sun declined and evening came, there arrived on every coast a great multitude of priests, who according to their ancient order offered me many presents and gifts. Then was all the laity and profane people com­manded to depart, and when they had put on my back a new linen robe, the priest took my hand and brought me to the most secret and sacred place of the temple. Thou wouldest peradventure demand, thou studious reader, what was said and done there: verily I would tell thee if it were lawful for me to tell, thou wouldst know if it were convenient for thee to hear; but both thy ears and my tongue should incur the like pain of rash curiosity. Howbeit I will not long torment thy mind, which peradventure is somewhat religious and given to some devotion; listen therefore, and believe it to be true. Thou shalt understand that I approached near unto hell, even to the gates of Proser­pine, and after that I was ravished throughout all the elements, I returned to my proper place: about midnight I saw the sun brightly shine, I saw likewise the gods celestial and the gods infernal, before whom I presented myself and worshipped them. Behold now have I told thee, which although thou hast heard, yet it is necessary that thou conceal it; wherefore this only will I tell, which may be declared without offence for the understanding of the profane.

 

119.        When morning came and that the solemnities were finished, I came forth sanc­tified with twelve stoles and in a religious habit, whereof I am not forbidden to speak, considering that many persons saw me at that time. There I was commanded to stand upon a pulpit of wood which stood in the middle of the temple, before the figure and remembrance of the goddess; my vestment was of fine linen, covered and embroidered with flowers; I had a precious cope  upon my shoulders, hanging down behind me to the ground, whereon were beasts wrought of divers colours, as Indian dragons, and Hyperborean griffins, whom in form of birds the other part of the world doth engender: the priests commonly call such a habit an Olympian stole. In my right hand I carried a lighted torch, and a garland of flowers was upon my head, with white palm-leaves sprouting out on every side like rays; thus I was adorned like unto the sun, and made in fashion of an image, when the curtains were drawn aside and all the people compassed about to behold me. Then they began to solem­nize the feast, the nativity of my holy order, with sumptuous banquets and pleasant meats: the third day was likewise celebrate with like ceremonies, with a religious dinner, and with all the consummation of the adept order.* (*Apul. Met, xi, 23, 24. tr. William Adlington A.D. 1566.)

 

120.        It is also reported that during the ceremony Isis said:

 

121.        I am Nature - the parent of all things, the sovereign of the elements, the primary progeny of time.

 

122.        THE PRELIMINARY TRIALS

 

123.        The secrets communicated in the Mysteries have been well and loyally kept, and no details about them are available, though we occa­sionally find guarded hints which give us a slight idea of their character. There is a picturesque account of the preparation for them given in  Mackey’s Lexicon of Freemasonry which, although it does not appear to be substantiated by the records preserved in Greek and Latin authors, nevertheless contains some fragments of truth. I take the liberty to epitomize it as follows:

 

124.        For some days before his initiation the candidate was expected to preserve perfect chastity, to confine himself to a light diet from which all animal food was excluded, and to purify himself by repeated ceremonial ablutions. When the time came he was conducted at midnight to the mouth of a low gallery along which he had to crawl on his hands and knees. Presently he came to the opening of a well which the guide directed him to descend. If he showed the slightest hesitation he was reconducted to the outer world, never again to become a candidate for initiation; if however he attempted to descend, the conductor pointed out to him a concealed ladder which enabled him to climb down safely. They then entered a narrow and winding gallery at the entrance of which was this inscription: “The mortal who shall travel over this road without hesitating or looking behind shall be purified by fire, by water, and by air, and if he can surmount the fear of death he shall emerge from the bosom of the earth; he shall revisit the light and claim the right of preparing his soul for the reception of the Mysteries of the great Goddess Isis.”

 

125.        The conductor now left the aspirant, warning him that many dangers surrounded and awaited him, and exhorting him to continue unshaken. Heavy doors closed behind him, rendering his return impossible. Presently he entered a spacious hall filled with flames through which he had to rush with the greatest speed. Even when he had passed through this fiery furnace he came to another hall the floor of which was covered with a huge network of red-hot iron bars with very narrow interspaces between them. Having surmounted this difficulty he reached a wide and rapid channel across which he had to swim. On the other side he found a narrow landing place bounded by two high walls of brass, in each of which was an immense wheel of the same metal, and beyond them was an ivory door. He found no means of opening this door, but presently discovered two large rings, which he seized; but the only result was to set the brazen wheels revolving with a stunning noise and to cause the platform upon which he stood to sink from beneath him, so that he remained suspended by the rings over an apparently fathomless abyss, from which issued a cold wind which blew out the tiny flame of his lamp and left him in profound darkness. He was left hanging there for a short time, but soon the noise ceased, the platform returned to its former position and the ivory door opened itself. Through it he then entered a brilliantly lighted apartment in which he found a number of the priests of Isis dressed in the mystic insignia of their offices, who welcomed and congratulated him. On the walls he saw the various symbols of the Egyptian Mysteries, the signification of which was by degrees explained to him.

 

126.        One cannot guarantee all the details of such an account, but it is true that severe tests more or less of the nature described were applied to candidates for the inner Mysteries. None of these trials were im­posed on the man who wished to take merely the ordinary course of intensive culture; he might pass through the Lesser and the Greater without encountering anything more formidable than hard and long-continued study; and he would never even know that there was another stage (or rather a number of stages) lying altogether beyond those, in which he would have to face astral dangers of so serious a nature that it was considered necessary first to submit the candidate to severe trials of his courage and self-command.

127.        In the early days of the Mysteries, living pictures were materialized by the priests before the eyes of the candidate, so that he was enabled to see for himself what lay on the other side of death. In later days, when there was less knowledge among the hierophants, elaborate mechanical devices were shown to him, representing the realities of the astral world as far as such resources would allow. Still later, the characteristic points of these pictures were reproduced in a system of symbolic ceremonies, the main outline of which has come down to  us today in the initiation ceremony of Masonry, although in some Obe­diences only a mere vestige of the original procedure remains.

 

128.        THE MYSTERY LANGUAGE

 

129.        Besides the teaching upon the life after death - which was elaborated by countless stories of imaginary individuals, showing the results in the astral plane after death of certain courses of action during life - a fine course of education was also given to the initiates of the First degree, embracing what Masons term the seven liberal arts and sciences - grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music and astronomy. By grammar the Egyptians meant the sacred hieroglyphic writing of the priests, which was taught to all the initiates of the Mysteries, but it also signified a kind of secret language, a way of speaking peculiar to the priesthood. In the secret language of the Mysteries it was not so much that different words were used, as that the familiar words had a different meaning. Those who have studied the translations of Egyptian texts will have noticed how widely these vary in the versions of the different scholars; I have sometimes wondered whether this is in any way due to that system of double meanings.

130.        In ancient Egypt we were able to talk about the secrets of the inner life before crowds of people without letting them know what we meant; and we had quite a large vocabulary of such significant words, so that an entire conversation could be conducted seemingly about ordinary every-day affairs, but in reality upon the secrets of the Mysteries. Much instruction was given in this way; a lecture or address might be delivered publicly by one of the priests, bearing two entirely distinct meanings - the one ethical and intended for the helping of people who were not initiated, and the other esoteric, for the students of the Mysteries. The legend that Masonry possesses a universal language known only to the Brn. may be an echo of tradition about this ancient and secret tongue.

131.        This secret tongue of the Initiates was also used in inscriptions, and in the hieroglyphic wall-paintings and papyri. Many of the inscrip­tions, telling of the victories of some great Pharaoh, could be read in a hidden sense, and they then conveyed spiritual instruction to those who had learnt the real meaning. This is certainly true of The Book of the Dead, which when translated into English by modern scholars seems often unintelligible and even grotesque. Yet in the interpreta­tion of it taught in the Mysteries those same texts were full of inner illumination and gave much information about the realities of life and death.

132.        It is perhaps necessary to repeat that in all this there was no desire on the part of the priests to mislead the people; their idea was simply to give instruction graded to suit the needs of the hearer and to guard important secrets from those who were not prepared to receive them. It was for the same reason that the interior arrangements of the great pyramid were confused. Some of the passages were not used at all in the scheme of initiation, the real passage having been obtainable in quite another way. This policy was dictated by wisdom. Would it not be well if in these present days we could devise some means by which new discoveries in science (which are now used for injury and destruction) could be preserved solely for the use of people who would be certain to employ them for the public good?

 

133.        THE DUALITY OF EACH DEGREE

 

134.        The ordinary Lesser Mysteries (which may be called the First Degree) were open to practically all who sought admission, provided  that they were of good life and reasonably intelligent, that they were  free, and that the t … o … g … r … had been heard in their favour.  In due course they would pass on to the Greater Mysteries (the Second and Third Degrees). But in each of these degrees there were also inner Mysteries, as I have mentioned in connection with the preliminary trials.

 

135.        THE INNER MYSTERIES OF ISIS

 

136.        Within and behind the outer Mysteries of Isis there were inner circles of students carefully chosen by the priests, the very existence of which was kept utterly secret, even from most of the initiates themselves. In these circles the practical occult teaching was given that enabled the student to awaken and train his inner faculties, so that he could study at first hand the conditions of the astral plane, and thus know for himself what was but theoretical for the majority of the Brn. It was in these circles only that the severe tests which have been par­tially described were imposed upon the candidate, and he was definitely prepared by individual and personal instruction for the greater and holier Mysteries which lay behind the whole scheme of Egyptian initiation.

137.        The candidate for these inner tests was required, after a preliminary bath (from which was derived the idea of Christian baptism), to attire himself in a white robe, emblematic of the purity which was expected of him, before being brought before a conclave of priest-initiates in a kind of vault or cavern. He was first formally tested as to his develop­ment of the clairvoyant faculty which he had been previously instructed how to awaken; for this purpose he had to read an inscription upon a brazen shield, of which the blank side was presented to his physical vision. Later he was left alone to keep a kind of vigil; certain mantras, or words of power, had been taught to him, which were supposed to be appropriate to control certain classes of entities; and during his vigil various appearances were projected before him, some of them of a terrifying and some of a seductive nature, so that it might be seen whether his courage and coolness remained perfect. He drove away all these appearances in turn, each by its own special sign and word; but at the end, all these combined bore down upon him at once, and in this final effort he was instructed to use the mightiest word of power, by which all possible evil could be vanquished. A course of instruc­tion along these lines was given to those candidates whom the priests deemed suitable, so that at the end of their training they were thoroughly versed in the knowledge of the astral world, and able to wield its powers freely in waking consciousness.

 

138.        THE MYSTERIES OF SERAPIS

 

139.        The Second Degree of the Egyptian Mysteries corresponded some­what closely with our degree of F.C.; these were termed the Greater Mysteries or in later days the Mysteries of Serapis. Apuleius gives us practically nothing in the way of description beyond the bare fact that he had passed the degree. The instruction in the Greater Mysteries was carried further and deeper as regards science and philosophy; a more advanced course of intellectual training was set before the students, which one might well call a research into “the more hidden paths of Nature and Science”. At the same time the study of the life after death was extended to include the heaven-world, the m … c … into which all must go to receive their wages for the good deeds done on earth; much of this deeper knowledge of the mental plane was taught in the Greater Mysteries, in the same manner as the facts of the astral life had been taught in the First Degree - namely, by representation and drama. The purpose of the Mysteries of Serapis in the life of the individual initiate was the control of the mind* (*See The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, Ch. vii.) and the training of the mental body; and the sacramental powers invoked by the ceremonial had as their object the quickening of this mental development.

 

140.        THE INNER DEGREE OF SERAPIS

 

141.        Behind the outer mysteries in this degree there were also secret circles, quite unknown to those who had not been through the inner work of the First Degree; in these practical instruction was given on the development of the mental body, and the method of awakening accurate sight on the mental plane, so that the student was enabled to verify the teaching of the priests for himself.

142.        In connection with this degree it may be of interest to mention that in the temple of Philae the body of Osiris is represented with stalks of corn springing from it which a priest waters from a vessel which he holds in his hand. An inscription sets forth that “this is the form of Him whom we may not name, Osiris of the Mysteries, who sprang from the returning waters”* (*Cheetham, The Mysteries, Pagan and Christian, p. 53.) - this symbolism referring among other things to the quickening of the inner life in response to the power poured down from on high. The s … n of the degree is often found in Egyptian paintings, and is exactly the same as is in use among Crafts­men to-day. As in the First Degree, an average of seven years was also spent in the Mysteries of Serapis, at the end of which candidates who had passed a far more searching examination, and had satisfied the Hierophants that they were ready for further teaching, were eligible for the Third Degree.

 

143.        THE MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS

 

144.        The Third Degree was called in Egypt the Mysteries of Osiris; it corresponds to the Degree of M.M. in our modern Craft system. Apuleius describes Osiris as: “The more powerful God of the great Gods, the highest of the greater, the greatest of the highest, and the ruler of the greatest.”* (*Apul. Met. Bk. xi, 30.) In the Egyptian ritual, which was much more complete and impressive than the traditional history preserved in modern Masonry, the candidate had to pass through a symbolical representation of the suffering, death and rising again of Osiris, which included his experiences between death and resurrection, when he entered the world of Amenta, and became the judge of the dead, who should decide for each soul what measure of felicity was due to him, and turn back to earthly incarnation those who needed further human  development. The legend of the death and resurrection of Osiris was well known to all the people of Egypt, both initiates and profane, and there were great public ceremonies, corresponding to those of our Good Friday and Easter Day in Catholic countries, when these mystic events were celebrated with the utmost splendour and with the heartfelt devo­tion of the people.

145.        The story of Osiris is nowhere found in a connected form in Egyptian literature, but in texts of all periods his life, sufferings, death and resur­rection are accepted as facts universally admitted.* (*Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, The Papyrus of Ani, p. 53.) It would appear, however, that in ancient times it was not lawful to speak of the tradi­tion in any detail, at least to strangers, for Herodotus says:

 

146.        Also at Sais there is the burial place of Him whom I account it not pious to name in connection with such a matter, which is in the temple of Athene (Isis) behind the house of the goddess, stretching along the whole wall of it; and in the sacred enclosure stand great obelisks of stone, and near them is a lake adorned with an edging of stone, and fairly made in a circle, being in size, as it seemed to me, equal to that which is called the “Round Pool” in Delos. On this lake they perform by night the show of His sufferings, and this the Egyptians call Mysteries. Of these things I know more fully in detail how they take place, but I shall leave this unspoken.* (*Her. Bk. ii, 170, 171.)

 

147.        Diodorus writes to the same effect:

 

148.        In olden days according to received tradition the priests kept the manner of the death of Osiris as a secret; but in after times it came about through the indiscretion of some that that which had been hidden in silence among the few, was noised abroad among the many.* (*Diod, Sic. Hist. Bk. i, xxi.)

 

149.        THE LEGEND OF OSIRIS

 

150.        The best exoteric account of the legend is preserved for us by Plutarch in his treatise De Iside et Osiride, written in Greek about the middle of the first century of our era, a large portion of which is substantiated by the Egyptian hieroglyphic texts which have been deciphered by scholars. It may be briefly summarized as follows:

 

151.        Osiris was a wise king in Egypt who set himself to civilize the people and redeem them from their former states of barbarism. He taught them the cultiva­tion of the earth, gave them a body of laws, and instructed them in the wor­ship of the Gods. Having made his own land prosperous, he set out in like manner to teach the other nations of the world. During his absence the land of Egypt was so well ruled by his wife, Isis, that his jealous brother Typhon  (Set), the personification of evil, as Osiris was the personification of good, could do no harm to his kingdom; but on the return of Osiris to Egypt Typhon made a conspiracy against him, persuading seventy-two other persons to join him, together with a certain Queen of Ethiopia named Aso, who chanced to be in Egypt at that time. He secretly measured the body of Osiris, and caused a beautiful chest to be made of exactly the same size. This he brought into his banqueting hall when Osiris was present as a guest, and promised, as it were in pleasantry, to give it to anyone whose body it might be found to fit.

 

152.        All those present at the feast tried it, but since the box fitted none of them, Osiris at the last laid himself down in it, whereupon the conspirators at once fastened down the lid, securely sealing it with lead, and cast it into the Nile. The murder of Osiris is said to have taken place on the seventeenth day of the month Athyr (Hathor), when the sun was in Scorpio, Osiris being in the twenty-eighth year either of his reign or his age. (It will be noted that this date marks the beginning of winter, when the sun is mystically slain by the forces of darkness; and it was on this date, corresponding to the festival of All Souls in the Christian Church, that the land of Egypt mourned the death of Osiris, as we mourn the death of the body of Jesus on Good Friday.)

 

153.        News was brought to Isis at Coptos of the tragedy which had occurred, where­upon she cut off a lock of her hair, arrayed herself in mourning apparel, and went forth in search of the body of Osiris. She learnt that the chest had been carried by the sea to Byblos - not the Byblos of Syria, but the papyrus swamps of the delta* (*Sir E. A. Wallis Budge, Egyptian Ideas of the Future Life, p. 48 -  footnote.) - and that it had been caught in a tamarisk tree, which had so grown around the chest that nothing of it was to be seen; and furthermore that the King of the country, amazed at its unusual size, had cut the tree down and made of it a pillar to support the roof of his palace. Isis went to Byblos and became nurse to one of the king’s sons. Each night she put the child in the fire to consume his mortal parts, changing herself into a swallow, and bemoaning the loss of her husband. But the Queen happened to see her child in flames and cried out in fear, thereby depriving him of the immortality which would otherwise have been conferred upon him. The goddess revealed herself and begged for the pillar which supported the roof. This was granted to her, and she took the chest containing the body of Osiris back to Egypt, hiding it in a secret place while she sought her son, Horus. But Typhon, by an unlucky chance, found the chest while hunting in the light of the moon, and recognizing the body as that of Osiris, tore it into fourteen pieces, which he scattered up and down throughout the land. When Isis heard of this she made a boat of papyrus, and set out to collect the fragments of the body. Osiris returned from the other world and appeared to his son, Horus, instructing him to do battle with Typhon; this battle lasted many days, and at length Horus was victorious. Ultimately Osiris became the king of the underworld and the judge of the dead.

 

154.        This story, like our own traditional history, has suffered from the materializing tendencies of those who did not understand; for there is no clear mention of a resurrection in the account given by Plutarch, but merely a vague return from the dead. This represents, however, a very late version of the tradition, one which is materialized and distorted almost beyond recognition; and in the Mysteries of Osiris the legend was much more in accordance with the real facts of the spiritual world. Even in the Egyptian inscriptions which have been deciphered there are clear indications of a resurrection. The main outline of the true legend was the death of Osiris at the hands of Set; the division of His body into twice seven parts, representing the com­ing forth of the seven rays, or types of manifestation, consequent upon the descent of the Logos into matter; the search of Isis and the finding of the various portions of the body; their reunion and the final raising of Osiris by the third of three successive attempts to triumphant immortality and eternal resurrection.

155.        It was at this stage also that the function of Osiris as the judge of the dead was studied; and the vignette in the papyrus of Ani of the judgment of Osiris and the weighing of the heart of Ani against the feather of truth represents the judgment of the soul by the Lords of Karma. If the soul was utterly pure it was allowed to pass onwards into immortality; if it was not “true of voice” it was delivered over to the monster Amemit, “the devourer,” and was swallowed up again in the cycle of generation, to be reborn on earth in another body. Although these symbols and legends were known in the outer world, their true inner meaning was explained only to initiates of the Third Degree.

 

156.        THE MEANING OF THE STORY

 

157.        It is often thought that the story of Osiris, like that of Mithra and the other sun-gods (among whom some writers include even Christ Himself), is simply an apotheosis of the processes of nature familiar to an agricultural people. Thus Plutarch says that Osiris was also regarded as Nilus, the river Nile, and Isis as the land of Egypt, periodically fertilized by his overflow.* (*Plutarch. Moralia; De Iside et Osiride.) Astronomically, Osiris was the sun, Isis the moon, and Typhon darkness and winter, who in his triumph destroyed the fertilizing powers of the sun, preventing him from giving his life to the world. It is the universal story of the sun-god

158.        who, after a struggle for existence and the development of his power in the early part of the year, at last rises in triumph into the midheaven of his glory, and bestows his life upon all creatures, ripen­ing the corn and the grape, only to yield once more to the advance of winter.

159.        The sun in the heavens, as the great life of the world, pursues this cycle of death and resurrection; and the smaller life in the seed follows a similar process - it sprouts and comes to fruit, which is garnered and sacrificed for the nourishment of man and other creatures; but  just as Typhon did not utterly destroy Osiris, but left the fragments of His body through which His life was afterwards renewed, so does man not eat all the corn, but keeps some portion to be sown in the ground so that the processes of life may recur. Man in his turn grows through the same cycle of changes, through childhood, manhood and old age; and for him also there is no escape from the sacrifice that characterizes all life, but he is reborn again and again in his cycle of reincarnations.

160.        The story of the seed is thus that of the ordinary man, but the story of the sun is that of the man who is becoming divine. In the Egyptian Mysteries they called him the Osirified, and the Christian mystics spoke of him as becoming one with Christ, as when S. Paul spoke to his followers as: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”* (*Gal., iv, 19.) It is the voluntary nature of the divine sacrifice that distinguishes it from the earthly sacrifices. Therefore the method of man’s reaching divinity was always proclaimed to be unselfishness and self-sacrifice for the sake of others; and the entire story of Christ and of Osiris is but an epitome and example of how that sacrifice may be expressed on earth in human life, as it is in the heavens.

161.        The researches of the initiate in the Mysteries of Osiris were still further extended to include man’s true home, that higher section of the mental or heaven-world in which the ego functions in his causal body; and at the same time the great ceremony of raising was explained in many layers of interpretation as the descent of the Logos into mat­ter, His mystic death and burial, and His rising again to a kingdom without end; and also as the personal descent of the soul into bodies, his resurrection from the death-in-life of the lower worlds of form, and his reincarnation upon earth once more.

162.        The s … s of the Mysteries of Osiris were much the same as we have to-day, though the s … of g … and d … was that used in Scottish and American workings; but the words were different, being much more positive in character. The f … p … o … f … were identical with those we use now, and the g … or t … is likewise unchanged.

 

163.        THE INNER MYSTERIES OF OSIRIS

 

164.        Within this degree there was also an inner circle. The practical in­struction was therein carried into the higher part of the mental plane, so that the fully trained initiate in the Mysteries of Osiris acquired full consciousness as an ego beyond the limitations of the one per­sonal life which is all that most people know.

 

165.        THE OFFICE OF MASTER

 

166.        Beyond the Third Degree there opened out several lines of progress in the Mysteries. There was the work of holding office in the Lodges; that extended over many years, and gave splendid training to those who undertook it. Each officer in a Lodge has his own special work  to do, his own aspect of the Deity to manifest, his own sacramental power to transmit to the Lodge of which he is a part; the course of training through successive offices was and is therefore of inestimable value in acquiring an all-round development of character. At the apex of the ancient Craft system, the degree of I.M. existed, which gave a far fuller power than had been conferred even in the Mysteries of Osiris, and enabled the Master to become a hierophant of the Mysteries in his turn, able to instruct and advance his Brn. in the secret wisdom of Egypt. In ordinary cases this splendid position was gained only late in life, and by the time the Master had ruled his Lodge he had had a most valuable training, that well might advance the course of his evolution more than several ordinary lives.

167.        The same succession has been transmitted to us in Masonry to-day, and every I.M. is in possession of the power of the Egyptian priests of old; though it is certainly true that if he possessed also the knowledge of the Egyptian priests he could make far better use of the power.

 

168.        THE HIGHER GRADES OF THE MYSTERIES

 

169.        Beyond the teaching and training which were given in the Mysteries, classified in the three degrees which we have considered, the hierophants also made it their work to instruct and guide aspirants who had proved themselves fit for still further progress. We cannot say that there were in Egypt any organized degrees beyond the third, that of Osiris; but there was individual teaching, which led to the ac­quisition of still greater powers, and to the formation of links with beings at still higher levels.

170.        The higher degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of our modern days (which were established perhaps as late as the eigh­teenth century, when the Rite of Perfection or of Heredom was formed) reflect to some extent these more advanced lines of progress which  existed in Egypt. We may therefore in the following brief account of them classify them as they are expressed in our Red, Black and White Freemasonry.

 

171.        RED MASONRY IN THE MYSTERIES

 

172.        For such M.M.s as were thought promising by the priests in charge (who were for the most part members of the three Grand Lodges), what we now call Red Masonry existed, as well as the teaching which is now included in our Royal Arch and kindred degrees, culminating in the splendid quest of the Knights of the Rose-Croix for the lost word, man’s true divinity.

173.        In the symbolic teaching corresponding to our degree of the Holy Royal Arch the aspirant was taught to clear away from the various levels of his consciousness all the veils which yet obstructed his vision of reality, and then in the power of that vision to recognize for himself the Hidden Light in every form, however deeply it might be buried and concealed from the eyes of the flesh. This was typified as a journey upwards, during which four veils were passed, and then by a search downwards for a hidden vault, deeply buried in the earth, in which the Name of God was concealed.

174.        The central purpose of this stage was an actual realization in con­sciousness that the many are One. It was known to some extent among the uninitiated of the outer world that all the strange deities of Egypt were in reality only manifestations of One, but they did not in all prob­ability realize the fact of unity with any degree of clearness. In what corresponded to the Royal Arch in Egypt we found for ourselves that God was immanent in all things and had descended into the very lowest that the lowest might come into being. The powers conferred at this stage enabled the candidate to realize this great truth to some extent; and a certain expansion of consciousness was given to him which quickened the growth of the intuitional principle within him, and so helped him to recognize the divinity in others.

175.        There was a considerable interval between this stage and the next, during which the candidate was receiving instruction from the priests, and practising meditation upon what he had learnt. Gradually he came to realize that, although he had indeed found the divine Name, and had contacted for himself the Hidden Light of God, there was a further search still before him, in which he would penetrate deeper into the consciousness and being of the Deity. It was then that he began his second great quest, which led up through a number of stages, during which different attributes of the Deity were studied and to some extent realized, until it culminated in the magnificent illumination given in what we now call the Eighteenth Degree, that of the Sovereign Prince of the Rose-Croix of Heredom. The candidate then found the divine Love reigning in his own heart and in those of his Brn. He also learnt that God had descended and shared our lower nature with us in order that we might ascend to share His true nature with Him.

176.        That link is still made for the Brn. of the Rose-Croix, and each should become a radiant centre of that love wherever he goes, forget­ting himself utterly in the service of others. The splendid crimson Angels of the Rosy Cross, who now attend our Sovereign Chapters and pour out through them the fullness of their love for the helping of the world, were also known in ancient Egypt, and these were linked with the Sovereign Princes in their higher principles, so that their seraphic love also was at hand to be outpoured in blessing. To their guardianship the candidate was entrusted, and he had to realize his unity with the Angels as well as with his Brn.

177.        At this stage the intuition or buddhi in the candidate, that hidden wisdom which is Horus or the Christ dwelling in man, was enormously quickened and aroused, so that the candidate became to some extent a manifestation of that eternal love who in later ages was called the Christ, and he was thereby enabled to work upon the emotional nature, which is a partial reflection of it in the matter of the astral world, so as to raise his power to love to greater heights than he could reach before. He now became a veritable priest, able to call down and pour forth the divine love for the helping of the world. A higher degree of this same most wonderful power enabled the Bro. to confer this expansion of consciousness and transmit these splendid links to others; and it is this power which is reserved in our modern Sovereign Chapters to the M.WS. and those who have passed the Chair in the Rose­-Croix degree.

 

178.        BLACK MASONRY IN THE MYSTERIES

 

179.        Few indeed of our Egyptian Brn. appear to have passed beyond the Rose-Croix, for only the few needed anything further than the splendid revelation of the indwelling Love of God which they received in what we call the Eighteenth Degree. But for those few who felt that there was yet more to learn of the nature of God, and who eagerly wished to understand the meaning of evil and suffering and its relation to the divine plan, the prototype of our Black Masonry existed, the teaching and progress comprised in our degrees from the nineteenth to the  thirtieth. This section of the Mysteries was especially concerned with the working out of karma in its different aspects, studied as a law of retribution, from one point of view dark and terrible. This is the inner kernel of truth lying behind the vengeance-elements in the degree of Knight K.H. The darker aspects of karma are largely connected with man’s ignorance of the nature of God and confusion with regard to the many forms in which He reveals Himself, and thus the s … s of the 30° contain the heart of its philosophy. That degree would not be fully and validly conferred unless these s … s were duly communicated, since they express its inner meaning and purpose.

180.        In the ancient instruction corresponding to this group of degrees it was taught that whatsoever a man sowed, that also must he reap, and that if he sowed evil the result would be suffering to himself. The karma of nations and races was also studied, and the inner working of the law upon the different planes was investigated by the inner sight, and shown to the student. The whole of what we now call Black Masonry led up to an explanation of karma as divine justice, this hav­ing been preserved for us in shadow in what is now the 31°, that of the Grand Inspector Inquisitor Commander, whose symbol is a pair of scales. In Egypt this pair of scales was taken as an emblem of the perfect balance of divine justice; the aspirant learnt that all the evil and horror associated with the working out of karma was indeed based on perfect justice, although it had appeared as evil to the lesser vision of the profane.

181.        Thus the first stage of the higher instruction, that of the Rose-Croix or Red Masonry, was devoted to the knowledge of good, while the second stage, that of K.H. or Black Masonry, was devoted to the knowledge of evil. Next, in the first steps of what we call White Masonry, the crown of the whole glorious structure, the candidate learnt to see the underlying justice of that eternal God, Amen-Ra, who stands behind good and evil alike. In older days, before the kali yuga, in which evil predominates over good, the Knights K.H. wore regalia of yellow instead of black.

182.        Our 30° links the Knight K.H. to the ruling rather than the teaching branch of the Great Hierarchy; he should become a radiant centre of perennial energy, which is intended to give him strength to overcome evil and to make him a real power on the side of good. The prevailing colour of the influence is an electric blue (that of the First Ray, quite different from the blue of the symbolic or Blue Lodges) edged with gold, including and yet not drowning the rose of the 18°. Associated with the degree there are also great blue Angels of the First Ray who lend their strength to the knight, somewhat as the crimson Angels assist the Excellent and Perfect Brn. of the Rose-Croix. A higher level of the same energy is transmitted in what to-day we should call the Chair of the Sovereign Commander, who has the ability to pass on the sacramental grace of the degree to others.

 

183.        WHITE MASONRY IN THE MYSTERIES

 

184.        The highest and last of the great sacramental powers of the Mysteries which have been transmitted to us is that which is now conferred in the 33°, that of the Sovereign Grand Inspector-General. In ancient Egypt, at the time when I knew it, there were only three who held the equivalent of that supreme degree, the Pharaoh and two others, who formed with him an inner triangle which was the heart of the whole system of the Mysteries, and the channel to them of the Hidden Light from the White Lodge behind. These three were all high Initiates of the Great White Brotherhood, and the Pharaoh possessed an even higher level of power than is usually given in the 33°, it being that of a Crowned and Anointed Sovereign.

185.        The Brn. of this high Order may be said to have passed on from a conception of the divine justice to the certainty of knowledge and the fullness of the divine glory in the Hidden Light. The 33° links the Sovereign Grand Inspector-General with the Spiritual King of the World Himself - that Mighty Adept who stands at the head of the Great White Lodge, and in whose strong hands lie the destinies of earth and awakens the powers of the triple spirit as far as these can as yet be awakened. The actual conferring of the degree was and is a very splendid experience when seen with the inner sight; for the Hierophant of the Mysteries (who in these modern days is the H.O.A.T.F.), stands above or beside the Initiator in that extension of His consciousness which is called the Angel of the Presence. If the recipient of the degree happens to be already an Initiate the Star (called in Egypt the Star of Horus) which marks the approval of the One Initiator once more flames out above him in all its glory; while in any case the two great white Angels of the rite flash down in splendour from the heavenly places, showing themselves as low as the etheric level that they may give their blessing to the candidate.

186.        The Hierophant makes the actual links both with himself and with the reservoir of power set apart for the work of the Masonic Brotherhood, and through himself with that Mighty King whose representative He is, while the great white Angels of the Order remain as the guardians of the Bro. throughout life. He on the right hand has an aura of brilliant white light shot with gold, and represents Osiris, the sun and life, the positive aspect of the Deity; she on the left has an aura of similar light, veined with silver, and represents Isis, the moon and truth, the negative or feminine aspect of the divine glory. Their power is stern and splendid; and they give strength to act with decision, accuracy, courage and perseverance on the physical plane.  They belong to the cosmic orders of Angels, those who are common to other solar systems besides our own, and their permanent centres of consciousness are on the intuitional plane, although their forms may always be seen hovering over the head of the initiate of this degree  at the higher mental level. It is to be remembered that there is in reality no sex among these great Angels, yet one of them is preponderatingly masculine in appearance, and the other preponderatingly feminine.

187.        When they think fit, they materialize themselves mentally and astrally - as at the greater ceremonies in Lodge - and they are always ready to give their blessing whenever it is invoked. They are in­separably one with the Sovereign Grand Inspector-General, linked to his higher self, never to desert him unless by unworthiness he first deserts them and casts them off. The symbols of the sun and moon are seen to-day on the gauntlets of the Sovereign Grand Inspector-General, and they are intended to refer to these great Angelic powers in the inner worlds.

188.        The powers associated with the 33° appear to have been slightly modified since those ancient Egyptian times. The great white Angels seemed to be sterner and more rhadamanthine in ancient Egypt; to­day those who belong to the degree are in some ways gentler, though their power is no less splendid. This stage combined the wonderful love of Horus the Son with the ineffable life and strength of Osiris the divine Father, and Isis, the eternal Mother of the world; and this union of love with strength is still its most prominent characteristic.

189.        It confers upon those who open themselves to its influence power similar to and only a little way below that of the first great Initiation, and those who enter the 33° should assuredly qualify themselves for that step before very long. Indeed, in the great days of the Mysteries this stage was accessible only to Initiates, and one feels that it ought only to be given to such now, just as it would seem appropriate that the marvellous gift of the episcopate should be conferred only upon members of the Great White Brotherhood. The power of the degree   when in operation shows itself in an aura of dazzling white and gold, enfolding within it the rose and blue of Rose-Croix and K.H.; and in it also is manifested that peculiar shade of electric blue which is the especial sign of the presence of the King. The Sovereign Grand Inspector-General is the “Bishop” of Masonry, and if the life of the degree is really lived he should be an ever-radiating centre of power, a veritable sun of light and life and glory wherever he goes.

190.        Such was the highest and holiest of the sacramental powers conferred in the Mysteries of ancient Egypt, such the highest degree known to us in Masonry to-day, bestowed in its fullness upon but very few. The opportunity to draw down its sublime glory is offered to all who receive the degree; how far it is taken and what use is made of the power is in the hands of the Bro. alone, for to use the power as it should be used needs high spiritual development and a life of constant humility, watchfulness and service. If he calls upon it for the service of others, it will flow through him mightily and sweetly for the helping of the world. If he neglects the power, it will remain dormant and the links unused - and Those behind will turn Their glance away from him to others more worthy. The power of the 33° is a veritable ocean of glory and strength and sweetness, for it is the power of the King Himself, the Lord who reigns on earth as Vice-Regent of the Logos from eternity unto eternity.

 

191.        THE STAGES OF THE OCCULT PATH

 

192.        Behind the whole splendid scheme of the Egyptian Mysteries the Lodge of the Great White Brotherhood in that country ever stood in silence and secrecy, guarding them and using them as a channel of the Hidden Light - its very existence being unknown to all who remained outside the inner circles. The Brotherhood selected for initiation into its ranks only those who had fulfilled the ancient con­ditions imposed upon all candidates for that high degree, the qualifica­tions for which were laid down in Part I of the manual of occult instruction now called Light on the Path, which represents the teaching of the Egyptian Lodge. Candidates were therefore generally chosen from among the Brn. who had received the higher instruction, and had prepared themselves by many years of meditation, study and service. Still, it sometimes happened that one might be chosen for Initiation who had not passed through the outer steps of the Mysteries, but in previous lives had prepared himself for it - for it is the ego who is initiated, not the mere personality of the lower planes.

193.        There have always been five great Initiations, which in Christian teaching have been illustrated by stages in the life of the Christ as related in the Gospels, which contain elements derived from the teachings of the Egyptian Mysteries. The disciple Jesus was an initiate of the Egyptian Lodge, and therefore much of the Egyptian symbolism was adopted by His followers, and was later woven into the Gospel story. In The Masters and the Path I have given an account of certain of the ceremonies of Initiation used in the Great White Brotherhood at the present day. The Egyptian rituals were in some respects slightly dif­ferent from these in form, although their essence was identically the same; for the Egyptian Lodge possessed the tradition handed down from the initiates of Atlantis, which was somewhat modified in later days, to suit the needs of the slowly-evolving humanity of the Aryan race.

 

194.        THE FIRST THREE INITIATIONS

 

195.        The first of the true inner Initiations was called the Birth of Horus, and corresponded in that great religion to the birth of Christ in Bethle­hem in the Christian presentation. Horus was born of Isis, the Virgin-Mother; at his birth the Star shone forth, and the Angelic hosts sang their song of triumph; he was adored by shepherds and wise men, and saved from danger which threatened him from without. In The Book of the Dead it is said: “I know the power of the East, Horus of the Solar Mount, the Star of Dawn.” The story of the Initiate is the story of the Sun-God, the universal Christ who is born into the heart of man, and His mystic birth is the purpose of the First Great Initiation.

196.        If the candidate had not already passed through them, as most students in the Mysteries would have done, he had at this stage to undergo the trials by earth, water, air and fire, learning with absolute certainty that none of these elements could in any way harm him in the astral body. All this was preparatory to the taking up of service on the astral plane, for the Initiate had to fit himself to become a trained and useful servant of humanity both in this and in the other world.

197.        The Second Great Initiation corresponds to that stage of the Christ-life which is typified by the Baptism, in which an expansion of the intellectual faculties takes place, just as a wonderful opening out of the emotional nature is the result of the First Initiation. It is at this stage that the inner trial typified by the temptation in the wilderness takes place in the life of the candidate. Then comes the splendour of the Transfiguration, when the Monad descends and transforms the ego into the likeness of His own glory.

 

198.        THE FOURTH INITIATION

 

199.        The Fourth Great Initiation corresponds to the Passion and Resur­rection of the Christ; the candidate must pass through the valley of the shadow of death, enduring the utmost suffering and loneliness that he may rise forever to the fullness of immortality. This awful and wonderful experience is the reality which is reflected at an almost infinite distance in the degree of M.M.; through the portal of death he is raised to the everlasting glory of the Resurrection.

200.        Certain portions of the ritual of this Fourth Initiation according to the Egyptian rite were curiously entangled with the Christian teachings, and became utterly materialized and distorted in somewhat the same way as the legend of Osiris became distorted in Egypt itself. The rubric of this part of the Initiation was as follows:

 

201.        Then shall the candidate be bound upon the wooden cross, he shall die, he shall be buried, and shall descend into the underworld; after the third day he shall be brought back from the dead, and shall be carried up into heaven to be the right hand of Him from whom he came, having learnt to guide (or rule) the living and the dead.* (*The Christian Creed, by the Rt. Rev. C. W. Leadbeater, p. 98.)

 

202.        During the ceremony the candidate laid himself down upon a wooden cross, made hollow to receive and support his body. His arms were lightly bound with cords, the ends of which were left loose to typify the voluntary nature of the sacrifice. The candidate then passed into trance, left the physical body and passed in full consciousness on to the astral plane. His body was carried down into a vault below the temple and was placed in an immense sarcophagus, where it lay for three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

203.        During the mystical death of the body the candidate passed through many strange experiences in the astral world, and preached to ‘the spirits in prison’, to those who had recently left the body in death and were still fettered by their passions and desires.

204.        On the morning of the fourth day of his burial, the body of the can­didate was raised from its sepulchre, and borne into the outer air at the eastern side of the great pyramid, so that the first rays of the rising sun might awaken him from his long sleep.

205.        It was at this Initiation that the candidate was carried up into ‘heaven,’ to receive an expansion of consciousness on the spiritual plane, often called the atmic or nirvanic. That is the plane of absolute union, and that consciousness knows all from within, is one with all and in all. The Initiate thus was made “the right hand of Him from whom he came,” being now pledged for ever to the service of God and man, and it was to be his work henceforward to guide the living and the dead towards the Hidden Light in which alone is peace. The great truth that all power which is gained is but held in trust, to be used as a means of helping others, has rarely been more clearly or more grandly set forth.

206.        In The Hidden Light in Freemasonry I have drawn certain corre­spondences between the three degrees in Blue Masonry and the Great Initiations, showing that the E.A. initiation reflects the great step of entry on the probationary path, that the Passing may be compared to the First Great Initiation, and that the Raising resembles the Fourth.* (*Op. cit., pp. 75 and 185.) We may now add the Mysteries of Egypt, and make the following table of correspondences, always remembering, of course, that there are vast differences of level between these Orders and the stages on the Path:

 

 

207.        THE FIFTH INITIATION AND BEYOND

 

208.        Only one more stage remains before human perfection is reached - that which is typified by the Ascension into heaven. At this Fifth Initiation the Adept ascends above all earthly life and becomes One with that aspect of the Deity which in Christianity we call God the Holy Ghost.* (*See The Masters and the Path.)

209.        And still there are higher stages, greater steps upon the Path, though belonging no longer to human evolution but to the development of the Superman. Even here our Masonic ceremonies reflect in symbol something of those higher glories, giving the key to the whole vast plan. Far above the grade of Adept, He who is the Christ stands as the Lord of Love, the Teacher of Angels and men, and along this line of interpretation His high stage of evolution is reflected in the 18°, which  is essentially a degree of Christhood. Equal with Him, but on the Ray of Rule, stands the Manu, whose rank is mirrored at an almost infinite distance in the 30°; and as the crown of the whole Hierarchy there reigns the One Initiator,* (*Ibid., Ch. xiv.) whose life and light and glory are adumbrated in the splendour of the 33°. Thus the whole wondrous plan of Masonic initiation is a shadow of things seen above “in the Mount”; and herein lies the greatness of our mighty brotherhood and its value to mankind.

210.        Much lower down there are still correspondences. The 18° means glowing love and beauty, but that is mirrored in the position of the W.J.W; the 30° gives a wonderful outpouring of strength, which is typified by the column of the W.S.W., while the wisdom and all-embracing sympathy of the 33° should be reflected in the attitude of the R.W.M. of the Lodge.

 

 

2      The Cretan Mysteries

 

211.        THE UNITY OF THE MYSTERIES

 

212.        THE group of beliefs and practices to which we give the name of the Mysteries has existed in many countries and in different forms, most of which have influenced Freemasonry to a greater or a lesser extent. Widely spread as they were, their unity of origin is to be seen in the fact that they had a certain framework which was always the same, although they showed divergences in minor matters. In those days, just as at the present time, a Bro. from a foreign Jurisdiction who wished to visit had to prove himself at the door of the Lodge; for whatever differences there may have been in the outer forms of the ritual, the s … s were always the same, for these are the keys to the sacramental powers lying behind all the systems of the Mysteries alike.

 

213.        LIFE IN ANCIENT CRETE

 

214.        One of the most striking instances of this unity is to be found in Crete, where the comparatively recent discoveries of Sir Arthur Evans have disclosed many Masonic symbols and forms, resembling very closely those of Egypt. Like Gaul in the days of Caesar, ancient Crete was divided into three parts or states - Knossos, Goulas and Polurheni. The King of Knossos was Overlord of the whole island, for the rulers, of the other states acknowledged him as their leader, although they were perfectly free to manage their own internal affairs. There was also, in the south of the island, an independent city with a few miles of territory attached to it.

215.        All these Kings were also ex-officio high priests, as in Egypt, and the King’s palace was always the principal temple of his State. The people worshipped a dual deity - Father-Mother - and these two were regarded as one, though some men offered their devotion more to the Father-aspect, and some to the Mother. The Father, when spoken of separately, was called Brito, and the Mother Diktynna. No statues were made of these deities, but great reverence was paid to their symbol, which was a double-headed axe. (See Plate I, 1, following p. 50.) This was carved in stone and made in metal, and set up in the temples where one would naturally expect a statue, and a conventional drawing of it represented the deity in the writing of the period. This double axe was called labrys, and it was for it originally that the celebrated labyrinth was built, to symbolize to the people the difficulty of finding the Path to God.

216.        Much of their religious service and worship was carried on out of doors. Various remarkable isolated peaks of rock were regarded as sacred to the Great Mother, and the King and his people went out to one or other of these on certain days in each month, and chanted prayers and praises. A fire was lit, and each person wove a sort of crown of leaves for himself, wore it for awhile, and then threw it into the fire as an offering to the Mother-God. Each of these peaks had also a special yearly festival, much like a Pardon in Brittany - a kind of semi-religious village fair, to which people came from all parts of the island to picnic in the open air for two or three days, and enjoyed themselves hugely. In one case a great old tree of enormous size and unusually perfect shape was regarded as sacred to Diktynna, and offerings were made under its branches. A vast amount of incense was burnt under it, and it was supposed that the leaves somehow absorbed and retained the scent, so when they fell in autumn they were carefully collected and distributed to the people, who regarded them as talismans which protected them from evil. That these dried leaves had a strong fragrance is undeniable, but how far it was due to the incense seems problematical.

217.        The people were a fine-looking race, obviously Greek in type; their dress was simple, for the men in ordinary life usually wore nothing but a loincloth, except when they put on gorgeous official costumes for religious or other festivals. The women wore a cloth which covered the whole body, but was arranged something like an Indian dhoti in the lower part, giving rather the effect of a divided skirt.

218.        The interior of the island was mountainous, not unlike Sicily, and there was much beautiful scenery. The architecture was massive, but the houses were curiously arranged. On entering, one came directly into a large hall like a church, in which the entire family and the servants lived all day, the cooking being done in one corner. At the back was a covered passage (as in the houses in Java at the present day) leading to what was in effect a separate building, in which were the sleeping rooms. These were quite small and dark - mere cubicles - but open all round for about two feet under the roof, so that there was ample ventilation. Round the wall of this hall under the roof usually ran a frieze of painted bas-relief - generally a procession, executed in the most spirited style.

219.        The buildings were of granite, and there were many statues of granite, though also some made of a softer stone, and some of copper and wood. Iron was used by this race, but not much; the principal metal was copper. The pottery was distinctly peculiar; all the commonest articles were made of bright yellow earthenware, painted with all sorts of figures. These figures were generally on a broad white band round the middle of the pot, and the colours used were nearly always red, brown or yellow - very rarely blue or green. These were the common household pots; but for the table they had porcelain and glass - both very well made. Most of the glass was of a bluish-green tint, like some of the old Venetian glass - not colourless like ours. The richer people used many vessels of gold, wonderfully chased and sometimes set with jewels. These people were especially clever at jewellers’ work of all sorts, and made elaborate ornaments. One sees among them no diamonds or rubies - chiefly amethysts, jasper and agate. But many ornaments were evidently imported, for they had statuettes and models in carved ivory.

220.        These people had two kinds of writing, evidently corresponding to the hieroglyphic and the demotic in Egypt, but they were quite dif­ferent from the Egyptian. A decimal system was used in calculating, and arithmetic generally seems to have been well understood. These Cretans were good sailors, and had a powerful fleet of galleys, some with as many as sixty oars. They used sails also - sails which were wonderfully painted; but apparently they employed them only when the wind was almost directly astern.

 

221.        THE CRETAN RACE

 

222.        These people were an arm or family of the fourth or Keltic sub-race of the fifth or Aryan race. In Chapter XIX of Man: Whence, How and Whither a brief history of that sub-race is given; it includes the following remarks on the subject of the origin of the Cretans:

 

223.        The first section [of the fourth sub-race] to cross into Europe from Asia Minor were the ancient Greeks - not the Greeks of our ‘Ancient History’, but their far-away ancestors, those who are sometimes called Pelasgians. It will be remembered that the Egyptian priests are mentioned in Plato’s Timaeus and Critias as having spoken to a later Greek of the splendid race which had preceded his own people in his land; how they had turned back an invasion from the mighty nation from the West, the conquering nation that had subdued all before it, until it shivered itself against the heroic valour of these Greeks. In comparison with these, it was said, the modern Greeks - the Greeks of our history who seem to us so great - were as pigmies. From these sprang the Trojans who fought with the modern Greeks, and the city of Agade in Asia Minor was peopled by their descendants.

 

224.        These, then, had held for a long time the sea-board of Asia Minor and the islands of Cyprus and Crete, and all the trade of that part of the world was carried in their vessels. A fine civilization was gradually built up in Crete, which endured for thousands of years. The name of Minos will ever be remembered as its founder or chief builder, and he was of these elder Greeks, even before 10,000. B.C.* (*Op. cit., pp. 309-10.)

 

225.        RECENT DISCOVERIES IN CRETE

 

226.        It is only since the year 1900 that, largely owing to the work of Sir Arthur Evans, the modern world has come to know something about the Cretan civilization, and to realize that in age and splendour it com­pared even with the grandeur of ancient Egypt. But even now, though there is abundant appreciation of the archaeological value of the Cretan discoveries, not much attention has yet been given by Freemasons to the highly interesting fact that the Minoan civilization shows us the existence, five thousand years ago at least, of a Mystery-religion which in its symbols and general arrangements closely resembles our modern ritual. One feature of those Cretan Mysteries especially attractive to Co-Masons is that in them women were admitted as well as men. The admission of women was the practice of almost all the Mysteries of the ancient world, but clearer traces of the fact remain to-day in Crete than in any other country. These Mysteries do not lie in the direct line of Masonic descent; but the archaeological remains of initiatory rites are so plentiful and so strikingly similar to our present system as to be exceptionally interesting.

227.        For those who are not conversant with the results of the excavations in Crete, it may be well to give a brief survey of the historical knowledge gained by their aid. Until recently most text-books of history taught that the Greek civilization began in the eighth century B.C. There  were traditions of an older civilization, with a centre in Crete, where King Minos reigned in his palace in Knossos, and another on the mainland of Greece, where in the Mycenaean cities Agamemnon and his heroes had prepared for the expedition against Troy, but these ac­counts were taken to be of purely legendary character until the bold perseverance of Schliemann actually laid bare the walls of ancient Troy and discovered the tombs of the Mycenaean kings, and so compelled the historians to realize that in this case as in others legend had been  truer than history.

228.        The discoveries in Crete were even more striking. When Sir Arthur Evans began his excavations on the site of ancient Knossos he not only laid bare the palace of King Minos, but also a series of successive strata indicative of a continuous civilization of a very high character stretching over a period of several thousand years. It was shown that the old legends of the labyrinth of Crete and the terrible Minotaur, supposed to dwell in its innermost depths, were based on fact, not on fancy. It is now known also that at the time of the first dynasty in Egypt there flourished in the island of Crete a civilization as powerful as the Egyptian. With regard to it Sir Arthur Evans says:

 

229.        The proto-Egyptian element in Early Minoan Crete is, in fact, so clearly defined and is so intensive in its nature as almost to suggest something more than such a connection as might have been brought about by primitive commerce. It may well, indeed, be asked whether, in the time of stress and change that marked the triumph of the dynastic element in the Nile Valley, some part of the older population then driven out may not have made an actual settlement on the soil of Crete.* (*The Palace of Minos at Knossos, vol. I, p. 17.)

 

230.        Though the civilizations of ancient Egypt and Crete have much in common, yet each had distinctly a genius of its own, and much of the similarity between them can be explained by the fact that for long ages not only the Delta, but Middle and Upper Egypt stood in continuous relation with Minoan Crete.

231.        It is not our object to enter into a further description of this Minoan civilization, which in many respects was equal if not superior to that of our own times. We are here concerned chiefly with the religion and the ritual usages of the ancient Minoans, which in their details show such a remarkable likeness to modern Freemasonry. Since the Minoan script cannot yet be deciphered, we are but very partially informed about the thoughts and the beliefs of the Minoan race, but  from the objects found and the monuments discovered some conclu­sions may be drawn which are sufficient for our present purpose.

 

232.        WORSHIP IN CRETE

 

233.        The main worship appears to have centred round the feminine aspect of the deity already mentioned who, like Isis amongst the Egyptians and Demeter amongst the later Greeks, symbolized the creative power and fostering care of mother-nature. Connected with her worship was the sacred tree, depicted in so many presentations of Minoan shrines, while the deity herself was associated with the dove, the lion, the fish and the snake, typifying her dominion over air, earth, water and the fire within the earth.

234.        As I have written above, the most sacred symbol in Minoan worship was the double axe or labrys. This, mounted on a stone column, is found in the shrines of ancient Crete, and when depicted on any object or building invariably denotes its sacred character. (See Plate I, 1 and Plate IV, 1, following p. 50.)

235.        It was always an emblem of the most High God, and is in reality the ancestor of the Master’s gavel, which he bears because in his humble way he represents the All-Commander, ruling his Lodge in the name of the Spiritual King. In Crete we often find it associated with what is called the sacral knot (Plate I, 2, following p. 50). When thus combined it closely resembles the Egyptian ankh, the token of immortality. (Plate I, 3. following p. 50.)

236.        The Mother-Goddess Dictynna denoted the productivity and creative power of nature; this double axe, especially when surmounted by the sacral knot, signified the eternal truth of death and resurrection, which was the central mystery of the religion of Crete as it was of that of Egypt; and so it was often laid before her to typify the ever-recurring miracle of the rebirth of tree and grain from the death of winter. The very form of the labyrinth in the recesses of which this sacred emblem was concealed was in itself symbolical and full of meaning; it was based upon the cross, and the representations of it on seals and coins sometimes take the shape of the swastika (Plate I, 4, following p. 50).

237.        Connected with this outer religious worship in ancient Crete there were Mysteries of initiation for the few, and it is in these that we find the main elements of similarity to Freemasonry. In the palace of Minos at Knossos, as also in the palace of Phaestos - another Cretan site - we find pillared crypts and chambers which were indubitably of a sacred and initiatory character. The most important of these rooms is the so-called throne-room in the palace of Minos, which derives its name from the magnificent sculptured throne which was found intact when excavated (see Plate II, 1, following p. 50).

 

238.        THE THRONE ROOM

 

239.        With regard to this room, Sir Arthur Evans says:

 

240.        It is now clear that a large part of the West Wing of the Palace was little more than a conglomeration of small shrines, of pillared crypts designed for ritual use, and corresponding halls above. The best preserved existing chamber of this Quarter, the ‘Room of the Throne’, teems with religious suggestion. With its elaborately carved cathedral seat in the centre and stone benches round, the sacral griffins guarding on one side the entrance to an inner shrine, on the other the throne itself, and, opposite, approached by steps, its mysterious basin, it might well evoke the idea of a kind of consistory or chapter-house. A singularly dramatic touch, from the moment of final catastrophe, was here, indeed, supplied by the alabastra standing on the floor, beside the overturned oil jar for their filling, with a view, we may infer, to some ceremony of anoint­ing. It is impossible to withhold the conclusion that the ‘Room of the Throne’ at Knossos was designed for religious functions.

 

241.        The salient features in its arrangement (Plate II, 2, following p. 50), in fact, suggest an interesting comparison with a ritual chamber recently discovered in one of the kindred Anatolian sanctuaries. This is the ‘Hall of Initiation’ excavated by the British explorers in the sanctuary of Men Askaenos and a Mother Goddess, described as Demeter, near the Pisidian Antioch. The throne itself, the stone benches round, and the ‘tank’ on the opposite side to the throne, find all their close analogies, and are arranged in the same relative positions. In the Galatian Sanctuary we see, on a larger scale it is true, a chamber with a throne - in this case near, not actually against the back wall - to the right of the entrance, while opposite it on the left side on entering the chamber is an oblong tank. Here, too, along the back wall runs a rock-cut bench or divan, and the chamber was approached by an ante-room or pronaos.

 

242.        Cult arrangements are often handed down almost unaltered through long periods of years, and the striking analogies here presented afford a real presumption for believing that the much earlier Room of the Throne at Knossos and its adjoining tank were devised for similar rites of initiation and purification. Like him who presided over these Anatolian rites, a Minoan priest-king may have sat upon the throne at Knossos, the adopted Son on earth of the Great Mother of its island mysteries. Such a personage, indeed, we may actually recognize in the Palace relief of a figure wearing a plumed lily crown and leading, we may believe, the sacral Griffin. It is probable, indeed, that in Crete the kingly aspect was more to the fore than in the religious centres of Asia Minor. But both the actual evidence from the palace site and the divine associations attributed to Minos lead to the conclusion that here, too, each successive dynast was ‘a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedech’ and ‘made like unto the Son of God’.

 

243.        There is little doubt that in the room thus described we find one of the Minoan temples of the Mysteries. Most probably, as Sir Arthur Evans suggests, the throne which is shown in the chamber was the seat of the Hierophant, and on the stone benches round the walls were ranged the Brn. who took part in the ritual. The candidates for initiation had to undergo a preliminary purification in the lustral basin before they could be admitted to the ceremonies.

 

244.        THE THREE COLUMNS

 

245.        A plan of this Minoan Temple is shown in Plate II, 2 (following p. 50). Facing the throne of the Hierophant were three columns, which are frequently found in the mystery religion of Crete and were closely connected with its rites. The evidence that the three columns bore a sacred meaning is to be found in one of the terra-cotta models belonging to a votive shrine, which often supply us with additional information about the Cretan Mysteries. (See Plate II, 3, following p. 50.) We will quote Sir Arthur Evans’ description of the three columns surmounted by doves (which repeatedly occur in various models of Minoan shrines), and his explanation of their religious meaning:

 

246.        But of all these remains, the highest religious interest attaches to a terra­-cotta group belonging to some religious structure on a larger scale than the others. It consists of three columns on a common base, supporting in each case, above their square ‘capital’, the round ends of a pair of beams on which a dove is perched (Plate II, 3, following p. 50). The square ‘capital’ itself and the beam ends above it must here be regarded as the equivalent, in an epitomized shape, of the roof beams and entablature of a building. In other words, they are the Pillars of the House, and the doves settled above them are the outward and visible sign of the divine presence and protection. A clay seal with a similar device of a dove perched above roof-beams resting on a column, itself set on an altar base as in the Lion’s Gate scheme, has now come to light at Mycenae - a singular illustration of the Minoan source of its cult.

 

247.        Of the columns themselves, each one may be regarded as a separate religious entity, since in place of a common entablature the superstructure is in each case separately rendered by a kind of architectural shorthand. This Trinity of baetylic pillars (which has many parallels in Semitic cult) itself recalls the triple arrangement seen in the case of the Temple Fresco at Knossos and of several late Minoan and Mycenaean shrines. The triple gold shrines of Mycenae are also coupled with seated doves.

 

248.        The seated birds, as already observed, symbolize in this and other cases the descent of the divinity into the possessed object. At times, as in the above instances, it is the baetylic pillar or the cell that enshrines it. The celebrated scene on the sarcophagus of Hagia Triada shows raven-like birds brought down by ritual strains and libations on to the sacred Double Axes, which are thus ‘charged’ as it were with the divinity. The doves on the gold chalice from Mycenae and of ‘Nestor’s Cup’ repeat the same idea.

 

249.        But it was not only the cult object itself that could be thus sanctified by the descending emblem of spiritual indwelling. In the case of the gold plates from the Third Shaft Grave at Mycenae the doves are seen not only perched on the Shrine but on the head and fluttering from the shoulders of a nude female personage (Plate III, 2, following p. 50). So too the central clay image from the late ‘Shrine of the Double Axes’ at Knossos shows the dove settled on her head. In these cases we have either images of the Dove Goddess herself, reinforced by what may have been her older zoomorphic form, or of a priestess deified by the descent of the dove-spirit.

 

250.        The extent to which primitive Minoan religious conceptions were familiar to the Semitic mind is here again illustrated by the striking parallel of the baptism in Jordan and the picture drawn by the evangelists of the Holy Spirit ‘descending in bodily shape like a dove’ and ‘lighting on’ Jesus. What has to be borne in mind in all these connexions is that it is not only the inanimate or aniconic object, such as the pillar or the sacred weapon, that may become, through due ritual, the temporary dwelling-place of the divinity, but that the spiritual Being may enter into the actual worshipper or votary in human form, who for the time becomes a God, just as the baptized Christian becomes alter Christos. This ‘possession’ is often marked by soothsaying and ecstatic dances, and an orgiastic dance on a Late Minoan signet, to be described below, finds its pictorial explanation in the descent of the goddess. Musical strains such as those of the lyre or the conch-shell or the sistrum of Egyptian cult were a means of invocation.

 

251.        These highly interesting terra-cotta models illustrating the religious structures and ideas of the M.M. II Period are supplemented by an object - the scale of which answers to the same series as the group of columns - in the form of a portable seat (Plate II, 3, following p. 50). Within it are some remains of the lower part and attachments of a figure. It is evident that we have here a palanquin either for a divinity or for his earthly representative, the Priest-King, recalling the sedia-gestatoria still used by the Papa-Re at Rome.* (*Op. cit., pp. 222, 223, 224.)

 

252.        In its general arrangements the ritual chamber of the palace of Phaestos was similar to the Masonic temple in the palace of Minos, but it contained no throne - an omission which is explained by the port­able seat found in the shrine. Evidently in some cases the initiator in the Mysteries was carried in procession and retained the seat in which he had been borne.

 

253.        MODELS OF SHRINES

 

254.        The accompanying figures (Plate III, 1; Plate IV, 1, 2, 3, following p. 50) show models of fresco paintings of Minoan shrines. In Plate III, 1, a gold plaque from Mycenae, we see again the three columns surmounted by the horns of consecration which, like the double axe, denote the sacred character of the object, and the ritual significance is further emphasized by the doves perched on the ends of the sacred horns. In looking at these illustrations of Minoan sanctuaries we must remember that the side walls of the chamber are flattened out in the picture and not drawn in perspective, so that we must in imagination fold the two side panels of the picture of the shrine forward so as to form three walls of a shrine room. Underneath the pillars in the dif­ferent illustrations the floors are paved, as shown in Plate IV, 2 and 3 (following p. 50), in black and white squares similar to the mosaic pavement of the Masonic Lodge.

255.        In the Minoan sanctuaries we have so far seen the seat of the Hierophant or Master on one side, the benches for the brethren round the walls, three sacred columns as the principal furniture of the temple and a mosaic pavement of alternating dark and light squares in the centre. In addition, in some of the model shrines we find on one side of the room two pillars side by side; this arrangement was also discovered with the two pillars standing in the excavation of the crypt in the Palace of Minos (see Plate V, 1, following p. 50). Of these crypts Sir Arthur Evans says:

 

256.        There is clear evidence, as shown below, that such pillared crypts fulfilled a religious function and stood in relation to a columnar shrine above. There can be little doubt that we have here the remains of an important sanctuary facing the inner sea gate of the Palace.* (*Op. cit., p. 404.)

 

257.        THE ALTAR OBJECTS

 

258.        Still further evidence of the Masonic character of the Minoan rites is shown by the remarkable objects found in the temple repositories in which were kept the different altar-objects connected with the ritual worship in the chamber of initiation. Sir Arthur Evans has rearranged these objects on the altar ledge for which they were no doubt intended, and we show a reproduction of his arrangement in Plate V, 2 (following p. 50). Perhaps the most arresting feature is the marble cross in the centre of the altar. The cross with equal arms, or Greek cross, as well as the Latin cross and the swastika, are found repeatedly in connection with the Minoan cult, and since in all ages the cross has symbolized either the mystery of creation and the descent of the divine life into manifestation, or else the mystic death and resurrection of the soul, we have here striking evidence that these conceptions were also at the base of the Cretan Mysteries.

259.        On either side of the cross on the altar ledge the figures wear aprons, which were clearly of a ritual character, for they are not to be met with in ordinary Cretan dress (see Plate V, 3, following p. 50). The apron was evidently double, extending both in front and at the back, and differed in details in the case of the goddess and her priestess. It is possible, and in some respects even probable, that both female figures found on the altar are worshippers of the cross and the triple snake, in which case the different character of the two aprons may well denote a difference in the rank or degree of the wearers. Evans expresses his opinion that the double aprons are of a ritual character.* (*Op. cit., p. 503.)

 

260.        VARIOUS SYMBOLS

 

261.        There were also some lesser religious symbols and objects which are of such decidedly Masonic character that they are worth mention­ing. In Plate VI, 1 (following p. 50), we see a relic of bone found in the temple repository which, as Evans says “is in the shape alter­nately of flowers and buds, suggested by those of a pomegranate”. Further symbols familiar to Freemasons are the frequently recurring sun and moon, shown in our illustration (Plate VI, 2 and 3, following p. 50) on a bronze votive tablet from the Psychro cave, and a gold ring from Mycenae. With regard to the former Evans says:

 

262.        The tree, dove and fish, which here appear as the vehicles of divine posses­sion, aptly symbolize her dominion of earth, air and sea. The triple group of sacral horns further emphasize the threefold aspect of the cult, which also explains the triple basin of the Libation Table. So, too, we see the pillar shrines of the goddess, like that of the Knossian wall-painting, regularly divided into three compartments.

 

263.        Both the votive tablet and the ring are full of religious meaning and Masonic symbolism, and well repay close study. They incidentally show how far the Minoan worship spread from Crete to the mainland. Similarly the introduction of the Masonic square as a decorative pattern on a vase found in Aphidna on the mainland of Greece is of interest as showing that with the spread of Minoan culture to the Mycenaean settlements the symbols of the Minoan mystery religion too were car­ried abroad. (See Plate VII, 1, following p. 50.)

 

264.        THE STATUETTES

 

265.        But these evidences of Masonic symbolism, decisive as they are, are surpassed by the testimony presented by a number of statuettes and votive figures found in Crete or in the outposts of Minoan civiliza­tion, which are represented in such indubitably Masonic attitudes (some of which now belong to the higher degrees) that even the most sceptical student must acknowledge that no chance can explain this similarity. (See Plates VII and VIII following p. 50.) It would not be in accordance with Masonic secrecy to mention the degrees to which the different attitudes belong, but all Masons will readily recognize them. Ridiculous as these statuettes are, if they were the only evidence found in Crete they would be sufficient to indicate the existence of Mysteries of a Masonic Character in that ancient civilization. But where that evidence is supported by the various proofs discussed above no doubt can remain that four thousand years ago and more there existed in Crete Mysteries in which Masonic signs and symbols were used, which admitted both men and women, and performed their rites  in temples very similar to those of modern Freemasonry.

 

 

2      The Jewish Mysteries

 

266.        THE JEWISH LINE OF DESCENT

 

267.        ALTHOUGH our modern Freemasonic rites and symbols are derived from Egypt, as has been shown in The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, they have reached us for the most part through the Jews. The tradition which has most influenced our modern Masonry is that of the Jewish Mysteries, so the greater part of our ceremonies and s … s are now cast in a Jewish form.

268.        In The Hidden Life in Freemasonry it has been explained that many of the traditions preserved in the Old Testament have a basis in fact, although the actual events of Jewish history were magnified and distorted through the lens of an almost fanatical patriotism by the later compilers of the records. The Jewish scriptures as we have them to­day were almost entirely rewritten after the return from the captivity; and the priestly writers who did this work transfigured in a glow of enthusiastic romance the poetic traditions of their nation.

 

269.        THE JEWISH MIGRATIONS

 

270.        The Jewish race is an offshoot of that Semitic people who formed the fifth sub-race of the Atlantean root-race. Some four thousand years before the great cataclysm of 75,025 B.C., which overwhelmed the first Atlantean empire of Egypt, the Manu had led His especial followers into the uplands of Arabia in order that they might be separated from the bulk of the Atlanteans, and that a new type might be evolved from them which would later be developed into the Aryan root-race. Strict injunctions were given by the Manu that there was to be no intermar­riage with neighbouring races, so that the purity of the new stock might be maintained; and the idea of these men that they were a “chosen people” was fostered to that end. Shortly before the cataclysm some seven hundred of the best and most promising of these people were led into Central Asia by the Manu, and they grew there after many thousands of years into a great nation, the nucleus of the Aryan race that was later to rule the world.

271.        About 40,000 B.C. the Manu led out the second sub-race of the new root-race to colonize Arabia once more, since the Semites who had been left behind were the closest of the Atlantean peoples to the new stock. Arabia became a great Aryan kingdom, excepting only a certain section of those inhabiting the southern part of the peninsula, who declined to recognize the Manu or to intermarry with His people, quoting His own regulation against Him in defence of their refusal. Later this tract of country was conquered by the Aryans, and a fanatical section of its inhabitants forsook their homes, and settled on the oppo­site coast of the Red Sea in what we now call Somaliland. Here they lived for several centuries, but in consequence of an attempt on the part of the majority to intermarry with the negroes of the interior, a fairly large minority of them withdrew from the community, and, after many wanderings, found themselves in Egyptian territory. The Pharaoh of the period, interested in their story, offered them an outlying district of his kingdom if they chose to settle there. Eventually some Pharaoh made a demand upon them for additional taxation and forced work which they considered an infringement of their privileges; and they once more undertook a wholesale migration under the leadership of him whom we now call Moses, and after further wanderings settled in Palestine, where they were known as the Jews, still strongly maintaining that they were a chosen people.* (*See Man: Whence, How and Whither, Ch. xiv and xvi, passim.)

272.        During their sojourn in Egypt certain of them had been initiated into some of the degrees of the Egyptian Mysteries. Moses, as was said much later, “was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians”,* (*Acts, vii, 22.) and he seems to have been the real founder of the Jewish Mysteries, much as tradition suggests, introducing into them the succession of I.M.s which he had received from the Egyptian priests. Our investiga­tions have not confirmed the events related in the early chapters of the book of Exodus with regard to the ten plagues and the smiting of the Egyptians; the Jews departed without much opposition, and after many years of wandering in the wilderness conquered various tribes and took possession of Palestine. Indeed their migration seems to have been inspired to some extent by the Manu. During their wanderings they used a tent for the celebration of their Mysteries, preserved in Hebrew tradition as the tabernacle; in this they worked in essence the Egyptian rituals, though the whole celebration was under such condi­tions on a much smaller and less splendid scale. These are the facts lying behind the Masonic tradition of the First or Holy Lodge.

 

273.        THE PROPHETS

 

274.        It appears that Moses was also acquainted with the great ritual of Amen as worked in the Mysteries of Egypt, and some portion at least of this tradition was transmitted to his successors. There arose in later times a school in connection with the Mysteries, the members of which had the idea of personifying the children of Israel as one Being who might shed blessing over all nations; and they attempted to arouse among them the sense of unity necessary for this purpose partly by means of ritual. There were also the schools of the prophets, who were trained in the Mysteries and studied the deeper teaching enshrined in the ancient rites. One such school is mentioned in the Old Testa­ment as existing at Naioth under the direction of the prophet Samuel,* (*Sam., xix, 20.) and there were others later at Bethel and Jericho.* (*II Kings, ii, 2, 5.)

275.        These schools were not so much concerned with prophecy in our modern sense of foretelling the future, as with endeavouring to instruct the people by preaching; they seem to have resembled in many ways the preaching friars sent out by the Roman Church during the middle ages, the Franciscans and other Orders. These preachers were chosen from among the Levites, and were sent forth to proclaim the deeper teaching in a popular form. It is probable that many of the greater Jewish prophets belonged to a later development of these schools­ - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others - but they were always somewhat pessimistic in their outlook, even though several of them unquestion­ably touched high levels of consciousness in their visions. Their method was apparently to throw themselves into a state of tremendous exalta­tion, and then to look up into a higher plane through a kind of shaft which they had opened. It was in this way that Ezekiel saw the vision of the four Kings of the elements. These Great Ones can be seen clearly only with the sight of the spiritual or nirvanic plane; it does not appear that Ezekiel had touched that exalted level directly, but he became aware of it in his ecstasy as though looking up to it from below.

 

276.        THE BUILDERS OF K. S. T.

 

277.        Something both of the inner powers and of the Egyptian rituals had been faithfully handed down from generation to generation from the days of Moses until King Solomon came to the throne of his father David. There is some truth in the tradition preserved in the Bible, although there are exaggerations and mistakes in the accounts which have come down to us, and much of the inner meaning of the symbols had been forgotten. King Solomon seems to have been a man of con­siderable force of character and some occult knowledge, and the great ambition of his life was to weld his people into a strong and respected kingdom, able to take an influential place among the nations around. To that end he built the temple in Jerusalem to be the centre of the religious worship of his people and a symbol of their national unity; it was perhaps not quite so magnificent as tradition relates, but the King was nevertheless extremely proud of it and considered it to be one of the great achievements of the age.

278.        In this work he was assisted by his ally, Hiram King of Tyre, who supplied a quantity of material for the building, and lent many clever craftsmen to aid in the work; for the Phoenicians were more skilled in building than the Jews, who were chiefly a pastoral people. Also about fifty years before some of the wandering bands of Masons who called themselves the Dionysian Artificers had settled in Phoenicia, so King Hiram was able to supply many expert workmen. This alliance is a matter of secular history, for Josephus tells us that even in his day copies of the letters which passed between the two Kings existed in the Tyrian archives and might be consulted by students.* (*Josephus. Ant., viii.) Hiram Abiff was also a real personage, though he did not meet his death in the manner recorded in Masonic tradition. He was a decorator rather than the actual Architect of the Temple, as the biblical records clearly tell us. “He was filled with wisdom and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass.”* (*I Kings, vii, 14.) He was “skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him”.* (*II Chron., ii, 14.)

279.        Josephus confirms the tradition that he was an artist and a craftsman rather than an architect: “This man was skilful in all sorts of work, but his chief skill lay in working in gold and silver and brass, and he did all the curious work about the temple as the King wished.”* (*Josephus, Ant., viii.) He was the son of a widow of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass before him. Since so much responsibility rested in his hands, and he was so skilful an artist, he appears to have been in the close confidence of King Solomon, and a member of his council. He was evidently treated as an equal by the two Kings, and that is one of the reasons which influenced Bro. Ward to translate Hiram Abiff as “Hiram his father”, and to represent the King of Tyre as sending his abdicated father to superintend the decoration of the temple. 

 

280.        THE RECASTING OF THE RITUALS

 

281.        But King Solomon’s plans for the consolidation of his people were not yet complete; by the building of his temple he had formed an outer centre of national worship, and he now desired that the Mysteries, the heart of his people's religion and the centre of their spiritual consciousness, should also be purely Jewish in their form. The ceremonial handed down from the days of Moses was still Egyptian, and the initiates of the mysteries were yet symbolically engaged in building the great pyramid, the House of Light, and in celebrating the death and resurrection of Osiris. Even though it had no corresponding halls of initiation, King Solomon desired that for the future his temple should take the place of the House of Light, and become the spiritual centre of the Jewish Mysteries. King Hiram of Tyre warmly supported this idea; he himself had inherited initiatory rites which had been derived from the Mysteries of Chaldaea, a very ancient line of tradition running parallel with the Mysteries of Egypt from Atlantean days, and having its own chief halls of initiation in Babylon. He, too, felt that a centre nearer home and in friendly hands was eminently desirable, and he therefore co-operated in the plan of Judaizing the ancient rites and focusing them upon the temple in Jerusalem.

282.        At first, it appears, the two Kings sent an embassy to Egypt to consult the Pharaoh in the matter, telling him of the temple which they had built, and asking for some recognition of the Jewish branch of the Mysteries. The Pharaoh did not accept their proposals with any degree of enthusiasm, but rather implied that no foreigner could possibly understand the Mysteries of Egypt. The Egyptians of the period seem to have regarded their Jewish brethren with something of the same feeling that the Grand Lodge of England might have towards the Grand Orient of Hayti if it should propose alterations in the ritual, and their interest in the new venture was decidedly cold. We find no confirma­tion of the story of the marriage of King Solomon to Pharaoh’s daughter, as is related in the Bible; indeed, this union is now generally rejected by the critics as impossible, for according to the Tell el-Amarna tablets, an Egyptian princess might not marry a foreigner.* (*Peake’s Commentary on the Bible, p. 296.)

 

283.        THE MINGLING OF TRADITIONS

 

284.        On the return of their embassy from Egypt King Solomon and King Hiram called together the council at Jerusalem, and it was decided that they should proceed immediately with the work of recasting the rituals into the Jewish form. It is an interesting fact that three distinct lines of tradition were represented in the persons of the three chief members of the council, and of each of these we can find traces in our modern workings. King Solomon himself had inherited the Egyptian line of succession derived from Moses; King Hiram of Tyre preserved the Chaldaean descent; while Hiram Abiff brought with him another line of tradition, not derived from either of these sources.

285.        This last line was strange and terrible - a line probably perpetuated through savage and primitive tribes who had bloodthirsty customs of mutilation and human sacrifice. I think it must be to this line that Bro. Ward refers in his remarkable work Who was Hiram Abiff? in which he adduces a vast amount of evidence to show that our traditional history is based upon the myth of the death and resurrection of Tammuz, and is in reality an account of the ritual murder of one of the Priest-Kings of that religion. He points out that most primitive races enact a drama in which some one, usually a priest or king, represents a god who is slain and comes to life again; that in earlier times at any rate such a representative was really killed and offered up as a sacrifice to ensure fertility; that we first hear of this myth of Tammuz in connection with Babylon, and that the tribes in the neighbourhood of Judaea were all addicted to the worship of that deity. In fact, among the Jews themselves we find the prophets blaming the Hebrew ladies for taking part in the ritual mourning for him.* (*Ezekiel, viii, 14.)

286.        Solomon himself was by no means definitely monotheistic, and his people betrayed a distinct tendency to run after strange gods. There seems much evidence to prove that the love-song attributed to him in the Bible is really a ritual hymn to Astarte, for whom he built a temple quite near to that of Jehovah. There is considerable uncertainty as to whether Balkis, Queen of Sheba, was a real person, or only a personification of Astarte. Bro. Ward explains that the festivals of the two patron saints of Freemasonry, S. John the Baptist in summer and S. John the Evangelist in winter, are only a perpetuation of the feasts of the old fertility cult at the summer and winter solstices; that similar cultural rites are found in other lands, Teutonic, Celtic and Greek, that they also survived among the Essenes, and that the Knights Templars brought back from Syria a story very similar to that of the 3°. The tale of Jonah, he remarks, has always been understood as a myth of death and resurrection, and he also was sacrificed to appease a deity, and obtain salvation for others, just as was the Priest-King of old. He quotes many instances of foundation and consecration sacrifices; and, holding as he does that Hiram Abiff was the father of that other Hiram who was King of Tyre, he writes:

 

287.        The Phoenician and Jewish followers of the old Tammuz cult no doubt felt that the Great Goddess had been cheated of her just dues when Hiram Abiff was not slain, according to ancient custom, on the accession of his son, and were confident that if he were not sacrificed when the temple was completed, its future and stability would be endangered. … So I consider that the Phoenician workmen, with or without the consent of Solomon, killed the old King of Tyre, Abibaal or Hiram Abiff, as a Consecration Sacrifice.* (*Who was Hiram Abiff? by J.S.M. Ward, p. 191.)

 

288.        While we can hardly accept the suggestion that the ancestry of our modern rite is wholly Syrian, we cannot doubt that the influence of the third line of tradition especially contributed by Hiram Abiff was very considerable. We note also that it seems to have been especially concerned with the working of metals.

289.        All that is found in our modern rituals about Lamech and his sons, about Jubal, the founder of the art of music, and Tubal Cain, the first artificer in metals, appears to belong to the line of tradition which Hiram Abiff introduced.

290.        This council was the originator of the greater part of our modern Masonic working; the main outline of the Egyptian ritual was carefully preserved (although King Solomon on more than one occasion referred to his brother of Tyre on points of detail) together with the s … s, and although the w … s were given in Hebrew, for the most part their mean­ing remained the same. King Solomon himself seems to have been largely responsible for our ceremony of raising; he it was who, at the instance of Hiram Abiff, changed the legend of Osiris into that of the master builder who attempted to escape by the S., N., and E. g … s and was s … n because he would not divulge the s … s of a M.M. The name of the original master builder was not of course given as now, for he himself assisted in the construction of the legend; neither was there any fatality connected with the actual building of the holy temple. The insertion of the present name was the work of Rehoboam, when he succeeded to the throne of Solomon his father, as I have said in The Hidden Life in Freemasonry; so the story came to be applied to the person of Hiram, the widow’s son.

291.        A very curious tradition still exists in the 3° of the rite of Mizraim. In that rite the central figure of the legend is not H.A., who is said to have returned to his family after the completion of the temple; but the story is carried back to the days of Lamech, whose son Jubal, under the name of Harrio-Jubal-Abi, is reported to have been slain by three traitors, Hagava, Hakina, and Heremda. (Mackey’s Encyclopaedia, art. Mizraim.) The rite of Mizraim, as we shall see later, is extremely old, and may well have incorporated another tradition than that handed down in Europe; for it appears to have been introduced from the East towards the end of the eighteenth century. It may be that we have here another echo of that line of tradition which Hiram Abiff represented on the council of King Solomon.

292.        Such was the important work undertaken by the second or Sacred Lodge. The succession of I.M.s was handed down into the new dispen­sation, and thenceforward Masters of Lodges deriving their succes­sion from the Mysteries of the Hebrews have always sat in the Chair of King Solomon, while the two Wardens occupy those of Hiram King of Tyre and Hiram Abiff. Thus there is a very real truth behind our Masonic tradition.

293.        The original traditional history as adapted by King Solomon con­tained much more of the legend of Osiris, and was altogether more coherent and reasonable than it is to-day; for there was a resurrection of the master-builder as well as a death, and the search of Isis for the body of Osiris was reflected in the search of certain craftsmen for the body of the Master. But this was rather in the nature of a verbal charge than apiece of ritual working, and it was therefore more likely to become distorted in the course of ages. This is exactly what took place. The ceremonies were handed down from age to age with very few changes, but they were at several epochs clothed in a new set of words, which reflected the spirit of the times; while the legend associated with the ritual of the 3° became sadly marred in its passage throughout the centuries, until in its present form it is a mere shadow of the glorious teaching of the Mysteries of Egypt from which it was derived.

 

294.        THE TRANSMISSION OF THE NEW RITES

 

295.        The Mysteries were transmitted from generation to generation for the next three hundred and fifty years, during the survival of the kingdom of Judah. In 586 B.C. the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and the people were led captive into Babylon. During the captivity the Mysteries were interrupted, and it does not seem probable that they were seriously worked during the fifty years of exile. Nevertheless, the succession of I.M.s remained unbroken, and when the people returned from Babylon to rebuild the temple, they also tried to reconstruct their rites of initiation.

296.        Herein we find the facts underlying the tradition of the third or Grand and Royal Lodge; for Zerubbabel, the prince of Judah, and Jeshua, the high priest, were largely instrumental in this work of restoration and renewal. The same difficulty recurred again, for it was never allowed to write down the rituals; once more it was necessary to rely upon memory for the major part of the tradition, and only a very few could have recollected the actual workings in the days before the cap­tivity. Nevertheless they succeeded in reconstructing the rites with tolerable accuracy, although once more the traditional history suffered distortion through being imperfectly remembered. Such is the story of that line of succession which eventually found its way into the Roman Collegia, in the first place by direct descent from the teaching of King Numa, then by the migration of the rites of Attis and Cybele to Rome about 200 B.C., and again through the medium of the returning soldiers of the armies of Vespasian and Titus. From these Collegia it has been handed down with singularly little change in essentials to our modern Lodges.

297.        Besides the three Craft degrees which formed the main structure of the Jewish Mysteries, there were also other Masonic traditions handed down from Egypt. That which is now the Holy Royal Arch had its place in the working, while the ideas contained in what we now call the Mark degree were associated with the 2° as the Arch was with the 3°. Although in English working the period of the Arch is represented to be that of Zerubbabel and the Second Temple, the Irish Chapters refer the whole legend to the days of King Josiah, while the Royal Arch of Enoch, which differs considerably in detail, though the symbology has the same significance and purpose, is described as belonging to the time of King Solomon himself. The absence of a fixed period is noteworthy as indicating that the historical setting is only of secondary importance, and that the main purpose of the degree is to convey symbolical instruction.

 

298.        THE ESSENES AND THE CHRIST

 

299.        The tradition of the Mysteries was transmitted from century to century, until we find it among the Essenes, who also appear to have inherited Chaldaean rites. It was in this school that the disciple Jesus lived in preparation for His ministry, after receiving a high initiation into the true Mysteries of Egypt. The Essenes had among other Chaldaean rites inherited what was afterwards known as the Mithraic eucharist, the ceremony of bread and wine and salt, which, as we shall see later, was transmitted through the ages until it was incorporated in the modern degree of the Rose-Croix of Heredom. The consecration of those elements was and is wonderful, though there is not so full a descent of the Divine Presence as in the corresponding ritual of Amen used in ancient Egypt. It seems probable, however, that the  Lord Christ took the Mithraic supper as the basis of His holy eucharist, and while preserving the ancient symbolism of the elements changed them into His own special vehicle, symbolized as His Body and Blood - the very closest and most intimate of all the sacraments known to man.

300.        The Mithraic eucharist brought the worshipper into close touch with the divine Life; the mystic supper of the Rose-Croix lifts the Sovereign Prince into a wonderful union with Christ, the Lord of love; in the ritual of Amen the Brn. bowed to each who had partaken of the sacra­ment saying, “Thou art Osiris.” The holy eucharist of the Christian Church is the last and most wonderful of all, for in it we receive Him, the Lord of Love, and the sacred Host is just as fully and perfectly His vehicle as was the body of Jesus in Palestine two thousand years ago. It seems probable that He took the existing sacrament which was regularly celebrated in the Essene community, and transfigured it into another and holier eucharist, which has become the glory of His Church from generation to generation.

 

301.        KABBALISM

 

302.        With the tremendous impetus given by the coming of the Lord the mysteries received a greater inspiration than had been theirs since the days of Moses. Part of the mystic teaching belonging to them later passed into writing, and in the Kabbala we find fragments of the symbolic knowledge which was once the exclusive property of the initiates. So close are the analogies between certain of the doctrines of the Kabbala and those of the earlier degrees of Masonry that it has been supposed that Kabbalistic students were responsible for the introduc­tion of speculative Masonry into our modern Craft. The student of occultism does not hold this view, for he knows that our speculative rituals belong in substance to a far older past than the eighteenth century, and that they perpetuate the tradition of the Jews, who derived it from the Mysteries of Egypt. He sees in the literature of the Kabbala a written and exoteric portion of certain teachings belonging to the Jews, though handed down along an independent line, which may nevertheless have crossed that of our own Craft and influenced it to some extent in later days. There is much in the Kabbala which throws light upon our ceremonies and symbols, and a study of Kabbalistic Theosophy may be of both profit and interest to the Mason.

303.        The briefest summary is all that we can attempt here.* (*See The Secret Tradition in Israel, The Secret Tradition in Freemasonry, A New Encyclopaedia, all by Bro. A. E. Waite.) The literature of the Kabbala represents a growth of many centuries under the influ­ence of many types of thought - Jewish, Gnostic, Neo-Platonic, Greek, Arabic and even Persian - and it has never been fully translated into any European language. It consists of certain great texts written in Hebrew and Aramaic, and a mass of commentaries upon them com­piled by Jews of many lands and many ages. The most important texts are the Sepher Yetzirah, which explains the mystic meanings underlying the Hebrew alphabet, and erects a vast system of mystical and occult speculation upon the combinations and permutations of the various letters; and the Sepher ha Zohar, or Book of Splendour, which is a medley of history and legend, of fable and of fact, of mysticism and fantastic speculation which, like all such literature, contains priceless gems of occult wisdom hidden in a mass of rubbish. Both these texts claim to date from the second century A.D., but in reality they were not written down until a later period, the former being completed about the tenth century, and the latter before the thirteenth. They became known to the educated people of Europe about the time when speculative Masonry was beginning to emerge into the light of day (that is during the seventeenth century) through various Latin works, the chief of which are Baron Knorr von Rosenroth’s Kabbala Denudata, the OEdipus AEgyptiacus of Athanasius Kircher, the De Arte Cabalistica of Reuchlin and a Latin translation of the Yetzirah. As Bro. A. E. Waite, our chief authority in this field, has pointed out:

 

304.        The written Jewish tradition presupposes throughout a tradition which did not pass into writing. The Zohar, for example, which is its chief memorial, refers everywhere to a great body of doctrine as something perfectly well-known by the circle of initiation for which the work was alone intended.* (*Secret Tradition in Freemasonry, I, 64.)

 

305.        The skeleton of this body of doctrine has reached us in the sym­bolism of Masonry, although along so different a line; and in the Kabbala we may find a clue to much that is obscure in our modern rituals.

 

306.        THE SPIRITUALIZATION OF THE TEMPLE

 

307.        Two mystical concepts found in the Zohar relate directly to our subject - the spiritualization of the temple of King Solomon, and the doctrine of the lost word, both of which have their roots in the Egyptian Mysteries, as we have already seen. King Solomon’s temple formed the physical basis for a vast structure of mystical speculation and inquiry; for its measurements and proportions were held to have a rela­tion to those of the universe, and all the sacred objects which it con­tained had their macrocosmic and microcosmic interpretations. The Shekinah or divine glory which irradiated the innermost sanctuary, the Holy of Holies, was interpreted not only as the divine Presence which hallowed the visible temple, but as God immanent in His universe and indwelling in the heart of man.

308.        Furthermore, the idea of the Jews that some day the temple should be rebuilt is itself spiritualized and transformed, and it was taken as an allegory of the attainment of divine perfection both in man and the universe. The Jews, whose rich Oriental minds delighted in  exuberant and complex allegory, conceived a veritable city of temples, of which King Solomon’s was but the symbol - temples and palaces each relating to a different aspect or plane of nature and forming an intricate system of reflections and correspondences. The prototype of all this wealth of symbolism is found in the Mysteries of Egypt, wherein the measurements of the great pyramid were studied as emblematical of the proportions of the universe, and contained vast stores of occult and astronomical lore. The Jews applied what they knew of the Egyptian system to the temple of King Solomon, reflecting the wisdom of Egypt through the lens of their own fiery and poetical tempera­ment, whence some portion of it gradually passed on the one hand into written and exoteric literature, and on the other was handed down in the secret Lodges of Masonry.

 

309.        THE LOSS OF THE DIVINE NAME

 

310.        The second great doctrine of Kabbalism which concerns us here is the loss of the divine Name, or rather of the correct method of pro­nouncing that Name. The Jews thought of this Name as a word of four letters, J.H.V.H., which we generally read as Jehovah. The tradi­tion relates that the Omnific Word which, being the Name of God, commanded all the creative forces of Nature, was pronounced by the high priest once a year on the day of atonement, but that after the exile the true pronunciation was lost. The consonants remained, but the vowel points essential to correct articulation had been forgotten. (The present Masoretic system of vowel points was introduced only in the tenth century A.D.) This was woven into a beautiful allegory of the descent into matter and of the fall of man; for immersed in matter as we are at our present stage of evolution, we cannot utter the word or know the divine Nature in its fullness, but can perceive only the outer shell of things, represented by the remaining consonants. And even this we do not understand, and therefore for even that much of the Divine Name a substituted secret is necessary. And so in the tradi­tion whenever the word Yahweh occurred in the reading of the Law, the name Adonai (meaning “my Lord”) was substituted for it. (The modern word Jehovah is made by using the consonants JHVH, and intercalating the vowels from the word Adonai.) The tradition looks forward to a future when time or circumstances shall have restored the genuine method of pronunciation, and man will return to the God from whom he came forth, able to utter the word in all its mighty power, to command the forces latent in his own divinity.

311.        All this was interwoven with the doctrine of the Logos, the Word of God, expounded so admirably by Philo, and known to all Christians from the opening words of the Gospel of S. John; for the whole tradi­tion of the divine Word is derived from the Mysteries of Egypt. The true Tetragrammaton was not the Name of God in Hebrew, but another and far more ancient word, which has ever been known to initiates of high degree. A Christian development of this symbolism forms the device of a jewel worn by a certain high official in the Scottish Rite.  Under the old covenant the word was lost, and even when restored through the discovery of a certain secret vault, its true pronunciation was unknown; the end of the quest was not yet reached, though it was in sight. The new covenant added in the centre yet one letter more,  the mystic Shin, emblematical of fire and of the Spirit; and so the Word Jehovah became Jeheshua, the Name of the Christ. Which things are an allegory, for it is only by the finding of the Christ in the heart that the lost word can be rediscovered, and that very finding brings the knowledge of the true Tetragrammaton - that secret of man’s eternal being, which from the beginning has been written upon the cross of sacrifice and always kept hidden in the heart of the world among the secret things of God.

312.        Such is a brief outline of those Jewish Mysteries, the tradition of which was carried to Rome, and thence passed down through the Col­legia into the mediaeval guilds, finally emerging in the eighteenth cen­tury in the speculative rituals of the Craft degrees, in the Holy Royal Arch and the degree of Mark Master Mason, and in those other emblems and ceremonies which have been incorporated into certain of the subsidiary grades belonging in their symbolic time to the old covenant. The Jewish Mysteries are the source of our present tradi­tion, for the three Craft degrees are, and always have been, the basis of the whole system of Masonic initiation, since they enshrine the relics of the Lesser and Greater Mysteries of Egypt, which alone can be termed degrees in their original form. But before we pass on to our next link in the Masonic chain of descent - that of Rome and its Colleges - it may be well to touch upon certain of the other great Mystery-systems which were famous in the ancient world.

 

 

2      The Greek Mysteries

 

313.        THE ELEUSINIAN MYSTERIES

 

314.        WE come now to the Mysteries of Greece, of which the best-known and most important in classical times were the Eleusinian. There seems to be a widely-spread delusion, the origin of which we can trace to the writings of the Christian Fathers, that the Mysteries of antiquity were kept secret because they contained much that was improper, and that would not bear the light of day. That is not so in the least, and I am in a position to bear direct testimony, having been myself an initiate of the Mysteries, that there was nothing whatever in them of an objectionable character. The teachings were all of the highest and purest nature, and they could not but benefit very greatly all who had the privilege of being initiated into them. In classical and post-classical times many of the greatest men have borne witness to their worth.  A few quotations - samples of many - will be sufficient to show this. Sophocles, the great tragic poet, says of them:

 

315.        Thrice-happy are those mortals who after the contemplation of the Mysteries go down into the realms of Hades; for there they alone will possess true life: for the rest there is naught but suffering.* (*Sophocles fr. 348, quoted Foucart: Les Mysteres d’Eleusis, p. 362.)

 

316.        Plato says through the mouth of Socrates in that wonderful death-scene in the Phaedo:

 

317.        I fancy that those men who established the Mysteries were not unenlightened, but in reality had a hidden meaning when they said long ago, that whoever goes uninitiated and unsanctified to the other world will lie in the mire, but he who arrives there initiated and purified will dwell with the Gods.* (*Plato. Phaedo. Loeb. Edition, p. 241.)

 

318.        Cicero was initiated into them and held them in the highest reverence,* (*Cic. De. Leg., II, 14.) while Proclus tells us in the last days of the pagan faith:

 

319.        The most holy Rites of Eleusis vouchsafe to the Initiates enjoyment of the good offices of Kore when they shall be delivered from their bodies.* (*Proclus. Comment. in Plat. rem pub. quoted Foucart, loc. cit., p. 364.)

 

320.        It is true that in the time of the decadence of Rome there were degenerate ceremonies connected with the Mysteries of Bacchus, which involved orgies of a very unpleasant character, but they were in no way connected with the original Eleusinian Mysteries, which by that time had faded almost entirely into the background.

321.        The modern world knows little of the truth about the Greek Mysteries, for their activities and doctrines were really kept secret. Apart from the strong pressure of public opinion, which treated the slightest violation of secrecy as an act of terrible impiety, we hear of the death-penalty being inflicted in a case of the accidental intrusion of two non-initiates into the sacred enclosure at Eleusis during the celebration of the Mysteries.* (*Livy, xxxi, 14.) Very little, therefore of direct fact has reached us from pagan sources; the greater part of our information  comes from the Christian writers, Hippolytus, Clement of Alexan­dria, Origen, Arnobius and others, who were engaged upon destroy­ing as much as possible of the pagan religion, and therefore always spoke of the Mysteries in the worst possible light. Something is known of a few of the exterior tests that were applied to candidates, and of the teaching that was given through the various myths. When people outside pressed for information, and would not be put off, the officials permitted so much to be revealed.

 

322.        THE ORIGIN OF THE GREEK MYSTERIES

 

323.        The original founder of the Greek Mysteries was Orpheus, who was an incarnation of the same great World Teacher who had come to Egypt in 40,000 B.C. as Thoth or Hermes, to preach the doctrine of the Hidden Light. But now the method of His message was different; for it was spoken to a different race.

 

324.        About 7000 B.C, He came, living chiefly in the forests, where He gathered His disciples around Him. There was no king to bid him welcome, no gorgeous court to acclaim Him. He came as a singer, wandering through the land, loving the life of Nature, her sunlit spaces and her shadowed forest retreats, averse to cities and to the crowded haunts of men. A band of disciples grew around Him, and He taught them in the glades of woodland, silent save for the singing of the birds and the sweet sounds of forest life, that seemed not to break the stillness.

 

325.        He taught by song, by music, music of voice and instrument, carrying a five-stringed musical instrument, probably the origin of Apollo’s lyre, and He used a pentatonic scale. To this He sang, and wondrous was His music, the Angels drawing nigh to listen to the subtle tones; by sound He worked upon the astral and mental bodies of His disciples, purifying and expanding them; by sound He drew the subtle bodies away from the physical, and set them free in the higher worlds. His music was quite different from the sequences, repeated over and over again, by which the same result was brought about in the Root­stock of the Race, which it carried with it into India. Here He worked by melody, not by repetition of similar sounds; and the rousing of each etheric centre had its own melody, stirring it into activity. He showed His disciples living pictures, created by music, and in the Greek Mysteries this was wrought in the same way, the tradition coming down from Him. And He taught that Sound was in all things, and that if man would harmonize himself, then would the Divine Harmony manifest through him, and make all Nature glad. Thus He went through Hellas singing, and choosing here and there one who would  follow Him, and singing also for the people in other ways, weaving over Greece a network of music, which should make her children beautiful and feed the artistic genius of her land.* (*Man: Whence, How and Whither, p. 316 ff.)

 

326.        This wonderful tradition of the Mysteries of Orpheus was handed down for thousands of years until in classical times we find, on the one hand the Orphic Schools, of which that of Pythagoras was a splendid offshoot, and on the other the greatest of all the Greek Mysteries, those of Eleusis, which preserved much of the ancient teaching in a ceremonial form. A relic of the tradition of Orpheus is found in the fact that the hierophant of the Eleusinian Mysteries was always chosen from the sacred family of the Eumolpidae, the descendants of the fabled Eumolpus, whose name meant the sweet singer; and one of the most important qualifications for the office was the possession of a beautiful and resonant voice, with which the sacred chants might be correctly intoned.* (*Les Mysteres d’Eleusis. Paul Foucart. Paris, 1914, p. 170.)

 

327.        THE GODS OF GREECE

 

328.        The Greek idea of worship was very different from our modern con­ceptions. It must not be supposed that any of the educated Greeks believed in the mythology of their religion as literal fact. Men sometimes wonder how it was possible for great nations like Rome or Greece to remain satisfied with what we commonly call their religion - a chaos of unseemly myths, many of them not even decent, describing gods and goddesses who were distinctly human in their actions and passions, and were constantly quarrelling amongst themselves. The truth is that nobody was satisfied with it, and it never was at all what we mean by a religion, though it was no doubt taken literally by some ignorant people. All cultured and thinking men took up the study of one or other of the systems of philosophy, and in many cases they were also initiates of the school of the Mysteries; it was this higher teaching that really moulded their lives, and took for them the place of what we call religion - unless, indeed, they were frankly agnostic, as are so many cultured men now. Some of these weird myths, however, were explained in the Mysteries and were seen to enshrine a hidden teaching relating to the life of the soul.

329.        Nevertheless many of the gods of Greece were real personages, who played their parts in the lives of the people, and were channels to them of the divine blessing. The chief aspect of the outer religion of Greece was the cult of the beautiful. It was known in Greece that every true work of art radiated an atmosphere of joy and beauty; therefore the Greeks surrounded themselves and their worship with every kind of lovely thing. They knew that the gods manifested themselves through beauty, were aspects of and channels for the One Beauty; and thus they gathered streams of the divine influence around them and so out­poured blessing upon the world. The gods of Greece were not the same as those reverenced in Egypt; they represented somewhat different aspects of the one eternal God in forms suited to the development of the Celtic sub-race, which was essentially an artistic, as the Egyptians had been a scientific people. As students of the occult side of religion are aware, each sub-race has its own especial presentation of truth, its own divine forms through whom worship is offered to the Supreme; and the type of religion is formulated by the World Teacher Himself in accordance with the development and culture which are to be the distinguishing characteristic of that race and its contribution to the world-plan of evolution. In Greece, as in Egypt, there was a multiplicity of these divine forms, some of them represented and ensouled by great Angels, who may be compared to some extent to those adored in Christian lands - S. Michael, S. Gabriel, S. Raphael and others. The gods of Greece were no less real than these great ones, although they belonged to an entirely different type, resembling rather the presiding Angels of the various countries than the Rulers of the nine orders of the Angelic hosts.

330.        Pallas Athene, the grey-eyed goddess of wisdom, was a magnificent and splendid Being, who practically governed Athens in the old days through her devotees. Her influence was enormously stimulating, but she was not so much an embodiment of compassion or of love, as is the Blessed Virgin Mary, but rather of efficiency and of that perfect accuracy of form that is the essence of all true art. Much of the wonderful art of Greece was inspired directly by her; and to satisfy her it had to be the very highest and truest and most accurate. She could not tolerate a single line misplaced, even in the smallest thing. There was something of polished steel about Athene; she was cold and keen like a rapier, tremendously powerful, keeping the people up to the highest, the noblest, the purest, the most beautiful; and yet less for the sake of an abstract love of beauty than because it would have been a disgrace to be otherwise than beautiful. There was practically no emotion connected with Pallas Athene; we had an intellectual appreciation of her greatness, an intense devotion along mental lines, a splendid enthusiasm in following her; but we should not have ventured upon anything like personal affection. She kept Athens in perfect order, directing it, governing it, brooding over its people with her wonderful inspiration; and she watched the develop­ment of her city with the closest interest, determined that it should be ahead of Sparta and Corinth and the other cities of Greece.

331.        Hera was a real personage likewise, but very different from Pallas Athene. She was one of the many incarnations or forms of the feminine aspect of the First Ray, and was thought of as the Queen of Heaven; she corresponds most closely to the Indian goddess Parvati, the shakti or power of Shiva, imaged as His consort, as Hera was the consort of Zeus.

332.        Dionysus was the Logos Himself, just as Osiris had been in Egypt, though in a somewhat different aspect; and the legend of His death and resurrection corresponded closely with that of Osiris, and was taught with the same signification in the Mysteries of Greece. Phoebus Apollo, the God of the Sun and of music, whose symbol was the lyre, seems originally to have been Orpheus; so that in venerating him the Greeks in reality offered their love to the great World Teacher. Demeter and her daughter Persephone or Kore were especially reverenced at Eleusis. These two deities were personifications of the great forces of nature, the first of the brooding motherhood of the earth, and the second of that creative life which makes the earth to flourish and blossom with corn and flowers and fruit, and then withdraws once more at the onset of winter into a kind of hibernation - a hidden life within, only to burst out again as though in a new incarnation under the influence of spring. Demeter appears to correspond with Uma, the Great Mother, still venerated in India.

333.        Aphrodite, the goddess of Love - “immortal Aphrodite of the broidered throne,” as Sappho calls her - represented the feminine aspect of the Deity as the divine compassion; she was called the “foam-born” because she was mystically supposed to have risen from the waters of the ocean. Swinburne describes her in magnificent lines:

 

334.        Her deep hair heavily laden with the odour and colour of

335.        flowers,

336.        White rose of the rose-white water, a silver splendour, a

337.        Flame …

338.        who, at her mystic birth,

339.        Came flushed from the full-flushed wave, and imperial, her

340.        foot on the sea.

341.        And the wonderful waters knew her, the winds and the

342.        viewless ways,

343.        And the roses grew rosier, and bluer the sea-blue stream of

344.        the bays.

 

345.        This beautiful symbolism of her name refers to the form side of the Deity, the root of matter - called the “deep sea”, or the “virgin sea” - which is impregnated with the divine life and beauty, and so gives birth to the loveliest of forms. The title “foam-born” is particularly appropriate when we consider that all forms are built up of aggrega­tions of bubbles blown in the “deep sea”, the aether of space. All this was explained to the initiates of the Mysteries. The same mystical idea lies in the title of Our Lady Mary, “Star of the Sea”; although she embodies in herself a fuller manifestation of the divine love in the perfection of eternal motherhood, and indeed unites in her person many Aspects of the Deity that were divided in Greece. There were, however, two sides of the cult of Aphrodite. The higher side was embodied in Aphrodite Ouranios, the heavenly Aphrodite, who was indeed “the Mother of fair love”; but there was a lower aspect of her worship as Aphrodite Pandemos, the earthly, common love, which leads to much evil and base desire, unworthy of the name love; and this aspect was the most prominent in the days when the old religion had become outworn and corrupt. Aphrodite corresponds to some extent with Lakshmi in India.

346.        The gods were connected with the Mysteries, and worked with and through their faithful followers; but even in the Mysteries there was less of devotion and more of intellectual appreciation than in our religion to-day. In studying different branches of the Mysteries as worked in different lands we can but give certain analogies - we cannot hope to make exact comparisons; and the difficulty is still greater when we try to compare the ancient with the modern faiths - their whole outlook was so different from ours.

 

347.        THE OFFICIALS

 

348.        The control of the Eleusinian Mysteries in classical times lay in the hands of two families: the Eumolpidae and the Keryces or heralds, who were also connected with the worship of the Pythian Apollo at Delphi. Most of the officers were chosen from these two families, although there were also important civil representatives of the Athenian State who were responsible for the public ceremonial of the Mysteries as well as for the control of finance.

349.        The chief officer was the hierophant, chosen for life by lot from the Eumolpidae. He alone had the guardianship of the Hallows (Hiera), those sacred treasures which were so carefully preserved at Eleusis and played so great a part in the ceremonial magic of the Mysteries. He was invariably a man of advanced age and distinguished position, and in his hands lay the supreme control over the secret ceremonial.

350.        Next to him in rank stood the Dadouchos, the bearer of the double torch, chosen for life from the family of the Keryces. Both these officials had houses in the sacred enclosure at Eleusis, into which only initiates might enter; but while the hierophant remained in almost entire seclusion, the Dadouchos often took a prominent part in public affairs. A third official was the Hieroceryx, or sacred herald, who also was chosen for life from the family of Keryces; one of his duties was to make the solemn proclamation to the Mystae before their initiation into the Greater Mysteries, to preserve silence upon sacred matters. A fourth official was the Priest of the Altar, chosen also from the Keryces, who in later times was responsible for the sacrifices. In the great days of the Mysteries animal sacrifices were never offered, but, as in all religious systems, a time came when the tradition had become formalized and much of the inner knowledge had been withdrawn. It was then that certain teachings upon the meaning of sacrifice and its place in the spiritual life were distorted and materialized into the cruel superstition that it was necessary to sacrifice animals to the Diety.

351.        There were also two women hierophants, dedicated to the two god­desses who presided over the Mysteries, Demeter and Kore; and in addition to them there was a priestess of Demeter, who appears to have been closely connected with certain other rites of the goddesses open only to women (Thesmophoria, Haloa), as well as with the  Mysteries of Eleusis. A number of minor officials also took part in the ceremonial. As in Egypt, women were admitted to the Mysteries on equal terms with men, and no distinction was made between the sexes save in the matter of office. The instruction of the candidates was placed in the hands of the Mystagogues, who taught under the supervision of the hierophant and prepared the initiates for the celebra­tion of the Mysteries, communicating to them certain formulae which would be required in the course of the ceremonial. An enclosed order of priestesses lived in retreat at Eleusis, vowed to celibacy and dedicated to the higher life. It seems probable that these are the “bees” of whom Porphyry and various grammarians speak.* (*Les Mysteres d’Eleusis. Foucart, Ch. VI and VIII, passim.)

 

352.        THE LESSER MYSTERIES

 

353.        The Eleusinian Mysteries were divided into two degrees, the Lesser and the Greater. We see no trace of the tri-gradal system suggested by some scholars, although there were special ceremonies for the installation of the principal officers. The Lesser Mysteries were celebrated in the Temple of Demeter and Kore at Agrae, near Athens, in the month of March. In them teaching was given upon the life after death in the intermediate or astral world, just as in the Lesser Mysteries of Egypt, and in this sense it is possible to compare the Lesser Mysteries with our Masonic 1°, although the details of the ceremonial do not exactly correspond. The ceremony was conducted by the hierophant of Eleusis, assisted by his various officers; and the initiates of this degree were called mystae.

354.        The ceremonies opened with a preliminary purification or baptism in the waters of the Ilissus, during which certain ritual formulae were recited; they were continued in the secrecy of the temple, in which representations of the astral world were shown to the candidate, and instruction given upon the results of certain courses of action in the life after death. In earlier days when the hierophant directing the studies described the effect of some particular vice or crime, he used his occult power to materialize some good example of the fate which his words portrayed, in some cases, it is stated, enabling the sufferer to speak and explain the condition in which he found himself as the outcome of his neglect while on earth of the eternal laws under which the worlds are governed. Sometimes, instead of this, a vivid image of the state of some victim of his own folly would be materialized for the instruc­tion of the neophytes.

355.        In the days of the decadence, just as in Egypt, there remained no hierophant who possessed the power to produce these occult illustra­tions, and consequently their place was taken by actors dressed to repre­sent the sufferers, and in some cases by ghostly images projected by  means of concave mirrors - or even by cleverly executed statuary or mechanical figures. Of course it was perfectly understood by all con­cerned that these were only representations, and no one was ever led to suppose that they were original cases. Certain of our ecclesiastical writers, however, failed to realize this, and some of them spent much time and ingenuity in “exposing” deceptions which never deceived anyone, least of all those who were specially concerned with them. Besides this teaching upon the exact results in astral life of physical thought and action, much instruction was given in cosmogony, and the evolution of man on this earth was fully explained, again with the aid of illustrative scenes and figures, produced at first by materializa­tion, but later imitated in various ways.

356.        The initiates of the Mysteries had a number of proverbs and aphorisms peculiar to themselves. “Death is life, and life is death” was a saying which will need no interpretation for the student of the inner side of life, who comprehends; at least to some extent, how infinitely more real and vivid is life on any other plane than this imprisonment in the flesh. “Whosoever pursues realities during this life will pursue them after death; whosoever pursues unrealities during this life will pursue them also after death,” was another statement entirely in line with the facts of post-mortem existence, and it empha­sizes the great truth upon which we so often find it necessary to insist, that death in no way changes the real man, but that his disposition and his mode of thought remain exactly what they were before.

357.        The myths of the exoteric religion of the country were taken up and studied in the Eleusinian Mysteries, as in the Mysteries of Egypt. Among those relating to the life after death was that of Tantalus, who was condemned to suffer perpetual thirst in Hades: water surrounded him on all sides, but receded from him whenever he attempted to drink; over his head hung branches of fruit which receded in like manner when he stretched out his hand to touch them. This was interpreted to mean that everyone who dies full of sensual desire of any kind finds  himself after death still full of desire, but unable to gratify it.

358.        Another story was that of Sisyphus, who was condemned always to roll uphill a huge block of marble, which as soon as it reached the top rolled down again. That represents the condition after death of a man full of personal ambition, who has spent his life in making plans for selfish ends. In the other world he goes on making plans and work­ing them out, but always finds at the point of completion that they are nothing but a dream. The liver of Tityus was ceaselessly devoured by vultures. This was symbolical of the raging desire that tears at a man until it is burnt out by suffering. In many such ways desire is purified and the man is able to pass onwards to the life of the heaven-world, which was the subject of instruction in the Greater Mysteries.

359.        Within the Lesser Mysteries, just as in the Mysteries of Egypt, there existed an inner school for the training of specially selected candidates. These were taught to awaken the senses of the astral plane, so that the teaching given in the Mysteries could be verified by them at first hand. As in Egypt, the severe tests of courage were applied only to the small proportion of those who entered the Mysteries who intended to take up positive occult training, and become active workers on the astral and higher planes. Tens of thousands of people were initiated without them. One classical author mentions a gathering of thirty thou­sand initiates. All serious-minded people gravitated towards these Mysteries, much as the better class of young men and women of our day go to the great Universities, and in addition many were interested in one or other of the systems of philosophy.

360.        This inner school was kept secret, so that none even of the initiates knew of its existence until actually received into it. The dress of the mystae was the dappled fawn-skin (Nebris),* (*Recherches sur les Mysteres du Paganisme. Par M. le Baron de Sainte-Croix. Ed., Paris, 1817. Tome I, p. 347.) a fitting emblem of the uncontrolled astral body, which in this 1° had to be trained and brought into subjection by the will. This dress corresponded with the leopard-skin worn by the Egyptian priests, and the tiger or antelope skin so often used by the Eastern Yogis.

 

361.        THE GREATER MYSTERIES

 

362.        The Greater Mysteries were held at Eleusis in the month of September (Boedromion), and in connection with their celebration all Greece went into holiday, and splendid public processions took place, in which the whole populace, both initiates and non-initiates, joined. These public processions have been described in detail by con­temporary writers; but beyond these exoteric descriptions nothing of the Greater Mysteries is known to the outer world save through a few obscure hints. On the 13th Boedromion the young men gathered at Eleusis to form the escort of the solemn procession to Athens, which was distant from Eleusis some twelve miles. On the 14th the Hallows (Hiera) were solemnly escorted to the great city, accompanied by the hierophant and his officers, the members of the priestly families, the college of priestesses and the retinue of the Eleusinian temple. The Hallows were treated with the deepest reverence; they were conveyed in great wicker baskets secured with bands of purple wool, and placed upon a ceremonial car. Only the hierophant and his ministers were allowed to handle them, and none but initiates might even see them, under pain of death. During the rest of the year they remained in a shrine or chapel (Anactoron) in the temple at Eleusis, and were guarded with the utmost care and awe, as being of divine origin.

363.        When the procession reached the outskirts of the city of Athens, the Hallows were met by the magistrates and people, and were escorted with all magnificence and pomp to the Eleusinion at the foot of the Acropolis. Like the mother temple at Eleusis, this was surrounded by high walls, and no one but the initiates was ever allowed to enter. On the 15th day of the month, the day of the full moon, the mystae who were to be advanced to the Greater Mysteries assembled, and the solemn proclamation was made, enumerating those to whom access to the Mysteries was forbidden … “Whoso hath unclean hands … whoso hath an unintelligible voice”.* (*Libanius, quoted Foucart. op. cit., p. 311.) This latter qualifica­tion has been taken to mean that only Greek-speaking people could be admitted to the Mysteries; but M. Foucart suggests the more prob­able explanation that the voice must be free from impediment in order that the sacred formulae might be pronounced correctly; and he com­pares this qualification to the Egyptian title Maat-heru, which meant not only “true of voice” but one who is able to wield the occult powers of sound without mistake.* (*Ibid., p. 149.) When we remember the tradition of Orpheus and realize how great a part sound played in the Greek Mysteries, we may understand that this conjecture is not without foundation.

364.        On the 16th day of the month the mystae took a ceremonial bath of purification in the sea; on the 17th and 18th various public proces­sions took place in Athens; while the mystae remained secluded in the temple, receiving instruction and preparing themselves by medita­tion for their initiation into the Greater Mysteries. On the 19th the great procession of the initiates to Eleusis was formed, the Hallows were carried back to their ancient resting-place with the fullest possible pomp and splendour, and the candidates and Brn. marched in triumph to the temple of initiation accompanied by vast crowds of people.

365.        First came the car of Iacchos, bearing the statue of “the fair young God”, who was one of the forms of Dionysus, the “Blazing Star of nocturnal Initiation” as Aristophanes calls him;* (*Aristophanes. Frogs, 346.) next marched the young men, myrtle-crowned, with shields and lances glittering in the sunlight, whose duty and privilege it was to escort the sacred Hallows, borne aloft upon the ceremonial car in the great wicker baskets, still bound with purple wool; after them came the hierophant and his officers, dressed in their purple robes and wearing myrtle crowns, followed by the mystae in charge of the mystagogues. After them marched the vast company of initiates and people, arranged according to their tribes and demes, and preceded by the civil magistrates and the council of the five hundred; and the whole splendid throng was followed by a train of baggage-animals carrying bedding and provisions for the few days’ sojourn at Eleusis.

366.        The procession arrived at the sacred village after nightfall, and glowed like a river of fire in the blazing light of the torches carried by all the people; and after a tremendous ovation the Hallows were carried into the sacred enclosure by the hierophant, who placed them once more in the secret shrine within the hall of initiation (Telesterion). The next two days, during which the actual ceremonial instruction took place, were spent by the initiates within the enclosing walls of the temple, and the whole glorious celebration concluded with a festal  assembly held outside the temple walls, in which all the citizens took part, afterwards returning quietly to their homes.* (*Les Mysteres d’Eleusis. Ch. XI and XII, passim.)

367.        In the Greater Mysteries the teaching upon the life after death was extended to the heaven-world; they thus corresponded to some extent to our 2°. The initiates were named epoptae, and their ceremonial garment was no longer a fawn-skin, but a golden fleece - whence, naturally, the whole myth of Jason and his companions. This symbol­ized the mental body, and the power definitely to function in it. Those who have seen the splendid radiance of all which pertains to that mental plane, who have noticed the innumerable vortices produced by the ceaseless emission and impact of thought-forms, who remember that a brilliant yellow is especially the colour which manifests intellectual activity, will acknowledge that this was no inapt representation.

368.        In this class, as in the lower one, there were two types - those who could be taught to use the mental body, and to form round it the strong temporary vehicle of astral matter which has sometimes been called the mayavi rupa - and the far greater majority who were not yet prepared for this development, but could nevertheless be instructed with regard to the mental plane and the powers and faculties appropriate to it. As in the Lesser Mysteries men learned the exact result in the intermediate world after death of certain actions and modes of life on the physical plane, so in the Greater Mysteries they learnt how causes generated in this lower existence worked out in the heaven-world. In the Lesser the necessity and the method of the control of desires, passions and emotions was made clear; in the Greater the same teaching was given with regard to the control of mind.

369.        Further teaching upon cosmogenesis and anthropogenesis was also continued. In the Greater Mysteries instead of being instructed only as to the broad outlines of evolution by reincarnation (which does not appear to have been clearly taught in the outer religion), and the previous races of mankind, the initiates now received a description of the whole scheme as we have it to-day, including the seven great chains of worlds and their positions in the solar system as a whole. Their terms were different from ours, but the instruction was in essence the same; where we speak of successive life-waves and outpourings, they spoke of aeons and emanations, but there is no doubt that they were fully in touch with the facts, and that they represented them to their pupils in wonderful visions of cosmic processes and their terrestrial analogies.

370.        Just as in the case of the after-death states, these representations were at first produced by occult methods; and later, when these failed them, by mechanical and pictorial means, the results of which were greatly inferior. Illustrations of the development of the human embryo, shown by picture or model in the same way as we might show some of them by means of a microscope, were employed to teach by the law of correspondences the truth of cosmic evolution. We may remember how Madame Blavatsky adopted in The Secret Doctrine a similar method of illustrating the same evolutionary processes.* (*Op. cit., Vol. iii, p. 441.) It is probable that a misunderstanding of the representation of some of these processes of reproduction was distorted into an idea of indecency, and so the seed was sown from which sprang later the false and foolish accusations of the ignorant and bigoted Christians.

371.        The culmination of the ceremonial of the Greater Mysteries was the exposition of an ear of corn. Of this Hippolytus speaks:

 

372.        The Athenians, while initiating people into the Eleusinian Rites, likewise display to those who are being admitted to the highest grade at these Mysteries, the mighty, marvellous, and most perfect secret suitable for one initiated into the highest mystic truths: I allude to an ear of corn in silence reaped. This ear of corn is also considered among the Athenians to constitute the perfect and enormous illumination that has descended from the unportrayable One, just as the hierophant himself declares.* (*Hippolytus. Refutation of All Heresies, Bk. V, iii (Ante-Nicene Library Ed.))

 

373.        This symbol referred to the divine life of God, ever-changing, ever-renewed, buried in the earth of the lower planes, only to rise in other forms to a fuller and more abundant life, passing from manifestation to manifestation without end. This was explained by the hierophant to the initiates, and the simplicity of the symbol and the beauty and profundity of the meaning underlying it formed a fitting climax to a wonderful ceremony.

 

374.        THE MYTHS OF THE GREATER MYSTERIES

 

375.        The meaning of various myths was explained in detail in the instruc­tion given to the initiates. The legend of Persephone or Proserpine (Kore) is clearly an occult parable of the descent of the soul into mat­ter. If we remember how the story tells us that Proserpine was carried away while she was plucking the flower of the narcissus, at once we have a suggestion of connection with that other myth of the soul’s life. Narcissus is represented to have been a young man of extraordinary beauty who fell in love with his own reflection in a pool of water, and was so much attracted by it that he fell into the pool and was drowned, and was afterwards changed by the gods into a beautiful flower. It was taught that the soul was not originally immersed in matter, and need not have been so, but for the fact that she was attracted by the image of herself in the lower conditions of matter, symbolized by water.  Beguiled by this reflection, she identifies herself with the lower personality, and is for the time sunk altogether in matter; yet never­theless the divine seed remains, and presently she springs up again as a flower. It was while Proserpine was stooping to Narcissus that she was seized and carried off by Desire, who is the king of the lower world; and although she was rescued from complete captivity by the effort of her mother, yet after that she had to spend her life half in the lower world, and half in that above, that is to say, partly in incar­nation and partly out of it.

376.        The Minotaur, which was slain by Theseus, was the personality in man, “half animal and half man”. Theseus typifies the higher self, who has been gradually developing and gathering strength until at last he can wield the sword of his divine father, the Spirit. Guided through the labyrinth of illusion which constitutes these lower planes by the  thread of occult knowledge given him by Ariadne (who represents intuition), the higher self is enabled to slay the lower and escape safely from the web of illusion; yet there still remains for him the danger that, developing intellectual pride, he may neglect intuition, even as Theseus neglected Ariadne, and so failed for the time to reach his highest possibilities. The legend of the slaying of Bacchus by the Titans, the tearing of his body into fragments and his resurrection from the dead, was also taught, with the same interpretation as that given to the legend of Osiris in the Mysteries of Egypt - the descent of the One to become the many, and the reunion of the many in the One through suffering and sacrifice.

 

377.        THE MAGIC OF THE GREATER MYSTERIES

 

378.        In the Eleusinian Mysteries the initiates were brought into close communion with the Deity through specially consecrated food and drink. Cups of highly-magnetized water were given to them, and consecrated cakes were eaten during the ceremonies of initiation. S. Clement of Alexandria gives us the formula or pass-word of the Eleusinian Mysteries, which some have taken to refer to this sacra­ment: “I fasted; I drank the draught; I took from the chest; having tasted, I placed in the basket, and from the basket into the chest.”* (*Clem, Alex. Exhortation to the Greeks. Loeb. Ed., p. 43 (Lobeck.))  In many religions we find a similar method of conveying the divine blessing to the people.

379.        The Hallows (Hiera) already mentioned were physical objects ex­tremely highly magnetized, through which much of the magical side of the Mysteries was performed. They were the personal property of the priestly family of the Eumolpidae, being handed down from generation to generation; and their solemn exposition and the explanation of the symbolical teaching connected with them was one of the features of the Eleusinian ritual.* (*Foucart. Op. cit., p. 150.)

380.        One of these was the caduceus, the rod of power, surrounded by the twisting serpents and surmounted by the pine-cone. It was the same as the thyrsus; and was said to be hollow and to be filled with fire. In India it is a stick of bamboo with seven knots in it, which represents the spinal column with its seven centres or chakras. When a candidate had been initiated, he was often described as one who had been touched with the thyrsus, showing that it was not a mere emblem, but had also a practical use. It also indicated the spinal cord, ending in the medulla, while the serpents were symbolical of the two channels called in Eastern terminology Ida and Pingala; and the fire enclosed within it was the serpent-fire which in Sanskrit is called kundalini. It was laid by the hierophant against the back of the candidate, and thus used as a strong magnetic instrument in order to awaken the forces latent within him, and to free the astral body from the physical, so that the candidate might pass in full consciousness to the higher planes. To help him in the efforts that lay before him the priest in this way gave the aspirant some of his own magnetism. This rod of power was of the greatest importance, and we can understand why it was regarded with so much awe when we realize something of its occult potency.

381.        There was also the krater or cup, always associated with Dionysus, and emblematical of the causal body of man, which has ever been symbolized by a cup filled with the wine of the divine life and love. The tradition of this passed down through the ages and became mingled with that of the Holy Grail, which played so great a part in early mediaeval romance and legend.

382.        Among the holy symbols there were also highly-magnetized and richly jewelled statues, which had been handed down from a remote past, and were the physical basis of certain great forces invoked in the Mysteries; and a lyre, reputed to be the lyre of Orpheus, on which certain melodies were played and to which the sacred chants were sung. There were also the toys of Bacchus, with which he was playing when he was seized by the Titans and torn to pieces - very remarkable toys, full of significance. The dice with which he plays are the five Platonic solids, the only regular polygons possible in geometry. They are given in a fixed series, and this series agrees with the different planes of the solar system. Each of them indicates, not the form of the atoms of the different planes, but the lines along which the power works which surrounds those atoms. Those polygons are the tetrahedron, the cube, the octahedron, the dodecahedron and the icosahedron. If we put the point at one end and the sphere at the other we have a set of seven figures, corresponding to the number of planes in our solar system.

383.        In some of the older schools of philosophy it was said: “No one can enter who does not know mathematics.” That meant not what we now call mathematics, but that science which embraces the knowledge of the higher planes, of their mutual relations, and the way in which the whole is built by the will of God. When Plato said: “God geometrizes,” he stated a profound truth which throws much light upon the methods and mysteries of evolution. Those forms are not concep­tions of the human brain; they are truths of the higher planes. We have formed the habit of studying the books of Euclid, but we study them now for themselves, and not as a guide to something higher. The old philosophers pondered upon them because they led to the understanding of the true science of life.

384.        Another toy with which Bacchus played was a top, the symbol of the whirling atom pictured in Occult Chemistry. Yet another was a ball which represented the earth, that particular part of the planetary chain to which the thought of the Logos is specially directed at the moment. Also he played with a mirror. The mirror has always been a symbol of the astral light, in which the archetypal ideas are reflected and then materialized. Thus each of those toys indicates an essential part in the evolution of a solar system.

 

385.        THE HIDDEN MYSTERIES

 

386.        The two divisions of the lesser and greater mysteries above-mentioned were generally known, but it was not known that there was always, behind and above those, the greater mystery of the Path of Holiness, the steps of which are the five great Initiations already mentioned. The very existence of the possibility of that future advance­ment was not certainly known even by the initiates of the Greater Mysteries until they were actually fit to receive the mystic summons from within. If one thinks of the conditions of that time one can readily understand the reason for that secrecy. The Roman Emperors, for example, knew of the existence of the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries, and insisted upon being initiated into them. We know from history that many of the Emperors were hardly of a character to be allowed to play a leading role in a religious body, but it would have been very difficult for the hierophants of the Mysteries to refuse entrance to an Emperor of Rome. As was once said: “One cannot argue with the, master of thirty legions.” Many of the Emperors would certainly have killed anyone who stood in the way of anything they wished; so the existence of the true Mysteries was not made public; and no one knew of them until he was deemed, by those who could judge, worthy to be admitted into them. The teaching of these higher degrees is still open to the worthy, and to the worthy alone; but certain conditions must be fulfilled, as I have explained in The Masters and the Path.

387.        Thus the Mysteries of Eleusis corresponded closely with those of Egypt, though they differed in detail; and both these systems led their initiates, when properly prepared, to that Wisdom of God which was “before the beginning of the world”. We in Masonry do not inherit the Eleusinian succession directly, although something of its inspira­tion and influence was transmitted to certain of the mystic schools of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless our rites have the same purpose, symbolize the same invisible worlds, and are intended to prepare candidates for the same august reality that lies behind all true systems of the Mysteries alike.

 

388.        THE SCHOOL OF PYTHAGORAS

 

389.        The great philosopher Pythagoras was born in Samos about 582 B.C., and was the founder of the school that bore his name and studied his teachings in Greece, Italy, Egypt and Asia Minor. Mr. G. R. S. Mead says of the Pythagorean school:

 

390.        The finest characters among women with which ancient Greece presents us were formed in the School of Pythagoras, and the same is true of the men. The authors of antiquity are agreed that this discipline had succeeded in pro­ducing the highest examples not only of the purest chastity and sentiment; but also a simplicity of manners, a delicacy and a taste for serious pursuits which was unparalleled.* (*Orpheus: G.R.S. Mead, p. 265, 266.)

 

391.        Pythagoras travelled through many of the countries of the Mediter­ranean basin, studying for some years in Egypt, where he was initiated at Sais. He was also initiated into the Eleusinian, Kabeiric and Chaldaean Mysteries, and thus was thoroughly versed in all the hidden knowledge of the ancient world. In addition to his travels round the shores of the Mediterranean, Pythagoras journeyed to India, where he met the Lord Buddha and became one of His disciples. He spent some years in India, and it is reported that he had the high honour of an interview with the next World Teacher, the holy Child Shri Krishna, who blessed him and sent him back to Europe to found his system of philosophy and of esoteric instruction. Thus in the Pythagorean school many lines of tradition met together, and were blended into a comprehensive teaching upon the hidden side of life.

392.        There is a curious old writing called the Leyland-Locke MS., which was at one time in the Bodleian Library, but recent investigators have been unable to trace it. Its genuineness has been disputed by some authorities, “but,” says Bro. Ward, “in my opinion on quite inade­quate grounds.”* (*An Outline History of Freemasonry, by J.S.M. Ward, p. 24.) Its reputed date is 1436, and it is written in the quaint old English of the period, and in the form of question and answer. In the part referring to Freemasonry it asks where it began, and the answer is that it began with the first men of the East, who were before the first men of the West. Then it asks who brought it to the West and the answer is: “The Venetians, etc.”

393.        It then continues:

 

394.        How comede ytt (Freemasonry) yn Engelonde?

395.        Peter Gower, a Grecian, journeyed for kunnynge yn Egypte and yn Syria, and yn everyche londe whereat the Venetians hadde plauntedde Maconrye, and wynnynge entraunce yn al Lodges of Maconnes, he learned muche, and retournedde and worked yn Grecia Magna wachsynge and becommynge a myghtye wysacre and gratelyche renowned, and here he framed a grate Lodge at Groton, and maked many Maconnes, some whereoffe dyd journeye yn Fraunce, and maked manye Maconnes wherefromme, yn process of tyme, the arte passed yn Engelonde.

 

396.        This is said to have much puzzled John Locke until he realized that Peter Gower was Pitagore - the French pronunciation of Pythagoras, that Groton was Crotona, and the Venetians the Phoenicians.

397.        No wonder that Mackey says: “It is not singular that the old Masons should have called Pythagoras their ‘ancient friend and brother’.” About 529 B.C. Pythagoras settled in Crotona in the south of Italy, remaining there until he was forced by political troubles to remove to Metapontum. At Crotona he became the centre of a widespread and influential organization, a religious brotherhood which extended over all the Greek-speaking world. “Number is great and perfect and omnipotent, and the principle and guide of divine and human life,” said Philolaus, and the sentence expresses the keynote of the Pythagorean system. Number is order and limitation, and alone makes a cosmos possible. By numbers nature moves, and to understand numbers is to be the master of nature. Hence the Pythagorean sought to understand the nature of numbers, and to trace their working in the universe, whether in the vast ordered movements in the heavens, or in the arrangements of the earth. Hence also his devotion to mathematics, a science which (as far as Europe is concerned) may almost be said to have been created by Pythagoras, so much did he add to it and systematize it; he found it but a number of scattered and  unrelated facts, and left it a science. Metempsychosis or reincarna­tion was an essential part of the Pythagorean teaching; the purifica­tion of the soul being thus accomplished by repeated descents into matter and withdrawals into the invisible worlds, in order to transmute experience into faculty.

 

398.        THE THREE DEGREES

 

399.        The Pythagorean schools worked in close association with the teaching of the Mysteries, but without the ceremonies; they gave a philosophical exposition of the same great facts of the inner worlds. In those schools the pupils were divided into three degrees which cor­responded almost exactly with those of the early Christians, who called them the stages of purification, illumination and perfection respectively - the last one including what S. Clement of Alexandria calls the “scien­tific knowledge of God”. In the Pythagorean scheme the first degree was that of the akoustikoi or hearers, who took no part in the discus­sions or addresses, but kept absolute silence in the meetings for two years, and devoted themselves to listening and learning.

400.        At the end of that time, if otherwise satisfactory, the students were eligible for the second degree, that of the mathematikoi. The mathematics which they learnt were not, however, confined to what we now mean by that term. We study this science as an end in itself, but for them it was only a preparation for something much wider, higher and more practical. Geometry, as we now know it, was taught in the outer world in ordinary life as a preparation; but inside these great schools the subject was carried much farther, to the study and comprehension of the fourth dimension, and the laws and properties of higher space. It can be fully understood only if we take it thus as a whole, not in mere fragments, and as an introduction to higher development. It leads a man upwards towards the understanding of all the octaves of vibrations, as to vast areas of which science knows nothing as yet, towards the intricate occult relations of numbers, colours and sounds, the various three-dimensional sections of the mighty cone of space, and the true shape of the universe. There is a vast amount to be gained from the study of mathematics by those who know how to take it up in the right way; it helps us to see how the worlds are made.

401.        The mathematikoi brought geometry, mathematics and music into relation with one another, and worked out the correspondences between them, which are very remarkable. Everyone who knows anything about music is aware that there is a fixed proportion between the lengths of the strings which produce certain tones. A piano can be tuned ac­cording to a certain system of fifths, and the relation of the different tones to one another can be expressed by the number of vibrations of each tone; so a harmonious chord can be stated mathematically. This was first discovered simply by experiment; later the mathemati­cians found out what the proportions should be, and again by experi­ment they were found to be exact. But the peculiarity is that the numbers which produce a harmonious chord have the same relation to one another as that which exists between certain parts of the Platonic solids. Our scale, so different from the old Greek scale, which con­sisted of five tones, can still be deduced from the proportions of those five Platonic figures, which were studied over two thousand years ago in Greece. One might think that there cannot be much relation between mathematics and music, but we see by this that they are both parts of one great whole.

402.        The third degree of the Pythagoreans was that of the physikoi - not physicists in our modern sense of the word, but students of the true inner life, who learnt how to distinguish the divine life under all its disguises, and so were able to comprehend the course of its evolu­tion. The life exacted from all these pupils was of the most exalted purity. Mackey gives the following account of the school at Crotona:

 

403.        The disciples of this school wore the simplest kind of clothing, and, having on their entrance surrendered all their possessions to the common fund, they submitted for three* (*This should be two only.) years to voluntary poverty, during which time they were also compelled to a rigorous silence. The scholars were divided into Exoterics and Esoterics. This distinction was borrowed by Pythagoras from the Egyptian priests, who practised a similar mode of instruction. The exoteric scholars were those who attended the public assemblies, where general ethical instruc­tions were delivered by the sage. But only the esoterics constituted the true school, and these alone Pythagoras called, says Iamblichus, his companions and friends. Before admission to the privileges of the school, the previous life and character of the candidate were rigidly scrutinized, and in the preparatory initiation secrecy was enjoined by an oath, and the severest trials of his fortitude and self-command were imposed. The brethren, about six hundred in number, with their wives and children, resided in one large building. Every morning the business and duties of the day were arranged, and at night an account was rendered of the day’s transactions. They arose before day to pay their devotions to the sun, and recited verses from Homer, Hesiod, or some other poet. Several hours were spent in study, after which there was an interval before dinner, which was occupied in walking and in gymnastic exercises. The meals consisted principally of bread and honey.

 

404.        Although we do not find any direct connection between the School of Pythagoras and the degrees of modern Masonry, yet the influence of Pythagoras upon our Mysteries was profound, as Masons have always recognized. The tradition of the Pythagoreans passed into the Neo-Platonic schools; and from thence much of the inner teaching came into Christian hands, and formed the basis of many of those schools of mystic instruction which enshrined in mediaeval times certain of the secrets now preserved in the higher degrees of Masonry.  There is a succession of ideas as well as of sacramental power; and the school of Pythagoras may certainly be said to be one of the links in the chain of Masonic philosophy, even though to-day the greater part of that philosophy has faded from our rites. To Pythagoras is attributed the discovery of the 47th proposition of Euclid, which now forms the jewel of the I.P.M. in English Masonry, and is the basis not only of a great portion of exoteric geometry but, in a mystical sense, of the whole system of the Mysteries, and indeed of the universe itself. It is impossible exactly to estimate the influence of any given line of tradition. We cannot say more than that some of the Pythagorean teachings, probably transmitted along several mutually-interacting lines of descent, became mingled with the Masonry of the Middle Ages and formed part of the inner instruction that was associated with the ceremonies handed down among the operative builders from Jewish sources. These were preserved under binding pledges of secrecy, and emerged in speculative Masonry after the Reformation, thus forming part of our present Masonic system.

 

405.        OTHER GREEK MYSTERIES

 

406.        Another line of tradition is that of the Mysteries of Dionysus (or as the Romans called him, Bacchus), which approached more closely to the Egyptian scheme of initiation than the Eleusinian rites. They were celebrated throughout Greece and Asia Minor, but principally at Athens; they were carried to Rome, and afterwards formed a link in the chain of Masonic descent. Their central legend deals with the slaying of Dionysus by the Titans and his subsequent resurrection.

407.        The mysteries commenced with the consecration of an egg, symboliz­ing the mundane egg from which all things came. The candidate was crowned with myrtle, clothed in the sacred robes, exhorted to have courage, and then led through dark caverns amid the howling of wild beasts and other fearful noises, while flashes of lightning revealed monstrous apparitions to his sight. After three days and nights of this kind of experience, he was laid on a couch in a solitary cell; there was a sudden crash of waters, typifying the deluge, and the murder of Dionysus was enacted, his limbs being scattered on the waters. Then, amid lamentations, commenced the search of Rhea for the remains of Dionysus, and the apartments were filled with shrieks and groans, accompanied by the frantic dances of the Corybantes. Suddenly the body was found, the scene changed to one of joy, and the aspirant was released from his confinement. After that he descended into the infernal regions, where he saw the sufferings of the wicked and the rewards of the good, and afterwards became an epopt or seer - one who could look upon the world from above, see it as a whole, and therefore understand it. Among the followers of this Bacchic form of the Mysteries were the celebrated Dionysian Artificers, a secret society, bound by the most rigid pledges never to reveal their s … and p … w …, and employing emblems adopted from the building trade. These wandering bands of workmen built temples all over Syria and Asia Minor, just as the bands of Freemasons afterwards built churches in Europe. Bro. Ward writes of them:

 

408.        They appear to have reached Asia Minor from the south-east, and, according to Strabo, could be traced through Syria and Phoenicia, via Persia and India. Apparently they reached Phoenicia about fifty years before the building of K.S.’s temple, and it is their presence which alone explains how that temple came to be built. Indeed, the Bible itself makes it abundantly clear that the temple was not built by Jews, who at that time were an agricultural race, quite incapable of undertaking the task of building such an elaborate edifice.

 

409.        From the same source we learn that the chief architects and men came from Phoenicia, and Phoenician letters have been found on what are believed to be the foundations of the first temple … From Phoenicia they spread first into Asia Minor, and thence into Greece, from which country Greek colonists no doubt in the course of time carried members of the guild to Magna Grecia, which was the early name for South Italy.* (*An Outline History of Freemasonry, by Ward, p. 22.)

 

410.        It is said that this cult of Dionysus survived up to 1908 in Thrace, in a slightly modified form at Viza, and may still exist.* (*R. M. Dawkins, Journal of Hellenic Studies, xxvi (1906), pp. 191-206.)

411.        In the same land of Phoenicia, the mysteries of Adonis or Tammuz were celebrated at Byblos or Gebal, where lived the Gibelim or Stone-squarers, deriving their name from that of the town. The legend of these mysteries is an interesting combination of those of Egypt and Eleusis, the death and resurrection of Adonis being interwoven with a theme upon his exile and return for six months of the year, which reminds us of the fate of Persephone.

412.        This cult appears in many forms, some of them savage and sanguinary, evidently derived from the dark and debased delusions of prehistoric and even cannibal tribes. Some hint of these may be seen in the account given on p. 000.

413.        The mysteries of Attis and Cybele in Phrygia had many points in common with the last-named, the death and resurrection of Attis being the central myth. Other mystery-cults existed also, all teaching similar ideas. That of the Kabeiroi in Samothrace, which was held in great honour in the ancient world, is thought by some scholars to be the oldest of them all - a theory which is supported by the barbarous names of the deities involved. But even these are myths of death and resurrec­tion, the god being in this case called Kasmillos.

414.        It seems probable that when Virgil, in the sixth book of the Aeneid, depicted the descent of Aeneas into hell, he intended to give a repre­sentation of what happened in some of these Mysteries.

 

 

2      The Mithraic Mysteries

 

415.        ZARATHUSTRA AND MITHRAISM

 

416.        THE Mysteries of Mithra were in many ways similar to those of Greece, but they always had certain characteristics which were especially their own, and the line of succession which they transmitted was distinct from that of the three degrees of Blue Masonry; some of the more important features of its ritual seem to have passed over into the 18°. There was a strong military flavour about them, and they demanded from their devotees a purity of life which was almost ascetic.

417.        Just as the Mysteries of Egypt and Greece arose respectively from the incarnations of the World Teacher as Thoth and Orpheus, so did the Mithraic scheme arise from His incarnation as the first Zarathustra about 29,700 B.C. in Persia. It taught of Mithra, Captain of the hosts of the God of Light and Saviour of mankind.

 

418.        MITHRAISM AMONG THE ROMANS

 

419.        It is said that Mithraism was first transmitted to the Roman world during the first century B.C. by the Cilician pirates captured by Pompey; but, as we have already seen, it was before that time in the possession of the Essene communities in Palestine. For nearly two centuries it attained no great importance in Rome, and it was not until the end of the first century A.D. that it began to attract serious attention. Towards the close of the second century, the cult had spread rapidly through the army, the mercantile class and the slaves, all of which classes were largely composed of Asiatics. It throve especially at the military posts, and in the track of trade, where its monuments have been discovered in greatest abundance. Some twenty of the Mithraic temples still remain, and they show certain points of resemblance to our Masonic Lodges. The temple was rectangular, with a raised platform at the east end, often apsidal in form; continuous benches ran along its walls on the longer sides for the accommoda­tion of the Brn., and the ceiling was made to symbolize the firmament.

420.        Jerome (Epist. cvii) tells us that the system consisted of seven degrees: Corax, the Raven, so-called not only because the raven was the servant of the sun in Mithraic mythology, but because the raven can only imitate speech and not originate ideas for himself;* (*Cf. the Akoustikoi of the Pytagoreans, and the fact that the due-gard of the 1º shows that the E.A. must confine himself to what is taught in the V.S.L.) Cryphius,  the Occult, a degree in the taking of which the mystic was perhaps hidden from others in the sanctuary by a veil, the removal of which was a solemn ceremonial; Miles, the Soldier, signifying the holy war­fare against evil in the service of the God; Leo, the Lion, symbolic of the element of fire, which played so great a part in the Persian faith; Perses, the Persian, clad in Asiatic costume, a reminiscence of the ancient origin of the religion; Heliodromus, the Courier of the Sun, with whom Mithra was identified; and Pater, the Father, a degree bring­ing the mystic among those who had the general direction of the cult for the rest of their lives.

421.        It is not easy to trace exact correspondences between these seven stages and our own degrees, because of the difference between the systems. The Corax is fairly parallel with the E.A., and the Cryphius and Miles with the F.C., the latter being distinguished from the former by additional knowledge which may not inaptly be compared with that of the Mark degree. These three classes together were regarded to some extent as servitors; the next stage, Leo, was the first whose members were called “participants” and admitted to the Mithraic sacrament. We may consider the three stages of Leo, Perses and  Heliodromus as divisions of the M.M. degree; the first gave access to the full fellowship of the Mithraic brotherhood, the second passed him who received it through a most impressive ceremony in the course of which he was symbolically slain and raised to life in honour of Mithra, and the third put him in possession of additional knowledge equivalent to that which is supposed to be given to us in the Holy Royal Arch; for only when he had that knowledge of the name and qualities of the deity was he fitted to go forth as a messenger of the Sun to bear his strength and life through the world. The Pater cor­responded to our I.M., who alone can confer the various degrees and pass on the succession to posterity.

 

422.        THE MITHRAIC RITES

 

423.        The Mithraic cult was essentially a religion of soldiers, a veritable brotherhood of arms. Women were never admitted to their rites of initiation, although it seems probable that in earlier times there were separate degrees for them. The power flowing through the rites gave especially courage and purity, and the demands upon the candidates in both these respects were exceedingly high. There was an intensity of brotherly feeling between the initiates of Mithra which is rarely realized in our Lodges to-day; they were pledged to fight for the right, and they stood shoulder to shoulder against all foes.

424.        The Mithraic sacrament consisted of bread and wine and salt, and was consecrated at a solemn ceremony in the Mysteries, being linked to that aspect of the Deity which was represented by Mithra, and intensely charged with force along the characteristic lines of purity, courage and brotherhood, helping to bind the brethren together into a body corporate as soldiers of Light and Truth. This same Eucharist has been transmitted to us to-day through the Culdee line of tradition, in the ceremonial of the Rose-Croix of Heredom; but the forces flow­ing through it have been modified to some extent, so that instead of a Brotherhood of Arms we have now a Brotherhood of Love. The power of love takes the place of the military influence of courage, although the method of consecration in the higher worlds is the same. This is due to a blending with the Egyptian line of tradition.

425.        The analogies between Mithraism and Christianity are very close; they are well summarized thus in the Encyclopedia Britannica:

 

426.        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 upon 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 … At their root lay a common Eastern origin rather than any borrowing?* (*Ency. Brit. (11th Edn.), Art. Mithras.)

 

427.        The Great Powers behind evolution appear at one time to have thought seriously of making Mithraism the religion of the fifth sub-race instead of the maimed Christianity which had rejected its own gnosis and put aside its Mysteries. But the ideal of Mithraic purity was so high that it would probably have been impossible for men to follow it during the Dark Ages; and another very serious objection to the system was that it absolutely excluded women. Mithraism was allowed therefore to sink into the background and finally to pass out of sight of the outer world. Nevertheless the ancient succession is still guarded and the rites are preserved in the custody of the H.O.A.T.F.; so Mithraism may yet have its part to play in the religious life of the future.

428.        In addition to the Mysteries of Mithra, there was an Atlantean tradi­tion of the Mysteries - that to which we have already referred as the Chaldaean line of succession. In the days of its splendour the Chaldaean rituals put the initiate into relation with the great Star-Angels who were adored in that mighty faith; and a relic of this tradition is still found in the hidden side of certain of the degrees of the rites of Memphis and of Mizraim. The Chaldaean method of seating the Principal Officers of a Lodge is still preserved in Continental Masonry, and has passed also into certain of the higher degrees.

 

429.        THE ROMAN COLLEGIA

 

430.        We may now return to the main line of Masonic descent, that of the three Craft degrees. We have already seen how the Jewish Mysteries handed down the essentials of our Masonic rites; it remains for us to trace their transmission to our modern Lodges. The next link in the chain is the Roman Collegia, in which the transition from speculative to operative Masonry took place.

431.        We have seen that the science of architecture was always closely connected with the Mysteries, and that our Masonic Craft ritual when properly worked is designed to build a superphysical temple of the Ionic order of architecture, which was chosen because it is the vehicle of the special type of force which flows through Craft Masonry.* (*See The Hidden Life in Freemasonry, p. 120.)

432.        Other forms are built by the higher degrees, belonging to different kinds of architecture, according to the influences which are to be radiated through them; so we see that we are in the presence of a science of spiritual building, of which material architecture is but the reflection in the dense matter of the physical plane. Each order of architecture expresses an idea and is the channel of certain types of influence associated with that idea, attracting the attention of certain kinds of Angels who work along the lines of that idea in the invisible worlds. Each sub-race has its own characteristic type of architecture as well as its own type of music, and these are often utilized by the Great Ones behind in order to impress upon the people certain characteristics which are necessary for their evolution.

433.        The principles of this inner science of building were taught in the ancient Mysteries, and the temples of the different faiths were planned by the priests with full knowledge of the hidden side of what they were doing; it was for this reason that builders were always associated with temples and temple-worship, and the secrets of building were carefully guarded as part of the teaching of the Mysteries. Thus the confusion between speculative and operative, which was purposely effected at the breaking-up of the Roman Empire, presented no difficulties to the Powers behind, since those two aspects had always worked in close association, and it was merely a question of emphasizing the one, and of temporarily withdrawing the other into yet further silence and secrecy. No essential change was required.

 

434.        THE WORK OF KING NUMA

 

435.        Plutarch tells us that the Roman Collegia were originally founded by Numa, the second king of Rome, who lived during the seventh cen­tury B.C.* (*Plutarch’s Life of Numa, A. H. Clough, Vol. i, p. 152.) Numa is a half-legendary figure to our modern historians; but he was a very real personage, and the true founder of the Roman Mysteries as well as of the trade guilds. Plutarch says of his character:

 

436.        He was endued with a soul rarely tempered by nature and disposed to virtue, which he had yet more subdued by discipline, a severe life, and the study of philosophy … He banished all luxury and softness from his own home, and, while citizens alike and strangers found in him an incorruptible judge and counsellor, in private he devoted himself not to amusement or lucre, but to the worship of the immortal Gods, and the rational contemplation of their divine power and nature.* (*Ibid., pp. 130, 131.)

 

437.        Numa was “deeply versed, so far as anyone could be in that age, in all law, divine and human,* (*Livy., Bk. I, xviii (Loeb Ed.)) says Livy; while Dio Cassius tells us that he shaped the political and peaceable institutions of Rome, as Romulus had determined its military career.* (*Dio's Roman History, Loeb. Ed., p. 29.) In addition to all his external ability, he was far advanced on the Path of Holiness, and was a high Initiate of the White Lodge. His especial work was laying down, at the very beginning of the Roman State, the inner foundation of Rome’s future greatness; he moulded both her outer religion and her inner Mysteries, which in later days were to be the channel of that spiritual force which would make Rome mighty among the nations, one of the greatest empires that the world has ever known.

438.        Numa sent messengers to Egypt, to Greece, to Chaldaea, to Palestine and other lands, to study all existing systems of the Mysteries, so that he might adopt in Rome those most suited to the development of his people. His high occult rank opened all doors; and like Pythagoras, an even greater Initiate, who came later, he was enabled to synthesize many lines of tradition into one comprehensive whole. The system which appears to have been adopted in Rome was that of the Mysteries of Dionysus or Bacchus, which, as we have already seen, closely corresponded to the Egyptian system; and here we have the first of the links with the Dionysian Artificers of whom Masonic tradition so persistently speaks.

439.        Numa introduced the Egyptian line of succession, and thus the hierophants of his Mysteries were I.M.s. after the manner of the priests of Egypt and the Masons of to-day. This succession appears to have been handed down in secret among the Colleges of Architects until the time when Christianity began to dominate the Roman world at the beginning of the third century A.D. The fortunes of the Colleges or guilds which were thus formed were very varied; gradually they rose to great political power, were abolished by the senate about 80 B.C., and restored again twenty years later. The Emperors issued edicts against them from time to time, but those which could prove their antiquity or religious character were permitted to remain in existence. They were finally abolished in A.D. 378.

 

440.        THE COLLEGES AND THE LEGIONS

 

441.        Of these Colleges of Architects one was attached to every Roman Legion, building for it fortifications in time of war and in time of peace temples and houses. It was thus that the Roman Mysteries were brought to Northern Europe. Wherever the Romans settled, the Collegia worked their rites, and in process of time native soldiers were initiated into their ranks, until the system became deeply-rooted in each Roman colony. Closely connected with these rites were those of Mithra which, as we have seen, were also spread by the Roman armies, although the two systems were always kept separate and distinct.

442.        The organization of the Colleges, as extant records show, cor­responded in many ways with that of our modern Lodges. “Tres faciunt Collegium” – “Three make a College” was one of their principles; and the rule was so indispensable that it became a maxim of civil law. The College was ruled by a Magister or Master, and two Decuriones or Wardens; and among other officers were a treasurer, sub-treasurer, secretary and archivist.* (*R. F. Gould, History of Freemasonry, Vol. I, p. 42.) There was also a Sacerdos or Chaplain, who was in charge of the religious side of the work. The members of the College consisted of three grades corresponding closely to Apprentices, Fellows and Masters; and records point to the fact that  they possessed semi-religious rites which were kept rigidly secret, and also that they attached symbolic interpretations to their tools, such as the square and compasses, the plumb-rule and level. They took pagan gods as their patrons in much the same way as the guilds which succeeded them adopted Christian patron saints. The Four Crowned Mar­tyrs, the patron saints of Masonry, were Christian members of a College who were tortured to death by the Emperor Diocletian for refusing to make a statue of Aesculapius.* (*J. S. M. Ward: Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, pp. 144, 145.) They were later confused with the tradition of the Four Brothers of Horus.

443.        Bro. J. S. M. Ward describes a building of the Collegia unearthed at Pompeii in 1878, which had been buried in A.D. 79, during the great eruption of Mount Vesuvius. It contains striking Masonic cor­respondences. There are two columns, and on the walls are interlaced triangles. Upon a pedestal in the centre was found an inlaid marble slab with a skull, level and plumb-rule and other Masonic designs in mosaic work. A fresco in another building close by shows a figure in the act of making the F.C.H.S.* (*J. S. M. Ward: Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, pp. 115, 116.) The Roman Colleges of Architects were brought to Britain by the Roman army. One legion under Julius Caesar established a colony at Eboracum or York, later to be so prominent in Masonic legend and tradition; and another centre was at Verulam, afterwards known as S. Albans.

 

444.        THE INTRODUCTION OF THE JEWISH FORM

 

445.        The introduction of the Jewish form of the Masonic ceremonies was intentionally arranged by the Powers who stand behind Freemasonry about the time when Christianity was gaining ascendancy in the Roman Empire. It would have been almost impossible to continue the Mysteries of Bacchus or those of Mithra in their original form, while there was so much opposition between the Christian faith and the old Pagan religion. No such opposition was in Roman days felt towards the Jews, among whom the Christian faith arose and had its early nurture; and the Jewish form of the Mysteries was therefore adopted by the White Lodge as the best means of transmitting the ancient rites through the Dark Ages, when the Church rigorously persecuted all who were not in agreement with her doctrines. The chief agent in the work of transition was He who was then known as S. Alban, but whom to-day we revere as the Master the Comte de S. Germain, the Head of all true Freemasons throughout the world. I have given some account of Him and His Roman incarnation in The Hidden Life in Freemasonry.* (*Op. cit., pp. 12-16)

 

446.        THE TRANSITION TO THE OPERATIVES

 

447.        The Mysteries of Bacchus quite naturally and gradually gave place to the Jewish form of the same tradition as Christianity grew more and more powerful; for this was not incompatible with the Christian faith as the Greek and Egyptian traditions would have been; and the speculative secrets were more and more confused with operative terminology until the transition was complete. When the Roman Empire of the West was destroyed, political power came more and more into the hands of the Church, which grew very suspicious of secret societies, and suppressed them with great vigour. She did not, however, persecute the operative Masons, whom she regarded as a body of men wisely guarding the secrets of their trade, which she supposed to be concerned with the measurements of columns and arches, quantities for the mixing of mortar, and other such things.

448.        The Masters of the White Lodge, therefore, intentionally confused the symbolical with the operative working and thus preserved Blue Masonry, but permitted the higher wisdom to sink for the time out of sight. Thus they provided for such of the egos born in Europe as could not develop under the cruder teaching which was mis-called Christianity.

449.        This effort to preserve the Mysteries in the Dark Ages was successful because the speculative Masons adopted as much as they could of the operative Masons’ terminology, and entrusted them with some of the secrets. The latter then faithfully carried on the forms without comprehending more than half of what they meant.

450.        Then those who held philosophical ideas of which the Church would not approve allied themselves with the operative masons, became members of the fraternity, and attended their meetings; they did not come into the guilds as operative masons, and therefore were not bound as apprentices, but were free masons accepted into the operative body, but not belonging to it by right of physical-plane work. The tradition of the Collegia passed into the Lodges of the guilds, as we shall see in the next chapter, and the ancient succession of I.M.s, which we in Britain trace through S. Alban, was handed down unbroken from century to century. In consequence of this persecution, and the partial restoration of Masonry in different forms in different countries, its outward history had been obscured and confused in the greatest possible degree. It is a matter that might no doubt be elucidated by long and painstaking research, but it would be a task involving far too great an expenditure of energy and time.

 

 

2      Craft Masonry in Medieval Times

 

451.        EVOLUTIONARY METHODS

 

452.        THE theory of human evolution ordinarily put before us is that of a slow upward progress of man from extremely primitive and almost animal conditions through the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, the Iron Age, until he has arrived at his present level, which is by this hypothesis  the highest which he has yet attained. This view is only partially true; it is only on the one hand in a very broad and general sense covering a development lasting many millions of years, and on the other in a purely local sense affecting one or two sub-races, that it can be said to be true at all, for it leaves entirely out of account some of the most important factors in the case.

453.        Let no one ever doubt that evolution is a fact - that God has a plan for man, and that that plan is one of eternal advancement and unfold­ment, carrying him on to heights of glory and splendour of which at present we have no conception.

 

454.        Yet we doubt not through the ages one eternal purpose runs.

455.        And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.* (*Locksley Hall, by Lord Tennyson.)

 

456.        But if we wish to understand anything of this wondrous scheme we must begin by trying to grasp its general principles. First, it is no mere haphazard growth; it is being definitely directed from behind by a body of perfected men which we call the Great White Brotherhood - a body which exists to carry out the will of the Logos of the solar system. It works through machinery so vast and complicated that from the physical plane we can never see more than a tiny corner of its opera­tion, and so we constantly misconceive and underrate it.

457.        Secondly, its method of working is cyclical. The soul of man grows by occupying a succession of bodies, each of which is born, grows slowly to maturity, lives its life, learns (or fails to learn) its lesson, and then dies. Just so humanity grows by incarnating in a succession of races, each of which passes through its stage of youth, adolescence, full manhood and decay. Often the period of decay seems sad, both with the man and with the race; often the student of history cannot but regret the passing of a once mighty and splendid civilization to make way for a savagery possibly more virile, but certainly in its youth coarser and cruder.

458.        A flagrant example of that was the destruction of the gentle and beautiful civilization of Peru by the incredibly cruel and atrocious methods of the invading Spaniards; another very similar case was the utterly unjustifiable attack upon the civilization of Rome by the ferocious hordes of Goths and Vandals from the north. So coarse, so brutal were they that their very names have become a proverb, and we use them to-day to indicate the extremes of clumsiness and wanton destruction. Yet they also were an instrument in the hand of the divine power, and their crass ignorance contained within itself the seed of certain qualities which were in danger of dying out and being forgotten among the decaying races which they were destined to leaven and partially to replace.

 

459.        THE WITHDRAWAL OF THE MYSTERIES

 

460.        Even before the destruction of the Roman Empire the withdrawal of the Mysteries as public institutions had taken place; and this fact was mainly due to the excessive intolerance displayed by the Christians. Their amazing theory that none but they could be “saved” from the hell which they themselves had invented naturally led them to try all means, even the most cruel and diabolical persecutions, to force people of other faiths to accept their particular shibboleth. As the Mysteries were the heart and stronghold of a more rational belief, they of course opposed them bitterly, quite forgetful that in the earlier days of their religion they had claimed to possess as much of the inner knowledge as any other system.

 

461.        THE CHRISTIAN MYSTERIES

 

462.        Even to-day it is quite commonly thought that Christianity had no mysteries, and some of its followers boast that in it nothing is hidden. That mistaken idea has been so sedulously impressed upon the world that it leads many people to feel a certain distaste for the wiser faiths which met all needs, and to think of them as unnecessarily hiding part of the truth or grudging it to the world. In the old days there was no such thought as this; it was recognized that only those who came up to a certain standard of life were fit to receive the higher instruction, and those who wished for it set to work to qualify themselves for it. Knowledge is power, and people must prove their fitness before they will be entrusted with power; for the object of the whole scheme is human evolution, and the interests of evolution would not be served by promiscuous publication of occult truth.

463.        Those who maintain the above-mentioned opinion about Christianity are unacquainted with the history of the Church. Though many of the early Christian writers are bitterly hostile to the Mysteries, they indignantly deny the suggestion that in their Church they have nothing worthy of that name, and claim that their Mysteries are in every way as good and deep and far-reaching as those of their ‘pagan’ opponents. S. Clement says: “He who has been purified in baptism and then initiated into the little Mysteries (has acquired, that is to say, the habits of self-control and reflection), becomes ripe for the greater Mysteries, for Epopteia or Gnosis, the scientific knowledge of God.”* (*Quoted in Some Glimpses of Occultism, Ch. ii.) The same writer also said: “It is not lawful to reveal to profane persons the Mysteries of the Logos.”

464.        Origen, the most brilliant and learned of all the ecclesiastical Fathers, also asserts the existence of the secret teaching of the Church, and speaks plainly of the difference between the ignorant faith of the undeveloped multitude, and the higher and reasonable faith which is founded upon definite knowledge. He draws a distinction between “the popular irrational faith” which leads to what he calls “somatic Chris­tianity” (the merely physical form of the religion) and the “spiritual Christianity” offered by the Gnosis or wisdom. He makes it perfectly clear that by “somatic Christianity” he means that faith which is based on the gospel history. He says of it: “What better method could be devised to assist the masses?” In Dean Inge’s Christian Mysticism he is quoted as teaching that:

 

465.        The Gnostic or sage no longer needs the crucified Christ. The eternal or spiritual gospel which is his possession shows clearly all things concerning the Son of God Himself both the Mysteries shown by his words and the things of which his acts were the symbols … Origen regards the life, death and resur­rection of Christ as only one manifestation of a universal law, which was really enacted not in this fleeting world of shadows, but in the eternal counsels of the Most High. He considers that those who are thoroughly convinced of the universal truths revealed by the incarnation and the atonement need trouble themselves no more about their particular manifestations in time.* (*Op. cit., p. 89.)

 

466.        Here we see distinct and repeated references to the hidden teaching, greater far than anything known to the Church of the present day, and carrying those who study it to a much higher level than is ever now attained by the disciples of orthodoxy. What has become of this magnificent heritage of Christianity? It is true that everything the Church knows is now given out, but that is only because she has forgot­ten the mysteries which she used to keep hidden. This is one of the principal reasons why she has lost control of her more intellectual sons, and has therefore failed in her duty to educate and instruct the people in the most important things of life, and has left our age the most unpractical one ever known.

467.        We have come into this world to live our lives, not to make money, and on the way in which we live depends the condition of our future births. One would think, therefore, that people would be taught all about these things in school. It is certain that every one must die, but nobody tells us anything that is worth knowing about that important matter. On the contrary, exoteric Christianity in the days of its power positively forbade those who knew to say anything on the subject, and enforced with the most terrible weapons its incredibly foolish com­mandment: “Thou shalt not think.”

468.        Happily all this wonderful wisdom is not lost, for much of it is preserved to us in the teachings of Freemasonry. There were many thousands of people at the time when Christianity began to dominate the world who still clung to the ancient tradition, who preferred to state their views in the older forms. As Christianity grew narrower and more aggressive, and less tolerant of fact, those who knew something of the truth, and wished to preserve its enshrinement in those older forms, had more and more to keep their meetings secret; for the Church was exceedingly intolerant towards anyone who dared to differ from her, even in minor matters.

 

469.        THE REPRESSION OF THE MYSTERIES

 

470.        In A.D. 399 the Emperor Theodosius issued his celebrated edict, which was a heavy blow to the outer manifestation of the ancient pagan faith:

 

471.        Whatever privileges were conceded by the ancient laws to the priests, ministers, prefects, hierophants of sacred things, or by whatsoever name they may be designated, are to be abolished henceforth, and let them not think that they are protected by a granted privilege when their religious confession is known to have been condemned by the law.

 

472.        By A.D. 423 the penalties against those who clung to the old beliefs had become severe, for in a later edict of the same Emperor we find:

 

473.        Although the pagans that remain ought to be subjected to capital punishment if at any time they are detected in the abominable sacrifices of demons, let exile and confiscation of goods be their punishment.* (*Codex Theodosianus XVI, 10, 14, 23, quoted in A Source Book for Ancient Church History. Ayer, p. 371.)

 

474.        Wherever possible the temples of the gods were destroyed, the ancient libraries were burnt, the statues and other relics were broken in pieces by the brutal hands of the savage Christians - and what destruction remained to be accomplished in the Western Empire was completed by the no less barbarian invaders. So perished the outer worship of the gods of Greece and Rome; the Mysteries were withdrawn into inviolable secrecy, which remained unbroken until after the Reformation, when the Church had lost her power to burn and torture all who did not at least pretend to be in agreement with her doctrines.

 

475.        THE CROSSING OF TRADITIONS

 

476.        This retirement took place in several countries simultaneously, so several traditions arose which, like the mystery-systems from which they were derived, differed considerably in their details, though they were always based upon a common plan. These traditions have crossed  and recrossed one another constantly throughout the centuries, have influenced each other in all sorts of secret ways, have been carried from country to country by many messengers; so that the Masonry which emerged in the eighteenth century bears the signature of many lines of descent, of many interacting schools of mystical philosophy.

477.        Behind all these different movements, utterly unknown except by the few disciples charged with the work of keeping alight the sacred fire during the Dark Ages, stood the White Lodge itself, encouraging all that was good in them, guiding and inspiring all who were willing to open themselves to such influence.

478.        By efflux of time the true philosophy has gradually faded out of them again and again, and from time to time the adepts have taken advantage of some favourable opportunity to restore a little of it sometimes by founding a new rite or school, sometimes by instigating the establishment of additional degrees in an existing rite. We see, therefore, a number of parallel and equally valid streams of tradition running down in secret throughout the Middle Ages, and emerging here and there in movements which are to some extent known in the outer world. The real continuum of Masonry may thus be compared to the roots of a plant creeping along under the ground, and giving forth apparently separate plants at intervals. There are, however, more or less broken lines of outward descent that may be traced up to a certain point on the physical plane; it is with these that we shall especially concern ourselves in the following chapters.

 

479.        THE TWO LINES OF DESCENT

 

480.        We have already indicated that the only portion of the Masonic tradi­tion which was anciently divided into definite degrees is that which we now call Craft or symbolic Masonry - the direct descendant of the Lesser and the Greater Mysteries of Egypt and Judaea, and closely akin to the Mysteries of Greece. Greater sacramental powers were conferred and deeper spiritual instruction was given to the few who were endeavouring to prepare themselves for the true Mysteries of the White Lodge; but these cannot be called degrees after the manner of Craft Masonry, for even in ancient Egypt they were not organized as such. Both these lines of sucession passed down through the Middle Ages; the Craft degrees were deliberately confused with operative building, and were thus transmitted, although in secrecy, in the outer  world, but the higher instruction still belonged only to the few, and was handed down in far deeper secrecy still, being introduced from time to time into the heart of various mystical schools, which were much more exclusive in their choice of members than the operative  builders.

481.        With the Craft degrees were associated the kernel of those ceremonies which we now attach to the Honourable Degree of Mark Master Mason, connected, as always, with the 2°, and the Supreme Order of the Holy Royal Arch of Jerusalem, worked in conjunction with the 3°. Our present rituals for these are not therefore necessarily ancient, for all have been subjected to much modern recasting and editing. A body of legend and tradition explanatory of the ceremonial appears also to have been handed down; and the relics of this have in comparatively recent times been manufactured into separate ceremonial degrees - such, for example, as certain of the earlier stages of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, and their kindred among the side or additional degrees worked in England and America.

 

482.        THE CULDEES

 

483.        A noteworthy line of tradition, connected with Craft Masonry to some extent, but even more with the Royal Order of Scotland and the 18°, is found among the Culdees of Ireland, Scotland and York. Few trustworthy sources of information exist concerning them, though they have been the centre of many beautiful dreams; but they are thought by scholars to have been either an ancient monastic order with settle­ments in Ireland and Scotland,* (*Enc. Brit., Art. Culdees (Eleventh Ed.)) or in a wider sense to have represented the monks and clerics of the Celtic Church without limitation, as well as those understood to be their successors in later times.* (*Hist. Freemasonry, R. F. Gould, Vol. I, p. 47.)

484.        We hear of them in Ireland from the ninth to the seventeenth cen­turies; from the ninth to the fourteenth centuries in Scotland, where they had several influential monastic communities, including one upon the holy island of Iona, which had been one of the greatest spiritual centres of Celtic Christianity long before the word Culdee is mentioned in the historical records concerning it. In Wales in the twelfth century there was a strict community of Culdees living in the island of Bardsey, the holy island of Wales; while in England we find them as officiating clergy in the Cathedral Church of S. Peter at York during the reign of King Athelstan, who was so closely linked with English Masonic tradition.* (*Hist. Freemasonry, R. F. Gould, Vol. I, p. 50 ff.) It is said that after requesting the prayers of the Culdees for victory over the Scots, when he was successful he granted them a perpetual endowment of corn, to enable them to continue their works of charity.

485.        Their name has been derived from the Celtic Cele-De, meaning Companion or Servant of God, and from the Latin Colidei, worship­pers of God; others have thought that it came from the Celtic cuill dich, meaning men of seclusion; but the etymology of the word is not certainly known. Godfrey Higgins claimed that the word Culdee was the same as Chaldee, and ascribed to them an Oriental origin, although he adduces no authentic evidence for his views.* (*Quoted by Bro. A. E. Waite: A New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry, Art. Culdees.)

 

486.        CELTIC CHRISTIANITY IN BRITAIN

 

487.        Students of English Church History know that Christianity was intro­duced into Great Britain long before the missions of S. Patrick and S. Augustine; and there has been a persistent feeling that this Chris­tianity was not that of Rome, but had affinities rather with the Eastern  rites.* (*Neander, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, Vol. i. p. 117. Quoted Gould, loc. cit.) Many traditions, none of them substantiated by authentic records,  bear witness to this belief, and point the way to a truth in the background. There is the beautiful legend of Joseph of Arimathaea  and the Holy Thorn of Glastonbury; there is the story told by Theodoret and Fortunatus that S. Paul visited Britain, which appears to receive  some confirmation from S. Clement of Rome; while Eusebius, the great ecclesiastical historian, mentions that some of the twelve apostles visited the British Isles.* (*Foundation Stones. Austin Clare, p. 16.) Indeed it was not until the twelfth century that Celtic Christianity was finally brought into line with the usages of Roman Catholicism.* (*Enc. Brit., loc. cit.)

488.        The holy island of Iona, once the heart of the old Celtic Church, lies off the west coast of Scotland among the Inner Hebrides. It was called Hy or Icolmkill (the island of Columba of the Church), and by the Highlanders Innis nan Druidhneah (the isle of the Druids), implying that before the coming of S. Columba in A.D. 563 it had been a hallowed centre of the ancient worship of the Celts.* (*Enc. Brit., Art. Iona.) The monks of Iona spread their learning over Sootland and Northern England, and the early Celtic Bishops owned the abbot of Iona as their spiritual head. In 717 the monks of Iona were expelled from Scotland by the Pictish King Nechtan; but their place was largely filled by the Culdees of Ireland,* (*Enc. Brit., Art. Culdees.) who appear to have been followers of the same tradition. No mention is made of the Culdees in Scotland after A.D. 1382.* (*Gould, loc. cit.)

489.        We find that the early British Church, of which the Culdees were the later survivors, possessed a beautiful and mystical form of Chris­tianity derived from Eastern sources and closely connected with the traditions of the Essenes, who were the immediate followers of Our Lord. It had the apostolic succession of the Christian Church, but its teachings were less defined and rigid, more mystical and poetic than the Roman scholasticism which in later days so completely absorbed it. In addition to the Christian sacraments, certain secret rites were  brought to Britain by the original missionaries, rites belonging to the Mithraic line of succession, which, as we have already seen, were practised among the Essenes; and there may also in all likelihood have existed among them a succession of Jewish Masonry unconnected with the Roman Collegia.

 

490.        THE DRUIDIC MYSTERIES

 

491.        These various lines of tradition were assimilated to some extent with the indigenous Mysteries of the Druids, which, however, had lost much of the splendour of former times; and even the outer Christian rites became touched with that peculiar beauty which is the heritage of the Celt. We find confirmation of the ancient legend that the splendid Celtic race called the Tuatha De Danaan, which flourished in ancient Ireland, came originally from Greece through Scandinavia; and the same is true of other offshoots of the Celtic stock which settled in Wales, Corn­wall and Brittany. They all formed a branch of that Fourth Sub-race from which the later Greeks and Romans were also descended; and the origin of the Mysteries of the Druids may be traced to the great World Teacher, in His incarnation as Orpheus, the singer of Hellas, though they were also influenced somewhat by the still older Mysteries of Ireland which date from Atlantean times. The lyre of Apollo became the harp of Angus; and the old worship of God as the divine beauty manifesting through music thus passed down into Britain.

492.        The Druidical Mysteries had a certain influence on the imported Roman or Norman rites. They are compared by Strabo and Artemidorus to the rites of Samothrace, and by Dionysius to those of Bacchus, while Mnaseas refers to their Kabiric correspondences. We learn from Diogenes Laertius and from Caesar that the Druidic method of instruction was by symbols, enigmas and allegories, and that they taught orally, deeming it unlawful to commit their knowledge to writing. It is said that their ceremonies of initiation required much physical purification and mental preparation. In the first degree the aspirant’s symbolical death was represented, and in the third his regeneration from the womb of the giant goddess Ceridwin and the committal of the newly-born to the waves in a small boat, symbolical of the ark. Their doctrines were similar to those of Pythagoras - including reincarnation and the existence of one Supreme Being. Apart from a few stray references in classical authors, we know of them today chiefly through the Bardic songs attributed to the Welsh poet Taliesin, of the sixth century A.D., who claimed Druidic initiation. Culdees of York blended Christian mysticism with these pre-Christian rites, and so linked them with modern Masonry.

493.        There have been many other mysteries, such as those of Ireland, closely connected with the Druids, and of Scandinavia, wherein the death and resurrection of Balder was the chief theme, and no doubt all these were connected with the source of our present Masonry, being branches of the same tree, even though external traces of their rela­tionship in the past have disappeared.

 

494.        THE HOLY GRAIL

 

495.        As part of this indirect heritage from the Greek Mysteries came the well-known symbol of the Krater or Cup, which in the intermingling with early British Christianity was identified with the Sangreal, the Chalice used by our Lord at the Last Supper for the founding of the Holy Eucharist. King Arthur, who has often been supposed to be an imaginary hero, was a very real and most lovable and sagacious ruler, of whom England may well be proud; his Round Table also is fact and not fiction, and among its Knights there was a rite of the Christian Mysteries centring round the beautiful story of the quest for the Holy Grail. Some there were who took the legend literally and undertook endless physical-plane pilgrimages in search of an earthly cup; others knew that the mystical meaning of the finding of the Holy Grail is the union between the higher and the lower self, which is one of the qualifications for initiation into the true Mysteries of the White Lodge; for the Chalice symbolically represents the causal body into which the “blood” of the Mystery is poured. “I am the cup, His love the wine.” The Mysteries of the Holy Grail were simultaneously celebrated in various centres, both in Great Britain and on the Continent, where they doubtless became mingled with other lines of tradition; and in them we find clear traces of one of those secret schools in which the flame of the hidden wisdom burnt bright during the early Middle Ages. The tradition of the Grail and its spiritual Knighthood passed into literature through the hands of Chretien de Troyes, Wolfram von Eschenbach and other writers, whence on the one hand we derive the Morte d’Arthur of Sir Thomas Malory, from which Tennyson drew the materials for his Idylls of the King, and on the other the glorious music of Parsifal, in which Wagner reconstructed so magnificently the German tradition of the Grail Brotherhood.

 

496.        HEREDOM

 

497.        In Scotland these secret Mysteries of the East and West were handed down from generation to generation in various centres, one of the chief of these being the sacred island of Iona. Among the initiates of the Culdee rites Iona was called Heredom. Heredom is said in Masonic tradition to be a mystical mountain, and as such it is indeed the mount of Initiation beyond the veils of space and time; but it was also the secret name of the physical centre of the Mysteries - and this centre was Iona. Another such secret centre in mediaeval days was the Abbey of Kilwinning; and thus, the rites which derive in part from Culdee sources have always styled themselves as of Kilwinning and of Heredom.

498.        The Saxon invasion of Britain drove the Celtic inhabitants of the plains to the mountains of the west and north; and thus there was a further mingling of the Jewish Mysteries of the Collegia with the Culdee rites. The Culdees of York were among the guardians of the Masonic tradition in the tenth century, and the Old Charges tell us that an assembly of Masons was held at York during the reign of King Athelstan, when a reorganization of the Craft took place. For many centuries York was a powerful centre of Masonry; and we have a curious piece of testimony given in 1835, by Godfrey Higgins, who claimed to be in possession of a Masonic document by which he could prove that “no very long time ago” the Culdees or Chaldaeans of York were Freemasons, that they constituted the Grand Lodge of England, and that they held their meetings in the crypt under the great cathedral of that city.* (*Quoted in Waite’s New Encyclopaedia, Art. Culdees.) As we shall presently see, it was at York that certain important Masonic degrees emerged in the eighteenth century.

499.        The monks of the Celtic Church were largely responsible for the introduction of Christianity into Germany. “Wherever they came they raised Churches and dwellings for their priests, cleared the forests, tilled the virgin soil, and instructed the heathen in the first principles of civilization.* (*Gould. Hist. Freem., Vol. I, p. 107.) Some German authorities have held that the monks directing these operations owed much of their success to the remnants of the Roman Colleges of Gaul and Britain, and ultimately laid the foundations of the craft guild system in Germany. Gould rejects this view on the ground that at the time of the Celtic influence there were no craft guilds in Germany;* (*Gould. Hist. Freem., Vol. I, p. 109.) but nevertheless some of the secret rites and traditions of the Celtic monks passed into the German monasteries and formed one of the lines of descent of those stonemasons who built the great German cathedrals in the Middle Ages.

500.        In Scotland the Celtic Mystery-tradition passed down independently of the later operative Lodges, for there is no trace whatsoever of any high degrees in the extant Minutes of Mother Kilwinning, No. 0 upon the roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, which date from 1642.* (*History of the Lodge of Edinburgh (Mary’s Chapel, No. I) D. Murray Lyon, pp. 340, 434.) There is truth in the legend of the coming of certain of the French Knights Templars to Scotland after their proscription in 1307, and there was an intermingling of their doctrines also with the Scottish rites. One line of descent crossed from Scotland to France, where it was blended in the eighteenth century with the Egyptian tradition to form the rite of Heredom or of Perfection under the Council of the Emperors of the East and West, as will be further explained in Chapter XI. Another line was handed down in Scotland and England, becoming blended with Jewish Tradition, and Emerged in the Degrees of HRDM-RSYCS in what we now call the Royal Order of Scotland. The curious rhymed ritual of the Royal Order bears internal evidences of age, and although its Christianity has been ruthlessly edited in protestant interests there are yet traces of the old mystical ideas of the Celtic Church.

 

 

2      Operative Masonry in the Middle Ages

 

501.        THE TEMPORARY CUSTODIANS

 

502.        IN a complete study of mediaeval operative Masonry it would be necessary to include a treatise upon the various schools of mediaeval architecture and the tendencies, national and economic, which influ­enced their creation and development. In this book we are concerned with the operative builders only in so far as they were the temporary custodians of the speculative science of the Mysteries; but the study of architecture is of considerable value to the Mason; for it is the physical-plane reflection of mighty ideas in the inner worlds, and by the study of architecture certain of the laws of spiritual building may by analogy be reached and understood.

503.        As Masons, our speculative ancestry is noble and magnificent, for we are in that respect the lineal descendants of the kings and prophets and priests of old who have been the bearers of the Hidden Light to men through countless generations; but of our operative forefathers who so faithfully guarded the tradition in the days of darkness we may also be proud, for their art at its zenith was unsurpassed in richness and splendour by the achievements of any other age in Europe; the great cathedrals and monasteries which they built to the glory of God and in the service of His Church are touched with the finger of divine inspiration, so that the cold marble is transfigured into almost unbelievable grace and delicacy; they are veritable dreams of beauty materialized into stone. The operative Masons, too, have handed down to us many of their customs and usages; and it is well that we should understand these in addition to what we have derived from other sources.

504.        When Europe was overrun by the Germanic tribes and the Empire of the West was destroyed, the Roman Collegia for the most part disappeared with the other fruits of civilization. The Mysteries en­shrined in them survived in a more or less repressed form in Italy, France and England, although they were kept extremely secret for fear of the barbarian invaders. It was from these survivals that the Lodges of the guild Masons of the Middle Ages were derived.

 

505.        DECLINE OF THE COLLEGIA

 

506.        Mackey shows how the Collegia declined after the fall of Rome, and how new guilds were started and old ones revived under the patronage of the Christian clergy, and asserts that after the tenth cen­tury the whole of Europe was perambulated by bands of wanderers called Travelling Freemasons, who erected churches and monasteries in the Gothic style. Authorities differ seriously in opinion as to whether the fraternities who built the great cathedrals were joined together by any central organization. There is much in the similarity of style of building in the different countries, and in the Masonic signs upon the buildings, to indicate their connection, but the central organization must have allowed its branches great latitude, since the differences in style are also great. The cathedrals that the Travelling Freemasons built with such great skill and artistic inspiration were laid out upon a symbolic plan, usually based upon the cross and the vesica piscis, and there is some evidence that they moralized upon their tools. Undoubtedly these were men of the loftiest intellect and spirituality, and we modern speculative Masons have no reason to be ashamed of our associations with such operative craftsmen.

 

507.        THE COMACINI

 

508.        The first signs of a revival in the art of building, the first stirrings of that creative spirit which was to blossom in later years in the full glory of the Gothic, are to be found in Lombardy, where originated the style called Romanesque, which eventually spread all over Europe.  According to tradition, the College of Architects from Rome removed during the last days of the Empire to the safe refuge offered by the little republic of Comum, once the home of Pliny, and made its retreat upon the lovely island still known as Isola Comacina in Lake Como in Northern Italy.* (*The Cathedral Builders, Leader Scott; pp. 11, 140.) In A.D. 568 the surrounding country fell into the hands of the Lombards or Longobards, so-called from their long beards and uncouth appearance, whose original home had been in the lower basin of the Elbe; and although at first they were detested by the Italians, with surprising rapidity they developed enthusiasm for the arts and refinement of the land they had conquered.* (*History of Art, H. B. Cotterill, Vol. I, p. 232.)

509.        The first mention in contemporary records of the celebrated Comacine Masters, who were descended from that Roman College, occurs in the code of the Lombard King Rothares (643), in which they figure as Master Masons with power to make contracts for building works and to employ workmen and labourers.* (*The Cathedral Builders, p. 5.) They are mentioned also in the Memoratorio of King Luitprand in 713,* (*Ibid., p. 24.) when they received the privileges of freemen in the Lombard State. To their creative genius Romanesque architecture is due; and in all probability they adapted the traditional Roman methods to the requirements of their Lombard masters. It is clear from the Edict that they were highly-skilled architects. From a letter from Theodoric the Great to an architect whom he had appointed, we learn that the profession was highly developed, and an architect had to be able to construct a building from founda­tion to roof, and also decorate it with sculpture and painting, mosaic and bronzework. This inclusiveness prevailed in all the mediaeval schools up to 1335, when the Siennese painters seceded; and sub­sequently other branches also separated themselves into distinct guilds.

 

510.        The first dawn of the new style (c. 600) was followed by a long period of obscuration, not unlike that Dark Age which in the evolution of Greek art followed the Dorian conquest. Then, with a strange suddenness, sprang forth (c. 1000) in wonderful perfection the new style, and rapidly extended itself over much of western and northern Christendom - the rapidity of this extension being easily explainable by the fact that master-builders and workmen were often summoned to great distances from well-known centres of architecture. In the same way as Venice and Ravenna sent to Constantinople for Byzantine builders, Charles the Great and many other princes, as well as cities, procured  from Italy skilful Romanesque architects, such as the Comacine Masters, and the characteristics of this Lombard Romanesque are found not only in Germany and France but even in England.* (*History of Art, Vol. I, p. 230.)

 

 

511.        Italian chroniclers relate that architects and builders were sent by Pope Gregory the Great to England with S. Augustine, and we learn from the Venerable Bede that S. Benedict Biscop set out for Gaul to search for masons to build the monastic church at Monk Wearmouth “according to the Roman style he had always loved”.* (*The Cathedral Builders, pp. 143, 154.) S. Boniface visited Italy before undertaking his great mission to Germany in A.D. 715; Pope Gregory II gave him instructions and credentials, and sent with him a large following of monks versed in the art of building, and of lay brethren who were also architects to assist him.* (*Ibid., p. 133.) Leader Scott contends that these builders were Comacine Masters, and bases her arguments upon the evidence of building methods and the similarity of the styles employed. In like manner she traces the Comacini into France and Normandy, Southern Italy and Sicily, and even to Ireland in fact wherever the Romanesque style of building has penetrated.

 

512.        THE COMACINE LODGES

 

513.        The Comacine Guild not only inherited the building traditions of the Collegia, but also their secret Mysteries; and it was largely owing to the impulse given by them that a general revival of the existing Lodges of Europe took place. A very considerable interchange of influence occurs at this time; new Lodges were founded and old Lodges were restored, for, although the primary inspiration came from Italy, the builders in the different countries soon learnt to modify the new style in accordance with national requirements and taste. Many of the higher brethren, the Magistri of the Guild, were men of wide culture and refinement, who knew much of the inner meaning of the rites and ceremonies handed down amongst them; and it may well be that some among them possessed the knowledge now belonging to the higher degrees, for high degree signs are occasionally found upon their work. The majority of the craftsmen, however, probably knew little more than that there was a symbolical meaning to their ceremonies and tools, and tried to order their lives accordingly.

514.        As Bro. J. S. M. Ward has pointed out very clearly, the Comacini show marked analogies with our modern Masonic system. They were organized into Masters and Disciples under the rule of a Gastaldo or Grand Master. Their working-places were called Lodges. They had Masters and Wardens, signs, tokens, grips, pass-words and oaths of secrecy and fidelity. The Four Crowned Martyrs were their Patron Saints; they wore white aprons and gloves, and among the symbols associated with them we find the Lion of Judah, King Solomon’s knot, the square and compasses, the level and plumb-rule, and the rose and compasses.

515.        On a pulpit at Ravello, in one of their buildings of the thirteenth century, Jonah is seen coming out of the whale’s mouth, making the  F.C.H.S.* (*Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, J. S. M. Ward, Ch. xviii, passim.) At Coire Cathedral in Switzerland, which is Romanesque in style and contains abundant evidence of Comacine work, several figures on the capitals of the pillars in the choir and sanctuary are depicted making Masonic s … s, notably the F.C.H.S., the G. and R. S., and several s … s now associated with the Rose-Croix, Knights Templars, and other high degrees in Freemasonry.* (*An Outline History of Freemasonry, J. S. M. Ward, p. 34.) In the town-hall at Basle there is a fresco by Hans Dyg, painted in 1519, in which we may see the same s … s, and also one of the Mark degree. King Solomon’s knot is the traditional name among the Italians of to-day for the elaborate interlaced stonework executed by the Comacine Masters up to the eleventh century. It consists always of a single strand woven and interwoven in the most complex and beautiful designs. Leader Scott calls it “that intricate and endless variety of the single unbroken line of unity - emblem of the manifold ways of the power of the one God who has neither beginning nor end”.* (*The Cathedral Builders, p. 72.)

 

516.        OTHER SURVIVALS OF THE COLLEGIA

 

517.        Before passing on to the rise of Gothic architecture, which marks the climax of operative achievement in the Middle Ages, it will be well if we indicate certain other survivals of the Collegia and their Mysteries; for although the great impulse to restore the art of building came through the Comacine Masters, other Lodges had existed in Europe from Roman days which, under the influence of Italian inspira­tion, regained their power and vitality. In France especially it is clear that the organization of the Collegia was never fully destroyed and that the craft-guilds (Corps d’Etat) of the Middle Ages were derived from them in unbroken continuity.

 

518.        The true origin of the corporation is found in the social life of the Romans, and amongst the vanquished Gauls, who always formed the principal popula­tion in the cities, and faithfully preserved under their new masters the remem­brance and traces of their ancient organization.* (*Levasseur, Histoire des Classes Ouvrieres en France, Vol. i, p. 104, quoted Gould i, p. 182.)

 

519.        Roman civil architecture, industry, art - in one word, the whole Roman tradition - was perpetuated in France till the tenth century. Even the German conquerors, while preserving their own national laws, customs, and usages, accepted the Gallic industry much as they found it.* (*Monteil, Histoire de l’Industrie Francaise, Preface by C. Louandre, p. 76, quoted ibid., p. 183.)

 

520.        Not only was the trade organization preserved without break; the inner Mysteries of the Colleges of Architects were transmitted to the mediaeval building guilds of France, though they were no doubt strongly influenced by the Italian Masters who practised the same Mysteries and the same glorious Craft.

 

521.        THE COMPAGNONNAGE

 

522.        An interesting survival of the mediaeval craft-guilds of France is seen in an association of French journeymen for mutual support and assistance during their travels. Practically nothing was known about the practices of the Compagnonnage before the nineteenth century, although a partial revelation of one of the sections composing it (Enfants de Maitre Jacques) had been extracted by the Doctors of the Sorbonne in 1651, who not unnaturally stigmatized their proceedings as impiety and sacrilege. In 1841 the Livre du Compagnonnage was published by Agricol Perdiguier, a French workman of some culture, who undertook the task of revealing as much of the history and traditions of the Compagnonnage as his oath would permit, in order to put an end to the strife which ceaselessly occurred between its dif­ferent sections.

523.        The Compagnonnage consisted of three organizations perpetually at war with one another, each of which had an interesting traditional history and claimed a traditional chief. The oldest division was that of the Sons of Solomon, originally consisting of stonemasons only,  although joiners and locksmiths were admitted later; the second was that of the Sons of Maitre Jacques, who likewise admitted members of these three trades and later of many others, notably saddlers, shoemakers, tailors, cutlers, and hatters; while the third section  followed Maitre Soubise, and was originally composed only of carpenters, although at a later date plasterers and tilers were also admitted. It is generally conceded that the Sons of Solomon were the oldest of all; and another remarkable fact is that the masons (to be carefully distinguished from the Stonemasons) were never admitted at all. Houses of call belonging to these three associations existed in the more important towns of France; and travelling journeymen had the right to lodging and assistance in finding work in the houses belong­ing to their fraternity.

524.        The three sections of the Compagnonnage preserved legends con­cerning King Solomon and his temple. Little is known of the form of the legend current among the Sons of Solomon, but there are curious indications that the story of the death of Hiram (which is not contained in the Bible) was known to them. Perdiguier tells us little, but he gives certain hints:

 

525.        An ancient fable has obtained currency amongst them (the Sons of Solomon) relating, according to some, to Hiram, according to others, to Adonhiram; wherein are represented crimes and punishments. Again he tells us “that the joiners of Maitre Jacques wear white gloves, because, as they say, they did not steep their hands in the blood of Hiram”.

 

526.        Furthermore with regard to the use of the word chien bestowed upon all the Compagnons du Devoir, he says:

 

527.        It is believed by some to be derived from the fact that it was a dog which discovered the place where the body of Hiram, architect of the Temple, lay under the rubbish, after which all the companions who separated from the murderers of Hiram were called chiens or dogs.

 

528.        Some have thought, and among them Perdiguier himself, that these are indications of a legend which may have been borrowed from the Freemasons; but they clearly point to an independent line of tradition handed down among the stonemasons of France. Maitre Jacques and Maitre Soubise have also their traditional histories, likewise going back to the days of Solomon’s Temple; and in that of the former an elaborate account of the death of Maitre Jacques is given, which may likewise be an echo of the death of another and greater Master - for it is clearly intended to be symbolical. There is also a suggestion that it was taken to refer to the death of Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templars. Much yet remains to be discovered about the Compagnonnage, for no full investigation into its records has yet taken place; and it may well be that future research will show clearly that the speculative Masons of England and the operative journeymen of France derive their traditions from a common ancestry in the ancient Mysteries. This at least was the opinion of R. F. Gould, the greatest of our Masonic historians.* (*See Gould. Hist. Freem., Vol. I, ch. iv and v, for a complete account of what is known of the French Craft Guilds and the Compagnonnage.)

 

529.        THE STONEMASONS OF GERMANY

 

530.        Another line of survival of the ancient tradition is found among the Stonemasons of Germany. We have already traced the influence of two streams of tradition into Germany, one emanating from Britain through the Celtic monks, and another coming from Italy through S. Boniface. The craft guilds of Germany developed independently of monastic influence, but according to Gould it is probable that in the twelfth century the skilled masons of the monasteries amalgamated with the craft builders in the towns, and together formed the society afterwards known throughout Germany as the Steinmetzen.* (*Concise History of Freemasonry, R. F. Gould, p. 17.)

531.        We know from the Torgau Ordinances of 1462 that the Stonemasons venerated the Four Crowned Martyrs as their patron saints, and the Strasburg Constitutions of 1459 contain a devout invocation of the names of the “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; of our gracious Mother Mary; and of her blessed servants, the Holy Four Crowned Martyrs of everlasting memory”.* (*Gould, Concise History, p. 19.) From the Brother-Book of 1563 we learn that they had a greeting and a grip which might not be described in writing;* (*Gould, Hist. of Freem., Vol. i, p. 128.) and a curious piece of testimony came to light at the begin­ning of the nineteenth century, when a certain architect, who had joined a survival of the Stonemasons and was subsequently admitted into Masonry, recognized the E.A. grip as identical with that of the  Steinmetzen of Strasburg.* (*Ibid., p. 146.) A ceremony of admission was in use among them; but what it was is not known.* (*Concise History, Gould, p. 22.)

532.        At Daberan in Mecklenburg there is a carving of the Last Supper, wherein the apostles are depicted in well-known Masonic attitudes,* (*An Outline History of Freemasonry, J. S. M. Ward, p. 35.) while according to the Bulletin of the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction, U.S.A.) the legend of Hiram Abiff is carved in stone at Strasburg.* (*Op, cit., vii, 200.) In the cathedral at Wurzburg two pillars, inscribed Jachin and Boaz, originally stood at the porchway or entrance, but they have now been moved within the building. Stieglitz in his Early German Architecture says that they were intended to bear a symbolic reference to the fraternity.* (*Gould, Concise Hist., p. 24.) A bas-relief in a convent near Schaffhausen depicts a figure making one of the s … s of an I.M.* (*An Outline History of Freemasonry, J. S. M. Ward, p. 11.) In the year 1459 the Stonemasons of Germany united to form a Grand Guild, governed by four Head Lodges, of which Strasburg was the chief. So close are the parallels between its organiza­tion and that of modern speculative Masonry that many German writers have held that the Steinmetzen were the originators of the speculative system. As a matter of fact there appears to have been no interchange in modern times between the two corporations, and modern German Craft Masonry is clearly derived from England.* (*Gould, Concise History, pp. 18, 24.)

 

533.        THE ENGLISH GUILDS

 

534.        Three distinct lines of tradition contribute to the Masonry of the English guilds. One line was preserved among the Celts, as we have already seen, and became mingled in later times with streams from other sources. Secondly, the Roman Collegia survived to some extent in England after the departure of the Romans; the Saxons found them there and did not interfere with them.* (*Coote - cited in The Cathedral Builders, Leader Scott, p. 140.) Thirdly, there was the influx of Continental builders, beginning in the time of S. Augustine, but greatly augmented after the Norman Conquest under the patronage of Archbishop Lanfranc, the first Norman Archbishop of Canterbury, a Lombard by birth and a celebrated patron of building even before he came to England.* (*J. S. M. Ward, Freemasonry and the Ancient Gods, p. 147.) All these streams of tradition were represented in the mediaeval guilds, and were handed down in various centres. The French craft-guilds preserve accounts similar to those found in our English Old Charges regarding the assistance given to Masons by Charles Martel.* (*Gould, Concise History, p. 30.)

535.        The secret Mysteries of the Craft, common, save for certain unim­portant local modifications, to all these lines of descent, Celtic, Saxon and Continental, were handed down in the Lodges of the mediaeval Masons, which were the units of organization and labour within the guilds; they were never written down, but were transmitted orally from generation to generation, the succession passing down from Master to Master as in the present day. The primary work of the Lodges was of course operative, and the speculative ritual which was handed drown so faithfully in essentials was regarded as an ancient heritage to be scrupulously transmitted to posterity; but it is unlikely that any but the few recognized its true purpose, or thought of it as containing more than a merely moral code of life. It is due to the rigid observance of the O. “never to write those secrets” (an O. which would have been enforced by certain pains and penalties not unknown to Masons to­day), that no trace of the ritual can be found in any document prior to 1717; and it is because of this lack of all records that many Masonic scholars believe that it was compiled only at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Even in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, when the Old Charges were written down, no mention is made of the Legend of Hiram; for this formed part of the secret ritual and therefore might not be divulged. A figure representing God the Son in the porch of Peterborough Cathedral is depicted as making the F.C.H.S.* (*J. S. M. Ward, Op. cit., p. 116.) showing that this s … at least was known to our old operative brethren.

 

536.        THE RISE OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

 

537.        The climax of mediaeval operative building was reached in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in the rise and development of Gothic architecture, which was inspired directly by the Head of all true Freemasons throughout the world, as part of the plan for the development of the fifth or Teutonic sub-race. Many theories have been advanced to account for the rapid development of the new style.

 

538.        Whether the wonderful change of style that in a few years spread over a great part of Western Christendom was due primarily to the discovery of the possibilities of the pointed arch or those of the so-called ogival vaulting is much disputed. Probably it was due to both, and also of course to certain movements, social and political, which were bound to favour immensely any such new enthusiasm; for a new national consciousness was rapidly gaining strength, especially in France, and cities and communes were beginning to vie in erecting vast buildings - first cathedrals and later civic edifices - the architects being now mostly laymen, the founders and donors often municipal bodies and rich citizens, and the workmen not seldom volunteers from the people. The old monastic era of Romanesque suddenly gave way to that of a new, popular, and civic architecture, and in a surprisingly short time much the same had happened as that which we noted after the passing of the fateful year A.D. 1000, when, according to old Raoul Glaber, Christendom cast aside its outworn attire and put on a fresh white robe of new-built Churches.* (*Cotterill, History of Art, Vol. I, p. 278.)

 

539.        We, however, do not need to speculate or theorize as to the causes of the rapid development of the new style, for we have the advantage of knowing that the movement was all the time being definitely steered from behind by the H.O.A.T.F. and a corps of able assistants under  his direction.

540.        As I have already said, architecture has a powerful effect upon the consciousness of the people, for it is one of the means chosen by the White Lodge to influence the development of the various nations according to the plan of the Great Architect of the Universe. To understand the significance of the Gothic style, we must consider for a moment an important fact of occult history, that which is technically known to students as the cyclic change of Ray. The seven rays, or types of the divine consciousness and activity, to one or other of which all  living things belong, influence the world in turn, and this cyclic change produces the modifications of outlook which are to be noted as century succeeds century.

541.        Each race and sub-race has its own especial qualities to develop. The fifth root-race, to which we ourselves belong, is engaged as a whole in the unfolding of intellect; but each of its sub-races has likewise a quality to cultivate. The fourth or Celtic sub-race was concerned with the evolution of intellect through the emotions, and so produced the beauty-loving peoples whom we see in Greece and Ireland; while the fifth or Teutonic sub-race, to which the Anglo-Saxons and Scandi­navians belong, is striving to awaken the intellect working in the con­crete mind, and so is producing the scientific and industrial nations which lead the world to-day.

542.        This cyclic change of Ray, which is also part of the great plan, produces other, but no less definite modifications in the corporate consciousness. In Greece we saw something of the fifth ray, the ray of knowledge, working upon the fourth sub-race with its love of beauty, resulting in that intellectual type of art so characteristic of the classical age; the Middle Ages show forth the qualities of the sixth ray, the ray of devotion, working upon the fifth or Teutonic sub-race, and produc­ing as its characteristic intellectual fruit scholastic philosophy with its hair-splitting intellectuality based upon an almost fanatical devotion.

543.        Devotion, indeed, was the great characteristic of the Middle Ages. The twelfth and thirteenth centuries, so rich in the annals of Christian mysticism, were adorned by men and women whose power of devotion reached heights rarely touched in any other age. The great S. Bernard (who among many other noted works gave their Rule to the Order of Knights Templars), Richard of S. Victor, S. Hildegarde, S. Francis of Assisi and S. Antony of Padua, and a little later S. Bonaventura and S. Thomas Aquinas - all these have shone forth as a light unto many generations. Profound changes took place in the Catholic Church during these significant years, and Europe rose from the dark ages into the full glory of an era of culture and art. Gothic architecture was intended to lift the devotion of the masses to greater heights than had been induced by the contemplation of the flatter Romanesque style; by its soaring lines and ever-ascending curves, by the richness of its ornamentation and the splendid complexity of its design, by its amazing grace and delicacy, it had power to raise the hearts of men on the wings of its silent music to the very throne of God Himself, to mould and enrich their devotion in unseen subtle ways, to pour out upon them spiritual influences which would aid in the great work of transforma­tion which had to be accomplished.

544.        The change from Romanesque to Gothic, then, was brought about deliberately. The inspiration was given to certain master-builders in the different countries by the H.O.A.T.F., and the erection of the splendid cathedrals of the period was carried out by travelling bands of Masons passing from centre to centre, and doubtless employing the local builders upon the actual work of construction. This, as we have said, was an age of devotion, and every stone was carved with the utmost care to the glory of God, and thereby charged with the adoration of the skilful craftsmen who worked so unselfishly. The powerful spiritual influences generated by all this loving care have con­tributed in no small degree to the extraordinary beauty of the Gothic cathedrals, and to the power which they possess even in the present day of evoking devotion and reverence from all who approach them.

545.        The particular expressions of Gothic vary in the different countries, and even in different parts of the same country; that is always the case in every style of building. But behind the whole order of Gothic architecture there is one great idea, that of soaring, passionate devo­tion ever rising to the feet of God; and that is found with national modifications in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. This was the great age of operative Masonry, and at its close the building corporations began to decline in power, until in England and Germany especially the movement miscalled the Reformation killed out ecclesias­tical architecture, and church building as a fine art practically ceased.

546.        In the fourteenth century the merchant guilds, which organized an entire industry, became decentralized, and a new system of craft guilds gradually arose, organizing different branches of each industry. This change of organization was due to a profound change of thought among the people, which was to lead to the great stirring of the Renaissance and the growth of national consciousness in the different countries. It is at this period that the Old Charges of our ancient operative Brn. first appear, and they were written down as the Freemasons became gradually disorganized, in order to preserve the older oral records from oblivion.

 

547.        THE OLD CHARGES

 

548.        These Old Charges reflect in no small measure the ignorance of the time in matters of geography and chronology, but they nevertheless contain an account of the broad outline of Masonic descent from Egypt, through Judaea, into Europe; and it would certainly be difficult to suppose that they were fabricated by mere operative builders who had nothing of hidden mystery to transmit. I give below a brief summary of the Dowland manuscript, which is fairly representative of the tradi­tion common to all. It is reproduced from Hughan’s Old Charges (1872), and is quoted from Mackey’s Encyclopaedia.* (*Art. Legend of the Craft.)

549.        The legend begins with an account of Lamech and his four children, who founded all the sciences of the world before the flood. These sciences were engraved on two pillars, one of which was later found by Hermes, who taught its contents to the people. Nimrod is next mentioned as having employed Masons at the building of the Tower of Babel, and as having given them their first Charge. Next Abraham and Sarah are said to have taught the seven sciences to the Egyptians, and especially to a “worthy Scoller that hight Ewclyde”. The latter was commissioned by the king to teach Masonry to a large number of children of “the lord and estates of the realm”. The legend passes then to David, who, when he began the temple of Jerusalem, learned the Charges and manners of Masons from Egypt and gave them to his people. Solomon continued the building of the temple after David’s death, sent for Masons from all lands, and confirmed the Charges given by his father. There is no reference to the legend of the 3° in any of the Old Charges before the second edition of Anderson’s Constitutions, published in 1738, except that Aynon, the son of Iram, is men­tioned as being the “chiefe Maister” of all Masons, and “Master of all his gravings and carvinge and of all other manner of Masonrye that longed to the temple”. The legend, in defiance of all chronology, then states that, “one curious Mason that hight Maymus Grecus”, who had been at the making of Solomon’s temple, taught Masonry to Charles Martel of France. Since the latter died in A.D. 741, the former would have been about seventeen hundred years old, unless we are to understand that the Charge assumes that he had reincarnated!

550.        A legendary account is given of S. Albans work for Masons in the third century, and especially of his institution of General Assemblies. He is also said to have obtained for them a Charter, to have given them Charges, and to have arranged for better pay. Later, Athelstan is said to have built many abbeys and towers, and to have “loved well masons”. His son Edwin, who loved them still more, held an Assembly at York and gave them a Charter. All the old writings were collected at this period, “some in Frenche, and some in Greek, and some in English, and some in other languages; and the intent of them all was founded all one”. These old writings were digested into the York Constitutions which resulted from this Assembly of A.D. 926. It is from this source that we draw the material now embodied in the Old Charges.

 

 

2      The Transition from Operative to Speculative

 

551.        THE REFORMATION

 

552.        THE dawn of a new era was heralded by the Renaissance of classical learning and culture in the fifteenth century, a time of immense creative activity, of the bursting of bonds, of the liberation of a new and vital spirit of freedom, the direct result of which was what it is the fashion to call the Reformation. The cause of this change and reconstruction was a general reaction against the spirit of the Middle Ages.

 

553.        The Renaissance originated in that longing for emancipation from the shackles of the past which is probably felt by every new generation, and which now and then, favoured by special conditions, succeeds in realizing its ideals. … The ideals in this case were joy and liberty and personality, liberation from mediaeval asceticism, mediaeval priestcraft, mediaeval dogma; liberation from the anathema that had rested on the natural rights of man - on freedom of  thought and on moral judgment; liberation from traditional law and self-constituted authority, and the restoration to the individual of intellectual and moral self-rule.* (*Cotterill. History of Art, Vol. i, p. 390.)

 

554.        One of the factors which helped to bring about this great revival of learning was the overthrow of the Eastern Empire by the Muham­madans, the capture of Constantinople and the conquest of Greece, driving all who possessed the means to take refuge in Italy. Many scholars came to Italy at this time, bringing with them precious manuscripts of the old Greek writers; and the restoration of classical learning, classical building and classical art is the most notable feature of the Renaissance. The invention of printing made possible a wider diffusion of learning, and a wave of creative enthusiasm swept over Europe, leaving its mark upon the art, literature and philosophy of the age, and indeed making all things new.

555.        It was obvious to the thinking men of the period that a reform of the Church was essential, for corruption and abuses of all kinds had crept into her sanctuaries. At first an attempt was made towards a broader view of Christian doctrine from within the Roman Church, and scholars, such as Ficino, the Platonists of Italy, Erasmus, and Sir Thomas More, sought to reinterpret Christianity in the light of the philosophy of Plato and Plotinus. But this attempt failed; and, in consequence, the Reformation took place outside the Church in the sixteenth century. It was an attempt to purify the Church from her abuses, to bring her teachings into closer harmony with the new ideas; but it must be admitted that it did little to improve matters from the spiritual point of view, even though it won freedom of belief and liberty for the individual intellect to search for the truth in its own way. For so great was the ignorance and bigotry of the reformers that they cast aside the good with the evil, and framed a theology more intolerable than that of Rome, while to a great extent rejecting her sacramental and contemplative treasures.

 

556.        THE REAPPEARANCE OF SPECULATIVE MASONRY

 

557.        After the Reformation in England ecclesiastical architecture prac­tically ceased as an activity of the guilds, and the operative Lodges fell into decay since their work was no longer needed. But while the Reformation thus injured operative Masonry, it made Europe safe for the re-emergence into comparative publicity of the speculative art. The guilds had always accepted rich and influential patrons, and there was nothing new in the introduction of theoretic Masons into the Lodges. Some have denied the possibility of any speculative Masonry existing before the revival; but speculation was the rule rather than the excep­tion in all the guilds, not only the Masonic, and in that devotional age workmen of all trades might be found moralizing upon the instru­ments of their labour.

558.        But between the period when operative Masonry was at the height of its power and inspiration and the revival of the speculative art at the beginning of the eighteenth century, there was a dark period in which the light of Masonry, both operative and speculative, seemed almost extinguished. Many of the operative Lodges had lost nearly all trace of ritual workings, and had forgotten the traditional secrets of building no less than the ancient secrets of the building symbolism. It is to this period of darkness and decay as well as to the O. not to write those secrets, that we may attribute the paucity of records refer­ring to the mystery-tradition among so many of the old operative Lodges; but by the guidance of the Great Ones this was nevertheless definitely preserved, and transmitted from various sources into our modern Craft.

 

559.        THE FIRST MINUTES

 

560.        It is during this post-Reformation period, when the old Lodges had almost forgotten the glory of their heritage, both operative and speculative, that we first find actual minutes of Lodge Meetings. These minutes show the condition into which the Craft had fallen at the time; they are, as we should expect, almost silent upon all questions of ritual, secrets and symbolism, although there are occasional indications which point to the concealment of a hidden tradition. It is in this period also that the first public references to the secrets of the Freemasons occur in contemporary literature; and we are able by means of them to trace to some extent the gradual emergence of the speculative Mysteries.

 

561.        SCOTTISH MINUTES

 

562.        The oldest Lodge Minute extant at the present time is contained in  the records of the Lodge of Edinburgh, Mary’s Chapel, No. 1 upon the roll of the Grand Lodge of Scotland, and is dated 1598. We know that it had been the custom from the earliest times for the operative  Lodges to “accept” nonoperative Brethren; but the first authentic record of this is contained in the same archives, which state that John Boswell of Auchinlech was admitted in the year 1600* (*History of the Lodge of Edinburgh, D. Murray-Lyon, p. 53.) The signature of Boswell, a facsimile of which is given in Murray-Lyon’s admirable History, is followed by his mark, a cross within a circle - a symbol often used by the Brn. of the Rosy Cross, and bearing a profound meaning in connection with their Mysteries. One of the earliest  references to the Rosy Cross in Great Britain occurs in Scotland and in connection with Masonry; for in Henry Adamson’s The Muses’ Threnodie (dated Perth, 1638) we find the words:

 

563.        For what we do presage is riot in grosse,

564.        For we are brethren of the Rosie Cross,

565.        We have the Mason Word and second sight.

566.        Things for to come we can fortell aright.

 

567.        The Rosicrucian Manifestos, which are the first literary memorials of the order (c. 1614), were not translated and published in English until 1652, when Thomas Vaughan, the celebrated alchemist and  mystic, who wrote under the name of Eugenius Philalethes and has  now become an Adept of the White Lodge, undertook the task;* (*The Brotherhood of the Rosy Cross, A: E. Waite, p. 375.) so as early as 1638 Masonry was associated both with the Rosicrucian Brotherhood and with the occult power known as second sight. The connection of the Rosy Cross with Masonry belongs to our next chapter.

568.        The Mason Word is the only secret alluded to in early Lodge Minutes in Scotland. What it was is still unknown, although there are curious indications emanating from two writers who did not belong to the Craft. The Rev. George Hickes, afterwards Dean of Worcester, describes it about 1678 as “a secret signal masons have thro’out the world to know one another by”. Robert Kirk in 1691 says that it is:

 

569.        Lyke a Rabbinical Tradition, in way of Comment on Jachin and Boaz, the two Pillars erected in Solomon’s Temple (I. Kings vii, 21), with an Addition of some secret signe delivered from Hand to Hand, by which the know and become familiar one with another.* (*Gould. Concise History, p. 183.)

 

570.        So far had the Craft forgotten its traditions in Scotland that it seems clear that only one degree existed, so far as the communication of secrets was concerned. The Mason Word was revealed to Apprentices, under a “Great Oath”, and it is probable that a Charge was read, but there is no other indication of ritual procedure. The attainment of the grade of Fellow of the Craft or Master was merely a question of age and skill, and it is ordered in the Schaw Statutes of 1598 that admission to it should take place in the presence of Apprentices, thus precluding any secrets peculiar to the Degree.* (*History of the Lodge of Edinburgh. D. Murray-Lyon, p. 10.) As the years passed by more and more non-operatives were admitted into the Scottish Lodges, until the speculative element entirely predominated.

 

571.        ENGLISH MINUTES

 

572.        An indication of the secret transmission of speculative masonry is found in the Lodge of the Acception attached to the Masons’ Company of London, whose records go back to 1356.* (*Gould. Concise History, p. 105.) We first hear of that Lodge in 1620-21, when it was clearly a body distinct from the Company, for the King’s Master Mason, Nicholas Stone, though Master of the Company in 1633, and again in 1634, was not enrolled among the  “Accepted Masons” until 1639.* (*Gould. Concise History, p. 111.) Persons not belonging to the Company were also eligible for admission, although from them a higher fee was demanded for the privilege of initiation. Elias Ashmole, the celebrated student of alchemy, who collected certain texts upon this abstruse science in his Theatrum Chemicum Britannicum, was initiated into a non-operative Lodge at Warrington in Lancashire in 1646.* (*Ibid., p. 112.) In 1682 he received a summons to attend a Lodge at Masons’ Hall in London - which was almost certainly the Acception - and was present at the initiation of six candidates, two of whom were not members of the Masons’ Company.* (*Ibid., p. 116.)

573.        Elias Ashmole has sometimes been cited as the real founder of speculative Masonry, and also as a Bro. of the Rosy Cross; the latter suggestion is possible, although no evidence exists upon the point, but the former cannot of course be accepted by those who hold that Masonry has descended from the ancient Mysteries. A speculation is put forward by Bro. A. E. Waite in a recent book, connecting the Acception with Robert Fludd, the great English Rosicrucian Philosopher (1576-1637). He says:

 

574.        However and whenever it arose, my thesis is that the Acception may have included a group of Hermetic Students, of which there were many at the period; that Fludd drew them together or took his place among them; and that - after his manner and the manner of the Rosy Cross - they began to speak of spiritual building in a Hall of Masons, of a Hermetic Art in stone; and that therefore they may have contributed something to our own unfinished sketch of figurative building.* (*Emblematic Freemasonry, p. 43.)

 

575.        Among the records of the Acception was a Book of Constitutions “which Mr. Flood gave”.

576.        In the Ha